First Edition: May 19, 2022

KHN: The Private Sector Steps In To Protect Online Health Privacy, But Critics Say It Can’t Be Trusted 
Most people have at least a vague sense that someone somewhere is doing mischief with the data footprints created by their online activities: Maybe their use of an app is allowing that company to build a profile of their habits, or maybe they keep getting followed by creepy ads. It’s more than a feeling. Many companies in the health tech sector — which provides services that range from mental health counseling to shipping attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder pills through the mail — have shockingly leaky privacy practices. (Tahir, 5/19)

KHN: This Rural, Red Southern County Was A Vaccine Success Story. Not Anymore
At a glance, it seemed like a Southern pandemic success story in a most unlikely place. A small county northeast of Chattanooga, along the twisting banks of Chickamauga Lake, for much of the past year has reported the highest covid-19 vaccination rate in Tennessee and one of the highest in the South. Meigs County, which is overwhelmingly white, rural, and conservative — three demographics that strongly correlate with low vaccination rates — appeared to have broken a pattern of hesitancy and distrust that has stymied vaccination efforts across the U.S. (Kelman, 5/19)

The New York Times: Biden Invokes Defense Powers In A Bid To Ease Formula Shortage 
President Biden took urgent action on Wednesday to address the nationwide baby formula shortage, invoking the Defense Production Act to increase production and creating “Operation Fly Formula” to deploy Defense Department planes and speed formula shipments into the United States from overseas. The moves are Mr. Biden’s first major initiative to respond to a crisis that has sown fear and frustration among parents across the country and prompted Republicans and Democrats alike to demand action. (Karni and Cochrane, 5/18)

AP: Biden Invokes Defense Production Act For Formula Shortage 
The Defense Production Act order requires suppliers of formula manufacturers to fulfill orders from those companies before other customers, in an effort to eliminate production bottlenecks. Biden is also authorizing the Defense Department to use commercial aircraft to fly formula supplies that meet federal standards from overseas to the U.S., in what the White House is calling “Operation Fly Formula.” (Miller and Freking, 5/19)

Bloomberg: House Passes FDA Baby Formula Bill, But Senate Fate Is Uncertain
The House passed a $28 million emergency funding bill for the Food and Drug Administration to address the shortage of infant formula in the US and provide tighter oversight of the industry. The legislation was approved Wednesday night on a 231 to 192 vote. Democrats argued that increasing funding for inspections would help bolster supplies by expediting sourcing of formula from new domestic and international suppliers, which must be FDA-approved. (Wasson, 5/19)

Columbus Dispatch: Baby Formula Shortage: Ohio Moms On WIC May Soon Have Some Relief
The Ohio Department of Health said Wednesday that it has applied for waivers from the federal government to give low-income mothers more choices when selecting baby formula. Low-income mothers often rely on the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, more commonly known as WIC, to secure money for baby formula and food for their children. WIC often comes with strict guidelines that say what brand and how much of infant formula a mother can purchase at a time. (Wu, 5/18)

Fox News: Baby Formula Shortage: Why Many Mothers Can't Breastfeed
With the recent nationwide baby formula shortage, breastfeeding is often suggested for mothers as a natural alternative, but it’s not so simple, according to a recent the New York Times report. "TRY BREASTFEEDING. It’s free and available on demand," singer and actress Bette Midler, 76, tweeted on Thursday, May 12 in response to the national formula shortage. "Most mothers have the ability to breastfeed, so I feel it’s hard for them to understand what it’s like for a mother who cannot. As a new mom, we’re told it’s so important to breastfeed, even before the baby is born, they drill it into you. After working with five lactation consultants, I wasn’t built for it," first-time mother Misty Mortezaie, 40, told Fox News. (Sudhakar, 5/18)

The Boston Globe: State Health Officials Confirm Rare Case Of Monkeypox In Massachusetts
A man who traveled to Canada has been diagnosed with the monkeypox virus, the nation’s first confirmed case of the rare disease, and is being treated in isolation at Massachusetts General Hospital. State public health officials and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed the case on Wednesday, and hospital officials said they are trying to track down anyone who may have come in contact with the patient. The man was admitted to the hospital on May 12 and “during the course of their admission, they were identified as a possible monkeypox suspect,” Dr. Erica Shenoy, director of the Infection Control Unit at MGH, said at an evening news conference outside the hospital. Officials did not identify the man or say when he traveled to Canada or to what areas of the country. The CDC said he used “private transportation” for the trip. (Stoico, 5/18)

CIDRAP: UK, Spain, Portugal Report More Monkeypox Cases
The possibility of community spread is growing more likely in the United Kingdom, as recent cases have no travel history to a country where the virus is endemic. The most recent cases have also been seen in men who have sex with men (MSM). Though monkeypox is not known to be sexually transmitted, it can be passed through close, personal contact, and via the clothing and linens that have been used by a person with monkeypox. (Soucheray, 5/18)

The Washington Post: What Is Monkeypox, The Rare Virus Now Confirmed In The U.S. And Europe?
Monkeypox is not known to spread easily between humans. The fact that cases are emerging in several countries at once — with signs of “sustained” transmission in people — is striking, said Aris Katzourakis, a professor of evolution and genomics at the University of Oxford. “It’s either a lot of bad luck or something quite unusual happening here,” Katzourakis said. (Kornfield and Knowles, 5/18)

Fox News: Abortion Providers To Meet With Kamala Harris Virtually At The White House
Vice President Kamala Harris will meet virtually with abortion providers at the White House on Thursday morning, as the Supreme Court considers a key abortion case after an opinion overturning Roe v. Wade (1973) leaked earlier this month. Harris will speak with abortion providers over livestream video in a 2 p.m. Eastern event at the White House Thursday, a White House official told Fox News. The vice president will provide opening remarks, speak with the providers, and engage with pro-choice advocates in the audience. (O'Neil, 5/19)

NPR: 64% Of U.S. Adults Oppose Overturning Roe V. Wade, Poll Says
About two-thirds of Americans say they do not support overturning Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court decision that made abortion legal in the United States, according to the latest NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll. Seven-in-10 U.S. adults, however, say they are in favor of some degree of restrictions on abortion rights. That includes 52% of Democrats. The issue of abortion rights was once again thrown into the hot spotlight of American politics after the unprecedented leak of a draft opinion from the Supreme Court earlier this month that showed the majority-conservative court ready to overturn Roe. (Montanaro, 5/19)

PBS NewsHour: As Nearly All Abortions Come To A Halt In Oklahoma, Clinics Search For New Ways To Connect Patients With Care
Before Oklahoma’s governor signed a six-week abortion ban earlier this month, Dr. Iman Alsaden was often driving hundreds of miles a week, mostly from Kansas to Oklahoma, to see patients. As the lead medical director for Planned Parenthood Great Plains, which operates two of the four abortion clinics in Oklahoma, Alsaden was seeing upwards of 50 patients a day at her clinic in Oklahoma City. Demands on the clinic had grown since last September, when more people from Texas sought care following a new law that banned most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. Overnight, her clinic and others in Oklahoma had become critical access points for Texans seeking care. Months later, after Oklahoma’s new ban, Planned Parenthood Great Plains has stopped scheduling surgical and medical abortions in the state altogether. For Alsaden, it’s now the patients she’s no longer seeing that worry her the most. (Kemp, 5/18)

Roll Call: White House Turns Focus To Youth Mental Health 
For Jazmine Wildcat, a young member of the Northern Arapaho tribe in Wyoming, finding a therapist who understood her struggles was difficult. “Where I’m from, on the reservation, it’s not very talked about,” she said Wednesday, with tears in her eyes, during an event at the White House focused on the nation’s youth mental health crisis. “I’ve been to way too many funerals, and so I took the liberty to really, you know, say this isn’t OK.” On Wednesday, Wildcat was not alone. (Raman, 5/18)

AP: A Third Of US Should Be Considering Masks, Officials Say 
COVID-19 cases are increasing in the United States — and could get even worse over the coming months, federal health officials warned Wednesday in urging areas hardest hit to consider reissuing calls for indoor masking. Increasing numbers of COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations are putting more of the country under guidelines issued by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that call for masking and other infection precautions. Right now, about a third of the U.S. population lives in areas that are considered at higher risk — mostly in the Northeast and Midwest. Those are areas where people should already be considering wearing masks indoors — but Americans elsewhere should also take notice, officials said. (Miller and Stobbe, 5/18)

CNN: New York Mayor Says He's Not Reinstating Mask Mandates As Health Officials Say City At 'High' Covid Alert Level 
As health officials warn of rising Covid-19 infections and hospitalizations, the mayor of New York said the city would not reinstate mask mandates at this time. "I'm proud of what we are doing and how we are not allowing Covid to outstmart us," Mayor Eric Adams said during a Wednesday news conference, after he was asked about reinstating a mandate, specifically in the city's schools. "We're staying prepared and not panicking." To defend his stance, Adams cited what he said were stable hospitalization numbers and deaths across the city, as well as Covid-19 testing in schools. (Alsharif, Ly and Maxouris, 5/18)

The New York Times: 70 N.Y. Judges Went On A Montauk Retreat. 20 Came Down With The Virus. 
More than 70 New York City judges descended on a Long Island resort last week to enjoy an annual three-night retreat. In the days after, 20 tested positive for the coronavirus. Lucian Chalfen, a spokesman for New York’s courts, confirmed Wednesday that the judges had tested positive. He said that, to his knowledge, none of the judges were seriously ill, and that those who were symptomatic had not reported to work. (Bromwich, 5/18)

AP: US Health Secretary Tests Positive For COVID On Germany Trip 
President Joe Biden’s top health official tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday, the latest member of his Cabinet to be infected with the virus. U.S. Health Secretary Xavier Becerra tested positive while visiting Berlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Human Services said. Becerra, who is fully vaccinated and boosted, was experiencing mild symptoms. ... Becerra was last at the White House last Thursday. He is not considered a close contact of Biden. (Jordans and Murphy, 5/18)

CNN: Ashley Biden Tests Positive For Covid-19, Drops Off Trip With First Lady 
First daughter Ashley Biden has tested positive for Covid-19 and is no longer joining first lady Jill Biden on a trip to South and Central America, according to the first lady's press secretary, Michael LaRosa. Ashley Biden had been scheduled to depart with the first lady Wednesday afternoon for Ecuador. Jill Biden is scheduled to also travel to Panama and Costa Rica on the trip, before returning to Washington on Monday. "Ashley Biden is not considered a close contact to the President and first lady," LaRosa said. (Bennett, 5/18)

Los Angeles Times: Jimmy Kimmel Tests Positive For COVID, Lines Up Guest Hosts
COVID-19 has continued to plague the late-night TV circuit, this time hitting Jimmy Kimmel — again. “I’m such a positive person, I tested positive AGAIN,” the host of “Jimmy Kimmel Live” tweeted Tuesday. “I am feeling fine.” While Kimmel recovers, fellow comedy stars John Mulaney and Andy Samberg “have graciously agreed” to guest host his show on Wednesday night. Kimmel has previously disclosed that he is vaccinated and boosted. (Carras, 5/18)

The New York Times: Over 75 Percent Of Long Covid Patients Were Not Hospitalized For Initial Illness, Study Finds 
More than three-quarters of Americans diagnosed with long Covid were not sick enough to be hospitalized for their initial infection, a new analysis of tens of thousands of private insurance claims reported on Wednesday. The researchers analyzed data from the first few months after doctors began using a special diagnostic code for the condition that was created last year. The results paint a sobering picture of long Covid’s serious and ongoing impact on people’s health and the American health care system. (Belluck, 5/18)

Stat: Study Links Vaccination After Covid Infection To Lower Odds Of Long Covid
Ever since Covid-19 vaccines became available, some people with long Covid have said vaccination eases the constellation of symptoms that persist weeks and months after their original infection clears. Research exploring this anecdotal evidence has so far been intriguing but inconclusive, in part because of the small numbers of people studied. A new study published Wednesday in BMJ solves the size problem, combing through responses from more than 28,000 adults taking part in the U.K.’s nationally representative Covid-19 Infection Survey. Vaccination after infection was associated with a lower likelihood of long Covid, the researchers report, but more data will be needed to clinch any cause-and-effect connection. (Cooney, 5/18)

CIDRAP: MRNA COVID Vaccines Show Stronger Immune Response Against Variants
COVID-19 mRNA vaccines, made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, elicited stronger antibody responses against four variants of concern (VOCs) and the original virus compared to viral vector vaccines developed by Johnson & Johnson (J&J) and AstraZeneca. The research is published in PLOS Medicine. The study was conducted by using blood samples gathered from 165 healthcare workers in the Netherlands 3 and 4 weeks after first and second vaccinations, respectively, for the Pfizer, Moderna, and AstraZeneca vaccines, and at 4 and 8 weeks after J&J vaccine administration. (5/18)

CIDRAP: Kids With Heart Conditions Prone To Severe COVID-19
Congenital and acquired heart conditions such as biventricular defects, cardiac arrest, and heart failure are associated with increased COVID-19 severity in US children, suggests a multicenter study published yesterday in JAMA Network Open. (5/18)

Politico: New York Made 11M Bottles Of Hand Sanitizer. Now It Has 700,000 Gallons It Can't Get Rid Of. 
In the first days of the Covid-19 pandemic, then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced New York would use prison labor to address a hand sanitizer shortage and make bottles that were superior to “products now on the market.” New York made so much of the “NYS Clean” hand sanitizer — a whopping 11 million bottles, to be exact — that it still doesn’t know how to get rid of it. (Spector, 5/18)

AP: COVID-19 Vaccine No Longer Required, For Louisiana Students 
Gov. John Bel Edwards’ administration has agreed to remove the COVID-19 vaccine from the list of vaccines students are required to get to enroll in school in the state, officials said Wednesday. The state health department said in a news release that it will continue to strongly recommend the vaccine, in accordance with recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Academy of Pediatrics, but acknowledged that the vaccine had not yet received full U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for those under age 16. (5/18)

San Francisco Chronicle: S.F. Firefighters Who Refused Vaccines Fought Their Firings With Misinformation And Conspiracy Theories
Termination proceedings for San Francisco firefighters who have refused COVID-19 vaccines are nearing a bruising conclusion, after more than 50 hours of hearings in which the department’s last holdouts — and their supporters — denigrated the public health order, brandished conspiracy theories and compared the city government to an authoritarian regime. Seventeen of the Fire Department’s 1,735 employees refused to get vaccinated, and 13 have been fired to date, each one entitled to a videoconferenced hearing before the Fire Commission and often featuring a drawn-out, vitriolic period of public comment, according to videos and documents reviewed by The Chronicle. (Swan, 5/18)

NPR: Republican-Leaning Areas Continue To Face More COVID Deaths
Even with widely available vaccines and newly effective treatments, residents of counties that went heavily for Donald Trump in the last presidential election are more than twice as likely to die from COVID-19 than those that live in areas that went for President Biden. That's according to a newly-updated analysis from NPR, examining how partisanship and misinformation are shaping the pandemic. NPR examined COVID deaths per 100,000 people in roughly 3,000 counties across the U.S. from May 2021, the point at which most Americans could find a vaccine if they wanted one. Those living in counties that voted 60% or higher for Trump in November 2020 had 2.26 times the death rate of those that went by the same margin for Biden. Counties with a higher share of Trump votes had even higher mortality rates. (Wood and Brumfiel, 5/19)

Stat: 'Pharma Bro' Martin Shkreli Released From Prison
The unexpected move, which first came to light on Twitter on Wednesday morning, is the latest twist in a complicated and sensational saga that transfixed the American public over Shkreli, who played an outsized role in the controversy over the rising cost of prescription medicines. ... Earlier this year, he was ordered to pay $64.6 million in profits and was banned for life from the industry. The decision followed a trial in which Shkreli was accused by federal and state authorities of stifling competition. An expert who testified on behalf of the government calculated his company would have generated $67.6 million less in sales had the price of the drug not been raised as it had. (Silverman, 5/18)

AP: 'Pharma Bro' Shkreli Freed From Prison For Halfway House 
Convicted pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli was freed Wednesday from prison after serving much of a seven-year prison sentence for lying to hedge fund investors and cheating investors in a drug company. His attorney, Ben Brafman, said Shkreli, 39, was released early from a prison in Allenwood, Pennsylvania. The move was confirmed by the Federal Bureau of Prisons. (Neumeister, 5/18)

The Wall Street Journal: Cerebral Replaces CEO Kyle Robertson, A Move He Calls Illegal
Cerebral Inc. has replaced Chief Executive Kyle Robertson, according to a statement released by the company, a move Mr. Robertson called illegal after accusing board members of making him a scapegoat for the mental-health startup’s troubles. The board said in the statement that it has replaced Mr. Robertson with David Mou, the company’s president and chief medical officer. The leadership tumult comes as the company is facing a federal probe into its prescription practices and possible violations of the Controlled Substances Act. (Winkler, 5/18)

Stateline: Ransomware Attacks On Hospitals Put Patients At Risk
A University of Vermont Medical Center employee accidentally opened an emailed file from her homeowners association, which had been hacked, in October 2020. That one mistake eventually led to the University of Vermont Health Network, which includes the state’s largest hospital in Burlington, having to cancel surgeries, put off mammogram appointments and delay some cancer patients’ treatments. The ensuing ransomware attack had forced officials to shut down all internet connections, including access to patients’ electronic health records, to prevent cybercriminals from doing any more damage. (Bergal, 5/18)

Stat: Former Medicare Official Blasts The Medicare Advantage Coding Industry
Parts of the Medicare Advantage program — essentially, private Medicare plan options — are ripe for reform, former and current top Medicare officials said Wednesday. One of the most abused areas is risk coding, where health insurers document people’s illnesses and conditions as a way to get higher payments from the federal government, the officials said. (Herman, 5/18)

The New York Times: 911 Dispatcher May Be Fired Over Handling Of Buffalo Shooting Call 
An emergency services dispatcher in Buffalo could be fired after being accused by a supermarket employee of hanging up on a 911 call during a racist shooting rampage at the store last week. The dispatcher was placed on administrative leave on Monday after an internal investigation and faces a disciplinary hearing on May 30, at which “termination will be sought,” Peter Anderson, a spokesman for the Erie County executive, said. (Shanahan, 5/18)

Green Bay Press-Gazette: Buffalo Shooting Exposes Lack Of Mental Health In Black Community
Michael Vinson was surprised to feel his heart pounding while shopping at his local grocery store on Sunday afternoon. Yet, there he stood in the store he knew so well, scanning the walls for exit signs. Vinson wasn't in any immediate danger, but being Black while grocery shopping ended in bloodshed for 13 people at a Tops Friendly Markets supermarket in Buffalo, New York, on Saturday. Ten people lost their lives. "Unexpectedly, I felt a rush of fear and a need for self-protection. I started to look for the exits," Vinson, sales director at Schreiber Foods in Green Bay, told USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin Monday. "What's happening in the broader world impacts the way that I show up in the world where I do live. (Ellbert and Lynch, 5/18)

Politico: New York Accuses Amazon Of Pregnancy, Disability Discrimination
The New York Division of Human Rights filed a complaint Wednesday against Amazon over alleged pregnancy and disability discrimination against workers, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced. The complaint accuses Amazon of denying reasonable accommodations to workers who are pregnant or have disabilities, in violation of New York’s Human Rights Law. It alleges that the company, which operates 23 worksites in New York, has policies that force such employees to take unpaid leave rather than allowing them to work with accommodations. “New York has the strongest worker protections in the nation and was one of the first to have protections for workers who are pregnant and those with disabilities,” Hochul said in a statement. “Working men and women are the backbone of New York and we will continue to take a stand against any injustice they face.” (Young, 5/18)

AP: Tennessee Doctor Agrees To Prescription Limits In Settlement 
A Tennessee physician has been barred from prescribing a number of controlled substances in settling a lawsuit that accused him of prescribing drugs with no legitimate medical purpose. The settlement was reached last week between Manchester doctor David Florence and the U.S. attorney’s office for the Middle District of Tennessee, according to a news release. (5/19)

The Washington Post: Spain Plans For Paid ‘Period Leave’ For Women Workers, Wider Abortion Access
Spain’s left-wing coalition government this week approved a draft proposal with a broad range of reproductive rights provisions, including one that would make Spain the first European country to grant workers paid “menstrual leave.” Under the plan, the government would foot the bill for women to take days off work if they are diagnosed by a doctor with severe menstrual pain. More than half of women who menstruate experience some pain for one to two days each month, with some feeling pain so acute that it keeps them from doing normal tasks, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. (Westfall, 5/18)

Press Association: Bulimia Anorexia Hospital Admissions Almost Double In England In 5 Years
Hospital admissions for people with eating disorders have risen 84% in the last five years, with boys and young men increasingly affected, a new analysis has found. There were 11,049 more admissions for illnesses such as bulimia and anorexia in 2020/21 than in 2015/16, reaching 24,268 admissions across England. Admissions in children and young people rose from 3,541 to 6,713, with a 35% increase in the last year alone as the Covid pandemic hit, according to the analysis by the Royal College of Psychiatrists. (Kirby, 5/19)

Bloomberg: NHS Patients Left With Drill Bits, Scalpels Other Objects Inside: Analysis
There have been nearly 100 cases of a foreign object - including drill bits - left inside NHS patients by mistake, according to a new analysis. Some 407 "Never Events" - things so serious they should never happen - were recorded in the NHS in England from April 2021 until March 2022, figures examined by the PA news agency show. This is the equivalent of nearly eight every week and is an increase from the same period the year before, which had 364 in total. (Bradley, 5/19)