Administration officials discuss remdesivir distribution, reopening and testing at Senate HELP hearing

May 12, 2020 - 03:40 PM
COVID19 Web Sized

The federal government continues to learn lessons about distributing COVID-19 therapeutics, such as remdesivir, Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn, M.D., said today at a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing. "This has to be an evidence-based approach — getting the medical therapeutics, vaccines, remdesivir, whichever it happens to be, to the people in need," Hahn said. 

The committee posed questions around reopening, testing and vaccines. Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Anthony Fauci, M.D., said that communities that disregard "the checkpoints that we put in our guidelines about when it is safe to proceed in pulling back on mitigation" may "trigger an outbreak that you may not be able to control." Nursing home and long-term care facility testing and data reporting also were discussed.

Related News Articles

Headline
FDA authorizes combination tests for flu, COVID-19
The Food and Drug Administration Aug. 22 granted emergency use authorization for two new combined COVID-19 and influenza tests. The Nano-Check Influenza-COVID-…
Headline
CDC: COVID-19 surging across the U.S.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's COVID-19 data tracker shows an 18.1% test positivity rate for the week ending Aug. 10, the highest it has been…
Headline
CDC issues advisory on increased parvovirus B19 cases in the U.S. 
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Aug. 13 issued an advisory alerting of an uptick of cases of parvovirus B19 across the U.S. Parvovirus B19 is a…
Blog
RAND 5.0 – The Health Policy Equivalent of Groundhog Day
The RAND Corporation recently released the fifth iteration of its biannual hospital price report. The AHA has previously highlighted significant flaws with…
Headline
CDC encourages older adults to get additional COVID-19 vaccine dose 
Adults age 65 and older are encouraged to receive an updated dosage of the COVID-19 vaccine, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced April 25…
Headline
NASEM releases evidence review on COVID-19 vaccine safety
The Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines can cause myocarditis, but do not appear to cause infertility, Guillain-Barré syndrome, Bell’s palsy, thrombosis with…