Is it over yet? Declaring a pandemic’s end is more art than science

(Alex Hogan/STAT)

President Biden told Scott Pelley of “60 Minutes” on Sunday night the pandemic is over. Last week WHO’s more cautious director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said the end may be in sight. But before guessing who’s right on the timeframe, how would we even know? As STAT’s Helen Branswell put it to health experts, “How can we know we’ve reached ‘over’ when the disease we’ve been fighting isn’t going away?"

There are no accepted metrics or defined international rules, they told her. Even though the disease is not done with us — Covid-19 is still the fourth-leading cause of death in the U.S. — many are psychologically done. “I think that [Biden’s] comment reflects that,” Michael Osterholm of the University of Minnesota told her. But because there was no science bolstering the president’s statement, he called it “an unfortunate unforced error.” Read more.

Food fight: Makers want to add CBD to their products. FDA says no way

(ALEX HOGAN/STAT)

Major food makers are ready to put CBD-filled foods and drinks on store shelves, but the FDA says hold on. CBD, or cannabidiol, is technically illegal in any product, but the agency is warming to supplements while giving a cold shoulder to food and drink, warning Congress that legalizing CBD foods would put the public health at risk. “They seem to concede that there should be a pathway for dietary supplements, but they seem opposed to food and beverages,” Jonathan Miller of the Hemp Roundtable, which lobbies for companies that produce CBD products, told STAT’s Nicholas Florko.

How the FDA lands on CBD in food and beverages could rattle that $1 trillion market. But it might not be FDA’s call: House legislation would legalize CBD food and drink products, but it isn’t clear if it has the momentum to become law. Read more.

Does taking blood hurt the donor?

That’s a provocative question for anyone who’s rolled up their sleeves to help a stranger or contribute to a loved one’s recovery. A recent study in the journal Blood asked whether taking blood from iron-deficient repeat blood donors continued to meet FDA standards, and whether low-iron status affected the donors’ quality of life or cognitive ability. The rules allow donations every 56 days, even though replacing red blood cells could take longer. For donors who are low in iron, replenishing the lost iron could take more than four months.

For the study, low-iron donors were randomly split into two groups: half got IV iron, half got a saline placebo. To the researchers’ surprise, there was no measurable effect on the blood’s transfusion quality, the iron-deficient donors’ cognitive performance, or their quality of life compared to the iron-replete donors. STAT’s Brittany Trang has more.

Closer look: Epic stands at a crossroads as new rules put pressure on health data sharing

(MOLLY FERGUSON FOR STAT)

Chances are you’re among the 77% of Americans whose medical records are managed by hospitals that depend on Epic Systems’ closed-loop software. But come January and despite the company’s opposition, federal rules intended to create something like an interstate system for health data will go into effect. STAT’s Casey Ross and Mohana Ravindranath spoke with dozens of medical researchers, developers, and health system leaders about Epic’s outsized influence on health data sharing and whether they expect the company’s notoriously walled-off approach to evolve. (Epic declined comment.)

What emerged was a portrait of a company that commands intense loyalty — even fear — from its customers and business partners, but whose tactics are increasingly colliding with demands for a more open market. For some, Casey and Mohana write, it’s hard to believe that the company that built up these walls over decades will suddenly tear them down. Read more.

Bad bugs and sleepless nights: A retiring CDC expert on continuing challenges

Before her long-planned August retirement, Inger Damon led the CDC’s Division of High-Consequence Pathogens and Pathology, which means the baddest of bad bugs: Ebola, rabies, anthrax, smallpox, Rift Valley fever, and monkeypox, STAT’s Helen Branswell writes. Damon leaves the job as the monkeypox outbreak continues while carrying on with her work with WHO. Here’s what she told Helen:

Is there a pathogen that has given you more sleepless nights than others?
I’ve had sleepless nights about working in the BSL-4 lab with variola virus [the eradicated virus that caused smallpox]. I’ve had sleepless nights thinking through Ebola response activities: How do we get done what initially seems impossible and make it possible?

Do you think this monkeypox outbreak is going to be contained, or can be?
I do. But I think it’s going to take some time. And I’m not going on the record about how much time it’s going to take.

Read the full interview here.

4 in 5 pregnancy-related deaths in the U.S. are preventable, study says

The U.S. has a poor record on maternal mortality compared to other industrialized countries. A new CDC analysis from its Maternal Mortality Review Committees paints a damning picture, concluding that 4 out of 5 pregnancy-related deaths in the U.S. could have been prevented. The 2017-2019 data from 36 states represent the work of committee members with both clinical and non-clinical credentials who review circumstances around deaths during pregnancy (22%), the week after delivery (25%), and from day 7 to one year out (53%).

The underlying causes varied by racial group, but American Indian or Alaska Native people fared the worst overall, with 95% of deaths deemed preventable. Causes include:

Mental health conditions (23%); highest for Hispanic and non-Hispanic white people
Hemorrhage (14%); highest for non-Hispanic Asian people
Heart conditions (13%); highest for non-Hispanic Black people
Infection (9%)
Thrombotic embolism (9%)
Cardiomyopathy, a disease of the heart muscle (9%)
Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (7%)

What to read around the web today

Meta faces mounting questions from Congress on health data privacy as hospitals remove Facebook tracker, The Markup
The mental health effects of living with long Covid, Los Angeles Times
House Democrat presses bill to encourage more diversity in clinical trials run by NIH, STAT
A rural doctor gave her all. Then her heart broke, New York Times
‘Out of control’ STD situation prompts call for changes, Associated Press
New CRISPR startup, drawing big-name backers, seeks to fix diseases caused by large DNA errors, STAT