White House Taking Action to Increase Vaccine Availability
The White House administration announced that it will begin distributing COVID-19 vaccine doses directly to pharmacies to expand vaccine access for Americans. 6,500 pharmacies have already been selected to receive the first round of vaccines from the federal government. Among those selected are CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, Rite Aid and Costco; White House staff elucidated that shipments to pharmacies will begin on February 11. Jeff Zients, COVID-19 response coordinator, cautioned that while this is a huge step in increasing vaccine access for Americans, supply will be limited at the start. It is estimated that one million doses will be shipped to pharmacies each week.
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Phoenix School Boards Push for Ban of Flavored Tobacco Products
| Several Phoenix school boards have joined a campaign that aims to eliminate the sale of all flavored tobacco products including e-cigarettes, or vapes. Flavors Hook Kids Phoenix Coalition is the group behind the campaign, and school administrators are backing the advocates because they feel that flavored tobacco products are compromising the health of some students. The Phoenix City Council’s Public Safety and Justice Subcommittee plans to meet to discuss the issue and find potential solutions. Phoenix school boards are not alone in the push to ban flavored tobacco products; organizations around the nation are also seeking legislation to end the e-cigarette epidemic among youth. Last year, California’s governor passed a bill into law that banned flavored tobacco products, but its implementation has been delayed due to the submission of a petition led by tobacco companies. According to a report published by the CDC in 2020, approximately 3.5 million high school and middle school students have used, or are currently using, e-cigarettes. The report cites the appealing nature of flavored tobacco products as a contributing cause of the increase in use of e-cigarettes among students. Click here to read more on this story. |
Banner Health Treating COVID-19 Patients with Arthritis Drug
One of Arizona’s major healthcare systems is testing the effectiveness of a drug traditionally utilized to treat rheumatoid arthritis in helping those critically ill with COVID-19. Leadership from Banner Health elucidated that the drug, tocilizumab, is an anti-inflammatory that could lessen the severity of COVID-19 in some cases. Initial studies of the drug’s effectiveness in treating the virus are mixed and it has not been granted Emergency Use Authorization by the Food and Drug Administration.
Banner Health began utilizing the drug as a form of COVID-19 treatment earlier this month; other health systems in Arizona, such as Dignity Health, are not currently using it as a form of treatment. Officials from Banner Health explained that the drug is one of the few tools they currently have for fighting COVID-19. The health care system will continue to monitor the benefits of the drug and adjust as needed in the future.
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Shots on the Horizon: Novavax and Johnson & Johnson Announce Vaccine Efficacy Rates
Two companies supported by Operation Warp Speed, Novavax and Johnson & Johnson (J&J), have announced the results of their COVID-19 vaccine studies. Novavax, a small Maryland-based company, shared that its vaccine has an 89% efficacy rate, making it slightly less effective than both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. Preliminary findings from the company’s studies in Britain show that the vaccine is less effective against the new strain of COVID-19 that first appeared in South Africa and has now been detected in the U.S. The vaccine will undergo a larger study in the U.S. before it is considered for EUA.
J & J also released data on its one-shot vaccine. The company tested the vaccine in eight countries, including the U.S., and found it was 85% effective at preventing the most severe COVID-19 symptoms. In cases of moderate to severe illness, the vaccine was slightly less effective with an efficacy rate of 66%. The study also suggested that J&J’s vaccine is more effective in the U.S. than other countries like South Africa where the new, more contagious variant is spreading rampantly. In 72% of the study’s cases in the U.S., the vaccine was effective in easing moderate to severe symptoms. J&J plans to submit an application for EUA in the U.S. in the coming week, and is prepared to deliver 100 million doses by June.
Click here to read more about the Novavax vaccine, or here to read more about Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine.
President Biden Signs a Series of Executive Orders Applauded by the AMA
The American Medical Association (AMA) celebrated newly inaugurated President Biden for a series of Executive Orders issued during his first hours in office. The orders include a “100-Day National Masking Challenge,” re-joining the World Health Organization (WHO), and coordination of a unified federal response to COVID-19. You can read the full AMA statement here.
In addition to the Executive Orders, President Biden released a 200-page “National Strategy for the COVID-19 Response and Pandemic Preparedness”. The plan has seven goals, each with a target actions and strategies to achieve those goals. The White House also announced a COVID-19 Response Office which will be responsible for coordination the pandemic response across all federal agencies.
Johnson & Johnson Single Dose Vaccine Behind in Production
In August of last year, Johnson & Johnson (J&J) signed a contract with the federal government promising to deliver an effective, one dose vaccine to Americans in 2021. Their goal was to produce 12 million doses by the end of next month, a number that they hoped would swell to 100 million by the end of June. Unfortunately, the company is currently two months behind in their production of the vaccine and it is unclear if they will be able to make up for the lost time. Despite the lag in their delivery of the vaccine, the company still plans to release the results from its trial in the coming weeks. Should J&J’s vaccine prove as effective as those already on the market, it will undoubtedly become the vaccine of choice for administrators and patients alike. In stark contrast to the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, J&J’s is a single dose vaccine that can be stored for weeks in a refrigerator. Both of these properties of the vaccine would undoubtedly solve many of the logistical issues healthcare facilities are facing as they try to speed up vaccine distribution.
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Major Change in Addiction Medicine Policy Announced
On January 14, the Trump Administration announced a change in prescribing requirements for addiction treatment. The change will allow for almost all physicians to prescribe the addiction drug buprenorphine without obtaining a government waiver. In the past, physicians were required to undergo an eight-hour training to receive an X-waiver before they were allowed to prescribe buprenorphine. The change in policy is in response to the rising level of drug overdoses in recent years, including the increasing numbers seen during the COVID-19 pandemic. This new policy will allow for any physician with a DEA prescriber license to treat up to 30 in-state patients with buprenorphine, and hospital-based physicians are exempt from the 30-patient limit. Physicians will still be allowed to treat up to 275 patients if they undergo the training and receive the X-waiver. Additionally, the new policy change does not impact nurse practitioners or physician assistants. These providers will still need to apply for separate waivers to earn prescribing privileges.
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Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine Deemed Safe by FDA Panel After Pfizer Authorization
A detailed analysis of the COVID-19 vaccine from Moderna was released by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Tuesday morning. The analysis affirmed that the vaccine is effective and safe, with a 94% efficacy rate. The same committee that advised the FDA on the approval of the Pfizer vaccine met again on Thursday to discuss the Moderna vaccine. The panel voted 20-0 in support of endorsing the vaccine and recommended the agency grant emergency authorization. It is expected that the FDA will authorize emergency use authorization as soon as today. Between both the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, officials expect to administer the first dose to 20 million people by the end of 2020.
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Take Action! Oppose Surprise Medical Billing Legislation
As Congress rushes to pass its final legislative package before adjourning for the year, the issue of surprise billing has come up again. A recent bipartisan, bicameral “No Surprises Act” is intended to protect patients from surprise medical bills. You can find the legislative text here and a section-by-section analysis here.
ArMA, and our colleagues at the American Medical Association, support protecting patients from surprise medical bills. However, this legislation is not the solution and leaves many issues unresolved. In a year when physicians, practices, and patients are struggling financially, this measure will likely make the situation worse for many. It is critical to protect patients from surprise medical bills and a thoughtful, measured federal solution is possible to achieve. However, now is not the time to adopt flawed surprise billing legislation. Please contact your Senators now and tell them to stand up for patients and physicians by OPPOSING the No Surprises Act!
COVID-19 Surge Has Arizona Hospitals, ICUs at Record Capacity
A recent spike in recorded COVID-19 cases now has Arizona hospitals meeting or exceeding the number of hospitalizations that they had seen during the pandemic’s initial peak earlier in the year, with 92% of intensive care beds (ICU) and 90% of total hospital beds filled. This surge in hospitalizations has left the state with less hospital space than at any point so far during the COVID-19 pandemic. As new data comes in, it seems as though Arizona, and indeed the rest of the country, is in the midst of a new and unprecedented viral surge.
According to data published by the Arizona Department of Health Services, only 143 ICU beds are empty across the state, or about 8% of the total. More than two in five ICU beds are being used by COVID-19 patients, the highest since July 1, when cases were surging across Arizona and the country and only 11% of the state’s ICU inventory was available.
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