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What We’re Reading: Moderna Vaccine Deal; Virus Aerosols Isolated; COVID-19 Reappears in New Zealand
Moderna will receive over $1.5 billion for 100 million doses of its coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine candidate; researchers isolated COVID-19 from the air; New Zealand had no new cases of COVID-19 for almost 4 months.
Trump Administration Reaches Vaccine Deal With Moderna
Late Tuesday, the Trump administration announced it had reached a $1.5-billion deal with biotech giant Moderna, reports The Hill. Under the agreement terms, 100 million doses of mRNA-1273 will be manufactured and delivered, at an average cost of $15 per dose. mRNA-1273 is currently in a phase 3 study that Moderna is conducting with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority. Enrollment for the COVE study should be complete by September.
Can COVID-19 Spread From Beyond 6 Feet?
Aerosols, or airborne floating respiratory droplets measuring up to 5 mm, containing live SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, were isolated from up to 16 feet away in a carefully controlled experiment conducted by researchers at the University of Florida, according to The New York Times. In the experiment, the researchers increased the size of the aerosols by using pure water vapor to enable their capture from a room in a COVID-19 patient ward. Questions remain, however, if the amount of live virus captured can cause infection, and the results have not yet undergone peer review.
New Zealand Sees the Return of COVID-19
For 102 days, New Zealand had no new cases of locally transmitted COVID-19, details Reuters, until 4 members of 1 family tested positive in Wellington, causing the city to return to lockdown and social distancing measures to be reimposed across the country. Origins of this new virus cluster remain under investigation, with officials investigating the possibility it may have originated from imported freight. So far, New Zealand has just 22 deaths from close to 1500 cases, for a 1.5% case fatality rate.
Urticaria Diagnosis Challenged by Overlapping Pruritic Skin Conditions
April 23rd 2025Urticaria is complicated to diagnose by its symptomatic overlap with other skin conditions and the frequent misclassification in literature of distinct pathologies like vasculitic urticaria and bullous pemphigus.
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New Research Challenges Assumptions About Hospital-Physician Integration, Medicare Patient Mix
April 22nd 2025On this episode of Managed Care Cast, Brady Post, PhD, lead author of a study published in the April 2025 issue of The American Journal of Managed Care®, challenges the claim that hospital-employed physicians serve a more complex patient mix.
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Personalized Care Key as Tirzepatide Use Expands Rapidly
April 15th 2025Using commercial insurance claims data and the US launch of tirzepatide as their dividing point, John Ostrominski, MD, Harvard Medical School, and his team studied trends in the use of both glucose-lowering and weight-lowering medications, comparing outcomes between adults with and without type 2 diabetes.
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ACOs’ Focus on Rooting Out Fraud Aligns With CMS Vision Under Oz
April 23rd 2025Accountable care organizations (ACOs) are increasingly playing the role of data sleuths as they identify and report trends of anomalous billing in hopes of salvaging their shared savings. This mission dovetails with that of CMS, which under the new administration plans to prioritize rooting out fraud, waste, and abuse.
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