Cry me a Covid test

All this time we’ve been shoving swabs up our noses when — as Brazilian researchers just discovered — you can test for it just by using tears.

[T]his method could be an alternative to nasopharyngeal swabbing, which is unpleasant.

Indeed.

CBD vs smoking

The next bullet point on the list of “Things CBD Can Actually Do” could be helping people quit smoking. CBD, it seems, inhibits the metabolism of nicotine — at least according to some preliminary research out of Washington State University.

As always, the mantra remains “More research is needed to confirm these effects.”

A month (maybe) to an anti-migraine nasal spray

It may not be a game-changer, but Pfizer says its new nasal spray for migraines is a “breakthrough.” In a phase 2/3 trial, zavegepant relieved migraine pain within a couple of hours, and the effect lasted up to two days.

The FDA is already reviewing zavegepant — a company called Biohaven submitted it to the FDA last year before Pfizer bought it. If the FDA is going to approve it, that should come next month.

A faster, better diagnostic test

Taking a common lateral flow assay (LFA) testing platform, engineers at Washington University in St. Louis have made them both more sensitive and faster, thanks to a bit of nanotechnology.

Using “nanolabels” called plasmonic-fluors, they turned those LFAs into plasmon-enhanced LFAs or p-LFAs that can test for viral or bacterial infections.

The point is:

[T]he team’s p-LFAs are 1,000 times more sensitive than conventional LFAs […] p-LFAs are also substantially faster than gold-standard lab tests, returning results in only 20 minutes instead of several hours.

Oh, and the test strips cost about a buck, while the scanner is about $300. Cheap.

The march of mRNA continues

Starting trials now: an mRNA vaccine for shingles from BioNTech and Pfizer.

Why bother when we already have a very good shingles vax?

Pfizer and BioNTech explained in a statement that they are looking to develop an improved vaccine, with the potential for better tolerability and a more efficient global production by using mRNA technology.

Medicine and money — good news and bad

Good news: There’s been an 18 percent drop since 2020 in people who reported having medical debt. It’s due to a combination of pandemic-years Medicaid expansion, as well as relief fund used by local governments to help people get out from under.

Bad news: Come April 1, when states can begin reviewing families for Medicaid eligibility, as many as 6.7 million kids might lose their health coverage. Georgia is one of the states that could be hit hard, as it saw kids’ enrollment in Medicaid grow by a third during the pandemic.

Good and bad: Most of those kids are likely still eligible for Medicaid “but will likely lose coverage because of administrative issues, such as their parents not submitting the necessary paperwork or procedural errors” according to a Georgetown University report.