AP: COVID-19 Pushed Total US Deaths Beyond 3.3 Million Last Year
The COVID-19 pandemic pushed total U.S. deaths last year beyond 3.3 million, the nation’s highest annual death toll, the government reported Wednesday. The coronavirus caused approximately 375,000 deaths, and was the third leading cause of death in 2020, after heart disease and cancer. COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. now top 550,000 since the start of the pandemic. COVID-19 displaced suicide as one of the top 10 causes of death, according to the report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Johnson, 3/31)

NPR: COVID-19 Confirmed As 3rd Leading Cause Of Death In U.S. Last Year 
COVID-19 was the third underlying cause of death in 2020 after heart disease and cancer, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed on Wednesday. A pair of reports published in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report sheds new light on the approximately 375,000 U.S. deaths attributed to COVID-19 last year, and highlights the pandemic's disproportionate impact on communities of color — a point CDC Director Rochelle Walensky emphasized at a White House COVID-19 Response Team briefing on Wednesday. (Treisman, 3/31)

The New York Times: Covid Was 3rd Leading U.S. Death Cause In 2020
Covid-19 was the third leading cause of death in the United States in 2020, displacing unintentional injuries and trailing only heart disease and cancer, federal health researchers reported on Wednesday. The coronavirus was the cause of death for 345,323 Americans in a year that exacted a steep price in lives lost. In roughly 30,000 additional cases, death certificates cited Covid-19 but it was not deemed the cause of death, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. (Caryn Rabin, 3/31)

Axios: CDC: Suicides Decreased In 2020 
Suicides in the U.S. decreased in 2020, according to preliminary data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Critics of lockdowns and other coronavirus-prevention efforts have suggested throughout the pandemic that those measures would drive the suicide rate higher. But that hasn't happened. (Fernandez, 4/1)

Politico: Biden Wants To Give The Nation Hope. But A Jump In Covid Cases Is Complicating Things.
The Biden administration is struggling over how to portray a burst of new coronavirus cases, even taking pains to avoid saying publicly that the country is experiencing a “surge,” according to three senior administration officials. President Joe Biden's Covid-19 team is torn over how to convey two seemingly conflicting ideas: That the nation is closer than ever to ending the health crisis, and yet remains in imminent danger from the virus. (Banco and Owermohle, 3/31)

NPR: How The CDC Is Battling The Pandemic And Working To Regain Public Trust 
It's been a long year for basically everyone — and especially for Dr. Henry Walke. For months on end, Walke has been pulling 13-hour work days as the COVID-19 incident response manager at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a job he took on last July. He never expected the job to last this long. "The scale of this pandemic is mind-boggling, and it's affected all of us — every facet of our work and home," he says. Walke is heading up the largest and most challenging outbreak response in the agency's history — an all-agency effort involving more than 8,000 employees, working to guide the U.S. out of a public health emergency that has claimed more than 550,000 lives. (Huang, 4/1)

Fox News: CDC Provides Easter Coronavirus Guidance, Says Fully Vaccinated People Can Gather Without Masks
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has officially released its coronavirus guidance ahead of Easter Sunday, advising those who are taking part in the celebration to do so virtually and avoid travel, if possible. Those who are fully vaccinated against the novel disease, however, may gather together without face masks, the federal agency said. The CDC reiterated several pieces of guidance it has provided around holiday gatherings since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the use of face masks in certain instances, as well as socially distancing from those who do not live with you, washing your hands and avoiding crowded, poorly ventilated areas. (Farber, 3/31)

In other administration developments —

The New York Times: Billions In New Obamacare Subsidies Are Now Available On Healthcare.Gov
The Biden administration has doubled Obamacare’s advertising budget to get the word out, and will now spend $100 million telling Americans about newly affordable options. Nearly everyone with an Affordable Care Act health plan can now qualify for increased financial help with premiums by going back to the website. Many Americans who buy their own insurance outside the A.C.A. marketplaces may also qualify for substantial help, and may benefit from reviewing options and switching to an eligible plan. Uninsured Americans also qualify. (Kliff and Sanger-Katz, 4/1)

Roll Call: For Many Liberals, COVID-19 Relief Law Is ‘Not Big Enough’
Democrats have touted the new $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief law as part of a broader effort to combat racial and economic inequity in the United States, starting with an expanded child tax credit that will go to Americans with little or no income, as well as middle-income taxpayers. The law also boosts subsidies for people buying health care on the individual market and includes new incentives to get more states to expand Medicaid, the federal-state health insurance program for the poor, so that it reaches lower-middle-class people. (Curtis, 3/31)

Stat: Report: Government Doesn't Hold Patent Rights To Gilead's Remdesivir
American taxpayers may have provided $162 million toward researching remdesivir, but the federal government does not have patent rights for the drug because the work contributed by U.S. scientists did not generate any inventive new uses, according to a government report. Moreover, Gilead Sciences, which discovered remdesivir, had already reached collaborative research deals with various federal agencies and universities to work on its existing portfolio of patents and patent applications, including for the remdesivir compound. And this “would have left little room for the agencies to generate their own patents, the Government Accountability Office found. (Silverman, 3/31)

CNN: Thousands Of Cases Of A Worrying Variant Have Been Reported In The US. These States Have The Highest Numbers 
Thousands of cases of the B.1.1.7 variant have been reported across the US, and experts fear the strain may fuel another Covid-19 surge as states race to vaccinate more residents. The variant, first spotted in the UK, is already wreaking havoc in parts of Europe and health leaders fear that if Americans aren't careful now, the US could be next. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported more than 11,500 cases of the variant -- but the agency has said the number is likely larger. (Maxouris, 4/1)

Bloomberg: B.1.1.7 Coronavirus Variant Is Top Strain In Five U.S. Regions, CDC Says 
A more contagious strain of the coronavirus is now predominant in five U.S. regions and accounts for a quarter of new cases nationally, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. The B.1.1.7 variant, first uncovered in the U.K., makes up from 4% to 35% cases depending on the region, and 26% of cases nationally, Rochelle Walensky said at a press briefing Wednesday. U.S. officials had warned it could become the predominant strain of the virus in the U.S. by early April. (Wingrove, 3/31)

The Wall Street Journal: Covid-19 Live Updates: New U.S. Cases Continue To Trend Higher
The U.S. reported more than 66,000 new cases for Wednesday, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University and published early Thursday morning Eastern time. That was up from 61,240 a day earlier but down from 86,950 a week earlier. While dramatically lower than the highs of around 300,000 reached in early January, daily cases are trending higher. The seven-day moving average, which smooths out irregularities in the data, was 66,876 as of Tuesday, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of Johns Hopkins data. The 14-day average was 60262. When the seven-day average is higher than the 14-day average, as it has been for the past week, it indicates cases are rising. (Martin, 4/1)

Axios: Americans Are Worried About Coronavirus Variants 
Americans are worried about the rapid spread of COVID-19 variants, and are still willing to take safety precautions as a result, according to new Harris Poll data. Despite the race to vaccinate as many people as possible, the variants are fueling another surge in cases across the U.S. (Fernandez, 4/1)

The New York Times: Covid Surge In Michigan Alarms Health Experts
In a rural stretch of Michigan along the shore of Lake Huron, coronavirus outbreaks are ripping through churches, schools and restaurants where the virus has infected line cooks and waitresses. For more than a week, ambulances have taken several hourlong trips each day to rush severely ill coronavirus patients to hospitals in Detroit, Saginaw or Port Huron, where beds in intensive-care units await. Even as the pandemic appears to be waning in some parts of the United States, Michigan is in the throes of a coronavirus outbreak that is one of the largest and most alarming in the country. Infection levels have exploded in recent weeks, in big cities and rural stretches alike. (Bosman, 4/1)

NPR: FDA Approves Two More Over The Counter COVID Tests
More consumers will soon be able to test themselves for COVID-19 from the comfort of their own home. On Wednesday, the Food and Drug Administration approved two rapid antigen home tests for use in the U.S. Americans will soon be able to purchase Abbott's BinaxNOW and Quidel Quickvue tests at drug stores. The two options join a test made by Ellume, which received FDA approval in December, in the market. The two, newly-approved swab tests will be sold at a lower price point. (Diaz and Simmons-Duffin, 4/1)

USA Today: 'More Confidence About The Results': FDA Authorizes Two Rapid COVID-19 Tests For Home Screening
The FDA has authorized more than 300 COVID-19 tests and technologies in what's becoming an increasingly crowded field of medical labs and tech firms touting different technologies. The federal agency authorized only two other no-prescription home tests, but companies that make those tests are ramping up production and are not yet available to purchase. Several more tests allow people to collect nasal or saliva samples at home, but people must send samples to a lab, delaying for one to two days. (Alltucker, 4/1)

Modern Healthcare: FDA Posts Info On Impact Of Coronavirus Mutations On Test Effectiveness
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday published information for labs and healthcare providers detailing the impact of SARS-CoV-2 mutations on molecular, antigen and serology tests for the virus. While the agency said that changes in the virus's genome may impact the effectiveness of antigen and serology tests, it noted in particular four molecular tests that received Emergency Use Authorization whose performance it said could be negatively affected by SARS-CoV-2 mutations: Mesa Biotech's Accula SARS-CoV-2 Test; Applied DNA Sciences' Linea COVID-19 Assay Kit; Thermo Fisher Scientific's TaqPath COVID-19 Combo Kit; and Cepheid's Xpert Xpress SARS-CoV-2, Xpert Xpress SARS-CoV-2 DoD, and Xpert Omni SARS-CoV-2 tests. (3/31)

In other covid testing news —

Hawaii News Now: $30M Worth Of COVID Testing Kits Expire In State Storage Facility
Some $30 million worth of COVID-19 test kits purchased by the state have expired as they sat in storage, despite at least one county request to use them. The state Health Department said it working to get federal approval for an extension to use the 672,000 kits, but that could be a lengthy process. (Kawano, 3/31)

CNET: DoorDash Will Deliver A COVID-19 PCR Test Kit To Your Home. Here's How To Get It
DoorDash, the food delivery service, can now bring a COVID-19 home test to your door in addition to your dinner or groceries, which could make testing more accessible for many. Through a partnership with Vault Health and Everlywell, DoorDash customers can get two virus home collection kits on demand, according to a DoorDash blog post from March 22.  (Brown, 3/31)

AP: China Pushes To Expand Virus Origin Search Beyond Its Border
Chinese health officials pushed Wednesday to expand the search for the origins of the coronavirus beyond China, one day after the release of a closely watched World Health Organization report on the issue. They also rejected criticism that China did not give enough data to a WHO team of international experts that visited Wuhan, the Chinese city where the first cases were detected, earlier this year. The search for the origins of the virus has become a diplomatic feud. The U.S. and other Western nations have repeatedly raised questions about delays, transparency and data access, while China has promoted theories that suggest the virus may have come from elsewhere. (Moritsugu, 3/31)

The Wall Street Journal: China Says Covid-19 Origin Probe Should Shift Focus To Other Countries
A WHO-led team that visited China earlier this year to explore the pandemic’s origins concluded in a report published Tuesday that the coronavirus was “extremely unlikely” to have leaked from a Chinese laboratory and recommended no further study of that possibility. However, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said shortly before the report’s release that the team’s assessment of a potential lab leak hadn’t been extensive enough and that further investigation was needed, adding he was ready to deploy more specialists to study that possibility. (Page and Hinshaw, 3/31)

NPR: Theory That COVID Came From A Chinese Lab Takes On New Life In Wake Of WHO Report
Before COVID-19, few scientists would have pegged the Chinese city of Wuhan, in temperate central China, as a likely starting point for a global coronavirus pandemic. Its climate and fauna don't fit the bill. But the city of 11 million straddling the Yangtze River is home to some of China's most advanced biological research laboratories. And one of the secretive, state-run institutions, the Wuhan Institute of Virology, is known to conduct experiments on exactly the kind of virus that has killed nearly 3 million people worldwide so far since late 2019. (Ruwitch, 3/31)

Reuters: Pfizer COVID-19 Shot 91% Effective In Updated Data, Protective Against South African Variant
Pfizer Inc and BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine is around 91% effective at preventing the disease, they said on Thursday, citing updated trial data that included participants inoculated for up to six months. The shot was also 100% effective in preventing illness among trial participants in South Africa, where a new variant called B1351 is dominant, though the number of those participants was relatively small at 800. (O'Donnell, 4/1)

CNBC: U.S. Begins Testing Moderna's Covid Vaccine Booster Shots For Variant From South Africa
The National Institutes of Health has started testing a new coronavirus vaccine from Moderna designed to protect against a problematic variant first found in South Africa, the agency said Wednesday. The phase one trial, led and funded by the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, will test how safe and effective the new shot is against the variant — known as B.1.351 — in roughly 210 healthy adults, according to the agency. (Higgins-Dunn, 3/31)

CIDRAP: AstraZeneca COVID Vaccine 70% Effective Vs B117 Variant
Data from a UK phase 2/3 clinical trial suggest the AstraZeneca-Oxford COVID-vaccine is 70.4% effective against symptomatic COVID-19 caused by the B117 variant, which was identified in the United Kingdom in late 2020. The data, published in The Lancet yesterday, also showed it was 28.9% effective at preventing asymptomatic infections or cases with unknown symptoms. (Matt McLemon, 3/31)

And more on AstraZeneca vaccine safety —

AP: EU Says 'No Evidence' To Restrict Use Of AstraZeneca Vaccine
The head of the European Medicines Agency said Wednesday that there is “no evidence” that would support restricting the use of AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine in any population, as Germany has now done amid concerns over rare blood clots in people who got the shot. But EMA Executive Director Emer Cooke said her Amsterdam-based agency continues to study reports of new cases as they come in and will provide a further assessment next week. (Jordans, 3/31)

Bloomberg: AstraZeneca Haunts Countries That Shunned More Expensive Pfizer Covid Vaccines
Five countries that turned away more expensive Pfizer Inc. covid doses in favor of a cheaper version from AstraZeneca Plc are paying the price. Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Latvia and Slovakia, which declined part of their Pfizer allotments to wait for Astra doses, are among the slowest in the bloc to administer vaccines, according to a European Union document seen by Bloomberg. While Pfizer has met its commitments, Astra has delivered just 30 million of its originally committed 120 million doses in the first quarter. (Chrysoloras and Nardelli, 3/31)

And more development news —

Stat: Pfizer And BioNTech Say Vaccine Prevents Covid-19 In Adolescents
Pfizer and BioNTech said Wednesday that their Covid-19 vaccine prevented symptomatic disease and was well-tolerated in a Phase 3 study of adolescents ages 12 to 15. The companies say they will submit the data to the Food and Drug Administration as an amendment to the vaccine’s emergency use authorization, and will also submit the results to other regulators around the world. Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said in a press release that the companies hope it will be possible to begin vaccinating adolescents in this group before the beginning of the next school year. (Herper, 3/31)

CNN: Pfizer Vaccine: How One Company Makes Its Millions Of Covid-19 Vaccine Doses
When the coronavirus pandemic began, the challenge for Pfizer and BioNTech wasn't just developing a Covid-19 vaccine -- they also had to make it, and by the hundreds of millions. This was no small feat. Until the very end of last year, no mRNA vaccine had ever been authorized and no such vaccine had ever been manufactured to scale by any company. (Sealy, 3/31)

CNN: Vaccine Clinical Trial Participant Dr. Leana Wen Learns If She Got The Vaccine 
There are three Covid-19 vaccines authorized by the US Food and Drug Administration, and they all required that each vaccine manufacturer conduct clinical trials with tens of thousands of volunteers to ensure that the vaccines are safe and effective. CNN Medical Analyst Dr. Leana Wen participated in a clinical trial for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, and she found out earlier this morning that she got the placebo. (Hetter, 3/31)

ProPublica: False Barriers: These Things Should Not Prevent You From Getting A COVID Vaccine
According to the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, the vaccine is supposed to be free to everyone, whether they’re insured or not. And the Biden administration has directed all vaccination sites to accept undocumented immigrants as a “moral and public health imperative.” But this promise has not always been fulfilled, ProPublica has found. At vaccination sites around the country, people have been turned away after being asked for documentation that they shouldn’t need to provide, or asked to pay when they owed nothing. (Chen and Jameel, 4/1)

Politico: Federal Watchdog Calls For Centralized Covid-19 Data Website
Federal health agencies need to be more transparent about critical Covid-19 data, particularly on race and ethnicity and infections at nursing homes, the Government Accountability Office said Wednesday. The watchdog recommended those steps as part of its call for a sweeping overhaul of federal data on Covid-19, based on its probe of efforts to collect and analyze pandemic statistics across agencies. (Owermohle, 3/31)

Axios: Axios-Ipsos Poll: The Misinformed Are Less Likely To Get Vaccinated 
A new look at the data from our most recent Axios-Ipsos poll shows a strong correlation between the people who are influenced by COVID vaccine misinformation and those who are unlikely to get the vaccine. As this graphic shows, Americans who either believed misinformation or were unsure whether it was true or false were less likely to get the vaccine than those who knew that it was false. (Nather, 4/1)

AP: Biden Launches Community Corps To Boost COVID Vaccinations
Seeking to overcome vaccine hesitancy, the Biden administration is unveiling a coalition of community, religious and celebrity partners to promote COVID-19 shots. The Department of Health and Human Services’ “We Can Do This” campaign features television and social media ads, but it also relies on a community corps of public health, athletic, faith and other groups to spread the word about the safety and efficacy of the three approved vaccines. The campaign comes amid worries that reluctance to get vaccinated will delay the nation’s recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. (Miller, 4/1)

KHN: ‘It Didn’t Really Stick With Me’: Understanding The Rural Shrug Over Covid And Vaccines
At 70, Linda Findley has long been active in her small town of Fort Scott, Kansas, which sits more than an hour away from any major city. Findley, whose husband died in an accident just after the local hospital closed, helps with the Elks and fundraising, and — like many people in this part of the country — doesn’t think covid-19 is that dangerous. “I don’t even know what I think about it,” Findley said recently. “I don’t know if I trust the testing because it’s so messed up or … I’ve had nieces and nephews, that’ve had it. I’ve lost good friends to it, or supposedly it’s to that.” (Jane Tribble, 4/1)

The New York Times: Jill Biden, In California, Lends Support To Farmworkers Seeking Vaccinations
Jill Biden, the first lady, traveled to California on Wednesday to visit a pop-up vaccination site for farmworkers who have lobbied for priority access to shots during the pandemic. In remarks to about 100 farmworkers and local politicians who had gathered to mark the birthday of César Chávez, the labor organizer who formed the country’s first successful farmworkers’ union, Dr. Biden told them that their work — and their health — had been essential to a nation crippled by the coronavirus. (Rogers, 3/31)

AP: Can I Still Spread The Coronavirus After I'm Vaccinated?
Can I still spread the coronavirus after I’m vaccinated? It’s possible. Experts say the risk is low, but are still studying how well the shots blunt the spread of the virus. The current vaccines are highly effective at preventing people from getting seriously sick with COVID-19. But even if vaccinated people don’t get sick, they might still get infected without showing any symptoms. Experts think the vaccine would also curb the chances of those people spreading the virus. (Renault, 4/1)

Modern Healthcare: Biden Pushes For Home Health Medicaid Coverage, $400 Billion In Funding
The Biden administration is calling on Congress to expand access to home and community-based care services covered by Medicaid as part of a multi-billion dollar investment in the "care economy. "The proposal, part of a larger jobs and infrastructure plan unveiled by the White House Wednesday, asks Congress to put $400 billion toward expanding access to home and community-based care for the elderly and people with disabilities. If acted on by Congress, it would represent one of the largest financial investments made in HCBS in a decade at a time when nursing home residents have disproportionately gotten sick and died of COVID-19. (Hellmann and Christ, 3/31)

Governing: Will States Resist Fresh Billions For Medicaid Expansion?
When is an offer too good to refuse? In several states, the answer is never, at least when it comes to expanding Medicaid. As part of the most recent federal stimulus, states that haven't expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act can receive additional matching funds. Rather than paying 10 percent of the cost for new recipients, they’d only have to pay 5 percent over the next two years. Additional subsidies mean they would actually cost themselves money by refusing to expand. Florida, for instance, would come out ahead by $1.25 billion, even after paying its share of expanded coverage. Still, Gov. Ron DeSantis and legislative leaders remain opposed. (Greenblatt, 3/31)

In the states —

Wyoming Public Radio: Wyoming Medicaid Expansion Fails Again
Once again, the Wyoming legislature has rejected Medicaid expansion. Despite testimony providing overwhelming support for the measure and some federal aid to encourage more states to adopt the program, the Senate Labor and Health Committee voted three to two against the bill. The Wyoming Department of Health estimated that 25,000 state residents would have qualified for health insurance under the program. One of those was Cheyenne resident Marcie Kindred who told the committee that this is the only way many state residents can get health care. She said that's why so many people of different backgrounds support the bill. (Beck, 3/31)

KPVI: Senate Committee Kills Medicaid Expansion Bill
Lawmakers have defeated similar proposals for nearly a decade. Advocates hoped this year might be different. Many House Republicans voiced a change of heart after the COVID-19 pandemic and the decline of fossil fuels rocked the state’s economy, leaving many without health coverage. This session was the first in which a bill to expand the program passed a legislative chamber. (Hughes, 3/31)

Becker's Hospital Review: 'A Gut Punch': Florida Hospitals Slam $500M In Proposed Medicaid Cuts
Florida hospitals are urging lawmakers to reconsider proposed Medicaid cuts that would lower hospital payments by half a billion dollars in the next fiscal year.For the 2021 to 2022 fiscal year, Florida legislators said they are seeking cuts to Medicaid to balance a shortfall caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The state Senate's budget proposal calls for a $251 million cut to Medicaid hospital inpatient and outpatient rates, in addition to a $77 million cut in funds for hospitals that serve a disproportionate share of Medicaid patients, according to the State of Reform. (Haeffner, 3/31)

KHN: Indiana’s Medicaid Expansion — Designed By Pence And Verma — Panned In Federal Report
Indiana’s Medicaid expansion — with its “personal responsibility” provisions that require enrollees to pay monthly premiums and manage health savings accounts — proved no better at improving health and access to care than other state expansions, a federally commissioned study found. Even when compared with states that did not expand Medicaid, Indiana showed only mixed results in improving the health of low-income residents, the report said. (Galewitz, 4/1)

News Service of Florida: Florida Backs Off From Removing Ex-Foster Kids From Medicaid
Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration has quietly backed away from a policy that removed 1,730 former foster children from the state’s Medicaid rolls over the past six years in apparent violation of federal law. Since January, the Department of Children and Families has waived a state policy that required all former foster children to reapply for Medicaid when they turned age 22, even though they continued to qualify for the program until they were 26 under federal law. (Sexton, 3/31)

The Washington Post: Peter Navarro Warned Trump On Virus Supply Shortages, Then Pursued Deals Worth More Than $1 Billion
A top adviser privately urged President Donald Trump to acquire critical medical supplies in the early days of the coronavirus outbreak — and after the warning was ignored, pursued his own ad hoc strategy that committed more than $1 billion in federal funds and has since prompted multiple probes, according to newly released documents from congressional investigators. Peter Navarro, who served as Trump’s trade adviser, warned the president on March 1, 2020, to “MOVE IN ‘TRUMP TIME’” to invest in ingredients for drugs, handheld coronavirus tests and other supplies to fight the virus, according to a memo obtained by the House’s select subcommittee on the coronavirus outbreak. Navarro also said that he’d been trying to acquire more protective gear like masks, critiquing the administration’s pace. (Diamond, 3/31)

ProPublica: Documents Show Trump Officials Skirted Rules To Reward Politically Connected And Untested Firms With Huge Pandemic Contracts
Peter Navarro, who served as Trump’s deputy assistant and trade adviser, essentially verbally awarded a $96 million deal for respirators to a company with White House connections. Later, officials at the Federal Emergency Management Agency were pressured to sign the contract after the fact, according to correspondence obtained by congressional investigators. Documents obtained by the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis after a year of resistance from the Trump administration offer new details about Navarro’s role in a largely secretive buying spree of personal protective equipment and medical supplies. (McSwane, 3/31)

Politico: House Panel Releases New Details Of Trump Administration Covid Contracts
A House panel investigating the coronavirus crisis released documents Tuesday detailing how senior White House officials tried to warn then-President Donald Trump of the danger of Covid-19 last March and leaned on federal agencies to offer non-competitive contracts for protective equipment to favored companies. The Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis asked HHS, the Department of Homeland Security and the National Archives to turn over more records on the prior administration’s procurement of protective gear as part of an ongoing investigation. (Miranda Ollstein, 3/31)

In other news related to the previous administration —

The Washington Post: EPA Dismisses Dozens Of Key Science Advisers Picked Under Trump
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan will purge more than 40 outside experts appointed by President Donald Trump from two key advisory panels, a move he says will help restore the role of science at the agency and reduce the heavy influence of industry over environmental regulations. The unusual decision, announced Wednesday, will sweep away outside researchers picked under the previous administration whose expert advice helped the agency craft regulations related to air pollution, fracking and other issues. (Grandoni, 3/31)

AP: Reversing Trump, Pentagon Releases New Transgender Policies
The Pentagon on Wednesday swept away Trump-era policies that largely banned transgender people from serving in the military, issuing new rules that offer them wider access to medical care and assistance with gender transition. The new department regulations allow transgender people who meet military standards to enlist and serve openly in their self-identified gender, and they will be able to get medically necessary transition-related care authorized by law, chief Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters during a briefing. (Baldor, 3/31)

The New York Times: More Pregnant Women Died And Stillbirths Increased Steeply During The Pandemic, Studies Show
More pregnant women died, experienced complications or delivered stillborn babies during the pandemic than in previous years, according to an analysis of 40 studies in 17 countries published on Wednesday in the journal Lancet Global Health. Pregnant women face a heightened risk of severe illness and death if infected with the coronavirus. But the researchers, in Turkey and the United Kingdom, wanted to assess collateral damage from the pandemic on pregnancy and delivery, and so excluded from their analysis those studies that focused only on pregnant women who were infected. (Mandavilli, 3/31)

Bloomberg: Pandemic Raised Risk For Pregnant Women And Their Babies 
Pregnant women and their babies are suffering worse outcomes during the Covid-19 pandemic, and researchers are sounding the alarm for immediate action to avoid rolling back decades of global investment in safe maternity care. Data from an analysis of 40 studies published during the last year across 17 countries found rates of stillbirth and maternal mortality increased by a third. Outcomes were worse in low- and middle-income countries, according to a report Wednesday in The Lancet medical journal. (Shah, 3/31)

US News: Maternal Mortality Spiked In U.S. Ahead Of COVID Pandemic
The rate of maternal mortality in the U.S. increased by more than 15% in 2019, a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows. The surge occurred as the country was on the brink of the COVID-19 pandemic and its disruption of traditional medical care. The full impact of the pandemic on maternal health outcomes remains to be seen, though some have feared it could worsen what's already considered a crisis. ... [Dr. Neel] Shah, who was not involved in the new study, adds that even if there wasn't a massive change in maternal mortality during the pandemic, COVID-19 disrupted the care and well-being of moms, including early on when support people were shut out of delivery rooms. (Ciruzzo, 4/1)

In other maternal health news —

NBC News: Generations Of Families Go To These New York Health Clinics. Now They May Close For Good.
The clinic is run by Public Health Solutions, one of its two sexual and reproductive health centers in Brooklyn. The clinics have become trusted providers for many. It's not uncommon for the staffers to treat generations of families. But now, the two clinics are set to lose nearly $1.8 million in state funding based on Gov. Andrew Cuomo's latest Fiscal Year 2022 budget proposal. Without the funding, the clinics would shutter, and 3,500 patients — primarily women of color living on low incomes — would have to go somewhere else. (Rinkunas, 4/1)

The Fayetteville Observer: Fayetteville Doula, Clinic Address Black Maternal Mortality Rate
[Angela Tatum] Malloy opened her clinic, Momma's Village, to fill that need.  "We did not have (Black doulas) back in 2018, we didn't have any and what I do when we don't have it, then I go and create it,"  she said. Momma's Village offers a variety of services such as breastfeeding support, doulas and mental health services. The clinic also focuses on postpartum care. A majority of the services are covered by insurance, including Medicaid, but for now the doula services are not covered. (Kyles, 4/1)

The Atlantic: Should Pregnant And Lactating People Get The Vaccine? 
One year ago, around the end of March, Carly Taylor received a positive result for two tests in two consecutive weeks. The first was a test for the new coronavirus. The second was a pregnancy test. Her daughter, Ophelia, arrived on December 22, within days of the public debut of the first COVID-19 vaccines in the United States. In the weeks after, Taylor, a 20-year-old former day-care worker who lives in Alabama—a state she describes as “a cesspit of anti-vax rhetoric”—waffled on whether to get her shots. No pregnant or lactating people had been enrolled in the clinical trials run by Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech; health agencies like the CDC and the World Health Organization were treading carefully, or even discouraging pregnant people from getting certain shots, in their official guidance. Taylor’s social-media feed had been flooded with speculation about the shots’ effects on fertility and infant health. Even her father and stepmother had doubts, citing QAnon conspiracy theories about the vaccine’s dubious contents. “At first,” she told me, “I thought, I don’t know.” (Wu, 3/31)

New Mexico In Depth: No One In This State Is Officially Tracking The Quality Of Care In Neonatal Centers
New Mexico parents worrying over the health of an extremely preterm baby have another reason to be concerned: Their state government provides almost no oversight of the care provided by neonatal intensive care units. Thirty-one states, including neighboring Arizona, Oklahoma, Texas and Utah, have laws or rules requiring oversight of neonatal intensive care hospitals, according to a 2020 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study. Some of these states make sure that hospitals provide care at the levels they claim to, and some periodically review data on patient admissions, transfers and outcomes to identify potential problems. (Furlow, 3/31)

The Center for Public Integrity: Federal Program To Bring Vaccine To Nursing Homes Missed Around Half Of Staff 
Janet Caldwell was looking forward to visiting her mother again as she did before the pandemic, with no dirty window or awkward outdoor booth between them. Her 87-year-old mom's nursing home in Arkansas had announced in mid-March it would allow family members to visit residents indoors — something it had not permitted for an entire year in the coronavirus pandemic. But a few days later, the nursing home called Caldwell back to say the visits were off. There was a COVID-19 outbreak among the staff, even though weeks before the workers at the facility had already been offered the coronavirus vaccine twice. (Essley Whyte, 3/31)

Modern Healthcare: CMS Delays Processing April Medicare Claims
CMS on Wednesday told Medicare administrative contractors not to process claims for care given on or after April 1, delaying some payments to providers. Although a congressional bill to end a 2% cut to all Medicare payments for the rest of the year is expected to pass the House later in April, the change is slated to go into effect on Thursday. The Senate approved the bill last week. If Congress ends the freeze on Medicare payment cuts, Medicare administrative contractors will reprocess paid claims automatically at the reduced rate. (Brady, 3/31)

From the states —

The Wall Street Journal: Cuomo, Lawmakers Weigh Forcing Nursing Homes To Spend On Patients
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and state lawmakers are close to agreement on a law that would require nursing homes to spend a set portion of their revenue on patient care, officials said, at a time when the governor’s office is under fire over how it handled Covid-19 in long-term-care facilities. The law is being discussed as part of talks around the roughly $200 billion state budget coming together this week at the state Capitol. Democrats who dominate the state Assembly and Senate have approved bills with the nursing-home spending mandate, and aides to the governor and Legislature said Wednesday they were close to a final agreement. (Vielkind and Ramey, 3/31)

Georgia Health News: Bills On Patient Visits, Nursing Home Cameras Fail To Clear Georgia General Assembly 
As the 2021 legislative session ended, Georgia lawmakers wound up not passing a bill to allow visits by a “legal representative’’ to patients in hospitals and nursing homes during a health emergency. The legislation ping-ponged Wednesday between the two chambers, with the House supporting its previous, stronger version, and the Senate holding firm to its own stripped-down revision. (Miller, 4/1)

Tampa Bay Times: Majority Of Florida’s Long-Term Care Staffers Refused Coronavirus Vaccine
In early January, the marketing team of The Glenview at Pelican Bay went into residents’ rooms to film an emotional video. Residents of the retirement community, wearing “Glenview Strong” T-shirts, shared words of encouragement in hopes of easing vaccine apprehension among the staff members. “Please everybody, take the two COVID shots,” said Jim Payne. (LeFever, 4/1)

NPR: COVID-19 Vaccine May Provide Relief For Long-Haulers 
An estimated 10% to 30% of people who get COVID-19 suffer from lingering symptoms of the disease, or what's known as "long COVID. "Judy Dodd, who lives in New York City, is one of them. She spent nearly a year plagued by headaches, shortness of breath, extreme fatigue and problems with smell, among other symptoms. She says she worried that this "slog through life" was going to be her new normal. Everything changed after she got her COVID-19 vaccine. (Stone, 3/31)

The New York Times: Virus Variants Can Infect Mice, Scientists Report
Bats, humans, monkeys, minks, big cats and big apes — the coronavirus can make a home in many different animals. But now the list of potential hosts has expanded to include mice, according to an unnerving new study. Infected rodents pose no immediate risk to people, even in cities like London and New York, where they are ubiquitous and unwelcome occupants of subway stations, basements and backyards. Still, the finding is worrying. Along with previous work, it suggests that new mutations are giving the virus the ability to replicate in a wider array of animal species, experts said. (Mandavilli, 3/31)

CIDRAP: Study Highlights Aerosols Generated By Exertional Respiratory Activity
New research published yesterday in Anaesthesia indicates that respiratory activities such as shouting, coughing, and deep breathing produce substantially more aerosols than non-invasive respiratory procedures, a finding the study authors say challenges current healthcare guidelines on protective equipment for COVID-19 and has implications beyond healthcare settings. In the study, researchers from Australia, Scotland, and England set out to measure the size, total number, and volume of all human aerosols exhaled during respiratory activities that mimic patterns during illness (including quiet breathing, talking, shouting, forced expirations, exercise, and coughing) and respiratory therapies commonly used in hospitalized patients with severe COVID-19 (high-flow nasal oxygen and non-invasive ventilation). To do so, they recruited 10 healthy volunteers to sit in a chamber with clean air and breathe directly into a cone. (3/31)

In other covid health news —

CNBC: How To Fly Home If You Test Positive For Covid
Even the most meticulously organized vacation can be derailed by a positive Covid test. Travelers may face unexpected quarantines — either in hotels or state-owned facilities — or substandard medical services. Others may be denied the ability to take commercial flights or, if negative tests are required to return, to get home at all. Travel insurance can help defray quarantine and medical costs incurred abroad. But for those who want to fly home fast, that isn’t good enough. (Buchanan Pitrelli, 4/1)

Modern Healthcare: Nearly 1 In 5 Americans Skipped Care Due To Cost Last Year
About 1 in 5 U.S. adults have skipped healthcare over the past year because they couldn't afford it, a new West Health and Gallup survey of 3,753 Americans conducted in mid-February found. Low-income earners were hit the hardest, with 35% relaying that they couldn't pay for care. (Kacik, 3/31)

Modern Healthcare: More Regulation Of Urgent-Care Industry Needed, Community Catalyst Report Argues
A new report calls attention to the lack of regulation surrounding urgent-care clinics—a popular source of COVID-19 tests during the pandemic—and implores states to boost their oversight. Not-for-profit consumer advocacy groups Community Catalyst and the National Health Law Program found that there's no way to ensure low-income patients are able to access and afford services at urgent-care clinics or retail health clinics. Most states don't license the facilities, and don't require them to serve uninsured patients or those with Medicaid. (Bannow, 3/31)

Modern Healthcare: City Of Hope Gets $50 Million Donation For Calif. Cancer Center
Cancer research and treatment center City of Hope received $50 million — the single largest philanthropic contribution to City of Hope Orange County — from the charitable arm of homebuilder Lennar Corporation. City of Hope said it will use the money from the Lennar Foundation to help continue building a cancer campus in Irvine, California, which is slated to open in 2022. (Gillespie, 3/31)

Stat: The Health Tech Tracker For The Second Quarter: 15 Pivotal Industry Events To Watch 
Securing a billion dollars of yearly funding was once considered a landmark achievement in health tech. But with the pandemic fueling a resurgence in interest for virtual care, those days are long gone. Since late last year, activity in the digital health sector has broken virtually every financial record, from funding to acquisitions and deals to go public. This quarter, which starts on Thursday, is expected to see the frenzied trend continue in lockstep with a flurry of industry conferences and events, all of which are currently slated to take place virtually. (4/1)

Stat: Trial Data Muddy Delcath's Path To Approval For Liver Tumor Device
Delcath Systems said Wednesday that its liver-tumor treatment device achieved the primary goal of a late-stage clinical trial, but questions about the strength of the data — and whether the results will satisfy regulators — caused the small company’s stock price to fall. The Delcath device, called Hepzato, consists of clamps, tubes, and a filter that isolate a patient’s liver from the rest of the bloodstream. Once the liver is blocked off, it is bathed in high doses of the chemotherapy melphalan to kill tumors. The Hepzato filter removes the melphalan from the patient before it can escape the liver, enter the bloodstream, and cause severe side effects or death. (Feuerstein, 3/31)

Modern Healthcare: Geisinger And Acadia Healthcare To Offer Behavioral Health Services In Joint Venture
Geisinger Health and Acadia Healthcare Co. have formed a joint venture to provide inpatient behavioral health services in central and northeastern Pennsylvania, the companies announced today. The organizations will invest close to $80 million to build two free-standing facilities in Moosic and Danville with plans to start serving adult and pediatric patients beginning in 2022 and 2023, respectively, according to a news release. The Danville location will be close to three Geisinger hospitals. Geisinger will consolidate its inpatient behavioral health services from Geisinger Medical Center, Geisinger Bloomsburg Hospital and Geisinger Community Medical Center. (3/31)

The Wire: At BGI, The Line Between Biotech And Beijing Is Increasingly Blurry
On Jan. 25, 2020, as the city of Wuhan headed into the world’s first Covid-19 lockdown, the Chinese billionaire Wang Jian arrived on one of the last incoming trains. Flanked by a small entourage of younger scientists, Wang exited the station wearing a mask, a light puffy jacket, and a backpack. Thousands were fleeing the river port metropolis. But Wang came ready to work. (Crane, 4/1)

Modern Healthcare: Spectrum Health In Outcomes-Based Deal With Medtronic
Integrated health system Spectrum Health has struck its first risk-based deal with medical device manufacturer Medtronic. Heart failure patients who receive a type of Medtronic pacemaker will have their progress tracked, including 30-hospital readmissions and other measures. Medtronic will reimburse Spectrum is the patient doesn't fare well. (Gillespie, 3/31)

CNN: Ayah Lundt: This Toddler Needs Zolgensma, A Drug That Costs $2.1 Million, To Save Her Life 
For the first few months of her life, Ayah Lundt was the picture of health. Born in January last year at a whopping 8.3 pounds, the bubbly baby girl with dark curls and bright brown eyes hit all her developmental milestones. By six months, she was crawling and trying new foods. Bananas and mushy broccoli were her favorites. Avocados, not so much. Then at nine months, her progress suddenly reversed. She could not lift her head while lying down, sit on her own or clap -- all things she'd excitedly done before. Her legs caved when she tried to crawl or stand. The key red flag came when she was unable to eat oatmeal with a spoon -- something she'd done numerous times. (Karimi, 3/31)

The New York Times: A ‘Game Changer’ For Patients With Esophageal Cancer
For decades, esophageal cancer has defied scientific attempts to discover a therapy that extends patients’ survival, year after year claiming the lives of such illustrious people as Humphrey Bogart, Christopher Hitchens and Ann Richards, the former governor of Texas. Now a large clinical trial offers hope, finding that a drug that unleashes the immune system to attack cancer cells can double the disease-free survival times in patients from 11 months to 22 months. The study was published on Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine. (Kolata, 3/31)

Axios: Wisconsin Supreme Court Strikes Down Statewide Mask Mandate 
Wisconsin's Supreme Court struck down Gov. Tony Evers' (D) statewide mask mandate on Wednesday by ruling against multiple emergency declarations made during the pandemic, AP reports. The court ruled that the governor overstepped his powers by issuing multiple emergency declarations for the pandemic, lasting longer than 60 days, without approval from the state legislature. The ruling invalidates the current mask mandate in the state, which was set to expire next Monday. (Rummier, 3/31)

Reuters: Wisconsin High Court Voids Governor's Mask Mandate, Settling Partisan Dispute
A divided Wisconsin Supreme Court on Wednesday struck down Governor Tony Evers’ mask mandate, saying he exceeded his authority and violated the separation of powers by reissuing emergency orders during the pandemic. In its 4-to-3 ruling, which voids a Feb. 4 face-covering order currently in effect, the court found that Evers effectively breached a statute that limits his emergency powers to 60 days without approval of the state legislature. (3/31)

Atlanta Journal Constitution: Georgia To Remove COVID Restrictions Despite Worries About New Surge
Gov. Brian Kemp outlined a plan Wednesday to start rolling back many of Georgia’s remaining coronavirus restrictions next week, even as President Joe Biden and health experts warn of a potential fourth surge of the pandemic if people let down their guard. The governor signed an executive order that as of April 8 ends a ban on large gatherings, eliminates shelter-in-place requirements for vulnerable populations, and pares down a lengthy list of safety guidelines that businesses such as bars, retail stores and entertainment venues are supposed to follow. (Bluestein, Trubey and Oliviero, 3/31)

Axios: Washington Nationals Player Tests Positive For COVID On Opening Day Eve 
On the eve of the MLB regular season's start, Washington Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo announced a player has tested positive for COVID-19, and four teammates and a staffer are in quarantine. Major League Baseball is still reeling from the impact of the coronavirus last season, when sponsor revenue plummeted by up to 60% and players' salary also fell, as the pandemic shortened the season. (Falconer, 3/31)

And in vaccination rollout news from the states —

Health News Florida: State Redistributes COVID Vaccine Doses From Local Sites To FEMA Locations
Florida’s four federally supported COVID-19 vaccination sites will stay open an additional four weeks after receiving extra doses from the state’s supply originally slated for county and local sites. The sites were expected to close April 28, but will now close on May 26. To keep these sites open, the sites will utilize state vaccine allocations, the Florida Division of Emergency Management said. (Mayer, 3/31)

The Baltimore Sun: Missteps Marked Maryland’s COVID Vaccine Rollout, Experts Say: ‘We Have To Be Willing To Try Different Things’ 
Vickie Shepherd showed up for a COVID-19 vaccination appointment, only to be turned away when she got there. She booked another, then canceled it because she didn’t want to drive in the dark. But finally, Shepherd found a time slot that stuck. Now the 68-year-old Waldorf woman said she is waiting for more information about her second dose appointment, which she said wasn’t scheduled at the vaccination clinic last month. (Miller and Mann, 4/1)

The Atlantic: Why D.C. Is Failing At The Vaccination Game 
Washington’s effort to quickly vaccinate the population against COVID-19 is a success just about everywhere except its own backyard. President Joe Biden pledged to administer 100 million vaccine doses within his first 100 days. After surpassing that goal with 41 days to spare, Biden doubled his pledge to 200 million doses. The CDC projects that 70 percent of the U.S. population will be vaccinated by summer, probably the minimum threshold to achieve herd immunity. The process is going so well that the Biden administration has started fretting about what to do with an anticipated vaccine glut. That’s the best possible problem to have. (Noah, 3/31)

AP: Panel Advances Bills Ending Religious Exemption For Vaccines
A key Connecticut legislative committee on Wednesday advanced retooled legislation that scraps a long-standing state religious exemption that many parents have been using over the past decade to avoid having their children vaccinated, while still enabling them to attend public school. The latest version includes a new provision requiring health insurance companies to cover the cost of at least a 20-minute consultation between the health care provider and the parent or guardian. There’s also language that proponents said creates a clearer path for medical exemptions, which will remain available, including the creation of a new medical exemption certificate that physicians would fill out. (Haigh, 3/31)

KHN: In California, Blue Shield’s Vaccination Takeover Fixes What Wasn’t Broken
In California’s Mendocino County, public health officials and community clinics say they have hit their vaccination stride. Despite the county’s remoteness and its largely rural population spread among wooded mountains, rugged coastline and idyllic vineyards, about 40% of eligible adults have received at least one dose of a covid-19 vaccine. But now they face renewed turbulence as health insurer Blue Shield of California takes over the state’s vaccine program with the mission of speeding up vaccinations. (Bluth, 4/1)

AP: Medics Despair As France’s ‘Third Way’ Virus Strategy Flails
As France battles a new virus surge that many believe was avoidable, intensive care nurse Stephanie Sannier manages her stress and sorrow by climbing into her car after a 12-hour shift, blasting music and singing as loud as she can. “It allows me to breathe,” she says, “and to cry.” People with COVID-19 occupy all the beds in her ICU ward in President Emmanuel Macron’s hometown hospital in the medieval northern city of Amiens. Three have died in the past three days. The vast medical complex is turning away critically ill patients from smaller towns nearby for lack of space. (Charlton, 4/1)

Axios: France To Close Schools For 3 Weeks, Impose Domestic Travel Ban As COVID Surges 
France is requiring schools nationwide to close for three weeks and is imposing a domestic travel ban to help control the "accelerating" coronavirus pandemic, President Emmanuel Macron said Wednesday. It's the third lockdown for the country since the pandemic began, and a departure from the recent regional approach. The move comes as Europe battles a third wave of the coronavirus, driven in part by more transmissible variants. (3/31)

The New York Times: Italy Pushes Back As Health Care Workers Shun Covid Vaccines
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Mario Draghi tested the legal limits of his government’s ability to address the problem by issuing a decree requiring that workers in health care facilities be vaccinated. It also allowed hospital employers to suspend without pay any health care workers who refuse to do so. Some legal analysts have said that requiring Covid-19 inoculation for health workers could violate Italy’s privacy laws, and that firing or forcing any who decline it to take unpaid leave could be unconstitutional because of a specific article that protects people who refuse health treatments. (Horowitz, 3/31)

Reuters: Only 1 In 5 With COVID Symptoms In UK Seek Test: Study
Only one person in five in Britain with COVID-19 symptoms has sought or would seek a test, according to a study which found a link between people on low pay and poor adherence to the government’s rules. Eighteen percent of participants in the study published in the British Medical Journal said they got or would get a test after showing symptoms and 42.5% would fully adhere to isolation rules, according to the study. “This is such an important part of any government’s pandemic control measures,” one of the reports authors - Susan Michie, a University College London health psychology professor - told BBC Radio. (4/1)

The Wall Street Journal: Lessons From The Calculated Risk Behind U.K.’s Covid-19 Vaccine Rollout
The U.K.’s bold call to delay giving people a second dose of a Covid-19 vaccine has put it out in front in the race to inoculate the world against the disease. Behind that decision: a group of 16 scientists who advocated a controversial move to overrule some vaccine manufacturers’ guidelines in order to get more first doses to more people. The gamble appears to have paid off, with incoming data pointing to durable protection against falling ill after just one vaccine dose. But while some countries, such as Canada, have followed the U.K.’s lead, others including the U.S. are refusing, saying to do so could pose a risk to public health. (Colchester and Douglas, 4/1)

Reuters: Poles Scramble To Sign Up For COVID-19 Jabs After Surprise Policy Shift
Poles rushed to sign up for COVID-19 vaccinations on Thursday morning after the government unexpectedly opened registrations for people aged over 40 overnight, in a sudden shift that led to so many applications that an online system crashed. Over 2 million Poles have so far received both shots of a vaccine, but the prime minister’s top aide, who has been put in charge of the vaccination programme, said slower rates of registration among older Poles meant the government had decided to widen access. (4/1)

Reuters: India Opens Up Immunisation To More People, Vaccine Exports To Dwindle
India opened up its coronavirus inoculation programme to people above 45 on Thursday as infections surge, which will delay vaccine exports from the world’s biggest maker of the drug. The country, with the most number of reported COVID-19 cases after the United States and Brazil, has so far injected 64 million doses and exported nearly as many. This has raised criticism at home as India’s per-capita vaccination figure is much lower than many countries. The government has previously said that people over 45 can register for inoculation from April 1. (4/1)

Bloomberg: Global Covid Cases Rapidly Rise As The World Fears A Fourth Wave 
With vaccines spreading through rich countries at gathering speed and lockdown restrictions weakening with the spring sunshine, it’s tempting to believe that the long nightmare of Covid-19 is finally ending. In the U.K., 58% of the adult population has received at least one dose of vaccine. In the U.S., President Joe Biden has doubled an original goal of administering 100 million shots in his first 100 days in office, which would bring the total to 200 million by the end of April. On Google, the search term “after Covid” has been getting more interest than “Covid symptoms” for the past month, suggesting the world is thinking more about what life will be like when things return to normal. (David Fickling, 3/31)

The New York Times: Are We Way Too Timid In The Way We Fight Covid-19? 
Here’s a question I’ve been mulling in recent months: Is Alex Tabarrok right? Are people dying because our coronavirus response is far too conservative? I don’t mean conservative in the politicized, left-right sense. Tabarrok, an economist at George Mason University and a blogger at Marginal Revolution, is a libertarian, and I am very much not. But over the past year, he has emerged as a relentless critic of America’s coronavirus response, in ways that left me feeling like a Burkean in our conversations. (Ezra Klein, 4/1)

Los Angeles Times: Ending COVID For Good Will Be A War. U.S. Should Lead Fight 
The steadily increasing pace of COVID-19 vaccinations in the U.S. — more than 2.5 million shots a day at the moment — has given hope to many Americans that the pandemic will be over in a few months and life can return to normal. Sorry to burst that bubble, but even if enough Americans are vaccinated to reach herd immunity, the pandemic won’t be over until every nation on Earth has equal protection. And under current projections, that won’t happen for three years from now, maybe longer. (4/1)

CNN: America's Next Covid-19 Culture War Is Here 
It's America's next Covid-19 culture war. Growing numbers of businesses, hospitality industries, and even sports teams are considering requiring proof of vaccination for customers, once the world begins to open up. For both patrons and staff, such a system might offer peace of mind -- and could stop a cruise voyage around the Caribbean, for example, from turning into a floating super spreader. (Stephen Collinson and Richard Greene, 3/31)

Bay Area News Group: COVID-19 Recovery Requires Restoring Public Health Investment 
One year after Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an unprecedented statewide stay-at-home order in response to COVID-19, optimism for California’s recovery is growing. It’s been a rough year, which was many years in the making. Our state’s COVID-19 experience confirmed the worst fears of public health officials who have long warned California was ill-prepared for such a crisis. We did not have to endure such incredible suffering and loss, and it did not have to be inflicted so unequally onto communities of color. (Colleen Chawla and Dr. Karen Relucio, 3/30)

Also —

The Washington Post: Dysfunctional Websites Are Making It Harder For Americans To Get Vaccinated. Here’s How To Fix That.
The covid-19 vaccine supply is improving and vaccine confidence is growing, but there is a weak link in the U.S. distribution chain: the websites. To make appointments to get vaccinated, millions of Americans are using sites that are often dysfunctional. This is not only slowing vaccination rates but also deterring some eligible Americans from getting the shot altogether. (Drew Altman, 3/31)

Chicago Tribune: 7 Concerns About The COVID-19 Vaccines, Explained 
Why do people refuse to get vaccinated for COVID-19? Those who do fall into two basic categories: “anti-vaxxers” who are opposed to vaccines on general principles, and the “vaccine hesitant” who believe they have valid reasons to avoid vaccination. Among the two groups there is a mutual bond of shared skepticism about authority as well as a strong inclination toward personal liberty. This desire for personal liberty makes their vaccine reluctance all the more ironic, since the perceived curtailments of personal freedoms — in the form of lockdowns and mask mandates — will end much sooner once most or all of the population is vaccinated. (Cory Franklin and Robert Weinstein, 3/31)

Dallas Morning News: A Voluntary COVID Vaccine Passport Is Not A Slippery Slope To Tyranny
As COVID-19 vaccinations spread across the land, vaccine hesitancy seems to be waning. Curiously, many who have resisted the shots are conservatives, constituting pushback against the availability made possible by the president they very likely voted for. But there’s no Trump-flavored Operation Warp Speed singing the praises of the next phase of vaccine policy, the COVID vaccine “passports,” and pockets of resistance are getting loud. But why? If the vaccines are earning trust after months of rollout, what could be the objections to technology enabling vaccinated people to gather with greater security in environments offering the certainty of others similarly protected? (Mark Davis, 4/1)

LA Daily News: California Needs To Reform Nurse Licensing Requirements
Nurses shouldn’t need to alert a state legislator to get a license to help people. For the last year, nurses, doctors, and other healthcare professionals have been on the frontlines fighting a once-in-a-century virus sweeping the United States. This pandemic has required Americans to make sacrifices big and small to stop the spread. And it has exacerbated shortages in the medical community. (Karin A. Lips, 3/31)

Stat: Medicine Needs To Listen To Asian American, Pacific Islander Trainees
The shocking shooting rampage in Atlanta targeting Asian spas, followed not long after by an attack on a 65-year-old Asian American woman in Midtown Manhattan this week, felt to us like the culmination of a year of increased hatred, a year of Asian American and Pacific Islander people clamoring for recognition when our suffering wasn’t believed. As Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) medical students, we have had front-row seats in seeing the hikes in anti-Asian racism this past year. While many health care workers across the country were being called “heroes” for treating people with Covid-19, AAPI health care workers were often vilified. (Jesper Ke, Kate E. Lee and Hueyjong Shih, 3/31)

Scientific American: We Learned The Wrong Lessons From The Tuskegee "Experiment"
Rarely a day goes by without national news stories about vaccine hesitancy: How many people say they definitely will or won’t get a shot and how many are in the ‘maybe’ box. No account is complete without a particular focus on Black Americans who--despite contracting, being made severely ill and dying from coronavirus at higher rates than other racial and ethnic groups-- express the most reluctance to being injected with something developed to save their lives. When asked to explain why so many Black people simply don’t trust the Federal government with their health, the most common answer is “because of what happened at Tuskegee.” Reference to that seminal event has become shorthand for past medical betrayal, abuse and exploitation at the highest levels. (Melba Newsome, 3/31)

Los Angeles Times: Access To Autopsy Reports Protects Public Health And Safety 
Today’s intense social justice and political climate has made access more important than ever, particularly in communities of color where trust in our institutions is running low. When we can’t tell readers what’s going on, confidence slips even more. Yet there is a disturbing trend in California — and elsewhere — to keep public information from reporters. The latest battleground involves autopsy reports. Assemblywoman Jacqui Irwin (D-Thousand Oaks) has introduced a bill — AB 268 — that would severely restrict news media access to public records created by medical examiners and coroners. The bill, which seeks to ensure the privacy of the deceased and their families at the expense of the public’s right to know, is problematic on several levels. (Regina Brown Wilson, 4/1)

Stat: MAPGuide: A Tool To Help Improve Health-Related Public-Private Partnership Agreements 
Whenever a new infectious outbreak threatens global health, pharmaceutical companies, governments, international organizations, and philanthropies scramble to develop new vaccines. But intellectual property, price, and other access provisions can get in the way. Building on the lessons of the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa and propelled by the urgent need for Covid-19 vaccines, the private and public sectors have made enormous progress in responding to pressing public health needs. New partnerships such as the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and COVAX have advanced the development and procurement of vaccines for the greater global good. ( Julia Barnes-Weise and Kendall Hoyt, 4/1)