Coronavirus Watch: FDA authorizes potential treatment
The Food and Drug Administration has issued emergency authorization for the use of experimental drug remdesivir to treat hospitalized coronavirus patients. Read more on remdesivir below.
It's Saturday, and this is Coronavirus Watch from the Paste BN Network.
Here's the latest news, as of 12:30 p.m. ET:
- More than 1.1 million people have tested positive for the virus in the U.S., and more than 65,000 have died. See a map of confirmed cases here.
- Roughly a quarter of those deaths are residents and staff at nursing home and long-term care facilities. Worried about a loved one? Click here to see the names of some 4,000 nursing homes across the country that have reported at least one case.
- A Paste BN analysis of ZIP code data paints a grim picture of COVID's disparate impact on communities based on race and income. For example, we found that in the nation's poorest neighborhoods, the infection rate was twice as high as in the wealthiest ZIPs.
- New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has invoked the state’s Riot Control Act to seal off all roads to nonessential traffic in the city of Gallup to help control a surging coronavirus outbreak in the former trading post on the outskirts of the Navajo Reservation.
- Today would have been the Kentucky Derby – the 146th running at Churchill Downs, which postponed the race until September due to the pandemic.
- All Tennessee inmates and correction staff will be tested for the coronavirus as part of a new widespread initiative to mitigate the spread of the virus amid multiple massive prison outbreaks in the state, Gov. Bill Lee announced Friday.
Keep sending us your coronavirus questions through this form! One reader asks: Can we all just take remdesivir or another similar medicine to prevent us from getting the virus in the first place?
Remdesivir is an experimental antiviral drug from the American biotech firm Gilead Sciences. It's not a vaccine or preventative. The drug was originally tested as a treatment for Ebola and other coronaviruses including SARS and is now being tested as a possible COVID-19 treatment.
Early data from a global study released Wednesday found patients given remdesivir recovered faster and may be less likely to die. However, another study published the same day in the British medical journal The Lancet found no clinical benefits to the drug.
In a letter Friday authorizing emergency use of remdesivir, FDA’s chief scientist Denise Hinton said the drug "may be effective in treating COVID-19," and that "there is no adequate, approved and available alternative."
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— Grace Hauck, Breaking News Reporter, @grace_hauck