First Edition: April 6, 2021

KHN: What Covid Means For The Athlete’s Heart
For sports fans across the country, the resumption of the regular sports calendar has signaled another step toward post-pandemic normality. But for the athletes participating in professional, collegiate, high school or even recreational sports, significant unanswered questions remain about the aftereffects of a covid infection. Chief among those is whether the coronavirus can damage their hearts, putting them at risk for lifelong complications and death. Preliminary data from early in the pandemic suggested that as many as 1 in 5 people with covid-19 could end up with heart inflammation, known as myocarditis, which has been linked to abnormal heart rhythms and sudden cardiac death. (Hawryluk, 4/6)

KHN: For This Hospice Nurse, The Covid Shot Came Too Late
Antonio Espinoza loved the Los Angeles Dodgers. He loved them so much that he was laid to rest in his favorite Dodgers jersey. His family and friends, including his 3-year-old son, donned a sea of blue-and-white baseball shirts and caps in his honor. Espinoza died at age 36 of covid-19, just days after he got his first dose of a covid vaccine. He was a hospice nurse who put his life in danger to help covid patients and others have a peaceful death. (de Marco, 4/6)

KHN: An Indie Artist’s Plea To Look Beyond Algorithms And Curated Playlists
When the pandemic hit, Debórah Bond, like many artists, was caught off guard. “I thought I’d be juggling gigs and touring,” said the independent R&B/soul musician. A full-time artist, Bond, 44, made a living through a patchwork of vocal gigs — performing live at weddings, bars and theaters, recording jingles, teaching vocal lessons and hosting events. But the coronavirus pandemic found her burning through her savings and struggling to make ends meet in a tiny rental accessory dwelling unit above the tree-lined garage of a home in Hyattsville, Maryland. (Giles, 4/6)

KHN: Missouri ‘Voted For This Lie,’ Says State Rep Trying To Block Medicaid Expansion
It is hard to qualify for Medicaid as an adult in Missouri. Single adults aren’t eligible for coverage through the state’s program — dubbed MO HealthNet — at all, and parents can’t make more than 21% of the federal poverty level: $5,400 in 2021 for a family of three. That was all set to change on July 1 because of a constitutional amendment voters approved last summer, which made Missouri the 38th state to expand Medicaid coverage through the Affordable Care Act. Single adults would be covered if they made under around $17,770. (Martinez Valdivia, 4/6)

KHN: Colleges And Universities Plan For Normal-Ish Campus Life In The Fall
Dr. Sarah Van Orman treads carefully around the word “normal” when she describes what the fall 2021 term will look like at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and other colleges nationwide. In the era of covid, the word conjures up images of campus life that university administrators know won’t exist again for quite some time. As much as they want to move in that direction, Van Orman said, these first steps may be halting. (Kreidler, 4/6)

The Washington Post: U.S. Appoints New Global Coronavirus Coordinator As Biden Steps Up Efforts To Combat Pandemic 
The United States Monday said that it was stepping up efforts to combat covid-19 worldwide, appointing a veteran diplomat to run the Biden administration’s global coronavirus response and pledging to support the more equitable production and distribution of vaccines. “This pandemic won’t end at home until it ends worldwide,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in remarks Monday announcing the appointment of Gayle Smith, former director of the U.S. Agency for International Development, as global covid-19 coordinator. (Cunningham, 4/6)

Politico: U.S. Searches For New AstraZeneca Vaccine Producer After Emergent Mix-Up
U.S. health officials are helping AstraZeneca find a new manufacturing partner for millions of its coronavirus shots after the contractor Emergent BioSolutions mixed up ingredients for two Covid-19 vaccines it's simultaneously producing, a senior health official told POLITICO. The Biden administration already told Johnson & Johnson to directly take over vaccine manufacturing at Emergent’s Maryland plant after reports that the manufacturer had contaminated 15 million Johnson & Johnson doses with ingredients for AstraZeneca’s shot. (Owermohle, 4/5)

Bloomberg: Biden Team To Help AstraZeneca Find U.S. Plant After Mixup
President Joe Biden’s administration is working with AstraZeneca Plc to find new manufacturing capacity in the U.S. after the company agreed to abandon a Baltimore Covid-19 vaccine plant that will focus exclusively on making doses for Johnson & Johnson. The talks are the latest development after an error at the Emergent BioSolutions Inc. facility -- in which ingredients for the two companies’ vaccines were mixed up -- led to a batch of 15 million doses worth of drug substance being spoiled. (Wingrove and Fabian, 4/5)

CNN: A Dangerous Covid-19 Variant Has Spread To All 50 States. Experts Worry It Could Send Cases Surging 
The highly contagious Covid-19 variant first identified in the UK has now been reported in every state in the US, and experts are concerned spreading variants could send cases surging. "America appears to be done with the pandemic," said Dr. Michael Osterholm, director for the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. "The virus is not done with us." More than 15,000 cases of the B.1.1.7 coronavirus variant, which also appears to be more deadly, have been reported in the US. While the US races to get Americans vaccinated in time, many experts are asking the public to hold onto precautions for just a little while longer. (Holcombe, 4/6)

Fox News: Massachusetts Has Highest P.1 Coronavirus Variant Case Count In US
Massachusetts now accounts for about a quarter of the P.1 coronavirus variant cases detected in the U.S., surpassing Florida’s 55 with 58. According to data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Bay State’s total is currently highest in the U.S. A review of data conducted by the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard traced the sudden rise in variant cases to clusters in Cape Cod. The state announced the first case of the P.1 variant, which was originally detected in Brazil and is more transmissible than the original strain, on March 16, and said it was identified in a Barnstable County woman in her 30s. She first tested positive for the virus in late February, and at the time officials said there was no information available pertaining to her travel history or illness. (Hein, 4/5)

CNBC: Fauci Warns Against Relaxing Public Health Measures As Summer Approaches
White House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci warned Monday that Americans should continue to be vigilant and adhere to public health measures as warmer summer months approach. “You might remember a little bit more than a year ago when we were looking for the summer to rescue us from surges. It was, in fact, the opposite,” Fauci said during a White House coronavirus briefing. (Macias, 4/5)

Las Vegas Review-Journal: Nevada COVID Positivity Rate Rises For First Time In Nearly 3 Months
Nevada’s COVID-19 test positivity rate on Monday increased for the first time in nearly three months, according to state data. The uptick in the two-week daily positivity rate to 4.3 percent came after a week where the rate remained unchanged at 4.2 percent. It is first time the positivity rate has increased since Jan. 13, when it peaked at 21.6 percent, according to state data. The metric essentially tracks the percentage of people tested for COVID-19 who are found to be infected. The increase comes on the first day of expanded vaccine eligibility for Nevadans 16 and older. (Dylan, 4/5)

San Francisco Chronicle: Coronavirus Infections On The Rise In The Bay Area, Following National Trend
Coronavirus infections trended up in the Bay Area for the week ending Friday, with the average number of daily new cases at 475, up 8.7% from the prior week ending March 26. The data could indicate that California is beginning to fall in line with the rest of the United States, where coronavirus infections have steadily plateaued or increased due to more infectious variants. “On the West Coast, we see a leveling off,” which is not a bad thing, said Dr. George Rutherford, an infectious disease expert at UCSF. “We may go back up a little bit. We may hit bottom and bounce up a little bit.” (Vaziri and Allday, 4/5)

CIDRAP: Studies Detail Large COVID Outbreaks At US Prisons, Jails 
Four new studies highlight the dangers of COVID-19 in cramped prisons with inmates transferred among facilities, scarce testing resources and personal protective equipment (PPE), and high vaccine hesitancy at US prisons and jails. (Van Beusekom, 4/5)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: COVID-19 Variant Detected In Dane County Child Care Center Outbreak
An outbreak of a contagious COVID-19 variant at a Dane County child care center has infected 35 people, including 16 children and five child care workers, the county health department said. The B.1.1.7 variant, which was first identified in the United Kingdom, has been found in cases associated with the center, according to Public Health Madison and Dane County. The virus spread quickly among children, family members and workers, the health department said. All the children who tested positive are 6 years old or younger. (Carson, 4/5)

ABC News: Illinois Bar Linked To 46 COVID-19 Cases, School Closure: CDC 
An indoor opening event at a bar in rural Illinois in February led to 46 COVID-19 infections, one school closure and a hospitalization of a resident of a long-term care facility, according to a report issued Monday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The agency took a look at the incident at the unidentified business, which had a max capacity of 100 people. Illinois began reopening indoor bars and restaurants to customers at the end of January, with strict capacity limits and other health protocols. (Pereira and Salzman, 4/5)

The Hill: Study: Around 40,000 US Children Lost A Parent To COVID-19
According to a study published in the American Medical Association's JAMA Pediatrics journal on Monday, an estimated 37,300 to 43,000 U.S. children experienced the loss of at least one parent due to COVID-19 in the past year. A closer look at the data found that the burden, which authors of the study acknowledge will likely "grow heavier" amid the ongoing pandemic, has landed disproportionately on Black children. (Folley, 4/5)

Axios: CDC: Disinfecting Indoor Surfaces Only Necessary After Recent COVID-19 Case 
Regular household cleaners and soap — not disinfectant — are fine to use to clean indoor surfaces and lower the risk of spreading the coronavirus, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Monday. “Disinfection is only recommended in indoor settings, schools, and homes where there has been a suspected or confirmed case of COVID-19 within the last 24 hours,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said at Monday's White House coronavirus briefing. (Rummier, 4/5)

Axios: CDC Guidance Says Cruise Ships Won't Need To Mandate Vaccines 
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Monday that while it recommends all staff and travelers aboard cruise ships be vaccinated for COVID-19, cruise companies do not need to mandate vaccines in order to resume travel safely. Cruise ships were some of the first super-spreader sites for the coronavirus in 2020 and have been docked ever since. (Perano, 4/5)

The Washington Post: Norwegian Cruise CEO Lays Out Plan For Return To U.S. Cruising 
The chief executive of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings on Monday rolled out a plan to start sailing again from the United States with fully vaccinated passengers and crew. A big catch: He still needs the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to sign off, more than a year after the agency prohibited cruising in the United States. The move by CEO Frank Del Rio is a bold salvo amid the cruise industry’s escalating frustration with the CDC, whose allegedly “outdated” rules have been the target of complaints in recent weeks. The criticism has only mounted since Friday, when the agency said travel for vaccinated people was low risk — but also laid out a raft of additional conditions, under a “conditional sailing order,” that cruise lines need to meet before getting permission to operate from U.S. ports. (Sampson, 4/5)

Philadelphia Inquirer: Vaccine Eligibility Expands Across Philly, Pa., And N.J.; Del. Opens To All Adults Tuesday
UPS workers have been a critical part of the Philadelphia region’s vaccine supply chain, yet for months weren’t eligible to receive shots. That all changed on Monday, when Philadelphia’s vaccination eligibility expanded to include sanitation workers, maintenance and janitorial staff, utility workers, and postal and package delivery workers. ”This will be good,” said Richard Hooker Jr., secretary treasurer and principal officer of Teamsters Local 623, which represents about 4,500 UPS warehouse workers and drivers in Philadelphia who have experienced, “a lot of anxiety, a lot of concern, again because we’re not getting the vaccine but we’re delivering the vaccine.” (Laughlin, Whelan and Steele, 4/5)

AP: Iowa Opens Vaccinations To All Adults As Virus Spreads
Iowa opened coronavirus vaccination to everyone age 16 and older on Monday, as the state dealt with increasing spread of the virus and a seven-day death rate that was among the highest in the nation. State public health officials reported 68 more deaths on Sunday. Many of those people died weeks earlier because there is a delay between when someone dies and when the the National Center for Health Statistics processes the death certificate, attributes the death to COVID-19 and gets the information to Iowa. (Pitt, 4/5)

AP: Vaccinations Open To Everyone 16 And Up In Wisconsin
Everyone age 16 and up became eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine in Wisconsin on Monday, the same day that an outbreak of a more contagious variant of the coronavirus was reported at a Dane County child care center and positive cases statewide continued to increase. (Bauer, 4/5)

The Baltimore Sun: Maryland To Open COVID Vaccine Eligibility To All Adults, Starting Tuesday At Mass Vaccination Sites 
Everyone in Maryland who is 16 or older will be eligible next week to get the coronavirus vaccine at any site offering shots in the state, Gov. Larry Hogan announced Monday. And people 16 and older can get shots this week, starting Tuesday, at the state’s five mass vaccination sites. The state will require the hundreds of other vaccine providers in Maryland to offer shots to adults and older teenagers, a total of almost 4.9 million people, as of April 12. (Cohn and Wood, 4/5)

The Hill: Washington, D.C. To Expand COVID-19 Vaccine Eligibility To Those Ages 16 And Older
Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) announced on Monday that all residents of the nation’s capital over the age of 16 will be eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine beginning later this month. Bowser said all Washingtonians ages 16 and older will be eligible for the vaccine on April 19. Essential workers who fall under the third tier of the city’s Phase 1C category, which includes essential higher education employees, individuals working in construction and essential employees working in information technology, will become eligible on April 12. (Pitofsky, 4/5)

The Hill: 5 US Colleges To Require Students Be Vaccinated Before Returning In Fall
At least five U.S. colleges and universities have announced plans to require students be fully vaccinated before returning to campuses in the fall. Students who attend Cornell University, Rutgers University, Fort Lewis College, Nova Southeastern University and St. Edward’s University will have to be fully vaccinated before returning to campus in the fall, with limited exemptions for underlying medical conditions and religious beliefs. (Schnell, 4/5)

The Hill: Walgreens Changing Vaccine Schedule After Giving Customers Extra Week Between Doses
Walgreens will begin scheduling doses of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine three weeks apart, as is recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), following complaints from customers. The U.S. pharmacy chain has up until now been setting the shots four weeks apart, one week more than is recommended, because the extended schedule made it faster and simpler to schedule appointments, The New York Times reported on Monday. (Choi, 4/5)

Roll Call: Fauci Sticks With Two-Dose Vaccine Regimen 
Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said he continued to believe it better to inject Americans with two doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines on the drugmakers' recommended schedule — a view that is at odds with other Biden administration advisers. Some experts, like Michael Osterholm, an epidemiologist and former adviser to President Joe Biden, have called for delaying the second dose of the vaccine until more of the initial doses are administered. The British government has delayed second doses, enabling it to reach more of its population more quickly with a single dose, and its death rate from COVID-19 has declined more quickly than that of the United States. (Raman, 4/5)

Fox News: Fauci Weighs In On COVID-19 Vaccine Safety In Pregnant Women
While studies regarding COVID-19 vaccine safety in pregnant women are ongoing, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the White House’s chief medical advisor, said that there doesn’t appear to be any concerns for now. "Those studies are going to be done soon, and some are ongoing right now, but for pregnant women who have already taken it, after the emergency use authorization, there doesn’t seem to be any problem," Fauci said, in a short Q&A posted to the White House’s Twitter account. (Hein, 4/5)

The Washington Post: Can The Vaccine Make Your Period Worse? These Women Say Yes. 
A number of women and menstruators have taken to social media — including Facebook groups and Reddit threads — to share their accounts of their post-vaccination periods and seek explanations about what’s happening to their menstrual cycles. What’s more, the lack of answers has led some to decry sexism within the medical establishment. (McShane, 4/5)

Bay Area News Group: Can Sleep Or Stress Impair Your COVID-19 Vaccination?
COVID-19 vaccines are enormously effective at warding off the deadly virus. Is there a way to make them even better? To learn more, a major new UC San Francisco study is enlisting 600 unvaccinated Bay Area residents to investigate whether a range of predictors — such as age, sleep, stress and emotional wellbeing – might influence the power and persistence of our body’s defenses. “We’re measuring factors that may lead to a more robust response, as well as factors that we believe will dampen, or weaken, the antibody response,” said UCSF psychiatry professor Elissa Epel, a co-investigator of the Building Optimal Antibodies Study project. (Krieger, 4/5)

The New York Times: Researchers Are Hatching A Low-Cost Covid-19 Vaccine
A new vaccine for Covid-19 that is entering clinical trials in Brazil, Mexico, Thailand and Vietnam could change how the world fights the pandemic. The vaccine, called NDV-HXP-S, is the first in clinical trials to use a new molecular design that is widely expected to create more potent antibodies than the current generation of vaccines. And the new vaccine could be far easier to make. Existing vaccines from companies like Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson must be produced in specialized factories using hard-to-acquire ingredients. In contrast, the new vaccine can be mass-produced in chicken eggs — the same eggs that produce billions of influenza vaccines every year in factories around the world. (Zimmer, 4/5)

Roll Call: Fellow Democrats Pressure Biden To Weaken Vaccine Patents
Democrats in Congress, activist groups and developing countries are lobbying President Joe Biden to weaken intellectual property protections for COVID-19 vaccines, a move that could expand global supplies but would anger the drugmakers that partnered with the government to create the life-saving shots. The drugmakers argue that stripping them of their patent protections could backfire at a time when they are working to produce boosters to combat virus variants. And they say there are better ways to ensure the vaccines reach the world's population. (Cohen, 4/5)

The Washington Post: Yellen: U.S. Economy Threatened By Slow Vaccine Rollout In Poor Countries 
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Monday called for speeding up the distribution of coronavirus vaccines in poorer nations, arguing the United States and global economies are threatened by the impact of covid-19 on the developing world. While the United States and other rich countries are hoping for a return to normalcy as soon as this fall, many parts of the developing world are not on pace to have widespread vaccination of their populations until 2023 or 2024. Those countries have largely suffered more devastating economic impacts from covid, in part because they do not have the fiscal capacity to authorize the levels of emergency spending approved in the United States. (Stein, 4/5)

The Wall Street Journal: New Long Covid Treatments Borrow From Brain Rehab Tactics 
The newest patients in cognitive rehabilitation programs didn’t suffer concussions, traumatic brain injuries or strokes. They got Covid-19. Cognitive problems are some of the most persistent and common long-term symptoms that people struggle with months after getting Covid. Patients report short-term memory problems, slow processing speeds, poor word recall and difficulty multitasking. To help them, doctors at medical centers including Mayo Clinic, Yale and Johns Hopkins are starting to refer some patients to cognitive rehabilitation more typically used for patients with concussions and other traumatic brain injuries. (Reddy, 4/5)

Stat: FDA Rejects Acadia's Bid To Expand Use Of Anti-Psychosis Drug
Acadia Pharmaceuticals said Monday that U.S. regulators had rejected its application seeking to expand the use of its anti-psychosis drug Nuplazid to a broader group of patients. The decision by the Food and Drug Administration was widely expected following a March 8 letter sent by the agency to Acadia, citing undefined “deficiencies” in the Nuplazid application. (Feuerstein, 4/5)

The Washington Post: For Pregnant Women, Gestational Hypertension Increases Risk Of Later-Life Heart Disease 
Women who have high blood pressure during pregnancy are more likely to develop cardiovascular disease later in life — 67 percent more likely if they have what is known as gestational hypertension, according to the American Heart Association’s new analysis of existing research. This type of hypertension, which develops during pregnancy in women who had normal blood pressure before becoming pregnant, also raises a woman’s risk for stroke by 83 percent later in life, compared with the risk facing women who do not have high blood pressure during pregnancy. (Searing, 4/5)

Modern Healthcare: Not-For-Profit Hospitals Spend Less On Charity Care Than For-Profit, Public Providers
Not-for-profit hospitals provided fewer services free of charge to financially disadvantaged patients than their government and for-profit counterparts, despite their tax-exempt status requiring community benefits and charity care, according to a study published in Health Affairs on Monday. Charity care equaled 2.3% of total expenses in 2018, compared with 3.8% and 4.1% of for-profit and government-run hospitals' expenses, respectively, according to researchers at John Hopkins University's Carey Business School and Bloomberg School of Public Health. The study analyzed 2018 Medicare hospital cost reports to review 4,663 providers' charity-care spending. (Gellman, 4/5)

Stat: Troubling Podcast Puts JAMA Under Fire For Its Mishandling Of Race 
Weeks after it was scrubbed from the Journal of the American Medical Association’s website, a disastrous podcast — whose host, a white editor and physician, questioned whether racism even exists in medicine — is surfacing complaints that JAMA and other elite medical journals have routinely excluded, minimized, and mishandled issues of race. Recent examples include research blaming higher death rates from Covid-19 in African Americans on a single gene in their nasal passages; a letter claiming structural racism doesn’t play a role in pulse oximeters working less well on patients with dark skin because machines can’t exhibit bias; and an article claiming that students of programs designed to increase diversity in medicine won’t make good doctors. (McFarling, 4/6)

AP: Doctor’s Testimony Details Floyd’s Heart Activity
George Floyd had “pulseless electrical activity” and his heart wasn’t beating when he arrived at a Minneapolis hospital, a doctor testified Monday. Dr. Bradford Langenfeld was on duty at Hennepin County Medical Center the night Floyd was brought in after being restrained by police last May, and testified Monday at the trial of one of the officers. (Marchione, 4/5)

Axios: Utah Now Requires Fathers Pay Half Of Pregnancy Costs 
A new Utah law requires biological fathers to pay half of women's pregnancy expenses. While states like New York and Wisconsin have similar financial provisions for pregnancies, "Utah appears to be the first state to mandate prenatal child support," AP notes. (4/6)

Axios: Montana Governor Greg Gianforte Tests Positive For COVID 
Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte (R) on Monday tested positive for COVID-19 after experiencing mild symptoms a day earlier, his office said in a statement. Gianforte will be isolating for 10 days as a precaution, his office added. He received his first dose of the Pfizer vaccine last Thursday. (4/5)

AP: Arizona Governor Signs COVID-19 Liability Shield
Gov. Doug Ducey on Monday signed legislation giving businesses, nursing homes and others a broad shield from lawsuits related to COVID-19, making Arizona the latest state to limit liability after the pandemic. Republican lawmakers approved the legislation in party-line votes in the House and Senate last week, saying businesses struggled during the pandemic and shouldn’t have to worry about the potential for frivolous lawsuits. (4/5)

The Hill: Nearly 40,000 Pack Texas Rangers Game In Sellout Home Opener Amid Pandemic 
The Texas Rangers baseball team packed its 40,000-seat stadium for Monday’s home opener against the Toronto Blue Jays amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The team announced a sellout crowd of 38,238 at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, just under the stadium's official capacity, according to reports. That attendance doesn’t include complimentary tickets to the game. (Pitofsky, 4/5)

AP: Arkansas Governor Vetoes Transgender Youth Treatment Ban
Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson on Monday vetoed legislation that would have made his state the first to ban gender confirming treatments or surgery for transgender youth, though lawmakers could enact the restriction over his objections. The Republican governor rejected legislation that would have prohibited doctors from providing gender confirming hormone treatment, puberty blockers or surgery to anyone under 18 years old, or from referring them to other providers for the treatment. (DeMillo, 4/6)

AP: California Stalls Bill Banning Some Intersex Surgery For Children
California legislation to ban some medically unnecessary surgeries on intersex children stalled Monday for the third straight year in the same committee, with the author saying that proposed amendments would have stripped much of its purpose. State Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) wants to bar certain types of surgeries on children born with intersex characteristics. That’s when their genitalia, chromosomes or reproductive organs don’t fit typical definitions for male or female bodies. (4/5)

Boston Globe: A Year Into The Pandemic, DCF Workers Visiting Only About Half Of Children In-Person
Workers in Massachusetts’ child welfare agency are seeing only about half of the children under their watch in-person each month, state data show, illustrating the state’s heavy reliance on remote check-ins during the pandemic even as schools, day cares, and others have returned mostly to face-to-face interactions. The October death of David Almond, an intellectually disabled teen from Fall River, underscored the potential risks in relying solely on virtual visits, particularly as other safeguards fail. The 14-year-old’s father and his father’s girlfriend — now charged with murder in his death — routinely staged his video meetings with social workers from the Department of Children and Families to hide his abuse, state investigators found. (Stout, 4/5)

AP: Tennessee Mental Health Support Line Adds Texting Capability
A Tennessee phone line that offers callers mental health support during the COVID-19 pandemic has added an option to talk via text messaging. The state Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services says the Emotional Support Line for Pandemic Stress now lets people call or text the line at 888-642-7886 from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Central time daily. (4/6)

AP: CDC Inquiry Sought On HIV Outbreak In WVa's Largest County
U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin on Monday submitted a congressional inquiry with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention regarding an HIV outbreak in West Virginia’s largest county. The West Virginia Democrat asked for the inquiry on behalf of the Kanawha County Commission two months after a CDC official warned that the county’s outbreak was “ the most concerning in the United States.” (Raby, 4/6)

CIDRAP: Campylobacter In Raw Milk Sickens 5 In Washington State
Health officials in Washington state said they have identified five campylobacteriosis infections in people who recently drank raw milk from a creamery in Sequim, according to an Apr 2 Washington State Department of Health (WSDH) statement. The raw milk from Dungeness Valley Creamery was bought in four different counties, and the company has voluntarily recalled all of its raw milk with a "best buy" date of Apr 13 or earlier, due to potential contamination with Campylobacter. (4/5)

Reuters: Global COVID-19 Death Toll Surpasses 3 Million Amid New Infections Resurgence
Coronavirus-related deaths worldwide crossed 3 million on Tuesday, according to a Reuters tally, as the latest global resurgence of COVID-19 infections is challenging vaccination efforts across the globe. (Abraham and Maan, 4/6)

ABC News: Europe's Vaccine Rollout 'Unacceptably Slow': WHO 
The World Health Organization criticized Europe's sluggish vaccine rollout as "unacceptably slow" in a recent statement, pointing to the low rate of Europeans who have been fully vaccinated. Just 10% of Europeans have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and only 4% have been fully vaccinated, according to the WHO. (Schumaker, 4/5)

NPR: England To Offer Free Twice-A-Week COVID-19 Tests
England is aiming to offer free twice-a-week rapid COVID-19 tests for everyone in the coming weeks, but critics think it will do more harm than good because of the possibility of incorrect test results. U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson confirmed Monday in a press conference that England will start easing lockdown restrictions April 12 in an effort to open the economy again, beginning with businesses including pubs and gyms. Johnson cited vaccination rate in England, saying, "We think that these changes are fully justified by the data." (Muhammad, 4/5)

The Washington Post: Brazil’s P.1 Variant Fuels Coronavirus Surge In Peru, Uruguay, South America
There is mounting anxiety in parts of South America that P.1 could quickly become the dominant variant, transporting Brazil’s humanitarian disaster — patients languishing without care, a skyrocketing death toll — into their countries. (Chauvin, Faiola and McCoy, 4/5)

NPR: India Surpasses 100,000 New Coronavirus Cases In A Day
India on Monday recorded its biggest daily jump in coronavirus infections, joining only a handful of countries, including the United States, to cross the threshold of 100,000 new cases in a single day. A surge is happening across South Asia. Pakistan's prime minister and president are among those to test positive in recent weeks. A one-week lockdown began in Bangladesh on Monday. (Frayer, 4/5)

CNBC: Qatar Airways CEO Says Covid Vaccines Likely To Be Required For Travel
The CEO of a flagship Middle Eastern airline has said the requirement for Covid-19 vaccinations will likely be a trend in air travel, as the industry attempts to rebound from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. “In the short term, yes, I think that the vaccine passport will be helpful to give confidence both to governments and to the passengers in our industry to start travelling again,” Qatar Airways Group CEO Akbar Al Baker told CNBC’s Hadley Gamble on Tuesday. (Turak, 4/6)

AP: New Zealand To Open Travel Bubble With Australia On April 19
New Zealand announced Tuesday it will open a long-anticipated travel bubble with Australia on April 19 now that both countries have been successful in stamping out the spread of the coronavirus. The start of quarantine-free travel between the neighboring nations will come as a relief to families who have been separated by the pandemic as well as to struggling tourist operators. (Perry, 4/6)

Reuters: Australia Short Of 3 Million AstraZeneca COVID-19 Vaccine Doses In Blow To Vaccination Drive
Australia on Tuesday said it had not yet received more than 3 million doses of previously promised AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine doses amid export curbs by the European Union, leaving a major hole in its early nationwide inoculation drive. (4/6)

The Wall Street Journal: North Korea Will Skip Tokyo Olympics, Citing Covid-19 Fears
North Korea became the first country to withdraw from the Summer Olympics in Tokyo, citing safety concerns because of the coronavirus pandemic and dashing hopes that the global sporting event could provide a forum to engage the regime. The decision by North Korea’s Olympic Committee reflected a desire “to protect players from the world public health crisis caused by Covid-19,” according to a Monday report, carried on the website of the state-run “Sports in the DPR Korea” outlet. The official name of North Korea, led by Kim Jong Un, is the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. (Martin and Gale, 4/6)

CBS News: Two Years Ago, Swimmer Rikako Ikee Was Diagnosed With Leukemia. Now, She's Qualified For The Tokyo Olympics.
Two years after being diagnosed with leukemia, swimmer Rikako Ikee will now head to the Tokyo Olympics in her home country. Rikako Ikee won the 100-meter butterfly event at Japan's Olympic trials in 57.77 seconds to qualify for the 4X100 medley relay in the upcoming Games. After the race, the 20-year-old pumped her fist and broke down in tears before being hugged by her opponent in a lane next to hers. (Brito, 4/5)