Coronavirus Morning News Brief – Oct. 20: Price of Paxlovid Antiviral Skyrockets, Obama Has CovidFrequent Business Traveler
Drugmaker Pfizer has announced a major price increase for the antiviral nirmatrelvir, Paxlovid, marketed as Paxlovids, which will cost $1,390 per course, 2.6 times higher than the $530 per course provided by the U.S. government, which provided the drug at no cost to patients. The cost of the five-day course will double as the United States exits the pandemic phase of the pandemia, Pfizer said. The company also announced it would offer assistance with copays for people who qualify, potentially reducing a patient’s out-of-pocket cost. Former President Barack Obama cancelled a visit to Harvard University after suffering from SARS-CoV-2 symptoms. The price of the lifesaving antiviral medication PaxlovID-19 will more than double as America exits the emergency phase, according to Pfizer. The drugmaker stated that the drug's list price “does not necessarily reflect the price a patient will pay,’ adding that it is working with health insurance providers to ensure a low cost.
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Good morning. This is Jonathan Spira reporting. Here now the news of the pandemic from across the globe on the 1,318th day of the pandemic.
In news we report today, a former president has Covid, the price of a Covid antiviral treatment is skyrocketing, and a U.K. government advisor called Prime Minister Rishi Sunak “Dr. Death.”
Drugmaker Pfizer announced a major price increase for the antiviral nirmatrelvir, marketed as Paxlovid. The cost will almost double as the United States transitions out of the emergency phase of the pandemic, Pfizer said on Wednesday. The cost for a five-day course, before insurance is considered, will be $1,390, the pharmaceutical house said, a price that is 2.6 times higher than the $530 per course paid by the U.S. government, which then provided Paxlovid at no cost to patients requiring it.
The price of the lifesaving Covid-19 antiviral medication Paxlovid will more than double as the United States transitions out of the emergency phase of the pandemic, drugmaker Pfizer said Wednesday.
Pfizer said in a statement that the drug’s list price “does not necessarily reflect the price a patient will pay,” adding that it is working with health insurance providers to try to ensure a low cost to patients.
The company also said it would offer assistance with copays for people who qualify, which could dramatically reduce a patient’s out-of-pocket cost.
Former President Barack Obama was forced to cancel a visit to Harvard University on Wednesday after he came down with what appears to be SARS-CoV-2. The purpose of the visit was to attend the “Future of the Internet Summit” which is being held at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society.
“The president woke up this morning with Covid-like symptoms,” the lab said in a statement on Wednesday.
“Out of an abundance of caution, he is not attending his public events today. The Summit is continuing as planned featuring his Senior Advisor on Technology, Jason Goldman.”.
The U.K.’s new chief scientific adviser described Prime Minister Rishi Sunak as “Dr. Death, the Chancellor” in private messages sent during a crucial pandemic media, the country’s Covid Inquiry board has heard.
Professor Dame Angela McLean made the comment using the WhatsApp messaging system in September 2020. The comment came at a point when 45,000 people had already died from Covid. The pub and restaurant sectors needed support and, as a result, the government put into place the Eat Out to Help Out scheme, which by reopening many establishments forced tens of thousands of people to take a calculated epidemiological risk.
Prof Edmunds told the inquiry that, while the two sectors needed support, the government could have just given them money.
Naomi Fulop, spokesperson for Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK, said the Eat Out to Help Out scheme contributed to the loss of thousands of lives and put unnecessary pressure on the NHS.
Reiner Fuellmich, a spokesman for the Stiftung Corona Ausschuß, a non-governmental investigative committee based in Germany, was arrested upon arrival at Flughafen Frankfurt after being extradited from Mexico.
The Stiftung, or foundation, began in 2020 to document what Fuellmich and his associates considered to be violations of law, medical malpractice and scientific fraud in what they term the “Covid-19 scandal” and millions of euros of donations from members of the so-called “truther” movement to fund a planned class-action lawsuit against the supposed architects of the “fake pandemic.”
The Staatsanwaltschaft Göttingen said it is investigating Fuellmich, who is also a lawyer, over the embezzlement of €700,000 ($740,000). The embezzlement included a payment of €200,000 to his wife in 20 transactions of €10,000 each as well as a €500,000 direct transfer from the Stiftung to his private bank account.
In May 2021, Fuellmich and his wife used the funds privately, including to pay off a real estate loan.
Finally, scientists in the United Kingdom said that they have successfully used CRISPR gene-editing technology to create chickens that have some resistance to avian flu, according to an article published by the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy. If successful, the technology developed at the University of Edinburg’s Roslin Institute would offer a potential solution to prevent future outbreaks.
CRISPR is a family of DNA sequences found in the genomes of prokaryotic organisms such as bacteria and archaea. These sequences are derived from DNA fragments of bacteriophages that had previously infected the prokaryote. They are used to detect and destroy DNA from similar bacteriophages during subsequent infections.
A lethal version of avian flu, H5N1, has directly or indirectly killed over 58 million chickens and turkeys in the United States since February 2022.
The chickens won’t, however, be on the dinner table any time soon: Regulatory testing and approvals are required before gene-edited chickens can be considered safe for consumption, and this process carries an estimated timeline of about 20 years.
Now here are the daily statistics for Friday, October 20.
As of Friday morning, the world has recorded 696.82 million Covid-19 cases, an increase of 0.06 million in the past day, and 6.93 million deaths, according to Worldometer, a service that tracks such information. In addition, 668.68 million people worldwide have recovered from the virus, an increase of 0.02 million.
The reader should note that infrequent reporting from some sources may appear as spikes in new case figures or death tolls.
Worldwide, the number of active coronavirus cases as of Friday at press time is 21,216,175, an increase of 56,000. Out of that figure, 99.8%, 21,178,091, are considered mild, and 0.2%, or 38,084, are listed as critical. The percentage of cases considered critical has not changed over the past eight months.
Since the start of the pandemic, the United States has, as of Friday, recorded 109 million cases, a higher figure than any other country, and a death toll of 1.18 million. India has the world’s second highest number of officially recorded cases, 45 million, and a reported death toll of 531,930.
The newest data from Russia’s Rosstat state statistics service showed that, at the end of July 2022, the number of Covid or Covid-related deaths since the start of the pandemic there in April 2020 is now 823,623, giving the country the world’s second highest pandemic-related death toll, behind the United States. Rosstat last reported that 3,284 people died from the coronavirus or related causes in July 2022, down from 5,023 in June, 7,008 in May and 11,583 in April.
Meanwhile, France is the country with the third highest number of cases, with 40.14 million, and Germany is in the number four slot, with 38.53 million total cases.
Brazil, which has recorded the third highest number of deaths as a result of the virus, 706,276, has recorded 37.86 million cases, placing it in the number five slot.
The other five countries with total case figures over the 20 million mark are South Korea, with 34.57 million cases, as number six; Japan, with 33.8 million cases placing it in the number seven slot; and Italy, with 26.17 million, as number eight, as well as the United Kingdom, with 24.78 million, and Russia, with 23.08 million, as nine and ten respectively.
In the United States, in the week ending October 7, 2023, the test positivity rate was – based on data released on October 13 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – 9.5%, a figure that is down 0.7% from the previous 7-day period, while the percentage of emergency department visits that were diagnosed as SARS-CoV-2 was 1.3%, a figure that is down 11.9%.
The number of people admitted to hospital in the United States due to SARS-CoV-2 in the same 7-day period was 16,158, a figure that is down 5%. Meanwhile, the percentage of deaths due to SARS-CoV-2 was 2.5%, a figure that is up 4.2% over the same period.
Some 70.5% of the world population has received at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine by Friday, according to Our World in Data, an online scientific publication that tracks such information. So far, 13.51 billion doses of the vaccine have been administered on a global basis and 43,309 doses are now administered each day.
Meanwhile, only 32.6% of people in low-income countries have received one dose, while in countries such as Canada, China, Denmark, France, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States, at least 75% of the population has received at least one dose of vaccine.
Only a handful of the world’s poorest countries – Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia and Nepal – have reached the 70% mark in vaccinations. Many countries, however, are under 20% and, in countries such as Haiti, Senegal, and Tanzania, for example, vaccination rates remain at or below 10%.
In addition, with the beginning of vaccinations in North Korea in late September, Eritrea remains the only country in the world that has not administered vaccines in any significant number.
Chủ đề: Coronavirus, Obama