Category Archives: Health Policy

Scientists caught between pandemic and protests

Posted on by • Posted in 2020 Election Issues, Clinical Testing, Contact Tracing, Coronavirus, Credibility, Crisis, Crisis Management, Free Speech, Freedom, Freedom of the Press, Health Policy, Infection Control, Infection Control Plan, Infectious Virus, Leadership Decentralized, Mortality, National Strategy, Pandemic, Partisanship, Protest, Public Debate, Public Discourse, Public Good, Public Health, Public Safety, Scientists, Transparency, Trust, Truth • Leave a comment

https://www.axios.com/black-lives-matter-protests-coronavirus-science-15acc619-633d-47c2-9c76-df91f826a73c.html

Scientists accused of double standards on coronavirus and Black ...

When protests broke out against the coronavirus lockdown, many public health experts were quick to warn about spreading the virus. When protests broke out after George Floyd’s death, some of the same experts embraced the protests. That’s led to charges of double standards among scientists.

Why it matters: Scientists who are seen as changing recommendations based on political and social priorities, however important, risk losing public trust. That could cause people to disregard their advice should the pandemic require stricter lockdown policies.

What’s happening: Many public health experts came out against public gatherings of almost any sort this spring — including protests over lockdown policies and large religious gatherings.

  • But some of the same experts are supporting the Black Lives Matter protests, arguing that addressing racial inequality is key to tackling the coronavirus epidemic.
  • The systemic racism that protesters are decrying contributes to massive health disparities that can be seen in this pandemic — black Americans comprise 13% of the U.S. population, but make up around a quarter of deaths from COVID-19. Floyd himself survived COVID-19 before he was killed by a now former police officer in Minneapolis.
  • “While everyone is concerned about the risk of COVID, there are risks with just being black in this country that almost outweigh that sometimes,” Abby Hussein, an infectious disease fellow at the University of Washington, told CNN last week.

Yes, but: Spending time in a large group, even outdoors and wearing masks — as many of the protesters are — does raise the risk of coronavirus transmission, says Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.

  • In a Twitter thread over the weekend, coronavirus expert Trevor Bedford estimated that each day of protests would result in some 3,000 additional infections, which over time could lead to hundreds of additional deaths each day.
  • Public health experts who work in the government have struck a cautionary note. Mass, in-person protests are a “perfect setup” for transmission of the virus, Anthony Fauci told radio station WTOP last week. “It’s a delicate balance because the reasons for demonstrating are valid, but the demonstration puts one at additional risk.”

The difference in tone between how some public health experts are viewing the current protests and earlier ones focused on the lockdowns themselves was seized upon by a number of critics, as well as the Trump campaign.

  • “It will deepen the idea that the intellectual classes are picking winners and losers among political causes,” says Tom Nichols, author of the “The Death of Expertise.”
  • Politico reported that the Trump campaign plans to restart campaign rallies in the next two weeks, with advisers arguing that “recent massive protests in metropolitan areas will make it harder for liberals to criticize him” despite the ongoing pandemic.

The current debate underscores a larger question: What role should scientists play in policymaking?

  • “We should never try to harness the credibility of public health on behalf of our judgments as citizens,” writes Peter Sandman, a retired professor of environmental journalism. He tells Axios some scientists who supported one protest versus others “clearly damaged the credibility of public health as a scientific enterprise that struggles to be politically neutral.“
  • But some are pushing back against the very idea of scientific neutrality. “Science is part of how we got to our racist system in the first place,” Susan Matthews wrote in Slate.
  • Medical science has often betrayed the trust of black Americans, who receive less, and often worse, care than white Americans. That means — as Uché Blackstock, a physician and CEO of Advancing Health Equity, told NPR — that the pandemic presents “a crisis within a crisis.”

The big picture: The debate risks exacerbating a partisan divide among Americans in their reported trust in scientists.

  • 53% of Democrats polled in late April — about a month before Floyd’s death — reported a “great deal of confidence in medical scientists to act in the public interests” versus 31% of Republicans.
  • If science-driven policymaking continues to be seen as biased, it will have repercussions for public trust in issues beyond the pandemic, including climate change, AI and genetic engineering.

What to watch: If there is a rise in new cases in the coming weeks, there will be pressure to trace them — to protests, rallies and the reopening of states. How experts weigh in could affect how their recommendations will be viewed in the future — and whether the public, whatever their political leanings, will follow them again.

 

 

 

 

US showing signs of retreat in battle against COVID-19

Posted on by • Posted in 2020 Election Issues, Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), Clinical Testing, Contact Tracing, Coronavirus, Crisis, Crisis Management, Economic Crisis, Economy Reopening, Health Policy, Infection Control, Infection Control Plan, Infectious Virus, Leadership Centralized, Mortality, National Strategy, Pandemic, Public Health, Public Safety, Quarantine, Social Distancing, World Health Organization (WHO) • Leave a comment

US showing signs of retreat in battle against COVID-19

COVID-19 Crisis: Political and Economic Aftershocks - Foreign ...

When throngs of tourists and revelers left their homes over Memorial Day weekend, public health experts braced for a surge in coronavirus infections that could force a second round of painful shutdowns.

Two weeks later, that surge has hit places like Houston, Phoenix, South Carolina and Missouri. Week-over-week case counts are on the rise in half of all states. Only 16 states and the District of Columbia have seen their total case counts decline for two consecutive weeks.

But instead of new lockdowns to stop a second spike in cases, states are moving ahead with plans to allow most businesses to reopen, lifting stay-at-home orders and returning to something that resembles normal life.

“There is no — zero — discussion of re-tightening any measures to combat this trend. Instead, states are treating this as a one-way trip. That sets us up for a very dangerous fall, but potentially even for a dangerous summer,” said Jeremy Konyndyk, a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development who oversaw the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance during the Obama administration.

The moves suggest that many Americans — anxious to end two-plus months of lockdowns, smarting from the devastating economic toll they have already suffered and focused on the social justice protests that have roiled the nation — are ready to put the coronavirus behind them.

Even as case curves bend upward again, little action has been taken to counter the reversal.

“There are places that I suspect a lot of people are shrugging their shoulders and just rushing forward,” said David Rubin, who runs the PolicyLab at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “I just worry that they might lose control of their epidemic, and that’s what you have to worry about these days.”

The statistics are startling. The average number of confirmed cases over a two-week period has doubled or more in Arizona, Arkansas, Oregon and Utah. Fewer than a quarter of intensive care unit beds in Alabama, Georgia and Rhode Island are available.

In Texas, the number of people admitted to the hospital has grown 42 percent since Memorial Day. Arizona’s top health official has urged hospitals to activate their emergency plans.

North Carolina, California, Mississippi and Arkansas are all reporting record levels of hospitalizations.

Some experts worry Americans have begun to accept the drumbeat of death, numbed by the nearly 2 million cases already confirmed across the country and the 112,000 who have died.

A virus once dismissed as not a serious threat to the nation and later acknowledged as a public health emergency is now becoming just another daily worry to be absorbed.

“One fear is that the U.S. will accept tens of thousands of deaths, as from gun violence, unlike other countries,” said Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention during the Obama administration.

“It’s not just lives. Unless we protect lives, we won’t get livelihoods back,” said Frieden, who now runs Resolve to Save Lives, a global health nonprofit.

The race to reopen comes even as new research shows the lockdowns were working. The dramatic steps Americans took to stop the virus saved an estimated 5 million infections through April 6, according to research by the Global Policy Lab at the University of California-Berkeley.

President Trump has been perhaps the loudest proponent of reopening, at times putting pressure on states to lift coronavirus restrictions even if the data is flashing warning signs.

World Health Organization (WHO) officials have practically begged nations to be slow and considerate as they move to reopen their economies.

“We need to focus on the now. This is far from over,” Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s technical lead on the coronavirus, told reporters at a virtual press conference Monday. “I know many of us would like this to be over and I know many situations are seeing positive signs. But it is far from over.”

On Wednesday, WHO’s director of emergency programs acknowledged the challenges of lockdown life.

“We fully understand that governments are very reticent to go back into lockdowns that can be damaging to social and economic life,” said Mike Ryan.

“There has to be a balance between lives and livelihoods and the public health control of COVID-19,” Ryan added.

There are few signs that Americans are heeding the warnings.

“We’re just at the beginning of the Memorial Day story, not at the end,” Rubin said. “We are seeing the sea levels rise.”

 

 

 

 

U.S. tops 2 million confirmed coronavirus cases

Posted on by • Posted in 2020 Election Issues, Clinical Testing, Contact Tracing, Coronavirus, Crisis, Crisis Management, Economic Crisis, Economy Reopening, Health Policy, Infection Control, Infection Control Plan, Infectious Virus, Leadership Decentralized, Mortality, National Strategy, Pandemic, Public Health, Public Safety, Quarantine, Social Distancing • Leave a comment

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/coronavirus-united-states-cases-2-million/

i24NEWS DESK | U.S. coronavirus cases top 2 million | Thursday ...

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the United States topped 2 million late Wednesday night, according to Johns Hopkins University. The mark was passed with all 50 states in various stages of re-opening and with numerous states experiencing surges in cases and severe strain on their hospitals.

It’s been just five months since the coronavirus caused its first known U.S. fatality, in California, broke out in Washington state and quickly spread around the country.

The next closest nation to the U.S. in terms of number of cases is Brazil, with some 772,000.  

The virus has killed almost 113,000 people in the U.S., Johns Hopkins said, and there were more than 7.3 million cases worldwide and 416,000 deaths.

And according to the Reuters News Service, the head of Harvard’s Global Health Institute, Ashish Jha, told CNN Wednesday that, “Even if we don’t have increasing cases, even if we keep things flat, it’s reasonable to expect that we’re going to hit 200,000 deaths sometime during the month of September. And that’s just through September. The pandemic won’t be over in September.”

Seventeen states have reported an increase in average daily new COVID-19 cases compared with two weeks ago, including Florida, California and Texas.

The ongoing pandemic has wreaked havoc on the U.S. economy. Tens of millions of people have filed for unemployment since states shut down to try to limit the virus’ spread. Several major companies, including J.C. Penney, J. Crew, Gold’s Gym and Hertz have filed for bankruptcy.

The Congressional Budget Office predicts the coronavirus could impact the nation until 2029 and cost the economy almost $16 trillion.

On Monday, White House Coronavirus Task Force officials said the police brutality protests around the country may spur a spike in virus cases. Many demonstrators haven’t been heeding public health guidelines for containing the virus, such as wearing masks and social distancing.

 

 

 

 

White House goes quiet on coronavirus as outbreak spikes again across the U.S.

Posted on by • Posted in 2020 Election Issues, Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), Clinical Testing, Contact Tracing, Coronavirus, Credibility, Crisis, Crisis Management, Dept of Health and Human Services (HHS), Economic Crisis, Economic Stimulus, Economy Reopening, Employee Benefits, Employee Furlough, Employee Hiring Freeze, Employee Layoffs, Employee Pay Cuts, Employee Protections, Expert, Expert Opinion, Health Policy, Infection Control, Infection Control Plan, Infectious Virus, Leadership Decentralized, Mortality, National Strategy, Pandemic, Public Health, Public Safety, Quarantine, Scientists, Social Distancing, Transparency, Trust, Truth • Leave a comment

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/06/10/white-house-stops-talking-about-coronavirus-309993?utm_source=ActiveCampaign&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Mnuchin%3A+More+Stimulus++Definitely++Needed&utm_campaign=TFT+Newsletter+06102020

White House goes quiet on coronavirus as outbreak spikes again ...

The coronavirus is still killing as many as 1,000 Americans per day — but the Trump administration isn’t saying much about it.

It’s been more than a month since the White House halted its daily coronavirus task force briefings. Top officials like infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci have largely disappeared from national television — with Fauci making just four cable TV appearances in May after being a near fixture on Sunday shows across March and April — and are frequently restricted from testifying before Congress. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump is preparing to resume his campaign rallies after a three-month hiatus, an attempted signal to voters that normalcy is returning ahead of November’s election, and that he’s all but put the pandemic behind him.

“We’ve made every decision correctly,” Trump claimed in remarks in the Rose Garden Friday morning. “We may have some embers or some ashes or we may have some flames coming, but we’ll put them out. We’ll stomp them out.”

Inside the White House, top advisers like Jared Kushner privately assured colleagues last month that the outbreak was well in hand — citing data on declines in community spread — and that the long-feared “second wave” may have even been averted, according to three current and former officials.

However, new data from states like Florida and mass protests across the country are renewing concerns about the virus’s spread. Texas, for instance, has reported two straight days of record-breaking coronavirus hospitalizations — highs that come shortly after the state kicked off the third stage of its reopening plan.

Those officials also acknowledge that the Covid-19 task force has scaled back its once-daily internal meetings — the task force now meets twice per week — but insist that the pandemic response remains a priority. One official with direct knowledge of the administration’s strategy cited efforts to scale up testing, accelerate the development of treatments and vaccines and perform other behind-the-scenes work to get ready for a potential fall surge.

“We’re delivering the supplies and resources that states asked for,” said the official. “This doesn’t need to be the public ‘coronavirus show’ every day anymore.”

“You can’t win,” said a senior administration official. “Some people complained for weeks that ‘we don’t want so much White House involvement,’ and that ‘the President should stop doing daily briefings,’ and then they turn around and complain that there aren’t enough or as many briefings.”

But the White House’s apparent eagerness to change the subject comes as new coronavirus clusters — centered around meatpacking plants, prisons and other facilities — drive spikes in disparate states like Utah and Arkansas. Meanwhile, states and major cities are lifting lockdowns and reopening their economies, prompting public health experts to fret that additional outbreaks are imminent. And several Democratic governors also have defied their own states’ social distancing restrictions to join mass protests over police brutality, where hundreds of thousands of Americans have spilled into the streets, further raising public health risks.

The fear is that all the mixed signals will only confuse people, stoke public skepticism over the health threat and promote the belief the worst is over just as the outbreak enters a dangerous new phase.

“Cases are rising, including from cases in congregate settings,” said Luciana Borio, who led pandemic preparedness for the National Security Council between 2017 and 2019. “We still have a pandemic.”

Nine current and former administration officials, as well as outside experts, further detailed how the White House is steadily ramping down the urgency to fight a threat that continues to sicken more than 100,000 Americans per week and is spiking in more than 20 states.

For instance, the administration in recent days told state health officials that it planned to reorganize its pandemic response, with HHS and its agencies taking over the bulk of the day-to-day responsibilities from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

“The acuity of the response is not what it was, so they’re trying to go back to a little more of a normal ongoing presence,” said Marcus Plescia, the chief medical officer of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.

The coronavirus task force, which used to send daily updates to state officials, has done so with less regularity over the last several weeks, Plescia said. And the CDC has restructured its daily conference calls with states, moving away from the practice of giving top-down briefings to encouraging state officials to offer updates on what they’re seeing in their parts of the country.

One current and one former FEMA official also said they’re keen to have HHS resume its leadership role in containing the coronavirus so FEMA can make contingencies for a summer of hurricanes, floods and other natural disasters.

“Given the likelihood that we will soon see both hurricanes and coronavirus, HHS should manage the ongoing pandemic response so FEMA can prepare for coming ‘coronacanes,’” Daniel Kaniewski, who served as the top deputy at FEMA through January, wrote last week. “But they need to act soon. Coronacanes are in the forecast.”

Meanwhile, officials in at least 19 states have recorded two-week trends of increasing coronavirus cases, including spikes of more than 200 percent in Arizona and more than 180 percent in Kentucky. Two months after the White House issued so-called gating criteria that it recommended states hit before resuming business and social activities, only a handful of states — like Connecticut, New Jersey, New York and South Dakota — currently meet all of those benchmarks, according to CovidExitStrategy.org.

Officials within Trump’s health department are strategizing over how to convey the current level of risk, given data that Americans have put off emergency care and other potential medical needs, fearful of contracting Covid-19. “Our message now is that people should start returning to their health care providers to get the screenings, vaccines, care, or emergency services that they need,” Laura Trueman, the HHS official in charge of external affairs, wrote in an office-wide email to colleagues and shared with external groups on June 3, which was obtained by POLITICO.

Dan Abel, a longtime Coast Guard vice admiral, also has been installed at HHS with a small team, where he’s coordinating daily Covid-19 calls with HHS Secretary Alex Azar and the department’s division leaders, according to four officials with knowledge of the calls — an arrangement that’s raised some questions.

“Why is a Coast Guard admiral leading meetings between the HHS secretary and his senior staff?” asked one senior official, suggesting it created an unnecessary layer of management.

Meanwhile, the department is steadily turning back to its many pre-Covid-19 priorities. At the Food and Drug Administration, officials are returning to hot-button issues like tobacco and CBD regulations. Some staff in the health department’s emergency response arm are pivoting away from Covid-19 and back toward natural disasters as hurricane season begins.

At the same time, the Centers for Disease Control — traditionally the beating heart of the nation’s infectious disease response — remains largely demoralized and often sidelined in fighting what CDC director Robert Redfield last week acknowledged as the nation’s biggest health challenge in more than a century, and one he said is “moving through our social consciousness, our outward expression, and our grief.” That grim message has conflicted with Trump’s frequent vows of victory over the coronavirus.

“We were able to close our country, save millions of lives, open,” Trump said in Friday’s Rose Garden remarks. “And now the trajectory is great.”

“I fully recognize the anguish our Nation is experiencing & am deeply saddened by the many lives lost to COVID19,” Redfield tweeted just minutes later. “I call upon the American people to remain vigilant in protecting the vulnerable – protect your community, grandparents and loved ones from COVID-19.”

Redfield and other top officials also have spent the past week reckoning with the implications of widespread protests over police brutality, from meeting with staff to discuss longstanding concerns about systemic racism in health care to acknowledging the probability that those protests will spark new outbreaks.

HHS also on Monday sent members of Congress a fact sheet on its response to racial disparities in Covid-19 care — a much scrutinized issue in public health, with African Americans contracting and dying from the virus at much higher rates.

But on Capitol Hill, watchdogs say that fact sheets don’t cut it, and they’re frustrated by the lack of access to experts and insight into how the administration is handling a historic pandemic.

“Some are acting like the battle has been won when in reality it’s just beginning,” said a senior Democratic staffer. “The White House still won’t let task force members testify at hearings in June even though they have disappeared from TV and it’s not clear how often they are meeting.”

Fauci, meanwhile, has continued to issue a string of dire warnings in his lower-profile media appearances and at an industry conference on Tuesday.

“We have something that turned out to be my worst nightmare,” Fauci said in virtual remarks aired at a conference of the biotech industry’s Washington trade group, recounting how quickly the virus spread around the globe, outpacing Ebola and HIV. “And it isn’t over yet.”

The White House has maintained that chief of staff Mark Meadows has needed to clear officials like Fauci to testify, so they can stay focused on other priorities, and a spokesperson insisted that Trump has still prioritized the coronavirus fight even as the White House shifts toward focusing on revitalizing the economy.

Several officials have suggested that the task force’s lower profile has been helpful for the response, especially because the daily Covid-19 press briefings were often hijacked by Trump’s meandering remarks or the day’s other political news.

“In some ways, it actually has been easier to get Covid-related work done,” said one HHS staffer who’s helped support the Covid-19 response. “The task force briefings and the prep sessions for them took up a lot of principals’ time, and staff would sometimes have to crash on putting together materials for them.”

But the white-hot spotlight on the coronavirus also brought urgency and intensity, and the increasingly scattered nature of the current response could present new challenges if there’s an uptick in cases.

“This is when a one-government approach is needed more now than ever,” said Howard Koh, who served as President Barack Obama’s HHS assistant secretary for health. “Get all those people together in one room every day at the highest level and track outcomes and address all the questions and try to maximize coordination as much as possible.”

 

 

 

 

Pennsylvania orders stricter COVID-19 protections for all hospital workers

Posted on by • Posted in Coronavirus, Employee Protections, Health Policy, Health System, Hospital, Hospital Industry, Pandemic, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), Public Health, Public Safety, Quarantine, Social Distancing, Worker Protection • Leave a comment

https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/workforce/pennsylvania-orders-stricter-covid-19-protections-for-all-hospital-workers.html?utm_medium=email

8,420 infected, 102 dead from COVID-19 in Pennsylvania to date | ABC27

Pennsylvania’s state health secretary issued an order June 9 requiring all hospitals to better protect staff from COVID-19. 

“I have heard from nurses and staff, and this order responds directly to many of their safety concerns,” said Secretary of Health Rachel Levine, MD.

The order requires hospitals to develop, implement and adhere to the following measures by June 15: 

  • Notify staff who have been in close contact with a confirmed or probable COVID-19 case within 24 hours of the known contact; provide instruction for quarantine and work exclusion
  • Provide testing for symptomatic and asymptomatic hospital staff members who have received notice of a close contact with a confirmed or probable COVID-19 case upon request
  • Equip staff with nationally approved respirators when staff determine the mask is soiled, damaged or otherwise ineffective
  • Require universal masking for all individuals entering the hospital facility, except for people for whom wearing a mask would create a further health risk, or individuals under age 2

In addition to medical staff, the measures apply to staff members in therapeutic services, social services, housekeeping services, dietary services and maintenance.

 

 

 

 

COVID-19 activity by region: Cases ramp up in rural areas

Posted on by • Posted in 2020 Election Issues, Clinical Testing, Contact Tracing, Coronavirus, Crisis, Crisis Management, Economy Reopening, Health Policy, Infection Control, Infection Control Plan, Infectious Virus, Leadership Decentralized, Mortality, Pandemic, Public Health, Public Safety, Quarantine, Social Distancing • Leave a comment

https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/public-health/covid-19-activity-by-region-cases-ramp-up-in-rural-areas.html?utm_medium=email

Coronavirus Timeline: March 2020 | WATE 6 On Your Side

Progress on containing COVID-19’s spread continues to vary drastically across regions, states and cities.

As the incubation period for COVID-19 is up to 14 days, most states have yet to report a potential surge in cases linked to nationwide protests against police violence.

What’s clear is the pandemic is loosening its grasp on major urban areas and ramping up in more rural areas, according to The Washington Post. Cases have increased in at least 22 states over the past two weeks, according to a June 9 analysis by The New York Times. Fourteen states have also had a record-high seven-day average of new coronavirus cases since June 1, according to data tracked by the Post.

Below is a snapshot of what COVID-19’s spread looks like across the U.S., as of June 9.

West

More COVID-19 cases have been confirmed in Oregon over the past week than any other time since the pandemic began, according to data from the Oregon Health Authority. The state reported 620 confirmed or presumed infections in the past week, with the state’s largest daily case total reported June 7 at 146 cases. The spike began the week ending May 31, when new COVID-19 cases in Oregon increased by 18 percent (353 cases) compared to the previous week. Between June 5-8, 26 counties in Oregon were able to enter Phase 2 of reopening, KGW reported.

COVID-19 cases in California hit 3,094 new daily cases June 5, the state’s second highest daily count after 3,705 cases reported May 30. Recently, some counties have resisted Gov. Gavin Newsom’s distancing orders and reopened sections of the economy, according to The Guardian.

Washington reported 442 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 on June 6, the most daily cases since April 10, according to KOMO News. The state has acquired sufficient supplies to expand COVID-19 testing and better monitor Washington’s 39 counties as they ease social distancing restrictions, Gov. Jay Inslee said June 4, according to The Seattle Times. As of June 8, all employees in the state must wear face coverings, with some exceptions for certain jobs or individuals with medical conditions, according to King 5.

Southwest

COVID-19 cases hit record-high numbers in Arizona in late May. The state reported more than 700 cases daily between May 26-29, the largest single-day increases seen since the pandemic started. However, known deaths have been decreasing since late May, with less than 10 deaths occurring daily between May 29 and June 2. On June 6, Cara Christ, MD, Arizona Department of Health Services director, sent a letter to hospitals urging them to “fully activate” emergency plans, according to AZ Central.

Meanwhile, COVID-19 cases and deaths are steadily increasing in Texas. The state reported 1,949 new cases May 31, marking the highest single-day increase seen since the pandemic’s start. Texas also reported a record number of related hospitalizations, with 1,935 people admitted June 8. Ten counties are reporting increased case counts because of testing at prisons or meatpacking plants, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services. On June 3, Gov. Greg Abbott announced the third phase of reopening, which includes increasing capacity and opening additional businesses and activities.

Nevada reported 194 new cases June 5, marking the largest single-day increase seen since May 22, when the state saw a record 255 cases. The cumulative death toll has also been rising since the start of the pandemic, although the state reported no new deaths between June 5 and June 7.

Northeast

New York reported 35 COVID-19 deaths June 5 — the lowest figure seen in eight weeks, according to The New York Times. The daily death toll has been steadily declining since New York reported nearly 800 deaths daily in late March and early April, according to state data. New York also reported a record-low number of hospitalizations last week.

The number of new cases, deaths and hospitalizations have significantly fallen in New Jersey since April. The state reported 356 new cases June 8, representing the 10th consecutive day in which new cases remained under 1,000. The state is set to enter phase 2 of its reopening June 15, which will allow restaurants to offer outdoor dining and nonessential businesses to open at half capacity, according to nj.com.

Massachusetts reported a large spike in new COVID-19 cases June 1 after conducting a retrospective review of state data since March 1. Of the 3,840 new cases reported, 3,514 were newly probable and 326 were newly confirmed, according to Boston 7 News. Overall, the state has seen a sustained decline in new cases throughout May, according to a New York Times analysis.

Southeast

Florida saw a large spike in new COVID-19 infections last week amid a steady increase in testing capacity. After reporting just 606 cases June 1, Florida had more than 1,000 new infections daily between June 3 and June 7. This marks the state’s longest sustained increase since early April. The state also reported 1,419 new infections June 4 — the largest single-day increase seen since the Florida health department started publishing COVID-19 data in March, according to the Miami Herald.

COVID-19 hospitalizations started falling in Mississippi in early June. However, the state reported a record 498 new cases June 8, the highest single-day increase seen since May 30 when 439 cases were reported, according to the Sun Herald.

North Carolina reported 1,370 new cases June 6, the highest daily increase seen during the pandemic, according to WSOC-TV. The previous record was set just a day prior when the state saw 1,289 new cases. North Carolina also reported 739 hospitalizations June 8, surpassing the previous record of 717 hospizaltions reported June 5, according to The News & Observer.

Midwest

Wisconsin reported no new COVID-19 deaths June 8 for the first time since May 17, reports CBS affiliate WSAW-TV. The number of people hospitalized with the virus also fell to a three-week low June 3, according to Urban Milwaukee. The state reported 203 new cases June 8, down from 733 on May 29. Wisconsin also performed a record 16,451 tests June 3, of which 483 were positive.

The rate of new COVID-19 cases and the number of people requiring intensive care continues to decline in Minnesota. The state reported 388 new infections June 7, the second-lowest daily increase since April 28, according to the StarTribune. In addition, 199 patients were being treated for COVID-19 in ICUs, marking the lowest total since May 13.

 

 

 

 

Coronavirus Live Updates: W.H.O. Walks Back Claim That Asymptomatic Transmission is Rare

Posted on by • Posted in Clinical Testing, Contact Tracing, Coronavirus, Economy Reopening, Health Policy, Infection Control, Infection Control Plan, Infectious Virus, Pandemic, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), Public Health, Public Safety, Quarantine, Scientists, Social Distancing, Supply Chain, World Health Organization (WHO) • Leave a comment

Virus spreaders who never show symptoms 'very rare,' WHO says ...

Seven million people have been infected worldwide, and new cases hit a high globally on Sunday, according to the W.H.O. Central banks are seeking new tools to offset the downturn.

RIGHT NOW

New Jersey’s governor said on Tuesday that he was lifting the stay-at-home order that he issued in March. “With more and more of our businesses reopening, we’re no longer requiring you to stay at home,” he said.

The W.H.O. walked back an earlier assertion that asymptomatic transmission is ‘very rare.’

A top expert at the World Health Organization on Tuesday walked back her earlier assertion that transmission of the coronavirus by people who do not have symptoms is “very rare.”

Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, who made the original comment at a W.H.O. briefing on Monday, said that it was based on just two or three studies and that it was a “misunderstanding” to say asymptomatic transmission is rare globally.

“I was just responding to a question, I wasn’t stating a policy of W.H.O. or anything like that,” she said.

Dr. Van Kerkhove said that the estimates of transmission from people without symptoms come primarily from models, which may not provide an accurate representation. “That’s a big open question, and that remains an open question,” she said.

Scientists had sharply criticized the W.H.O. for creating confusion on the issue, given the far-ranging public policy implications. Governments around the world have recommended face masks and social distancing measures because of the risk of asymptomatic transmission.

A range of scientists said Dr. Van Kerkhove’s comments did not reflect the current scientific research.

“All of the best evidence suggests that people without symptoms can and do readily spread SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19,” scientists at the Harvard Global Health Institute said in a statement on Tuesday.

“Communicating preliminary data about key aspects of the coronavirus without much context can have tremendous negative impact on how the public and policymakers respond to the pandemic.”

A widely cited paper published in April suggested that people are most infectious about two days before the onset of symptoms, and estimated that 44 percent of new infections are a result of transmission from people who were not yet showing symptoms.

Dr. Van Kerkhove and other W.H.O. experts reiterated the importance of physical distancing, personal hygiene, testing, tracing, quarantine and isolation in controlling the pandemic.

The debate over transmission erupted a day after the W.H.O. said that cases had reached a new single-day global high — 136,000 on Sunday, with three-quarters in just 10 countries, mostly in the Americas and South Asia. The coronavirus has already sickened more than seven million people worldwide and killed at least 405,400, according to a New York Times database.

The Pan American Health Organization said on Tuesday that 3.3 million people in South and Central America have been infected with the coronavirus. Dr. Carissa F. Etienne, the agency’s director, said that many areas are experiencing exponential growth in infections and death.

In India, health experts are warning of a looming shortage of hospital beds and doctors to treat patients as the country grapples with a sharp surge of infections. India reported 10,000 new infections in the past 24 hours, for a total of at least 266,500, and has surpassed Spain to become one of the five countries with the highest caseloads.

Rajnish Sinha, the owner of an event management company in Delhi, struggled to find a hospital bed for his 75-year-old father-in-law, who tested positive for the virus on Tuesday.

“This is just the beginning of the coming disaster,” Mr. Sinha said. “Only God can save us.”

 

 

 

 

Optum says payers should keep a close eye on these 3 drugs. Here’s why

Posted on by • Posted in Antibody-Drug Conjugate (ADC) Therapy, Clinical Research, Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Health Policy, Health System, Hospital, Hospital Industry, Non-Orphan Drugs, Orphan Drugs, Pharmaceutical Industry, Pharmacy Benefits Management, Risdiplam, Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA), Trodelvy, Viltolarsen • Leave a comment

https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/payer/optum-says-payers-should-keep-a-close-eye-these-3-drugs-here-s-why?mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiTXpReVptRTBOemxoWW1OaCIsInQiOiJcL0FZVXVvVmhwQWpxdFBoV1VKRjhON29CaWhLY3g2bXFhT0doXC9tWVFpWTd0blh3TEY3MTN0M3lsZEs3K002d0hLS25BNld4dlk0b3NhWDBYaUhWYkNTUGc5SVRlRjBEMERoS01kWlZER1hVMmhFTkczdTAzMDhxWWpIaWxORk1mIn0%3D&mrkid=959610

The outside of Optum's headquarters

OptumRx researchers are highlighting three more drug products that payers should be keeping an eye on in 2020. 

Experts said in the pharmacy benefit manager’s second-quarter drug pipeline report echoed expectations from the first quarter that orphan drugs will be a major trend to watch as the year continues. Sumit Dutta, M.D., chief medical officer at OptumRx, wrote in the report these drugs will likely account for close to 40% of Food and Drug Administration approvals this year. 

Dutta said Optum is seeing more drug manufacturers jump into developing orphan drug products, which are generally considered less appealing as their market—and thus financial value—is more limited. 

“What is new is that we now are starting to see the development of orphan drugs become more competitive, increasing the potential for reduced costs and broader patient accessibility,” he wrote.

In 2018, the FDA approved more orphan drugs than non-orphan drugs for the first time. Optum’s first-quarter report also noted that these products are often pricey, as they target specific conditions. On average, orphan drugs cost $147,000 or more per year.

Of the three products highlighted in the second-quarter report, two are orphan drugs. Here’s more on what Optum’s analysts think payers need to know:

1. Risdiplam

If the FDA gives risdiplam a thumbs-up, it would become the first oral therapy for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), a rare group of severe neuromuscular disorders. SMA is one of the most common genetic causes for infant mortality and affects about 1 in 11,000 babies.

There are only two treatments for SMA that are currently approved by the FDA, meaning there’s a significant unmet need for therapies, particularly oral medications, Optum said. The other treatments available are Spinraza, which requires repeated spinal injections, and gene therapy Zolgensma, the world’s most expensive drug.

Risdiplam would be administered orally once a day, which would likely draw significant interest from patients and their families, according to the report.

“Practically speaking, the competitive advantage for risdiplam will rest mainly in its oral route of administration, and perhaps, a lower cost,” according to the report. 

The analysts did caution that risdiplam is still in clinical trials and while results are promising, long-term outcomes associated with the drug are unclear. 

2. Viltolarsen

Viltolarsen is in development to treat Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), a rare genetic disease that impacts young boys. There is a large unmet need for drugs to treat DMD, Optum said in the report, as it’s linked with significant sickness and death.

About 6,000 people in the U.S. have this disease, according to the report.

Vitolarsen is an “exon-skipping” drug that “short circuits” the genetic mutations that cause DMD. If approved, it would be the third such drug for the disease, and the second targeting a specific mutation that affects about 8% of those with DMD.

The drug has only been tested in small sample sizes, and there are limited safety data available, according to the report. 

3. Trodelvy

Trodelvy, the brand name of an antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) therapy aimed at metastatic triple-negative breast cancer, was approved in April.  

Triple-negative breast cancers test negative for the three most common causes of cancer and are thus untreatable by many front-line therapies, though they are treatable by chemotherapy, according to the report. ADC products like Trodelvy combine genetically engineered antibodies and traditional chemotherapy drugs into one intravenous therapy.

Optum is highlighting Trodelvy as it expects ADC medications to be a trend to monitor in the near future, because they could be applied to conditions outside of oncology, according to the report.

“We can think of ADCs as a refinement or extension of precision medicine, which aims at maximizing therapeutic benefits while minimizing undesired side effects for an individual patient,” the researchers wrote. “As the field advances, we can look for new conjugate ‘payloads’ that will go far beyond hunting cancer cells.”

“Various manufacturers are exploring how to leverage the ADC approach to produce vaccines, radiological treatments, immunosuppressive, cardiovascular and more,” they wrote.

 

 

8 nonprofit health systems got $1.7B bailout, furloughed more than 30,000 workers

Posted on by • Posted in 2020 Election Issues, Cash, Cash Reserves, Coronavirus, Economic Crisis, Economic Stimulus, Employee Benefits, Employee Furlough, Employee Hiring Freeze, Employee Layoffs, Employee Pay Cuts, Employee Protections, Employer-Based Health Insurance, Health Insurance Coverage Adequacy, Health Policy, Health System, Hospital, Hospital Industry, Job, Job Market, Job Search, Job Security, Operating Expenses, Operating Income, Operating Margin, Operating Performance, Operating Revenue, Pandemic, The CARES Act, Unemployment, Unemployment Insurance • Leave a comment

https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/finance/8-nonprofit-health-systems-got-1-7b-bailout-furloughed-more-than-30-000-workers.html?utm_medium=email

Sixty of the largest hospital chains in the U.S., including publicly traded and nonprofit systems, have received more than $15 billion in emergency funds through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, according to an analysis by The New York Times. 

Congress has allocated $175 billion in relief aid to hospitals and other healthcare providers to cover expenses or lost revenues tied to the COVID-19 pandemic. The first $50 billion in funding from the CARES Act was distributed in April. Of that pool, HHS allocated $30 billion based on Medicare fee-for-service revenue and another $20 billion based on hospitals’ share of net patient revenue. HHS also sent $12 billion to hospitals that provided inpatient care to large numbers of COVID-19 patients and $10 billion to hospitals and other providers in rural areas.

Though one of the goals of the CARES Act was to avoid job losses, at least 36 of the largest  hospital systems that received emergency aid have furloughed, laid off or reduced pay for workers, according to the report.

Approximately $1.7 billion in bailout funds went to eight large nonprofit health systems: Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.; Trinity Health in Livonia, Mich.; Beaumont Health in Southfield, Mich.; Henry Ford Health System in Detroit; SSM Health in St. Louis; Mercy in St. Louis; Fairview Health in Minneapolis; and Prisma Health in Greenville, S.C. Mayo Clinic furloughed or cut hours of about 23,000 workers, and the other seven health systems furloughed or laid off a total of more than 30,000 employees in recent months, according to The New York Times.

The pandemic has taken a financial toll on hospitals across the U.S. They’re losing more than $50 billion per month, according to a report from the American Hospital Association. Of the eight nonprofit systems that collected $1.7 billion in relief aid, several have reported losses for the first quarter of this year, which ended March 31. For instance, Mayo Clinic posted a $623 million net loss, SSM Health’s loss totaled $471 million, and Beaumont and Henry Ford Health System reported losses of $278 million and $235 million, respectively.

Since CARES Act payments were automatically sent to hospitals, some health systems have decided to return the funds. Kaiser Permanente, a nonprofit system, is returning more than $500 million it received through the CARES Act. The Oakland, Calif.-based health system ended the first quarter with a $1.1 billion net loss.

Access the full article from The New York Times here.