Councilman Mark Levine (D-Manhattan) wrote in a series of tweets:
“This likely will be done using a NYC park for burials (yes you read
that right). Trenches will be dug for 10 caskets in a line.”
“It will be done in a dignified, orderly–and temporary–manner. But it
will be tough for NYers to take,” Levine wrote, adding in another
tweet, “The goal is to avoid scenes like those in Italy, where the
military was forced to collect bodies from churches and even off the
streets.”
He later clarified his tweets, saying this “is a contingency NYC is
preparing for BUT if the death rate drops enough it will not be
necessary.”
Mayor Bill de Blasio was asked about the grim matter during a coronavirus press briefing Monday at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
“We may well be dealing with temporary burials, so we can deal with
each family later,” the mayor said. We will have the capacity for
temporary burials – that’s all I’m going to say.”
“I’m not going into details,” de Blasio said. “I don’t think it’s a great thing to be talking about.”
However, Hizzoner did mention city-owned Hart Island — the city’s
longtime potter’s field and nation’s largest public burial ground, which
sits just off The Bronx’s southeast coast in the Long Island Sound.
“We’re going to try and treat every family with dignity, respect
religious needs of those who are devout, and the focus now is to try and
get through this crisis and obviously also put all of our energy and
resources into saving those we can save,” he added.
A spokeswoman for the city’s Medical Examiner’s office, Aja
Worthy-Davis, told The Post there are no plans currently to begin
temporary burials and that the freezers at agency facilities in
Manhattan and Brooklyn have “adequate space.”
“We have no plans right now to bury anyone in city parks,” said
Worthy-Davis, noting that the disturbing scenario is mentioned in a
previous OCME disaster plan, but “it’s not in the works at this time.”
Levine explained that city hospital morgues have filled up and the
Office of the Chief Medical Examiner has sent out 80 refrigerated
tractor-trailers with a capacity to hold 100 bodies to hospitals around
the city.
“These are now mostly full too,” Levine said. “Some hospitals have had to add a 2nd or even 3rd trailer.”
According to Levine, “Grieving families report calling as many as
half a dozen funeral homes and finding none that can handle their
deceased loved ones” and that “cemeteries are not able to handle the
number of burial requests and are turning most down.”
More than 2,470 people have died in the city as a result of
coronavirus and more than 64,900 people in the city have tested positive
for the virus.
“[T]he number of bodies continues to increase,” Levine tweeted. “The
freezers at OCME facilities in Manhattan and Brooklyn will soon be
full.” https://nypost.com/2020/04/06/nyc-to-begin-temporarily-burying-coronavirus-victims-in-local-parks/
The American Thoracic Society issued guidelines suggesting Covid-19
patients with pneumonia get doses of the antimalarial drug
hydroxychloroquine if all of the following apply: a) shared
decision-making is possible, b) data can be collected for interim
comparisons of patients who received hydroxychloroquine (or chloroquine)
versus those who did not, c) the illness is sufficiently severe to
warrant investigational therapy, and d) the drug is not in short
supply,” the Thoracic Society said
The use of hydroxychloroquine has been hotly debated.
President Trump has promoted its use on an experimental basis and Gov. Andrew Cuomo has agreed to provide it to thousands of seriously ill patients in New York hospitals in combination with Zithromax.
Critics have criticized the promotion of using the drug based on limited or anecdotal evidence.
The Thoracic Society said its guidelines are based on input from an
international task force comprised of doctors from medical centers that
are currently treating COVID-19 patients.
The medical group said evidence about the impact of
hydroxychloroquine is “contradictory” but it is worth experimenting with
during a public health crisis to treat very sick patients.
“We believe that in urgent situations like a pandemic, we can learn
while treating by collecting real-world data,” said Dr. Kevin Wilson,
chief of Guidelines and Documents at the American Thoracic Society.
“There are in vitro studies that suggest that hydroxychloroquine and
chloroquine have activity against SARS-CoV-2019, the virus that causes
COVID-19,” Wilson said.
But he also said several controlled trials from China and France “all
have serious flaws and inconsistent findings. ….Thus, the bottom line
is, whether hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine confer benefits to
patients with COVID-19 are unanswered questions.” https://nypost.com/2020/04/06/medical-group-backs-giving-hydroxychloroquine-to-coronavirus-patients/
Prisma Health said Monday it would work with Ethicon Inc., part of
the Johnson & Johnson Medical Devices Companies, to make and
distribute the VESper Ventilator Expansion Splitter.
Ethicon said system is authorized for emergency use during the
Covid-19 pandemic and allows a single ventilator to be used for two
rescuable patients. The system would be used until individual
ventilators are available, Prisma said.
“Due to the predicted dire ventilator shortage, Prisma Health
received an Emergency Use Authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration for the device in response to the urgency for more
ventilators as a result of the pandemic,” the company said.
Ethicon will use 3D printing technology to manufacture the devices
and distribute them at no cost to healthcare providers in the U.S. “The
initial distribution of the device will be limited to the United States
as Prisma Health and Ethicon are developing strategies to navigate
various regulatory pathways and fulfill orders world-wide,” Prisma said. https://www.marketscreener.com/JOHNSON-JOHNSON-4832/news/Johnson-Johnson-Prisma-Health-Ethicon-to-Build-Ventilator-Split-Device-for-Emergency-Use-30346159/
Cellex wins the race to get the FDA’s buy-in for a blood test to pinpoint immunity.
The FDA has granted emergency use authorisation to a steady stream of
diagnostics for active Covid-19. On Thursday it also granted an EUA for
a serological or antibody test, capable of identifying people who have
had a previous coronavirus infection, and who are therefore likely to be
immune to the disease.
Developed by Cellex, this immunoassay and others like it will be
crucial in helping the US recover from the pandemic, since it will allow
those with a positive result to go back to work. However, scale-up will
be a major challenge for the small private company. More importantly it
should be remembered that an emergency authorisation does not amount to
a determination by the FDA that a test has been proven accurate.
Cellex’s submission for an EUA is intriguing since in March the FDA said antibody tests did not require this authorisation,
and indeed at least one other is already in use in the US. The agency
said serological assays may be used without its oversight, provided they
are clinically validated and not used as the sole method to diagnose an
infection. Cellex clearly thought it was worth getting authorisation
anyway – perhaps for marketing purposes.
Cellex’s assay can detect IgM and IgG antibodies against the
coronavirus in serum, plasma or whole blood – the latter will most often
be used, in the form of a fingerstick. IgM antibodies to the
coronavirus are generally detectable in the blood several days after
initial infection, the FDA said, while IgG antibodies become detectable
later, after the infection has cleared.
The company’s R&D labs are based in North Carolina, where it also
has a manufacturing facility – but Cellex also has an FDA-compliant
manufacturing site in Suzhou, China. The tests will actually be
performed at the point of care.
Becton Dickinson is also selling a fingerstick antibody test in the
US, though without an emergency authorisation. This test, which was
developed by BD’s partner BioMedomics, will be available this month.
BioMedomics claims sensitivity of 88.7% and specificity of 90.6% for the
test. On April 2 BD received an EUA for a different test – one that
picks up viral RNA in a sample taken from a patient’s nose or throat. Capacity
One important question is whether these tests are reaching enough
patients in the US. According to Leerink analysts, more than 1.7 million
molecular diagnostics for the coronavirus have been performed in the
country so far, with the number growing by around 100,000-120,000 per
day. Consequently the number of confirmed cases has continued to rise:
in New York, the positive rate is now 40%.
But the rate of expansion of viral RNA testing is slowing as Clia
labs reach capacity. With the outbreak of Covid-19 in the US still far
from levelling off, this will be a problem – and granting authorisation
to more tests will not alleviate it. The availability of a new molecular
test is unlikely to come alongside the opening of a new Clia facility.
Still, the availability of the serological tests is a positive, since
they will take up little or no Clia lab space. Moreover, along with
being able to return to work, people with proven immunity will be able
to donate plasma to be processed into an emergency therapy for active
Covid-19 patients.
But accuracy is the critical point. This has derailed efforts to launch antibody tests in the UK: the
country’s health secretary Matt Hancock, admitted last week that
several tests under investigation had failed to produce accurate
results.
Leerink analysts write that tests with sensitivity and specificity of
more than 95% would have “significant potential”. It is salutary that
the BD test, one of the very few immunoassays for which accuracy figures
have been revealed, does not meet this standard.
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd TEVA 5.95%, which is beset by fundamental and legal woes, is entering a recovery phase, according to UBS Securities.
The Teva Analyst
Analyst Kevin Caliendo upgraded Teva from Neutral to Buy and lowered the price target from $14 to $12.
The Teva Thesis
Teva shares have underperformed the broader market, which is overly
discounting earnings, business disruption and credit risks, Caliendo
said in a Monday upgrade note. (See his track record here.)
The analyst said he sees minimal near-term credit risk for Teva, even
in the most stressed environment. The company closed refinancing for
near-term expiries in the fourth quarter of 2019 at investment-grade
terms, he said.
While noting that the company
has access to over $3 billion in liquidity if needed, Caliendo said he
believes its free cash flow will cover outstanding balances.
“Also, our research suggests TEVA’s supply chain exposure is
manageable, with the biggest risk being if production of key
pharmaceutical ingredients in China is halted for closer to ~1+ years vs
the ~2 months experienced,” the analyst said.
UBS checks suggest production is back online in China and is ramping back toward normal utilization already, he said.
Taking a conservative stance, UBS lowered its peak estimate for migraine drug Ajovy
by about 35%, citing disruption in marketing. The firm also sees risk
to the current strong growth in the movement disorder drug Austedo.
UBS made a few estimate changes that left near-term EBITDA unchanged
but lowered outyear estimates due to potentially longer growth path for
new launches.
“We believe the market is currently pricing in significantly more
risk than our estimates would suggest, creating a 3-1 risk-reward skew
in the stock here,” Caliendo said. https://www.benzinga.com/analyst-ratings/analyst-color/20/04/15748067/teva-analyst-says-shares-are-pricing-in-too-much-risk
The European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) called on Monday for a
pan-European mobile app to track the spread of the coronavirus instead
of the current hodge-podge of apps used in various EU countries which
could breach people’s privacy rights.
Faced with thousands of coronavirus-related deaths, governments
across Europe have rolled out or plan to launch phone-tracking apps to
trace people who came into contact with those infected and to monitor
people under quarantine.
The measures have triggered criticism from data privacy activists,
worried they may become permanent once the virus crisis is over.
EDPS said the use of temporary broadcast identifiers and bluetooth
technology for contact tracing protected both privacy and personal data,
but voiced concerns about the variety of apps sprouting up, noting that
a pan-European approach would yield better results.
“Given these divergences, the European Data Protection Supervisor
calls for a pan-European model COVID-19 mobile application, coordinated
at EU level,” Wojciech Wiewiorowski, the head of the EU privacy
watchdog, said in a statement.
“Ideally, coordination with the World Health Organization should also
take place, to ensure data protection by design globally from the
start,” he said.
CVS Health Corp (CVS.N),
called on by the Trump administration last month to help test Americans
for infections from the new coronavirus, said it was launching two
offsite testing locations with Abbott Laboratories’ (ABT.N) faster diagnostic kit and would be able to handle 1,000 tests per day.
Testing for COVID-19, the serious respiratory illness cased by the
new coronavirus, has been held back by a lack of test kits and other
equipment. While more than 300,000 people in America have tested
positive for the new coronavirus, officials believe a shortage of kits
has undercounted cases.
Testing, including at drive-through sites like these, is also seen as
a key component for U.S. workers and restarting the economy as most
states have ordered many non-essential businesses to close.
Executives from Walmart Inc(WMT.N), Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc WBA.N and Target Corp (TGT.N) also said in March as part of the government announcement that they would start this testing.
In recent weeks, CVS and Walgreens had said that they each had a pilot site running.
CVS’ two new drive-through COVID-19 testing sites in Georgia and
Rhode Island will use the new Abbott tests, which can work in 15
minutes, and that up to four more locations to follow.
“We want to get some experience under our belt with these sites and
understand exactly sort of what the volume looks like,” CVS Chief
Medical Officer Troy Brennan said in an interview.
Brennan said the company expects to announce a third testing site in a
different state on Tuesday and could launch up to three more sites
afterward.
Brennan said it was changing the pilot model it had tested – a
single-lane drive-through in the parking lot of one of its stores. The
new testing sites will be located at Georgia Tech university and the
other will be in the parking lot of a casino in Rhode Island.
CVS will supply personnel from its MinuteClinic unit to oversee the
testing. The states will provide security and protective equipment.
