Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Global Vaccine Program COVAX Will End Dec. 31; Gave Out Nearly 2B Doses
CIDRAP: COVAX Winds Down With COVID Vaccine Shift To Regular Programs
The World Health Organization (WHO) today announced that COVAX, a program formed in 2020 to increase equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, will close on December 31 as distribution shifts to regular immunization programs. COVAX was jointly led by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, UNICEF, and the WHO. So far, it has distributed nearly 2 billion doses to 146 economies, the WHO said in a statement. The groups estimate that the vaccines distrusted through COVAX averted 2.7 million deaths and helped lower-income countries achieve 57% two-dose coverage, compared to the 67% global average. (Schnirring, 12/19)
Biz Community: 3 Lessons From Covax As The Organization Draws To A Close
As an emergency solution launched amid the pandemic, Covax faced many challenges. Without having any cash reserves up front, it was initially limited in its ability to sign early contracts with manufacturers, and while it was able to ship doses to 100 economies in the first six weeks of the global roll-out, export bans and other factors meant that large-volume deliveries were only received in the third quarter of 2021. While Covax was unable to completely overcome the tragic vaccine inequity that characterized the global response, it significantly alleviated the suffering caused by Covid-19 in the Global South. (12/20)
More on the spread of covid —
Reuters: WHO Says JN.1 COVID Strain A 'Variant Of Interest', Poses Low Risk
While there might be more cases with the variant, JN.1 doesn't pose a greater risk, said Andrew Pekosz, a virologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. JN.1 was previously classified a variant of interest as part of its parent lineage BA.2.86, but WHO has now classified it as a separate variant of interest. (Roy, 12/19)
The Atlantic: Winter Illness This Year Is A Different Kind Of Ugly
Earlier this month, Taison Bell walked into the intensive-care unit at UVA Health and discovered that half of the patients under his care could no longer breathe on their own. All of them had been put on ventilators or high-flow oxygen. “It was early 2022 the last time I saw that,” Bell, an infectious-disease and critical-care physician at the hospital, told me—right around the time that the original Omicron variant was ripping through the region and shattering COVID-case records. This time, though, the coronavirus, flu, and RSV were coming together to fill UVA’s wards—“all at the same time,” Bell said. (Wu, 12/19)
Bloomberg: US Workers Overuse Cold Medicine Due To Office Sick Shaming Fear
At the height of the pandemic, Meg McNamara’s employer sent her home with symptoms that looked a lot like Covid, but she knew better. A negative Covid test proved that the 37-year-old’s coughs and red eyes were just her usual allergies. Determined to not be wrongly accused again, the New York-based physician’s assistant turned to over-the-counter medication. She started popping Benadryl every morning to mask her symptoms, but that caused other problems. (LaPara andBrown, 12/20)
AP: States Are Trashing Troves Of Masks And Pandemic Gear As Huge, Costly Stockpiles Linger And Expire
With expiration dates passing and few requests to tap into the stockpile, Ohio auctioned off 393,000 gowns for just $2,451 and ended up throwing away another 7.2 million, along with expired masks, gloves and other materials. The now expiring supplies had cost about $29 million in federal money. A similar reckoning is happening around the country. Items are aging, and as a deadline to allocate federal COVID-19 cash approaches next year, states must decide how much to invest in maintaining warehouses and supply stockpiles. (Peltz and Lieb, 12/20)
CIDRAP: Study Spotlights Persistent Daily Headaches After COVID-19
A study based on patients in 11 South American countries shows that new daily persistent headache (NDPH) can be a clinical symptom after COVID. "Persistent headache, with a prevalence ranging from 8 to 15% in the first six months after COVID-19 remission, is a frequent symptom," the authors of the study write. "However, limited knowledge exists regarding the clinical spectrum and predisposing factors." The mean age was 40 years, and most participants were women (81.5%), with university education (76.2%). More than 90% described their COVID-19 infections as mild to moderate. (Soucheray, 12/19)
