Pharmacists can give Paxlovid

The FDA has said that licensed pharmacists can prescribe Pfizer’s antibody pill. If given early enough in a Covid infection, Paxlovid can significantly reduce the risk of hospitalization or death.

Score one for the drug distributors

A group of the biggest distributors — AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health, and McKesson “are not responsible for fueling an opioid epidemic in a part of West Virginia, a federal judge ruled on Monday.”

The gist of the ruling: The prescriptions and orders were legal, so the companies can’t be held liable. (The problem is with the prescribers.)

This was a case involving one West Virginia city and one county, not the Big Opioid Case from last year. Bad news for them, though: “[C]ommunities in hard-hit West Virginia opted against joining a national opioid settlement in favor of seeking a bigger recovery.“

There are other, similar trials pending.

“Better” doesn’t mean “over”

The pandemic certainly feels over (just like the First Schleswig War feels over). But the Danes are still shifty, and Covid-19 is still killing people.

In fact, it was the leading cause of death of 45–54 year-old Americans in 2021, and the third leading cause of death of all Americans for most of 2020 and 2021.

From March 2020 to October 2021, Covid-19 accounted for 1 in 8 deaths in the US and was a top 5 cause of death in every age group aged 15 years and older.

And that’s assuming every Covid death was counted. (It’s not.) Point being: With another surge expected this fall, don’t let your guard down completely.

Monkeypox update

More than 6,000 cases in 58 countries. That is all.

With age comes wisdom, apparently

Once upon a time (kids, ask your parents), health and politics didn’t mix, at least on the individual level. We all listened to the doctors (and yes, sometimes they were wrong), tried to be smart about taking care of ourselves, and realized that a sick neighbor was bad for us, too.

Now, of course, it’s different. For many people, healthcare decisions are based on politics. Except, found UGA researchers, if you’re older. In that case, the risk is more likely to override side of the aisle you’re. Or, as UGA put it, “[A]ge and risk perception may have as much of an effect on Covid-19 vaccine acceptance as party affiliation.”

Covid vaccine news

This virus and the next

The latest entry on the list of potential broad vaccines comes from CalTech, where — as you might expect from CalTech — nanoparticles are involved. They’ve made an entirely new type of vaccine, one they say “provides protection against a variety of SARS-like betacoronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-2 variants, in mice and monkeys.”

The best part: If it works, it will protect against new viruses and their variants.

What we’re trying to do is make an all-in-one vaccine protective against SARS-like betacoronaviruses regardless of which animal viruses might evolve to allow human infection and spread. This sort of vaccine would also protect against current and future SARS-CoV-2 variants without the need for updating.”

Through the nose

And the latest inhaled vaccine candidate comes from North Carolina State. This one “shows promise” in rodents, which is a step or two below “works.” Still, it can last three months at room temperature, can be self-administrated, and goes directly to the site of the infection.

Downside: The exosome-based delivery system is barely proof of concept, and could be difficult (read: expensive) to scale up. But we have to start somewhere, right?

Senate bill could mean lower drug prices

Democrats may be poised to pass a bill that would require Medicare to negotiate prices with drug makers, rather than paying whatever they demand. It would also cap patients’ out-of-pocket costs at $2,000 per year, and add penalty of sorts for drug companies that raise prices on old drugs faster than inflation.

Drug makers, through their association, PhRMA, spouted the usual nonsense: If our shareholders don’t make billions, consumers will be hurt! (Study after study has shown that pharma manufacturer profits go to stock buybacks, dividends, and marketing, not research and development.)

It was only a matter of time before someone studied it

It’s not just a joke: Being hangry, say British psychology researchers, is a real thing.

[T]he researchers found that fluctuations in anger, irritability and unpleasantness were strongly linked with hunger. In fact, hunger was responsible for 34 per cent of the variation in feelings of anger for participants. For feelings of irritability, hunger was 37 per cent responsible.

Amusingly, the lead author said, “[The research] came about partly because my wife is often saying that I’m hangry, but I didn’t think being hangry was real.” He has presumably learned his lesson.

Avocados (with a grain of salt)

Eating an avocado a day will “improve diet quality, help lower cholesterol levels” according to a five-university* study … funded by the Hass Avocado Board. (In fact, if you look at the study itself instead of the news story, the effect was marginal at best.)

* Penn State, Texas Tech, plus Loma Linda University, Tufts University, UCLA, and Wake Forest University