Top news stories from AMA Morning Rounds®: Week of Aug. 10, 2020

Read AMA Morning Rounds®’ most popular stories in medicine and public health from the week of Aug. 10, 2020 – Aug. 14, 2020.

The Washington Post (8/7, Janes) reported that research indicates “Hispanic children are approximately eight times more likely and Black children five times more likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19 than their White peers, according to a study released...by the” CDC. This “report – which used hospitalization data collected in 14 states including California, Georgia, New York and Ohio from March 1 through July 25 – acknowledged that most pediatric cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, are asymptomatic or mild and that hospitalization rates among children remain relatively low.” However, “like COVID-19 in adults, Black and Hispanic children are far more likely to experience symptoms warranting hospitalization.”

CNN (8/10, Lamotte) reports, “In what they call the largest study ever done, researchers found using marijuana while pregnant may increase the risk that a child will develop autism.” The findings were published in Nature Medicine. One study author said, “Women who used cannabis during pregnancy were 1.5 times more likely to have a child with autism.”

NBC News (8/10) reports that in the “analysis of data from more than 500,000 Canadian mothers and their children, researchers found a 50% increase in the risk of autism spectrum disorder in kids whose mothers had used cannabis while pregnant, according to the report.” Researchers “reviewed data from all Ontario births that occurred from 2007 to 2012, which was before the drug was legalized in Canada.”

CNN (8/11, Christensen) reports that the “administration has reached a deal with Moderna Inc. to manufacture and deliver 100 million doses of the company’s [COVID-19] vaccine once it is approved, according to a news release from the U.S. Health and Human Services Department.” Under the “contract, worth up to $1.525 billion for 100 million doses, the doses would be owned by the U.S. government and would be distributed and used as part of its [COVID-19] vaccine campaign.” CNN adds, “If the doses are used, they would be provided to Americans at no cost.”

Bloomberg (8/11, Raimonde, Langreth) reports, “Moderna, which is already receiving $955 million in government assistance to test the vaccine, will be selling the vaccine for roughly $15 a dose, or $30 for a two-dose regimen.” Moreover, the company “will manufacture the vaccine as clinical trials continue, according to a statement from” HHS.

The Washington Post (8/12, McGinley) reports that research indicates “death rates for” non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), “the most common type of lung cancer, have fallen significantly in the United States in recent years, an improvement resulting in large part from new targeted treatments.”

USA Today (8/12, Rodriguez) reports that researchers found that deaths from NSCLC “decreased among men 3.2% annually from 2006 to 2013, and among women 2.3% annually from 2006 to 2014.” The findings were published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Medscape (8/12, Harrison, Subscription Publication) reports, however, that “mortality from small cell lung cancer (SCLC) has dropped only in tandem with a decline in the incidence of SCLC, and survival has remained largely unchanged.”

USA Today (8/13, Dastagir) reports the coronavirus pandemic “is having a significant impact on Americans’ mental health, according to a new survey” from the CDC. The CDC survey “found elevated levels of symptoms of anxiety and depressive disorders, substance use and suicidal ideation among U.S. adults, and identified populations at increased risk, including young people, racial and ethnic minorities, essential workers and caregivers of adults.”

The Hill (8/13, Wilson) reports according to the survey, 41% “of Americans said they were suffering from one or more symptoms of serious mental health problems.” Around 13% “said they were drinking or using drugs more because of the stress of the pandemic,” and almost 11% “said they had seriously considered suicide in the last month, including more than a quarter of those between the ages of 18 and 24 years old.”

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