Experts question rolling authorization plan for Covid vaccine for kids under 5

The FDA’s willingness to consider authorizing Pfizer and BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine for children under the age of 5 — without evidence yet that it would be protective — is raising concerns among some vaccine experts who fear the plan could backfire and undermine vaccine uptake in this group. The companies confirmed yesterday that they had been asked by the agency to submit an application for the use of a two-dose vaccine in children 6 months to 4 years old. Data on a third shot would be submitted to regulators once available in the spring — ostensibly clearing the way for a three-shot regimen. “It’s certainly a creative approach to trying to address the urgency that FDA and the White House is hearing from parents,” Jason Schwartz of Yale School of Public Health told STAT’s Helen Branswell. “But … the stakes are high and they’re never higher than for vaccines in this youngest age group.”

Why is Omicron’s sister variant spreading faster?

“Two years into a pandemic that turned us all into amateur virologists,” STAT’s Andrew Joseph notes, “we’ve learned that the best-spreading coronavirus variant will outcompete any slowpokes.” But something curious happened with Omicron: The more transmissible variant didn’t take off first. The virus that the world came to know as Omicron — the one that ignited outbreaks in countries around the world — is just one lineage that made up the broader Omicron grouping. It’s known officially as BA.1. For some time, its sister viruses, including one named BA.2, didn’t seem to be doing much. Now, however, evidence is accruing that BA.2 is in fact more transmissible than BA.1. Randomness and chance could explain it, but now BA.2 appears to be catching up. Read more.

Biden's new 'Cancer Moonshot' is far more modest

President Biden is resurrecting the White House “Cancer Moonshot” today, pledging to cut the cancer death rate in half in the next 25 years. But the new program is decidedly more modest than the 2016 version: Most notably, it doesn’t include calls for any new research funding, STAT's Lev Facher reports. While the effort will aim to reduce racial health disparities in cancer outcomes, increase preventive efforts and early screening, and improve testing mechanisms, it’s a notable shift from Biden’s previous language promising to “cure” cancer. There are other looming questions, too, like whether the effort can succeed before Biden confirms a new FDA head, appoints a new NIH director, and convinces Congress to move forward on his signature science proposal: creating ARPA-H, a new research agency expressly aimed at developing “moonshot” cures.

Closer look: Despite Biden's promises, Covid-19 is still raging through the nation’s prisons

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On his first full day in office, President Biden promised to order the Federal Bureau of Prisons to reevaluate its Covid-19 protocols, one of a slew of pledges aimed at ensuring the nation's Covid-19 response was equitable. But that specific order never came. And now, as Covid-19 is spiking in multiple federal prisons around the country, spurred by the Omicron variant and still-substandard infection control, advocates say that the BOP’s Covid-19 protocols are as broken as ever. Roughly 3,000 incarcerated people have died of Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic. People in prison are roughly three times more likely to die of Covid-19 than the general population. “They’ve continued with business as usual as a mass death event has unfolded under their watch,” Joshua Manson of the UCLA Law COVID Behind Bars Data Project told STAT’s Nicholas Florko. Read more.

Common cervical cancer screenings hold promise for detecting breast and ovarian cancers

Routine screenings have become a powerful tool for catching cervical cancer as early as possible. Two new papers in Nature Communications suggest the cervical cells collected during these exams could hold the key to efficient screening for other gynecological cancers, too. According to the study, by analyzing methylation patterns in cervical cells’ genomes, researchers might be able to find genetic signatures that predict the risk of ovarian, breast, and endometrial cancers and flag patients who should be screened more aggressively. It’s a long way from doctor’s offices, but if the test proves useful in larger studies, it could offer a simple way to make use of Pap smears already obtained to screen for cancerous or precancerous lesions in the cervix. STAT’s Angus Chen has more.

Native American tribes reach opioid settlement with J&J and drug distributors

Three of the largest pharmaceutical wholesalers and a major drugmaker reached a $590 million deal disclosed yesterday to settle lawsuits filed by hundreds of Native American tribes accusing the companies of fomenting the opioid crisis. Wholesalers McKesson, AmerisourceBergen, and Cardinal Health will pay nearly $440 million over seven years, while the Janssen unit of Johnson & Johnson will pay $150 million over two years. This does not include a previous $75 million settlement between the Cherokee Nation and the three distributors. Native Americans had the highest per capita rate of opioid overdoses, the highest drug overdose death rates in 2015, and the largest percentage increase in the number of deaths from 1999 to 2015 compared to other racial and ethnic groups, the court filing said. Read more from Ed Silverman in STAT+.

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What to read around the web today

The anguish of finally returning to the dentist. Washington Post
Abdul Alim of Pakistan, a Covid survivor and vaccine advocate, dies at age 104. NPR
Pfizer names new top development executive as Covid remakes the company. STAT+
This is your brain on heartbreak. The Atlantic
Cardinal Health to pay $13 million to settle charges of paying kickbacks to doctors. STAT+