Friday morning news - December 24, 2021

For WORLD Radio, I'm Kent Covington. 

U.S. adds Merck pill as 2nd easy-to-use drug against COVID-19 » One day after the FDA OK’d Pfizer’s COVID-19 pill, Paxlovid, regulators have authorized another medication.

Merck’s pill, called molnupiravir, is now available for emergency use.

Dr. Patrizia Cavazzoni is director of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.

CAVAZZONI: The available data that we have indicates that both paxlovid and molnupiravir are effective against omicron.

Pfizer's pill, Paxlovid, is likely to become the first-choice treatment. It was shown in trials to reduce hospitalizations among high risk patients by 90 percent, compared to 30 percent with Merck’s pill. Paxlovid also has milder side effects.

The federal government ordered 10 million treatments of Paxlovid. The problem is, for now, supplies are very limited. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki:

PSAKI: We know that just over 250,000 of those will be available in January. We will not get the full package of that, I think, until the Summer.

The FDA put out a statement effectively saying doctors should only prescribe Merck’s molnupiravir if the Pfizer pill is not available.

UK data suggest hospitalization is less likely with omicron » New data out of the U.K. provides further evidence that the COVID-19 omicron variant is less likely to land you in the hospital.

The U.K. Health Security Agency says its analysis shows that people infected with the omicron strain are 50-to-70 percent less likely to need hospitalization than those infected with the delta strain.

But British health officials add two notes of caution:

First, what omicron may lack in severity, it makes up for with its incredibly infectious nature. British Health Secretary Sajid Javid:

JAVID: If a much smaller percentage of people are at the risk of hospitalization, if that’s a smaller percentage of a much larger number, there could be still significant hospitalization.

They also note that data is preliminary and uncertain.

The agency’s research said the protection a booster shot of vaccine gives against symptomatic omicron infection appears to wane after about 10 weeks. But protection against severe illness is likely to hold up longer.

Consumer prices up 5.7% over past year, fastest in 39 years » U.S. consumer prices rose this year at the fastest rate in four decades. WORLD’s Leigh Jones reports.

LEIGH JONES, REPORTER: The Commerce Dept. reported on Thursday that consumer prices have risen 5.7 percent over the past year. That's the fastest pace in 39 years.

Consumer spending accounts for 70 percent of economic activity. It rose by 0.6 percent in November. That was a solid gain but below the 1.4 percent surge in October.

Higher prices may be partly to blame for the slower rise in November, but many economists say more Americans started their holiday shopping earlier this year.

The big jump in the Commerce Department's price gauge was similar to the rise in the consumer price index. That index was up 6.8 percent for the 12 months ending in November—also the biggest surge in 39 years.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Leigh Jones.

Potter convicted of manslaughter in death of Daunte Wright » After days of deliberation, a jury in suburban Minneapolis reached a verdict Thursday in the manslaughter trial of former police officer Kim Potter.

AUDIO: We the jury on the charge of manslaughter in the first degree, while committing a misdemeanor on or about April 11, 2021 in Hennepin County, state of Minnesota, find the defendant guilty.

Her conviction stems from an April traffic stop. During the stop, 20-year-old Daute Wright attempted to flee after officers discovered a warrant for his arrest.

Potter said she feared Wright would hurt another officer who was leaning into the passenger side door of the car. She attempted to use her Taser to stun him, but she mistakenly grabbed her gun instead and fired a fatal shot.

The jury also convicted the 49-year-old Potter of second-degree manslaughter. She faces up to 15 years in prison.

Most GOP-led states restrict telehealth abortion pills despite FDA rule change » The Biden administration recently changed federal rules to allow abortion pills to be prescribed without an in-person visit to a doctor. But many Republican-led states are not playing along. WORLD’s Josh Schumacher has that story.

JOSH SCHUMACHER, REPORTER: The FDA last week updated its rules to allow doctors to prescribe abortion-inducing drugs in telehealth visits and to allow patients to receive them in the mail.

But a new analysis from the Washington Examiner notes that most GOP-led states will continue to limit access to the pills.

Five states explicitly bar providers from prescribing abortion drugs in telehealth visits. They are Arizona, Arkansa, Missouri, Louisiana, and West Virginia.

Fifteen other states have effectively banned telehealth abortion pill prescriptions. They don’t explicitly ban the practice, but they do require a physician to be present when a patient receives and uses the pills.

Of those 15 states, three of them, Kansas, North Carolina, and Wisconsin, have Democratic governors but Republican-majority legislatures.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Josh Schumacher.

I'm Kent Covington. For more news, features, and analysis, visit us at wng.org. 

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