Your daily “Covid is really bad” story

The exercise numbers: 14:3:1

How much exercise do you need? The latest results, courtesy of the Boston University School of Medicine, is this: For every 14 minutes you’re sedentary, you need either 3 minutes of walking or 1 minute of “moderate-vigorous physical activity” to offset it.

And what’s “moderate-vigorous physical activity”? “Anything that gets your heart beating faster and your breathing heavier counts.” We’ll let you make your own jokes.

UHC comes to ACA

UnitedHealth will expand its Obamacare insurance coverage into Georgia starting next year. That is all.

Make your own arthritis drugs

Who needs robots when we have genetic engineering? Researchers at Washington University have used CRISPR (of course) to create cells that can contain medication and release it in response to inflammation.

The idea is that, rather than deal with side effects from taking drugs in high doses that can affect the entire body…

“The cells sit under the skin or in a joint for months, and when they sense an inflammatory environment, they are programmed to release a biologic drug.”

They’re currently focused on arthritis drugs, but there’s no reason (they say) the cells couldn’t be programmed to produce other biologics — or multiple kinds, depending on what they sense.

ICYMI

A judge has granted civil immunity to the Sackler family in exchange for a $4.5 billion settlement of thousands of lawsuits over the role of the family’s Purdue Pharma. The Sacklers refuse to admit they did anything wrong.

Of note: Georgia is one of the states that has opposed the settlement, and it will likely seek its own. The Department of Justice and other states have already said they will appeal.

The Sacklers had originally demanded immunity from all civil suits involving pharmaceuticals, but the final agreement only protects them from those involving opioids.

Health coverage got a bit better

The latest figures from the CDC show that about 9.7 percent of Americans lacked health insurance in 2020, a slight improvement from 2019, even with the pandemic. While some people did lose coverage, about 2 million more people got private insurance, and the same amount signed up for public coverage.

A few more Covid notes

The next variant on the WHO’s worry list is mu, neé B.1.621 — a “variant of interest.” The concern is that it “has mutations that are likely to affect viral characteristics, such as transmissibility or disease severity.” And it may be able to evade current vaccines.

A large British study found that “Adults who have received a double vaccination are 49% less likely to have Long COVID should they contract a Covid-19 infection.” (We wanted to make a “T-cells for two” joke, but couldn’t work it out.)

The free ride is over, as insurers are beginning to require patients to pay deductibles and co-payments for Covid-19 treatment, including ER visits and routine testing. The bad news is that it also affects breakthrough infections and kids who are too young to get vaccinated. (FYI, the average out-of-pocket cost of a Covid hospital stay for someone with insurance is $3,800. Without insurance: $40,000.)

It’s just about Mad Libs time: “New Covid-19 cases increased rapidly at [the University of Chicago] this year after [students], most of whom were not fully vaccinated, returned from [spring break], according to a study by [the CDC].” (link)

In FDA Land™

Congress wants to see documents from the agency regarding the approval of Biogen’s controversial Alzheimer’s treatment.

“We are concerned by apparent anomalies in FDA’s processes surrounding its review of Aduhelm. We are also concerned by reports of unusual coordination between FDA and Biogen throughout the drug’s approval process.”

=AND=

The FDA will consider next week whether to approve Pfizer-BioNTech’s application for Covid-19 booster shots. (It will be viewable by the public, but it’s not yet on the official calendar.)

=BUT=

You might want to check out the New York Times editorial, “America Desperately Needs a Much Better F.D.A.” that faults, among other issues, the agency’s cuddle-on-the-couch-while-playing-Barry-White relationship with the industry it regulates. “The revolving door between the F.D.A. and the industry spins so fast we could tap it as a source of renewable power.”