Just like grandpa used to do

NCPA reminds us that DEA reminds us that paper prescriptions “must be manually signed by the practitioner.”

Warning: The site it links to might pose a danger to those with sensory issues (or a sense of good design).

“Put everything on the home page — everything!”

Covid in Georgia

So cases, hospitalizations, and deaths are trending down — but “down” isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. And down off the peak is still up on the mountain, as Georgia Health News points out.

On Tuesday, the state reported a fairly high number of new cases, more than 3,000, along with 97 deaths.

But it sure looks better than a couple of months ago. The worry: Look at Europe. They thought they had rounded the corner, but the virus came charging back. With Georgia’s low vaccination rate (among the worst in the nation), and too many people dropping precautions, that could be a problem with the holidays coming.

Oh, yay, something to look forward to

There could be a global syringe shortage in 2022. Maybe people can trade some of the toilet paper they hoarded….

No psilocybin surprises

Another psilocybin study, another result that yes, it works against treatment-resistant depression. And this phase 2 study, from Compass Pathways, was “the largest randomized, controlled, double-blind trial of psilocybin” to date.

Overall, 29.1% of patients in the highest-dose group were in remission three weeks after treatment, compared to 7.6% of those in the control group, and more than a quarter of the patients in the 25-milligram arm were still in remission three months after treatment.

If Compass keeps showing good results, the FDA will speed up its approval timeline as it’s considered a breakthrough therapy. One reason: If you’ve heard good things about ketamine, imagine if it lasted a lot longer: “The effectiveness of psilocybin at three weeks […] is roughly comparable to the effects of ketamine at one day.”

So much for your Faroe Island Christmas

Looks like you’ll have to cancel your Luxembourg vacation. It, the Netherlands, the Cayman Islands, and the Faroe Islands were all just raised to the CDC’s Level 4 for Covid transmission (“certain doom”).

(Right side courtesy Google Street View)

Have they learned nothing?

French researchers are testing a Covid-19 vaccine that uses the measles virus as a vector. As anyone who has seen the Will Smith documentary “I Am Legend” can tell you, this is a Very Bad Idea.

Old Dog, New Trick: Diabetes edition

The latest story of a drug for ‘condition X’ turning out to work for ‘condition Y’ story is … dasatinib, the leukemia drug — it seems to be useful for treating diabetes.

Researchers from the Mayo Clinic and UConn pored over a Mayo Clinic database “with more than 9 million case histories spanning 25 years,” and found that dasatinib “may have an antidiabetic effect comparable to or perhaps greater than current medications used to treat type 2 diabetes.”

It’s not just dasatinib — that’s just the one that stood out. It could mean that senolytic drugs in general could work for diabetes.

You know the drill: “More research is needed.”

Just stick with valsartan

Sure, sacubitril/valsartan is hot thing for heart failure, but there looks like a better alternative: valsartan alone.

Washington University cardiology researchers did a study with patients with advanced heart failure. “Sacubitril/valsartan,” they found, “is no better than valsartan alone in patients with severe heart failure.” In fact, valsartan alone “may be slightly safer for patients with advanced heart failure.”

And the combo drug didn’t show any advantages — there were “no differences in heart failure hospitalizations, deaths from cardiovascular causes or deaths from any cause.”

This might be interesting, but the story is so poorly written that I’m not sure

“Antibiotic resistance outwitted by supercomputers” is the headline, “Giant leap in fighting the biggest threat to human health.”

That sounds intriguing, but the article then spends 490 words to say:

  • Antibiotic resistance is a problem.
  • University of Portsmouth researchers and their team created a new antibiotic (possibly using a computer?)
  • They used supercomputers to test the new antibiotic.
  • Computers are fast.

That’s it. No detail, no explanation. Although it does include this silly line: “If computers can beat the world champion in chess, I don’t see why they should not also be able to defeat bacteria.”

The Long Read: No Good Deed edition

“As Overdose Deaths Soar, DEA-Wary Pharmacies Shy From Dispensing Addiction Medication”

Or how the DEA’s “aggressive stance on buprenorphine” makes it hard for pharmacies to help fight opioid abuse.