FDA’s promotion of post-COVID plasma treatment was as bad as it appeared

Image of a man speaking from behind a podium.

Enlarge / FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn, speaking at the press conference in which he badly mangled statistics. (credit: Pete Marovich/Getty Image)

After several days of rumors with ever-growing hype, the Trump administration announced on Sunday that the Food and Drug Administration was granting an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for a COVID-19 treatment. The move was controversial from the start, with reports indicating that the EUA was opposed by a number of health experts, including National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci. The press conference didn’t settle matters, with a growing chorus of scientists saying that the data presented in support of the EUA had been misrepresented.

On Monday night, FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn acknowledged that he had made a significant error in presenting the benefits of the treatment, and he followed that statement with an apology on Tuesday. But Hahn pushed back against indications that the approval of the treatment on the eve of the Republican National Convention was motivated by political pressure.

Wrong kind of risk

The treatment at issue involves taking the antibody-containing plasma from those who have recovered from a SARS-CoV-2 infection (convalescent plasma) and giving it to those currently suffering from COVID-19 symptoms. At Sunday’s press conference, the principle justification for allowing this treatment under an EUA was a 35 percent drop in mortality for those receiving plasma in the first three days of treatment—specifically, Hahn said 35 of 100 people “would have been saved” by this treatment.

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How Swedish labs found a flaw in Covid-19 test kits – Radio Sweden | Sveriges Radio

It was when people with only mild or no symptoms began testing themselves for Covid-19 that the weakness of the BGI coronavirus test was discovered, according to Ola Winqvist, medical director at one of the labs that sounded the alarm over incorrect test results.

On Tuesday, the Public Health Agency announced that 3,700 people in Sweden had incorrectly been told that they had Covid-19. They had all used a BGI self-testing kit from China and had mild or no symptoms at all.

Source: How Swedish labs found a flaw in Covid-19 test kits – Radio Sweden | Sveriges Radio

10 colleges, universities with the most COVID-19 cases

  1. University of Alabama at Birmingham — 972 cases per 100,000*
  2. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill — 835
  3. University of Central Florida (Orlando) — 727
  4. University of Alabama (Tuscaloosa) — 568
  5. Auburn (Ala.) University — 557
  6. North Carolina State University (Raleigh) — 509
  7. University of Georgia (Athens) — 504
  8. Texas A&M University (College Station) — 500
  9. University of Texas at Austin — 483
  10. University of Notre Dame (Ind.) — 473

Source: 10 colleges, universities with the most COVID-19 cases

EU suspends Mali training mission — AFRICA DIPLOMATIC

European Union has suspended its training missions in Mali after the coup d’état this month that removed unpopular President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita from power, EU officials said on August 26. The two missions training Mali’s army and police as part of international efforts to stabilise Mali and extend the state’s authority are frozen because they […]

EU suspends Mali training mission — AFRICA DIPLOMATIC

Lebanon: Lethal Force Used Against Protesters | Human Rights Watch

Security forces fired a bullet at Omar that hit his upper left thigh. The image on the left shows the entrance wound. The X-ray shows three large bullet fragments and several smaller fragments in his left leg, and the image on the right shows the fragments extracted from his leg.

Security forces fired live ammunition, metal pellets, and kinetic impact projectiles such as rubber balls, including at health workers, and police deployed excessive quantities of tear gas, including at first aid stations. Several teargas cartridges were fired directly at protesters, striking some in the head and neck. Security forces also threw stones at protesters and beat them. The forces involved included the Parliament Police, the Internal Security Forces (ISF), the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF), and unidentified forces in civilian clothing.

Source: Lebanon: Lethal Force Used Against Protesters | Human Rights Watch

Coronavirus in vacant apartment suggests toilets’ role in spread, East Asia News & Top Stories – The Straits Times

Fecal aerosolisation occurred with Sars, and it’s possible that it may rarely occur with Sars-CoV-2, depending on sewage systems, said Dr Malik Peiris, chair of virology at the University of Hong Kong’s School of Public Health.

Source: Coronavirus in vacant apartment suggests toilets’ role in spread, East Asia News & Top Stories – The Straits Times

Coronavirus Superspreader Event in Boston Led to Thousands of Infections – The New York Times

Such superspreading events are a hallmark of the coronavirus. When an infected person shows up in the right place — generally inside, with poor ventilation and close contact with other people — the virus can infect a lot of people in very little time. These unfortunate events don’t happen often, and so most people who get infected with the coronavirus don’t pass it on to anyone else.

The virus that raged through the nursing home didn’t spread beyond its walls, as far as Dr. MacInnis and her colleagues could tell. But when the virus showed up at the Biogen conference, the story turned out very differently.