Overnight Health Care — Maternal deaths rose in first year of pandemic

View in your browser OVERNIGHT POLICY: Health Care Maternal deaths rose in first year of pandemic © iStock Welcome to Wednesday’s Overnight Health Care, where we’re following the latest moves on policy and news affecting your health. Subscribe here: thehill.com/newsletter-signup.  A truck convoy protesting COVID-19 rules has set out from California and is headed to D.C. as authorities prepare for protests around the State of the Union next week.   Pregnancy-related deaths are on the rise, and stark racial disparities persist, a new report finds.   For The Hill, we’re Peter Sullivan (psullivan@thehill.com), Nathaniel Weixel (nweixel@thehill.com), and Joseph Choi (jchoi@thehill.com). Write to us with tips and feedback, and follow us on Twitter: @PeterSullivan4 @NateWeixel and @JosefChoi.  Let’s get started.  Maternal deaths increased in 2020: CDC © Getty Images The number of pregnancy-related deaths in the U.S. rose in 2020, the first year of the pandemic, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).    The report finds there were 861 maternal deaths in 2020, up from 754 in 2019 and 658 in 2018. That translated to 23.8 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2020, up from 20.1 in 2019.    Wide racial disparities: The maternal mortality rate for Black women was about three times higher than it was for white women, at 55.3 deaths per 100,000 births compared to 19.1 deaths per 100,000 births.    “Rates for non-Hispanic Black women were significantly higher than rates for non-Hispanic White and Hispanic women,” the report states. “The increases from 2019 to 2020 for non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic women were significant.”  The report does not delve into the role the pandemic might have played in the increase in maternal deaths, but it is possible that people delaying care and trips to the hospital could have played a role.  Lawmakers have been pushing to address maternal deaths. For example, the American Rescue Plan Act, signed by President Biden last year, allows states to extend Medicaid coverage for a full year postpartum, up from 60 days.    Read more here.  CDC UPDATES MRNA GUIDANCE The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued new COVID-19 mRNA vaccine guidance, expanding the recommended time between the initial two vaccine doses to eight weeks for some people over the age of 12, particularly young men.  The prior recommended interval between initial doses was three weeks for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and four weeks for the Moderna vaccine. This timeline is still recommended by the CDC for individuals who are immunocompromised, over 65 years old or in need of rapid protection against the coronavirus.  According to the CDC, however, leaving more time between the first two doses of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines may reduce the risk for severe side effects such as myocarditis, or inflammation of the heart wall.  "MRNA COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective at the FDA-approved or FDA-authorized intervals, but a longer interval may be considered for some populations," the CDC said. "While absolute risk remains small, the relative risk for myocarditis is higher for males ages 12-39 years, and this risk might be reduced by extending the interval between the first and second dose."  Read more here. Another COVID-19 vaccine could be coming © Getty Images Sanofi and GSK said Wednesday that they plan to submit their COVID-19 vaccine for authorization following "strong" results in a Phase 3 trial.  What makes it different: The latest COVID-19 vaccine entrant could play an important role in helping vaccinate the world, given that it is easier to store than the mRNA vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna.  The vaccine had 100 percent efficacy against severe disease and hospitalization. Efficacy against any infection at all was 57.9 percent. While that is lower than was reported originally for Pfizer and Moderna, Sanofi and GSK said the results reflect the latest variants, and are “in line with expected vaccine effectiveness in today’s environment dominated by variants of concern.”  The companies also said the vaccine had a “favorable safety profile.”   They plan to submit for authorization to the Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agency.    “We’re very pleased with these data, which confirm our strong science and the benefits of our COVID-19 vaccine,” said Thomas Triomphe, executive vice president at Sanofi Vaccines.    The Sanofi-GSK uses a more traditional vaccine technology, as opposed to the newer mRNA used by Pfizer and Moderna. Therefore it could both convince some people skeptical of mRNA vaccines to get the shots, and, importantly, help reach lower-income countries due to easier storage requirements.    Read more here.   FIREARM DEATHS BECOME LEADING CAUSE OF TRAUMA-RELATED DEATH: STUDY Firearms are now the leading cause of trauma-related deaths in the U.S., according to a study published on Tuesday, overtaking motor vehicle crashes as the top cause of years of potential life lost.  Researchers at the Westchester Medical Center reached the finding after reviewing data from recent years in National Vital Statistics Reports from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).  The CDC calculates years of potential life lost by subtracting an individual's age when they died from the standard year of 80, which is roughly the U.S. life expectancy. The agency then sums the number of years lost across different causes of death.  The study looked at data from 2009–2018. In the first few years that researchers looked at, motor vehicle crashes accounted for more years of potential life lost than firearms. However, in 2017 firearms exceeded motor vehicle crashes and continued to do so through 2018.  In the decade that researchers reviewed, firearms accounted for 12.6 million years of potential life lost. Within the decade, crashes accounted for more potential years lost at 12.9 million years.  Read more here. New infections fall worldwide for third week The World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday announced that global COVID-19 cases dropped by 21 percent last week.  Globally, WHO's data showed that more than 12 million new cases and 67,000 new deaths were reported in the past seven days.  In terms of COVID-19–related deaths, the data showed that number dropped by 8 percent, marking the first week since early January that the death rate has decreased.  Germany and Russia, both of which saw more than 1 million weekly cases, led the world this past week in the number of cases reported. They were followed by Brazil, which had more than 728,000 cases.  The agency's data also indicated that cases in the U.S. specifically were down by about 40 percent.   The only region that reported an overall spike in cases was the Western Pacific, with an increase of 29 percent.  Read more here.  We want to hear from you! Take our newsletter survey to provide feedback on our offerings. WHAT WE'RE READING Covid vaccine supply for global program outstrips demand for first time (Reuters)   20 years ago, a landmark report spotlighted systemic racism in medicine. Why has so little changed? (Stat)   Tracy Kidder remembers Paul Farmer: ‘He wanted to make the whole world his patient’ (New York Times)  STATE BY STATE Whitmer signs bills with hopes of 'significant' impact on prescription drug prices (Detroit News)   School mask mandates ending in New Hampshire (Associated Press)  The Doctor Giving DeSantis’s Pandemic Policies a Seal of Approval (New York Times)   OP-EDS IN THE HILL Your doctor no longer has all the answers — who can you trust?  When the Hippocratic Oath meets the hypocrisy of the unvaccinated  That's it for today, thanks for reading. Check out The Hill's health care page for the latest news and coverage. See you Thursday. 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