April 29, 2020

Dear Friends,

Today, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Gilead Sciences announced that positive data is emerging from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases’ study of the antiviral remdesivir for the treatment of COVID-19. Preliminary results show that patients receiving remdesivir recovered at a rate 31% faster than those receiving a placebo.

National Update:
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated the information for state and local health departments on laboratory capacity and contact tracing.

The Food and Drug Administration has issued 50 individual Emergency Use Authorization requests for test kit manufacturers and laboratories, and more than 230 laboratories have begun testing under the policies set forth in FDA’s diagnostic testing policy.

NIH announced that it will use $1.5 billion in federal funding for its new Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADx) initiativeto incentivize and reward competition amongst scientists and inventors as they develop rapid COVID-19 testing technology.

Together, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Health and Human Services and the private sector have coordinated the delivery of or are shipping: 76.5 million N95 respirators, 107.2 million surgical masks, 7.2 million face shields, 15.3 million surgical gowns, 811.9 million gloves, 10,603 ventilators, and 8,450 federal medical station beds.

The Small Business Administration processed 450,000 loans totaling over $50 billion in the first day of the second round of funding for the Paycheck Protection Program.

The White House and the Department of the Interior re-established the White House Council on Native American Affairs, which will support the Indian Country COVID-19 Response Team.

Until tomorrow, this is your doctor's note.

Congressman Michael C. Burgess, M.D.