Giving a voice to women facing preterm birth

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By Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director

Born out of our historical focus on reducing health inequities in the United States, and a nearly year-long movement to preserve access to approved therapies that fight premature birth, NCL supported the launch of the Preterm Birth Prevention Alliance (PBPA), which brings together a coalition of 15 patient advocacy organizations who share concerns about the grave state of preterm birth in the United States and its disproportionate impact on Black, Indigenous, and women of color.

For the past decade, hydroxyprogesterone caproate, commonly called “17P,” has been the only available FDA-approved treatment option to reduce the risk of recurrent preterm birth. Patients and the healthcare providers who serve them currently have access to one branded and five generic versions of the prescription product. However, in 2020, the FDA proposed withdrawing all forms of 17P, based on conflicting efficacy data from two studies composed of vastly different populations — one inclusive of women in the U.S. most vulnerable to preterm birth and one not. Both studies showed that this class of treatment is safe for both mother and baby.

Despite multiple formal requests to consider additional data and alternate ways to study the efficacy of this class of drugs before effectively depriving women of access, FDA made its recommendation without engaging the most important stakeholders—patients who are at the highest risk and their providers. And even after a recently published meta-analysis showed that 17P injections reduced the risk of preterm birth before 34 weeks in high-risk women with singleton pregnancies, FDA persisted in its recommendation.

The Alliance was formed to stand up for the needs of moms and babies of every race and ethnicity and urge regulators to hear directly from women facing prematurity and their providers about their real-world experiences — in a public hearing — before making a decision on withdrawal.

We believe that evidence of efficacy for Black, Indigenous, and women of color in the United States — who are at highest risk of adverse outcomes — should be more determinative than a lack of demonstrated treatment efficacy on primarily white women from other countries. And we believe that more inclusive studies and data are needed, across more racially and ethnically diverse patient populations, to better understand the causes and impact of disparate outcomes in preterm birth.

Alliance partners currently include:

  • 1,000 Days
  • 2020 Mom
  • American Association of Birth Centers
  • Black Mamas Matter Alliance
  • Black Women’s Health Imperative
  • Expecting Health
  • Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Montana
  • HealthyWomen
  • Miracle Babies
  • National Birth Equity Collaborative
  • National Black Midwives Alliance
  • National Consumers League
  • National Partnership for Women & Families
  • Sidelines High-Risk Pregnancy Support
  • SisterReach

Organizations or advocates concerned about the needs of women facing prematurity — whether you are a healthcare professional, maternal and infant health advocate or a health equity champion — are invited to join us and add your voice to this effort.

Learn more and join the Alliance: https://nclnet.org/pbp/

Leading patient advocates launch preterm birth prevention alliance to protect critical access to the sole fda-approved class of therapies to reduce recurrent preterm birth

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April 20, 2021

Media contact: National Consumers League – Carol McKay, carolm@nclnet.org, (412) 945-3242 or Taun Sterling, tauns@nclnet.org, (202) 207-2832

Washington, DC—Today, the National Consumers League (NCL), along with a coalition of patient advocacy organizations dedicated to advancing the health of mothers and infants, announced the launch of the Preterm Birth Prevention Alliance.

Members of the Alliance are joining forces in an effort to preserve patient access to the only Food & Drug Administration-approved class of treatments for pregnant women who have previously had an unexpected, or spontaneous, preterm birth. Together, Alliance members seek to ensure that the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) hears concerns from the full range of stakeholders about the potential risks and impact of withdrawal for at-risk pregnant women and their providers.

For the fifth year in a row, the U.S. preterm birth rate has increased (to 10.2 percent of births), and preterm birth and its complications were the second largest contributor to infant death across the country. Preterm birth also represents a significant racial health disparity, with Black women in the U.S. experiencing premature delivery at a rate 50 percent higher than other racial groups throughout the country.

However, in 2020, the FDA proposed withdrawing hydroxyprogesterone caproate, commonly called “17P” or “17-OHPC”, the only FDA-approved class of branded and generic treatments to help prevent the risk of preterm birth in women with a history of spontaneous preterm birth. The FDA is currently determining whether to hold a hearing on the status of 17P, based on conflicting efficacy data from two studies composed of vastly different patient populations, one inclusive of women in the U.S. most vulnerable to preterm birth and one not.

“We’re fighting for a more inclusive healthcare system that gives everyone an equal chance to have the best outcomes possible,” said Sally Greenberg, executive director of the National Consumers League. “We don’t believe that removing 17P from the market without gaining a better understanding of who could benefit the most from its use is in the best interests of patients, nor their healthcare providers, particularly as there are no other approved treatment options available.”

To date, 14 organizations have joined NCL to advocate for the health interests of at-risk pregnant women and infants, including: 1,000 Days; 2020 Mom; American Association of Birth Centers; Black Mamas Matter Alliance; Black Women’s Health Imperative; Expecting Health; Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Montana; HealthyWomen; Miracle Babies; National Birth Equity Collaborative; National Black Midwives Alliance; National Partnership for Women & Families; Sidelines High-Risk National Support Network; and SisterReach.

“As a trained obstetrician and gynecologist, I know firsthand the impact of preterm birth on Black women and birthing people. I also know that racism – not race – is the driving factor leading the disproportionate impact of preterm birth on Black women and birthing people thereby exacerbating systemic inequities in maternal and infant health. To achieve birth equity, which is the assurance of the conditions of optimal births for all people with a willingness to address racial and social inequities in a sustained effort, we must work to protect and uphold a standard of care for spontaneous, recurrent preterm births and ensure it remains accessible and affordable for all who stand in need,” added Dr. Joia Crear Perry, founder and president of the National Birth Equity Collaborative.

The Preterm Birth Prevention Alliance is calling for the FDA to grant a public hearing to fully consider all of the data, additional research methods, and stakeholder perspectives before deciding whether to withdraw approval of this critical class of therapies. The health of America’s moms and babies warrants the utmost care and consideration.

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About the Preterm Birth Prevention Alliance

The Preterm Birth Prevention Alliance is a coalition of maternal and women’s health advocates who share a common concern about the state of preterm birth in the United States and the proposed market withdrawal of 17P, the only FDA-approved class of treatments to help prevent spontaneous, recurrent preterm birth. Formed in 2021 by the National Consumers League, we seek to improve preterm birth outcomes in the United States by maintaining access to safe, FDA-approved treatment options and advocating for more diverse medical research that adequately represents the experiences of women and newborns of color. Women of color need a seat at the table. To learn more, visit www.pretermbirthalliance.org.

Initial support for the Preterm Birth Prevention Alliance is provided by Covis Pharma.

Antimicrobial Resistance is a major looming threat to global health systems

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By Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director

If the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that threats to our health care system can change lives, both in our communities and around the world. We have learned the value of preparedness and that the ability to respond to massive, impactful events is not easy or without compromise. Thankfully, as summer nears, we see that gradually, countries around the world are in a much better place, thanks to access to vaccines and greater knowledge of how to diagnose and care for patients.

Certainly, we can hope that lessons learned from our recent experience with the COVID-19 pandemic will put us in a better position to identify and address a health issue before it develops to pandemic proportions. But I would urge us to remain vigilant. There are other threats to our health care system that exist and deserve attention…now. One major threat to world health delivery systems is about to have its moment: Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR).

Antimicrobials, which include antibiotics, are critical to maintaining our health. Chances are, in the course of the year, someone in your family will take an antibiotic for an ear infection, an abscessed tooth, a hip replacement, organ transplant, or cancer treatment. In recent years, we have learned that taking too many antibiotics can lead to resistance and therefore a loss of effectiveness. This is true, but it’s important to note that the antimicrobials used to treat resistant infections are much more intense and used in more extreme circumstances than the antibiotics most of us are familiar with.

Antimicrobials fight bacteria and other causes of serious infection and are often the last line of defense against fatal infection. Antimicrobial resistance needs to be taken seriously. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that approximately three million Americans suffer from AMR infections each year with close to 50,000 deaths annually. Other estimates have placed annual deaths from AMR at 162,000, which makes AMR the third leading cause of death in the U.S. today. Surprised?

Here’s what surprised me: there has only been one new class of antibiotics approved in OVER 30 YEARS. Think about that. We have seen game-changing progress in medicine and treatments for countless diseases and conditions, but not AMR. And then think about how many causes of infection have become resistant to the tools we have to fight them.

AMR is a complex problem that’s not going to be easily solved. It takes years and years and billions of dollars to develop a molecule to fight AMR. Today we are faced with a slim menu of therapeutic options now and we find ourselves years away from expanding those options. I fear that AMR may be our next worldwide health emergency and I am not alone: The World Health Organization (WHO) lists AMR as one of the top ten health threats today. Sadly, it’s not a matter of “if”…but rather “when”.

Medicines don’t work forever. With the limited number of effective antimicrobials, we are looking straight down the barrel of the next health emergency. It’s difficult to even contemplate pivoting from all that we have been through with COVID to a new focus on something else equally frightening, but history tells us that being unprepared comes at a heavy cost. And being prepared is exactly what we need to do.

Jeanette Contreras portrait

Expanded Medicaid coverage for postpartum care

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By NCL Director of Health Policy Jeanette Contreras

The COVID-19 pandemic has enlightened us to how the social determinants of health adversely impact maternal outcomes in low-income, medically underserved communities. Year after year, the United States continues to have the highest maternal mortality ratio among wealthy countries. In efforts to address this disparity, the American Rescue Plan Act includes a provision that allows states to expand Medicaid coverage to women for up to one year after childbirth.

The dismal maternal and infant mortality rates are directly correlated with the health disparities that disproportionately afflict black, indigenous, and women of color. A 2019 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that Black women were 3.3 times more likely than white women to die from pregnancy-related complications and Native American and Alaska Native women were 2.5 times more likely than white women to die within a year after childbirth.

Medicaid has traditionally been seen as a safety net for low-income pregnant women and children, providing health coverage that funds more than four in ten births in the U.S. each year. Under federal law, Medicaid must cover pregnant women with incomes up to 138 percent of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL) through 60 days postpartum. Each year, over 1.6 million women across the U.S. are effectively placed at risk for becoming uninsured when that 60-day coverage period ends.

Women who live in states that expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) are eligible to continue their health coverage through Medicaid. Additionally, the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, which passed last year, provides states with a 6.2 percent increase to the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP) rate to cover new enrollees eligible under the ACA Medicaid expansion as long as the Public Health Emergency is in place or at least throughout 2021. However, the women living in the 14 states that have yet to expand Medicaid would find themselves uninsured.

Under the American Rescue Plan, for the next five years, states have the option to extend Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) eligibility to pregnant individuals for 12 months postpartum. Though each state’s Medicaid program is different, the inclusion of this provision incentivizes states to extend health care to mothers during the most vulnerable time in their lives. This increased access to health care will pave the way towards improving health disparities for our most at-risk women and infants beyond the pandemic.

Consumers face an unfair disadvantage at the pharmacy counter

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By Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director

Everywhere we turn these days, we find ourselves wondering if we are getting a fair deal. Americans continue to suffer the economic consequences of a year-long global health pandemic, and many of us are trying to stick to the essentials and stretch our dollars where we can. As COVID-19 has reminded us, there aren’t many issues families face that are more significant than access to health care.

Families can’t go without essential prescriptions and often wonder why the price seems to go up each time they go for a refill. In fact, we are likely paying more than necessary at the pharmacy counter, but we don’t often know — or even think to ask — why.

A variety of factors drive drug costs, some of which are obvious: the cost of research and development, distributing the product, the pharmacies’ profits – but there is one far less known cause of price increases: PBMs, short for pharmacy benefit managers.

Most people have never heard of PBMs, and PBMs like it that way. They are billion-dollar companies that control more than 80 percent of the prescription drug formularies, (formularies are the lists of drugs that a health plan allows its members to access) — in the United States.

Because of their outsized role, too often PBMs determine how much consumers, businesses, government agencies, and others pay for medicines. As originally conceived, PBMs were meant to help ensure that patients get a fair deal by:

  • working with manufacturers to ensure rebates (or savings) for medications
  • working with insurance companies to determine which medications are covered
  • working with pharmacies to set the price points and help reimburse pharmacies for dispensing prescriptions.

In theory, PBMs should be lowering costs for everyone. However, as they have evolved and grown, they’ve become greedy and self-serving entities, scooping up discounts for themselves and throwing consumers under the bus. All the while, their profits continue to soar as they are all among the top Fortune 500 companies.

Sadly, PBMs have also found ways to manipulate the system and put their own profits first.

Insulin is a prime example. Diabetes patients who need their medication to survive are increasingly left with fewer options for treatment. When PBMs get involved, consumer costs increase.

One recent analysis found that the total value of rebates and discounts for insulin on an annual basis amounts to more than $5,000 per patient. Another report explained that the net price on one insulin product — what the company earns as revenue — declined by 53 percent since 2012, while the list price increased 141 percent. As the WSJ story explains, this is in part due to PBM middlemen meddling. In order to ensure formulary positions (which PBMs control), companies are paying more and more each year.

Consumers don’t know where high drug prices come from and they shouldn’t have to — the system needs to deliver affordable, accessible, safe and effective medications without any entities taking an unfair or hidden profit. The stakes are too high as we look ahead to the health challenges that millions face with the Covid pandemic.

NCL joins with many other groups, including America’s Agenda, United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, HMC Healthworks, Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers, National Community Pharmacists Association, National Alliance of State Pharmacy Associations, Diabetes Leadership Council, and Diabetes Patient Advocacy Coalition in helping to expose hidden, and frankly, indefensible profits being directed to the coffers of PBMs — money that should be redirected to bring drug prices down for patients and consumers.

Let’s all ask hard questions about PBMs’ role in our healthcare system and whether we can’t be using the profits they are taking to lower drug costs. Share this story with others. Talk with your friends and family. Ask your local pharmacist questions.

Consumers – not PBMs — should come first at the pharmacy counter. Stay tuned for more from us on this, and let’s continue the conversation.

Jeanette Contreras portrait

La tercera vacuna trae esperanza

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By NCL Director of Health Policy Jeanette Contreras

La Administración de Alimentos y Medicamentos de los EE. UU. (FDA, por sus siglas en inglés) acaba de aprobar una autorización de uso de emergencia para la vacuna de Johnson & Johnson, la tercera vacuna para combatir el coronavirus en EEUU. Aunque parece que no es tan efectiva como las otras dos, la vacuna de Johnson & Johnson ofrece una protección de 85 por ciento contra casos severos de COVID-19 y 100 por ciento de eficacia para evitar hospitalización y mortalidad, a causa del COVID-19. Con solo una dosis, esta vacuna ofrece protección de 72 por ciento contra el COVID-19 que ultimadamente ayuda controlar la pandemia en la población y alcanzar un nivel de inmunidad necesaria para regresar a la vida normal.

Una ventaja enorme de esta vacuna en términos de administración, es que se puede mantener en refrigeración normal por meses. Las otras vacunas requieren mantenimiento de temperatura súper baja en refrigeradores industriales que solo se encuentran en hospitales grandes. La vacuna de Johnson & Johnson es ideal para distribuir a comunidades rurales y en clínicas comunitarias. La aprobación de esta tercera vacuna, aumenta la disponibilidad y nos da esperanza de poder vacunar a más personas, más rápido con solo una dosis.

Sabemos que la comunidad Latina sufre de una taza de contagio más alta que otros grupos. Latinos constituyen una gran cantidad de empleados en trabajos esenciales con alto riesgo de contagio, como en la producción de comida y en puestos de trabajo de pequeños negocios. Mientras muchos esperan vacunarse, otros tendrán dudas o miedo de vacunarse. La campaña De Ti Depende nos asegura que es normal tener preguntas y ofrece información y respuestas en español para educar a la comunidad latina.

Campañas educativas como esta son necesaria para combatir información falsa y mitos que circulan en las redes sociales. Se escuchan mitos que las vacunas en general hacen daño o que alteran o cambian el ADN. Sin embargo, está comprobado científicamente por siglos que las vacunas han salvado vidas y nos han protegido. Los Centros para el Control y la Prevención de Enfermedades (CDC, por sus siglas en inglés) tiene una página dedicada a información para derribar los mitos más frecuentes acerca de estas vacunas.

Para alentar a la población a vacunarse, muchas empresas grandes están ofreciendo tiempo pagado o incentivos financieros a los empleados que se vacunan. Por ejemplo, supermercados como Publix les da $125 y Kroger les da $100 a empleados cuando reciben la vacuna completa. Dollar General les aumenta cuatro horas de pago normal a los que se vacunan.

Gracias a la autorización de la nueva vacuna, presidente Biden afirma que para el fin de mayo habrá vacunas para todos los adultos en EEUU. Las personas que deciden vacunarse, pueden buscar información confiable en el recurso de Telemundo – PlanificaTuVacuna.com para verificar la elegibilidad de acuerdo a las órdenes de cada estado.

Getting more vaccines in arms: Trust and efficiencies

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Guest blog by Farah Towfic, PharmD, MBA, director of the U.S. Pharmacopeia COVID-19 Vaccine Handling Toolkit

In the United States, nearly 200 million doses of influenza vaccines are administered annually. Clearly, pharmacists, nurses, physicians, and other healthcare practitioners have demonstrated a successful track record of delivering robust immunization programs for many years. However, the unprecedented scale and speed at which the COVID-19 vaccinations must be delivered to curb the devastating impact of this pandemic has surfaced enormous challenges—which have been further compounded by significant vaccine supply demand.​ Never before have we had to distribute multiple doses to more than 15 billion individuals around the world, with more than 300 million in the U.S. alone.

The pandemic has also recharged the focus on vaccine hesitancy, a challenging and complex issue which, at its core, is about trust based on a person’s experience and perspective. According to the KFF COVID-19 Vaccine Monitor, a growing share of the public is open to getting vaccinated, but many of the same groups that were hesitant in December 2020, when the first COVID-19 vaccines were released, remain hesitant now. When deciding whether to get vaccinated, most people say they will likely turn to pharmacists, doctors, nurses, and healthcare providers as the source for information. The KFF COVID-19 Vaccine Monitor also notes that 85 percent of people trust their own doctor or healthcare provider at least a fair amount for reliable vaccine information.

If we are going to mitigate the impact of this pandemic, we need to help build and maintain trust in COVID-19 vaccines. As an independent, nonprofit, scientific organization, U.S. Pharmacopeia (USP) has been dedicated—for more than 200 years—to improving global health and building trust in medicine through public standards and related programs that help ensure the quality, safety, and benefit of our drugs. With our shared goals to provide patient access to quality medicines, USP is proud to be a founding member of the National Consumers League (NCL) Health Advisory Council. The Council’s informative communication and opportunities for engagement provide critical perspectives that help shape and inform USP’s strategic focus and initiatives. The Health Advisory Council also demonstrates the power of collaboration—which is a cornerstone of USP’s work.

By working together with stakeholders, partners in industry and the U.S. government, we are able to identify the COVID-19 vaccine operational challenges and also provide solutions. One of these solutions is the recently released USP COVID-19 Vaccine Handling Toolkit, which addresses gaps that slow getting shots in arms and helps healthcare practitioners safely deliver vaccines in a variety of settings.

As millions of additional doses of COVID-19 vaccines are released, the USP COVID-19 Vaccine Handling Toolkit is helping doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and other healthcare practitioners create operational efficiencies to vaccinate more people in their communities quickly and safely, all the while maintaining quality. It includes strategies in three key areas:

  • Preparation and labeling to support different practitioners preparing and administering vaccines including how to maximize the number of doses per vial and enabling pre-drawing of vaccines in advance of large immunization events.
  • Storing, handling, and transporting the vaccine to mass vaccination clinics, nursing and long-term care facilities, and more.
  • Waste prevention and disposal to support settings in preventing vaccine waste and addressing gaps for vaccine administrators in proper disposal of ancillary supplies, such as syringes.

“Using the strategies from the USP Vaccine Handling Toolkit for pre-drawing syringes and streamlining our processes and workflow we increased shots in arms by 50% per day,” says Patricia W. Slattum, Pharm.D., Ph.D., BCGP, a vaccine administrator with the Virginia Medical Reserve Corp and Virginia Commonwealth University.

More than 40 independent expert volunteers along with U.S. government representatives developed this toolkit that enables healthcare practitioners to benefit from consistent, scientific-based strategies developed by independent experts that close efficiency gaps across states and territories.

The USP COVID-19 Vaccine Handling Toolkit is one of several initiatives USP is undertaking to support quality and build trust in COVID-19 vaccines, treatments, and preventatives. For example, our Hand Sanitizer Toolkit, launched in spring 2020, is being used by many around the world to ensure quality preparation of this essential COVID-19 preventative.

As the nation’s pioneer consumer organization, that leads the charge on the importance of adherence to live-savings medicines, NCL plays a pivotal role in helping to build trust in vaccines. USP values the opportunity to share the COVID-19 Vaccine Handling Toolkit with NCL and looks ahead to future opportunities to partner with NCL and other stakeholders in the patient advocacy community.

As more is learned about COVID-19 vaccines, additional information will be shared in the future. We encourage NCL’s readers to sign-up for updates at https://www.usp.org/covid-19/vaccine-handling-toolkit.

About USP
USP is an independent scientific organization that collaborates with the world’s top experts in health and science to develop quality standards for medicines, dietary supplements, and food ingredients. Through our standards, advocacy, and education, USP helps increase the availability of quality medicines, supplements, and food for billions of people worldwide.

Preventing the spread of COVID-19: Testing & genetic sequencing efforts in response to emerging variants

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With growing concerns regarding the impact of emerging COVID-19 variants, testing and genetic sequencing are critical components of broader return-to-work, return-to-school, and public health surveillance efforts.

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Addressing health inequity: A critical step towards a successful national vaccine rollout strategy

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Nissa Shaffi

By Nissa Shaffi, NCL Associate Director of Health Policy

The COVID-19 vaccines have provided much needed doses of hope as consumers eagerly wait for their shots. However — due to competing pressures of managing inadequate supplies, complex state-managed distribution plans, emerging viral variants, and unaddressed health disparities — the national vaccine rollout has fallen short of its intended goals.

To date, more than 40 million have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, and 16+ million people are currently fully-vaccinated. On average, providers around the country are administering 1.6 million doses per day. According to experts, 70 to 90 percent of the population will need to be vaccinated if we are to achieve herd immunity and return to normal everyday activities.

The delays in the vaccine rollout have been attributed to variations among states and territories, which have been expected to set their own distribution plans and eligibility criteria. All states have made the vaccine available for healthcare workers, and nearly 43 states and the District of Columbia have expanded their eligibility to include occupation-based vaccination programs. These include members of the non-medical essential workforce, like grocery store employees and police officers.

While vaccine hesitancy among some Americans remains a problem, it’s becoming less of a concern as more and more people are getting vaccinated. COVID-19 has further exposed both vulnerabilities in our infrastructure and social determinants of health — conditions in the environments in which people are born, live, learn, work, play, worship, and age that affect their overall health — that threaten to impede access. Throughout the rollout, vulnerable communities have experienced barriers in booking vaccine appointments due to limited access to broadband, phones, and accessible, affordable transportation.

Vaccine hesitancy and social determinants of health remain the primary obstacles in the rollout process. Going forward, addressing health disparities will be a critical strategy in realizing a successful national response, because — without health equity — the virus will continue to ravage the most vulnerable communities. The National Consumers League supports comprehensive strategies to address the glaring disparities in health and access that COVID-19 has exposed.

What the new COVID-19 variants mean for consumers

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Nissa Shaffi

By Nissa Shaffi, NCL Associate Director of Health Policy

Viruses mutate, and SARS CoV-2—more commonly known as COVID-19—is no exception to that rule. When a virus evolves and mutates from its predominant virus, all that we know about it changes as well. It may be too soon to glean what impact the variants could have on vaccine rollout and efficacy, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have provided the detailed evidence they’ve uncovered thus far.

Three new strains of COVID-19 have been identified presently in four countries: the United Kingdom (B.1.1.7), Japan and Brazil (P.1), and South Africa (B.1.351). These new variants have not been observed to be more deadly, nor have they made people sicker, but one thing they all have in common is that they are more contagious than COVID-19. Cases for these strains have been found in 33 countries, including the United States.

While the variants all differ slightly in their function, they all possess a specific mutation called D614G — a shared trait that allows these new strains to spread more quickly than the predominant virus. The strain found in the United Kingdom, B.1.1.7, has an estimated 50 percent transmissibility rate, or how quickly it spreads from person to person. Considering ongoing efforts to release new vaccines for inclusion in a national rollout to curb this pandemic, a mutating virus presents unique challenges for an already overburdened healthcare system.

So, what does this mean for travel, testing, vaccines, and so on? The CDC has released a helpful questionnaire for individuals to consider before they pursue travel, requesting that people delay non-essential travel whenever possible. For those that plan to travel, the CDC has released guidance which states that individuals traveling via air into the United States must provide proof of a negative test result or documentation of recovery, before boarding their flight. Masks are required on all forms of public transportation, including planes. The CDC has issued travel notices regarding global travel and each country’s corresponding risk-level.

Scientists are continuously gathering data to determine how the variants will impact the efficacy of certain therapies, vaccines, and tests. Until further evidence suggests, states are reluctant to enforce stringent lockdown procedures. According to public health experts, the best way to rein in the transmission of these highly contagious variants and to ensure a successful vaccine rollout, is to practice physical distancing and double masking. Layering two masks, as double masking suggests, provide added layers of protection and a better-fitting face covering. Not all masks are equal. To learn more about how to maximize protection against the coronavirus with masks, click here.

As new information emerges, it is important to adjust our safety measures to successfully navigate an ever evolving situation. Consumers are understandably experiencing pandemic-fatigue. Rest assured that the fruits of our collective efforts are closer than they appear, if only we work together towards protecting ourselves and our communities from unnecessary transmission.