Monday Roundup

David Ermer–Congress, COVID-19, COVID-19 vaccine, U.S. Healthcare–

In federal personnel news —

  • Politico reports that earlier today the Senate confirmed acting Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought to be permanent OMB Director.
  • Federal News Radio reports that the President intends to nominate John Gibbs to be permanent Director of the Office of Personnel Management. Mr. Gibbs “currently serves as the acting assistant secretary for community planning and development at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

It’s worth noting that the Presidential inauguration will occur six months from today.

On the COVID-19 front —

  • The Wall Street Journal reports that “The prospects of successfully developing a coronavirus vaccine as soon as this year were buoyed Monday when three of the world’s leading candidates reported positive early trial data. Vaccines being developed by University of Oxford researchers and AstraZeneca PLC; PfizerInc. and German partner BioNTech BNTX 3.46% SE; and China’s CanSino Biologics all reported fresh updates showing their shots generated immune responses and were safe to use.
  • Fierce Biotech reports that a double blind human patient study of U.K. manufacturer Synairgen’s inhaled COVID-19 treatment against a placebo produced encouraging results. “The [preliminary] data showed those who were given SNG001 [a nebulizer interferon beta protein] had a 79% lower risk of developing severe disease compared to placebo * * * with patients who got that drug also more than twice as likely to recover from COVID-19 than those on a dummy med.” Synairgen’s press release advises that “‘Further analysis will be conducted over the coming weeks and reported in due course.”

Fingers remain crossed for the vaccines and the new treatment.

Health IT Analytics discusses how “geographic data has helped leaders better understand where to allocate population health resources during the COVID-19 pandemic.” Given the mantra that all healthcare is local, it only makes sense that geographic data should be helpful for this purpose. For example,

To better understand where to direct resources, researchers at NYU Grossman School of Medicine recently developed a city-oriented COVID Local Risk Index. The tool calculates COVID-19 risk down to the hyperlocal, neighborhood level by relying on key health, economic, and social data at the census tract level. The index also allows for comparison of COVID-19 risk across other cities and between neighborhoods.

Well done.