Weekly Health Digest: Trans Health, FDA & Lab Tests, Racism & The American Academy of Pediatrics, and more

A summary of important health news from the past week

Judge Blocks Trump Officials’ Attempt to End Transgender Health Protections

By: Margot Sanger-Katz and Noah Weiland

A US District Court judge found a mid-June rule by the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights that ended protections for transgender people from discrimination in health care to be incompatible with an earlier ruling from the Supreme Court protecting this minority group from discrimination in employment. The rule was set to take effect last week but the judge found that the finding that discrimination against transgender people is discrimination based on sex, which is contrary to the civil rights component of the Affordable Care Act.

Trump administration says FDA will no longer require premarket review of certain lab tests, including some Covid-19 tests

By Jaqueline Howard

In accordance with the Trump administration, the Food and Drug Administration changed their regulations on COVID-19 laboratory test approval, backtracking on their previous emergency protocols. When the state of public emergency was initially established, laboratories were required to submit their COVID-19 test through an emergency premarket review process to gain approval before proceeding. Now, the FDA is not mandating test validations, yet still is offering their validations as an opt-in. This change in policy allows producers to circumvent pre-existing delays, produce tests faster, and get them out to the general public. However the acceleration of production encourages laboratories to begin usage without preemptively confirming the accuracy of the tests, leading to worries about false results and data corruption. Alternatively, some cheer on this change, arguing that the approval process was a barrier increasing national testing. Regardless, the FDA’s transition away from pre-market approval was reported to be mostly a political maneuver towards the Department of Health & Human Services.

Pediatrics Group Offers ‘Long Overdue’ Apology for Racist Past

By Emma Goldberg

Very few medical organizations have spoken up about their contributions to blocking opportunities for the advancement of Black people in the medical field. The American Medical Association, and more recently, The American Academy of Pediatrics, issued an apology for its long history of discriminating against Black physicians. According to Dr. Wailoo, for many Black physicians, the exclusion from the A.M.A. and other medical organizations meant the loss of career advancement opportunities, struggling to gain access to the postgraduate training they needed for certain medical specialties. However, these biases are not limited to physicians. It is important that we as Americans recognize our own harmful biases and commit to its deconstruction. 

“This is exactly what we’ve been warning about”: Why some school reopenings have backfired

By: Lois Parshley  

In early August, many schools took a risky gamble to offer in-person classes despite the ongoing battle against Covid-19. Now, just weeks after opening their doors, many schools have reported infected students are have subsequently transitioned to a hybrid model of in-person and online learning. Students and staff members from all school levels have reported tested positive and forced into quarantine. According to the WHO, schools should remain open if and only if fewer that 5 percent of those tested for the virus over a two-week period tested positive. Although this cutoff varies by, the state factors used to calculate the safety level look similar. In the US testing for Covid-19 is still inadequate and makes the true incidence of infection among children unknown. However, even with safety protocols in place, in-person classroom remains unsafe for students and teachers.   

US FDA Announces Emergency Authorization for Convalescent Plasma to Treat COVID-19

By: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Jamie Gumbrecht, and Maggie Fox,

The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued an emergency use authorization for convalescent plasma to treat COVID-19, suggesting that the “known and potential benefits outweigh the known and potential risks of the product.” More than 70,000 patients have been treated with convalescent plasma which is made using the blood of people who have recovered from coronavirus infection. The FDA has been studying the effects of convalescent plasma with patients since March on over 60,000 COVID-19 patients. One study released on August 12th in a pre-print which had not yet been peer-reveiwed showed that 8.7% of patients who were treated with convalescent plasma within three days of diagnosis died compared to about 12% of patients who were treated four or more days after diagnosis. This is a difference of about 37% in mortality rate. While there are promising signs from some studies, more data is required from randomized clinical trials on convalescent plasma treatments in order to qualify as a legitimate treatment. Some of those trials are currently in progress.