The Washington Post: Moderna Seeks FDA Authorization For A Second Booster Dose Of Its Coronavirus Vaccine For All Adults 
Biotechnology company Moderna on Thursday asked the Food and Drug Administration to allow adults 18 and older to receive a second booster shot of the company’s mRNA vaccine amid concerns that immune protection from the vaccines wanes over time. Moderna’s application is substantially broader than what Pfizer and its German partner, BioNTech, sought earlier in the week — FDA authorization for a second booster shot for adults 65 and older. (Shepherd, 3/17)

AP: Moderna Seeks FDA Authorization For 4th Dose Of COVID Shot
In a press release, the company said its request for approval for all adults was made “to provide flexibility” to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and medical providers to determine the “appropriate use” of a second booster dose of the mRNA vaccine, “including for those at higher risk of COVID-19 due to age or comorbidities.” U.S. officials have been laying the groundwork to deliver additional booster doses to shore up the vaccines’ protection against serious disease and death from COVID-19. The White House has been sounding the alarm that it needs Congress to “urgently” approve more funding for the federal government to secure more doses of the COVID-19 vaccines, either for additional booster shots or variant-specific immunizations. (Miller, 3/18)

USA Today: Moderna Seeks FDA Authorization For A 4th COVID Vaccine Shot For All Adults
Moderna said its request for emergency use authorization is based partly on recently published data from the U.S. and Israel following the emergence of the omicron variant. The company did not specify what the U.S. and Israeli data showed, but Israel approved a fourth COVID vaccine shot for vulnerable people over the age of 18 in January 2022. Additionally, a study of more than 1 million Israelis over 60 showed that those who got a fourth dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine were half as likely to become infected and four-times less likely to fall severely ill than those who had only three shots. That study has not been peer-reviewed. (Tebor, 3/17)

How effective is a second booster? —

CIDRAP: Israeli Study Points To Modest 4-Dose Vaccine Protection Against Omicron
Four-dose efficacy of mRNA vaccines against symptomatic Omicron COVID-19 infection is modest, according to a research letter yesterday in the New England Journal of Medicine that described a small study in Israel. Of 1,050 eligible Israeli healthcare workers, 154 received a fourth dose of Pfizer and 120 received a fourth dose of Moderna. The researchers selected two age-matched controls from the remaining eligible participants for each person vaccinated. (3/17)

Los Angeles Times: Second COVID Booster Shot Does Little To Stop Omicron, Study Finds 
Israeli healthcare workers who were boosted with a fourth shot of COVID-19 vaccine at the height of the Omicron wave were only marginally more protected against reinfection than their peers who had received three jabs of vaccine, researchers reported Wednesday. Compared to getting two initial doses and one booster shot of Pfizer and BioNTech’s Comirnaty vaccine, adding a second booster shot reduced the rate of coronavirus infection by just 30%. (Healy, 3/16)

And more on the development of covid vaccines —

Axios: Coronavirus Vaccine Deadline Adds Urgency To COVID Funding Impasse
The U.S. government needs to contract with coronavirus vaccine makers by the end of the month in order to have enough booster shots for most Americans this fall but can't proceed until Congress approves more money, according to two senior Biden administration officials. The debate over another round of booster shots is already heating up, and some experts are skeptical that they'll even be needed soon. But there's no telling what will happen between now and September, when the administration wants to have doses on-hand in case they're needed. (Owens, 3/18)

Stat: Alnylam Sues Pfizer, Moderna For Patent Infringement On Covid Vaccines
Alnylam Pharmaceuticals has filed separate lawsuits alleging that Pfizer and Moderna infringed on its patents in developing their Covid-19 vaccines, the latest dispute over valuable intellectual property stemming from the pandemic. In each suit, Alnylam claims the companies used its lipid nanoparticles technology that carries and delivers RNA-based therapies or vaccines in the body. RNA plays a key role in turning the instructions held in the DNA of a person’s genome into functional proteins in cells. Both Pfizer and Moderna developed and now market mRNA-based vaccines, and mRNA is a type of RNA. However, mRNA is easily degraded and the lipid technology provides protection for delivery. (Silverman, 3/17)

Politico: Dems Search For Next Steps On Covid Aid As Headaches Pile Up
After two top Biden administration health officials pleaded with Democrats on Thursday to approve more coronavirus aid funding, Speaker Nancy Pelosi apologized to them in front of her caucus for having to ask at all. Pelosi told Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and top infectious disease adviser Anthony Fauci she was sorry they needed to come before House members from the president’s own party to call for $15 billion to continue the U.S. fight against Covid, domestically and abroad. (Ferris, Levine and Cancryn, 3/17)

The Hill: Pelosi Says White House Should Request $45B In New COVID Aid 
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Thursday said she's advised the Biden administration to seek tens of billions of dollars more in emergency COVID-19 relief, suggesting it will take more than $40 billion to meet the testing, vaccine and therapeutic needs of the U.S. and the larger global community. President Biden had initially asked Congress for $22.5 billion in new funding to fight the ongoing pandemic — a figure that was whittled down to $15.6 billion in the face of Republican opposition on Capitol Hill. (Lillis, 3/17)

The Hill: Fauci Says Officials Need More Than $22.5B For COVID-19 Response 
President Biden’s chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci said in an interview aired on Thursday that officials need more than the $22.5 billion that the White House originally requested from Congress for the COVID-19 response. In an interview aired on "NBC Nightly News," NBC’s Miguel Almaguer noted to Fauci that the billions of dollars requested by the White House was a “hefty price tag,” asking if all the money was needed. “I have to tell you, we need more than that,” Fauci answered. Biden’s chief medical adviser said that officials needed adequate funding in order to study possible future variants. (Vakil, 3/17)

AP: The AP Interview: Health Chief Warns Of COVID Funds Shortage
With the nation yearning for a new normal after its long struggle with the coronavirus, U.S. Health Secretary Xavier Becerra warned Thursday that vaccines, tests and treatments will be “stuck on the ground” unless Congress provides the additional funds the White House has demanded. “We have reached a pivot point,” Becerra said in an interview with The Associated Press. “How well we pivot is on us.” (Alonso-Zaldivar, 3/18)

What's at stake? —

Axios: Coronavirus Vaccine Deadline Adds Urgency To COVID Funding Impasse
The U.S. government needs to contract with coronavirus vaccine makers by the end of the month in order to have enough booster shots for most Americans this fall but can't proceed until Congress approves more money, according to two senior Biden administration officials. The debate over another round of booster shots is already heating up, and some experts are skeptical that they'll even be needed soon. But there's no telling what will happen between now and September, when the administration wants to have doses on-hand in case they're needed. What they're saying: “If you want doses in the fall, we need to go to contract now. Not going to contract now puts those doses at risk," one of the senior officials told Axios. "We have to be prepared for a booster campaign beginning in September, in the fall." (Owens, 3/17)

NBC News: Loss Of Funding For Covid Treatments, Vaccines Puts The Uninsured In A 'Catastrophic' Place, Advocates Say
In 2020, about 28 million people had no insurance, according to the Census Bureau, while Medicaid and children's health insurance enrollment rose sharply during the pandemic to nearly 85 million people as of last fall. The program that has been critical to ensuring that the uninsured have equal access to Covid-related care is fading out at a time when cases and hospitalizations are low, and as states and cities wind down pandemic restrictions. But that shouldn't mean that government funding is no longer necessary to help the uninsured, health care advocates and public health policy experts say. (Ortiz, 3/17)

Bloomberg: Fauci Says U.S. Covid Cases Could Rise As Congress Stalls On Pandemic Funding
The U.S. could soon see Covid-19 cases rise again and vulnerable people are likely to need a fourth vaccine dose, one of President Joe Biden’s top health advisers warned as the White House calls for more money to fight the pandemic. Anthony Fauci, the longtime head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a Biden adviser, said U.K. officials are already warning him of an increase there driven by the BA.2 sub-variant, easing restrictions and waning protection from vaccines, and that the U.S. tends to be a few weeks behind case curves in the U.K. “We have all three of those factors right now in this country,” Fauci said in an interview Thursday. “I would predict that we are going to see a bit of an increase, or at least a flattening out and plateauing of the diminution of cases. And the question is how do we deal with that.” (Wingrove, 3/17)

Also on the federal pandemic response —

Stat: Is Ashish Jha What The U.S. Covid Response Needs Right Now?
When it comes to discussing the White House’s pandemic response on TV, there’s nobody as qualified as Ashish Jha. Whether he’s on “Sesame Street” or Fox News, the Brown University public health school dean is a pitch-perfect pandemic adviser: clear, affable, and panic-averse. But the scope of his next job — steering the sprawling federal pandemic response — has some experts wondering whether someone with so little experience in government, policy, or logistics can rise to the task. (Facher and Garde, 3/18)

ABC News: Why Some Americans Haven't Gotten COVID Yet And Why It's Not Inevitable They Ever Will: Experts
Because omicron has shown the ability to cause breakthrough infections despite vaccination status, this has led to fears that everyone will catch the virus at some point. However, it is important to clarify that the COVID vaccines continue to be highly effective in its primary purpose in preventing hospitalization and death. However, public health experts said it's not inevitable Americans who have not gotten COVID yet eventually will, and that there are several reasons people have been able to avoid infection so far, including certain behaviors such as being serious about masking and social distancing, vaccination rates and maybe even genetics. (Kekatos, 3/18)

NPR: How To Tell If You Have Long COVID
Waves of fatigue. The inability to smell milk that has gone bad. A racing heartbeat. These are just a few COVID-19 symptoms that can linger after an initial coronavirus infection. Though they may not always amount to the debilitating cases of long COVID-19 that can leave people bedridden or unable to perform daily functions, it's very common to take weeks to fully recover — a condition I've been thinking of as "medium COVID." I've been reporting on COVID-19 since the coronavirus pandemic started, and I thought I knew what an infection would be like for a young, otherwise healthy person like me. I knew there was a risk for long COVID-19, even with mild cases, but in my mind, there were two types of COVID-19: run-of-the-mill cases that didn't last much longer than their isolation periods required, and long COVID-19, which was relatively rare. Instead, like so many Americans, I found myself caught somewhere in between. (Feldman, 3/17)

More on the new wave of covid —

Politico: Europe’s Covid Spike Has Biden Officials Concerned, Could Lead To Return Of Masks
The surge in Covid-19 cases in Europe, particularly in the United Kingdom, is prompting urgent conversations among senior Biden health aides about the potential of the U.S. experiencing another wave this spring, according to three senior officials familiar with the matter. While cases in the U.S. are at an eight-month low, the exponential growth in infections seen in several European countries is the latest evidence that Covid-19 remains a persistent threat that has the potential to upend the White House’s hopes of moving past the pandemic. (Banco, Cancryn and Mahr, 3/17)

The Baltimore Sun: Had Enough Yet? The Next Coronavirus Variant Is Here, But It May Not Be That Bad
The world couldn’t be more ready to move on from the deadly pandemic. But as predicted, the hardy coronavirus continues to mutate and infect people anew. Cases are again rising in Asia and Europe, which has been a harbinger of things to come here. The upswing is tied to a new, even more contagious version of the omicron variant that spread like wildfire across the United States in December and January. That was BA.1 and the new subvariant is known as BA.2, and its numbers are rising in Maryland and the nation, according to surveillance that includes genetic sequencing. (Cohn, 3/17)

North Carolina Health News: CDC Wastewater Surveillance System Detects COVID 
While coronavirus cases have declined, the pandemic is not over and requires constant monitoring to provide advanced notice of new variants if they emerge. In 2020, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention launched the National Wastewater Surveillance System (NWSS), an early detection tool, which alerts communities of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID. The wastewater monitoring process is noninvasive for households, as researchers collect samples from local wastewater plants and provide analysis without having to interact with individual residents. (Atwater, 3/18)

Dallas Morning News: Looking For COVID-19, Dallas Is Helping The CDC Test Your Sewage
Twice a week at Dallas’ Central Wastewater Treatment Plant in east Oak Cliff, workers use an empty milk jug tied to a string to pull a 250-mililiter sample out of a pool of thick gray water. Two-thirds of Dallas’ waste comes through the plant, so the samples provide a small look at everyone’s, well, poop. The sample is then sent by FedEx to a lab in Mississippi, where it is tested for levels of COVID-19 on the dime of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Scudder, 3/17)

KHN: KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: We May Be Done With Covid, But Covid’s Not Done With Us 
Logistics expert Jeff Zients, who has headed the White House covid-19 response team since the start of the Biden administration, is stepping down and will be replaced by popular public health expert Dr. Ashish Jha, who will take a leave from his post as dean of the School of Public Health at Brown University. Meanwhile, White House officials are scrambling to figure out how to get the funding they need to continue their covid control efforts now that the president has signed the big spending bill for the remainder of the federal fiscal year. (3/17)

In covid research —

CIDRAP: Moms Spread COVID-19 To Newborns Less Than 2% Of Time, Data Show
SARS-CoV-2 is transmitted from mother to baby before, during, and after childbirth about 1.8% of the time, and vaginal births and breastfeeding do not raise the risk, finds a meta-analysis today in BMJ. ... Of the 800 COVID-positive fetuses or babies with outcome data, 20 were stillbirths, 23 died during the first 28 days of life, and 8 were early pregnancy losses; 749 babies (93.6%) were alive at the end of follow-up. (3/17)

CIDRAP: 70% Of COVID Survivors In UK Study Had Impaired Memory, Focus
An online UK study finds that about 70% of 181 adult [long] COVID survivors had memory and concentration problems several months after infection, 75% reported persistent symptoms so severe that they couldn't work, and 50% said that medical professionals didn't take their symptoms seriously. (Van Beusekom, 3/17)

Fox News: More COVID Deaths Reported In US Counties With Lower Internet Access: Study
U.S. communities with limited internet access had higher COVID-19 mortality rates during the first full year of the pandemic, according to researchers. In a study published earlier this month in the journal JAMA Network Open, University of Chicago authors wrote that for places with more limited access between 2.4 and six deaths per 100,000 people could be prevented, depending on whether they were rural, suburban or urban. "Adopting an asset-based approach, we believe this finding suggests that more awareness is needed about the essential asset of technological access to reliable information, remote work, schooling opportunities, resource purchasing and/or social community. Populations with limited internet access remain understudied and are often excluded in pandemic research," they noted. (Musto, 3/17)

Politico: White House Sticking To Biden's Testing Protocol Despite Covid Scares
The White House is standing firm on President Joe Biden’s weekly Covid testing regimen, even after the president had two close calls with the virus since Tuesday. Biden was last tested on Sunday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said during Thursday’s briefing with reporters at the White House. She said multiple times that Biden’s “weekly testing cadence remains as it has been.” The White House has been vague about how often the president is tested, so it’s not clear whether he is just tested once a week, or whether this varies on a week-to-week basis. (Ward, 3/17)

On covid mandates —

AP: GOP Revives Anti-Vax, Pro-Ivermectin Measure In Kansas
Conservative Republican lawmakers on Thursday revived a proposal to weaken Kansas’ vaccination requirements for children enrolling in school and day care and to make it easier for people to get potentially dangerous treatments for COVID-19. The Senate health committee approved a bill that would allow parents to get a no-questions-asked religious exemption from requirements to vaccinate their children against more than a dozen diseases, including measles, whooping cough, polio and chickenpox. (Hanna, 3/17)

The 19th: Lawmakers Worry For Family As Arizona Statehouse Lifts COVID Precautions
Even before she was pregnant, Athena Salman was extra cautious about avoiding exposure to COVID-19. The Arizona representative has asthma, which means she’s more likely to be hospitalized if infected. So Salman was relieved when the Arizona legislature approved several mitigation policies for the 2021 session. Lawmakers could cast votes virtually for committee meetings and chamber floor activity. There was a mask mandate and plexiglass separating lawmakers when they chose to meet in person. The public could also testify on bills virtually, reducing crowds. (Rodriguez, 3/17)

Houston Chronicle: Appeals Court Sides With Texas Schools Over Abbott On Mask Mandate
An appellate court on Thursday sided with Texas school districts in their dispute with state officials over mask mandates, which numerous school systems already have lifted as pandemic conditions have eased. The state’s the 3rd Court of Appeals affirmed a trial court’s orders that granted school districts temporary injunctive relief from the enforcement of an executive order from Gov. Greg Abbott prohibiting mask mandates. (Serrano, 3/17)

In updates on vaccines and covid treatments —

Philadelphia Inquirer: COVID Vaccination Rate In Pa. And N.J. Stalls As Cases Drop
It’s 2 p.m. on a Wednesday in Chester, and nurses Susan Pollock and Carol Von Colln are inside a Delaware County vaccine clinic doing what they spend a lot of time doing these days: waiting. Last spring, Americans were in a frenzied rush to get the COVID-19 vaccine; this spring, business has slowed to a crawl. Now, whenever someone walks in, “we’re ready to throw a party,” Von Colln said. That day, they vaccinated eight people in six hours. It’s a scene playing out across the region and the United States as the number of shots being given each day is at an all-time low — even though a third of Americans are still unvaccinated. (McDaniel and McCarthy, 3/18)

KHN: Sharing Covid Vax Facts Inside ICE Detention, One Detainee At A Time 
The sounds of wailing ambulances, car horns, and bustling traffic filtered into the high-rise home office of Dr. Daniel Turner-Lloveras in downtown Los Angeles as he settled into a brown leather couch to take a call. On the other end of the line, staring at a mint-green wall inside a plexiglass phone booth with little privacy, sat Pedro Figueroa, 33, a detainee at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Mesa Verde detention facility in Bakersfield, California. “Is it mandatory to get the booster?” Figueroa asked in Spanish. “And why do I need it?” (de Marco, 3/18)

KHN: It Was Already Hard To Find Evusheld, A Covid Prevention Therapy. Now It’s Even Harder 
As immunocompromised people across the country work to get Evusheld, a potentially lifesaving covid therapy, several hundred providers of the injections were removed from a federal dataset on Wednesday night, making the therapy even harder to locate. White House officials had announced March 15 that a planned purchase of more doses would have to be scaled back without new federal funding. (Recht, 3/17)

Las Vegas Review-Journal: Las Vegas Nurses: Don’t Blame Us For Staffing Shortages
For critical care nurse Emily Johnson, working long hours during the pandemic has meant delaying plans to get a master’s degree and missing time at home with three children under the age of 3, two of them foster kids. “My kids are growing up without me,” said Johnson, 33, who works in the burn center at University Medical Center in central Las Vegas. Despite plummeting COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations, Johnson and other UMC nurses say they aren’t getting a reprieve. After eliminating incentive pay for overtime last month, the hospital is now reimposing a requirement that nurses work mandatory overtime. (Hynes, 3/17)

Stateline: As Nurses Quit, States Seek To Train More
Under pressure from short-staffed hospitals and burned-out nurses, lawmakers in several states recently passed bills designed to expand nursing schools. For more than two years, the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed both the importance of nurses and strain on the workforce. Hospitals, long-term care centers and even K-12 schools have been so short-staffed in recent months that they’ve had to cancel procedures, delay moving patients into inpatient beds or reduce other services. This legislative season, that sense of crisis has powered bipartisan efforts to increase nurse training and licensure. The proposals have split somewhat along party lines, with Republican lawmakers in red states emphasizing reduced education regulations and Democrats in blue states emphasizing funding increases. Still, leaders in both parties agree on the need to get more nurses educated and helping patients. (Quinton, 3/17)

Modern Healthcare: Remaining In The Workforce A Challenge For Women In Healthcare
During the COVID-19 pandemic, many women have had to put their careers on hold to look after children who are remote learning, to care for elderly or ill loved ones or to relocate to be closer to family. They've left their positions temporarily or permanently as they juggle priorities. Since February 2020, more than 1 million fewer women are in the U.S. workforce, whereas men have regained all of the jobs they lost during the pandemic, according to a National Women's Law Center analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data. In healthcare, where the workforce is 75% women, the sector was down 2.8% of women's jobs in November 2021 from January 2020, compared to 0.32% of men's jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Yet, healthcare, like many other sectors, continues to have a high demand for workers. (Christ, 3/17)

In related news about health care personnel —

Fox News: Caregiver Fatigue In America Rising At Unprecedented Rate: Reports
Covid-19 has added to caregiver fatigue according to health experts. Caregiver fatigue occurs when the caregiver of an individual feels physically and emotionally exhausted, often leading to a change in attitude, negative feelings toward the role and the care recipient and sometimes feelings of resentment, according to health experts. "We encourage families to try to plan ahead. It can be difficult to face an older loved one’s changing needs, but if you have plans in place for how your family/network will support the primary caregiver in both big and everyday ways you’ll be ahead of the curve," Seniorly Vice President of Partnerships and gerontologist Marlena Del Hierro said in a statement to Fox News. (McGorry, 3/17)

Stat: New Report Lays Bare Harassment Of Public Health Officials During Pandemic
There’s a mountain of evidence showing the devastating toll of the pandemic on health workers. Now, new research lays bare the brutal impact on their counterparts in public health. To capture the experience of public health officials during the pandemic, researchers scoured data from a national survey of local health department workers and combed through media reports of attacks. They turned up nearly 1,500 different instances of harassment against public health workers between March 2020 and January 2021, and also found at least 222 public health officials left their jobs during that time frame. (Mulundika, 3/17)

Louisville Courier Journal: Kentucky Nurse Practitioners Want More Prescription Power, But Doctors' Group Pushes Back
On a busy day at her primary care clinic in Morehead, Wendy Fletcher might see a teen with a virus, an infant for immunizations and an older adult with diabetes or high blood pressure. Fletcher, an advanced practice registered nurse, also treats opioid use disorder in an effort to repair the damage addiction has brought to her native Eastern Kentucky. "We do stay pretty busy," said Fletcher, president of the Kentucky Association of Nurse Practitioners and Nurse Midwives. Now Fletcher's organization is seeking a change in state law it argues would lift unnecessary restrictions on advanced practice nurses, also known as nurse practitioners, and expand access to care, especially in rural and underserved areas. (Yetter, 3/18)

The Washington Post: Veterans Put At Risk By Failures In $16 Billion Digital Health System, Watchdog Finds
More than a year after a disastrous deployment at its first hospital, the $16 billion effort to modernize veterans’ medical records still poses grave safety risks to patients, from medication errors to failures to safeguard patients at high danger of suicide, the Department of Veterans Affairs’ internal watchdog reported Thursday. Three reports on the project’s rollout in Spokane, Wash., cast doubt on how smoothly it will expand next week, when VA plans to bring its digital health records system to a second Washington hospital in Walla Walla, then accelerate implementation at other hospitals and clinics in the Pacific Northwest and elsewhere by December. (Rein, 3/17)

Chicago Tribune: 100-Year-Old Hines VA Hospital Would Get New Facility Under National Overhaul Plan 
The Biden administration is proposing replacing much of the 100-year-old Edward Hines, Jr. VA Hospital — which sits about 12 miles west of downtown Chicago — as part of a national overhaul of the nation’s veteran’s health care system. The Department of Veterans Affairs released details earlier this week about how it plans to revamp its facilities across the country, sparking controversy with recommendations to close hospitals in some areas, such as Massachusetts, Ohio and New York. Under the plan, the Chicago area would keep its three main VA health care facilities — Hines, the Jesse Brown Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Chicago and the Capt. James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center in North Chicago. But Hines, which has nearly 500 beds, would get a new building to house all of its patient care. At least some of Hines’ current buildings, including the one that now includes most of the hospital’s patient care, would remain for administrative use, said James Doelling, Hines’ hospital director. (Schencker, 3/17)

In other health industry news —

Cincinnati Enquirer: 17 Cincinnati Area Hospitals Docked For Readmission, Infection Rates
The federal government will reduce Medicare payments to 17 Cincinnati area hospitals with high rates of readmission or inpatient-developed infections and injuries in 2022. The penalties, which are a part of two separate pay-for-performance programs under the Affordable Care Act, include a 1% reduction of Medicare payments to hospitals with a high volume of in-house infections, or hospital-acquired injuries, and a separate reduction of up to 3% for high readmission. Most penalties don't reach the full 3% reduction, however. Five local hospitals – the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, TriHealth's McCullough-Hyde Memorial Hospital, and St. Elizabeth Healthcare's Edgewood, Florence, and Fort Thomas hospitals – were penalized for having high rates of complications classified under the Hospital-Acquired Condition Reduction program, according to data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. (Sutherland, 3/17)

Anchorage Daily News: Historic Split Of Alaska’s Health Department Will Become Final Within Days Unless Senate Moves Fast
Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s sweeping proposal to divide Alaska’s massive health department into two agencies via an executive order appears poised to go into effect this summer unless the Legislature makes a last-minute decision to meet in joint session by Saturday. State Senate leaders say there are no plans for a joint session, despite pressure from House leaders to “disapprove” the split -- the only way the Legislature can take action. Dunleavy in January issued Executive Order 21, a 100-plus-page document that divides the unwieldy Alaska Department of Health and Social Services into a Department of Health and a Department of Family and Community Services. The administration contends the Alaska Constitution allows the governor to make such a sweeping reorganization rather than proposing a bill that’s subject to legislative review and amendments. (Hollander and Brooks, 3/17)

WUSF Public Media: $700 Million In State Funding Will Help Moffitt Build Massive Cancer Complex In Pasco County 
An ambitious plan to build a massive cancer treatment center and research park on 775 acres in Pasco County received a major boost from Florida legislators this week. In the budget that they forwarded to the governor on Monday, lawmakers awarded a total of $706 million to Moffitt Cancer Center over the next 30 years to help the nonprofit build a life sciences innovation district on vacant land just east of the Suncoast Parkway and south of State Road 52. The project will serve as a hub for cancer research, education and patient care, said Jamie Wilson, vice president of government relations for Moffitt. (Bruner, 3/17)

Also —

Modern Healthcare: Becerra Eyes Work On Physician Pay, Medicare Advantage Reform
Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said Thursday that the department may readjust Medicare Part B premiums next month while it looks to work with Congress on other healthcare reforms in his second year on the job. As Becerra approaches his one-year anniversary in the position, he's also fighting an uphill battle for more funding from Congress to keep COVID-19 relief and health coverage initiatives alive. HHS is interested in talking to Congress about Medicare Advantage overpayment issues and physician payment reform, Becerra told reporters Thursday. "We can't let this go over the cliff. Not when we're on the verge of turning the page," he said. (Goldman, 3/17)

Axios: Half Of Cancer Patients Report Medical Debt
More than a quarter of cancer patients depleted most or all of their savings to cover the costs of their care, according to a study released Thursday by the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network. The cost of cancer care is having a substantial impact on the lives of cancer patients, even among those who have insurance. The poll of more than 1,2o0 cancer patients conducted between Feb. 9 and 23 found a majority of patients and survivors said they were unprepared for the costs of their care. (Reed, 3/17)

In other news about drug prices —

Stat: Medicare Premiums Could Decrease ‘Soon,’ After Alzheimer’s Drug Decision
Whether seniors get an unprecedented mid-year discount on Medicare premiums will hinge on a forthcoming decision about how the program will cover a pricey, controversial new Alzheimer’s drug that is expected by mid-April. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said two months ago he wanted to explore lowering the premiums, which saw their largest-ever hike this year in case Medicare spending skyrocketed due to the approval of Aduhelm, which initially cost more than $56,000 for one patient, for one year. (Cohrs, 3/17)

Columbus Dispatch: Pharmacy Benefit Managers Targeted In Ohio Attorney General Probe
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost has launched an investigation into an obscure drug-pricing maneuver that could be both illegal and costing taxpayers millions of dollars. Yost's top assistant for health and human services issues, Ara Mekhjian, sent a series of "investigative requests" seeking information for a probe of pharmacy benefit managers — controversial middlemen in the drug supply chain. The communiques to Medicaid managed care organizations were obtained by The Dispatch through a public records request. (Rowland, 3/18)

In other pharmaceutical and biotech industry news —

Stat: Congress Debates The Future Of FDA’s Accelerated Approval
Lawmakers are facing off over the future of the Food and Drug Administration’s so-called accelerated approval pathway, with Biogen’s controversial Alzheimer’s drug Aduhelm front and center in the debate. The very first minutes of a Thursday hearing, originally billed as an opportunity to highlight roughly 20 different health policy measures, focused on the future of accelerated approval, which allows the FDA to approve drugs without clear evidence they prolong patients’ lives. (Florko, 3/17)

Stat: Illumina Sues Guardant Health, Saying Ex-Employees Stole Trade Secrets
DNA sequencing giant Illumina is suing Guardant Health, a firm that has become both its customer and rival, claiming that the patents at the core of Guardant’s quest to detect cancer with a simple blood draw are based on confidential information stolen from the genomics company. San Diego-based Illumina filed a lawsuit Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware in which it says that Guardant’s co-founders, who are former Illumina employees, siphoned off tens of thousands of Illumina documents while creating their company. Illumina is looking to be included on Guardant’s key patents; it’s also asking for royalties, payment for lost profits, and other forms of compensation. (Wosen, 3/17)

Stat: After A Dry Spell For Cancer Immunotherapy, A New Target Offers Promise
Oncologists may soon have a new immuno-oncology target in their arsenal. Experts expect the Food and Drug Administration to soon approve relatlimab, a Bristol Myers Squibb drug that binds to a cancer target called LAG-3, making it the first new immune checkpoint target in nearly a decade. Immune checkpoint inhibitors work by blocking critical cellular safety systems that keep our immune cells in “check.” By turning off these checkpoints, immune cells are free to unleash their destructive power — and hopefully, crush cancer in the body. Over the last 10 years, scientists have made wildly successful compounds that targeted the checkpoints PD-1 and CTLA-4, spawning the drugs Keytruda, Opdivo, and Yervoy. (Chen, 3/18)

AP: Big US Gene Database Has Volunteers From All Walks Of Life 
Scientists are getting their first peek at the genes of nearly 100,000 Americans in what’s considered a uniquely diverse genomic database -- part of a quest to reduce health disparities and end cookie-cutter care. The National Institutes of Health released the data on Thursday to help researchers start unraveling how people’s genes, environments and lifestyles interact to drive their health. And half the study’s participants are from racial and ethnic groups historically left out of medical research. (Neergaard, 3/17)

Stat: New Details Emerge On Michael Deem’s Role In ‘CRISPR Babies’ Scandal
More than three years after the now-infamous Chinese scientist He Jiankui sent shockwaves around the globe when he claimed to have created the world’s first CRISPR’d children, much is still unknown, including the twin girls’ current condition, and how their health and well-being will be supported as they grow up. Here in the U.S., an equally enduring mystery surrounds Michael Deem — the American researcher who appeared to be He’s closest collaborator outside of China. Even as He is expected to be released from prison later this month — after serving three years for conducting an “illegal medical practice” — the full extent of Deem’s involvement in the CRISPR experiment remains a secret, due in part to efforts by his former employer, Rice University, and Deem himself to conceal his role in one of the most controversial chapters in modern medical history. (Molteni, 3/18)

AP: California Lawmakers Vote To Make Abortions Cheaper 
California lawmakers on Thursday voted to make abortions much cheaper for people on private health insurance plans, bringing California closer to becoming the fourth state in the country to ban insurance fees for the procedure. Thursday’s vote is part of lawmakers’ strategy to make reproductive care more accessible in preparation for a potential U.S. Supreme Court decision this summer that could overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 case that banned states from outlawing abortions. ... The Assembly approved a bill that would eliminate out-of-pocket costs for abortions on private health plans. While the bill would reduce the cost of abortions, it would also slightly increase monthly premiums for patients and their employers. (Beam, 3/17)

San Francisco Chronicle: New California Bill Would Create A Fund To Aid Women Traveling To California For Abortion Care
As other states move to limit or ban abortion, a Bay Area lawmaker proposed Thursday to establish a state fund to assist women traveling to California to obtain abortions. The legislation, SB1142, “sends a clear message to the rest of the nation,” said state Sen. Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley. “We are fully committed to ensuring that California women and those who may seek refuge here have access to all reproductive services, including abortion.” (Egelko, 3/17)

In other abortion news from Washington state, Tennessee, and Texas —

AP: Washington State Prohibits Texas-Style Abortion Lawsuits
A Washington state measure that prohibits legal action against people seeking an abortion and those who aid them was signed into law Thursday by the governor, in a move designed to rebut recent actions by conservative states. “We know this bill is necessary because this is a perilous time for the ability of people to have the freedom of choice that they have enjoyed for decades,” said Gov. Jay Inslee, a Democrat. (La Corte, 3/17)

AP: Tenn. Senate Leader Won't Support Texas-Style Abortion Bill 
Tennessee’s Senate Speaker Randy McNally on Thursday said he does not support legislation that would ban abortions and allow almost anyone to file civil lawsuits against violators and collect damages. Earlier this week, Tennessee became the latest GOP-led state to introduce legislation mimicking a law currently enacted in Texas law and its novel citizen-enforcement provision. (Kruesi, 3/17)

Axios: Citigroup's New Policy Shows That Ignoring Abortion Access Is Getting Harder For Companies
Companies that never had to deal with abortion rights are now picking a side. After Texas effectively banned the procedure [after six weeks of pregnancy] last year, and with the Supreme Court potentially poised to roll back abortion rights, new restrictions could soon put more pressure on big businesses to act. Driving the news: It's a rare event when a change to a company's insurance benefits makes news — but that's what happened this week when Citigroup mentioned in a regulatory filing that it would cover travel expenses for U.S. employees seeking abortions. (Peck, 3/18)

El Paso Matters: Narcan On Hand (Part 1): EPPD Patrol Officers Don’t Carry Narcan Amid Skyrocketing Overdose Deaths 
In the early morning hours of July 23, 2019, two police officers responded to a welfare check at a Northeast El Paso apartment. There, they found an unconscious 21-year-old man, with purple lips and a faint pulse. He had snorted a crushed pill marked “M30,” a counterfeit oxycodone pill containing fentanyl, the officers would later confirm. They called for Fire and Medical Services to come, and then they waited as the man overdosed in front of them. The officers waited because most El Paso Police Department patrol officers do not carry Narcan — a lifesaving medication that reverses opioid overdoses and is increasingly being used by law enforcement personnel around the country. FMS was able to revive the man with Narcan. (Kladzyk, 3/14)

El Paso Matters: Narcan On Hand (Part 2): How One Police Department’s Narcan Program Saved Hundreds Of Lives
When Officer Dave Hanson trains police officers on how to use Narcan, he starts by showing body camera footage from the first time a Tempe police officer used the medication on a local resident. The grainy video begins with a 23-year-old white man lying face down on a bed. He appears to be dead: silent and still with no visible signs of life. A police officer flips the man onto his back, moves him down to the floor and sprays Narcan into his nostril. Nothing happens, and the officer begins chest compressions on the man for a few minutes, before spraying Narcan into the man’s nostril again. The man begins to move, slowly regaining consciousness. (Kladzyk, 3/15)

El Paso Matters: Narcan On Hand (Part 3): Despite New Federal Funds, Barriers Remain For Improved Narcan Access At The EPPD 
El Paso Police Officer Jose Alvarez was conducting a routine traffic stop in Central El Paso in December 2020 when a security guard flagged him down: a man was unresponsive, lying face down on the ground just blocks away, drug paraphernalia by his side. Alvarez ran over and called for emergency services. He then administered Narcan, reviving the man. Alvarez later received the El Paso Police Department’s life-saving award for the act, an honor the department bestows for successful rescues. (Kladzyk, 3/16)

In related news about the drug crisis —

San Francisco Chronicle: San Francisco Issues Dire Warning After Spike In Fentanyl Overdoses Among People Using Cocaine
San Francisco health officials issued a dire warning Thursday following what they said was a recent spike in fentanyl overdoses, specifically among people who ingested the powerful opioid when they thought they were using cocaine. Over the past two weeks, the city’s health department said it was alerted to three fatal fentanyl overdoses in San Francisco among people “who intended to use only cocaine but were unintentionally exposed to fentanyl.” The health department also reported nine similar, nonfatal overdoses in two groups of people. There were an estimated 474 deaths from fentanyl in 2021, the health department said. (Whiting, 3/17)

Houston Chronicle: ‘One Pill Can Kill’: Authorities Warn Of Fentanyl’s Dangers In Public Campaign Targeting Houston, State
With fentanyl showing up in Harris County and the state at “an alarming rate,” authorities have launched a public awareness campaign on billboards and elsewhere to warn of the dangers of the synthetic opioid, often sold in counterfeit pills that can contain lethal doses. Representatives of government and public health agencies said at a press conference Thursday that the campaign aims to sound the alarm about the increasing illegal trade and the impact of fentanyl, along with the upward trend of the counterfeit pills. “One pill can kill” and “Fentanyl can kill: The first time could be your last time” are among some of the messages displayed on the billboards. They come as a record number of people are dying from overdoses in Texas, with the fentanyl driving what has been nationally recognized as an epidemic. (Tallet, 3/17)

AP: California Mother's Conviction For Fetal Death Overturned 
A California court has overturned the conviction and 11-year prison sentence of a woman for causing the death of her unborn child through drug use, the state’s top prosecutor said Thursday. A judge in Kings County Superior Court on Wednesday reversed the conviction of Adora Perez, who pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter in 2018 to avoid a charge of murder of a fetus. The original murder charge was ordered reinstated. (3/17)

AP: US Adult Smoking Rate Fell During First Year Of Pandemic 
The first year of the COVID-19 pandemic saw more Americans drinking heavily or using illicit drugs — but apparently not smoking. U.S. cigarette smoking dropped to a new all-time low in 2020, with 1 in 8 adults saying they were current smokers, according to survey data released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Adult e-cigarette use also dropped, the CDC reported. (Stobbe, 3/17)

In other public health news —

The Boston Globe: Frequent Daytime Napping By Older Adults Linked To Increased Risk Of Alzheimer’s, Study Says
A new study from researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston links excessive daytime napping by older adults to a heightened risk of developing Alzheimer’s, the disease that causes severe cognitive decline. The study was published Thursday in Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association, the hospital said in a statement. “The vicious cycle we observed between daytime sleep and Alzheimer’s disease offers a basis for better understanding the role of sleep in the development and progression of Alzheimer’s disease in older adults,” Dr. Peng Li, a lead author of the study who works in the Medical Biodynamics Program at the Brigham’s Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders, said in the statement. (Andersen and Fox, 3/17)

Indianapolis Star: Walmart Fire Causes Air Quality Advisory For Central Indiana
The fire at a Walmart Fulfillment Center west of Indianapolis Wednesday sent a huge plume of smoke billowing up into the air that could be seen for miles away. In the aftermath of the fire, environmental and public officials in the area face a number of questions: How is this smoke impacting air quality? Are there toxins or other harmful substances in the smoke and debris? Is there any lingering threat to residents living or working in the path of the smoke plume?  Barely 24 hours later, with the charred remains of the giant warehouse in Plainfield still smoldering, it remains unclear what the fire, smoke and debris could mean for the environment and public health. Officials from state and federal agencies are working to find answers. (Bowman and Schneider, 3/17)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: 3 Wisconsin Children Have Died From Influenza, First This Flu Season
Three children in Wisconsin have died from influenza, the state health department announced Thursday. The news release reporting the first pediatric flu deaths this season did not say how old the children were or where in Wisconsin they lived. Flu seasons are typically tracked October through May in the United States. After an unusually mild 2020-21 season — which state health officials attribute to people staying at home because of the COVID-19 pandemic — flu numbers have bounced back in Wisconsin, but still are not as high as past years. (Heim, 3/17)

CNBC: If You're Returning To Work After Retiring, How To Handle Medicare
It’s not uncommon to discover that retirement isn’t the ideal existence you thought it would be. If you are a retiree on Medicare who’s rejoining the workforce, be aware that you might have choices when it comes to your health-care coverage. Depending on where you work, you may be able to drop Medicare in favor of an employer health plan and then re-enroll down the road. However, there are a lot of rules and deadlines to know if you go this route. On the other hand, keeping your Medicare coverage could mean paying more for premiums due to the extra income from your new job (more on that below). (O'Brien, 3/17)

Roll Call: Texas Lags Nation In Health Insurance Coverage Rate In Census Data 
While health insurance coverage has broadly expanded across the country since implementation of the Affordable Care Act of 2010, many impoverished communities continue to lag behind, according to census data released Thursday. Overall, the nation’s uninsured population fell to 8.7 percent in 2020, from 15 percent in 2013. In Texas, however, American Community Survey results released Thursday show the uninsured rate was twice the national average — 17.3 percent, which was 3 percentage points more than the state with the next-highest uninsured rate, Oklahoma. (Macagnone, 3/17)

In news about LGBTQ+ health care —

NBC News: Biden Administration Meets With Florida LGBTQ Students Over 'Don't Say Gay' Bill
Biden administration officials held a closed-door meeting Thursday with several Florida LGBTQ students and their families about the state's so-called Don't Say Gay bill, the Education Department said. The legislation — officially named the Parental Rights in Education Act — would prohibit “classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity” in Florida primary schools. Its passage in Florida's House and Senate in recent weeks sparked national debate. (Lavietes, 3/17)

San Francisco Chronicle: California Could Become ‘Refuge’ For Trans Kids And Their Parents For Receiving Gender-Affirming Care In Other States
Transgender children and their parents from states that criminalize receiving gender-affirming care would be protected if they come to California under new legislation announced Thursday by state Sen. Scott Wiener. The legislation would keep families together by rejecting out-of-state court judgments that seek to remove transgender children from their parent’s custody due to gender-affirming health care. Also, California would not comply with subpoenas from states seeking to criminalize parents for allowing their children to receive care in California, and the legislation would establish a statewide policy to de-prioritize out-of-state arrest warrants for people violating laws prohibiting gender-affirming health care. (Hernández, 3/17)

The Texas Tribune: Family Of A Trans Teen Faces Child Abuse Investigation 
It took Max three years and one letter, written with shaky hands, to tell his mother the truth. He gave her the letter at the worst possible moment, with dinner on the stove and a house full of other kids needing her attention. But as soon as Amy started to read his words, she stopped, sat down and let it all sink in. The child that she had given birth to and raised for 13 years as a daughter was telling her that he was, in fact, her son. (Klibanoff, 3/18)

In news about marijuana and vaping —

AP: Kentucky House Passes Bill To Legalize Medical Marijuana 
The Kentucky House endorsed legalizing medical marijuana, passing a bill Thursday to strictly regulate the use of cannabis for a list of eligible medical conditions. The high-profile measure cleared the Republican-dominated House on a 59-34 vote after a long, sometimes-emotional debate. The years-long debate now shifts to the GOP-led state Senate on whether Kentucky should join the majority of states allowing medical marijuana. (Schreiner, 3/17)

Health News Florida: Administrative Law Judge Sides With Marijuana Doctor Accused In An Undercover Sting
A Tallahassee doctor who ordered medical marijuana for two undercover investigators posing as patients didn’t do anything wrong, an administrative law judge decided Wednesday. The Florida Department of Health sought to strip physician Joseph Dorn of his medical license for five years, permanently ban him from ordering medical marijuana for patients and impose a $10,000 fine. The proposed penalties against Dorn — who has practiced in Florida for more than three decades – stemmed from a 2019 complaint alleging that the physician violated state law by failing to conduct physical examinations of “Patient O.G.” and “Patient B.D.” The complaint also accused Dorn of employing a “trick or scheme” in the practice of medicine. (Kam, 3/17)

Philadelphia Inquirer: Pennsylvania’s Sudden Move To Recall Marijuana Vapes Raised Questions. Were These Products Harmful All Along?
For years, the Pennsylvania Department of Health allowed the state’s medical marijuana companies to sell hundreds of medicines that the agency now considers potentially unsafe. Something changed in November when regulators started a process that led last month to a massive recall and ban of 670 types of cannabis concentrates for vaping — $12 million worth — that they had previously approved for sale in Pennsylvania’s roughly 150 marijuana dispensaries. The move blindsided patients and an industry dominated by companies hyper-focused on broader legalization of marijuana. And regulators declined to explain the action beyond saying the medicines contained “added ingredients that have not been approved for inhalation” by the FDA. (Brubaker, 3/17)

AP: Part Of Indiana's New Vaping Tax Cut Before Taking Effect
Indiana’s new tax on vaping is being cut even before it takes effect despite protests from anti-smoking advocates. Gov. Eric Holcomb signed a bill this week that included provisions cutting the 25% tax that wholesalers were to be charged for closed-system vaping cartridges such as Juul devices to 15%. State lawmakers approved the higher rate last year for Indiana’s first tax on electronic cigarettes to start in July 2022. (3/17)

In other news from across the U.S. —

AP: Settlement Sets Better Treatment For Mentally Ill Inmates 
The Montana State Prison will no longer be allowed to punish inmates with severe mental illnesses for behavior caused by their illnesses by putting them in solitary confinement or setting unreasonable behavioral expectations, under a settlement to a federal lawsuit announced this week. “This settlement represents huge gains for the humane treatment of inmates with severe mental illness,” Bernadette Franks-Ongoy, executive director of Disability Rights Montana, which filed the lawsuit against the Department of Corrections in 2015. (Hanson, 3/17)

AP: NH House Votes To Repeal Paid Family Medical Leave Program 
The New Hampshire House on Thursday voted to repeal the state’s paid family medical leave program less than a year after it was signed into law, saying that it’s no longer needed because private insurance carriers have now filed similar plans in the state. The vote to repeal passed on a vote of 172-164 in the Republican-led House. (3/17)

Fresno Bee: Fresno County CA Has Acute Mental Health Needs Among Children 
California’s ill-equipped mental health system has failed many children — in Fresno County in particular, where demand for services skyrocketed by more than 40% in recent years. Data obtained by The Bee offer a glimpse of the mental health crisis’ toll among children under the age of 18 in Fresno County. The story of a Fresno girl through the lens of her family shows the impact mental health can have on local families, and how their struggles can be compounded when Child Protective Services gets involved. (Amaro, 3/15)

AP: More Than 30 Companies To Start Making Pfizer's COVID Pill 
Nearly three dozen companies worldwide will soon start making generic versions of Pfizer’s coronavirus pill, the U.N.-backed Medicines Patent Pool that negotiated the deal said Thursday. The Medicines Patent Pool said in a statement that agreements signed with 35 companies should help make Pfizer’s antiviral nirmatrelvir, or Paxlovid, available to more than half of the world’s population. (3/17)

Bloomberg: Africa Covid Vaccination Rate Picks Up After WHO, UNICEF Teams Sent To Help
The number of Africans being inoculated against Covid-19 jumped 15% in February as several countries embarked on mass vaccination drives after the World Health Organization, UNICEF and other partners sent teams to help get shots in arms. About 62 million doses were administered across the continent last month, with nations including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya and Nigeria significantly increasing their vaccination rates, the WHO said Thursday. The global partners are supporting campaigns in at least 10 priority countries to reach 100 million people by the end of April. (Kew, 3/17)

AP: Facing Its First COVID Outbreak, Samoa Goes On Lockdown 
Samoa will go into lockdown from Saturday as it faces its first outbreak of COVID-19 after a woman who was about to leave the country tested positive. Although health authorities have so far found just a single case, it is the first time Samoa has found any unexplained cases in the community and likely points to an undetected outbreak that has been going on for days or even weeks. (Perry, 3/18)

In updates on the invasion of Ukraine —

The Washington Post: At Least 43 Attacks On Health-Care Facilities And Patients In Ukraine, WHO Says 
The World Health Organization has verified at least “43 attacks on health care” — including assaults on patients, health-care workers, facilities or infrastructure — since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the agency’s director general, told reporters Wednesday. More than 300 health-care facilities are in combat zones or areas that Russia now controls, while 600 other facilities are within about six miles of the conflict line, he said. (Simon, Timsit and Jeong, 3/17)

The New York Times: An American Who Traveled To Ukraine For His Partner’s Treatment Is Killed
A 68-year-old American man was killed in a Russian assault on the city of Chernihiv, a city northwest of Kyiv, the local authorities in the city reported on Thursday. The local police said the man, James Whitney Hill, was killed by heavy artillery attacks on unarmed civilians in the city. ... Mr. Hill, who went by the name Jimmy or Jim to friends, and his partner, Ira, who is Ukrainian, had traveled to Chernihiv in December so that she could be treated for multiple sclerosis, friends of Mr. Hill told a local news broadcaster in Idaho this month. They had become trapped at a regional hospital there. (Specia and Schwirtz, 3/17)

The Washington Post: Mental Health Experts Worldwide Provide Support For Ukrainians
The crisis in Ukraine has unleashed a network of online mental health experts, some refashioning routine virtual care in response to the war; others providing psychological first aid for refugees or support for local therapists who suddenly find themselves on the front line of an evolving mental health crisis. “We all — many, many professionals around the world — have mobilized to work with what’s going on there, with extensive psychological trauma,” said Galina Itskovich, a Brooklyn-based developmental psychotherapist who has been working with parents and professionals in Ukraine for several years. “We have a grass-roots movement here, getting connected very quickly.” (Sellers, 3/18)

In developments in Ethiopia —

The New York Times: Who Killed Three Aid Workers For Doctors Without Borders In Ethiopia?
As the fight intensified in northern Ethiopia in June last year, three aid workers from Doctors Without Borders jumped into their four-wheel drive and raced across the battle-scarred landscape, searching for casualties. Hours later they vanished. The aid workers stopped answering their satellite phone. A tracking device showed their vehicle making a sudden U-turn, then stopping. Colleagues frantically tried to locate them. (Marks and Walsh, 3/17)

The New York Times: As A Crisis Hotline Grows, So Do Fears It Won’t Be Ready 
The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline — the number posted on student identification cards, atop Google search results and in warning labels on television shows — is about to get a major reboot, casting it as the 911 for mental health. With an infusion of federal money, the upgraded Lifeline starting in July will have its own three-digit number, 988, and operators who will not only counsel callers but eventually be equipped to dispatch specially trained responders. That will reduce interventions by armed law enforcement and reliance on emergency rooms — and ultimately keep people alive, advocates say. (Eder, 3/13)

The Wall Street Journal: Cold Showers, Hot Saunas And The New Way To Tame Stress 
What if the key to managing your stress is…more stress? That is the finding of a growing body of biological research that indicates that short intermittent bouts of stress such as heat, exercise and dietary restriction can strengthen your ability to withstand chronic stress. Dosing yourself with bursts of pressure, called hormetic stress, can help your body and mind weather tough periods at work and home and help counter some of the unhealthy chronic stress caused by two years of pandemic.  (Morris, 3/14)

The New York Times: This Year, Try Spring Cleaning Your Brain
The arrival of spring can serve as a natural point to take stock of our mental well-being and reconnect with the things that bring us purpose and joy, offering our brains a respite when possible. “It really is — for a number of reasons — a perfect time for folks to turn their attention to taking an inventory. Where do I find myself? What have I been through?” said Paul Napper, a psychology consultant to business leaders and co-author of “The Power of Agency: The 7 Principles to Conquer Obstacles, Make Effective Decisions, and Create a Life on Your Own Terms.” (Caron, 3/14)

Bloomberg: Weight Discrimination Remains Legal In Most Of The U.S.
Unlike other forms of discrimination, companies can get away with such treatment because, in most places in the U.S., there’s no clear law against it. Only the state of Michigan and a handful of cities, such as San Francisco; Madison, Wis.; and Urbana, Ill., ban discrimination based on weight. (In contrast, more than half of U.S. states have laws protecting people who smoke cigarettes on their own time.) In 2013 a New Jersey Superior Court judge ruled that because the state hadn’t clearly outlawed weight discrimination, an Atlantic City casino was within its rights to regulate the weight of its “Borgata Babe” cocktail waitresses. “Plaintiffs cannot shed the label ‘babe’; they embraced it when they went to work for the Borgata,” wrote Judge Nelson Johnson, who’s also the author of Boardwalk Empire. (Eidelson, 3/15)

The New York Times: A Ketamine Clinic Treads the Line Between Health Care and a ‘Spa Day for Your Brain’
The décor of the Nushama Psychedelic Wellness Clinic was designed to look like bliss. “It doesn’t feel like a hospital or a clinic, but more like a journey,” said Jay Godfrey, the former fashion designer who co-founded the space with Richard Meloff, a lawyer turned cannabis entrepreneur. The “journey,” in this instance, is brought on by ketamine, administered intravenously, as a treatment for mental health disorders, albeit one that has not yet been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. (Meltzer and Blum, 3/14)

Bloomberg: ADHD Drugs Are Convenient To Get Online. Maybe Too Convenient
For three days in July, Jeneesa Barnes was haunted by voices. It was as if people were just out of sight discussing her flaws, picking her apart, even when she was home alone. The morning of the third day she retreated to her car, thinking she might feel safer in a small, enclosed space. But the voices remained. Something was going horribly wrong. She turned on some foreign-language pop music, trying to drown out the voices amid lyrics she couldn’t understand. She started driving. At some point she stopped and texted: “I definitely feel like my mental health is getting worse not better since I’ve started cerebral.” (Mosendz and Melby, 3/11)

The New York Times: Here Come The Artificial Intelligence Nutritionists
After 20 years of living with Type 2 diabetes, Tom Idema had given up hope of controlling his condition. He had tried many diets that proved unsuccessful and even considered weight loss surgery. When his employer offered him a chance to try a new dietary app that uses artificial intelligence to control blood sugar, he took it. Mr. Idema, 50, sent in a stool sample to get his microbiome sequenced and filled out an online questionnaire with his blood sugar, height, weight and medical conditions. That data was used to create a profile for him, to which he added continued blood sugar measurements for a couple of weeks. After that, the app, called DayTwo, rated different foods according to how good or bad they might be for Mr. Idema’s blood sugar, to aid him in making better food choices. (Ravindran, 3/14)

The Washington Post: ElliQ, A New Robot For The Elderly, Uses AI To Provide Companionship 
On Tuesday, an Israeli company, Intuition Robotics, commercially released ElliQ after a long beta-use period. Billed as an AI companion for the elderly, ElliQ offers soothing encouragement, invitations to games, gentle health prodding, music thoughts and, most important, a friendly voice that learns a person’s ways and comforts them in their solitude. (Zeitchik, 3/16)

The New York Times: Meet The Underdog Of Senior Care
Felicia Biteranta was struggling when, five years ago, she enrolled in a PACE program operated by Lutheran Senior Life in Jersey City, N.J. Having suffered a stroke, she found it hard to eat without choking. She fell frequently; her diabetes was out of control; she had pulmonary disease and asthma. She might miss a medical appointment if she could not arrange or afford a taxi. Her family lived far away. She was, in short, a candidate for a nursing home. But such a move is what PACE — the Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly — was designed to prevent. (Span, 3/12)

The Tennessean: Look At The Opioid Crisis Through The Lense Of Hurting Americans
Some statisticians estimate that the actual crowd size on New Year’s Eve in Times Square is closer to 100,000 partiers than one to two million. SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, CA, the site of Super Bowl LVI, seats 70,000 football fans and can accommodate around 100,000 people. Yet, each of the above estimated figures are less than or around the number of people that died due to opioid overdoses in the past year in America. The increase is over 30% compared to last year and at this rate of growth is probably more than 100,000 deaths. Can you imagine everyone in Times Square on New Year’s Eve, or attending Super Bowl LVI, or living in the travel destinations listed above dying within a year? (Gary Dodd, 3/17)

USA Today: Ukraine War Drives Cycle Of Fear. How To Protect Kids' Mental Health
The amygdala is an almond-shaped organ deep in the center of the brain. Once stimulated by either actual events or video images, it initiates a firing of neurochemicals (epinephrine, norepinephrine, cortisol) that are intended to bring us to a state of readiness. But if there is no one to fight and nowhere to run to, we simply implode, as our heart rate and blood pressure rise without a targeted end point. This worry cycles and interferes with our sleep and our ability to function. It interferes with our immune system and increases our risk of disease. (Dr. Marc Siegel, 3/17)

The Tennessean: Legislature Should Support Tennesseans Instead Of Banning Abortion
Tennessee lawmakers are proposing a draconian bill (HB2779/SB2582) that completely bans abortion at any stage of gestation and allows anyone to sue abortion providers and loved ones of abortion patients for a $10,000 bounty. It is modeled on the Texas six-week abortion ban enacted in September 2021, which has already shown itself to be both harmful and largely ineffective at stopping abortions from occurring. (Nikki Zite and Amy Alspaugh, 3/17)

Stat: Health-Related AI Needs Rigorous Evaluation And Guardrails
Algorithms can augment human decision-making by integrating and analyzing more data, and more kinds of data, than a human can comprehend. But to realize the full potential of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) for patients, researchers must foster greater confidence in the accuracy, fairness, and usefulness of clinical AI algorithms. Getting there will require guardrails — along with a commitment from AI developers to use them — that ensure consistency and adherence to the highest standards when creating and using clinical AI tools. Such guardrails would not only improve the quality of clinical AI but would also instill confidence among patients and clinicians that all tools deployed are reliable and trustworthy. (John D. Halamka, Suchi Saria and Nigam H. Shah, 3/17)

The Tennessean: Anti-Trans Legislation In Tennessee Sparks A Mental Health Crisis
Suicide is the second leading cause of death among youth, and second, more than half of transgender youth considered suicide in 2021. Despite this disheartening data, legislators across the United States continue to introduce anti-trans bills. (Dr. Britta Roach, 3/17)

Also —

The CT Mirror: Fix Connecticut Prescription Costs In Ways That Help People Directly
Rarely in our history has the power of science and innovation to keep our communities safe and healthy been in such clear focus. And while vaccines have been grabbing headlines, for those of us in public health, we know that access to preventative treatments and medications is the best way to keep our population healthy and living full, productive lives. However, far too often costs can be a significant barrier for patients when they go to the pharmacy to pick up their prescription medications. (Dawn Hocevar, 3/18)

Newsweek: Whistleblowers Are Key To Reining In Prescription Drug Costs
With his State of the Union protest over the high price of insulin, President Joe Biden joins the long line of presidents trying to take a stand against out-of-control drug prices. It is a problem that affects all of us. And for the least fortunate, it is pushing life-saving medications out of reach altogether. Patching this gaping health care hole may be the one government priority with near universal support, especially with COVID-19 still on the prowl and "moonshot" cancer cures hopefully on the horizon. (Gordon Schnell and Max Voldman, 3/17)

Los Angeles Times: What China's COVID Lockdowns Say About The Pandemic's Next Stage 
Two years since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, China has placed many areas — including two of its largest cities, Shanghai and Shenzhen — back into lockdown for its worst outbreaks since 2020. This is an ominous development in a country that has, so far, effectively controlled the pandemic virus that first emerged within its borders. (Saad B. Omer, 3/18)

The Atlantic: How COVID Hawks Could Save More Lives 
On a recent saturday, around the time that millions of Americans were preparing for a night of unmasked socializing indoors, the Unitarian pastor John Pavlovitz told his 380,000 Twitter followers, “More people have died from COVID over the last two days than in the 9/11 attacks—but I’m glad so many of you are over the pandemic.” Pressed for an explanation of that sarcastic statement, he explained, “I am double-vaxxed and boosted and wear a mask whenever I’m at the store or a public space. I canceled my gym membership two years ago and work out at home.” (Conor Friedersdorf, 3/17)

The New York Times: What Long Covid Shows Us About The Limits Of Medicine
In conventional medicine, illnesses without definitive markers of disease are often described as “medically unexplained.” As a medical anthropologist who has studied the controversy over whether treated Lyme disease can become chronic, I’ve been struck by the similarities between long Covid and other contested illnesses like chronic Lyme disease and myalgic encephalomyelitis, more familiarly known as chronic fatigue syndrome. (Abigail A. Dumes, 3/17)

Miami Herald: Many Postponed Life-Saving Screenings During COVID Pandemic 
COVID-19 has been catastrophic on nearly every measure. Even if you emerge from the pandemic unscathed, the chance that you may have undetected conditions still remains — especially if you have postponed or had regular medical visits canceled. Debilitating, sometimes fatal, diseases and disorders often are impossible to notice without medical assistance that established, routine care can uncover. Too many people have surrendered a couple of years of care that could have prevented many downstream problems. (Mohamed Abou Shousha, 3/17)

The Boston Globe: No, COVID Isn’t Over 
In a now-viral video, hundreds of students and teachers gathered to welcome two Ukrainian children, refugees of war, on their first day of school in Naples, Italy. In an entrance hall, the throngs lined a staircase and balcony as they applauded, cheered, and waved small Ukrainian flags. It was a stirring moment to watch this brother and sister, who had lost so much in their homeland, being embraced in a new country. But there was also this sign that their well-being will be paramount in their new school — every student, teacher, and staff member wore a face mask. So did the two children. (Renee Graham, 3/18)