Politico: Medicare Beneficiaries To Get No-Cost At-Home Covid-19 Tests 
People with Medicare will be able to obtain up to eight over-the-counter Covid-19 tests a month for free starting in early spring, the Biden administration said Thursday. Under the plan, Medicare will directly pay certain pharmacies and other participating entities, allowing people with Medicare or Medicare Advantage to pick up the tests for free. (Lim and Levy, 2/3)

AP: Medicare Opens Up Access To Free At-Home COVID-19 Tests 
Medicare benefits are governed by a host of arcane laws and regulations, and officials said Thursday they were able to arrange for coverage of over-the-counter COVID-19 tests by using the program’s legal authority to conduct demonstration programs on innovative ways to deliver health care. This is the first time Medicare has covered an over-the-counter test at no cost to recipients. People with Medicare Advantage, a private insurance option that covers about 4 in 10 Medicare enrollees, will also have access to free COVID-19 tests through their plans, officials said. Medicare Advantage plans can already cover over-the-counter COVID-19 tests as a supplemental benefit. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 2/3)

In other news about covid testing —

USA Today: Those COVID Tests The Government Sent You Might Not Work. Cold Weather Could Be To Blame
At the same time most Americans are facing cold fronts and winter storms, they're also expecting their at-home COVID-19 tests from the government to arrive in the mail. Most at-home COVID-19 test brands recommend storing the tests above 35 degrees. The liquid reagent inside the cartridge that comes with the at-home tests is susceptible to freezing, and if that happens the accuracy of the results decreases, Cindy Pins, associate professor of epidemiology at the University of Florida, told USA TODAY. (Miranda, 2/4)

Fox Business: CVS Removes COVID-19 Test Purchasing Limits
CVS is no longer limiting the number of over-the-counter coronavirus at-home tests consumers can purchase at its stores. "We’ve worked with our vendors to increase inventory of OTC COVID-19 tests and have removed all product limits on those products at CVS Pharmacy locations nationwide and on CVS.com," a CVS spokesperson told FOX Business. (Genovese, 2/3)

NBC4 WCMH-TV: Can Your At-Home COVID-19 Test Go In The Trash? 
Can you throw your at-home, rapid COVID-19 test in the trash, or is it considered hazardous biological waste? Unlike at hospitals, at-home tests can be thrown in the normal trash, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told the Miami Herald in January. However, some states have taken different stances. (Dodson, 2/3)

The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Covid-19 Hospitalizations Continue Tracking Downward 
Hospitalizations for Covid-19 in the U.S. continued to fall, with the seven-day average of patients with confirmed or suspected cases easing to 134,000 on Wednesday, down 16% from a Jan. 20 high, according to data from the Department of Health and Human Services. Deaths, a lagging indicator, are ticking upward, reaching a seven-day average of 2,530, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, though they are off the highs recorded in January last year. Public health experts say that while the more contagious Omicron variant of the virus is less likely to cause severe illness than previous variants, the large number of infections this winter means it is continuing to cause a large and growing number of fatalities. (Kostov, Roland and Abbott, 2/3)

CIDRAP: US COVID-19 Cases Continue Steep Decline
New daily cases have decreased by almost 50% in the last 2 weeks, but the average daily death rate — which lags by 4 to 6 weeks behind case rates — has increased by 35%. An analysis of new federal data shows 100,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 since Thanksgiving. (Soucheray, 2/3)

Los Angeles Times: L.A. County Schools See Big Decline In Coronavirus Cases
Coronavirus infections have declined about 70% since the start of the spring semester among students in L.A. County, but overall rates remain significantly higher than they were before the current surge. The decline in the latest countywide figures, released Thursday by Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer, aligns with other data suggesting that the peak of the explosive growth due to the Omicron variant has passed. Health officials warned, however, that it remains important to take precautions — many of which remain required under local health orders. (Blume, 2/3)

In more news about the spread of the coronavirus —

Bay Area News Group: COVID: 'Stealth Omicron' Is Spreading, But Not So Fast
The new cousin of the super-contagious omicron variant of the virus that causes COVID-19 hasn’t spread as fast as health officials had feared, raising hopes it won’t extend the devastating case surge that has filled hospital wards this winter. The sub-lineage of the omicron variant known as BA.2 has been dubbed “stealth omicron” because it is harder to detect, and its rapid spread in other countries has worried health officials that it could overtake the dominant omicron strain and perhaps prove more virulent or vaccine resistant. But Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said this week that does not appear to be the case. (Woolfolk, 2/3)

The Washington Post: Yes, It’s Still A Pandemic Of The Unvaccinated — Arguably Even More So Now
New data shows that the gap between vaccinated and unvaccinated Americans remains stark. In fact, when you compare unvaccinated people to those most protected by the vaccines, the gap has grown. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new data this week from Los Angeles County. The data covered the period between Nov. 7 and Jan. 8, which means the vast majority of cases involved came after the rise of omicron. What you’ll see right away is that there are indeed lots of infections among both unvaccinated people and vaccinated people — more specifically, vaccinated people who haven’t gotten boosters. (Blake, 2/3)

The New York Times: In New York City Sewage, A Mysterious Coronavirus Signal 
Last January, a team of researchers searching for the coronavirus in New York City’s wastewater spotted something strange in their samples. The viral fragments they found had a unique constellation of mutations that had never been reported before in human patients — a potential sign of a new, previously undetected variant. For the past year, these oddball sequences, or what the scientists call “cryptic lineages,” have continued to pop up in the city’s wastewater. (Anthes, 2/3)

Florida Times-Union: After 164 Days Fighting COVID, A Patient Finally Walks Out Of UF Health Jax 
Fabian Granado will celebrate his 27th birthday on Feb. 8. It's a day his close-knit family feared he wouldn't live to see. Hospitalized 164 days — often near death including two months in a coma — from COVID-19, Granado walked out of UF Health Jacksonville on Tuesday to tears of joy, cheers, handshakes and hugs from the masked medical staff who cared for him day and night. "I'm feeling wonderful," said Granado in a soft, raspy voice. "It's been a long 5½ months at the hospital getting my lungs healed and being able to talk, walk and you know, be alive and a human again." (Stepzinski, 2/3)

KHN: A Disabled Activist Speaks Out About Feeling ‘Disposable’ 
In early January, one of the country’s top public health officials went on national television and delivered what she called “really encouraging news” on covid-19: A recent study showed that more than three-fourths of fatalities from the omicron variant of the virus occurred among people with several other medical conditions. “These are people who were unwell to begin with,” said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Walensky’s remarks infuriated Americans with disabilities, who say the pandemic has highlighted how the medical establishment — and society at large — treats their lives as expendable. (Scheier, 2/4)

And in covid research —

CIDRAP: Strokes Most Likely To Occur Within 3 Days Of COVID-19 Diagnosis In Seniors
Among older adults, the risk of stroke is highest within 3 days of COVID-19 diagnosis, and a new scoring system could help predict the risk of stroke, according to preliminary research presented at the International Stroke Conference 2022 this week. (2/3)

CIDRAP: COVID Severity Doesn't Depend On Trimester Of Pregnancy, Research Shows
The severity of COVID-19 does not change based on pregnancy trimester, finds research presented today at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine's (SMFM's) virtual annual meeting. According to an abstract published Jan 1 in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology (AJOG), the research team studied the outcomes of 1,092 pregnant COVID-19 patients who delivered at a Dallas hospital from Mar 18, 2020, to May 31, 2021. (2/3)

CNBC: Why Do Some People Get Covid While Others Don't?
One of the great mysteries that has emerged from the Covid-19 pandemic — and one that’s still being investigated by infectious disease specialists — is why some people catch Covid and others don’t, even when they’re equally exposed to the virus. Many of us know entire households who caught Covid and had to isolate over the pandemic, but there are also multiple anecdotes of couples, families and colleagues where some people caught the virus — but not everyone. Indeed, Danny Altmann, professor of immunology at Imperial College London, told CNBC that studies indicate the likelihood of becoming infected within a household once one case is positive is “not as high as you’d imagine.” (Ellyatt, 2/3)

Kansas City Star: How Long Do COVID Symptoms Last And What Is Long Haul COVID?
COVID-19 isn’t going anywhere. While Kansas City’s omicron wave seems to be trending downward, some people, often referred to as long haulers, are still dealing with lingering COVID symptoms for months after they first test positive. You’ve probably heard the phrase “long COVID” before, but what exactly is it? We spoke with Dr. Paramdeep Baweja, Interventional Cardiologist with University Health, to answer your questions about long COVID, how it’s affecting people here in Kansas City and what resources are available if you’re dealing with it. (Hernandez, 2/4)

Modern Healthcare: Biden Administration Announces $19 Million For New Residency Positions
The Biden administration on Thursday made $19 million in grants available to train primary care residents in rural and under-served communities, part of an effort to address physician shortages. The funding will support an additional 120 residency slots at community-based ambulatory patient care centers. "This funding provides our primary care workforce with opportunities to train in areas where they can make a profound impact, and is one of the many steps we're taking to address long-standing health disparities," Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said. (Hellmann, 2/3)

In related news about health care workers —

AP: Strained US Hospitals Seek Foreign Nurses Amid Visa Windfall 
With American hospitals facing a dire shortage of nurses amid a slogging pandemic, many are looking abroad for health care workers. And it could be just in time. There’s an unusually high number of green cards available this year for foreign professionals, including nurses, who want to move to the United States — twice as many as just a few years ago. That’s because U.S. consulates shut down during the coronavirus pandemic weren’t issuing visas to relatives of American citizens, and, by law, these unused slots now get transferred to eligible workers. (Taxin, 2/3)

The CT Mirror: Exhausted Health Care Workers Seek Long-Awaited Legislative Relief
Calls to shore up Connecticut’s health care workforce are getting louder, after the latest COVID variant placed heightened stress on the state’s nurses, physicians, behavioral specialists and other medical staff. Advocates and lawmakers say programs they’ve long pushed for — workforce training, medical school loan forgiveness, higher nurse-to-patient ratios, simpler license transfers from other states and medical liability insurance reform, to name a few — are all on the table heading into the Connecticut General Assembly’s regular session, which begins Feb. 9. (Phillips, 2/3)

In other news on the pandemic labor shortage —

Axios: Long COVID Is Contributing To America's Labor Shortage 
Long COVID is likely keeping a lot of Americans out of the workforce, experts say, — and that could continue for years as people struggle with persistent health problems. Long COVID isn't confined to older patients, and its symptoms can vary. The U.S. also doesn't have particularly strong support systems for people who need long-term COVID treatment. (Reed and Peck, 2/3)

USA Today: Wisconsin Long COVID Patients Lose Jobs, Normalcy; Doctors Seek Answers
Two days into her COVID-19 diagnosis, Kelly Luberda realized while washing her hands that the soap had no smell.Frantic, she raced through her house sniffing coffee, candles — anything with a strong odor. Nothing. Over 15 months later, Luberda, a 54-year-old resident of De Pere, says her sense of smell still isn't right. She can smell peanut butter, gasoline, beef, garlic, a wood-burning fire and barbecue, but they all have the same repulsive smell, one she compares to vomit. (Eilbert and Heim, 2/3)

NPR: New Mexico Asks National Guard Soldiers To Work As Substitute Teachers
In a sunny classroom in Pojoaque Valley Middle School, northern New Mexico, a class of lively teenagers is doing a group reading exercise. Specialist Austin Alt paces around, peering over their shoulders. It's his second day as a substitute teacher, and his arrival came as a surprise. "I went to one of my classes, and I saw him there. I was kind of shocked at first," says Joshua Villalobos, 14. As of this week, 78 members of the New Mexico National Guard have begun work as substitute teachers. They are responding to a call from Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, who also asked state employees to volunteer in an effort to keep schools open during an acute shortage of teachers exacerbated by the omicron wave of COVID-19. (Fordham, 2/2)

San Francisco Chronicle: Expanded COVID Sick Leave In California Could Take Effect Next Week
Many California workers are one step closer to regaining access to expanded COVID-19 supplementary sick pay after a bill published Wednesday outlined who would be eligible and the limits on how much businesses would have to pay. The further details come after Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislative leaders announced a deal last week to revive the emergency sick pay for people affected by the virus and their families. Labor groups have been pressuring the administration and the Legislature to revive the expanded sick leave after it lapsed at the end of September when a federal tax credit for businesses to fund the leave expired. (DiFeliciantonio, 2/3)

Bloomberg: Kids’ Covid Vaccinations Plummet As U.S. Considers Shots For Younger Children
Covid-19 vaccinations among children ages 5-11 have fallen to the lowest levels since the shots were first approved, a sign that parental enthusiasm for the shots may be running low even as authorities consider expanding the shots to even younger children. The seven-day average of first doses fell to about 37,062 on Jan. 28, marking the slowest one-week period since the government approved the vaccines for those children on Nov. 2, according to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. Just 31% of kids 5-11 have gotten a shot, compared with 75% of the total population. (Levin, 2/3)

In other updates on the vaccine rollout —

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: The COVID-19 Vaccination Gap Between Black Georgians And Others In The State Has Narrowed
At this stage of the pandemic, Dr. Sandra J. Valenciano counts each shot in an arm as a small victory. Vaccine hesitancy, misinformation, racial disparities in access to health care and distrust in institutions remain some of the biggest hurdles to vaccinating Black Georgia residents against COVID-19. Public health officials and advocacy groups have worked hard over the past year to make inroads with marginalized communities and those efforts have started to show promising signs. The gap between Black Georgians who have taken the shot and the rest of the state has narrowed. (Scott Trubey, 2/4)

Chicago Tribune: Chicago's COVID 'Vaccine Ambassadors' Spread The Word On Shots 
When Armani Nightengale waited in the car last March to get vaccinated against COVID-19 at the United Center, her husband was more nervous than she was. Over the next couple of weeks, he carefully checked her arm to make sure nothing looked wrong. Then, the conversation shifted to when he would get the shot. That’s when things got more “combative,” Nightengale said, as she began asking why he was reluctant, especially given that they had three young children. Her husband, on the other hand, felt unsure about how signing up for the vaccine would affect his immigration status. But in December, after months of evolving conversations on the benefits of getting inoculated, he agreed. (Yin, 2/3)

And in vaccine research news —

Fox News: CDC Director: Studies Yet To Show BA.2 Sub-Variant Evading Current Vaccines More Than Omicron
CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said Wednesday that experts have not yet seen studies suggesting omicron sub-variant BA.2 will evade COVID-19 vaccine protection any more so than the original omicron strain has already. "In terms of early studies, we have not seen any studies that suggest it’s more severe, nor have we seen studies that suggests that it will evade our vaccines any more so than omicron has already – and, in fact, that our vaccines will work just like it has with omicron," Walensky said at the White House COVID-19 response team briefing. (Musto, 2/3)

Stat: PhRMA Takes Aim At WHO, EU Over Support Of Weakening Patent Rights
Amid growing concern over access to Covid-19 vaccines and treatments, the U.S. pharmaceutical industry trade group has lashed out at the World Health Organization and other global agencies for supporting efforts to pause patent rights in hopes of increasing supplies to poor countries. In comments made to the U.S. Trade Representative, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America argued that the WHO and other agencies, including the World Trade Organization, were no longer reliable stewards of intellectual property rights and, instead, have been promoting a “range of harmful policies” that would hurt incentives for drug and vaccine makers. (Silverman, 2/3)

Also —

Stat: Covid-19 Therapies Appear Cost-Effective ... For Now 
The prices charged for several medicines used to treat people with mild-to-moderate Covid-19 — including pills from Pfizer (PFE) and Merck (MRK) — are reasonably priced based on the value they offer patients, according to a preliminary assessment. In each case, the different therapies met cost-effectiveness thresholds and averted hospitalization costs for Covid-19 patients who are at a high risk of developing a severe form of the coronavirus. Other potential benefits include helping to stop the spread of the coronavirus and easing the severe overcrowding at hospitals, although these are not as easily quantified. (Silverman, 2/3)

AP: Iowa Governor Ending COVID Public Health Emergency Feb. 15 
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said Thursday she is calling an end to the coronavirus public health emergency, a move that will limit the release of state public health data but reflects the governor’s long-held belief that it’s time to move on from pandemic restrictions. Reynolds said in a statement that the state cannot treat COVID-19 as a public health emergency indefinitely. “After two years, it’s no longer feasible or necessary,” she said. “The flu and other infectious illnesses are part of our everyday lives, and coronavirus can be managed similarly.” (Pitt, 2/3)

Iowa Public Radio: Iowa To Scale Back COVID-19 Data Reporting As Gov. Reynolds Ends Public Health Disaster Proclamation 
Officials said this means Iowa's two public COVID websites will be decommissioned. The websites present vaccine information and data on the virus's activity, which is currently updated three times a week on Mondays, Wednesday and Fridays. State health department director Kelly Garcia said at a press conference on Thursday that COVID data will instead be available on IDPH’s website, updated once a week. (Krebs, 2/3)

In other news about covid policies and mandates —

Army Times: Officer Faces Court-Martial For Refusing Mask Mandate, COVID Test
A junior officer assigned to the Army Public Health Center at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, faces a special court-martial for failing to obey COVID-19 mitigation measures, Army Times has learned.1st Lt. Mark Bashaw’s arraignment is “pending” on three specifications of “failure to obey lawful orders,” said Becca Nappi, a spokesperson for the installation. ... Although other troops have faced discipline for failing to follow COVID-19 protocols, Bashaw is the first case in the Army referred to a court-martial for such incidents, Army spokeswoman Col. Cathy Wilkinson confirmed in a statement to Army Times. (Winkie, 2/2)

AP: Judge's Insistence On Mask Removal Spurs Complaint 
A watchdog group lodged a complaint Thursday against a federal appeals court judge for insisting that a lawyer remove his mask during arguments held in New Orleans at a time last month when new cases of COVID-19 were surging. The group “Fix the Court” said 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Jerry Smith’s insistence that a U.S. Department of Justice lawyer remove his mask at a hearing last month violated the Code of Conduct for U.S. Judges. (McGill, 2/4)

The Boston Globe: The Science Behind The State’s School Mask Policy Is Outdated, Some Experts Say. Should The Benchmarks Change?
With the Omicron surge receding and the number of COVID-19 cases among Massachusetts students starting to decline, debate is growing about whether the state’s mandatory school mask rules should be revised or removed. Massachusetts’ current policy, developed as the Delta variant emerged last summer, allows local officials to lift the mask requirement if they can demonstrate that at least 80 percent of all students and staff in a school building are vaccinated. On Jan. 10, state Education Commissioner Jeffrey Riley extended the policy through Feb. 28. He also allowed, for the first time, nonvaccinated people in schools that achieve the 80 percent threshold to also go maskless. (Lazar, 2/3)

NBC News: Once Struggling, Anti-Vaccination Groups Have Enjoyed A Pandemic Windfall
The pandemic has been a boon for the anti-vaccine community, with ... Informed Consent Action Network (ICAN), one of the country’s best-funded anti-vaccine organizations, among the biggest beneficiaries, according to newly filed tax records. ICAN reported $5.5 million in revenue in 2020, a 60 percent increase over the previous year. The funding underscores how lucrative the pandemic has been for a handful of groups that spread health misinformation and undermine public faith in vaccines. Those donations primarily come from private donors, including through Facebook fundraisers. (Zadrozny, 2/3)

In mask news from California —

Los Angeles Times: L.A. County To Nix Masks Outdoors Once COVID Stats Improve
Outlining how health and safety rules could be loosened as the coronavirus’ Omicron variant continues to wane, Los Angeles County officials said Thursday that face coverings no longer will be required in certain outdoor settings once COVID-19 hospitalizations drop, and indoor mask rules could be loosened after further gains. The county would enter this “post-surge” phase when coronavirus-positive hospitalizations drop below 2,500 for seven straight days, about 26% below the current figure. As of Wednesday, just under 3,400 coronavirus-positive patients were hospitalized countywide, down 29% from the apparent high mark of the Omicron wave, set a little more than two weeks ago, when about 4,800 were hospitalized. (Money, Lin II and Alpert Reyes, 2/3)

Politico: Garcetti Defends Maskless Photo At NFL Game: 'I Hold My Breath' 
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti told reporters on Wednesday that he held his breath while taking a photo last weekend with San Francisco Mayor London Breed and former NBA star Earvin "Magic" Johnson in which all three were not wearing masks. Johnson posted the photo, taken at an NFL playoff game last Sunday between the San Francisco 49ers and the Los Angeles Rams, on his Twitter account. Spectators at the game were required to wear masks. (Gedeon, 2/3)

Stat: Lander: New Cancer Plan ‘More Ambitious By Far’ Than Original Moonshot 
A more modest cancer moonshot? Not so fast, says Eric Lander. The White House science adviser pushed back on the many characterizations of the new effort as smaller and less ambitious than the 2016 push, in an interview with STAT this week. Lander stressed that the current effort shouldn’t be viewed as an attempt to scale back the federal government’s cancer-curing ambitions. Even though it makes no mention of cancer “cures,” and doesn’t call for new research money, Lander argued the new plan is “audacious.” (Facher, 2/4)

Politico: Biden's Relaunched Cancer Moonshot Needs Funding For Liftoff 
President Joe Biden’s reignited moonshot to halve cancer deaths, improve care and eventually end the disease gives a lift to one of his longest-held and most personal goals — but the mission hasn’t been refueled. Missing from the ambitious plan to boost screening, reduce inequities and strengthen prevention efforts is a funding boost to the existing moonshot, which is in the sixth year of a $1.8 billion, seven-year allotment from Congress. (Owermohle, 2/3)

In other news from the Biden administration —

Stat: As Telehealth Expands, Biden Administration Looks Closely At Who Benefits
Telemedicine companies will tell you the pandemic has ushered in a new era of connected health across America. But the Biden administration wants a closer look at whether technology is the thing making the strongest connection. The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy on Thursday launched a roundtable series to examine which pandemic-driven innovations are worth keeping and which may only reinforce the divide between the haves and have-nots. (Ross, 2/3)

KHN: KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: Paging The HHS Secretary
Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra is becoming a target for both Democrats and Republicans over what they call a lack of coordination of covid efforts within his department. But at the same time, officials from the Biden administration have made it clear from the start that the covid campaign would be orchestrated by the White House, so it’s not clear whether the secretary was supposed to play a major role. Meanwhile, as covid cases decline, covid-weary politicians and the public are pushing to ease the latest round of restrictions. But those with compromised immune systems and other disabilities fear they could pay the price. (2/3)

And on Capitol Hill —

Las Vegas Review-Journal: Senators Want Chemical Cleanup At Military Bases
A growing concern about contamination from “forever chemicals” has prompted a bipartisan group of senators from Nevada and other states to urge President Joe Biden to make testing and cleanup a budget priority. The senators, including Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen, both Nevada Democrats, are asking the Biden administration to budget funds for increased testing, cleanup efforts and research on chemicals used by the military, airports and industrial plants that pose health risks. Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, used in foam to extinguish petroleum-based fires, has been detected at all Nevada military bases and in groundwater at both Creech and Nellis Air Force bases near Las Vegas. (Martin, 2/3)

Stat: Lawmakers Grill Key FDA Official Over Alzheimer’s Drug Approval
The Food and Drug Administration can’t escape questions about Aduhelm. Patrizia Cavazzoni, one of the agency’s highest-ranking drug regulators, set out to testify before Congress Thursday on the intricacies of three looming funding bills crucial to the agency’s operations. But again and again, lawmakers grilled her about Biogen’s controversial Alzhiemer’s drug. One lawmaker, Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), even joined the meeting just to chide Cavazzoni, even though she’s not a member of the subcommittee that held the hearing. (Florko, 2/3)

The New York Times: F.D.A. Nominee Faces Steep Climb To Senate Confirmation 
The White House is facing pressure from prominent lawmakers over its pick to lead the Food and Drug Administration, with abortion foes urging Republican senators to reject the nominee, Dr. Robert Califf, and with key Democrats withholding support over opioid policies and his industry ties. Nearly six years after Dr. Califf received overwhelming bipartisan support to lead the agency in the final year of the Obama administration, lawmakers and aides are struggling to lock up the votes he needs to clear an evenly divided Senate, where Vice President Kamala Harris serves as the tiebreaking vote. (Jewett and Cochrane, 2/3)

Modern Healthcare: UnitedHealthcare Data Breach Sparks Rhode Island Attorney General Probe
Rhode Island's attorney general hit UnitedHealthcare with a series of subpoenas asking for information about a security breach that compromised the information of 22,000 state employees and their families. Attorney General Peter Neronha said the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority notified his office in late December that an "unauthorized third party" accessed their system in August, potentially exposing the personal information of their workers, other state government personnel and their dependents. His office is investigating whether the state agency or former administrator of the state's employee health benefit plan, UnitedHealthcare, failed to live up to industry standards when safeguarding individuals' personal information. (Tepper, 2/3)

Modern Healthcare: Judge Grants UnitedHealthcare Workers Class Status In Retirement Plan Row
A federal judge on Wednesday granted UnitedHealth Group workers class-action status in their fight over the company's alleged failure to manage their $7 billion retirement accounts. Judge John Tunheim of the U.S. District Court of Minnesota ruled the employee's complaint met federal class certification standards, saying the more than 150,000 people participating in UnitedHealth Group's health plan had enough in common to consolidate their complaints into a single question of whether executives upheld the fiduciary duties required under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. (Tepper, 2/3)

Dallas Morning News: McKinney Doctor Indicted By Federal Grand Jury In Michigan On Charges Of Health Care Fraud
A federal grand jury in Grand Rapids, Mich., has indicted a McKinney doctor on charges of defrauding health care insurers and creating false medical records, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Michigan announced Wednesday. Among the allegations in the indictment are that Dr. Daniel Castro — an otolaryngologist or ear, nose and throat physician — performed surgeries on patients “whose symptoms, history, and computed tomography scans (CT scans) did not support the medical necessity of such procedures.” In addition, the indictment alleges that Castro “routinely billed for removing diseased tissue from inside his patient’s sinuses when diseased tissue did not truly exist and billed for performing surgery on sinus cavities that did not exist, to increase his compensation.” (Caplan, 2/3)

Becker's Hospital Review: Thousands Of Stanford Health Care Nurses Launch Campaign For New Contracts
Thousands of registered nurses at Palo Alto, Calif.-based Stanford Health Care and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital have launched a campaign for new union contracts, as their current agreements are set to expire March 31, according to an independent union representing them. The Committee for Recognition of Nursing Achievement, which represents about 5,000 RNs at Stanford Health Care and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford, cited workers' desire to improve mental health standards, staffing and working conditions. The union also cited a recent survey of thousands of nurses represented by CRONA at Stanford and Packard hospitals showing that 44 percent of respondents are considering leaving the hospitals in the near future. (Gooch, 2/3)

In other health care industry news —

KHN: California Inks Sweetheart Deal With Kaiser Permanente, Jeopardizing Medicaid Reforms
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration has negotiated a secret deal to give Kaiser Permanente a special Medicaid contract that would allow the health care behemoth to expand its reach in California and largely continue selecting the enrollees it wants, which other health plans say leaves them with a disproportionate share of the program’s sickest and costliest patients. The deal, hammered out behind closed doors between Kaiser Permanente and senior officials in Newsom’s office, could complicate a long-planned and expensive transformation of Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid program, which covers roughly 14 million low-income Californians. (Editor’s note: KHN is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.) (Wolfson, Hart and Young, 2/3)

Modern Healthcare: Here's Why Hospitals Want More Time To Repay Their Medicare Loans
Dozens of hospitals signed a recent letter to Congress asking, among other things, for more time to repay their accelerated Medicare loans. Some of those hospital companies, however, had already repaid the money, and even those that haven't don't anticipate needing to pay the 4% interest that gets tacked on once the initial repayment periods end. Of the $107.3 billion the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services distributed to healthcare providers and suppliers under the COVID-19 Accelerated and Advanced Payments Program, the agency recouped 53% by the end of November. That includes 55% of the $98.8 billion distributed to Part A providers, mostly hospitals, and 28.7% of the $8.5 billion distributed to Part B providers and suppliers, mostly medical groups. (Bannow and Hellmann, 2/3)

Chicago Tribune: University Of Chicago Medicine Plans To Build $633 Million Cancer Hospital 
University of Chicago Medicine plans to build a $633 million, 500,000-square-foot cancer hospital in Hyde Park — in hopes of addressing health inequities on the South Side and attracting patients from across the region. The massive center would include 128 beds for overnight patients, space for outpatient services and procedures, an urgent care for cancer patients and be a hub for cancer research, with clinical trials enrolling patients who live on the South Side and elsewhere. The hope is that patients would be able to get nearly all of their cancer care at the center rather than having to go to multiple locations for tests and treatments, said Dr. Kunle Odunsi, director of UChicago Medicine’s Comprehensive Cancer Center. (Schencker, 2/3)

Florida Times-Union: Orange Park Medical Center Is On Track For A $34 Million Expansion 
Construction is ready to begin on a $34 million expansion of Orange Park Medical Center as it continues to add health care services in northeast Florida. On schedule, the expansion calls for the construction of two new inpatient units adding 48 private patient rooms. A new "state-of-the-art," 20-bed intensive care unit will be built — bringing to 48 the total ICU beds, medical center officials told the Florida Times-Union. When the project is finished, the medical center will have 408 total beds to become the fifth largest hospital in the greater Jacksonville area. (Stepzinski, 2/2)

AP: UMass Chan Medical School Gets $15M Gift To Support Research 
The UMass Chan Medical School has received a $15 million gift that will boost research into ALS and neuroscience, school officials announced Thursday. The donation from alumni Dan and Diane Casey Riccio includes $10 million for what will be named the Riccio ALS Accelerator Initiative and $5 million to expand and endow the Riccio Fund for Neuroscience. (2/3)

Stat: Pfizer Sues Two Former Employees For Stealing Trade Secrets
Pfizer (PFE) has accused two former employees of clandestinely creating a pair of companies that are now using stolen trade secrets to develop obesity and diabetes medicines, which recently prompted Eli Lilly (LLY) to strike a collaboration worth up to $1.5 billion. The saga began about four years ago when two long-standing Pfizer staffers, dissatisfied with career opportunities, decided to create their own venture. They then started accessing numerous internal Pfizer documents and approached a company in Shanghai as an investor, according to a lawsuit filed in U.S. federal court in Connecticut. (Silverman, 2/3)

In other pharmaceutical and biotech news —

Stat: Biogen Offers A Disappointing Financial Outlook For 2022
Sales of Aduhelm, Biogen’s treatment for Alzheimer’s disease, continued to underperform expectations in the fourth quarter, Biogen said Thursday, leading the company to issue a disappointing financial forecast for 2022. Aduhelm accounted for $1 million in revenue in the final three months of 2021, depressed by continued doubts about the drug’s benefit for patients and restrictions placed on its use by insurance companies. Analysts who cover Biogen were expecting the company to deliver $2 million in Aduhelm sales during the fourth quarter. (Feuerstein and Garde, 2/3)

Boston Globe: Eleven Years After Buying Genzyme, Sanofi Officially Ditches Subsidiary’s Storied Name 
When the French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi starts moving 2,500 employees from 10 sites in Massachusetts into a pair of new buildings in East Cambridge next month, visitors may notice something missing at the sprawling complex: any mention of Genzyme. Eleven years after Sanofi bought Genzyme for about $20.1 billion, the parent company said Thursday it will no longer call its specialty care unit Sanofi Genzyme ― just Sanofi, as part of a company-wide rebranding. The move jettisons the name of a storied Massachusetts biotechnology company that helped transform the drug industry in the 1980s and anchored the life sciences cluster that made the region synonymous with innovation. (Jonathan Saltzman, 2/3)

The Baltimore Sun: Baltimore Health Technology Firm Acquired By Canadian Software Developer 
Baltimore health information technology company Audacious Inquiry is set to be acquired by PointClickCare Technologies, a Canadian health care software developer. The companies say they both aim to solve gaps in health care and improve care for vulnerable patients. The planned acquisition, announced Thursday, is subject to regulatory approvals. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Audacious Inquiry, which became one of the first recognized B Corporations in Maryland in 2010 to work toward solving social problems, builds networks that transmit data across the U.S. health care system. (Mirabella, 2/3)

Also —

Stat: 'Pretty Appalling': Asian Scientists Rarely Awarded Top Science Prizes
Some see it as a symptom of a discriminatory “bamboo ceiling” in academia: Despite being heavily represented in American biomedical research, Asian scientists are rarely granted the field’s prestigious research prizes. A new analysis, published Thursday in the journal Cell, paints a stark picture. Less than 7% of recipients of some of the country’s most coveted scientific prizes — including the Lasker Award — are Asian, while other prestigious awards in biology have yet to be given to a single Asian recipient. (McFarling, 2/3)

AP: Study Identifies Virulent HIV Variant Unrecognized For Years 
Scientists have found a previously unrecognized variant of HIV that’s more virulent than usual and has quietly circulated in the Netherlands for the past few decades. Thursday’s report isn’t cause for alarm: HIV medicines worked just as well in people with the mutated virus as everyone else and its spread has been declining since about 2010. It was discovered as part of efforts to better understand how HIV continues to evolve. (Neergaard, 2/3)

Houston Chronicle: COVID-19 Vaccine Paved The Way For UT Health HIV Vaccine Study
The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio is seeking volunteers to participate in clinical trials for this area’s first study of a messenger RNA-based HIV vaccine. Researchers hope to develop a series of vaccines to prevent HIV infection and deaths caused by HIV and AIDS, UT Health San Antonio said in a news release. Moderna will provide the vaccine to sites around the country, including San Antonio. The trial sites for the study also include the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and Emory University in Atlanta. (Pettaway, 2/3)

In news about food safety —

CNN: Dole Listeria Outbreak: Two Deaths Linked To Dole Packaged Salads, CDC Says 
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is investigating a Listeria outbreak linked to Dole packaged salads that has resulted in two deaths. The outbreak has also sickened 17 people and resulted in 13 hospitalizations across 13 states. The recalls began at the end of December and are for products with "Best if used by" dates from November 30, 2021, through January 9, 2022.The CDC also notes these products have codes in the upper right-hand of the package that will begin with the letter B, N, W or Y. (Sealy, 2/3)

CIDRAP: CDC Winds Down Imported Onion Salmonella Investigation After 1,040 Cases
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) yesterday said a Salmonella Oranienburg outbreak linked to onions imported from Mexico is over, with 148 more cases added to the total since its last update on Nov 16. (2/3)

In other public health news —

Reuters: German Researchers To Breed Pigs For Human Heart Transplants This Year 
German scientists plan to clone and then breed this year genetically modified pigs to serve as heart donors for humans, based on a simpler version of a U.S.-engineered animal used last month in the world's first pig-to-human transplant. Eckhard Wolf, a scientist at Ludwig-Maximilians University (LMU) in Munich, said his team aimed to have the new species, modified from the Auckland Island breed, ready for transplant trials by 2025. (2/3)

AP: How To Prevent Early Birth? Study Explores Sugarless Gum 
Healthy mouth, healthy baby? For years, scientists have been exploring the link between poor oral health and giving birth too early. Now, new research presented Thursday raises the possibility that something very simple and inexpensive might make a difference: chewing sugarless gum. The improvements seen in the study in the African country of Malawi were modest: The rates of premature birth were slightly lower in the pregnant women who chewed the gum, compared to those who didn’t. (Ungar, 2/3)

NPR: Furniture Tip-Overs Decline But Still Injure Thousands In The U.S. Each Year
An estimated 18,000 Americans — nearly half of whom were children — went to emergency rooms across the U.S. in 2020 for injuries sustained when furniture, a TV or another appliance tipped over and hurt them. A report released Thursday by the Consumer Product Safety Commission also found that there have been 581 tip-over fatalities in the U.S. since 2000. Four in five of the deaths were kids. Although the data shows an overall decline in "product instability" injuries and deaths recently, each year thousands of people are still treated for injuries and some die from what authorities say are preventable accidents. (Hernandez, 2/3)

Dallas Morning News: Southwest Airlines Bringing Back Alcohol Sales; Flight Attendants Call It ‘Unsafe And Irresponsible’
Dallas-based Southwest Airlines will bring back onboard alcohol sales to most flights and an expanded beverage offering starting Feb. 16, the carrier announced Thursday. But flight attendants, who have to serve alcohol and enforce federal mask mandates amid the COVID-19 pandemic, are calling the move “unsafe and irresponsible.” After slimming down to just water service when the pandemic began, Southwest Airlines will start serving beverages such as sodas, orange juice, tonic water, hot tea and cocoa later this month and will sell beer, wine and liquor on flights of more than 176 miles. (Arnold, 2/3)

Fox News: Parents Of ‘Jeopardy!’s Last Great Champion’ File Wrongful Death Lawsuit
Former Contestants for 500: This "Jeopardy!" contestant was the "final gift" to longtime host Alex Trebek and was labeled by social media as "Alex’s Last Great Champion." The parents of five-time "Jeopardy!" champion Brayden Smith filed a lawsuit against a Nevada hospital for negligence and medical malpractice after he died suddenly at the age of 24 from clots in his lungs last year, according to multiple reports. One of Smith’s medical problems was ulcerative colitis, an inflammatory condition of the large intestine, which sometimes can lead to severe complications where a partial or complete removal of the colon is necessary, known as a colectomy, according to Medscape. (Sudhakar, 2/3)

And a bit of happy news —

10News.com: San Diego Baby Born 2/2/22 At 2:22 P.M. At Kaiser Permanente
At Kaiser Permanente San Diego Medical Center, a baby was born on 2/2/22 at 2:22 p.m.! Hospital staff shared heartwarming photos of first time parents Natalie and Angel who live in Carlsbad. Their son Ramon weighed 8 pounds, 3 ounces and is 19 inches long. ... Can’t get enough of the number two? Baby Ramon is also the 22nd great grandchild of Natalie’s grandmother Josephine. (Summerville, 2/2)

AP: Arizona Republicans Advance 15-Week Abortion Ban Measure 
Arizona Republicans are moving swiftly to outlaw abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy ahead of a highly anticipated U.S. Supreme Court decision that could bring seismic changes to abortion availability in the United States. Arizona already has some of the nation’s most restrictive abortion laws, including one that would automatically outlaw it if the high court fully overturns Roe v. Wade, the nearly five-decade-old ruling that enshrined a nationwide right to abortion. (Cooper, 2/3)

New Hampshire Public Radio: N.H. Senate Rejects Limitation On 24-Week Abortion Ban 
The New Hampshire Senate voted along party lines Thursday to modify the state’s new ultrasound requirement for abortions. But Senate Republicans also rejected Democratic efforts to add exemptions to the state’s 24-week abortion ban and to create a legal right to the procedure in state statute. The contours of this debate were familiar: Republicans defended the new 24-week ban, adopted as part of last year’s state budget, as reasonable and reflective of the public’s will. (Rogers, 2/3)

AP: Gov. Noem's Abortion Ban Stifled By Republican Lawmakers
A Republican-controlled South Dakota House committee declined Wednesday to consider a proposal from Gov. Kristi Noem aimed at banning nearly all abortions, stifling a top item on the governor’s agenda. The Republican governor loudly trumpeted her proposal this year, which would have mimicked the private enforcement of a Texas law and prohibited abortions once medical professionals can detect fetal cardiac activity. (Groves, 2/3)

In news about health and race —

USA Today: California Could Pay Black Americans Reparations After 2023
Supporters of a federal effort to study reparations for Black Americans are closely watching an ongoing debate in California over how to address the wrongs of history and dismantle racist structures. California is the first state in the nation to seriously consider some form of reparations for Black Americans. The California Reparations Task Force is made up of academics, lawyers, civil rights leaders, lawmakers and other experts convened by Gov. Gavin Newsom and is tasked with studying the state’s role in perpetuating the legacy of slavery. The task force is expected to recommend proposals to the Legislature by next year. (Mayorquin, 2/2)

In other news from across the U.S. —

AP: Florida Senate Passes Bills On Addiction, Child Hearing Loss
While Democratic and Republican Florida lawmakers have had contentious debate on issues like abortion and immigration this year, the two sides came together to quickly pass 20 bills Thursday, almost all unanimously. The legislation included approving new state legislative districts, authorizing schools to stock and use medicines to counteract an opioid overdose and requiring insurance companies to provide hearing aid coverage for children. (Farrington, 2/3)

Charleston Gazette-Mail: WV Senate Advancing Bill To End Soda Tax, Transfer Other Money To Fill Gap For WVU Medicine
The West Virginia Senate Finance Committee passed a bill Thursday to end the state's soda tax in July 2024. The tax has been in place since 1951. The revenue from that tax - a penny for every 16.9-fluid-ounce soda and other rates for bulk syrup and other ingredients - all goes to West Virginia University's schools of medicine, dentistry, nursing and related programs. This legislation, Senate Bill 533, would redirect insurance tax revenue to fill the hole from the soft drink tax elimination. (Quinn, 2/3)

Stateline: GOP Lawmakers Kickstart New Wave Of Transgender Athlete Bans
South Dakota could become the first state this year to enact a law that would prohibit transgender girls from participating on sports teams for girls and women in high school and college. Without a floor debate, the state House on Wednesday advanced a bill that would ban transgender girls from playing on girls varsity sports and club teams at school and require schools to use the student’s birth certificate to determine eligibility. The bill—which now heads to Republican Gov. Kristi Noem's desk—mirrors a similar proposal she vetoed during the 2021 session. But this bill has her endorsement. (Wright, 2/3)

KBIA: How Medicaid Expansion In Missouri Could Help Reduce Recidivism 
With Medicaid expansion, a broad swathe of low-income Missourians are now eligible to receive public health insurance. That cross section includes people leaving prison, who often go from having basic health care in prison, to not having any on the outside. One of the first stops for people leaving prison in mid-Missouri is the Reentry Opportunity Center, in Columbia. The center sees about 80 people a month, most of whom are in the process of putting their lives together after being incarcerated. According to the center's program director, D'Markus Thomas-Brown, leaving prison often means starting from scratch. "When someone comes out ... they need everything, and they need it now," Thomas-Brown said. (Valdivia, 2/3)

Oklahoman: Oklahoma Schools Getting Millions In Medical Marijuana Tax Dollars
Oklahoma recently injected millions of dollars in new funding for hundreds of school districts with under-resourced facilities. The state distributed $38.5 million in Redbud School Grants for the first time on Friday. Lawmakers created the program last year to put medical marijuana tax dollars toward districts and charter schools that earn below the state average in local taxes that support school buildings. “It’s going to be huge for a lot of school districts and finally bring some parity," Rep. Kyle Hilbert said. Hilbert, R-Bristow, was an author of Senate Bill 229, the legislation that established the grant program. (Martinez-Keel, 2/3)

North Carolina Health News: NC Health Head Kinsley’s Vision For NC Forged By Lessons Of Past
Kody Kinsley, North Carolina’s new secretary of health and human services, knows firsthand what it’s like to be uninsured in this state and have limited access to health care. When he was a boy growing up in Wilmington, his father was a construction worker, whose first job in the port city was building sets for a movie studio. His mother cleaned houses. “I mean they’ve worked incredibly hard every day of their lives,” Kinsley said in a recent interview with North Carolina Health News. “But regardless of how hard they worked, when it came to keeping food on the table and keeping a roof over our heads, having enough money for health insurance was just not an option." (Blythe, 2/4) 

Nature: South African Scientists Copy Moderna’s COVID Vaccine
Researchers at a South African biotechnology company say they have nearly created a copy of Moderna’s messenger-RNA-based vaccine against COVID-19, without Moderna’s involvement. The company, Afrigen Biologics and Vaccines, in Cape Town, has made only microlitres of the vaccine, based on data that Moderna used to make its shot. But the achievement is a milestone for a major initiative launched by the World Health Organization (WHO) — a technology transfer hub meant to build capacity for vaccine manufacturing in low- and middle-income countries. (2/3)

Bloomberg: S. Africa’s Afrigen Has Made MRNA Covid-19 Vaccine Similar To Moderna’s
South Africa’s Afrigen Biologics & Vaccines Ltd. said it has made a Covid-19 vaccine that matches the one by Moderna Inc. after that company rebuffed it in its request for a partnership. Afrigen, part of the World Health Organization’s mRNA technology transfer hub in Cape Town, obtained the publicly available sequence of the Moderna shot from Stanford University and has now made its own version, Petro Terblanche, the managing director of Afrigen, said. (Sguazzin, 2/4)

Bloomberg: Vaccination In Africa: Covid-Shot Rollout Needs $1.29 Billion, WHO Says
Africa is short of at least $1.29 billion to fund the rollout of Covid-19 vaccines, the World Health Organization said, citing data from 40 of the continent’s 54 countries. Only 11% of the continent’s 1.2 billion people are fully vaccinated and the weekly pace of vaccination needs to rise sixfold to hit a target of having 70% of the population inoculated by the middle of this year, the WHO said in a statement on Thursday. Currently six million Africans are being vaccinated weekly. (Sguazzin, 2/3)

Bloomberg: Omicron Sub-Variant BA.2 In South Africa May Cause New Surge Of Infections
A sub-variant of the omicron coronavirus strain, known as BA.2, is spreading rapidly in South Africa and may cause a second surge of infections in the current wave, one of the country’s top scientists said. BA.2 is causing concern as studies show that it appears to be more transmissible than the original omicron strain, the discovery of which was announced by South Africa and Botswana in November. Research also shows that getting a mild infection with either of the two strains may not give a robust enough immune response to protect against another omicron infection. There’s no indication that the sub-variant causes more severe disease from infection surges seen in Denmark and the U.K. (Sguazzin, 2/2)

In other global pandemic news —

USA Today: WHO Official Sees 'Plausible Endgame' To Pandemic
The director of the World Health Organization’s Europe office said Thursday that coronavirus deaths are starting to plateau and the continent faces a “plausible endgame” to the pandemic. Dr. Hans Kluge said there is a “singular opportunity” for countries across Europe to take control of COVID-19 transmission as a result of three factors: high levels of immunization because of vaccination and natural infection, the virus’s tendency to spread less in warmer weather and the lower severity of the omicron variant. Data in the U.S. is similar to the data from Europe, providing similar hope. “This period of higher protection should be seen as a cease-fire that could bring us enduring peace,” Kluge said. (Bacon, Ortiz and Tebor, 2/3)

The Washington Post: ‘Live With The Virus’ Meaning May Depend On Where You Live 
It is becoming the mantra of 2022, the most optimistic formulation for the end of the pandemic — less ambitious than “stop covid” but more than “flatten the curve.” The world, we are told, must learn to “live with the virus.” But what “live with the virus” means may depend on where you live. ... Health experts have warned against declaring that moment too soon. But many countries in Europe, where vaccination rates are high and hospitalizations through the omicron wave have been manageable, think they will get there before the United States does. (Noack, Rolfe and Booth, 2/3)

AP: Bali Reopens To Foreign Travelers From All Countries
Direct international flights to Bali have resumed for the first time in two years as Indonesia opens the resort island to foreign travelers from all countries, but mandatory quarantine remains in place for all visitors. Officials had said in October that Bali would welcome foreign arrivals from 19 countries that meet World Health Organization criteria, such as having their COVID-19 cases under control. But there were no direct international flights to Bali until Thursday, when Garuda Indonesia operated its first such flight in two years from Tokyo. (Lisnawati, 2/4)

The New York Times: Austria’s Vaccine Mandate Is Becoming Law
Austria is the first Western democracy to mandate Covid vaccinations for nearly its entire adult population, a once-unthinkable move that is being seen as a test case for other countries grappling with pockets of vaccine resistance. The sweeping measure, which easily cleared its final parliamentary hurdle on Thursday when it was approved by lawmakers in Austria’s upper house, will be signed into law as soon as Friday by President Alexander Van der Bellen of Austria. (Bennhold, 2/4)

The Economist: Papua New Guinea’s Vaccination Rate Is Only 3.3%
For citizens of a country where aids, dysentery and road traffic accidents rank among the top ten causes of death, it is difficult to get worked up about a newfangled ailment like covid-19. And when friends and family appear more scared of vaccination than of infection itself—when they say that a jab is a one-way ticket to hell—it is perhaps natural to resist getting inoculated. Little surprise then that Papua New Guinea, a desperately poor corner of the world, has the lowest vaccination rate in Asia and among the lowest in the world. Just 3.3% of the population has received even a single dose. (2/4)

Press Association: Fears Over Lockdown Making Children ‘Feral’ And Unable To Play With Others 
Teachers fear children have become “feral”, suffer “extreme” separation anxiety and struggle to play football with others as a result of the pandemic disrupting their education, ministers have been told. MPs raised concerns shared by teachers in their constituencies as they debated the Government’s education catch-up and mental health recovery programmes. Time spent learning at home rather than in classroom due to Covid-19 restrictions has disrupted the development of youngsters, the Commons heard. (2/3)

The Wall Street Journal: One Million Deaths: The Hole The Pandemic Made In U.S. Society 
Two years into the Covid-19 pandemic, America’s death toll is closing in on one million. Federal authorities estimate that 987,456 more people have died since early 2020 than would have otherwise been expected, based on long-term trends. People killed by coronavirus infections account for the overwhelming majority of cases. Thousands more died from derivative causes, like disruptions in their healthcare and a spike in overdoses.Covid-19 has left the same proportion of the population dead—about 0.3%—as did World War II, and in less time. (Kamp, Levitz, Abbott and Overberg, 1/31)

The Atlantic: What Will The Next Variant Look Like After Omicron?
To understand how the coronavirus keeps evolving into surprising new variants with new mutations, it helps to have some context: The virus’s genome is 30,000 letters long, which means that the number of possible mutation combinations is mind-bogglingly huge. As Jesse Bloom, a virologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, told me, that number far, far exceeds the number of atoms in the known universe. (Zhang, 1/29)

Undark: State Covid Testing Programs May Show The Way For Daycare
Around Dec. 19, 2021, John and Bridget Rooks got a call from their daycare asking them to pick up their kids after another child tested positive for coronavirus. Such calls have become a regular occurrence for countless parents over the course of the pandemic, with the disruptions leading to lost workdays, burnout, and even feelings of despair. “You can’t plan for it because you never know when it’s going to happen,” said John Rooks, an attorney who has two children, aged 4 years and 8 months, in daycare in Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood. With the December case, he noted, “it was just ‘Come pick up your kids and we’ll see you after the New Year.” (Roberts, 2/2)

NPR: The Expanded Child Tax Credit Briefly Slashed Child Poverty
Blink and you could have missed it. For six months, the United States experimented with an idea that's new here but is already a backstitch in the social fabric of many wealthy nations: a monthly cash payment to help families cover the costs of raising children. Less than a year in, though, this U.S. experiment, known as the expanded child tax credit, has already been unwound by a deadlocked Congress. Still, it's worth asking: What did it accomplish? Here's what the data tells us. (Turner, 1/27)

The Wall Street Journal: Six Exercises To Prevent Falls And Build Healthier Hip, Knee And Ankle Joints 
Whether you’re landing down from a basketball layup or simply stepping off a street curb, your body must be able to decelerate with control. “If you can’t harness your power, you misstep and fall,” says Ann Crosby, strength and conditioning coach for the Women’s National Basketball Association’s 2021 championship team, the Chicago Sky. (Murphy, 1/29)

The New York Times: Body Odor May Smell Worse To You Than Your Ancient Ancestors 
When you take a whiff of something, odor molecules sail inside your nose where they bind to proteins — called olfactory receptors — on cells that line your nasal cavity. These receptors trigger signals that your brain interprets as one or many smells. A team of scientists has identified the olfactory receptors for two common odor molecules: a musk found in soaps and perfumes and a compound prominent in smelly underarm sweat. The research team also discovered that more recent evolutionary changes to these olfactory receptors alter people’s sensitivities to those odors. The work was published in PLoS Genetics on Thursday. (Jones, 2/3)

The Washington Post: What Is Social Capital And Why Can ADHD Affect It?
A group of medical school friends nominated Sasha Hamadi to create a memory book for their pregnant classmate. Hamadi worked hard on the task for several weeks. She printed pictures, gathered mementos and listened to stories about their friend. The book — meant to be a group gift for their classmate’s baby shower — was more than 100 pages long, with items such as anatomy class doodles and fabric from a white medical coat. On the flight to the baby shower from Kansas, Hamadi realized when she was searching in her bag for her headphones that she had left the memory book behind. She felt awful. “I’m sure that half of the people here thought I never even made anything,” she recalled thinking. Hamadi, now 35, was diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder at age 9. She frequently misplaces important items, runs late or struggles with a disorganized purse — all symptoms of ADHD. She has been labeled a “flake” because she forgets social engagements or to reply to texts. People have often told her, “If it was important to you, you’d remember.” (Maguire, 2/3)

PBS NewsHour: What Hedgehogs Can Teach Us About Antibiotic Resistance 
Research that just unlocked how an antibiotic-resistant superbug evolved on one of nature’s prickliest mammals is an important reminder for humans: Bacteria are often very good at outmaneuvering the antibiotics designed to kill them. By swabbing the skin, feet and nasal areas of nearly 300 hedgehogs, a joint international study shows how one strain of MRSA, or a bacteria known as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, has developed antibiotic resistance in nature. Findings from researchers at the University of Cambridge, Denmark’s Serum Statens Institut and several other research institutions suggest the process is a result of a microscopic competition between the bacteria and a specific type of fungus, both found on the skin of the little, spiky critters. (Isaacs-Thomas, 2/3)

Undark: Drug-Resistant Malaria Is Emerging In Africa. Is The World Ready?
In June 2017, Betty Balikagala traveled to a hospital in Gulu District, in northern Uganda. It was the rainy season: a peak time for malaria transmission. Balikagala, a researcher at Juntendo University in Japan, was back in her home country to hunt for mutations in the parasite that causes the disease. For about four weeks, Balikagala and her colleagues collected blood from infected patients as they were treated with a powerful cocktail of antimalarial drugs. After initial analysis, the team then shipped their samples — glass slides smeared with blood, and filter papers with blood spots — back to Japan. (Pawar, 1/26)

Scientific American: COVID Vaccines Can Be Safe For People With Prior Allergic Reactions 
Despite the availability and efficacy of COVID vaccines, many people with a history of suspected allergies to the first mRNA COVID vaccine dose—reactions such as hives, swelling, shortness of breath and/or low blood pressure—have not gotten their full series. Their fear is understandable. After all, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention currently states that there are two contraindications to the COVID vaccine: “severe allergic reaction (e.g., anaphylaxis) after a previous dose or to a component of the COVID-19 vaccine,” and “known diagnosed allergy to a component of the COVID-19 vaccine.” Yet as an allergist/immunologist who has been seeing such patients on a daily basis for the past year, I believe that the CDC is wrong and should change its guidelines. (Charles Feng, 2/3)

The New York Times: The End Of The Pandemic May Tear Us Apart 
For countries with high vaccination rates, 2022 may be the last year when strong measures are required against Covid-19. The end of the pandemic, however, will not come easily. One might imagine that the end of the emergency would be joyfully welcomed. But conflicts over whether schools should remain open and the value of mask mandates reveal that just because the prognosis for Covid-19 has improved does not mean that public officials are absolved from the need to make hard choices about policy. A waning pandemic does not mean the end of leadership on Covid, but may instead mean it’s more necessary than ever. (Michael Bang Peterson, 2/4)

Bloomberg: Returning To Normal Life After Covid Will Require Vigilance
For the first time in a long while, there’s good news about Covid-19. The omicron wave is cresting in the U.S., and in many states is already receding. A respite from SARS-CoV-2 could well follow. And if new variants eventually emerge, it may be possible to live with them — that is, without shutting businesses, always wearing masks, and social distancing. A return to normal ... will require careful monitoring, better data collection, and a nationwide effort to prevent another crisis. (2/3)

Charlotte Observer: Make Birth Control Accessible, Affordable 
North Carolina isn't exactly considered a champion of reproductive rights. So it may come as a surprise that North Carolinians can now get hormonal birth control without a doctor's prescription, thanks to a law initially passed last year by the state's Republican-controlled legislature and signed by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper. (2/3)

Newsweek: Over 30 States Legally Allow Forced Sterilization 
Last summer, Britney Spears stunned the public when she revealed that her father, acting as her conservator, prevented her from removing her IUD. What shocked many people wasn't only the blatant disregard for her right to make decisions about her body: it was that it was perfectly legal for her conservator to take that decision away. Propped up by laws all over the country, guardianship systems (sometimes called conservatorships) deprive primarily disabled people from making some of the most basic decisions about their lives. The horrifying truth is that Britney's experience under guardianship and its legality is just the tip of the iceberg. Quietly embedded in legal codes across the country, many state laws grant courts a draconian power: the power to order disabled people to be permanently sterilized against their will. (Ma'ayan Anafi, 2/3)

Seattle Times: Seattle Children’s Triumph Worth Celebrating, But Equity Questions Remain 
Seattle Children’s, and the community it serves, has a reason to celebrate. The “Starts with Yes” campaign not only met its ambitious target of raising $1 billion for the region’s premiere children’s hospital, but it also surpassed that goal by $400 million. The meaning of the record-breaking achievement, spearheaded by Seattle Children’s Foundation President Doug Picha, goes beyond bragging rights. It is about making critical care available to more kids throughout the hospital’s network of clinics and providers, across four states. (2/3)

Chicago Tribune: I’m Disabled. My Wife Isn’t. Stop Calling Us An ‘Interabled’ Couple. 
Last summer, a disabled man and his pregnant wife appeared on a morning news program to help “normalize interabled relationships.” A short time later, a medical journal asked three other “interabled couples” to “share how they make their relationships work.” Even The New York Times reported on the wedding of “interabled YouTubers” in December 2020. I am a lifelong wheelchair user married for more than 30 years to a woman who doesn’t have a disability, and I can’t help wondering if all this media fascination with disabled people’s sex lives is truly good for the disability cause. Don’t get me wrong. I applaud efforts to show love in all its permutations. It’s important for people to understand that disabled folks are romantic and sexual beings. But I have mixed feelings about our being singled out and pigeonholed. (Ben Mattlin, 2/3)

Stat: Recovery Community Organizations Need Dedicated Funding To Do Their Work
Sweeping social change often begins as a ripple in quiet places: conversations around the kitchen table, in church basements, on school campuses, and the like. For the recovery movement, conversations between concerned family members, teachers, rehab counselors, emergency medical technicians and street medics, and many others who are part of recovery community organizations are helping undertake a massive shift in the perception of addiction in the U.S. (Ryan Hampton and William Stauffer, 2/4)

The Washington Post: ‘Dopesick’ Writer Proposes A Way Out Of The Opioid Crisis 
More than 1 million Americans have died of opioid overdoses since OxyContin launched in 1996.The statistics are startling: During the first year of the pandemic, the federal government reported a record 100,000 annual overdose deaths. One in three Americans say that drug use has been a cause of trouble in their family. Beth Macy, the author of “Dopesick,” joined James Hohmann to discuss the continuing opioid crisis, and the new Hulu series based on her bestselling book. (Beth Macy, 2/4)