July 21, 2020 

Dear Friends,

Today, the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee of Energy and Commerce invited top officials from AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Moderna and Pfizer to testify on the development of a COVID-19 vaccine.

National Updates
The University of Oxford and AstraZeneca reported positive data regarding the efficacy of their vaccine candidate emerging from a 1,000-person clinical trial. 

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reissued an Emergency Use Authorization to Quest Diagnostics for its COVID-19 diagnostic test, which is the first of its kind using pooled samples.

• The FDA published a summary explaining its efforts to protect patients and consumers from COVID-19 fraud.
• To date, the FDA has issued 186 Emergency Use Authorizations for COVID-19 tests, including 153 molecular tests, 29 antibody tests, and 2 antigen tests.

National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Francis Collins spoke with NBC about the current surge of COVID-19 cases and the importance of accelerating vaccine and diagnostic development.

The Department of Health and Human Services launched a Coronavirus Data Hub, replacing the National Health Safety Network, for hospitals to report COVID-19 data to the federal government.


Until next time, this is your doctor's note.