Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Some Republicans Don't Want US To Join WHO Pandemic Treaty
Roll Call: GOP Lawmakers Argue Pandemic Treaty Threatens US Sovereignty
The World Health Organization is rushing to finalize a treaty to prevent and combat future pandemics, but some House Republicans say the U.S. should not be a part of the global accord, arguing that the health group is infringing on the rights of American taxpayers. They’re concerned that the treaty will result in U.S. taxpayer dollars going toward abortion. They’re also concerned about threats to U.S. intellectual property rights. The sentiment underscores a large and growing Republican mistrust in the international body. (Cohen, 2/5)
On covid misinformation —
Stat: Supreme Court To Hear If Covid Misinformation Is Protected Speech
As social media sites were flooded with misleading posts about vaccine safety, mask effectiveness, Covid-19’s origins and federal shutdowns, Biden officials urged platforms to pull down posts, delete accounts, and amplify correct information. Now the Supreme Court could decide whether the government violated Americans’ First Amendment rights with those actions — and dictate a new era for what role, if any, officials can play in combating misinformation on social media. (Owermohle, 2/6)
Reuters: Fact Check: No Evidence For Vaccine DNA Risk Raised By Florida Surgeon General
There is no evidence to suggest that residual DNA fragments in mRNA COVID-19 vaccines pose a health risk raised in statements by Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo. Social media posts are sharing screenshots of a letter Ladapo wrote to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Dec. 6 asking if the agencies had done tests to see if DNA fragments in mRNA COVID vaccines might integrate into the genomes of vaccine recipients, potentially destabilizing chromosomes or causing cancer. (2/5)
More on the spread of covid —
The New York Times: Alternating Arms For Vaccines May Boost Your Immunity, Study Says
If you’ve presented the same arm for every dose of a particular vaccine, you may want to reconsider. Alternating arms may produce a more powerful immune response, a new study suggests. The researchers studied responses to the first two doses of Covid-19 vaccines. Those who alternated arms showed a small increase in immunity over those who got both doses in the same arm. For individuals who respond poorly to vaccines because of age or health conditions, even a small boost may turn out to be significant, the researchers said. (Mandavilli, 2/6)
CBS News: COVID Variant JN.1 Now More Than 90% Of Cases In U.S., CDC Estimates
Close to all new COVID-19 cases in the United States are now being caused by the JN.1 variant, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says, with an estimated 93.1% of infections now blamed on the highly mutated strain. The CDC's latest biweekly estimate of the variant's spread was published Friday. It comes as key trends reflecting COVID-19's spread are now showing signs of slowing, following a peak over the winter holidays. (Tin, 2/5)
CBS News: A Mild Case Of COVID-19 May Cause People To Lose Sleep, Study Says
A new study finds that having even a mild case of COVID-19 could cause you to lose sleep. Insomnia has been associated with COVID among hospitalized patients, but a team of researchers in Vietnam wanted to know whether it also affected people with mild illness. They looked at more than a 1,000 adults who had COVID within the past six months, but did not need to be hospitalized. They found that 76% of them reported experiencing insomnia. (Marshall, 2/5)
On the spread of flu —
CNN: Respiratory Virus Season In The US Isn’t Over Yet
After a few weeks of decline, some measures show that flu activity is starting to pick up again and respiratory virus levels remain high overall in the United States. During the week ending January 27, more than 82,000 people who visited an emergency department were diagnosed with influenza, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — an 8% bump, or about 6,000 more than the week before. The test positivity rate for flu also ticked up in the US overall. (McPhillips, 2/5)
The Atlantic: Flu Shots Need To Stop Fighting ‘Something That Doesn’t Exist’
In Arnold Monto’s ideal vision of this fall, the United States’ flu vaccines would be slated for some serious change—booting a major ingredient that they’ve consistently included since 2013. ... To include it again now, Monto, an epidemiologist and a flu expert at the University of Michigan, told me, would mean vaccinating people “against something that doesn’t exist.” That probably nonexistent something is Yamagata, a lineage of influenza B viruses that hasn’t been spotted by global surveyors since March of 2020, shortly after COVID mitigations plummeted flu transmission to record lows. (Wu, 2/5)
