Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
As Vaccinations Spread, Officials' Emphasis On Covid Testing Retreats
AP: COVID Testing’s Value Shrinks As Vaccines Beat Back Virus
Federal health officials’ new, more relaxed recommendations on masks have all but eclipsed another major change in guidance from the government: Fully vaccinated Americans can largely skip getting tested for the coronavirus. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said last week that most people who have received the full course of shots and have no COVID-19 symptoms don’t need to be screened for the virus, even if exposed to someone infected. (Perrone, 5/23)
Politico: Vaccines' Success Could Undercut Biden's Multibillion-Dollar School Testing Plans
President Joe Biden took office pledging to help curb the pandemic by supporting regular Covid-19 testing in schools and other group settings like homeless shelters and workplaces — but the future of those multibillion-dollar plans is murky amid dramatic drops in infection rates nationwide. The administration has struggled to launch a $650 million program it announced in February to set up regional Covid-19 testing hubs for schools and facilities like homeless shelters. Federal officials had hoped to have the first hub open and coordinating 150,000 tests per week by late April, but have not yet awarded any contracts. (Lim, 5/23)
NPR: How The Biden White House Learned To Stop Wearing Masks
What a difference a vaccine makes (that, and CDC guidance saying vaccinated people can safely do just about anything mask-free). At the Biden White House, which remained a COVID-cautious bubble longer than many corners of the country, it's like 2019 all over again, with large and largely mask-free events in the East Room both Thursday and Friday. The White House is opening up as the rest of the country sorts through what the latest guidance means and how it applies to them. While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said fully vaccinated people can be indoors or outdoors without masks, the mask rules still apply in some settings. (Keith, 5/22)
On HHS migrant shelters —
Stateline: Biden Wants To Prepare For Future Surges Of Unaccompanied Minors
The Biden administration wants to create a permanent federal workforce to provide housing for unaccompanied migrant children during surges like the one that began in January and continues to overwhelm authorities. “We all know that surges arise periodically,” U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said during a congressional hearing earlier this month. “They arose in 2019. They arose in 2016, in 2014 and well before that. Migration is a very dynamic and fluid challenge that we have faced for many, many years.” (Hernández, 5/24)
BBC News: Children Tell Of Neglect, Filth And Fear In US Asylum Camps
The US has a vast system of detention sites scattered across the country, holding more than 20,000 migrant children. In a special investigation, the BBC has uncovered allegations of cold temperatures, sickness, neglect, lice and filth, through a series of interviews with children and staff. (Andersson and Laurent, 5/23)
And other administration news —
The Washington Post: Biden Administration Moves Toward Making The Pandemic Work-From-Home Experiment Permanent For Many Federal Workers
As the Biden administration contemplates how to return the massive federal workforce to the office, government officials are moving to make a pandemic experiment permanent by allowing more employees than ever to work from home — a sweeping cultural change that would have been unthinkable a year ago. The shift across the government, whose details are still being finalized, comes after the risk-averse federal bureaucracy had fallen behind private companies when it came to embracing telework — a posture driven by a perception that employees would slack off unless they were tethered to their office cubicles. That position hardened during the Trump administration, which dialed back work-from-home programs that had slowly expanded during the Obama era. (Rein, 5/24)
NBC News: 50 Years Later, The Culture Wars Debate Over The Child Care Crisis Has Barely Budged
In 1971, President Richard Nixon vetoed a bipartisan bill that would have laid the groundwork for a national child care system, saying it would have placed the government on "the side of communal approaches to child rearing [and] against the family-centered approach." Fifty years later, as President Joe Biden makes subsidized child care for low- and middle-income families a major plank of his legislative agenda, the socially conservative argument against his plan sounds much the same as the one Nixon aide Pat Buchanan was making when he wrote that veto message. (Smith, 5/24)
AP: Growing Mystery Of Suspected Energy Attacks Draws US Concern
The Biden administration is facing new pressure to resolve a mystery that has vexed its predecessors: Is an adversary using a microwave or radio wave weapon to attack the brains of U.S. diplomats, spies and military personnel? The number of reported cases of possible attack is sharply growing and lawmakers from both parties, as well as those believed to be affected, are demanding answers. But scientists and government officials aren’t yet certain about who might have been behind any attacks, if the symptoms could have been caused inadvertently by surveillance equipment — or if the incidents were actually attacks. (Merchant, Burns and Tucker, 5/23)
