What We’re Reading: Amazon Care to Shut Down; Rise in Youth T2D Diagnoses; Revealing Pressure on FDA Authorization Decisions

Amazon Care to Shut Down by End of 2022

Amazon on Wednesday announced plans to shut down its telehealth venture Amazon Care by the end of 2022, STAT News reported. This announcement comes only a month after news of Amazon’s plan to acquire One Medical for $3.9 billion, and will not affect other Amazon health care projects. According to Neil Lindsay, Amazon Health Services leader, the effort “was not a complete enough offering for the large enterprise customers we have been targeting, and wasn’t going to work long-term.”

Rise in New T2D Cases During COVID-19 Pandemic

During the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of new type 2 diabetes (T2D) diagnoses among US youth rose by 77%, CIDRAP News reported. A study published in Journal of Pediatrics looked at health records of 3113 youth aged between 8 and 21 years who had COVID-19. It showed that new cases of T2D increased by 1463 patients between March 2020 and February 2021, compared with an average of 886 in 2019, and 765 in 2018. The likelihood of presenting with metabolic decompensation and severe diabetic ketoacidosis also significantly increased during this time.

Trump Officials Pushed for FDA Reauthorization of Hydroxychloroquine

Evidence from a congressional investigation revealed White House officials during Donald Trump’s presidency tried to push for the FDA reauthorization of a discredited COVID-19 treatment, hydroxychloroquine, The Associated Press reported. The FDA had originally authorized the use of hydroxychloroquine in late March 2020 based on small study results, at a time when researchers hoped existing antiviral drugs would work against the virus, but revoked its emergency use authorization 3 months later after it was found to be ineffective and potentially harmful. According to the report, the Trump administration attempted to control the release of FDA COVID-19 guidance and establish political operatives at public health agencies. There is no evidence that these efforts changed the FDA’s decisions on approving or rejecting hydroxychloroquine or any other therapies for COVID-19.