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I'm guest hosting our newsletter today from Philadelphia. Thanks to a quick turnaround in coronavirus testing provided for free in Washington, DC, I was able to get cleared before visiting family here.
It's a huge relief to have that peace of mind. Even though I wasn't having symptoms, I wanted to be careful given data showing that 40% of people who've been infected haven't gotten sick.
Having said all that, I was getting whiplash this week when I read about the changing guidance from the Trump administration on testing. Our reporters covered it: First the administration said people who'd been exposed to the coronavirus but weren't having symptoms shouldn't be tested, and then officials seemed to walk back that guidance.
There's tons more news on the coronavirus pandemic, but we also covered other business developments this week. Here's a quick look at some of our stories:
For my latest story I spent some time thinking about the last few year's of Trump's presidency — the changes his administration made to the Affordable Care Act; the initiatives on HIV, opioid addiction, and kidney care; and of course the handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Who were the people who shaped and handled the details of the various policies?
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There are of course the obvious, such as Surgeon General Jerome Adams, Vice President Mike Pence, and Seema Verma, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. But I also identified people close to the administration that you probably haven't heard of. They're the people working behind the scenes who are on the front lines of handling the nitty gritty details of policy making.
This week, Moderna shared more results from its early stage coronavirus vaccine trial looking at how its vaccine works in older adults.
The shot was found to be safe and created an immune response in trial participants who were older than 55. The data is important because elderly Americans are more at risk from the novel coronavirus. Some vaccines don't work as well in older people.
On Monday, telehealth company American Well filed to go public in what's become a huge year for companies that deliver healthcare over the internet.
As part of the IPO, Google is making a $100 million investment in Amwell at the IPO price. Through the arrangement, Google's cloud business will host Amwell's technology and partner with the company on all-things-healthcare.
The two companies have plans to make the disconnected healthcare industry more connected through devices in people's homes, data analytics, and machine learning to lighten doctors' administrative loads, Chris Sakalosky, Google Cloud's head of healthcare sales, told Business Insider. They're also going to market each other's services to their respective client bases.
Sean Slovenski, the former president of health and wellness for Walmart, has taken a new post at lab-testing company BioIQ.
The company, founded in 2005, is looking to change how lab testing is done. Slovenski told Lydia that the need to shake up lab testing became particularly pronounced to him during the coronavirus pandemic.
Rather than own laboratories outright, BioIQ partners with labs around the country to provide groups like insurers, employers, and government organizations with testing capabilities.
BioIQ is backed by investors including HealthQuest Capital and Arboretum Ventures and Slovenski said part of his role as CEO may include leading the privately held company to an initial public offering.
