We're finally envisioning a future beyond CurveFlattening

The NPC Healthbiz Weekly is here to keep on informing you through 2021. It's your weekly briefing on topics pertinent to healthcare marketers and executives published in cooperation with Peak Pharma Solutions. 

⇒ Issue #196 (In numerology, 196 is analytic and introspective. So, we'll go with that)
⇒ Worldwide Covid cases as of 06/11: 174,893,444*
⇒ Worldwide Covid fatalities as of 06/11: 3,774,138*
⇒ Confirmed Covid cases in Canada as of 06/11: 1,405,906*
⇒ Confirmed Covid fatalities in Canada as of 06/11: 25,849*
⇒ Number of vaccine doses administered to Canadians as of 06/11: 27,729,564*

June 11, 2021—Good morning, you CurveFlatteners. It’s the end of yet one more week of social isolation, and it's starting to feel like the beginning of a different epoch. Here in Ontario, Canada, extended lockdown measures are lifting today. Neighbouring Quebec and much of the U.S.A. have already resumed usual routines. Normalcy is returning in the form of outdoor restaurant dining, shop re-openings, and some public gatherings.

From the observation deck, it’s Mitch Shannon reporting today. On a personal note, this Monday I became part of an elite club: one of the 9.1% of the population known as FVCs, or fully vaccinated Canadians. On behalf of the other 3,421,995 hosers in this posse, allow me to comment: You ain’t going to like the side-effects much. But it nevertheless beats the heck out of a stay in the ICU.

As it becomes possible to realistically imagine getting on with life after Covid, some of the behaviours we have assumed during the past 15 or 16 months will begin to seem – what is the word? – no longer required. Outmoded, in fact.

That brings me to the subject of this newsletter. Chronicle launched this publication back in March 2020 as a means of staying in touch with our community of life sciences professionals during the pandemic. Honestly, we had no clue that circumstances would require us to carry on with this project for what has turned out to be a sustained period: long enough to have earned a graduate degree in some worthwhile field, such as Applied Pet  Counselling, or Practical Semiotics for the Non-semiotician.

Now, as we approach a new phase, the time has arrived to shut this sucker down. Therefore, issue number 200, which will appear on June 25, will be the last CurveFlattener – hopefully, the last in our lifetime. We’re planning to declare that the curve has been flattened and then move on.

There will be plenty of opportunities ahead to determine what exactly we’ve all been through, what we’ve learned, and what we can do better in preparation for the next set of challenges (and they will occur.) For now, let’s be grateful that we endured and that we shared this historical experience. It isn’t over yet. There will be no return to normalcy for the 26,000 Canadian families who lost a loved one during this crisis. And in the aftermath of 3.8 million casualties among our global human family, a number that’s sadly still growing, there will be social, economic, and health consequences that will follow. We will feel the repercussions in all aspects of our lives.

But, look. We are the lucky ones. We get to carry on. As for me and my house, we have four more editions of CurveFlattener to complete during the next two weeks before we turn off the virtual printing press. And we really are not going anywhere, because Chronicle is about to launch two exciting new e-newsletters in July, which we’ll tell you about in the weeks ahead. Meanwhile, there is still the day’s Covid news to serve up, and here it is.

The NPC Podcast is back for another season. The National Pharmaceutical Congress organizers are proud to release our new weekly podcast series, hosted by Peter Brenders. Peter's guest this week is Dr. Len Walt, VP Medical at SSI Strategy. Listen here now, or download the episode and play it at your convenience. The NPC Podcast is presented in cooperation with Impres Pharma.

COVID CHRONICLE 06/11/2021

• Step right up: As marketers, we're familiar with the term “gamification.” And you’ve certainly heard the expression, “Playing games with your life.” However, it comes as a mild surprise that decisions formed by many Americans regarding whether or not they get a Covid vaccine may come down to the chance to win a prize. A recent article in Wired magazine examines why so many of the vaccine-hesitant can’t be persuaded by health science but have literally rolled up their sleeves in return for incentives such as lottery tickets, free beer and frequent-flyer miles. Ashby Monk, executive director of the Stanford Global Projects Center, tells the magazine’s Adam Rogers: “A fully rational economist from Chicago can’t figure out why people buy lottery tickets. It’s the same thing happening here. The expected value that people assign to the potential to win $1 million is far higher than the cost to the state.”
  

• A cardiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital has concluded that social factors unrelated to biology influence which patient populations may become infected with Covid-19. The findings, based on analysis of nearly 30,000 patient records have been just published in a research letter to the Journal of General Internal Medicine. Says lead author Jason H. Wasfy, MD, MPhil: "Societal disadvantages that were baked in before the pandemic led the pandemic to take a tremendously different toll on specific groups of patients. Our results show how profoundly systemic, structural aspects of society are revealed by assessing the spread of disease." The study determined that 5.6% of white patients tested positive, compared to 17.2% of Hispanic patients and 11.9% of Black patients. Another conclusion was that Medicaid patients, who receive social assistance) had more positive tests (14.2%) than those with commercial insurance (6.8%.)

• Misinformation distributed through social media was a contributing factor in spreading Covid-19 worldwide, according to new research from Toronto's York University and the University of British Columbia. The fake news extended across dozens of nations and pertained to topics such as vaccine efficacy to the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection in Washington, D.C. The researchers say countries with high social media use showed the strongest trend toward the faster initial spread of the virus. Says Prof. Jude Kong of York U's science faculty: "What we found was surprising, that the use of social media to organize off-line action tended to be associated with a higher spread rate of COVID-19. This highlights the need to consider the dynamic role that social media plays in epidemics." He's featured in the video below.

  WHAT CHRONICLE IS WORKING ON TODAY

  If you haven't yet registered for the upcoming NPC Summer Webinar, you will want to do that now. The theme for this event is "Countdown to Pharma's Post-Covid Future," and it could not be more timely. The faculty includes Ronnie Miller of Hoffmann-La Roche, Brian Canestraro of Intercept Pharma and Pat Forsythe of Eisai. Your hosts are Ben Parry of Pangaea Consultants and someone who calls himself Mitch Shannon of Chronicle Companies. So go right ahead and register for the free event here.

  TONIGHT I’M (MAYBE) READING...

  Here’s a challenging philosophical question for your weekend consideration: Is it alright to enjoy a decent book if it happened to be written by, let’s say, a bad person? I recently picked up Up, Up & Away, which is a compelling history of the National League’s Montreal Expos. Like others of my cohort (Hi there, Claude Perron), I remember when Les Expos were Canada’s team and I have fond memories of sitting in the cheap seats of Parc Jarry during the freezing evenings of late September, drinking Laurentide or Molson Brador. The book’s author, Jonah Keri, describes the team's formative years quite wonderfully, including the political machinations that brought organized baseball to Montreal. I was so taken with his writing that I needed to learn more about Mr. Keri, and now I wish I hadn’t. Guy’s probably the best reporter ever to graduate from Concordia University’s modest journalism program. Still, it seems he’s currently up on charges of domestic assault resulting from a 2019 incident, and the accusations are especially gruesome. There hasn’t been a court decision in this case, but I’m finding it hard to regain my enthusiasm for the book and am stalled at the very point where things started to get interesting: Charles Bronfman’s sudden emergence as a team owner. Dave Van Horne and Duke Snyder haven't even shown up yet. Guess we’ll just have to see if I ever finish this one. Either way, it’s toujours Les Expos.

  TOMORROW AND TOMORROW

  What is as rare and perfect as a weekend in June? Nothing. Enjoy it, and stay safe. We’ll have Skin Spectrum Weekly ready for you come Monday, followed by the NPC Healthbiz Weekly on Tuesday. Wednesday will bring the CJMC Fortnightly, followed by Kylie Rebernik’s edition of the CurveFlattener next Thursday. See you soon.