Month: October 2020

U.S. health regulators have paused Eli Lilly’s trial of an antibody treatment for COVID-19 over potential safety concerns. It was confirmed on Tuesday that regulators paused enrollment in the leading late-stage trial of monoclonal antibody treatment for the coronavirus. Details regarding the safety concern are not yet known. A review from the independent data and safety monitoring board will be completed before further action is taken. According to spokeswoman Kathryn Beiser, Eli Lilly said it supports the decision by an independent monitoring board to “cautiously ensure the safety of the patients participating in this study.”

The ACTIV-3 trial was set up to test the Eli Lilly-developed monoclonal antibody in combination with remdesivir. Monoclonal antibodies are made to act as immune cells that scientists hope can fight the virus. A blood sample from one of the first U.S. patients who recovered from COVID-19 was used for the experimental antibody treatment. President Donald Trump received a monoclonal antibody treatment made by Regeneron along with remdesivir earlier this month.

The ACTIV-3 trial is one of several ongoing trials, which are part of the National Institute of Health’s “Activ” program set up to accelerate development of COVID-19 vaccines and treatments. The trial is supported by Operation Warp Speed, a Trump administration effort to make and distribute vaccines to fight COVID-19.

Eli Lilly pauses trial of antibody drug over safety concern

Via news.yahoo.com

U.S. drugmaker Eli Lilly said on Tuesday that the government-sponsored clinical trial of its…

10/13/2020 6:43 PM

 

Editorial credit: Jonathan Weiss / Shutterstock.com

The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday the U.S. Census Bureau can conclude its 2020 count on October 31, which will give it enough time to finish with enough time to process the data before year end. The decision, favored by the Trump administration, came with a dissent from Justice Sonia Sotomayor.  Sotomayor wrote in her dissent, “Meeting the deadline at the expense of the accuracy of the census is not a cost worth paying. Especially when the Government has failed to show why it could not bear the lesser cost of expending more resources to meet the deadline or continuing its prior efforts to seek an extension from Congress. This Court normally does not grant extraordinary relief on such a painfully disproportionate balance of harms.”

The U.S. Census Bureau is overseen by Trump appointee Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.  The bureau announced in an August 3 press release that it would be ending its count by September 30 — a month before it originally planned. The Trump administration argued it needed to end then to crunch the data before the congressionally-mandated deadline of December 31, 2020.  In-person data collection was forced to pause in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The temporary suspension prompted the Census Bureau to initially request an extension for the count. 

Supreme Court backs Trump administration, allows census count to end early

Via www.msn.com

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday stopped the once-a-decade head count of every U.S. resident…

10/13/2020 7:32 PM

 

Roberta McCain, mother of late U.S. Sen. John McCain, died Monday at the age of 108, at her home in Washington, D.C., family members announced. “I couldn’t have asked for a better role model or a better friend,” daughter-in-law Cindy McCain, widow of Sen. McCain, tweeted.  

Roberta McCain was an Oklahoma oil heiress and wife and daughter-in-law of two U.S. 4-star Navy Admirals. She campaigned at age 96 for her son’s presidential run against Democrat Barack Obama in 2008. Roberta McCain attended the 2018 Washington, D.C., funeral of her son, Sen. John McCain, who died of cancer at age 81. Roberta met and eloped with Jack McCain, a Navy officer serving aboard a battleship docked in Long Beach.

Sen. John McCain credited his mother’s support with his success in politics including two presidential campaigns in 2000 and 2008, two terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, and five Senate terms. Roberta and her husband raised their three children in Washington, D.C. Her husband died in 1981 and her daughter, Jean Alexandra “Sandy” Morgan, died in 2019. Survivors include her son, Joseph McCain of Washington; 10 grandchildren; 11 great-grandchildren; and seven great-great-grandchildren.

Roberta McCain, John McCain’s mother, dies at 108

Via abcnews.go.com

Roberta McCain, the mother of the late Arizona Sen. John McCain, has died

10/12/2020 4:58 PM

 

President Donald Trump’s White House physician Dr. Sean Conley released a memo on Monday stating the president had recently tested negative for COVID-19 on consecutive days and is no longer contagious. Conley said in his memo a number of measures were used to test Trump and that he had tested negative on antigen tests instead of the more conclusive polymerase chain reaction test. Conley did not say on which days Trump tested negative. “This comprehensive data, in concert with the CDC’s guidelines for removal of transmission-based precautions, have informed our medical team’s assessment that the President is not infectious to others,” Conley said in the memo.

The news comes as Trump returns to the campaign trail Monday night with a rally in Florida after he and several White House and campaign aides were infected with Covid-19. “They say I’m immune. I feel so powerful,” Trump told the crowd in Sanford. “I’ll walk into that audience, I’ll walk in there, kiss everyone in that audience. I’ll kiss the guys and the beautiful women.”

Trump returns to campaign trail following coronavirus infection

Via www.cbsnews.com

President Trump is returning to the campaign trail after his physician said the president tested…

10/12/2020 7:20 PM

 

Editorial credit: Alex Gakos / Shutterstock.com

On Sunday, social media platform Twitter flagged a tweet in which President Donald Trump claimed he was now “immune” to COVID-19 after receiving treatment for the virus. Twitter hid the president’s tweet behind a warning, stating that it “violated Twitter rules about spreading misleading and potentially harmful information” related to the coronavirus.

Trump wrote in the Tweet: “A total and complete sign off from White House Doctors yesterday. That means I can’t get it (immune), and can’t give it. Very nice to know!!!” Trump’s tweet referenced a memo by his personal physician Dr. Sean Conley in which he said the president met Centers for Disease Control and Prevention criteria to safely emerge from isolation and is “no longer considered a transmission risk to others” but made no mention of immunity from the virus. The White House has also not confirmed whether Trump has tested negative since contracting the coronavirus.

The president also claimed immunity on Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures saying he could be safe from contracting the virus “maybe a long time, maybe a short time, could be a lifetime” adding it was unclear how much immunity can be expected after recovery. Trump praised the staff at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center where he received three days of treatment for COVID-19 stating that the treatments he received were standard and “pretty routine.” Trump’s treatment, however, included an experimental antibody cocktail from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals known as REGEN-COV2.

Twitter flags Trump claim of COVID-19 immunity

Via www.reuters.com

Twitter flagged a tweet by U.S. President Donald Trump that said: “A total and complete sign off…

10/11/2020 7:33 PM

 

Editorial credit: Michael Candelori / Shutterstock.com