Important update on Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine booster shots

Important update on COVID-19 vaccine booster shots

If you previously got 2 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, you can get a booster shot of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine if you fall into one of these groups: You're 65 and older, You're 18+ and have certain underlying medical conditions, or You're 18+ and work or live in a high-risk setting. You can get your booster shot at least 6 months after you complete your second dose of the Pfizer vaccine. The booster shot can help strengthen and prolong your protection against COVID-19. Learn More Visit CDC.gov for more information on other groups already vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine that may be eligible for a booster shot. Remember: Medicare covers a Pfizer vaccine booster shot at no cost to you. Sincerely, The Medicare Team

This message is paid for by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It was created and distributed by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

Arthritis Patients Share How It Hurts

Arthritis Patients Share How It Hurts

09/30/2021 02:59 PM EDT

At the Arthritis Foundation, we focus on alleviating the pain and disability caused by arthritis. We have a wealth of resources and initiatives to help you navigate your specific arthritis-related issues. Our How It Hurts report summarizes our latest findings on the impact of arthritis pain. This year’s report concentrates on three core areas: physical […]

Twin Cities patients must travel for promising COVID treatment

A persistent lack of appointment slots at health systems across the metro is forcing patients to drive far from the Twin Cities to receive a promising treatment for COVID-19. Infusions of monoclonal antibodies, an outpatient treatment for patients within 10 days of first symptoms, became available in Minnesota during late 2020. From the start, health care providers in the seven-county metro area have provided a disproportionately small share of the statewide total — less than 10% of the doses administered, according to the Minnesota Department of Health.

Lawsuit targets University of Minnesota vaccine mandate

A University of Minnesota Duluth student has filed suit challenging the university system's COVID-19 vaccine mandate for all students. The lawsuit, filed Wednesday, seeks an order halting the university's requirement that students at its five campuses be vaccinated by Oct. 8. The university, Board of Regents and University President Joan Gabel are named in the suit.

Record COVID-19 cases reported in Minnesota pre-K-12 schools

The state is recording more than 50 COVID-19 pediatric hospital admissions per week right now, federal hospital data shows.

CMS Updates Opioid Prescribing Mapping Tools with 2019 Data

Today, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released an update to the Medicare Part D Opioid Prescribing Mapping Tool and the Medicaid Opioid Prescribing Mapping Tool with data for 2019. The Opioid Prescribing Mapping Tools are interactive, web-based visualization resources that present geographic comparisons of opioid prescribing rates. The 2019 data and all previous years of the Opioid Prescribing Tools data are available from the links described below. Medicare Part D Opioid Prescribing Mapping Tool The Medicare Part D Opioid Prescribing Mapping Tool presents opioid prescribing rates at the state, county, and ZIP code levels. Medicare Part D Opioid Prescribing Rates Medicaid Opioid Prescribing Mapping Tool The Medicaid Opioid Prescribing Mapping Tool presents opioid prescribing rates at the state level. Medicaid Opioid Prescribing Rates

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has sent this CMS Data Navigator Update. To contact Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) go to our contact us page.

Many With Guardians Have 'Britney Spears' Problems, Witnesses Tell Congress

Many With Guardians Have 'Britney Spears' Problems, Witnesses Tell Congress

By Allison Bell

A Texas consultant said guardianship courts need helping getting the Social Security Administration to listen.

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The 5 Worst Ways to Withdraw From Your Retirement Accounts

Nearly Half of Parents of Adolescents Ages 12-17 Say Their Child Got a COVID-19 Vaccine Already; a Third of Parents of Children Ages 5-11 Say Their Child Will Get Vaccinated “Right Away” Once Eligible   Almost 1 in 4 Parents with Children Attending In-Person School Say a Child Had to Quarantine Since the School Year Began Due to Possible COVID-19 Exposure   Nearly half (48%) of parents of vaccine-eligible children ages 12-17 now say their child has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, a new KFF Vaccine Monitor report shows. Another 15% of those parents now say they want to “wait and see” how the vaccine works for others before their adolescent gets it, while 4% say they would get vaccinated “only if required” for school or other activities. About one in five (21%) say their adolescent child would “definitely not” get a vaccine.   Largely fielded before Pfizer’s Sept. 20 announcement about favorable results from its clinical trials for children ages 5-11, the new report shows a third (34%) of parents of children in that age group want their child to get vaccinated “right away” once eligible. A similar share (32%) wants to “wait and see,” while a quarter (24%) say their children will “definitely not” get a COVID-19 vaccine.   The report also highlights the toll that the COVID-19 pandemic is taking on students attending in-person classes this fall. Nearly a quarter (23%) of parents say that they have a child who has had to quarantine at home due to a possible COVID-19 exposure since the school year began. The includes 26% of parents with children ages 5-11 and 20% of parents with children ages 12-17.   Most parents (58%) say K-12 schools should require students and staff to wear masks, regardless of their vaccination status, while more than a third (35%) say schools should have no mask requirements. Mothers are much more likely than fathers to favor a mask requirement for all students and staff (70% vs. 42%). Among parents with a child attending in-person school, nearly seven in ten (69%) say their school is requiring all students and staff to wear masks, just one percent say masks are required only for unvaccinated individuals, and 28% say their school has no mask requirement. Most parents (73%) who say their child’s school requires all students and staff to wear masks favor that policy. Few parents of children attending in-person schools say their school offers routine testing for children who are not vaccinated (6%), and one in five (20%) say that it is offering optional testing.   Two-thirds (66%) of parents with a child attending in-person school say their school overall is doing about the right amount to limit the spread of COVID-19. Parents are somewhat more likely to say that their school is not doing enough (21%) than that their school is doing too much (11%).   Designed and analyzed by public opinion researchers at KFF, the KFF Vaccine Monitor survey was conducted from September 13-22 among a nationally representative random digit dial telephone sample of 1,519 adults, including oversamples of adults who are Black (306) or Hispanic (339). 414 parents were surveyed with a margin of error of plus or minus 6 percentage points. Interviews were conducted in English and Spanish by landline (171) and cell phone (1,348). The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points for the full sample. For results based on subgroups, the margin of sampling error may be higher.   The KFF COVID-19 Vaccine Monitor is an ongoing research project tracking the public’s attitudes and experiences with COVID-19 vaccinations. Using a combination of surveys and qualitative research, this project tracks the dynamic nature of public opinion as vaccine development and distribution unfold, including vaccine confidence and acceptance, information needs, trusted messengers and messages, as well as the public’s experiences with vaccination.   Read the Report   CONTACT: Craig Palosky | (202) 654-1369 | cpalosky@kff.org       Filling the need for trusted information on national health issues, KFF is a nonprofit organization based in San Francisco, California. kff.org  |  khn.org   Did someone forward this to you? Click here to sign up for emails from KFF. KFF 185 Berry Street Suite 2000 San Francisco, CA 94107

Road tripping to get antibodies

As COVID-19 hospitalizations soar, patients are forced to drive farther and farther away for treatment. 

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How to Invest in Healthcare Post Pandemic

"Explosive change is coming in our ability to diagnose, treat, and even cure many debilitating diseases. Indeed, a golden age could be dawning for patients and healthcare practitioners—and investors in pharmaceutical and biotech stocks."

So writes Barron's Lauren Rublin, introducing our latest Roundtable focused on the topic of healthcare and biotech investing. There's no shortage of innovation—and hype—in the sector today, and Roundtable members sat down recently to hash out the differences between the two, including plenty of large and small stock picks to play the most promising trends and technologies.

The panel began with a discussion of the current state of the Covid-19 pandemic and what it has meant for the healthcare industry, the drug development process, and more.

Here are a few highlights:

Covid-19 is still in the picture. How will the pandemic evolve from here?

Ziad Bakri, manager of the $20 billion, five-star-rated T. Rowe Price Health Science fund (PRHSX):

We are learning to live with the virus. As the population gains some level of immunity, we will probably see continued waves, but they will grow more moderate. Covid will go from pandemic to endemic. We will have to adapt our behaviors. Measures like mask-wearing in crowds will be normal, as it is in many countries in Asia. The world is forever changed, but we will figure out how to do in a safe way the vast majority of things that made us happy in the past.

Liisa Bayko, biotechnology analyst at Evercore ISI:

 I agree, but I’d note that the response to Covid differs by region. In Canada, where I was visiting family recently, life is very restricted. In the short term, we are fumbling our way through. There is still a debate about boosters, and we’ll be chasing variants for a while. We need a long-term vision.

What are the ramifications of Covid for the healthcare industry?

Stephen Berenson, managing partner of life-sciences investor Flagship Pioneering and Moderna board member:

We were caught with our pants down by Covid. There wasn’t an ounce of preparedness that any country in the world was able to bring to this problem. That is a big lesson for the future. There are going to be efforts and investments to help prepare companies against what could be the next pandemic.

Second, there was a tremendous amount of innovation around the regulatory process for getting Covid vaccines approved. Thoughtful people are going to look at those innovations and ask whether some should be incorporated in the future in the drug-review and approval process.

Finally, the two companies at the forefront of helping the world address the pandemic never sold a product prior to their Covid-19 vaccines. There was a tidal wave of skepticism around the ability of the BioNTech and Pfizer partnership, and Moderna, to do what they did. I hope people look at the power of innovative companies differently in the future.

Will the experience of Covid speed up the drug-approval process in the future?

Berenson:

I don’t want to make that prediction, but there have been innovations in the process that could be made permanent and enable approvals of safe and efficacious medicines that get to patients faster.

Chris Schott, healthcare analyst at J.P. Morgan:

I agree with Stephen on regulatory innovation. There is a debate occurring about whether the Food and Drug Administration has become less predictable. We have seen industry and regulatory agencies come together in an area like Covid, where there is huge unmet need, to think about best practices and unique paths to market. Hopefully, that can be applied more broadly in the future.

Read much more from the healthcare Roundtable's lively discussion and see members' stock picks here. 

The Nasdaq's Terrible Day

By Nicholas Jasinski |  Wednesday, September 29 Review and Preview didn’t go out last night because of a publishing error. Apologies for the delay. Here’s last night’s edition. In the meantime, this morning, stocks are attempting a comeback from yesterday’s selloff. S&P 500 futures were pointing to a 0.4% rise at Wednesday open, Nasdaq futures were up 0.5%, and Dow futures were 0.3% higher. Yielding to Pressure. Another day, another bond market-induced selloff in the stock market. Mirroring yesterday's action, the yields on U.S. Treasury securities continued to climb, weighing most on the more growth-oriented areas of the stock market. Those are the stocks that are expected to earn the bulk of their profits in the further-out future, making them more sensitive to higher interest rates, which make today's dollars relatively more valuable. Technology shares led the S&P 500 lower today, down nearly 3%, while the index as a whole shed 2%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite lost 2.8% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 1.6%. The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note rose 0.05 percentage point today, to about 1.53%, as its price declined. That yield is up nine of the past 10 trading days, to its highest level since June. It has increased by nearly a quarter of a point in that time—a small move in absolute terms, but a large one in relative terms. There are a few forces behind the bump in bond yields over the past several days. Most obvious is the slow-moving tantrum over the Federal Reserve's imminent tapering plans. The central bank's policy committee took a more hawkish tone at their last meeting, strongly suggesting that they would begin to reduce monetary policy support for the economy in the coming months by reducing their monthly purchases of Treasuries and other assets. All else equal, that will remove a big buyer from the Treasury market—prices have begun to fall and yields rise in anticipation. Federal Open Market Committee members also updated their forecasts for future interest rates after their meeting last week, which showed on average that officials see the Fed's next hiking cycle beginning next year, as opposed to in 2023 previously. Also contributing to the higher bond yields of late is a surge in energy prices. Natural gas prices have surged almost 22% over the past four trading days, to their highest level since early 2014. Brent crude oil, the international benchmark, briefly topped $80 a barrel today, its highest since late 2018, before declining slightly in the afternoon. West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. price, is up 10% in September, to more than $75 a barrel. Gas and energy prices are inputs into nearly every good and service in the economy. It's just one more source of potential inflationary pressure these days, on top of supply chain bottlenecks, labor shortages, and more. When inflation is expected to increase, bond yields tend to mirror that rise. Investors are essentially demanding more nominal yield to make up for the reduced value of their future coupon payments after inflation. Barron's Pierre Briançon and Avi Salzman have more on the latest energy market action here. Finally, there's the latest Washington drama surrounding the U.S. federal government's debt ceiling. The national debt currently stands at over $28 trillion, and an act of Congress is needed to lift the cap and allow the government to borrow more to pay for already enacted spending. Whether or not the U.S. defaults on its debt—a worst-case scenario that would cause financial panic worldwide—is caught up in political wrangling over a pair of infrastructure bills, the government's next budget, and a litany of other partisan fights. Congress needs to pass a new budget or a stopgap funding bill by Thursday to avoid a government shutdown beginning on Oct. 1. The Treasury says it can move money around and defer some payments until about the middle of October before the debt ceiling means the government won't be able to meet its obligations.  Barron's Evie Liu has more on the four deadlines Washington is currently facing here. Taking a purely investor lens on the showdown, there appears to be a bit of a game of chicken afoot. The stock market isn't pricing in a U.S. debt default because it expects Congress to act. But lawmakers could be letting things get awfully close to the deadline because they don't feel the political pressure of a tumbling stock market. The higher bond yields of late could be pricing in some greater odds of a default, but not clearly nothing major either.  Here's Chris Harvey, head of equity strategy at Wells Fargo Securities, writing to clients today: Is the market's benign reaction to a potential shutdown causing Congress to be too complacent? In other words, does the market need to sell off to shock politicians into action? Republicans appear to have no motivation to budge, and the Democrats are slowly realizing that (as the party with governing control) they likely will be blamed for any shutdown. If substantial progress is not made by mid-October, we think the markets will get into the act. Until then, we need to see how much the Democrats are willing to risk 'political capital' on this issue. With President Biden's polls reaching a new low (Rasmussen, 9/27: 40% approval / 58% disapprove), we think the answer is not much. Our best guess is the Democrats will reach an intraparty agreement by mid/late-October. This is when our Econ Group and others (including Secretary Yellen) believes the projected 'X date' window opens – i.e., the day the government actually can no longer fund its obligations. In the meantime, the recipe seems to be for still higher bond yields, and generally stronger tailwinds for cyclicals and value stocks than growth leaders. Energy stocks could enjoy stronger earnings from higher oil and gas prices. Banks tend to do well in higher-rate environments, as they can charge more for their loans. That compares with still faster growing but pricier technology stocks, which face greater pressure on their valuation multiples. Barron's Jacob Sonenshine has a few more ideas for stocks that can work in the current environment. Read his latest report here.

 

DJIA:  -1.63% to 34,299.99 S&P 500: -2.04% to 4,352.63 Nasdaq: -2.83% to 14,546.68 The Hot Stock: Schlumberger +2.4% The Biggest Loser: Applied Materials -6.9% Best Sector: Energy +0.3% Worst Sector: Technology -3%