Overnight Health Care — Presented by Rare Access Action Project — Fauci says no need yet for modified vaccine
Welcome to Wednesday’s Overnight Health Care, where we’re following the latest moves on policy and news affecting your health. Subscribe here: digital-release.thehill.com/newsletter-signup.
While touring the damage from the Kentucky tornado, President Biden joked with a Green Bay Packers fan: “Tell that quarterback he’s got to get his vaccine.” Aaron Rodgers, you may remember, is “immunized” but not actually vaccinated against COVID-19.
Some small bit of good news about the omicron variant: So far, it appears a variant-specific booster shot isn’t needed, and the protection from existing vaccine boosters hold up well.
For The Hill, we’re Peter Sullivan (psullivan@digital-release.thehill.com), Nathaniel Weixel (nweixel@digital-release.thehill.com) and Justine Coleman (jcoleman@digital-release.thehill.com). Write to us with tips and feedback, and follow us on Twitter: @PeterSullivan4, @NateWeixel and @JustineColeman8.
Let’s get started.
Omicron not derailing US vaccine strategy
No big change-up in the composition of the vaccines is imminent to fight omicron, President Biden’s chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci said Wednesday.
Fauci said at this point there is no need for a modified vaccine specifically to fight the omicron variant, instead urging people to get a booster shot of the existing vaccine.
“Our booster vaccine regimens work against omicron,” Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert, said at a press briefing. “At this point there is no need for a variant-specific booster.”
Vaccine makers like Pfizer said that they had started work on a modified vaccine for omicron soon after it was discovered in case it was needed, and that it could be available in less than 100 days. But as more data has emerged, there have been some reassuring signs about the effectiveness of three doses of the existing vaccines against omicron, though protection from two doses significantly falls off.
Not having to implement a new vaccine could eliminate many logistical and supply hurdles to the vaccination effort.
Data so far on current vaccines: Fauci said the omicron variant “undoubtedly compromises the effects” of two doses of the Moderna or Pfizer vaccines in preventing infection with the omicron variant. Effectiveness of the Pfizer vaccine with two doses fell to just 33 percent in a South African study, though there was better protection against severe disease, at 70 percent.
Early studies have shown much stronger protection after three doses, though. Early data from the U.K. showed effectiveness against infection with three doses rose back to 75 percent, from about 30 percent after two doses.
Vaccine mandate saga stretches on in courts
A federal appeals court on Wednesday effectively revived a Biden administration vaccine mandate for health workers at hospitals that receive federal funding in roughly half of the U.S.
The procedural ruling by the New Orleans-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit temporarily scaled back a nationwide injunction put in place by a Louisiana-based federal judge late last month.
The move notched a modest and tentative win for the Biden administration following a series of legal setbacks to efforts to blunt the effects of a global pandemic that has killed roughly 800,000 people in the U.S.
At issue is a Department of Health and Human Services vaccine mandate for most workers at health care facilities that receive Medicare or Medicaid, which has been subject to numerous lawsuits since its November rollout.
The Biden administration maintains that the rule is necessary to slow the spread of COVID-19 among millions of health care workers and Medicare and Medicaid patients.
Critics argue the policy could lead to staffing shortages given the number of vaccine-opposed workers affected.
A MESSAGE FROM RAAP
Tell Congress to protect rare disease patients
Right now, politicians need a win, and rare disease patients are going to lose. Congress is putting huge cost increases on the development of treatments for rare diseases – from 400-800%. Learn more.
US health spending topped $4 trillion in 2020
Your daily reminder that the U.S. spends a lot of money on health care….The United States spent more than $4 trillion on health care for the first time in 2020, as government spending in response to COVID-19 drove higher growth in health expenditures.
The report released by the Office of the Actuary at the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on Wednesday found U.S. health care spending increased 9.7 percent in 2020 to $4.1 trillion, or $12,530 per person.
That growth rate is significantly higher than the roughly 5 percent growth in health spending in recent years. The report, published in Health Affairs, explains that by pointing to the massive 36 percent increase in government spending on health care in response to COVID-19.
That includes the $122 billion Congress allocated for the Provider Relief Fund to help hospitals deal with the pandemic, as well as increased Medicaid spending.
Amid unprecedented economic upheaval due to the pandemic, enrollment in job-based health insurance declined by 2.3 million people, while Medicaid enrollment jumped up by 3.7 million people.
With that safety net in place, the number of uninsured fell slightly, from 31.8 million to 31.2 million, the report said.
“The substantial growth in health care spending was the largest since 2002 and driven by the unprecedented government response to the global pandemic,” said Micah Hartman, a statistician in the CMS Office of the Actuary.
MOST BREAKTHROUGH HOSPITALIZATIONS INVOLVE SENIORS
A large majority of fully vaccinated patients hospitalized and diagnosed COVID-19 between June and September were seniors, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) analysis released Wednesday.
Almost 70 percent of fully vaccinated patients admitted to hospitals with confirmed COVID-19 were aged 65 and older, making up a “disproportionately large share” of breakthrough hospitalizations.
Ten percent of breakthrough hospitalizations occurred among those younger than 50, and one-fifth occurred among those aged 50 to 64.
But unvaccinated COVID-19 hospital patients skewed younger, with 41 percent of cases involving patients younger than 50 and 30 percent involving those aged 50 to 64.
Seniors who experienced breakthrough cases also appeared to have shorter hospital stays on average. The median stay for fully vaccinated patients was 5.6 days, compared to 6.7 days for those who were unvaccinated.
A larger portion of fully vaccinated hospital patients had a comorbidity than unvaccinated COVID-19 patients. But less breakthrough patients had COVID-related respiratory complications or treatments, indicating they may have been admitted for “unrelated reasons.”
“If this is the case, it would mean that the gap in risk of COVID-19 hospitalization between vaccinated and unvaccinated people is even greater than previously known,” KFF noted.
VACCINE ALLIANCE CHIEF WARNS OF INEQUALITY 2.0
Vaccine alliance Gavi’s chief executive warned that countries “hoarding” vaccines and withholding donations because of the new omicron variant could result in “inequality 2.0,” The Associated Press reported.
The head of Gavi, Seth Berkley, said that the rise of the new omicron variant, first discovered in South Africa, has resulted in a rush to get booster shots in countries where vaccines are readily available. He added that donors are apprehensive to give their doses amid uncertainty.
“We also are beginning to see donors not wanting to donate their doses as fast as they might have because of the uncertainty now of where we are,” Berkley told the AP.
“Of course, our long-term concern is, if it turns out that new variant vaccines are required, that there may be an ‘Inequity 2.0’ where we see wealthy countries hoard those vaccines once again, like we saw at the beginning of the pandemic,” he added.
Boosters are now available for all Americans over the age of 16.
A MESSAGE FROM RAAP
Tell Congress to protect rare disease patients
Right now, politicians need a win, and rare disease patients are going to lose. Congress is putting huge cost increases on the development of treatments for rare diseases – from 400-800%. Learn more.
WHAT WE’RE READING
- C.D.C. Virus Tests Were Contaminated and Poorly Designed, Agency Says (New York Times)
- Will we always need Covid-19 boosters? Experts have theories (Stat)
- Princeton, other colleges shifting classes and holding finals online due to Covid-19 increase (CNN)
STATE BY STATE
- COVID-19 hospitalizations reach new record as Maine CDC reports 1,504 new cases, 2 more deaths (Portland Press Herald)
- California’s reinstated indoor mask mandate takes effect as COVID-19 cases rise (ABC7)
- Covid Outbreak Among Cleveland Browns Continues N.F.L. Surge (New York Times)
OP-EDS IN THE HILL
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