Should you buy stock in Abbott or Dexcom?

In-hospital remote continuous glucose monitoring — allowed during the pandemic — worked a treat. So maybe it’s time to move from the jury-rigged* CGM devices nurses were using to a more permanent system.

While the FDA hasn’t approved CGMs for that purpose, data being collected on their use during the pandemic could help establish in-hospital remote glucose monitoring as the standard of care, ushering in a whole new market for manufacturers of those devices.

* Don’t go down the “jury-rigged” vs “jerry-rigged” rabbit hole. Trust me.

ICYMI

Johnson & Johnson’s one-shot Covid-19 vaccine “meets requirements for emergency use authorization” according to an FDA committee. Tomorrow, Friday, the agency’s Vaccines and related Biological Products Advisory Committee will make a formal recommendation about whether to authorize the vaccine.

The company is ready to ship about four million doses, another 25 million by the end of March, and says it can deliver 100 million by the end of June.

The cavalry is coming

Pfizer and Moderna both say “to expect a big jump in the delivery of [vaccine] doses over the coming month,” as production and delivery efficiencies kick in.

When is it over?

The chances of getting to ‘Covid zero’ are slim, but what number can we use to say the pandemic is over? There’s actually a consensus of sorts: fewer than 100 deaths a day — and fewer than 5,000 new cases.

That latter threshold, of 100 Covid-19 deaths a day, was repeated by other experts, following the logic that it approximates the nation’s average death toll from influenza. In most recent years, the flu has killed 20,000 to 50,000 Americans annually, which averages out to 55 to 140 deaths a day.

Where are we now? Not close — 2,328 deaths on February 23; there were 88 in Georgia alone.

Good news: The daily number is dropping. Bad news: Hitting a high enough vaccination rate may be tough.

Aspirin vs preeclampsia

Got patients at risk for preeclampsia? The US Preventive Services Task Force issued a draft recommendation for the use of low-dose aspirin “as preventive medication after 12 weeks of gestation for persons at high risk for preeclampsia.” (It’s still in draft form, so you can comment on it until March 22.)

Sugar is even worse

Too much fructose — think high-fructose corn syrup — can lead to obesity, type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease, and rotted teeth. Now a new study out of Sweden’s Swansea University found that it may also mess with the immune system “in ways that has, until now, largely been unknown.”

The new study […] shows that fructose causes the immune system to become inflamed and that process produces more reactive molecules which are associated with inflammation.

If fructose is so bad, why do you keep making these, you hypocrites?

Antibody shortage: over

There is no longer a shortage of antibody therapies (i.e., bamlanivimab and casirivimab/imdevimab), according to HHS, so it’s cool to order it directly from your favorite distributor.

That said…

The American Society of Health-System Pharmacists says, in its 2021 Pharmacy Forecast, that there are likely to be a lot of shortages thanks to “The Certainty of Uncertainty for a Global Supply Chain.”

That links to the full report. For a much quicker overview, Becker’s Hospital Review has you covered.

Those thieving Canadians

Canadians are the masters of stealing strange things (e.g., maple syrup). But did you know about the Great Canadian Polio Vaccine Heist of 1959?