 Welcome to Thursday's Overnight Health Care. CDC Director Robert Redfield made a rare appearance in front of a House committee on Thursday. The Trump administration will now require all labs running COVID-19 tests to report the racial and ethnic demographics of the results, a major study of hydroxychloroquine was retracted, and the administration is publicizing COVID-related nursing home deaths. We'll start with hydroxychloroquine: Authors retract major COVID-19 paper on effects of hydroxychloroquine A major study on the effects of hydroxychloroquine on COVID-19 patients was retracted from a leading medical journal Thursday after doctors and scientists raised questions about the validity of the data. The study had concluded patients taking the anti-malaria drug had a higher risk of death than those who were not taking the medication, leading some researchers to suspend their clinical trials. The three authors of the study, led by Mandeep R. Mehra of Harvard Medical School and published in late May, retracted their study from The Lancet because independent peer reviewers could not access the data used for the analysis. The source of the data was Surgisphere Corporation, which told peer reviewers it would not transfer the full dataset used for the study because it would violate client agreements and confidentiality requirements. “We all entered this collaboration to contribute in good faith and at a time of great need during the COVID-19 pandemic,” the authors wrote in a statement Thursday. “We deeply apologize to you, the editors, and the journal readership for any embarrassment or inconvenience that this may have caused.” Why it matters: Other studies that have used data from this company are also being called into question. Hydroxychloroquine has been politicized after being touted by President Trump as a potential treatment for COVID-19. Read more here.
CDC director: US needs up to 100,000 contact tracers by September to fight coronavirus CDC director Robert Redfield laid out a daunting task on Thursday: hiring up to 100,000 people to do contact tracing by September. “I've estimated between 30 and 100,000” contact tracers are needed," Redfield told the House Appropriations Committee during a hearing Thursday. He acknowledged the figure is “sizable.” How it compares: The estimate it is actually less than the 300,000 people former CDC director Tom Frieden has estimated the U.S. will need. Clock ticking: He said it is crucial to get the contact tracing system in place by September to try to keep the virus in check ahead of an expected surge in the fall and winter. That could help prevent the type of blunt stay-at-home orders that the U.S. had to implement this spring after missing the window to contain the virus earlier this year. Rare appearance: The public has not heard much from Redfield during the pandemic, and the Trump administration has typically not allowed top officials to testify in the Democratically-controlled House. Read more here. Redfield also warns Floyd protests could be 'seeding event' for coronavirus The images of hundreds of people standing close together in protests against police brutality across the country has prompted questions about the impact on spread of the coronavirus, and Redfield raised concerns as well on Thursday. “We really want those individuals to highly consider being evaluated and get tested, and obviously go from there, because I do think there is a potential, unfortunately, for this to be a seeding event,” Redfield said. Recommendations: If you go to a protest, Redfield encouraged wearing a mask and getting tested afterwards. Redfield noted that cities like Minneapolis and Washington, D.C. — two of the main flash points in the nationwide protests — are still seeing high levels of transmission of the coronavirus. Read more here. Trump administration requiring labs to report racial, ethnic information from COVID-19 test results Labs testing for COVID-19 will be required to report the racial and ethnic information of positive and negative test results to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Trump administration announced Thursday. The new requirement is intended to deepen the understanding of the impact of COVID-19 on communities of color and ensure there is equitable testing among all populations. “This is only one small component of my office's efforts to combat health disparities that have plagued our nation for decades,” Assistant Secretary for Health Admiral Brett Giroir said on a call with reporters Thursday. Racial and ethnic data is only known for less than half of COVID-19 cases reported to the CDC. The available data shows black people make up 22 percent of COVID-19 cases, despite making up 13 percent of the population. Most of these fields are not reported by hospital labs, and are rarely reported by large commercial labs, Giroir said. Read more here. | 
No comments:
Post a Comment