Citizen Cartwright

More hope than hype for Gilead drug remdesivir to fight coronavirus?

Concerns about leaks led Dr. Anthony Fauci to reveal on Wednesday in the Oval Office new data on Gilead Sciences' experimental drug remdesivir, he said in an interview with Reuters.

 

Fauci’s announcement about the first in a scientifically rigorous clinical trial to show benefit in treating the coronavirus stirred concerns among scientists that the Trump administration was raising hopes about a treatment before sharing the full data with researchers.

 

Some scientists pointed to President Trump’s repeated endorsements of malaria drug hydroxychloroquine as a treatment, with no evidence that it works.

A statement released after Fauci spoke, from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said patients given remdesivir recovered faster than similar patients who got a placebo.

 

The trial also came close to showing the drug helped people survive the disease, but the data fell just short of being statistically significant.

 

“I want to see the full data. I want to understand the statistics. I want to understand the benefit and risk. I want to understand the structure of the study, and all of it,” says Dr. Steven Nissen, chief academic officer at the Cleveland Clinic.

“Am I encouraged from what I’ve heard? Yes, I’m encouraged. But I want to get a full understanding of what happened here, and not get it via a photo opportunity from the Oval Office.”

 

A separate study of remdesivir, published on Wednesday in The Lancet, found no benefit from the drug, compared with a placebo.

 

The results are hard to interpret, says The New York Times, because the study was smaller than planned — enrolling 236 patients instead of the 453 that had been expected because there were too few severely ill patients in China at the time.

 

Dr. Eric Peterson, a clinical trials expert at Duke University, says that with too few patients, “all you can say is it doesn’t seem to work in this population.” If there had been a big effect of the drug, he said, that would have been seen.

Also in the news

European economy suffers biggest hit on record amid coronavirus pandemic

 

U.S. economy contracted in first quarter at sharpest pace since Great Recession, Commerce Department reports

 

Court upholds Trump coronavirus immigration ban

 

Shifting tone, McConnell says he’s open to state aid in next virus relief package

 

Lawmakers have made hundreds of stock transactions during coronavirus pandemic, watchdog says

 

U.S. coronavirus death toll is far higher than reported, CDC data suggest

NIH launches $500 million contest to produce best coronavirus test

 

Analysis: Obamacare may help many laid-off people get health insurance

 

Study: Loss of smell may signal a milder case of coronavirus and help indicate who needs to be hospitalized

 

In rare cases, coronavirus may be causing Kawasaki disease, a severe heart condition in children

 

E-cigarettes as bad for arteries as traditional cigarettes, study finds

 

Replace old carpet to shield your kids from harmful chemicals known as PFAS, researchers say

As economies reopen, each of us will need to make our own risk assessment

"When and how to reopen has become a matter of intense debate around the world, perhaps no more so than in the United States,” says The Associated Press. "Some states there have started lifting their coronavirus restrictions piecemeal and according to their own, often arbitrary, timetables, leaving Americans to make their own decisions about what they should and should not do to protect their health, their livelihoods and their neighbors."

“There will never be a perfect amount of protection,” says Josh Santarpia, a microbiology expert at the University of Nebraska Medical Center who's studying the coronavirus. “It’s a personal risk assessment. Everybody has to decide, person by person, what risk they’re willing to tolerate.”

 

An article in The Atlantic focusing on the reopening in Europe says, "millions of people will have to make millions of small and large decisions about how to go about their daily life — balancing their own risk tolerance, mental health, and need for income.”

“It’s really a terrible moral choice,” says Boris Cyrulnik, a French psychologist and neurologist. “Freedom will lead to death, while constriction and denying people their freedom will stave off death but will bring economic ruin.”

 

I readily confess that I find this anxiety-producing.

 

There still is so much we don’t know about this virus. Asymptomatic transmission. The possibility that recovered patients can catch it again. Atypical symptoms and dangers such as blood clots and low oxygen levels.

 

Then there’s the complication that this medical issue has become politicized.

 

As you know, I write this blog because I’m not a fan of gaping unknowns. But every decision we make in this life is based on uncertainty. In this case, the uncertainties are just greater and the stakes higher.

 

Let’s have compassion for each other as we do the best we can.

 

This morning, I pass along to you what Christopher Robin told Pooh: “You’re braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.”

Also in the news

Coronavirus cases exceed 1 million in U.S., about a third of known cases worldwide

 

House reverses decision, won’t return to Washington next week over coronavirus concerns

 

Democrat Kweisi Mfume wins special election to return to his old House seat, filling remainder of term of Elijah Cummings

 

Warren, Ocasio-Cortez want to stop predatory mergers by ‘giant corporations, private equity vultures’ during pandemic

 

Trump uses Defense Production Act to order meat processing plants to continue operating

 

Biden wins Ohio mail-in primary delayed by coronavirus

 

Sanders' campaign alumni now backing Biden with new super PAC

 

Hillary Clinton endorses Biden in appearance with him at virtual women’s town hall

 

Michigan Rep. Justin Amash launches exploratory committee to seek Libertarian Party’s presidential nomination

 

CDC recommends social distancing to protect pets after some test positive for coronavirus

Study: Virus affecting honey bees appears to have evolved way to spread to new hives

Five weapons needed to defeat coronavirus, says doctor who headed World Bank

Evidence from countries around the world “strongly suggests” that only a full five-part response of social distancing, contact tracing, testing, isolation and treatment are capable of stopping the coronavirus, writes Jim Yong Kim in The New Yorker.

"Without a durable system in place, we may find ourselves trapped in a cycle of lockdown and stimulus, waiting and hoping, with no end in sight,” he says.

 

China, South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong have gained control over the virus using these five weapons, he says.

 

"America’s passivity has been puzzling and unworthy of the best episodes in our history,” says Kim, whose family immigrated to the United States from South Korea when he was five. "The time has come for us to get into the fight. It’s not too late: we can still mobilize and start hunting down the virus. What’s needed is a decisive investment in a public-health initiative big enough to meet the challenge."

Amid economic and political arguments for reopening economies, why should we pay attention to Kim?

My life experience tells me that paying attention to experts pays off. So what are Kim’s bona fides?

 

 "I’ve been fighting pandemics for most of my adult life,” Kim says. 

When he was 27, Kim was a cofounder of Partners in Health, which provided medical care to poor regions around the world. He taught at Harvard Medical School from 1993 to 2009; from 2003 to 2004, he was an adviser to the director-general of the World Health Organization and director of its department of HIV/AIDS from 2004 to 2005. In 2009, he became president of Dartmouth College. He was president of the World Bank from 2012 to 2019, where, he says, he dealt with Ebola in West Africa.

Also in the news

NYTimes: Europe’s online privacy law hasn’t shown its teeth, frustrating advocates

 

House Democrats to move ahead on proxy voting over GOP resistance

Supreme Court rules 8-1 that federal government must pay insurers $12 billion owed them under Obamacare

 

Supreme Court sidesteps major gun rights ruling but other cases loom

 

Judge sides with tribal nations in bid to keep Alaska Native corporations from getting coronavirus relief funding

 

Federal Reserve expands lending to more cities, counties

 

Pandemic Response Accountability Committee names veteran inspector general Robert Westbrooks as its chief

 

New York cancels Democratic presidential primary in move opposed by Sanders campaign, supporters

 

ProPublica digital event with former Medicare chief Andy Slavitt answers questions on reopening America

 

Vox’s Ezra Klein talks to Bill Gates about his vision for life beyond coronavirus

 

Analysis: Deaths soared in U.S. in early weeks of pandemic, far exceeding number attributed to coronavirus

 

Key dates for payments to people who haven’t received $1,200 stimulus checks

KHN: Wealthy hospitals competing against near-insolvent ones for same limited pots of financial relief

 

KHN: Health insurers prosper as coronavirus deflates demand for elective treatments

 

KHN: Widely used surgical masks putting healthcare workers at serious risk

 

There aren't enough coronavirus test kits to safely reopen America, experts say

 

Saliva-based coronavirus test might be alternative to deep nasal swab

 

FDA warns of bogus claims from some companies selling hand sanitizers

 

FDA bans products that help kids hide their vape use from parents, teachers

What can we learn from a meat tweet?

My thanks to the reader who alerted me to the Twitter feed of Steak-umm.

 

When I googled it, I discovered that first, Steak-umm really is a meat company (founded by the same guy who invented Popcorn Chicken, according to Wikipedia). Second, its tweets have gotten attention from The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, The Washington Post, Fast Company and others.

 

“The decades-old maker of thin-sliced frozen beef used in cheesesteak sandwiches has garnered considerable attention on social media during the coronavirus crisis with a Twitter thread warning people to question their news sources amid a torrent of misinformation about the virus,” says the WSJ.

 

"It’s only natural to seek light in such dark days. Less natural is that illumination might be found in the social media feed of a frozen-meat company,” says the Post. "Yet many have turned to the Steak-umm Twitter feed as a guiding voice during this pandemic as it tackles issues like misinformation, partisan divides and the importance of science.”

 

“Steak-umm” might just represent the next mutation in Brand Twitter, an account that has captured the attention of the masses by preaching the value of facts over misinformation,” says Forbes. "In order to shift as many slimy slices of frozen flesh off the shelves as possible, Steak-umm has assumed the form of a responsible voice during chaotic times.”

 

Umm. Something to chew over lol.

Also in the news

Many coronavirus failures combined in Italy’s Lombardy region

 

Some of the countries, U.S. states that are starting to ease coronavirus lockdown restrictions

 

As more states push to reopen their economies, many fall short on federal mandate for contact tracing

 

World Health Organization: 'No evidence' people who’ve had coronavirus are protected from getting it again

 

Small Business Administration to cap how much each bank can lend under emergency coronavirus program

FDA warns against treating coronavirus with chloroquine, hydroxychloroquine

 

FTC warns 10 companies about coronavirus-related health, business claims

Your phone soon to be able to alert you if you've come in close contact with someone tested positive for coronavirus

 

CDC adds 6 new possible coronavirus symptoms

 

Seniors with coronavirus may have unusual symptoms, doctors say

 

Young and middle-aged people, barely sick with coronavirus, are dying from strokes

 

Fact check: Are foot sores a new symptom of coronavirus? It's too soon to say.

 

Coronavirus ‘illustrates a virulent inequality,’ says Thomas Piketty (who has a new book out)

 

AP: Out of coronavirus pandemic crisis, what could a new New Deal look like?

Health equity and the Navajo Nation, where it can be hard to wash your hands

Let’s take a more in-depth look at an NBC News item I ran in Thursday’s “Also in the news” section, saying the Navajo Nation has the third highest coronavirus infection rate in the United States, after New York and New Jersey.

 

As of April 20, 44 people had died from the virus, more than in 14 other states.

 

The Navajo Nation is the second-largest tribal group in the United States, with 332,000 people, according to the last census. But unemployment is typically about 50 percent, and the Nation is a food desert with only 13 grocery stores for 180,000 people. 

 

A third of people don't have running water or electricity. They rely on unregulated wells and springs – which can be unsafe as many groundwater sources are contaminated by some 523 abandoned uranium mines – or travel up to 40 miles to replenish tanks and buy bottled water to meet basic needs like drinking, cooking and bathing.

 

The limited access to clean running water has made following coronavirus prevention guidelines such as frequent hand-washing a challenge. Many government water distribution points have closed and others have cut their hours to comply with the current coronavirus stay-at-home order.

 

"You're telling people, 'Wash your hands for 20 seconds multiple times a day,' and they don't have running water,” says Dr. Loretta Christensen, chief medical officer for the Navajo Nation at the federal government's Indian Health Service. "Or you're saying, 'Go buy groceries for two or three weeks and shelter in place and don't come out,' but people can't afford groceries for two or three weeks. So it's just a setup for frustration and concern by the population here." 

 

There are just 12 health care facilities across the Nation’s 27,000 square miles in Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. Yet the coronavirus pandemic presents particular risks to the Navajo – and other tribal nations – as rates of cancer, heart and respiratory diseases, and diabetes are comparatively higher than in non-Native populations, even as tribal health services have been underfunded for decades.

 

"Our federal government, since treaties were signed in the late 19th and early 20th century, has broken promise after promise after promise,” says Allison Barlow, director of the Center for American Indian Health, or CAIH, at Johns Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of Public Health. "And what we're seeing today is the accumulation of those broken promises and where it has left people.”

 

“There has been chronic underfunding of the health systems and infrastructure, from electricity to plumbing to water supplies. All of these things are inflaming the COVID epidemic right now,” Barlow says.

 

On April 16, the Nation made what NBC News says is the "unprecedented move" of putting out a public call for donations, asking for money as well as supplies like N95 masks, hand sanitizer and thermometers for health care workers and the community. 

 

My thanks to the reader who alerted me that seven doctors and 14 nurses from UC San Francisco headed on Wednesday to Arizona and New Mexico to volunteer for a month to help patients in the Navajo Nation.

Also in the news

In win for Trump, Supreme Court makes deporting immigrants for crimes easier

House passes $484 billion coronavirus bill for small businesses, hospitals, testing on 388-5 vote

 

House creates new select coronavirus oversight committee over Republican objections

 

Reuters analysis: Some states’ small businesses moved quickly to get loans

 

Weekly unemployment claim filings hit 4.4 million, bringing 5-week total to more than 26 million

 

State-by-state comparison of coronavirus death rates

 

AP: Coronavirus pandemic shakes the conceit of ‘American exceptionalism’

 

No evidence of pets spreading coronavirus to people, but a few cases where animals likely got the virus from humans