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Remsdesvir: Some experts troubled about FDA approval for COVID-19 treatment

The United States reached a milestone, of sorts, when last week the Food and Drug Administration approved the first treatment for Covid-19.

The drug is called Veklury, although most people know it by its scientific name, remdesivir.

On Wednesday, its manufacturer, Gilead Sciences, said that remdesivir, which has been authorized for emergency use since the spring, had brought in $873 million in revenues so far this year and that it was the company’s second-best-selling drug in the third quarter, behind its H.I.V. drug, Biktarvy.

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New research shows that Covid-19 antibodies can neutralize the virus and last up to five months

There’s encouraging news about antibodies in a new paper published in the journal Science from researchers at New York City’s Mount Sinai Hospital. In their study of the antibody responses of patients with either mild or moderate Covid-19, antibody levels appeared to stay relatively stable for at least five months, and their presence was correlated with the inactivation of the virus.

Antibodies are molecules pumped out by the immune system in response to infection, and they have a role in preventing future infections, though exactly how they function within the context of Covid-19 isn’t clear yet. Scientists are urgently trying to figure out whether the presence of antibodies actually means a person is protected from future infection as well as how long antibodies last in the body. Knowing this is crucial, especially for vaccine development.

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Death Rates Have Dropped for Seriously Ill Covid Patients

The coronavirus struck the United States earlier this year with devastating force. In April, it killed more than 10,000 people in New York City. By early May, nearly 50,000 nursing home residents and their caregivers across the country had died.

But as the virus continued its rampage over the summer and fall, infecting nearly 8.5 million Americans, survival rates, even of seriously ill patients, appeared to be improving. At one New York hospital system where 30 percent of coronavirus patients died in March, the death rate had dropped to 3 percent by the end of June.

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OPINION: There’s no place like home for older and high-risk people to receive Covid-19 vaccines

Staying at home has never been so vital for older Americans and those with compromised health. After nine months of the coronavirus pandemic, sheltering in place is still the most effective protection against Covid-19 for many older adults, and likely will be until an effective vaccine helps stop the pandemic.

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As Election Nears, Trump Makes a Final Push Against Climate Science

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has recently removed the chief scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the nation’s premier scientific agency, installed new political staff who have questioned accepted facts about climate change and imposed stricter controls on communications at the agency.

The moves threaten to stifle a major source of objective United States government information about climate change that underpins federal rules on greenhouse gas emissions and offer an indication of the direction the agency will take if President Trump wins re-election.

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