WHO investigators to scrap interim report on probe of COVID-19 origins

 A World Health Organization team investigating the origins of COVID-19 is planning to scrap an interim report on its recent mission to China amid mounting tensions between Beijing and Washington over the investigation and an appeal from one international group of scientists for a new probe, the Wall Street Journal reported on.wsj.com/388QK6F on Thursday.

In Geneva, WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic said in an email reply: “The full report is expected in coming weeks”.

No further information was immediately available about the reasons for the delay in publishing the findings of the WHO-led mission to the central Chinese city of Wuhan, where the first human cases of COVID-19 were detected in late 2019.China refused to give raw data on early COVID-19 cases to a WHO-led team probing the origins of the pandemic, Dominic Dwyer, one of the team’s investigators said last month, potentially complicating efforts to understand how the outbreak began.

The probe had been plagued by delays, concern over access and bickering between Beijing and Washington, which accused China of hiding the extent of the initial outbreak and criticised the terms of the visit, under which Chinese experts conducted the first phase of research.

The team, which arrived in China in January and spent four weeks looking into the origins of the outbreak, was limited to visits organised by their Chinese hosts and prevented from contact with community members, due to health restrictions. The first two weeks were spent in hotel quarantine.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-who-china/who-investigators-to-scrap-interim-report-on-probe-of-covid-19-origins-wsj-idUSKBN2AW1US

Anthem upped to Buy from Hold by Truist

 Target to $375 from $360

https://finviz.com/quote.ashx?t=ANTM

KemPharm cut to Neutral from Buy by Wainwright

 Target to $12 from $24

https://finviz.com/quote.ashx?t=KMPH

Moderna, IBM team up on COVID-19 vaccine distribution data

 Vaccine maker Moderna Inc and IBM Corp said on Thursday they would work together on technologies to track COVID-19 vaccine administration.

The companies will focus on using technology to help governments and healthcare providers address potential supply chain disruptions through information sharing.

Organizations can also use IBM's Digital Health Pass tool to verify health credentials of employees, customers and travelers, according to a joint statement.

Earlier this year, Salesforce.com Inc, as part of a large coalition to digitize COVID-19 vaccination records, said it was launching a new product to help governments and healthcare providers maintain and manage such records.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/moderna-ibm-team-covid-19-172349454.html

Israel, Austria and Denmark establish vaccine-supply alliance

  Israel, Austria and Denmark said on Thursday they would set up a joint research and development fund and possibly production facilities for COVID-19 vaccines to ensure they had long-term supplies for booster shots or to contend with virus mutations.

European Union members Austria and Denmark have been chafing at delays in ordering, approving and distributing vaccines within here 27-member bloc that have left it trailing far behind Israel's world-beating vaccination campaign.

After hosting his Austrian and Danish counterparts for talks and a tour of an Israeli gym open to those documented as having been vaccinated or recovered from COVID-19 with presumed immunity, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the pact.

“Once we get over this cycle of the disease we have no guarantee that it won’t come back. We don’t know how long - nobody knows - how long these vaccines will hold up,” he said at a joint news conference. “And therefore we have to protect our people against the reemergence of this pandemic or mutations.”

Austria’s Sebastian Kurz said he was “very happy” about an EU vaccine initiative “but we also need to cooperate worldwide”.

The European Commission has said member states were free to strike separate deals should they wish to.

The trilateral pact, Kurz said, would include investment in production plants in Europe and Israel, and each country contributing where it best can to the manufacturing cycle.

“In Austria, for example, lipid production necessary for many vaccines is already taking place,” the chancellor said.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said her country was looking to expand its production capacity. “We would like in common also to explore possible cooperation on clinical trials” with Israel and Austria, she said.

Netanyahu, who said 90% of eligible Israelis have either received at least one dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine or recovered from the virus, has made the programme a showcase of his campaign for a March 23 election.

“We will be, together, ‘Vaccination Nations’,” he said of the deal with Austria and Denmark. “And we agreed that if other nations want to join us, we will discuss this among ourselves and welcome others to come in as well.”

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-israel-vaccine-eur/israel-austria-and-denmark-establish-vaccine-supply-alliance-idUSKBN2AW250

Obesity a driving factor in COVID-19 deaths: global report

 The majority of global COVID-19 deaths have been in countries where many people are obese, with coronavirus fatality rates 10 times higher in nations where at least 50% of adults are overweight, a global study found on Thursday.

The report, which described a “dramatic” correlation between countries’ COVID-19 death and obesity rates, found that 90% or 2.2 million of the 2.5 million deaths from the pandemic disease so far were in countries with high levels of obesity.

The study analysed the COVID-19 death figures from Johns Hopkins University in the United States and the World Health Organization’s Global Health Observatory data on obesity.

Strikingly, the authors said, there is no example of a country where people are generally not overweight or obese having high COVID-19 death rates.

“Look at countries like Japan and South Korea, where they have very low levels of COVID-19 deaths as well as very low levels of adult obesity,” said Tim Lobstein, an expert advisor to the World Obesity Federation and visiting professor at Australia’s Sydney University who co-led the report.

“They have prioritised public health across a range of measures, including population weight, and it has paid off in the pandemic.”

By contrast, the report found that in the United States and Britain, for example, both COVID-19 death rates and obesity levels were among the highest.

The United Kingdom has the world’s third-highest coronavirus death rate and the fourth-highest obesity rate - 184 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 and 63.7% of adults overweight, according to WHO data - followed by the United States, with 152.49 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 and 67.9% of adults overweight.

John Wilding, a professor of medicine at Britain’s University of Liverpool and president of the World Obesity Federation, said obesity should be recognised as a key COVID-19 health risk and taken into account in vaccination plans.

“It’s really important that we recognise that obesity ... increases the risk,” he said in a statement about the report’s findings. “Therefore, like other diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease, people with obesity should be considered for early priority in vaccination programmes across the world.”

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-obesity/obesity-a-driving-factor-in-covid-19-deaths-global-report-finds-idUSKBN2AW1X0

Fulcrum ends covid med trial

 After careful consideration, Fulcrum is discontinuing LOSVID, a Phase 3 trial with losmapimod for hospitalized subjects with COVID-19, due to significant changes in the COVID-19 treatment paradigm, including new therapeutic options and emerging vaccines.

• The company has decided to redeploy its resources to other clinical programs and discovery efforts, with a continued focus on rare diseases.
• Losmapimod was generally well tolerated in LOSVID, and an independent data safety monitoring board did not identify any safety concerns related to losmapimod.

https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2021/03/04/2186976/0/en/Fulcrum-Therapeutics-Reports-Recent-Business-Highlights-and-Fourth-Quarter-and-Full-Year-2020-Financial-Results.html