First Edition: April 1, 2022

KHN: As US Nears 1 Million Covid Deaths, One Hard-Hit County Grapples With Unthinkable Loss 
Connie Houtz didn’t think covid would be that bad. She’d seen many people in this rural hamlet in central Pennsylvania get infected yet recover within a few days. She did not get vaccinated because she worried about how a new vaccine, developed in record time, might affect her heart condition. Last October, her youngest son, 45-year-old Eric Delamarter, developed a chest cold. He put off going to the doctor because he had customers waiting at his shop where he repaired cars, she said. When he finally went to the emergency room at Geisinger Lewistown Hospital, he was diagnosed with pneumonia and covid. (Galewitz, 4/1)

KHN: Black Students Experiencing Racism On Campus Lack Mental Health Support 
Three years ago, Lauren Bryant was walking across Appalachian State University’s campus with several other Black students when they were verbally assaulted with a racist tirade. “This guy in a pickup truck stopped at the light, rolled down his window, and just started calling us a bunch of N-words,” she recalled. It wasn’t the only time Bryant has had an experience like this at the overwhelmingly white campus in Boone, a town in one of North Carolina’s most conservative regions. Whether it’s the ubiquity of Confederate flags, Ku Klux Klan members handing out literature, or a parade of pickup trucks flying flags in support of President Donald Trump, she believes they’re all intended to signal that students of color are unwelcome there. (Newsome, 4/1)

KHN: KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: Funding For The Next Pandemic
President Joe Biden released his budget proposal for 2023 this week, and it calls for a nearly 27% increase in funding for the Department of Health and Human Services. That includes $28 billion for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to implement a preparedness program for future pandemics and $40 billion for HHS to invest in making vaccines and other medicines. Also, the FDA and the CDC authorized a second booster shot for most people 50 and older. But federal officials offered little advice to consumers about who might need that shot and when. (3/31)

Bloomberg: U.S. Senators Near Deal On Smaller Bill To Fund Covid-19 Fight
Utah Senator Mitt Romney, the top GOP negotiator on the bill, said Thursday afternoon that there is an agreement in principle but that Republicans are awaiting a cost estimate from the Congressional Budget Office. Romney said $1 billion in global vaccine funding could be added but only if other funding is cut to keep the total at $10 billion. The bill, he said, would be fully paid for, including by using unspent money previously allocated to aid businesses.  (Wasson, Ruoff and Litvan, 3/31)

Roll Call: Senate Close To COVID-19 Aid Deal; Global Funds In Question
The offsets negotiators agreed to include $2.2 billion from unused grant funds for venues like zoos and theaters and $2 billion in untapped assistance to the aviation and manufacturing industry, Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., said. His comments to reporters came after a Republican Conference lunch in which lead GOP negotiator Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah briefed his colleagues on the agreement in principle. The agreement, if it holds, would likely leave out $5 billion in foreign assistance from the $15.6 billion total congressional leaders had previously agreed to in negotiations over the fiscal 2022 omnibus funding package. The COVID-19 supplemental was stripped out of the omnibus after some Democrats objected to $7 billion in state aid that was being tapped for one of the offsets, and lawmakers have spent the past few weeks negotiating a new package of offsets. (McPherson and Weiss, 3/31)

Los Angeles Times: House Passes Bill To Lower Insulin Costs, But Prospects Unclear In Senate
The House moved Thursday to revive one of the more popular provisions of last year’s failed social safety net package, passing a narrow healthcare bill that would dramatically lower out-of-pocket costs for insulin users. The bill passed by a vote of 232 to 193, with 12 House Republicans joining all Democrats in support. The measure would cap insulin costs at $35 a month for consumers enrolled in private health insurance plans or Medicare. Currently, based on the patient’s condition and choice of treatments, costs can range from $334 to $1,000 a month for insulin, according to a 2020 Kaiser Family Foundation report. (Kaur, 3/31)

Politico: Senators Revive School Lunch Debate With Bill To Extend Universal Free Meals 
Sens. Debbie Stabenow and Lisa Murkowski introduced a bill Thursday that would allow the nation’s schools to serve free meals to all students for another year. The move comes after Republican leadership objected to extending the pandemic flexibility in a recent spending bill — a surprise move that enraged school leaders and anti-hunger advocates across the country. “Senator [Mitch] McConnell said ‘no,’” Stabenow (D-Mich.) recounted in an interview. She noted that lawmakers from both sides of the aisle on the Senate Agriculture Committee, which she chairs, were surprised by the minority leader’s stiff opposition in the final days of omnibus talks. (Bottemiller Evich and Calefati, 3/31)

The New York Times: E.P.A. Decides Against Limiting Perchlorate In Drinking Water 
The announcement from the Environmental Protection Agency shocked public health advocates who had denounced the Trump administration in 2020 for opting not to regulate perchlorate. The chemical is a component in rocket fuel, ammunition and explosives. Exposure can damage the development of fetuses and children and cause a measurable decrease in I.Q. in newborns. The Trump administration had found that perchlorate did not meet the criteria for regulation because it did not appear in drinking water “with a frequency and at levels of public health concern.” Activists at the time accused the E.P.A. of disregarding science. (Friedman, 3/31)

AP: EPA Upholds Trump-Era Decision Not To Regulate Contaminant
Upholding a Trump-era environmental policy, the Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday it will not regulate a drinking water contaminant that has been linked to brain damage in infants. The agency said the Trump administration’s decision in 2020 not to regulate perchlorate in drinking water was made with the “best available peer reviewed science.” The chemical is used in rocket fuel and fireworks. (Naishadham, 4/1)

Stat: Califf Admits Alzheimer’s Drug Decision Impacted Experts’ Trust In FDA
Robert Califf, the new head of the Food and Drug Administration, admitted Thursday that the agency’s controversial approval of the Alzheimer’s drug Aduhelm has diminished its standing with experts. “It’s pretty clear that the controversy around this has temporarily impacted the trust in the FDA by people who pay attention to these things,” Califf said during STAT’s Breakthrough Science Summit. He added, however, that he doesn’t feel the broader public has lost trust in the FDA. (Florko, 3/31)

CNN: Scientists Sequence The Complete Human Genome For The First Time 
The new research introduces 400 million letters to the previously sequenced DNA – an entire chromosome’s worth. The full genome will allow scientists to analyze how DNA differs between people and whether these genetic variations play a role in disease. The research, published in the journal Science on Thursday, was previously in preprint, allowing other teams to use the sequence in their own studies. Until now, it was unclear what these unknown genes coded. (Ahmed, 3/31)

The Washington Post: CDC Warns Of A Steep Decline In Teen Mental Health 
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is warning of an accelerating mental health crisis among adolescents, with more than 4 in 10 teens reporting that they feel “persistently sad or hopeless,” and 1 in 5 saying they have contemplated suicide, according to the results of a survey published Thursday. “These data echo a cry for help,” said Debra Houry, a deputy director at the CDC. “The COVID-19 pandemic has created traumatic stressors that have the potential to further erode students’ mental well-being.” (Balingit, 3/31)

AP: Pandemic Took A Toll On Teen Mental Health, US Study Says
CDC officials said that the pandemic did not affect teens equally. LGBT youth reported poorer mental health and more suicide attempts than others. About 75% said they suffered emotional abuse in the home and 20% reported physical abuse. By comparison, half of heterosexual students reported emotional abuse and 10% reported physical abuse, the CDC said. (Stobbe, 3/31)

The New York Times: Many Teens Report Emotional And Physical Abuse By Parents During Lockdown
It also found high rates of reported abuse, with 55.1 percent of teenage respondents saying they suffered emotional abuse from a parent or another adult in their house in the preceding year, and 11.3 percent saying they suffered physical abuse. In the survey, emotional abuse was defined as swearing, insulting or belittling; physical abuse was defined as hitting, beating, kicking or physically hurting. (Barry, 3/31)

Houston Chronicle: Texas Schools Don't Have Enough Mental Health Providers, And Leaders Are Failing To Fix It
Half of all mental illness begins by age 14, the American Psychiatric Association found. And the U.S. Department of Education highlights school counselors, social workers, nurses and psychologists as critical in identifying mental health concerns in children. But at no point since 2013 did any Texas school district have the professionally recommended student-to-provider ratios in all four positions, a Houston Chronicle investigation found. That means for nearly a decade, more than 5 million kids in Texas schools each year have gone without appropriate access to mental health professionals. (Lamm and Stuckey, 3/31)

The New York Times: William Burns, Head Of The CIA, Tests Positive For Covid 
William J. Burns, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, tested positive for the coronavirus on Thursday, a day after meeting with President Biden. The meeting was not considered a close contact for Mr. Biden because the two practiced social distancing and Mr. Burns was wearing an N95 mask, according to a C.I.A. statement. Mr. Biden tested negative on Wednesday when he was screened as part of regular health monitoring, an administration official said. (Barnes, 3/31)

Bloomberg: New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy Tests Positive For Covid
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy tested positive for Covid. On Thursday his office said a positive result came up during a regularly scheduled test and that the 64-year-old Democrat was “currently asymptomatic and feeling well.” He plans to cancel in-person events and isolate for the next five days. Murphy, who started his second term in January, ended his routine Covid briefings on March 4 2020, two years after New Jersey’s first Covid-19 case was reported. That day, Murphy awoke from successful cancer surgery to learn that New Jersey had its first reported case. Follow-up tests show he is in good health, with no recurrence, he told Bloomberg News this month. (Young, 3/31)

AP: Hawaii Sees Increase In COVID-19 Omicron Variant Cases 
Mirroring much of the U.S. and the world, Hawaii is seeing an uptick in the more transmissible BA.2 omicron variant. According to a state Department of Health report, BA.2 now makes up four out of every 10 new coronavirus cases in Hawaii. (3/31)

AP: Idaho Senate Fails To Override Coronavirus Vaccine Bill Veto 
The Idaho Senate on Thursday failed to override Republican Gov. Brad Little’s veto of legislation making it illegal for most businesses to require the coronavirus vaccine. The Senate didn’t muster the two-thirds majority vote necessary to keep alive the “Coronavirus Pause Act.” The vote was 21-14. (Ridler, 3/31)

Anchorage Daily News: Alaska Lawmakers Decline Mandates Amid COVID Outbreak, Raising Questions About Further Disruption
The Alaska Capitol’s coronavirus outbreak grew to nearly three dozen active cases Thursday, as lawmakers say there’s little political will to enact tougher measures than voluntary masking and testing. Some 10% of the 400 legislators and support staff working at the Capitol have tested positive in the past few days. And the Legislature’s official figures — 33 active cases as of Thursday — exclude at least two additional infections detected on at-home tests, and two cases among media, confirmed by the Daily News. At least four legislators have publicly confirmed testing positive in recent days: Anchorage Democratic Reps. Chris Tuck and Ivy Spohnholz, North Pole GOP Rep. Mike Prax and Anchorage Democratic Sen. Tom Begich. (Herz, 3/31)

The Washington Post: Pregnant People At Much Higher Risk Of Breakthrough Covid, Study Shows 
The new study goes beyond what has previously been understood, suggesting that even pregnant people who are fully vaccinated tend to have less protection from the virus than many other patients with significant medical problems. “If you are fully vaccinated, that’s magnificent,” said a lead author of the study, David R. Little, a physician who is a researcher at Epic, a Wisconsin company that maintains electronic patient records for nearly 1,000 hospitals and more than 20,000 clinics across the country. “But if you are fully vaccinated and become pregnant, you remain at higher risk of acquiring covid.” (Goldstein and Keating, 3/31)

Columbus Dispatch: COVID-19 And Pregnancy: More New Mothers Die Amid Pandemic
From 2019 to 2020, the rate of maternal mortality in the U.S. increased by nearly 20%, a potential indication of the coronavirus pandemic’s impact on maternal health outcomes. The maternal death rate in the U.S. rose from 20.1 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2019 to 23.8 deaths per 100,000 in 2020, marking an 18% increase, according to a new report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That's a nearly 37% increase since 2018, when there were 17.4 deaths for every 100,000 live births, a figure which was already more than double the rate of most other wealthy, developed nations, according to a report by the Commonweath Fund, a private U.S. foundation whose stated purpose is to "promote a high-performing health care system." (Henry, 3/31)

CIDRAP: Unhealthy Lifestyles Linked To Poor COVID-19 Outcomes
Unhealthy lifestyles are associated with more severe COVID-19 outcomes, according to a large UK study yesterday in BMC Infectious Diseases. The study was based on UK-Biobank, a prospective cohort of 502,536 participants aged 37 to 73 years recruited from 2006 to 2010 and followed up in the ensuing years. The cohort tracks nine unhealthy lifestyle traits, including smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, poor diet, physical inactivity, sleep duration, and television viewing time. (3/31)

CIDRAP: Hospitalized US Indigenous Patients Had Higher COVID-19 Death Rates
Hospitalized American Indian and Alaska Native COVID-19 patients died at a significantly higher rate than their Black and White peers early in the pandemic, despite being younger and having lower rates of underlying illnesses, shows a study published yesterday in JAMA Network Open. (3/31)

The Boston Globe: Atrius Lays Off Dozens Of Nurses As COVID Needs Wane And Merger Nears
As the attorney general reviews plans for Atrius Health to be acquired by health care company Optum, the statewide doctor group has announced sizable layoffs. The Massachusetts Nurses Association said that 60 nurses — approximately 10 percent of Atrius’s nursing staff — were let go on Wednesday. Most of the employees worked for a special call center set up during the COVID pandemic. Atrius, however, put the number of nurses let go at 58, but added that 14 non-nurse positions were also eliminated. (Bartlett, 3/31)

Modern Healthcare: AMA Asks For Delay In Provider Relief Fund Clawbacks
The American Medical Association and more than 30 other medical groups want the Health Resources and Services Administration to give providers more time to report on the Provider Relief Funds dollars they received before the government takes the money back. Providers that got more than $10,000 in COVID-19 relief funding from HRSA between April 10, 2020, and June 30, 2020 had to report how they used the money by Nov. 30, 2021. HRSA distributed more than $42 billion during this first phase. (Goldman, 3/31)

Modern Healthcare: CMS Proposes Pay Bump For Rehab, Psych Facilities
Inpatient rehabilitation facilities and inpatient psychiatric facilities will likely see Medicare rate increases in fiscal 2023. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services proposed inpatient rehabilitation facilities get a 2.8% Medicare rate increase in fiscal 2023. That would increase payment by $170 million compared to fiscal 2022 if CMS finalizes its proposal, which is based primarily on inflation. CMS also asked for feedback on whether to include home health in the inpatient rehab transfer payment policy, as the Health and Human Services' Office of Inspector General recommended. Medicare could have saved $993 million in 2017 and 2018 if it had implemented such a policy, OIG found. (Goldman, 3/31)

The Wall Street Journal: Hospital Deal Gone Bust Puts Real-Estate Firm In Spotlight
A group of investors bought this small city’s only hospital in late 2019. To pay for the deal, its buildings and land were sold to one of the country’s largest owners of medical properties. Two years later the hospital went bankrupt. The Watsonville Community Hospital has served the largely Latino farming region of strawberry fields and apple orchards for more than a century. Now, the community is trying to raise as much as $70 million to buy the hospital and save it from closure. (Spegele, 3/31)

CIDRAP: Supply Map Created To Predict Drug Shortages, Find Solutions 
Five years ago, US Pharmacopeia (USP) began building a generic drug supply chain dataset to inform its strategic planning. Then the COVID-19 pandemic began, and the organization began analyzing the frequency of orders for its physical reference standards to gauge how the initial outbreak in China was affecting the pharmaceutical supply chain worldwide. Seeing its potential, USP invested several million dollars into the dataset, morphing it into something much bigger: a tool that can be used to predict medicine shortages, identify the drivers behind them, and determine the most beneficial solutions. (Van Beusekom, 3/31)

AP: New Hampshire House OK's Exception To New Abortion Ban
The New Hampshire House approved Thursday amending the state’s new abortion ban to add an exception for fatal fetal anomalies. Since Jan. 1, New Hampshire has outlawed abortion after 24 weeks gestation, with exceptions only for pregnancies that threaten the mother’s life or health. Doctors who provide late-term abortions can face felony charges, and ultrasounds are required before any abortion. (3/31)

The Washington Post: 5 Fetuses Found In D.C. Home Of Woman Charged In Abortion Clinic Blockade
Five fetuses were removed from a Southeast Washington home Wednesday, the same day a federal indictment was announced against nine people in the 2020 blockade of an abortion clinic with chain and rope. The residence was where Lauren Handy, one of the people indicted, was arrested and had lived or stayed, according to two law enforcement officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to freely discuss the case. (Peiser, Hermann, Zapotosky and Boorstein, 3/31)

The Washington Post: Biden Marks Transgender Visibility Day With New Policies, GOP Criticism
President Biden is marking Transgender Day of Visibility by celebrating the contributions that transgender Americans have made to the country while criticizing Republican-led efforts to pass legislation that the White House says is “dangerous” to transgender people. “To everyone celebrating Transgender Day of Visibility, I want you to know that your president sees you,” he said in a recorded message. “Our entire administration sees you for who you are — made in the image of God deserving of dignity, respect and support.” (Scott and Wager, 3/31)

Los Angeles Times: White House Taps 'Jeopardy' Star Amy Schneider For Trans Day
Amy Schneider can’t stop winning. After wrapping a record-shattering stint on “Jeopardy!” and getting engaged to the love of her life, the trailblazing trivia phenom visited the White House for Trans Day of Visibility. On Thursday, the former software engineering manager from Oakland, Calif., spoke with reporters at the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room about issues affecting the trans community and objectives for her trip to Washington, D.C. “The White House was good enough to invite me here and be visible, I suppose,” Schneider said from behind the presidential lectern. “I’m just really, really honored to be here and really grateful that this is being celebrated and the trans people are being celebrated in a place like this.” (Carras, 3/31)

The Boston Globe: ‘We Can’t Be Erased, So Stop Trying’: Transgender Day Of Visibility Event Offers Love, Reassurance
Transgender Day of Visibility was first celebrated in 2009, when Michigan activist Rachel Crandall-Crocker noticed the only prominent day for trans people was a day of remembrance for victims of violence, not a day of celebration or joy. It’s since been marked with rallies and celebrations worldwide. More than a decade later, celebrating trans visibility remains an important calling, said Kimm Topping, safe schools program manager at the Safe Schools Program for LGBTQ Students. “Not all of us can be visible and be seen, especially folks who are at the intersection of racism and ableism and so many other forms of oppression, who cannot be visible and open,” Topping said. “This is on behalf of the entire community for us to be visible and say, you’re safe here, and it’s okay to be ourselves and to exist.” (Tziperman Lotan, 3/31)

Politico: State Department Will Offer ‘X’ Gender Marker For U.S. Passports 
The State Department on Thursday announced that it will make an “X” gender marker available on U.S. passports beginning April 11, and the option to select the marker for other forms of documentation will become available next year. On State Department public forms, the “X” gender marker will be defined as “Unspecified or another gender identity.” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement that the definition “is respectful of individuals’ privacy while advancing inclusion.” (Forgey, 3/31)

NBC News: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis Sued By LGBTQ Students, Parents Over New Law
A group of over a dozen students, parents, educators and advocates filed a federal lawsuit Thursday against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and the state’s Board of Education, alleging that newly enacted state legislation would “stigmatize, silence, and erase LGBTQ people in Florida’s public schools.” (Lavietes, 3/31)

Bloomberg: Over 22% Of US High Schoolers Identify As Not Heterosexual: CDC Study
One in five high school students does not identify as heterosexual, and many said they faced mental health challenges in the past year, a federal study released on Thursday finds. The Adolescent Behaviors and Experiences Survey issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention polled just under 8,000 U.S. high school students between Jan. and June of 2021. The study focused on students’ experiences during the Covid-19 pandemic and took into account respondents’ identities such as race and sexuality. In the report, some 22.5% of respondents said they were gay, lesbian or bisexual, or that they identified in some other way or were questioning their sexual identity. (Ceron, 3/31)

Bangor Daily News: ‘Do Not Eat’ Advisory Could Apply To More Of Maine’s Freshwater Fish Due To PFAS
Maine could issue more “do not eat” advisories for freshwater fish due to contamination from so-called forever chemicals, as the state continues to come to grips with the extent of contamination from the class of chemicals that manufacturers have used in everyday products for decades. State health and environmental officials are preparing to lower the state’s safety threshold for PFAS contamination in fish as they act on new information from a federal agency about just how toxic the chemicals are to humans. (Loftus, 4/1)

AP: New Mexico Launches Cannabis Sales, Within Texans' Reach 
New Mexico is bringing sales of recreational marijuana to the doorstep of Texas, the largest prohibition state, as the movement toward broad legalization sweeps up even more of the American West. As of midnight Friday in New Mexico, anyone 21 and older can purchase up to 2 ounces (57 grams) of marijuana — enough to roll about 60 joints or cigarettes — or comparable amounts of marijuana liquid concentrates and edible treats. (Lee, 4/1)

San Francisco Chronicle: California State Fair To Host First-Ever Cannabis Competition. Here’s How They’ll Determine The Winners
The California State Fair is known for hosting some of the best agricultural producers in the state who’ve mastered California staples like wine, olive oil, and cheese. However this year, after a two year hiatus due to COVID-19, the fair is making agricultural history as they announce the first-ever state agency-sanctioned cannabis competition. As with their other agricultural competitions, fair organizers said one of their main goals was to educate the public on agricultural products and its industry standards — including those related to cannabis cultivation. (Stoughtenborough, 3/31)

The Washington Post: Almost 800,000 Americans Are Living With End-Stage Kidney Disease
At least 783,594 adults in the United States are living with end-stage kidney disease, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It found that, from 2000 to 2019, new cases of end-stage disease increased by 42 percent and the number of people living with this stage of the disease (called prevalent cases) roughly doubled. (Searing, 3/31)

Fox News: Will Smith’s Oscar Incident Sparks Anger Management Discussion
After Academy Award winner Will Smith slapped comedian Chris Rock during the Oscars Sunday night in response to a joke about Smith’s wife, a worldwide discussion started about how to manage anger before it escalates to violence. "Chris Rock has no real understanding of what happened to Will Smith in the 90 minutes or so leading up to the incident. But there’s obviously something going on for Will. Chris’ joke, and his wife being humiliated in public like that, would’ve been the final straw," said Mike Fisher, psychotherapist and British expert in anger management. Fisher described the incident as a typical example of what unhealthy anger can do when we act in a fit of rage without thinking about the consequences of our actions. (Sudhakar, 3/31)

USA Today: Skippy Recall 2022: Peanut Butter Products Pulled For Steel Fragments
Skippy Foods, LLC is voluntarily recalling 9,353 cases or 161,692 total pounds of select peanut butter products “due to the possibility that a limited number of jars may contain a small fragment of stainless steel from a piece of manufacturing equipment. ”According to a recall notice posted on the Food and Drug Administration website, the affected products include Skippy Reduced Fat Creamy Peanut Butter Spread, Reduced Fat Chunky Peanut Butter Spread and Creamy Peanut Butter Blended With Plant Protein. (Tyko, 3/31)