Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
White House Orders 1.5 Million More Novavax Covid Shots
The Wall Street Journal: Novavax To Sell 1.5 Million More Covid Vaccines To U.S. Government
The U.S. government has agreed to buy 1.5 million more doses of Novavax Inc.’s Covid-19 vaccine, the company said, part of efforts preparing for the end of government purchases and the start of a commercial market for the shots. Novavax wouldn’t provide the monetary value of the deal or the price that the federal government would pay per dose. The Biden administration has said it plans to end in May the national public-health emergency for the pandemic. It is also telling Covid-19 vaccine makers that they will need to start selling their shots commercially. (Whyte and Armour, 2/13)
More on the spread of covid —
The Baltimore Sun: Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center To Stop Publishing Daily Data Updates
A little over three years ago, a Johns Hopkins University civil engineering professor stayed up late with one of her graduate students, building a dashboard in the student’s Google Drive to map the budding spread of a highly contagious virus in Asia. In the months that followed, the site created by the professor, Lauren Gardner, and her student, Ensheng Dong, evolved into a robust hub of information about the COVID-19 pandemic that informed big public policy decisions, as well as more personal ones, such as whether it’s safe to go to the grocery store or see a friend. But on March 10, Hopkins’ Coronavirus Resource Center — which launched on March 3, 2020, about a month and a half after Gardner and Dong’s original site — will update its maps and charts one last time. (Roberts, 2/14)
San Francisco Chronicle: Virus Infection Increases Diabetes Risk By 66%, Penn State Study Finds
COVID-19 survivors have a 66% higher risk of developing type 1 or type 2 diabetes following their diagnosis compared to those who were not infected with the coronavirus, according to a study by Penn State College of Medicine researchers published Monday. The researchers found that SARS-CoV-2 — the virus that causes COVID-19 — binds to an enzyme receptor found on the surface of many organs and tissues, including cells found in the pancreas, small intestine and kidneys, affecting insulin levels. (Vaziri and Beamish, 2/13)
Los Angeles Times: California Tops 12 Million COVID Cases; XBB.1.5 Now Dominant
The total number of coronavirus cases reported in California has topped 12 million. That milestone — reached last week, according to data compiled by The Times — comes as California is seeing increased circulation of the Omicron subvariant XBB.1.5, which has been described as perhaps the most infectious strain of the coronavirus. (Money, 2/13)
CIDRAP: COVID: While The World Sanitized Surfaces, A Group Tried To Warn Early On About Airborne Spread
A large group of experts from around the world say they warned the World Health Organization (WHO) at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic that SARS-CoV-2 spreads through airborne particles, but their concerns weren't acknowledged until 3 months later, according to an account published late last week in Clinical Infectious Diseases. ... The two aerosol experts wrote a commentary calling for acknowledgement and communication of the risk, but two influential journals rejected it, saying authorities already knew how SARS-CoV-2 spread. Two months later, Environment International published the article. (Van Beusekom, 2/13)
The Atlantic: Long COVID Is The Emergency That Won’t End
In the early spring of 2020, the condition we now call long COVID didn’t have a name, much less a large community of patient advocates. For the most part, clinicians dismissed its symptoms, and researchers focused on SARS-CoV-2 infections’ short-term effects. Now, as the pandemic approaches the end of its third winter in the Northern Hemisphere, the chronic toll of the coronavirus is much more familiar. (Wu, 2/13)
The Conversation: Why Coughs Can Linger Long After You Recover From An Illness
When was the last time you walked into a public space and didn’t hear someone coughing? After three years of flinching at the sound, it can be disarming to hear so many people coughing – and embarrassing if it’s you. (Enfield, 2/13)
