The Guardian: Biden Announces ‘Month Of Action’ To Get 70% Of Americans Vaccinated
Joe Biden has announced a national “month of action” to try to get at least 70% of Americans vaccinated against coronavirus before the Fourth of July holiday. Touting the progress already made, and dangling the promise of a “summer of freedom” from Covid-19 to those reluctant to get a shot, the US president urged citizens, especially those under 40, to play a role in the “wartime effort” to defeat the virus. (Luscombe and Greve, 6/2)

CNN: 'Get A Shot And Have A Beer': Biden's New Covid Strategy Woos Vaccine Skeptics 
This Bud's for you, and anyone else ready to roll up their sleeve to put the pandemic behind them. The White House's new partnership with Anheuser-Busch offering free beers if the country reaches its goal of getting 70% of adults at least one Covid-19 vaccine shot by July 4 -- almost Prohibition in reverse -- is more than a gimmick. (Collinson, 6/3)

Axios: Anheuser-Busch To Offer Biggest Beer Giveaway Ever If U.S. Reaches July 4 Vaccine Goal 
Anheuser-Busch announced Wednesday it is partnering with the White House to offer its "biggest beer giveaway ever" if the U.S. reaches President Biden's goal of having 70% of adults partially vaccinated by July 4. The campaign to "buy America’s next round of beer" comes as states, businesses and employers have sought creative ways to get shots in arms, as vaccination rates have dropped since April. (Allassan, 6/2)

USA Today: Biden Teams Up With Black Barbershops, Salons To Boost COVID Vaccines
With an eye toward 70% of U.S. adults receiving at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose by July 4, President Joe Biden on Wednesday announced a monthlong effort to encourage more Americans to roll up their sleeves for a shot. "The more people we get vaccinated, the more success we’re going to have in the fight against this virus,” he said during remarks at the White House, adding that the U.S. could see a dramatically different summer from last year. "A summer of freedom. A summer of joy. A summer of get-togethers and celebrations." As part of his June "month of action," Biden announced "Shots at the Shop," an initiative bringing together 1,000 Black-owned barbershops and beauty salons across the nation to serve as vaccination locations. (Hassanein, 6/2)

Politico: White House's Vaccine Push Now Includes Longer Pharmacy Hours, Free Childcare — And Beer
The White House is ramping up efforts to ensure that U.S. adults get vaccinated against Covid-19, announcing extended pharmacy hours for shots and free child care for recipients, expanded community outreach efforts and even free beer. The push is part of a broader effort by the administration to encourage and make it easier for unvaccinated Americans to get Covid-19 shots — and meet President Joe Biden's goal of giving at least one shot to 70 percent of U.S. adults by July 4. (Lim, 6/2)

In related news —

ABC News: 70% Of Adults In 12 States Have Received At Least 1 COVID Vaccine Dose: CDC 
A dozen states passed a major vaccine milestone Wednesday as more than 70% of their adult populations have received at least one coronavirus vaccine dose, according to health data. The situation, however, contrasts with a handful of states, most of which are in the South, that have not broken the halfway mark with their adult residents. (Pereira and Mitropoulos, 6/2)

Fox News: Walensky Worried Over Uneven COVID-19 Vaccination Rates As Summer Approaches
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), expressed concern Wednesday that unvaccinated people will suffer preventable COVID-19 sickness and death due to the seasonality of the virus. Federal data indicates 51.7% of U.S. adults are fully vaccinated as much of the country shifts into warmer summer months. Walensky, speaking virtually at the 9th annual Atlanta Global Health Summit, said coronaviruses tend to have seasonality, and respiratory viruses tend to favor the winter months. "In terms of seasonality, we certainly did see a summer surge in areas last year where people were indoors and the hot states, and this winter surge after travel." (Rivas, 6/2)

CNN: Some Students May Have To Wear Masks To School This Fall If Communities Don't Get Vaccinated, Fauci Warns 
Americans have seen a wave of reopenings and the relaxation of restrictions as more people get vaccinated, but experts are warning the public not to get complacent if the return to normal is to continue. And if some communities continue to see high levels of Covid-19 infections, children under 12 in those areas will likely still have to wear masks next school year, Dr. Anthony Fauci told NBC Nightly News. (Holcombe, 6/3)

NPR: Guns, Trucks And Trips: West Virginia Expands Prizes For Vaccinated Residents
West Virginia is giving its vaccine incentive program a boost to get more residents immunized from the coronavirus, Gov. Jim Justice announced on Tuesday. All residents who get a COVID-19 vaccine will be enrolled in the chance to win a college scholarship, a tricked-out truck, or hunting rifles, in addition to a $1.588 million grand prize. The program, which will run from June 20 through Aug. 4, will be paid for through federal pandemic relief funds. "The faster we get people across the finish line the more lives we save. That's all there is to it," Justice said. "If the tab just keeps running the cost is enormous. The hospitalizations are enormous. We have to get all of our folks across the finish line." (Diaz, 6/2)

AP: Ohio Lottery Announces 2nd Vax-A-Million Incentive Winners
Ohio residents who were recently vaccinated may want to answer their phone on Vax-A-Million days, even if the number isn’t familiar. It might be Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine on the other end. ... Jonathan Carlyle, of Toledo, won the $1 million prize and Zoie Vincent, of Mayfield Village in Cuyahoga County, won the college scholarship. More than 3.2 million Ohioans entered their names for a shot at the $1 million, up from the 2.8 million who had registered for last week’s drawing. More than 133,000 children entered their names for the scholarship, up from just over 104,000 last week. (Welsh-Huggins, 6/3)

Bangor Daily News: Maine Vaccine Incentives End With Less Than 15 Percent Of Eligible Adults Claiming Their Reward
More than 5,300 Mainers claimed rewards under the state’s COVID-19 vaccine incentive program in May, but the total represented less than 15 percent of the eligible adults vaccinated during that period. State health officials still said Wednesday that they were happy with the program and were exploring other ways to incentivize people to get the vaccine as roughly 350,000 eligible Mainers aged 12 and older remain unvaccinated, according to federal data. (Piper, 6/2)

In other updates on the vaccine rollout —

The Baltimore Sun: Maryland To Close Mass COVID Vaccination Sites At M&T Bank Stadium, Ripken Stadium 
Maryland officials are beginning to wind down some of the mass coronavirus vaccination sites, beginning with the M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore and Ripken Stadium in Aberdeen. Ripken Stadium will close this month and M&T will close next month, according to officials with Harford County and the Maryland Stadium Authority. (Cohn, 6/2)

Oklahoman: Oklahoma Health Department To Launch COVID Vaccine Texting Campaign
Oklahomans can expect to get texts beginning this week from the Oklahoma Health Department with information about COVID-19 vaccinations. The department is launching a statewide texting campaign to reach people across the state with details about how to find an appointment near them. The state Health Department said the texts will be sent to residents in areas across the state with lower vaccination rates. The campaign will target adults ages 18 to 54 in rural areas, excluding the Oklahoma City and Tulsa metro areas. (Branham, 6/3)

The CT Mirror: 'A Dividing Line' — Vaccination Rates Trace Socioeconomic Boundaries In CT
Liany Arroyo, the director of the Hartford Health Department, spends a lot of her time studying neighborhoods in Hartford and finding patterns in their vaccination rates. The downtown areas of Hartford and those that lie to the west of the city show higher vaccination rates in general. Other neighborhoods have sharply lower rates. “The West End is a more affluent neighborhood,” Arroyo said. “There’s a dividing line there.” (Pananjady and Altimari, 6/3)

AARP: Nursing Home Worker Goes From Vaccine Skeptic To Advocate
Nursing home worker Adelina Ramos identifies with colleagues who are skeptical about getting the COVID-19 vaccine because she once was, too. "I was, like, uh-uh. I don't trust the vaccine,” Ramos, 35, remembers thinking before it became available at Greenville Center, the Rhode Island nursing home where she's worked for five years. ... But the certified nursing assistant (CNA) has since become an advocate for vaccination among her coworkers. Her labor union has asked her to speak with other CNAs who have not yet been vaccinated. She even testified in Congress about the lack of vaccine education for her and her colleagues. (Ravitz, 6/2)

Detroit Free Press: House Passes Bill Banning Government-Sponsored Vaccine Passports
Any publicly funded entity in Michigan, including local school districts and universities, would be prohibited from requiring a COVID-19 vaccination under a controversial bill passed Wednesday in the state House. The measure, HB 4667, attempts to ban government-sanctioned vaccine passports, an effort supporters say limits state access to confidential health information. But opponents note the measure — touted by pandemic conspiracy theorists — is unnecessary and will likely lead to unanticipated negative consequences. (Boucher, 6/2)

In updates from California —

Los Angeles Times: Rural California Is Falling Behind In COVID Vaccine Rates
Some rural counties in Northern California are falling further behind in COVID-19 vaccination rates compared with the rest of the state, causing cases to remain flat or, in some cases, to rise. A Times analysis found that the counties with the lowest vaccination rates were likely to have higher recent case rates per capita. Counties in rural Northern California and the greater Sacramento area fared worst, while Southern California and the Bay Area have fared best in terms of higher rates of vaccination and lower daily case rates, the analysis found. (Money, Lin II and Greene, 6/2)

Bay Area News Group: Alameda County Wasted Most Coronavirus Vaccine Doses In California
A Bay Area county sits atop an unfortunate list. Alameda County has wasted more coronavirus vaccine doses than any other county in California, according to The Sacramento Bee, which based its reporting on data obtained through a public records request. The data, which the Bee shared with this news organization, shows the East Bay county tossed 7,055 shots, or 0.39% of the more than 1.8 million it received. That’s three times more than any other Bay Area County wasted. More than 6,000 of Alameda’s wasted doses were spoiled Pfizer vaccines, which must be kept at very cold temperatures and used quickly after they are thawed. (DeRuy, 6/2)

AP: Even Vaccinated California Workers May Have To Keep Masks On
California is set to fully reopen in less than two weeks and do away with virtually all mask and social distancing requirements for vaccinated people, but those who regulate workplaces in the state aren’t ready to go that far and that has business groups upset. The California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board meets Thursday and will consider new workplace rules that would only allow workers to go maskless if everyone in a room is fully vaccinated against the coronavirus. The rules could remain in place into early next year even though coronavirus cases have fallen dramatically after a severe winter spike and as more people are vaccinated. (Thompson, 6/3)

Politico: White House Weighs Sending States' Unused Vaccine Doses Abroad — Before They Expire
The Biden administration is considering donating states' unused doses of vaccine to countries in need, two senior officials involved in the discussions told POLITICO. States have built up stores of unused Covid-19 vaccine doses in recent weeks as the number of people signing up for vaccinations has decreased. Some of those spare doses — including tens of thousands of Johnson & Johnson shots — are set to expire at the end of this month. (Banco, Cancryn and Roubein, 6/2)

CNN: White House Prepared To Announce Next Steps In US Global Vaccination Effort After Months Of Debate 
President Joe Biden has finalized his plan to distribute millions of coronavirus vaccines worldwide after months of deliberation, according to multiple sources familiar with the plans. Secretary of State Antony Blinken hinted earlier that an announcement was imminent, and the sources familiar with the plans said that officials could reveal it as soon as Thursday or Friday. (Collins, 6/2)

Bloomberg: Biden To Begin Covid Vaccine Donations Abroad As Variant Threat Looms
The Biden administration is poised to announce which countries will receive the first shipments of vaccines donated from the U.S. stockpile, amid the risk that more coronavirus variants will arise in countries lacking access to the shots, people familiar with the matter said. The White House, which has faced pressure from a range of countries to share its vaccines, has settled on its plan and an announcement is imminent, according to the people, who discussed the matter on condition of anonymity. (Wingrove, 6/2)

And in updates on vaccine patent waivers —

Bloomberg: Covid Vaccine IP Waiver: EU WTO Trade Response Stops Short Of Waiver Support
The European Union will encourage World Trade Organization members to phase out export restrictions for vaccines, but will stop short of supporting an American-backed proposal to suspend intellectual property rights meant to boost the supply of Covid shots. The EU will propose to the WTO at a June 8-9 meeting that all 164 members decrease restrictive measures related to health products, expand the production of vaccine facilities and support an easing of regulatory hurdles, according to a draft proposal seen by Bloomberg. (Baschuk, 6/3)

Politico: Biden Admin Probes Risk Of Low-Level Contamination In Vaccines Made At Troubled Plant
The Food and Drug Administration has asked Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca to assess any potential health risks from minor cross-contamination of their Covid-19 vaccines, two people familiar with those conversations told POLITICO. The agency requested the analyses because it cannot rule out low-level contamination of doses of both vaccines manufactured by contractor Emergent BioSolutions. (Banco, 6/2)

AP: Science Chief Wants Next Pandemic Vaccine Ready In 100 Days
The new White House science adviser wants to have a vaccine ready to fight the next pandemic in just about 100 days after recognizing a potential viral outbreak. In his first interview after being sworn in Wednesday, Eric Lander painted a rosy near future where a renewed American emphasis on science not only better prepares the world for the next pandemic with plug-and-play vaccines, but also changes how medicine fights disease and treats patients, curbs climate change and further explores space. He even threw in a “Star Trek” reference. (Borenstein, 6/2)

NPR: CDC Move To Limit Investigations Into COVID Breakthrough Infections Sparks Concerns
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has stopped tracking every case that occurs when a COVID-19 vaccine fails to protect someone. Instead, the agency is focusing on people who get very sick or die. The decision is controversial. Critics argue the strategy could miss important information that could leave the U.S. vulnerable, including early signs of new variants that are better at outsmarting the vaccines. The CDC and outside infectious disease experts, however, say it makes sense to prioritize efforts on those who get hospitalized or die. (Stein, 6/2)

In other news about vaccine development and manufacturing —

The New York Times: AstraZeneca In Talks To Switch Factories For Vaccine Production For U.S. Government 
The British-Swedish company AstraZeneca is negotiating with the federal government to shift production of its coronavirus vaccine from a troubled plant near Baltimore to a factory owned by the pharmaceutical company Catalent, according to people familiar with the government’s plans. Catalent already produces AstraZeneca’s vaccine for export at a factory in Harmans, Md., south of Baltimore. It is now in discussions to retrofit a production line there to make the vaccine for the federal government, taking over for Emergent BioSolutions, which was forced to stop manufacturing AstraZeneca’s vaccine more than six weeks ago after a major production mishap. (Weiland, LaFraniere and Stolberg, 6/2)

Louisville Courier-Journal: Norton To Test COVID-19 Pfizer Vaccine In Kids As Young As 6 Months
Louisville researchers announced Wednesday they will study the Pfizer vaccine in children ages 6 months to 11 years as part of a larger trial that seeks to expand eligibility. The Norton Children’s Research Institute, affiliated with the U of L School of Medicine, will look at the safety of the vaccine in children and how their bodies respond to it. Norton plans to enroll its first patients in the next week or two. (Ladd, 6/2)

AP: Vaccine Protection May Diminish Need For Yearly Boosters
Scientists have found clues that the world’s leading COVID-19 vaccines offer lasting protection that could diminish the need for frequent booster shots, but they caution that more research is needed and that virus mutations are still a wild card. Critical studies are underway, and evidence is mounting that immunity from the mRNA vaccines made by Pfizer and Moderna does not depend exclusively on antibodies that dwindle over time. The body has overlapping layers of protection that offer backup. (Neergaard, 6/2)

Axios: COVID-19 Cases Hit Lowest Point In U.S. Since Pandemic Began 
The U.S. has brought new coronavirus infections down to the lowest level since March 2020, when the pandemic began. Nearly every week for the past 56 weeks, Axios has tracked the change — more often than not, the increase — in new COVID-19 infections. Those case counts are now so low, the virus is so well contained, that this will be our final weekly map. (Baker and Witherspoon, 6/3)

AP: Florida COVID Hospitalizations At Lowest Point In A Year
Hospitalizations from COVID-19 are at their lowest level in the state in over a year, the Florida Hospital Association said Wednesday. There were roughly 1,842 COVID hospitalizations in Florida Wednesday. According to their data, the state’s hospitalizations have declined 19% in the last two weeks and stand 38% lower than one month ago. (6/3)

Des Moines Register: New Reported COVID Cases Dip Below 100 Per Day In Iowa For First Time In More Than A Year
For the first time since April 2020, Iowa is averaging fewer than 100 new reported coronavirus infections per day, and there are fewer than 100 Iowans currently hospitalized with COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. The Iowa Department of Public Health on Wednesday, June 2, was reporting a total of 371,617 coronavirus cases in Iowa since the start of the pandemic, an increase of 616 over the previous week. In the past seven days, Iowa has reported an average of 88 new cases each day. The rate of new infections has dropped drastically since peaking last fall. In mid-November 2020, Iowa was reporting more than 4,500 new cases per day. (Webber, 6/2)

AP: Navajo Nation Reports No Additional Deaths From COVID-19
For the second day in a row, the Navajo Nation is reporting no additional deaths of COVID-19. The Navajo Department of Health reported Wednesday that only six new cases of the virus were reported on the vast reservation that covers parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. (6/3)

The Baltimore Sun: Archdiocese Of Baltimore Encourages Return To In-Person Mass, Lifting COVID Exemption 
Citing declining coronavirus metrics, the Archdiocese of Baltimore announced Wednesday it is imminently lifting the exemption for attending Mass on Sundays and holy days. Beginning June 26, the “faithful” are encouraged to return to full, in-person services, according to a news release from the Archdiocese of Baltimore and those in other jurisdictions. Furthermore, the church leaders lifted social-distancing requirements, where localities allow it. (Mann, 6/2)

NBC News: Right-Wing Pastor Gets Covid After Saying Vaccines Were Part Of 'Mass Death Campaign'
A right-wing Florida pastor was hospitalized with Covid-19, weeks after saying vaccination efforts were part of a "mass death campaign." The pastor, Rick Wiles, wrote Tuesday on TruNews.com, where he propagates homophobic, racist and other hateful conspiracy theories, that he had Covid-19-related pneumonia and difficulty breathing. He said that he was being released from the hospital later that day but that his wife was "still very fatigued." (Fieldstadt, 6/2)

In other news about the spread of the coronavirus —

Fox News: FDA Recalls Unauthorized At-Home Coronavirus Rapid Test Over False Results Concerns
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has warned consumers to stop using an unauthorized COVID-19 at-home rapid test and antibody test over concerns that the kits may produce false results. The kits, produced by Lepu Medical Technology, were distributed to pharmacies to be sold to consumers for at-home testing and made available through direct sales despite not having FDA authorization. According to a safety communication issued by the FDA, the Lepu Medical Technology SARS-CoV-2 Antigen Rapid Test Kit and the Leccurate SARS-CoV-2 Antibody Rapid Test Kit (Colloidal Gold Immunochromatography) could result in false test results, which "may cause people harm including serious illness and death." (Hein, 6/2)

Philadelphia Inquirer: PCOS Raises The Risk Of Getting COVID-19. Women With The Complex Disorder Are Pushing For Research
In March, an advocacy group for women with polycystic ovary syndrome lobbied Congress to encourage research on PCOS and COVID-19. At that point, a year after the pandemic hit the United States, no one had studied whether PCOS — which affects at least 1 in 10 women worldwide — increases vulnerability to COVID-19, or to life-threatening complications, or both. However, the idea made sense. PCOS is a complex metabolic and endocrine disorder that is linked to a variety of chronic conditions, including obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, and asthma. Federal health agencies warn that each of those conditions can make COVID-19 more devastating, as can cancer, HIV infection, dementia, and sickle-cell disease. Yet PCOS is not mentioned in high-risk groups. (McCullough, 6/2)

CIDRAP: Study Identifies COVID Risks For Kidney Dialysis Patients 
Among patients with kidney failure who underwent dialysis at clinics several times a week, the risk of COVID-19 infection was highest in those who were older, had diabetes, lived in communities with high coronavirus prevalence, and received dialysis at clinics serving more patients, finds a study yesterday in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology. Led by British researchers, the study also showed that COVID-19 infection risks were lowest among patients who received dialysis in clinics with more isolation rooms and mask policies for all patients, including those with no coronavirus symptoms. (Van Beusekom, 6/2)

The Hill: Appeals Court Rejects Bid By Landlords To Resume Evictions
A federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday denied a request by a group of landlords to resume evictions, leaving the temporary nationwide eviction moratorium intact for now. The ruling from the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals is the latest twist in a multifront legal challenge to the eviction freeze that was enacted by federal public health officials as a way to keep financially distressed renters in their homes and out of crowded homeless shelters during the coronavirus pandemic. (Kruzel, 6/2)

Bloomberg: U.S. Eviction Moratorium Will Stay In Place, Appeals Court Says
The U.S. government’s nationwide prohibition on evictions can stay in effect, a federal appeals court ruled. A three-judge panel in Washington said the eviction moratorium instituted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention can continue while the Biden administration appeals a lower-court ruling that overturned the ban last month. (Yaffe-Bellany, 6/2)

In other news about covid's economic toll —

PBS NewsHour: ‘Pandemic Misery Index’ Charts Far-Reaching, Imbalanced Impacts Of COVID-19
With more than 30 million people infected and 550,000 dead, the U.S. is among the nations hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. From job loss to housing insecurity to mental distress, the social, psychological and economic hardships brought on by the pandemic are extensive and likely to outlast the pandemic itself. To better understand the breadth and depth of the pandemic’s impact on American lives, I worked with colleagues at the USC Dornsife Center for Economic and Social Research to develop an index of “pandemic misery.” We found that though few U.S. residents have survived the pandemic unscathed, hardship isn’t equally distributed across groups. (Thomas, 6/2)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Some Georgians Go Without Health Coverage During Disagreement On Medicaid Expansion
Kelly Stewart hasn’t had health insurance in years. In most states, she would qualify for Medicaid, even with her occasional – and modest – earnings as an in-home caregiver. But not in Georgia. Unlike 38 other states and the District of Columbia, Georgia still refuses to expand Medicaid eligibility to most of its poor residents under the Affordable Care Act, despite new financial incentives offered by President Joe Biden’s administration. As a result, unless things change Georgia will forego an estimated $710 million in federal funding by the time Gov. Brian Kemp’s first term concludes in 2023. (Hart, 6/2)

AL.com: Medicaid Expansion Could Create 28,500 Jobs In Alabama, Advocates Say 
Advocates of Medicaid expansion in Alabama said adding low-income adults to the program could create 28,500 jobs in the state, according to a study from the Commonwealth Fund, a health care policy foundation.The announcement follows months of effort by advocacy groups to persuade Gov. Kay Ivey to expand the safety net program, even after legislators failed to act during the session that ended last month. The Cover Alabama Coalition represents several organizations that support the expansion of Medicaid. Alabama is one of 12 states where neither voters nor state leaders have opted to increase coverage to all low-income individuals. (Yurkanin, 6/2)

VTDigger: Former State Medicaid Director Hired By University Of Vermont Health Network 
For the past four years, Cory Gustafson oversaw the state’s Medicaid program, which provides funding to doctors and health care facilities. Now, he’s taken a job at Vermont’s largest health care organization. ... Gustafson said the move from state government to an entity that relies on state funding doesn’t represent a conflict of interest because he will focus on “internal-facing” issues such as business planning, capital planning and increasing efficiency within the six network hospitals in Vermont and New York. The role allows him to abide by ethics rules that prohibit lobbying for a year after leaving state government, he said. (Jickling, 6/2)

PublicSource: Do Enough Pittsburgh Therapists Accept Medicaid? Some See A Shortage.
Medicaid provides coverage for low-income people and people with disabilities. The entities that oversee Medicaid services in Allegheny County maintain that there are enough credentialed mental health providers to meet the need, including more than 600 therapists in private practice as well as those at community mental health centers. Yet PublicSource spoke to more than a dozen residents who rely on Medicaid and two dozen therapists who described a dearth of therapists authorized to accept Medicaid, especially those specializing in care for Black, LGBTQ, neurodiverse, disabled and other underserved communities. (Rihl, 6/3)

KHN: Many New Moms Get Kicked Off Medicaid 2 Months After Giving Birth. Illinois Will Change That. 
The U.S. is the only industrialized nation in which the maternal death rate has been rising. Each year, about 700 deaths are due to pregnancy, childbirth or subsequent complications, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. When someone dies while pregnant or within a year of childbirth in Illinois, that’s considered a maternal death. Karen Tabb Dina is a maternal health researcher at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign who serves on a state-level committee that’s trying to figure out what’s killing these mothers. (Herman, 6/3)

And the new head of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services discusses her priorities —

KHN: Expanding Insurance Coverage Is Top Priority For New Medicare-Medicaid Chief 
The new head of the federal agency that oversees health benefits for nearly 150 million Americans and $1 trillion in federal spending said in one of her first interviews that her top priorities will be broadening insurance coverage and ensuring health equity. “We’ve seen through the pandemic what happens when people don’t have health insurance and how important it is,” said Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, who was confirmed by the Senate to lead the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on May 25 and sworn in on May 27. “Our focus is going to be on making sure regulations and policies are going to be focused on improving coverage.” (Rovner, 6/3)

The Washington Post: CPSC Votes To Ban Infant Inclined Sleepers Along With Other Unregulated Baby Sleep Aids 
A federal safety agency on Wednesday banned a range of infant sleep products that currently slip between gaps in regulations, an attempt to fix a loophole blamed for at least 90 accidental deaths. The Consumer Product Safety Commission voted 3 to 1 to pass the new rule. It requires any product designed for sleeping babies to meet within one year the mandatory federal standards already in place for cribs, bassinets, bedside sleepers and play yards. Dozens of products currently for sale don’t fit into one of those categories, so they don’t need to measure up. Yet they are popular with parents. (Frankel, 6/2)

In other news from the Biden administration —

Bloomberg Law: Biden To Revive OSHA’s Stalled Infectious Disease Rulemaking
The Biden administration plans to revive a stalled occupational safety rulemaking that would protect workers against all airborne infectious diseases, not just Covid-19, raising the question of whether it will be developed in lieu of an emergency standard specific to the coronavirus. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration intends to offer a draft version of an infectious disease rule in fiscal year 2022 and seek public comment, according to an OSHA spending proposal released alongside the White House’s fiscal 2022 budget request last week. That means a proposal could be released as soon as October, when fiscal 2022 begins. (Rolfsen, 6/2)

Politico: State To Gather Diplomats’ Health Details In Response To Havana Syndrome 
The State Department is rolling out a voluntary new program to gather diplomats’ baseline health information before they head to overseas posts, according to a State Department cable reviewed by POLITICO. It’s part of the department’s response to a wave of mysterious injuries that have harmed scores of U.S. officials in recent years — known as “Havana syndrome.” A group of American diplomats wrote last week to Brian McKeon, the State Department’s chief operating officer, saying the department has not taken their ailments seriously, NBC News reported. (Swan, 6/1)

The New York Times: Texas Seeks To Evict Migrant Children From State Shelters
Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas has instructed state officials to end contracts with the Biden administration for shelters in the state that hold migrant children and teenagers who have been arriving alone, in record numbers, to the southwest border. The order could affect thousands of migrant children waiting to be united with family members or other sponsors in the United States, and could create a new public relations challenge for President Biden. (Sullivan, 6/2)

The Washington Post: Biden’s Nonsensical Claim About Alzheimer’s And Hospital Beds
The president claimed that within 15 years, every hospital bed would be occupied by Alzheimer’s patients. There’s no evidence for that. (Kessler, 6/3)

Axios: Fauci: Aiming For A "Home Run" With AIDS Research 
NIAID director Anthony Fauci is aiming to curb another epidemic: 40 years of HIV, a virus that has remained elusive to a vaccine. About 1.2 million people in America are living with HIV, but Fauci tells Axios the goal of ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030 may be achievable. (O'Reilly, 6/3)

Roll Call: Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden Investigating Drugmaker AbbVie’s Tax Strategy
Senate Finance Chair Ron Wyden launched an investigation Wednesday into AbbVie’s international tax practices, accusing the pharmaceutical company of shifting profits offshore and registering patents in low-tax jurisdictions to avoid paying U.S. corporate income taxes. Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, wrote to AbbVie Inc. CEO Richard A. Gonzalez questioning how the company has paid “a stunningly low effective tax rate” and “consistently reported net losses in the U.S. and net income outside of the U.S.” despite its domestic headquarters and sales presence. (McPherson, 6/2)

FiercePharma: It's Not Just Pricing And Patenting. Now, AbbVie's Taxes Are The Target Of Congressional Scrutiny
AbbVie has spent years responding to a congressional probe over its drug pricing and patenting strategies, with the findings just becoming public late last month. Now, in a newly unveiled probe, congressional Democrats are zeroing in on the company's tax payments. In a letter to CEO Richard Gonzalez dated Wednesday, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, questioned why Chicago-based AbbVie makes most of its revenues in the U.S. but has “consistently” reported net losses in its domestic market while making money abroad. The company generated $34.9 billion in U.S. net revenue in 2020, or about 75% of its global sales. (Higgins-Dunn, 6/2)

In other news from Capitol Hill —

Modern Healthcare: Congressional Leaders Propose Permanent Expansion Of GME In Health Centers
Two Congressional leaders on Wednesday introduced a bill that would expand a program that helps train primary-care and dental residents in high-need areas. Under the proposal, the Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Education program, which supports the training of primary care doctors in outpatient settings in communities, would be made permanent and receive $500 million per year between 2024 and 2033 to fund about 1,600 new resident training slots at 100 programs across the country. Currently the program receives about $126 million per year, with funding expiring in 2023. (Hellmann, 6/2)

Roll Call: Staff Training Key To Shifting Attitudes On Accessibility For Disability Community 
Many staffers are heading back to Capitol Hill, and official visitors aren’t far behind, but the return to offices is prompting questions about gaps in physical and digital accessibility in Congress for staff, lobbyists, constituents and lawmakers with disabilities. With historic buildings and slow adoption of technology, Congress still has a long way to go to make itself accessible not just in the physical space but also online, where so much business has been conducted in the past year. (Tully-McManus, 6/2)

NPR: Sackler Family, Owner Of Purdue Pharma, Set To Win Immunity From Opioid Lawsuits
After more than a year of high stakes negotiations with billions of dollars on the line, a bankruptcy plan for Purdue Pharma, the maker of Oxycontin, cleared a major hurdle late Wednesday. Federal Judge Robert Drain in White Plains, N.Y., moved the controversial deal forward despite objections from dozens of state attorneys general, setting the stage for a final vote by the company's creditors expected this summer. The drug maker filed for Chapter 11 protection in 2019 facing an avalanche of lawsuits tied to its aggressive opioid sales practices. (Mann, 6/2)

NBC News: Kentucky Sues CVS, Accuses Company Of 'Fueling' Opioid Crisis By Turning Blind Eye
Kentucky sued the drugstore chain CVS on Wednesday, accusing the company of “fueling” the opioid crisis that has ravaged the commonwealth. “As both distributor and pharmacy, CVS was in a unique position to monitor and stop the peddling of these highly-addictive drugs from their stores,” Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron said in a statement. “Yet they ignored their own safeguard systems.” (Siemaszko, 6/2)

Burlington Free Press: VT Decriminalizes Buprenorphine Used For Opioid Dependence
Vermont has decriminalized possession of a medication typically prescribed to treat opioid use disorder. Gov. Phil Scott signed into law H.225, a bill that replaces criminal penalties with civil penalties for possession in quantities of 224 milligrams or less of buprenorphine. The medication is considered an opioid partial agonist and can produce effects weaker than heroin and methadone, known as full opioid agonists. Benefits associated with buprenorphine include its ability to diminish the effects of opioid dependence, like cravings and withdrawal symptoms. (Syed, 6/2)

In other pharmaceutical and biotech developments —

The New York Times: F.D.A. Approves Pricey Pill to Treat Vaginal Yeast Infections
The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday approved a new drug to treat a vaginal yeast infection that is especially common in women who are pregnant, using birth control pills or taking antibiotics. The drug, Brexafemme (ibrexafungerp) made by SCYNEXIS, is a one-day oral treatment and the first of a new class of triterpenoid antifungal drugs. The company said the new drug kills candida — the yeast that can cause an infection. (Kaplan, 6/2)

Stat: Morphosys To Buy Constellation Pharma In $1.7 Billion Deal
German drugmaker MorphoSys said Wednesday that it will acquire Constellation Pharmaceuticals for $1.7 billion to bolster its research pipeline of cancer drug candidates. Constellation, based in Cambridge, Mass. is in the late stage of clinical trials for a drug to treat patients with myelofibrosis, a type of bone marrow cancer. The company is also developing a second drug in earlier development for different types of blood-related cancers and solid tumors. (Feuerstein, 6/2)

Stat: Parents Hoped An Existing Drug Might Treat Their Kids' Rare Disease 
When Amber Freed heard in 2020 that a drug might help save her young child from a rare, progressive form of epilepsy, she was ecstatic. The news came just in time. Many children with the genetic mutation that causes her son’s illness begin experiencing debilitating seizures as 4-year-olds. Maxwell was 3. Even better, the drug, Ravicti, was already approved by the Food and Drug Administration, so a doctor might be able to prescribe it right away. But there was a catch: At around $740,000 per year, Ravicti is one of the most expensive drugs in the world. (Hayden, 6/3)

360Dx: BARDA Venture Capital Program Dedicates Up To $500M For Pandemic Preparedness
The US Department of Health and Human Services' Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, or BARDA, has launched a new program to spur development of technologies to combat future pandemics and health emergencies. For the initiative, the BARDA Division of Research, Innovation, and Ventures, or DRIVe, will support the BARDA Ventures program in a partnership with the nonprofit Global Health Investment Corporation. According to a statement from HHS, BARDA Ventures will provide GHIC with a minimum of $50 million over five years, and the potential of up to $500 million over 10 years. In turn, GHIC will launch a global health security fund with matching capital from other investors. (6/2)

The Boston Globe: Eleanor Slater Hospital In R.I. Worked To Discharge Patients Without Telling Them Or Their Families
The state-run Eleanor Slater Hospital tried to send ventilator patients to an outside facility without informing the patients or their families, according to interviews and state Department of Health records. The Department of Health surveyed Eleanor Slater in April in response to a complaint and found that it failed to follow its discharge policy earlier this year when it sent documents about a patient to an outside facility without telling the patient. In response, Eleanor Slater strengthened the policy and agreed to report to regulators for six months, according to documents obtained through a records request. (Amaral, 6/2)

Modern Healthcare: Scripps Ransomware Attack Affects At Least 147,000 Patients
San Diego-based Scripps Health on Tuesday said it's notifying an estimated 147,267 patients that their data was stolen by hackers in last month's ransomware attack. A ransomware attack on Scripps' information systems in early May led the health system to take a portion of its network offline, disrupting access to the health system's electronic health record system and other applications for multiple weeks. Scripps' ongoing investigation into the incident revealed that the hackers who accessed the network stole copies of some documents. Documents stolen the breach contained health information and financial information of some patients, according to Scripps. Less than 2.5%—nearly 3,700—of patients had Social Security or driver's license numbers stolen; Scripps will provide free credit monitoring and identity protection services to those patients. (Kim Cohen, 6/2)

Stat: Industry Payments To Doctors Are Associated With Increased Prescribing Of Long-Acting Insulin 
Amid ongoing concern over the cost of insulin, a new study finds that payments made by manufacturers to physicians were associated with a larger number of more expensive prescriptions for long-acting versions covered by Medicare. More than 51,800 physicians received industry payments worth $22.3 million in 2016, and they wrote, on average, 135 prescriptions for the diabetes treatment in 2017, compared with 77 prescriptions written by doctors who did not receive payments from insulin makers. The larger number of prescriptions resulted in an average Medicare Part D claim of $300, which was $71 more than claims generated by doctors who did not receive payments. (Silverman, 6/2)

Also —

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette: Convicted Doctor Lacked Oversight, VA Filing Says
The pathologist convicted of manslaughter in the death of a patient at the Veterans Health Care System of the Ozarks largely supervised himself, according to a Department of Veterans Affairs report issued Wednesday. "Facility leaders failed to promote a culture of accountability," states the report by the department's Office of Inspector General. "The OIG found a culture in which staff did not report serious concerns about Dr. Levy, in part because of a perception that others had reported or they were concerned about reprisal. Any one of these breakdowns could cause harmful results. Occurring together and over an extended period of time, the consequences were devastating, tragic and deadly," according to the report. (Thompson, 6/3)

AP: Former Nursing Home Manager Pleas To Endangering 3 Residents
A man who oversaw a suburban Philadelphia nursing home pleaded no contest Wednesday to endangering three residents who before dying suffered health complications because of inadequate staffing levels, prosecutors said. The defendant, Chaim “Charlie” Steg, 40, of Lakewood, New Jersey, had been regional operations director for the St. Francis Center for Rehabilitation and Healthcare in Darby. He pleaded no contest to misdemeanor reckless endangerment. (Scolforo, 6/3)

Stat: Researchers Remove Race From A Calculator For Childbirth
Since 2007, obstetricians have counseled patients planning to give birth after a previous C-section with help from a simple calculator designed to determine the likelihood of having a successful vaginal birth after cesarean, or VBAC. The tool takes into account a patient’s age, height, weight, and their history of vaginal and cesarean delivery. It also asks two yes-or-no questions: “African-American?” “Hispanic?” The answers can predict a drastically lower chance of success for patients of color. But now, after years of work by researchers, advocates, and clinicians, that racialized calculator has been replaced by a newly validated version that is the same in almost every way — except for eliminating race and ethnicity as a risk factor. (Palmer, 6/3)

In other health care industry news —

Modern Healthcare: Small, Rural Hospitals Have More Trouble Enabling EHRs, ONC Says
Most hospitals have an application programming interface for patients to keep track of their health information, but small and rural providers still haven't given patients full access to their data, according to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology on Wednesday. In 2019, 7 in 10 hospitals reported using an application programming interface to allow inpatients to access health data—a 50% increase from 2018 that's largely attributed to financial incentives that started that year. (Gellman, 6/2)

Modern Healthcare: Ohio State Wexner, DispatchHealth To Offer Hospital-At-Home Care
The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center is teaming up with DispatchHealth, an in-home medical care provider, to offer Columbus-area patients care at home. Starting July 1, Ohio State Wexner patients and providers will be able to request same-day at-home care for viral infections, COPD exacerbations, congestive heart failure and other injuries and illnesses, according to a news release. Those at-home services will be coordinated with a patient's care team. Some high-risk patients also will be able to request DispatchHealth's Bridge Care, which provides at-home care 24-72 hours after an acute care hospital stay. (Christ, 6/2)

Bloomberg: Chicago’s Mercy Hospital To Get $50 Million From New Owner
Mercy Hospital and Medical Center’s new owner will invest $50 million in the next two years as it works to rebuild a facility once slated for shutdown. Insight, which took over June 1, will create a “comprehensive plan to increase services and meet community need,” a representative said in an email Wednesday. It will also appoint three independent community board members within 90 days and restore a full emergency department. Insight last week said it also intends to revive Mercy’s status as a teaching hospital as part of a plan to operate Mercy as a full-service hospital “through 2029 and beyond.” (Coleman-Lochner, 6/2)

The Baltimore Sun: ‘Jumping The Gun’ On Johns Hopkins? Researchers Say There’s No Evidence University Founder Owned Enslaved People. 
One day last winter, officials at Baltimore’s most prestigious research university made the kind of announcement that can cause even a powerful worldwide institution to reassess its long-standing self-image. A team of researchers at Johns Hopkins University, the officials said at a news conference, had determined its founder, merchant and philanthropist Johns Hopkins, owned enslaved people. It was a finding that contradicted his reputation as an abolitionist who founded and aided institutions that served Black people. (Pitts, 6/3)

North Carolina Health News: COVID Sowed Doubts, But Nursing Student Doubled Down 
Kate Schauss knew she wanted to enter the medical field since the fifth grade, when her interest in medicine was sparked while dissecting a squid on a school field trip. By her sophomore year of high school, she was certain nursing was the path she would pursue. Then the pandemic rattled the world in 2020 and she had some doubts. (Dougani, 6/3)

CIDRAP: FDA Launches Challenge To Develop Traceability Tool For Food Outbreaks
In an effort to improve traceability tools used to identify sources in foodborne illness outbreaks, the FDA announced a new challenge to create low- or no-cost ways to alert people to outbreaks. ... The challenge asks food technology solution providers, public health advocates, entrepreneurs, and innovators to create digital information tools that will quickly alert users to the source of food contamination. ... The FDA will accept submissions from Jun 1 through Jul 30, and will announce as many as 12 winners as selected by judges from the federal government. The winners will present their ideas during a webinar in September. (6/2)

Axios: Harmful Superbugs Less Likely In Organic Meats, Study Finds 
Organic meats are less likely to contain harmful bacteria, including multi-drug resistant organisms, according to a recent study from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The study, published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, highlights the risks of overuse of antibiotics in the U.S. food supply — which come not only in the form of foodborne illness, but the potential development of untreatable infections. (Reed, 6/2)

The Washington Post: Don’t Eat Cicadas If You’re Allergic To Seafood, The FDA Warns 
Weeks after the arrival of Brood X, the buzzy swarm of cicadas that emerge from the ground every 17 years to cover trees and sidewalks across a swath of the country, federal health officials have a new warning: People with seafood allergies shouldn’t eat the insects. The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday issued the advice to would-be bug-munchers via Twitter, noting that the cicadas “share a family relation to shrimp and lobsters.” (Heil, 6/2)

In other public health news —

NBC News: 'A Lot Of Trauma': Trans Parents Say Medical System Isn't Set Up For Their Pregnancies
When Kayden Coleman was pregnant with his now 10-month-old daughter, no one held the door for him, fussed over his growing belly or made him feel special in the way that pregnant women are sometimes treated. In a way, he feels as though he missed out on "the perks" of pregnancy, he said. In another, he's relieved no one knew the truth. As a transgender man, he felt safer that way. (Murray, 6/2)

CBS News: NFL Vows To Stop Use Of "Race-Norming" In Reviewing Brain Injury Claims 
The NFL on Wednesday pledged to halt the use of "race-norming" — which assumed Black players started out with lower cognitive function — in the $1 billion settlement of brain injury claims and review past scores for any potential race bias. (6/2)

Today: 'You're Not Alone': Athletes Speak Out About Mental Health In The NFL
As more and more celebrities and public figures open up about their mental health, some athletes say it still feels difficult to speak candidly about their struggles. TODAY's Carson Daly sat down with four NFL players who are looking to break the stigma around mental health in sports on the newest episode of "Mind Matters TODAY." "I still think the stigma's pretty strong," said Solomon Thomas of the Las Vegas Raiders, who said he began to seek help after the death of his sister. "That's the one reason I didn't come out and start speaking right away about my depression, about my journey, and about my sister's journey, as well. I was afraid of, like, what fans would think, if teammates would think I'm soft." (Breen, 6/2)

Fox News: Young Adults With Schizophrenia Face Highest Suicide Risk, Study Says
Suicide prevention efforts for those with schizophrenia should focus on young adults, researchers say, after a large study revealed heightened suicide risks in the 18-34 age group. Findings from Columbia University and Rutgers were published in JAMA Psychiatry last week, drawing from data on nearly 670,000 schizophrenic patients with Medicare coverage from 2007-2016, with data analysis conducted in 2020-2021. According to the Mayo Clinic, "schizophrenia is a serious mental disorder in which people interpret reality abnormally, [and] may result in some combination of hallucinations, delusions, and extremely disordered thinking and behavior that impairs daily functioning, and can be disabling." (Rivas, 6/2)

The Atlantic: Maggot Therapy Can Heal Intractable Wounds
In its larval stage, Lucilia sericata looks unassuming enough. Beige and millimeters long, a bottle-fly grub may lack good looks, but it contains a sophisticated set of tools for eating dead and dying human flesh. The maggots ooze digestive enzymes and antimicrobials to dissolve decaying tissue and to kill off any unwanted bacteria or pathogens. Lacking teeth, they use rough patches on their exterior and shudder-inducing mandibles (called “mouth hooks”) to poke at and scratch off dead tissue before slurping it up. This flesh-eating repertoire is hard enough to stomach in the abstract. Now imagine hosting it on your skin. “Not everyone, psychologically, can deal with that sensation and knowing maggots are chewing on their flesh,” Robert Kirsner, the director of the University of Miami Hospital Wound Center, in Florida, told me. This is the barrier that advocates of maggot therapy face: the emotional gravity of pure human revulsion. (Renault, 6/2)

Anchorage Daily News: Two Weeks After A Cyberattack, Alaska Health Services Still Suffer
More than two weeks after Alaska’s Department of Health and Social Services suffered a cyberattack, the agency has not fully recovered and Alaskans are still seeing effects. Background checks for hospital workers — everyone from front-line doctors to cleaning staff — are now being processed on paper instead of online. “It’s definitely a real problem at this point, and the impact is real,” said Jared Kosin, director of the Alaska State Hospital and Nursing Home Association. Birth, marriage and death certificates are slow to arrive because the state’s vital statistics system is offline. (Brooks, 6/2)

The New York Times: Outrage Greets Report of Arizona Plan to Use ‘Holocaust Gas’ in Executions
Arizona has refurbished and tested a gas chamber and purchased chemicals used to make hydrogen cyanide, a recent report said, drawing a backlash over its possible use on death row inmates. Headlines noting that the chemicals could form the same poison found in Zyklon B, a lethal gas used by the Nazis, provoked fresh outrage, including among Auschwitz survivors in Germany and Israel, over the association with the Holocaust and hydrogen cyanide’s use in the death camps. (Hauser, 6/2)

AP: Union Considers Strike At Meat Plant That Was Virus Hotspot
Workers at a South Dakota meatpacking plant that became a coronavirus hotspot last year are considering a strike after contract negotiations between Smithfield Foods and the union have stalled, the union said Wednesday. The Sioux Falls chapter of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union threatened to move for a walkout and work stoppage if the Virginia-based company does not resume negotiations on a new four-year contract. The dispute has centered on the wages for meatpacking employees, health care costs and break times. (Groves, 6/3)

The Advocate: Smokable Medical Marijuana Backed By Louisiana Lawmakers; Here's When It Could Be Distributed
Though a bridge too far a few years ago for Louisiana lawmakers, the Legislature Wednesday gave final clearance to allow patients to smoke marijuana for medicinal reasons. House Bill 391 approved minor wording changes added to the state Senate on a vote of 76-17 and sent the legislation off to Gov. John Bel Edwards, who has indicated he may very well sign it. The companion legislation, however, picked up a controversial rider and is still in the Senate. House Bill 514, which set out the taxes and fees for the sale of smokable medical marijuana, was amended to extend the temporary additional near-half cent state sales tax in order to fund road repairs. The tax and fee bill cleared Senate Finance on Wednesday. (Ballard, 6/2)

Billings Gazette: Independence Through Access: Little Shell Tribe Forges Path To Health Care
One spring day when Julia Gladeau was a child, her aunt asked her to keep an eye on her younger siblings. Her aunt and Gladeau’s pregnant mother walked across Hill 57 and out of sight. “We're going to go find the Easter Bunny for you up there at that other shack,” her aunt had said. “We'll be back in a little bit.” When they returned down the hill, her mother had a baby girl in her arms. “Look what the Easter Bunny brought you,” she said. “It’s a baby, and her name is Shirley.” (Beck, 6/2)

In news from Texas —

AP: Dallas HS Valedictorian Delivers Abortion Rights Call
A Dallas high school valedictorian scrapped a speech approved by her school administrators and delivered an abortion rights call in its place. Paxton Smith, the 2021 valedictorian at Lake Highlands High School, submitted to school officials an address on the effect of the media on young minds. But when she spoke at Sunday’s graduation ceremony, she talked of what she called “a war on the rights” of her body and those of other girls and women by the “heartbeat bill” signed into law by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott a week and a half before. (Wallace, 6/3)

Houston Chronicle: Texas Lawmakers Allocate Nearly $400 Million To State Psychiatric Hospitals
State lawmakers took a critical step forward in expanding Texas’ psychiatric hospital system last week by pumping nearly $400 million into projects that would add more than 500 inpatient psychiatric beds across the state, as well as revamp old hospitals for mentally ill Texans. The money will go toward adding maximum security beds at Kerrville State Hospital, a 264-bed hospital in Harris County and planning for a new, 200-bed state hospital in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Additionally, the Legislature continued funding the rebuild of state hospitals in both Austin and San Antonio. (Stuckey, 6/2)

In news from Florida —

WUSF Public Media: Florida Measure To Prevent 'COVID Slide' Becomes Law 
Parents of public-school students in kindergarten through fifth grade will be able to request that children be retained in their current grade levels for the 2021-2022 school year under a bill signed into law Tuesday by Gov. Ron DeSantis. Lawmakers approved the issue during the spring legislative session to help combat lagging learning gains during the COVID-19 pandemic — what has become known as the “COVID slide.” (6/2)

Tampa Bay Times: Tampa Bay Schools Never Saw Big Coronavirus Outbreaks This Year. Why?
Teachers sued, parents marched, and on both sides of last year’s school reopening debate, there were dire warnings. To some, Florida’s decision to reopen school buildings meant a death sentence for adults and perhaps even children. To others, it would have been child neglect to keep the schools closed as parents went out and earned their living. In the end, despite altered routines and daily contact tracing, COVID-19 levels in Tampa Bay area schools were considerable but not catastrophic. (Sokol, 6/2)

Health News Florida: FSU Seeks To Scuttle COVID-19 Student Lawsuit 
Florida State University is asking a judge to reject a potential class-action lawsuit that seeks to recoup money for students who were forced to learn online because of the COVID-19 pandemic. FSU attorneys last week filed a document in Leon County circuit court arguing that a judge should dismiss the case or issue a judgment in the university’s favor. In part, the document pointed to sovereign immunity, which helps shield governmental entities from lawsuits. (6/2)

Tampa Bay Times: As Coronavirus Overtook Florida, A Key Health Department Job Went Unfilled
When the pandemic arrived in Florida last year, the state had a position ready made for a public health crisis like the one on its doorstep: The Deputy Secretary for County Health Systems. On paper, it’s the third-highest ranking position in the state’s health agency because of its key role in coordinating with health offices in all 67 counties. “Preventing epidemics and spread of disease” is in the job description. (Contorno, 6/3)

Los Angeles Times: California Bill Would Give Healthcare Workers COVID Bonuses
California lawmakers are considering legislation that would require hospitals, clinics and skilled nursing facilities to pay medical professionals $10,000 in “hero pay” for their work during the COVID-19 pandemic. But some employers and business groups have bristled at the $7-billion price tag, calling the bill “dangerous and costly.” (Gutierrez, 6/2)

AP: California To Pay $2M Church Legal Fees Over Virus Closures
The state of California has agreed not to impose greater coronavirus restrictions on church gatherings than it does on retail establishments in a pair of settlements that provide more than $2 million in fees to lawyers who challenged the rules as a violation of religious freedom. A deal approved Tuesday by a federal judge comes after lawyers for a San Diego-area Pentecostal church took their challenge against the state to the U.S. Supreme Court three times and won. (Melley, 6/2)

In other health news from California —

KQED: Amid Ongoing Debate, State Senate Approves Bill To Decriminalize Psychedelic Drugs In California
The California Senate approved legislation to decriminalize the possession or sharing of psychedelic drugs, Tuesday. Senate Bill 519, introduced by state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, now heads to the state Assembly. “This is a big step for this legislation and for our movement to end the war on drugs and to take a more health and science-based approach and to move away from criminalization of drugs,” Wiener said in a Twitter video posted on Tuesday. (Dembosky and Sarah, 6/2)

KHN: Newsom Wants To Spend Millions On The Health Of Low-Income Mothers And Their Babies 
Amid a pandemic that has pushed millions of mothers out of the workplace, caused fertility rates to plunge and heightened the risk of death for pregnant women, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Democratic lawmakers are seeking a slate of health proposals for low-income families and children. Newsom, a self-described feminist and the father of four young children, has long advocated family-friendly health and economic policies. Flush with a projected budget surplus of $75.7 billion, state politicians have come up with myriad legislative and budget proposals to make poorer families healthier and wealthier. (Almendrala, 6/3)

San Francisco Chronicle: Mayor Breed Wants To Add More Than $1 Billion To Fighting Homelessness In San Francisco Over Next Two Years
Mayor London Breed is proposing more than $1 billion in new funding to address homelessness over the next two years — a staggering amount that she hopes will finally make a dent in San Francisco’s most vexing problem. That proposal, announced Tuesday as part of her wider plan for the city’s upcoming $13.1 billion budget, is on top of the $300 million or so already spent directly on homelessness each year. The investment — the majority of which is voter-mandated — reflects the intense pressure Breed and other city leaders are under to address the thousands living on the streets, in shelters and in unstable housing. (Thadani, 6/2)

San Francisco Chronicle: Oakland's New Push To Stem Homelessness: Make RVs And Tiny Homes Legal Residences
Recreational vehicles and tiny homes on wheels would become legal residences in Oakland under a wide-ranging set of proposed planning and building code changes meant to combat the city’s escalating housing costs and the explosion in the population of unhoused residents. The set of Oakland ordinances, set to be announced Tuesday, would provide a “path to legalization” for a variety of housing types that are currently banned under city law but nevertheless have become prevalent in a city where the number of unhoused has jumped 47% from 2017 to 2019. At 940 per 100,000 residents. Oakland now has a slightly higher percentage of unhoused people than San Francisco or Berkeley. (Dineen, 6/1)

AP: UK Hits Vaccine Milestone, Warns Of 'Deadly' Misinformation
Three-quarters of Britain’s adult population has received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, the government said Wednesday, as it warned that “deadly” misinformation was undermining the global inoculation effort. The Department of Health said that 75.2% of people 18 and over in the U.K. have received a shot, and 49.5% are fully vaccinated after two doses. (Lawless, 6/2)

Politico: Boris Johnson: ‘Nothing In The Data’ To Prevent England’s Lockdown Exit 
Boris Johnson said there is "nothing in the data at the moment" to suggest England's full exit from lockdown restrictions on June 21 cannot go ahead, despite fears over the spread of the so-called Delta variant. "I can see nothing in the data at the moment that means we can't go ahead with step four, or the opening up on June 21, but we've got to be so cautious," the U.K. prime minister told reporters. (Webber, 6/2)

In other global developments —

The Wall Street Journal: Developed Countries Lock Up Covid-19 Vaccines Through 2023 
The European Union, Canada and other developed countries have signed deals to get hundreds of millions of doses of Covid-19 vaccines and boosters over the next two years, furthering a divide between rich and poor countries. Under the recent deals, Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE agreed to supply the European Union up to 1.8 billion doses of their vaccine through 2023, while agreeing to supply Canada up to 125 million doses. (Hopkins, 6/2)

AP: Taiwan Says China Exploiting Vaccines For Political Gain
Taiwan’s foreign minister on Thursday said China is seeking political gains abroad in return for providing vaccines and other pandemic assistance, partly to increase pressure on Taiwan, which it claims as its own territory. Beijing’s Communist Party leaders “further exploited the pandemic to impose their political agenda on many others,” Joseph Wu said in a video conference with the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan. (6/2)

The New York Times: A Return To Normal? Not For Countries With Covid Surges And Few Vaccines. 
In Colombia, nearly five hundred people a day have died of the coronavirus over the last three weeks, the nation’s most dramatic daily death rates yet. Argentina is going through the “worst moment since the pandemic began,” according to its president. Scores are dying daily in Paraguay and Uruguay, which now have the highest reported fatality rates per person in the world. “The vaccines are coming too late,” said María Victoria Castillo, whose 33-year-old husband, Juan David, died in May as he waited for the Colombian government to extend shots to his age group. (Turkewitz and Bengali, 6/2)

The Washington Post: Vietnam Mutation Not A New Variant, WHO Says
The World Health Organization’s representative in Vietnam said that the coronavirus mutation first detected there does not meet the global health body’s definition of a new variant, though it is still very transmissible and dangerous. “There is no new hybrid variant in Vietnam at this moment based on WHO definition,” Kidong Park told Nikkei Asia. Instead, what Vietnamese officials found was a mutation of a variant first detected in India, he said, referring to the B.1.617.2 strain that the WHO now calls “Delta.” (Ang and Cunningham, 6/3)

CNBC: Delta Covid Variant First Found In India Spreads To 62 Nations, WHO Says
The Covid-19 variant first detected in India in October has now spread to at least 62 countries as outbreaks surge across Asia and Africa — despite a 15% week-over-week drop in cases across the globe, according to the World Health Organization. “We continue to observe significantly increased transmissibility and a growing number of countries reporting outbreaks associated with this variant,” the WHO said of the Delta strain, noting that further study was a high priority. (Mendez, 6/2)

NBC News: India's Covid Crisis Has Ripple Effects For Garment Industry Worldwide
As the coronavirus pandemic tears across India, forcing garment factories to shut down or work at half capacity to stem new cases, retail suppliers are scrambling to move production to China. But with trade war tariffs still in play, the shift could mean higher prices for U.S. consumers. Infections have swelled in India since February, with more contagious variants spreading as massive crowds gather for religious festivals and political rallies. With around 22 million confirmed infections, health experts have warned the worst is still ahead. (Miranda, 6/2)

In updates on the Tokyo Olympics —

AP: 10,000 Volunteers Drop Out; Tokyo Olympics Open In 50 Days
The countdown clock for the Tokyo Olympics sat at 50-days-to-go on Thursday. It also brought another problem for the one-year-delayed games. About 10,000 of 80,000 unpaid volunteers for the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics have told organizers they will not participate when the games open on July 23.Organizers said some dropped out because of worries about COVID-19. Few volunteers are expected to be vaccinated since most will have no contact with athletes or other key personnel. (Wade and Komiya, 6/3)

Reuters: 'We Cannot Postpone Again,' Says Tokyo 2020 Chief Amid Pandemic Fears
The president of the Tokyo 2020 organising committee ruled out a cancellation or further postponement of the Olympics as doubts grew among officials of city governments and medical experts whether the event can be held safely amid the pandemic. Public opinion polls have consistently shown that a majority of Japanese want the Games cancelled or put off yet again, after being delayed a year over the coronavirus crisis. (Swift, 6/3)

ScienceDaily/Immunity: Rare COVID-19 Response In Children Explained 
One of the enduring mysteries of the COVID-19 pandemic is why most children tend to experience fewer symptoms than adults after infection with the coronavirus. The immune system response that occurs in the rare cases in which children experience life-threatening reactions after infection may offer an important insight, a Yale-led study published in the journal Immunity suggests. (5/17)

American Academy Of Pediatrics: Promotion Of Meal Premiums In Child-Directed TV Advertising For Children’s Fast-Food Meals
Child-directed fast-food TV advertisements emphasize premiums over food in violation of self-regulatory guidelines, counter to childhood obesity prevention efforts. (Emond et al, 6/1)

ScienceDaily/Nature Communications: Memory Details Fade Over Time, With Only The Main Gist Preserved 
What information is retained in a memory over time, and which parts get lost? These questions have led to many scientific theories over the years, and now a team of researchers at the Universities of Glasgow and Birmingham have been able to provide some answers. Their new study, which is published today in Nature Communications, demonstrates that our memories become less vibrant and detailed over time, with only the central gist eventually preserved. Moreover, this 'gistification' of our memories is boosted when we frequently recall our recent experiences. (5/26)

New England Journal of Medicine: Antibiotic Therapy For 6 Or 12 Weeks For Prosthetic Joint Infection 
Among patients with microbiologically confirmed prosthetic joint infections that were managed with standard surgical procedures, antibiotic therapy for 6 weeks was not shown to be noninferior to antibiotic therapy for 12 weeks and resulted in a higher percentage of patients with unfavorable outcomes. (Bernard et al, 5/27)

New England Journal of Medicine: Comparative Effectiveness Of Aspirin Dosing In Cardiovascular Disease
In this pragmatic trial involving patients with established cardiovascular disease, there was substantial dose switching to 81 mg of daily aspirin and no significant differences in cardiovascular events or major bleeding between patients assigned to 81 mg and those assigned to 325 mg of aspirin daily. (Jones et al, 5/27)

Bloomberg: Pfizer Vaccine Possible Heart Risks Need Study, Not Panic 
With the U.S. and other countries now vaccinating adolescents, Tuesday’s report from Israeli scientists of a probable link between the Covid-19 shot developed by Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE and rare cases of heart inflammation in young men is understandably concerning. Parents worry about their kids, and public health officials must treat this possibility seriously without causing undue panic. But the data is limited as of now, to the point where a connection might not exist. And from what we do know, if there is a relationship, it doesn't appear to be dangerous. (Max Nisen, 6/2)

The New York Times: Covid Patients Should Be Allowed Visitors In Hospitals 
I thought it would be different by now. Yet once again I’m standing outside my patient’s isolation room while I update his wife over the phone. I tell her about the events of the night, how her husband is starting to wake up, and that we hope he will need less support from the ventilator soon. Then comes her question. Her tone is resigned; she knows the answer. But she asks anyway. “Can I please come in to see him? ”I hesitate. It has been so long since she has held her husband’s hand. And she is now fully vaccinated. What is the risk? But hospital rules forbid the visit. His coronavirus test is positive, so unless he is at the end of his life, I cannot let her in. (Daniela Lamas, 6/3)

The Philadelphia Inquirer: Grocery Worker: Please Keep Wearing Your Mask In Stores, For My Safety 
With the recent CDC policy changes, public expectations around health during the pandemic are changing. The city has lived more than a year with masks in public and the populace is beset with pandemic fatigue. Now, in many cases, people are ditching their masks. Generally, that’s a good thing — a sign that we are in the clear. But there are some instances where, regardless of vaccine status, people should keep masks on for the safety of others. Essential workers like grocery store employees are still at risk and their safety needs to be considered. Stores like Aldi, Trader Joe’s, and Sam’s Club almost immediately dropped their masking requirements for customers. This is a mistake. Grocery stores should consider the safety of their workers and keep masking requirements in place for customers and employees. (Cameron Adamez, 6/1)

USA Today: COVID-19 Vaccine: Counteract The Anti-Vaccine, Anti-Science Aggression
Our best hope of slowing or even halting COVID-19 virus transmission is through vaccination. Based on our earlier studies, we will need about three-quarters of the U.S. population vaccinated to achieve this goal. But with more transmissible variants, we may need to vaccinate just about all American adults and adolescents. In regards to current vaccination rates, we are making good progress on the East and West Coasts, but in the Southern United States and in Idaho and Wyoming, vaccine coverage remains low. For instance, the vaccination rates in Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi are about half that of Vermont and Massachusetts. Idaho and Wyoming are only slightly better than these Southern states. (Peter Hotez, 6/2)

CNN: What Dr. Anthony Fauci's Emails Reveal -- And What They Don't 
This week, 3,234 pages of emails from Dr. Anthony Fauci, the chief medical adviser to the President, were released through a Freedom Of Information Act request. I'm still trying to digest them all, as I expect many people are. At times, it feels like reading someone's diary, albeit a post-modernist, redacted diary with a non-linear timeline. At other times, it feels like looking at the celebrity photos on the front pages of People magazine: "He felt that way, too?!" (Megan Ranney, 6/2)

Stat: Closing An Indiana County's Syringe Program Would Be A Health Disaster
A 6-year-old program that has reduced overdose deaths while simultaneously preventing new cases of HIV in one of the country’s biggest HIV hot spots is under attack by lawmakers. Its closure would be a public health disaster. Six and a half years ago, the worst drug-fueled HIV outbreak in U.S. history began to emerge in Scott County in southeastern Indiana. By June 2019, 235 people in Austin, a city of approximately 4,300 people in the county, had been diagnosed with HIV. But as devastating as the outbreak was, it could have been much worse. (William Cooke and Gregg Gonsalves, 6/1)

Georgia Health News: Protect Pregnant Workers And Those With New Babies 
The federal Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (H.R. 1065) passed the U.S. House on May 14 by a vote of 315-101. This is an important measure that Georgia’s pregnant and postpartum employees need to thrive in safe working environments. To date, 30 U.S. states have instituted legislation to ensure working women are protected from discrimination while they are pregnant or after they have recently given birth. The seven states in our region that have passed such legislation are Tennessee, Virginia, Kentucky, Louisiana, North Carolina, South Carolina and Texas. (Amber Mack, 6/2)

Stat: A Nurse And A Physician On Harnessing The Full Potential Of Nurses 
This week on the “First Opinion Podcast,” I’m joined by two members of the National Academy of Medicine’s Committee on the Future of Nursing. Regina Cunningham is a registered nurse and chief executive officer of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, and Marshall Chin is an internal medicine physician at the University of Chicago. We discuss the range of options for nurses, full practice authority, which gives advanced practice nurses the ability to diagnose, write prescriptions, and care independently for patients. It’s a contentious issue, but Cunningham and Chin believe that with more autonomy, nurses are capable of dismantling the country’s health inequities. (Patrick Skerrett, 6/2)