Why One Medical bought Iora

Hello,

Welcome to Insider Healthcare. I'm Lydia Ramsey Pflanzer, and today in healthcare news:

• One Medical's CEO explains why the primary-care company is buying Iora;
• 8 charts shared by the CDC show how powerful Pfizer's vaccine is against COVID-19;
• How to use an at-home coronavirus test.

If you're new to this newsletter, sign up here. Comments, tips? Email me at [email protected] or tweet @lydiaramsey125. Let's get to it…

Happy September! A quick note: I linked to the wrong article yesterday about women taking out their own IUDs after doctors refused to do it. You can read that article here.

One Medical is making a $1.4 billion bet on eldercare pioneer Iora. CEO Amir Rubin tells us why.

• Primary care company One Medical completed its $1.4 billion acquisition of Iora Health on Wednesday.
• One Medical's CEO and Iora's founder shared their vision in an interview.
• They're building a primary-care company that treats patients from when they're young to when they age into Medicare.

Read more from the conversation>>

CDC shares 8 new charts that show how powerful Pfizer's vaccine is against COVID-19 and the Delta variant

• On Monday, independent experts to the CDC voted unanimously to recommend Pfizer's vaccine to everyone over 16.
• Their decision was data-driven, and factored in both the risks and benefits of vaccination.
• They reviewed graphs and tables showing that, while vaccinated people can get mild infections, Pfizer's vaccine does a great job keeping people alive and out of the hospital.

Check out the chart>>

How to get at-home coronavirus tests, and how to use them correctly

• At-home coronavirus tests are in high demand amidst the Delta surge.
• Most home kits are rapid antigen tests, which are quick and cheap but not as sensitive as PCR.
• PCR testing is the current "gold standard," which you can get delivered but it usually takes place in a lab.

Here's what you need to know>>

More stories we're reading:

• Even with the Delta variant, the ability of COVID-19 vaccines to prevent hospitalization hasn't significantly dropped, CDC scientist says (Insider)
• Mental health startup Alma raised $50 million at around a $500 million valuation (Forbes)
• Prescriptions for ivermectin - a deworming drug - surged to 24 times their pre-pandemic levels as people baselessly take it as a COVID-19 cure (Insider)
• J&J's HIV vaccine failed in its first trial looking at how well it worked to prevent infections (Stat News)

- Lydia