CNBC: Pfizer Covid Vaccine: FDA Clears Use In Kids Ages 12 To 15
The Food and Drug Administration on Monday approved Pfizer and BioNTech’s request to allow their Covid-19 vaccine to be given to kids ages 12 to 15 on an emergency use basis, allowing states to get middle school students vaccinated before the fall. The U.S. agency granting use of the shot in adolescents will also accelerate the nation’s efforts to drive down infections, public health officials and infectious disease experts say. (Lovelace Jr., 5/10)

Reuters: U.S. Children Ages 12 To 15 Could Begin COVID-19 Vaccinations Thursday 
U.S. President Joe Biden has asked states to make the vaccine available to younger adolescents immediately. Biden issued a statement hailing the authorization as "a promising development in our fight against the virus." "If you are a parent who wants to protect your child, or a teenager who is interested in getting vaccinated, today’s decision is a step closer to that goal," he said. (Erman, 5/11)

Politico: FDA Authorizes Pfizer Vaccine For Kids 12 To 15 
[Acting FDA Commissioner Janet] Woodcock and the FDA's top vaccine regulator, Peter] Marks, noted state-level regulations may affect where young teens are able to receive the Pfizer vaccine. Pharmacies may not be an option in some states, for example, depending on how a given state defines a pharmacist's scope of practice.

Also —

The Wall Street Journal: Kids And The Covid-19 Vaccine: Is It Safe And When Can They Get It? 
Another key factor is whether a state has enough vaccine doses available to expand access. Supplies have increased considerably since Covid-19 vaccines began rolling out. “I would be surprised if it were more than a week or two before kids start getting shots, and in theory, once the emergency use authorization is given, kids could get vaccinated the very next day,” said pediatrician Robert Frenck, director of the Center For Vaccine Research at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, which helped test the Pfizer-BioNTech shot in adolescents. (Whelan, 5/10)

Salt Lake Tribune: State Health Officials Say No Link Between Blood Clots And Coronavirus Vaccine Authorized For Teenagers
State health officials are reiterating that the only coronavirus vaccine authorized for children is not known to cause blood clots, after a Utah mom said her teenage son developed clots in his brain after being vaccinated. ABC 4 reported this weekend that the teen was hospitalized with blood clots in his brain a little over a week after he was vaccinated. But the teen’s mother said she didn’t know whether the vaccine caused the blood clots — and it is unlikely the boy, 17, received the vaccine that has been linked to blood clots. (Alberty, 5/11)

Axios: Parents A Crucial Decider In Adolescent Vaccine Rollout 
About 17 million teens aged 12 to 15 will be now eligible for the Pfizer COVID vaccine in the coming days — if health officials can get parents on board. Parents are split nearly 50-50 on whether they will allow their children to get vaccinated as soon as possible, according to Axios/Ipsos data. (Fernandez, 5/11)

In news from Moderna about a vaccine for children —

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Emory University Taking Part In A Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine Study For Children
At present, adults ages 18 and up are eligible to receive the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines under emergency use authorization granted by the FDA, while the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine before Monday had been authorized for ages 16 and up. Moderna intends to enroll more than 6,000 pediatric participants in the United States and Canada in its KidCOVE clinical trials. Children are expected to begin enrolling at Emory Children’s Center in coming days, the university said. The study contains two parts. In part one, all participants receive two doses of the vaccine to evaluate the best dose for each age group. In the second part, a placebo-controlled study will determine safety and efficacy. The research is anticipated to last several months. (Stirgus, 5/10)

Anchorage Daily News: Alaska Parents Can Now Schedule COVID-19 Vaccine Appointments For Children 12 And Up, Officials Say
State public-health officials on Monday began allowing Alaska parents to sign up their children 12 and up for COVID-19 vaccine appointments, which will begin as early as Wednesday. That move is in response to a Monday decision by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to grant an Emergency Use Authorization to drug company Pfizer for use of its new vaccine for people ages 12 through 15. A federal advisory committee to the CDC is scheduled to review the data from the FDA and give its final recommendations early in the day on Wednesday, said Dr. Anne Zink, Alaska’s chief medical officer, during a call with reporters. The CDC will then offer their recommendation on Wednesday, too. (Berman, 5/10)

Burlington Free Press: Vermont Department Of Health Expects To Move Quickly To Vaccinate 12 to 15 Year Olds
When children 12 and older get approved for the COVID-19 vaccine, the roll out should happen quickly according the Vermont Department of Health, and parents can get ready now. A meeting this Wednesday by the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices is expected to make recommendations for this age group. “So, if you have a child in this group, start planning ahead by creating an account on our website. Or if you already have one, you can add your child to your own account as a dependent," Health Commissioner Mark Levine said at Friday's press conference. "Then you’ll be prepared to make their appointment when we open registration.” (Barton, 5/10)

Want some crawfish, a lottery ticket or Girl Scout cookies? Get a jab —

New Orleans Times-Picayune: New Orleans Giving Away A Pound Of Free Crawfish With Each COVID Vaccine At This Event
Louisiana food can spark envy in people living elsewhere. So can the state’s easy access to COVID-19 vaccine. The latest push to encourage more people to join the fight against the pandemic combines the two with free crawfish on offer to the public at a Thursday vaccination event in New Orleans. People who show up for the free vaccine at 4035 Washington Ave. on May 13, from 4-7 p.m., will get a free pound of boiled crawfish. (McNulty, 5/10)

AP: Kentucky Lottery Offers Free Tickets For COVID Vaccinations
Kentuckians aged 18 and up who get their first or second dose at a participating Kroger or Walmart can now receive a coupon for a Kentucky lottery ticket. Some 225,000 coupons are available for the Kentucky Cash Ball through May 21, which has a top prize of $225,000. Customers have until June 1 to redeem their coupons. (5/11)

Indianapolis Star: Indiana Vaccine Clinics Will Hand Out Girl Scout Cookies
First it was T-shirts. Now it's Girl Scout cookies. State health officials announced Monday that anyone who gets vaccinated at specially designated sites will receive a box of Girl Scout cookies along with the jab. Late last week the Indiana Department of Health and Indianapolis Motor Speedway unveiled special commemorative T-shirts to be given to people who are vaccinated at the Speedway this month. The white T-shirt proclaims, "Got My COVID-19 shot" under a picture of two checkered flags. (Rudavsky, 5/10)

In other news on the vaccine rollout —

Axios: Montana To Give COVID-19 Vaccines To Canadian Truck Drivers 
Montana's government announced in statement Friday that it will be offering free COVID-19 vaccines to Canadian truck drivers from Alberta. Starting Monday, about 2,000 Albertan truckers who regularly drive goods into the U.S. will be able to get vaccinated at a stop in Conrad, Montana, per a press release from the Alberta government. (Saric, 5/10)

The Oregonian: Portland Area’s 3 Largest COVID-19 Mass Vaccination Sites Will Close In June, Due To Slowing Demand 
The operators of three of the state’s largest COVID-19 mass vaccination sites announced Monday that they plan to close in June due to shrinking demand. The Oregon Convention Center inoculation site will shutter June 19, and the drive-thru sites at Portland International Airport’s Red Economy parking lot and Hillsboro Stadium will cease operations June 25. (Green, 5/10)

Los Angeles Times: L.A. County May Hit COVID-19 Herd Immunity By End Of July
Los Angeles County could reach herd immunity from the coronavirus among adults and the oldest teenagers by mid- to late July, another milestone that underscores the region’s rapid recovery from the pandemic. Herd immunity, sometimes referred to as community immunity, occurs when enough people have been inoculated or have obtained natural immunity to protect the larger population against the virus. Experts had previously expressed concern that waning demand for the COVID-19 vaccines and uneven vaccination rates could make it hard to reach that goal. (Lin II and Smith, 5/10)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin COVID Herd Immunity Hard Without Evangelicals' Acceptance
Among people who definitely will not, or probably will not, get the vaccine, a March Pew Research Center poll showed a gap of 9 percentage points between white evangelical Protestants and the next closest religious demographic. Another March poll, this one by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, found 40% of white evangelical Protestants saying they likely won't be vaccinated. The following month, a study by the Public Religion Research Institute found 28% of white evangelical Protestants considered themselves hesitant about getting the vaccine, and another 26% flat-out refuse. (Carson, 5/10)

KHN: What The Slowing Vaccine Rates Mean For One Rural Montana County 
The covid vaccination operation at the Flathead County fairgrounds can dole out 1,000 doses in seven hours. But demand has plummeted recently, down to fewer than 70 requests for the shots a day. So, at the start of May, the northwestern Montana county dropped its mass vaccination offerings from three to two clinics a week. Though most of those eligible in the county haven’t yet gotten a dose, during the final Thursday clinic on April 29, few cars pulled up and nurses had time to chat between patients. (Houghton, 5/11)

CNN: These Are The States With The Highest And Lowest Vaccination Rates 
About 58% of American adults have received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine -- but the rates differ depending on where you look. At the top of the list is Vermont, where 74.5% of adults have had at least one vaccine dose. Every state in the Northeast has given at least one dose to over 60% of its adult residents, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. At the bottom is Mississippi, where 41.5% of adults have received at least one vaccine dose. Similarly, every state on its border has vaccinated less than half of its adult residents. (Levenson, 5/10)

WLRN 91.3 FM: COVID Vaccines A Money-Maker For Doctors, Pharmacies, Supermarkets 
Think your COVID vaccine was free? It wasn’t. Although you didn’t have to pay anything for the shots, the fees paid by insurance companies and the federal government put as much as $150 million in the pockets of Florida pharmacies, grocery stores and private medical practices. Few begrudge these companies the chance to make money for providing a life-saving service during an international health crisis. But a look at doses provided to Publix, Walgreens, CVS and private doctors shows that the COVID vaccine business provided a big source of revenue after a difficult year. (Fleshler and Goodman, 5/10)

Crain's Detroit Business: COVID-19 Vaccines Give Healthcare Businesses A Shot At New Customers
Beaumont Health likes to present itself in television and radio advertisements and in media interviews about how it has treated the most patients with COVID-19 and vaccinated the most people in Michigan against coronavirus. But lately Beaumont's advertisements may be coming very close to the line that separates educational efforts to encourage people to getting vaccines to business marketing campaigns intended to generate customers and loyalty, improve quality reputation and drive higher revenue. For example, Beaumont has had a TV ad out since early March with a nurse touting its vaccination center and declaring Beaumont hospitals have treated more COVID-19 patients than any other hospital system in Michigan. (Greene, 5/10)

The Wall Street Journal: Novavax Covid-19 Vaccine Faces Delay 
Novavax Inc. has delayed plans to seek regulatory clearances for its Covid-19 vaccine, while shortages in raw materials are slowing the ramp-up in production of doses, the company said. The delays may set back efforts to increase vaccinations in developing countries, which have been dealing with limited doses of currently available shots and are looking forward to Novavax’s. (Loftus, 5/10)

Reuters: Novavax Delays Timelines For COVID-19 Vaccine Regulatory Filings, Production
Novavax said it does not expect to hit its production target of 150 million shots per month until the fourth quarter of 2021, later than its previous forecast of sometime in the third quarter. It had also previously said it could see U.S. regulatory authorization as soon as May. (O'donnell, 5/11)

USA Today: Novavax CEO: COVID Vaccine Safety And Effectiveness Data Coming Soon
Novavax plans to release data about its COVID-19 vaccine's safety and effectiveness maybe as soon as this month, but production issues are slowing the process, its president and CEO Stanley Erck said Monday. "All of the questions about 'whether' or 'if' are behind us now. I think we've solved those problems," Erck told USA TODAY. "It's a matter of time to get there." In its quarterly report, released Monday, the company said it revised its anticipated capacity revised downward to 100 million doses per month by the end of the third quarter, with 150 million doses per month predicted by the fourth quarter. (Weintraub, 5/10)

In other news from vaccine developers —

CBS 17: COVID-19 Vaccine In Development At Duke, Could Be Used Alone Or As Booster Shot
Duke University is developing a vaccine to stay ahead of COVID-19 variants. This shot might also stop new viruses from jumping from animals to humans like the coronavirus did. The combination of three new findings may make it the most promising vaccine yet. (Retana, 5/10)

Axios: BioNTech: "No Evidence" That Adapting Vaccine To Variants Is Necessary 
BioNTech said Monday there is currently "no evidence" to support the need to adapt the company's coronavirus vaccine, developed with Pfizer, to be more effective against emerging variants. Some health experts fear that contagious new variants could be more resistant against COVID-19 vaccines, prolonging the pandemic for years to come. (Rummier, 5/10)

AP: Vaccine Maker BioNTech Says No Need To Waive Patents
The head of German pharmaceutical company BioNTech said Monday that there is no need to waive patents on coronavirus vaccines because manufacturers will be able to produce enough shots to supply the world over the coming year. Ugur Sahin, the chief executive of BioNTech, rejected the U.S.-backed proposal to temporarily lift some intellectual property rights for vaccines in order to boost global supply during the ongoing pandemic. (Jordans, 5/10)

USA Today: Biden To Talk With Six Governors About Ways To Get More People Vaccinated Against COVID-19
President Joe Biden will talk with three Democratic and three Republican governors Tuesday about innovative ways to get more people vaccinated, USA TODAY has learned. Biden will meet virtually with the leaders of Ohio, Utah, Massachusetts, Maine, Minnesota and New Mexico to share best practices as the administration moves toward its goal of getting 70% of adults at least partially vaccinated by July 4. More than half of all residents in Massachusetts, Maine and New Mexico have gotten at least one shot, ranking those states in the top 10. Ohio and Utah are in the bottom half of states for vaccination rates. (Groppe, 5/10)

The Boston Globe: Baker To Meet With President Biden, Other Governors On Vaccination Effort
Governor Charlie Baker and some of his fellow governors will meet Tuesday with President Biden to discuss the ongoing drive to vaccinate as many Americans as possible against COVID-19. “It’s basically to talk about how to reach and deliver vaccines to either folks that are part of what we would call the hesitant community or folks who are part of communities that are just hard to reach and need more help to get vaccinated,” Baker said at a media briefing Monday at Manet Community Health Center’s Quincy vaccination site. He said he believed the virtual event would include a total of six governors. (Andersen, 5/10)

The New York Times: The U.S. Confronts A Virus ‘That Doesn’t Understand Borders’
Given the leadership role that Mr. Biden has said he is committed to reasserting on the world stage, the administration now confronts a daunting reality: that no person anywhere is safe until the virus is controlled everywhere. And with vaccine access heavily concentrated in the richest countries, a global solution still appears far off. ... The stakes are high, and not just for the billions of people around the globe who remain unvaccinated. Epidemiologists agree that until the virus is contained everywhere, dangerous variants will continue to develop in infected areas. This will threaten people in all nations, including those that have been widely vaccinated. (Russonello, 5/10)

CNN: Biden Administration Is Open To Sharing Coronavirus Vaccines With North Korea
The Biden administration is open to sharing coronavirus vaccines and other humanitarian assistance to help North Korea combat the deadly pandemic, according to two sources familiar with internal discussions. Administration officials believe that the North Koreans won't be ready to engage with the US until the threat from the pandemic has passed, which is one reason why sharing vaccines could grease the wheels for initial diplomatic engagement, current and former officials said. (Atwood, 5/11)

USA Today: McDonald's Working With Biden Administration To Raise COVID Vaccine Awareness Through Billboard, New Coffee Cups
McDonald’s is teaming up with the Biden administration to raise COVID-19 vaccine awareness and help customers find vaccine appointments near them. The fast-food giant announced Tuesday it will promote the White House and Department of Health and Human Services’ “We Can Do This” campaign on its Time Square billboard later this month and on McCafe coffee cups and delivery orders at all U.S. restaurants starting in July. (Tyko, 5/11)

The Washington Post: Long-Haul Covid-19 Renews Push To Expand Palliative Care 
The pandemic, which has left an estimated tens of thousands of Americans with long-term debilitating symptoms, has prompted a renewed push to provide full palliative care services to seriously ill patients in their homes. Palliative and hospice organizations are in talks with the Biden administration to create such a benefit as a demonstration project in Medicare, the health plan for older Americans. If successful, they hope it would become a permanent benefit in Medicare and then be offered under Medicaid, the federal-state program that covers lower-income Americans, and commercial insurance plans, as well. (Ollove, 5/10)

In other news from the White House —

Politico: Becerra’s Cautious Border Play Rankles White House 
Xavier Becerra spent decades urging congressional leaders to support liberalized legal immigration. But he's sounding a different note as Health secretary, responsible for caring for upwards of 21,000 migrant children. Becerra has argued for maintaining the historically low Trump-era cap on refugee admissions to the U.S., according to two people with knowledge of the matter, for fear of stretching the already-thin resources of his department’s refugee office. (Cancryn, 5/10)

Vox: The Supreme Court Faces An Important Showdown Over Abortion This Week
The Supreme Court has been sitting on a potentially very significant abortion case for the last two months, one that the Court’s rules say it should dismiss. We’re likely to find out this week whether the Court will dismiss this case, however, and that decision could tell us a great deal about how fast the Court plans to move in rolling back abortion rights. In February, about a month after President Joe Biden took office, the Supreme Court announced that it would hear three consolidated cases challenging a Trump administration policy targeting abortion clinics. (Millhiser, 5/11)

The Hill: Biden: Workers Can't Turn Down Job And Get Benefits
President Biden announced Monday that his administration would affirm that workers cannot turn down a "suitable" job they are offered and continue to take federal unemployment benefits. “We’re going to make it clear that anyone who is collecting unemployment who is offered a suitable job must take the job or lose their unemployment benefits,” Biden said in remarks on the economy from the East Room, noting there would be “a few COVID-19-related exceptions” to the guidance. (Chalfant, 5/10)

The New York Times: Biden Defends Unemployment Benefits, Provided Workers Accept Job Offers 
President Biden ordered the Labor Department on Monday to ensure that unemployed Americans cannot draw enhanced federal jobless benefits if they turn down a suitable job offer, even as he rejected claims by Republicans that his weekly unemployment bonus is undermining efforts to get millions of Americans back to work. Stung from a weekend of criticism over a disappointing April jobs report, Mr. Biden struck a defiant tone, seeking to make clear that he expects workers to return to jobs if they are available, while defending his signature economic policy effort thus far and blaming corporate America, in part, for not doing more to entice people to go back to work. (Tankersley and Rappeport, 5/10)

NBC News: 'Ill-Informed And Cruel': Growing Number Of GOP-Led States Move To End Covid Unemployment Benefits
A growing number of Republican-led states are moving to end the extra $300 a week in Covid-19 pandemic-related unemployment benefits, arguing that the relief is discouraging U.S. workers from rejoining the labor force. "It has become clear to me that we cannot have a full economic recovery until we get the thousands of available jobs in our state filled," Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves, a Republican, said in a statement Monday, adding that the benefit will end next month. "The purpose of unemployment benefits is to temporarily assist Mississippians who are unemployed through no fault of their own." (Clark, 5/10)

Axios: Alabama Governor Orders End To Federal COVID Unemployment Benefits 
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R) on Monday ordered the state to terminate all participation in federally funded pandemic unemployment compensation programs. Ivey, like South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster (R), cited labor shortages, but some experts say it's the job climate and not unemployment benefits that is determining people's return to work. (Chen, 5/10)

The Hill: Biden Announces 1 Million Have Enrolled In Special ObamaCare Sign-Up Period 
President Biden announced on Tuesday that one million people have enrolled so far in Affordable Care Act coverage during a special sign-up period his administration created. Biden reopened ObamaCare enrollment upon taking office in January, a step that the Trump administration had declined to take after the COVID-19 pandemic began. (Sullivan, 5/11)

CNN: ACA: 1 Million People Sign Up For Coverage After Biden Reopens Exchange
One million people have signed up for Affordable Care Act coverage on the federal exchange during the special enrollment period that President Joe Biden launched in mid-February, the administration announced Tuesday. "Since it became law more than a decade ago, the Affordable Care Act has been a lifeline for millions of Americans. The pandemic has demonstrated how badly it is needed, and how critical it is that we continue to improve upon it," Biden said. "Through this opportunity for special enrollment, we have made enormous progress in expanding access to health insurance." (Luhby, 5/11)

Fox Business: Biden Says 1 Million Americans Signed Up For Health Coverage During Special Enrollment
President Biden announced Tuesday that one million Americans signed up for health insurance through HealthCare.gov during a special enrollment period that started on Feb. 15. The White House issued a statement that also credited Biden’s American Rescue Plan for lowering insurance premiums for nine million Americans. "This milestone reinforces what we know to be true, there is a real demand for quality, affordable health care across the United States," Biden said. The opportunity to sign up for the Affordable Care Act plans will be available until Aug. 15. (DeMarche, 5/11)

And prices have dropped —

Yahoo Finance: Considering An Obamacare Plan? Premiums Have Fallen 25% Since February
Since the American Rescue Plan was passed in March, premiums have tumbled significantly. New insurance enrollees registering for a plan from Feb. 15 to March could expect to pay monthly premiums of $117.But once April hit and the tax credits were factored in, premiums dropped to $86, according to HHS. (Forberg, 5/10)

And in insurance news from Kansas —

The Topeka Capital-Journal: Legislature Passes Expansion Of Short-Term Health Insurance
Kansas lawmakers on Friday passed out Senate Bill 29, which could potentially expand usage of short-term health insurance plans. "Short-term limited duration" insurance policies are intended as stop-gap measures, intended to provide low-cost insurance for folks in between jobs or nearing retirement. Due to this nature, short-term plans also provide less coverage than normal health insurance. Currently in Kansas, such plans can only last either six or 12 months with one renewal allowed. (Wu, 5/10)

Stat: CDC’S Slow, Cautious Messaging On Covid-19 Seems Out Of Step With The Moment, Public Health Experts Say
Nearly a year ago, amid concerns about how to prevent transmission of the virus causing Covid-19, scientists were beginning to conclude that rigorous disinfection of surfaces — say, fogging them or deep-cleaning with bleach — was overkill. Academics were warning that the risk of so-called fomite transmission was wildly overblown. In the fall, research from Israel and Italy found that the virus couldn’t even be cultured from surfaces in hospital infectious disease units. By February of this year, the editorial board of Nature was openly urging the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to update its guidelines. The CDC did so — last month. (Florko, 5/11)

Los Angeles Times: COVID Vaccines Hold Their Own Against Coronavirus Variants
Confidence is growing that COVID-19 vaccines authorized for use in the U.S. are holding their own against the coronavirus variants now in circulation. “Everything we’ve seen with the variants should provide marked reassurance, as far as the protection that is afforded by vaccines — particularly the vaccines that we have in the United States,” said Dr. Eric Topol, director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute in La Jolla. The upbeat view is accompanied by a growing sense that California is emerging from the worst of the pandemic. For weeks, California has reported one of the lowest per-capita daily coronavirus case counts of any state in the U.S. (Lin II, 5/10)

The Wall Street Journal: New Reported U.S. Cases Under 40,000 For Third Day 
Newly reported coronavirus cases in the U.S. stayed under 40,000 for the third consecutive day, as Covid-19 vaccinations appeared set to be expanded to younger people. The U.S. reported more than 35,000 new cases for Monday, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University that was published early Tuesday. Monday’s figure was lower than the week-earlier tally of 50,560 but was up from Sunday’s total of 21,392, though about a third of states don’t report new cases or deaths on the weekends. (Hall, 5/11)

WUSF 89.7: Florida COVID Positivity Rate Over 5% For First Time In Three Days 
The positivity rate for new cases of COVID-19 jumped to more than 5 percent Sunday for the first time in three days. The rate, 5.3 percent, was the highest positivity rate in nearly a week. The rate was 4.67% on Saturday, the lowest since October. Keeping the rate low is considered a good indicator of whether the number of new cases is slowing down. (Newborn, 5/10)

And in covid research news —

CIDRAP: Ibuprofen, Other NSAIDs Not Tied To Worse COVID Illness, Death
Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as ibuprofen and naproxen don't worsen illness or cause death in hospitalized COVID-19 patients, a new study involving more than 72,000 people in the United Kingdom suggests. (Van Beusekom, 5/10)

CIDRAP: Mild COVID-19 Not Associated With Heart Damage, Study Says
Mild COVID-19 infection was not linked to longer-term heart damage, according to a JACC Cardiovascular Imaging study late last week. University College London researchers matched 74 SARS-CoV-2–seropositive and 75 seronegative healthcare workers, comparing cardiovascular health (6 months post-diagnosis for the COVID group). Cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging and blood tests showed no difference between groups regarding inflammation, scarring, aortic stiffness, serum biomarkers, or the left ventricle size, muscle mass, or ability. (5/10)

CIDRAP: Cardiovascular Function Linked With COVID-19 Mortality Risk
Impaired phase 1 ejection fraction (EF1) —an indicator of potential heart damage—is associated with almost a fivefold increased COVID-19 mortality risk, according to a study published in Hypertension today. (5/10)

Reuters: Non-Hospitalised COVID Patients Have Low Risk Of Serious Long-Term Effects -Study
Non-hospitalised COVID-19 patients have a low risk of serious long-term effects, but they report more visits to general practitioners following infection, according to a study published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal. "The absolute risk of severe post-acute complications after SARS-CoV-2 infection not requiring hospital admission is low. However, increases in visits to general practitioners and outpatient hospital visits could indicate COVID-19 sequelae," the study found. (5/10)

Politico: Cuomo Says New York Public Colleges Will Require Students To Get Vaccines
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced on Monday that the State University of New York and the City University of New York will require Covid-19 vaccinations for students returning this fall, assuming the federal government gives full approval to the vaccines. “If you must have a vaccine, get it now if you have to get it anyway," Cuomo said. "I also encourage private schools to do the same thing. Let’s make a global statement — you cannot go back to school in September unless you have a vaccine. That will be a major motivation to get the vaccine." Cuomo added that the requirement would be contingent on standard approval of the vaccine, which is being distributed under emergency authorization from the federal government. (Bocanegra and Young, 5/10)

The Oregonian: University Of Oregon, Western Oregon University Will Require Proof Of COVID-19 Vaccination 
The University of Oregon and Western Oregon University on Monday joined the growing list of colleges and universities that will require COVID-19 vaccinations for students and employees this fall. The two schools said vaccination would be required for anyone attending classes or working on campus. They join Oregon State University, Portland State University and a handful of private schools that previously announced similar requirements. All will allow exemptions for medical, religious or philosophical reasons. (Njus, 5/10)

In other news about reopenings and covid restrictions —

The New York Times: See Reopening Plans And Mask Mandates For All 50 States 
The New York Times is tracking coronavirus restrictions at the state level, including what businesses are allowed to open and whether officials require masks. A state is considered fully reopened once it has lifted all specific restrictions on businesses statewide, though masking and social distancing rules and limits on gatherings may remain in effect. Stricter local orders may also be in place, and local conditions may not always reflect state requirements. This page will be updated regularly. (5/10)

AP: Michigan Hits 55% Vaccine Rate, Will End Remote Work Rule
Michigan on Monday surpassed a 55% COVID-19 vaccination rate, reaching a milestone that will lead to the automatic easing of in-person work restrictions in two weeks. Employers currently must prohibit onsite work if employees’ jobs can feasibly be done remotely. The state anticipates lifting the rule on May 24, said COVID-19 workplace safety director Sean Egan. (Eggert, 5/11)

ABC News: DC Aims For Full Reopening, With Masks, By June 11 
Washington, D.C., is emerging from its pandemic quarantine. With COVID-19 numbers dropping, officials in the nation’s capital have announced a reopening timeline that would see all indoor capacity limits eliminated by early June, but with mask requirements still in place. (Khalil, 5/10)

WMFE: Orange County Disbands COVID-19 Strike Teams 
Orange County has disbanded the strike teams it was sending out to make sure businesses were in compliance with COVID-19 restrictions. The county says the decision is in response to Gov. Ron DeSantis’ executive order suspending local government mandates. The five teams of three people each included a code compliance officer, a health department representative and a county fire marshal office representative. (Peddie, 5/10)

Also —

San Francisco Chronicle: S.F. Schools Report Handful Of Coronavirus Cases, None Among Vaccinated People
Twenty cases of the coronavirus have been recorded among the 20,000 staffers and students who have returned to San Francisco elementary school campuses since the district reopened for in-person learning three weeks ago, health officials said Monday. All the cases reported by the school district were related to community transmission in unvaccinated people, according to city officials. “In other words, zero cases were related to in-school transmission at SFUSD,” the city Department of Public Health said in a statement. “There were no cases among vaccinated teachers and staff” in the school district. (Vaziri, 5/10)

KHN: Masks At The Campfire: Summer Camps For Kids With Medical Needs Adapt To Covid
Olivia Klassen’s face lights up when she talks about summer camp. She loves to do the scavenger hunt with her camp friends. She also loves paddleboarding, swimming in the lake and “kitchen raids.” But what she loves most is being surrounded by kids who, just like her, have Type 1 diabetes — which allows her to focus on having fun instead of being different. “Camp is a top priority for me,” Klassen, 13, said of Camp Ho Mita Koda. “I don’t really feel the same without camp. That’s my second family, my home away from home. Being there makes me feel like a normal kid, because everyone is doing the same things I do.” (West, 5/11)

Modern Healthcare: House Introduces COVID Liability Bill For Healthcare Providers
A bipartisan group of members of the U.S. House of Representatives has re-introduced a piece of legislation that aims to protect healthcare workers from lawsuits related to the pandemic. Under the Coronavirus Provider Protection Act, healthcare professionals would not be liable for harm caused by care or withholding services due to the pandemic. This includes providers practicing outside of their normal area or with a lack of resources "attributable to the pandemic." "If communities shut down physicians offices or reschedule elective surgeries, that causes adverse health outcomes in patients beyond a physician's control," said Dr. Susan Bailey, president of the American Medical Association. (Gellman, 5/10)

In other health care industry news —

Modern Healthcare: Tennessee Moves To Reform Healthcare Certificate-Of-Need Law
Tennessee's Legislature on Friday passed a sweeping bill that exempts more health providers from certificate-of-need requirements. Under the bill, mental health hospitals, and hospital-run outpatient treatment centers for opioid addiction would no longer need to apply for CONs to open. Existing hospitals could also increase their number of beds, but not add new types of bed capacity for services not already performed. Hospitals also would be prohibited from adding additional beds at satellite locations. (Gillespie, 5/10)

360Dx: Labs Preparing For Increase In POC, Homest Testing Post-Pandemic
COVID-19 has driven an uptick in healthcare delivery approaches like telemedicine and point-of-care, home, and direct-to-consumer testing, a shift that some observers believe could continue to accelerate even after the pandemic is over. It is a trend that has a potential downside for traditional labs as increased POC and DTC testing could cut into their business. It is also, though, a pattern that fits with the industry's move even pre-pandemic toward more patient-centered models of testing and sample collection and one that some in the business suggest could ultimately expand the overall demand for testing. (Bonislawski, 5/10)

Modern Healthcare: University Of Miami Settles Medicare Fraud Claims For $22 Million
The University of Miami will pay $22 million to settle allegations that it billed Medicare for unnecessary lab tests, the Justice Department announced Monday. The government backed whistleblowers' claims that UM converted multiple physician offices to hospital-owned outpatient departments and billed at the higher rate without giving beneficiaries the required notice. The university's electronic health record trigged a preset protocol of tests for every new kidney transplant patient, which was driven by financial motive rather than patient care, investigators alleged. UM allegedly coerced Jackson Memorial Hospital to purchase pre-transplant laboratory tests at inflated rates in exchange for referrals, which led to a separate $1.1 million settlement with Jackson Memorial. (Kacik, 5/10)

CNN: Childhood Obesity, Blood Pressure, Cholesterol Linked To Poor Brain Function In 30s+ 
Having cardiovascular risk factors from childhood to adulthood is linked to poor cognitive performance in a person's 30s, 40s and 50s, according to new research that followed children over three decades. Researchers said the study was the first to highlight the impact of lifelong cardiovascular risk factors on the brain at midlife. (LaMotte, 5/10)

In other science and research developments —

NPR: Blind Patients Hope Landmark Gene-Editing Experiment Will Restore Their Vision
Carlene Knight would love to do things that most people take for granted, such as read books, drive a car, ride a bike, gaze at animals in a zoo and watch movies. She also longs to see expressions on people's faces. "To be able to see my granddaughter especially — my granddaughter's face," said Knight, 54, who lives outside Portland, Ore. "It would be huge." Michael Kalberer yearns to be able to read a computer screen so he could get back to work as a social worker. He also hopes to one day watch his nieces and nephews play soccer instead of just listening to them, and move around in the world without help. But that's not all. (Stein, 5/10)

Stat: Reawakened Immune Cells Attack Cells Tied To Diseases Of Aging
Scientists have started to test whether natural killer, or NK, cells can be trained to go after hard-to-cure blood cancers in human patients. But making these sentinels of the innate immune system a potential boon to human health spans might be simpler: Rather than needing to be genetically engineered or primed with synthetic antibodies, they just need to be turned on. (Molteni, 5/10)

Boston Globe: Flagship Startup Laronde Hopes To Use 'Endless RNA' To Make New Drugs
In 2017, scientists at Flagship Pioneering were exploring different kinds of ribonucleic acid, or RNA, focusing on an unusual form of the molecule that had a circular shape, rather than a linear strand with two ends. “When I saw that, I got excited,” said Avak Kahvejian, a general partner at the Cambridge venture capital firm. “I thought it was a way the cell was making really robust, stable RNAs, which are usually very unstable.” (Gardizy, 5/10)

Stat: Inside Pear's Ambitious Plan To Become The Leader In Digital Therapeutics
In the last six months, Pear Therapeutics has raised $100 million, inked a bevy of new deals, and launched a sweeping study of its app to treat substance use disorders. It has also seen a high-profile study on its digital treatment for schizophrenia fail. The frenetic pace of developments is a reflection of the ambitions at Pear, an eight-year-old health tech company which gained prominence by winning Food and Drug Administration clearance for prescription digital therapeutics. (Aguilar, 5/11)

CBS News: 95-Year-Old Cecil Lockhart Becomes Oldest Organ Donor In U.S. History 
Cecil Lockhart, a 95-year-old, became the oldest organ donor in United States history after he died last week. Lockhart, of Welch, West Virginia died on May 4, and his liver was donated to a woman in her sixties, CBS Pittsburgh reports. (5/11)

The Washington Post: Air Pollution From Farms Leads To 17,900 U.S. Deaths Per Year, Study Finds 
The smell of hog feces was overwhelming, Elsie Herring said. The breezes that wafted from the hog farm next to her mother’s Duplin County, N.C., home carried hazardous gases: methane, ammonia, hydrogen sulfide. “The odor is so offensive that we start gagging, we start coughing,” she told a congressional committee in November 2019. Herring, who died last week, said she and other residents developed headaches, breathing problems and heart conditions from the fumes. (Kaplan, 5/10)

The Baltimore Sun: ‘Silver Linings In This Mess Of A Pandemic’: Telecommuting Allows Black Women In Maryland To Build Wealth 
At first, Minyanna Farmer thought the LinkedIn message from a recruiter was spam. She couldn’t imagine she could work from home and increase her salary by 80%. But when it turned out to be real, the Forest Park resident didn’t think twice, accepting the offer to become senior manager of relationship marketing for BETMGM, an online gaming and sports betting website in New Jersey, and giving her a six-figure salary — a first in her career. (Williams IV, 5/11)

CNBC: Here Are The 2022 Health Savings Account Contribution Limits
Americans will be able to stash away more money in health savings accounts next year. Individuals with self-only coverage will be able to save up to $3,650 in an HSA in 2022, the IRS announced Monday. Those with family coverage will be able to save $7,300. (Iacurci, 5/10)

USA Today: Oprah, Prince Harry Launch Mental Health Series Featuring Lady Gaga, Glenn Close: 'We Are All Human'
Lady Gaga and Glenn Close are some of the major participants taking part in the Oprah Winfrey and Prince Harry series on mental health, now slated to stream this month on Apple TV+. "The Me You Can’t See," the just-revealed title for the documentary series, will begin airing on May 21, according to a release. Winfrey and Prince Harry are co-creators and executive producers for the project that was announced in 2019. The series features high-profile guests and mental health experts, along with profiling people from across the globe "living with the challenges of mental health issues and addressing their emotional well-being" the release said. (Alexander, 5/10)

KHN: How Schools Can Help Kids Heal After The Pandemic’s Uncertainty 
Kai Humphrey, 9, has been learning from home for more than a year. He badly misses his Washington, D.C., elementary school, along with his friends and the bustle of the classroom. “I will be the first person ever to have every single person in the world as my friend,” he said on a recent Zoom call, his sandy-brown hair hanging down to his shoulder blades. From Kai, this kind of proclamation doesn’t feel like bragging, more like exuberant kindness. (Turner and Herman, 5/10)

The Baltimore Sun: Bel Air Teen’s Documentary About Living With Disabilities Set To Serve As Teaching Tool Across The World 
Faith Guilbault does not want pity. She just wants friendship. The 17-year-old from Bel Air has not let cerebral palsy stop her from being a featured model during New York Fashion Week. It has not prevented her from regularly riding horses, playing sled hockey or even skydiving. The cheerful go-getter will allow the world to get to know more about the realities of her daily life with disabilities through a documentary, “Faith’s World,” which she directed. (Williams IV, 5/11)

In sports news —

CBS News: Golfer Makes History As First Person With Down Syndrome To Compete In College Championship 
Amy Bockerstette has earned her nickname Amazing Amy. She is the first person with Down syndrome to compete in a national collegiate athletic championship. Just by teeing off on Monday, Bockerstette is a winner. "I like meeting new friends at the tournaments, I have fun," she said about why she loves the game. (O'Donnell, 5/10)

AP: NBA Ref Diagnosed With Cancer, Will Miss Rest Of Season
Veteran referee Tony Brown, who worked his first NBA Finals last season, has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and will miss the rest of the season. The NBA announced Monday that the 54-year-old has been undergoing treatment since his diagnosis last month. (5/11)

Health News Florida: DeSantis Signs Bill Aimed At Preventing Youth Vaping 
Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday signed a bill that will regulate the sale of electronic cigarettes. The law will create a state regulatory framework for the sale of electronic cigarettes. Among other things, the bill (SB 1080), which will take effect Oct. 1, also will raise the state’s legal age to vape and smoke tobacco to 21, a threshold already established in federal law. (Saunders, 5/10)

Cincinnati Enquirer: Ohio Might Ax Smaller Health Departments; Officials Call It A 'gut Punch'
After battling COVID-19, a proposal from Ohio lawmakers to potentially eliminate health departments that serve smaller cities felt like a gut punch to those still on the front lines of the pandemic. At least, that's how Beth Bickford, executive director of the Association of Ohio Health Commissioners, sees it. Language in Ohio's two-year budget would require cities with fewer than 50,000 residents to study whether their health department should merge with the county health department. The change could consolidate as many as 18 of the state's 113 health departments. (Balmert, 5/10)

Dallas Morning News: Texas House Advances Bill Targeting ‘Critical Race Theory’ Over Objections From Education, Civics And Business Groups
A bill that educators say could have a chilling effect on Texas classrooms and efforts to have honest conversations about race is barreling ahead in the Legislature. The House voted 81-52 early Tuesday morning to give initial approval to a bill that supporters describe as an effort to keep “critical race theory” from being taught in schools. It’s a move that would bring Texas’ Republican-controlled Legislature in line with some other conservative states, though House Democrats attempted to derail the bill with pointed questions about the legislation’s intent and potential harm. (Richman, 5/11)

The Baltimore Sun: Govans Neighborhood Fights Crematorium From Community Fixture Vaughn Greene Funeral Services 
“No Human Crematorium” reads the yellow lawn sign in front of Cindy Camp’s Northeast Baltimore home in Govans, a predominantly Black neighborhood. Camp opposes a plan by Vaughn Greene Funeral Services to establish a crematorium on York Road. She said she’s worried the crematorium will pose health risks to her family — including her grandson, who has severe asthma, her mother and her brother. (Louis, 5/10)

San Francisco Chronicle: S.F. Mayor Breed Proposes New 'Wellness' Teams To Shift More Mental-Health Calls Away From Police
Expanding on what officials called a promising start to San Francisco’s new police-free mental health crisis teams, Mayor London Breed is proposing a sister division that would respond to lower-level “wellness” calls that traditionally have been handled by armed officers. The street wellness response teams would represent the latest in the city’s efforts to dial back police presence from calls for service that don’t involve criminal activity — particularly those involving mental health and homelessness. “We are continuing our work to make a significant change to improve how we effectively serve people in need on our streets,” Breed said in a statement. (Cassidy, 5/10)

KHN: Riding Herd On Mental Health In Colorado Ranching Country
The yellow-and-green facade of Patty Ann’s Cafe stands out on the main street of this ranching community just 25 miles from the Denver suburbs. Before the pandemic, the cafe was a place for ranchers to gather for meals and to swap stories. “Some people would call it almost like a conference room,” said Lance Wheeler, a local rancher and regular at the cafe. “There are some guys that, if you drive by Patty Ann’s at a certain time of day, their car or truck will always be there on certain days.” (Ramachandran and Imadali, 5/11)

North Carolina Health News: How Will NC Spend Its Opioid Settlement Money? 
A windfall of cash could be headed to North Carolina if multi-state settlement agreements are reached with opioid distributors and manufacturers for their alleged roles in fueling the opioid epidemic. The total of these settlements with drug distributors Cardinal, McKesson, and AmerisourceBergen, along with opioid manufacturers Johnson & Johnson and Purdue Pharma, could be as high as $26 billion. North Carolina could receive as much as $850 million over an 18-year period. (Knopf, 5/11)

Bloomberg: England Reports Zero Covid Deaths For First Time In 14 Months
England reported no deaths from Covid-19 in its latest daily update, a milestone that highlights the effectiveness of the U.K.’s vaccine program in stopping the spread of the disease. Sunday was the first day without any recorded deaths in England since the pandemic took hold in March of last year. More than 112,000 people have died since then, with the first wave in Spring 2020 followed later in the year by the emergence of a highly transmissible U.K. variant of the coronavirus. (Callanan, 5/11)

AP: Hugs To Be Allowed In England As Part Of Lockdown Easing
In less than a week, people in England will be able to give friends and family a hug for the first time since restrictions were put in place in March last year at the outset of the coronavirus pandemic. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson confirmed Monday that he has given the go-ahead for that much-missed human contact from May 17 as part of the next round of lockdown easing following a sharp fall in new coronavirus infections. Other easing measures included the reopening of pubs and restaurants indoors as well as cinemas and hotels, and allowing two households to meet up inside a home. (Pylas, 5/10)

Reuters: EU Says Willing To Give AstraZeneca More Time For Vaccine Deliveries 
The European Union is willing to see its COVID-19 vaccine contract with AstraZeneca fulfilled three months later than agreed, providing the company delivers 120 million doses by the end of June, a lawyer representing the bloc said on Tuesday. The lawyer was speaking in a Belgian court as proceedings in a second legal case brought by the European Commission against AstraZeneca over its delayed delivery of vaccines got underway. (Guarascio, 5/11)

AP: Clock Is Ticking For EU Vaccine Certificates As Summer Looms
As strict lockdowns are loosened across Europe and many EU citizens dream about holidays in the sun, the 27-nation bloc has yet to agree on how to quickly implement a virus certificate scheme to boost summer travel and tourism. European affairs ministers gathered Tuesday in Brussels to assess progress in discussions with European lawmakers. A deal between the Parliament and EU countries is required in May to ensure the system will be up and running by the end of June, but several sticking points remain. (Petrequin, 5/11)

CBS News: Distracted Nurse Gives Woman 6 Doses Of COVID Vaccine In A Single Shot 
A 23-year-old Italian woman who was mistakenly given six doses of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine all at once was released from a hospital on Monday without having suffered any apparent adverse reactions, local health authorities said. The incident occurred on Sunday morning at the Noa Hospital in Massa, in Tuscany.   (Matranga, 5/10)

In other global covid news —

Bloomberg: New Outbreaks Threaten Status Of Places That Had Virus Contained
Taiwan and Singapore are reimposing pandemic restrictions as the return of a small number of virus cases challenges what have been some of the most successful places at containing and snuffing out Covid-19. In Taiwan, indoor gatherings will be limited to fewer than 100 people and outdoor events capped at 500 for the next four weeks, Taiwan’s Centers for Disease Control said in a statement Tuesday. It’s the first time the island has tightened anti-Covid measures since it began easing curbs mid-last year, and comes after the government reported seven new cases in the community and four in travelers from overseas. (Wang and Ellis, 5/11)

Bloomberg: Seychelles, Most-Vaccinated Nation, Says Active Covid Cases Surge
Seychelles, which has vaccinated more of its population against Covid-19 than any other country, saw active cases more than double in the week to May 7, raising concerns that inoculation is not helping turn the tide in some places. The World Health Organization said vaccine failure couldn’t be determined without a detailed assessment and that it was working on evaluating the situation. Kate O’Brien, director of the the WHO’s department of immunization, vaccines and biologicals, told a briefing Monday that the body was in direct communication with Seychelles and that a detailed assessment was needed looking at factors like strains of the virus and the severity of cases. (Sguazzin and Bhuckory, 5/10)

NPR: Brazilian President Allocates More Than $1 Billion To Produce COVID-19 Vaccines
Brazil, one of the worst-hit countries in the world by the pandemic, is directing more than $1 billion toward the production and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, the country's far-right president announced Monday, Reuters reported. President Jair Bolsonaro, who has criticized lockdown measures and has told Brazilians to "stop whining" about the deadly virus, said about $1.05 billion will be spent on the inoculation effort. The announcement comes amid an investigation into Bolsonaro's role in his government's handling of the coronavirus crisis, which has killed more than 421,000 people to date — the second highest number of fatalities in the world. (Romo, 5/11)

AP: Hong Kong Won't Mandate Vaccine For Foreign Domestic Workers
Hong Kong officials dropped a plan to mandate foreign domestic workers be vaccinated against the coronavirus, after hearing international criticism the move would be discriminatory. Most of Hong Kong’s approximately 370,000 domestic workers come from Indonesia and the Philippines, both severely impacted by the pandemic. (5/11)

AP: Vaccine Deserts: Some Countries Have No COVID-19 Jabs At All
At the small hospital where Dr. Oumaima Djarma works in Chad’s capital, there are no debates over which coronavirus vaccine is the best. There are simply no vaccines at all. Not even for the doctors and nurses like her, who care for COVID-19 patients in Chad, one of the least-developed nations in the world where about one third of the country is engulfed by the Sahara desert. (Larson, 5/9)

AP: Czechs Light Nearly 30,000 Candles To Honor COVID-19 Victims 
Czechs lit nearly 30,000 candles at Prague Castle, the seat of the presidency, on Monday evening to pay their respects to the pandemic’s victims. The hard-hit European Union nation of 10.7 million people has registered at least 29,711 virus-related deaths. (Janicek, 5/10)

In other developments from China and the Netherlands —

The New York Times: China's Census Shows Population Barely Grew In 10 Years As Births Plummet 
Only 12 million babies were born in China last year, according to Ning Jizhe, the head of China’s National Bureau of Statistics, the fourth year in a row that births have fallen in the country. That makes it the lowest official number of births since 1961, when a widespread famine caused by Communist Party policies killed millions of people, and only 11.8 million babies were born. (Wee, 5/10)

Stat: Dutch Advisory Group Says Novartis Should Cut Zolgensma Price By Half
In a challenge to Novartis (NVS), a Dutch advisory body has recommended that the government not cover the cost of the Zolgensma gene therapy unless the company cuts the price in half and agrees that it will not get paid without a so-called pay-for-performance arrangement. The National Health Care Institute, known as Zorginstituut Nederland, explained in a statement that Zolgensma, which is used to treat a type of spinal muscular atrophy that is generally fatal in children, is a “promising drug. But the results of the research do not yet show that convincingly and do not justify the high price that the manufacturer asks for it.” (Silverman, 5/10)

Fox News: WHO Elevates Indian Coronavirus Strain To 'Variant Of Concern'
A top official at the World Health Organization on Monday announced the agency is elevating a coronavirus variant first identified in India from a 'variant to interest,' to a 'variant to concern,' citing early studies suggesting increased transmissibility. Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO's COVID-19 technical lead, said during a press conference that the B.1.617 variant appeared to spread more readily in preliminary studies released ahead of peer review. But there are still many unknowns around the impact on diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines, she noted. (Rivas, 5/10)

Reuters: India’s Seven-Day COVID Average At New High, WHO Issues Warning On Strain 
India’s coronavirus crisis showed scant sign of easing on Tuesday, with a seven-day average of new cases at a record high and international health authorities warning the country’s variant of the virus poses a global concern. India’s daily coronavirus cases rose by 329,942, while deaths from the disease rose by 3,876, according to the health ministry. India’s total coronavirus infections are now at 22.99 million, while total fatalities rose to 249,992. (5/11)

CNBC: India Covid Explainer: What We Know About The B.1.617 Variant
India is grappling with a devastating second wave of coronavirus that’s far more fatal than the first — and scientists say the surge could be partially due to mutating strains. The World Health Organization just reclassified the B.1.617 strain, which was first identified in India, as a “variant of concern” — which indicates that the variant has the “highest public health implications.” (Ng, 5/11)

Reuters: ‘Black Fungus’ Complication Adds To India’s COVID Woes
The Indian government has told doctors to look out for signs of mucormycosis or “black fungus” in COVID-19 patients as hospitals report a rise in cases of the rare but potentially fatal infection. The state-run Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said at the weekend that doctors treating COVID-19 patients, diabetics and those with compromised immune systems should watch for early symptoms including sinus pain or nasal blockage on one side of the face, one-sided headache, swelling or numbness, toothache and loosening of teeth. (Mishra and Deka, 5/10)

Also —

CNN: India Covid: Second Wave Ravages Village Without Hospitals Or Even Doctors To Fight It 
In the remote Indian village of Chogath, local pharmacist Jeetu has become the only source of medical help for people sick with Covid-19. The country's second wave has devastated major cities and regional hubs, with hospitals running out of oxygen and medicine. But in rural states and far-flung villages, doctors and clinics are in even shorter supply -- leaving residents to fight for their lives without access to care. (Mitra, Kiley, Talreja, Joseph and Yeung, 5/11)

AP: Across Faiths, US Volunteers Mobilize For India Crisis
Volunteers at Hindu temples, Muslim groups and Sikh relief organizations across the United States are mobilizing to support India as the world’s second most populous country struggles to handle a devastating surge of the coronavirus. From coast to coast, faith groups tied to the Indian diaspora have collected hundreds of oxygen concentrators and electrical transformers to ship to overwhelmed hospitals, raised millions for everything from food to firewood for funeral pyres and gathered in prayer for spiritual support for the Asian nation. (Henao and Wardarski, 5/11)

NPR: What The Navajo Nation And Ireland Can Teach Rich Countries About Generosity In A Pandemic
Last year, the Irish people raised nearly $2 million dollars for the Navajo and Hopi Nations so they could protect themselves from the pandemic. At the time, the infection rate in the Navajo community – 2,304 cases per 100,000 — was the highest in the country and nearly 40% higher than even the epicenter of New York City. It was a show of thanks to Native Americans for a $170 gift sent by the Choctaw to the Irish people at the height of the potato famine in 1847. When vaccines became available, Navajo Nation leaders made a concerted effort to obtain vaccines from the U.S. government and get shots in arms quickly to ensure that their residents were protected from the virus. The results have been tremendous, with nearly 90% of the eligible population receiving at least a first dose. (Sriram Shamasunder and Priti Krishtel, 5/10)

Scientific American: It's Time To Reevaluate How We Talk About COVID Risk 
I have never had as much suicidal ideation as I’ve had over the last year and a half, during this pandemic. I have not been in any particular physical danger. Thinking about ending one’s life can be an understandable coping mechanism to survive adverse conditions, such as living alone through a pandemic and going without touch or indoor companionship for months on end. I have a good therapist, and my ideas about suicide never progressed beyond thoughts towards making any plans to actually go through with it. The “logic” to these thoughts happened in a cycle like this. (Steven W. Thrasher, 5/19)

The New York Times: Is The U.S. Learning All The Wrong Lessons From Covid-19? 
Michael Lewis’s new book, “The Premonition,” is about one of the most important questions of this moment: Why, despite having the most money, the brightest minds and the some of the most robust public health infrastructure in the world, did the United States fail so miserably at handling the Covid-19 pandemic? And what could we have done differently? The villain of Lewis’s story is not Donald Trump; it’s the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The argument laced through the book is that the C.D.C. was too passive, too unwilling to act on uncertain information, too afraid of making mistakes, too interested in its public image. What we needed was earlier shutdowns, frank public messaging, a more decentralized testing regime, a public health bureaucracy more willing to stand up to the president. (Michael Lewis and Ezra Klein, 5/11)

USA Today: Babies Deserve Healthy Starts. Add Home Visits To Biden Families Plan.
President Joe Biden just released his American Families Plan focused on strengthening the country’s social safety net and investing in our children. Surprisingly, the $1.8 trillion plan seems to be missing one essential component: scaling up successful, evidence-based and thus far dreadfully underfunded early childhood interventions for low-income families. In particular, it should include programs that provide regular home visits, such as nurse-family partnerships, for low-income families beginning at birth and going up to one or two years of age. (Dr. Ezekiel J. Emanuel and Amaya Diana, 5/10)

The Baltimore Sun: What Science Says Works In Addressing Overdose And Substance Use — And What Doesn’t 
Following Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby’s recent announcement that she will no longer prosecute drug possession, there has been a great deal of debate in The Baltimore Sun about how society should grapple with the persistent and escalating public health crisis of substance use and overdose. As public health researchers, we welcome these discussions as an opportunity to critically evaluate the available data and guide evidence-based policy decisions that could save lives. Unfortunately, some of the claims made in letters to the editor and elsewhere are not grounded in scientific evidence, and risk ignoring historical and contemporary lessons from the U.S. and beyond. (Saba Rouhani and Susan G. Sherman, 5/10

NBC News: Patrick J. Kennedy: Mental Health Care Must Be Treated Like Health Care. My Friend Steve Winter Showed Us Why.
I had the pleasure of getting to know Steve Winter in 2007 when, as one of the sponsors of the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act, I helped organize congressional field hearings around the country. The bill — now a law — was designed to require insurers to cover treatment for mental health and substance use disorders no more restrictively than they covered treatment for other illnesses, such as diabetes and cancer. Steve, who was then 45, traveled to several of those hearings at his own expense to tell his story to help reform what he called "shortcomings of the mental health system" — the very shortcomings that failed his mother and countless other Americans. (Patrick J. Kennedy, former U.S Representative, 5/10)

Stat: Idealism Inspired Post-Pandemic Health Care Careers: Caveat Emptor
Health care workers facing notoriously difficult work lives and high levels of burnout were some of the brightest stars in the U.S. over the past year. Stories about how they went above and beyond to deliver care to their patients during the Covid-19 pandemic — providing drive-thru and virtual primary care; triaging patients in parking lots and tents; reusing personal protective equipment while working to save lives in emergency rooms and intensive care units — made lasting impressions on Americans of all ages. (Timothy Hoff, 5/11)

Scientific American: The Forgotten History Of The World's First Trans Clinic 
The first gender affirmation surgeries took place in 1920s, at a facility which employed transgender technicians and nurses, and which was headed by a gay Jewish man. The forgotten history of the institute, and its fall to Nazis bent on the euthanasia of homosexuals and transgender people, offers us both hope—and a cautionary tale—in the face of oppressive anti-trans legislation in the United States. (Brandy Shillace, 5/10)

Chicago Tribune: A Free-Market Alternative To Government-Controlled Health Care 
For the better part of the past three decades, supporters of free-market public policy solutions have fought against one attempt after another by liberals, progressives and socialists to expand even further the overwhelming role of government in health care. In response to “Hillarycare” in the early 1990s, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders’ demand for “Medicare for All,” and President Joe Biden’s recent call for an expansion of the Affordable Care Act and the creation of a “public option,” advocates for limited government have largely played defense when it comes to health care reform. They have rightly and often effectively pointed out the dangers of expansive (and expensive) government programs, but they have failed to offer and properly communicate to the public a large-scale health care reform plan of their own that would tackle all the problems with the current system. (Justin Haskins and S. T. Karnick, 5/10)