Plus, a look at Lyme disease tools on the horizon | Tuesday, April 25, 2023
| | | | | | | Presented By Optum Rx | | | | Axios Vitals | | By Tina Reed · Apr 25, 2023 | | Welcome to Tuesday, Vitals readers. Today's newsletter is 883 words or a 3½-minute read. | | | | | | 1 big thing: Lyme disease treatments on the horizon |  | | | Illustration: Rebecca Zisser/Axios | | | | More than two decades after a promising vaccine for Lyme disease was pulled from the market, more treatments to protect against the tick-borne illness —including a new shot — are on the horizon. Why it matters: There's worldwide concern about how climate change is helping drive the proliferation of ticks and transforming Lyme disease from a regional summertime nuisance into a year-round health threat that can damage the nervous system and require several weeks of intravenous antibiotic therapy. - "Untreated, Lyme disease can be very serious," Leana Wen, an emergency physician and a professor at George Washington University, told Axios Today. "Some people develop debilitating symptoms that really impact their lives."
The big picture: Even though Lyme disease vaccines are available for dogs, humans haven't had an option since LYMERix — made by the former SmithKline Beecham — was pulled from the market in 2002 due to low consumer demand tied to reports of arthritis and other adverse events and anti-vaccine sentiment. That could all change in the next couple of years. Earlier this month, Moderna announced two novel mRNA vaccine candidates against Lyme disease in its pipeline. - Another vaccine candidate, VLA15, from Pfizer and its partner Valneva is already in late-stage clinical trials, and enrolling trial participants, including children as young as five.
- Pfizer and Valneva hit a snag in February when they had to toss the results of about half of their clinical trial participants due to problems in how the study was run by a third-party operator.
- The companies nonetheless say they still could apply for FDA authorization as early as 2025.
What to watch: Researchers are exploring a number of other ideas to prevent Lyme disease, including a human monoclonal antibody designed to be used as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for Lyme disease. Go deeper. Thinking about getting a Lyme disease vaccine if it becomes available? Tell us more by filling out this form. (Some responses may be featured in future Axios newsletters and on Axios.com.) |     | | | | | | 2. COVID exposed "collective national incompetence" |  | | | Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios | | | | A group of crisis experts and federal advisers conclude in a report out today that a lack of disaster preparedness and coordination led to an unraveling of the nation's pandemic response and that the crisis exposed a "collective national incompetence in governance," Axios' Arielle Dreher writes. Why it matters: The 34-member group, dubbed the COVID Crisis Group, was convened by four foundations in 2021 to lay the groundwork for a 9/11 commission-style assessment. But the Biden administration didn't formally establish the panel, and the bill to formalize the commission and report never made it out of the Senate. - So the group forged ahead on its own, conducting listening sessions with nearly 300 people and publishing the findings.
What they found: The group praised certain aspects of the response like Operation Warp Speed, but questioned why a similar effort wasn't launched to produce protective gear or antivirals. - The CDC has no enforcement authority and can't obtain data about a threat like COVID-19 without signed agreements with local jurisdictions, due to state and local-level powers granted in the late 1800s.
- There was no system or design in place to distribute and use COVID tests nationwide early on in the pandemic.
"When the competence fails, that's when the toxic politics comes in," Philip Zelikow, the group's leader, who was executive director of the 9/11 Commission, told Axios. Share this story. | | | | | | | | 3. Communities of color saw higher COVID death rates |  Data: Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker; Chart: Alice Feng/Axios Communities of color experienced significantly higher premature death rates than white people during the pandemic and accounted for 59% of the years of life lost during the health crisis, according to a KFF analysis released on Monday, Axios' Adriel Bettelheim writes. Why it matters: Although individuals 75 and older had the highest risk of becoming seriously ill and dying from COVID-19, younger adults who had their lives cut short by the illness offer a window into racial disparities that the pandemic laid bare. What they found: Between March 2020 and the end of 2022, the U.S. experienced nearly 1.7 million excess deaths, defined as fatalities beyond what would have been expected in a typical year that can be due directly or indirectly to COVID-19. - The increase in the premature death rate for Hispanic people (33%) was over twice that of white people (14%) from 2019 to 2022.
- White people experienced an average of 12.5 years of life lost from premature deaths while Hispanics experienced 19.9 years of life lost and American Indian-Alaska Natives had 22 years of life lost before age 75.
- Researchers said younger people of color were likelier to be exposed to the virus because of their jobs or living conditions.
| | | | | | | | A message from Optum Rx | | Driving choice, transparency and affordability in pharmacy benefits | | |  | | | | Optum Rx is working to promote choice and competition to make prescription drugs more affordable. As biosimilars come to market, we're providing flexibility and choice to patients and their providers, while encouraging biosimilar competition to help lower costs. Learn more. | | | | | | 4. Quote du jour: A different kind of lab leak | | "If not for the persistence of the unidentified National Cancer Institute employee, the leak would have been ignored." The excerpt from Young's book, as published today in KFF Health News, describes how 2,000 to 3,000 gallons of wastewater — potentially containing anthrax, Ebola, and other deadly pathogens spilling from biodefense hub Fort Detrick in Frederick, Maryland — was discovered in 2018. | | | | | | | | 5. Catch up quick | | 💰 Johnson & Johnson's consumer health spinoff was valued at $40 billion ahead of IPO. (CNBC) 🏥 "This really hit hard": Pennsylvania hospital shutdown strains health care delivery, first responders say. (CBS News) ✏️ Florida's surgeon general altered key findings in a study on COVID-19 vaccine safety. (Politico) | | | | | | | | A message from Optum Rx | | Empowering more choice and transparency | | |  | | | | Optum Rx is offering new payment choices and transparency solutions to the customers we serve. We believe our customers are best positioned to determine the affordability and transparency solutions that best meet their pharmacy benefit needs. Learn more about our pharmacy benefit solutions. | | | | Thanks for reading, and thanks to senior health care editor Adriel Bettelheim and senior copy editor Bryan McBournie for the edits. |  | | Dive deeper into the future of health care | | | | | | Axios thanks our partners for supporting our newsletters.
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