Tag: medications

A robust booster campaign could prevent millions of missed school days among children ages 5 to 17, report finds

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If 80% of children ages 5 and older get their COVID booster shots by the end of 2022, it could prevent about 29 million missed days of school and almost 51,000 hospitalizations, according to a new report.

And if COVID booster coverage simply matches 2020-21 flu-vaccination levels by year’s end, it would prevent about 22 million missed school days, said the report published by the Commonwealth Fund.

“We expand our previous analysis to include the impact on pediatric hospitalizations, pediatric isolation days, and school absenteeism (among children ages 5 to 17), demonstrating both the health benefits of vaccination and the importance of vaccination uptake for maintaining uninterrupted in-school education,” the authors wrote in the report.

The number of days absent from school was calculated based on five days of required isolation for children in that age group who experience mild symptomatic illness and 10 days for children who have severe illness or require hospitalization.

Source: Commonwealth Fund

An effective booster campaign would considerably reduce the strain on pediatric hospitals this winter, many of which are currently seeing high numbers of children with respiratory syncytial virus, known as RSV, and the flu, the authors wrote.

“Throughout the pandemic, children have experienced direct health burdens as well as enormous upheaval in their personal and educational lives,” the report said. “Accelerated vaccination campaigns that achieve high coverage across all ages have the potential to prevent a possible imminent surge in COVID-19, protecting children both directly and indirectly and providing them with additional stability in terms of school attendance and other social engagement.”

Now read: A strong fall COVID booster campaign could save 90,000 U.S. lives and avoid more than 936,000 hospitalizations, study finds

The report comes as known U.S. cases of COVID are climbing again for the first time in a few months. The daily average for new cases stood at 39,459 on Monday, according to a New York Times tracker, up 4% versus two weeks ago.

Cases are rising the most in the Southwest, led by Arizona, Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico — states that are also seeing hospitalization numbers climb by more than 30% in the last two weeks.

The daily average for U.S. hospitalizations was up 1% at 27,662.

On a brighter note, the daily death tally continues to fall and is down 13% to 302 from two weeks ago.

Physicians are reporting high numbers of respiratory illnesses like RSV and the flu earlier than the typical winter peak. WSJ’s Brianna Abbott explains what the early surge means for the winter months. Photo illustration: Kaitlyn Wang

Coronavirus Update: MarketWatch’s daily roundup has been curating and reporting all the latest developments every weekday since the coronavirus pandemic began

Other COVID-19 news you should know about:

• China’s ruling party called for strict adherence to its hard-line “zero-COVID” policy Tuesday in an apparent attempt to guide public perceptions after regulations were eased slightly in places, the Associated Press reported. The news may disappoint Chinese citizens who have clashed with police and COVID workers to show their frustration over lockdowns and restrictions on movement. The People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s flagship newspaper, said in an editorial that China must “unswervingly implement” the policy that requires mass obligatory testing and places millions under lockdown in an attempt to eliminate the coronavirus from the nation of 1.4 billion people.

• Japan will lift a ban on international cruise ships that has lasted more than two and half years, transport officials said Tuesday, the AP reported separately. The ban was imposed following a deadly coronavirus outbreak on the cruise ship Diamond Princess at the beginning of the pandemic. The Transport Ministry said cruise-ship operators and port authorities associations have adopted antivirus guidelines and that Japan is now ready to resume its international cruise operations and to receive foreign ships at its ports.

The new bivalent vaccine might be the first step in developing annual COVID shots, which could follow a similar process to the one used to update flu vaccines every year. Here’s what that process looks like, and why applying it to COVID could be challenging. Illustration: Ryan Trefes

• Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen tested positive for COVID-19 after meeting with world leaders, including President Joe Biden, at a summit of Southeast Asian nations last week, the Wall Street Journal reported. Mr. Hun Sen held one-on-one talks with Biden on Saturday on the sidelines of the regional discussions in Phnom Penh. Biden — who is on a five-day trip to Asia to attend a series of summits — then traveled to Bali, Indonesia, where he sat down on Monday with Chinese leader Xi Jinping for a face-to-face meeting that stretched over three hours.

• Australia will overturn a three-year ban on tennis player Novak Djokovic entering the country, paving the way for the former top-ranked player to take part in the 2023 Australian Open, CNN reported, citing a source with direct knowledge of the matter. Australian Immigration Minister Andrew Giles will lift the ban, the source said.

Here’s what the numbers say:

The global tally of confirmed cases of COVID-19 topped 635.6 million on Monday, while the death toll rose above 6.61 million, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University.

The U.S. leads the world with 98 million cases and 1,074,691 fatalities.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s tracker shows that 227.8 million people living in the U.S., equal to 68.6% of the total population, are fully vaccinated, meaning they have had their primary shots.

So far, just 31.4 million Americans have had the updated COVID booster that targets the original virus and the omicron variants, equal to 10.1% of the overall population.

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November 15, 2022
Austin Pets Alive! | Thanks to You, Tomato Paste Gets to be the King…

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Nov 14, 2022

Who would’ve guessed big boy Tomato Paste, who started losing his
appetite at the shelter due to stress, would soon spend every day
getting cuddles and wearing fun costumes in his new home? (Well, maybe
we could’ve guessed!). Now affectionately nicknamed Tommy, this
incontinent kitty is getting the peace, love, and routine he craves from
his new family thanks to support from friends like you.

Tommy
came to APA! with an old tail injury that made it hard for him to
control where and when he had to go potty. He needs his bladder gently
squeezed a couple times a day to empty it, and it took a lot of time and
treats for this gentleman to accept that he needs some extra help.

Because of you, we were able to give Tommy the medications he requires to stay comfortable while getting his bladder expressed and support his dedicated foster as she cared for an incontinent kitty for the first time. At another shelter, Tommy might have faced needless euthanasia because of extra care that only takes a few minutes out of the day and that anyone can learn how to do with practice and patience.

When we say Katie was a dedicated foster, we mean it! She
brought Tommy into our clinic almost every day for the first couple
weeks to get help expressing his bladder. That’s determination! Katie
wanted to give this handsome kitty a lap to curl up in at night, which
meant lots of practice and teamwork to find the routine he needed.
Ultimately, she couldn’t let this lovebug go and soon Tommy became our
14th incontinent cat adopted in 2022! Katie says “We were
definitely a bit intimidated by the prospect of adopting an incontinent
cat, but after getting a good routine down with him it’s totally
manageable.”

Now that
she and Tommy are on the same page, Katie has a friend to greet her
when she comes home from work and Tommy finally has the loving family he
deserves. “I’m really glad we took a chance on him, he’s the sweetest and most charismatic boy!”

We’re
so excited to say “Happy tails” to this distinguished kitty and we’re
so grateful to YOU for making stories like this possible this holiday
season and every day.

With gratitude,

The APA! Team

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November 14, 2022
China eases some travel requirements in move welcomed by markets, even as it counts 10,000 new COVID cases in a day

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China counted more than 10,000 fresh COVID cases on Friday sparking further restrictions on movement, but also eased some travel requirements in a move welcomed by financial markets.

Beijing closed city parks and imposed other restrictions, even as millions of people remained under lockdown Friday in the West and south of China, the Associated Press reported.

The country reported 10,729 new cases on Friday, almost all of them testing positive while showing no symptoms. More than five million people were under lockdown Friday in the southern manufacturing hub Guangzhou and the western megacity Chongqing.

The government said Friday it was reducing the amount of time incoming passengers would be required to undergo quarantine. The U.S. Embassy this week renewed its advisement for citizens to avoid travel to and within China unless absolutely necessary.

Incoming passengers will only be quarantined for five days, rather than the previous seven, at a designated location, followed by three days of isolation at their place of residence, according to a notice from the State Council, China’s cabinet.

It wasn’t immediately clear when and where the rules would take effect and whether they would apply to foreigners and Chinese citizens alike.

Relaxed standards would also be applied to foreign businesspeople and athletes, in what appeared to be a gradual move toward normalization. The news will be welcomed by Chinese citizens frustrated by the government’s zero COVID policy that has kept many in their homes sometimes for months at a time, and forced them to take regular tests.

In the U.S., known cases of COVID are climbing again for the first time in a few months. The daily average for new cases stood at 40,835 on Thursday, according to a New York Times tracker, up 9% versus two weeks ago.

As always, case numbers vary from state to state and some are seeing sharp spikes, led by Nevada, where cases have soared 176% from two weeks ago, the tracker shows. That’s followed by Utah, where they are up 77%, New Mexico at 62% and Oklahoma at 54%.

Cases are rising in 32 states, as well as Washington, D.C., Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. They are up by double digits in 27 of those states.

The daily average for hospitalizations was up 3% at 27,989, while the daily average for deaths is down 9% to 326.

Coronavirus Update: MarketWatch’s daily roundup has been curating and reporting all the latest developments every weekday since the coronavirus pandemic began

Other COVID-19 news you should know about:

• Four German regions — Baden-Wuerttemberg, Bavaria, Hesse and Schleswig-Holstein — plan to scrap rules requiring people infected with the coronavirus to isolate at home, arguing that the pandemic has evolved and it’s time for a different approach, the AP reported. The health ministry pointed to declining infections, effective vaccinations, a high degree of population immunity, milder illnesses and the example of countries such as Austria that have loosened rules. “The decision doesn’t mean that we will give free rein to infections,” said Bavarian state health minister Klaus Holetschek. “People who test positive will in the future have to put on a mask outside their own apartment. And of course, the principle still goes that people who are sick stay at home.”

• Sanofi
SAN,
-5.22%
won European Union approval for its COVID vaccine booster, jointly made with British partner GSK
GSK,
-5.65%

GSK,
-6.01%,
after a drawn-out development effort that saw the pair fall behind now-dominant vaccine suppliers, Reuters reported. The shot with the brand name VidPrevtyn Beta can be given to people who have already had a primary course of vaccination from other approved shots, the French drugmaker and the European Medicines Agency said in separate statements. Shipments are ready to be distributed to European countries under advance purchase agreements, Sanofi said. The company said last year that the European Union and Britain had ordered a combined 75 million doses of the shot, contingent on approval.

• U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor rejected a bid to prevent New York City from enforcing its COVID-19 vaccine mandate for municipal workers against a group of teachers, firefighters and others who challenged the policy, Reuters reported separately. The justice denied an emergency request, received by the court on Nov. 4, to block the policy by individual municipal workers, as well as a group called New Yorkers For Religious Liberty, while their appeal of lower court decisions siding with the city proceeds.

Here’s what the numbers say:

The global tally of confirmed cases of COVID-19 topped 634.3 million on Friday, while the death toll rose above 6.60 million, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University.

The U.S. leads the world with 97.9 million cases and 1,074,485 fatalities.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s tracker shows that 227.8 million people living in the U.S., equal to 68.6% of the total population, are fully vaccinated, meaning they have had their primary shots.

So far, just 31.4 million Americans have had the updated COVID booster that targets the original virus and the omicron variants, equal to 10.1% of the overall population.

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November 11, 2022
Pfizer-BioNTech bivalent booster shows higher immune response, but new COVID cases climb back above 40,000 a day

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First the good news: Pfizer Inc. and Germany-based partner BioNTech SE said updated trial data for their omicron BA.4/BA.5-adapted bivalent booster showed a “substantially higher” immune response in adults than the original COVID-19 vaccine.

The companies said the Phase 2/3 clinical-trial data, collected one month after the boosters were given, also demonstrated that safety and tolerability profiles were similar to those of the original vaccine.

The news sent Pfizer’s stock
PFE,
+0.51%
rallying 1.7% and BioNTech’s U.S.-listed shares
BNTX,
+4.97%

22UA,
+4.11%
surging 7.2% in morning trading.

“As we head into the holiday season, we hope these updated data will encourage people to seek out a COVID-19 bivalent booster as soon as they are eligible in order to maintain high levels of protection against the widely circulating Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 sublineages,” said Pfizer Chief Executive Albert Bourla.

Only 8.4% of eligible Americans have received updated COVID booster shots, while 68.5% of the total population have completed the original primary series of vaccinations, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The bivalent booster has been authorized for emergency use in the U.S. by the Food and Drug Administration for people age 5 and older and has also been granted marketing authorization in the European Union for those age 12 and older.

In another piece of good news, Pfizer and BioNTech shares were also lifted by a report in The Wall Street Journal that the Chinese government has agreed to approve the companies’ COVID-19 vaccines for foreign residents in China and has also held talks to approve those vaccines for the broader population.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg reported that China was working on a plan to end the practice of penalizing airlines that bring COVID-infected people into the country.

Both reports boost hopes that China is slowly moving toward ending its zero-COVID policy, which has crimped China’s economy and acted as a drag on global growth.

Now for the bad news.

The seven-day average of new COVID cases topped 40,000 for the first time in a month and hospitalizations have also ticked higher, with more than half of U.S. states showing increases over the past two weeks.

According to a New York Times tracker, the daily average of new cases rose to 40,101 on Thursday from 38,208 on Wednesday, and was up 6% from 14 days ago.

The New York Times

Nevada has seen a 96% jump in daily cases, followed by Tennessee with a 69% increase and Louisiana with a 68% rise, leading the 28 states that saw cases increase over the past two weeks.

Still, daily cases were less than one-third of the summer high of more than 130,000 reached during the surge of the BA.5 variant, the data show.

Coronavirus Update: MarketWatch’s daily roundup has been curating and reporting all the latest developments every weekday since the coronavirus pandemic began

The daily average of COVID-related hospitalizations rose 2% to 27,252, while the number of people with COVID in intensive-care units (ICUs) fell 2% to 3,110.

The daily average of COVID-related deaths fell 6% to a four-month low of 339.

On a global basis, the total number of COVID cases has increased to 631.91 million, while deaths have reached 6,598,197, according to data provided by Johns Hopkins University. The U.S. has seen a total of 97.69 million cases and 1,072,245 deaths.

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November 4, 2022
Hospitalizations on the rise in New York City as new COVID strains spread rapidly

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Hospitalizations are rising again in New York City with the spread of new COVID-19 subvariants that are better at evading immunity. Cases of flu and respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, are also increasing.

State data show about 1,100 patients hospitalized with COVID as of Oct. 24, up from 750 in mid-September, as the New York Times reported. Case numbers have held steady, although with many people testing at home where data are not being collected, those numbers are not reliable.

Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that the omicron sublineages named BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 accounted for 42.5% of all cases in the New York region in the week through Oct. 29, up from 37% the previous week.

That was more than the BA.5 omicron subvariant, which accounted for 35.7% of new cases in the New York region in the latest week. The two sublineages were not even registering as recently as three weeks ago, demonstrating just how fast they are spreading.

Experts are also concerned about a nationwide surge in RSV, which can cause breathing difficulties in small children and older adults and for which there is currently no vaccine.

There was good news from Pfizer Inc., however, which said Tuesday that data from a late-stage trial of an RSV vaccine had proved effective in preventing severe illness in children up to 6 months old.

The Phase 3 trial found that the vaccine, given to pregnant mothers, achieved vaccine efficacy of 81.8% in infants from birth through the first 90 days of life. The trial found efficacy of 69.4% through the first 6 months of life.

Pfizer
PFE,
+3.14%
said it expects to make its first U.S. regulatory application for the vaccine by the end of 2022 and to follow on with other regulatory bodies. It will also submit the results of the trial for peer review in a scientific journal.

The daily U.S. average for new COVID cases stood at 37,665 on Monday, according to a New York Times tracker, which was flat as compared with two weeks ago. The daily average for hospitalizations was up 2% to 27,184, while the daily average for deaths was down 3% to 348.

Coronavirus Update: MarketWatch’s daily roundup has been curating and reporting all the latest developments every weekday since the coronavirus pandemic began

Other COVID-19 news you should know about:

• Apple
AAPL,
-1.75%
supplier Foxconn
2317,

said Tuesday it has quadrupled bonuses for workers at its Zhengzhou plant in central China as it seeks to quell discontent over COVID restrictions and retain staff at the giant iPhone manufacturing site, Reuters reported. Daily bonuses for employees, who are part of a Foxconn unit responsible for making electronics including smartphones, have been raised to 400 yuan ($55) a day for November from 100 yuan, according to the official WeChat account of Foxconn’s Zhengzhou plant. The move comes after workers fled the site over the weekend to avoid COVID curbs after complaining about their treatment and provisions via social media.

Workers at the world’s biggest assembly site for Apple’s iPhones walked out as Foxconn has struggled to contain a COVID-19 outbreak. The chaos highlights the tension between Beijing’s rigid pandemic controls and the urge to keep production on track. Photo: Hangpai Xinyang/Associated Press

• The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that Hong Kong stocks appeared to be rallying after an anonymous post on Chinese social media suggested that the government may intend to soften pandemic-related restrictions beginning in March. Other outlets also reported on the rumor. American depositary receipts for Chinese companies surged on the news.

See: Alibaba and Nio among Chinese stocks surging as hopes build about potential reopening

• Pfizer’s COVID antiviral Paxlovid brought in $7.5 billion in sales in the third quarter of the year, compared with a FactSet consensus of $7.6 billion. The drug company also reiterated guidance for Paxlovid revenues in 2022, saying it still expects $22 billion in sales for the year. The FactSet consensus is $22.5 billion. Pfizer raised its full-year revenue guidance for the company’s Comirnaty COVID vaccine by $2 billion to $34 billion. The guidance includes doses expected to be delivered in fiscal 2022, primarily under contracts signed as of mid-October.

• AstraZeneca PLC’s
AZN,
+1.77%

AZN,
+0.90%
COVID vaccine Vaxzevria has been granted full marketing authorization in the European Union, Dow Jones Newswires reported. The Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical giant said Vaxzevria has been shown to be effective against all forms of the virus. Vaxzevria was originally granted conditional marketing authorization due to the urgency of the COVID-19 pandemic, it said.

Here’s what the numbers say:

The global tally of confirmed cases of COVID-19 topped 630.6 million on Monday, while the death toll rose above 6.59 million, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University.

The U.S. leads the world with 97.5 million cases and 1,070,429 fatalities.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s tracker shows that 226.9 million people living in the U.S., equal to 68.4% of the total population, are fully vaccinated, meaning they have had their primary shots.

So far, just 22.8 million Americans have had the updated COVID booster that targets the original virus and the omicron variants, equal to 7.3% of the overall population.

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November 1, 2022
New omicron subvariants accounted for more cases in New York region in latest week than BA.5, CDC data shows

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The omicron sublineages named BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 continued to spread in the U.S. in the week through Oct. 29, accounting for 27.1% of new cases nationwide, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.

The two accounted for 42.5% of all cases in the New York region, which includes New Jersey, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, up from 37% the previous week. That was more than the BA.5 omicron subvariant, which accounted for 35.7% of new cases in the New York area in the latest week.

The BA.5 omicron subvariant accounted for 49.6% of all U.S. cases, the data show.

BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 were included in BA.5 variant data as recently as three weeks ago, because their numbers were too small to break out. BQ.1 was first identified by researchers in early September and has been found in the U.K. and Germany, among other places.

Last week, the World Health Organization said that BQ.1 and another sublineage dubbed XBB do not appear to have immune-escape mutations that warrant being designated as variants of concern. However, BA.5 is still a variant of concern that is being closely monitored, said a statement from the WHO’s Technical Advisory Group on SARS-CoV-2 Virus Evolution.

Workers in a manufacturing facility that assemble Apple Inc.’s
AAPL,
-1.66%
iPhone in the Chinese city of Zhengzhou appear to have left to avoid COVID-19 curbs, with many traveling on foot for days after an unknown number of employees were quarantined in the facility after a virus outbreak, the Associated Press reported.

Videos circulating on Chinese social media platforms showed people who are allegedly Foxconn workers climbing over fences and carrying their belongings down a road.

Separately, visitors to Shanghai Disneyland were left s t randed at the park on Monday after the resort halted operations to comply with COVID-19 restrictions amid a new outbreak of the virus.

In the U.S., known cases of COVID are continuing to ease and now stand at their lowest level since mid-April, although the true tally is likely higher given how many people overall are testing at home, where data are not being collected.

The daily average for new cases stood at 36,869 on Sunday, according to a New York Times tracker, down 2% from two weeks ago. The daily average for hospitalizations was up 3% to 27,415, while the daily average for deaths was down 6% to 352.

Coronavirus Update: MarketWatch’s daily roundup has been curating and reporting all the latest developments every weekday since the coronavirus pandemic began

Other COVID-19 news you should know about:

• With a downcast earnings season passing the halfway mark, results from financial-technology companies and vaccine makers will arrive this week amid questions about consumer spending as well as demand for COVID drugs, MarketWatch’s Bill Peters reported. Pfizer Inc.
PFE,
-1.82%
will report earnings on Tuesday, followed by Moderna Inc.
MRNA,
-0.47%
on Thursday. Analysts will have their eye on the state of COVID-19 vaccine and treatment sales and on what executives are anticipating for the full year, as they prepare for a private market for COVID medications and as more people shrug off the pandemic. Pfizer executives, during a call last week, said they intended to charge between $110 and $130 for a single-dose vial of the vaccine for U.S. adults when government purchases end. But they said they believe anyone who has health insurance shouldn’t have to pay anything out of pocket.

The FDA authorized newly modified COVID-19 boosters to target the latest versions of the omicron variant. But as WSJ’s Daniela Hernandez explains, a key part of the decision-making process was changed with these new shots. Photo: Laura Kammermann

• A number of young children are being hospitalized because of respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, and it’s happening at an unusual time of year and among older children than in years past, MarketWatch’s Jaimy Lee reported. COVID may be a contributing factor, in part because many children were not exposed to RSV last season and also because a prior COVID infection or exposure may change the way a baby’s immune system responds to RSV and may lead to more severe illness from an RSV infection, according to Asuncion Mejias, a principal investigator with the Center for Vaccines and Immunity at the Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.

• On Saturday, more than 3,000 people took part in the first Pride march in South Africa since the COVID pandemic , celebrating the LGBT community and defying a U.S. warning of a possible terror attack in the area, the AP reported. The U.S. government this week warned of a possible attack in the Sandton part of Johannesburg, where the march took place. The South African government expressed concern that the U.S. had not shared enough information to give credibility to the alleged threat. Police said all measures had been taken to ensure safety in the area.

Here’s what the numbers say:

The global tally of confirmed cases of COVID-19 topped 630.2 million on Monday, while the death toll rose above 6.58 million, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University.

The U.S. leads the world with 97.5 million cases and 1,070,266 fatalities.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s tracker shows that 226.9 million people living in the U.S., equal to 68.4% of the total population, are fully vaccinated, meaning they have had their primary shots.

So far, just 22.8 million Americans have had the updated COVID booster that targets the original virus and the omicron variants, equal to 7.3% of the overall population.

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October 31, 2022
CDC shoots down false claims it will mandate COVID-19 vaccines for schoolchildren, saying states make that decision

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has refuted claims that it’s planning to add the COVID-19 vaccine to immunization schedules for schoolchildren, saying that the authority for that decision lies with states and other local entities.

The false claim spread after it was shared by Fox News host Tucker Carlson in a tweet this week, as the Associated Press reported.

Carlson tweeted that the agency would make the vaccine mandatory in order for children to attend school, a claim the CDC quickly shot down. While an advisory committee to the CDC voted to recommend that the vaccine be added to immunization schedules, the CDC “only makes recommendations for use of vaccines, while school-entry vaccination requirements are determined by state or local jurisdictions,” CDC spokeswoman Kate Grusich told the AP.

Grusich explained that the action was meant to streamline clinical guidance for healthcare providers by adding COVID-19 vaccines to a single list of all currently licensed, authorized and routinely recommended vaccines.

“It’s important to note that there are no changes in COVID-19 vaccine policy,” she said.

The news comes as U.S. known cases of COVID are continuing to ease and now stand at their lowest level since mid-April, although the true tally is likely higher given how many people overall are testing at home, where data are not being collected.

The daily average for new cases stood at 38,077 on Thursday, according to a New York Times tracker, down 8% from two weeks ago. Cases are currently rising in 14 states, as well as Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.

The daily average for hospitalizations was down 2% to 26,669, although hospitalizations are rising in almost all northeastern states as cold weather arrives. The daily average for deaths was down 7% to 360.

Coronavirus Update: MarketWatch’s daily roundup has been curating and reporting all the latest developments every weekday since the coronavirus pandemic began

Other COVID-19 news you should know about:

• Pfizer
PFE,
+4.42%
is planning to sell the COVID vaccine it developed with German partner BioNTech
BNTX,
+9.88%
for $110 -$130 a dose once the U.S. market for COVID-19 shots becomes commercial, likely in the first quarter of next year, MarketWatch’s Jaimy Lee reported. Pfizer and BioNTech are currently paid $30.50 per vaccine dose by the U.S. government, which contracted with the companies, as well as with other vaccine makers like Moderna
MRNA,
+9.07%
and Novavax
NVAX,
+11.35%,
and then made the COVID-19 shots available at no cost to people in the U.S. during the public-health emergency. The emergency declaration in the U.S. isn’t expected to be renewed next year, which will lead to the formation of an official commercial market for COVID-19 vaccines, tests and treatments.

• Johnson & Johnson
JNJ,
+1.91%
said the volume of surgical procedures is returning to prepandemic levels in many parts of the world, a trend that cheered Wall Street and could bode well for other medical-technology heavyweights like Stryker Corp.
SYK,
+0.57%
and Zimmer Biomet Holdings
ZBH,
+0.18%.
J&J, which reported earnings this week, said its medical-technology business had a “strong September,” with U.S. sales of hip and knee implants and other surgical devices rising 7.7% to $3.3 billion in the third quarter of the year. “We are seeing procedures recovering,” Ashley McEvoy, worldwide chair of J&J’s MedTech business, told investors during this week’s earnings call. “In the U.S., we started to see surgical procedures tick up, predominantly at the latter part of the quarter.”

The new bivalent vaccine might be the first step in developing annual COVID shots, which could follow a similar process to the one used to update flu vaccines every year. Here’s what that process looks like, and why applying it to COVID could be challenging. Illustration: Ryan Trefes

• “As China’s ruling Communist Party holds a congress this week, many Beijing residents are focused on an issue not on the formal agenda: Will the end of the meeting bring an easing of China’s at times draconian ‘zero-COVID’ policies that are disrupting lives and the economy?” the AP reported. It appears to be wishful thinking. As the world moves to a postpandemic lifestyle, many across China have resigned themselves to lining up several times a week for COVID tests, restrictions on travel to other regions and the ever-present possibility of a community lockdown.

• Fantasy Fest, a 10-day annual party, is kicking off in Key West, Fla., on Friday, with a full slate of events for the first time since the pandemic started, the AP reported. “Due to the COVID pandemic, this will be the first full Fantasy Fest since 2019,” the festival’s board chair, Steve Robbins, said. “So I know our guests and staff are excited about getting back to the real Fantasy Fest.” Dozens of themed events are set for the festival, including a nighttime parade Oct. 29 featuring floats and elaborately costumed marching groups. Participants are encouraged to draw costume ideas from the festival’s theme, “Cult Classics & Cartoon Chaos,” and to portray characters inspired by favorite cartoons and television or film productions with a cult following.

Here’s what the numbers say:

The global tally of confirmed cases of COVID-19 topped 626.9 million on Friday, while the death toll rose above 6.57 million, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University.

The U.S. leads the world with 97.2 million cases and 1,067,190 fatalities.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s tracker shows that 226.5 million people living in the U.S., equal to 68.2% of the total population, are fully vaccinated, meaning they have had their primary shots. Just 111.4 million have had a booster, equal to 49.1% of the vaccinated population, and 26.8 million of those who are eligible for a second booster have had one, equal to 40.6% of those who received a first booster.

The CDC reports that some 19.4 million people have had a dose of the updated bivalent booster that targets omicron and its subvariants along with the original virus.

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October 21, 2022
Treatment Plan for Chronic Spontaneous Urticaria

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Chronic Spontaneous Urticaria Treatment

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October 21, 2022
Pfizer sets new prices for its COVID-19 vaccines. The cost? $110 to $130 per dose

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Pfizer Inc.
PFE,
+4.17%
said Thursday that it plans to sell the COVID-19 shot it developed with BioNTech SE
BNTX,
+7.14%
for $110 to $130 per dose once the U.S. market for COVID-19 shots becomes commercial, likely in the first quarter of next year.

Pfizer and BioNTech are currently paid $30.50 per vaccine dose by the U.S. government, which contracted with the companies (as well as other vaccine makers like Moderna Inc.
MRNA,
+6.57%
and Novavax Inc.
NVAX,
+8.88%
) and then made the COVID-19 shots available at no cost to people in the U.S. during the public-health emergency.

The emergency declaration in the U.S. isn’t expected to be renewed next year, which will lead to the formation of an official commercial market for COVID-19 vaccines, tests and treatments. That said, this change doesn’t mean most Americans will be on the hook to pay for their shots in 2023 and beyond.

A recent Kaiser Family Foundation analysis said most people with private insurance won’t be expected to pay anything out of pocket for the vaccines, though the costs may eventually be baked into the price of health-insurance premiums, as is done with flu shots. People with Medicare will have their shots covered by Medicare Part B, while those with Medicaid should also have coverage of COVID-19 vaccines. It’s the uninsured who may find it difficult to find free vaccines and boosters in the future.

Wall Street analysts cheered the news, saying Pfizer’s pricing plan came in above expectations. It also bodes well for Moderna’s stock. SVB Securities upgraded the company to market perform from underperform, though the company has not yet announced its pricing plans for its COVID-19 shots.

“Presuming that MRNA prices as a rational duopolist, this substantially improves the company’s ability to meet 2023 revenue guidance,” SVB analyst Mani Foroohar told investors.

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October 21, 2022
Puzzling Causes
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Idiopathic hypersomnia (IH) is a rare neurological disorder. Treatment can help, but there’s no cure. You may snooze upwards of 9 hours a night without feeling refreshed. You may fight to wake up in the morning. Your sleepiness may persist or get worse, even when you take lengthy naps during the day.

If you live with IH, you’d probably like to know what’s causing your symptoms. Unfortunately, that’s not something experts have figured out yet.

“Literally, the name idiopathic hypersomnia means you’re sleepy and we don’t know why,” says Sabra Abbott, MD, assistant professor of neurology and sleep medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago.

Lots of sleep specialists are trying to solve the IH puzzle, including Lynn Marie Trotti, MD, associate professor of neurology at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta. Sleep disorders tend to run in families, so your genes likely have something to do with it. But Trotti says she and her colleagues still don’t know the main source of all this extra sleepiness.

“The big mystery really is what causes idiopathic hypersomnia,” Trotti says.

Theories Behind Idiopathic Hypersomnia

We don’t yet know why people with IH are so sleepy, or why the disorder causes cognitive symptoms like brain fog, memory troubles, or poor attention. But thanks to ongoing research, Trotti and Abbott say there are some emerging clues, including:

Something triggers your GABA-A receptors. These are neurotransmitters that inhibit your central nervous system. Drugs like benzodiazepines can activate them. Doctors use these kinds of meds to treat anxiety and insomnia.

Trotti says people with IH sometimes have higher levels of natural benzodiazepines in their spinal fluid. “And the fact that there’s a difference suggests that (GABA-A receptors) might be related to the sleepiness in idiopathic hypersomnia,” she says.

There’s ongoing research into this theory. But Abbott says the idea is that something in your body acts like an all-day sleeping pill.

“That’s helpful for when you’re trying to go to sleep, but not when you’re trying to be awake during the day.”
Your circadian rhythm is out of sync. Everyone has a natural sleep-wake cycle. If you have IH, you might stay up late and have a lot of trouble waking up early. This “kind of suggests that there might at least be a component of a circadian timing issue,” Trotti says.

Abbott says she sees a lot of overlap between IH and something called delayed sleep-wake phase disorder. These are your natural night owls who fall asleep and get up later, she says. While the average circadian rhythm for most of us is just a little bit longer than 24 hours, she says this group operates differently.

“It’s sort of like they’re living a 25-hour day,” Abbott says. “Their sleep window is longer because their internal day is longer. They’re always playing catch-up.”

Chronic Fatigue vs. Idiopathic Hypersomnia

Since IH is a bit of a mystery, it can go undiagnosed for a long time. It can seem like other conditions. That might have something to do with how we think and talk about sleep. You might hear people use terms like “fatigue” and “sleepiness” interchangeably, but they aren’t the same thing.
Here’s how Trotti explains the difference: Hypersomnia means you either sleep too long or you fall asleep when you shouldn’t, such as taking naps during the day. Fatigue, on the other hand, is a weariness or lack of energy that doesn’t tend to raise your sleep time.

With that said, Trotti says about 20% of people with hypersomnia also have chronic fatigue syndrome. But a careful history of your symptoms can help your doctor figure out what’s going on.

They might ask:

What do your night and day schedules look like?

How much time do you spend asleep?

How much time do you spend resting but awake?

How much time do you spend trying to function while tired?

Sleep tests are also helpful. When it comes to hypersomnia, your doctor will see if:

You fall asleep fast during a daytime nap

You sleep more than 11 hours in a 24-hour period

Trotti says you wouldn’t expect the above symptoms if you have chronic fatigue syndrome without a hypersomnia disorder.
Where Is Research Headed?

Abbott says there’s a lot of interest in the GABA hypothesis. Most ongoing research is in that area because some anti-GABA drugs can reverse symptoms in some people with IH. In the future, there may be more drugs like this made specifically for IH.

“It’s a disorder we still don’t know a lot about and don’t have great treatments for,” Abbott says. “But as I tell my patients, there are people actively researching it. Hopefully, 5 or 10 years from now, we’re going to have better answers in terms of what causes it and what treats it.”

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October 19, 2022
Moderna Stock Takes Off on Cancer Vaccine News

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Moderna

stock shot up after

Merck

said it is exercising an option to work on a personalized cancer vaccine with the Covid-19 vaccine maker.

Merck (ticker: MRK) will pay

Moderna

(MRNA) $250 million for the joint development and future commercialization of the vaccine, which is currently in Phase 2 clinical trials. The two companies had announced a “strategic collaboration” in June 2016.

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October 12, 2022
The Complicated Landscape of Seniors and Medications

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Oct. 10, 2022 – When the time came for Ginny Erickson-Ebben’s elderly mother to move into a senior living facility in 2018, the entire family agreed the best place was near Erickson-Ebben. The weather was warm where she lived in Texas, and Erickson-Ebben lived just a mile down the road from the facility. She also had the time to help with her mother’s care. While happily and willingly taking on those duties, she didn’t realize what a big job she’d signed up for.

Ebben did have physical help from a caretaker at the facility, but she was not authorized to manage medications – Erickson-Ebben’s mother took 20. Even for a bright, middle-aged woman like Erickson-Ebben, the medication management was a complicated task.

“I was ignorant of how overwhelming the job would be,” Erickson-Ebben admits. “There was a nurse at the senior living facility who stopped in once a day to check on my mother, but otherwise the job fell to me, and it was stressful.”

Erickson-Ebben developed a system to keep everything straight. She made regular trips to the pharmacy to pick up the medications, and then, once a week, carefully counted out the meds and placed them in her mother’s pillboxes, separated by morning, afternoon, and evening doses. “It was scary at first, because I didn’t know what pill did what, but after a month, I learned them all and knew what I was doing,” she says. “But I was always worrying about what would happen if she missed a pill or if she took the wrong one at the wrong time.”

Like many seniors, Erickson-Ebben’s mother had a host of ailments and illnesses, and managing the prescriptions to keep them all in check is a huge undertaking. Recently, the American Medical Association took steps to help with the problem, issuing a new policy called “Reducing Polypharmacy as a Significant Contributor to Senior Morbidity.”

Reducing Polypharmacy

The doctor who championed the new policy is Louisville, KY-based Tom James III, MD. He’s been concerned for some time about the complicated picture of patients – especially seniors – taking multiple medications.

“There’s an inverse relationship between the number of prescriptions a patient takes and their longevity,” he explains. “Of course, patients who are sicker are on more medications, but while all drugs are tested for their side effects, they’re not tested in combination.”

As a result, says James, every patient taking multiple medications becomes their own individual test site. Compounding the issue, he says, is the fact that in medical school, doctors receive training for adding medications, but not subtracting them.

Another compounding issue is the fact that, like Erickson-Ebben’s mother, many senior patients have multiple doctors treating them at once. Today’s modern medicine means that, often, doctors don’t really have opportunities to discuss their mutual patients in person.

“It used to be that we’d chat in the doctor’s lounge, often comparing notes on a patient,” says James. “Now we often put information into electronic charts, but don’t talk face-to-face.”

What’s sometimes lost, says James, is a chance for multiple doctors to be on the same page about a patient’s medications. “Medication profiles often don’t catch all the drug interactions,” says James, “because the tools we use are not discriminatory.”

This spills over into over-the-counter meds and supplements, too, which can sometimes interact with prescription drugs. All in all, many elderly patients are at risk for the complications of over-medication.

Erickson-Ebben found it essential that she and her family research the medications her mother was taking, and why. “You have to advocate for the patient,” she says. “Unfortunately, if there’s a reaction to a medication, you need to research that, too.”

In the case of Erickson-Ebben’s mother and her 20 medications, if one caused a rash, it was difficult to know which. “You can’t just take them off one medication,” she points out. “Talk to the doctors about your concerns, and don’t let them be dismissive of patients just because they’re elderly.”

Creating a Safety Net

The new AMA policy aims to create a network of caretakers to educate patients about the significant effects of all medications, as well as many supplements. It encourages pharmacists, doctors, and other caretakers to teach patients to bring lists of all updated medications/supplements to each point of care.

The idea is to “get patients thinking in terms of becoming the victim of too many medications,” James says. “Ask questions when you need answers.”

Many doctors have limited time with patients these days, so advocacy is crucial. “If there’s an adult child or home-health nurse in the picture, they should review the medication list at least twice a year with the patient’s primary care physician,” says James. “Too often, if a doctor didn’t write a prescription on the list, he or she won’t mess with it. So we hope a pharmacist might catch the potential interaction.”

Erickson-Ebben’s family specifically chose to work with one hospital system, hoping there would be good coordination between doctors. But that didn’t happen. “The doctors didn’t always communicate well with each other,” says Erickson-Ebben. ”We found that each specialist was focused on their specialty only.”

This is part of the current gap in care, one that James hopes to begin resolving with the new AMA policy. In the end, he says, the current system relies too much on the “I hope this will work,” approach. “We need to go beyond the resolution and add in an educational approach, too.”

The new AMA policy is a good first step on the road to improving health care for seniors, and James hopes to keep moving the needle. “There’s universal agreement that there’s a problem,” he says. “There’s not yet a universal agreement on the approach.”

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October 10, 2022
U.S. risks prolonging pandemic if it doesn’t back WTO push to get vaccines and treatments to lower-income countries, lawmakers warn

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The U.S. is at risk of prolonging the COVID pandemic if it fails to back an initiative that aims to get vaccines, diagnostics and treatments to lower-income countries, a congressional group has told President Joe Biden.

In a letter to Biden from the group led by Earl Blumenauer, a Democrat from Oregon, the group urged him to back the World Trade Organization’s agreement in June to ease exports of lifesaving therapies.

“With more than 600 million shots in arms, 21,500 free testing sites, the ability to order at-home tests for free, and more treatments available now than at any point in the pandemic, the outlook in the United States is better than ever. Unfortunately, however, the prospect for many low-income countries is not so positive — putting the United States’ own success in jeopardy,” the lawmakers wrote.

The letter was sent ahead of a meeting of the WTO council for trade-related aspects of IP rights that is due to kick off Thursday.

The group noted that lower-income countries are facing a higher risk of severe illness, hospitalization and death as only a small percentage of their populations are vaccinated. Just 19% of people in those countries are vaccinated, compared with about 75% in high-income countries, according to the Multilateral Leaders Taskforce on COVID-19, a joint initiative of the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the World Health Organization and the WTO.

U.S. known cases of COVID are continuing to ease and now stand at their lowest level since late April, although the true tally is likely higher given how many people are testing at home, where the data are not being collected.

The daily average for new cases stood at 43,149 on Wednesday, according to a New York Times tracker, down 23% from two weeks ago. Cases are rising in most northeastern states by 10% of more, while cases in the western states Montana, Washington and Oregon are rising.

The daily average for hospitalizations was down 11% at 27,184, while the daily average for deaths is down 8% to 391.

The new bivalent vaccine might be the first step in developing annual Covid shots, which could follow a similar process to the one used to update flu vaccines every year. Here’s what that process looks like, and why applying it to Covid could be challenging. Illustration: Ryan Trefes

Coronavirus Update: MarketWatch’s daily roundup has been curating and reporting all the latest developments every weekday since the coronavirus pandemic began

Other COVID-19 news you should know about:

• China’s huge Xinjiang region has been hit with sweeping COVID travel restrictions ahead of a key Communist Party congress later this month, the Associated Press reported. Trains and buses in and out of the region of 22 million people have been suspended, and passenger numbers on flights have been reduced to 75% of capacity in recent days, according to Chinese media reports. The region is home to minorities who have been forced into prison-like re-education centers to force them to renounce their religion, typically Islam, and allegedly subjected to human-rights abuses.

• Five current or former Internal Revenue Service workers have been charged with fraud for illegally getting money from federal COVID-19 relief programs and using a total of $1 million for luxury items and personal trips, prosecutors said, the AP reported. The U.S. attorney’s office in Memphis said Tuesday that the five have been charged with wire fraud after they filed fake applications for the Paycheck Protection Program and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program, which were part of a federal stimulus package tied to the pandemic response in 2020.

• Peloton Interactive Inc.
PTON,
+3.84%
said it plans to cut about 500 jobs, roughly 12% of its remaining workforce, in the company’s fourth round of layoffs this year as the connected fitness-equipment maker tries to reverse mounting losses, the Wall Street Journal reported. After enjoying a strong run early on in the pandemic, Peloton has struggled since the start of the U.S. recovery, and CEO Barry McCarthy, who took over in February, said he is giving the unprofitable company another six months or so to significantly turn itself around and, if it fails, Peloton likely isn’t viable as a stand-alone company.

Don’t miss: Peloton CEO says ‘naysayers’ are looking at the company’s $1.2 billion quarterly loss all wrong.

Here’s what the numbers say:

The global tally of confirmed cases of COVID-19 topped 619.9 million on Wednesday, while the death toll rose above 6.55 million, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University.

The U.S. leads the world with 96.6 million cases and 1,061,490 fatalities.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s tracker shows that 225.3 million people living in the U.S., equal to 67.9% of the total population, are fully vaccinated, meaning they have had their primary shots. Just 109.9 million have had a booster, equal to 48.8% of the vaccinated population, and 23.9 million of those who are eligible for a second booster have had one, equal to 36.6% of those who received a first booster.

Some 7.6 million people have had a shot of one of the new bivalent boosters that target the new omicron subvariants that have become dominant around the world.

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October 6, 2022