Mary Wilson
Well-known member
August 19, 20204:21 PM ET
SYDNEY LUPKIN
One of the few treatment options for patients seriously ill with COVID-19 is the antiviral drug remdesivir. Authorized by the Food and Drug Administration in May for emergency use in the pandemic, remdesivir is in short supply. The federal government has taken on the responsibility for deciding where vials of the medicine should go.
Between July 6 and July 19, the federal Department of Health and Human Services allocated shipments of remdesivir to 31 states.
North Carolina wasn't one of them.
... Each week in July and early August, some states and territories were earmarked less remdesivir than they were offered the week before or none at all, even as their number of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 was trending upward, an NPR analysis found. Meanwhile, some states were allocated enough remdesivir to treat every hospitalized COVID-19 patient more than once that week.
In the first full week of August, HHS allocated enough remdesivir to Vermont for it to treat all of its hospitalized COVID-19 patients nearly six times, according to an analysis of HHS allocation and estimated hospitalization data, using a standard five-day course of the drug.
HHS said it offered Vermont enough remdesivir for 51 patients that week, representing "only a fraction" of its hospitalized COVID-19 patients the previous week, when it made the determination. But according to HHS data, Vermont hasn't had more than 19 estimated patients battling the coronavirus in the hospital on any one day since July 1. When asked about this, an HHS spokesperson explained that there were many more additional "suspected" cases that it took into consideration but they aren't included in the estimates available in the public dataset.
... Heather Pierce, senior director for science policy and regulatory counsel of the Association of American Medical Colleges, said she thinks HHS is allocating remdesivir "with the best of intentions." But a lack of overall transparency and confusion surrounding how to submit data properly to HHS could cause mismatches between remdesivir allocations and need.
"It's both a relative success story and also a cautionary tale," she said. "By August of 2020, we should be very, very good at this and we're not."
... Asked why HHS doesn't make public all data and formulas used to determine allocation, a spokesperson said that "any entity that plays a role in the allocation or distribution of remdesivir," including health departments, can have access to the data. HHS and the assistant secretary for preparedness and response also do weekly calls with state health officials and national health care associations, so they can ask questions.
But that leaves a lot of people out of the loop.
"The information that's being used to make those determinations is not equally accessible to all," said Pierce of the Association of American Medical Colleges.
https://www.npr.org/sections/health...hare&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social
SYDNEY LUPKIN
One of the few treatment options for patients seriously ill with COVID-19 is the antiviral drug remdesivir. Authorized by the Food and Drug Administration in May for emergency use in the pandemic, remdesivir is in short supply. The federal government has taken on the responsibility for deciding where vials of the medicine should go.
Between July 6 and July 19, the federal Department of Health and Human Services allocated shipments of remdesivir to 31 states.
North Carolina wasn't one of them.
... Each week in July and early August, some states and territories were earmarked less remdesivir than they were offered the week before or none at all, even as their number of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 was trending upward, an NPR analysis found. Meanwhile, some states were allocated enough remdesivir to treat every hospitalized COVID-19 patient more than once that week.
In the first full week of August, HHS allocated enough remdesivir to Vermont for it to treat all of its hospitalized COVID-19 patients nearly six times, according to an analysis of HHS allocation and estimated hospitalization data, using a standard five-day course of the drug.
HHS said it offered Vermont enough remdesivir for 51 patients that week, representing "only a fraction" of its hospitalized COVID-19 patients the previous week, when it made the determination. But according to HHS data, Vermont hasn't had more than 19 estimated patients battling the coronavirus in the hospital on any one day since July 1. When asked about this, an HHS spokesperson explained that there were many more additional "suspected" cases that it took into consideration but they aren't included in the estimates available in the public dataset.
... Heather Pierce, senior director for science policy and regulatory counsel of the Association of American Medical Colleges, said she thinks HHS is allocating remdesivir "with the best of intentions." But a lack of overall transparency and confusion surrounding how to submit data properly to HHS could cause mismatches between remdesivir allocations and need.
"It's both a relative success story and also a cautionary tale," she said. "By August of 2020, we should be very, very good at this and we're not."
... Asked why HHS doesn't make public all data and formulas used to determine allocation, a spokesperson said that "any entity that plays a role in the allocation or distribution of remdesivir," including health departments, can have access to the data. HHS and the assistant secretary for preparedness and response also do weekly calls with state health officials and national health care associations, so they can ask questions.
But that leaves a lot of people out of the loop.
"The information that's being used to make those determinations is not equally accessible to all," said Pierce of the Association of American Medical Colleges.
https://www.npr.org/sections/health...hare&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social