Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
UK Study Finds It's Safe To Co-Administer Flu And Covid Shots
A UK study yesterday in The Lancet finds that flu and COVID-19 vaccines can be safely co-administered. Led by researchers from the Weston NHS Foundation Trust and the University of Bristol, the multicenter phase 4 clinical trial involved 679 adults at 12 UK sites. Participants were randomly assigned to receive one of three inactivated age-appropriate seasonal flu vaccines and either the second dose of a Pfizer/BioNTech (BNT162b2) or AstraZeneca/Oxford (ChAdOx1) COVID-19 vaccine or a placebo from Apr 1 to Jun 26, 2021. (11/12)
A US meta-analysis and systematic review of data on 4.3 million patients analyzed in 68 cohort and cross-sectional studies shows that, relative to White people, Black, Hispanic, and Asian populations were at higher risk for COVID-19 infection and admission to an intensive care unit (ICU) but were less likely to die of the disease. The study, published yesterday in JAMA Network Open, was designed to uncover the link between socioeconomic determinants of health and racial disparities in COVID-19 outcomes. (Van Beusekom, 11/12)
The past two months have brought extremely good news in the fight against Covid-19. Two different oral treatments have proved effective at both preventing people newly diagnosed with Covid-19 from entering the hospital and from dying. “We’re accelerating our path out of this pandemic,” President Biden said after data on the second Covid pill became available. The wide availability of oral drugs could make Covid-19 less lethal, making it less risky for people to return to in-person work and to their normal lives. (11/15)
In other medical research news —
The largest-ever study of the psychedelic drug psilocybin revealed Tuesday that the drug is effective in treating serious depression, Stat News reports. The Compass Pathways study, which is the "largest randomized, controlled, double-blind trial of psilocybin," found that patients who were given the highest dose of the drug had a significant decrease in depressive symptoms as compared to the placebo group, per Stat. (Doherty, 11/13)
As Americans spent more time at home in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, some studies have shown they spent more time sitting, too. And, according to research from Iowa State University's Wellbeing and Exercise Laboratory, that extra sedentary time is associated with higher rates of depression. (Rosario, 11/12)
A new study found that the number of Americans able to keep their blood pressure at healthy levels dropped significantly in 2020 —either because people avoided the doctor's office or were unable to get care because their physicians closed their offices temporarily during the pandemic. The research, presented Saturday at an annual meeting of the American Heart Association, showed that on average, only 53.3 percent of adults in the U.S. had their blood pressure under control last year, compared to 60.5 percent in 2019. (Edwards, 11/13)
