Good morning. Read on for news about Covid, cannabinoids, and how modest cash gifts are connected to infant brain development.

We're not at Covid's 'endgame' yet, WHO warns

No one wants to know what comes after Omicron in the coronavirus playbook, but we’d be foolish to think the fast-spreading, maybe-peaking variant will spell the pandemic’s finale. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO’s director-general, made that point yesterday even as hopes are rising for greater immunity around the world, the Associated Press reports. "There are different scenarios for how the pandemic could play out and how the acute phase could end. But it's dangerous to assume that Omicron will be the last variant or that we are in the endgame," Tedros told an executive board meeting. "On the contrary, globally, the conditions are ideal for more variants to emerge." Some key WHO targets:

Vaccinate 70% of the population of each country by the middle of this year.
Focus on vaccinating people at highest risk.
Improve testing and sequencing rates to track the virus and emerging variants.

Cash gifts to low-income mothers boosted infants' brain activity, study finds

Just as a child tax credit for low-income families prompted by the pandemic has expired, new research points to benefits in brain development for babies whose families received unconditional cash assistance through a randomized clinical trial. The study was small and the changes were modest, but its conclusions align with previous observational studies. Published yesterday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the analysis covers 435 1-year-old children and their mothers who got either monthly cash gifts of $333 or monthly gifts of $20 starting shortly after birth. Children in the higher gift group exhibited more high-frequency, rapid brain activity on an EEG, compared with the lower gift group. Because that pattern of brain activity pattern is associated with developing high-level cognitive skills, the authors say, the results reveal a link between poverty reduction and early childhood brain activity.

Can open datasets help solve medical mysteries?

The medical data housed in patient records are a clinical researcher’s dream. They’re also a computer scientist’s nightmare: locked away in hospital systems and often messy. Nightingale Open Science wants to accelerate ethical AI in medicine by collecting and cleaning that data. STAT’s Katie Palmer spoke with co-founder, UC Berkeley ER physician, and machine learning researcher Ziad Obermeyer.

What’s the problem that you’re aiming to solve?
Like many researchers in health, I just spend an enormous amount of time negotiating for access to data. There’s enormous value in the data sitting on these servers not being used.

How do Nightingale’s datasets differ from what’s currently being used for machine learning research?
We try to curate the datasets around really interesting and unsolved medical questions like sudden cardiac death, or silent heart attacks that don’t get diagnosed, or cancer metastasis. All those problems are really great use cases for machine learning.

STAT+ subscribers can read the full interview here.

Inside STAT: 'We don’t want people running out taking random cannabinoids' for Covid

It’s too early to tell whether CBD helps against Covid-19 — but researchers worry that won’t stop CBD makers. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

The scientists stressed the caveats that early-stage research demands: The compounds showed hints — in cells in lab dishes and in animals — of being able to combat the coronavirus. Definite answers could only come from clinical trials. But the compounds were CBD and other marijuana and hemp derivatives, so the news took off. The hubbub is the latest example of the promise and hype of cannabinoids — components of cannabis — as potential therapies. Researchers and consumer advocates are scrambling to warn people that patients shouldn’t be turning to over-the-counter products or recreational marijuana in hopes that it might protect them from Covid-19. And it will likely mean a headache for the FDA. “We don’t want people running out taking random cannabinoids,” Marsha Rosner of the University of Chicago told STAT. Nicholas Florko and Andrew Joseph have more.

Staff biases about end-of-life care could hurt dementia patients, study says

Comfort is the goal for patients with advanced dementia living in nursing homes, but research has shown that Black residents and those who live in facilities in the southeastern U.S. get more aggressive care, including greater use of feeding tubes and hospital transfers. A new JAMA Internal Medicine study of 14 nursing homes in four states found these practices varied based on how nursing homes were organized and what staff members believed patients wanted. Facilities providing lower-intensity care had standardized advance care planning, shared decision-making, and staff who did not value tube feeding. But staff in all 14 nursing homes assumed that families of Black residents didn't want to engage in advance care planning and favored more aggressive care. Given such assumptions, the authors write, “the likelihood is increased that Black nursing home residents with advanced dementia will receive unwanted, potentially more intensive, care.”

Insulin giants increased their lobbying spending ahead of pricing proposals

As lawmakers took aim at high insulin costs, two major manufacturers increased their lobbying spending last year, according to new federal disclosures. Insulin has become the poster child for dysfunction in the drug pricing debate, and lawmakers are considering enacting insulin-specific policies, including allowing Medicare to negotiate prices for all insulin products and capping out-of-pocket monthly costs for patients in Medicare and the private insurance market. Those policies would directly impact the three companies that dominate the insulin market in the United States. Eli Lilly spent $7 million on lobbying in 2021, 29% more than the year before, and Novo Nordisk spent $3.2 million, or 24% more than in 2020. Sanofi’s lobbying spending remained relatively constant. STAT’s Rachel Cohrs has more in STAT+.

What to read around the web today

FDA curbs use of antibody drugs sidelined by Omicron. Associated Press
How a rare brain mutation spread across America. The Atlantic
Biotech stocks are a dumpster fire. An analyst explains what's going on. STAT+
Bird flu is back in the U.S. No one knows what comes next. Wired
Pfizer faces calls to quickly sell more Covid-19 pills to poorer countries. STAT+