Same old, same old

You know the deal: Covid-19 continues to be really bad in Georgia. So rather than share yet another news story, here’s the money quote from immunologist/microbiologist/stat geek/Covid tracker Amber Schmidtke:

College aged adults used to be the primary driver of COVID-19 cases. Not anymore. It’s K-12 aged kids in Georgia. Not because they want to be those people, but because of a lack of safety culture. These data should be reviewed at EVERY school board meeting in the state.

The latest pharmacy scams

The new trick: messing with insulin scripts and diabetes supplies. They’re using a couple of tactics — reversing claims by posing as a pharmacy, or placing fake orders with distributors. NCPA has the details, and warns you to be on the lookout.

Vaccines are wearing off … right?

Maybe, but maybe not. As David Leonhardt writes for the New York Times, it’s far from conclusive. There are problems with the Israeli study that started the “protection wears off” news cycle. Besides, if immunity wore off, “we should expect to see a faster rise in Covid cases among older people.”

[T]he real story about waning immunity is more complex than the initial headlines suggested. Some scientists believe that the Israeli data was misleading and that U.S. policy on booster shots has gotten ahead of the facts. The evidence for waning immunity is murky, these scientists say, and booster shots may not have a big effect.

So, shockingly, less than a year after mass vaccinations began we don’t have perfect information about how they perform — just the current best guesses.

They call it “Robo pill”

Monoclonal antibodies are getting lots of attention as treatments, but there’s a big downside: They have to be injected, because the digestive systems breaks them down too quickly.

Enter MIT engineers, who have developed a pill that can deliver monoclonal antibodies and other large proteins, like insulin.

How? By creating a pill the size of a blueberry that can hold up to 4mg of liquid. A sugar pellet acts as a trigger; when it dissolves in the stomach a needle is released, then the meds are pumped into the stomach lining.

(Fear not: A second plunger retracts the needle before it moves any further along.)

Fine, just take it

With Medicare balking and so many private insurers not willing to pay for Biogen’s $56,000-a-year Alzheimer’s drug, the company is … giving it away? Apparently so.

If you’re thinking “What’s in it for them?” the answer is simple: good press, higher prescription numbers, and the potential for patient testimonials.

Another study of long Covid

This one, out of China, is the largest to date. It’s findings aren’t surprising: Of those hospitalized with Covid-19, more than two-thirds had symptoms six months later, and almost half had them after a full year.

The most common symptom patients reported 12 months later was fatigue or muscle weakness; other issues included sleep disturbances, changes in taste and smell, dizziness, headache and shortness of breath.

(Caveat: This study only looked at hospitalized people. Previous studies found that about 20 percent of non-hospitalized Covid patients have persistent symptoms.)

Four quarters beats one whole

When it comes to treating hypertension, a new study out of Australia’s University of Sydney found that a little bit of four meds was a lot more effective than starting with one drug.

Specifically, they said, a treatment containing quarter doses of amlodipine, bisoprolol, indapamide, and irbesartan was better than starting with irbesartan alone.

“Even though much more add-on blood pressure medicines were used in the comparison group throughout follow-up, they never caught up with the quadpill group.”

Walnuts want in

Last week we learned that eating pecans can lower your cholesterol. Good news.

Not to be left out, though, now we learn that walnuts apparently are good for your heart too! Well… at least according to a study funded by the California Walnut Commission. Imagine that.

(And no, the pecan study was not funded by the pecan industry. We wondered the same thing.)