New research from Michigan State University used health data from the initial 1918 influenza spike to provide insights to what pandemic reemergence may look like for our future.
FDA authorizes new Eli Lilly monoclonal antibody duo
From CNN Health’s Maggie Fox
In this file photo, an employee at Eli Lilly works on an antibody treatment for Covid-19. Source: Eli Lilly
The US Food and Drug Administration has granted emergency use authorization to a new version of Eli Lilly and Co’s antibody treatment for coronavirus that adds a second monoclonal antibody to one already authorized, the company said Tuesday.
The new treatment adds etesevimab or LY-CoV016 to the already authorized bamlanivimab or LY-CoV555 to make a double-antibody version – one that might be more protective, the company says. Rival Regeneron has a dual antibody-cocktail on the market already.
Germany edges closer to coronavirus goal but variants pose a new threat
From CNN s Claudia Otto in Berlin
A medical assistant prepares a rapid antigen Covid-19 test at the Koeln Messe trade fair grounds on February 8 in Cologne, Germany. Andreas Rentz/Getty Images
Germany s seven-day Covid-19 case incidence rate has dropped below 100 for the first time in three months, according to its infectious disease agency a key metric in the country s fight against the pandemic.
That means in the past week, the Robert Koch Institute only reported 72.8 infections per 100,000 residents.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has consistently told the public the goal is to push infections under the rate of 50 cases per 100,000 residents, in order to start reopening the country.
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Shortages of many essential drugs amid the COVID-19 crisis reveal serious vulnerabilities in the systems for supplying and distributing pharmaceuticals in the United States, according to a new report led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
In the report, The Pandemic and the Supply Chain, the researchers identify multiple problems in the drug supply chain, and then recommend specific policy actions that the Food and Drug Administration and Congress could take to reduce current drug shortages and prevent future shortages creating incentives for more U.S.-based production of essential pharmaceuticals, for example.
When he was volunteering as a medical translator at New York’s community-organised COVID-19 Bengali hotline during the spring lockdown last year, Lala Tanmoy Das received a call from a woman who could not speak English.
“It was from a Bangladeshi woman in her 50s. She displayed shortness of breath, was profusely sweating and having chest pain, radiating to the jaw and arm,” says Das, 31, who as an MD-PhD student immediately recognised that her condition was critical.
“In medical terms, we would translate this as experiencing a heart attack.”
While trying to keep the caller calm, Das urged her to call the emergency services. His job as a volunteer for the COVID hotline was only to give general advice about the pandemic.