Tag: Edition

KHN:
‘The Danger Is Still There’ ― As Omicron Lurks, Native Americans Are Wary Of Boosters 

When covid-19 vaccines first became available, Native Americans acted swiftly and with determination to get their shots — as though they had everything to lose. Covid hospitalization and death rates for American Indians and Alaska Natives had skyrocketed past those of non-Hispanic whites. Leveraging established systems like the Indian Health Service and tribal organizations, Native Americans urgently administered vaccines. Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed they achieved the highest vaccination rates of any race or ethnicity. (Pradhan, 3/31)

KHN:
Tennessee Offers To Expand Dental Schools As Medicaid Coverage Stretches Need 

More than 600,000 additional Medicaid patients in Tennessee may soon be covered with comprehensive dental benefits under a proposal by Republican Gov. Bill Lee. But the state, one of the last to extend dental coverage to adults, is also trying to make sure those Medicaid enrollees can find dentists willing to treat them. Along with $75 million to extend Medicaid dental benefits to adults, Tennessee is considering $94 million to help its two dental schools expand. About a third of the money would help pay off the student loans of graduates who agree to work in high-need areas, with the idea that they would treat more Medicaid patients. (Farmer, 3/31)

KHN:
Despite Doctors’ Concerns, Pharmacists Get More Leeway To Offer Treatment With Testing

When Reyna or Justin Ansley or one of their three kids feels sick and needs to be tested for strep throat or flu, there’s a good chance they’ll head to their local pharmacy in Hemingford or Alliance, Nebraska. Dave Randolph, the proprietor of both locations of Dave’s Pharmacy, can do a rapid test, give them medicine if they need it, and send them on their way. “I’m a cattle rancher,” said Reyna Ansley, whose family lives about 15 miles outside Hemingford. “You don’t necessarily have the time to drive to the doctor and sit in the waiting room. It’s really quicker through Dave.” (Andrews, 3/31)

KHN:
Pandemic Funding Is Running Out For Community Health Workers 

As a community health worker, 46-year-old Christina Scott is a professional red-tape cutter, hand-holder, shoulder to cry on, and personal safety net, all wrapped into one. She works in an office in the shadow of the steel mill that employed her grandfather in this shrinking city in the Greater St. Louis area. Gone with many of the steel jobs is some of the area’s stability — almost a fifth of Granite City’s residents live in poverty, far higher than the national average. (Weber, 3/31)

CIDRAP:
White House Launches ‘One-Stop’ Website For COVID-19 Needs 

President Joe Biden today announced the launch of covid.gov, a new one-stop shop for finding COVID-19 vaccines, masks, tests, and treatments by county on an easy-to-use website. “We are in a new moment in this pandemic, it does not mean it’s over, it means it no longer controls our lives,” Biden said, before announcing he was getting his second booster dose of vaccine later this afternoon. “Thanks to the foundation we have laid, America has the tools to fight the virus.” (Soucheray, 3/30)

NPR:
A New Federal Website Aims To Solve A Key COVID Problem: Where To Get Antiviral Pills

The search for COVID vaccines, tests and treatments could get easier Wednesday with the White House launch of COVID.gov, a website meant to be a one-stop shop for everything from free high quality masks to antiviral pills. “We could not have done this six or eight months ago because we didn’t have all the tools we have now,” said White House COVID response coordinator Jeff Zients in an interview with NPR. With the website launch, the White House is following through on a promise President Biden made in his State of the Union address. In that speech he announced a test-to-treat program “so people can get tested at a pharmacy, and if they’re positive, receive antiviral pills on the spot at no cost.” (Keith, 3/30)

NBC News:
Many People Eligible For Second Booster Shot Don’t Need To Race, Experts Say

The Food and Drug Administration has authorized a second Covid-19 booster shot for people ages 50 and older, but several public health experts said younger, healthier members of that group don’t necessarily need a fourth shot as soon as they become eligible. “This is one of those where I don’t think anyone needs to race,” Dr. Richard Besser, former acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told NBC’s “TODAY” show on Wednesday. “This is one of those things where people should think thoughtfully.” (Li, 3/30)

CNBC:
Biden Warns U.S. Won’t Have Enough Covid Vaccine Shots Without Aid From Congress

President Joe Biden warned Wednesday that the U.S. will not have enough Covid vaccine shots this fall to ensure free and easy access for all Americans if Congress fails to pass the $22.5 billion in additional funding the administration has requested. Biden said the U.S. has enough supply to ensure people eligible for fourth shots have access to them. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week recommended an additional Pfizer or Moderna dose for people ages 50 and older, as well as certain younger individuals who have compromised immune systems. Biden, 79, received his fourth dose on live television after his remarks. (Kimball, 3/30)

The Hill:
Senators Shrinking Size Of COVID Deal Amid Disagreements

A group of senators negotiating a potential deal for new coronavirus relief is preparing to scale back the overall size of the package amid a disagreement over how to pay for it, sources told The Hill.  The bipartisan group has been negotiating for days over how to revive the $15.6 billion in coronavirus aid that got stripped out of a government funding bill earlier this month, with senators indicating earlier Wednesday that they agreed on the size of a potential deal. (Carney, 3/30)

The Hill:
Senators Trade Offers In Scramble For Coronavirus Deal 

Senators are swapping offers as they scramble to try to get a deal on coronavirus relief before they leave for a two-week break in a matter of days. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) met Wednesday with Sens. Mitt Romney (Utah), Lindsey Graham (S.C.), Richard Burr (N.C.) and Roy Blunt (Mo.), who are negotiating for Republicans. He then met for a second time with members of the group and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the chairwoman of the Senate Health Committee, on Wednesday night. (Carney, 3/31)

Politico:
The Next Phase Of Covid Depends On The Senate 

Here’s a scary thought: America’s ability to face the pandemic’s next phase may depend on a handful of senators. The talks between Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) entered their most urgent stage yet on Wednesday, as the two spearhead an effort to allocate $15.6 billion to fight the pandemic. The Democratic leader and Republican centrist convened a larger group on Wednesday afternoon to see if there is a real chance at a bipartisan bill before the April 9 congressional recess; the meeting broke without a deal but a vow to keep talking. (Everett and Levine, 3/30)

Politico:
Private Concerns Mount About Biden’s New Covid Czar 

When President Joe Biden tapped Ashish Jha as the new leader of his coronavirus response, he hailed the well-known public health expert as the “perfect person” to steer the nation through the next phase of the pandemic. Not everyone is as convinced as Biden. In the weeks since Jha’s announcement, administration officials’ surprise over the selection has given way to skepticism, with some privately questioning how an academic well known for his television commentary will manage a complex operation that touches every part of the federal bureaucracy. (Cancryn, 3/30)

CNN:
Biden Administration Plans To End Pandemic Border Restrictions In May, Sources Say 

The Biden administration is planning to end Trump-era pandemic restrictions on the US-Mexico border by May 23 that have largely blocked migrants from entering the US, according to three US officials. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is finalizing its assessment of the public health authority, known as Title 42, according to CDC spokeswoman Kathleen Conley, and is expected to announce a decision this week on whether to repeal, modify or extend the authority. The Biden administration has been under mounting pressure from Democrats and immigrant advocates to end the public health authority, which critics say was never justified by science and puts migrants in harm’s way. (Alvarez, Collins, Liptak and Goodman, 3/30)

NPR:
CDC Drops Risk Advisory For Cruise Ship Travel, 2 Years Into The COVID Pandemic

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention has lifted its risk advisory for cruise ship travel Wednesday following two years of issuing warnings to travelers about the possibility of contracting COVID-19 onboard a cruise. In an update posted online, the agency removed its “Cruise Ship Travel Health Notice,” a notice that recommended individuals against traveling onboard cruise ships. Three months ago, the CDC increased its travel warnings for cruises to Level 4 — the highest level — following investigations of ships that had COVID outbreaks. While the CDC has lifted its travel health notice, officials say it’s up to the passengers to determine their own health risks before going onboard a cruise ship. (Franklin, 3/30)

The New York Times:
Ivermectin Does Not Reduce Risk Of Covid Hospitalization, Large Study Finds 

The anti-parasitic drug ivermectin, which has surged in popularity as an alternative treatment for Covid-19 despite a lack of strong research to back it up, showed no sign of alleviating the disease, according to results of a large clinical trial published on Wednesday. The study, which compared more than 1,300 people infected with the coronavirus in Brazil who received either ivermectin or a placebo, effectively ruled out the drug as a treatment for Covid, the study’s authors said. “There’s really no sign of any benefit,” said Dr. David Boulware, an infectious-disease expert at the University of Minnesota. (Zimmer, 3/30)

Bloomberg:
Ivermectin Failed To Cut Covid Hospitalizations In Large Study

Scientists in Brazil who followed more than 1,300 patients assigned to take either the drug or a placebo for three days also found that ivermectin treatment didn’t help with a number of other health measures such as viral clearance after a week, speed of recovery or risk of death. The study results were published in the New England Journal of Medicine. (Fourcade, 3/31)

The New York Times:
Covid Vaccines Did Not Protect Adolescents As Effectively During The Omicron Surge 

In yet another twist to the debate over how best to protect children against the coronavirus, researchers reported on Wednesday that Covid vaccines conferred diminished protection against hospitalization among children 12 and older during the latest Omicron surge. Vaccine effectiveness against hospitalization held steady in children aged 5 to 11 years, however, and among adolescents ages 12 to 18 years, two doses of the vaccine remained highly protective against critical illness requiring life support. (Mandavilli, 3/30)

Bloomberg:
Omicron More Severe For Unvaccinated Children Than Other Strains

The omicron variant of Covid-19 has been linked to more hospitalizations, severe complications and deaths of young children than previous waves of the virus, suggesting the highly contagious strain may not be as mild as initially thought, according to a Hong Kong-based study. Researchers from the University of Hong Kong and Princess Margaret Hospital reviewed child hospitalizations during different stages of the pandemic. They found that cases were far more severe in the omicron wave that continues to sweep through the city in its worst outbreak of the pandemic. (Lew, 3/31)

Houston Chronicle:
Houston Sees Rise In BA.2, COVID Omicron Subvariant Expected To Become Dominant Here

Houston is seeing an uptick in the number of BA.2 cases, with genome sequencing and wastewater testing picking up higher levels this week compared to last week. The more contagious omicron subvariant was identified in 24 percent of patients who were sequenced at Houston Methodist, a jump from the 1 to 3 percent previously reported. BA.2 was also detected at six wastewater treatment plants on March 21 — the most recent day for which data is available — after the Houston Health Department last week said it had not been detected at any plants. (Gill, 3/30)

Des Moines Register:
COVID-19 Cases Keep Falling In Iowa, But Hospitalizations Rise Over Previous Week

The number of people hospitalized in Iowa with COVID-19 rose for the first time in ten weeks, but remained low, according to data released Wednesday by the Iowa Department of Public Health and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Last week, the number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 fell below 100 for just the second time since the pandemic ramped up in 2020. It remained below 100 this week, but increased slightly, from 67 to 74. The number of people requiring intensive care for COVID-19 complications also rose this week, from 11 to 15. Both numbers are much lower than they’ve been for most of the pandemic. (Webber, 3/30)

Bangor Daily News:
A More Contagious Version Of Omicron Is Rising Quickly In Maine

A more contagious strain of the omicron variant is growing more prevalent in Maine after improvements in the state’s case and hospitalization numbers have largely stalled out. The BA.2 variant — sometimes referred to as “stealth omicron” — was first identified in Maine in late February. It is estimated to be roughly 30 percent more contagious than the original omicron variant that emerged last fall, and has been cited as a major contributor to rising virus rates in much of Europe. (Piper, 3/31)

Modern Healthcare:
Hospital COVID-19 Mortality Rates Double For Native Americans

American Indian and Alaska Native populations experienced in-hospital COVID-19 mortality rates two to three times higher than all other races, as well as some of the top COVID-19 hospitalization and mortality rates in the U.S. overall, a new study found. Despite having proportionally lower comorbidity risk scores than Black and white patients, American Indian and Alaska Native patients were more likely to die in the hospital due to COVID-19 than Black or white patients at every level of comorbidity risk, according to a JAMA Network Open report on Wednesday. (Devereaux, 3/30)

AP:
Missouri Governor Declares `The COVID-19 Crisis Is Over’ 

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson on Wednesday declared “the COVID-19 crisis is over,” announcing that the state will soon begin handling the coronavirus like influenza and other ongoing diseases that occasionally flare up. Parson said the state will officially start treating the coronavirus as an endemic on Friday. One result is that the public will receive less frequent updates about the number of deaths, hospitalizations and cases attributed to COVID-19.“The COVID-19 crisis is over in the state of Missouri, and we are moving on,” the Republican governor said at a Capitol news conference, a little over two years since the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic on March 11, 2020. (Lieb, 3/30)

AP:
Arizona Governor Ends 2-Year-Old Virus State Of Emergency 

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey on Wednesday ended the state of emergency he declared at the start of the coronavirus pandemic more than two years ago. The formal end of the statewide emergency came as COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations dip to levels not seen since summer 2020. But deaths are falling at a slower pace. (Christie, 3/30)

AP:
Indiana Dropping County COVID-19 Risk Map From Website 

Indiana health officials are dropping the state’s color-coded map that rated each county’s risk of COVID-19 spread in favor of relying on a different federal rating system. That is one of the significant changes that the Indiana Department of Health announced Wednesday for its online dashboard tracking COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations and deaths across the state. The agency has been updating the dashboard each weekday but will switch to Monday, Wednesday and Friday updates. (3/30)

AP:
Los Angeles Ends Its Business Vaccine Verification Mandate 

The Los Angeles City Council voted Wednesday to end its mandate for many indoor businesses and operators of large outdoor events to verify that customers have been vaccinated against COVID-19, joining a wave of big U.S. cities that have relaxed the restriction. The measure by council President Nury Martinez received enough votes to pass as an urgent measure so it can take effect quickly after it receives the mayor’s signature and is published by the city clerk. (Antczak, 3/30)

AP:
Kansas Won’t Enforce Vaccine Rule For Nursing Home Workers

Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s says Kansas won’t enforce a federal mandate that nursing home workers get vaccinated against COVID-19, acknowledging Wednesday that it conflicts with an anti-mandate state law she signed four months ago. Nursing home workers must still get vaccines, but the federal government will charge Kansas nearly $349,000 a year to have federal teams survey nursing homes for compliance. (Hanna, 3/31)

The Wall Street Journal:
Boston Will Limit Protesting Near Officials’ Homes After Picketing Over Covid Rules 

The Boston City Council voted to limit picketing at private residences after officials faced protests at homes over pandemic-related rules. The council, whose members are all Democrats, voted 9 to 4 in favor of an ordinance banning targeted residential picketing from 9 p.m. to 9 a.m. It was filed by Mayor Michelle Wu, who has had loud early-morning protesters outside her duplex since early January, when she announced a vaccine mandate for city employees. (Levitz, 3/30)

AP:
End Of COVID May Bring Major Turbulence For US Health Care 

When the end of the COVID-19 pandemic comes, it could create major disruptions for a cumbersome U.S. health care system made more generous, flexible and up-to-date technologically through a raft of temporary emergency measures. Winding down those policies could begin as early as the summer. That could force an estimated 15 million Medicaid recipients to find new sources of coverage, require congressional action to preserve broad telehealth access for Medicare enrollees, and scramble special COVID-19 rules and payment policies for hospitals, doctors and insurers. There are also questions about how emergency use approvals for COVID-19 treatments will be handled. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 3/31)

AP:
FDA Panel Narrowly Sides Against Experimental ALS Drug 

Federal health advisers on Wednesday narrowly ruled against an experimental drug for the debilitating illness known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, a potential setback for patient groups who have lobbied for the medication’s approval. Advisers to the Food and Drug Administration voted 6-4 that a single study from Amylyx Pharmaceuticals failed to establish the drug’s effectiveness in treating the deadly neurodegenerative disease ALS, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. (Perrone, 3/30)

The Boston Globe:
FDA Advisory Vote Casts Pall Over The Future Of Amylyx’s Experimental ALS Drug

An independent panel of neurologists that advises the US Food and Drug Administration voted 6 to 4 Wednesday against recommending the agency approve a Cambridge company’s experimental therapy for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also called Lou Gehrig’s disease. The drug, produced by Amylyx Pharmaceuticals, slowed progression of the disease by 25 percent and improved survival a median of 4.8 months compared with placebo, according the the company. In what many described a difficult decision, a narrow majority of panel members were not convinced that Amylyx’s small clinical trial, which involved 137 ALS patients, proved the drug’s effectiveness. (Cross, 3/30)

San Francisco Chronicle:
San Francisco’s Laguna Honda Hospital Faces Potential Closure After Patient Overdoses Trigger State Review

Federal regulators have threatened to pull critical funding from San Francisco’s Laguna Honda Hospital after two patients overdosed at the facility last year, a dramatic measure that could force the hospital to shut down. Officials with San Francisco’s health department, which runs Laguna Honda, said Wednesday that the hospital had fallen out of regulatory compliance, putting its funding from Medicare and Medicaid in jeopardy. Laguna Honda, one of the largest skilled nursing facilities in the country, is run by the city and cares for more than 700 patients, including people with dementia, drug addiction and other complex medical needs, who live on the hospital’s campus. (Swan, 3/30)

Des Moines Register:
University Of Iowa’s Delayed OT For Health Care Workers Ruled Illegal

The University of Iowa owes damages to as many as 11,000 current and former health care workers for delays in paying overtime and other compensation, a federal judge ruled Tuesday. It’s not clear how much the university will owe the workers, some of them highly paid, but an attorney representing them said the amount could be substantial. Representatives of the Iowa Board of Regents and University of Iowa Health Care declined to comment on the decision. (Morris, 3/30)

Modern Healthcare:
Hospitals Hike Prices For Evaluation And Management Services

Hospital charges for services like emergency department visits and initial hospital care continue to grow faster than other types of care, according to a new study. Hospitals boosted their median charges for evaluation and management services by 7{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c} and related negotiated rates rose 5{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c}, according to FAIR Health’s analysis of November 2020 to November 2021 high-frequency claims from their database of more than 36 billion claims. Hospital E/M charges and negotiated rates—excluding facility fees—increased the most over that span out of the six categories FAIR Health studied: office E/M services; non-E/M services like psychiatric care, dialysis and immunizations; radiology; surgery; and pathology and laboratory. (Kacik, 3/30)

Modern Healthcare:
Anthem Fined $5M By Georgia Insurance Commissioner

The Georgia insurance commissioner is hitting Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield with a $5 million fine—the largest in agency history— over claims processing errors. Anthem failed to comply with state laws on a number of occasions between 2015 and 2021, insurance commissioner John King (R) announced Tuesday. Those included improper claims settlement practices, violations of the state Prompt Payment Act, a lack of timely responses to consumer complaints, inaccurate provider directories and provider contract loading delays, according to the regulator. (Devereaux, 3/30)

AP:
Nurses: Guilty Verdict For Dosing Mistake Could Cost Lives 

The moment nurse RaDonda Vaught realized she had given a patient the wrong medication, she rushed to the doctors working to revive 75-year-old Charlene Murphey and told them what she had done. Within hours, she made a full report of her mistake to the Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Murphey died the next day, on Dec. 27, 2017. On Friday, a jury found Vaught guilty of criminally negligent homicide and gross neglect. (Loller, 3/30)

CNN:
Abortion Providers Ask Idaho Supreme Court To Block State’s New 6-Week Ban 

Abortion providers are asking the Idaho Supreme Court to strike down the state’s new six-week abortion ban which mimics a controversial Texas law. The providers said in a lawsuit filed Wednesday that the Idaho law violates several provisions of the state constitution. They’re asking the state Supreme Court to intervene before April 22, when the law goes into effect. The law poses a “massive liability threat” to providers that is “so significant that the few remaining abortion providers in Idaho would have to cease the majority of abortions,” Rebecca Gibron, the interim CEO of the Planned Parenthood affiliate bringing the lawsuit, told reporters Wednesday. (Sneed, 3/30)

NBC News:
Planned Parenthood Sues To Block Idaho’s Six-Week Abortion Ban

In the petition, health care providers urged the state Supreme Court to block the policy from taking effect, calling it an “unprecedented power grab by the Idaho Legislature” that would wreak “havoc on this State’s constitutional norms and the lives of its citizens.” The law bans abortion once cardiac activity is detected — usually around six weeks of pregnancy — except in cases of rape and incest. It also allows family members of fetuses to sue doctors for a minimum of $20,000 within four years of abortions. The bill, which was signed into law last week, is scheduled to take effect April 22. (Atkins, 3/30)

AP:
Arizona Governor Signs Bills Limiting Abortion, Trans Rights

Arizona’s Republican governor signed a series of bills Wednesday targeting abortion and transgender rights, joining a growing list of GOP-led states pursuing a conservative social agenda. The measures signed by Gov. Doug Ducey will outlaw abortion after 15 weeks if the U.S. Supreme Court allows it, prohibit gender confirmation surgery for minors and ban transgender girls from playing on girls and women’s sports teams. (Christie and Cooper, 3/30)

The Boston Globe:
Amid National Erosion Of Access, Abortion Rights Group Endorses Healey In Mass. Governor’s Race 

National abortion-rights group NARAL Pro-Choice America endorsed Maura Healey for governor Wednesday, citing her record championing reproductive freedoms in Massachusetts and across the country, and her leadership as cochair of the Democratic Attorneys General Association. The high-profile endorsement comes as the US Supreme Court is poised to decide a case that directly challenges Roe v. Wade, setting the nation up for a potential undoing of the landmark abortion law by the conservative-majority bench, a key reason why NARAL is endorsing candidates months ahead of primary elections. (Gross, 3/30)

AP:
Feds: 9 Charged With Blocking DC Reproductive Health Clinic 

Nine people were charged with federal civil rights offenses after they traveled to the nation’s capital and then blocked access to a reproductive health center and streamed it on Facebook, federal prosecutors said Wednesday. The charges include violations of a federal law known as the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, or the FACE Act, which prohibits physically obstructing or using the threat of force to intimidate or interfere with a person seeking reproductive health services. The law also prohibits damaging property at abortion clinics and other reproductive health centers. (Balsamo, 3/30)

AP:
Insurance Deal Spurs Georgia Mental Health Bill To Passage 

Georgia lawmakers passed sweeping changes to the state’s flagging mental health care system Wednesday after reaching Senate-House agreement on language aimed at forcing health insurers to pay for mental health and substance abuse treatment. House Bill 1013 flew to final passage with a 54-0 vote in the Senate and a 166-0 vote in the House, then was headed to Gov. Brian Kemp’s desk for his signature or veto. (Amy, 3/30)

AP:
Walz Signs ALS Bill By Senator With The Disease 

Gov. Tim Walz signed a $25 million bill to fund research into ALS that was authored by a veteran state senator from the Iron Range who has the neurological disease. Sen. David Tomassoni, 69, of Chisholm, took up the cause after disclosing last year that he had ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. His case has progressed rapidly, forcing him to participate in most Senate business remotely this session. Tomassoni said through a computerized speech synthesizer that the Democratic governor and legislative leaders from both parties told him after his diagnosis that they would support whatever he wanted for funding. (Karnowski, 3/30)

AP:
WVa Governor Vetoes Health Department Split, Seeks Review

West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice vetoed a bill Wednesday that would have split the massive Department of Health and Human Resources into separate agencies, saying he first wants a review of its “issues, bottlenecks, and inefficiencies.” “I am committed to making the DHHR better, but we cannot afford to play politics when people’s lives hang in the balance,” Justice said in a statement. “We need to be certain before we act.” (Raby, 3/30)

AP:
West Virginia Reaches $26M Settlement With Opioid Maker Endo

West Virginia will receive $26 million in a settlement with the opioid maker Endo Health Solutions for the company’s role in perpetuating the state’s drug epidemic, the attorney general’s office said Wednesday. The announcement comes less than a week before the state is set to go to trial on Monday against three opioid manufacturers: Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc., Teva Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Allergan. (Willingham, 3/30)

Stat:
CVS, Teva, And Allergan Reach Deal With Florida Over The Opioid Crisis 

On the eve of a trial, the state of Florida has reached a settlement with a major pharmacy chain and two drug manufacturers over their roles in fomenting the opioid crisis that has gripped the United States for more than two decades. CVS Health will pay $484 million, and Allergan —a unit of AbbVie — agreed to pay $134 million to settle a lawsuit filed by the state. In addition, Teva Pharmaceuticals will pay $195 million, and also provide $84 million worth of its generic version of Narcan, a nasal spray that is used to treat opioid overdoses in emergencies. (Silverman, 3/30)

AP:
Patient Assault Draws New Probe Of Montana Psych Hospital 

Federal investigators visited Montana’s state psychiatric hospital for an inspection following an assault that reportedly left a patient with severe injuries. The inspection by officials from the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services was reported by the Montana State News Bureau. It comes amid staffing shortages and other problems that resulted in patient deaths and have put the hospital in Warm Springs in jeopardy of losing its federal reimbursement. The female victim of last week’s assault by another patient was life-flighted to a Missoula hospital, the news outlet reported. (3/30)

The Washington Post:
Bruce Willis Stepping Away From Acting After Aphasia Diagnosis 

Aphasia is classified as an “acquired neurogenic language disorder” that often occurs after a stroke or a brain injury, according to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, affecting the comprehension and expression of written and spoken language. While speech and language therapy can help those suffering from aphasia recover their language skills, it is “usually a relatively slow process,” and although “most people make significant progress, few people regain full pre-injury communication levels. ”It is unclear what brought on Willis’s aphasia or whether the “Die Hard” actor is suffering from any other impairments. (Andrews, 3/30)

Los Angeles Times:
Concerns About Bruce Willis’ Declining Cognitive State Swirled Around Sets In Recent Years

Just days before Bruce Willis was scheduled to turn up on the set of one of his latest action films, the director of the project sent out an urgent request: Make the movie star’s part smaller. “It looks like we need to knock down Bruce’s page count by about 5 pages,” Mike Burns, the director of “Out of Death,” wrote in a June 2020 email to the film’s screenwriter. “We also need to abbreviate his dialogue a bit so that there are no monologues, etc.” (James and Kaufman, 3/30)

San Francisco Chronicle:
Bong Smoke Is Worse Than Secondhand Tobacco Smoke, UC Berkeley Study Finds

Turns out that the lasting stink of bong water spilled onto the carpet is not the only danger to smoking marijuana through a tall tube cooled by water at its base. A study conducted at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health and published by the journal JAMA Network Open on Wednesday declared that secondhand cannabis smoke released during bong hits contains fine particulate matter at a concentration dangerously higher than that released by secondhand tobacco smoke. (Whiting, 3/30)

Stat:
Obesity Can Turn Helpful Drug Into Harmful One, Mouse Study Shows 

Researchers have long known that obesity rewires the immune system. Now a new study suggests these effects can be so profound they could turn a drug meant to treat a common inflammatory disease into one that makes things worse. Scientists discovered that mice with atopic dermatitis, a painful and itchy skin rash often triggered by an allergic reaction, were worse off if they were obese. A closer look at their immune responses led to a surprise finding: Different immune cell types drove the disease in obese versus lean mice. That caused a standard treatment to exacerbate symptoms in heavier animals, but adding another drug that made the immune response of the obese mice resemble those of lean animals made the treatment regimen work again. (Wosen, 3/30)

AP:
WHO: COVID Deaths Jump By 40{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c}, But Cases Falling Globally 

The number of people killed by the coronavirus surged by more than 40{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c} last week, likely due to changes in how COVID-19 deaths were reported across the Americas and by newly adjusted figures from India, according to a World Health Organization report released Wednesday. In its latest weekly report on the pandemic, the U.N. health agency said the number of new coronavirus cases fell everywhere, including in WHO’s Western Pacific region, where they had been rising since December. (3/30)

AP:
St. Jude Accepts 2nd Group Of Ukrainian Cancer Patients

A second group of Ukrainian children with cancer has arrived for treatment at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Tennessee after they fled with their families from the war in their home country, the hospital said. Four children ages 6 to 17 and their 11 family members arrived at the Memphis hospital Monday after a flight on a chartered medical transport airplane departing from Poland, St. Jude said in a news release late Tuesday. (Sainz, 3/30)

AP:
UN Report: Nearly Half Of All Pregnancies Are Unintended 

The U.N. Population Fund says new research shows that nearly half of all pregnancies worldwide — 121 million annually — are unintended, which it calls “a neglected crisis.” In its annual State of World Population Report 2022 released Wednesday, the fund said over 60{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c} of unintended pregnancies end in abortion and an estimated 45{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c} of abortions are unsafe, causing 5{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c} to 13{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c} of maternal deaths. (Lederer, 3/31)

AP:
UK Maternity Scandal Review Finds 200 Avoidable Baby Deaths 

A review into a scandal-hit British hospital group concluded Wednesday that persistent failures in maternity care contributed to the avoidable deaths of more than 200 babies over two decades. The review began in 2018 after two families that had lost their babies in the care of Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Trust in western England campaigned for an inquiry. (Lawless, 3/30)

AP:
The Wanted Singer Tom Parker Dies Of Brain Tumor At 33 

Tom Parker, a member of British-Irish boy band The Wanted, has died after being diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. He was 33. The band announced that Parker died Wednesday, “surrounded by his family and his band mates.” Parker announced his diagnosis in October 2020, and underwent chemotherapy and radiotherapy. (3/30)

KHN:
Big Pharma Is Betting On Bigger Political Ambitions From Sen. Tim Scott

Sen. Tim Scott, a rising star in the Republican Party with broad popularity in his home state of South Carolina, is getting showered with drug industry money before facing voters this fall. Scott was the top recipient of pharma campaign cash in Congress during the second half of 2021, receiving $99,000, KHN’s Pharma Cash to Congress database shows, emerging as a new favorite of the industry. Though Scott has been a perennial recipient since arriving in Congress in 2011, the latest amount is nearly twice as much as his previous highest haul. (Pradhan and Knight, 3/28)

KHN:
Climate Change May Push The US Toward The ‘Goldilocks Zone’ For West Nile Virus 

Michael Keasling of Lakewood, Colorado, was an electrician who loved big trucks, fast cars, and Harley-Davidsons. He’d struggled with diabetes since he was a teenager, needing a kidney transplant from his sister to stay alive. He was already quite sick in August when he contracted West Nile virus after being bitten by an infected mosquito. Keasling spent three months in hospitals and rehab, then died on Nov. 11 at age 57 from complications of West Nile virus and diabetes, according to his mother, Karen Freeman. She said she misses him terribly. (Bailey, 3/28)

KHN:
Nurse Convicted Of Neglect And Negligent Homicide For Fatal Drug Error 

Vaught was acquitted of reckless homicide. Criminally negligent homicide was a lesser charge included under reckless homicide. Vaught’s trial has been closely watched by nurses and medical professionals across the country, many of whom worry it could set a precedent of criminalizing medical mistakes. Medical errors are generally handled by professional licensing boards or civil courts, and criminal prosecutions like Vaught’s case are exceedingly rare. (Kelman, 3/25)

KHN:
‘An Arm And A Leg’: A Fight For The Right To Help

Americans get sued over medical debt. A lot. And — no surprise — many folks getting sued can’t afford lawyers. But for a non-lawyer to give even basic advice in a lawsuit is a crime. Such a helper could go to jail. Some New Yorkers are waging a legal fight to change that. A nonprofit called Upsolve wants to train people like pastors, social workers, and librarians to help others understand their rights and prepare them to represent themselves in court. In the Bronx, pastor John Udo-Okon wants to be one of those helpers. (Weissmann, 3/28)

KHN:
Journalists Recap Coverage Of The Ongoing Pandemic And Lead Risks In Schools’ Drinking Water 

KHN Midwest correspondent Lauren Weber discussed how the covid-19 pandemic has affected home health care and those with disabilities on WBEZ’s “Reset With Sasha-Ann Simons” on March 21. … KHN Montana correspondent Katheryn Houghton discussed the high levels of lead in drinking water across Montana schools on WBUR’s “Here and Now” on March 18. … Dr. Céline Gounder, KHN senior fellow and editor-at-large for public health, discussed the difficulty of fighting covid amid political divisions in the U.S. on WBUR’s “On Point’s Coronavirus Hours” on March 17. (3/26)

The New York Times:
Concerns Rise As A U.S. Reimbursement Fund For Testing And Treating The Uninsured For The Virus Stops Taking Claims

As the White House pleads with Republicans in Congress for emergency aid to fight the coronavirus, the federal government said that a fund established to reimburse doctors for care for uninsured Covid patients was no longer accepting claims for testing and treatment “due to lack of sufficient funds.” Some U.S. health care providers are informing uninsured people they can no longer be tested for the virus free of charge, and will have to pay for the service. (Barry, 3/28)

The Boston Globe:
Cuts To COVID-19 Testing, Treatment, And Vaccination Worry Health Care Leaders

Dr. Adam Gaffney is worried. Massachusetts is shutting most of its free COVID-19 testing sites in the coming days and the federal government will no longer pay for COVID care and vaccinations for the uninsured. While the winter’s blizzard of Omicron cases may be a fading memory for those who have peeled off their masks and moved on with their lives, the risk of COVID infection and serious complications for others remains all too real. There are still hundreds of new infections reported every day in Massachusetts, with those with chronic health problems, a weakened immune system, or not fully vaccinated or boosted most vulnerable to serious illness. (Lazar, 3/26)

ABC News:
Free COVID-19 Tests Ending For Uninsured Americans

Americans who don’t have health insurance will now start to see some of the free COVID-19 testing options disappear, even if they are showing symptoms. Quest Diagnostics, one of the largest testing companies in the country, told ABC News that patients who are not on Medicare, Medicaid or a private health plan will now be charged $125 dollars ($119 and a $6 physician fee) when using one of its QuestDirect PCR tests either by ordering a kit online or visiting one of the 1,500 Quest or major retail locations that administer the tests, such as Walmart or Giant Eagle. More than 30 million Americans had no insurance during the first half of 2021, according to CDC estimates. (Breslin, 3/26)

Stat:
FDA Limits Covid Therapy As Ineffective Against Omicron BA.2 Variant

U.S. health officials on Friday stopped the further deployment of the Covid-19 treatment sotrovimab to places where the BA.2 coronavirus variant is now causing the majority of infections, given laboratory studies showing the treatment likely doesn’t work against the variant. States in New England, as well as New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands, will no longer receive shipments of the monoclonal antibody therapy made by Vir Biotechnology and GSK, officials said. (Joseph, 3/25)

The New York Times:
New Antiviral Pills Help Treat Covid. Here’s How To Get Them

Earlier this month, President Biden announced an initiative called “test to treat,” which would allow people to visit hundreds of qualified pharmacy-based clinics, community health centers and long-term care facilities across the country to get tested for the coronavirus and, if positive, receive antiviral medication on the spot. Here are some of the most common questions about the new antiviral pills, and how the new program works. (Sheikh, 3/25)

CBS News:
Omicron Deaths Of Johnson & Johnson Recipients Were Double The Rate Of Other Vaccinated Americans, New Data Show

Recently published figures … suggest that COVID-19 deaths among Johnson & Johnson recipients may have peaked at more than double the rate of other vaccinated Americans during the Omicron variant wave. For the week of January 8, COVID-associated deaths among Americans who were vaccinated with Johnson & Johnson reached a rate of more than 5 out of every 100,000, according to the CDC’s figures. That’s higher than the rate among recipients of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, which was around 2 deaths per 100,000 people. (Tin, 3/25)

ABC News:
Officials Expected To Offer 2nd Booster Shot For Those Over 50 Years Old 

As soon as Tuesday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration could authorize COVID-19 booster shots for Americans over 50 years old, two officials familiar with the matter told ABC News, though the fourth shots are likely to be only offered and not formally recommended. The officials stressed that the details are still under discussion and could change in the next few days. (Haslett and Strauss, 3/27)

The Washington Post:
FDA Expected To Authorize Second Coronavirus Booster For 50 And Older 

The Food and Drug Administration is poised to authorize a second coronavirus vaccine booster for anyone 50 and older, a bid to provide an extra layer of protection amid concerns Europe’s rise in infections from an omicron subvariant could hit the United States, according to several government officials. The authorizations for second Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna boosters could be announced as soon as Tuesday, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not permitted to discuss the situation. They said talks continue, and it was possible, but unlikely, that major changes could occur. (McGinley and Sun, 3/26)

USA Today:
COVID Vaccine For Kids Under 5: Will They Get Shots Before BA.2 Surge?

After enduring months of confusion and multiple setbacks, parents of young children were elated to find out Moderna plans to request the Food and Drug Administration to authorize a COVID-19 vaccine for kids under 6. Although parents welcomed the much-anticipated news, the BA.2 strain of the omicron variant continues to gain ground in the U.S., and access to these life-saving vaccines for 18 million of the nation’s youngest is still weeks away. (Rodriguez, 3/25)

Detroit Free Press:
COVID-19 Vaccines For Kids With Autism Present Challenges For Families

Autism, which affects as many as 1 in every 44 kids in the U.S., causes difficulties with communicating, social interaction and sensory processing. It can make things like wearing a mask or going to a crowded pharmacy or a vaccine clinic to get a shot challenging. Health leaders say those unique obstacles could be among the reasons the COVID-19 vaccination rate for people with autism isn’t high enough in Michigan. The state health department said it doesn’t collect that data and there isn’t even a census of the number of people in Michigan who have an autism diagnosis. But Jill Matson, health education manager for the Autism Alliance of Michigan, said the alliance has anecdotal evidence that shots aren’t getting to enough people. (Jordan Shamus, 3/28)

Bloomberg:
Supreme Court Says Navy Can Curb Deployment For Unvaccinated

A divided U.S. Supreme Court said the Navy can limit deployment and training for 35 Seals and other special operations forces who are refusing on religious grounds to get vaccinated against Covid-19. Granting a Biden administration request over three dissents, the justices partly blocked a federal judge’s order that required the Navy to assign and deploy the sailors without regard to their unvaccinated status. The order will apply while litigation over the Navy’s vaccine mandate goes forward. (Stohr, 3/25)

Fox News:
Long COVID Symptoms May Depend On The Variant A Person Contracted

Different variants of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID, may give rise to different long COVID symptoms, according to a study that will be presented at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID 2022) in Lisbon next month. Italian researchers suggested that individuals who were infected with the alpha variant of the virus displayed different emotional and neurological symptoms compared to those who were infected with the original form of SARS-CoV-2, an early release from the ECCMID regarding the study. (McGorry, 3/27)

CIDRAP:
Different Variants Produce Varied Long COVID Symptoms, Study Suggests

Pre–Delta variant data to be presented next month at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) meeting in Portugal suggest that different variants of COVID-19 may produce different symptoms in people who develop long COVID. … The authors found a change in long COVID symptoms when comparing patients who had Alpha variant to those infected with the original, wild-type strain. Myalgia, insomnia, brain fog and anxiety and depression significantly increased with the Alpha strain, while anosmia (loss of smell), dysgeusia (difficulty in swallowing), and impaired hearing were less common. (3/25)

AP:
Scientists: COVID-19 May Cause Greater Damage To The Heart

Scientists now believe that COVID-19 patients suffer more than respiratory issues. Several studies have revealed that the virus can also damage the heart. For those with a heart condition, the threat is even greater. A September 2020 study found that the risk of a first heart attack increased by three to eight times in the first week after a COVID-19 infection was diagnosed. The study, published by medical journal The Lancet, followed nearly 87,000 people in Sweden infected over an eight-month period. Their risk of stroke increased up to six times. (O’Donnell, 3/27)

The Washington Post:
How Covid Brain Fog May Overlap With ‘Chemo Brain’ And Alzheimer’s 

People with “chemo brain” and covid brain fog could not seem more different: Those with “chemo brain” have a life-threatening disease for which they’ve taken toxic drugs or radiation. Many of those with covid brain fog, in contrast, describe themselves as previously healthy people who have had a relatively mild infection that felt like a cold. So when Stanford University neuroscientist Michelle Monje began studies on long covid, she was fascinated to find similar changes among patients in both groups, in specialized brain cells that serve as the organ’s surveillance and defense system. (Cha, 3/27)

CIDRAP:
Delta, Omicron COVID-19 Variants Caused More Cases In Pregnant Women

The highly transmissible Delta and Omicron SARS-CoV-2 variants caused triple and 10 times the rate of COVID-19 infections in pregnant women compared with other strains, with most cases among unvaccinated mothers and their newborns, finds a prospective study yesterday in JAMA. University of Texas researchers studied the outcomes of pregnant women diagnosed as having COVID-19 at a Dallas healthcare system. The study spanned the pre-Delta period (May 17, 2020, to Jun 26, 2021), the Delta period (Jun 27 to Dec 11, 2021), and the Omicron era (Dec 12, 2021, to Jan 29, 2022). COVID-19 vaccines became available in December 2020. (3/25)

CIDRAP:
COVID-19 Vaccines Not Tied To Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes 

Two studies published yesterday in JAMA, one from Sweden and Norway and one from Ontario, find no link between COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy and adverse outcomes. (Van Beusekom, 3/25)

AP:
California Schools Prepare To Spot Post-Break COVID-19 Cases

California’s 7 million students and school employees are getting free at-home COVID-19 tests to help prevent outbreaks at their school when they return from spring break. The state has shipped or delivered more than 14.3 million antigen tests, enough for two tests per person, to counties and school districts as part of a massive push to limit infections and avoid classroom closures after the break, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office announced Saturday. (Nguyen, 3/26)

AP:
Ducey Extends Medical Licenses, Key To Virus Emergency End 

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey has signed legislation that will prevent temporary medical licenses issued under his coronavirus executive orders from immediately becoming invalid if he ends the state of emergency he issued two years ago. Friday’s action extends temporary licenses issued since the Republican governor first declared a state of emergency on March 11, 2020. They will be valid until the end of the year if they were active at the start of this month. (Christie, 3/25)

Los Angeles Times:
Guests And Crew Members Test Positive For COVID-19 Aboard Princess Cruise Ship

Passengers and crew members tested positive for COVID-19 aboard a 15-day Princess Cruise trip to the Panama Canal that returned Sunday to the Port of San Francisco. Those affected aboard the ship the Ruby Princess were either asymptomatic or showed mild symptoms of COVID-19 and were isolated and quarantined, Princess Cruises said in a statement. The cruise line did not say how many guests and crew members tested positive, or at what point in the trip they did so. The ship has since departed San Francisco for a 15-day cruise to Hawaii. (Shalby, 3/27)

Fox News:
NYC Won’t Rehire Unvaccinated Workers, Mayor Says

New York City Mayor Eric Adams said Thursday that his administration would not rehire unvaccinated city workers. Around 1,400 city employees were fired earlier this year for failing to comply with the city’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate. Adams said, during a news conference at Citi Field, he did not plan to rehire them. “Not at this time,” he said, according to The Wall Street Journal, “We are not reviewing if we are going to bring [them] back. (Musto, 3/25)

Stateline:
Health Worker Shortage Forces States To Scramble

Top Hawaii officials last week received an urgent warning: If they didn’t act, the state would lose the services of hundreds of health care workers who have been essential in confronting the COVID-19 pandemic. The state had not extended a waiver of licensing requirements that had been in place for the past two years, noted Hilton Raethel, head of the Healthcare Association of Hawaii, which represents the state’s hospitals, skilled nursing centers, assisted living facilities and hospices. “This will place a materially increased burden on our existing workforce which has been stretched and strained dramatically during the pandemic, and we risk losing even more of our current permanent workforce which will have a significant impact on the ability of our hospitals and other healthcare institutions,” Raethel wrote to state officials. (Ollove, 3/25)

USA Today:
Caregiver Fatigue’s Signs Are Abundant, But Resources Can Be Minimal

As the world marked the two-year anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic, research found that among the 53 million Americans serving as caregivers, many battle fatigue. More than 1 in 5 Americans are caregivers for either an adult family member or a child with special needs. The number of family caregivers has increased since 2015, and there has been an increase of nearly 8 million caregivers for adults age 50 or older, according to AARP. A study in Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine found that the pandemic worsened the burden on Americans caring for a parent, the self-rated burden increasing 3 percentage points compared with pre-pandemic scores. (Elbeshbishi, 3/27)

USA Today:
Families Suing Over COVID Nursing Home Deaths Face State Restrictions

With coronavirus cases circulating through Fair Acres Geriatric Center nursing home in June 2020, Christopher Beaty had alarming news for his family. His roommate at the Lima, Pennsylvania, nursing home had become sick with symptoms of COVID-19. Yet the roommate shared a room with Beaty for another 24 hours, continuously exposing him to the virus until he was relocated after testing positive, according to a federal lawsuit. It was too late for Beaty. The 63-year-old developed a fever and struggled to breathe. He was transferred to a nearby hospital on June 3 and tested positive for COVID-19. He died three days later. (Alltucker, 3/27)

AP:
Former Nurse Guilty Of Homicide In Medication Error Death

A former Tennessee nurse is guilty of criminally negligent homicide in the death of a patient who was accidentally given the wrong medication, a jury found Friday. She was also found guilty of gross neglect of an impaired adult in a case that has fixed the attention of patient safety advocates and nurses’ organizations around the country. RaDonda Vaught, 37, injected the paralyzing drug vecuronium into 75-year-old Charlene Murphey instead of the sedative Versed on Dec. 26, 2017. Vaught freely admitted to making several errors with the medication that day, but her defense attorney argued the nurse was not acting outside of the norm and systemic problems at Vanderbilt University Medical Center were at least partly to blame for the error. (Loller, 3/25)

Modern Healthcare:
Feds Join Lawsuit Against EHR Vendor ModMed

The federal government will intervene in a False Claims Act lawsuit against electronic health records vendor Modernizing Medicine and its co-founders that became public Friday. The lawsuit alleges the company falsely attested to complying with certification requirements for its EHR products, provided illegal kickbacks to doctors and upcoded diagnoses entered into its EHRs. The Justice Department notified the U.S. District Court for the District of Vermont that it will partially intervene in the case and intends to file its own complaint within 90 days. (Goldman, 3/25)

Modern Healthcare:
Hospitals Worry As More Drugmakers Limit 340B Discounts 

UW Medicine is getting nervous about the future of its 340B discounts as more drug manufacturers restrict discounts for drugs dispensed at contract pharmacies. “We’re seeing our savings be eroded dramatically,” said Sumona DasGupta, assistant director of pharmacy audit and compliance. UW Medicine, which operates two 340B hospitals, has lost about two-thirds of its contract pharmacy savings, she said. Safety-net providers across the country expect more lost savings from drugmaker restrictions on 340B discounts to contract pharmacies, as sixteen drugmakers have announced plans to limit the discounts since summer 2020, despite ongoing lawsuits. (Goldman, 3/25)

The New York Times:
F.D.A. Rushed A Drug For Preterm Births. Did It Put Speed Over Science? 

By the time Brittany Bonds gave birth to her third son in the back of an ambulance 10 weeks before he was due, she no longer trusted the drug Makena. The drug was intended to forestall preterm birth and improve the health of a baby. But it did not work for Mrs. Bonds, whose son Phoenix ended up in a NICU for 83 days. At 2, he still has a host of health problems. (Jewett, 3/25)

Miami Herald:
Recall: Major Pharmaceuticals Milk Of Magnesia, Pain Drug 

Ten lots of three oral drugs shipped to hospitals, nursing home and clinics nationwide have been recalled for “microbial contamination and failure to properly investigate failed microbial testing.” That’s in the FDA-posted recall alert from Plastikon Healthcare, manufacturer of the medications for the Major Pharmaceuticals brand. Here’s what you need to know. (Neal, 3/27)

The Washington Post:
How Medicare Can Make It Harder For End-State Dementia Patients To Use Hospice 

Janet Drey knows how hard it is to predict the future, especially the future of someone who lives with dementia. In 2009, a neurologist diagnosed her mother, Jean Bishop, then age 79, with frontotemporal dementia, a disorder that irreversibly damages the front and sides of the brain. When Jean could no longer walk, speak or feed herself a year later, doctors confirmed that she had less than six months to live, Drey recalls. The prognosis fit Medicare’s definition of being terminally ill. That prognosis qualified her for hospice care, an interdisciplinary approach that prioritizes comfort and quality of life in a person’s final months. (Harris, 3/26)

The New York Times:
In Difficult Cases, ‘Families Cannot Manage Death At Home’ 

Where do people most want to be when they die? At home, they tell researchers — in familiar surroundings, in comfort, with the people they love. That wish has become more achievable. In 2017, according to an analysis in The New England Journal of Medicine, home surpassed the hospital as the most common place of death — 30.7 percent of deaths occurred at home, compared with 29.8 percent at the hospital. (Span, 3/26)

Modern Healthcare:
Florida Suspends Centene’s Medicaid Enrollment, Fines Insurer Over Tech Error

Florida’s healthcare agency has immediately suspended Medicaid and long-term care enrollment in a Centene subsidiary and fined the insurer nearly $9.1 million, after a computer glitch led Sunshine State Health Plan to mistakenly deny medical claims for more than 121,100 lower-income adults and children. The $125.9 billion insurer must pay the fine within 30 days, according to a state Agency for Health Care Administration letter sent to Sunshine State Health Plan’s CEO on Wednesday. Centene’s Florida arm must also submit a plan for how it aims to reprocess all provider and patient claims within 21 days, demonstrate within 30 days that future claims are paid promptly and participate in weekly phone calls with the agency’s senior executives about how the process is going. (Tepper, 3/25)

Houston Chronicle:
Feds Give Texas A Short-Term Reprieve In Impasse Over Billions In Medicaid Funding

The Biden administration on Friday approved new frameworks for reimbursing Texas hospitals that provide indigent care, though it has yet to sign off on individual transactions or say what will happen this fall when billions in federal aid to the state is set to expire. The decision, sent to state health officials as part of a pending lawsuit, is a short-term relief for hospitals. The Democratic administration and Republican state leaders have been at odds for months over how Texas pays for its share of the cost. Hospital and state health officials welcomed the announcement. (Blackman, 3/25)

Columbus Dispatch:
Ohio Bill Helping Patients Fight Health Insurers Ready For Approval

A bipartisan bill that would help patients meet health insurance copays may finally move after sitting dormant for more than a year following unanimous passage by the Ohio Health Committee. A Dispatch story earlier this month described how House Bill 135 was mysteriously stalled after questions were raised by Cincinnati Rep. Bill Seitz, the No. 3 GOP House leader. Dozens of advocacy groups – such as the American Cancer Society, The AIDS Institute, and Ohio State Medical Association – support the measure. Only organizations representing health insurers and pharmacy benefit managers openly opposed the bill. (Rowland, 3/25)

AP:
Georgia Mental Health Bill Faces Sudden, Vocal Opposition

A bill to improve access to mental health treatment in Georgia that appeared to be sailing through the state Legislature is now facing vocal opposition, with some critics claiming it would protect pedophiles and threaten Second Amendment rights. State lawmakers supporting the bill have blasted some of the criticism as outlandish. (3/26)

Georgia Health News:
Bill In Legislature Targets Dangerous ‘Surgical Smoke’ 

In operating rooms, the smoke created by surgery can be a health hazard for those breathing it in. Such “surgical smoke’’ is a byproduct of the thermal destruction of human tissue by the use of lasers or other devices. According to the CDC, the smoke has been shown to contain toxic gases, vapors and particulates, viruses and bacteria. A bill that has passed the Georgia Senate and is now before the House would address this issue. It would require hospitals and surgery centers in the state to implement policies to reduce surgical smoke. It’s sponsored by Sen. Matt Brass, a Newnan Republican whose wife is a nurse. (Miller, 3/25)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
Cobb 911 Operator Answers 20,000 Calls, Shatters County Record

A Cobb County 911 specialist was recently honored for handling more than 20,000 emergency calls in less than a year. County leaders paid tribute to Dana Bell, a call taker for the past 2½ years, during a commission meeting Monday. Commissioner Keli Gambrill presented Bell with a certificate of recognition that indicated she set a new county record for answering the most calls at Cobb’s Emergency Communications Center.“ E-911 call takers are crucial first responders during an emergency,” Gambrill said, reading from the proclamation. “(Dana) calmly provides a correct response and dispatch assistance during a dangerous time or serious situation, making our agency one of the best in the country.” (Bruce, 3/27)

USA Today:
Las Vegas Program To Fight Health Disparities One Household At A Time

When Marie Antoine was diagnosed with lupus and kidney failure, she was overwhelmed by the complexities of her illnesses. But that changed when a team of health sciences students and a professor started visiting her home in North Miami Beach. With their help, the 57-year-old Hattian immigrant said she was able to make sense of the health resources available to her and finally understand “what’s going on to my body.” “They will go through the lab results with me, and the professor explained what I needed to do to keep up with my health issues,” Antoine said of the team from Florida International University, who helped her navigate a kidney transplant and recovery. (Hassanein, 3/28)

The Boston Globe:
As Some States Seek To Limit Reproductive Freedoms, BU Opens ‘Plan B’ Vending Machine

When they arrived at Boston University, Molly Baker and Charlotte Beatty didn’t expect their educational paths to lead them to the American vending machine industry. They did not envision growing familiar, for instance, with the intricacies of vending credit card systems. But after overseeing the launch of a new machine on campus that distributes emergency contraception, the co-presidents of BU’s Students for Reproductive Freedom have found themselves a sudden toast of the vending world. “We made it into Vending Times!” Beatty said of their project’s recent write-up in the trade publication. The so-called “Plan B vending machine” is among the first of its kind in the United States, offering students a generic version of what is known as the “morning after” pill for $7.25, significantly less than some over-the-counter options and with privacy not afforded by a trip to the pharmacy. (Arnett, 3/27)

NPR:
Addiction Recovery Has Money But Not Enough Workers In Oregon 

Like many people who work in the field of addiction, Staci Cowan is herself in recovery. She slid into heroin use years ago after she started taking opioids for an injury. The loss of her job and apartment followed. She found herself homeless when her mom was forced to draw a firm boundary. No more sleeping at her house. “The people on the streets, you think they’re there for you,” says Cowan. “But you quickly realize that no one is there for you except for yourself.” Now, as a peer mentor at an addiction and recovery facility called Club Hope in the Portland suburb of Gresham, Cowan’s job is to be there for other people. She celebrated four years in recovery recently. Listening to people is a big part of her job. She remembers what it was like to feel invisible. (Riddle, 3/28)

Chicago Tribune:
Advocates Aim To Decriminalize Psychedelic Plants In Illinois 

Marine Corps veteran Justin Wigg was suffering from anger issues and other symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, but traditional medicine had been little help. So last fall, he traveled to Peru for a treatment that isn’t legal in Illinois — at least not yet. It was a psychedelic, tea-like drink called ayahuasca, brewed from two tropical plants, and it produced hallucinations that Wigg, a Chicagoan, compared to “‘Alice in Wonderland’ meets ‘Fantasia.’” On the second of four ceremonial sessions, he said, he met a spirit figure called Mother Ayahuasca who lifted his burden. “I asked her to help with anger, and it was like the snap of a fingers, just gone,” he recalled. “I wasn’t angry anymore, which I know sounds crazy, but that’s the best way I can describe it.” (Keilman, 3/28)

AP:
Friends With Paws Placing Therapy Dogs In Some WVa Schools 

Some West Virginia schools will have a new face joining students this year: therapy dogs to offer companionship and comfort. Friends With Paws will be a partnership between the governor’s office, West Virginia Communities in Schools Nonprofit and the state Department of Education. The dogs will be placed in schools in counties where students are disproportionately affected by poverty, substance misuse or other at-risk situations, Gov. Jim Justice’s office said. (3/28)

AP:
Court Eyes Appeal Over Mentally Ill Inmate Put In Solitary 

A federal appeals court is set to hear arguments in a lawsuit filed by a Delaware prison inmate who claimed he was deprived of his constitutional rights by being placed into solitary confinement because of his mental illness. The appeals court will hear arguments Wednesday in the case of Angelo Lee Clark, who also claimed he was deprived of his rights to adequate medical care while in solitary confinement. (3/27)

AP:
Vermont Officials Seek More Time To Test Schools For PCBs 

Vermont state officials have asked the legislature for more time to test older schools for PCBs, a harmful group of chemicals commonly used in building materials and electrical equipment before 1980.The PCB testing program is part of a law passed by the Legislature last year. It requires every school constructed or renovated before 1980 to test their indoor air for PCBs by July 1, 2024. The legislation came after the closure of Burlington High School two years ago because of the discovery of PCB contamination in air samples. (3/27)

Bangor Daily News:
No One Knows How Many Gallons Of ‘Forever Chemicals’ Are Flowing In Maine’s Waters

Treatment plants release millions of gallons of wastewater into Maine’s waterways each day that could contain elevated levels of so-called forever chemicals that are used in a wide variety of consumer products and have been linked to long-term health and environmental risks. But as Maine races to better understand how widespread its PFAS contamination problem is, particularly on farms and in landfills, there’s little known about the level of contamination in the wastewater these plants are releasing, nor about the concentration of forever chemicals building up in the Maine rivers onto which it’s released. (Loftus, 3/28)

CIDRAP:
Reported TB Cases Drop In US Amid COVID-19 

Reported tuberculosis (TB) diagnoses in the United States fell 20{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c} in 2020 and remained 13{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c} lower in 2021 than TB diagnoses made prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported yesterday, while a study today highlights disparities in at-home COVID testing. Before the pandemic, TB diagnoses declined by 1{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c} to 2{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c} each year. Mask use and distancing measures—aimed at preventing COVID spread—likely also limited TB transmission, the CDC said. TB infections were also likely missed as healthcare visits dropped during the first months of the pandemic. (Soucheray, 3/25)

The New York Times:
When Will Men Get Birth Control Pills? Your Questions, Answered 

A buzzy new animal study offers another contender in the search for a male form of birth control. Researchers at the University of Minnesota created a birth control pill for male mice, which proved 99 percent effective in preventing pregnancy. The contraceptive targets a protein in the body that receives a form of vitamin A, which is involved with sperm production and fertility. Researchers gave this compound, referred to as YCT529, to male mice for four weeks; the animals showed drastically lower sperm counts. Four to six weeks after they stopped receiving the contraceptive, the mice could impregnate a female mouse again. (Blum, 3/25)

CNN:
Nostalgia Can Reduce Perception Of Pain, Study Shows

The next time you feel pain, you might consider skipping the ibuprofen and reaching instead for an old photo. Nostalgia — that sentimental feeling of longing for the past — can reduce pain perception, according to new research published in the journal JNeurosci. Researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Liaoning Normal University asked study participants to rate their level of pain from heat stimulation while looking at pictures that were nostalgic — depicting old cartoons, childhood games or retro candy — compared with more modern pictures. During the tasks, an MRI machine also scanned the 34 participants. Researchers found that observing pictures that triggered childhood memories was linked to participants reporting weaker feelings of pain. (Kent, 3/28)

AP:
First Lady Jill Biden Visits St. Jude, Meets Ukrainian Kids 

First lady Jill Biden traveled to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Tennessee on Friday to meet with Ukrainian children with cancer and their families fleeing the war and seeking treatment in the U.S. Biden was greeted when she arrived at the Memphis hospital by president and CEO James Downing; Rick Shadyac, CEO of ALSAC, which raises funds for St. Jude; and actress Marlo Thomas, the daughter of hospital founder and late actor Danny Thomas. (Sainz, 3/25)

The New York Times:
Public Health Catastrophe Looms In Ukraine, Experts Warn

A convoy of five vans snaked slowly on Friday from the battered Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, toward Chernihiv, in the northeast of the country. On board were generators, clothes, fuel — and medications needed to treat H.I.V. With a main bridge decimated by shelling, the drivers crept along back roads, hoping to reach Chernihiv on Saturday and begin distributing the drugs to some of the 3,000 residents in desperate need of treatment. (Mandavilli, 3/26)

The Atlantic:
Is Ukraine Barreling Toward A COVID Surge?

With its 35 percent vaccination rate, Ukraine was especially vulnerable even before the invasion forced 10 million people from their homes. That much of the population must now cram together in packed train cars and basement bomb shelters will not help matters. For many in Ukraine, though, such concerns are not top of mind. “Their priority is just to flee and survive,” Paul Spiegel, the director of the Center for Humanitarian Health at Johns Hopkins University, told me. In his research, Spiegel has found a strong connection between conflicts and epidemics. But assessing the interplay between disease and violence in Ukraine is difficult right now: After the invasion, reporting on case counts slowed to a trickle. (Stern, 3/25)

AP:
US-Backed Group Gets Lifesaving Meds To Ukrainians Amid War 

Thousands of patients in Ukraine are receiving lifesaving medicines to treat HIV and opioid addiction through a U.S.-funded group still operating despite the Russian invasion. Supplies are running short and making deliveries is a complicated calculus with unpredictable risks. Officials say the quiet work of the Alliance for Public Health shows how American assistance is reaching individuals in the besieged nation, on a different wavelength from U.S. diplomatic and military support for the Ukrainian government. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 3/27)

AP:
Shanghai Starts China’s Biggest COVID-19 Lockdown In 2 Years

China began its most extensive lockdown in two years Monday to conduct mass testing and control a growing outbreak in Shanghai as questions are raised about the economic toll of the nation’s “zero-COVID” strategy. China’s financial capital and largest city with 26 million people, Shanghai had managed its smaller, past outbreaks with limited lockdowns of housing compounds and workplaces where the virus was spreading. But the citywide lockdown that will conducted in two phases will be China’s most extensive since the central city of Wuhan, where the virus was first detected in late 2019, first confined its 11 million people to their homes for 76 days in early 2020. Millions more have been kept in lockdown since then. (3/28)

AP:
British Museum To Remove Sackler Name From Galleries

The British Museum will remove the Sackler name from galleries, rooms and endowments following global outrage over the role the family played in the opioid crisis. The museum is the latest cultural institution to cut ties with the Sacklers. The Sackler name has been removed in recent years from wings and galleries at institutions including the Louvre in Paris and the Serpentine Gallery in London. (3/26)

KHN:
It Was Already Hard To Find Evusheld, A Covid Prevention Therapy. Now It’s Even Harder 

As immunocompromised people across the country work to get Evusheld, a potentially lifesaving covid therapy, several hundred providers of the injections were removed from a federal dataset on Wednesday night, making the therapy even harder to locate. White House officials had announced March 15 that a planned purchase of more doses would have to be scaled back without new federal funding. (Recht, 3/17)

KHN:
Sharing Covid Vax Facts Inside ICE Detention, One Detainee At A Time 

The sounds of wailing ambulances, car horns, and bustling traffic filtered into the high-rise home office of Dr. Daniel Turner-Lloveras in downtown Los Angeles as he settled into a brown leather couch to take a call. On the other end of the line, staring at a mint-green wall inside a plexiglass phone booth with little privacy, sat Pedro Figueroa, 33, a detainee at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Mesa Verde detention facility in Bakersfield, California. “Is it mandatory to get the booster?” Figueroa asked in Spanish. “And why do I need it?” (de Marco, 3/18)

KHN:
KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: We May Be Done With Covid, But Covid’s Not Done With Us 

Logistics expert Jeff Zients, who has headed the White House covid-19 response team since the start of the Biden administration, is stepping down and will be replaced by popular public health expert Dr. Ashish Jha, who will take a leave from his post as dean of the School of Public Health at Brown University. Meanwhile, White House officials are scrambling to figure out how to get the funding they need to continue their covid control efforts now that the president has signed the big spending bill for the remainder of the federal fiscal year. (3/17)

The Washington Post:
Moderna Seeks FDA Authorization For A Second Booster Dose Of Its Coronavirus Vaccine For All Adults 

Biotechnology company Moderna on Thursday asked the Food and Drug Administration to allow adults 18 and older to receive a second booster shot of the company’s mRNA vaccine amid concerns that immune protection from the vaccines wanes over time. Moderna’s application is substantially broader than what Pfizer and its German partner, BioNTech, sought earlier in the week — FDA authorization for a second booster shot for adults 65 and older. (Shepherd, 3/17)

USA Today:
Moderna Seeks FDA Authorization For A 4th COVID Vaccine Shot For All Adults

Moderna said its request for emergency use authorization is based partly on recently published data from the U.S. and Israel following the emergence of the omicron variant. The company did not specify what the U.S. and Israeli data showed, but Israel approved a fourth COVID vaccine shot for vulnerable people over the age of 18 in January 2022. Additionally, a study of more than 1 million Israelis over 60 showed that those who got a fourth dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine were half as likely to become infected and four-times less likely to fall severely ill than those who had only three shots. That study has not been peer-reviewed. (Tebor, 3/17)

CIDRAP:
Israeli Study Points To Modest 4-Dose Vaccine Protection Against Omicron

Four-dose efficacy of mRNA vaccines against symptomatic Omicron COVID-19 infection is modest, according to a research letter yesterday in the New England Journal of Medicine that described a small study in Israel. Of 1,050 eligible Israeli healthcare workers, 154 received a fourth dose of Pfizer and 120 received a fourth dose of Moderna. The researchers selected two age-matched controls from the remaining eligible participants for each person vaccinated. (3/17)

AP:
The AP Interview: Health Chief Warns Of COVID Funds Shortage

With the nation yearning for a new normal after its long struggle with the coronavirus, U.S. Health Secretary Xavier Becerra warned Thursday that vaccines, tests and treatments will be “stuck on the ground” unless Congress provides the additional funds the White House has demanded. “We have reached a pivot point,” Becerra said in an interview with The Associated Press. “How well we pivot is on us.” (Alonso-Zaldivar, 3/18)

The Hill:
Pelosi Says White House Should Request $45B In New COVID Aid 

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Thursday said she’s advised the Biden administration to seek tens of billions of dollars more in emergency COVID-19 relief, suggesting it will take more than $40 billion to meet the testing, vaccine and therapeutic needs of the U.S. and the larger global community. President Biden had initially asked Congress for $22.5 billion in new funding to fight the ongoing pandemic — a figure that was whittled down to $15.6 billion in the face of Republican opposition on Capitol Hill. (Lillis, 3/17)

Politico:
Dems Search For Next Steps On Covid Aid As Headaches Pile Up

After two top Biden administration health officials pleaded with Democrats on Thursday to approve more coronavirus aid funding, Speaker Nancy Pelosi apologized to them in front of her caucus for having to ask at all. Pelosi told Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and top infectious disease adviser Anthony Fauci she was sorry they needed to come before House members from the president’s own party to call for $15 billion to continue the U.S. fight against Covid, domestically and abroad. (Ferris, Levine and Cancryn, 3/17)

The Hill:
Fauci Says Officials Need More Than $22.5B For COVID-19 Response 

President Biden’s chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci said in an interview aired on Thursday that officials need more than the $22.5 billion that the White House originally requested from Congress for the COVID-19 response. In an interview aired on “NBC Nightly News,” NBC’s Miguel Almaguer noted to Fauci that the billions of dollars requested by the White House was a “hefty price tag,” asking if all the money was needed. “I have to tell you, we need more than that,” Fauci answered. Biden’s chief medical adviser said that officials needed adequate funding in order to study possible future variants. (Vakil, 3/17)

Bloomberg:
Fauci Says U.S. Covid Cases Could Rise As Congress Stalls On Pandemic Funding

The U.S. could soon see Covid-19 cases rise again and vulnerable people are likely to need a fourth vaccine dose, one of President Joe Biden’s top health advisers warned as the White House calls for more money to fight the pandemic. Anthony Fauci, the longtime head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a Biden adviser, said U.K. officials are already warning him of an increase there driven by the BA.2 sub-variant, easing restrictions and waning protection from vaccines, and that the U.S. tends to be a few weeks behind case curves in the U.K. “We have all three of those factors right now in this country,” Fauci said in an interview Thursday. “I would predict that we are going to see a bit of an increase, or at least a flattening out and plateauing of the diminution of cases. And the question is how do we deal with that.” (Wingrove, 3/17)

Stat:
Is Ashish Jha What The U.S. Covid Response Needs Right Now?

When it comes to discussing the White House’s pandemic response on TV, there’s nobody as qualified as Ashish Jha. Whether he’s on “Sesame Street” or Fox News, the Brown University public health school dean is a pitch-perfect pandemic adviser: clear, affable, and panic-averse. But the scope of his next job — steering the sprawling federal pandemic response — has some experts wondering whether someone with so little experience in government, policy, or logistics can rise to the task. (Facher and Garde, 3/18)

Los Angeles Times:
Study Reveals Likely Reason For ‘Stealth’ Omicron’s Recent Success

The ability to spread more easily from person to person appears to be the superpower that is driving an upstart sibling of the Omicron variant into wide circulation, a group of scientists has surmised. That conclusion about the virus known as “stealth Omicron” is explained in a brief report published this week by the New England Journal of Medicine. It’s based on the team’s finding that the virus, whose official name is BA.2, is only slightly better than the dominant BA.1 at evading the protective effects of COVID-19 vaccines. Both of the Omicron “subvariants” have a common core of genetic mutations. But each has a few that the other doesn’t. For instance, BA.2 lacks a mutation belonging to other versions of Omicron that makes it easy to differentiate them from the Delta variant. (Hence the “stealth” moniker.) (Healy, 3/17)

The New York Times:
With A Flurry Of High-Profile Coronavirus Cases, Washington Is Again On Edge

A flurry of high-profile coronavirus cases in the nation’s capital — including in people who have been around President Biden — has raised new questions about the trajectory of the two-year-old pandemic, even as the White House has signaled confidence in the country’s ability to resume normal activities. On Thursday, Mr. Biden canceled face-to-face meetings with Prime Minister Micheal Martin of Ireland after the prime minister received a positive result from a coronavirus test during a gala event on Wednesday night that both men attended. (Shear, 3/17)

Fox News:
More COVID Deaths Reported In US Counties With Lower Internet Access: Study

U.S. communities with limited internet access had higher COVID-19 mortality rates during the first full year of the pandemic, according to researchers. In a study published earlier this month in the journal JAMA Network Open, University of Chicago authors wrote that for places with more limited access between 2.4 and six deaths per 100,000 people could be prevented, depending on whether they were rural, suburban or urban. “Adopting an asset-based approach, we believe this finding suggests that more awareness is needed about the essential asset of technological access to reliable information, remote work, schooling opportunities, resource purchasing and/or social community. Populations with limited internet access remain understudied and are often excluded in pandemic research,” they noted. (Musto, 3/17)

ABC News:
Why Some Americans Haven’t Gotten COVID Yet And Why It’s Not Inevitable They Ever Will: Experts

Because omicron has shown the ability to cause breakthrough infections despite vaccination status, this has led to fears that everyone will catch the virus at some point. However, it is important to clarify that the COVID vaccines continue to be highly effective in its primary purpose in preventing hospitalization and death. However, public health experts said it’s not inevitable Americans who have not gotten COVID yet eventually will, and that there are several reasons people have been able to avoid infection so far, including certain behaviors such as being serious about masking and social distancing, vaccination rates and maybe even genetics. (Kekatos, 3/18)

CIDRAP:
Moms Spread COVID-19 To Newborns Less Than 2{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c} Of Time, Data Show

SARS-CoV-2 is transmitted from mother to baby before, during, and after childbirth about 1.8{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c} of the time, and vaginal births and breastfeeding do not raise the risk, finds a meta-analysis today in BMJ. … Of the 800 COVID-positive fetuses or babies with outcome data, 20 were stillbirths, 23 died during the first 28 days of life, and 8 were early pregnancy losses; 749 babies (93.6{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c}) were alive at the end of follow-up. (3/17)

NPR:
How To Tell If You Have Long COVID

Waves of fatigue. The inability to smell milk that has gone bad. A racing heartbeat. These are just a few COVID-19 symptoms that can linger after an initial coronavirus infection. Though they may not always amount to the debilitating cases of long COVID-19 that can leave people bedridden or unable to perform daily functions, it’s very common to take weeks to fully recover — a condition I’ve been thinking of as “medium COVID.” I’ve been reporting on COVID-19 since the coronavirus pandemic started, and I thought I knew what an infection would be like for a young, otherwise healthy person like me. I knew there was a risk for long COVID-19, even with mild cases, but in my mind, there were two types of COVID-19: run-of-the-mill cases that didn’t last much longer than their isolation periods required, and long COVID-19, which was relatively rare. Instead, like so many Americans, I found myself caught somewhere in between. (Feldman, 3/17)

Houston Chronicle:
Appeals Court Sides With Texas Schools Over Abbott On Mask Mandate

An appellate court on Thursday sided with Texas school districts in their dispute with state officials over mask mandates, which numerous school systems already have lifted as pandemic conditions have eased. The state’s the 3rd Court of Appeals affirmed a trial court’s orders that granted school districts temporary injunctive relief from the enforcement of an executive order from Gov. Greg Abbott prohibiting mask mandates. (Serrano, 3/17)

The Washington Post:
Local Health Officials Report Threats, Vandalism And Harassment During The Pandemic, Study Finds 

Local health officials handling the day-to-day response to the coronavirus crisis have faced hostility like never before, according to a new study of 1,499 episodes of harassment during the first year of the pandemic. Of 583 local health departments surveyed by Johns Hopkins University researchers, 57 percent reported episodes of staff being targeted with personal threats, doxing, vandalism and other forms of harassment from 2020 to 2021. (Rizzo, 3/17)

Fox News:
Caregiver Fatigue In America Rising At Unprecedented Rate: Reports

Covid-19 has added to caregiver fatigue according to health experts. Caregiver fatigue occurs when the caregiver of an individual feels physically and emotionally exhausted, often leading to a change in attitude, negative feelings toward the role and the care recipient and sometimes feelings of resentment, according to health experts. “We encourage families to try to plan ahead. It can be difficult to face an older loved one’s changing needs, but if you have plans in place for how your family/network will support the primary caregiver in both big and everyday ways you’ll be ahead of the curve,” Seniorly Vice President of Partnerships and gerontologist Marlena Del Hierro said in a statement to Fox News. (McGorry, 3/17)

Las Vegas Review-Journal:
Las Vegas Nurses: Don’t Blame Us For Staffing Shortages

For critical care nurse Emily Johnson, working long hours during the pandemic has meant delaying plans to get a master’s degree and missing time at home with three children under the age of 3, two of them foster kids. “My kids are growing up without me,” said Johnson, 33, who works in the burn center at University Medical Center in central Las Vegas. Despite plummeting COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations, Johnson and other UMC nurses say they aren’t getting a reprieve. After eliminating incentive pay for overtime last month, the hospital is now reimposing a requirement that nurses work mandatory overtime. (Hynes, 3/17)

Stateline:
As Nurses Quit, States Seek To Train More

Under pressure from short-staffed hospitals and burned-out nurses, lawmakers in several states recently passed bills designed to expand nursing schools. For more than two years, the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed both the importance of nurses and strain on the workforce. Hospitals, long-term care centers and even K-12 schools have been so short-staffed in recent months that they’ve had to cancel procedures, delay moving patients into inpatient beds or reduce other services. This legislative season, that sense of crisis has powered bipartisan efforts to increase nurse training and licensure. The proposals have split somewhat along party lines, with Republican lawmakers in red states emphasizing reduced education regulations and Democrats in blue states emphasizing funding increases. Still, leaders in both parties agree on the need to get more nurses educated and helping patients. (Quinton, 3/17)

Modern Healthcare:
Providers Push For Continued Hospital-At-Home Waiver After Pandemic

Hospital systems are making the case to Congress that Medicare should continue covering hospital-at-home care after the public health emergency, arguing it could improve health outcomes, lower costs and alleviate capacity and staffing issues. More than 200 hospitals have received a waiver from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to participate in the program, but Medicare’s hospital-at-home coverage expires at the end of the public health emergency, which could come as soon as July. Some federal lawmakers are working to extend the waiver for at least two more years, but they’re unlikely to pass legislation before coverage lapses. Meanwhile, some health systems are trying out risk-based home hospital payment models with private payers. Some say they are seeking a more permanent solution via the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation that could allow them to better tailor the program to their patient mix and organization. (Hellmann and Kacik, 3/17)

Modern Healthcare:
Remaining In The Workforce A Challenge For Women In Healthcare

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many women have had to put their careers on hold to look after children who are remote learning, to care for elderly or ill loved ones or to relocate to be closer to family. They’ve left their positions temporarily or permanently as they juggle priorities. Since February 2020, more than 1 million fewer women are in the U.S. workforce, whereas men have regained all of the jobs they lost during the pandemic, according to a National Women’s Law Center analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data. In healthcare, where the workforce is 75{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c} women, the sector was down 2.8{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c} of women’s jobs in November 2021 from January 2020, compared to 0.32{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c} of men’s jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Yet, healthcare, like many other sectors, continues to have a high demand for workers. (Christ, 3/17)

Modern Healthcare:
Becerra Eyes Work On Physician Pay, Medicare Advantage Reform

Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said Thursday that the department may readjust Medicare Part B premiums next month while it looks to work with Congress on other healthcare reforms in his second year on the job. As Becerra approaches his one-year anniversary in the position, he’s also fighting an uphill battle for more funding from Congress to keep COVID-19 relief and health coverage initiatives alive. HHS is interested in talking to Congress about Medicare Advantage overpayment issues and physician payment reform, Becerra told reporters Thursday. “We can’t let this go over the cliff. Not when we’re on the verge of turning the page,” he said. (Goldman, 3/17)

Crain’s New York Business:
After New York Nursing-Home Audit, Data Practices Under Cuomo Scrutinized

Stakeholders are advocating improvements in the New York State Department of Health’s data practices after an audit released Tuesday found that it understated the number of COVID-related nursing home deaths by at least 4,100 and did not make effective use of data to address nursing-home outbreaks. State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, whose office conducted the audit, said the Health Department should improve the quality of nursing homes’ self-reported data by collaborating more closely with the industry.“ Too often regulatory entities are just seen as being hostile to the industry,” DiNapoli said in an interview. (Kaufman, 3/17)

Cincinnati Enquirer:
17 Cincinnati Area Hospitals Docked For Readmission, Infection Rates

The federal government will reduce Medicare payments to 17 Cincinnati area hospitals with high rates of readmission or inpatient-developed infections and injuries in 2022. The penalties, which are a part of two separate pay-for-performance programs under the Affordable Care Act, include a 1{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c} reduction of Medicare payments to hospitals with a high volume of in-house infections, or hospital-acquired injuries, and a separate reduction of up to 3{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c} for high readmission. Most penalties don’t reach the full 3{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c} reduction, however. Five local hospitals – the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, TriHealth’s McCullough-Hyde Memorial Hospital, and St. Elizabeth Healthcare’s Edgewood, Florence, and Fort Thomas hospitals – were penalized for having high rates of complications classified under the Hospital-Acquired Condition Reduction program, according to data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. (Sutherland, 3/17)

Roll Call:
Texas Lags Nation In Health Insurance Coverage Rate In Census Data 

While health insurance coverage has broadly expanded across the country since implementation of the Affordable Care Act of 2010, many impoverished communities continue to lag behind, according to census data released Thursday. Overall, the nation’s uninsured population fell to 8.7 percent in 2020, from 15 percent in 2013. In Texas, however, American Community Survey results released Thursday show the uninsured rate was twice the national average — 17.3 percent, which was 3 percentage points more than the state with the next-highest uninsured rate, Oklahoma. (Macagnone, 3/17)

AP:
California Lawmakers Vote To Make Abortions Cheaper 

California lawmakers on Thursday voted to make abortions much cheaper for people on private health insurance plans, bringing California closer to becoming the fourth state in the country to ban insurance fees for the procedure. Thursday’s vote is part of lawmakers’ strategy to make reproductive care more accessible in preparation for a potential U.S. Supreme Court decision this summer that could overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 case that banned states from outlawing abortions. … The Assembly approved a bill that would eliminate out-of-pocket costs for abortions on private health plans. While the bill would reduce the cost of abortions, it would also slightly increase monthly premiums for patients and their employers. (Beam, 3/17)

San Francisco Chronicle:
New California Bill Would Create A Fund To Aid Women Traveling To California For Abortion Care

As other states move to limit or ban abortion, a Bay Area lawmaker proposed Thursday to establish a state fund to assist women traveling to California to obtain abortions. The legislation, SB1142, “sends a clear message to the rest of the nation,” said state Sen. Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley. “We are fully committed to ensuring that California women and those who may seek refuge here have access to all reproductive services, including abortion.” (Egelko, 3/17)

AP:
Washington State Prohibits Texas-Style Abortion Lawsuits

A Washington state measure that prohibits legal action against people seeking an abortion and those who aid them was signed into law Thursday by the governor, in a move designed to rebut recent actions by conservative states. “We know this bill is necessary because this is a perilous time for the ability of people to have the freedom of choice that they have enjoyed for decades,” said Gov. Jay Inslee, a Democrat. (La Corte, 3/17)

AP:
Tenn. Senate Leader Won’t Support Texas-Style Abortion Bill 

Tennessee’s Senate Speaker Randy McNally on Thursday said he does not support legislation that would ban abortions and allow almost anyone to file civil lawsuits against violators and collect damages. Earlier this week, Tennessee became the latest GOP-led state to introduce legislation mimicking a law currently enacted in Texas law and its novel citizen-enforcement provision. (Kruesi, 3/17)

NBC News:
Biden Administration Meets With Florida LGBTQ Students Over ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Bill

Biden administration officials held a closed-door meeting Thursday with several Florida LGBTQ students and their families about the state’s so-called Don’t Say Gay bill, the Education Department said. The legislation — officially named the Parental Rights in Education Act — would prohibit “classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity” in Florida primary schools. Its passage in Florida’s House and Senate in recent weeks sparked national debate. (Lavietes, 3/17)

Houston Chronicle:
‘One Pill Can Kill’: Authorities Warn Of Fentanyl’s Dangers In Public Campaign Targeting Houston, State

With fentanyl showing up in Harris County and the state at “an alarming rate,” authorities have launched a public awareness campaign on billboards and elsewhere to warn of the dangers of the synthetic opioid, often sold in counterfeit pills that can contain lethal doses. Representatives of government and public health agencies said at a press conference Thursday that the campaign aims to sound the alarm about the increasing illegal trade and the impact of fentanyl, along with the upward trend of the counterfeit pills. “One pill can kill” and “Fentanyl can kill: The first time could be your last time” are among some of the messages displayed on the billboards. They come as a record number of people are dying from overdoses in Texas, with the fentanyl driving what has been nationally recognized as an epidemic. (Tallet, 3/17)

San Francisco Chronicle:
San Francisco Issues Dire Warning After Spike In Fentanyl Overdoses Among People Using Cocaine

San Francisco health officials issued a dire warning Thursday following what they said was a recent spike in fentanyl overdoses, specifically among people who ingested the powerful opioid when they thought they were using cocaine. Over the past two weeks, the city’s health department said it was alerted to three fatal fentanyl overdoses in San Francisco among people “who intended to use only cocaine but were unintentionally exposed to fentanyl.” The health department also reported nine similar, nonfatal overdoses in two groups of people. There were an estimated 474 deaths from fentanyl in 2021, the health department said. (Whiting, 3/17)

San Francisco Chronicle:
Judge Overturns Conviction Of Woman Who Gave Birth To Stillborn Child After Drug Use

A mother who acknowledged using drugs before she gave birth to a stillborn child was sentenced to 11 years in prison by a Kings County judge in 2018 after pleading no contest to manslaughter to avoid a murder charge. Now another judge, with support from Attorney General Rob Bonta, has overturned the conviction and prison sentence, saying the crime she admitted committing is not recognized by law.“ There is no crime in California of manslaughter of a fetus,” Superior Court Judge Valerie Chrissakis said Wednesday. She ordered Adora Perez released from prison, where she has been held for nearly four years, and returned to Kings County Jail for a new hearing before her original judge on whether she should be tried for murder, which under state law can include the intentional or reckless killing of a fetus. But Bonta and women’s-rights advocates dispute that charge as well. (Egelko, 3/17)

AP:
Kentucky House Passes Bill To Legalize Medical Marijuana 

The Kentucky House endorsed legalizing medical marijuana, passing a bill Thursday to strictly regulate the use of cannabis for a list of eligible medical conditions. The high-profile measure cleared the Republican-dominated House on a 59-34 vote after a long, sometimes-emotional debate. The years-long debate now shifts to the GOP-led state Senate on whether Kentucky should join the majority of states allowing medical marijuana. (Schreiner, 3/17)

AP:
Part Of Indiana’s New Vaping Tax Cut Before Taking Effect

Indiana’s new tax on vaping is being cut even before it takes effect despite protests from anti-smoking advocates. Gov. Eric Holcomb signed a bill this week that included provisions cutting the 25{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c} tax that wholesalers were to be charged for closed-system vaping cartridges such as Juul devices to 15{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c}. State lawmakers approved the higher rate last year for Indiana’s first tax on electronic cigarettes to start in July 2022. (3/17)

Philadelphia Inquirer:
Pennsylvania’s Sudden Move To Recall Marijuana Vapes Raised Questions. Were These Products Harmful All Along?

For years, the Pennsylvania Department of Health allowed the state’s medical marijuana companies to sell hundreds of medicines that the agency now considers potentially unsafe. Something changed in November when regulators started a process that led last month to a massive recall and ban of 670 types of cannabis concentrates for vaping — $12 million worth — that they had previously approved for sale in Pennsylvania’s roughly 150 marijuana dispensaries. The move blindsided patients and an industry dominated by companies hyper-focused on broader legalization of marijuana. And regulators declined to explain the action beyond saying the medicines contained “added ingredients that have not been approved for inhalation” by the FDA. (Brubaker, 3/17)

AP:
Settlement Sets Better Treatment For Mentally Ill Inmates 

The Montana State Prison will no longer be allowed to punish inmates with severe mental illnesses for behavior caused by their illnesses by putting them in solitary confinement or setting unreasonable behavioral expectations, under a settlement to a federal lawsuit announced this week. “This settlement represents huge gains for the humane treatment of inmates with severe mental illness,” Bernadette Franks-Ongoy, executive director of Disability Rights Montana, which filed the lawsuit against the Department of Corrections in 2015. (Hanson, 3/17)

AP:
NH House Votes To Repeal Paid Family Medical Leave Program 

The New Hampshire House on Thursday voted to repeal the state’s paid family medical leave program less than a year after it was signed into law, saying that it’s no longer needed because private insurance carriers have now filed similar plans in the state. The vote to repeal passed on a vote of 172-164 in the Republican-led House. (3/17)

Anchorage Daily News:
Historic Split Of Alaska’s Health Department Will Become Final Within Days Unless Senate Moves Fast

Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s sweeping proposal to divide Alaska’s massive health department into two agencies via an executive order appears poised to go into effect this summer unless the Legislature makes a last-minute decision to meet in joint session by Saturday. State Senate leaders say there are no plans for a joint session, despite pressure from House leaders to “disapprove” the split — the only way the Legislature can take action. Dunleavy in January issued Executive Order 21, a 100-plus-page document that divides the unwieldy Alaska Department of Health and Social Services into a Department of Health and a Department of Family and Community Services. The administration contends the Alaska Constitution allows the governor to make such a sweeping reorganization rather than proposing a bill that’s subject to legislative review and amendments. (Hollander and Brooks, 3/17)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
3 Wisconsin Children Have Died From Influenza, First This Flu Season

Three children in Wisconsin have died from influenza, the state health department announced Thursday. The news release reporting the first pediatric flu deaths this season did not say how old the children were or where in Wisconsin they lived. Flu seasons are typically tracked October through May in the United States. After an unusually mild 2020-21 season — which state health officials attribute to people staying at home because of the COVID-19 pandemic — flu numbers have bounced back in Wisconsin, but still are not as high as past years. (Heim, 3/17)

AP:
US Adult Smoking Rate Fell During First Year Of Pandemic 

The first year of the COVID-19 pandemic saw more Americans drinking heavily or using illicit drugs — but apparently not smoking. U.S. cigarette smoking dropped to a new all-time low in 2020, with 1 in 8 adults saying they were current smokers, according to survey data released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Adult e-cigarette use also dropped, the CDC reported. (Stobbe, 3/17)

The Boston Globe:
Frequent Daytime Napping By Older Adults Linked To Increased Risk Of Alzheimer’s, Study Says

A new study from researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston links excessive daytime napping by older adults to a heightened risk of developing Alzheimer’s, the disease that causes severe cognitive decline. The study was published Thursday in Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association, the hospital said in a statement. “The vicious cycle we observed between daytime sleep and Alzheimer’s disease offers a basis for better understanding the role of sleep in the development and progression of Alzheimer’s disease in older adults,” Dr. Peng Li, a lead author of the study who works in the Medical Biodynamics Program at the Brigham’s Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders, said in the statement. (Andersen and Fox, 3/17)

AP:
More Than 30 Companies To Start Making Pfizer’s COVID Pill 

Nearly three dozen companies worldwide will soon start making generic versions of Pfizer’s coronavirus pill, the U.N.-backed Medicines Patent Pool that negotiated the deal said Thursday. The Medicines Patent Pool said in a statement that agreements signed with 35 companies should help make Pfizer’s antiviral nirmatrelvir, or Paxlovid, available to more than half of the world’s population. (3/17)

The Washington Post:
At Least 43 Attacks On Health-Care Facilities And Patients In Ukraine, WHO Says 

The World Health Organization has verified at least “43 attacks on health care” — including assaults on patients, health-care workers, facilities or infrastructure — since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the agency’s director general, told reporters Wednesday. More than 300 health-care facilities are in combat zones or areas that Russia now controls, while 600 other facilities are within about six miles of the conflict line, he said. (Simon, Timsit and Jeong, 3/17)

The New York Times:
An American Who Traveled To Ukraine For His Partner’s Treatment Is Killed

A 68-year-old American man was killed in a Russian assault on the city of Chernihiv, a city northwest of Kyiv, the local authorities in the city reported on Thursday. The local police said the man, James Whitney Hill, was killed by heavy artillery attacks on unarmed civilians in the city. … Mr. Hill, who went by the name Jimmy or Jim to friends, and his partner, Ira, who is Ukrainian, had traveled to Chernihiv in December so that she could be treated for multiple sclerosis, friends of Mr. Hill told a local news broadcaster in Idaho this month. They had become trapped at a regional hospital there. (Specia and Schwirtz, 3/17)

The Washington Post:
Mental Health Experts Worldwide Provide Support For Ukrainians

The crisis in Ukraine has unleashed a network of online mental health experts, some refashioning routine virtual care in response to the war; others providing psychological first aid for refugees or support for local therapists who suddenly find themselves on the front line of an evolving mental health crisis. “We all — many, many professionals around the world — have mobilized to work with what’s going on there, with extensive psychological trauma,” said Galina Itskovich, a Brooklyn-based developmental psychotherapist who has been working with parents and professionals in Ukraine for several years. “We have a grass-roots movement here, getting connected very quickly.” (Sellers, 3/18)

The New York Times:
Who Killed Three Aid Workers For Doctors Without Borders In Ethiopia?

As the fight intensified in northern Ethiopia in June last year, three aid workers from Doctors Without Borders jumped into their four-wheel drive and raced across the battle-scarred landscape, searching for casualties. Hours later they vanished. The aid workers stopped answering their satellite phone. A tracking device showed their vehicle making a sudden U-turn, then stopping. Colleagues frantically tried to locate them. (Marks and Walsh, 3/17)