Promising pandemic news on treatments & long COVID

Also: Parents & caregivers say they've hit pandemic rock bottom [View in browser](    [❤️]( January 24, 2022 Hello CommonHealth reader, The dark clouds of omicron have begun to pass. News has [begun to brighten](. I’ve been looking into treatment options available to help keep COVID patients out of the hospital — both what the FDA has authorized and what’s available practically (given the short supply of medications and the frenzied rush to get them). When I was talking with experts just a week and a half ago, things were hard. “It’s very, very challenging,” Scott Dryden-Peterson told me. He runs Mass General Brigham’s COVID outpatient therapy. Among other things, he pointed out that omicron is resistant to several of the therapies that hospitals previously used.  “When omicron became the dominant variant, it took about 60 or more percent of our capacity to treat people off the table,” he said. Of the treatments that appear to work against omicron, there wasn’t enough supply, even for people at the very highest risk of severe illness or death, which hospitals refer to as Tier 1 patients. Many hospitals were resorting to a lottery system to allocate medicines. But then, at the end of this past week, we began to turn a corner. Two things happened: Pfizer’s antiviral pill started getting distributed to patients. And the number of very vulnerable people getting ill started declining dramatically.  Sandeep Jubbal — who oversees the COVID Treatment Center at UMass Memorial Health — said, as of late last week, they were able to provide treatment to both Tier 1 and 2 patients. They were even looking at opening it up to Tier 3 and 4 patients. “This is absolutely good news,” he said. It’s one more sign that we’re on the descending side of this omicron wave. But the epidemiologists and forecasters I’ve spoken to say [not to declare victory too soon](. These surges tend to be symmetrical. They expect just as many people to become infected on the downside of the surge as on the upside. A few more weeks of caution can go a long way, they told me. But at least things are moving in the right direction. Gabrielle Emanuel Health reporter [Follow]( Support the news  This Week's Must Reads [Parents and caregivers of young children say they've hit pandemic rock bottom]( The people who take care of and educate children under 5 years old, who are too young to be vaccinated, are in a special kind of hell right now. [Read more.]( [Parents and caregivers of young children say they've hit pandemic rock bottom]( The people who take care of and educate children under 5 years old, who are too young to be vaccinated, are in a special kind of hell right now. [Read more.]( [Which COVID test should you take, and how do you get reimbursed?]( COVID-19 testing somehow gets more confusing by the day. Here's an explainer on the different tests available, when they should be used, and how to get reimbursed for buying them. [Read more.]( [Which COVID test should you take, and how do you get reimbursed?]( COVID-19 testing somehow gets more confusing by the day. Here's an explainer on the different tests available, when they should be used, and how to get reimbursed for buying them. [Read more.]( [Boston extends employee vaccination deadline by another week]( Boston is once again pushing back the deadline for city employees to show proof of at least partial vaccination against COVID-19 — or be placed on unpaid leave. In a statement Sunday afternoon, Mayor Michelle Wu said city workers now have until Jan. 31 to get into compliance. [Read more.]( [Boston extends employee vaccination deadline by another week]( Boston is once again pushing back the deadline for city employees to show proof of at least partial vaccination against COVID-19 — or be placed on unpaid leave. In a statement Sunday afternoon, Mayor Michelle Wu said city workers now have until Jan. 31 to get into compliance. [Read more.]( [What life is like for an 11-year-old]( Avah Lamie, 11, says this is a stressful time to be a kid. Rates of anxiety and depression among children and youth were on the rise even before COVID, but the past two years have made things worse. [Read more.]( [What life is like for an 11-year-old]( Avah Lamie, 11, says this is a stressful time to be a kid. Rates of anxiety and depression among children and youth were on the rise even before COVID, but the past two years have made things worse. [Read more.]( [Epidemiologists warn impacts of omicron could linger 'if you declare victory too quickly']( “Epidemics are symmetrical: just as many people get infected on the downside as the upside,” said Justin Lessler, an epidemiologist who is part of the COVID-19 Scenario Modeling Hub. [Read more.]( [Epidemiologists warn impacts of omicron could linger 'if you declare victory too quickly']( “Epidemics are symmetrical: just as many people get infected on the downside as the upside,” said Justin Lessler, an epidemiologist who is part of the COVID-19 Scenario Modeling Hub. [Read more.]( What We're Reading 📚 Since our last CommonHealth newsletter, [a study]( I’ve been waiting for has been released as a pre-print. It’s out of Israel and looks at long COVID — in particular, do vaccines reduce the risk of having persistent COVID symptoms like fatigue and headaches, even after the body has cleared the initial infection? The findings are encouraging: vaccinated individuals who get COVID appear no more likely to have persistent symptoms than people who do not contract COVID at all. This is yet another impressive finding for the value of the vaccines. When I’ve spoken with patients with long COVID, it’s immediately clear how devastating the condition can be. I still recall talking with a young, athletic woman who’s now struggling with heart problems. And another middle-aged woman who barely has the energy to walk up a flight of stairs. This is just one study and still a pre-print, but it’s a relatively large sample, and it might help reassure those who are vaccinated and worried about long COVID. "As we exit from this surge – which we will – we need to invest in the future." —  [Samuel Scarpino]( managing director of pathogen surveillance at the Rockefeller Foundation, on how to prepare for the next surge ICYMI [As health care breaks down in Massachusetts, patients die waiting for care]( Rona Tsantinis-Roy says doctors suggested her father might have survived if he’d been transferred to a larger hospital. Typically, that’s what happens when a patient at a community hospital needs more specialized care. But with hospitals full or nearly full across the state, transfers are harder and harder to arrange. Some patients are dying while they wait. [Read more.]( [As health care breaks down in Massachusetts, patients die waiting for care]( Rona Tsantinis-Roy says doctors suggested her father might have survived if he’d been transferred to a larger hospital. Typically, that’s what happens when a patient at a community hospital needs more specialized care. But with hospitals full or nearly full across the state, transfers are harder and harder to arrange. Some patients are dying while they wait. [Read more.]( Did you know... the larva of a bark beetle may be some stiff competition for Simone Biles? The insect was showing off [a new, impressive jumping move]( researchers hadn't documented before. 😎 Forward to a friend. They can sign up [here](. 📣 Give us your feedback: newsletters@wbur.org 📧 Get more WBUR stories sent to your inbox. [Check out all of our newsletter offerings.]( Support the news     Want to change how you receive these emails? 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