First Edition: Aug. 2, 2021

KHN: At Urgent Care, He Got 5 Stitches And A Big Surprise: A Plastic Surgeon’s Bill For $1,040
It was a Sunday morning in late November when Bryan Keller hopped on a bike for a routine ride to pick up his groceries, cruising with ease in a relatively empty New York City. The surprises came fast and hard: a fall that sent his head into the pavement and left him bleeding profusely and in shock, a trip to an urgent care clinic for five stitches and then a $1,039.50 bill. (Pradhan, 8/2)

KHN: 12,000 Square Miles Without Obstetrics? It’s A Possibility In West Texas 
The message from Big Bend Regional Medical Center was stark: The only hospital in a sparsely populated region of far West Texas notified local physicians last month that because of a nursing shortage its labor and delivery unit needed to temporarily close its doors and that women in labor should instead be sent to the next closest hospital — an hour’s drive away. That is, unless the baby’s arrival appears imminent, and the hospital’s unit is shut down at that point. In that case, a woman would deliver in the emergency room, said Dr. Jim Luecke, who has practiced 30-plus years in the area. (Huff, 8/2)

KHN: Restoring A Sense Of Belonging: The Unsung Importance Of Casual Relationships For Older Adults
In May, Vincent Keenan traveled from Chicago to Charlottesville, Virginia, for a wedding — his first trip out of town since the start of the pandemic. “Hi there!” he called out to customers at a gas station where he’d stopped on his way to the airport. “How’s your day going?” he said he asked the Transportation Security Administration agent who checked his ID. “Isn’t this wonderful?” he exclaimed to guests at the wedding, most of whom were strangers. (Graham, 8/2)

KHN: Facing Recall, Newsom Draws Support From Health Care Allies
Californians upset with Gov. Gavin Newsom’s pandemic rules — which shuttered businesses, kept schoolkids at home and mandated masks — helped fuel the September recall election that could spell the end of his political career. But among the allies rushing to Newsom’s defense are doctors, nurses, dentists and other health care interests who credit those pandemic measures for protecting them as front-line workers and saving the lives of countless Californians. (Young, 7/30)

KHN: Claims That CDC’s PCR Test Can’t Tell Covid From Flu Are Wrong 
Posts circulating on Facebook and Instagram claim the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will stop using its covid-19 test because it cannot differentiate between the covid virus and flu viruses. “CDC has just announced they will revoke the emergency use authorization of the RT-PCR tests first introduced in 2/20,” reads a July 25 post, which goes on to quote from the agency’s lab directive: “CDC encourages laboratories to consider adoption of a multiplexed method that can facilitate detection and differentiation of SARS CoV-2 and influenza viruses.” It continues: “Translation: They’ve been adding flu cases to Covid cases when using that test.” (Knight, 7/30)

KHN: Watch: Cyclist Hits Olympic-Size Medical Bills After Crash 
“CBS This Morning,” in partnership with KHN and NPR, interviews Phil Gaimon, a cyclist who had hoped to be in Tokyo next week as a competitor in the track events on the USA Cycling national team. Instead, a crash on the velodrome track in Pennsylvania in 2019 ended his Olympic dream and left him with huge medical bills — even after his two insurance policies paid portions of the treatment. KHN Editor-in-Chief Elisabeth Rosenthal said Gaimon hit three health care land mines: out-of-network hospitals, out-of-state care and gold-plated charges from the hospitals. Two years after the crash, Gaimon is still fielding calls from collection agencies. (7/31)

KHN: Why Is The South The Epicenter Of Anti-Abortion Fervor? 
Not so long ago, laws governing abortion in Massachusetts and Rhode Island were far more restrictive than those in the Deep South, as state legislators throughout New England regularly banned the procedure, no matter the circumstances, during the 1960s and ’70s. Nowadays, however, the American South represents a hub of anti-abortion fervor, home to a series of laws and regulations that have eroded Roe v. Wade, as liberal states in the Northeast and elsewhere have enacted laws to codify that landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision. (Varney, 7/30)

Bloomberg: Florida Daily Covid Cases Hit Record, Becomes U.S. Epicenter
Florida reported 21,683 new cases on Friday, breaking a daily record for the entire pandemic, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The state’s previous one-day record was more than 19,100 in early January, according to CDC data. As the highly infectious delta variant has spread around the U.S., new infections in Florida have skyrocketed over the last month, from a low near 1,000 new daily cases last month. Florida, the third most populous state, now accounts for about one in five new virus infections in the entire U.S., making it the country’s new epicenter for the outbreak. (Fisher, 7/31)

CBS News: Florida Reports Highest Number Of New COVID-19 Cases In A Single Day Since The Start Of The Pandemic 
Over the last seven days, Florida saw a 50% weekly increase in new cases, reporting 110,477 cases from July 23 to July 29, according to the Florida Department of Health. In July, Florida was one of four states that accounted for 40% of the country's total infections, according to White House COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients. During that time, the Sunshine State recorded one out of every five of the nation's new cases, he said. "There is no higher risk area in the United States than we're seeing here," Florida International University infectious disease expert Dr. Aileen Marty told CBS Miami. "The numbers that we're seeing are unbelievable, just unbelievably frightening." (Powell, 8/1)

USA Today: Florida Breaks Record In Cases, Hospitalizations
Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare's chief communications officer sounded the alarm on COVID-19 hospitalizations Sunday as the hospital reached 70 patients in its COVID unit – an increase of 11 in just two days since Friday and the highest the hospital has seen since the start of the pandemic in early 2020. "This is the most we've ever had," Stephanie Derzypolski said, adding that their previous highest number of hospitalizations was 51. The state on Sunday broke its record for current hospitalizations, a day after Florida recorded the most daily cases since the start of the pandemic. 10,207 people in Florida are hospitalized with confirmed COVID-19 cases, according to data reported to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services; the previous record of 10,170 hospitalizations was from July 23, 2020 — more than a half-year before vaccinations started becoming widespread — according to the Florida Hospital Association. (Aspegren and Vargas, 8/2)

NBC News: U.S. Passes 35 Million Covid Cases As California Tops 4 Million
The number of U.S. Covid-19 cases has surpassed 35 million as California became the first state to pass 4 million, according to an NBC News tally late Sunday. Almost 616,800 people have died from the disease in the U.S., according to the calculations. With schoolchildren returning to classrooms soon, many of them too young to be vaccinated, the pandemic is revitalizing. The most recent seven-day average of daily new cases, 66,606 for the week that ended Friday, jumped by 64 percent compared to the week before, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported, up from 40,597. (Johnson, 8/2)

The Washington Post: Coronavirus Surge Will Get Worse Before It Gets Better, Experts Predict
The newly resurgent coronavirus could spark 140,000 to 300,000 cases a day in the United States come August, fueled by the highly transmissible delta variant and the widespread resumption of normal activities, disease trackers predict. The nation is already reporting more than 70,000 cases a day, according to The Washington Post’s rolling seven-day average — an increase of nearly 60,000 in the daily average in less than six weeks. Cases, measured as that rolling average, have risen to levels last seen in February. (Guarino and Diamond, 7/31)

AP: Fauci: More 'Pain And Suffering' Ahead As COVID Cases Rise
Dr. Anthony Fauci warned Sunday that more “pain and suffering” is on the horizon as COVID-19 cases climb again and officials plead with unvaccinated Americans to get their shots. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, also said he doesn’t foresee additional lockdowns in the U.S. because he believes enough people are vaccinated to avoid a recurrence of last winter. However, he said not enough are inoculated to “crush the outbreak” at this point. (Mattise, 8/1)

CBS News: Fauci Says Unvaccinated Americans Are "Propagating This Outbreak" As Delta Spreads
Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to President Biden, said Sunday that Americans who remain unvaccinated against the coronavirus are "propagating" the latest outbreak of cases of the highly contagious Delta variant. "We have 100 million people in this country … who are eligible to be vaccinated, who are not vaccinated," Fauci said in an interview with "Face the Nation." "We've really got to get those people to change their minds, make it easy for them, convince them, do something to get them to be vaccinated because they are the ones that are propagating this outbreak." (Quinn, 8/1)

Fox News: Fauci 'Respectfully Disagrees' That Masks Are A 'Choice': 'Infection Is Impacting Everyone'
White House Chief Health Advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci has rejected the idea that face masks are a "personal choice" in the face of the increasingly severe delta variant of the coronavirus. The United States on Thursday recorded almost 80,000 new COVID-19 cases – well below the January peak of nearly 300,000 new daily cases, but a stark rise from a month ago when daily cases were under 10,000. (Aitken, 8/1)

Politico: Fauci: 'I Don't Think We're Going To See Lockdowns' 
The nation's top infectious diseases expert said Sunday he did not expect the U.S. will need to reenter lockdown, as the Delta strain of the coronavirus drives surges in new cases across the country. "I don't think we're going to see lockdowns," Anthony Fauci said on ABC's "This Week." "I think we have enough of the percentage of people in the country, not enough to crush the outbreak, but I believe enough to not allow us to get into the situation we were in last winter," he added. (Tamborrino, 8/1)

The Hill: NIH Director: Mask Guidance Is 'Mostly About Protecting The Unvaccinated'
Francis Collins, the director of the National Institutes of Health, said on Sunday that the new mask guidance released last week urging fully vaccinated people to wear face coverings indoors in coronavirus hot spots is “mostly about protecting the unvaccinated.” “Can you clear this up? Do most vaccinated Americans need to wear mask indoors in order to protect themselves and other vaccinated Americans, or is this primarily about protecting unvaccinated Americans, including children under 12 or people who are refusing to get vaccinated?” host Jake Tapper asked Collins on CNN’s “State of the Union.” (Schnell, 8/1)

Fox News: CDC 'Worrisome' COVID-19 Data Cited In Mask Update Included Breakthrough Cases In Massachusetts Outbreak
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has released "some" of the evidence behind a reversal in guidance issued Tuesday advising fully vaccinated populations to wear masks in public indoor areas in places with high and substantial viral spread. The data, released in the agency’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, stemmed from recent outbreaks in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, in which 74% of some 469 COVID-19 cases occurred in fully vaccinated individuals. Sequencing from 133 patients suggested the delta variant was behind nearly all (89%) of samples. (Rivas, 7/31)

CBS News: CDC Says "Pivotal Discovery" About Delta Variant Prompted New Mask Guidance And Urges Universal Masking In Some Places 
The CDC, in the agency's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, also published more details about the "pivotal discovery" that prompted federal health officials to ramp up their masking guidance earlier this week. Tests used to diagnose cases linked to the Massachusetts outbreak had similar "cycle threshold" values among both unvaccinated and fully vaccinated "breakthrough" cases, suggesting both groups could be carrying similar loads of the virus. "High viral loads suggest an increased risk of transmission and raised concern that, unlike with other variants, vaccinated people infected with Delta can transmit the virus," CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said in a statement. (Tin, 7/30)

Roll Call: CDC Report Shows Vaccinated People Can Spread COVID-19 
One of the most nagging questions about the COVID-19 pandemic for public health authorities, policymakers and the public was whether the vaccines stop transmission. New Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data show that in breakthrough cases of the highly transmissible delta variant, the answer is no. The newly released report showing that vaccinated people can still be superspreaders drove the recent decision by the CDC to once again recommend masks for vaccinated people indoors where case counts are high or substantial. (Kopp, 7/30)

CNN: White House Frustrated With 'Hyperbolic' And 'Irresponsible' Delta Variant Coverage, Sources Say
The White House is frustrated with what it views as alarmist, and in some instances flat-out misleading, news coverage about the Delta variant. That's according to two senior Biden administration officials I spoke with Friday, both of whom requested anonymity to candidly offer their opinion on coverage of the CDC data released that suggests vaccinated Americans who become infected with the Delta coronavirus variant can infect others as easily as those who are unvaccinated. At the heart of the matter is the news media's focus on breakthrough infections, which the CDC has said are rare. In some instances, poorly framed headlines and cable news chyrons wrongly suggested that vaccinated Americans are just as likely to spread the disease as unvaccinated Americans. But that isn't quite the case. Vaccinated Americans still have a far lower chance of becoming infected with the coronavirus and, thus, they are responsible for far less spread of the disease. (Darcy, 7/31)

Politico: Biden’s New Mask Guidance Too Little, Too Late For Parts Of The Country, Officials Say
Top Biden health officials have spent recent days debating how much more they can prod Americans to wear masks again — and acknowledge the fact that they have not been able to break through in more rural, conservative parts of the country. (Goldberg and Banco, 7/31)

Stat: FDA Plans ‘Sprint’ To Accelerate Formal Review Of Pfizer’s Covid-19 Vaccine
Under heavy pressure, the Food and Drug Administration center that reviews vaccines is planning to deprioritize some of its existing work, like meetings with drug sponsors and plant inspections, in an effort to accelerate its review of Pfizer’s application for the formal approval of its Covid-19 vaccine, a senior agency official told STAT. Pfizer’s vaccine is currently cleared under a so-called emergency use authorization, which allows the company to sell the vaccine for as long as Covid-19 is considered a public health emergency. (Florko, 7/30)

Politico: Senate Negotiators Finalize Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill 
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Sunday evening took the next procedural step to move the legislation forward, predicting it would pass the chamber in a “matter of days.” But first it will need to go through an arduous amendment process. “It’s been decades since Congress passed such a significant standalone investment and I salute the hard work done here by everybody,” Schumer said. “Given how bipartisan the bill is and how much work has already been put in to get the details right, I believe the Senate can quickly process relevant amendments.” (Levine, 8/1)

The Hill: Senators Introduce Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill In Rare Sunday Session
Senators unveiled a $1.2 trillion, eight-year infrastructure bill during a rare Sunday session after negotiators worked through the weekend. The 2,702-page bill, spearheaded by Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) and a larger group of roughly two dozen negotiators, is substantially narrower than the multitrillion-dollar plan envisioned by President Biden earlier this year but includes a wide range of funding for roads, bridges, transit, broadband and water. (Carney, 8/1)

The Washington Post: Senate Finishing Crafting $1 Trillion Bipartisan Infrastructure Proposal, Setting Delicate Debate In Motion 
Senate Democrats and Republicans unveiled on Sunday a roughly $1 trillion proposal to improve the country’s roads, bridges, pipes, ports and Internet connections, setting in motion a long-awaited debate in the chamber to enact one of President Biden’s economic policy priorities. The package arrives after weeks of haggling among a bipartisan bloc of lawmakers, who muscled through late-night fights and near-collapses to transform their initial blueprint into a roughly 2,700-page piece of legislation. The fate of their labors now rests in the Senate, where proponents of infrastructure reform have little margin for error as they race to adopt the sort of bill that has eluded them for years. (Romm, 8/1)

The Hill: READ: The $1.2 Trillion Infrastructure Investment And Jobs Act 
A bipartisan group of senators on Sunday unveiled the finalized legislative text of a $1.2 trillion, eight-year infrastructure bill. The 2,702-page measure is substantially narrower than the multi trillion-dollar plan envisioned by President Biden earlier this year but includes a wide range of funding for roads, bridges, transit, broadband and water. (8/1)

Politico: Susan Collins: Infrastructure Bill Has Enough Republican Support To Pass In Senate 
Sen. Susan Collins predicted Sunday that the bipartisan infrastructure package will have enough Republican support to pass the chamber this week. "I think we will be able to lay down the bill later today and begin perhaps consideration of some amendments," the Maine Republican said on CNN's "State of the Union" ahead of senators' expected return to session Sunday afternoon. "My hope is that we'll finish the bill by the end of the week." (Tamborrino, 8/1)

Politico: Manchin: No Guarantee Reconciliation Package Will Pass 
Sen. Joe Manchin would not guarantee Sunday that a Democratic-led reconciliation package would garner the necessary votes for passage, even as he predicted the bipartisan infrastructure package would pass the Senate this week. "I can't really guarantee anybody," the moderate Democratic senator from West Virginia said on CNN. "And I have not guaranteed anybody on any of these pieces of legislation. Would we like to do more? Yes, you can do what you can pay for. This is paid for, our infrastructure bill is all paid for." (Tamborrino, 8/1)

The Hill: GOP Report On COVID-19 Origins Homes In On Lab Leak Theory
A House Republican lawmaker’s investigation into the origins of COVID-19 is raising concerns that the pandemic outbreak stemmed from a genetically modified virus which leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the Chinese city where the disease was first detected in December 2019. Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, released on Monday a third installment in his investigation into the origins of the virus and the missteps by the Chinese government in Beijing in alerting the world to the risks of the pandemic. (Kelly, 8/2)

Reuters: Republican Report Says Coronavirus Leaked From China Lab; Scientists Still Probing Origins
A preponderance of evidence proves the virus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic leaked from a Chinese research facility, said a report by U.S. Republicans released on Monday, a conclusion that U.S. intelligence agencies have not reached. The report also cited "ample evidence" that Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) scientists - aided by U.S. experts and Chinese and U.S. government funds - were working to modify coronaviruses to infect humans and such manipulation could be hidden. (8/2)

The New York Times: Those Virus Sequences That Were Suddenly Deleted? They’re Back
A batch of early coronavirus data that went missing for a year has emerged from hiding. In June, an American scientist discovered that more than 200 genetic sequences from Covid-19 patient samples isolated in China early in the pandemic had puzzlingly been removed from an online database. With some digital sleuthing, Jesse Bloom, a virologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle, managed to track down 13 of the sequences on Google Cloud. When Dr. Bloom shared his experience in a report posted online, he wrote that it “seems likely that the sequences were deleted to obscure their existence.” But now an odd explanation has emerged, stemming from an editorial oversight by a scientific journal. And the sequences have been uploaded into a different database, overseen by the Chinese government. (Zimmer, 7/30)

The Washington Post: GOP Lawmaker Who Once Spurned Masks Urges People To Take Covid-19 Seriously After Eight-Month Illness
A Tennessee legislator who went from unmasked gatherings with fellow legislators to being placed on ventilator days later has emerged with a message for constituents after a harrowing eight-month experience with long-haul covid-19: Take the coronavirus seriously. “It is a disease that wants to kill us,” state Rep. David Byrd (R) said in a statement Friday. Byrd, 63, described an ordeal that included 55 days on a ventilator in which covid-19 ravaged his memory, his muscles and his organs — it led to him having a liver transplant in June; his condition was so grave that his family at least once began planning for his funeral. Stressing that covid-19 is real and “very dangerous,” Byrd encouraged people to get vaccinated. (Bellware, 8/1)

The Washington Post: Oklahoma GOP Leader John Bennett Compares Holocaust, Star Of David To Vaccine Mandates 
On Friday, John Bennett, the chairman of the Oklahoma Republican Party, posted on the group’s Facebook page and made a striking comparison: Private companies requiring employees to get the vaccine, he said, are just as bad as the Nazis forcing Jews to sew the yellow Star of David onto their clothes. “Those who don’t KNOW history, are DOOMED to repeat it,” read the caption, below an image of the Star of David patch with “Unvaccinated” written across the top. (Peiser, 8/1)

The New York Times: To Fight Vaccine Lies, Authorities Recruit An ‘Influencer Army’ 
Ellie Zeiler, 17, a TikTok creator with over 10 million followers, received an email in June from Village Marketing, an influencer marketing agency. It said it was reaching out on behalf of another party: the White House. Would Ms. Zeiler, a high school senior who usually posts short fashion and lifestyle videos, be willing, the agency wondered, to participate in a White House-backed campaign encouraging her audience to get vaccinated against the coronavirus? (Lorenz, 8/1)

The New York Times: How Local Media Spreads Misinformation From Vaccine Skeptics
The Freedom’s Phoenix, a local news site in Phoenix, and The Atlanta Business Journal, a news site in Atlanta, both published the same article about coronavirus vaccines in March. The author was Joseph Mercola, who researchers and regulators have said is a top spreader of misleading Covid-19 information. In the article, Dr. Mercola inaccurately likened the vaccines to “gene therapy” and argued against their usefulness. A month later, The Freedom’s Phoenix and The Atlanta Business Journal also published another article by Dr. Mercola. This time, he blamed the billionaire Bill Gates for the pandemic, claiming Mr. Gates had “shadow control” of the World Health Organization. (Frenkel and Hsu, 8/1)

Bloomberg: Anti-Vax App Squares Off With Google, Apple Over Misinformation
A new social app designed as a community for the unvaccinated is testing Google and Apple Inc.’s policies concerning the spread of misinformation about Covid-19 vaccines. Unjected, started by two women from Hawaii, bills itself as a community for “like-minded people that support medical autonomy and free speech.” The app allows users to make a profile, match and message with other members. It launched in May shortly after the largest online dating sites, including Match Group’s Tinder and Bumble Inc., introduced perks to encourage users to get vaccinated. Sometimes dubbed the “Tinder for anti-vaxxers,” Unjected has since racked up 18,000 downloads, according to Apptopia, and plenty of jokes on Twitter. (Davalos, 7/31)

AP: Evictions Expected To Spike As Federal Moratorium Ends
Evictions, which have mostly been on pause during the pandemic, are expected to ramp up on Monday after the expiration of a federal moratorium as housing courts take up more cases and tenants are locked out of their homes. Housing advocates fear the end of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention moratorium could result in millions of people being evicted in the coming weeks. But most expect an uptick in filings in the coming days rather than a wave of evictions. (Casey, 8/2)

AP: Pelosi, Democrats Call On Biden To Extend Eviction Ban
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the House Democratic leaders on Sunday called on the Biden administration to immediately extend the nation’s eviction moratorium, calling it a “moral imperative” to prevent Americans from being put out of their homes during a COVID-19 surge. An estimated 3.6 million Americans are at risk of eviction, some as soon as Monday. (Mascaro, 8/2)

CBS News: These States Cut Unemployment Aid Early To Supercharge Hiring. It Isn't Working. 
In May, Missouri Governor Michael Parson explained he was directing the state to cut off $300 in weekly jobless payments, months before the federally funded benefits were due to expire in September. The "excessive" aid had "incentivized people to stay out of the workforce," he said. But Parson's plan to supercharge hiring by curtailing jobless benefits may not be paying off, based on a new analysis of hiring data from Gusto, a company that handles payroll and other services for small and midsized businesses. So far, a dozen states that were the first to cut pandemic jobless benefits have experienced hiring growth on par with states that kept the federal benefits, the Gusto analysis found. (Picchi, 7/30)

AP: Missouri Hospital Treats Record Number Of Virus Patients
A Springfield hospital reached a “sad new record” on Sunday when the number of coronavirus patients in its care rose to 187, an administrator said. CoxHealth CEO Steve Edwards urged residents via Twitter to get vaccinated “to protect others, to protect children, to protect our community.” (8/1)

AP: Arkansas Doctors, Nurses Pushed To Breaking Point By COVID
Some doctors and nurses in Arkansas say they are dealing with burnout and post-traumatic stress disorder after more than a year of battling the coronavirus pandemic, including a new wave of cases with younger patients. Dr. Kathy Parnell, an internal medicine specialist at Baptist Health Medical Center in Little Rock, told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette she has cried every single day the past week because she is losing young patients. (8/1)

AP: Texas Health Systems Feeling Crunch Of Latest COVID Surge
The resurgence of COVID-19 in Texas has put some cities’ health systems in dire circumstances, as intensive care unit beds fill up, officials say. In Austin, the health department said there were only nine ICU beds available on Friday in the 11-county trauma service region that includes the city and serves 2.3 million people. (8/1)

The New York Times: A New Surge At A Santa Monica I.C.U. 
Los Angeles County is recording more than 2,500 new cases daily, and among the unvaccinated, hospitalizations and deaths are mounting. Even in affluent Santa Monica, where about 80 percent of residents are now vaccinated, dozens of people each day are testing positive for the virus, and hospitals like Saint John’s — a 266-bed facility that typically serves the ordinary needs of the beach communities around it — are being inundated again. (Kosofsky and Hubler, 8/1)

Las Vegas Review-Journal: Las Vegas Hospitals Filling With COVID Patients – Again
Hospitals across the Las Vegas Valley once again are straining to care for rising numbers of COVID-19 cases, only this time while facing new challenges contributing to record-high patient counts. “The hospitals are very, very busy,” said Mason Van Houweling, CEO of University Medical Center and incoming chair of the Nevada Hospital Association. “Hospitals have seen record, record volumes that they’ve not seen in their history.” (Hynes and Scott Davidson, 7/30)

San Francisco Chronicle: Millennials Are Driving San Francisco's Coronavirus Surge
Coronavirus cases are surging in San Francisco and infections among adults aged 25 to 39 are the main driver of the increase. In May, 25- to 39-year-olds accounted for just over 35% of monthly new cases, but in July, they’re up to 50%. This surge is part of a general spike in the number of coronavirus cases in San Francisco, which has outpaced the statewide infection rate. “It’s a perfect storm,” said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, a professor of medicine specializing in infectious diseases at UCSF. (Jung, 8/1)

CNBC: CDC Study Shows 74% Of People Infected In Massachusetts Covid Outbreak Were Fully Vaccinated
About three-fourths of people infected in a Massachusetts Covid-19 outbreak were fully vaccinated against the coronavirus with four of them ending up in the hospital, according to new data published Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The new data, published in the U.S. agency’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, also found that fully vaccinated people who get infected carry as much of the virus in their nose as unvaccinated people, and could spread it to other individuals. (Lovelace Jr., 7/30)

Bloomberg: In Provincetown, Covid Hits 14 Friends In Show Of Delta’s Might
Danny Barefoot and 23 friends traveled to Provincetown, Massachusetts, to dine, hit the beach and party, secure in the knowledge they were all fully vaccinated. Fourteen left as potential vectors. They tested positive for Covid-19 after a week-long Independence Day getaway -- none badly ill, but all shocked by how the virus ambushed them, according to interviews with four who got sick. Health investigators are scrutinizing discrete outbreaks like this one, fanned across four cottages blocks off the ocean, in hopes of demystifying the delta variant. (Goldberg and Querolo, 8/1)

The Washington Post: Micheal Freedy Texted Fiancee Before Dying Of Covid-19, ‘I Should Have Gotten The Damn Vaccine’ 
Micheal Freedy was not opposed to vaccination, his fiancee said. Like many Americans who have yet to get their coronavirus shots, the 39-year-old father just wanted to wait and learn more about how people reacted to the vaccines. “All we were doing is waiting one year,” Jessica DuPreez, 37, told The Washington Post on Sunday. Then everything changed. This weekend — DuPreez’s grief days old and her voice breaking — the Las Vegas mother of five gave interview after interview to spread the same message: Get the vaccine. She said Freedy came to the same conclusion early on in the fight with covid-19 that put him in an intensive care unit in July. (Knowles, 8/1)

The Washington Post: Six Passengers On Royal Caribbean Cruise Test Positive For Covid Despite Vaccine Requirement, Testing
Four vaccinated adults and two unvaccinated minors tested positive for covid-19 during routine end-of-trip screening Thursday on Royal Caribbean International’s Adventure of the Seas. All six passengers were quarantined right away, and their travel companions and close contacts tested negative. The passengers left the ship Friday with their travel groups in Freeport, Bahamas, and they were sent home on private flights, with transportation provided directly to their homes, according to the cruise line. USA Today’s Morgan Hines, who was on the ship, was the first to report the news. (Sampson, 7/30)

Houston Chronicle: Houston-Area Hospitals Roll Back Visitor Policies, Mull Other Changes Amid Fourth COVID Wave
Local hospitals are limiting visitors and pondering the reinstatement of other peak-pandemic policies amid a new wave of COVID-19 cases. And though no area hospitals have yet limited elective surgeries, there is some concern that hospitals could be overwhelmed by an influx of COVID-19 patients and others who are seeking medical care that was postponed during the height of the pandemic. More than 5,600 Texans are currently hospitalized for COVID, and the state recorded an additional 10,082 confirmed cases on Wednesday — the largest daily counts for both metrics since February, according to a Chronicle analysis of state health data. (Downen, 8/1)

The Washington Post: Protester Tests Covid Positive After Mask Mandate Meeting In St. Louis County, Missouri 
Less than a week after an “angry mob” swarmed a St. Louis County council meeting to oppose a new mask mandate, public health officials in Missouri announced on Saturday that at least one person has tested positive for the coronavirus and may have exposed others who attended the meeting. The City of St. Louis Department of Health said it is trying to identify anyone who had close contact with the infected person and urged everyone who attended the council meeting to quarantine for nine days and look out for possible covid-19 symptoms. (Shepherd, 8/2)

AP: Conn. Urges Masks Indoors; Young Adults In Mass. Lead Cases
The state Department of Public Health on Sunday issued an alert that strongly recommends all Connecticut residents over 2 years old wear face masks in indoor public spaces, whether they’re vaccinated or not, given the rapid increase in COVID-19 cases over the past two weeks because of the Delta variant. (8/1)

AP: Louisville Government Buildings To Begin Requiring Masks
Louisville officials are requiring masks in government buildings, prompted by a rise in COVID-19 cases. The new Metro Government policy takes effect Monday. It also extends to city-owned vehicles when another person is present. The city said the policy applies to everyone, regardless of their vaccinated status. (8/2)

CBS News: Kroger, Walmart Reverse Their Mask Policies As Delta Variant Spreads 
Kroger and Walmart, two of the nation's biggest retailing chains, are changing their mask policies as the nation contends with less-vaccinated regions getting hit by high infection rates due to the Delta variant. Kroger is now "strongly" encouraging all individuals, including those who are vaccinated, to wear a mask when in its stores and facilities, the Cincinnati, Ohio-based supermarket operator said Friday, citing updated recommendations from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Previously, Kroger had required unvaccinated employees wear masks and requested that unvaccinated shoppers do the same. (7/30)

The Washington Post: Where Should You Wear A Mask When Traveling? What The CDC Says About 14 Top U.S. Cities.
Of the top 25 destinations this summer for flight bookings on the Hopper app, only two (Detroit and Minneapolis) fell in the “moderate” category as of Friday, according to CDC data. Officials recommend masking indoors for the other 23, a list that contains popular cities across the country that are seeing cases rise rapidly as the delta variant spreads. (Sampson, 7/30)

The Washington Post: Maryland Gave Away $2 Million To Boost Vaccinations. Did It Work? 
Maryland officials have hailed the state’s $2 million VaxCash lottery as an “unqualified success,” a promotion that helped the state reach its goal of inoculating 70 percent of its adult population with at least one shot of a coronavirus vaccine by Memorial Day. It worked so well at boosting vaccinations that they decided to start another one: VaxU Scholarship, which offers 20 vaccinated 12- to 17-year-olds a chance at winning a $50,000 in-state public college scholarship. It runs until Labor Day. (Wiggins, 8/1)

NBC News: Officials Set Up A Mobile Center At A Missouri Fair To Boost Vaccinations. No One Showed Up
Officials at the St. Charles County Health Department in Missouri said they were disappointed after no one showed up to a mobile Covid-19 vaccination center offering vaccines to those attending a local annual fair this week. The St. Charles County Fair kicked off Tuesday at the Rotary Park in Wentzville, a St. Louis suburb. Attendees had the chance to get the Pfizer/BioNTech or Johnson & Johnson vaccine on Tuesday and Friday between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m., according to county health officials. After spending two days at the fair, workers at the mobile vaccination site did not vaccinate a single person. (Acevedo, 7/31)

The Washington Post: Study Paints Stark Picture Of How Some Get Mired In Collections Because They Can’t Pay Medical Bills 
Medical bills can be stressful. Some are surprises. Others are intimidatingly large. And many Americans just cannot pay on time. Now, a study in JAMA sheds light on just how much medical debt has been sent for collection in the United States. Researchers used data from a randomly selected group representing 10 percent of all people with TransUnion credit reports — about 40 million individuals — between 2009 and 2020. Though the average amount of medical debt fell to $429 by 2020, 17.8 percent of people had medical bills that were past due. (Blakemore, 7/31)

Boston Globe: Retired Neurologist With Alzheimer’s Knows Firsthand The Risks Of Aduhelm
Daniel Gibbs had received only four monthly doses of Biogen’s experimental Alzheimer’s drug in a clinical trial in 2017 when he ended up in an intensive care unit. He had an excruciating headache, and his blood pressure was so high that doctors thought he might be having a stroke. It turned out that the retired Portland, Ore., neurologist ― who had treated Alzheimer’s patients before he was diagnosed with the disease himself in 2015 ― was experiencing some of the worst reported side effects of the drug. (Saltzman, 8/1)