Inside Big Pharma’s work with celebs

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Hello,

Welcome back to the workweek. I, for one, have never been less excited to receive a flurry of texts from friends than I was Friday night, when we learned that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had died at 87 of complications related to pancreatic cancer.

I’ll be spending a lot of this week thinking about her legacy in healthcare and what might come next as the Supreme Court prepares to hear arguments related to the Affordable Care Act. 

In healthcare news, we’re already off to a busy start with the news that Illumina is acquiring its once-spinout Grail, a company focused on early cancer detection testing. Over the years, Grail has racked up more than $1.9 billion in funding from the likes of Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates and pharma giants like Merck. Prior to Illumina swooping in, Grail had recently filed to go public. 

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The CDC reversed course yet again, removing widely condemned language about not testing asymptomatic people for the coronavirus

• The CDC is once again recommending that people get tested for the coronavirus if they've been in close contact with an infected person — even if they're not showing symptoms.
• The agency briefly reversed its testing policy in August to say that testing asymptomatic people wasn't necessary.
• Public-health officials called the position "dangerous," since overwhelming evidence suggests the virus can spread via asymptomatic transmission.

Read the full story from Hilary Brueck and Aria Bendix here>>

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Inside the murky world of Big Pharma's celebrity partnerships, where stars like Serena Williams and Khloe Kardashian get paid to promote prescription drugs

• Pharmaceutical companies have huge marketing budgets at their disposal, and one of their strategies involves tapping celebrities as spokespeople for brand-name drugs.
• Stars such as Serena Williams, Khloe Kardashian, Ray Liotta, and Cyndi Lauper have appeared in ads for prescription medications, and payouts can run into the millions.
• But the US is one of the only countries that allows direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical advertising, and experts told Insider there are ethical concerns about the practice.

Read the full story from Laura Entis here>>

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Fauci: We'll likely be wearing masks for most of 2021, even after a vaccine rolls out

• Dr. Anthony Fauci says a vaccine alone is not going to "get us to the point where we want to be, by the end of 2021."
• We'll need to vaccinate, social distance, continue hand hygiene, and use masks in order to get the level of coronavirus circulating between people down so low that outbreaks become a thing of the past.
• The first coronavirus vaccines will likely not protect people from getting sick at 100%, but may provide somewhere around 70% protection against symptomatic infections. 

Read the full story from Hilary Brueck here>>

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More stories we're reading:

• Emails show how a former Trump health official sought to silence the CDC  (The New York Times)
• There are 11 coronavirus tests you can use from home. Here's how they work and where to order one. (Business Insider)
• The Lancet is changing its peer-review process in the wake of COVID-19 (The Wall Street Journal)
• Fauci says planning weddings and parties for 2022 is 'a pretty good bet' (Insider)
• The White House insisted on mailing seniors $100 "Trump Cards," undermining a potential deal to lower drug prices (The New York Times)

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Today is my dog's eighth birthday! I'll try to post a photo of him on Twitter to celebrate, so be sure to follow me there.

And don't forget - subscribe to this newsletter here.

-Lydia