First Edition: March 18, 2021

KHN: Need Amid Plenty: Richest US Counties Are Overwhelmed By Surge In Child Hunger 
Alexandra Sierra carried boxes of food to her kitchen counter, where her 7-year-old daughter, Rachell, stirred a pitcher of lemonade. “Oh, my God, it smells so good!” Sierra, 39, said of the bounty she’d just picked up at a food pantry, pulling out a ready-made salad and a container of soup. Sierra unpacked the donated food and planned lunch for Rachell and her siblings, ages 9 and 2, as a reporter watched through FaceTime. She said she doesn’t know what they’d do without the help. (Ungar, 3/18)

KHN: Landmark Covid Relief Law Pumps More Than $100 Billion Into Public Health 
Acknowledging that chronic underfunding of public health contributed significantly to the nation’s fragmented response to the coronavirus pandemic, Democrats included more than $100 billion in the recently enacted relief package to address urgent needs and enhance future efforts. “The pandemic has given us possibly the best chance we’ve ever had of getting on the right track to shore up our public health resources,” said Jeffrey Levi, a professor of health management at the George Washington University School of Public Health. “Tens of millions of us have directly experienced what happens when our country is not prepared.” (Findlay, 3/18)

KHN: ‘Super-Sized’ Vaccine Clinic Offers Food Workers Some Relief 
Cristina Davila wasn’t used to being happy about waiting in line. As a server at the Navy Proof Restaurant and Bar, the specter of covid has weighed heavily on her mind for the past several months. Davila has been especially worried about the possibility of bringing the virus home to her young son and diabetic mother. And here she was, standing outside the Long Beach Convention Center with hundreds of other Long Beach residents and workers, about to receive a coveted covid vaccine — even though she’s only 31. (Basheda, 3/18)

NBC News: Biden Admin To Provide $10B For Covid Testing To Speed School Reopenings
The Biden administration is directing $10 billion from the recently passed stimulus package toward increased Covid-19 testing in schools, as the White House grapples with the difficult task of getting the nation's school children back into classrooms. The funding will go out in April and be awarded directly to states, the administration said Wednesday. Because the funding will be allocated proportionally, large states such as California and Texas will receive more than $800 million each, the administration said. (Pettypiece, 3/17)

Politico: Biden Admin Unveils $10B School Testing Plan For Covid-19 
The Biden administration will spend $10 billion to screen schoolchildren for Covid-19 to help hasten their return to in-person learning. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will administer the school-screening program, announced Wednesday. The agency is giving $10 billion in American Rescue Plan funds to states and certain cities to set up testing, with the aim of reopening schools in the final months of the school year. (Lim, 3/17)

AP: Expanded Testing Part Of Biden Administration School Plans 
Most public schools haven't been able to afford the robust testing seen as critical to reopening safely, said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers. “With this investment, help truly is on the way to aid school systems in implementing a testing system that will help keep students, educators and staff safe inside school buildings,” she said in a statement. (Thompson, 3/17)

The New York Times: A New Study Suggests Students Can Be Just 3 Feet Apart Safely 
School shutdowns have been a divisive topic since the pandemic erupted, and a new study has ignited debate over the six-foot rule of social distancing and whether it can be relaxed in classroom settings, which would ease the way for children to return to schools. The new study, published last week in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, suggests public schools may be able to reopen safely for in-person instruction as long as children maintain three feet of distance between them, and with other mitigation measures maintained, such as wearing masks. (Rabin, 3/14)

NBC News: Is 3 Feet Enough For Social Distancing In Schools? CDC Looking Into Relaxing Guidelines
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is looking into whether 6 feet of distance is necessary to keep students safe at school — or if 3 feet will suffice. The debate carries major implications for school reopenings: The current CDC guidance recommends maintaining 6 feet of distance between students, severely limiting the number of people who can safely fit into each classroom. (Edwards, 3/17)

The Hill: Biden Education Chief: Vaccines Will Likely Not Be Mandatory For Teachers
President Biden’s Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said Wednesday that vaccines will likely not be mandatory for teachers in order to reopen schools. “I think we've seen examples where schools can open safely and be effective. But we know that prioritizing vaccinations will only assist with that,” Cardona told Lester Holt on NBC Nightly News. (Lonas, 3/17)

Bloomberg: AstraZeneca Covid Vaccine Benefits Outweigh Risks, WHO Says
The World Health Organization said AstraZeneca Plc’s Covid-19 vaccine should continue to be administered as the benefits outweigh its risks, the second health authority to endorse the shot in as many days. A WHO expert group is assessing the latest safety data and will communicate the findings once the review is completed, the organization said in a statement Wednesday. Reports of blood clots in some people who received the Astra shots prompted more than a dozen European Union countries to pause immunizations, risking another slowdown in the bloc’s vaccination push. The European Medicines Agency is due to provide a definitive assessment on Thursday. Italy and France have indicated they would lift suspensions if the shot is deemed safe. (Gretler, 3/17)

New York Post: Will The US Approve The AstraZeneca Vaccine Amid Europe Suspensions?
AstraZeneca plans to file for US emergency use authorization next month for its COVID-19 vaccine — but the process could be under intense scrutiny with several European countries pausing its use over concerns about blood clots. The British pharmaceutical company has directed an independent review of data from its study of more than 32,000 volunteers in the US. If the results are promising, the vaccine could start the emergency approval process with Food and Drug Administration sometime in April. (Salo, 3/17)

The Washington Post: AstraZeneca Covid Vaccine Suspended Even As Third Wave Hits Europe 
Even if the European regulator confirms it’s safe to continue administering the AstraZeneca vaccine — a report is due Thursday — many experts fear governments may have permanently lost their citizens’ confidence in the shot and further damaged the inoculation campaign. While coronavirus cases have been dropping in the United States, infections across the European Union have risen 29 percent in the past two weeks. The more contagious coronavirus variant first identified in Britain now accounts for more than half of the cases in most E.U. countries. (Birnbaum, Harlan and Pitrellil, 3/17)

CNBC: U.S. Health Experts Try To Ease Covid Vaccine Fears As AstraZeneca's Shot Faces EU Review
Medical experts in the United States are trying to assuage fears that Covid-19 vaccines may be unsafe after several European countries suspended AstraZeneca’s shot following reports of blood clots among some recipients. On Tuesday, Sweden, Latvia and Lithuania became the latest countries to join a growing list of nations suspending the use of the AstraZeneca-Oxford shot over blood clot concerns. Germany, France, Italy and Spain all said on Monday they would also stop administering the shot. (Higgins-Dunn, 3/17)

CNN: Biden Administration Is Considering Sending Some AstraZeneca Vaccine Doses To Canada And Mexico 
The Biden administration is considering sending some AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine doses stockpiled and waiting for official usage approval in the US over the border to Mexico and Canada, according to a senior administration official. Intense discussions are taking place following a request for doses from both countries and, for Mexico at least, an agreement could be announced as soon as Friday, according to the Mexican Foreign Minister. (Atwood, 3/17)

Bloomberg: Biden To Reach 100 Million Vaccinations Goal Six Weeks Early
President Joe Biden is poised to meet his goal of delivering 100 million Covid-19 vaccine shots in his first 100 days in office as soon as Thursday, reaching the milestone more than a month ahead of time. As of Wednesday, his 57th day in office, the U.S. had vaccinated nearly 98 million people since Biden’s inauguration. The pace of shots has risen to an average of nearly 2.5 million per day for the last week. (Wingrove, 3/18)

Bloomberg: Biden Considers Expanding Obamacare Enrollment Window Past May
The Biden administration is considering extending the special enrollment window for Americans to purchase Affordable Care Act health plans beyond its current expiration date of May 15, according to an administration official familiar with the situation. President Joe Biden ordered a new enrollment period from Feb. 15 to May 15, giving Americans a chance to purchase Obamacare health plans outside the usual year-end window. Meanwhile, the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan enacted last week includes subsidies to offset costs for buying the plans. (Wingrove and Tozzi, 3/17)

The Hill: House Passes Bill To Renew Violence Against Women Act 
The House passed legislation on Wednesday to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), a law originally authored by President Biden that lapsed in 2019. Lawmakers voted largely along party lines 244-172 to approve the measure, with only 29 Republicans joining all Democrats in support. The legislation, which was reintroduced by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), would provide grants to state and local governments for programs addressing domestic abuse, sexual assault, dating violence and stalking. (Marcos and Brufke, 3/17)

Politico: The Capitol’s New Covid Divide: Getting Back To Normal
House GOP leaders are running trips to the border. Regular fundraising dinners are back at the Capitol Hill Club and the Capital Grille. And the House GOP Conference is hosting its annual retreat in Florida next month. After 12 long months in a mostly deserted Capitol, a sense of normalcy is returning much more quickly in GOP offices than Democratic ones as lawmakers and staffers embrace the post-Covid vaccine life — or choose to flout health guidance altogether. All the while, the coronavirus remains active and less than 15 percent of Americans are fully vaccinated against it. (Ferris and Zanona, 3/17)

ABC News: Amazon Jumps Into Health Care With Telemedicine Initiative
Amazon is making its first foray into providing health care services, announcing Wednesday that it will be offering its Amazon Care telemedicine program to employers nationwide. Currently available to the company's employees in Washington state, Amazon Care is an app that connects users virtually with doctors, nurse practitioners and nurses who can provide services and treatment over the phone 24 hours a day. In the Seattle area, it's supplemented with in-person services such as pharmacy delivery and house-call services from nurses who can take blood work and provide similar services. (Barakat, 3/17)

Stat: What Amazon Care’s Expansion Means For The Telehealth Industry
Amazon is officially starting its ascent to the national telehealth stage — and its nationwide expansion is putting the rest of the telemedicine industry on notice. The company announced a sweeping expansion on Wednesday of Amazon Care, its virtual and in-person health care platform. Amazon will offer telehealth services to its own employees nationwide this summer and will also make in-person care available in Washington, D.C. and Baltimore. (Brodwin, 3/18)

Stat: Backed By Amazon, New Coalition Lobbies For Home Care Policy Changes
The telehealth boom has made one thing clear: The era of health care provided exclusively within the confines of a clinic or hospital is over. In the hopes of making the shift to virtual care more permanent, Washington, D.C.-based lobbying firm Sirona Strategies formed a coalition earlier this month called Moving Health Home. (Brodwin, 3/18)

NPR: Researchers Create 'Model Embryos' To Study Human Fertility
For decades, science has been trying to unlock the mysteries of how a single cell becomes a fully formed human being and what goes wrong to cause genetic diseases, miscarriages and infertility. Now, scientists have created living entities in their labs that resemble human embryos; the results of two new experiments are the most complete such "model embryos" developed to date. The goal of the experiments is to gain important insights into early human development and find new ways to prevent birth defects and miscarriages and treat fertility problems. (Stein, 3/17)

Stat: Models Will Let Scientists Study Earliest Stages Of Embryonic Development
A pair of research teams unveiled two new ways to replicate a key structure from the earliest days of embryonic development — an advance that could provide important new insight into human development and pregnancy loss, but which also raise thorny questions about research with embryo-like models. (Joseph, 3/17)

New York Post: Needle-Free COVID-19 Vaccines In The Works, WHO Scientist Says
COVID-19 vaccines that don’t require a needle may be available later this year or next year, a top scientist said. Six to eight new immunizations may be ready for regulatory review by the end of the year — some of which don’t require needles and can be stored at room temperature, Soumya Swaminathan, the World Health Organization’s chief scientist said over the weekend, according to Bloomberg News. The experimental vaccines in production use alternative technologies and delivery systems, including oral and nasal administration, and skin patches — methods that are better suited to some groups like pregnant women, Swaminathan said. (O'Neill, 3/17)

CNBC: Covid Reinfection More Common For The Over-65s: Study Finds
Most people who have had Covid-19 are protected from catching it again for at least six months, but elderly patients are more prone to reinfection, according to peer-reviewed research published in The Lancet medical journal Wednesday evening. The first large-scale study on coronavirus reinfection rates was carried out in Denmark in 2020 with the findings confirming that only a small proportion of people (0.65%) returned a positive PCR test twice. PCR tests are seen as the gold standard and tell you if you currently have the virus. (Ellyatt, 3/17)

CIDRAP: Race, Medicaid Status Tied To Higher COVID-19 Rates In US Nursing Homes
Among 3,008 US nursing homes in counties in the top quartile of COVID-19 prevalence, those with larger proportions of racial minority residents, Medicaid participants, and fewer direct patient care hours experienced more coronavirus infections amid the pandemic, according to a research letter published yesterday in JAMA Network Open. The study, led by researchers from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, involved analysis of data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Nursing Home COVID-19 Public File, the 2017 Long-term Care: Facts on Care in the US database, the USAFacts website, and the 2017 American Community Survey. (3/17)

The Washington Post: Blood Donation After Covid Vaccine: Experts Encourage Giving Blood 
The year-long coronavirus pandemic has had a significant impact on the nation’s blood supply as blood drives have been canceled and facilities used as collection centers were forced to shut their doors. But with safety measures now in place to help protect donors from the virus, organizations such as the Red Cross are accepting — even urging — donations by appointment. (Bever, 3/17)

CNN: US Could Be On The Cusp Of Covid-19 Infection Surge Officials Have Been Dreading, Expert Warns
The US may be on the cusp of another Covid-19 case surge, one expert says -- a surge that health officials have repeatedly warned about as state leaders eased restrictions and several lifted mask mandates. "I think we are going to see a surge in the number of infections," emergency physician Dr. Leana Wen told CNN on Wednesday night. "I think what helps this time though is that the most vulnerable -- particularly nursing home residents, people who are older -- are now vaccinated. And so we may prevent a spike in hospitalizations and deaths." (Maxouris, 3/18)

Roll Call: COVID-19 Vaccine Boosters Could Present Equity, Pricing Issues 
Convincing Americans to take COVID-19 vaccines, distributing the shots, equitably prioritizing people for vaccinations and negotiating fair prices has been a herculean task. The federal government and states may need to do it all again for booster shots to stop the spread of contagious mutations — but the Biden administration has not yet released a plan, and experts warn that the United States could repeat past mistakes unless the country starts planning now. (Cohen, 3/17)

Modern Healthcare: Nephrologists Frustrated Over CMS' Delay Of Kidney Program
Providers caring for patients with chronic kidney disease are scrambling to update their operations after the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation delayed starting a new value-based payment program just weeks before it was set to go live. CMS was unable to respond to an interview request about how many nephrologists and other providers will be impacted by the delay in the Kidney Care Choices program. But the program received more applications than expected, according to Mark Gooding, an associate principal at the Avalere consultancy. (Tepper, 3/17)

Modern Healthcare: CMS Ends Policy Allowing Some Part D Plans To Cover Fewer Drugs
The Biden administration on Tuesday ended a Trump-era policy that would have allowed Medicare Part D plans to cover fewer drugs under a new pay model. When CMS' Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation requested Part D Payment Modernization applications for 2022 in January, it said that plans participating in the model wouldn't have to cover all drugs in five of the six protected drug classes: anticonvulsants, immunosuppressants, antidepressants, antipsychotics and antineoplastics. It also allowed Part D plans to only include one drug per class in their formulary instead of two drugs, as currently required, and paused the 10% downside risk requirement for model participants during the 2022 plan year. (Brady, 3/17)

Modern Healthcare: Two States Could Be Next Medicaid Expansion Battlegrounds
Advocates say they see new political momentum for expanding Medicaid in some conservative states after Congress recently offered them billions of dollars in additional funding to do what 38 states have already done: extend insurance coverage to millions of low-income Americans. Under the most recently passed COVID-19 relief bill, the 12 states that have not yet expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act would get even more money from the federal government to do so, prompting hope among advocates including hospitals and providers that the tide could be turning. (Hellmann, 3/17)

The New York Times: How The U.S. Reopening Might Affect Anxiety Patients 
When the pandemic narrowed the world, Jonathan Hirshon stopped traveling, eating out, going to cocktail parties and commuting to the office. What a relief. Mr. Hirshon suffers from severe social anxiety. In the past, casual get-togethers and meetings came with a rapid heartbeat and clenched fists. He preferred to interact virtually, and welcomed the Zoom meetings that others merely tolerated. Even as he grieved the pandemic’s toll, he found lockdown life to be a respite. “There is cognitive dissonance to feeling good in the middle of the pandemic,” he said. Now with normalcy about to return, Mr. Hirshon, a public relations consultant, finds himself with decidedly mixed feelings — “anticipation, dread and hope.” (Richtel, 3/17)

The New York Times: Advanced Cancers Are Emerging, Doctors Warn, Citing Pandemic Drop In Screenings 
Months of lockdowns and waves of surging Covid cases throughout last year shuttered clinics and testing labs, or reduced hours at other places, resulting in steep declines in the number of screenings, including for breast and colorectal cancers, experts have said. Numerous studies showed that the number of patients screened or given a diagnosis of cancer fell during the early months of the pandemic. By mid-June, the rate of screenings for breast, colon and cervical cancers were still 29 percent to 36 percent lower than their prepandemic levels, according to an analysis of data by the Epic Health Research Network. Hundreds of thousands fewer screenings were performed last year than in 2019, according to the network data. (Abelson, 3/17)

ABC News: Michelle Obama Launches 'Pass The Love' Campaign To Donate 1 Million Meals 
The former first lady is leading a new effort to fight hunger and food insecurity in the U.S. In tandem with the debut of Michelle Obama's new kid's food series "Waffles + Mochi" that began streaming Tuesday, she kicked off a new nonprofit campaign with Partnership for a Healthier America. (McCarthy, 3/17)

Roll Call: Long Ignored, Water Systems Are Getting Attention On Hill 
For years, lawmakers bemoaned crumbling roads and bridges while wastewater and drinking water infrastructure crumbled largely outside the spotlight. Faced with outdated infrastructure and mounting federal requirements, water utilities struggled, often forced to pass the costs on to ratepayers ill-equipped to pay rapidly growing bills. And while the federal government offered aid to low-income Americans for heating assistance and food, there was no such federal aid for water bills, although utilities were reluctant to turn off the spigot. (Wehrman, 3/17)

Bleacher Report: NBA, NBPA Agree To Relax COVID-19 Restrictions For Fully Vaccinated People
As vaccines ramp up across the country and within the NBA in an effort to counter the COVID-19 pandemic, the league has reportedly agreed to ease certain restrictions.  According to Baxter Holmes of ESPN, the NBA and the National Basketball Players Association decided they will relax restrictions for those in the league who have been fully vaccinated. Teams were informed via a memo sent out Wednesday night. (Polacek, 3/18)

The Washington Post: FAA Proposes Fines Over Refusal To Wear Face Masks 
The Federal Aviation Administration announced Wednesday that two passengers could face tens of thousands of dollars in fines for refusing orders from flight attendants to wear masks and, in one case, shouting obscenities. A woman on a Dec. 27 JetBlue flight from Boston to Puerto Rico refused multiple requests to wear her mask and remain seated with her seat belt fastened, authorities said. The woman allegedly shoved a flight attendant multiple times, shouted obscenities at her and then threatened to have her fired. (Aratani, 3/17)

AP: CDC: West Virginia HIV Wave Could Be 'Tip Of The Iceberg'
For years, West Virginia has had the nation’s highest rate of opioid drug addictions and drug overdose deaths. Now the state is wrestling with another, not entirely unrelated health emergency: one of the nation’s highest spikes in HIV cases related to intravenous drug use. The surge, clustered primarily around the capital of Charleston and the city of Huntington, is being attributed at least in part to the cancellation in 2018 of a needle exchange program that offered clean syringes to injection drug users not able to quit the habit altogether. (Raby, 3/17)

Axios: Cherokee Nation Previews New Vaccine Problem: Supply Is Outstripping Demand 
The Cherokee Nation is now facing the issue that the rest of America will have to deal with in the coming months: demand for coronavirus vaccines has dried up, the New York Times reports. So far, demand for vaccines has outstripped supply in the U.S. But at some point the vaccination effort's biggest challenge will be finding the unvaccinated and convincing them they should get a shot. (Owens, 3/17)

USA Today: Indiana Nursing Home Nurse Under Investigation For Unhooking Oxygen
The nurse had watched the nursing home resident suffering with breathing complications due to COVID-19. She saw him repeatedly try to remove his oxygen mask and asked him if he "wanted to let go and go to Heaven" so he could "fly with the angels." She then removed his oxygen mask without a doctor's order. The man died. The alleged incident inside Wedgewood Healthcare Center in southern Indiana is detailed in a state health inspection report reviewed by IndyStar, part of the USA TODAY Network. Local police and the nursing home operator, Ohio-based Communicare, confirmed to IndyStar that the attorney general is investigating. (Hopkins, Evans and Cook, 3/18)

Boston Globe: Massachusetts Will Allow General Public To Get COVID-19 Vaccines Starting April 19 Under New Schedule
Confident that the state will soon see a surge in available COVID-19 vaccines, Governor Charlie Baker on Wednesday announced plans to expand eligibility for highly coveted appointments to more groups starting Monday, and opening them to all residents age 16 and over by April 19. Until now, the state has focused on vaccinating its currently eligible population, which includes all people 65 and over, teachers and educators, and residents who have two or more chronic health conditions. (Vaccaro and Andersen, 3/17)

AP: Woman Refuses To Wear Mask In Texas, Again, Gets Arrested 
An Oregon woman who was recorded on police body camera video refusing to wear a mask at a Texas bank last week was arrested Wednesday after declining to wear a mask inside another Texas business. Terry Wright, 65, already had a warrant out for her arrest after she refused to wear a mask in a Bank of America branch in Galveston, Texas, last Thursday. On the video, she taunts the officer, asking if he's going to arrest her. (3/17)

San Francisco Chronicle: Report Shows California Lagging Most States In Vaccination Equity
California ranks among the five worst states in getting its poorest and most vulnerable residents vaccinated against the coronavirus, according to a report released Wednesday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. California is one of 31 states falling short on equitable vaccine coverage, according to the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, which analyzed vaccines administered during the first two-and-a-half months of the U.S. vaccination campaign, from Dec. 14 to March 1. It is the first report using national vaccination surveillance data focused on social vulnerability to look at equity, said the report’s lead author, CDC epidemiologist Michelle Hughes. (Ho, 3/17)

The Washington Post: Boston Marathon Icon Dick Hoyt, Renowned For Pushing His Disabled Son, Dies At 80
Dick Hoyt was such an iconic figure at the Boston Marathon that in 2013, a statue was erected in his honor near the starting line in Hopkinton, Mass. The statue shows two people: Hoyt and his son Rick, in a wheelchair being pushed, as he was for tens of thousands of miles over hundreds of endurance events, by his devoted father. Dick Hoyt died Wednesday at age 80, leaving organizers of the Boston Marathon and many others “tremendously saddened.” (Bieler, 3/17)

Stat: Washington May Become Second State To Distribute Its Own Generic Drugs
A bill moving through the Washington legislature may make the state only the second in the U.S. with hopes of distributing its own line of generic drugs, an idea hatched last year in California as a way to combat the rising cost of prescription medicines that are straining government budgets. The legislation would authorize the state Health Care Authority to form partnerships with other state agencies or nonprofits to distribute generics and insulin. However, any drug must be made or distributed by a pharmaceutical company that is registered with the Food and Drug Administration. (Silverman, 3/17)

Roll Call: Ohio Files Suit Over COVID Relief Package 
Ohio filed a lawsuit Wednesday that questions congressional power to put certain conditions on federal assistance money in the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief that President Joe Biden signed into law last week. The state argues the law means it can claim about $5.5 billion, but only if officials agree that they won’t use that money to “directly or indirectly” offset revenue loss from tax reductions. That amount is about 7 percent of the state’s $74.6 billion in spending in 2020. (Ruger, 3/17)

Bloomberg: Tanzania’s Next Leader To Face Predecessor’s Covid Denialism
Tanzania’s response to the coronavirus will be one of the key issues facing the successor to deceased President John Magufuli, whose unorthodox response to the disease ilicited international consternation. Under Tanzania’s constitution, 61-year-old Vice President Samia Suluhu Hassan is set to take over from Magufuli and serve out his term, which was due to end in 2025. Magufuli, who died on Wednesday, dominated policy making in the southeast African nation after taking office in 2015, centralizing control in his office and appointing allies to key government posts. His death could create a power vacuum in the ruling party, delay or scupper key projects and foreshadow a rethink on the government’s handling of the pandemic. (Ng'Wanakilala, 3/18)