Omicron booster doubts | Subvariants threaten vulnerable | Ivermectin doesn’t work

VIEW IN BROWSER | SUBSCRIBE Fri, Oct 28, 2022 EDITOR'S NOTE Think a friend or colleague should be getting this newsletter? Share this link with them to sign up.   Scientists at Columbia and Harvard published independent studies this week that found the new Covid boosters didn't really perform better against omicron BA.5 compared to the old shots.    The studies raise doubts about whether the new shots will live up to the high expectations created by the Biden administration. Dr. Ashish Jha, head of the White House Covid task force, said the shots should provide better protection against infection and mild illness as well as severe disease and hospitalization.    The FDA, for its part, has said the studies are too small to draw real conclusions from. Pfizer and Moderna are expected to release more data from large clinical trials later this year.    More immune evasive omicron subvariants, meanwhile, are growing in prevalence in the U.S. They pose a major threat to people with compromised immune systems because key antibody treatments are not effective against them.    And whether the boosters will provide better protection against the swarm of subvariants is unclear. U.S. health officials have said the shots should hold the line because many of the Covid variants in question are descended from omicron BA.5.   And in case you were still unsure, Ivermectin does not work against Covid, another study has found.   Feel free to send any tips, suggestions, story ideas and data to me at spencer.kimball@nbcuni.com. Spencer Kimball | Health Reporter @spencekimball Spencer Kimball | Health Reporter @spencekimball New Covid boosters aren't better than old shots at neutralizing omicron BA.5, early studies find Two studies are raising doubts about whether the new omicron BA.5 booster really will offer better protection against Covid than the first generation shot. Scientists at Columbia University in New York City found the new boosters did not produce a better antibody response in humans against BA.5 than the first-generation vaccines. A separate study by scientists at Harvard essentially came to the same conclusion.   "It's important to note that the two studies were done independently. They're small studies but there are two of them —it's not just a fluke," said Dr. Dan Barouch, the lead author of the Harvard study. Barouch's lab played a pivotal role in the development of the Johnson & Johnson Covid vaccine. - Spencer Kimball FDA says unfavorable booster studies were too small to draw conclusions from The Food and Drug Administration said two studies this week showing that the new omicron boosters weren't that much better than the old shots were too small to come to any real conclusions.   Dr. Peter Marks, head of the FDA's vaccine division, said the studies are small and subject to limitations. Data from larger well-controlled studies are expected in the near future, he said. Pfizer and Moderna are conducting clinical trials on the new boosters and are expected to provide data later this year.   "It is important to note that even the data from these initial small studies indicate that the bivalent vaccines are generally at least as good or better as the original vaccines in generating an immune response, particularly to BA.4/BA.5 and other newer variants," Marks said in a statement. - Spencer Kimball Omicron subvariants resistant to key antibody treatments, putting people with weak immune systems at risk  Emerging omicron subvariants are resistant to key antibody treatments for HIV patients, kidney transplant recipients and other immunocompromised people, making them particularly vulnerable to Covid this winter, the White House warned this week. "With some of the new subvariants that are emerging, some of the main tools we've had to protect the immunocompromised like Evusheld may not work moving forward. And that's a huge challenge," Dr. Ashish Jha, head of the White House Covid task force, told reporters on Tuesday.   President Joe Biden on Tuesday cautioned the estimated 7 million adults in the U.S. who have compromised immune systems that they are particularly at risk, but he could offer little in the way of reassurance other than telling them to consult their physician about what precautions to take. - Spencer Kimball   Ivermectin — a drug once touted as a Covid treatment by conservatives — doesn't improve recovery much   Ivermectin, a drug once touted by conservatives as a treatment for Covid, does not meaningfully improve the recovery time for people with mild to moderate cases, according a large clinical trial published in a peer-reviewed journal. People who took ivermectin recovered from Covid in 12 days while people who didn't take the drug recovered in 13 days, according to the study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association on Friday. Ivermectin has been approved to treat parasitic worms in humans, but it's primarily used as a dewormer for horses.   "Among outpatients with mild to moderate COVID-19, treatment with ivermectin, compared with placebo, did not significantly improve time to recovery," the team of scientists led by Duke University School of Medicine wrote. "These findings do not support the use of ivermectin in patients with mild to moderate COVID-19," they concluded. - Spencer Kimball JOIN US REGISTER CONTRIBUTORS Bertha Coombs @berthacoombs Meg Tirrell @megtirrell Bertha Coombs @berthacoombs Meg Tirrell @megtirrell Unsubscribe Manage Newsletters Terms of Service Join the CNBC Panel Digital Products Feedback Privacy Policy CNBC Events © 2022 CNBC LLC. All rights reserved. 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