First Edition: April 12, 2022

KHN: Colorado Moves Toward Statewide Coverage Of Wastewater Surveillance
On a Sunday morning in March 2020, right at the start of the pandemic, an article in Popular Mechanics caught engineer Pieter Van Ry’s eye. It had a catchy title: “How Poop Offers Hints About the Spread of Coronavirus.” “At the end of that article, it said, ‘If you have a wastewater facility and you’re interested in participating in this study, please contact us,’” he said. As a matter of fact, Van Ry did have a wastewater facility. He is the director of South Platte Renew, a wastewater treatment plant in Englewood, Colorado, that serves 300,000 people. He filled out the form, and South Platte joined the first facilities in the nation to start testing wastewater for covid-19. (Daley, 4/12)

KHN: California Sees Dramatic Decline In Child Homicide Victims. What’s Changed? 
The stunning climb in homicide rates in recent years in California and big cities across the nation obscures a remarkably good-news trend involving young children: The number of child homicide victims fell dramatically in California over the past decade, the latest death certificate data shows, a pattern mirrored to a lesser extent nationwide. In 1991, California’s coroners officially classified 133 deaths of children ages 9 and younger as homicides. By 2011, that figure had fallen to 81.In 2020, it stood at 40. (Reese, 4/12)

CNN: White House Seeks To Ease Americans' Medical Debt Burden
The White House is seeking to help lessen Americans’ medical debt burden, Vice President Kamala Harris announced Monday. In its latest effort to help people deal with increased costs amid skyrocketing inflation, the White House laid out a four-point plan to help protect consumers. It builds on President Joe Biden’s recent executive order on increasing access to affordable health care coverage. (Luhby, 4/11)

Bloomberg: White House To Blunt Medical Debts For Veterans, U.S. Home Borrowers
Vice President Kamala Harris announced new steps designed to reduce the cost of federal home loans for Americans saddled with medical debt and make it easier for veterans to have health care bills forgiven during an event Monday at the White House. “I have met so many people in so many communities in our nation who are struggling with this burden, many of whom are managing an illness or an injury at the same time, and who stay up at night staring at the ceiling, wondering if they will ever be able to pay off their medical debt,” Harris said. “No one in our nation should have to endure that.” (Sink and Cook, 4/11)

Modern Healthcare: HHS To Factor Medical Debt Practices Into Grant Decisions
The Health and Human Services Department will soon request data from more than 2,000 providers related to medical debt, the White House announced Monday. Providers may be asked to submit information on their medical bill collection practices, lawsuits against patients, financial assistance, financial product offerings and third-party contracting or debt-buying practices. HHS will use the information when making grantmaking decisions. The department also will make some of the data public and share potential violations with enforcement agencies. (Goldman, 4/11)

ABC News: COVID-19 Cases Rising In Northeast, Partly Fueled By BA.2, Experts Say
As COVID-19 cases continue to tick up in the United States, the Northeast appears to be fueling the increase. Four of the five states with the highest seven-day case rates per 100,000 are in the Northeast. In the 10 states with the highest seven-day rates, seven are Northeastern, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Rhode Island currently has the highest seven-day case rate at 172.4 cases per 100,000 people. (Kekatos, 4/11)

Axios: U.S. Universities Reinstate Mask Mandates Amid COVID Concerns
Universities nationwide are reinstating mask mandates amid an uptick in COVID-19 cases. The American University announced Monday it would reinstate its mask mandate in all Washington, D.C., campus buildings starting April 12. It joins Columbia, Georgetown, Johns Hopkins and Rice universities, which have also recently reinstated mask policies, according to the New York Times. The highly transmissible BA.2 subvariant of Omicron has sparked concerns about a possible surge. (Shapero, 4/11)

Los Angeles Times: Coronavirus Cases On The Rise In L.A. County, Prompting Calls For Spring Break Caution
Coronavirus cases are once again on the rise in Los Angeles County, according to data released Monday, prompting officials to urge residents to keep up safety protocols as the spring break holiday season arrives. Data show that for the seven-day period that ended Monday, an average of 960 new cases were reported daily countywide, which equates to 67 cases a week for every 100,000 residents. That’s up 23% from the previous week, when L.A. County reported an average of 783 cases a day. (Money and Lin II, 4/11)

The Hill: Why The Latest Rise In COVID-19 Cases Is Being Treated Differently  
COVID-19 cases are showing signs of rising again, even as many Americans are eager to move on. ... While there are now upticks in the Northeast, there are not yet signs of the massive spike that hit over the winter. That omicron variant-fueled spike already infected many people, helping provide them some immunity against the current outbreak, in addition to the immunity provided by vaccines and booster shots. (Sullivan, 4/11)

Axios: Axios-Ipsos Poll: Most Americans Say COVID Is No Longer A Crisis
Less than one in 10 Americans now describe COVID-19 as a crisis — with about three in four calling it a manageable problem and one in six saying it's no problem at all — according to the latest installment of the Axios/Ipsos Coronavirus Index. These sentiments — and the public's growing desire to be done with mask mandates and other restrictions — raise significant challenges for public health officials in managing new surges, and could create real political headwinds ahead of the midterms. (Talev, 4/12)

The New York Times: New Drug Slashed Deaths Among Patients With Severe Covid, Maker Claims 
An experimental drug halved the death rate among critically ill Covid patients who were receiving supplemental oxygen and were at high risk for serious lung disease and death, the drug’s developer announced on Monday. ... The new drug, sabizabulin, reduced deaths among hospitalized Covid-19 patients so drastically in a clinical trial that independent safety monitors recommended stopping it early, officials at Veru Inc., the drug’s maker, said. The trial was halted on Friday. The results of that trial have not been peer-reviewed or published in a medical journal. (Rabin, 4/11)

Detroit Free Press: COVID-19 Treatments Are Being Left Unused In Michigan. Here's Why
Thousands of doses of COVID-19 therapeutics and preventive treatments sit unused in Michigan because doctors haven't been prescribing them, the state's top doctor told the Free Press last week. "The issue in the beginning had been that we thought demand would outpace supply and that didn't really happen in the state of Michigan or in most of the country," said Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian, the state's chief medical executive. "What we really saw was the clinicians were a little bit hesitant to prescribe it ... because they were still learning about it." (Jordan Shamus, 4/11)

CIDRAP: Age Older Than 5, High Levels Of Ferritin Tied To Higher Risk For Severe MIS-C
Children older than 5 years and those with high concentrations of ferritin in the blood—an indicator of inflammation—were at highest risk for intensive care unit (ICU) admission for COVID-19–related multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), finds a study today in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ). (4/11)

The Hill: Pelosi Tests Negative For COVID, Set To Exit Isolation 
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced on Monday that she has tested negative for COVID-19 and will exit isolation on Tuesday. She tweeted: "Today, happily I tested negative for COVID. Tomorrow, I will be exiting isolation at the direction of the Capitol’s Attending Physician and consistent with CDC guidelines for asymptomatic individuals. Many thanks to everyone for their good wishes, chocolates and chicken soup." (Schnell, 4/11)

Axios: Biden Official: Mask Mandate For Airplanes Could Be Extended
Extending the federal transportation mask mandate that applies to airplanes, buses and trains is "absolutely on the table," Ashish Jha, the White House's new COVID-19 response coordinator, said Monday on the Today Show. The transportation mask mandate was extended last month but is currently set to expire on April 18. Jha stressed that the decision to extend the transportation mandate lies with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Rochelle Walensky. (Saric, 4/11)

The Hill: Biden Seeks To Resume Federal Worker Vaccine Mandate
The Biden administration on Monday asked a federal appeals court to clear a procedural hurdle that remained after a key legal victory last week and allow the administration to quickly resume enforcement of its COVID-19 vaccine mandate for federal employees.  The request to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, if granted, would effectively reinstate the public health policy after it was put on hold across the country in January by a federal judge in Texas. (Kruzel, 4/11)

AP: CVS, Feds Reach Agreement On Vaccine Portal Accessibility 
CVS Pharmacy has reached a settlement with federal prosecutors that will ensure the company’s online vaccination scheduling portal remains fully accessible to people with disabilities, officials said Monday. The U.S. attorney’s office in Rhode Island alleged the company, which operates nearly 10,000 retail pharmacies nationwide, was in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act because the portal was not accessible to people who use screen reader software designed for the visually impaired, and to those who have difficulty using a mouse. (4/11)

FiercePharma: Moderna Recalls Vaccine Batch After Foreign Substance Found In CDMO-Made Vial—Again 
The specter of particulates has forced another recall—this time on Moderna’s massively successful COVID-19 vaccine Spikevax—and the latest pull isn’t contract manufacturer Rovi’s first brush with contamination, either. Moderna on Friday said it was recalling one Spikevax lot in Europe. The batch contains 764,900 doses made by CDMO Rovi that were deployed across Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Sweden between Jan. 13 and Jan. 14. Moderna yanked the shots because of a “foreign body” found in one vial of the batch made at Rovi’s site in Spain, the partners said in a release. (Kansteiner, 4/11)

The Wall Street Journal: Vaccine Makers Pfizer, Moderna Hire New CFOs
Vaccine makers Pfizer Inc. and Moderna Inc. named company outsiders as chief financial officers as they look to deploy some of the cash they have generated during the Covid-19 pandemic. New York-based Pfizer on Monday said David Denton will take over as CFO on May 2. Mr. Denton has served as finance chief of home-goods retailer Lowe’s Cos. since 2018. Before that, he led the finances of CVS Health Corp. , the Woonsocket, R.I.-based drugstore and health-services chain. (Broughton, 4/11)

The Boston Globe: COVID-19 Vaccines Prevented More Than 2.2 Million US Deaths, Study Says
How much worse could the US COVID-19 pandemic have been if vaccinations hadn’t arrived in the nick of time in December 2020? Unimaginably worse, according to a study released last week. The researchers estimated that vaccinations by the end of last month had averted more than 2.2 million deaths, more than 17 million hospitalizations, and more than 66 million infections.“ Our findings highlight the profound and ongoing impact of the vaccination program in reducing infections, hospitalizations, and deaths,” said the study released Friday by the Commonwealth Fund, a venerable nonprofit that focuses on improving health care, particularly for society’s most vulnerable. (Finucane, 4/11)

Modern Healthcare: CMS Proposes Pay Decrease For Nursing Homes
Nursing homes may see a $320 million cut to their Medicare Part A payments in fiscal 2023 under a proposed rule the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued Monday. The proposed rule also seeks feedback on how to establish minimum staffing requirements for nursing homes, as directed by President Joe Biden, and includes a plan to add three measures to the Skilled Nursing Facility Value-Based Purchasing Program. (Goldman, 4/11)

Stat: New Bipartisan Insulin Policy Aims To Entice Drugmakers To Lower Prices
A bipartisan group of four key lawmakers unveiled a long-shot policy that aims to alleviate one of the American health care industry’s most embarrassing problems: mind-bogglingly high prices for insulin, a drug millions of Americans need to survive. The policy outline released Monday is a reboot of a three-year-old bill introduced by Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine). It would dangle a carrot for drugmakers to lower their list prices. Insurers and middlemen wouldn’t get to keep fees for diabetes drugs — but only if drugmakers lower list prices for drugs back to 2006 levels. It would also make sure patients with Medicare or private insurance don’t pay more than $35 per month for their insulin, though it would not offer the same protection to the uninsured. (Cohrs, 4/11)

Stat: Human Rights Watch Says Unaffordable U.S. Insulin Is A Human Rights Abuse
Insulin prices are sky high. High enough, now, that Human Rights Watch is declaring that insulin’s price tag contributes to human rights abuse. The international advocacy organization best known for investigating war crimes, genocides and dictatorships is out with a new report that argues that the human rights of people with diabetes are being violated when they’re unable to afford their insulin. That makes insulin makers, who set those high prices, complicit in human rights abuses, according to Matt McConnell, the lead author. “Drug companies’ drug pricing practices  … are contributing to human rights abuses,” he told STAT. (Florko, 4/12)

San Francisco Chronicle: Johnson & Johnson Must Pay $302 Million For Deceptive Marketing Of Pelvic Mesh Implants, Court Rules
Johnson & Johnson must pay $302 million in penalties to the state for many years of deceptive marketing to doctors and female patients about pelvic mesh implants that could cause serious vaginal pain and physical damage, a state appeals court ruled Monday. A San Diego County judge had assessed $344 million in penalties against Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Ethicon in January 2020, finding after a non-jury trial that the company had made misleading and potentially harmful statements in hundreds of thousands of advertisements and instructional brochures for nearly 20 years. The Fourth District Court of Appeal said $42 million of that amount, penalties for the company’s spoken sales pitches to doctors, was unjustified because the state had no evidence of what the sales representatives had actually said. (Egelko, 4/11)

Modern Healthcare: Cedars-Sinai Workers Authorize Potential Strike Amid Contract Talks
The action by Service Employees Union International-United Healthcare Workers West members comes after their contract with the not-for-profit hospital ended March 31. Contract bargaining began March 21, according to the union. Workers are demanding the hospital negotiate in "good faith" over staffing levels, patient and employee safety, and wages, a news release said. Ninety-three percent of the employees voted in favor of approving a three-day strike if talks don't progress, the union announced Monday. (Christ, 4/11)

Stat: FDA Scolds Bausch Health For Misleading Claims About A Psoriasis Cream
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has scolded Bausch Health for a video and webpage that made misleading claims about a plaque psoriasis treatment, the second time this year the agency has tagged a big drugmaker for overlooking the risks and benefits of a medicine in promotional materials. In a March 22 letter, the FDA wrote that a Bausch video failed to say that its Duobrii topical cream can cause birth defects. The video, which had been visible on YouTube but has since been taken down, failed to note that women should get a pregnancy test before applying the cream and should use contraception. The video, which can still be seen here, also lacked warnings about photosensitivity and the risk of sunburn. (Silverman, 4/11)

Politico: Lawmakers Demand Answers From FDA After Investigation On Food Failures 
The chairs of two powerful committees in the House and Senate that oversee FDA are demanding answers in response to a POLITICO investigation into the agency’s failure to act on a slew of pressing food safety and nutrition issues. Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wa.), who leads the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, sent a strongly-worded letter to FDA Commissioner Robert Califf Monday afternoon seeking “immediate action to ensure the FDA is doing all it can to fulfill all aspects of its mission to protect the health and safety of the American people.” (Evich, 4/11)

AP: Efforts To Make Protective Medical Gear In US Falling Flat
When the coronavirus pandemic first hit the U.S., sales of window coverings at Halcyon Shades quickly went dark. So the suburban St. Louis business did what hundreds of other small manufacturers did: It pivoted to make protective supplies, with help from an $870,000 government grant. But things haven’t worked out as planned. The company quit making face shields because it wasn’t profitable. It still hasn’t sold a single N95 mask because of struggles to get equipment, materials and regulatory approval. (Lieb, 4/11)

Stat: Black Health-Equity Advocate Named JAMA Editor-In-Chief 
A year after the prestigious medical journal JAMA was embroiled in controversy over a podcast seen as racist by critics, the American Medical Association has appointed a prominent health-equity researcher as the publication’s new editor-in-chief — the first person of color to hold the position. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, a Black internist, epidemiologist, and health-equity researcher from the University of California, San Francisco, who has been a leading voice for equitable health care during the Covid-19 pandemic, will lead the Journal of the American Medical Association and the JAMA network of journals, the AMA announced Monday. (McFarling, 4/11)

NBC News: Fate Of Ex-Ohio Doctor On Trial In Alleged Fentanyl Deaths To Go To Jury
A former Ohio hospital physician on trial in the deaths of critically ill patients was portrayed Monday in closing arguments as a "terrible doctor" with no medically justifiable reason for his actions and as a "caring man" easing the pain of those dying. The jury, which was expected to begin deliberations Tuesday, is tasked with determining whether William Husel, 46, committed murder by purposefully hastening 14 patients' deaths when, prosecutors say, he ordered excessive doses of fentanyl, a powerful opioid used to blunt pain, while he was employed at Mount Carmel Health System in Columbus. (Ortiz, 4/11)

AP: Trial Opens In Florida Opioid Lawsuit Case Against Walgreens 
In Florida, the state’s case hinges on accusations that as Walgreens dispensed more than 4.3 billion total opioid pills in Florida from May 2006 to June 2021, more than half contained one or more easily recognized red flags for abuse, fraud and addiction that the company should have noticed and acted upon. “The evidence will show Walgreens knowingly profited from the opioid crisis,” said attorney Jim Webster for the state in an opening statement, which was attended by Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody. “Walgreens wasn’t just greedy. It was fueling the opioid crisis that was killing people.” (Anderson, 4/11)

Reuters: Walgreens Flooded Florida With Addictive Opioids, Lawyer Tells Jury 
Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. supplied billions of opioid pills to drug addicts and criminals, contributing to an addiction epidemic in Florida, a lawyer for the state said on Monday in a civil trial against the pharmacy chain. Walgreens filled one in four opioid prescriptions in Florida between 1999 and 2020, and failed to investigate red flags that could have prevented drugs from being diverted for illegal use, the state's lawyer Jim Webster said as jurors heard opening statements in the trial held in New Port Richey. (Knauth, 4/11)

AP: EXPLAINER: Where Do US Opioid Trials, Settlements Stand? 
The effort to hold drug companies, pharmacies and distributors accountable for their role in the opioid crisis has led to a whirlwind of legal activity around the U.S. that can be difficult keep tabs on. Three trials are underway now, in Florida, West Virginia and Washington state. New legal settlements are being reached practically every week to provide governments money to fight the crisis and in some cases funds for medicines to reverse overdoses or to help with treatment. (Mulvihill, 4/12)

The New York Times: Legal Marijuana Sales Expected To Start Within Weeks In New Jersey 
A year and a half after New Jersey residents voted to legalize cannabis, the state on Monday gave seven medical-marijuana companies approval to start selling their products to all adults, opening the door to the first legal marijuana sales in the New York City region within a month. In a meeting held by videoconference, the five-member Cannabis Regulatory Commission ushered in a seismic cultural change, making New Jersey the second state on the East Coast to fully authorize sales of cannabis to all adults. (Tully, 4/11)

AP: Legalizing Medical Marijuana Gets First Public Hearing 
A Republican-authored bill to legalize medical marijuana in Wisconsin will be getting its first public hearing next week, achieving one goal of backers and the latest sign of progress for those who want to loosen the state’s laws. The bill won’t become law this year because Legislature has adjourned and won’t be back until 2023. But the April 20 Senate committee hearing on the medical marijuana bill will give supporters their highest profile chance to make the case for loosening Wisconsin’s marijuana laws. (Bauer, 4/11)

The New York Times: Psilocybin Helps Alleviate Depression Symptoms, Small Study Says 
Psychedelic compounds like LSD, Ecstasy and psilocybin mushrooms have shown significant promise in treating a range of mental health disorders, with participants in clinical studies often describing tremendous progress taming the demons of post-traumatic stress disorder, or finding unexpected calm and clarity as they face a terminal illness. But exactly how psychedelics might therapeutically rewire the mind remains an enigma. (Jacobs, 4/11)

Fresh Take Florida: Deadline Passes For Sunshine State Health Plan To Challenge $9.1 Million Medicaid Fine 
The deadline set by Florida lapsed for its largest Medicaid payment vendor to challenge a nearly $9.1 million fine over the company’s failure for nearly three months to pay tens of thousands of health care claims for the state’s sickest and neediest children. Sunshine State Health Plan Inc. of Tampa had until 5 p.m. Thursday to dispute the large fine imposed last month by its government regulator, the Agency for Health Care Administration, leaving the company with only the option to concede to pay. “Sunshine waives any dispute not raised within 21 days,” the government had warned the company March 17. (Bausch, 4/11)

AP: Committee Defeats End-Of-Life Bill In Parliamentary Tactic
A bill that would allow terminally ill adults in Connecticut to request medication to help them die was suddenly derailed Monday by an unusual parliamentary procedure during a committee vote. Advocates had expressed optimism this would finally be the year, after roughly a decade of emotional debate, the legislation would be voted on by the full House of Representatives and Senate and signed into law by Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont. However, Rep. Craig Fishbein, a Republican from Wallingford and the top House member on the General Assembly’s Judiciary Committee, made a motion to “divide the committee.” That meant only senators on the panel could vote on the legislation. In Connecticut, committees are comprised of both House and Senate members. (Haigh, 4/11)

AP: National Urban League Finds State Of Black America Is Grim 
The National Urban League released its annual report on the State of Black America on Tuesday, and its findings are grim. This year’s Equality Index shows Black people still get only 73.9 percent of the American pie white people enjoy. ... Among dozens of health measures, one stands out: Life expectancy has declined slightly for African Americans, so a Black child born today can expect to live to 74.7, four years less than a white baby. And lifelong inequities loom: Black women are 59% more likely to die as a result of bearing a child, and 31% more likely to die of breast cancer. Black men are 52% more likely to die of prostate cancer. (Warren, 4/12)

Stateline: Voters With Disabilities Face New Ballot Restrictions Ahead Of Midterms
As voters went to the polls last month in the Texas primary, the voting rights hotline lit up at the nonprofit advocacy agency Disability Rights Texas. Molly Broadway, the group’s training and technical support specialist, heard from some frustrated voters with disabilities who had not received their mail-in ballots on time. Others had their ballots rejected several times because of signature and personal identification requirements or fretted that new rules banning ballot assistance could make criminals out of their friends and loved ones. (Vasilogambros, 4/12)

The Atlantic: Why American Teens Are So Sad
The United States is experiencing an extreme teenage mental-health crisis. From 2009 to 2021, the share of American high-school students who say they feel “persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness” rose from 26 percent to 44 percent, according to a new CDC study. This is the highest level of teenage sadness ever recorded. The government survey of almost 8,000 high-school students, which was conducted in the first six months of 2021, found a great deal of variation in mental health among different groups. More than one in four girls reported that they had seriously contemplated attempting suicide during the pandemic, which was twice the rate of boys. Nearly half of LGBTQ teens said they had contemplated suicide during the pandemic, compared with 14 percent of their heterosexual peers. Sadness among white teens seems to be rising faster than among other groups. (Thompson, 4/11)

Columbus Dispatch: Mental Health Crisis: Many Low-Income Children Are Struggling
Educators working in low-income schools reported that 53% of students struggle with mental health issues, a problem that was worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new survey from educational nonprofit First Book and Nationwide Children’s Hospital’s On Our Sleeves alliance. Yet only 20% of the 967 educators surveyed feel prepared to support those struggling students, the study found. By assessing the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic's impact on students and providing guidance for educators, the two organizations hope to address what they say is an urgent need for mental health support in low-income schools, said Becki Last, First Book's chief programming officer. (Wright, 4/11)

NBC News: Microplastics In The Human Body: What We Know And Don't Know
What recent research makes clear so far is that microplastics are ubiquitous, that these particles enter peoples’ bodies regularly during inhalation or through consumption of food or drinks, and that they find their way into vital body systems. Some studies of laboratory animals and cells grown outside the body suggest that there are reasons for concern about how these minuscule pieces of plastics affect our physiology. (Bush, 4/11)

CNN: Your Personality Can Protect Or Age Your Brain, Study Finds 
Certain personality traits may be a key factor in whether people develop mild cognitive impairment later in life, a new study found. Being more conscientious and extroverted keeps mild cognitive impairment at bay longer, while having higher levels of neuroticism increases the chances of cognitive decline, according to a study published Monday in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. "Personality traits reflect relatively enduring patterns of thinking and behaving, which may cumulatively affect engagement in healthy and unhealthy behaviors and thought patterns across the lifespan," lead author Tomiko Yoneda, a psychology postdoctoral student at the University of Victoria in Canada, said in a statement. (LaMotte, 4/11)

Fortune: South African Scientists Have Discovered 2 New Omicrons—And They’re Already In Germany, Denmark And The U.K.
South African scientists have discovered two new sublineages of the Omicron coronavirus variant, said Tulio de Oliveira, who runs gene-sequencing institutions in the country. The lineages have been named BA.4 and BA.5, he said by text message and in a series of tweets. Still, de Oliveira said, the lineages have not caused a spike in infections in South Africa and have been found in samples from a number of countries. (Sguazzin, 4/12)

The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Orders Departure Of Consulate Staff And Family From Shanghai Due To Covid-19 Surge
The U.S. State Department ordered the departure of all nonemergency U.S. Consulate staff and their families from Shanghai as the city’s health authorities announced more than 23,000 new daily infections. The “ordered departure,” which came just days after the State Department had given the green light for employees to leave voluntarily, “means that we are now mandating that certain employees depart Shanghai rather than making this decision voluntary,” a U.S. Embassy spokesman said in a statement Tuesday. (Lin, 4/12)

AP: UN Official Urges Acceleration In Coronavirus Vaccinations
The U.N. official spearheading global vaccination efforts against the coronavirus said Monday the number of countries where 10% or less of the population has been vaccinated dropped from 34 to 18 since January and called for accelerated progress to end the pandemic. Assistant Secretary-General Ted Chaiban told the U.N. Security Council that with over 6 million lives lost to COVID-19 and just over 1 million new coronavirus infections reported to the World Health Organization in the last 24 hours, it is urgent to increase vaccinations in countries where it wasn’t possible to boost rates in 2021. (Lederer, 4/12)

AP: Germany May Have To Junk 3 Million COVID Shots By Late June
Germany’s health ministry said Monday that the country may have to discard 3 million doses of expired COVID-19 vaccine by the end of June. Ministry spokesman Hanno Kautz told reporters in Berlin that “not many doses” have been destroyed so far, though he couldn’t give an exact figure. (4/11)

Bloomberg: A Quarter-Billion More People Face Extreme Poverty, Oxfam Says
The impacts of Covid-19, rising global inequality and soaring food prices caused by the war in Ukraine are set to send more than a quarter-billion more people into poverty this year, according to charity group Oxfam International. The combined hit may result in a total of 860 million people living below the $1.90 a day line by the end of 2022, or 263 million more than the projection before the pandemic, the group said in a report on Tuesday. That’s equivalent to the entire population of the U.K., France, Germany and Spain combined. (Martin, 4/12)