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Trump’s Health Nominees Want Covid Vindication. Here’s How Their Critique Has Aged.
The COVID-19 wars are still raging in 2024, and now the COVID-19 contrarians are in charge.
President-elect Donald Trump has rounded out his roster of health agency nominees by picking Jay Bhattacharya, a Stanford University physician and economist who criticized lockdowns, school closures and health agency leadership during the pandemic, to lead the National Institutes of Health.
Bhattacharya joins a cohort of Trump nominees who made claims during the pandemic that were derided by health officials like Anthony Fauci and Francis Collins as they led the COVID-19 response. Those nominees include Marty Makary, a Johns Hopkins surgeon who criticized the Biden administration’s COVID-19 response and is Trump’s choice to lead the Food and Drug Administration.
Trump’s picks speak to a larger sentiment among many Americans that health officials got some of the pandemic response wrong — particularly on school closures and lockdowns.
COVID Vaccine Injury Claims Could Take a Decade to Be Resolved: Report
The U.S. vaccine injury compensation system is grappling with significant challenges in handling claims tied to COVID-19 vaccines. The House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic warns that without major reforms, clearing the backlog in the Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program (CICP) could take almost 10 years, revealing significant system inefficiencies.
The CICP, designed to handle emergencies on a smaller scale, has struggled to adapt to the demands of a global vaccination effort. According to a report from the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, “The current backlog would take nearly a decade to eliminate without accounting for any new claims.”
Critics argue that the program lacks both the capacity and transparency to function effectively. Unlike the better-funded National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, the CICP offers limited benefits, no appeals process and less public accountability.
Five Million Doses of Bird Flu Vaccine Bought by UK to Prepare for Pandemic
The U.K. government has bought more than 5 million doses of bird flu vaccine to fight a potential pandemic as cases among animals increase. The move comes amid an increase in the spread of the virus among birds, according to the U.K. Health Security Agency. However, the jab is only intended for use if the virus were to spread among humans and there is currently no evidence of human-to-human transmission.
Sir Andrew Pollard, director of the Oxford Vaccine Group, University of Oxford, said: “Emergence of a new strain of influenza remains at the top of the list of pandemic threats and so providing resilience against potential risky flu types, like H5, is important for future pandemic and outbreak preparedness.
“H5 is only one of the multiple families of flu viruses that create such a risk, so we should not be complacent. But H5 is the one that we are most concerned about today as a result of the global spread of this virus amongst birds and various mammals, and worryingly across the United States amongst cattle this year. H5 is out there and we need to do all we can to be prepared.”
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Diabetes Advocacy Group Discourages Use of Compounded GLP-1 Drugs
The American Diabetes Association (ADA), a high-profile advocacy group, is warning against widespread use of compounded versions of popular weight loss and diabetes drugs like Wegovy and Zepbound.
The group on Monday released an official guidance statement that recommends doctors avoid prescribing unapproved, off-brand versions of the medicines, which have been so in demand their manufacturers, Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly, have had difficulty keeping up supply.
“We urge health care professionals to consider this guidance statement due to concerns around the safety, quality, and effectiveness of compounded versions of these products,” said Joshua Neumiller, the ADA’s president-elect and a co-author of the statement.
A Twice-Yearly Shot Could Help End AIDS. But Will It Get to Everyone Who Needs It?
It’s been called the closest the world has ever come to a vaccine against HIV.
The twice-yearly shot was 100% effective in preventing HIV infections in a study of women, and results published Wednesday show it worked nearly as well in men.
Drugmaker Gilead said it will allow cheap, generic versions to be sold in 120 poor countries with high HIV rates — mostly in Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Caribbean. But it has excluded nearly all of Latin America, where rates are far lower but increasing, sparking concern the world is missing a critical opportunity to stop the disease.
“This is so far superior to any other prevention method we have, that it’s unprecedented,” said Winnie Byanyima, executive director of UNAIDS. She credited Gilead for developing the drug, but said the world’s ability to stop AIDS hinges on its use in at-risk countries.
Pharma Giants Vie for Oral GLP-1R Approval
The competition to gain approval for the first oral GLP-1R drug for obesity is heating up, with four phase 3 trials currently in progress, according to GlobalData.
Obesity, defined as an excessive accumulation of body fat, has reached epidemic levels. Predictions suggest that by 2030, half of all US adults will be obese, according to the New England Journal of Medicine. This trend presents a lucrative opportunity for drugmakers, particularly in the market for oral GLP-1R products. Jasper Morley, Pharma Analyst at GlobalData, explains the significance: “Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly are leading the charge to expand their GLP-1R portfolios and secure their positions as frontrunners in the oral GLP-1R for obesity category.”
Currently, four innovative GLP-1R drugs for obesity are approved globally, including Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy and Saxenda, Eli Lilly’s Zepbound, and Shanghai Benemae Pharmaceutical’s Yishengtai. However, all these drugs are injectables, which require professional administration. Morley highlights the benefits of oral alternatives: “Oral drugs offer convenience, lower development costs, and simpler marketing.”
