First Edition: Aug. 10, 2021

KHN: Surgeons Cash In On Stakes In Private Medical Device Companies
Several orthopedic surgeons who invested in Renovis Surgical Technologies made big money when a Japanese technology giant snatched up the small California medical device company. Kyocera Corp., which was eager to expand its U.S. spine and joint implant sales, bought Renovis’ assets in 2019. While the parties kept the sale price under wraps, Renovis’ physician stockholders held stakes valued at over $34 million by the end of that year, with nearly half that sum to company founder and chief executive Dr. John Steinmann, according to the federal government’s “Open Payments” database, which tracks payments to doctors from device and drug companies. (Schulte, 8/10)

KHN: A Quarter Of US Hospitals, And Counting, Demand Workers Get Vaccinated. But Not Here. 
Hospitals coast to coast are demanding their employees get vaccinated against covid as the highly contagious delta variant tears through populations with low vaccination rates. Nearly 1,500 hospitals — roughly a quarter of all hospitals in the U.S. —now require staffers to get a covid vaccine, said Colin Milligan, a spokesperson for the American Hospital Association. More follow suit every day as hospital leaders aim to head off staff shortages like those experienced last year and to keep employees from becoming vectors of the disease. (Houghton, 8/10)

The Washington Post: Pentagon Moves To Mandate Coronavirus Vaccination For All Troops 
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will seek to mandate coronavirus vaccination for all U.S. service members by mid-September and could begin requiring inoculation even sooner if a vaccine receives full approval from the Food and Drug Administration, the Pentagon said Monday. The effort is an acknowledgment that rising infection rates across the country pose a particular threat to military readiness, and it follows a months-long campaign by senior defense officials to cajole the nation’s 1.3 million active duty service members to get vaccinated voluntarily. The Biden administration, alarmed by continued spread of the virus’s delta variant and vaccination rates that remain low in several pockets of the country, has directed agencies throughout the federal government to devise such plans. (Lamothe, 8/9)

NPR: Pentagon Plans To Require COVID Vaccines For Active-Duty Troops
"To defend this Nation, we need a healthy and ready force," Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a memo to employees Monday. "I strongly encourage all DoD military and civilian personnel — as well as contractor personnel — to get vaccinated now and for military Service members to not wait for the mandate." The Pentagon cannot take the step unilaterally because the Food and Drug Administration has not yet approved the vaccine. The move would require a presidential waiver, which Austin plans to ask for by mid-September. (Doubek, 8/9)

Politico: Mandatory Covid Vaccines For Troops Are Coming. What Happens If They Refuse?
Now that the Pentagon has said it will start requiring service members to get the Covid vaccine by mid-September through either a presidential waiver or approval from the Food and Drug Administration, what happens if troops refuse? Those military members should expect a range of penalties for doing so, military law experts said, ranging anywhere from a reprimand to confinement and getting kicked out of the military. (Custodio, 8/9)

Politico: Schumer Signals Tuesday Morning Final Vote For Senate Infrastructure Package 
After weeks of late nights, weekend work and angst, the Senate appears to be headed toward greenlighting its bipartisan infrastructure bill by Tuesday morning. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Monday that the package is on a "glide path for passage tomorrow morning." (Snyder, 8/9)

The Wall Street Journal: Senate Democrats Outline $3.5 Trillion Antipoverty, Climate Plan 
Senate Democrats released an outline of the $3.5 trillion antipoverty and climate plan on Monday, further detailing their ambitions for a major overhaul of the nation’s education and healthcare systems that they hope to advance alongside a bipartisan infrastructure bill. The antipoverty plan is set to offer universal prekindergarten, two free years of community college, and expanded Medicare to cover hearing, dental and vision care, among other provisions. (Duehren and Davidson, 8/9)

ABC News: Universal Pre-K, Free Community College Tuition: What's In $3.5T Budget Bill 
Unlike the bipartisan infrastructure plan, which focuses on "core" infrastructure needs such as roads bridges and waterways, the budget resolution includes many of Biden's social programs focusing on family, climate and health care. Key campaign promises, including universal pre-K, free 2-year community college, and paid family leave are included in the package, as are many of Biden's climate priorities. The bill, pushed by Senate Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., also secures investments in public housing, invests in job training, adds new Medicare benefits and extends expansions of the Affordable Care Act. (Pecorin and Turner, 8/9)

CNBC: Democrats’ $3.5 Trillion Budget Plan Calls For Medicare Expansion
Health insurance for America’s older population would be expanded under a $3.5 trillion budget plan released Monday by Senate Democrats. As part of the budget blueprint, Medicare — relied on by most Americans once they reach the eligibility age of 65 — would cover dental, vision and hearing. Additionally, the age when people can sign up for the insurance would also be lowered, although it’s uncertain whether it would be age 60 as President Joe Biden has said he supports. (O'Brien, 8/9)

CNBC: Just One Week Left To Get Free Or Low-Cost Private Health Insurance
There’s about a week left for anyone who’s uninsured to see if they qualify for free or low-cost private health insurance through the public marketplace. A special enrollment period that will end on Aug. 15 allows you to use healthcare.gov to sign up for a plan, which could come with major subsidies to reduce what you pay for coverage. Otherwise, unless you have a qualifying life event — i.e., job loss, birth of a child, etc. — after the current window closes, you’d generally have to wait until open enrollment this fall to sign up. (O'Brien, 8/9)

The Hill: Whistleblower Scientist Settles Complaint Over Trump COVID-19 Response
A former leading government scientist who says he was ousted from his job by the Trump administration has settled his whistleblower complaint against the federal government. Rick Bright led the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) until he was removed in April 2020. Bright filed a whistleblower complaint alleging the Trump administration prioritized politics above science, and claimed his efforts to push back on the use of the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine to treat the coronavirus contributed to his removal. (Weixel, 8/9)

Louisville Courier Journal: CDC Study Disputes Rand Paul, Thomas Massie COVID-19 Immunity Claims
Two Republican members of Congress from Kentucky — Sen. Rand Paul and Rep. Thomas Massie — have steadfastly refused to get the COVID-19 vaccine, saying they have natural immunity because they had the viral infection. But a new study from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, based on data from people in Kentucky who contracted COVID-19 a second time, says the vaccine boosts immunity in people who have had the virus. Unvaccinated people who contracted COVID-19 are more than twice as likely to catch it again than those who got vaccinated after contracting the virus, it said. (Yetter, 8/9)

The Washington Post: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis Threatens To Withhold School Officials’ Salaries If They Impose Mask Mandates 
In a statement Monday, DeSantis said district-level officials who implement covid-19 policies requiring masks for students could be subject to “financial consequences.” “For example, the State Board of Education could move to withhold the salary of the district superintendent or school board members, as a narrowly tailored means to address the decision-makers who led to the violation of law,” said the statement from DeSantis’s office to CBS Miami and other news outlets. (Lipscomb, 8/9)

ABC News: At Least 2 Florida School Districts Refuse To Allow Students To Opt Out Of Wearing Masks
Risking financial consequences from the state of Florida, two school district superintendents are refusing to allow parents to opt their children out of district-wide mask mandates without a medical reason. Doing so directly defies an emergency rule issued Friday by the Florida Department of Health, which mandates that parents be allowed to stop their children from wearing masks in the classroom. (McDuffie, 8/9)

The Wall Street Journal: As Delta Variant Spreads, Florida Hospitals Race To Find Open Beds 
Nurse Darlene Andrews stood before a small crew responsible for stopping the latest pandemic surge from overrunning seven of AdventHealth’s Orlando-area hospitals. She quickly listed occupancy at each hospital. Six were beyond full capacity, with one at 123% for adults. Nearby wall-mounted screens streaming hospital data showed more than 90 patients—some with Covid-19, some seeking other care—needed beds. One had been waiting more than two days. (Evans, 8/9)

Fox News: Florida’s Health Department Says CDC’s COVID Count For State Is Wrong, 'Anticipates' Correction
The Florida Department of Health took to Twitter on Monday to ask the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention to update its COVID-19 case tracker for the state because it incorrectly combined "MULTIPLE days into one," which made the Sunday daily case count explode to the state's worst ever. The department said it follows the CDC’s guidelines for reporting cases. The CDC reported 28,317 new cases on Sunday, which WSVN reported would mark the most confirmed infections in one day in the state since the beginning of the pandemic. Multiple media organizations picked up on the number and the department corrected the stories online with some bite. (DeMarche, 8/10)

AP: Abbott Appeals For Out-Of-State Help Against COVID-19
Gov. Greg Abbott appealed for out-of-state help Monday to fight the third wave of COVID-19 in Texas. The request came as a county-owned hospital in Houston raised tents to accommodate their COVID-19 overflow. Private hospitals in the county already were requiring their staff to be vaccinated against the coronavirus. ... Abbott has directed the Texas Department of State Health Services to use staffing agencies to find additional medical staff from beyond the state’s borders as the delta wave began to overwhelm its present staffing resources. He also has sent a letter to the Texas Hospital Association to request that hospitals postpone all elective medical procedures voluntarily. (Wallace, 8/10)

Houston Chronicle: Gov. Abbott Is Recruiting Nurses To Texas As COVID Surge Overwhelms Hospitals
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday announced a series of emergency orders he said would help hospitals in the state respond to its latest COVID-19 surge. Abbott said health officials will begin recruiting out-of-state nurses to help fill a staffing gap in overwhelmed hospitals, similar to the state’s response during previous surges. Throughout the current hospitalization spike, the Texas Department of State Health Services had been directing cities and county judges to address the staffing shortage with federal money. (Blackman and Gill, 8/9)

The Washington Post: Texas Gov. Abbott Asks Hospitals To Halt Non-Urgent Procedures As Admissions Soar
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) is asking hospitals to stop non-emergency medical procedures to free up space for covid-19 patients as the rise in new infections could threaten the availability of hospital beds to treat them.Yet as Abbott touted the move as “taking action" to combat coronavirus cases that are now averaging more than 10,000 each day in the state, his order to ban mask mandates is facing challenges. Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins, a Democrat and elected official, on Monday evening said he filed a temporary restraining order against the ban, declaring the governor lacks the legal authority to impose it. (Pietsch and Knowles, 8/10)

The New York Times: Dallas School District Defies Governor’s Ban And Announces A Mask Mandate.
The Dallas Independent School District said on Monday that everyone — students, employees and visitors — must wear a mask while on school property, starting Tuesday. The mandate, which officials said was temporary, was imposed in defiance of an executive order by Gov. Greg Abbott that prohibits school districts from requiring masks. (Slotnik, 8/10)

Los Angeles Times: COVID-19 Hospitalizations Rise Sharply Across Southern California As Surge Continues
COVID-19 hospitalizations have essentially doubled across much of California over the last two weeks — a troubling trend officials say illustrates the pandemic’s continued potency amid an ongoing surge in infections. Increases of that magnitude have been seen in Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties, state data show, straining healthcare systems to an extent not seen in months. (Money and Lin II, 8/9)

San Francisco Chronicle: San Francisco's Coronavirus Case Rate Is Suddenly Higher Than The U.S.'s
San Francisco has been experiencing a surge in new infections since California reopened June 15 and the delta variant began spreading in the area. An increased number of cases among adults between the age of 25 to 39 has driven the surge. On August 7, data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows San Francisco’s average daily new case rate at over 33 cases per 100,000 people over the last 7 days, compared with the U.S. rate of 32.7. (Data from San Francisco Department of Public Health show San Francisco have a slightly lower case rate at 31.3, but we chose to use CDC data for comparability to the U.S.). (Jung, 8/9)

AP: Arkansas Reports New Record For COVID-19 Hospitalizations
Arkansas on Monday set a new record for the number of people in the state hospitalized because of COVID-19 as its coronavirus surge continued. The state reported its COVID-19 hospitalizations rose by 103, its biggest one-day increase, to 1,376. The state’s previous record during the pandemic for COVID-19 hospitalizations was in January when it reported 1,371 virus patients in the hospital. (DeMillo, 8/10)

The Washington Post: Dick Farrel, Radio Host And Coronavirus Vaccine Skeptic, Dies Of Covid-19 Complications
A conservative radio host in Florida who vehemently criticized the coronavirus vaccine has died of complications following covid-19, his fiancee and life-partner Kittie Farley confirmed Monday. On Aug. 4, Farrel Austin Levitt, publicly known as Dick Farrel, died of “severe damage” caused by covid-19, Farley told The Washington Post. He was 65.Farrel, a vocal supporter of former president Donald Trump, had said on his Facebook page the inoculations had been “promoted by people who lied [to you] all along about masks, where the virus came from and the death toll.” (Suliman and Villegas, 8/9)

Des Moines Register: Iowa Is Throwing Away Thousands Of COVID-19 Shots For Lack Of Demand
Iowa has started tossing out tens of thousands of expiring COVID vaccine doses as demand for the shots continues to sag. The state has discarded 81,186 doses of the vaccine so far, said Sarah Ekstrand, spokesperson for the Iowa Department of Public Health. That includes doses that expired, plus some that were wasted for other reasons, such as when a multiple-dose vial was opened and couldn't be used up quickly enough. (Leys, 8/9)

AP: University Of Minnesota Shifts, Will Require COVID Shots
The University of Minnesota shifted gears on coronavirus vaccinations on Monday, saying it would begin requiring the shots after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration fully approves vaccines. University President Joan Gabel announced the mandate in a letter to students and employees on Monday, joining hundreds of colleges across the country in requiring vaccinations. The university’s Board of Regents will need to approve the measure, which would join the mask mandate for all indoor spaces already in place across the university system’s five campuses statewide. (8/9)

AP: Unvaccinated Students Will Have To Pay $750 At WV Wesleyan
West Virginia Wesleyan College says it will charge a $750 fee to students who aren’t vaccinated for COVID-19 for the fall semester. The school in Buckhannon also said in its campus arrival guidance for the upcoming semester that students who come down with the virus and can’t quarantine off campus will be charged $250 to do so on campus, WDTV-TV reported. (8/10)

The Washington Post: D.C. Teachers Union Says It Would Support Vaccine Mandate, With Caveats
The Washington Teachers’ Union says it would support a coronavirus vaccine mandate for teachers if the union has input over how it is enacted — a slight shift from its previous stance that the mayor should allow unvaccinated teachers to continue working if they are tested weekly for the virus. D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) is expected to make an announcement soon about whether she will require that city employees, including teachers, receive a vaccine as a condition of employment. Her administration said Friday that it has been negotiating over how noncompliant employees might be disciplined, among other issues. (Stein, 8/9)

CalMatters: California Lawmakers And Teachers Unions Stop Short Of A Vaccine Mandate
State lawmakers, however, have yet to issue a vaccine mandate for public school teachers, arguing that a mask mandate, increased ventilation and other existing safety measures are enough. Legislators have put the decision in the hands of local officials, but most school districts haven’t made vaccination a requirement for teachers either because they’re still exploring the legality of a mandate or there isn’t enough support from local teacher unions. The California Teachers Association is strongly supporting vaccines, but has so far stopped short of endorsing a vaccination mandate for all public school teachers. (Hong, 8/9)

AP: Oregon's Most Populous County Issues Indoor Mask Requirement
As COVID-19 cases in Oregon surge and hospitals fill up, officials in the state’s most populous county announced on Monday they are reimplementing an indoor mask mandate. People 5 and older — vaccinated and unvaccinated — in Multnomah County will be required to wear masks in indoor public spaces including stores, restaurants and gyms. The mandate goes into effect on Friday. (Cline, 8/9)

AP: Beshear: GOP Speakers Put Politics Ahead Of Fighting Virus
Republican leaders had a duty to promote COVID-19 vaccinations at Kentucky’s marquee political event, and their failure to do so showed they put “politics above the very lives of our people,” Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear said Monday. GOP speakers at the Fancy Farm picnic last Saturday lambasted Beshear for his now-lifted restrictions on businesses and gatherings to combat the virus. Two Republicans who are expected to compete for Beshear’s job in 2023 accused the governor of infringing on individual liberties. (Schreiner, 8/19)

Modern Healthcare: Providers Face Increased Legal Risk As FDA Ends Emergency Use
Providers face growing legal risk as the Food and Drug Administration winds down emergency actions related to the novel coronavirus pandemic. Starting in February 2020, the FDA temporarily let providers use vaccines, diagnostic and antibody tests, personal protective equipment, ventilators, and antibody treatments under emergency use authorizations (EUAs). Emergency use authorizations allow the FDA to approve devices for uses that haven't gone through the full approval process when the agency determines that the potential benefits of the product outweigh potential risks. (Brady, 8/9)

AP: Hospital Hit By Nurses' Strike Says It's Hiring Replacements
A Massachusetts hospital crippled by a nurses’ strike that’s now entering its sixth month says it’s hired more than 100 replacement nurses after talks aimed at ending the standoff stalled. St. Vincent Hospital said in a statement Sunday that it planned to post more jobs in the coming days. “Saint Vincent must take responsible action and hire as many nurses as possible to maintain access to ensure core services, as COVID numbers increase and the cooler weather approaches,” it said. (8/10)

Modern Healthcare: Short-Staffed Nursing Homes Linked To More Readmissions, GAO Reports
Skilled-nursing facilities that employ fewer registered nurses send patients back to hospitals or emergency rooms more frequently, a new federal report found. Short-staffed nursing homes, as measured by RN hours per resident day, sent 24% of their patients back to the hospital within 30 days of being admitted to SNFs in 2018, according to a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report. The readmission rate was 21% among nursing homes that employed more RNs, even after adjusting for differences in medical conditions. That difference translates to 2,265 more hospital readmissions at facilities with fewer nurses. That trend persisted through 2019. Readmissions declined when staffing levels increased. (Kacik, 8/9)

Modern Healthcare: Nurse Practitioners Most Recruited Providers, Survey Finds
Nurse practitioners were the most recruited providers among physicians and advanced practitioners, according to a new report by search firm Merritt Hawkins. This marks the first time in the report's 27-year history that physicians did not hold the top spot. For the past 14 years alone, family physicians were the most recruited position, Merritt Hawkins said. "COVID-19 and other market forces are changing the dynamics of physician and advanced practitioner recruiting," Tom Florence, president of Merritt Hawkins, said in a statement. "NPs are coming into their own in a market that puts a premium on easy access to care and cost containment." (Christ, 8/9)

Stat: Scientist Debate Potential Benefits Of Intranasal Covid-19 Vaccines
As the world amasses experience with Covid-19 vaccines, something we should have known from the start is coming into sharp focus. Vaccines that are injected into arm muscles aren’t likely to be able to protect our nasal passages from marauding SARS-CoV-2 viruses for very long, even if they are doing a terrific job protecting lungs from the virus. If we want vaccines that protect our upper respiratory tracts, we may need products that are administered in the nose — intranasal vaccines. (Branswell, 8/10)

Bloomberg: Pfizer Booster Causes Similar Side Effects to Second Dose: Study
Most people who got a booster shot of the Pfizer Inc.-BioNTech SE Covid-19 vaccine had similar or fewer side effects than they did after the second dose, according to a preliminary study conducted by Israel’s largest health maintenance organization. Of the 4,500 respondents to the survey, 88% reported “a similar or better feeling” than their reaction to the previous dose, with 31% saying they had localized effects like pain or swelling in the area of injection, according to a statement from Clalit Health Services late Sunday. About 15% of people had other symptoms like tiredness, muscle aches or fever. Less than 1% reported difficulty breathing or chest pains. (Benmeleh, 8/9)

Indianapolis Star: Eskenazi Health Still On Diversion Days After Ransomware Attack
Eskenazi Health remains on diversion for patients coming by ambulance nearly a week after an attempted ransomware attack that led the hospital to shut down its entire computer network. While the hospital is accepting patients who come on their own to the emergency department and delivering babies, ambulances are still being asked to go elsewhere, hospital spokesman Todd Harper said. The hospital’s outpatient clinics are open, he added. “We’re making progress,” Harper said. “When this happened we shut down the whole network just for protection purposes and now we’re bringing things back.” (Rudavsky, 8/9)

Stat: Will Controversy Over Alzheimer’s Drug Doom The FDA Faster Approval Path?
For most of its history, the Food and Drug Administration’s shortcut pathway for approving certain medicines was hardly contentious among anyone but the most diehard agency nerds; for years, only a handful of drug makers even used it. Now, however, just as the accelerated approval program is reaching peak popularity, key supporters, including Oncology Center of Excellence Director Rick Pazdur, are warning that it’s “under attack.” (Florko, 8/10)

Stat: After Months Of Controversy, Pfizer Agrees To Sell A Discontinued Eye Drug
After months of controversy, Pfizer (PFE) has reached a deal to sell a decades-old eye drug that it recently discontinued over long-running manufacturing concerns, a move that prompted patients to complain they were left in the lurch. In a brief statement, the drug maker disclosed that it had transferred the rights to the eye drop — which is called phospholine iodide and is used to treat a rare form of glaucoma — to Fera Pharmaceuticals, a small privately held company run by a former executive at Sandoz, the generic unit at Novartis (NVS). Terms and a closing date for the sale were not disclosed. (Silverman, 8/9)

Stateline: Laws For Prescription Drug Brokers Could Soon Have Teeth
Buoyed by a major, unanimous U.S. Supreme Court ruling, some states are pressing ahead with efforts to rein in one of the most obscure—but also most potent—players in the prescription drug supply chain. Pharmacy benefit managers, known as PBMs, are the companies that administer the prescription drug programs of health insurance plans. Since appearing in the 1980s, they have grown in influence. (Ollove, 8/9)

Fox News: Scientists Look To Blood Tests To Spot Dementia Risk Early On
A recent study out of Mississippi indicated a blood test was useful in determining patients facing an increased risk in cognitive decline, decades ahead of symptom onset. Researchers have been looking to blood tests as an easier alternative to detect Alzheimer’s as opposed to pricey brain scans and spinal taps. The study from the University of Mississippi Medical Center comes after a blood test developed by C2N Diagnostics of St. Louis became the first to land on the market last December, and months prior, a team of researchers from Sweden made headlines when part of a three-cohort study across Colombia, Sweden and Arizona found signs of the cognitive disease 20 years before anticipated symptom onset, when using Eli Lilly's blood test. (Rivas, 8/9)

The New York Times: The Ashes of the Dixie Fire Cast a Pall 1,000 Miles From Its Flames
Smoke from wildfires across western Canada, Oregon and California has stained the skies and fouled the air as far away as Iowa, Minnesota and even New York City. Recent research suggests that the smoke may actually grow more toxic as it ages, undergoes chemical changes and blows across the country, reacting with sunlight and other molecules floating in the air. Over time, smoke may form reactive compounds that can be especially damaging to the body once they are inhaled. (Albeck-Ripka, Fuller and Healy, 8/9)

The Washington Post: Triple-Digit Heat, ‘Dangerously Hot Conditions’ Brewing In Pacific Northwest
It’s been a summer marred by record-shattering, deadly heat in the Pacific Northwest and yet another significant heat wave is on the way. Triple-digit temperatures will roast cities like Portland, Ore., Medford and Spokane, while the risk of wildfires ramps up over the region. The forecast coincides with the release of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s latest assessment review of climate science, which notes a firm link between human-caused global warming and top-tier heat events, like the late June episode that brought a high of 108 degrees to Seattle and 116 degrees in Portland. (Cappucci, 8/9)

Reuters: Once-In-50-Year Heat Waves Now Happening Every Decade -U.N. Climate Report
Extreme heat waves that previously only struck once every 50 years are now expected to happen once per decade because of global warming, while downpours and droughts have also become more frequent, a U.N. climate science report said on Monday. The report found that we are already experiencing those effects of climate change, as the planet has surpassed more than 1 degree Celsius in average warming. Heat waves, droughts and torrential rains are only set to become more frequent and extreme as the earth warms further. (Spring, 8/9)

The New York Times: A Hotter Future Is Certain, Climate Panel Warns. But How Hot Is Up to Us.
Nations have delayed curbing their fossil-fuel emissions for so long that they can no longer stop global warming from intensifying over the next 30 years, though there is still a short window to prevent the most harrowing future, a major new United Nations scientific report has concluded. Humans have already heated the planet by roughly 1.1 degrees Celsius, or 2 degrees Fahrenheit, since the 19th century, largely by burning coal, oil and gas for energy. And the consequences can be felt across the globe: This summer alone, blistering heat waves have killed hundreds of people in the United States and Canada, floods have devastated Germany and China, and wildfires have raged out of control in Siberia, Turkey and Greece. (Plumer and Fountain, 8/9)

Bloomberg: Sunscreen Worries Grow As Another Potential Carcinogen Found
Researchers asked U.S. regulators to pull some sunscreens from the market, including brands such as Coppertone, Banana Boat and Neutrogena, saying they’ve found evidence of a potential carcinogen. Scientists petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to remove from sale all sunscreens containing the active ingredient octocrylene. Products made with the chemical may contain benzophenone, a suspected carcinogen that also can interfere with key hormones and reproductive organs, according to a group led by Craig Downs, executive director of the nonprofit Haereticus Environmental Laboratory that studies risks to health and the environment. A trade group called the report misleading. (Edney, 8/9)

Fox News: CDC Reports Fatal Melioidosis Case In Georgia: What Is The Rare Bacterial Infection?
A person in Georgia has succumbed to a rare bacterial infection called melioidosis, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced Monday.  But what exactly is it and who is at risk? Sequencing suggested the case was linked to three prior infections across Kansas, Texas and Minnesota, and cases involved both children and adults, the CDC said. Two out of four cases resulted in death and two of the patients had no risk factors, which are considered to be underlying medical issues such as diabetes, liver or kidney disease, and cancer. (Rivas, 8/9)

AP: California To Offer Vaccine Incentive To Medicaid Population
California announced another round of coronavirus vaccine incentives on Friday, offering up to $50 apiece to more than 11 million people in the state who get their health insurance through Medicaid. The money is part of a new $350 million plan to get more of the state’s Medicaid population vaccinated as the state is seeing a surge of new cases attributed to the delta variant, a more contagious and dangerous version of the coronavirus. Medicaid is the joint state and federal health insurance program for people who are disabled or have low incomes. (Beam, 8/9)

The New York Times: Canada Reopens To Vaccinated Americans But Few Rush To The Border
When Heidi Linckh peered down at the border between Canada and the United States from the 400-foot-high sightseeing lookout she owns with her husband on Monday, she saw something that had been long been missing from the view: a string of passenger cars. Hours earlier, Canada had reopened its borders to nonessential travel by fully vaccinated citizens and residents of the United States for the first time since March 2020. (Austen, 8/9)

AP: Mexico Seeks At Least 3.5 Million More COVID-19 Jabs From US
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Monday that he discussed the reopening of the U.S.-Mexico border, immigration and cooperation in facing the COVID-19 pandemic in a call with U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris. The president did not provide additional details of their discussions in a brief message he put out on Twitter afterward. Earlier Monday, López Obrador had said Mexico would ask the United States to send at least 3.5 million more doses of coronavirus vaccine as the country faces a third wave of infections. (8/10)

The Washington Post: Despite Weeks Of Protests, France Implements Health Pass At Cafes And Train Stations With Little Drama
After weeks of protests, France saw relatively little drama on Monday as it expanded its national experiment with coronavirus mandates and began to require that people show a health pass to sit at cafes, eat at restaurants, board long-distance trains and access many other venues. (Noack and Pitrelli, 8/9)

Bloomberg: Guinea Confirms First Marburg Fever Case After Beating Ebola
Guinea has reported its first-ever case of Marburg hemorrhagic fever, a close cousin to the Ebola virus, according to its government and the World Health Organization. Testing came back positive for the rare disease after samples were sent to neighboring Senegal’s Institut Pasteur last week, Sory Keira, a spokesman for Guinea’s National Health Security Agency, said by phone Monday. The samples were taken from the suspected case on Aug. 5 in the southern district of Gueckedou. (Camara, 8/9)

The Washington Post: Tiny Baby In Singapore, Just 7.5 Ounces At Birth, Goes Home After 13 Months In Hospital 
The newborn girl, Kwek Yu Xuan, weighed only 7.5 ounces at birth, barely half of the weight doctors had expected. Roughly the same weight as an apple or grapefruit, she appears to have been one of the smallest newborns on record to have survived. After just more than 13 months of medical care, Yu Xuan was released last month, the hospital announced this month, weighing nearly 14 pounds. (Taylor, 8/9)