Health Highlights: May 14, 2020

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Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by the editors of HealthDay:

Coronavirus Test Used By White House May Miss Nearly Half of Infections: Study

A rapid coronavirus test that’s used to test White House staff could miss infections up to nearly half the time, a new study suggests.

NYU Langone Health researchers evaluated the accuracy of the Abbott ID Now test, which was given emergency authorization by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in late March, The New York Times reported.

They found that the test — which uses a small machine and provides results in five to 13 minutes — may miss coronavirus infections up to 48% of the time. The study has not been peer-reviewed.

There was no immediate response from a White House spokesperson when asked for a comment, the Times reported.

The test is designed to be in doctor’s offices and clinics, and is being used in drive-through testing sites nationwide, newspaper reported.

“ID Now is an important tool that delivers information where it’s needed most,” Abbott said in a statement.

The company said its reported rate of missed infections was 0.02% and that the latest findings were “not consistent with other studies of the test,” the Times reported.

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Wisconsin’s Extension of Stay-at-Home Order Overturned

Wisconsin’s extension of a stay-at-home order has been overturned by the state’s supreme court.

In its 4-3 decision, the court ruled that the order is “unlawful” and “unenforceable,” and that the administration of Democratic Gov. Tony Evers overstepped its authority in mid-April when it extended the order to May 26, CNN reported.

The lawsuit against the order was filed last month by the Republican-led state legislature.

In their opinion, the justices wrote that the governor’s power to declare emergencies was not being challenged, “but in the case of a pandemic, which lasts month after month, the Governor cannot rely on emergency powers indefinitely,” the Washington Post reported.

In a statement, Evers condemned the court’s decision, saying Wisconsin “was in a pretty good place,” but the decision will “throw our state into chaos.”

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U.S. Project Would Produce Hundreds of Millions of Prefilled Syringes if Coronavirus Vaccine Developed

A deal for hundreds of millions of syringes that could be used to quickly administer a possible vaccine against the new coronavirus has been reached between the U.S. government and a private company.

The $138 million partnership is with ApiJect Systems America, which makes inexpensive prefilled plastic syringes designed to be used in developing countries, NBC News reported.

The aim of the Project Jumpstart initiative is to produce 100 million prefilled syringes by the end of 2020 and more than 500 million in 2021 if a vaccine against the new coronavirus becomes available, government officials said.

The project will “help significantly decrease the United States’ dependence on offshore supply chains and its reliance on older technologies with much longer production lead times,” said Defense Department spokesman Lt. Col. Mike Andrews, NBC News reported.

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