Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Researchers ID Covid Variants That Resist Antiviral Treatments
A study conducted by US and Austrian researchers has identified SARS-CoV-2 variants with resistance to widely used antiviral treatments. The study, published yesterday in Science Advances, found that several naturally occurring variants of Mpro, the main protease of SARS-CoV-2 that is essential for virus replication and is the main target of antivirals, carry amino acid mutations that confer resistance to nirmatrelvir (the main component of Paxlovid) and ensitrelvir, which received regulatory approval in Japan in February. Phylogenetic analysis indicates that these variants predate the use of these drugs, have appeared multiple times independently in different parts of the world, and are capable of spreading. (Dall, 3/30)
More on the spread of covid —
Key protocols used on film and TV sets to limit the spread of COVID-19 are set to end in May, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) said in a statement Thursday. (Sakoui, 3/30)
The state’s highest court on Thursday handed a victory to Mayor Michelle Wu in her legal battle with city unions over her vaccine mandate, ruling the city of Boston had proper authority in December 2021 to require municipal workers to get inoculated against COVID-19. (Andersen, 3/30)
As the world continues to move toward a post-pandemic life — and as the World Health Organization (WHO) recently predicted that COVID-19 will end in 2023 as a public health emergency — Americans may have reached a state of "vaccine fatigue," data suggests. (Rudy, 3/30)
A study of about 150 babies born to women who had COVID-19 during pregnancy found growth patterns that have been linked to developing obesity and other health problems. A research team based at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) reported their findings yesterday in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism. (Schnirring, 3/30)
