Biden defends CDC’s pandemic struggles amid launch of free Covid test kits

President Biden defended the CDC yesterday from mounting criticism of the agency’s repeated struggles to convey public health guidance. During a press conference, he attributed the communications issues to the changing nature of the Covid-19 pandemic, and of science itself. “The messages, to the extent they’ve been confusing — it’s because the scientists, they’re learning more,” Biden said. He also defended CDC Director Rochelle Walensky specifically, saying that she's learning on the job. “The one piece that’s gotten a lot of attention is the communications capacity of the CDC,” he said. “Well, she came along and said: ‘I’m a scientist, and I’m learning, I’m learning how to deal with stating what is the case that we’ve observed.’” STAT's Lev Facher has more.

The president’s comments came as an effort to regain the trust of the American public in his pandemic response got underway: a massive effort to distribute Covid-19 tests by mail. (Free N95 masks will become available for pickup, too, in a separate initiative). Given the complicated distribution logistics, supply chain questions, and uncertainty about where the pandemic will go next, there are real questions about whether the testing push will succeed — or backfire for Biden. STAT’s Rachel Cohrs looks at what has to go right.

Another step in transplanting animal organs into humans

There have been a flurry of firsts over the last few months in what’s known as xenotransplantation, or putting animal organs into humans, a centuries’ old idea that has been revived at multiple times throughout history as technological advances offer new hope of overcoming scientific hurdles. Earlier this month a genetically engineered pig heart was implanted into a living patient, suddenly drawing attention to the niche field’s potential to solve the shortage of donated human organs. Last fall surgeon Jayme Locke and her team at the University of Alabama at Birmingham put two kidneys from a herd of designer pigs into a man who had recently passed away. Her team waited for a peer-review of their experiment, the results of which are published today in the American Journal of Transplantation. STAT’s Megan Molteni explains.

Those who recovered from Covid-19 less likely than vaccinated to be infected in Delta wave

New data released yesterday showed that both vaccination and prior infection offered strong protection against Covid-19 during the Delta wave — and that case and hospitalization rates were lower among people who had recovered from Covid-19 than among those who had been vaccinated. The data, released by the CDC and health agencies in California and New York, are sure to inflame arguments from those who insist they don’t need to be vaccinated if they’ve recovered from Covid-19. But the analysis contains caveats that point to the value of vaccination, even on top of prior infection, health officials say: The data were gathered before the U.S. booster campaign took off and do not account for the Omicron variant. “We know that vaccination remains the safest strategy for protecting against Covid-19,” CDC epidemiologist Benjamin Silk told reporters. STAT’s Andrew Joseph has more.

Inside STAT: Just the fax, please

In a world where everything from your TV to your wristwatch has an internet connection, the fax machine has become largely obsolete. But the health care industry still relies on this outdated technology to transfer patient records, fill prescriptions, and more. STAT’s Alex Hogan wondered why. He found out there are some pretty good reasons for this practice to persist — security, for one — but there are also some other head-scratching obstacles this dependence perpetuates. For one, faxes aren’t known for their legibility. But many doctors’ offices and health centers are known for requiring and keeping paper records. Watch and learn more here.

Negative descriptors more likely to show up in health records of Black patients, study finds

Doctors’ notes are meant to be an objective record of their interactions with patients. But these notes aren’t as neutral as doctors might think. A doctor might write that a patient was “agitated” or “nonadherent.” These words are negative descriptors, and according to a new Health Affairs study of health records for more than 18,000 Chicago patients, they are applied unequally across racial lines: Black patients had 2.54 times the odds as white patients of having at least one of 15 negative terms in their notes, including “angry,” “aggressive,” “challenging,” “exaggerate,” and “noncompliant.” Study author Michael Sun told STAT contributor Elizabeth Preston he wishes he was surprised, but “to be quite honest, I’m not surprised at all.” Read more.

Antimicrobial resistance is deadlier than HIV or malaria, study says

Bacterial antimicrobial resistance — stemming from changes in bacteria that make drugs to treat the infections they cause ineffective — is a growing global health disaster. A new, comprehensive study compares it to two other threats, HIV and malaria, and finds the global death toll higher. The Lancet analysis estimates more than 1.2 million people died directly from antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections in 2019, and antimicrobial-resistant infections played a role in 4.95 million deaths. The infections are common, such as pneumonia, sepsis, and infections caused by appendicitis, and deaths are highest in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. “Spending needs to be directed to preventing infections in the first place, making sure existing antibiotics are used appropriately and judiciously, and to bringing new antibiotics to market,” a linked editorial says, a viewpoint that's echoed in a new STAT First Opinion on the study.

What to read around the web today

When my mom got Covid, I went searching for Pfizer’s pills. New York Times
With $3 billion, Hal Barron and other biotech veterans launch a disease ‘reversal’ company. STAT+
Djokovic has 80% stake in biotech firm developing Covid drug. The Guardian
Senate Finance chair investigates Bristol Myers over an allegedly abusive overseas tax shelter. STAT+
Kidney failure, emergency rooms and medical debt. The unseen costs of food poisoning. ProPublica