The Wall Street Journal: Attorney General Merrick Garland Says Government Could Sue States Over Abortion Access
Attorney General Merrick Garland threatened to sue states that have outlawed or restricted abortion since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last month—and said the Justice Department would ask a judge to toss out a Texas lawsuit seeking to block federal rules requiring doctors to perform abortions in emergency situations. (Gurman, 7/20)

The Hill: Pence Outlines Vision For ‘Post-Roe America’ In South Carolina Speech
“I believe with all my heart that with Roe gone we have the opportunity to become a more perfect union,” Pence said in a speech at the Florence Baptist Temple in Florence, S.C. “But make no mistake about it: As we gather tonight, we must recognize that we have only come to the end of the beginning,” Pence continued. “Standing here in the first days of post-Roe America, we must resolve that we will not rest, we will not relent, until the sanctity of life is restored to the center of American law in every state in the nation.” (Samuels, 7/20)

Politico: Former Religious Right Leader: I Saw Our Phrases In Alito’s Abortion Opinion
A former leader of the religious right contends that an effort he helped lead to influence conservative Supreme Court justices through prayer sessions, private dinners and other social events contributed to the stridency of the court’s opinion last month striking down Roe v. Wade. (Gerstein, 7/20)

Data surveillance fuels worry in a post-Roe U.S. —

Bloomberg: Democratic Senators Question School Surveillance Startups On Abortion Searches
Democratic senators Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey asked GoGuardian, Gaggle.Net Inc., Bark Technologies Inc. and Securly Inc. — startups that provide tools that monitor students’ online activity — whether the companies’ tools flag search terms such as “abortion” or “contraception,” and who is notified if they do. The companies are set up to communicate certain web activities of students with administrators, parents, and, at times, law enforcement. (Anand, 7/21)

On the potential global impact of U.S. abortion policy —

Reuters: U.S. Abortion Ruling Will Not Affect Overseas Aid - Diplomat
The U.S. Supreme Court in June overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that recognized the right of women nationally to terminate pregnancies. Calling the decision "sobering" domestically, Loyce Pace, Assistant Secretary for Global Affairs at the U.S Department of Health, said it would not affect the country's position as the largest bilateral donor to family planning services globally. (7/20)

The Texas Tribune: Texas Laws Say Treatments For Miscarriages, Ectopic Pregnancies Remain Legal But Leave Lots Of Space For Confusion
Treatments for miscarriages and ectopic pregnancies are still legal under the state’s abortion ban, according to state law and legal experts. But the statutes don’t account for complicated miscarriages, and confusion has led some providers to delay or deny care for patients in Texas. (Mendez, 7/20)

The Washington Post: Woman Says She Carried Dead Fetus For 2 Weeks After Texas Abortion Ban
“My doctor had said that since the heartbeat bill had just passed, she didn’t want me to do a D and C. And she asked that I try to miscarry at home,” said [Marlena] Stell, 42, of Conroe, Tex. “It just was emotionally difficult walking around, knowing that I had a dead fetus inside.” Stell, a beauty influencer with about 1.5 million YouTube subscribers, is sharing her story in the weeks after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade as a reminder that the restrictive abortion laws adopted by states such as Texas could affect those who have suffered miscarriages. (Bella, 7/20)

On other abortion news from across the states —

Georgia Public Broadcasting: Federal Appeals Court Rules Georgia Abortion Ban Can Immediately Take Effect
A federal court ruled Wednesday that Georgia’s 2019 abortion law can take effect after the Supreme Court abolished nearly half a century of abortion rights protections. Georgia’s law, which bans most abortions when fetal cardiac activity is detected — usually around six weeks of pregnancy — has been held up in court for more than three years. (Bunch, 7/20)

AP: North Dakota's Lawyers Say July 28 Abortion Ban Should Stick
A motion seeking to block enforcement of a so-called trigger law that would shut down North Dakota’s lone abortion clinic should be denied because the law was administered properly and the lawsuit on the constitutionality of the ban is unlikely to succeed, the state attorney general’s office says. (Kolpack, 7/20)

AP: Abortion Rights Group Opposes Effort To Restore Arizona Ban
Planned Parenthood Arizona said in a legal filing Wednesday the courts need to “harmonize” the state’s two different laws on abortion after Attorney General Mark Brnovich moved last week to reinstate an almost complete ban on the procedure dating back more than a century. Brnovich on July 13 asked a court in Tucson to lift an order that had blocked the earlier ban. The newly conservative U.S. Supreme Court in June overturned the Roe v. Wade decision, leaving it up to states to decide how to regulate abortions. (Snow, 7/21)

Axios: Providers Challenge Arizona's Pre-Roe, Near-Total Abortion Ban
Planned Parenthood Arizona on Wednesday filed a challenge to the state's attorney general's motion to let a near-total, pre-Roe abortion ban take effect. (Gonzalez, 7/20)

The 19th: Crisis Pregnancy Centers To Deter People From Abortions Open Near New Mexico Clinics
With Roe v. Wade overturned, abortion providers are flocking to New Mexico, one of the largest southwestern states that protects abortion access. So-called “crisis pregnancy centers” are following their lead. (Luthra, 7/20)

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: St. Louis County Council Rejects $1.25 Million Abortion Fund, Other Federal Aid Bills 
The St. Louis County Council, during a contentious three-hour meeting Tuesday, turned back an effort to use $1.25 million in federal pandemic aid to help women get out-of-state abortions and also provide services for mothers with infants amid a national shortage of formula. (Benchaabane, 7/20)

The Hill: Minnesota Republican Scrutinized For Pro-Life Speech: ‘Our Culture Loudly But Also Stealthily Promotes’ Abortions
Former NFL player and Minnesota lieutenant governor candidate Matt Birk (R) is facing scrutiny after saying women have abortions in pursuit of their careers. Speaking at the National Right to Life Convention in Georgia last month, Birk said that American culture “stealthily promotes” abortions by “telling women they should look a certain way” and saying that they should have careers instead of children. (Oshin, 7/20)

The Hill: House Passes Bill To Protect Access To Contraceptives After Supreme Court Warning Shot
The House passed a bill on Thursday to safeguard access to contraceptives, less than a month after Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas said the bench should overturn the landmark case protecting forms of birth control. The legislation, titled the Right to Contraception Act, passed in a 228-195 vote. Eight Republicans joined all Democrats in supporting the measure, and two Republicans voted present. (Schnell, 7/21)

AP: House OKs Bill To Protect Contraception From Supreme Court
The House’s 228-195 roll call was largely along party lines and sent the measure to the Senate, where its fate seemed uphill. The bill is the latest example of Democrats latching onto their own version of culture war battles to appeal to female, progressive and minority voters by casting the court and Republicans as extremists intent on obliterating rights taken for granted for years. Democrats said that with the high court recently overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade decision from 1973, the justices and GOP lawmakers are on track to go even further than banning abortions. (Fram, 7/21)

Vox: What To Know About Birth Control In Post-Roe America
In the weeks since the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, in which the court ruled there is no constitutional right to abortion, questions concerning access to contraceptives in the United States have proliferated. How does the ruling impact birth control? Do states have the power to limit access or ban specific types of contraceptives? As of mid-July, “things have not changed as of right now,” says Mara Gandal-Powers, the director of birth control access at the National Women’s Law Center. “Everyone still has the Constitutional right to birth control. Insurance coverage has not changed for birth control.” (Volpe, 7/20)

On the future of same-sex marriage —

The New York Times: Same-Sex Marriage Bill, Considered Dead On Arrival, Gains New Life
... But when the House called its vote this week on the Respect for Marriage Act, which would codify federal protections for same-sex couples that were put in place in a 2015 ruling, 47 Republicans voted “yes.” That raised the possibility that there could be a narrow bipartisan path for the legislation to move ahead in the Senate and make its way to President Biden’s desk to be signed into law. (Karni, 7/20)

Politico: GOP Freezes Up On Same-Sex Marriage
Mitt Romney doesn’t think it’s necessary. Richard Burr hasn’t read it. And Todd Young is “fixated” on microchips. Those are some of the answers Republicans gave Wednesday on whether they’d back legislation writing same-sex marriage into law. And though Democrats want assurances the bill could pass the Senate before taking it up, Chuck Schumer may have to take a gamble to find out if the landmark legislation has the GOP support necessary to clear a 60-vote threshold. (Everett, 7/20)

The Hill: Senate Chair ‘Concerned’ With Monkeypox Response
Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, said she is “concerned” by the state of the U.S. monkeypox response in a letter to Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra. (Sullivan, Weixel and Choi, 7/20)

CIDRAP: A Smart Monkeypox Vaccine Strategy Will Be Key, Experts Say
"Eventually we can bring this under control." That's the message Michael Osterholm, PhD, MPH, director of the University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP), puts forth about the growing global monkeypox outbreak in a new editorial in Science. But in order to do so, millions of vaccine doses must be made available, a process that will likely take months—if not years. (Soucheray, 7/20)

Meanwhile the WHO is concerned —

Newsweek: WHO To Hold Another Emergency Meeting Over Global Monkeypox Epidemics
The World Health Organization (WHO) is due to hold an emergency committee meeting on Thursday at which it may decide whether monkeypox represents a global health emergency. It will be the second time the emergency committee has convened over monkeypox, with the last meeting being held on June 23. At that time, it was decided that the monkeypox outbreak did not constitute a global health emergency, or Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). (Browne, 7/20)

Reuters: WHO Reports 14,000 Cases Of Monkeypox Globally, Five Deaths In Africa
The World Health Organization (WHO) has confirmed 14,000 cases of monkeypox worldwide, with five deaths reported in Africa, Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday. Most of the cases reported thus far have been found in Europe, particularly among men who have sex with men, the WHO said, although all the deaths have occurred in Africa, the region where monkeypox outbreaks have historically been found. (7/20)

And cases continue to grow in the US, with particular focus on California —

The Hill: LGBT Groups Warn California Could Become Epicenter Of Monkeypox Outbreak
A coalition of LGBT organizations called on the Biden administration on Wednesday to expand testing and vaccine access for the monkeypox virus, warning that if no action is taken, California could become the epicenter for the disease. In a letter addressed to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky, the coalition raised alarm over the number of monkeypox cases — also known as hMPXV — that are effecting men who have sex with men and the transgender community. (Vella, 7/20)

The Mercury News: Q&A: Monkeypox Cases Are Climbing Fast. What's My Risk Of Catching It?
As monkeypox cases rise across the country and with 122 reported among six counties in the Bay Area as of Monday, the new virus is raising questions from a public weary of outbreaks. And while experts try to figure out exactly how the virus spreads, the Bay Area is experiencing a severe lack of vaccine supply. San Francisco announced Friday that it would be receiving around 4,000 doses of the shot, far fewer than the 35,000 it had requested earlier in the week from the federal government. Other local Bay Area counties also are reporting shortages. The federal government plans to release around 1.6 million doses in the coming months. (Greschler, 7/19)

Modesto Bee: Stanislaus County Has First Case Of Monkeypox Disease
Stanislaus County health officials have reported the county’s first case of monkeypox illness. A news release Tuesday said an adult male was infected with monkeypox disease, which has been causing outbreaks in the United States and other countries. (Carlson, 7/19)

The Hill: Biden Labels Climate Change An ‘Emergency,’ Stopping Short Of Declaration
“As president, I have a responsibility to act with urgency and resolve when our nation faces clear and present danger. And that is what climate change is about,” Biden said. “This is an emergency.” “As president, I’ll use my executive powers to combat the climate crisis in the absence of congressional action,” he added. (Frazin and Chalfant, 7/20)

The Wall Street Journal: Biden Is Pressed To Declare Emergencies After Climate, Abortion Setbacks
The president is facing calls to declare a public-health emergency to expand access to abortions after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. He is also being pressed to use a national-emergency declaration and other emergency powers to tackle climate-related priorities after they were stripped out of Democrats’ budget bill because of opposition from Sen. Joe Manchin (D., W.Va.). (Parti, 7/20)

NBC News: As Heat Waves Kill Thousands, Biden's Office For Climate Health Risks Is Broke
As deadly heat waves bear down across the globe, the Biden administration is warning that its office for dealing with climate change’s health impacts has no money. (Lederman, 7/20)

Meanwhile, nearly 1 in 3 Americans is under a heat alert —

The Wall Street Journal: More Than 100 Million Americans Face Dangerous Heat Wave
More than 100 million Americans were in the path of a dangerous heat wave Wednesday, from the West to the Northeast, officials said. Temperatures in the triple digits were recorded from Arizona to Louisiana, according to the National Weather Service. (Ansari and Lukpat, 7/20)

The Washington Post: U.S. Heat Wave: Over 100 Million People Under Alerts In 28 States
Dallas, Oklahoma City and Tulsa could all approach 110 degrees in the days ahead, and some locations have blown past that. The top reading came from Mangum in southwest Oklahoma, which hit 115 degrees at 5:55 p.m.(Cappucci and Kornfield, 7/20)

The Hill: Where The Scorching July Heatwave Is Hitting The US Hardest
At least 28 states issued heat warnings on Wednesday, as states like Oklahoma and Texas recorded temperatures as high as 115 degrees Fahrenheit. Beyond the two states, areas in Arkansas, Illinois, Kansas and Missouri all experienced temperatures more than 10 degrees Fahrenheit above historical averages for this time of year, according to maps posted by Tropical Tidbits based on NWS data. (Schonfeld, 7/20)

The Baltimore Sun: Maryland Weather: Baltimore Health Commissioner Declares Code Red Ahead Of Expected Hottest Temperatures Of Year 
A heat wave is expected to bake Baltimore for the next couple of days, leading the city health commissioner to declare a Code Red Extreme Heat Alert. Baltimore City Health Commissioner Dr. Letitia Dzirasa issued the alert for Thursday through Sunday. (Ho, 7/20)

A death in Spain, hard-hit in Europe's heat emergency, is an example —

AP: Spanish Worker's Death Shows Need To Adapt To Climate Change
When José Antonio González started his afternoon shift sweeping the streets of Madrid, the temperature was 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) amid a heat wave gripping Spain. After a long time without a job, González couldn’t afford to pass up a one-month summer contract to sweep the city, where he lived in a working-class neighborhood. Three hours later, the 60-year-old collapsed with heat stroke and was found lying in the street he was cleaning. An ambulance took the father of two to the hospital, where he died on Saturday. (Redondo and Hatton, 7/20)

The New York Times: The Biden Administration Is Elevating A Division Of H.H.S. To More Broadly Oversee Pandemic Responses
The Biden administration is creating a new division within the Department of Health and Human Services to coordinate the nation’s response to pandemic threats and other health emergencies, a recognition that the department is structurally ill equipped to handle disasters like the coronavirus pandemic. The change, announced internally on Wednesday, will elevate an existing office — that of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, known as ASPR — to its own operating division, the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response. (Gay Stolberg and Weiland, 7/20)

The Washington Post: Officials Reorganize HHS To Boost Pandemic Response
The reorganization allows the division “to mobilize a coordinated national response more quickly and stably during future disasters and emergencies while equipping us with greater hiring and contracting capabilities,” Dawn O’Connell, who leads ASPR and would run the new division, wrote to staff members Wednesday afternoon. The emailed memo was shared with The Washington Post. (Diamond, 7/20)

Meanwhile, President Joe Biden spoke about his experience with cancer —

Newsweek: Biden Blames Delaware Oil Slicks For His Cancer And 'So Damn Many' Others
While delivering a speech about climate change in Somerset, Massachusetts, on Wednesday, Biden said that environmental pollution during his childhood was so rampant that people needed to wipe oil off of car windshields to be able to drive. The president suggested that the pollution was to blame for the skin cancer that he would later experience, saying that Delaware used to have the "highest cancer rate in the nation." (Slisco, 7/20)

On health care anti-fraud measures taken by the Justice Department —

Reuters: U.S. Announces $1.2 Bln Healthcare Crackdown Tied To Telehealth, Cardiovascular Tests
The U.S. Justice Department unveiled a $1.2 billion healthcare fraud crackdown on Wednesday, revealing criminal charges against 36 defendants for alleged fraudulent billing schemes tied to telemedicine, genetic and cardiovascular testing, and equipment. The criminal charges, which were unsealed across 13 federal districts between July 11 through July 20, target clinical laboratory owners, marketers, medical professionals and telemedicine executives. (Lynch, 7/20)

Modern Healthcare: Feds Announce $1.2B Healthcare Fraud Takedown
The Justice Department announced charges against 36 people for $1.2 billion in alleged healthcare fraud Wednesday, with more than $1 billion of the total alleged losses stemming from telehealth schemes. (Goldman, 7/20)

On other political, legal matters —

Stat: Wyden Outlines A Drug Pricing Reform Wishlist To Follow Medicare Negotiation
Democrats may be closer than ever to passing sweeping drug pricing reforms, but Sen. Ron Wyden says there’s more to do. (Florko, 7/20)

The Hill: House Committee Advances Bill To Ban Assault Weapons
The House Judiciary Committee advanced a bill to ban assault weapons on Wednesday, the first time in two decades a congressional panel has moved to prohibit the sale, transfer and possession of the popular firearms. The committee approved the Assault Weapons Ban of 2021 in a 25-18 vote following an hours-long markup. (Schnell, 7/20)

The Wall Street Journal: Data-Privacy Bill Advances In Congress, But States Throw Up Objections
Bipartisan legislation to give Americans more control over their online data moved forward in Congress on Wednesday, even as new objections to the bill emerged from California and other states. The House Energy and Commerce Committee voted 53-2 to approve the American Data Privacy and Protection Act, with backers calling it a milestone. (McKinnon, 7/20)

Axios: Post-Pandemic Affordable Care Act Premium Hikes On The Horizon
Democrats' 11th-hour scramble to avoid steep Affordable Care Act premium increases for enrollees next year glosses over the reality that premiums are going up regardless for many people, thanks to the steady upward march of health care prices. (Owens and Dreher, 7/21)

The New York Times: 8 Ultraviolet Wands Could Pose Danger Of Radiation Injury, F.D.A. Warns
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning consumers against purchasing eight ultraviolet wands used for disinfection because of high levels of radiation that could cause injuries, the agency said on Wednesday. Some of the UV wands are said to have as much as 3,000 times the recommended amount of exposure to ultraviolet-C radiation, the F.D.A. said. (Oxenden, 7/20)

KUOW: King County Declares Fentanyl A Public Health Crisis
King County’s record-breaking number of fentanyl overdoses has prompted the county council to declare a public health crisis. This year 268 people have died so far — a 46 percent increase compared to this time last year, according to the King County Medical Examiner's Office Overdose Dashboard. Council members say the goal is to sound the alarm and find solutions. (de Luna, 7/20)

Stateline: As Prices Rise, The Push To End Diaper Taxes Grows
To help inflation-plagued and struggling families ease the burden of buying necessities, several states are scrapping the sales tax on infant and adult diapers. (Povich, 7/21)

Moneywatch: Gun Violence Costs U.S. More Than $1 Billion A Year In Hospital Bills
Along with the incalculable toll on victims and their families, gun violence in the U.S. also exacts another heavy cost: More than $1 billion a year in medical bills. (Gibson, 7/20)

In news of a very young doctor-in-training —

The Washington Post: Alena Analeigh Wicker, 13, Just Got Accepted To Medical School
Alena Analeigh Wicker is like other 13-year-olds in that she enjoys going to the movies, playing soccer, baking and hanging out with friends. But very much unlike other teenagers, she just got accepted to medical school. “I’m still a normal 13-year-old,” said Alena, a student at both Arizona State University and Oakwood University, where she is simultaneously earning two separate undergraduate degrees in biological sciences. “I just have extremely good time management skills and I’m very disciplined.” (Page, 7/20)

CIDRAP: Influenza Surveillance Systems May Have Caught Initial COVID-19 Activity
An increased number of cases of influenza-like illness (ILI) that tested negative for influenza were present in global influenza surveillance networks early in the COVID-19 pandemic, an average of 13.3 weeks before the first reported COVID-19 peaks in 16 of the 28 countries included in a study published today in PLOS Medicine. (7/20)

The New York Times: Virologists Try To Keep Up With Faster Coronavirus Evolution
“Viruses like SARS-CoV-2 are always evolving, and it’s a near certainty that new mutants will emerge in any given six-month time frame,” said Jesse Bloom of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle. “But as long as these mutants are descendants or close relatives of BA.2 or BA.4/BA.5, then a vaccine booster based on BA.4/BA.5, as the F.D.A. has recommended, should be a much better match to them than the current vaccine, even if it’s not a perfect match.” (Hassan, 7/20)

CIDRAP: Unvaccinated Police, Firefighters Report Low Trust In COVID-19 Vaccines
Although unvaccinated police officers and firefighters are more likely to develop COVID-19, they are less likely to trust that the vaccines are effective and safe, according to a US study published yesterday in JAMA Network Open. University of Miami researchers led the study of 1,415 police officers and firefighters from Arizona, Florida, Minnesota, Oregon, Texas, and Utah participating in two studies from January to September 2021. Participants worked at least 20 hours a week in roles requiring them to come within 3 feet of others. (7/20)

In news on other health research —

Zenger News: 'Holy Grail' Blood Test Can Diagnose Cancer Years Before Symptoms
A blood test that can diagnose any type of cancer years before symptoms appear could be on the horizon. Scientists have discovered a protein released in the early stages of the disease when tumors are most curable. It is produced by a gene named KRAS - the most frequent mutation across all tumors including lung, bowel and pancreatic. (Kitanovska, 7/20)

NPR: Gun Violence Costs Stretch Beyond The Loss Of Life, Two New Studies Find 
Researchers of two new studies using federal health care and hospital data underscore that the repercussions from firearm deaths and injuries are deeper, wider and far costlier than previously known. (Westervelt, 7/21)

Stat: Eggs Survive Decades Without Aging. Now, Scientists May Know Why 
In a high-stakes evolutionary gambit, female mammals are born with a finite supply of immature eggs. Propagating future generations depends on this reserve of pre-egg cells, or “primordial oocytes,” staying alive and out of the way of harmful, mutation-causing molecules — sometimes for decades — so they can give rise to mature eggs capable of producing healthy offspring. (Molteni, 7/20)

Stat: How Does The Brain Decide What Memories Are Good And Bad? 
In a new study, scientists took a key step toward unraveling how our brain assigns positive or negative emotions to our experiences. (Wosen, 7/20)

A story of parents' own drug-development efforts for their child —

KHN: Parents Become Drug Developers To Save Their Children’s Lives
Maggie Carmichael wasn’t developing like other kids. As a toddler, she wasn’t walking and had a limited vocabulary for her age. She was diagnosed with PMM2-CDG, potentially fatal gene mutations that cause abnormal enzyme activity — and affect fewer than 1,000 people worldwide. Her parents, Holly and Dan Carmichael, raised $250,000 for scientists to screen existing drugs to find a potential treatment, and in a single-patient trial with Maggie as the test subject, one drug showed promising results. The young girl stopped face-planting when crawling, she began using a walker instead of her wheelchair, and her lexicon expanded. (Whitlock, 7/21)

Reuters: Merck's Keytruda Fails Head And Neck Cancer Trial
Merck & Co Inc said on Wednesday its cancer therapy Keytruda failed to meet the main goal of a late-stage trial testing it in patients with head and neck cancer. The company said Keytruda, its blockbuster cancer drug, in combination with chemoraditation therapy showed improvement in event-free survival, or the period of time a patient remains free of complications compared to a placebo. (7/20)

In news on health worker matters —

Modern Healthcare: More Physicians Seek Unions Amid Changing Landscape, COVID-19
Dr. Monique Hedmann, a family medicine resident at Harbor-University of California, Los Angeles Medical Center in West Carson, works with patients from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. But her day doesn't end there. (Christ, 7/20)

Bloomberg: Nurse Burnout Reaches New High As Latest Omicron Variant Surges
Many people may be moving on from Covid, but nurses certainly aren’t — and as the latest variant sweeps the US, the mental stresses on the profession have reached new highs. A survey of 2,500 nurses released Wednesday finds that 64% are looking to leave the health-care profession, a nearly 40% increase from a similar survey a year ago. Three-quarters of those surveyed said they’ve experienced burnout since the pandemic began and half said they had experienced feelings of trauma, extreme stress or PTSD. (Johnson, 7/20)

Stat: As Health Care Faces Nursing Shortages, Nurses Are Flocking To Remote Jobs
Burned out and fed up with their work conditions, nurses are leaving the bedside in droves, leaving empty positions and for-hire signs lingering in hospitals and clinics around the country. (Palmer, 7/21)

On other industry developments —

Axios: Health Industry Profits Projected To Rise Following The Pandemic
Health care profits will rise significantly over the next few years, according to a new McKinsey & Company estimate — further evidence that providers and payers are doing just fine in the wake of the pandemic. (Owens, 7/20)

Bloomberg: Apple Argues It’s Now a Major Force in the Health-Care World
Apple Inc. published a nearly 60-page report Wednesday outlining all its health features and partnerships with medical institutions, arguing that such offerings are key to the tech giant’s future. The company pointed to its breadth of existing services -- from sleep monitoring and fitness classes to atrial-fibrillation detection and cycle tracking -- and promised to build on that foundation. Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams, who oversees Apple’s health endeavors, said in a statement attached to the report that the company will continue to innovate in “science-based technology.” (Gurman, 7/20)

Bloomberg: Early Spotify Backer Puts $101 Million In Mental Health Venture
A Swedish non-profit organization focused on improving the mental-well being of young adults has attracted 100 million euros ($101 million) in funding from its founders, Annika Sten Parson and Par-Jorgen Parson. The Inner Foundation was set up by the husband-and-wife duo this year and has already made a number of investments including Meela, a platform offering personalized therapy for women, and StrongMinds, a non-profit for treating depression in sub-Saharan Africa. (Liman, 7/21)

Reuters: Biogen Leans On New Alzheimer's Drug To Calm Investor Worries
Biogen Inc (BIIB.O) on Wednesday tried to assuage investor worries by laying out a plan for its Alzheimer's disease drug being developed with Eisai Co Ltd (4523.T) and promising to draw lessons from the setbacks to its treatment Aduhelm. Biogen also disclosed that it had agreed to pay $900 million to resolve a whistleblower lawsuit accusing it of paying doctors kickbacks to prescribe multiple sclerosis drugs. The case had been set to go on trial next week in Boston. It did not admit wrongdoing. (Mishra, 7/20)

Stat: Biogen Agrees To Pay $900 Million To Settle Whistleblower Case Alleging Kickbacks And Sham Speaking Events
After a decade of legal squabbling, Biogen has agreed in principle to pay $900 million to settle a lawsuit filed by a former employee who alleged the company paid kickbacks to hundreds of physicians to boost sales of its multiple sclerosis drugs. (Silverman, 7/20)

Modern Healthcare: Providence Cuts Leadership Team, Operations To Save Money
Providence, a Washington-based not-for-profit health system, is shrinking its executive team and streamlining some functions as it faces operational challenges. (Hudson, 7/20)

Also: how the health care system stymied one couple's quest for autism care —

KHN: ‘So Rudderless’: A Couple’s Quest For Autism Treatment For Their Son Hits Repeated Obstacles
When Sebastian Rios was a toddler, he hardly talked. “Don’t worry,” his pediatrician told Amparo and Victor Rios, Sebastian’s parents. Kids who grow up in households in which both Spanish and English are spoken are sometimes slower to develop language skills, she said. Plus, Sebastian was developing well in other ways: When he was just 18 months old, for example, he could identify the magnetized letters of the alphabet on the refrigerator at their home in Bronxville, a short train ride north of New York City. (Andrews, 7/21)

CIDRAP: First Local Dengue Case In Florida Prompts Health Alert
The Florida Department of Health this week announced a mosquito-borne illness advisory after the first local dengue illness of 2022 was identified in a Miami-Dade County resident. Officials urged people to take preventive steps, such as draining standing water from items such as buckets and flowerpots and wearing protective clothing and mosquito repellent. They also issued a reminder about symptoms, which can be asymptomatic or mild, but can also include fever, headache, eye pain, and musculoskeletal pain. (7/20)

AP: Nurse Gets Year In Prison For Replacing Fentanyl With Saline
A nurse who previously worked at a Florida hospital has been sentenced to a year and a day in federal prison for stealing fentanyl and replacing the powerful pain medication with saline. Monique Elizabeth Carter, 36, of Middleburg, was sentenced Tuesday in Jacksonville federal court, according to court records. She pleaded guilty in April to tampering with a consumer product. (7/20)

The Colorado Sun: Will A Half-Million Coloradans Lose Medicaid After The Pandemic?
Colorado has added nearly 500,000 people to its Medicaid rolls since early 2020, an increase of 32%. The latest extension of the federal order — which says that states can cut no one off the Medicaid rolls during the global crisis, whether they are eligible or not — is set to expire Oct. 13. (Brown, 7/20)

AP: Oregon Urges Return To Mask Wearing As Hospitals Feel Strain
Oregon health officials are urging people in 21 counties with high COVID-19 cases — including the three Portland-area counties — to return to mask wearing because the hospital system is again under extreme strain. (7/21)

Minnesota Public Radio: State Government’s Vax-Or-Test Rule Quietly Expires
Unvaccinated Minnesota state government employees are no longer required to take weekly COVID-19 tests to keep reporting for duty, a quiet shift that hasn’t fully settled disputes around workplace vaccination policies. (Bakst, 7/20)

Stat: Crash Course Seeks To Boost Ranks Of Native American Doctors 
She’d just used a defibrillator to resuscitate a man whose heart had stopped, and now, in the next room, a baby’s head was crowning, the mother emitting a stream of loud, harrowing moans. (McFarling, 7/21)

New Hampshire Public Radio: N.H. Housing Advocate: Renters Have The Right To Install AC 
There are three windows in Emily Negron’s Manchester apartment, and she keeps them all open — hoping the wind will help bring down the temperature. Still, the place feels humid and hot. (Lozada, 7/20)

AP: State-Licensed Medical Marijuana Store Opens Next Week
Patients enrolled in South Dakota’s medical marijuana program will have their first opportunity to buy cannabis from a state-licensed facility next week. It has been a year and a-half since state voters overwhelmingly approved medical marijuana. The co-owner of one dispensary, United Rd. in Hartford, says the business has secured the first initial inventory available to state-run stores and the showroom is ready for customers. (7/20)

KQED: Closure Of Oakland's Largest Homeless Encampment Put On Hold — For Now
Residents at Oakland’s largest encampment of unhoused people got a reprieve Tuesday after a federal judge granted a temporary restraining order, blocking a state agency from evicting them. Caltrans had planned on Wednesday to remove many of the estimated 200 people who live at the sprawling Wood Street encampment, which stretches from north of 34th Street to 18th Street underneath the I-880 freeway, between Wood Street and the BNSF and Union Pacific railroad tracks in West Oakland. (Baldassari, 7/19)

CIDRAP: Global COVID-19 Cases Plateau, But Deaths Rise
Global COVID-19 activity stayed high and largely even last week, as deaths rose, the World Health Organization (WHO) said today in its latest weekly update on the pandemic. (Schnirring, 7/20)

Reuters: Australia Battles Fresh Omicron Outbreak As COVID Deaths Rise
Australia reported one of its highest daily death tolls from the novel coronavirus on Thursday while hospital admissions hovered near record levels, as authorities struggle to get ahead of highly contagious Omicron variants. The BA.4/5 variants are good at evading immune protection from vaccination or prior infection and have been driving a surge of new infections globally. (7/21)

Reuters: China's Shenzhen Vows To 'Mobilise All Resources' To Curb COVID Spread
China's southern megacity of Shenzhen vowed to "mobilise all resources" to curb a slowly spreading COVID-19 outbreak, ordering strict implementation of testing and temperature checks, and lockdowns for COVID-affected buildings. Shenzhen, with a population of nearly 18 million, reported 22 new locally transmitted cases for Wednesday, with the daily count creeping up from single digits earlier this month. (Kirton and Liu, 7/21)

And the WHO also addressed health care for refugees —

Reuters: Denying Refugees And Migrants Healthcare Violates Rights, WHO Says
"Health does not begin or end at a country's border. Migratory status should therefore not be a discriminatory factor but a policy driver on which to build and strengthen healthcare," Santino Severoni, WHO's director of health and migration said in a statement. (7/20)

CIDRAP: COVID-19 Tied To New-Onset, Short-Term Heart Disease, Diabetes
COVID-19 patients are six times more likely than uninfected people to develop cardiovascular disease (CVD) and nearly twice as likely to receive a new diabetes diagnosis, but the risk begins to recede at 5 weeks and 12 weeks, respectively, concludes a UK study published yesterday in PLOS Medicine. (Van Beusekom, 7/20)

ScienceDaily: Study Finds Why Many IVF Embryos Fail To Develop 
Spontaneous errors in the earliest phase of cell division may be the reason why so many human embryos fail to develop normally, according to new research. (Columbia University of Irving Medical Center, 7/19)

New England Journal of Medicine: Phase 1–2 Trial Of AAVS3 Gene Therapy In Patients With Hemophilia B 
FLT180a (verbrinacogene setparvovec) is a liver-directed adeno-associated virus (AAV) gene therapy that uses a synthetic capsid and a gain-of-function protein to normalize factor IX levels in patients with hemophilia B. (Chowdary, M.D., et al, 7/21)

ScienceDaily: Peptide 'Fingerprint' Enables Earlier Diagnosis Of Alzheimer's Disease
Neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's disease or Parkinson's disease are caused by folding errors (misfolding) in proteins or peptides, i.e. by changes in their spatial structure. (Karlsruher Institut fur Technologie (KIT), 7/20)

The New York Times: Endemic Covid-19 Looks Pretty Brutal 
It may surprise you to learn, given the mood of the country — and indeed the world — about the pandemic that probably half of all Covid infections have happened this calendar year — and it’s only July. (David Wallace-Wells, 7/20)

Los Angeles Times: Yes, Please, Bring Back The Mask Mandate
It’s the summer of the subvariants. The summer you or at least someone you know got COVID. The summer masks were off all over town, but not for much longer. (Nina Shapiro, 7/21)

San Francisco Chronicle: COVID Keeps Evolving. Clinical Drug Trials Need To Evolve Along With It
Alpha. Beta. Delta. Omicron. BA.5. The list of COVID variants and subvariants continues to grow. And the threat of prolonged symptoms from long COVID becomes clearer every day. Our best defense — research to produce new and effective treatments — must keep advancing. But our clinical research system has a problem, and the Food and Drug Administration is only now making some headway in trying to fix it. (Tom Rico Pamukcu, 7/19)

Also —

Bloomberg: Monkeypox Treatments Aren’t Getting Enough Scrutiny
As monkeypox cases multiply in the US, more research is needed to assess how well existing treatments work. Unfortunately, no efforts are yet underway to conduct the kind of clinical trials that might let doctors know how much antiviral drugs improve patients’ lives. (Lisa Jarvis, 7/20)

Los Angeles Times: Slow U.S. Response To Monkeypox 
In some ways, the current outbreak of monkeypox closely resembles two other public health crises of the last 40 years — COVID-19 and AIDS. (7/21)

USA Today: Monkeypox Testing Lessons Learned From Treating HIV, COVID Pandemic
Back in 1985, as a reliable blood test for HIV was first becoming available, I plunged headlong into medical residency at Bellevue Hospital in New York. Half of my patients had AIDS, and the challenge quickly became managing opportunistic infections with multi-organ involvement. (Dr. Marc Siegel, 7/20)

Stat: The Health Care Industry Must Tend To Nurses' Mental Health 
Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, the dire state of nursing has been grist for endless headlines, studies, and think pieces, as has the epidemic of clinician mental health problems. (Danielle Bowie, 7/21)

Miami Herald: The Death Of A Grandmother Can Spur Long-Term Symptoms Of Depression In Kids
The death of a grandmother can have severe and lasting mental-health consequences for both her adult children and grandchildren, according to our recently published study. (Emily Smith-Greenaway, Ashton Verdery, Michelle Livings and Rachel Margolis, 7/20)

The New York Times: After Roe, Sex Ed Is Even More Vital 
High quality, evidence-informed sex education is critically important, effective and supported by an overwhelming majority of Americans. Limiting access to that instruction threatens the health and safety of young people, particularly those in states where access to reproductive health care is scarce in post-Roe v. Wade America. (Eva Goldfarb and Lisa Lieberman, 7/20)

The Colorado Sun: Change The Colorado Constitution To Allow Public Abortion Funding
Colorado is not prepared for the imminent surge in demand for abortions. Following the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe vs. Wade, our state is now a pro-choice island, so we must take steps to ensure wide and equitable access to abortion. (Logan Harper, M.D., 7/21)

Scientific American: Police Who Tear Gas Abortion-Rights Protesters Could Induce Abortion 
After the recent ruling by the Supreme Court overturning federal abortion rights, people have taken to the streets in protest. In multiple places, police attacked protesters with chemical weapons in the form of tear gas. In Arizona, law enforcement even fired canisters from the windows of government buildings. (Matthew R. Francis, 7/20)

Also —

Houston Chronicle: It’s A Myth That Sunscreen Prevents Melanoma In People Of Color — A Dermatologist Explains
Melanoma is a potentially deadly form of skin cancer that effects people of every racial and ethnic group. The risk factor most closely linked to developing melanoma is exposure to ultraviolet, or UV, rays from the sun. In fact, sunburns have been associated with doubling one’s risk of melanoma. (Adewole S. Adamson, 7/20)

Dallas Morning News: Congress Should Take Action Against Nonmedical Switching
Americans face a growing mental health crisis, made worse by a health insurance practice called nonmedical switching. Congress can make this right. They should take action now. (Greg Hansch, 7/21)

Stat: 10 Tips For Vendors Aiming To Market Digital Health Solutions
Virtual and digital care expanded dramatically during the pandemic as patients, providers, employers, and regulators sought to limit the risk of contracting Covid-19 during hospital and medical visits. Even so, digital health care and virtual health still account for under 2% of all medical expenses, so there is plenty of opportunity for growth. (Jeff Levin-Scherz and Andrey Ostrovsky, 7/20)

Stat: 6 Ways To Increase Diversity In Clinical Trial Participation 
It has been nearly 25 years since the Food and Drug Administration first issued guidance related to racial, ethnic, age, and gender populations underrepresented in clinical trials (see “Timeline: Related prior FDA guidance”). Yet it and other agency guidance and clear documentation of unequal representation have yielded little progress in improving clinical trial diversity. (Nicholas Kenny, Keri McDonough and Stephen Keith, 7/21)