Apparently Dunkin is making iced coffee flavored jelly beans. Did you know who?
Today we will look at a new type of COVID-19 test that demonstrates the technological advances in testing from the early days of the pandemic.
Welcome to overnight health care, We are following up on the latest developments in policies and news that affect your health. The Hill is Peter Sullivan, Nathaniel Weixel and Joseph Choi. Does anyone forward this newsletter to you? Subscribe here.
FDA approves first COVID-19 breath test
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the first test to detect COVID-19 through exhaled breath for emergency use.
The InspectIR COVID-19 Drinking Detector is about the same size as a carrying baggage, but uses a technique called gas chromatography gas mass spectrometry to bind five volatile organic compounds to the coronavirus during human breathing. Can be identified. According to the FDA, results will be available within 3 minutes.
Authorities said a study of 2,409 people, including both asymptomatic and asymptomatic, had a test specificity of 99.3%, measuring the proportion of correctly identified negative test samples.
The FDA also noted that the InspectIR COVID-19 drinking detector had a sensitivity of 91.2%, which measures the proportion of positively identified test samples.
Nevertheless, the health agency said it was necessary to use a molecular test to confirm the positive test results returned by the COVID-19 breath test.
“Today’s approval is yet another example of the rapid innovation that occurs in the COVID-19 diagnostic test,” said Jeff Schlen, director of the FDA’s Device and Radiation Health Center, in a statement.
Approximately 100 Inspect IRCOVID-19 liquor detectors are expected to be manufactured weekly, with the FDA stating that it can be used to test approximately 160 samples per day.
Please check this out for details.
FDA to regulate e-cigarettes with synthetic nicotine
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is currently overseeing the regulation of e-cigarette products from vapor-breathing companies operating under loopholes closed by new legislation.
A law that came into force on Thursday gives the FDA the power to regulate e-cigarettes and other products that use synthetic nicotine. This is a move to evade FDA regulations and sell products to teenagers for steam-breathing companies that use manufactured nicotine.
“As I said earlier, this law closes the’loophole’that some tobacco product makers have abused to bypass FDA regulators,” FDA Commissioner Robert Caliph wrote in a tweet. I am. “We hold an e-cigarette company that uses synthetic nicotine to meet the same public health standards that we have implemented in other tobacco products.”
The news came after Congress passed a bipartisan rule last month that gave the FDA the power to regulate synthetic nicotine products.
The new law does not ban e-cigarettes and other similar products, but brings them under the same level of surveillance as e-cigarettes containing nicotine from cigarettes. The law prohibits selling products to people under the age of 21 and prohibits them from being sold as modified risk tobacco products without the permission of the FDA.
Please check this out for details.
Psychiatric disorders may increase the risk of breakthrough COVID-19
According to a new study, people who are vaccinated with COVID-19 and have a history of certain mental illnesses may be at increased risk of breakthrough infections.
Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco examined data from 263,697 U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs patients who completed the vaccine and underwent at least one COVID-19 test. Within the last five years, more than 51% have had at least one psychiatric diagnosis and 14.8% have experienced a breakthrough COVID-19 infection.
Patients over the age of 65 with substance abuse disorders, psychiatric disorders, bipolar disorders, adjustment disorders, and anxiety increased the risk of breakthrough COVID-19 infection by up to 24%, while patients under the age of 65 , The risk of breakthrough cases was 11% higher than that of non-patients. History of mental illness.
“Our study suggests that the increase in breakthrough infections in people with mental illness cannot be fully explained by sociodemographic factors or pre-existing conditions,” the study said. Author Aoife O’Donovan states. “Post-vaccination immunity can weaken more quickly or more strongly for people with mental illness, and / or they can have less protection against new mutants.”
“It is important to consider mental health in combination with other risk factors, and some patients should prioritize booster immunity and other important preventive efforts,” she continued.
Please check this out for details.
California delays school vaccination obligations
California maintains its COVID-19 vaccine obligations on children, Governor Governor Governor Governor Governor Governor Governor Governor (D) announced this week, but the state’s obligations will not be effective until at least next summer. ..
Newsam said he was waiting for federal health officials to approve the vaccination of young children, and five-year-olds can now be shot under emergency permits, but food and drug. The Bureau has not given final approval to give Vaccines to infants.
The California Minister of Health told The Associated Press that the state would not conduct mandates until at least July 2023.
Please check this out for details.
Dems aims to expand the scope of mother care and midwifery
On Friday, a group of Democrats in the House and Senate introduced a law to expand Medicaid to cover midwifery care to improve maternal health care.
Introduced during Black Lives Matter, the Mamas First Act amends the Social Welfare Act to provide Doula and midwives with the scope of the Medicaid program. Medicaid currently covers 40% of all births and 65% of black mothers’ births each year in the United States.
“Black mothers continue to bear the burden of our mother’s health crisis, dying three to five times as often as white mothers, so making these investments will instantly make the most vulnerable mothers. “It affects Congressman Gwen Moore (D-Wis.), The bill’s sponsor, said in a statement.
Black women are more than three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than white women, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The United States also has the highest maternal mortality rate compared to other high-income developed countries, according to a 2020 federal survey. Studies also found that the demand for access to midwives increased during the coronavirus pandemic, and several states issued urgent orders to expand midwifery services.
Please check this out for details.
🎧 TUNE-IN TO rise, Now available as a podcast. It’s politics — without screaming.
What we are reading
- Rare Severe Liver Disorders Reported to Children in the United States and Europe (NBC News)
- How the pillars from testing to treatment of the US Covid strategy are causing patients to fail (Kaiser Health News)
- South Korea will lift most COVID curbs next week as Omicron declines (Reuters)
State by state
- North Texas experts predict a slight increase in COVID-19 cases (NBC 5)
- “Game Changer”: University of Florida researchers help develop a 30-second COVID test (Fox 13)
- Boston’s COVID test positive rate passes “threshold of concern” (ABC News)
That’s it for today. Thank you for reading. Check out Hill’s Healthcare page for the latest news and coverage. See you on monday.
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