Seven days in medicine: 1-7 February 2023
BMJ 2023; 380 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.p297 (Published 09 February 2023) Cite this as: BMJ 2023;380:p297
Covid-19
Payments for long term sick leave are cut
NHS staff who are on sick leave with long covid face cuts in pay from 1 March, when payments are due to change. Special arrangements provided full pay for NHS staff who needed to self-isolate or became ill from SARS-CoV-2 until 1 September 2022, after which staff were allowed to claim full pay for six months and then half pay for six months. The BMA said, “We have repeatedly called for enhanced covid-19 sickness pay provisions to continue until a long term strategy for dealing with covid-19 is in place, one that is underpinned by adequate research, data collection, and sustained investment.” (Full story doi:10.1136/bmj.p274)
US removes authorisation for antibody drug
The US Food and Drug Administration withdrew its emergency use authorisation for the long acting antibody drug Evusheld (tixagevimab and cilgavimab), citing data showing that the treatment was unlikely to be effective against the XBB.1.5 subvariant of omicron now dominant in the United States. Evusheld was authorised in the US in late 2021 to prevent covid infections in clinically extremely vulnerable people. It was approved in the UK in March 2022, but the government chose not to fund it because of “insufficient data” on its effect against omicron and its subvariants. (Full …
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