Top Three
FDA Approves First COVID-19 Treatment for Young Children: The FDA granted the first full approval for treating COVID-19 in children aged 28 days and older to Gilead Sciences's drug remdesivir.
"To be eligible for treatment, the FDA said, children must be hospitalized or have mild to moderate Covid-19 and high risk for progressing to severe Covid-19, even if they are not hospitalized."
"More recently, the results have come out -- it was a really landmark paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine -- showing that if you give remdesivir in the first five days, during the acute viral phase, before you wait for the door to close, you could prevent progression by almost 90%. It was 87% in that study. So remdesivir actually can be a very effective antiviral if you give it at the right time in the right patient," said Dr. Daniel Griffin, an instructor in clinical medicine and associate research scientist in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics at Columbia University."
Paxlovid: "The Biden administration is preparing to announce plans this week to make Pfizer's COVID-19 pill available at almost any pharmacy in the U.S. after early shortages," Axios reports.
‘It’s Life or Death’: The Mental Health Crisis Among U.S. Teens: Long and difficult piece in the NYT.
"American adolescence is undergoing a drastic change. Three decades ago, the gravest public health threats to teenagers in the United States came from binge drinking, drunken driving, teenage pregnancy and smoking. These have since fallen sharply, replaced by a new public health concern: soaring rates of mental health disorders."
"In 2019, 13 percent of adolescents reported having a major depressive episode, a 60 percent increase from 2007. Emergency room visits by children and adolescents in that period also rose sharply for anxiety, mood disorders and self-harm. And for people ages 10 to 24, suicide rates, stable from 2000 to 2007, leaped nearly 60 percent by 2018, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention."
"A rise in loneliness is a key factor, experts said. Recent studies have shown that teenagers in the United States and worldwide increasingly report feeling lonely, even in a period when their internet use has exploded."
"Often, she said, online social connections amount to seeing “pictures of people hanging out, flaunting it, as if to say, ‘Hey, I’m very socially connected,’ and ‘Hey, look at you by yourself.’"
Federal
Bipartisan Innovation Act: Via PunchBowl:
"Our main takeaway from conversations with lawmakers and staff from both sides is that everyone wants a deal. There’s not an adversarial tone between Senate Democrats and Republicans closely involved with this bill, at least not right now. Even as leaders negotiate around the motions to instruct, both sides seem more focused on presenting a united front as they enter into talks with the House."
"This is a rare moment. The package falls under the jurisdiction of multiple committees. There are more than 100 conferees combined from both chambers, with tens of billions of dollars at stake amid a frenzy of lobbying activity. The conference negotiations will be a complex process, to say the least."
"The treatment of the NSF was one of the major differences between the House and Senate bills. Differences include how much to funnel to the foundation and what its responsibilities would be. While our sources stressed these differences would be far easier to bridge than the disputes over trade provisions, crucial differences still remain."
White House: Via Stat, "White House’s Jen Psaki offered a binder full of Covid spending details. Taking a peek was a process."
"It was a striking visual for the television cameras. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki took to the lectern, waving a thick, 385-page binder as evidence that contrary to Republicans’ accusations, President Biden had been transparent with Republicans about how his administration had spent billions of dollars to fight Covid-19."
“You can have access to this for a prop if you would like it as well,” Psaki offered to reporters. “We’ll make copies for you.”
"But when STAT took the White House up on the offer, officials refused to make copies of the binder. In fact, it wouldn’t even let STAT take photographs of the contents. Instead, the administration gave this reporter one hour to look through the nearly 400 pages of budget tables and congressional correspondence. White House officials offered the review in a small conference room in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building across the street from the White House, under the supervision of a budget office employee."
Vaccine for Under 5s: Congressman James Clyburn, chairman of select subcommittee on coronavirus crisis, sent a letter to the FDA commissioner requesting a staff briefing by May 9 on status of vaccines for young children.
Covid-19 Research
COVID Fear and COVID Shame: Via Emily Oster.
"What I feel like I have noticed — and I admit to having limited actual data here — is an uptick in cases among people who have been the most cautious over the last two years."
"As this has happened, I am getting anguished messages. Some of what comes through is just continued anger at the insane under-5 vaccination situation. (Latest information: probably June, as the FDA seems to want to wait for Pfizer’s submission so they can approve both Pfizer and Moderna together. I cannot believe it.)"
"But beyond the anger, I hear two things clearly. One is fear and the other is shame. Data and perspective can help with both."
"This fear is coming largely from people with children under 5, who remain unvaccinated. There are two forms of this fear. One is the fear of serious illness in the immediate moment. The second is the fear of long COVID."
"I have said before here that children are at low risk for serious illness. But it is worth revisiting concrete numbers."
"It’s not just fear. People also feel shame. Some of this is shame about putting our children at risk for reasons we think are selfish: We were so careful, and just because I wanted my son to see his grandparents/go to Disney/hike in Utah, we went on a plane and now he has COVID."
"But the reality is that even if you do everything “right,” you might get COVID. And even if you do everything right, you might spread it to someone. This is true of other illnesses too. If it happens, it shouldn’t be a source of shame. We can respect our responsibility to others while also accepting that illness will happen, and that it shouldn’t necessitate a shame spiral."
How Health Equity Can Prevent the Next Pandemic: Via the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's Gargee Ghosh.
Omicron Less Severe Than Delta but More Easily Evades Boosters: "Three new observational studies from Scotland, Denmark, and the United States detail reduced hospitalizations and emergency department (ED) visits for Omicron COVID-19 infections relative to those caused by the Delta variant, as well as strong but waning third-dose vaccine effectiveness over time against Omicron."
“The US study, conducted by Kaiser Permanente Southern California and Pfizer researchers, estimated the effectiveness and duration of two and three doses of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine against Delta and Omicron infections among adult Californians from Dec 1, 2021, to Feb 6, 2022.”
“The analysis included 11,123 hospital admissions and ED visits. Effectiveness of two doses of the Pfizer vaccine against Omicron was 41% against hospitalization and 31% against an ED visit at least 9 months after the second dose.”
“After three doses, effectiveness against Omicron hospitalization rose to 85% within 3 months but declined to 55% afterward. Similarly, effectiveness against Omicron ED admission was 77% within 3 months but dropped to 53% thereafter.”
"Trends in waning against SARS-CoV-2 outcomes due to the delta variant were generally similar, but with higher effectiveness estimates at each timepoint than those seen for the omicron variant," the authors wrote.”
State
California: The Sacramento Unified School District bargaining team met with the Sacramento City Teachers Association Friday to find an agreement that works for both sides that would decide how to make up for lost instructional time due to an eight-day strike that ended at the beginning of April.
New York: The teachers union is planning tosue the NYC Department of Education after dozens of staffers were placed on unpaid leave for allegedly submitting fake vaccination cards.
Oklahoma: Schools are stepping up to support mental health for students.
"At Integris Health, there was a 117% increase in inpatient pediatric admissions stemming from suicide-related ER visits in 2021."
"Over the years, significantly more young people ages 13 through 18 have come to Integris Health ERs across the state expressing suicidal ideation. The increase has been so significant that in charts showing the number of visits from 2018 through early 2022, the average line has had to shift up three times, Friesen said. Those visits, Friesen said, are the “tip of the iceberg” — they represent only the most severe cases of children facing mental health struggles."
"The Oklahoma School Counselor Corps, a grant program in which the state Department of Education distributed over $35 million in federal relief funds to districts to hire counselors and mental-health professionals."
International
China:
“The Chinese capital Beijing has kicked off mass testing for millions of residents after a spike in Covid cases,” the BBC reports.
Economic Recovery
China Supply Chain Shocks:
"One in five container ships is now stuck at ports worldwide, with 30% of the backlog coming from China. And Lars Jensen, the CEO of the shipping container industry consulting firm Vespucci Maritime, told Fortune that the full impact of China’s policies will only begin to reveal itself over the coming weeks."
U.S. Trucking Downturn Foreshadows Possible Economic Gloom: Via Reuters:
"There has been an unexpectedly sharp downturn in demand to truck everything from food to furniture since the beginning of March and rates in the overheated segment that deals in on-demand trucking jobs - known as the spot market - are skidding."
"History has proven trucking to be a possible indicator for the U.S. economy. That is because when people buy less, companies ship less - and business activity slows. Economic recessions followed six of the 12 trucking recessions since 1972, according to an analysis by trucking data company Convoy."
How the Pandemic is Changing Home Design: Interesting piece from Axios.
"A ton of pandemic-era adaptations are becoming common fixtures in new homes. The model homes that builders are showing off today are meant for working, living and learning, not just coming home and crashing at the end of the day."
"Flashback: The "powder room" was originally born from the flu pandemic of 1918 — as were tiled bathrooms, as people replaced draperies and carpets that harbored germs."
Workers Are Changing Jobs at Faster Rate: “Job-switchers are often reaping double-digit pay increases, a new survey shows, a phenomenon that is demonstrating bargaining power for workers while threatening to keep inflation high,” the WSJ reports.
Resources
More States Are Allowing Students to Take ‘Mental Health Days.’ But Could the Practice Backfire?: Asks The 74.
Sal Khan Partners with Arizona State University to Launch New Online Global High School: Website / Announcement / Khan's comments.
"This full-time online school will combine the expertise of Khan Lab School, Schoolhouse.world, and ASU Prep Digital in a unique model based on the principles of the book The One World Schoolhouse: Education Reimagined by Salman Khan, the founder of Khan Academy. The core principles include mastery-based learning, personalization of each student’s experience and learning together as a community."
It's Monday: Get your wobble on.