First Edition: March 3, 2022

KHN: To Be One In A Million: ‘Who Thinks It’s Going To Be You?’ 
Monica Melkonian wanted the Johnson & Johnson covid vaccine. It was only one shot and then she would be protected against the virus. So she was thrilled when the vaccination clinic at the Deschutes County Fair & Expo Center on April 7 had her first choice. But on April 13, Melkonian started experiencing headaches, a sharp pain behind her left eye. That same day federal health officials announced a pause in the use of the J&J vaccine after learning that six people had developed a rare blood-clotting disorder following their shots. (Hawryluk, 3/3)

KHN: Seeking To Shift Costs To Medicare, More Employers Move Retirees To Advantage Plans
As a parting gesture to a pandemic-ravaged city, former New York Mayor Bill de Blasio hoped to provide the city with a gift that would keep on giving: new health insurance for 250,000 city retirees partly funded by the federal government. Although he promised better benefits and no change in health care providers, he said the city would save $600 million a year. Over the past decade, an increasing number of employers have taken a similar deal, using the government’s Medicare Advantage program as an alternative to their existing retiree health plan and traditional Medicare coverage. Employers and insurers negotiate behind closed doors to design a private Medicare Advantage plan available only to retirees from that employer. Then, just as it does for private individuals choosing a Medicare Advantage plan, the federal government pays the insurer a set amount for each person in the plan. (Jaffe, 3/3)

KHN: Biden Pledges Better Nursing Home Care, But He Likely Won’t Fast-Track It 
President Joe Biden’s top Medicare official suggested Wednesday that forthcoming rules to bolster nursing home staffing won’t be issued under a4 mechanism, known as interim final rules, that would allow regulations to take effect more or less immediately. “While we want to move swiftly, we want to get comments from stakeholders,” Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, administrator of the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, said in an interview about the overhaul Biden promised during his State of the Union address. (Pradhan and Meyer, 3/3)

KHN: HIV Preventive Care Is Supposed To Be Free In The US. So, Why Are Some Patients Still Paying? 
Anthony Cantu, 31, counsels patients at a San Antonio health clinic about a daily pill shown to prevent HIV infection. Last summer, he started taking the medication himself, an approach called preexposure prophylaxis, better known as PrEP. The regimen requires laboratory tests every three months to ensure the powerful drug does not harm his kidneys and that he remains HIV-free. But after his insurance company, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas, billed him hundreds of dollars for his PrEP lab test and a related doctor’s visit, Cantu panicked, fearing an avalanche of bills every few months for years to come. (Varney, 3/3)

The Wall Street Journal: Biden Unveils New Covid-19 Strategy For Next Phase Of Response
Moving the United States beyond the Covid-19 pandemic will require vigilance for new variants, measures to prevent businesses and schools from shutting down, and continued global vaccine donations, according to a blueprint released Wednesday by the Biden administration. The plan underscores the administration’s shifting focus from responding to the pandemic crisis to a new normal that focuses on managing the disease. But the road map, the result of weeks of work with advisers, state leaders and public health experts, relies heavily on Congress approving billions of dollars in new Covid-19 relief funding. (Armour and Abbott, 3/2)

The New York Times: Biden’s New Covid Plan: Preparing For New Variants And Avoiding Shutdowns 
The plan, meant to help the United States transition to what some are calling a “new normal,” has four main goals: protecting against and treating Covid-19; preparing for new variants; avoiding shutdowns; and fighting the virus abroad. But there is a big hitch: Much of the plan requires funding from Congress. The administration recently told congressional officials it could need as much as $30 billion to sustain the pandemic response. One outside adviser to the White House, Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, said in an interview that the United States needed to spend much more — on the order of $100 billion over the next year, and billions more after that — to be fully prepared. (Stolberg, 3/2)

CBS News: White House Lays Out New COVID Plan, Will Begin Stockpiling Tests And Pills 
For example, expanding the nation's Strategic National Stockpile to now include at-home tests, antiviral pills, and masks for children as the White House envisions, would mark a significant – and expensive – shift for a federal cache once focused on buying up emergency reserves for hospitals and first responders. Supplies in the stockpile had surged thanks in part to previous rounds of pandemic relief money, enabling the federal plan to distribute some 400 million free N95 respirators in the wake of the Omicron wave earlier this year. But officials say ramping up the stockpile to address another wave of the virus in the general population would require significant purchases and planning far beyond its current levels. (Tin, 3/2)

AP: Biden Plan Would Tackle Chronic Gaps In Mental Health Care 
President Joe Biden’s new plan to expand mental health and drug abuse treatment would pour hundreds of millions of dollars into suicide prevention, mental health services for youth, and community clinics providing 24/7 access to people in crisis. Unveiled as part of his State of the Union speech, Biden’s plan seeks to shrink America’s chronic gap in care between diseases of the body and those of the mind. Health insurance plans would have to cover three mental health visits a year at no added cost to patients. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 3/3)

USA Today: Biden Administration Kicks Off Nationwide Tour Addressing Mental Health Challenges From COVID Pandemic
The Biden administration announced Wednesday a nationwide tour to address mental health challenges exacerbated by the pandemic, another sign the U.S. may have reached what the president said in his his State of the Union Address “a new moment in the fight against COVID-19.” The “National Tour to Strengthen Mental Health,” led by Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, aims to hear directly from Americans about the behavioral health challenges they’re facing and engage with local leaders to strengthen services. (Rodriguez, 3/2)

NPR: Biden's Mental Health Plan Has Potential, Experts Say, If Congress Acts
On Tuesday, the White House also released a fact sheet that lays out details of the administration's strategy. It seeks to address a mental health crisis that has been years in the making but was only worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic. The plan focuses on ways to strengthen system capacity and connect people who need help to a continuum of care. It includes measures to expand the mental health care workforce, efforts to establish a crisis-care response system to support the launch of the 988 crisis line in July, a focus on children's mental health and proposals to push insurance companies to improve their coverage of behavioral health care. (Chatterjee and Wroth, 3/2)

The Washington Post: Republicans Signal They May Oppose New Covid Aid Unless White House Accounts For Existing Spending 
Three dozen Republican senators told the White House on Wednesday that they may be unwilling to approve new coronavirus aid until they first learn how much money the U.S. government has already spent. The early warning arrived in a letter led by Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), just days after the Biden administration asked Congress to approve $30 billion to boost public health as part of a still-forming deal to fund the government and stave off a shutdown at the end of next week. (Romm, 3/2)

Stat: Why Formally Ending The Pandemic Is Going To Be A Huge Headache
President Biden made it clear this week he wants to transition toward a new phase of the Covid-19 pandemic — one where people are “moving forward safely, back to more normal routines,” as he said this week. But formally ending the pandemic is going to be a major headache. The next chapter of the U.S. Covid-19 response will center on how the Biden administration chooses to unwind the tangle of temporary policies put in place to help the country address the virus — with millions of people’s health insurance coverage and billions of dollars at stake. (Cohrs, 3/3)

Houston Chronicle: President Joe Biden Is Coming To Texas To Push For Veterans Benefits
President Joe Biden will travel to Texas next week for a stop in Fort Worth where the White House says he will “discuss upholding our sacred obligation to veterans. ”The White House did not provide any further details in an announcement on Wednesday. The trip comes after Biden used part of his State of the Union speech on Tuesday to call on Congress to pass a law expanding benefits for veterans with health problems from exposures to toxic burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan. Biden also announced his administration was expanding eligibility to veterans suffering from nine respiratory cancers. (Wermund, 3/2)

AP: House To Vote On Bill To Help Veterans Exposed To Burn Pits 
The House is poised to pass legislation that would dramatically boost health care services and disability benefits for veterans exposed to burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan. The bill set for a vote Thursday has the backing of the nation’s major veterans groups and underscores the continued cost of war years after the fighting has stopped. If passed into law, it would increase spending by more than $300 billion over the next decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office. (Freking, 3/3)

The Washington Post: Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Supreme Court Confirmation Hearings To Begin March 21
Confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson will begin on March 21, the Senate Judiciary Committee announced Wednesday, a timetable that could put President Biden’s first pick for the nation’s most influential court on track to be confirmed by mid-April. The announcement came as Jackson, a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, began her gantlet of one-on-one meetings with key senators as she plunged into the labyrinthine confirmation process, which will include dozens of personal sit-downs and four days of public hearings. (Kim, 3/2)

CNBC: Late-Enrollment Fees Hit Some Medicare Beneficiaries. A Congressional Bill Would Warn People Of Those Charges Before They Happen
A recently introduced bill in Congress has its sights set on preventing a cost that some new Medicare beneficiaries face: late-enrollment penalties. The bipartisan measure, introduced in the Senate, would require the federal government to provide individuals with information about Medicare enrollment rules before they reach the Medicare-eligible age of 65. While many beneficiaries are automatically enrolled at that point because they are on Social Security, that’s not the case for everyone. (O'Brien, 3/2)

CNBC: Biden Renews Call To Let Medicare Negotiate Drug Prices
President Joe Biden apparently hasn’t given up on a proposal aimed at reducing prescription drug prices, especially for retirees. In his State of the Union address Tuesday night, Biden called for capping insulin prices at $35 a month for all Americans, as well as allowing Medicare to negotiate prices with drug manufacturers — something that currently isn’t permitted. “I know we have great disagreements on this floor with this — let’s let Medicare negotiate the price of prescription drugs,” Biden said in his speech to congressional lawmakers. (O'Brien, 3/2)

Politico: DeSantis Called A ‘Bully’ After He Scolds Students For Wearing Masks 
Democrats labeled Gov. Ron DeSantis a “bully” after video surfaced of him curtly asking a group of students to take off their masks before a press conference in Tampa. “You do not have to wear those masks,” DeSantis told the students as he took the podium at the University of South Florida on Wednesday. “Please take them off. Honestly, it’s not doing anything. We’ve got to stop with this Covid theater. So, if you want to wear it, fine — but this is ridiculous.” (Atterbury, 3/2)

AP: Maine To Rescind School Mask Recommendation On March 9 
Maine’s state government said Wednesday it is rescinding a recommendation for universal masking in schools and child care facilities. The Maine Department of Health and Human Services and Maine Department of Education said they are considering mask use optional in those settings starting March 9. The final say will rest at the local level, as local school boards have authority about mask requirements in the state’s school districts. (Whittle, 3/2)

The New York Times: As New York Students Shed Masks, Elation Mixes With Trepidation
Just before classes began on Wednesday morning, Jordan Goldberg, a fifth grader at Guggenheim Elementary School on Long Island, strode through the doors and stopped short. “This doesn’t feel normal!” he said, clutching his bare, unmasked chin. For the first time since schools reopened during the pandemic, Jordan and many other public school students across the state entered homerooms, gymnasiums and class without masks. (Nir, 3/2)

The Atlantic: How Masks Get In The Way Of Speech Therapy
Americans have been arguing about pandemic restrictions for two years, and the debate is particularly fraught among parents of small children, for good reasons. While measures such as masking and isolation mean temporary discomfort or inconvenience for most people, their consequences for still-developing young children are more mysterious, and possibly more significant and lasting. Children with speech or language disorders offer perhaps the clearest example of these murky trade-offs. Pandemic restrictions vary by state, county, and school district, but I spoke with parents in California, New York, Massachusetts, Washington, New Jersey, Iowa, and Maryland who said their children’s speech therapy has been disrupted—first by the loss of in-person therapy and then by masking requirements, in places that have them. (Murray, 3/2)

Bay Area News Group: San Jose Eases Booster Mandate Afte 750 Employees Fail To Comply
With more than 750 employees choosing to ignore San Jose’s new mandate requiring them to get a booster shot, city leaders have decided to soften the policy. Instead of facing up to a week of unpaid leave, officials announced Wednesday that the city’s hundreds of holdouts will only be subject to a 1-day suspension equivalent to the number of hours an employee typically works in a day. City leaders also no longer intend to impose more aggressive discipline against employees, such as longer unpaid suspensions or termination, for failing to take steps to come into compliance with the order. However, they left it open to be revisited in the event of substantial changes to the COVID-19 pandemic or if more boosters become available and are considered necessary. (Angst, 3/2)

San Francisco Chronicle: Google Will Require Bay Area Office Workers To Return In April After Repeated Delays
Google is requiring workers in the Bay Area and other U.S. regions to return to the office part-time on April 4. The mandatory return date, originally slated for last fall, was repeatedly delayed by coronavirus variants and surges in cases. With cases dropping and masks mandates ending in California, around 30% of Bay Area workers have already returned and the company recently restored signature perks like shuttle buses and free food. (Li, 3/2)

AP: Washington Residents Can Order More Free COVID-19 Tests 
Washington state is expanding its program to distribute free COVID-19 tests throughout the state. The Seattle Times reported that officials with the state Department of Health said that starting Wednesday, sayyescovidhometest.org — the site that allows people to order free tests to be delivered to their homes — will allow up to two orders per household every month while supplies last. (3/2)

AP: Missouri Bill Would Allow Hospital Visitors During Pandemics
Missouri hospitals and nursing homes would have to allow visitors, even during a pandemic, under a bill advanced Wednesday in the Republican-led state House. Lawmakers gave the measure initial approval in a voice vote, meaning it needs another vote to move to the GOP-led Senate. (Ballentine, 3/3)

The Washington Post: Va. Sen. Tim Kaine Still Has Long Covid Symptoms, Introduces Bill To Research The Phenomenon 
Sen. Tim Kaine got covid-19 in the spring of 2020, and nearly two years later he still has mild symptoms. “I tell people it feels like all my nerves have had like five cups of coffee,” Kaine said Wednesday of his “24/7” tingling sensation, just after introducing legislation intended to expand understanding of long covid. (Flynn, 3/2)

CIDRAP: Study: 59% Of Long-COVID Patients Had Nerve Damage
A retrospective study of 17 COVID-19 survivors with lingering symptoms reveals that 10 (59%) had nerve damage, which the researchers said could have been triggered by potentially treatable infection-related immune dysfunction. In the study, published yesterday in Neurology: Neuroimmunology & Neuroinflammation, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers analyzed data from long COVID patients with no history of neuropathy or risks of neuropathy who were referred for evaluation of peripheral neuropathy, meaning nerve damage not involving the brain or spinal cord. (3/2)

CIDRAP: Survival After In-Hospital Cardiac Arrest 35% Lower In COVID-19 Patients 
Adult COVID-19 patients who had an in-hospital cardiac arrest (IHCA) were 35% less likely to receive potentially life-saving defibrillation without delay and survive to hospital release, according to a study today in JAMA Network Open. University of Iowa at Iowa City researchers led the study of 24,915 patients with IHCA from 286 US hospitals, of whom 5,916 (23.7%) had COVID-19, from March to December 2020. (Van Beusekom, 3/2)

CNN: A Highly Changed Coronavirus Variant Was Found In Deer After Nearly A Year In Hiding, Researchers Suggest 
An Omicron-like variant of the virus that causes Covid-19 -- one that appears to be highly divergent from circulating strains and sticks out on a long branch of the virus' family tree -- has been discovered in a population of white-tailed deer in Ontario, Canada, according to a new study. The same strain has also been found in a person from the same area who had confirmed contact with deer. The researchers who first characterized what they are calling the Ontario WTD clade say it's difficult to determine how this lineage evolved because it seems to have gone along unnoticed and unsampled in the background of the pandemic for almost a year. They speculate that it spilled over from humans to deer and then back to at least one human. (Goodman, 3/2)

The New York Times: How The Coronavirus Steals The Sense Of Smell 
Few of Covid-19’s peculiarities have piqued as much interest as anosmia, the abrupt loss of smell that has become a well-known hallmark of the disease. Covid patients lose this sense even without a stuffy nose; the loss can make food taste like cardboard and coffee smell noxious, occasionally persisting after other symptoms have resolved. Scientists are now beginning to unravel the biological mechanisms, which have been something of a mystery: The neurons that detect odors lack the receptors that the coronavirus uses to enter cells, prompting a long debate about whether they can be infected at all. (Rabin, 3/2)

Modern Healthcare: Patient Advocates, Nursing Home Leaders Clash Over Biden's Industry Reforms
Nursing home resident advocates and those in charge of the facilities are at odds over industry reforms President Joe Biden announced Tuesday during the State of the Union address. While both groups agree changes need to be made, they part ways over what needs to be done and how that should be accomplished. During the State of the Union, Biden announced plans to improve conditions at nursing homes by setting minimum staffing requirements, addressing overcrowding, cutting back on the overuse of antipsychotic medications and increasing inspections and enforcement. (Christ, 3/2)

Modern Healthcare: Telehealth Referrals Boost Demand For Medical Office Space
Health systems have pared down their office space for their administrative teams as more back-office employees work from home. But the long-term impact on clinical real estate has been less definitive as providers figure out how much telehealth can safely substitute in-person care. (Kacik, 3/2)

Salt Lake Tribune: U Of U Hospital Is Catching Up On 500 Surgeries. Now It’s Bringing In The Military To Help
With a backlog of about 500 surgeries that were delayed during the coronavirus pandemic, University of Utah Hospital is bringing in a U.S. Navy medical team to help catch up. “We’re going to be able to open hospital beds that have been closed because of staffing,” said Dr. Michael Good, hospital CEO. “We’re certainly not back to normal, but we’re trying to shift and get headed in that direction. Our colleagues from the Navy help us accelerate that pivot, that transition.” The Navy has deployed about 20 medical staffers, including physicians, nurses, respiratory therapists, and administrators, Good said. (Alberty, 3/2)

Stat: Organoids Reveal The Tipping Point When Kidney Damage Turns Irreversible
Chronic kidney disease is a serious medical problem that changes the lives of about 13% of the world’s population. Some kidney damage is reversible; kidney cells can marshal their repair mechanisms to heal harm caused by high blood pressure, diabetes, or harsh medications like chemotherapy. But some damage can become permanent, limiting people’s lives as their kidneys lose their ability to filter blood and remove the body’s waste products. Just where the tipping point sits between injury that is fixable and damage that’s beyond repair hasn’t been clear. (Cooney, 3/2)

AP: Judge Gives More Time For Purdue Pharma Settlement Talks
Members of the Sackler family who own OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma will get protection from lawsuits for another three weeks, a judge said Wednesday, buying more time to work out a settlement of thousands of legal claims against the company over the toll of opioids. The protections had been set to expire Thursday, but U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Drain said in a hearing that they’d remain in place through March 23. (Mulvihill and Seewer, 3/2)

CBS News: At Least Eight Additional Babies Sickened By Recalled Formula, Lawyer Says 
Powdered baby formula may be linked to at least five infant illnesses, including possibly two deaths, the Food and Drug Administration warned earlier this week. But there may be more cases than have been reported, CBS News has learned. (Battiste, 3/2)

The Wall Street Journal: TikTok Faces Scrutiny In State Attorneys General Probe Of Online Harms To Children 
A coalition of state attorneys general is launching an investigation into TikTok, seeking information about whether and how the video-sharing platform contributes to online harms to children. The move is an extension of an investigation unveiled by the same group of eight state attorneys general into Meta Platforms Inc.’s Instagram that focuses on similar concerns. The expansion adds fast-growing TikTok—owned by Beijing-based ByteDance Ltd.—to the list of targets under scrutiny. The concern that social media harms young people was one subject of a series of stories in The Wall Street Journal last year. (McKinnon, 3/2)

NPR: More Black Americans Are Now Dying From Drug Overdoses Than Whites
When the first phase of the opioid epidemic was cresting in 2010, driven largely by prescription pain medications, white Americans were dying of fatal drug overdoses at rates twice that of Black Americans. In the decade that followed, drug deaths surged again. But this time Black communities faced the brunt of the carnage. "Overdose rates have been growing fastest among Black communities," says Joseph Friedman, an addiction researcher at UCLA. "For the first time we see them overtaking the overdose rate among white individuals." (Mann, 3/2)

AP: Upstate NY Jail Sued Over Access To Addiction Treatment
A northern New York county is being accused in federal court of needlessly forcing people at its jail into harmful withdrawals by banning a medical treatment for opioid addiction. The New York Civil Liberties Union filed a class action lawsuit Tuesday against Jefferson County. The advocacy group said operators of the county jail largely ban methadone and buprenorphine, despite clear evidence that the medicines can effectively treat what specialists call opioid use disorder. (Hill, 3/2)

NBC News: Diagnosis Used In High-Profile Police Deaths Has No Medical Basis, Physicians Group Says
A physicians group released a report Wednesday saying an increasingly common diagnosis at the center of some high-profile police deaths has no medical or psychiatric basis. The 95-page report, released by the nonprofit group Physicians for Human Rights, calls on Congress to investigate the diagnosis of “excited delirium” and urges professional organizations that have accepted the term to clarify that it is not “a valid medical diagnosis and cannot be a cause of death.” (Stelloh, 3/2)

CBS News: Fitbit Recalls Nearly 2 Million Ionic Smartwatches Due To Burn Hazard 
Fitbit is recalling about 1.7 million Ionic smartwatches sold globally because the fitness product's lithium-ion battery can overheat, posing a burn hazard, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission announced on Wednesday. (Gibson, 3/2)

Houston Chronicle: Judge Temporarily Blocks CPS Abuse Investigation Of Treatment For Transgender Child
A Travis County district judge on Wednesday temporarily stopped the state’s child welfare agency from investigating possible child abuse charges against the parents of a 16-year-old who underwent gender-affirming health care. But the court stopped short of blocking such investigations statewide  — at least for now. The judge’s decision came in response to a suit filed by two national civil rights groups against Gov. Greg Abbott and the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services on behalf of the family, which came under review for supporting their daughter’s care for gender dysphoria. (Goldenstein and Banks, 3/2)

Politico: ‘Government Overreach At Its Worst’: Biden Slams Texas Transgender Investigations
President Joe Biden’s administration condemned a Texas effort to investigate the use of gender-affirming procedures on children Wednesday, in a move that promised to intensify the state’s fall election between Republican Gov. Greg Abbott and former Democratic Rep. Beto O’Rourke. The interjection from Biden and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services arrived hours after a Texas judge temporarily blocked Abbott’s administration from an investigation into the family of a 16-year-old transgender girl but did not stop the practice statewide. (Perez Jr., 3/2)

AP: Florida GOP's 15-Week Abortion Ban Nears Final Passage
Republicans in the Florida Senate on Wednesday advanced a proposal to ban abortions after 15 weeks, rejecting Democratic attempts to soften its restrictions and add exceptions for rape, incest or trafficking. The bill, which has already been approved by the GOP-controlled House, is now set for a final vote in the Senate after Republicans dismissed a slew of amendments from Democrats. (Izaguirre, 3/3)

Louisville Courier Journal: Abortion Bill Clears Kentucky House After Hours Of Impassioned Debate
One lawmaker, Rep. Tina Bojanowski, D-Louisville, tearfully described her two miscarriages and wondered whether House Bill 3, the omnibus abortion bill, would have required her to report them or seek professional disposal of the remains. Rep. Attica Scott, D-Louisville, predicted HB 3 would give "a new platform to anti-abortion extremists" who already regularly harass and intimidate abortion providers who would be required to be listed on a state website. And Rep. Joni Jenkins, D-Louisville and House minority leader, said the bill likely would have unintended consequences in further restricting abortions for women and girls who are sometimes in dire circumstances. (Yetter, 3/2)

AP: Oklahoma Panel Passes Texas-Style Anti-Abortion Measure
A House committee in Oklahoma on Wednesday approved an abortion ban that would implement an enforcement mechanism similar to a new Texas law considered to be the nation’s most restrictive abortion law in decades. The House Public Health Committee passed the measure by a party-line vote and sent it to the full House, where it’s likely to pass. (3/2)

AP: South Dakota Lawmakers Pass Restrictive Abortion Pill Laws
The South Dakota Legislature on Wednesday passed a proposal from Gov. Kristi Noem that aims to make the state one of the hardest places in the U.S. to get abortion pills, though it won’t actually be enacted unless the state prevails in a federal court battle. Every Senate Republican voted to pass the bill, sending it to Noem’s desk on a 32-2 vote. However, the bill contains language that stipulates most of it won’t take effect unless the state convinces a federal judge to lift a preliminary injunction against a similar rule Noem attempted to enact last year. (Groves, 3/2)

AP: WVa Senate Passes Bill To Ban Abortions Based On Disability 
The West Virginia Senate passed a bill Wednesday that would ban abortions based solely on a prenatal diagnosis of a disability, including Down syndrome. The bill, approved on a 28-5 vote, makes exceptions for medical emergencies or if a fetus would not survive outside of the womb. It now goes to the House of Delegates. (Raby, 3/3)

AP: Judge Blocks Ohio Abortion Rules That Clinics Call Harmful
An Ohio judge has blocked preemptive enforcement of a law imposing additional requirements on consulting physicians at abortion clinics — requirements that abortion providers say threaten operations at two of the last clinics in the state. While the bill’s stated goal was to impose criminal penalties on doctors who fail to provide life-saving measures in rare instances where abortion attempts are unsuccessful, it also included additional restrictions on clinic operations. (Smyth, 3/2)

Columbus Dispatch: Ohio Medical Marijuana: House OKs Bill Adding Autism To Conditions
Ohioans with autism would be able to use medical marijuana under a bill passed by the Ohio House Wednesday. House Bill 60 would add autism spectrum disorder to the list of qualifying conditions under Ohio's medical cannabis program. Proponents contend it would open another door for people with autism, some of whom told lawmakers that they struggle with traditional medication prescribed by doctors. The bill passed the House with a bipartisan 73-13 vote. The bill now goes to the Ohio Senate for consideration. (Bemiller, 3/2)

NPR: 1 Million Refugees Have Fled Ukraine Since The Start Of The War
The United Nations says 1 million refugees have fled across the borders of Ukraine since Russian forces invaded a week ago. "In just seven days we have witnessed the exodus of one million refugees from Ukraine to neighbouring countries," U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi wrote in a tweet on Wednesday. The new total of refugees from Ukraine amounts to a little more than 2% of the country's total population of 44 million. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), around half of the refugees are in Poland, with Hungary, Moldova and Slovakia being the other top destinations, while others have fled to various other European countries. (Socolovsky and Franklin, 3/2)

Axios: Ukraine's Medical Needs Grow Dire
Kids too sick to leave Okhmatdyt Children's Hospital in Kyiv have been sheltering in beds and on mattresses in the hospital basement this week amid growing fears it could be hit by a Russian airstrike. It's a stark reminder that many civilians in need of care can't comply with evacuation orders and leave amid the increasingly desperate situation. "What is happening now in Ukraine is a humanitarian catastrophe caused by the war," Volodymyr Zhovnyakh, the Okhmatdyt Children's Hospital director, told the Wall Street Journal. (Reed, 3/2)

USA Today: WHO: COVID 'Much More Likely' To Spread In Ukraine Due To Invasion
The World Health Organization said on Wednesday the ongoing invasion of Russian forces in Ukraine will allow COVID-19 to spread easily across the country, concerning health officials that the situation will result in many cases going undetected as attacks are made on healthcare facilities. "You disrupt society like this and literally millions of people on the move, then infectious diseases will exploit that," Mike Ryan, director of the World Health Organization’s Health Emergencies Program, said during a media briefing. "(People are) highly susceptible to the impacts of, first of all, of being infected themselves, and it's much more likely that disease will spread," Ryan added. (Mendoza, 3/2)

Reuters: Drugmakers, Device Companies Say Sanctions May Hinder Medical Supplies To Russia 
Western drugmakers and medical device companies warn their plans to keep selling products to Russia may be complicated by economic sanctions targeting the country and its major banks in punishment over Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. Sanctions levied by the United States, Britain, Europe and Canada against Russia do not apply to medicine and medical equipment, and the industry has a responsibility under international humanitarian law to continue supplying these products, industry trade groups, policy experts and company officials said. (Guarascio, Erman and Jacobsen, 3/3)

AP: COVID Cases, Deaths Continue To Fall Globally, WHO Reports
The number of new coronavirus cases reported globally dropped by 16% last week, marking a month-long decline in COVID-19 infections, according to figures from the World Health Organization. In its weekly report on the pandemic issued late Tuesday, the U.N. health agency also said that deaths fell by 10%, continuing a drop in fatalities first seen last week. WHO said there were more than 10 million new cases and about 60,000 deaths globally. The Western Pacific was the only region where COVID-19 increased, with about a third more infections than the previous week. Deaths rose by 22% in the Western Pacific and about 4% in the Middle East, while declining everywhere else. (3/2)

AP: Why Are COVID Vaccination Rates Still Low In Some Countries? 
Why are COVID-19 vaccination rates still low in some countries? Limited supplies remain a problem, but experts say other challenges now include unpredictable deliveries, weak health care systems and vaccine hesitancy. Most countries with low vaccination rates are in Africa. As of late February, 13 countries in Africa have fully vaccinated less than 5% of their populations, according to Phionah Atuhebwe, an officer for the World Health Organization’s regional office for Africa. Other countries with extremely low vaccination rates include Yemen, Syria, Haiti and Papua New Guinea. (Milko, 3/3)

The New York Times: As Cases Skyrocket, New Zealand Finally Faces Its Covid Reckoning
For much of the past two years, Covid-19 was a phantom presence in New Zealand, a plague experienced mostly through news reports from faraway lands. Now, suddenly, it has become a highly personal threat. New Zealand is being walloped by a major outbreak of the Omicron variant, with the virus spreading at what may be the fastest rate in the world. On Thursday, the country reported 23,194 new cases, a once unthinkable number in a small island nation of about five million people where the record daily case count before the current wave was in the low hundreds. (McKenzie, 3/3)