WBIW reports that Lawrence County, Ind., Health Officer Alan Smith has extended an order to prevent visits to long-term care and assisted living communities in the country through Feb. 9. The order is to protect residents in response to a surge in positive cases of COVID-19 in the county. The mandate also could be extended further should cases continue to rise in Lawrence.

BioSpace reports that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has extended the review period for Biogen and Eisai's Biologic License Application (BLA) for aducanumab for Alzheimer's disease from March 7 to June 7. Biogen and Eisai announced near the end of 2019's first quarter that they were discontinuing the global Phase III clinical trials ENGAGE and EMERGE of aducanumab in persons with mild cognitive impairment for Alzheimer's and mild Alzheimer's dementia, as well as the EVOLVE Phase II trial and the long-term extension PRIME Phase Ib trial. But in October of that year, the companies announced plans to pursue regulatory approval for the drug, as the Phase III EMERGE trial met its primary endpoint, indicating significant decrease in clinical decline. This was apparently enough to file for a BLA, which Biogen intended to do the second quarter of 2020. In April 2020, the partners announced that while Biogen begun to submit parts of the BLA, they did not expect to complete it until the third quarter of 2021. This past November, the FDA's Peripheral and Central Nervous System Drugs Advisory Committee criticized the submission, voting repeatedly against it. The most recent delay is apparently related to the FDA requesting additional analyses and clinical data, which Biogen has complied with. "We are committed to working with the FDA as it completes its review of the aducanumab application," said Biogen CEO Michel Vounatsos.

Johnson & Johnson has announced that its experimental COVID-19 vaccine was 66 percent effective at protecting people from moderate to severe disease in a large clinical trial, reports the Wall Street Journal . The positive results could pave the way for its deployment throughout the United States within weeks. The J&J vaccine appeared to be generally safe and well tolerated among the more than 44,300 adults aged 18 and older in the late-stage trial, though some of the volunteers reported temporary side effects like fever. The company is expected to ask American regulators as soon as next week to authorize use. The FDA could take action by the end of February. If the shot is approved, federal officials say J&J will be able to quickly ship millions of doses.

A study in Neurology found that people with enlarged fluid-filled spaces in the brain around small blood vessels may be more likely to develop cognitive problems and dementia later on, reports Technology Networks . The authors analyzed 414 people, average age 80, who took tests of thinking and memory skills and were assessed for dementia at the beginning of the study and every two years for eight years. Participants had magnetic resonance imaging brain scans to check for enlarged perivascular spaces in two key brain regions. The top quartile of those with the largest number of enlarged perivascular spaces, designated as severe cases, were compared to those with fewer or no enlarged spaces. Persons with the largest number of enlarged perivascular spaces in both brain regions were nearly three times more likely to develop dementia during the study. In all, 97 people were diagnosed with dementia during the study, including 12 of 31 subjects with severe cases in both areas of the brain. Participants with severe enlargement of perivascular spaces in both areas also were more likely to have greater decline on overall cognition scores four years later than those with mild or absent enlargement of spaces. "These results suggest that there is an independent mechanism for the perivascular spaces as a biomarker of cognitive impairment and dementia apart from being a general marker of disease in the small vessels," said Matthew Paradise at the University of New South Wales.

WRIC reports that Virginia's Henrico County is still taking homemade Valentine's Day cards for senior residents at long-term care communities through its Spread the Love initiative. The county's EngAGE program started collecting cards in January and will continue accepting them through Feb. 5. In a Facebook post this past Tuesday, Henrico stated that "through the Spread the Love initiative, many of you have crafted colorful and thoughtful cards. We would love to see more."

West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice praised the state's coronavirus vaccine rollout, and declared that if it has the "doses by Valentine's Day, every person in this state, 65 years of age and older, would be vaccinated," reports CNBC . The U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention's COVID-19 Vaccination Tracker rated West Virginia either the number one or number two state for shots administered per capita for the last three weeks. The state also has a first dose administration rate of 95.2 percent and a second dose vaccination rate of 46.8 percent. In detailing the state's strategy on CNBC's "The News with Shepard Smith," Justice said "we didn't necessarily take the federal approach, we took a practical approach, and we took an all in approach. We brought our National Guard, our local pharmacies, our local health care people, and our local health clinics and everything." West Virginia has administered almost 12,000 doses, or 77 percent of their dose supply, and Justice highlighted the importance of prioritizing the vaccination of older Americans. "We looked at this just one way, and it was age and age, and age, and we knew we had to move," he said. "We didn't want vaccines sitting on a shelf, we needed them in people's arms."

A study in Science Advances details three major molecular subtypes of Alzheimer's disease (AD) that could be biomarkers that lead to earlier diagnosis and intervention, reports the Psychiatry & Behavioral Health Learning Network . Analysis exposed subtype-specific molecular drivers in disease progression, and identified correspondence between them and the existing AD disease animal modules used for mechanistic studies and testing candidate therapeutics. The researchers said this may partly explain why medications that succeeded in specific mouse models were not successful in human trials. The investigators analyzed 1,543 samples across five brain regions in two cohorts of patients with AD and normal controls. In both analyses, Alzheimer's subtypes were separate from the patient's age and disease stage and replicated across multiple brain regions. The disease's two neuropathological hallmarks are tau neurofibrillary and amyloid-beta plaque, but they are only significantly worse in some subtypes. Bin Zhang at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai said, "These findings lay down a foundation for determining more effective biomarkers for early prediction of AD, studying causal mechanisms of AD, developing next-generation therapeutics for AD, and designing more effective and targeted clinical trials, ultimately leading to precision medicine for AD."

The Pittsburgh Business Times reports that Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf has announced plans for a refreshed workforce development program worth several billion dollars to help workers, businesses, and the economy rebound from the pandemic. The revised effort would concentrate on a strategic investment to aid workers who have been most affected by layoffs and tackle inequalities for people of color, the disabled, lower-wage employees, and those in certain targeted industries. "Pennsylvanians face a lot of barriers in life, now more than ever, obviously because of the COVID pandemic," Wolf declared Thursday. The plan requires approval by the GOP-led General Assembly during the budget process that begins officially Feb. 2 with Wolf's yearly budget address. The state said the effort would take guidance from the Keystone Economic Development and Workforce Command Center report issued earlier in January. Wolf intends to underwrite the program by imposing a severance tax on Pennsylvania's natural gas industry, which the General Assembly has long opposed. The governor said community colleges and other training initiatives are set up for workforce training and would also use proceeds from a severance tax.

A report commissioned by Older Adults Technology Services (OATS) and the Humana Foundation says nearly 22 million older Americans lack wireline broadband access at home, accounting for 42 percent of those older than 65, according to Telecompetitor . Most of what is available is managed by telecom firms and nonprofits, with little or no direct public-sector backing — although public-private alliances have proven effective. OATS and the Humana Foundation have undertaken a joint campaign, "Aging Connected," with four primary goals: to "publicize and clearly articulate the value of broadband to seniors;" prioritize social equity and inclusion; broaden access to low-cost offers, and "develop content, communities, and experience for older adults to increase utilization of broadband services." The report cites "disturbing correlations between digital disengagement and race, disability, health status, educational attainment, immigration, rural residence, and income." The authors further noted that over 80 percent of deaths due to the COVID-19 pandemic are older Americans, and 40 percent of them could not access necessary resources from home. Moreover, digital inclusion efforts are marked by wide inconsistency, and large segments of the country lack low-cost and senior-friendly initiatives.

WDBJ-TV 7 (Jan. 27, Irby) reports that Virginia has enacted the country's first permanent COVID-19 workplace safety and health standards, which went into effect yesterday. Gov. Ralph Northam approved the new standards adopted by the state's Department of Labor and Industry's Safety and Health Codes Board. They mandate appropriate personal protective equipment, social distancing, sanitation, record keeping, infections disease preparedness and response plans, training, and hazard communications in workplaces. With no standards at the federal level, Virginia enacted temporary emergency workplace health and safety requirements last year in response to the health crisis. The permanent standards are similar to those temporary ones and will remain effective throughout the pandemic. "No Virginia worker should have to weigh their family's economic security against their physical safety," states Chief Workforce Development Advisor Megan Healy. "These permanent standards provide workers with essential recourse if faced with this untenable decision while giving businesses a clear understanding of the steps they must take to maintain a safe working environment." The Virginia Department of Labor and Industry has been tasked with enforcing the permanent standard.