- Polybio Research Foundation awarded Mount Sinai’s Cohen Center for Recovery from Complex Chronic Illnesses (CoRE) $800,000 for a new clinical trial to study the immunosuppressive drug, rapamycin. The FDA-approved, generic drug is commonly used to prevent organ rejection after kidney transplant but has also been touted as an “anti-aging” drug. “Low-dose rapamycin is an exciting drug target that has the potential to directly address some of the immune or infection-related dysfunction that many people [with Long COVID] are experiencing,” said David Putrino in a press release. Rapamycin is also being studied in a pilot trial for people with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME).*
- A new study in JAMA Open Network found that during the first three years of the COVID-19 pandemic, younger people of color were more heavily impacted than white people. Researchers assessed nearly 1.4 million excess deaths during the public health emergency and compared them to the normal death rate; their data suggests Indigenous people experienced the highest rate of all-cause excess mortality and the greatest disparity. They also found that the largest increases in mortality occurred among adults ages 25 to 64 years in all race and ethnicity groups. Read more in The Guardian.
- Access to telemedicine, at-home COVID-19 tests, and rapid Paxlovid delivery to immunocompromised people reduced the severity of COVID-19 infections, a new preprint in Research Square found. “The intervention was estimated to result in a reduction of $3,650 in the cost of COVID care per person,” the study’s authors wrote. “We recommend that payers and public health organizations provide COVID tests and rapid treatment to high-risk individuals, at no cost to the individuals, for as long as the virus continues to circulate.”
*Editor’s note: The PolyBio Research Foundation, like The Sick Times, has received support from the Balvi and Kanro funds. Our newsroom operates independently of financial supporters.
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