Politico: Storms Likely Causing 'Widespread' Delays Of Vaccine Shipments, CDC Says 
The Biden administration is expecting "widespread" delays in Covid-19 vaccine shipments due to severe winter storms across the country, a CDC spokesperson confirmed Tuesday evening. At least two shipping hubs that multiple states rely on for vaccine distribution have been affected by the storms, and federal officials expect delays to continue for several days. (Ehley, 2/16)

NPR: Winter Storm Disrupts COVID-19 Vaccinations, Closing Clinics And Delaying Shipments
The massive storm sweeping across the country isn't only bringing subzero temperatures and widespread power outages to much of the U.S., it's also putting a freeze on COVID-19 vaccine distribution in several states and cities. In Missouri, Gov. Mike Parson announced on Monday that all state-run mass vaccination events scheduled for this week are canceled, citing safety concerns brought on by the extreme weather. "Missouri is experiencing severe winter weather that makes driving dangerous and threatens the health and safety of anyone exposed to the cold. These conditions will also likely delay some vaccine shipments," Parson said. "We want to protect the safety of everyone involved in the mass vaccination events, from the patients being vaccinated to the volunteers who generously support these events." (Treisman, 2/16)

AP: Crippling Storm Hampers Vaccinations As FEMA Opens New Sites
Snow, ice and bitter cold forced authorities to halt vaccinations from Pennsylvania to Illinois and from Tennessee to Missouri. In snowy Chicago, Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said more than a hundred city vaccine sites didn’t get shipments Tuesday because of the extreme weather, leading to many cancellations. The Biden administration said the weather was expected to disrupt shipments from a FedEx facility in Memphis and a UPS installation in Louisville, Kentucky. Both serve as vaccine shipping hubs for a number of states. (Garcia and Noveck, 2/16)

The Hill: Pentagon, FEMA To Set Up Vaccine Sites In Texas, New York 
Up to 3,700 active-duty troops are on standby to administer COVID-19 vaccines at Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) sites, with an eye on locations in Texas, New York and the Virgin Islands. Several hundred service members have already been sent to FEMA sites in Los Angeles and Oakland, Calif., with more sites to be set up in Texas and New York in roughly a week, followed by the Virgin Islands in early March, U.S. Northern Command head Air Force Gen. Glen VanHerck told reporters on Tuesday. (Mitchell, 2/16)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Rough Weather Delays COVID-19 Vaccine Shipments To Georgia
Shipments of the COVID-19 vaccine that normally would have arrived the first part of this week were held back by the manufacturers due to the nasty weather gripping the nation, Georgia health officials said Tuesday afternoon. Many vaccine providers are rescheduling appointments and delays are expected to continue through the week, Georgia Department of Public Health officials said. Vaccine providers should contact people to reschedule appointments, officials said. (Stirgus, 2/16)

Chicago Tribune: Snowstorm Causes 100-Plus Chicago Vaccine Sites To Miss Shipments, But City’s Public Health Commissioner Says Doses Will Come Soon 
More than a hundred vaccine sites in Chicago didn’t get their shipments Tuesday following a heavy snowstorm overnight, city Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said while promising people will get their appointments rescheduled and doses will not go to waste. (Yin, 2/16)

Freezing temperatures, the water supply and carbon monoxide poisoning are critical concerns —

The Washington Post: Freezing Temperatures And Power Outages Hurt Texas’s Most Vulnerable Yet Again 
Families living in substandard homes lacking proper insulation are often huddling around a single space heater to stay warm in South Texas. Asylum seekers are wrapping themselves in blankets and keeping a community fire ablaze in a migrant camp near the border. Community organizers in Austin, San Antonio and other major Texas cities are hustling to rescue the unhoused as hypothermia and frostbite set in. (Foster-Frau and Hernandez, 2/16)

The New York Times: Power Is Still Off For Millions After Winter Storm 
The disruptions caused problems at water treatment plants, leading to boil water advisories for hundreds of thousands of people across Texas, from Fort Worth down to the Rio Grande Valley. Some customers lost water altogether, forced to flush their toilets with melting snow. By early Tuesday afternoon, Southwest Power Pool, which manages the electrical grid across 17 Central and Western states, had stopped ordering controlled rolling cutoffs of power service to customers as the energy supply began meeting the extreme demand, a spokesman said. (2/17)

Houston Chronicle: Harris County Is Slammed With 300+ Carbon Monoxide Cases - And Many Are Kids
Harris County has seen more than 300 carbon monoxide poisoning cases as temperatures bottomed out Monday in Houston and the state’s electricity grid failed, sending people scrambling for heat sources. That includes 90 carbon monoxide poisoning calls to the Houston Fire Department and 100 cases in Memorial Hermann's emergency rooms. Many of the cases stem from people using BBQ pits and generators indoors to stay warm, said Drew Munhausen, a Memorial Hermann spokesperson. Doctors are treating 60 of those cases at the hospital’s Texas Medical Center location. (Wu, 2/16)

NPR: Carbon Monoxide Poisoning From Portable Generators Can Prove Deadly
To Michelle Seifer, the timing was just a coincidence. After losing power in a summer storm, she came down with flu-like symptoms. It wasn't until two days later, when a carbon monoxide detector activated and a utility company worker tested levels in Seifer's home, that she learned she was being poisoned by the portable generator she had been running in her open garage. "That's when I went to the hospital and learned that my levels were high enough where they needed to admit me," said Seifer, a finance manager and mother of five in Hartland, Mich. "Because if I didn't receive the proper treatment for the carbon monoxide poisoning, if I were to fall asleep I wouldn't wake up." (Treisman, 2/4)

The New York Times: Biden Suggests Vaccines Will Be Available For Every American ‘By The End Of July.’
President Biden said on Tuesday that every American who wants a Covid-19 vaccine will be able to get one by the end of July, striking a more optimistic tone than he delivered last week when he warned that logistical and distribution hurdles would most likely mean that many people would still not have been vaccinated by the end of the summer. Mr. Biden made the comment in Milwaukee during a town hall-style meeting hosted by CNN. When the host, Anderson Cooper, asked him when every American who wants a vaccine was “going to be able to get a vaccine?” Mr. Biden replied without hesitation: “By the end of July this year.” (2/17)

CNN: Biden Says Things May Be Back To Normal By Next Christmas 
The prediction of nearly another year in pandemic-dampened conditions was admittedly not optimistic. But Biden still said it was as good as he could offer with any level of confidence. "As my mother would say, with the grace of God and the goodwill of the neighbors, that by next Christmas I think we'll be in a very different circumstance, God willing, than we are today," Biden said. "A year from now, I think that there'll be significantly fewer people having to be socially distanced, having to wear a mask." He added: "I don't want to over promise anything here." (Liptak, 2/16)

ABC News: Biden Cautiously Predicts 'Very Different Circumstance' With Pandemic By Christmas 
A mother of a college student with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) expressed to Biden her frustration that other Americans, who she said are less vulnerable than her son, are able to get the vaccine first. “Do you have a plan to vaccinate those who are most vulnerable sooner to give them a priority?” she asked. Though he initially answered, “Yes, there are,” Biden immediately pivoted to a blunt acknowledgment that prioritization for population groups is up to the states, not him. “The states make the decisions on who is in what order. I can make recommendations, and for federal programs, I can do that, as president of the United States, but I can't tell the state: ‘You must move such and such a group of people up.’” (Gomez and Kolinovsky, 2/17)

In related news —

Los Angeles Times: Fauci Pushes Back COVID-19 Vaccine Timeline Amid Shortages
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the U.S. government’s top infectious-disease expert, offered on Tuesday a more cautious note about when vaccines might be more fully available across the country. Last week, Fauci said the country could see “open season” for COVID-19 vaccine doses by April. However, in an appearance on “L.A. Times Today,” he said the timeline may be more like “late May and early June.” “We were expecting a greater number of doses from Johnson & Johnson, and it looks like, even though it’s a good vaccine, that we’re not going to have a substantial amount of doses until we get into April and May,” he said during the program, which is scheduled to air at 7 p.m. Tuesday. (Money, 2/16)

The Hill: Fauci Says He Was Nervous About Catching COVID-19 In Trump White House 
Anthony Fauci said in an interview with “Axios on HBO” that he worried about contracting the coronavirus during the Trump administration because of its lax approach to the virus. Fauci, who is 80 years old and has served as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for more than three decades, said his age category was always in the back of his mind particularly when he visited the White House under then-President Trump. (Chalfant, 2/16)

Bloomberg: Biden Says He Invoked Production Law For More Vaccine Doses
President Joe Biden said that Moderna Inc. and Pfizer Inc. agreed to sell more doses of their coronavirus vaccine to the U.S. faster than planned after he invoked federal law that could force their production. In a CNN town hall event in Milwaukee on Tuesday, Biden touted his administration’s ramp-up of vaccine shipments while also warning that the pandemic won’t soon end. “We got them to move up time because we used the National Defense Act to be able to help the manufacturing piece of it, to get more equipment,” he said. He appeared to be referring to the Defense Production Act, a law that allows the government to nationalize commercial production in emergencies. (Sink, Wingrove and Epstein, 2/17)

NPR: Biden Administration Says It Has Increased Vaccine Supply
President Biden's COVID-19 czar Jeff Zients told governors on Tuesday that the weekly vaccine supply going out to states is increasing by more than 20% to 13.5 million doses this week, Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, announced. Psaki also said the supply going directly to pharmacies will double to 2 million this week. Before taking office, Biden promised to improve and streamline Trump's Operation Warp Speed and pledged to get 100 million vaccine doses into arms in the first 100 days of his administration. (Romo, 2/16)

The Hill: Biden To Increase Number Of Vaccine Doses To States 
The Biden administration will increase the number of COVID-19 vaccine doses going to states this week. States will receive 13.6 million doses per week starting this week, White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters Tuesday. The current shipment is about 11 million doses. (Hellmann, 2/16)

In related news about the Biden administration's pandemic efforts —

The Washington Post: Harris’s Claim That Biden Vaccine Plan Was ‘Starting From Scratch’
The vice president gets into trouble when she says “we’re starting from scratch.” The Biden administration appears to have had to fill in the blanks of the Trump plan and certainly did speed up the tempo of what the Trump administration envisioned. It has added a federal component and pushed for funding for states. [Dr. Anthony] Fauci said the Trump plan was “rather vague” and “not a well-coordinated plan.” Biden administration officials may be proud of what they have accomplished, but they shouldn’t suggest that nothing was in place when they walked in the door. They have built on an existing structure left behind by the Trump team. Harris modified her comment by saying “in many ways,” but that’s not quite enough to avoid Pinocchios. (Kessler, 2/17)

Philadelphia Inquirer: Nursing Home Group Cites Evidence COVID-19 Vaccine Is Already Working For Their Residents
A new analysis found that cases dropped more quickly in nursing homes where residents and staff had been vaccinated than they did in facilities in the same county that had not yet hosted vaccination events. The comparison was made just three weeks after first shots were given, too early for recipients to have reached full immunity. Both vaccines currently being administered require two doses given three or four weeks apart. A couple of weeks after the second dose, the vaccines are 95% effective at preventing symptomatic disease, clinical trials found. After just three weeks from the first dose, studies show they are closer to 52% effective. It is still unclear how often vaccinated people might spread disease without having symptoms. (Burling, 2/16)

Bloomberg: NYC’s Rich Neighborhoods Get An Outsize Share Of Covid Vaccines
New York City’s vaccines are disproportionately going to wealthier neighborhoods in Manhattan and Staten Island, according to data the city released Tuesday. The disparities highlight the inequities of a vaccine drive that has already been criticized for what New York Mayor Bill de Blasio called “profound” racial disparities. White residents composed almost half the people who had gotten at least one dose, despite being only a third of the population. More than a quarter of those getting the Covid-19 vaccine are nonresidents, who tend to be younger and are more likely to be White than those living in the city. (Goldman, 2/16)

Fox 5 Atlanta: New Dashboard Sheds Light On Georgia's COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout
We now have a better idea of how well Georgia's COVID-19 vaccine rollout is going. The state started publishing a new and much more detailed online vaccine dashboard. The dashboard, which is posted on the Georgia Department of Public Health's website, breaks down both statewide and individual county vaccine numbers. (Teichner, 2/16)

AP: Virginia Launches Statewide Vaccine Registration System
Virginia’s state health department has launched a centralized website where people can pre-register for the COVID-19 vaccine. The website went live Tuesday. Previously, Virginia’s local health districts were handling pre-registration. The state says Virginians who have already pre-registered will be automatically imported into the new system and do not need to sign up again. (2/16)

In other vaccine news —

Des Moines Register: Iowa Bill Would Include Broader Vaccine Exemptions, Bar On Vaccine Mandates
Iowa Senate Republicans advanced a bill Tuesday that would broaden the state's exemptions for childhood vaccinations, forbid Iowa employers from requiring their employees to be vaccinated and provide other protections for people who decline to be vaccinated. The bill, Senate File 193, passed through a Senate subcommittee after more than 90 minutes of testimony, with Republican Sens. Jim Carlin of Sioux City and Mark Costello of Imogene supporting it and Democratic Sen. Pam Jochum of Dubuque opposed. It is now eligible for consideration by the full Senate Human Resources Committee, although the Republican senators suggested parts of the measure could be rewritten. (Gruber-Miller, 2/16)

Politico: Doctors Bring The Fight To Anti-Vaxxers Online 
Doctors and nurses trying to build confidence in Covid-19 vaccines on social media are mounting coordinated campaigns to combat anti-vaccination forces prevalent on those platforms. At the same time, public health groups are mobilizing a global network of vaccine advocates to come to their aid when they are attacked online by activists, who closely monitor certain hashtags and keywords. The groups use monitoring software to swiftly identify online attacks, then tap their networks to flood social media posts with supportive messages countering vaccine opponents. (Ravindranath, 2/15)

Stat: The Myth Of 'Good Covid Vaccines' And 'Bad Covid Vaccines'
Mike Ryan, the World Health Organization’s health emergencies director, had a conversation recently with his mother, the kind that lots of public health people are having these days, much to their dismay. Ryan’s mother was concerned about one of the Covid-19 vaccines in use in Ireland, where she lives. The one made by AstraZeneca. (Branswell, 2/17)

KHN: Rural Hospital Remains Entrenched In Covid ‘War’ Even Amid Vaccine Rollout
The “heroes work here” sign in front of St. James Parish Hospital has been long gone, along with open intensive care unit beds in the state of Louisiana. Staffers at the rural hospital spent hours each day in January calling larger hospitals in search of the elusive beds for covid-19 patients. They leveraged personal connections and begged nurses elsewhere to take patients they know are beyond their hospital’s care level. (Weber, 2/17)

And "vaccine envy" grows —

The Wall Street Journal: A Twinge Of Envy When Only One Spouse Gets The Covid Vaccine 
Couples who vowed to cherish each other in sickness and in health are facing a new challenge—a dose of marital vaccine envy. Jennifer Baum, a 55-year-old New Yorker, navigated the search online for Covid-19 vaccines to grab an appointment for her 71-year-old husband, Charles. But she is among the last in line for eligibility because of her age, job and medical status. “I don’t fit in any categories,” she said. “There are a few 3-year-olds after me.” (Brody, 2/15)

The Washington Post: Vaccine Envy Is Real. Here’s How To Tame It.
The coronavirus vaccine rollout has been chaotic and confusing in many states, leaving some elderly residents and front-line workers unprotected, while those further down the priority list have been able to obtain shots. That’s leading to a new affliction: vaccine envy. (Haupt, 2/16)

AP: Biden Reframes Goal On Reopening Of Elementary Schools
President Joe Biden is promising a majority of elementary schools will be open five days a week by the end of his first 100 days in office, restating his goal after his administration came under fire when aides said schools would be considered open if they held in-person learning just one day a week. Biden’s comments, during a CNN town hall in Milwaukee, marked his clearest statement yet on school reopenings. Biden had pledged in December to reopen “the majority of our schools” in his first 100 days but has since faced increasing questions about how he would define and achieve that goal, with school districts operating under a patchwork of different virtual and in-person learning arrangements nationwide. (Madhani and Jaffe, 2/17)

The Hill: Biden Says Goal Is To Reopen Schools Five Days A Week In First 100 Days 
President Biden clarified Tuesday that his goal is to have the majority of K-8 schools physically reopened five days a week by the end of his first 100 days in office as the U.S. grapples with the coronavirus pandemic. “I think we’ll be close to that at the end of the first 100 days,” Biden said during a CNN town hall in Milwaukee on Tuesday evening. “The goal will be five days a week.” (Chalfant, 2/16)

CNN: Biden Says Teachers Should Move Up In Priority To Receive Covid-19 Vaccine 
President Joe Biden said during a CNN town hall Tuesday that teachers should be moved higher on the list of those who are getting vaccinated against Covid-19. "I think that we should be vaccinating teachers. We should move them up in the hierarchy," he said. (Maxouris, 2/17)

In related news about school reopenings —

The Hill: New CDC Guidance Ends Up Deepening Debate Over Reopening Schools 
New guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is adding fuel to the fire of a raging debate over school reopening, with some experts saying the guidelines erect too many barriers to kids returning to the classroom. The Biden administration has been facing thorny questions on the issue for weeks, caught between competing forces, including experts emphasizing the safety of returning to school with precautions, and teachers unions in many places that are resistant to returning. (Sullivan, 2/16)

The Wall Street Journal: School Reopening Pits Parents Against Teachers: “Is There A Word Beyond ‘Frustrating’?”
Patrick Cozzens had never spoken up at a school board meeting until he stood in front of a crowd of angry parents earlier this month to read a statement his 16-year-old daughter helped him to write. “I’ve watched her go from a child that has loved school, thrived at school her entire life, to one now, using her own words, who just doesn’t care anymore,” he said, his voice breaking. “What are you focused on? Get our children back!” (Maher and Calfas, 2/16)

Politico: Newsom: California School Reopening Talks 'Stubborn' With 'More Work To Do'
Gov. Gavin Newsom conceded Tuesday that he has not yet struck a school reopening deal with legislators and school groups after having said it could arrive last week. “We are making progress and it is stubborn, the negotiation, and we continue to negotiate,” Newsom said, adding that “on schools, we still have more work to do.” (White, 2/16)

The Washington Post: Fairfax Schools Reopen Classrooms For First Time In Months
On Tuesday, the Northern Virginia school district of 186,000 took its first major steps toward reopening, welcoming roughly 8,000 students — mostly young children with disabilities and high-schoolers enrolled in career and technical education classes — back to campus for at least one day of in-person instruction each week. (Natanson, 2/16)

Chicago Tribune: For Pandemic-Era High School Students, The Thrill Is Gone: ‘They Took Away All Of The Joy, And Left Us With Nothing But Homework’ 
After Senn High School student Davion Holmes was named captain of the football team, and won a spot on the varsity basketball team, too, the lifelong athlete dreamed of spending his junior year competing on the court and gridiron with his friends and teammates. But the COVID-19 pandemic proved to be a formidable rival, crushing the athletic seasons for both sports at the Chicago high school. These days, when Holmes is not behind his laptop in a Zoom classroom, he’s earning extra cash working at a neighborhood Wendy’s restaurant. (Cullotta and Keilman, 2/16)

Politico: Biden Extends Foreclosure Moratorium And Mortgage Forbearance Through June 
The Biden administration announced Tuesday that it would extend the foreclosure moratorium and mortgage forbearance through the end of June. The actions would block home foreclosures and offer delayed mortgage payments until July, as well as offer six months of additional mortgage forbearance for those who enroll on or before June 30. (Payne, 2/16)

The Wall Street Journal: Biden Administration Extends Covid-19 Mortgage Relief 
Homeowners will now be able to receive up to six months of additional mortgage payment forbearance, in increments of three months, for those borrowers who entered forbearance before June 30, 2020, the White House said. Borrowers who enter into such plans can skip payments if they suffer a pandemic-related hardship but have to make them up later. Some 2.7 million homeowners have active forbearance plans—representing 5% of all mortgage-holders—and more than half of the plans are set to end for good in March, April, May or June, according to mortgage-data firm Black Knight Inc. (Thomas and Ackerman, 2/16)

In related news about covid's economic toll —

The New York Times: All Stimulus Checks Have Been Sent, I.R.S. Says 
The Internal Revenue Service says your stimulus payment has been sent, but there’s still a chance you’ll have to ask for the money when you file your taxes. The I.R.S. said on Tuesday that the payments, including the most recent $600 checks and the earlier $1,200 installments, have been issued. Most eligible people should have received their payments by now, even though an estimated 13 million payments were misdirected last month and had to be rerouted. (2/17)

The Hill: Biden Officials Mull Priorities After Coronavirus Relief Bill 
President Biden has yet to see his first major legislative proposal pass Congress as negotiations over an economic relief package are ongoing, but the White House is already eyeing how to prioritize its next round of policy pushes. Much of the attention has been on Biden’s American Rescue Plan, which is expected to pass through the budget reconciliation process in the coming weeks. (Samuels, 2/16)

The Washington Post: Biden Indicates He’s Open To Negotiation On $15 Minimum Wage 
President Biden indicated Tuesday that he’s open to negotiation on his proposal for a $15 minimum wage, a centerpiece of his $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill that’s emerged as a flash point as congressional Democrats push the legislation forward. Biden suggested he could be open to a longer phase-in than the current plan of five years in Democrats’ legislation. He also indicated that a lower number — $12 or $13 — could be beneficial while having less potential impact on business owners. (Werner, 2/16)

Reuters: Biden Suggests More Police Funding, No Jail For Drug Offenders 
[Biden] also reiterated another campaign promise Tuesday, ending jail sentences for drug use alone. “No one should go to jail for a drug offense. No one should go to jail for the use of a drug, they should go to drug rehabilitation,” he said.

The Washington Examiner: Biden: 'No One Should Go To Jail For The Use Of A Drug'
The sentencing system should be changed to one that focuses on making sure that there are rehabilitation plans for criminals more generally, Biden said, adding that prison systems should have access to vocational programs that help those behind bars learn the career skills they need to succeed outside of prison. (Halaschak, 2/16)

In other news from the Biden administration —

CNN: Former Biden Coronavirus Advisers Push White House To More Widely Recommend Use Of N95 Masks 
Several members of President Joe Biden's former coronavirus advisory board are urging his administration to more widely recommend and mandate the use of N95 masks, citing a "pressing and urgent need for action" driven by the threat of new coronavirus variants. In a memo to Biden's top coronavirus advisers obtained by CNN, a dozen health and safety experts -- including four members of Biden's former advisory board -- called on the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to "recommend and require the use of respiratory protection, such as N95 FFRs (filtering facepiece respirators), to protect all workers at high risk of exposure and infection." (Diamond, 2/17)

CNN: White House Relaunches Snapchat Account With A Covid-Focused Message From Biden And Fauci
The White House is relaunching its official Snapchat account on Tuesday, featuring a message from President Joe Biden focused on Covid-19.In his first official Snapchat story as president, Biden sits in the White House dining room, wearing a face mask. He tells Snapchatters why he is wearing a mask and asks them to do the same. "I'm wearing a mask because people are around me," Biden says in the video. "Please, please, please wear a mask." (Janfaza, 2/16)

NBC News: Trump's Gone, But China, U.S. Still At Odds Over WHO Covid Report
The World Health Organization hasn't even released its final report exploring the origins of the coronavirus, and yet it's the subject of a new rift between China and the U.S., with the embattled health organization in the middle. ... "It's kind of disappointing that it's come to controversy already — the report is not even out," Peter Daszak, a member of the mission who is president of the EcoHealth Alliance, a New York nonprofit focused on emerging infectious diseases, said Monday. "I hope the politics steps to one side and lets the science speak for once. We've done enough politicking around this pandemic." Over the weekend, the Biden administration questioned not only the actions of the Chinese government, but also the conduct of the WHO team itself. (Frayer and Smith, 2/16)

KHN: Prominent Scientists Call On CDC To Better Protect Workers From Covid 
A prominent group of academics is pressing the Biden administration to move faster and take stronger action to protect high-risk workers from airborne exposure to the coronavirus, urging enforceable standards to help safeguard risky workplaces including health care, food processing and prisons. The researchers say that even though the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has acknowledged the virus can spread through tiny airborne particles, it needs to take “strong immediate” action to update its guidance to reduce the risk. (Jewett, 2/17)

KHN: Why Biden Has A Chance To Cut Deals With Red State Holdouts On Medicaid 
President Joe Biden has an unexpected opening to cut deals with red states to expand Medicaid, raising the prospect that the new administration could extend health protections to millions of uninsured Americans and reach a goal that has eluded Democrats for a decade. The opportunity emerges as the covid-19 pandemic saps state budgets and strains safety nets. That may help break the Medicaid deadlock in some of the 12 states that have rejected federal funding made available by the Affordable Care Act, health officials, patient advocates and political observers say. (Levey, 2/17)

Politico: Biden Admin Rushes To Close Virus-Sequencing Gap As Variants Spread 
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is in discussions with at least 13 labs to expand its efforts to sequence the genomes of coronavirus samples as the U.S. races against time to track new variants. More than 40 states have reported cases of the three major coronavirus strains, first spotted overseas; all are more contagious than older versions of the virus, and at least one is more virulent. By sequencing genetic material from virus samples collected around the country, health officials can track where and how these strains are spreading — and use the information to help contain hotspots and guide vaccination efforts. (Lim, 2/16)

AP: COVID-19 Bill Would Scale Up Ability To Spot Virus Mutations
U.S. scientists would gain vastly expanded capabilities to identify potentially deadlier mutations of the coronavirus under COVID-19 relief legislation advancing in Congress. The U.S. now maps only the genetic makeup of a minuscule fraction of positive virus samples, a situation some experts liken to flying blind. It means the true domestic spread of problematic mutations first identified in the United Kingdom and South Africa remains a matter of guesswork. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 2/17)

In other updates about covid —

USA Today: COVID Variants Could Bring 'Staggering' Fourth Wave Of Pandemic
COVID-19 infection and hospitalization rates are falling nationwide, but experts talk in dire terms about what will happen if variants of the virus are allowed to surge this spring. "I'm very worried we're letting our foot off the brakes," said Atul Gawande, a surgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and a professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The U.S. saw a spike in cases last spring, mainly in the Northeast, last summer in the South, and November through January pretty much everywhere. As the nation's death toll from COVID-19 approaches half a million people, public health experts said they dread the possibility of a fourth wave. (Weintraub, 2/16)

CNN: Lowering Covid-19 Cases Is The Best Thing US Can Do To Improve Chances That Vaccines Will Continue Working, Expert Says 
Lowering Covid-19 cases across the US isn't only critical to helping prevent another surge fueled by variants -- it also makes vaccines more likely to continue working effectively against mutations, one expert says. "The best thing we could possibly do to improve the chances that the vaccine will continue working as we're hoping it will, is to reduce cases as much as possible without having those reductions occur as a result of vaccine-derived immunity," Dr. Michael Mina, an epidemiologist and immunologist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, said during a Tuesday event. (Maxouris, 2/17)

New Scientist: Exclusive: Two Variants Have Merged Into Heavily Mutated Coronavirus
Two variants of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus that causes covid-19 have combined their genomes to form a heavily mutated hybrid version of the virus. The “recombination” event was discovered in a virus sample in California, provoking warnings that we may be poised to enter a new phase of the pandemic. The hybrid virus is the result of recombination of the highly transmissible B.1.1.7 variant discovered in the UK and the B.1.429 variant that originated in California and which may be responsible for a recent wave of cases in Los Angeles because it carries a mutation making it resistant to some antibodies. (Lawton, 2/16)

Detroit Free Press: 90 Cases Of B.1.1.7 COVID-19 Variant Found At Michigan Prison
The state health department has identified 90 cases of the more contagious B.1.1.7 variant of COVID-19 at a prison in West Michigan. The cases were identified through daily testing of all prisoners and staff at Bellamy Creek Correctional Facility in Ionia. Of the 90 new cases, 88 are prisoners and two are employees, according to a news release issued Tuesday by Michigan State Police. The facility began daily testing last week after a case of the B.1.1.7 variant, known as the U.K. variant, was confirmed in a staff member on Feb. 8. (Jackson, 2/16)

Stat: Q&A: How The U.S. Can Respond To Coronavirus Variants
Coronavirus variants are here. Now what? A new report from infectious disease experts provides policy recommendations for how the United States can blunt the impact of the variants that have already emerged, as well as build a genomic surveillance system so the country can better identify, track, and assess other variants that might emerge as the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus continues to evolve. (Joseph, 2/16)

The New York Times: Covid-Linked Syndrome In Children Is Growing And Cases Are More Severe 
“We’re now getting more of these MIS-C kids, but this time, it just seems that a higher percentage of them are really critically ill,” said Dr. Roberta DeBiasi, chief of infectious diseases at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C. During the hospital’s first wave, about half the patients needed treatment in the intensive care unit, she said, but now 80 to 90 percent do. The reasons are unclear. The surge follows the overall spike of Covid cases in the United States after the winter holiday season, and more cases may simply increase chances for severe disease to emerge. So far, there’s no evidence that recent coronavirus variants are responsible, and experts say it is too early to speculate about any impact of variants on the syndrome. (Belluck, 2/16)

In other coronavirus research news —

CIDRAP: Eye Nodules Found In 7% Of Small COVID-19 Patient Cohort
Almost 7% of hospitalized COVID-19 patients in France had abnormal eye nodules, according to a Radiology article today, leading the authors to recommend looking for posterior pole nodules in patients who have severe disease. The French Society of Neuroradiology study ran from Mar 4 to May 1, 2020, and researchers looked at 129 patients across 16 hospitals who had severe COVID-19 and underwent a brain MRI. Nine showed abnormal nodules in the posterior pole of the eyeball, although two people also had them outside of the macular region as well. Bilateral nodules were found in 8 of 9 people. No patient had optic nerve, chiasm, or tract abnormalities. (2/16)

Fox News: Common Cold Antibodies Won’t Prevent Coronavirus Infection, Study Finds
For the study, conducted by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and published earlier this month in the journal Cell, researchers examined hundreds of blood samples collected prior to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, examining them for antibodies to seasonal coronaviruses (CoV). About 20% of the samples had antibodies to seasonal coronaviruses (CoV) that, in theory, could bind to both cold-causing CoVs but also to "key sites on SARS-CoV-2," the novel coronavirus, the researchers said. But these antibodies were not able to neutralize the infectivity of SARS-CoV-2, they found, and "were not associated with better outcomes in people who later went on to get COVID-19," according to a news release on the findings. (Farber, 2/16)

CIDRAP: Studies Highlight Surges For Touted Drugs Early In COVID-19 
When the first cases of COVID-19 were identified in the spring of 2020, there was little to no guidance on how to treat them. Two research letters published last week in separate JAMA journals looked at how drug dispensing in US retail pharmacies and Italian hospitals changed as more information came to light—and, not surprisingly, they reveal early demand for drugs promoted with little evidence for their efficacy. The studies reported increased demand for the malaria drugs hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, the anti-parasitic ivermectin, the antibiotic azithromycin, and the antiviral combination lopinavir-ritonavir, an HIV drug. They also showed high demand for zinc and vitamin C. (McLernon, 2/16)

CNN: Did You Survive Covid? Maybe You Can Thank Your Neanderthal Ancestors 
People who survive a bout of Covid-19 with mild symptoms or even no symptoms may be able to thank their Neanderthal ancestors, a new study suggests. Researchers found a genetic mutation that reduces the risk of severe Covid-19 infection by about 22%. It was found in all the samples they took of Neanderthal DNA, and in about 30% of samples from people of European and Asian origin. (Fox, 2/16)

Also —

The Hill: How Scientists Saved Trump's FDA From Politics 
Scientists around the country looked at the Food and Drug Administration last August and saw trouble. New FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn, less than a year into his job and months before an election that polls showed President Trump was trailing, had just approved an emergency application to allow physicians to use blood plasma from those who had recovered from COVID-19 to treat those who were still suffering. (Wilson, 2/16)

Modern Healthcare: CVS Health Announces Plan To Re-Enter ACA Markets, Reports 44% Drop In Q4 Profits
CVS Health will re-enter the Affordable Care Act exchanges come January 2022, with CEO Karen Lynch calling the market sound and estimating it could comprise up to 15 million lives. "It's obviously stabilized over time thanks to some of the remedies put in place," Lynch said. Aetna announced it was leaving the exchange in 2018, along with other insurers unable to manage the rising costs of sick patients signing up for such coverage. Lynch said the company will reverse course, although it has not finalized what exchange markets it would reenter or the rates it planned to offer. Lynch said the ACA exchanges will represent the first time a branded CVS Health-Aetna plan will enter the market. (Tepper, 2/16)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Home Depot Founders Reunite: $40M For Vets, 1st Responders Health
Home Depot co-founders Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank are teaming up on a new nationwide mental health network, their first partnership on a major project since leaving the Atlanta-based retail giant nearly two decades ago. They each are donating $20 million through their foundations to establish 20 treatment sites around the U.S. to serve military veterans, first responders and their families who are experiencing post-traumatic stress, traumatic brain injuries and substance abuse issues. The billionaires are teaming up with actor and veterans advocate Gary Sinise, whose foundation announced Tuesday plans for the cognitive health and mental wellness initiative: the Gary Sinise Foundation Avalon Network. (Kempner, 2/16)

Stat: Backed By Hospitals, Truveta Wades Into The Business Of Selling Health Data
He was once dubbed “the most important man at Microsoft,” a prodigiously talented software engineer who shepherded the company’s Windows franchise through the tumultuous start of the smartphone era and led the development of products such as Xbox and Surface. Now Terry Myerson is leading an equally bold — and treacherous — second act: He is the newly minted chief executive of Truveta, a company formed by 14 U.S. health systems to aggregate and sell de-identified data on millions of American patients to help answer some of medicine’s most pressing questions. (Ross, 2/17)

North Carolina Health News: As The Long-Term Care Industry Shifts, COVID-19 Shortchanges NC’S Frontline Workers
The long-term care landscape in North Carolina was already in flux when the COVID-19 pandemic landed in 2020 — direct care workers faced 10 years of stagnant wages, nursing homes had waning numbers of residents, and the call for in-home aides had dramatically increased. (Thomas Goldsmith, 2/17)

Modern Healthcare: Providers Manage Crisis Communications During COVID-19 Pandemic
Healthcare providers across the country have faced the challenge of handling human errors during a global pandemic this past year. They also had to react to quickly changing circumstances, from mask guidance to personal protective equipment standards for employees to safety regulations. During a pandemic, everything is crisis communications, said Ronn Torossian, founder and CEO of 5W Public Relations, which specializes in crisis communications. "When it comes to COVID issues, it's the only thing that matters right now. You're in a constant state of crisis," Torossian said. (Christ, 2/16)

In obituaries —

AP: Cardiologist, Anti-War Activist Bernard Lown Dies At 99
Dr. Bernard Lown, a Massachusetts cardiologist who invented the first reliable heart defibrillator and later co-founded an anti-nuclear war group that was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize, died Tuesday. He was 99. The Boston Globe reported the Lithuania-born doctor’s health had been declining from congestive heart failure. He died in his Boston-area home. (2/16)

The New York Times: New York Sues Amazon, Saying It Inadequately Protected Workers From Covid-19 
New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, sued Amazon on Tuesday evening, arguing that the company provided inadequate safety protection for workers in New York City during the pandemic and retaliated against employees who raised concerns over the conditions. The case focuses on two Amazon facilities: a large warehouse on Staten Island and a delivery depot in Queens. Ms. James argues that Amazon failed to properly clean its buildings, conducted inadequate contact tracing for known Covid-19 cases, and “took swift retaliatory action” to silence complaints from workers. (Weise, 2/16)

The New York Times: Technology Executive Apologizes After Dozens of Event Attendees Contract Covid-19
A technology executive in California has apologized for hosting a conference in Culver City after which two dozen attendees and staff members at the event tested positive for the coronavirus. The executive, Peter H. Diamandis, was among those who contracted the coronavirus. He hosted the conference — an annual summit for a paid-membership group called Abundance 360 — indoors in late January, with a total of about 80 attendees, panelists and members of the support staff. (Fortin, 2/16)

In other public health news —

The Washington Post: NBA Postpones 6 Games Due To Spurs’ Positive Coronavirus Tests 
The NBA postponed six upcoming games involving the San Antonio Spurs and Charlotte Hornets in response to four Spurs players testing positive for the coronavirus, marking the largest schedule disruption since the league tightened its health and safety protocols last month. (Golliver, 2/16)

Fox News: Coronavirus Lockdowns Saw Rise In Alcohol Use, Study Finds
Alcohol usage and dependency likely increased every month for Americans under COVID-19 lockdowns, a new study from the University of Arizona College of Medicine shows. Researchers let by William "Scott" Killgore, Ph.D., College of Medicine-Tuscon professor of psychiatry and director of the Social, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Lab, surveyed 5,931 U.S. adults from all 50 states -- roughly 1,000 of which completed a 10-item questionnaire regarding alcohol use and dependency. Hazardous alcohol use among those under lockdown rose from 21% in April to nearly 41% in September compared to those not under lockdown, probable alcohol dependence rose from nearly 8% to 29%, and severe alcohol dependence rose from nearly 4% to 17% over the same time period. (Conklin, 2/16)

CNN: Reparations For Slavery Could Have Reduced Covid-19 Transmission And Deaths In The US, Harvard Study Says 
Covid-19 is disproportionately sickening and killing Black Americans, the result of centuries of structural racism, a group of Harvard researchers says. If the US had paid reparations the descendants of Black Americans who were enslaved, though, the risk of severe illness and death from the virus would be far lower, according to a new, peer-reviewed study by the researchers. (Andrew, 2/16)

CNN: Coping With Chronic Disease: Q&A With Tessa Miller 
Tessa Miller was just 23 when her nightmare of deadly infections, procedures and misdiagnoses began. Over the next several years, Miller tried dozens of medications, was hospitalized more times than she can remember and required three fecal transplants. She visited gastroenterologists, allergists, oncologists, pain medicine specialists, endocrinologists, gynecologists and neurologists. (DuLong, 2/17)

Savannah Morning News: State Department Of Education Rules Against Savannah-Chatham In Special Needs Complaint
Students with special needs must receive all their required services, and the Savannah-Chatham County Public Schools System cannot use the COVID-19 pandemic as a reason for not providing those required services, the Georgia Department of Education said in its ruling against the district on Friday afternoon. (Augsdorfer, 2/16)

Georgia Health News: Families Fear ‘Heartbreaking’ Cuts In Disability Programs 
Matt Gaffney had trouble living in a group home for people with disabilities like himself. He’s nonverbal and suffers from multiple conditions: severe autism, bipolar disorder, chronic gastrointestinal issues. In group homes, Matt, now 42, had his medications ‘‘raised to higher levels,’’ says Sue Gaffney, his mother. And she adds that his last group home “dumped’’ him into a state hospital. (Miller, 2/16)

In other news from Georgia, Maine and California —

Georgia Health News: Can Georgia Save Its Medicaid Waiver Plan? 
State officials “are looking at all options’’ after the Biden administration appeared to halt Georgia’s upcoming plan for increasing Medicaid enrollment. Frank Berry, commissioner of the Department of Community Health, told a House Appropriations subcommittee Tuesday that officials are reviewing a letter, sent by federal health officials, that expressed ‘’serious concerns’’ about the Georgia plan’s eligibility requirements, which critics have called too strict. The letter was first reported by Georgia Health News. (Miller, 2/16)

KHN: Bay Area Cities Go To War Over Gas Stoves In Homes And Restaurants 
San Francisco restaurant owners, already simmering over covid-19 restrictions, are ready to boil over because of a city ban on natural gas stoves in new buildings that takes effect in June. The ban, which also affects other gas appliances, is part of a statewide campaign aimed at reducing climate change-feeding carbon emissions as well as health hazards from indoor gas exposure. A similar ban went into effect in Berkeley in 2020; Oakland and San Jose recently passed similar measures, and other California cities are considering them. (Green, 2/17)

AP: DHHS Updating Rules For Involuntary Commitments After Ruling
The Maine Department of Health and Human Services is updating its involuntary commitment process following a state supreme court ruling that psychiatric patients may not be held for extended periods in emergency rooms without a judge getting involved. Details are still being worked out by the Office of Behavioral Health on new rules to reflect the new precedent in the ruling late last month, said Jackie Farwell, a Maine DHHS spokesperson. The Maine Supreme Judicial Court’s decision enforces a limit of five days, with a judge’s approval, for someone to be held in an emergency room against their will. The process starts over after five days if there’s no placement available for the patient, the court said. (2/17)

And Florida's governor hears from fans and critics over his covid response —

Politico: Covid Wars Launch DeSantis Into GOP ‘Top Tier’ 
Ron DeSantis once drew national scorn for his stewardship of Florida’s Covid-19 response — critics took to referring to the governor as “DeathSantis” for his resistance to restrictive measures. But that very blowback — marked by predictions of doom and widespread criticism for being divorced from science — has made DeSantis ascendant in the GOP. His position is strengthened among the GOP grassroots and elites heading into his 2022 reelection in Florida and accompanied by increasing conservative chatter nationwide about a presidential bid. (Caputo, 2/16)

Politico: Florida Lawmakers Gave DeSantis Total Power Over Pandemic Aid. Now They Want It Back.
Republican lawmakers in Florida are starting to look for ways to rein in Gov. Ron DeSantis' emergency powers nearly a year into the public health crisis that has crippled the state and killed more than 28,000 residents. As Florida's tourism-centered economy crumbled and the rate of new Covid-19 infections climbed last summer, the state's Republican-controlled Legislature let DeSantis, a fellow Republican, call the shots. Like legislators in other states, they deferred to their governor on the pandemic for months, on everything from whether to shut down bars to which schools should hold in-person classes. (Fineout, 2/16)

Fox News: UK Aims To Infect Healthy Volunteers With COVID-19 For Medical Research
In a move seen as pushing the limits of medical ethics, the United Kingdom announced Wednesday that it will fund a project that will intentionally infect young and healthy volunteers with COVID-19 in the name of research. Reuters reported that the government will invest $43.5 million into the trials that still need the final approval by an ethics committee. The hope is that scientists will learn a great deal about the virus in a controlled setting, leading to new breakthroughs in treatment and vaccines. About 90 volunteers, between the ages of 18 and 30, are expected to take part in the "human challenge."  The study was set to take place in the high-level isolation unit of the Royal Free Hospital in London, according to the Lancet. (DeMarche, 2/16)

Reuters: Great Escape? UK To Return To Work By July, Daily Mail Says 
Prime Minister Boris Johnson is considering a staged exit from COVID-19 lockdown that would see the United Kingdom’s battered economy fully returning to work in July, the Daily Mail reported, citing government plans. ... The Mail said a limited escape from lockdown would begin in April with holiday lets and larger hotels reopening, though pubs, bars and restaurants would have to wait until May. Some sports such as golf and tennis could resume. (Faulconbridge, 2/17)

AP: Pfizer-BioNTech To Get EU 200 Million More COVID-19 Shots
Pfizer and BioNTech said Wednesday they have finalized an agreement to supply the European Union with another 200 million doses of their COVID-19 vaccine. The U.S. and German companies said in a statement that the doses come on top of the 300 million vaccine doses initially ordered. The EU’s executive Commission has an option to request a further 100 million doses. (2/17)

The Washington Post: Spread Of S. African Variant In Eastern France Triggers Calls To Suspend AstraZeneca Vaccine Rollout To Health Workers
Concern about the spread of coronavirus variants in eastern France has prompted an acceleration of vaccination in that region, as well as calls to suspend the rollout of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine to the health-care workers there who had been first in line to get it. AstraZeneca vaccinations in France began only Feb. 6. But the French government’s top vaccine adviser, Alain Fischer, suggested in a weekend interview with the Journal du Dimanche newspaper that health workers in Moselle — where variants first detected in South Africa and in Brazil are suspected to be particularly widespread — should not receive that particular vaccine, one of three authorized in the European Union. (Noack, 2/16)

Reuters: Japan Begins COVID-19 Vaccination In 'First Major Step' To Halt Pandemic 
Japan launched its COVID-19 inoculation drive on Wednesday, administering the Pfizer-BionTech vaccine to Tokyo hospital workers, as Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga attempts to beat the odds and host the Olympics this summer. Workers at Tokyo Medical Center were among the first of some 40,000 medical professionals targeted to receive the initial shipments of the vaccine. They will be followed by 3.7 million more medical personnel, then 36 million people aged 65 and over. (Takenaka, 2/16)

In other global developments —

The Wall Street Journal: Canada Weighs Buybacks Of AR-15 Style Rifles Used In U.S. Shootings 
Canada is introducing new gun-control legislation that would make it possible for individual cities to ban handguns at a local level and says it will create a buyback program for military-style semiautomatic weapons that were banned from use by the country’s Liberal government last year. The planned legislation will also create new offenses for altering a magazine to allow more shots to be fired without reloading, and develop a system that would allow concerned friends or family members to apply to a court and request the immediate, temporary removal of an individual’s firearms. (Mackrael, 2/16)

Stat: Bluebird Suspends Sickle Cell Gene Therapy Studies After Cancer Diagnoses
Bluebird Bio said Tuesday that it has suspended clinical trials involving its gene therapy for sickle cell disease after receiving reports that two patients treated with the one-time therapy were diagnosed with cancer. The trials were placed on “temporary suspension” so that Bluebird can investigate the cancer cases to determine if they were caused by the re-engineered HIV virus used to deliver its gene therapy. No such link has been established yet, the company said. (Feuerstein, 2/16)

Stat: Novartis, Gates Foundation Pursue A Simpler Gene Therapy For Sickle Cell
Novartis and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation are joining forces to discover and develop a gene therapy to cure sickle cell disease with a one-step, one-time treatment that is affordable and simple enough to treat patients anywhere in the world, especially in sub-Saharan Africa where resources may be scarce but disease prevalence is high. The three-year collaboration, announced Wednesday, has initial funding of $7.28 million. (Cooney, 2/17)

In updates on the opioid crisis —

Stateline: Opioid Deaths Spark Push To Ease Buprenorphine Rules
With drug overdose deaths soaring during the pandemic to the highest levels ever recorded, a growing chorus of medical experts is calling on the federal government to deregulate the addiction treatment medication buprenorphine. They argue that a requirement that doctors take an 8-hour course and submit to Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) oversight has stymied the drug’s availability. But opioid addiction treatment providers and a major patient group argue that, in fact, more training is needed to protect patients. Some also worry that looser rules will result in the pills being resold illegally. (Vestal, 2/16)

Stat: FDA Warns AcelRx Of Misleading Ads For Its Pain Drug Dsuvia
The manufacturer of Dsuvia, a pain drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration amid substantial controversy, was taken to task by the agency for creating misleading ads that minimized the risks associated with the opioid medicine. (Silverman, 2/16)

In other pharmaceutical industry news —

Stat: FDA's Woodcock Rejects Proposal To 'Firewall' Agency And Drug Companies
In response to criticism, a top Food and Drug Administration official maintained that creating a firewall between agency staff during the process for reviewing medicines “would cause significant negative repercussions for public health.” (Silverman, 2/16)

Stat: Moncef Slaoui To Test His R&D Philosophy In A New Company 
Moncef Slaoui, who headed the Operation Warp Speed vaccine-development effort under the Trump administration, is returning to his previous role as a venture capitalist and announced Tuesday the launch of a new company, Centessa Pharmaceuticals. (Herper, 2/16)

Becker's Hospital Review: 36% Of Americans Forgo Medications To Pay For Essentials, Survey Says
Many Americans are making difficult personal finance decisions to deal with the country's ever-rising medication costs, according to recent survey results released by healthcare software company CoverMyMeds. CoverMyMeds surveyed patients, providers and pharmacists during September and October. One thousand patients, 400 providers and 328 pharmacists participated in the survey; the results were released Jan. 25. (Adams, 2/15)

Becker's Hospital Review: 43% Of Patients Say They Check A Pharmacy Comparison App For Prescription Savings
Americans are becoming increasingly curious about ways to lower their prescription drug costs, according to recent survey results released by healthcare software company CoverMyMeds. CoverMyMeds surveyed patients, providers and pharmacists during September and October. One thousand patients, 400 providers and 328 pharmacists participated in the survey,  the results of which were released Jan. 25. (Adams, 2/15)

Becker's Hospital Review: Research: Lower Medication Use, Higher Mortality Linked With Increased Cost-Sharing
When health insurers increase cost-sharing for members, it can result in several negative health outcomes and higher mortality, according to a working paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research. The working paper, authored by researchers from Cambridge, Mass.-based Harvard University and the University of California at Berkeley, analyzed enrollees who were in Medicare's prescription drug program from 2007-12. (Haefner, 2/15)

Also —

Houston Chronicle: How Texans Can Work Together To Solve The Health Care Cost Equation
Houston had the first hospital-based air ambulance service in Texas and the first mobile stroke unit in the U.S. For decades, Houston has been a national, even global, leader in innovation with a focus on advancing health. Unfortunately, today, we are also leading in an area where being first is not an indicator of progress: a growing number of Houstonians are uninsured. (Callender, 2/12)

PolitiFact: Walker Exaggerates Effect Of Trump Drug Order, Biden Freeze
A Republican running for U.S. Senate in North Carolina says Joe Biden is already raising drug prices for some of the most vulnerable Americans. Former Congressman Mark Walker hopes to replace U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, who won’t seek reelection next year. (Putterman and Specht, 2/11)

Stat: Senators Want GAO To Probe The Role Of PBMs In Prescription Drug Pricing
In a bid to contain prescription drug prices, a pair of U.S. senators is re-introducing a bill to have the Government Accountability Office probe the role of pharmacy benefit managers in the opaque pharmaceutical supply chain. The legislation is only the latest effort to focus on these controversial middlemen, which create formularies, or lists of medicines that are covered by insurance. In the process, pharmacy benefit managers collect rebates from drug makers, a controversial tactic because the deals are blamed for rising drug prices, but the amounts are kept confidential. (Silverman, 2/16)

The Washington Post: To Really Lower Health-Care Costs, Look Beyond Prescription Drugs 
There’s a well-known allegory about a man searching for his keys under a lamppost. Although he freely admits to a passing policeman to losing them elsewhere in the darkness, he searches under the lamppost because that’s where the light is. For decades, the cost of drugs has been under the lamppost for those searching for the keys to lower health-care spending. By all accounts, with the new administration, this focus is likely to be renewed. (Anupam B. Jena, 2/16)

The New York Times: Drug Prices By Committee: One Way Biden Could Lower Costs 
The United States receives worthwhile innovation (and also some not so worthwhile innovation) as a result of its high drug prices. But there is no consensus about what the “right” level of innovation should be, so it’s unclear how much to lower or raise prices. Other countries at least have ways to think about this at a national level. The United States doesn’t — the topic has been a third rail — but the Biden administration could change that. (Austin Frakt, 2/11)

The Desert Sun: Medi-Cal Overhaul Sounds Good On Paper
State officials are fond of giving their high-concept — and expensive — new programs snappy, one-word acronyms derived from much-longer and often awkward official titles. Thus, for example, the Financial Information System for California is shortened to become FI$Cal. Unfortunately, officials are often more adept at dreaming up names for new programs than at making them function — and FI$Cal has become a poster child for expensive dysfunction. (Dan Walters, 2/16)

The Washington Post: The Vaccinated Need To Know: What’s Safe For Them To Do?
More than one in 10 Americans have received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine, but they are still awaiting a clear answer to a key question: What can they do once they are fully vaccinated? The current response is far from satisfying. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s official guidance is that vaccinated people need to keep masking, physical distancing and basically following all pre-vaccine precautions. (Leana S. Wen, 2/16)

The New York Times: A Dismal Spring Awaits Unless We Slow The Spread Of Covid-19
The Covid-19 omens are not good. Yes, over the past two weeks ending Monday, Covid-19 cases were down by 41 percent and deaths by 22 percent. Yes, people are wearing masks. In a recent national survey, 80 percent of the respondents said they “very closely” followed public health recommendations to don a mask outside the home. And yes, since the fall, fewer Americans are attending in-person gatherings with family and friends. This is all good. Americans confronted the realities of a dark winter and stepped up. But this feel-good moment is obscuring what could be a dismal spring and the potential of further lockdowns unless we can continue to slow the spread of this virus. (Ezekiel J. Emanuel, Rick Bright and Céline Gounder, 2/17)

Stat: What Cancer Survivorship Can Teach Us About Covid-19
Take it from this cancer survivor: We need to start focusing on Covid-19 survivorship now. I’ll never forget the first time I realized that a cancer diagnosis — regardless of treatment outcomes — was a lifelong companion. I was early in my chemotherapy regimen, having been diagnosed with breast cancer only weeks before at the age of 28. I mentioned to a fellow patient that I was eager for this first part, the hardest part, to be over. She turned to me and said, firmly but compassionately, “I have to be honest with you: It’s never really over.” (Hil Moss, 2/17)

The Washington Post: Covid-19 Could Have A Long-Term Impact On The Brain. We Need More Research. 
It is understandable that the world has focused so much attention on the high mortality of covid-19 in older populations. This has led to a more sanguine approach to precautions such as mask-wearing and social distancing among many who don’t consider themselves at high risk from the virus. Thankfully, most people who contract covid-19 do survive the acute illness. But there might be consequences of infection that we did not originally predict. Many patients in our clinics complain months after recovering from the disease of difficulty with concentration, finding words and completing complicated tasks. Given that more than one hundred million people worldwide have been infected by the novel coronavirus, how the disease affects the brain might be the neurologic research question of our time. (Serena S. Spudich and David A. Hafler, 2/16)

New York Post: Team Biden Is Still Pushing Blatant Lies About The Trump Vaccine Plan
Trump’s plan left control to the states, but that’s a reasonable choice, not a lack of a strategy. The feds partnered with and delivered doses to chain pharmacies, set aside billions for vaccine distribution, set up programs for nursing-home residents and hospital workers and provided a playbook from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to guide state plans. Under Trump, the US gave shots to millions, enrolled tens of thousands of private providers in the vax program and organized a data-collection system that includes all 50 states. To reduce all these efforts to a “dismal failure,” as Biden did, or absolutely “no national strategy or plan,” as Harris just put it, did, is flat-out wrong. (2/17)

The Hill: States Should Look To Other States For Successful Vaccine Rollout 
Now that the COVID-19 vaccine is here, the distribution process has proven to be full of new complexities — many of which would remind you of Goldilocks. The first approach was so slow that many people wouldn’t receive the vaccine for a decade. And then, in January, it was announced that the vials previously held back are to be deployed as soon as possible. While this is good news to many of our at-risk or essential personnel, the quick and drastic change left health and hospital officials who were already under pressure exposed to more insurmountable pressure. (Lisa B. Nelson, 2/16)

Los Angeles Times: How L.A. County Should Rethink COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution
While Los Angeles may be breathing easier with the arrival of COVID-19 vaccines, many of us have been dismayed by what can be a confusing distribution process. That goes for the health officials and vaccinators, as well as those who want to get the elusive vaccine. The way in which the federal, state and local health officials have allocated the vaccine has changed multiple times, making it near-impossible to predict how much supply will be on hand and hindering planning efforts at the local level. And although Blue Shield of California has been contracted to take over vaccine distribution, little is known about what we can expect. But welcome changes have been promised, including more accurate data-driven decisions, a renewed focus on equity and an attempt to greatly scale up daily doses. (Felipe Osorno, 2/17)

Chicago Tribune: Column: Sure, I’d Walk 6 Miles To Get That COVID-19 Vaccine
My car was smothered in snow when I woke up Tuesday, the streets were drowning in slush, and when I glanced out my living room window, I instantly knew that my little Prius may as well have been stuck in cement. “Why, oh why,” I cried to the weather gods, “would you make this happen on this day, of all days?” (Mary Schmich, 2/16)

Los Angeles Times: LAUSD Out Of Excuses For Keeping Elementary Schools Closed
Schools have been reopening across the country for months now, illustrating that students can return to classrooms with little risk if the proper precautions have been taken. This is especially true of elementary schools, as younger children have been far less likely to be sickened with COVID-19 or to infect others. Reopened schools have not caused infections to surge in outlying communities. Yet Los Angeles Unified schools — along with many other public schools statewide — have remained closed. Supt. Austin Beutner, who has been struggling with a teachers union unwilling to send educators back into classrooms, couldn’t have opened the schools anyway because the county’s infection rate was too high to meet the state’s stringent standards. But this week, that rate fell to the point where it is officially safe for all elementary schools in the county to open. (2/17)