First Edition: December 2, 2021

KHN: As Climate Worsens, Environmentalists Grapple With The Mental Toll Of Activism
While growing up in the ’90s in Johnson County, Kansas, in a suburb of Kansas City, I had a friend, Kevin Aaron, who was a dedicated environmentalist. To strangers, Kevin appeared to be a laid-back punk-rock music fan with a dry and slightly mischievous sense of humor, but those of us who knew him best saw his passion for sustainability blossom during high school. In his barbecue-obsessed part of the country, he became the rare vegetarian, driven by witnessing large-scale meat production’s damage to the environment. As he grew into a young man, he eagerly researched and then adopted alternative practices — like driving a hybrid car — that he thought might reduce carbon emissions, if only by tiny measures. (Alex Smith, 12/2)

KHN: Hospitals Refused To Give Patients Ivermectin. Lockdowns And Political Pressure Followed
One Montana hospital went into lockdown and called police after a woman threatened violence because her relative was denied her request to be treated with ivermectin. Officials of another Montana hospital accused public officials of threatening and harassing their health care workers for refusing to treat a politically connected covid-19 patient with that antiparasitic drug or hydroxychloroquine, another drug unauthorized by the Food and Drug Administration to treat covid. (Matt Volz, 12/2)

KHN: Conservative Justices Seem Poised To Overturn Roe’s Abortion Rights
A newly conservative Supreme Court on Wednesday heard the most serious legal challenge in a generation to a woman’s right to obtain an abortion. And judging from the questions asked by the justices, it appeared possible — even likely — that a majority of them could vote to turn the thorny question of whether to allow abortion and under what circumstances back to individual states. The law under review in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, passed by Mississippi in 2018, would ban most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. That is a direct contravention of Supreme Court precedents set in 1973’s Roe v. Wade and 1992’s Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey, which say states cannot ban abortion until fetal “viability” — generally considered to occur at about 22 to 24 weeks. (Julie Rovner, 12/2)

The Washington Post: What Happened During Mississippi Abortion Law Oral Arguments At The Supreme Court
The Supreme Court on Wednesday signaled it is on the verge of a major curtailment of abortion rights in the United States, and appeared likely to uphold a Mississippi law that violates one of the essential holdings of Roe v. Wade established nearly 50 years ago. Whether the court would eventually overrule Roe and its finding that women have a fundamental right to end their pregnancies was unclear. (Barnes, 12/1)

Bloomberg: Supreme Court Suggests They'll Slash Abortion Rights In Challenge To Roe V Wade
“If it really is an issue about choice, why is 15 weeks not enough time?” Chief Justice John Roberts asked the lawyer challenging the Mississippi law on behalf of the state’s lone abortion clinic. Two other key justices, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, suggested they might go further and overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling, which legalized abortion nationwide in 1973. Kavanaugh listed a series of famous cases, including decisions that outlawed school segregation and legalized gay marriage, that overturned precedents. (Stohr, 12/1)

The New York Times: Supreme Court Seems Poised To Uphold Mississippi’s Abortion Law
The Supreme Court seemed poised on Wednesday to uphold a Mississippi law that bans abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, in what would be a momentous and polarizing decision to roll back the abortion rights the court has defined over the last half century. During sometimes tense and heated questioning in almost two hours of oral arguments, the court’s six conservative justices signaled they are comfortable with the Mississippi law, even though upholding it would be flatly at odds with Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that established a constitutional right to abortion and prohibited states from banning the procedure before fetal viability, currently around 23 weeks. (Liptak, 12/1)

ABC News: Texas Law Restricting Access To Abortion Pills Goes Into Effect: What To Know
As the U.S. Supreme Court continues to weigh whether to leave Texas's unprecedented six-week abortion ban, SB8, in place, a new law that also restricts abortion access is going into effect in the state. Starting Thursday, people in Texas will have a narrower window in which they can receive abortion-inducing medication, including the two most commonly used medications, mifepristone and misoprostol. (Kindelan, 12/2)

Reuters: First Omicron Case In U.S. Fuels Global Alarm Over Virus Variant
Fears over the impact of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus rose on Thursday after the first case was reported in the United States and the Japanese central bank warned of economic pain as countries respond with tighter containment measures. The first known U.S. case was a fully vaccinated person in California who returned to the United States from South Africa on Nov. 22 and tested positive seven days later. (12/2)

Los Angeles Times: What We Know About The First U.S. Omicron Variant Case
The infected individual returned home from South Africa on Nov. 22, officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. The person developed symptoms around Nov. 25 — Thanksgiving — and got tested Sunday. On Monday, the result came back positive, and the virus specimen was subsequently analyzed and revealed to be the latest named coronavirus strain. Citing privacy, health officials released few details about the individual. Gov. Gavin Newsom said the person was between 18 and 49 years old. (Money, Dolan and Lin II, 12/1)

Politico: CDC Looks For More Omicron Cases After Variant Is Detected In California
The new Omicron Covid-19 variant has been detected in California, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The individual who contracted the variant is a resident of San Francisco, was fully vaccinated and had mild symptoms after traveling to South Africa and returning home Nov. 22, the CDC said in a press statement. The individual tested positive Nov. 29. Health authorities in California have reached out to all close contacts of the individual in question, who is in self-quarantine, and all of them have tested negative. (Banco, Lim and Cancryn, 12/1)

The New York Times: Omicron Prompts Swift Reconsideration Of Boosters Among Scientists
As recently as last week, many public health experts were fiercely opposed to the Biden administration’s campaign to roll out booster shots of the coronavirus vaccines to all American adults. There was little scientific evidence to support extra doses for most people, the researchers said. The Omicron variant has changed all that. Scientists do not yet know with any certainty whether the virus is easier to spread or less vulnerable to the body’s immune response. But with dozens of new mutations, the variant seems likely to evade the protection from vaccines to some significant degree. (Mandavilli, 12/1)

Bloomberg: Omicron Covid Variant May Be Less Lethal In India: Epidemiologist
The newly-emerged omicron variant is likely to be less lethal in India than the delta-led virus wave that overwhelmed hospitals and crematoriums earlier this year, according to a prominent epidemiologist. Given the widespread exposure of Indians to Covid-19 virus and a reasonably-high vaccination rate, India will likely be less affected by the new strain, Ramanan Laxminarayan, director of the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy said in an interview with Bloomberg Television on Thursday. That may change if omicron is effective at getting past all immune defenses, he said. (Pradhan, 12/2)

The New York Times: Most New Cases In South Africa Are Now The Omicron Variant
The Omicron variant has become by far the most prevalent version of the coronavirus spreading in South Africa, replacing the fading Delta variant, health officials said on Wednesday. Nearly three-quarters of the 249 positive test samples that were checked genetically in South Africa in November were found to involve the Omicron variant, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases announced. (Chutel and Engelbrecht, 12/1)

The New York Times: An Israeli Doctor With Omicron Met Dozens Of People. Just One Tested Positive
Elad Maor initially feared that he might have exposed hundreds of people to the virus when he became the first Israeli to test positive for the new Omicron variant on Saturday morning. In the three days before his positive results, Dr. Maor, a cardiologist, had attended a large staff meeting at his hospital east of Tel Aviv. He had inserted stents into the arteries of 10 patients. And he had driven to a cardiology conference north of Tel Aviv, sharing the 90-minute car journey with a 70-year-old colleague, and lunched there with five others in a crowded canteen. (Kingsley, 12/1)

The New York Times: California Reassures Residents The State Is Prepared For Omicron
“This was predictable,” said Gov. Gavin Newsom, speaking at a news conference on Wednesday in the Central Valley, where he encouraged residents to get vaccinated and get booster shots. “And it was not surprising that the state of California detected it.” State health officials said the discovery of the Omicron variant would prompt increased Covid-19 testing at California airports, focusing on arrivals from countries identified by the C.D.C. as potential sources of the variant. (Hubler and Cowan, 12/1)

CIDRAP: Delta Surge Remains Strong As World Sizes Up Omicron Threat
As the world responds to newly emerged Omicron variant, the battle against Delta (B1617.2)-driven surges continues, with activity showing signs of a plateau last week, the World Health Organization (WHO) said yesterday in its weekly snapshot of the pandemic. With the Omicron variant adding a new wrinkle to a pandemic about to enter its third year, the World Health Assembly (WHA)—meeting in a special session for only the second time in its 73-year-old history—today agreed to begin drafting and negotiating an international agreement to boost pandemic preparedness and response. (Schnirring, 12/1)

AP: Nearly All Nebraska COVID Hospital Patients Are Unvaccinated
Nebraska health officials said Wednesday that the vast majority of the COVID-19 patients who are filling the state’s hospitals are unvaccinated and many are younger adults. The number of people hospitalized in Nebraska with the virus continues to climb and reached 555 on Tuesday, which was the highest it had been since last winter. The state said 14% of the hospitalized patients were between the ages of 20 and 44, and doctors at several of Nebraska’s biggest hospitals said younger patients have been showing up in intensive care units more often. (Funk, 12/1)

AP: Tennessee Halts Exemptions To COVID Law After Court Rulings
Tennessee on Wednesday halted dozens of exemptions that allowed businesses and public entities to require people to take COVID-19 preventive measures in spite of a state law severely limiting them, citing court rulings that blocked some of President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandates. State Comptroller Jason Mumpower’s announcement — at least for now — strips away protections for some private organizations to continue requiring proof of vaccination, and for some government entities to keep vaccination requirements or mask mandates. One of the two recent court rulings applied to federal contractors, and the other applied to certain Medicaid and Medicare health care providers. (Matisse, 12/1)

Reuters: Bristol Myers Is Sued For Refusing COVID-19 Vaccine Religious Exemptions
Bristol Myers Squibb Co (BMY.N) was sued on Wednesday by four employees who said the drugmaker refused to grant them religious exemptions from its COVID-19 vaccination requirement, and threatened to fire them on Dec. 6 for remaining unvaccinated. The plaintiffs in the proposed class action filed in Manhattan federal court accused Bristol Myers of violating a federal civil rights law known as Title VII by "systematically manufacturing" reasons to refuse religious accommodations. (Stempel, 12/2)

The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer: Sponsor Of Ohio Senate Anti-Vaccine Mandate Bill Claims That Passing Legislation Would Strengthen Workforce 
The sponsor of a bill that would prohibit Ohio employers and schools from mandating vaccines not fully approved by the federal government described the measure Tuesday afternoon as the way to entice people back to the workforce. “Simply put, this piece of legislation is a bill to address the crisis that our country is facing, and specifically here in the state of Ohio,” sponsor Rep. Al Cutrona, a Youngstown-area Republican, testified before the Senate General Government Budget Committee. “That crisis is that the workforce is struggling. We are seeing shortages…Every legislator across the board always says they’re going to bring back jobs to their district, right?” (Hancock, 11/30)

AP: Appeals Court Reinstates Texas Mask Mandate Ban In Schools
An appeals court on Wednesday halted a federal judge’s order that had stopped Texas from enforcing its ban on mask mandates in the state’s schools, allowing the prohibition to remain in effect. In a 15-page ruling, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans granted a request by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to stay the ruling by U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel. The appeals court on Nov. 24 had already granted an administrative stay while it issued a formal ruling on Paxton’s request. (Lozano, 12/2)

The Washington Post: Maryland Could Let School Systems Set Mask Rules
Maryland’s 24 school systems could soon be relieved of the state’s mask mandate and left to decide for themselves whether to require face coverings in schools. State leaders took the first step toward local control of masking at schools during a meeting Tuesday of the Maryland State Board of Education, where members voted 12 to 2 for a measure that would start to move in that direction. (St. George, 12/1)

Reuters: Moderna Could Be Sued Over Vaccines As Court Upholds Arbutus Patents 
Moderna Inc could face a patent infringement lawsuit over its COVID-19 vaccine after a federal appeals court on Wednesday rejected its challenge to patents belonging to Arbutus Biopharma Corp. ... The Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals let stand an administrative panel's findings that Arbutus' patents - which may cover technology used in the vaccines - are valid, as the science involved was not previously known. (Pierson, 12/1)

Reuters: Moderna Exec Says Company Could Have Omicron Booster Ready In March
Moderna Inc could have a COVID-19 booster shot targeting the Omicron variant tested and ready to file for U.S. authorization as soon as March, the company's president said on Wednesday. Moderna President Stephen Hoge said he believes booster shots carrying genes specifically targeting mutations in the newly-discovered Omicron variant would be the quickest way to address any anticipated reductions in vaccine efficacy it may cause. "We've already started that program," he told Reuters. (Erman and Steenhuysen, 12/1)

Reuters: Real-World Data Shows Moderna Vaccine Highly Effective
Moderna's mRNA COVID-19 vaccine is proving effective in the real world, according to doctors at Kaiser Permanente in California who have been tracking nearly 706,000 adults, half of whom had received the vaccine. Five months after the second dose, the vaccine was still 87% effective against SARS-CoV-2 infection, 96% effective against COVID-19 hospitalization, and 98% effective against COVID-19 death, researchers reported in The Lancet Regional Health - Americas. Despite a wide range of chronic diseases among those in the study, the vaccine's effectiveness against infection ranged from 83% to 92% across age, sex, racial, and ethnic subgroups, researchers said. (Lapid, 12/1)

NPR: A Different Kind of COVID Vaccine Is About Ready to Roll
A new kind of COVID-19 vaccine is about to roll out around the world. Although it won't replace the highly successful vaccines currently available, it could make a difference in the course of the pandemic, especially in lower resourced countries. These new vaccines are what's called protein subunit vaccines. They work by injecting people with a tiny portion of the virus. In the case of the COVID-19 vaccine, that tiny portion is the so-called spike protein critical for the virus to enter cells. (Palca, 12/1)

AP: Biden Says HIV/AIDS Strategy Needs To Confront Inequity
President Joe Biden on Wednesday unveiled his new HIV/AIDS strategy to end the more than 40-year-old epidemic, calling for a renewed focus on vulnerable Americans — including gay and bisexual Black and Latino men, who his administration says are too often stigmatized even as they are disproportionately affected. The new strategy, which declares racism a “public health threat,” was released on the annual commemoration of World AIDS Day. It is meant to serve as a framework for how the administration shapes its policies, research, programs and planning over the next three years. (Madhani, 12/1)

AP: Fauci Says COVID-19 Diverted Resources From Fight Against AIDS
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious disease expert, said Tuesday the COVID-19 pandemic has diverted scientific and financial resources from the fight against AIDS, seriously impeding global efforts to achieve the U.N. goal of ending AIDS by 2030. Fauci told the U.N. General Assembly that tackling COVID-19 has also disrupted supply chains and increased the risk for people with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, of being infected with another deadly virus. (12/1)

The Hill: Fauci Says He 'Felt Really Badly' About 'Difficult Choice' On Travel Bans
Top infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci said on Wednesday he “felt really badly” about the Biden administration’s “difficult choice” to institute travel bans on South Africa in particular after its authorities reported the omicron variant. Biden’s chief medical officer said at a CNN town hall that there’s “some merit” to criticisms that restricting travel from South Africa and Botswana after the nations alerted the world about the omicron strain could discourage other countries from reporting future variants. (Coleman, 12/1)

The New York Times: Fauci Uses Omicron As A Reason To Press Vaccines
“Get boosted now,” Dr. Fauci said. “We may not need a variant-specific boost.” Asked if Americans should feel free to attend holiday parties and drink holiday beverages unmasked, he said it depended on the size of the gathering. “In a situation with the holiday season, indoor-type settings with family that you know is vaccinated, people that you know, you could feel safe with not wearing a mask and having a dinner, having a reception,” he said. But in larger public settings where it is unclear if everyone is vaccinated, he said, people should wear masks except to eat or drink. (Tankersley, 12/1)

The New York Times: Biden Is Said To Be Extending Mask Mandates For Travel Through March
President Biden will extend until mid-March a requirement that travelers wear masks on airplanes, trains and buses and at airports and transit stations, a person familiar with the decision said Wednesday night. The move to extend the mandate, which was set to expire on Jan. 18, is part of a much broader winter strategy for combating Covid-19 that Mr. Biden is to announce on Thursday, during a visit to the National Institutes of Health. The strategy will also include a new requirement that international travelers be tested for Covid-19 one day before departing for the United States, according to officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The mask mandate extension was first reported by Reuters on Wednesday. (Gay Stolberg, 12/1)

The Washington Post: Trump Tested Positive For Coronavirus Before First Debate With Biden, Three Former Officials Say
President Donald Trump tested positive for the coronavirus days before he shared the debate stage with then-Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden in late September 2020, according to his former chief of staff and two others familiar with the former president’s test — a stunning revelation that illustrates the dismissive approach to the dangers posed by the virus in Trump’s inner circle. Trump’s positive test for the virus was Sept. 26, 2020, according to an account by former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows in a new book obtained by the Guardian newspaper. The Meadows account of the positive result was confirmed Wednesday by two former aides who requested anonymity to discuss their knowledge of the former president’s health. (Parker, Dawsey, Linksey and Diamond, 12/1)

The Washington Post: Shutdown Odds Grow As Conservatives Push GOP Leaders Over Vaccine And Testing Mandates
The U.S. government on Wednesday moved one step closer to a potential shutdown, as some Republicans seized on a fast-approaching fiscal deadline to mount fresh opposition to President Biden’s coronavirus vaccine and testing mandates. The emerging conservative campaign quickly divided GOP lawmakers, enraged congressional Democrats and threatened to unravel days of delicate bipartisan talks on Capitol Hill. The current federal spending agreement is set to expire Friday at midnight. “We’re opposed to the mandate,” said Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.). “We don’t want the federal government to be able to fund them in any way shape or form.” (Romm, DeBonis and Min Kim, 12/1)

Bloomberg: Meta Removes China-Based Network Pushing Covid-19 Misinformation
Meta Platforms Inc. said it removed a China-based network of more than 500 Facebook accounts that sought to push a false narrative about the U.S. government’s attempts to blame the Covid-19 pandemic on China. The campaign involved the fake persona of a Swiss biologist named Wilson Edwards, who in July posted on Facebook and Twitter Inc. that the U.S. was pressuring World Health Organization scientists to blame the virus on China, according to Meta’s monthly report on coordinated influence operations on its social networks. (Nix, 12/1)

The Washington Post: Facebook Takes Down Disinformation Networks Globally
Facebook on Wednesday said it took down disinformation networks tied to a broad swath of political actors and events around the world, including militant group Hamas, Chinese state groups and the immigration crisis along the Belarus-Poland border. The company also removed accounts run by anti-vaccine groups that were using evolving tactics to attack doctors in Europe. Together, the cat-and-mouse game described in the company’s latest threat report continues to demonstrate how social media is an active battlefield where governments and motivated parties attempt to manipulate public opinion. It also shows the might of the global platform, which has recently come under renewed fire for its role in spreading societal harms. (Dwoskin, 12/1)

The New York Times: Trust In Science And Scientists Increased Globally, Poll Finds
As the coronavirus pandemic put a spotlight on scientific research, people around the world gained trust in both science and scientists, according to a new survey released on Monday. Results from the public opinion poll, in a report published by the Wellcome Trust, a foundation focused on health research in London, showed that about 80 percent of people from 113 countries said they trusted science either “a lot” or “some.” About three-fourths of the 119,000 surveyed said they trusted scientists, either “a lot” or “some.” (Imbler, 12/1)

The Washington Post: Planned Parenthood Los Angeles Says Hack Breached About 400,000 Patients’ Information
A hacker gained access to the personal information of hundreds of thousands of Planned Parenthood patients in October, the reproductive health-care group’s Los Angeles branch said Wednesday. The breach is limited to the Los Angeles affiliate, and spokesperson John Erickson said there is no indication at this point that the information was “used for fraudulent purposes.” (Schaffer, Marks and Knowles, 12/1)

Fox News: More American Adults Living Alone, Census Bureau Reports
More American adults are living alone, according to newly released estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau's annual America's Families and Living Arrangement table package. In a news release, the bureau said the percentage of adults living with a spouse decreased from 52% to 50% over the past decade. Living alone became more common and 37 million adults age 18 and over lived alone in early 2021, up from 33 million in 2011. In 1960, single-person households represented only 13% of all households. (Musto, 12/1)

Stateline: Telehealth May Be Here To Stay
The use of remote health services soared during the pandemic, opening the eyes of many medical providers and patients to telehealth’s convenience, efficiency and relative low cost. But its future depends largely on whether state lawmakers extend emergency measures that made telehealth a viable alternative for patients and providers wary of in-person contact. The most important changes most states made were to expand Medicaid coverage to different types of virtual appointments and to enact telehealth coverage requirements for private insurers. (Ollove, 12/1)

The Washington Post: California Moves Toward Ranking And Categorizing Heat Waves
The narrative is becoming all too familiar: A severe heat wave builds and, days later, people die. Now, legislators, scientists and a think tank are convening to better adapt to the most lethal weather phenomenon — by categorizing and naming it in major U.S. cities. In January, California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara and other delegates will formally introduce legislation to rate and name heat waves in Los Angeles — potentially establishing the nation’s first ranking system for such occurrences. The categorization would help communities take measures to reduce the number of heat-related fatalities. (Patel, 12/1)

The Wall Street Journal: LeBron James Out Indefinitely Under NBA’s Covid Protocols
LeBron James missed the Los Angeles Lakers’ game on Tuesday and will remain out indefinitely after entering the NBA’s health and safety protocols, indicating the vaccinated NBA star registered a positive or inconclusive test for Covid-19, which could make James the most prominent athlete with a breakthrough infection. His teammate Anthony Davis said that James was asymptomatic and that “Covid’s a scary thing” in comments that suggested he’d tested positive, which TMZ reported earlier on Tuesday. NBA teams have left public disclosure of Covid test results to players, and the Lakers have not elaborated on the details of James’s situation. (Cohen, 12/1)

Fox News: Survivors Of Severe COVID-19 May Have An Increased Risk Of Dying Over The Next 12 Months, Study Suggests
Patients who had severe COVID-19 may be twice at risk of dying over the following year, compared to patients who had a mild or moderate case, or individuals not infected by the novel coronavirus, according to a new study. The alarming findings suggested the increased risk of dying was greater for patients under the age of 65, according to the report published in Frontiers in Medicine. Researchers from the University of Florida stated, "The risk of 12-month mortality among adults under 65 who are hospitalized with COVID-19 is increased by 233% over those who are COVID-19 negative." (McGorry, 12/1)

CIDRAP: Data Suggest Third COVID Vaccine Dose Reduces Infection, Hospitalization
A third dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech mRNA COVID-19 vaccine appears to counteract waning vaccine protection in the short term, according to a preliminary case-control analysis of more than 500,000 coronavirus tests in Israel. In the retrospective study, published yesterday in JAMA Internal Medicine, a team led by Maccabi Healthcare Services researchers found a 1.8% SARS-CoV-2 infection rate after a booster dose, compared with 6.6% after two vaccine doses. Participants receiving the booster also seemed to be at lower risk for hospitalization. (12/1)

Reuters: Brain Problems Found In 1% Of Hospitalized COVID-19 Patients
Roughly one in every 100 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 will likely have central nervous system complications, researchers reported on Tuesday at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America. Among nearly 38,000 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 in the United States and Europe, symptoms led doctors to suspect brain complications in about 11%. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomography (CT) exams confirmed central nervous system abnormalities that were most likely associated with the virus in 10% of those patients, for an overall incidence of 1.2%. The most common finding was stroke due to clogged arteries, but the researchers also saw bleeding in the brain, inflammation of the brain, and other potentially fatal complications. (Lapid, 12/1)

CIDRAP: Children With Poorly Controlled Asthma At Higher Risk Of Severe COVID-19
A study yesterday in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine of Scottish children shows that 5- to 17-year-olds with poorly controlled asthma are three to six times more likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19 compared with those without asthma. The authors of the study said children with asthma should consider vaccination against COVID-19 as soon as possible. The study was based on health records from more than 750,000 children. Among those, 63,463 had asthma, and among that group, there were 4,339 confirmed cases of COVID-19 from Mar 1, 2020, to Jul 27, 2021. Sixty-seven of those children required hospitalization. (12/1)

The Hill: Scientists Say They Might Have Discovered The Cause Of Alzheimer's
Researchers at the University of California- Riverside (UCR) recently published results from a study that looked at a protein called tau. By studying the different forms tau proteins take, researchers discovered the difference between people who developed dementia and those who didn’t. The tau protein was critical for researchers because they wanted to understand what the protein could reveal about the mechanism behind plaques and tangles, two critical indicators doctors look for when diagnosing people with Alzheimer’s. (Ali, 12/1)

CIDRAP: Study Suggests Contact Precautions For MRSA, VRE Can Be Safely Removed
A study conducted in 15 hospitals found that discontinuing contact precautions for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (VRE) did not result in increased healthcare-associated infection (HAI) rates, researchers reported today in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology. To determine the impact of removing contact precautions for MRSA and VRE, which are recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to reduce transmission but are controversial because of associations with patient harms, the researchers performed a retrospective, quasi-observational study at 15 acute care hospitals in a Pennsylvania healthcare system. Twelve of the hospitals (the intervention hospitals) had removed MRSA and VRE contact precautions after a policy change recommended doing so, and 3 (non-intervention hospitals) continued them. (12/1)

Modern Healthcare: Orlando Health Launches Behavioral Health Joint Venture With Acadia Healthcare
Orlando Health announced Tuesday another partnership with a for-profit company to provide outpatient services, this time around behavioral health. The not-for-profit health system said it has formed a venture with Acadia Healthcare, a publicly-traded company and the country's largest standalone behavioral health provider, to expand behavioral health services in Central Florida. Orlando Health will own 30% of the new for-profit enterprise. (Bannow, 12/01)

Modern Healthcare: CMMI Drops Program On Improving Care For The Seriously Ill
The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation pulled a program intended to improve care coordination for seriously ill Medicare patients, saying it wouldn't be able to enroll enough beneficiaries in the model to adequately test it. The component was part of the Primary Care First model, a voluntary payment model meant to encourage primary care practices to deliver additional care, like around-the-clock access to a clinical call line, integrate behavioral healthcare and better engage with patients and caregivers. (Goldman, 12/01)

Modern Healthcare: Fresenius Shifts Management Structure For New Global Care Strategy
Fresenius Medical Care is reorganizing its global and leadership roles, the dialysis provider announced Wednesday. The for-profit company is consolidating its international service areas and creating a global care delivery segment that will launch in 2023. In the meantime, Fresenius Medical Care is reshuffling executives as it prepares to implement the new corporate structure. (Devereaux, 12/01)

AP: Union Workers Ratify Contract, End Strike At WVa Hospital
Union maintenance and service workers at a West Virginia hospital ratified a contract Wednesday to end a month-old strike, the hospital announced. Members of the Service Employees International Union District 119 ratified the three-year contract covering more than 900 workers at Cabell Huntington Hospital. The hospital said in a statement that employees could likely begin returning to work as soon as Friday. (12/2)

AP: New NY Health Commissioner Takes Over From Embattled Zucker
New York’s new state health commissioner stepped into the role Wednesday, at a time when COVID-19 hospitalizations are on the rise in the state. Mary Bassett, a former New York City health commissioner, spent 17 years developing AIDS prevention programs in Zimbabwe. She’s currently director of the François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University and a professor at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health. (Villeneuve, 12/2)

The Hill: New Report Says Staggering 1,500 People Died On Streets Of LA During Pandemic
A total of 1,493 people experiencing homelessness died on the streets of Los Angeles during the pandemic, according to a new report. Researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles, along with a coalition of researchers focused on homelessness, studied data from the LA county coroner’s records and found that nearly 1,500 people died on the city’s streets between March 2020 and July of this year. (O'Connell-Domenech, 12/1)

AP: California Water Districts To Get 0% Of Requested Supplies
Water agencies in drought-stricken California that serve 27 million residents and 750,000 acres of farmland won’t get any of the water they've requested from the state heading into 2022 other than what's needed for critical health and safety, state officials announced Wednesday. It's the earliest date the Department of Water Resources has issued a 0% water allocation, a milestone that reflects the dire conditions in California as drought continues to grip the nation’s most populous state and reservoirs sit at historically low levels. State water officials said mandatory water restrictions could be coming and major water districts urged consumers to conserve. (Ronayne, 12/1)

AP: Law Results In Donation Of Thousands Of Menstrual Products
A brand of menstrual hygiene products is donating 100,000 of the products to Maine schools in the wake of a new law that makes the donations easier. A bill signed into law earlier this year provided immunity from civil and criminal liability for donations of such products. U by Kotex made the donation through the Alliance for Period Supplies with distribution help from Michael Klahr Jewish Family Services, said Democrats who supported the creation of the law on Wednesday. Democratic Sen. Cathy Breen of Falmouth introduced the bill to make the donations easier earlier this year. She and other supporters said one in five teenagers have had difficulty affording the products. (12/2)

AP: Colorado Panel Issues Guidelines For Injecting Ketamine
Colorado’s health department announced Wednesday that emergency workers should not use a condition involving erratic behavior by people as a reason to inject them with the drug ketamine. The announcement came two years after the fatal arrest of a Black man in suburban Denver who had been injected with the drug. Most states and agencies allow ketamine to be administered when people exhibit “excited delirium,” or agitation typically associated with chronic drug abuse, mental illness or both. The drug is used as a sedative and is supposed to be fast-acting with limited side affects. (Nieberg, 12/1)

The Hill: EU Leader Calls For Debate On Mandatory COVID-19 Vaccines
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday said member nations should consider making COVID-19 vaccinations mandatory for citizens, the Associated Press reported. “It is understandable and appropriate to lead this discussion now - how we can encourage and potentially think about mandatory vaccination within the European Union,” Von der Leyen, who leads the European Union's executive arm, told reporters. (Oshin, 12/1)

AP: Vaccine Champions Spain, Portugal Focus On The Reluctant Few
Long lines for getting vaccines have returned to Portugal and Spain, two neighboring European Union nations that, despite having inoculation figures that are the envy of the world, are stepping up efforts to close the gap on the few residents still unvaccinated. Both nations have reported cases of the omicron variant. The Iberian neighbors were rocked by the first waves of the pandemic that left tens of thousands dead. Since then, the two have become models for international health experts, who have applauded their populations’ trust in COVID-19 vaccines. (Parra, Alves and Wilson, 12/1)

Reuters: Britain Approves GSK-Vir Antibody-Based COVID-19 Treatment
Britain's drug regulator on Thursday approved GSK (GSK.L) and Vir Biotechnology's (VIR.O) antibody based COVID-19 treatment, Xevudy, for people with mild-to-moderate COVID-19 who are at high risk of developing severe disease. The approval comes as GSK separately announced the treatment has shown to work against the Omicron variant. (Aripaka, 12/2)

The Washington Post: Iran Doubles Down On Abortion And Contraception Restrictions
The law, enacted by Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi last month, adds more red tape to existing abortion restrictions, bars public health-care providers from offering free contraception, prohibits voluntary sterilization and offers more benefits to childbearing families, among other measures. The law also expands the role of security agencies in surveilling who accesses what services — adding to the ways the Iranian state can control the private lives of citizens. (Berger, 12/1)