Teasers for season 2

Now that’s just lazy writing. You’d think the writers would come up with something better than “and then the virus mutates!” But that’s what we’ve got: The Brits report a new, more virulent coronavirus strain circulating in the south of England. “[S]cientists are urging calm until more is known about the coronavirus variant.”

On the other hand, it could come from the woods. First those shifty Danes had all sorts of issues with their minks, and now it’s come to the U.S. of A. The Department of Agriculture reports the first wild animal to be infected with SARS-CoV-2: a “free-ranging, wild mink” in Utah.

Georgia is getting a little sumthin’-sumthin’

The vaccine, of course — enough for 2,425 people, for starters.

Well, maybe not rural Georgia

Lack of facilities to store the vaccine, and of places to dispense it, mean folks in rural counties might have a lot more trouble getting it. “Some Georgia counties have no hospitals, and in others patients might have to drive 30 minutes or more to get to a pharmacy or see a doctor, complicating distribution.”

You can help! Let the DPH know that you’re interested in providing the vaccine. It’s a short form — click here to fill it out. If you meet the criteria…

DPH will place your facility in one of the vaccine distribution phases: limited doses available; large number of doses available; continued vaccination and shift to routine strategy.

Your assignment will be determined using the following criteria: provider/facility type, capacity to vaccinate members of priority populations, and vaccine storage capacity.

Pfizer’s vaccine training

This week, Pfizer will be hosting a series of training sessions to review information and answer questions about their Covid-19 vaccine. Clinicians and Covid-19 vaccine providers are invited to attend. Save these links and sign in to the sessions you want:

Once more, with feeling

The FDA looks poised to issue an emergency use authorization for Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine after its data confirmed the vaccine to be safe and effective. That will fill a lot of the gap left by the Pfizer vaccine we didn’t buy.

And yes, this time the U.S. government is saying “Yes” to more vaccine — doubling its initial order to 200 million doses (i.e., enough for 100 million more people).

Send a card and wait a week

If you’re having surgery and someone says “Happy birthday!” to the surgeon — get out.

Patients undergoing surgery on the surgeon’s birthday have higher mortality compared with those undergoing surgery on other days.

A vaccine by any other name … would invite trademark infringement

Sure, while humans are worried about when they’ll get a Covid-19 vaccine, lawyers have something more pressing on their minds: what to name them.

The process of christening a new medicine typically involves about two years of semiotic labor. But in 2020, just as drug companies collapsed their standard development timelines to fight a global pandemic, the naming process has been condensed into a six-month sprint.

Frankie (the ER doc) say relax — and that’s not good

Looking at data for more than 300 million (!) U.S. ambulatory care office visits, UPenn researchers found that while initial scripts for muscle relaxants stayed about the same from 2005-2016, repeat prescriptions became a heck of a lot more common. And by “a lot more” we mean almost tripling, especially among older patients.

“Given that there are minimal data on long-term safety and effectiveness, and these drugs are not indicated for use beyond a couple of weeks of therapy, it starts to raise [a] red flag.”

Home testing explosion

Figuratively, that is. Thanks to Covid-19, home health testing is seeing a big boom. Sure, Covid tests are big, but the whole I-don’t-need-to-see-the-physician movement is gaining steam.

Pro tip

Be ready to help those patients as much as you can — sign up for the half-day, GPhA-hosted NACDS Community Pharmacy-based Point-of-Care Testing Certificate Program, February 21 at GPhA HQ in Sandy Springs.

You can score 20 hours of CE (including the home study), and a lovely certificate suitable for framing.

Click here for the details, the presenters, and to register!

This little piggie went to the chop shop

The FDA has approved a genetically modified pig — one that doesn’t produce a particular sugar (alpha-gal) on its cells, making its organs less likely to be rejected if transplanted into humans.

They could be a source of heparin, or of tendons and valves, but most importantly they’re also approved as a tasty, tasty food product.

The downside of eating grasshoppers

University of Nebraska researchers have found evidence of hospice care more than 1,000 years ago — a man in what’s today Texas died of Chagas disease, but was apparently cared for by others in his last months. His last horrible, horrible months.