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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new data last week that depicts how many Americans who have died from COVID-19 also had other contributing conditions...According to the report, only 6% of deaths have COVID-19 as the only cause mentioned, revealing that 94% of patients who died from coronavirus also had other “health conditions and contributing causes.”...The CDC explains that their data uses provisional death counts to “deliver the most complete and accurate picture of lives lost to COVID-19.”...These numbers are based on death certificates, which the organization says are the most reliable source of data. Death certificates reportedly contain information that is not available anywhere else and includes comorbid conditions, race and ethnicity, and place of death...The CDC says provisional death counts may not match counts from other sources, such as numbers from county health departments, because death certificates take time to be completed, states report at different rates, it takes officials extra time to code COVID-19 deaths, and because other reporting systems use different definitions or methods for counting deaths...The organization adds that provisional data is not yet complete, provisional counts are not final and are subject to change, and that death counts should not be compared across states...READ MORE

The Department of Health and Human Services plans to spend $250 million in media communications to “defeat despair and inspire hope” around the coronavirus pandemic...an HHS document detailing the project...was sent to communications agencies to solicit bids for what would be an extremely large advertising campaign in the heart of the presidential campaign season...the campaign would tap traditional, digital and social media and partner with the sports and entertainment industries and public health groups “to deliver important public health and economic information the administration can defeat despair, inspire hope and achieve national recovery.”...While it’s not unusual for government agencies to use advertising to promote public health or raise awareness around a consumer issue, the size of the spend and its timing just ahead of the presidential election raised eyebrows....READ MORE

Is Gilead, the maker of Remdesivir, waging war on HCQ (hydroxychloroquine)? Attacks on the drug have been continuous ever since Dr. Didier Raoult used this quinine derivative to save the lives of COVID-19 patients last March. The first attempt to discredit HCQ was a hastily compiled Veterans Administration hospital system study last April. Notably, one of the study’s authors had in the past received numerous grants from Gilead...After deep flaws in the VA study were exposed, Surgisphere came to the rescue in May with a “15,000 patient” megastudy allegedly compiled from hospitals all over the world. This strategy succeeded: Following its publication in the Lancet and the NEJM, all outpatient use of HCQ was severely restricted...When the Surgisphere scam was exposed, both articles were quietly retracted and the editor-in-chief of the Lancet tried to wash his hands of this embarrassing incident by denouncing Surgisphere’s “monumental fraud.”...READ MORE

The COVID-19 pandemic cost Florida’s hospitals an estimated $3.8 billion in financial losses through the end of June, a new report from the Florida Hospital Association found...The report...also accounted for federal relief funds that were intended to help providers weather the financial crisis caused by COVID-19. The association said more funding is needed to help ensure the state’s hospitals are ready for a second surge of COVID-19.,,She said hospitals have faced increased staffing costs, lost revenue from delayed elective procedures and higher costs for personal protective equipment (PPE), testing supplies and vital drugs such as remdesivir...READ MORE

Dozens of major hospitals across the U.S. are grappling with whether to ignore a federal decision allowing broader emergency use of blood plasma from recovered COVID-19 patients to treat the disease in favor of dedicating their resources to a gold-standard clinical trial that could help settle the science for good...As many as 45 hospitals from coast to coast have expressed interest in collaborating on a randomized, controlled clinical trial...Officials at some hospitals said they are considering committing only to the clinical trial—and either avoiding or minimizing use of convalescent plasma through an emergency use authorization issued...by the federal Food and Drug Administration...The response comes amid concerns that the Trump administration pressured the FDA into approving broader use of convalescent plasma...A National Institutes of Health panel this week countered the FDA’s decision, saying that the therapy “should not be considered the standard of care for the treatment of patients with COVID-19” and that well-designed trials are needed to determine whether the therapy is helpful. Data so far suggests the treatment could be beneficial, but it’s not definitive...READ MORE

While the world continues to navigate the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, our other epidemic hasn’t gone away: The rate of opioid overdoses, already a national nightmare, has accelerated since the onset of COVID-19...It’s time to end this continuing tragedy. One of the ways to do this is by making naloxone...a safe, effective and use-specific antidote to opioid overdose — as common among bystanders as CPR...Narcan can be purchased in its generic or branded forms by anyone, without a prescription, at any participating pharmacy...In order to stem our national overdose epidemic, Narcan must be omnipresent in our public places, in our workplaces and schools, and in our homes...Years ago, CPR became a public health imperative. CPR became common after the American Red Cross, the American Heart Association and other major national organizations assumed the task of training. In today’s world, Narcan needs to have similar importance...As we observe International Overdose Awareness Day, it’s time to establish a new public health priority. Surgeon General Jerome Adams, in the first Surgeon General advisory of its kind in the past 15 years, is urging every American to carry Narcan, and be trained to administer it...READ MORE

Humana has filed suit against Florida-based telehealth company QuivvyTech, saying it was defrauded out of millions of dollars...filed in Southern Florida district court, QuivvyTech telemarketers would cold-call Humana members and ask them questions about common ailments. They would then wire that information to physicians who were in the scheme to secure prescriptions for pricey, unneeded creams...The physicians would prescribe these creams without ever speaking to the patient directly, according to the lawsuit. The prescriptions would then be wired to pharmacies that were also active participants in the scheme to be dispensed to members...One doctor, for instance, submitted 1,600 claims through the scheme to which Humana paid out more than $1.1 million, the insurer alleges in the suit...A New York pharmacy submitted 2,100 claims for one type of cream, for which Humana paid more than $2.5 million, the insurer alleges...READ MORE

The government in China’s far northwest Xinjiang region is resorting to draconian measures to combat the coronavirus, including physically locking residents in homes, imposing quarantines of more than 40 days and arresting those who do not comply. Furthermore, in what experts call a breach of medical ethics, some residents are being coerced into swallowing traditional Chinese medicine, according to government notices, social media posts and interviews with three people in quarantine in Xinjiang. There is a lack of rigorous clinical data showing traditional Chinese medicine works against the virus, and one of the herbal remedies used in Xinjiang, Qingfei Paidu, includes ingredients banned in Germany, Switzerland, the U.S. and other countries for high levels of toxins and carcinogens...READ MORE

The Trump administration is now going to require all hospitals to submit daily critical information on COVID-19, including bed capacity and the availability of essential supplies...The Centers for Medicare & Medicare Services released an emergency regulation...calling for the mandatory reporting. The agency also posted new requirements for lab reporting and revised a policy for physician and pharmacist orders for COVID-19 tests...“While many hospitals are voluntarily reporting this information now, not all are,” CMS said in a release. “The new rules make reporting a requirement of participation in the Medicare & Medicaid programs.”...READ MORE

California-based Sutter Health suffered an $857 million loss in the first half of the year thanks to major declines in revenue due to the COVID-19 pandemic...“The need for Sutter to adjust its entire integrated network to respond to COVID-19 has been, and continues to be, a costly and difficult endeavor,”...Sutter experienced rapid declines in patient revenue in the first half of the year as states required the cancellation of elective procedures and patients were hesitant to come back to the hospital...Patient revenue from commercial plans suffered the most, generating $2.7 billion in revenue, a $543 million drop compared with the first half of 2019...Medicare revenue also declined by $179 million in the first half...Like other health systems, Sutter Health got $400 million from a $175 billion provider relief fund passed by Congress as part of the CARES Act...The system also got $1 billion from the Medicare Advance and Accelerated Payment program, which gave out advance Medicare payments to hospitals...Facilities have to start repaying the loans as soon as this month...READ MORE