Would a bird flu vaccine for cows work?

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Happy Monday! Are you watching the Olympic Games this week? As a former distance swimmer, I’m a big fan of watching Katie Ledecky smoke everyone in the mile.

Should we use flu shots in cows to prevent the spread of bird flu?

More and more herds of dairy cows are becoming infected with the H5N1 bird flu, and the need to stop transmission is becoming urgent – ​​if not for the cows, then for us. As the virus spreads among mammals, it is possible that it could adapt to become better equipped for transmission to and between humans.

Several animal vaccine manufacturers are working to develop a bird flu vaccine for cows. But would a vaccine actually help stop the spread? Experts who spoke to STAT’s Helen Branswell are divided on the idea. There are still questions about whether vaccinating cows would even be an effective solution. And some experts wonder whether farmers would be willing to absorb the cost of vaccines or agree to strict post-vaccination surveillance.

Read more from Helen the debate. And after a week in which the number of human cases of bird flu reached 13 and the cumulative number of infected flocks reached 172, don’t miss today’s broadcast. snapshot of bird flu about all the latest developments.

Stronger Covid restrictions have saved lives, research shows

If every state in the US had imposed Covid policies like those in the ten most restrictive states, deaths from the virus would have been 10-21% lower between July 2020 and June 2022, according to a study published Friday in JAMA Health Forum. Government policies were largely similar in the first few months of the pandemic, but began to diverge in the second half of 2020. Research analysis found that mask requirements (especially in schools) and vaccine mandates were associated with lower numbers of excess deaths. On the other hand, a lack of mandates was associated with a higher number of deaths.

The analysis cannot conclusively identify causality, only associations. Still, the results suggest strong Covid restrictions saved lives, the authors wrote.

Trial of the Mpox vaccine starts in three African countries

Researchers at McMaster University in Canada are planning a clinical trial to test whether getting Bavarian Nordic’s mpox vaccine can protect people exposed to the infection from getting sick or reduce the severity of the disease. The trial will start next month in the Democratic Republic of Congo and will later include participants in Uganda and Nigeria. The researchers received $4.9 million (U.S.) from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, according to a CEPI press release.

The results of the trial could be crucial for the fight against MPox in the DRC, where there have already been 11,000 cases and 443 deaths this year, with children making up the majority of both, the press release said. More than 1,500 participants over the age of 10 from households with a confirmed MPOX infection will be invited to participate in the study. CEPI and Bavarian Nordic also have one separate clinical trial which will start later this year, testing the MPOX vaccine in children aged 2 to 12 years.

Stay up to date with the latest news with STAT’s mpox coverage.

Will there be a Mark Cuban effect on drug shortages?

We currently have two major problems with prescription drugs: they are too expensive and there are not enough of the most important ones. Mark Cuban – the billionaire entrepreneur perhaps best known for his assertive presence on the TV show “Shark Tank” – has decided to solve these problems for us by creating the Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company. (That’s MCCPDC for short, if that name doesn’t roll off your tongue.)

Cuban claims that the pharmaceutical industry is “the easiest industry I have been able to disrupt so far.” But in a First Opinion essay, industry veteran Ezekiel Emanuel and physician John Connolly argue that maybe Cubans shouldn’t be so confident. His current approach will fail to make a significant dent in drug prices, they write. But by expanding his manufacturing forays, they argue, Cuban could make real progress in tackling America’s drug shortage.

Read more from Emanuel and Connolly about why Cuban’s company can’t save us from high drug prices.

Healthcare workers have more medical and educational debt, study says

More and more medical schools are going tuition-free – which is great for doctors, but what about other healthcare professionals? A new study published in JAMA Health Forum found that health care workers generally have more medical and college debt than other workers.

Medical debt among all health care workers nationally stood at $19.8 billion, while education debt totaled $134.4 billion, according to the study’s analysis of nationally representative survey data from 2018-2021. Medical debt was more common among women than men and among black health care workers than white ones. School debt was also more common among black people, and less common among older people.

How to prevent tragedies like Sonya Massey’s death

Sonya Massey called 911 on July 6 to report a potential intruder. “Don’t hurt me,” she told police when they arrived. ‘Why would I hurt you? You called us,” was how Deputy Sean Grayson responded minutes before he shot and killed her.

Massey had paranoid schizophrenia and she was distracted, agitated and scared. What she needed was reassurance, two emergency physicians write in a First Opinion essay. The interaction with police quickly turned from routine to deadly. “As two academic Black female physicians, we have become familiar with the same speed at which we can move from ‘pet to threat,’” they write.

Read more on the phenomenon of ‘pet to threat’ and the critical need for safe de-escalation tactics and specialized mental health crisis response teams.

What we read

• America is running out of generic drug manufacturers. There’s another one on the way, Wall Street Journal

• The recombinant shingles vaccine is associated with a lower risk of dementia, Nature

• Disruptions loom for telehealth providers and patients as Congress moves closer to the deadline, STAT
• Iowa’s abortion ban goes into effect as residents leave the state for care Washingtonpost
• I am a black psychiatrist. I was never prepared for the emptiness and sadness I feel when the police shoot a black person, STAT