CDC tweaks vaccine advice, primary care braces for Omicron, and what should we be counting?

Stratospheric Covid case numbers are spurring this question: Should we be counting hospital admissions instead? They rose 63% last week from the prior week, but still fall short of the pre-vaccine high of 16,500 per day set a year ago, the Associated Press notes. Also:

Primary care offices are bracing to meet an onslaught of milder Omicron cases with more staffers out sick, AP reports.
The CDC shortened the time between a second dose of Pfizer vaccine and booster to five months (no change for J&J or Moderna shots). And the agency said some immunocompromised kids ages 5 to 11 may receive an additional primary vaccine shot 28 days after the second shot, in line with the guidance for similar people 12 and up.
And President Biden talked testing yesterday: “Believe me it's frustrating to me, but we're making improvements,” he said.

Why the conviction of Elizabeth Holmes hinged on defrauding Theranos investors, not patients

The trial of Elizabeth Holmes resulted in a mixed verdict, but one outcome is clear: This was a big victory for prosecutors in a high-profile case involving huge sums of money where the defendant now faces a lengthy prison sentence. Holmes, who can appeal both her conviction and her forthcoming sentence, was acquitted on charges involving patients who received erroneous results from her company’s faulty blood-testing technology. But her conviction on the investor-related charges — where the line of cause and effect was most obvious — carries by far the most significant consequences. Will her conviction send a chill through Silicon Valley? “This has no effect on any health care entrepreneur unless they want to do what she did,” Erik Gordon of the University of Michigan told STAT’s Casey Ross. “ Just. Don’t. Lie.” Read more.

The uneven story of nursing employment

Monthly employment from 2020-2021 in the U.S. nurse workforce.

During the first few months of the Covid-19 pandemic, nursing jobs plummeted in doctors’ offices, at outpatient clinics, and in homes for health aides — and to a lesser extent, in hospitals. Those declines in employment have gradually reversed, stalled by furloughs in some cases and by widespread burnout-fueled resignations in others. A new analysis in Health Affairs tracking nursing employment finds that jobs are back in most settings, with the exception of nursing homes. And not all groups are back. After the initial surge in unemployment in the spring of 2020 subsided, registered nurses and nursing assistants who were Asian, Black, Hispanic, and members of other racial and ethnic minority groups experienced higher unemployment than their non-Hispanic white counterparts.

Inside STAT: Cutting costs by reimagining telehealth's front desk

Telehealth companies struggling to stand out in a crowded virtual care market are increasingly leaning on chatbots, online questionnaires, and automated follow-ups to triage patients and trim costs, letting them care for more patients for less money. Patients seeking on-demand doctors’ visits and quick prescriptions have a growing number of choices, ranging from private companies like Nurx and Ro mainly offering non-emergency care like birth control consultations to behemoths like Amwell tackling primary and urgent care. Despite a surge of patients seen during the pandemic, many of these virtual care companies still haven’t turned a profit. And in a sea of competitors offering similar services, the money they save through automation could make a difference in their success. STAT’s Mohana Ravindranath has more on how companies wield automated tools.

Robert Califf is a fervent believer in data. At the FDA, will that be enough?

Robert Califf testifying last month at a hearing on his nomination to be FDA commissioner. (MANUEL BALCE CENETA/AP)

At his confirmation hearing last month to lead the FDA, Robert Califf was pressed by U.S. senators for his views on the opioid crisis, tobacco and e-cigarette regulation, and his relationship with pharmaceutical and tech companies. By all accounts, he sailed through (the Senate committee's vote is expected next week). But the hearing did little to address a fundamental question: Who is Robert Califf, and what can we expect him to do? Because STAT’s Matthew Herper has watched his career for more than 15 years and interviewed him countless times, he knows Califf as more than a vessel for one policy or another. “He’s a pioneer when it comes to large-scale clinical trials. He’s a passionate believer in evidence-based medicine. And, when confronted with controversy, he looks for a systemic problem lurking beneath it,” Matt writes in a commentary. The question is, will that be enough?

Birth during the pandemic, not Covid infection, tied to lower development scores

Because viral illnesses during pregnancy are known to affect fetal development, researchers have been tracking infants born in 2020 to see how Covid-19 may have affected them. Doctors at one hospital system in New York who followed births from March through December 2020 were surprised to see no developmental differences between babies born to patients with or without Covid-19 infections. But they did conclude that at 6 months old, the 255 children in their study published in JAMA Pediatrics scored significantly lower on gross motor, fine motor, and social skills than babies born at the same hospital in 2019, based on parental questionnaires. That suggests pandemic stress, not the virus, had an impact on the children — one that makes monitoring their progress critical, the authors say.

What to read around the web today

Doctors bemoan limited supply of game-changing antiviral pills amid winter surge. Washington Post
As Covid hits nursing homes’ finances, town residents fight to save Alzheimer’s facility. Kaiser Health News
Heart attack patients told to make own way to hospital as Covid surge hits northern England. The Guardian
The health tech tracker for the first quarter: 13 decisive industry events and deals to watch. STAT+
3 CRISPR editing innovations to watch in 2022. STAT+