Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
States Receiving Antibody Treatments That Might Be Useless Against Omicron
The Washington Post: U.S. Sends States Monoclonal Antibodies That May Not Work Against Omicron
The federal government has resumed shipping all three monoclonal antibody treatments authorized for early-stage covid-19 to states despite evidence that two might be ineffective against the omicron variant of the coronavirus that is sweeping the country. The move has drawn mixed reactions from physicians and experts. Some are concerned many of the costly infusions will be useless, causing confusion among patients who have heard glowing reports about the treatments. (Bernstein, McGinley and Shepherd, 1/9)
WUSF Public Media: DeSantis Wants More Monoclonal Antibodies. Some May Not Work Against Omicron
Gov. Ron DeSantis has criticized the Biden administration for not sending Florida more monoclonal antibody treatments to reduce the risk of severe COVID-19. But experts say most of these experimental treatments aren't effective against the omicron variant, and the one that does work is in short supply nationwide. After proving helpful during Florida's delta surge, early data now suggests the monoclonal antibody treatment made by Regeneron doesn't work well against omicron. Neither does one made by Eli Lilly, which is why the federal government temporarily paused its distribution in December. The only antibody therapy that does appear to be effective against omicron is one made by British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline, with U.S. partner Vir Biotechnology, called sotrovimab. (Colombini, 1/7)
Stat: A Tiny Florida Company Got More Of A Scarce Covid Therapy Than Some Big Hospitals, Raising Equity Questions
The Covid-19 treatments came as a surprise, care of the Florida Department of Health: six big, mysterious boxes that showed up at Nicholas Suite’s iCare Mobile Medicine clinic near Miami on the morning of Dec. 24. “We were wondering, what’s this? Who sent us presents? Did Santa land on the roof?” he said. “Then we opened it up and thought, ‘This is Evusheld! My goodness!'” To some infectious disease doctors, that shipment has worrisome implications. When they looked at a government database, they saw that Suite’s tiny private company had gotten more of the federal supply of this scarce therapy than some of Florida’s major hospitals. In fact, iCare Mobile received enough for 264 courses — the most the health department sent to any of the state’s providers in its first shipment of Evusheld. (Boodman, 1/7)
In news about the vaccine rollout —
Modern Healthcare: More COVID-19 Boosters Would Significantly Cut Hospitalizations, Deaths, Study Shows
Increasing access to COVID-19 booster shots would make a big dent in hospitalizations and unnecessary deaths, new research shows. Tripling the pace of booster vaccination from 770,000 doses per day to 2.3 million could reduce the expected number of COVID-19 hospitalizations by more than 35% and deaths by nearly 30% through April, according to new data from the Commonwealth Fund. While hospital admissions are expected to peak at approximately 30,000 per day near the end of January, tripling booster vaccination would reduce the peak to 21,000 and significantly reduce the duration of the surge, the study found. (Kacik, 1/7)
CIDRAP: Severe Outcomes Rare After Two COVID Vaccine Doses
Two COVID-19 vaccine studies published today respectively identify risk factors for severe outcomes among adults given two doses and describe cancer patients' antibody response to two or three doses. Severe COVID-19 was defined as hospitalization for acute respiratory failure, the need for noninvasive ventilation, intensive care unit (ICU) admission (including those needing invasive mechanical ventilation), or death (including release to hospice). (Van Beusekom, 1/7)
Bloomberg: Singapore Data Show Moderna, Pfizer Vaccines Have Lowest Covid Deaths
Singapore saw the fewest deaths among those administered with a Moderna Inc. shot and the most among those who received Sinovac Biontech Ltd.’s vaccine, as the city-state’s highly inoculated population provides a glimpse into how different immunizations are holding up in the real world. Of the 802 people who died from Covid-19 last year in the city-state, 555 or about 70% weren’t fully vaccinated, health minister Ong Ye Kung told the parliament Monday, showing the life-saving impact of inoculation. Singapore found 11 deaths per 100,000 among people who received Sinovac shots and 7.8 deaths among those with Sinopharm. This number fell to 6.2 deaths for those with mRNA shots from Pfizer Inc.-BioNTech SE and 1 fatality in those who were administered the vaccines from Moderna. (De Wei, 1/10)
Also —
Stateline: Most States Are Wary Of Mandating COVID Shots For Kids
Every state requires children to receive an array of vaccinations before they enroll in school. Typically, those inoculations are for protection against polio, diphtheria, pertussis, measles, rubella, mumps, tetanus, meningitis and chickenpox. Even though COVID-19 has claimed around 830,000 lives in the United States, including fewer than 700 children, only two states—California and Louisiana—have added COVID-19 vaccines to the list of immunizations mandated for schoolchildren. Both requirements would be enforced next school year, and then only if the vaccines receive full authorization by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The FDA has granted emergency authorization and asserted that the vaccines are safe and effective for children. (Ollove, 1/7)
