Credit: Cristian Storto, Shutterstock.com.

Eli Lilly & Co. has found its antibody drug to be effective in protecting the staff and residents of nursing homes and assisted facilities, where cluster infections have been on the rise.

Miles Kimball

Miles Kimball, an Eaton professor of economics at the University of Colorado, shared an article on monoclonal antibodies being underused as a treatment for the Covid-19 disease. Despite their authorisations, the antibody drugs have not been used to treat sick coronavirus patients as widely as companies and the federal officials had anticipated.

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A last-stage, or phase 3 study conducted by Eli Lilly & Co. and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) revealed that Lilly’s antibody drug, bamlanivimab, prevented Covid-19 infections in nursing home staff and residents and assisted-living facilities, thereby highlighting its significance as vaccinations increase.

The pharmaceutical company found the antibody drug to reduce the risks of the staff and residents getting infected with the virus by about 75%, compared to a placebo eight weeks after receiving doses. The effect was more pronounced among residents, with an 80% reduction in risks for Covid.

The company will reportedly be asking the US health regulators to widen its authorised use to protect nursing home staff and residents against the coronavirus disease.

Claudia Sahm

Claudia Sahm, an economist, re-tweeted on some excerpts from a paper at the start of the pandemic that revealed US state unemployment insurance reserves to be insufficient for an economic recession. According to authors Christopher O’Leary and Kenneth Kline, the unemployment reserves were inadequate to meet a downturn even of average severity, causing 18 of the states to exhaust their reserves in no time.

The article details how the Great Recession of late 2007 to 2009 drained the state reserves, forcing most to borrow to pay the unemployment insurance benefits. Some states even issued bonds, out of which Michigan and Pennsylvania continued to pay back debts from such bonds till 2018. The US unemployment system, as a result, has failed, and not been resilient enough to tackle the job losses caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

According to experts, pre-recession reserves should be approximately 2% of the total wages or 5% of the taxable wages. However, by the end of 2018, reserves were at only 1% of the total wages and less than 4% of the taxable wages.

Iglika Ivanova

Iglika Ivanova, an economist, re-tweeted an article on the Power Gap series, which began much before the Covid crisis emphasised how dangerous women’s place in the labour force really is. The pandemic has been a crushing blow to the minimal gains that women have made over the years, the article noted.

A Globe analysis further revealed that women are outnumbered and outranked at Canada’s vital public institutions. The analysis also found that salary wasn’t the only basis for this power gap, but inequality too. As a result, women and racialised women have always been understated when it came to important positions or the highest levels of decision making.

The two-year analysis of the salary records between men and women identified the disparities and how men occupied three times more positions in important public institutions such as municipal and provincial governments, schools, universities, hospitals, etc. Women also seemed to occupy mid-level positions and were underrepresented in managerial roles such as directors, supervisors, vice-presidents, and others.

https://twitter.com/IglikaIvanova/status/1352435171845234689