By Robin Foster and E.J. Mundell
HealthDay Reporters

THURSDAY, Sept. 17, 2020 (Healthday News) — The details of a plan to rapidly deliver a future coronavirus vaccine to Americans were unveiled by federal officials on Wednesday.

Two of the key parts of the plan are to begin distributing a vaccine with 24 hours of any approval or emergency authorization and offering the vaccine for free, The New York Times reported.

Officials from Operation Warp Speed — the multiagency effort to quickly vaccinate Americans against coronavirus — also said the timing of a vaccine was still unclear, the Times reported. That despite repeated statements from President Donald Trump that a shot could be ready before the election on Nov. 3.

“We’re dealing in a world of great uncertainty. We don’t know the timing of when we’ll have a vaccine, we don’t know the quantities, we don’t know the efficacy of those vaccines,” Paul Mango, the deputy chief of staff for policy at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, told the Times. “This is a really quite extraordinary, logistically complex undertaking, and a lot of uncertainties right now. I think the message we want you to leave with is, we are prepared for all of those uncertainties.”

Who will get the vaccine first? Initial distribution of a vaccine, possibly on an emergency basis, would to a limited group of high-priority people, such as health care workers, in the final three months of this year and into next year, the Times reported. The Department of Defense is providing logistical support for shipping and storing the vaccine, and for keeping track of who has gotten a vaccine and whether they got the full two doses, the newspaper said.

To achieve this, existing databases would be linked up so that, for example, a patient who received a vaccine at a public health center in January could go to a CVS pharmacy 28 days later in another state and be assured of getting the second dose of the right vaccine, the Times reported.

Right now, three drug makers are testing vaccine candidates in late-stage trials in the United States. One of those companies, Pfizer, has said that it could apply for emergency authorization as early as October, while the other two, Moderna and AstraZeneca, have said they hope to have something before the end of the year.

In a sign that the Pfizer vaccine trials are moving along smoothly, German pharmaceutical company BioNTech, which is developing a coronavirus vaccine with Pfizer, announced Thursday it was buying a new production plant so it can ramp up production of a COVID-19 vaccine when needed, CNN reported.

The vaccine plant in Marburg, Germany, would produce tens of millions more vaccine doses a month — pending regulatory approval, CNN reported. The plant should be up and running by the first half of 2021, BioNTech said in a statement, and the company will retain a highly skilled workforce of 300 employees following the transfer of the plant from Novartis later this year.

“In full production operations the production plant will increase BioNTech’s capacity to produce vaccines by about 750 million doses per year or more than 60 million doses per month,” BioNTech said.

New Drug May Help Prevent Severe COVID

A single infusion of an experimental drug dramatically lowers levels of coronavirus in the bodies of newly infected patients and cuts their chances of hospitalization, the drug’s maker reported Wednesday.

Eli Lilly’s announcement did not include detailed data and hasn’t been peer-reviewed or published yet, the Times reported.

The news comes from interim results of a trial sponsored by Eli Lilly and the U.S. National Institutes of Health. NIH officials would not comment on the announcement until they have seen more detailed data from the trial, the Times reported.

How does the drug work its magic? It is a monoclonal antibody, a manmade copy of an antibody produced by a patient who recovered from COVID-19, the Times reported. Scientists around the world have high hopes that that monoclonal antibodies will prove to be powerful coronavirus treatments, but they come with a caveat: They are difficult to manufacture, and would take time to produce, the Times reported.

In the trial, 452 newly diagnosed COVID patients received the monoclonal antibody or a placebo infusion. Some 1.7 percent of those who got the drug were hospitalized, compared with 6 percent of those who received a placebo — a 72 percent reduction in risk, Eli Lilly said.

At the same time, blood levels of the coronavirus plummeted among those who received the drug, and their symptoms were fewer and milder, the Times reported.

This is the first treatment aimed at patients who are not already seriously ill and hospitalized, the newspaper added.

Dr. Myron Cohen, director of the Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, told the Times he was impressed by the findings.

“It’s exciting,” said Cohen, who was not involved in the study. The trial appears to be rigorous, and the results are “really compelling,” he added. Other monoclonal antibody drugs to combat the coronavirus are in development, he noted.

“This is the opening of a door,” Cohen said.

Most Americans doubt Trump’s vaccine comments

In a sign that Americans are becoming more wary about the safety of a new coronavirus vaccine, a new poll shows a majority of adults don’t trust what President Donald Trump has said on vaccine development.

More than half (52%) of adults said they don’t trust the president’s vaccine comments, the NBC News/Survey Monkey poll found, while just 26% say they do. Twenty percent said they were “not aware” whether they trust what the president has said about a vaccine, NBC News reported.

Those polled were also more skeptical about whether they or their families would get a government-approved coronavirus vaccine if one became widely available, NBC News reported.

The poll’s latest data show that just 39% said they would get it, 23% said they wouldn’t and 36% say they weren’t sure. Just a month ago, 44% of Americans said they would get a government-approved vaccine, 22% said they wouldn’t, and 32% said they weren’t sure.

The highest level of confidence in a coronavirus vaccine came during the week of Aug. 17 to Aug. 23, when 45% polled said they would get a vaccine.

Despite public hesitancy, President Trump has promised a “safe and effective vaccine this year,” and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has advised states to prepare for “large-scale” vaccine distribution by Nov. 1.

Public health experts have questioned that aggressive timeline. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious diseases expert, has said that he feels “cautiously optimistic” that a safe and effective vaccine would be found by the end of the year but that doing so by Nov. 3 was “unlikely,” NBC News reported.

Cases keep mounting

By Thursday, the U.S. coronavirus case count passed 6.6 million as the death toll passed 196,600, according to a Times tally.

According to the same tally, the top five states in coronavirus cases as of Thursday were: California with nearly 773,000; Texas with more than 706,000; Florida with over 671,000; New York with more than 451,000; and Georgia with over 282,000.

Curbing the spread of the coronavirus in the rest of the world remains challenging.

By Thursday, India’s coronavirus case count had passed 5.1 million, just one month after hitting the 3 million mark, the Times reported.

More than 83,000 coronavirus patients have died in India, but when measured as a proportion of the population, the country has had far fewer deaths than many others. Doctors say this reflects India’s younger and leaner population.

The country’s public health system is severely strained, and some sick patients cannot find hospital beds, the newspaper said. Only the United States has more coronavirus cases.

Meanwhile, Brazil posted over 4.4 million cases and over 134,000 deaths as of Thursday, the Times tally showed.

Cases are also spiking in Russia: The country’s coronavirus case count has passed 1 million, the Times reported. As of Thursday, the death toll in Russia was 18,996.

Worldwide, the number of reported infections passed 29.8 million on Thursday, with nearly 941,000 deaths, according to the Hopkins tally.

More information: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on the new coronavirus.

SOURCES: The New York Times; CNN; Associated Press;

Copyright © 2020 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

By Robin Foster and E.J. Mundell
HealthDay Reporters

THURSDAY, Aug. 27, 2020 (HealthDay News) — The first rapid coronavirus test that doesn’t need any special computer equipment to produce results was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday.

Made by Abbott Laboratories, the 15-minute test will sell for $5, giving it an edge over similar tests that need to be popped into a small machine, the Associated Press reported. No larger than a credit card, the Abbott test is based on the same technology used to test for the flu, strep throat and other infections.

BinaxNOW is the fourth rapid test in the United States that detects COVID-19 antigens, proteins found on the surface of the coronavirus, rather than the virus itself, the AP reported. It’s considered a faster, but less precise, screening method.

Abbott’s entry into the rapid COVID-19 test market offers yet another option to expand testing, the APreported. The FDA also recently gave its blessing to a saliva test from Yale University that bypasses some of the supplies that have led to testing bottlenecks, the wire service said. Neither test can be performed at home.

But several companies are developing rapid at-home tests, though none have yet won FDA approval, the APreported. Abbott’s new test still requires a nasal swab be taken by a health worker, like most older coronavirus tests. The Yale saliva test eliminates the need for a swab, but can only be run at high-grade laboratories.

Roughly 690,000 Americans are now being tested per day, down from a peak of 850,000 daily tests late last month, the AP reported. But many public health experts believe the country will soon need to test vastly more people as schools reopen and the flu season arrives.

Since the start of the pandemic, nasal swab tests that are sent to a lab have been the standard for COVID-19 screening. While considered highly accurate, the tests rely on expensive, specialized machines and chemicals. Shortages of those supplies have led to repeated delays in reporting results, the AP reported.

“Those [rapid] screening tests are what we need in schools, workplaces and nursing homes in order to catch asymptomatic spreaders,” Dr. Jonathan Quick, of wire service. The nonprofit group has called for the United States to conduct about 4 millions per day by October, mostly rapid, point-of-care tests.

Thousands of cases reported on college campuses

More testing could not come soon enough: Just weeks after colleges across the United States began to reopen their campuses for the fall semester, thousands of coronavirus infections are cropping up in students and staff alike.

More than 1,500 American colleges and universities were tallied in The New York Times survey. That included every four-year public institution, every private college that competes in NCAA sports and others that identified cases. The case total: At least 26,000 cases and 64 deaths have been reported since the pandemic began, the Times reported.

The trend is unfolding everywhere. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill sent most undergraduates home after COVID-19 clusters popped up in campus housing. In-person classes were delayed at Notre Dame as students tested positive by the hundreds. Clemson, Baylor, Louisville and dozens of other Division I universities have confirmed COVID-19 cases in their athletic departments. And aggressive testing of students moving into dorms turned up scores of cases at Iowa State, the Times reported.

Meanwhile, the potential of convalescent plasma as a treatment for severe COVID-19 was still unclear Tuesday, as the World Health Organization cautioned the therapy remains experimental and American scientists challenged a key statistic cited by U.S. officials as grounds for emergency approval of the treatment.

In announcing the approval this week, President Donald Trump and two of his top health officials stirred controversy when they used the same statistic — that the treatment had reduced deaths by 35 percent, the Times reported.

Dr. Stephen Hahn, the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, went so far as to say that 35 out of 100 COVID-19 patients “would have been saved because of the administration of plasma.”

Levels of risk

But many scientists, including one researcher from the Mayo Clinic study from which the statistic was supposedly gleaned, said Monday they could not ascertain where the number came from, and that Hahn had appeared to overstate the treatment’s benefits, the Times reported.

“Do I know where the 35 percent comes from?” said Dr. Arturo Casadevall, one of the May Clinic study’s main authors who hails from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. “No.”

The actual data from the Mayo Clinic study shows that, among a group of more than 35,000 patients, when plasma was given within three day of diagnosis, the death rate was about 22 percent, compared with 27 percent when it was given four or more days after diagnosis, the Times reported.

But Hahn seemed to have instead mixed up absolute risk and relative risk in a small subgroup of patients in the study, the Washington Post reported.

On Monday night, Hahn acknowledged in a tweet that he had misspoken during the Sunday news briefing about the findings of the plasma study.

“I have been criticized for remarks I made Sunday night about the benefits of convalescent plasma. The criticism is entirely justified,” Hahn wrote. “What I should have said better is that the data show a relative risk reduction, not an absolute risk reduction.”

What is the actual benefit? Eric Topol, director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute, said on Twitter Monday that data gathered on the use of plasma in COVID-19 patients indicates that 3 people out of 100 would be saved at seven days of treatment and 5 at 30 days not 35.

Parents overwhelmed as school year starts

Meanwhile, a new survey shows most parents are feeling overwhelmed and abandoned as the school year starts.

Just 1 in 7 parents said their children would be returning to school full time this fall, and most children need help with remote schooling, Times survey released recently found. Yet, 4 in 5 parents said they would have no help in that endeavor, whether from relatives, neighbors, nannies or tutors. As well, more than half of parents said they will be taking on this burden while still holding down paid jobs.

Of course, when both parents are wage earners who need to work outside the home, they cannot be in two places at once. But three-fourths of these parents said they will be overseeing their children’s education, and nearly half plan to handle child care, according to the survey of more than 1,000 parents polled between Aug. 4 and Aug. 8.

Of the parents who are both working remotely during the pandemic, 80 percent will also handle child care and education, the survey showed. One in five are considering hiring a private teacher or tutor to help with remote learning.

“All the choices stink,” Kate Averett, a sociologist at the University at Albany in New York who has been interviewing parents since the spring, told the Times. “There is a lot of stress, a lot of anxiety. Parents tell me about not being able to sleep because they’re so anxious, or tell me they’ve been crying a lot. There’s been a lot of actual crying during interviews.”

By Thursday, the U.S. coronavirus case count passed 5.8 million as the death toll passed 179,000, according to a Times tally.

According to the same tally, the top five states in coronavirus cases as of Thursday were: California with more than 687,000; Texas with more than 619,800; Florida with more than 608,700; New York with over 436,000; and Georgia with more than 244,000.

Nations grapple with pandemic

Elsewhere in the world, the situation remains challenging.

India has passed Britain to have the fourth-highest death toll in the world from the coronavirus, after the United States, Brazil and Mexico, the Post reported.

By Thursday, India had more than 3.3 million confirmed cases of the infection and over 60,000 deaths, a John Hopkins tally shows. Britain remains the worst-hit country in Europe, the Post reported.

Brazil is also a hotspot in the coronavirus pandemic, with over 3.7 million confirmed infections by Thursday, according to the Hopkins tally. It has the second-highest number of cases, behind only the United States.

Cases are also spiking in Russia: As of Wednesday, that country reported the world’s fourth-highest number of COVID-19 cases, at over 972,700, the Hopkins tally showed.

Even New Zealand, a country that hadn’t seen a new coronavirus case in 100 days, hasn’t been spared.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has extended a lockdown in Auckland until Sunday night, the Times reported. The restrictions had been set to expire Wednesday, but Ardern said the extra time was necessary to ensure that a virus cluster of more than 100 cases in Auckland had been brought under control. Arden also said masks were now mandatory on public transportation nationwide.

Worldwide, the number of reported infections passed 24.2 million on Thursday, with more than 826,000 deaths, according to the Hopkins tally.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on the new coronavirus.

SOURCES: Associated Press; The New York Times; Washington Post

Copyright © 2020 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

THURSDAY, July 23, 2020 (HealthDay News) — With much of the United States blanketed by a heat wave this week, the American Red Cross offers some survival tips.

Each year, extreme heat kills more than 600 people in the United States. And many others are at risk of heat-related illness, especially adults aged 65 and older and those with chronic medical conditions, the Red Cross noted in a news release.

Electric fans may provide some cooling, but might not provide enough protection when the temperature is in the high 90s. You should take a cool shower or bath, or go to an air-conditioned place to cool off. 

The organization also suggests that you:

• Wear loose-fitting, lightweight and light-colored clothing. Drink plenty of fluids, but avoid drinks with caffeine or alcohol.
• Check on family, friends and neighbors who have no air conditioning, spend much of their time alone, or are likely to be affected by the heat. 
• Never leave children or pets in your vehicle, not even for a minute. The inside temperature of the car can quickly reach 120 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Check your local news for extreme heat alerts and to find cooling shelters in your area. Slow down, stay indoors and avoid strenuous exercise during the hottest part of the day. Postpone outdoor games and activities. Check on animals frequently, and make sure they have plenty of shade and cool water.
• When working in extreme heat, take frequent breaks, monitor the condition of your co-workers, and have someone do the same for you.
•  Keep tabs on those at greatest risk for heat-related illness. Besides the elderly, these include infants and young children, overweight people and those who “overexert” during work or exercise. Also at greater risk are people who are physically ill, especially if they have heart disease or high blood pressure, or take certain medications for depression, insomnia or poor circulation.

The Red Cross advises visiting at-risk adults at least twice a day. Infants and young children need much more frequent monitoring.

If you don’t have air conditioning, seek relief in public facilities that have it. And if you do go to a public facility to stay cool, follow coronavirus pandemic precautions: Wear a cloth face covering and maintain social distancing.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offers more hot weather safety tips.

— Robert Preidt

SOURCE: American Red Cross, news release, July 17, 2020

Copyright © 2020 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

The APWU Health Plan continues to monitor the developments regarding the coronavirus. As we begin to prepare for the 2020 Open Season, the coronavirus is still a priority for the Health Plan. We want to be sensitive to the COVID-19 risks related to travel and social distancing.

Out of an abundance of caution, and as part of our ongoing efforts to protect everyone’s health, the 35th Annual Open Season Seminar will be conducted virtually. Attendees can access their classes online from the safety of their homes.

We are confident that we have the tools and resources that will allow for HPR engagement and learning with Health Plan presenters facilitating live presentations in an online setting.

Registration opens July 7. To see a schedule at a glance and register for the Virtual 35th Annual Open Season Seminar here https://www.apwuhp.com/events/

MONDAY, June 8, 2020 (HealthDay News) — Americans are ready to rip off their face masks and just have a nice dinner in a restaurant, but the best shot at returning to normalcy — vaccines to prevent COVID-19 — will be in clinical trials for months or longer. 

The good news is that there are more than 100 vaccines of varying types and in various stages of development. As of this month, eight of these vaccine candidates were already in early human trials. One research team hopes to have a vaccine available in September. Another is hoping their vaccine will be available by the start of 2021.

Because there are so many vaccine candidates of varying types, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told the Journal of the American Medical Association he’s “cautiously optimistic” that there will be at least one that works against the novel coronavirus. 

“The majority of people make an immune response which clears the virus. If the body is capable of producing an immune response, that’s a pretty good proof of concept to say that you can get an immune response from a vaccine,” Fauci said. 

But, he added, there’s no guarantee. And Fauci said he’s somewhat concerned about how long a vaccine might keep working. Natural immunity to coronaviruses that cause common colds often lasts less than a year, he noted.

Still, Fauci and other experts believe there will ultimately be several vaccines available to combat the novel coronavirus.

“I’m optimistic that we’ll have a lot of vaccines,” Dr. Paul Offit told the Journal of the American Medical Association. He’s director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

Vaccines will likely need to be given in two doses, he said. And, whether or not booster shots will be needed to ensure continued immunity against the virus remains to be seen.

The hurried pace of the research may leave some concerned about the safety of these vaccines.

Dr. Kathryn Edwards, scientific director of the Vanderbilt Vaccine Research Program in Nashville and a fellow with the Infectious Diseases Society of America, said, “We’re working very hard to generate a safe and effective vaccine. Every single vaccine that I recommend is one I would give my children and grandchildren. We may be going fast, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t being meticulous.”

Vaccine testing a rigorous process

Edwards said there are systems in place, along with numerous checks and balances to ensure safety.

Vaccines generally go through lab and animal research, and then three phases of human trials, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Phase 1 trials are typically very small and look mostly for safety. Phase 2 trials are a bit larger and continue to evaluate safety and its effectiveness. Phase 3 trials are much larger, with a placebo group and at least one group receiving the vaccine to better measure how effective a vaccine is.

Here are some of the vaccines currently in human trials:

·         Moderna. This two-dose vaccine is currently in a phase 2 trial with 600 participants, and is scheduled to move to a phase 3 trial with 30,000 participants in July. It’s a type of vaccine called a messenger RNA vaccine. Essentially, it delivers a message to the body on how to make the antibody that can prevent the infection, according to Edwards. If the clinical trials go well, the company hopes to make the vaccine available by the end of 2020 or the start of 2021.

·         University of Oxford/AstraZeneca. This vaccine — a modified virus that can trigger the production of antibodies — is currently in a phase 2 trial with 500 participants. A phase 3 trial with about 30,000 is planned to begin in early summer. Edwards said this vaccine is likely going to be given in a single dose.

·         Pfizer/BioNTech. This partnership is currently testing four vaccines in phase 1 or 2 trials in Germany. Their vaccines are messenger RNA vaccines. Each trial will include about 200 people.

·         Inovio. This company had already been working on a vaccine for MERS (another infection caused by a coronavirus), which allowed them to quickly switch to working on a vaccine for SARS-Cov-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19). Their vaccine is a DNA vaccine (a type of vaccine that contains the DNA coding specifically for making the antibodies against a particular virus), and phase 2 and 3 trials are expected to begin this summer in the United States. Inovio believes it can have 1 million doses by the end of 2020.

There are also a number of other vaccines in upcoming or ongoing phase 1 trials, including vaccine candidates from Johnson & Johnson, Sanofi, Sinovac, CanSino Biologics and a collaboration between the Beijing Institute of Biological Products, the Wuhan Institute of Biological Products and the China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm).

So, if one or more of these vaccines works well and is safe, how can companies or governments quickly ramp up production?

Fauci explained that the government isn’t waiting.

Millions of vaccine doses will be made before testing is complete

“We’re going to start manufacturing doses of vaccine way before we even know that they work, so that by the beginning of 2021, we will have a couple of million doses,” Fauci said. That way, if testing shows a vaccine works, an initial supply will already be available.

Offit noted that producing tens of millions of doses before it’s known if a vaccine works isn’t unprecedented — it was done with the polio vaccine.

He also urged caution. “There’s a lot at stake here. If we rush it, if we put something out there into people’s arms before we know what we need to know — or as much as we can reasonably know, then I think we could do harm,” he said. 

Still, Offit thinks if everyone pays attention to the science, there is “every reason to think that vaccines will be the heroes of this story.” 

What remains to be seen, however, is whether Americans will embrace a new vaccine. 

The most recent poll, published June 2 and conducted by the Washington Post-ABC News, found that roughly 7 in 10 Americans would get a COVID-19 vaccine if immunizations were free and available to everyone.

More information: Learn more about COVID-19 prevention from the World Health Organization. 
SOURCES: Kathryn Edwards, M.D., fellow, Infectious Diseases Society of America, and professor, pediatrics, and scientific director, Vanderbilt Vaccine Research Program, Nashville, Tenn.; June 1, 2020, Journal of the American Medical Association livestream with Paul Offit, M.D.; June 2, 2020, Journal of the American Medical Association livestream with Anthony Fauci, M.D.; June 2, 2020, Washington Post

Copyright © 2020 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

MONDAY, June 1, 2020 (HealthDay News) — As the number of U.S. coronavirus cases neared 1.8 million on Monday, a new poll shows that a majority of Americans still think it’s more important to control the virus’ spread than to restart the economy.

While nearly 6 in 10 Americans say the pandemic has taken a heavy economic toll on their communities, a majority of a divided country still believes that containing COVID-19 infections is paramount, a new Washington Post-ABC News poll shows.

Overall, 57 percent of all Americans and 81 percent of Democrats say trying to control the spread of the coronavirus is most important right now. But only 27 percent of Republicans agree, while 66 percent of them say restarting the economy is more critical. Nearly 6 in 10 independents say their priority is trying to control the virus’s spread, the survey found.

And nearly 7 in 10 Americans say they are worried about the possibility of a second wave of coronavirus infections in the fall, the poll showed.

Even as Americans continue to worry about the spread of COVID-19, protests erupted in cities nationwide over the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police. Those protests could become new “super-spreader” events for coronavirus, public health experts worry.

While the spread of coronavirus has slowed in some of the hardest-hit areas of America, other parts of the country were seeing worrying spikes in cases last week.

New York City, once the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States, is about to ease restrictions after 10 weeks under lockdown, the Post reported.

But even as the New York area began to emerge from strict social distancing measures, other states were seeing jumps in COVID-19 cases, the New York Times reported.

Wisconsin saw its highest single-day increase in both cases and deaths just two weeks after the state’s highest court overturned a stay-at-home order; Alabama, Arkansas, California and North Carolina are seeing some of their highest case numbers and death tallies yet; and metropolitan areas like Fayetteville, Ark.; Yuma, Ariz.; and Roanoke and Charlottesville, Va., may soon see new highs in cases and deaths.

As the U.S. coronavirus death toll passed 104,000 on Monday, jobless numbers released last week show the number of unemployed has now passed 40 million.

Concerns about hydroxychloroquine continue

Meanwhile, safety concerns over a malaria drug that President Donald Trump has touted as a coronavirus treatment prompted the World Health Organization to remove the medication from a global trial of potential COVID-19 therapies last week.

Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the international health agency’s director-general, said that the WHO decided to take a “pause” in testing hydroxychloroquine after a study published recently in The Lancet medical journal found people who took the drug were more likely to die, the Times reported. Several other studies have found the medication has no benefit and could possibly harm COVID-19 patients.

Regardless, Trump has finished taking a two-week course of the malaria drug to guard against COVID-19 infection after two White House staffers tested positive for the coronavirus.

And on Sunday, the White House announced it has sent 2 million doses of hydroxychloroquine to Brazil to battle the spread of coronavirus in that country. Not only that, the two countries are embarking on a joint research effort to study whether the drug is safe and effective for the prevention and early treatment of COVID-19, the Trump administration said.

Disappointing drug trials

Hopes for another drug being tested against coronavirus infection have dimmed, after a major, new study found the drug on its own won’t be enough to significantly curb cases and deaths.

The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that, “given high mortality [of patients] despite the use of remdesivir, it is clear that treatment with an antiviral drug alone is not likely to be sufficient.”

The remdesivir study involved 1,063 COVID-19 patients and was led by Dr. John Beigel and Dr. Clifford Lane at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). The researchers found that the drug, delivered by infusion, did help ease the illness: Patients who got the antiviral recovered after an average of 11 days versus 15 days for those who hadn’t received it.

Patients who were so sick they required supplemental oxygen, but did not need a ventilator to breathe, appeared to benefit most from remdesivir.

But the difference in the overall death rate — 7.1% of patients on the drug vs. 11.9% of those who didn’t get it — did not reach statistical significance, the researchers added.

The study does suggest that early treatment works best. “Our findings highlight the need to identify COVID-19 cases and start antiviral treatment before the pulmonary disease progresses to require mechanical ventilation,” the researchers said.

Early evidence had suggested that remdesivir might help fight coronavirus illness, so the U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave it “emergency use authorization.”

Already, combinations of remdesivir and other drugs are being tried, to see if dual-drug treatments might boost outcomes even more. For example, one federally funded clinical trial is combining remdesivir with a potent anti-inflammatory drug called baricitinib, while a trial from biotech firm CytoDyn is pairing it with an antiviral called leronlimab.

Vaccine efforts continue

Meanwhile, the search for an effective vaccine goes on. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said May 22 it would provide up to $1.2 billion to the drug company AstraZeneca to develop a potential coronavirus vaccine from Oxford University, in England.

The fourth, and largest, vaccine research agreement funds a clinical trial of the potential vaccine in the United States this summer with about 30,000 volunteers, the Times reported.

The goal? To make at least 300 million doses that could be available as early as October, the HHS said in a statement.

However, many experts have said that the earliest an effective, mass-produced vaccine would be available won’t be until sometime next year, and billions of doses would be needed worldwide.

Pharmaceutical giant Merck has also jumped into the fight against the coronavirus, announcing two separate efforts to develop a vaccine and a partnership to develop a promising antiviral drug that can be taken as a pill, the Times reported.

The United States has already agreed to provide up to $483 million to the biotech company Moderna and $500 million to Johnson & Johnson for their vaccine efforts. It is also providing $30 million to a virus vaccine effort led by the French company Sanofi, the Times reported.

According to a Times tally, the top five states in coronavirus cases as of Monday are: New York with more than 375,500; New Jersey with over 160,000; Illinois with over 120,500; California with more than 113,000, and Massachusetts with nearly 97,000.

Nations grapple with pandemic

In Asia, where the coronavirus first struck, several countries are finally returning to a new normal.

In China, 16 new coronavirus cases were reported on Sundaythe country’s highest daily spike in almost three weeks, Newsweek reported.

The National Health Commission (NHC) said all of the new infections were imported cases, with 11 in the Sichuan province. A further three cases were confirmed in Inner Mongolia, while two more were recorded in Guangdong province, Newsweek reported.

Meanwhile, South Korea reported its biggest jump in cases in more than 50 days last week, the AP reported.

The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 67 of the 79 new cases reported were from the Seoul metropolitan area, where about half of South Korea’s 51 million people live. The government has shut public facilities such as parks, museums and state-run theaters in the metropolitan area for the next two weeks, to stem any further spread of the virus.

Elsewhere, the situation remains challenging. On Monday, the United Kingdom’s coronavirus death count neared 38,000, the second highest in the world, according to a Johns Hopkins University tally. Britain has now surpassed Italy, Spain and France for COVID-19 deaths in Europe. With Prime Minister Boris Johnson easing lockdown measures, schools across England will begin reopening Monday amid fierce debate over whether the move is premature, the Post reported.

Brazil is fast becoming the next hotspot in the coronavirus pandemic. By Monday, the South American country had reported over 29,000 deaths and nearly 515,000 confirmed infections, according to the Hopkins tally. Only the United States has more cases. Last week, Trump issued a ban on all foreign travelers from Brazil because of the burgeoning number of COVID-19 cases in that country, CNN reported.

Cases are also spiking wildly in Russia: As of Monday, that country reported the world’s third-highest number of COVID-19 cases, at nearly 415,000, the Hopkins tally showed. 

Worldwide, the number of reported infections passed 6 million on Monday, with over 372,000 deaths, according to the Hopkins tally.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on the new coronavirus.

 SOURCES: New England Journal of Medicine, May 22, 2020; Associated Press; The New York Times; Washington Post; CBS News; NBC News, The LancetNew York City Dept. of Health and Mental Hygeine

Copyright © 2020 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

THURSDAY, May 21, 2020 (HealthDay News) — Lots of TV time, no PE classes, and a fridge full of food: It’s a recipe for weight gain for kids under “stay at home” rules.

But there are ways parents can help them stay healthy, says registered dietitian Audrey Koltun.

“During quarantine, we hear we should try to stay healthy, not overeat, and exercise, but it is easier said than done,” said Koltun, who’s also a diabetes care and education specialist at Cohen Children’s Medical Center in New Hyde Park, N.Y.

When it comes to kids’ diets, having to stay at home might have some advantages, she noted. “Many people are cooking much more than they ever did,” Koltun said, and “this allows more control over caloric intake and possibly healthier options.”

Children just don’t have the same access to fast food or fattening snacks. “The kids that go out to get an 800-calorie smoothie, a 400-calorie iced coffee, or a 500-calorie slice of pizza are not having this now — or not as much,” Koltun said.

But if chips, cookies and other snacks crowd kitchen cupboards, the battle against weight gain can easily be lost, the nutritionist stressed.

“Your kids can only eat what you buy, so if you are buying a year’s worth of snacks, they will eat them all day and night,” she said. While chowing down on unhealthy snacks might seem comforting, “these foods are addicting and hard to stop eating,” Koltun said.

Her advice: “Make a family plan. Plan ahead for meals, plan for exercise, plan for junk food. We need structure.”

Turning quarantine into a goal-setting opportunity for health could be key.

“Have a family meeting to discuss there is going to be a new plan to try to eat healthier and to exercise,” Koltun suggested. “Make a grocery list and plan the meals for the week. Try to be consistent with meal and snack times. Eat at least one meal together. Make a list of snacks: healthy and unhealthy.”

On the healthy snacks list: fruits, vegetables with a dip, guacamole or hummus, nuts, light popcorn, lower-sugar yogurts, yogurt parfaits, homemade smoothies — there are many options, Koltun said.

Letting kids choose those healthy snacks makes it more likely these foods will get eaten, she said. And a total ban on fatty or sugary foods isn’t necessary.

Instead, “have the kids choose what healthy snacks they want in the house and keep these in the front of the refrigerator or cabinet. Limit treats to one salty snack and one sweet snack to have each day, at most,” Koltun said.

As for drinks, “keep sugary drinks out of the house — soda, sweet tea, fruit juice, punch, lemonade, sports drinks,” Koltun said. “Water, seltzer and low-fat/fat-free milk are better choices.”

And don’t forget the other half of the healthy lifestyle mix: exercise.

“For exercise, make a plan to get up and move every day for a minimum commitment of 15 minutes to start, if possible,” Koltun said. “Physical activity should be scheduled. This can be taking a walk, jumping on a trampoline, online videos, going up and down stairs, even dancing.”

More information

There’s more on helping kids eat right and stay slim at the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
— E.J. Mundell

SOURCE: Audrey Koltun, R.D.N., registered dietitian/nutritionist, diabetes care and education specialist, Pediatric Endocrinology, Cohen Children’s Medical Center, New Hyde Park, N.Y.

Copyright © 2020 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

As we work together to slow down the spread of COVID 19, our lives continue to evolve and change in ways we could have never expected. The APWU Health Plan will continue to evaluate coverage enhancements as a result of COVID-19. Because the spread of the virus has slowed down considerably, we are removing the inpatient prior authorization wavier. Initially, the Health Plan wanted to remove this administrative burden as hospitals were overwhelmed. As we get back to the new “normal,” authorizations should be obtained. 

The APWU Health Plan will continue to evaluate benefit enhancements as a result of COVID-19. For the most up-to-date information visit our website at

www.apwuhp.com/coronavirus-outbreak-update/

The Health Plan will:

• Cover telehealth (medical and mental health) visits at no cost* to member when visits are performed through the Health Plan’s telehealth providers:
  • High Option: Medical visits through Amwell are available at amwell.com at no cost* to the member and mental health vists through MDlive are available at www.mdlive/apwu at no cost* to the member
  • Consumer Driven Option: Virtual visits through AmWell, Teladoc, and Doc on Demand are available at myuhc.com at no cost* to the member
• Cover telehealth visits to network providers at no cost* to member when related to COVID-19
• Cover COVID-19 testing at no cost* to the member when testing is prescribed by a clinical professional including antibody testing once it becomes widely available
• Cover health care provider office visits, urgent care center visits and emergency room visits that result in an order for or administration of a diagnostic test for COVID-19 at no cost* to the member**
• Cover in-network inpatient and outpatient care for COVID-19 treatment at no cost* to the member
• Reminder: Members are encouraged to use mail order for maintenance medications which provides a 90-day refill and the delivery is free

*All deductible, coinsurance and copays will be waived
**Your provider should be aware of this Families First Coronavirus Response Act and CDC guideline. If you are charged a copay or coinsurance at the time of your visit, you will be reimbursed by the Health Plan

The Health Plan will:

Cover COVID-19 testing at no cost* to the member when testing is prescribed by a clinical professional

• Cover telehealth visits at no cost* to member when visits are performed through the Health Plan’s telehealth providers:
  • High Option: Visits through Amwell are available at amwell.com at no cost* to member
  • Consumer Driven Option: Virtual visits through AmWell, Teladoc, and Doc on Demand are available at myuhc.com at no cost* to the member
• Cover telehealth visits to network providers at no cost* to member when related to COVID-19
• Waive inpatient prior authorization requirements related to COVID-19
• Reminder: Members are encouraged to use mail order for maintenance medications which provides a 90-day refill and the delivery is free

*All deductible, coinsurance and copays will be waived