Trending News – February 4, 2021

In this new minisode series, Mindy, Ryan, and Jen discuss a few recent newsworthy items healthcare leaders should be considering. The episode opens with a discussion of the Biden administration’s initial response to the COVID-10 pandemic (00:35), including the pledge to administer 100 million doses in his first 100 days, the invocation of the Defense Production Act, and the establishment of his COVID Response Taskforce. The conversation then moves to analyzing key healthcare hires in the Biden administration (06:47), including the nomination of Xavier Becerra for HHS Secretary, Vivek Murty for Surgeon General, Rochelle Walensky of the CDC, and Janet Woodcock of the FDA. Outside of the political landscape, vaccine development and distribution continues to make headlines (10:52), with more Americans expressing willingness to receive the vaccine, J&J releasing positive trial results, trials starting in juvenile populations, and Merck pulling their vaccine candidates from development. The episode concludes with a discussion of how Biden’s regulatory freeze memo (15:12), could directly counteract some lame-duck Trump decisions, particularly changes to HIPAA privacy rules, the FDA’s authority over medical devices, and prior authorization requirements.