Good morning. Lots to tell you about today, from what people will do to get Covid drugs to how close we are to eliminating a parasite.

Like 'Hunger Games': Hunting down a scarce Covid treatment haunts the immunocompromised

(molly ferguson for stat)

It’s a mess on a national scale. Evusheld, the anti-Covid monoclonal antibody treatment, works less well against Omicron than previous strains, but immunocompromised patients see it as their best shot at Covid prevention. It’s in short supply, but there’s no national system for distributing it equitably, with the federal government divvying it up among states and states divvying it up among medical centers, and medical centers varying in the criteria they use to determine who should get first dibs. The patchwork creates a crazed, time-zone-spanning scramble, leaving patients frustrated with the lack of reliable information. “Having a medicine that might be able to help fills us with hope,” said Rob Relyea, who is searching on his wife's behalf. “But having to hunt it down in a Hunger Games hunt is extremely distressing.” STAT’s Eric Boodman explores the shortage and the ethical questions that cut to the heart of American medicine.

Exclusive: The White House used billions in hospital Covid funds to pay drugmakers

The Biden administration quietly took nearly $7 billion from a fund meant to help hospitals and clinics affected by the pandemic and used it to buy Covid-19 vaccines and therapeutics, according to a document obtained by STAT. The move is similar to the Trump administration’s decision to divert $10 billion from the same fund to Operation Warp Speed, which STAT reported in a March exclusive. Now the hospital money, known as the Provider Relief Fund, has run dry, according to the agency that administers it. Providers have been able to submit requests only for expenses incurred through March 2021 — before both the Delta and Omicron surges battered the health care system. STAT’s Rachel Cohrs has more, including reaction from hospitals and from HHS.

A cancer drug could help flush HIV from its hiding spots, early research suggests

Antiretroviral therapy, the standard treatment for HIV, is one of medicine’s remarkable success stories, but although it can remove any trace of the virus from the blood, a hidden reservoir of HIV persists in patients so they need to stay on HIV drugs for the rest of their lives. A new, early-stage study published yesterday in Science Translational Medicine suggests the cancer drug pembrolizumab (Keytruda) might help. Researchers looked at 32 patients who had both cancer and HIV and found that pembrolizumab, which revives the immune system to attack tumors, flushed HIV out of its hiding spot in immune cells. The study was small and the drug has serious side effects, but “this is an exciting advance,” Adeeba Kamarulzaman, president of the International AIDS Society, said in a statement. Read more from STAT’s Angus Chen.

Inside STAT: Experts weigh in on saying no to unvaccinated transplant candidates

(ERALDO PERES/AP)

A Boston hospital’s denial of a heart transplant to a man who is unvaccinated for Covid-19 has generated national attention, but experts say mandating vaccines is in keeping with other long-standing requirements that patients have to meet to receive an organ — including getting other shots. In this case, Brigham and Women’s Hospital dropped a 31-year-old man named DJ Ferguson from its transplant waitlist, his family said. Ferguson was skeptical about side effects and the speed with which the vaccines were developed, his mother told WCVB. Perhaps because of the politicization of Covid-19 vaccines more broadly, the reaction to such decisions is sometimes greeted with outrage. But ethicists and transplant physicians stress that organ allocation has to be partially determined by who can survive and thrive with a scarce resource. STAT’s Andrew Joseph explains.

Two studies say menstrual changes after vaccination are small and short-lived

You’ve no doubt seen misinformation suggesting that Covid-19 vaccines cause female infertility. And you’ve likely heard possibly related concerns about menstrual changes after vaccination. The NIH has granted $1.67 million for research to study any connection between periods and vaccines, but an editorial out yesterday in BMJ about two new studies concludes that any changes to periods are small and don’t last long. The first study looked at data from a period-tracking app used by nearly 4,000 Americans and found there was no difference in period timing after the first dose and a delay of just under half a day after the second dose. In the second study, more than 5,600 Norwegians were asked if they had heavier bleeding or pain after vaccination, but only slightly more said yes after vaccination than before vaccination (38% before vs. 39% after dose 1 and 41% after dose 2).

Guinea worm cases drop to 14

Here’s some good news: Guinea worm infections dropped to just 14 cases worldwide last year, the Associated Press says, coming closer to former President Jimmy Carter’s dream of completely eradicating the disease during his lifetime. Yesterday the Carter Center reported there were human cases of Guinea worm disease in just four countries in sub-Saharan Africa in 2021: Chad, South Sudan, Ethiopia, and Mali, following years of public health campaigns to improve access to safe drinking water. People who drink unclean water can ingest parasites that can grow up to 3 feet long before burrowing out of the skin. Back in 2016, STAT’s Helen Branswell explained why the parasite wasn't going down without a fight.

What to read around the web today

There's one population that gets overlooked by an 'everyone will get COVID' mentality. NPR
Studies of Gilead blood cancer drug interrupted by emerging safety issue, clouding its future. STAT+
Frogs without legs regrow leglike limbs in new experiment. New York Times
Akili, maker of prescription video game to treat ADHD, to go public via SPAC. STAT+
How 'Sesame Street' is handling the pandemic. The Atlantic