Welcome to Dispensed Daily, your daily dose of healthcare news from Business Insider’s healthcare editor Lydia Ramsey Pflanzer and the healthcare team. Subscribe here to get this newsletter in your inbox every weekday.
Hello,
In today’s Dispensed: a recap of how convalescent plasma works, World Health Organization guidance on kids and masks, and 15-minute coronavirus antigen tests are coming.
Plus, telehealth company American Well dropped its S-1. We’ll be keeping tabs as the company looks to hold its initial public offering in the coming weeks.
Foto: A blood donor in Bangkok, Thailand, lays on a transfusion chair. Thai Red Cross has requested to donate blood plasma from patients recovering from COVID-19. Source: Amphol Thongmueangluang/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images
The FDA just authorized convalescent plasma treatments for coronavirus patients - here's how the blood transfusions work
- The FDA just issued an emergency authorization for convalescent plasma treatment for COVID-19.
- The therapy involves treating sick patients with the blood of those who have already recovered.
- Convalescent plasma is also the basis for a drug, hyperimmune globulin, which would deliver consistent antibody levels to patients.
- But more research is needed to show the treatment is fully safe and effective.
Read the full story from Aria Bendix here>>
Foto: Linda Mejia, 24, puts a mask on her two-year-old daughter Linda amid coronavirus outbreaks in Los Angeles. Source: REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson
The WHO just released specific mask guidance for kids as they gear up to return to school: children 12 and older should wear them as adults do
- The World Health Organization just released guidance on whether kids should wear masks.
- It's broken down into age groups: kids older than 12 should wear them, kids younger than 6 shouldn't, and for kids in between, it depends on a handful of factors.
- Mask-wearing has been a point of confusion for parents, since children don't tend to get intense coronavirus symptoms, but are nonetheless getting infected in huge numbers.
Read the full story from Blake Dodge here>>
Millions of coronavirus tests that can deliver results in 15 minutes will be available in September, but they're less accurate
- Millions of rapid coronavirus tests are slated to become available to people across the US next month.
- The tests, which can yield results in around 15 minutes, are cheap and easy to produce, and require no lab work.
- But they are generally not as accurate as laboratory PCR tests, and may need to be performed several times to get an accurate read on whether someone is actually sick.
- "I would still say that distancing and outdoor air are your best friends," one expert said.
Read the full story from Hilary Brueck here>>
More stories we're reading:
- Facebook and NYU found a way to make MRI's faster (Fortune)
- NASA: A fridge-size asteroid is headed toward Earth one day before the November election (Business Insider)
- Stat News' Adam Feuerstein and Matthew Herper on the FDA's decision to give convalescent plasma emergency use authorization (Stat News)
- Wearing a mask doesn't reduce your oxygen levels, and 6 other mask myths you should stop believing now (Business Insider)
See you tomorrow! In the meantime, find me at [email protected].
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- Lydia
