Updated Covid-19 boosters increase protection against infection, real-world data show

The updated Covid-19 boosters increase people’s protection against symptomatic coronavirus infection — especially when people waited longer since their last dose of the original shot, new CDC data suggest. Those findings are based on evidence from the boosters’ performance in the real world, instead of in the lab. Researchers drew data from a national testing program available at pharmacies as well as information about whether people got their bivalent booster — which targets both the original strain and the BA.5 Omicron subvariant — two to three months after their last shot of the original vaccine, compared to eight months or more. But it’s still not clear if the bivalent shot offers greater protection than another shot of the original booster formulation would have, STAT’s Andrew Joseph points out. Read more.

Also, the NIH yesterday unveiled MakeMyTestCount.org, which lets people anonymously report results from any brand of at-home Covid-19 test. While the site could help address a data gap, as at-home results are often not reported, it’s not yet clear what steps the agency is taking to protect against the site from being potentially flooded with false results. NIH did not immediately respond to STAT’s request for comment.

U.K. analysis: One dose of monkeypox vaccine yields strong protection

In other vaccine news, a new analysis from U.K. health officials finds that even a single dose of the monkeypox vaccine is 78% effective at protecting against the virus 14 days or more after the vaccination. The findings indicate that the push for monkeypox vaccines helped combat this year’s global outbreak that predominantly affected men who have sex with men.

Researchers compared infection rates in people who were vaccinated to those who were eligible but who were unvaccinated; out of 363 infections reported between July and November, just eight occurred in people who had been vaccinated at least two weeks earlier. Of the infections, 323 cases were not vaccinated; 32 had been vaccinated less than two weeks earlier. And a second dose is expected to offer even more protection, according to a consultant epidemiologist for the U.K. Health Security Agency, which conducted the analysis. Read more.

U.S. labs start to abandon race-based equations to diagnose kidney disease

A third of U.S. labs have adopted a recent expert recommendation to use a new equation to diagnose kidney disease that doesn’t include race, finds a survey by the College of American Pathologists that was published yesterday in JAMA. Under a long-used equation, Black people were assumed to have higher baseline eGFR levels — a number that acts a proxy for how much blood the kidneys clean every minute — which could in turn mark them at a less advanced stage of kidney disease. The recommendation for a retooled eGFR equation aligned with growing calls to eliminate race-based tools in medicine because of inaccuracy and the risk for harm, my colleague Brittany Trang writes.

The new equation is “about not generalizing what somebody’s results would be expected to be based on their self-disclosed race, but rather based on what their individual results actually are, which is far more important,” said study author Jonathan Genzen of the College of American Pathologists. Read more.

Closer look: MacArthur ‘genius’ Emily Wang on building solutions for mass incarceration

(MacArthur Foundation)

Physician, researcher, and recent MacArthur “genius” Emily Wang (above) co-founded the Transitions Clinic Network, which hires formerly incarcerated people as community health workers to help people transitioning out of prison navigate health care and social service systems. “There’s really no glue, no connection between these health care systems,” Wang told STAT’s Ambar Castillo of the disparities between care for incarcerated people and those who haven’t been incarcerated. “When you have 2 million individuals cycling in and out of two disparate health care systems, your first thought — and I was a young physician at the time — is, how do you create a program to bridge that transition of care?”

Inequities within the criminal justice system are hampering health equity overall, Wang said. Read her full conversation with Ambar here.

How viruses could aid gene therapy for neurological disease

Gene therapies aren’t always great at sending treatment to their intended target. In a new study of mice and macaques published in Med, researchers at the Broad Institute at MIT and Harvard whipped up a way to engineer viruses to deliver genes to target tissue in the brain, which is an especially tricky spot to reach. The adeno-associated viruses they developed — which they called the “PAL family” — can cross the blood-brain barrier, and were more than three times more effective at delivering therapies in macaque brains than the leading FDA-approved AAV system, they said.

While potentially promising, the system they developed isn’t yet in human trials, and researchers described the design process as a “starting point for further investigation.”

Happy Thanksgiving, and a note on food safety from the CDC

As we enter the holiday season this year, we hope you heed a bulletin from the CDC on safe turkey preparation — and its warning that raw turkey can contain bacteria including salmonella. The agency urges us to store frozen raw turkey in the freezer until it’s ready to thaw, and to thaw the turkey in the refrigerator, cold water, or the microwave instead of leaving it on the counter.

Since raw turkey and its juice can spread germs, CDC reminds us to wash our hands for at least 20 seconds after handling the raw turkey, and using a separate cutting board, utensils, and dishes for preparing it. And even undercooked stuffing could pose a health risk: The agency warns us to prepare it in a casserole dish instead of inside the turkey to ensure it’s cooked through. More on that, and other holiday food safety tips, here.

On this week's episode of the "First Opinion Podcast," First Opinion editor Patrick Skerrett talks with psychiatrist Ken Duckworth about how individuals who have lived with mental health conditions and their families are an untapped source of wisdom on how to build a life and thrive while living with those conditions. Listen here.

What we're reading

FDA approves a gene therapy for the inherited bleeding disorder hemophilia B, STAT
Why did the chicken cross the barn? To sign up for the scientific study, New York Times
Google Cloud pitches ease and speed to lure health systems wary of tech changes, STAT
Will America continue to turn away from vaccines? Vox
Audits reveal Medicare Advantage plans overcharged Medicare by millions, NPR