About Covid-19
New COVID-19 cases in US soar to highest levels on record: “More than a year after the vaccine was rolled out, new cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. have soared to their highest level on record at over 265,000 per day on average, a surge driven largely by the highly contagious omicron variant.
New cases per day have more than doubled over the past two weeks, eclipsing the old mark of 250,000, set in mid-January, according to data kept by Johns Hopkins University.”
Monitoring Variant Proportions: Latest CDC revisions on variant frequencies: Omicron is 58.6%. The rest is essentially delta.
FDA says antigen tests may be less sensitive to omicron: “The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Tuesday warned that antigen tests may be less effective in detecting the highly contagious omicron variant of COVID-19.
‘Early data suggests that antigen tests do detect the omicron variant but may have reduced sensitivity,’ the FDA announced.”
Short Supply Limits Access to Newly Authorized COVID-19 Oral Pills: “Though the FDA last week authorized the first COVID-19 oral antivirals for at-home use — Pfizer’s Paxlovid and Merck’s and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics’ molnupiravir — access to the pills will be limited in the new year.
This even though the U.S. government has placed a $5.3 billion order for 10 million treatment courses of Paxlovid (nirmatrelvir, ritonavir) for shipments to states through 2022 and a $2.2 billion order for an estimated 3 million treatment courses of molnupiravir for delivery through early next year.”
Statement on the Status of the OSHA COVID-19 Healthcare ETS [Emergency Temporary Standard]: “On June 21, 2021, OSHA adopted a Healthcare Emergency Temporary Standard (Healthcare ETS) protecting workers from COVID-19 in settings where they provide healthcare or healthcare support services. 86 FR 32376. Under the OSH Act, an ETS is effective until superseded by a permanent standard – a process contemplated by the OSH Act to occur within 6 months of the ETS’s promulgation. 29 U.S.C. 655(c). OSHA [announced Monday] that it intends to continue to work expeditiously to issue a final standard that will protect healthcare workers from COVID-19 hazards, and will do so as it also considers its broader infectious disease rulemaking. However, given that OSHA anticipates a final rule cannot be completed in a timeframe approaching the one contemplated by the OSH Act, OSHA also [announced Monday] that it is withdrawing the non-recordkeeping portions of the healthcare ETS.”
About health insurance
Patients won't have to fear as many surprise medical bills come January: “The No Surprises Act, which bans most unexpected medical charges from out-of-network providers, is scheduled to go into effect January 1. It will apply to about 10 million surprise bills a year, according to federal estimates.
The new law, which Congress approved in late 2020 after a multitude of delays, protects patients when they receive emergency care or scheduled treatment from doctors and hospitals that are not in their insurance networks and that they did not choose. Consumers would be responsible only for their in-network cost-sharing in these situations.”
Mental Health Support to Get Expansion Under New Medicaid Option: “States can integrate behavioral health services into their Medicaid programs under a new option meant to help people experiencing mental health or substance use crises.
The Medicaid option will allow states to support mobile crisis intervention services, which connect users to a behavioral health specialist on call, the Biden administration announced Tuesday.”
About the public’s health
Association of e-Cigarette Use With Discontinuation of Cigarette Smoking Among Adult Smokers Who Were Initially Never Planning to Quit: “In this US nationally representative cohort study of 1600 adult daily cigarette smokers who did not initially use e-cigarettes and had no plans to ever quit smoking, subsequent daily e-cigarette use was significantly associated with an 8-fold greater odds of cigarette discontinuation compared with no e-cigarette use.”