Covid-19 vaccines are a 'freaking miracle'

(Mike Reddy for STAT)

Two years into the Covid-19 pandemic, it’s easy to lament all that has come to pass. The devastating losses. The upending of normal life. The sheer relentlessness of it all. But, STAT’s Helen Branswell suggests, stop for a moment and consider: You have witnessed — and you are a beneficiary of — a freaking miracle. That miracle is the development, testing, manufacturing, and global distribution of Covid vaccines. Yes, the rollout has been shamefully inequitable, but at least 55% of the people inhabiting this planet have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19. What has been accomplished in 25 months has defied predictions of the most optimistic prognosticators. It’s impossible to know how poorly we would have fared without vaccines, but it would not have been good. “We would have been broken,” said Eric Topol of the Scripps Research Translational Institute. Read more.

FDA pulls back on expedited review of Covid-19 vaccine in young kids

Parents of the youngest children still not eligible for Covid vaccination had another loop added to their roller coaster ride to protection on Friday, when the FDA canceled tomorrow's meeting to weigh authorizing the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for children under 5. The delay “will give the agency time to consider … additional data,” FDA said, after publicly contemplating an aggressive timeline for making the shots available to younger children, before full data come in on an expected three-shot series. Pfizer and BioNTech had previously said they would submit an application for a two-dose vaccine at the FDA’s request, despite concerns it was not effective in clinical trials. Now Pfizer and BioNTech say that they will extend their submission until data on a three-dose regimen are available — expected in early April. Read more.

Another monoclonal antibody wins authorization

In more FDA news, the agency authorized another Covid-19 monoclonal antibody treatment, expanding the supply of such treatments that work against the Omicron variant and its sister viruses. The therapy, bebtelovimab, was developed by Eli Lilly. Like other monoclonals, it’s given intravenously and is meant to keep high-risk patients with Covid-19 from getting so sick they need to be hospitalized. Bebtelovimab should be used for patients “for whom alternative Covid-19 treatment options … are not accessible or clinically appropriate,” the FDA said Friday, but the news will provide relief to providers who have been scrambling to find treatments for their high-risk patients. The two most common antibody therapies from earlier in the pandemic — another Lilly treatment and one from Regneron — lost their effectiveness against the Omicron variant, which quickly became dominant late last year.

Closer look: Telehealth is supposed to save money. Is it actually cutting costs?

Telehealth proponents expected the pandemic to net them a windfall of convincing evidence that virtual care could increase quality and cut spending. But two years after health systems went virtual almost overnight, industry watchers are still disputing a key aspect that could determine telehealth’s fate: whether the option for virtual visits means patients will see doctors more often than they would in-person. Whether telehealth is a substitute for — or an addition to — in-person care could clarify if it drives up costs for insurers and providers. Telehealth advocates have for years sought to prove to Congress that it’s a substitute, and that expanding Medicare coverage for it wouldn’t significantly increase federal spending. “There are many people who have studies that state telehealth saves money. But I have not seen anything convincing,” Harvard professor Ateev Mehrotra told STAT’s Mohana Ravindranath. Read more in STAT+.

Patient safety takes a pandemic hit

That the pandemic has brought the health care system to its knees is not news. But while weathering the onslaught of a public health emergency, health care has seen some of its gains in patient safety slide backward. A new perspective in the New England Journal of Medicine notes that certain bloodstream infections in hospital patients had fallen by 31% in five years before the pandemic but climbed 28% by June 2020 compared to 2019. In nursing homes, serious falls were up 17% and bed sores increased 42%. “The health care sector owes it to both patients and its own workforce to respond now to the pandemic-induced falloff in safety by redesigning our current processes and developing new approaches that will permit the delivery of safe and equitable care,” the authors from CMS and the CDC write. “We cannot afford to wait until the pandemic ends.”

Measles rising sharply in Afghanistan

Measles cases are climbing rapidly in Afghanistan, WHO says in its latest report. The highly contagious viral disease is endemic in the country, where decades of war have hobbled efforts to eliminate it. The number of cases and deaths increased by 18% in the week of Jan. 24, and 40% in the week of Jan. 31. Among 35,319 suspected cases of measles and 156 deaths reported in January, more than 90% were in children under 5. Increasing malnutrition in Afghanistan makes the rising cases more worrisome because severe measles is more likely among poorly nourished children, leading to serious complications including blindness, brain swelling, severe diarrhea and related dehydration, and pneumonia. In December, WHO and its partners immunized 1.5 million children in some of the hardest-hit provinces.

What to read around the web today

What I learned as the 'nation's psychiatrist.' The Atlantic
‘I had never felt worse’: Long Covid sufferers are struggling with exercise. New York Times
Drug company payments for consulting, food, and drinks influence rheumatologists’ prescribing. STAT+
Kids with autism struggle to adapt to adulthood. One doctor is trying to change that. NPR
An FDA ruling on Cassava's Alzheimer's drug leaves bulls and bears waiting for more. STAT+