| Some not great news from the CDC director: CDC director warns decline in COVID-19 cases 'may be stalling' in 'concerning shift' Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Rochelle Walensky warned Friday that recent declines in COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths "may be stalling," calling the trends a "very concerning shift." CDC data shows the number of new cases has declined dramatically in recent weeks, from a peak of about 250,000 per day in mid-January to about 60,000 per day. But now after weeks of falling, the number of new cases has started ticking back up in recent days, and are still at a very high level overall, at about 66,000 new cases per day. "The latest data suggest that these declines may be stalling, potentially leveling off at still a very high number," Walensky said during a White House briefing. "We at CDC consider this a very concerning shift in the trajectory." Several states have been relaxing restrictions in areas like restaurant capacity, and in some cases mask mandates. Walensky urged states not to lift restrictions, without naming any in particular. "Things are tenuous," she said. "Now is not the time to relax restrictions." Hope on the horizon, though: Overall, officials said that with vaccinations on the rise, now is not the time to let up on restrictions and taking precautions like wearing a mask and distancing from others, but vaccines could be much more widely available by the spring, helping to more permanently suppress the pandemic. Read more here. Biden administration buys 100,000 doses of Lilly antibody drug The Biden administration on Friday announced an agreement to purchase 100,000 doses of Eli Lilly's monoclonal antibody cocktail that was recently authorized by the Food and Drug Administration. The move will increase the available supply of one of the few proven treatments for people with COVID-19. The antibody drugs are authorized for use in patients who are at high risk of becoming seriously ill but are not yet hospitalized. Under the agreement, the federal government will pay $210 million for the initial purchase of up to 100,000 treatment courses of the therapeutic, which is a combination of the drug bamlanivimab, which was authorized last November for high-risk Covid-19 patients, with a second drug known as etesevimab. The agreement includes flexibility to purchase up to a total of 1.2 million doses through November, but how much of that is exercised will likely depend on the course of the pandemic over the next several months. Difficult to get: The hope is with the additional supply of drugs, they will be more readily available to people who need them. But demand has also been lackluster. Supply was limited at first, and making sure the drug gets to patients is a complex undertaking. Since they are infusion drugs, antibodies need to be administered in the proper setting. The window to administer the drugs is small, and patients need a quick diagnosis. The plus side: The drugs are free, but health care facilities may charge for the administration. Read more here. Evidence of the vaccine working is coming out of Israel: Israeli vaccination campaign leads to plunge in severe COVID-19 cases A mass vaccination campaign in Israel that targeted older residents led to a steep drop-off in the number of coronavirus cases requiring patients to go on a ventilator, a hopeful sign as other nations ramp up vaccine access and distribution. A new report published Friday in the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report found the number of older patients in Israel requiring ventilation to treat COVID-19 plummeted beginning in the middle of January. Before the vaccination campaign started, about six times as many patients over the age of 70 required ventilation to assist breathing as those under the age of 50. By the middle of February, when more than 8 in 10 older Israelis had been vaccinated, that ratio dropped to just a 2 to 1 margin. The drop in the number of older patients who required ventilation began in mid-January, about the time the first people to receive a vaccine in Israel began getting their second doses. "Considering the vaccination rate and the expected vaccine efficacy, this study provides preliminary evidence at the population level for the reduction in risk for severe COVID-19 as manifested by need for mechanical ventilation, after vaccination with the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine," CDC researchers wrote. Read more here. | 
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