• An independent data monitoring committee (IDMC) recommends suspending enrollment of hospitalized participants with COVID-19 and high oxygen requirements in a trial of Regenron’s COVID-19 antibody cocktail, REGN-COV2, citing a potential safety signal and unfavorable risk/benefit profile. The IDMC recommended that the trial continue in hospitalized people who either do not require oxygen or only need low-flow oxygen, and that the outpatient trial of REGN-COV2. Source
• France enters a 30-day lockdown, as it reports its highest daily death toll since April. Sources 1,2
• The US House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis issues a 69-page report which describes the Trump Administration’s response to the coronavirus as “among the worst failures of leadership in American history.” Source
• The EU has agreed to a ‘fair distribution’ of coronavirus vaccines to each member state; it will provide 220 million euro to fund cross-border transfers of people hospitalized with COVID-19 to prevent healthcare systems from becoming overwhelmed. Source
• WHO warns of an “alarming juncture” in the Middle East, as cases increase in Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey and hardest-hit Iran, where a Ministry of Health spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari described the situation as a “full-scale war with the coronavirus.” Source
