Welcome to the latest edition of Investigative Roundup, highlighting some of the best investigative reporting on healthcare each week.
How U.K. Doc Linked Clots to AstraZeneca Vaccine
As the CDC and FDA on Tuesday recommended a pause in use of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine, The Guardian reported how a British doctor identified the link between the rare clotting issue and the similar AstraZeneca vaccine.
Marie Scully, MD, a consultant hematologist at University College London Hospital, told The Guardian that she had seen patients with blood clots in the brain and low platelets before, but there was no reason to see the condition in a young woman in her 30s whom she treated in early March.
“It didn’t make sense,” Scully told The Guardian. “Now when you have blood clots in the brain like that there’s always a cause, and it was difficult to pinpoint the cause. … It didn’t fit our normal diagnostic boxes, let’s say.”
She and other doctors thought the case and two others appeared similar to heparin-induced thrombocytopenia — a rare condition in which the anticoagulant triggers the immune system to produce antibodies that deplete platelets while also causing thrombosis. Even though the individuals hadn’t been given heparin, Scully decided to test them for the PF4 antibody triggered by it.
All three tests were positive, meaning there was a diagnostic test for such cases and treatment going forward could be specialized.
The trio of patients had just one thing in common: recently having the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine. Britain’s chief medical officer and chief scientific adviser were notified, along with the country’s drugs regulator. So were other hospitals.
Now, a working group of hematologists meets daily to offer physicians guidance on identifying and treating these patients. In turn, the doctors report any new cases. “We get all the cases, discuss them, discuss treatment and then it’s immediately fed into the regulators, I believe it really is exemplary,” Scully told The Guardian.
Redfield Joins Ventilation Company
Former CDC Director Robert Redfield, MD, has joined Big Ass Fans, a company that charges $9,450 for fans with ion-generating technology it says kills SARS-CoV-2, Kaiser Health News reported.
Redfield lends his scientific credibility to a technology that academic air quality experts have questioned, KHN reported.
He follows in the recent footsteps of former White House coronavirus response coordinator Deborah Birx, MD, who signed on with the company ActivePure last month. It also touts virus-killing technology and also sells some devices that don’t comply with certain indoor air quality rules, KHN reported, citing its own investigation.
Academic researchers specializing in indoor air quality say industry-funded studies of the purported antiviral technology often involve tests in small spaces not reflective of the conditions in large rooms. These studies also fail to make it clear whether the artificially generated ions are responsible for COVID-related air quality improvement, versus more prosaic aspects of the technology such as filters or simple air movement.
“There’s no other way to say it — it’s completely unproven whether these devices would work in a real-world setting,” Timothy Bertram, PhD, a chemistry professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told KHN.
Supporters of the devices — including Redfield — have pointed to their potential for making places that people live, work, and conduct other activities safer during the ongoing public health emergency.
Trump’s HHS Cheered Anti-Science Victories
Trump HHS officials made deliberate efforts to change scientists’ reports on COVID-19, and celebrated with each other when they succeeded, The Washington Post reported.
Efforts to soften certain CDC reports were aimed at better aligning them with President Trump’s more optimistic messages about the pandemic, The Post reported, citing newly released documents from congressional investigators.
“Even as career government scientists worked to combat the virus, a cadre of Trump appointees was attempting to blunt the scientists’ messages, edit their findings, and equip the president with an alternate set of talking points,” The Post wrote.
Last September, science adviser Paul Alexander, PhD, wrote to HHS public affairs chief Michael Caputo and patted himself on the back for convincing CDC officials to change the language in their reports on different occasions, The Post reported, citing an email obtained by the House’s select subcommittee on the pandemic.
Alexander wrote that his success in pressuring CDC officials to edit the opening sentence of a report about virus spread among younger people was a “‘small victory but a victory nonetheless and yippee!!!'” He also turned to White House adviser Scott Atlas, MD, for help in disputing a CDC report on COVID-19 deaths among younger people, The Post reported.
Officials including Alexander also strategized about how to help Trump argue for ending restrictions on businesses as scientists warned about the risks of doing so.
Alexander left HHS in September when Caputo, his boss, took medical leave after sharing conspiracy theories and urging Trump supporters to stock up on ammunition.
Source: MedicalNewsToday.com
