The latest on President Trump's Covid-19 infection

President Trump has started receiving the common steroid dexamethasone to treat his Covid-19, his medical team said yesterday, and outside medical experts are questioning whether his condition may be more severe than his doctors and the White House have let on. The drug has been shown to help those with severe Covid-19, although doctors have warned against using it early on in the infection, and it’s recommended only for hospitalized Covid-19 patients who are on a ventilator or need oxygen. That's at odds with the generally upbeat description of Trump’s condition from his physicians, and Trump's startling car ride outside Walter Reed yesterday evening. The Wall Street Journal also reported yesterday that Trump didn’t disclose a positive result from a rapid Covid-19 test on Thursday while awaiting results from a more thorough test.

Trump’s infection also doesn't appear to have been a strong wake-up call in Washington, as many political leaders continue to flout public health guidance, STAT's Helen Branswell writes in a new story.

And the Nobel Prize in medicine goes to ...

This year’s Nobel Prize in medicine or physiology was awarded this morning to a trio of scientists who were recognized for their discovery of and work on the hepatitis C virus. The laureates are: Harvey Alter, an investigator at the NIH; Michael Houghton at the University of Alberta; and Charles Rice, a researcher at Rockefeller University. More than 70,000 people around the world are currently living with the virus, according to the WHO, which can cause cirrhosis and liver cancer. Yet prior to the scientists' discovery of the hep C virus, most blood-borne hepatitis virus cases were unidentified. Having a recognizable virus to attribute these infections to has also ushered in the development of diagnostics and therapies for the virus. Read more here.

Covid-19 has disrupted mental health services in the vast majority of countries

The Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted mental health services in 93% of countries worldwide, according to a new WHO report that surveyed 130 countries around the globe. Here are some highlights:

Telemedicine: While more than 80% of high-income countries report deploying telemedicine to help people access mental health services, fewer than half of low-income nations have done so.
Vulnerable populations: Majorities of countries report service interruptions for vulnerable populations, including 61% that said so about services for pre- and postnatal women and 70% that reported disruption in mental care for older people.
Types of service: Two-thirds of countries saw disruptions to counseling and psychotherapy services, while 30% reported interruptions to medications for mental, neurological, and substance use disorders.

Inside STAT: With an anthropologist’s eye, Duke pioneers a new approach to medical AI

(ALEX HOGAN/STAT, PHOTO: ADOBE)

As health systems rush to deploy AI-powered tools to predict outcomes, an overlooked aspect is how they fit into the preexisting workflow. An anthropologist and a sociologist at Duke helped the medical center's leadership learn about this the hard way. A tool used to help determine which patients were most likely to develop sepsis was having an overwhelmingly positive impact on patients. But the tool had nurses presenting results from the algorithm to doctors, some of which they had never worked with before, causing uncomfortable conversations and workflow disruptions. A larger team at Duke is now pioneering a uniquely inclusive approach to AI tools that assesses the real-world impacts on patients and workers. One aspect of the work: thinking up new way to label the AI systems, including a "nutrition facts" approach. STAT's Erin Brodwin has more here.

Expert panel recommends U.S. join international vaccine pool

The U.S. should join the international Covid-19 vaccine pool known as the COVAX facility, a panel of experts convened by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine recommended Friday. That panel also said that the U.S. should redistribute 10% of its available vaccine supply to low-income countries that would otherwise struggle to get their own supply. Joining COVAX and allocating part of the U.S. vaccine supply would not only increase the U.S.' chances of accessing effective Covid-19 vaccines but also help the country regain its position as a global health leader, the report from the group said. Read more here.

Getting the flu shot is linked to fewer flu-related hospital visits in children

As we approach flu season in the Northern Hemisphere, a new study finds that flu-related hospitalizations and emergency department visits were fewer among kids who had been vaccinated against the illness. Kids can be especially at risk from dying from the flu, the authors write, and the seasonal flu vaccine is often the most reliable protection against this risk. The study drew from data from nearly 1,800 hospitalized kids for flu-related respiratory illness in the 2018-2019 U.S. flu season. Among this group, those who had been vaccinated against influenza were 41% less likely to be hospitalized for flu-related reasons than those who didn't report getting the seasonal flu shot. Influenza-related visits to the emergency department were also reduced by half in the vaccinated group compared to those who hadn't received it.

Clarification: The study in Thursday's newsletter item on the gender wage gap among physicians found that female primary care doctors earned less revenue than their male counterparts because they had fewer patient visits, but female doctors spent more time with their patients per visit, day, and year.

What to read around the web today

The Sackler family’s plan to keep its billions. The New Yorker
Uganda reports blood shortages amid coronavirus pandemic. Associated Press
The lesson from Trump catching Covid-19: With this virus, there are no magic bullets. STAT
What a Joe Biden presidency would mean for five key science issues. Nature
The pandemic poses risks for older doctors. Some are retiring early in response. The Washington Post