Kaiser Health News Original Stories

The NFL Has Been Using an Unproven Measure to Get Players With Covid Back on the Field Fast

Doctors and scientists are debating whether a little-known measure in covid testing should be used to distinguish who is infectious from who isn’t. The NFL adopted the practice, but laboratory professionals caution against its use. (Rae Ellen Bichell, 3/12 )

Political Cartoon: 'He Can't Believe It's Not Butter'

Kaiser Health News provides a fresh take on health policy developments with "Political Cartoon: 'He Can't Believe It's Not Butter'" by Mike Lester.

Here's today's health policy haiku:

After two long years, public health and health care staff struggle with "normal"

If you have a health policy haiku to share, please Contact Us and let us know if you want us to include your name. Keep in mind that we give extra points if you link back to a KHN original story.

Exposure To Lead In Gas As Kids Dulled IQ In Half Of US Adults: Study

Over 170 million people born in the U.S. before 1996 — when the country banned leaded gas — were exposed to harmful levels of lead during their developmental years, a new study estimates. And that resulted in an average per-person drop in IQ of 2.6 points.

NBC News: Lead In Gasoline Blunted IQ Of Half The U.S. Population, Study Says Exposure to leaded gasoline lowered the IQ of about half the population of the United States, a new study estimates. The peer-reviewed study, published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, focuses on people born before 1996 — the year the U.S. banned gas containing lead. Overall, the researchers from Florida State University and Duke University found, childhood lead exposure cost America an estimated 824 million points, or 2.6 points per person on average. (Chuck, 3/7)

USA Today: Lead In US Gas For Cars May Have Lowered Americans' IQ, Study Finds Researchers at Duke University and Florida State University analyzed publicly available data on U.S. childhood blood-lead levels, leaded-gas use and population statistics and determined the likely lifelong burden of lead exposure carried by every American alive in 2015. They found more than 170 million Americans – more than half of the U.S. population – had “clinically concerning” levels of lead in their blood when they were children, according to the study published Monday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (Rodriguez, 3/7)

AP: Half Of US Adults Exposed To Harmful Lead Levels As Kids  Early childhood lead exposure is known to have many impacts on cognitive development, but it also increases risk for developing hypertension and heart disease, experts said. “I think the connection to IQ is larger than we thought and it’s startlingly large,” said Ted Schwaba, a researcher at University of Texas-Austin who studies personality psychology and was not part of the new study. (Costley, 3/7)

In related news about lead contamination —

Cincinnati Enquirer: Kroger Sued For Lead Contamination In Salads, Baked Goods A California advocacy group is suing Kroger in that state, charging several food items it makes under its store brands contain "dangerous" levels of lead. The lawsuit filed Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court seeks to eliminate the sale of these products in California. Under California consumer protection law, Kroger could also reduce the lead content or simply add a prominent health warning to the packaging. "Kroger is betraying the American public by selling over a dozen products tainted with extraordinarily high amounts of lead,” said Vineet Dubey, the Los Angeles environmental attorney who filed the lawsuit, in a statement. (Coolidge, 3/8)

EPA Proposes Tougher Truck Emission Standards To Combat Health Issues

The Environmental Protection Agency released a draft rule that would kick in by 2027 and impact large vehicles like tractor-trailer trucks and buses that emit toxic pollutants. Other environmental health stories report on asthma, extreme heat, tainted water, and more.

Los Angeles Times: EPA Moves To Cut Smog From Trucks And Other Heavy Vehicles The Biden administration is proposing new emission standards that would reduce smog-forming pollutants from tractor-trailer trucks, buses and other heavy-duty vehicles as part of a multiyear plan to improve air quality across the nation. The draft rule proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency, which would take effect in model year 2027, would reduce emissions of g nitrogen oxides from gasoline and diesel engines by as much as 60% in 2045, the agency said. It would also set updated greenhouse gas standards for certain commercial vehicle categories, including school buses, transit buses, commercial delivery trucks and short-haul tractors — subsectors in which electrification is advancing more rapidly, the EPA said. (Wigglesworth, Kaur and Curwen, 3/7)

The Wall Street Journal: EPA Aims To Cut Toxic Emissions From Commercial Trucks  EPA officials said the proposed rules are ambitious but feasible, and would benefit the public by reducing asthma and other health problems. “These new standards will drastically cut dangerous pollution by harnessing recent advancements in vehicle technologies from across the trucking industry as it advances toward a zero-emissions transportation future,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said. (Ferek, 3/7)

WUSF Public Media: USF Doctor's National Study Of Asthma Treatments For Black And Latino Patients Is A First Of Its Kind  In Florida, Black people are three times more likely to die from asthma than whites. And national data shows that Latinos also suffer disproportionately from the chronic disease that causes shortness of breath, coughing and tightness in the lungs. They get more severe cases of asthma than whites and are more often hospitalized for the disease. In the first study to look at asthma treatments for Black and Latino patients, researchers at the University of South Florida and around the nation spent more than three years developing solutions to the historic racial gaps. What they produced is a single treatment that, when combined with a patient’s normal asthma medications, significantly improves outcomes for Black and Latino patients. (Bruner, 3/7)

Axios: Global Warming Could Increase Risk Of Extreme Temperature Deaths The risk of deaths due to extreme temperatures could rise significantly under a warming scenario of more than 2°C, according to a study published Monday in the journal Environmental Research Letters. As Axios' Andrew Freedman reported recently, peer-reviewed research the world is already on course for at least 3°C (5.4°F) of warming above preindustrial levels — and running out of time to do something about it. The new study, led by researchers at University College of London and the University of Reading, looked specifically at the impact of rising temperatures in England during the hottest days of the year. (Reed, 3/7)

Fox News: NASA Study: Each State Has Own Climatic Threshold For Flu Outbreaks NASA satellite data has highlighted a critical relationship between low humidity and the outbreak of flu in the U.S. according to researchers. In a new study published in the journal GeoHealth, scientists from the University of Southern California and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena correlated measurements of water vapor in the lower atmosphere from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite with flu case estimates for each week from 2003 to 2015 in the 48 contiguous U.S. states. (Musto, 3/5)

In news about drinking water —

The Washington Post: Pentagon To Shutter Pearl Harbor Fuel-Storage Facility That Contaminated Drinking Water The Pentagon announced Monday it is shutting down a World War II-era underground fuel-storage facility that caused severe contamination last year of the drinking water used by thousands of military families stationed at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. “After close consultation with senior civilian and military leaders, I have decided to defuel and permanently close the Red Hill bulk fuel storage facility,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement. Doing so will force the Pentagon to dramatically alter how it conducts operations in the Indo-Pacific region, where China’s growing influence has become a top strategic challenge for successive administrations. Even so, Austin added, “It’s the right thing to do.” (Demirjian and Horton, 3/7)

Detroit Free Press: Prescription Drugs, Caffeine, Sweeteners Found In Great Lakes Water Artificial sweeteners, pharmaceuticals, pesticides and nonstick compounds were found in multiple water samples in the corridor between Lake Huron and Lake Erie, including the Detroit River and Lake St. Clair, a new study found. Drugs detected in the water included nicotine, cocaine, antibiotics, acetaminophen pain reliever, the diabetes drug metformin, even contrast dye from CT scans, the study by Wayne State University's Healthy Urban Waters program and the University of Florida found. They're found in very minute concentrations, down to the parts per trillion. (Matheny, 3/7)

FDA Clears Way For Sale Of Gene-Edited Beef

The Food and Drug Administration says it found no safety issues with meat from genetically altered cattle. The CRISPR-edited beef could hit the markets in two years, the FDA estimates.

AP: Gene-Edited Beef Cattle Get Regulatory Clearance In US  U.S. regulators on Monday cleared the way for the sale of beef from gene-edited cattle in coming years after the Food and Drug Administration concluded the animals do not raise any safety concerns. The cattle by Recombinetics are the third genetically altered animals given the green light for human consumption in the U.S. after salmon and pigs. Many other foods already are made with genetically modified ingredients from crops like soybeans and corn. (Choi, 3/7)

In related news about genetically altered food —

New Food Magazine: New Gene Editing Techniques – Savior Or Nemesis? There are few food-related areas of discussion more emotive than that of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Public debate often takes place at the extremes of the argument, where combatants on both sides are accused of playing fast and loose with the future of the planet and strong opinions are held on the morality of use, the independence of any research and the exact nature of any benefits or potential risks .It is now 27 years since the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first GMO food (the Flavr Savr tomato, modified to slow the ripening process and thus extend shelf life), but consumer surveys still suggest there is public unease with genetic modification globally, differentiated only by degrees of distrust. (McNamara, 3/3)

Genetic Literacy Project: Latin America’s Embrace Of Gene Editing Positions Americas To Become The Global Leader In Agricultural Innovation  Over the 25 years since the introduction of GM crops in Latin America, the continent has been a battleground between proponents of biotechnology versus groups, mostly agrarian activists funded by global environmental technology skeptics in North America and Europe. Faced with these competing lobbying forces, a sharp divide has evolved across the Americas. There are countries with restrictive regulatory frameworks regarding GMOs that even today make their adoption unlikely—such as in Peru, Ecuador, and Mexico. In contrast, Brazil and Argentina have taken a totally different approach allowing, deliberately, and fervently embracing biotech innovation, and transforming South America into a global leader in GM crop production. These same countries are now embracing advancing the latest cutting-edge genetic engineering tools, CRISPR, and other forms of gene editing. (Ventura, 3/8)

In other news about the FDA —

Stat: Key Democrat Moves To Crack Down On FDA Accelerated Approvals  A powerful Democratic lawmaker has introduced a bill that would dramatically rein in the Food and Drug Administration’s so-called accelerated approval program. Under accelerated approval, the FDA can approve drugs without clear evidence that they actually prolong patients’ lives, so long as drug companies complete follow-up studies and demonstrate that the therapies actually do have a “clinical benefit.” The bill, which was introduced Monday by the chairman of a key health panel, Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), would make it easier for the FDA to crack down on drug companies that do not complete those follow-up studies. (Florko, 3/7)

Stat: FDA Failed To Improve Clinical Trial Diversity For Black Patients  Six years ago, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration launched a five-year action plan to improve the diversity and transparency of pivotal clinical trials for newly approved medicines. But a new analysis finds the effort failed to make a difference for Black patients, whose participation in clinical trials remained inadequate. Specifically, Black people accounted for just one-third of the required enrollment for adequate representation, regardless of whether the trials started before, during, or after the FDA plan went into effect. Of 225 drug approvals for which mortality and morbidity information was listed on the FDA plan website, only 20% had data showing benefits and side effects for Black patients, according to the analysis, which was published in Health Affairs. (Silverman, 3/7)

Defying CDC And Science, Florida Says Healthy Kids Shouldn't Get Vaxxed

Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo didn't say when the new guidance from the state's department of health would become official and provided few details. But health experts immediately criticized the plan as needlessly putting millions of children in harm's way.

Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Florida To Recommend Healthy Kids Not Get COVID-19 Vaccine Defying guidance from the nation's top infectious disease and pediatric health experts, Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo announced Monday that the state will become the first in the nation to recommend that healthy kids not get vaccinated for COVID-19. Ladapo made the announcement at the end of a roundtable discussion in West Palm Beach that Gov. Ron DeSantis convened to discuss "failures" in the response to COVID-19. Florida “is going to be the first state to officially recommend against the COVID-19 vaccine for healthy children,” Ladapo said. (Anderson, 3/7)

The Hill: Florida To Advise Against COVID-19 Vaccine For Healthy Kids, Contradicting CDC  Florida “is going to be the first state to officially recommend against the COVID-19 vaccines for healthy children,” state surgeon general Joseph Ladapo said at the end of a roundtable discussion on the virus response. Ladapo did not provide details such as who would qualify as a healthy child, or go into the reasoning for his decision.  The move is an escalation in the divide of Florida’s pandemic response under Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) from that of national experts.  (Sullivan, 3/7)

CNN: Florida Coronavirus: Health Experts Decry State's Plan To Recommend Against Covid-19 Vaccine For Healthy Kids  After Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo declared on Monday the state would issue guidance urging parents not to vaccinate their children against Covid-19, health experts and officials were quick to highlight the dangers of such a policy for individuals and for country at large. Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, said Ladapo's statement is "wholly irresponsible and completely unsupported." "Although it is true that children are less likely to be infected and it is true that children are less likely to be severely infected, they can still be infected, and they can still be severely infected," Offit told CNN. (Caldwell, 3/8)

Stat: Florida's Decision On Covid Vaccines For Healthy Kids Adds To Distrust Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo announced Monday that the state will recommend that healthy children not be vaccinated against Covid-19, further muddying already roiling waters over Covid-19 vaccination for kids. Ladapo’s decision is unlikely to interfere with the efforts of parents who want to have their children vaccinated, experts told STAT. But they added it will likely dissuade some parents who have been on the fence. (Branswell, 3/7)

Miami Herald: Florida Vs CDC On Kid COVID Vaccines: What To Know Should kids get vaccinated against COVID-19?The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which is the official health agency of the United States, recommends everyone 5 and older get vaccinated against the disease to help keep them and others safe. So does the American Academy of Pediatrics. Many doctors across the country, including in South Florida, have also been recommending vaccinations. However, Florida Department of Health Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo announced Monday during a roundtable discussion on COVID-19 mitigation policies that the state will no longer be recommending COVID-19 vaccines for healthy kids. He said it would be the first recommendation of its kind in the country. (Marchante, 3/7)

Unvaxxed Navy Seals May Be Forced To Get Shots By Supreme Court

The White House is asking the Supreme Court to overrule a federal judge who had upheld the Navy Seals' lawsuit against a Defense Department vaccine mandate. Separately, students are suing Santa Clara University over its booster mandate, alleging they experienced side effects.

Axios: Biden Admin Asks Supreme Court To Intervene In Navy Seal Vaccine Mandate Case The Biden administration on Monday asked the Supreme Court to allow the Department of Defense to enforce its COVID-19 vaccination requirement for a group of unvaccinated Navy Seals. A federal judge in January upheld a lawsuit from 35 Navy Seals and filed the preliminary injunction on religious freedom grounds, saying the service members had a right to refuse the vaccine because of their beliefs. The Biden administration has appealed the decision to the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, but it filed an emergency application with the Supreme Court on Monday to let it enforce the mandate so it can avoid possibly deploying unvaccinated Navy Seals. (Gonzalez, 3/7)

In other vaccine mandate news —

Bay Area News Group: Students Sue Santa Clara University Over Booster Mandate Two students sued Santa Clara University over its COVID-19 vaccine booster shot requirement Monday. The lawsuit said sophomore Harlow Glenn, 20, agreed to get her first Pfizer COVID-19 shot last year to comply with the university’s vaccine mandate, but alleges she suffered numbing in her legs, severe headaches, menstrual cycle disruptions, bloody urine, body pains and hair loss. The university, she said, denied her requests for religious and medical exemptions from the shots. Another sophomore, Jackson Druker, 19, agreed to comply with the initial vaccination requirement and hasn’t suffered a bad reaction, but does not want to take the additional risk of a booster shot, the lawsuit said. Both students face disenrollment under university policy if they have not received the required initial and booster shots by March 17, the lawsuit said. (Woolfolk, 3/7)

AP: South Dakota House Rewrites Noem's Vaccine Exemption Bill  South Dakota House Republicans on Monday passed a completely rewritten version of a bill from Gov. Kristi Noem to allow employees to gain exemptions from their employer’s COVID-19 vaccine mandates, setting up a statehouse clash over the proposal. House lawmakers, in a snub to the governor’s bill, rewrote it to allow employees to cite any objection of their conscience. Noem’s initial bill, which had passed the Senate, would allow employees to avoid mandates by citing either a medical exemption, religious grounds for refusal or a test showing antibodies against COVID-19 in the last six months. (Groves, 3/8)

And more masks are coming off —

AP: Masks Are Now Optional In Most Rhode Island School Districts  In most school districts across Rhode Island, masks became optional on Monday. The exceptions are Providence, the state’s largest district, and Central Falls, which has been among the communities hardest hit by COVID-19. (3/7)

Bloomberg: Chicago Schools To Remove Mask Mandate As Union Pushes Back Chicago Public Schools said it plans to shift to optional masking for staff and students in a week, a move that could set up the third-largest U.S. system for another scuffle with its teachers union. The system, which serves more than 300,000 students, is the latest nationally to make the change. It will still encourage students pre-K through grade 12 and staff to use masks but is removing the requirement to wear them after Covid-19 infection rates have dropped and vaccination rates have grown, it said in a statement. (Singh, 3/7)

AP: West Virginia Univ. Lifts Mask Requirements In Classrooms West Virginia University is lifting COVID-19 mask requirements in its classrooms and labs regardless of a person’s vaccination status. The university said in a news release that the change is effective Tuesday. Last month WVU lifted a mask requirement in most indoor spaces. (3/8)

AP: Beshear: People Shouldn't Feel Pressure To Take Off Masks As COVID-19 cases drop, Kentuckians should resist feeling pressure to peel off masks if they think it’s best for them to keep wearing facial coverings in public, Gov. Andy Beshear said Monday. The governor reported that the number of new coronavirus cases, the test positivity rate and virus-related hospitalizations declined again last week in Kentucky. (Schreiner, 3/8)

AP: New Mexico Court: Grand Juries Can't Challenge COVID Orders New Mexico’s Supreme Court ruled Monday that citizens can’t convene grand juries to investigate the governor’s response to COVID-19 because her actions were lawful and within the scope of her authority. The unanimous order by the five-member court scuttles three grand jury petitions in the politically conservative southeastern corner of the state against Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham. The justices also ordered district courts to deny any similar petitions as they are filed. (3/7)

Mild Covid Can Cause Brain Damage, Study Finds

The shrinkage of brain matter was equivalent in size to at least one extra year of aging and as much as a decade. However, “it is possible that it is reversible,” said the lead author of the study, Gwenaëlle Douaud of the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences at Oxford.

USA Today: Even Mild COVID-19 Can Cause Brain Damage, For How Long Isn't Known A new study provides the most conclusive evidence yet that COVID-19 can damage the brain, even in people who weren't severely ill. The study, published Monday in Nature, used before-and-after brain images of 785 British people, ages 51 to 81, to look for any changes. About half the participants contracted COVID-19 between the scans – mostly when the alpha variant was circulating – which left many people at least temporarily without a sense of smell. Analysis of the "before" and "after" images from the UK Biobank showed that people infected with COVID-19 had a greater reduction in their brain volumes overall and performed worse on cognitive tests than those who had not been infected. (Weintraub, 3/7)

NBC News: Long Covid: Even Mild Covid Is Linked To Damage To The Brain Months After Infection During at least the first few months following a coronavirus infection, even mild cases of Covid-19 are associated with subtle tissue damage and accelerated losses in brain regions tied to the sense of smell, as well as a small loss in the brain’s overall volume, a new British study finds. Having mild Covid is also associated with a cognitive function deficit. These are the striking findings of the new study led by University of Oxford investigators, one that leading Covid researchers consider particularly important because it is the first study of the disease’s potential impact on the brain that is based on brain scans taken both before and after participants contracted the coronavirus. (Ryan, 3/7)

Bloomberg: Covid Can Shrink the Brain as Much as a Decade of Aging, Study Finds Even a mild case of Covid-19 can damage the brain and addle thinking, scientists found in a study that highlights the illness’s alarming impact on mental function. Researchers identified Covid-associated brain damage months after infection, including in the region linked to smell, and shrinkage in size equivalent to as much as a decade of normal aging. The changes were linked to cognitive decline in the study, which was published Monday in the journal Nature. (Gale, 3/7)

CIDRAP: COVID Patients With Heart Defects May Be At Higher Risk For Severe Disease Hospitalized COVID-19 patients with congenital heart defects (CHDs) were more likely to be admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU), require invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV), and die than those without CHDs in the first 11 months of the pandemic, suggests a study published today in Circulation. Congenital heart defects, the most common birth defect in the world, occurs when the heart or blood vessels near the heart don't develop normally in utero. (3/7)

Crain's Chicago Business: Long COVID Linked To Symptoms Of Anxiety: Northwestern Medicine Researchers The puzzling neurologic symptoms some COVID-19 patients develop as part of long COVID can be connected with symptoms of anxiety and are related to damage to neurons and activation of glial cells, a sign of brain inflammation, a new study by Northwestern Medicine finds. The study of biomarkers that identify brain inflammation may help determine what diagnostic tests and treatments will work best on long-COVID patients, a Northwestern Medicine statement said. It may also go a long way to further the study of the mechanics of long COVID and, perhaps, even the biomechanics of anxiety in general, the statement said. (Asplund, 3/7)

Stat: As Long Covid Studies Continue, Researchers Cast A Wider Net  There are almost as many questions about long Covid as there are symptoms. From the pandemic’s early days, a significant share of people have been troubled by problems that persist for weeks or even years after their acute infection clears, or find they’ve developed new issues that range from bothersome to debilitating. These difficulties span the mind and the body, and so far they resist explanation. Current treatments focus on easing brain fog, bone-wearying fatigue, shortness of breath, muscle pain, loss of smell, anxiety and depression, and sleep problems, but two burning questions remain unanswered: Who gets long Covid and how can it be prevented? (Cooney, 3/7)

CDC Head Expects Covid To Be Seasonal Like Flu

Dr. Rochelle Walensky said she anticipates covid being s seasonal virus, and spread more during the colder months. In other pandemic news: half of the people in Houston who died of covid had diabetes, and that it may be causing more diabetes cases among younger people who had covid.

NBC News: Walensky: Covid Will 'Probably' Be A Seasonal Virus, Like The Flu Even as cases of Covid-19 continue to fall nationwide, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that the coronavirus is most likely here to stay — and that it could behave similarly to influenza. "I do anticipate that this is probably going to be a seasonal virus," said the CDC's director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky. That means it could join the flu and other respiratory viruses that tend to spread during the cold winter months. (Edwards, Snow and Dunn, 3/7)

In other news about the spread of covid —

Houston Chronicle: Over Half Of Houstonians Who Died Of COVID-19 Had Diabetes. Now, It May Be Giving Kids The Condition Children and teens are significantly more likely to be diagnosed with diabetes after a COVID-19 infection, data show, raising concerns about the virus' long-term consequences in Houston, where the chronic endocrine condition is disproportionately common. A federal study found that children and adolescents diagnosed with COVID were up to 2.5 times more likely to be diagnosed with diabetes in the months following an infection. The study, which looked at youth health outcomes in two large medical claims databases, suggests children who contract the virus may be at increased risk for diabetes compared to their COVID-free peers. (Mishanec, 3/7)

Stat: Prisons Skimp On Covid Treatments Like Paxlovid Pfizer’s antiviral drug Paxlovid seems tailor-made for combatting Covid-19 in prisons: It doesn’t require an intravenous infusion like other treatments. There are signs it could significantly reduce people’s ability to spread the virus. And it significantly cuts people’s chances of getting seriously ill or dying from Covid-19. But the drug isn’t being made available to the vast majority of federal prisoners, according to STAT’s review of available data. (Florko, 3/8)

CIDRAP: Health Groups Press For More Wildlife SARS-CoV-2 Tracking  In a joint statement today, three global health groups urged countries to prioritize monitoring SARS-CoV-2 in wildlife, given growing concerns that continued spread could create virus reservoirs in animals. ... The statement on animal surveillance came from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), and the World Health Organization (WHO). They said though wildlife doesn't play a key transmission role in humans, SARS-CoV-2 spread in animal populations can affect their health and lead to the emergence of new variants. (Schnirring, 3/7)

Salt Lake Tribune: Here’s Why Utah’s COVID-19 Testing In Schools Went From National Model To Abandoned Failure As Utah ran out of COVID-19 tests in January and many districts briefly moved to teaching online, lawmakers suspended the state’s “Test to Stay” program — a strategy once praised nationally as an ingenious solution for halting outbreaks in schools. By testing all children any time that 1% of a student body was diagnosed with COVID-19, schools had enabled thousands of uninfected Utah kids to keep attending in person without spreading the virus in classrooms. Test to Stay failed in the onslaught of the coronavirus’s highly contagious omicron variant. But the reason wasn’t just that omicron overwhelmed the state’s test supply. (Alberty and Ladyzhets, 3/7)

KHN: The NFL Has Been Using An Unproven Measure To Get Players With Covid Back On The Field Fast Two months before the Super Bowl, the omicron surge was decimating NFL rosters as players tested positive for covid-19. In mid-December, the NFL postponed a game between the Los Angeles Rams and the Seattle Seahawks because the Rams, who would go on to win the Super Bowl, had 29 players out with covid. The number of NFL employees testing positive per week in December went from about 30 to about 300, most of them players who would have to sit out of practices and games. The new variant “hit us like a ton of bricks,” said Dr. Allen Sills, chief medical officer for the NFL. (Bichell, 3/8)

The Boston Globe: A Pregnant Counselor With Medical Conditions Asked To Work Remotely. Then The Bourne Superintendent Fired Her Katherine Lockwood received exemplary evaluations from her supervisors as a counselor and social worker at Bourne Middle School, where she nurtured the well-being of her students remotely through the pandemic, providing them with anything from individual and group counseling to crisis intervention. But in January, Bourne Public Schools Superintendent Kerri Anne Quinlan-Zhou fired her, after a drawn out tug-of-war over whether Lockwood has the right to work from home .Lockwood is pregnant and has a number of medical conditions that put her at high risk for a severe COVID-19 infection, including cystic fibrosis and diabetes, according to a complaint she filed last month with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination. Her doctors wrote letters to her employer saying she needs to work remotely this school year, but Quinlan-Zhou refused to honor the requests, the complaint said. (Vaznis, 3/7)

Lawmakers Close In On Deal For $15 Billion More In Covid Funding

The negotiations for additional relief money is part of ongoing budget negotiations that face a looming deadline. The White House urges lawmakers to move fast, saying that current funds are running out. In other news from the Hill: Sen. Ron Johnson races the specter of Obamacare repeal again.

The Hill: Congress Nears Deal On Billions In Coronavirus Aid  Lawmakers say they are close to an agreement to provide billions in new coronavirus relief, set to be tied to a massive government funding bill. Congress is expected to include at least $15 billion in response to the Biden administration's request for new funding for COVID-19 vaccines, treatments and testing. (Carney, 3/7)

AP: White House: Congress Must Act Soon To Replenish COVID Funds  The U.S. will soon begin to run out of money to bolster COVID-19 testing supplies and to guarantee that uninsured Americans keep getting free treatment for the virus unless Congress swiftly approves more funding, the White House warned. Nearly a year after passage of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, the administration says the federal government has nearly used up the money dedicated directly to COVID-19 response. More money from Congress is urgently needed to buy antibody treatments, preventative therapy for the immunocompromised and to fund community testing sites, officials say. (Miller, 3/7)

The Biden administration is urged to do more —

The Washington Post: White House Must Go Further On New Pandemic Response, Say Former Biden Advisers, Outside Experts Vaccinate 85 percent of Americans against the coronavirus. Ensure that people experiencing long covid can get disability benefits. Develop a plan to restore trust in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Those are among the more than 250 discrete recommendations issued by a team of former Biden covid advisers and dozens of other outside experts on Monday, arguing that the White House must take additional steps to combat the virus and reduce the risk of other infectious diseases, with the goal of avoiding the societal disruptions that have characterized the past two years. Many of the recommendations were not included, or offer more detail, than those issued as part of the plan last week from the White House, which laid out its own “road map” to help Americans “get back to our more normal routines.” (Diamond, 3/7)

Axios: It's Time To Prepare For Future Pandemics, Experts Say America needs major new spending in areas like disease surveillance and next-generation PPE if it wants to avoid repeating mistakes of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to two reports out this week. The reports are among recent attempts by public health officials to lay out the weaknesses exposed by the pandemic and the steps needed to build more resiliency in the health system before the next crisis. "If we had another pandemic come along in the next year, I'd be very confident that it would be the same, if not worse," Devin Jopp, CEO of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, told Axios. (Reed, 3/8)

USA Today: White House COVID Plan Aims To Get More Young People Of Color Boosted Many young people of color are not getting the COVID-19 booster shot at the same rate as young white Americans. The Biden administration said it is determined to close that gap by tapping churches, community health centers and medical professionals in communities of color to get more people vaccinated and boosted. “We need to do better and we all recognize that with equity in boosters,’’ said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and chief medical advisor to President Joe Biden. “Equity remains an important part of any of our plans.” (Barfield Berry, 3/8)

NPR: Free COVID Test Kits Are Available Again To Order Via USPS Americans can order more free at-home COVID-19 tests from the U.S. government at COVIDtests.gov to be shipped to their homes, the White House said on Monday. Each household can order a total of eight tests. So if you ordered four in January, when the program launched, you're eligible to order a second batch of four more. President Biden announced the move last week in his State of the Union address. On Monday, the White House released a video telling people the website was ready to go again. "Get your free tests today," Biden said, urging people to have them on hand "so we're prepared no matter what COVID-19 brings." (Keith, 3/7)

In updates from Capitol Hill —

The Washington Post: Sen. Ron Johnson Says Obamacare Should Be Repealed If GOP Wins Power Back  Sen. Ron Johnson said he wants to see the GOP repeal the Affordable Care Act if his party wins the White House and the House and Senate majorities in 2024, a move that would resurrect a fight that Republicans had waged for nearly a decade, then largely abandoned in 2018. In an interview that aired Monday morning on Breitbart News Radio, Johnson (R-Wis.) said the GOP’s main goal was to obstruct President Biden and Democrats’ agenda until, he hoped, Republicans could win the majorities in the House and Senate in the midterm elections this year. If Republicans also won the White House in 2024, he added, that would be when they could “actually make good on what we established as our priorities.” (Wang, 3/7)

The Washington Post: Senate Unanimously Passes Anti-Lynching Bill After Century Of Failure  The Senate on Monday unanimously passed legislation that would make lynching a federal hate crime, in a historic first that comes after more than a century of failed efforts to pass such a measure. The Emmett Till Antilynching Act, which was introduced by Rep. Bobby L. Rush (D-Ill.) in the House and Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Tim Scott (R-S.C.) in the Senate, now goes to President Biden for his signature. (Sonmez, 3/7)

And more on 'burn pits' —

AP: In Texas Trip, Biden To Call For More Health Care For Vets President Joe Biden’s trip Tuesday to Fort Worth, Texas, is personal — a chance to talk with veterans and their caregivers and push for more help for members of the military who face health problems after exposure to burn pits. In last week’s State of the Union address, Biden raised the prospect of whether being near the chemicals from burn pits in Iraq led to the death of his son, Beau. (Boak, 3/8)

Moderna Soon Will Begin Vaccine Trials For 15 Other Diseases

The company's efforts will include prototype vaccines against Middle East respiratory syndrome, the Ebola and Marburg viruses, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, chikungunya, and dengue. The company has already begun trials for HIV and Zika vaccines, Bloomberg reported.

Bloomberg: Moderna Starts Human Trials Of 15 Vaccines As Prepares For Next Pandemic Moderna Inc. plans to start human trials for vaccines against 15 threatening viruses and other pathogens by 2025, part of a strategy to develop shots that could be made quickly in response to a future pandemic. The effort will include prototype vaccines against the virus that causes Middle East respiratory syndrome, a cousin of Covid-19; the Ebola and Marburg viruses; a tick-borne virus that causes Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever; and mosquito-borne viruses such as chikungunya and dengue fever, according to a company statement Tuesday. (Langreth, 3/8)

In other news from Moderna —

Politico: Moderna Says It Will 'Never' Enforce Covid-19 Vaccine Patents In Dozens Of Low- And Middle-Income Countries Moderna pledged on Monday to “never enforce” its patents for Covid-19 vaccines against manufacturers that are based in or producing in 92 low- and middle-income countries, a shift for the biotechnology firm that has come under pressure to share its mRNA technology to help address global vaccine inequity. The 92 countries are members of the Gavi COVAX Advance Market Commitment, a mechanism aimed at securing financing for vaccines to go to those areas. (Mahr, 3/7)

AP: Moderna Signs With Kenya For First MRNA Facility In Africa  Moderna signed a memorandum of understanding with Kenya’s government on Monday for the drugmaker’s first mRNA vaccine manufacturing facility in Africa, the company said. The goal is to produce up to 500 million doses of vaccines a year for the African continent, Moderna said in a statement. The focus is on drug substance manufacturing, it said, though the facility could be expanded to include fill-and-finish work. (3/7)

USA Today: COVID Vaccine Side Effects: Most Were Mild For Pfizer, Modena: Study A new study involving millions of participants has found most side effects from mRNA COVID-19 vaccines were mild and faded substantially after one day. The findings, published Monday in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, should reassure Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna mRNA vaccine recipients that the shots, which were granted U.S. Food and Drug Administration emergency authorization in late 2020, are safe, experts said. "These data are reassuring that reactions to both mRNA vaccines are generally mild and subside after one or two days – confirming reports from clinical trials and post-authorization monitoring," said the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's Tom Shimabukuro, one of the authors of the large-scale study. (Thornton, 3/7)

Economic Burden Of LGBTQ+ Conversion Therapy Is $9 Billion

New research showing the direct costs of LGBTQ+ conversion therapy are around $650 million a year, but the indirect costs of covering treatment for anxiety, depression, and the drug abuse it causes total $8.58 billion. Media outlets cover more LGBTQ+ issues, abortion restrictions, and more.

Bloomberg: LGBTQ Conversion Therapy Costs U.S. $9 Billion Annually In a first-of-its-kind look at the financial impact of LGBTQ conversion therapy in the U.S., new research shows the practice creates an economic burden of $9 billion annually. Researchers said the yearly direct cost of conversion therapy performed on LGBTQ young people — including payment of services, health insurance reimbursements or fees to religious organizations that perform the practice —  totals $650 million, found the study, published by medical journal JAMA Pediatrics on Monday. Indirectly, conversion therapy costs $8.58 billion annually due to the expense of treating effects like anxiety, depression, suicide attempts or substance abuse, the paper said. (Butler, 3/7)

The 19th: As Anti-Trans Bills Sweep The Nation, The Country’s Largest Trans Rights Org Fights To Rebuild In August 2019, six weeks after Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen joined the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) as deputy executive director, news broke that the Justice Department, under President Donald Trump, had asked the Supreme Court to legalize firing transgender workers on the basis of their gender identity. But at one of the moments it was needed most, the nation’s premier transgender policy nonprofit, which had worked shoulder-to-shoulder with presidential administrations, sat empty. Earlier that same day, the staff had walked out over the way the organization treated its employees of color.  The incident would prelude the effective dissolution of the storied organization. (Sosin, 3/7)

North Carolina Health News: Durham Queer Health Fair Serving LGBTQ NCians  It was only about a decade ago when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the first medication that provided pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to lower people’s risk of catching HIV, Truvada. Scotty Elliot still remembers the stigma that followed people who chose to get on the medication. “Guys who took it were called ‘Truvada whores,’” said Elliot, an infectious disease social worker at Duke Academy for Health Professions Education and Academic Development. He said the disparagement was “just a horrible way to start a movement of getting care with people, so they are protected from HIV.” That stigma against people with HIV and members of the LGBTQ community, which was disproportionately impacted by HIV, still exists, Elliot said. (Thompson, 3/8)

Miami Herald: Miami Students Protest ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Bill At Capitol  When Javier Gomez testified in front of Florida’s lawmakers in Tallahassee last month, he said he was on the verge of a “panic attack.” But it was important lawmakers heard about the impact of SB 1834, a “Parental Rights in Education” bill in the Florida Senate that critics have labeled the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill, from the perspective of students who could be affected most, he said. “I looked everyone in the eyes and I told them my story,” said Gomez, 17, president of the Gay-Straight Alliance chapter at Miami’s iPrep Academy. (Brugal, 3/7)

The New York Times: States Are Deciding On Abortion Without The Supreme Court  Both sides of the abortion debate anticipate that come July, the Supreme Court will have overturned Roe v. Wade and with it the constitutional right to abortion, handing anti-abortion activists a victory they have sought for five decades. But from Florida to Idaho, Republican-led state legislatures are not waiting: They are operating as if Roe has already been struck down, advancing new restrictions that aim to make abortion illegal in as many circumstances as possible. (Zernike, 3/7)

The 19th: States Push Abortion Restrictions Prior To Supreme Court Ruling On Dobbs Florida’s legislature passed a bill that would ban abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy. Idaho’s Senate approved a bill to block the procedure after six weeks, modeled after Texas’ law. Georgia’s Senate advanced legislation that prohibits using telemedicine for abortion medication. And in Kentucky, the state House voted to pass new restrictions on abortion providers that, if enacted, could effectively shut down clinics in the state. Legislatures around the country are voting on a variety of abortion restrictions, many of them not in line with the protections that have existed since Roe v. Wade was decided 49 years ago. They’re doing so with an eye on the Supreme Court, set to rule in a case that is widely expected to give more power to states to add limits to the availability of abortion. (Luthra, 3/7)

In other public health news —

Fox News: Bad Ticker: Does Daylight Saving Time Cause 'Biological Clock Shock' To Your Heart? Can springing forward cause problems for your ticker? Switching to daylight saving time may cause more than losing an hour of sleep; it may also have a negative impact on your heart and brain health, according to several studies. The American Heart Association said several scientific reports suggest the upcoming time change is associated with an increase in the incidence of heart disease and stroke during the spring ahead time transition. (McGorry, 3/7)

NPR: Finding Help For Teens Who Grow Up Caregiving For Their Disabled Military Parents The Garey family home outside of Austin, Texas, is a revolving door of medical professionals coming to assist Tom, the patriarch — an Air Force veteran with advanced ALS. Every few hours, a respiratory therapist or hospice nurse enters a key code to get into the house, and the German shepherds, Lou and Remi, go crazy. "It's life here at the Gareys," said Lara Garey, Tom's wife and primary caregiver. "We try to make it like an ICU. But it's really like a zoo ICU." (Frame, 3/7)

AP: Baby Gets Heart Transplant With A Twist To Fight Rejection Duke University doctors say a baby is thriving after a first-of-its-kind heart transplant -- one that came with a bonus technique to try to help prevent rejection of the new organ. The thymus plays a critical role in building the immune system. Doctors have wondered if implanting some thymus tissue that matched a donated organ might help it survive without the recipient needing toxic anti-rejection medicines. (Neergaard, 3/7)

Stat: Newly Discovered Brain Cells May Be A Memory Filing System  A scientist opens a laptop in front of a patient. On screen, a boy, tied to a fleet of balloons, fades in. As he rises into the air, the scene cuts abruptly to an office, where a man sits in front of his boss. A question then appears: “Was anyone in the video wearing a tie?” Jie Zheng, a postdoctoral fellow at Boston Children’s Hospital, had flown to Los Angeles to show the video to this patient, who has a severe seizure disorder. Like with the 18 other patients who were part of the study, neurosurgeons had placed electrodes in the patient’s brain to pinpoint what had been causing their seizures. Zheng and a group of scientists in a federally funded BRAIN Initiative consortium used this opportune moment to find neurons involved in the creation of memories. While subjects watched clips from movies and answered questions that tested their memory of the videos, the electrical activity of their brains was monitored. (Delamerced, 3/7)

People Falling Victim To Price Gap For Tests In Surprise Billing Law

Also, changes in care models driven by staff shortages and treatment deferrals; a battle over Medicare Advantage coding intensity; a novel pediatric care clinical model from NYC; reduced pediatric hospitalization thanks to medical-legal partnerships; and more.

Stat: A Gap In New Surprise Billing Law Puts Patients On The Hook For Pricey Tests For Soung Luy, it seemed easy: His primary care doctor told him he needed blood work, and that he could get it done in the same office building in Marina del Rey, Calif., which was owned by the Cedars-Sinai health system. The doctor even assured Luy, when he asked, that the lab accepted his insurance and was in-network. But even though it was down the hall from Luy’s in-network physician, and even though he asked, the lab was not in his insurance network. His bill came: $686.70 for a handful of blood tests. “If I knew it was out-of-network, I would not have done it there,” Luy said. Cedars-Sinai eventually sent Luy’s account to a debt collector. Luy paid the balance, afraid his credit would get torpedoed. (Herman, 3/8)

In other health care industry developments —

Modern Healthcare: Staff Shortages, Deferred Treatment Driving Changes In Care Models Patients previously considered low-risk became sicker and health disparities likely widened because of clinical staff shortages and volume surges during the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, care delivery models need to evolve to make up the backlog and meet the ongoing needs of those whose ailments manifested or became more severe because they couldn’t receive treatment. The pandemic, along with the healthcare system’s response, have had a disproportionate effect on older and sicker patients as well as people from underserved communities that’s going to linger. The public health emergency also highlighted and exacerbated staffing shortages, leaving a smaller, exhausted workforce to deal with the clinical consequences of deferred care. The pandemic eventually will go away, but the patients who didn’t get the treatment they needed will not. (Hartnett, 3/8)

Modern Healthcare: Clash Over MA Coding Intensity Continues In Rate Notice Comments The debate over whether Medicare Advantage plans are overpaid, relative to fee-for-service Medicare, continued in comments on the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services' advance notice on 2023 MA payment policies. In comments submitted last Friday, insurance lobbyists applauded CMS' use of the minimum coding intensity adjustment, while Medicare payment advisors said the figure doesn't account for coding differences between MA and traditional Medicare. (Goldman, 3/7)

Modern Healthcare: NYC Pediatricians Look To Scale Clinical Model Embedded In Social Services Three pediatricians in New York left jobs at prestigious academic institutions to test a novel, holistic care model that connects underserved families to health and social services via community partnerships. Two years later, they are looking to expand. Drs. Omolara Uwemedimo, Suzette Brown and Nicole Brown founded Strong Children Wellness Medical Group in April 2020 (virtually at first because of the COVID-19 pandemic). The trio arrived at this venture with impressive credentials from universities including Johns Hopkins, Yale, Brown, Columbia and Stanford, as well as a goal to tackle social determinants of health by integrating clinical operations with not-for-profit housing organizations, food pantries, legal aid societies and other local partners. Some of those entities are even located in the same buildings as the clinics, which facilitates successful referrals. (Hartnett, 3/8)

Modern Healthcare: Medical-Legal Partnership Reduced Pediatric Hospitalizations, A New Study Found A medical-legal partnership—first launched during the 2008 financial crisis—reduced hospitalizations among children by providing housing support and financial aid, a new study found. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the model could be a roadmap for tackling social determinants of health in primary care settings, as well as a pitch for reimbursement from insurers. Researchers from the University of Cincinnati found that a collaboration between Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and the Legal Aid Society of Greater Cincinnati—in order to connect children and their families to social services—reduced pediatric hospitalizations by approximately 38% after support was received. (Hartnett, 3/7)

Modern Healthcare: Pandemic Elevates Chief Quality Officers’ Importance Over the past two years, chief quality officers were thrust from often-underfunded and non-revenue-generating safety improvement work to driving how their hospitals would handle a significant healthcare crisis. Quality departments—and their leaders—became stars. Hospital C-suites suddenly leaned on quality and safety infrastructure in a way they hadn’t before, because chief quality officers are trained to experiment, observe the results and make changes quickly. Hospitals needed those skills, and safety officers coached operational heads to implement high-stakes transformations during the pandemic, including quickly shifting all care to virtual settings and setting up large-scale vaccine clinics in parking lots and hospital lobbies. (Gillespie, 3/8)

Modern Healthcare: Mallinckrodt To Pay $233 Million To Settle False Claims Allegations Mallinckrodt will pay $233.7 million for allegedly shortchanging Medicaid programs, the Justice Department said Monday. The federal government in 2020 sued Mallinckrodt, which purchased Questcor Pharmaceuticals in 2014, for forcing Medicaid programs to pay for an unsubstantiated $50 to $28,000 price increase for a vial of Acthar Gel, a treatment for people with certain chronic inflammatory or autoimmune conditions, the complaint alleged. The drugmaker allegedly underpaid rebates from 2013 to 2020 as required by the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program, which was designed to insulate Medicaid from drug price increases outpacing inflation. Questcor began paying rebates for Acthar in 2013 as if Acthar was a new drug first marketed in 2013—ignoring all pre-2013 price increases when calculating Medicaid rebates, the DOJ alleged. (Kacik, 3/7)

Stat: Study Of Gilead’s Breast Cancer Drug Meets Goal, But Still Raises Doubts Gilead Sciences said Monday that a large clinical trial of its drug Trodelvy achieved its primary goal of delaying tumor growth in women with the most common form of breast cancer. But Gilead chose not to provide any specific data from the study. It would also not even say whether the Trodelvy study results were clinically meaningful for women with HR-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer, despite reaching statistical significance. (Feuerstein, 3/7)

San Francisco Police Still Using Victims' DNA To Investigate Crimes

The San Francisco Police Department had promised to stop the practice, but are reportedly planning to keep doing it while being less open about how they acquired the DNA. Also in the news, a concerning change to nursing home staff requirements in Florida, a "religious freedom" bill against future pandemics in Virginia, and more.

USA Today: San Francisco Police Vowed To Stop Using Victims' DNA, Then Kept Doing It Weeks after the San Francisco Police Department vowed to stop using victim DNA samples to identify suspects in crimes, the department's internal records show officers can continue to do just that – but won't be as transparent about how they found the DNA. The revelation comes as state officials, including the California Attorney General's Office, said last week that no police departments should use victim DNA profiles to name them as suspects and that action could be taken against the San Francisco department if they continue to do so. (Abdollah, 3/7)

In legislative news from Florida, Virginia, Ohio, and Oklahoma —

Miami Herald: FL Legislation Alters Nursing Home Staffing Requirements  Opponents of a bill that would upend staff standards in Florida nursing homes now have one final hope: the veto pen of Gov. Ron DeSantis. House Bill 1239 cleared the Legislature on Monday with bipartisan support after a contentious campaign waged by labor and elder advocate groups, who claim it will lower the quality of care for nursing home residents. “If the governor chooses to veto this, he’s signaling to seniors in Florida and across the country that he will continue to support policies that put them first,” said Zayne Smith, associate state director of advocacy at AARP Florida. “Signing this legislation would only tell seniors that the interests of the for-profit nursing home industry are more important than their health and dignity.” (Wilson and Critchfield, 3/7)

Fox News: Virginia Democrats Block Bill To Protect Religious Freedom Against Executive Orders As the COVID-19 pandemic recedes, Republicans in the Virginia House of Delegates narrowly passed a bill to protect churches, synagogues, mosques, and other religious bodies from any "rule, regulation, or order" from the governor or another government agency, a move to block the government-ordered closure of houses of worship that took place during the pandemic. Yet Democrats in the Senate General Laws and Technology Committee blocked the bill on Monday. Delegate Wren Williams, the sponsor of H.B. 775, called the bill "vital" for closing a "loophole" that threatens religious freedom. (O'Neil, 3/8)

Cincinnati Enquirer: Cincinnati City Council Might Ban Listing Pop On Children's Menus Cincinnati City Council might ban listing soda pop on kids' menus, a measure already in place in other large U.S. cities. Under what's being called "healthy beverage legislation," only milk, water and drinks that are 100% fruit juice could be listed on children's menus. Other options such as soft drinks would still be available, just not listed. It would apply to all restaurants in Cincinnati that serve kids' meals, including chain restaurants. (Coolidge, 3/8)

AP: Republican Lawmakers Unveil Medical Marijuana Regulations  Republicans in the Oklahoma House on Monday unveiled a package of new restrictions on the state’s booming medical marijuana industry, designed to crack down on illegal growers who sell cannabis on the black market. The 12-point plan includes a standardization of lab testing and equipment, more inspections of grow facilities, separate licenses for marijuana wholesalers and stringent new reporting requirements for electric and water usage by growers. One proposal would also make the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority a stand-alone agency, not a division of the Oklahoma State Department of Health. (Murphy, 3/7)

The CT Mirror: CT Aims To Build Disability Workforce 'Pipeline' On any given day at the Palm & Able warehouse in Bridgeport, Latasha “LJ” Jones might be assembling retail displays, conducting quality checks or picking and packing shipments of medical supplies. Jones has an intellectual disability, but she has tackled myriad assignments at the warehouse; she’s currently training to fulfill orders using e-commerce software. “I like this job because we’re doing different things,” Jones said. But leaders and advocates in the disability community say capable workers like Jones, who have a wide range of skills and abilities, are being overlooked by companies that have open jobs to fill — even as many business groups raise concerns about a labor shortage. (Phillips, 3/8)

Bangor Daily News: Waterville Hospital Sent Home A Suicidal Patient Who Returned The Next Day With A Gunshot Wound Staff at a Waterville hospital sent a patient home last summer after he made suicidal statements and had a bandaged wrist, only for the patient to return the next day with a self-inflicted gunshot wound from which he later died. The case at Northern Light Inland Hospital drew a citation from state and federal regulators following a fall 2021 review, prompting the hospital to make changes around staff training, event reporting and medical records. The patient, who was not identified, first called Inland Hospital on Aug. 2 to report that he was considering suicide and then appeared at his primary care physician’s office at the hospital the next morning at 9:30 a.m. to report that he had slashed his left wrist in an attempt to end his life and wanted to see a doctor. He was referred to a physician assistant that afternoon. (Russell, 3/8)

NPR: Delaware Is Reducing Cancer Disparities. One Big Reason? Patient Navigators Sussex County, in the heart of southern Delaware's poultry farm country, is home to many people like Michelaine Estimable, a 62-year-old native of Haiti who came to work on the factory lines of a chicken-processing plant. But Estimable hasn't worked in two years, because of a leg injury that made it impossible for her to drive. Now, she relies on family members she lives with to get rides to medical appointments — one of the logistical headaches that's kept her from scheduling her mammogram for the past year. (Noguchi, 3/7)

San Francisco Chronicle: San Francisco’s First Tiny Home Village For Unsheltered People Opens. At $15,000 A Pop, City Says It’s Cost-Effective One week ago, Ryan Bauer was living in a tent on the hard pavement on Gough Street south of Market. Now he’s living on the same pavement with a dramatic upgrade: He’s moved into his own tiny home, with a mattress, desk, chair and — most luxurious of all — a heater that quickly warms his 64-square-foot abode. That’s almost as crucial as a front door that locks from the inside and by a combination lock on the outside. “It’s definitely a lot warmer, and I don’t have to worry about my stuff being taken,” said Bauer, 45, who is known on the street as “Nobody.” “I haven’t had a locked area where I could leave my stuff and not have it stolen for who knows how long.” (Whiting, 3/7)

Israel Has First Polio Case In 32 Years

An unvaccinated 4-year-old in Jerusalem is infected with Israel's first polio case in over 30 years. In other news, the alleged 9/11 "20th hijacker" has been repatriated to Saudi Arabia for mental health care; 80,000 births are expected in Ukraine with poor care services; and more.

CIDRAP: Polio Returns To Israel After 32-Year Absence Israeli officials reported the nation's first polio case since 1989, involving an unvaccinated 4-year-old boy in Jerusalem. It's not clear from media reports whether a vaccine-derived or wild-type virus caused the infection, but the Israeli Ministry of Health (MOH) said in a news release, "The source of the disease in this case [is] a polio virus that has undergone a change and may cause disease in those who are not vaccinated." (3/7)

The New York Times: 9/11 Suspect Is Returned To Saudi Arabia For Mental Health Care  The Biden administration on Monday repatriated to Saudi Arabia for mental health care a prisoner who had been tortured so badly by U.S. interrogators that he was ruled ineligible for trial as the suspected would-be 20th hijacker in the Sept. 11 attacks. The prisoner, Mohammed al-Qahtani, in his 40s, is the second to be transferred from the wartime prison under the administration. (Rosenberg, 3/7)

Bloomberg: In Ukraine, 80,000 Births Expected Amid Insufficient Care As many as 80,000 births by Ukraine women are expected in the next three months without access to sufficient medical care because of Russia’s military invasion, according to the World Health Organization. An estimated 1.7 million people, mostly women and children, have been displaced by the war, and as many as 1,000 births a week are anticipated with many mothers lacking proper maternal care and facilities, the WHO said Tuesday. WHO Europe Regional Director, Hans Kluge, said the invasion had created Europe’s fastest-growing refugee crisis in 75 years. The WHO is delivering medical supplies and services amid the conflict even as diplomatic efforts have failed to provide safe routes in some areas. (Hoffman, 3/8)

USA Today: UK Man Dies Of Caffeine Toxicity: Consumed Equivalent To 200 Coffees A man in Wales died after ingesting an amount of caffeine powder equivalent to as many as 200 cups of coffee. Tom Mansfield, 29, a personal trainer and father of two, died from caffeine toxicity in January 2021, officials confirmed last week, the BBC reported. Mansfield was trying to weigh a dose of the powder within a range of 60 milligrams to 300 milligrams. But he was using a scale that had a weighing range of 2 grams to 5,000 grams. (Pitofsky, 3/7)

AP: As Virus Cases Go From 1 To 24,000, New Zealand Changes Tack  Back in August, New Zealand’s government put the entire nation on lockdown after a single community case of the coronavirus was detected. On Tuesday, when new daily cases hit a record of nearly 24,000, officials told hospital workers they could help out on understaffed COVID-19 wards even if they were mildly sick themselves. (Perry, 3/8)

Bloomberg: Puerto Rico To Drop Mask, Occupancy Rules As Covid Cases Fall Two years after adopting some of the strictest Covid-19 measures of any U.S. jurisdiction, Puerto Rico is eliminating most of its restrictions amid falling infection rates and an aggressive vaccine campaign. Masks will no longer be required outdoors or indoors except in hospitals and at nursing homes, Governor Pedro Pierluisi said during a press conference Monday. In addition, all occupancy restrictions -- including those on restaurants, bars and theaters -- will be dropped. Events of 1,000 people or more, however, will still be required to follow special guidelines. (Wyss, 3/7)

CNN: Women In G7 Countries Feel Less Supported Than Men To Deal With Covid-19’s Impact An average of more than 60% of women living in G7 countries whose lives were changed by the Covid-19 pandemic say their governments did not provide them with much of the support they needed to deal with those changes, according to a far-reaching new poll by CNN. These exclusive findings come against the backdrop of numerous reports showing that women have been more adversely affected by the coronavirus pandemic than men and resulting pledges to build back better touted by leaders around the world.  CNN’s survey finds that although both men and women in G7 countries who experienced disruption to their lives caused by the pandemic felt they were largely unsupported by their governments, the sentiment is more pronounced among women. (Edwards-Levy, Munsi and Manibog, 3/8)

Different Takes: Are Some People Genetically Immune To Covid?; Global Vaccination Still Vastly Insufficient

Opinion writers examine these covid related topics.

The New York Times: Why Do Some People Never Get Covid?  As an intensive care unit doctor, I often find myself thinking about the apparent randomness of infectious disease. Two people go out to dinner and have the same meal; one ends up in the emergency room with food poisoning, but the other does not. The seasonal flu runs through an entire family, except for one individual who remains healthy. A case of mono can be a bad memory for one person and turn into a death sentence for another. Doctors look for the vulnerabilities that we can see to explain these outcomes, like age, vaccination status and underlying conditions, but we are often left without answers. (Daniela J. Lamas, 3/8)

The Washington Post: We Need A Global Response To Covid As Strong As That Against Russian Aggression  No one can deny that the distribution of vaccine doses has been obscenely unjust. In high-income countries, some 72 percent of people have received at least two coronavirus vaccine doses; in low-income countries it is only 5.5 percent. Of over 4.7 billion coronavirus tests administered so far, about 22 million have been in low-income countries — about 0.4 percent of the whole. The cost is being paid in economic disruption; in school closures where remote learning is not an option; and in the growth of a massive genetic pool where dangerous variants continue to emerge. (Michael Gerson, 3/7)

The Baltimore Sun: The Pandemic’s Silver Lining: Collaboration Among Life Scientists  Here is something on which we can agree: The once-in-a-century pandemic caused more than a public health crisis of suffering and fatality. Measures to combat the contagion — social distancing, masking, telework and vaccine mandates — touched every part of our lives. These took a heavy toll on child and elder care, student life, behavioral health, the economy and politics. Is there any good news to extract from this ongoing public health threat? (Ethan Dmitrovsky, 3/7)

Modern Healthcare: Thinking About The New Normal Post Pandemic  Do you believe we’re at the stage of the COVID-19 pandemic where the industry can finally start to think about the new normal? (Dr. Amy Compton-Phillips and Dr. Alexander Garza, 3/8)

Viewpoints: Opioid Cutbacks Are Devastating For Chronic Pain Patients; Sexist Pregnancy Terms Due For Update

Editorial writers delve into these public health topics.

The New York Times: Chronic Pain Patients, The Other Opioid Crisis Victims  Doctors didn’t think Brent Slone would survive his gruesome 2011 car crash. His car flipped after he swerved to avoid a stalled vehicle. His spinal cord was compressed. He broke several ribs, a shoulder and a knee. One lung collapsed. A shattered pelvic bone ruptured his bladder and seriously damaged his spleen, kidney and colon. Miraculously, Mr. Slone avoided brain injury. However, he was paralyzed from the waist down. After months of painful physical rehabilitation, he went home to his wife, Sonya Slone, and their 6-year-old daughter. When he had appropriate pain care, Mrs. Slone said, he was able to be a loving and involved father. (Maia Szalavitz, 3/7)

NBC News: Women Face Sexist Medical Terms When Dealing With Pregnancy. It's Time To Modernize Care “Your cervix is in danger of effacing. You’ll be tremendously lucky if your baby makes it to 24 weeks.” I was staring at the doctor who had just delivered this news, but I was having trouble processing what she was saying. She nonchalantly added something about my “incompetent cervix.” A wave of devastation swept over me and my face flushed with humiliation. My first thought was, “Did I somehow cause this?” (Aileen Weintraub, 3/7)

Stat: A Fictional Pig Taught Me How To Talk With My Patients About Sleep  “How is your sleep?” I’ve posed this question to hundreds of patients. “Terrible,” I often hear in response. “I always feel tired.” I follow up with the questions I was taught in my medical training: Do you have difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep, or both? Do you wake up early? How long does it take to fall asleep? Do you snore? By following the script I inherited from doctors before me, I can recite the precise times a patient goes to bed and wakes up; the number of times they wake up at night; whether they use their continuous positive airway pressure machine to help them breathe at night; and more. I can report the severity of their symptoms on a scale from one to ten. But I can’t tell you how the insomnia makes them feel. And that’s important. (Rebecca Grossman-Kahn, 3/8)

The Boston Globe: Health, Longevity, And The Goals Of Financial Industries  The US population is growing older, and one reason for this trend is that we simply live longer than we used to. Although the COVID-19 pandemic has depressed life expectancy to its lowest point in two decades, Americans still enjoy lifespans far longer, on average, than in the more distant past. Since 1900, US life expectancy at birth has risen from about 47 years to just above 77 today. (Brooks Tingle, 3/7)

Stat: Sunsetting Licensing Reciprocity Will Return Medicine To The Dark Ages  Like many other 3-year-old boys, Braxton Davis is lively and at times playfully mischievous. But he might not have survived to that age if states hadn’t temporarily loosened medical licensing requirements during the pandemic. And the road ahead for many other children and adults with potentially life-threatening health issues might be more difficult if the door closes on more flexible medical licensing. (Bret Mettler, 3/7)

Modern Healthcare: Smaller, Independent Health Systems Can Use Size To Their Advantage  As CEO of an independent, not-for-profit health system in California’s Bay Area, where healthcare giants are many, I am well aware of the assumption that smaller players are at an inherent disadvantage. But my experience tells me the opposite is true. (Dan Woods, 3/8)

Stat: The U.S. Must Fix Its Innovation Engine: The Patent System  If your car starts to smoke and sputter, you’d take it to an auto repair shop right away. The U.S. patent system — the engine driving the country’s innovation economy for more than 200 years — is sputtering and smoking. Yet its path to the mechanic is being blocked by an inane Supreme Court ruling. American innovators are no longer promised reliable and effective rights for the fruits of their labors. (Adam Mossoff, 3/8)

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Which Companies Aren’t Exiting Russia? Big Pharma

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