First Edition: Dec. 10, 2021

KHN: West Virginia Sen. Manchin Takes The Teeth Out Of Democrats’ Plan For Seniors’ Dental Care 
Sharon Marchio misses having teeth for eating, speaking and smiling. For the past few years, after the last of her teeth were extracted, she’s used dentures. “My dentist calls them my floating teeth because no matter how much adhesive you use, if you eat something hot or warm, they loosen up and it is a pain,” said Marchio, 73, of Clarksburg, West Virginia. Marchio believes that losing her teeth was merely part of getting older. It’s quite common in West Virginia, where a quarter of people 65 and older have no natural teeth, the highest rate of any state in the country, according to federal data. (Galewitz, 12/10)

KHN: Sex Apps For Gay Men Join Forces To Fight Online Insults
Corey Baker, a gay man in Columbus, Ohio, has seen many dating app profiles that include phrases like “Blacks — don’t apply.” Sometimes when he declines invitations, he said, men lash out with insults like “you’re an ugly Black person anyway.” And some of his friends have been slammed with the N-word in similar situations. Many of these events occurred “when I didn’t think I was attractive or deserving of love,” he said. And they took an emotional toll. “If you’re experiencing a wall of people saying they’re not attracted to you, I think that does impact your mental health,” said Baker, who is 35 and a school librarian. (Tuller, 12/10)

KHN: A Rural Georgia Community Reels After Its Hospital Closes
Lacandie Gipson struggled to breathe. The 33-year-old woman with multiple health conditions was in respiratory distress and awaiting an ambulance. About 20 minutes after the emergency call, it arrived. The Cuthbert home where Gipson lived was less than a mile from Southwest Georgia Regional Medical Center, but the ambulance couldn’t take her to the one-story brick hospital because it had closed three months earlier, in October 2020. Instead, the EMTs loaded Gipson into the ambulance and drove her more than 25 miles to the hospital in Eufaula, Alabama, where she was pronounced dead. “They said it was a heart attack,” said Keila Davis, who, along with her husband, lived with Gipson. “If the hospital was still open, it could have saved her.” (Miller, 12/10)

KHN: Suit By Doctors, Hospitals Seeks Change In How Arbitrators Settle Surprise Billing Cases
Two of the largest lobbying groups representing physicians and hospitals filed a lawsuit Thursday challenging a Biden administration decision on how to implement the law shielding patients from most surprise medical bills. The lawsuit from the American Hospital Association and the American Medical Association does not seek to halt the law from going into effect in January. Instead, it seeks a change in a key provision in regulations issued in September. At issue is how arbitrators will decide the amount insurers pay toward disputed out-of-network bills. (Appleby, 12/9)

KHN: KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: Much Ado About (Vaccine) Mandates 
Even with the new omicron variant of the covid virus spreading in the U.S., Republicans on Capitol Hill are pushing to stop President Joe Biden from requiring workers to either be tested regularly or vaccinated. The effort is likely to end in failure — even if it reaches Biden’s desk, he has vowed to veto it. But apparently Republicans think the effort will boost their popularity with their base. Meanwhile, Congress is also moving to block scheduled Medicare cuts, and the Supreme Court heard two health cases that are not about abortion. (12/9)

Modern Healthcare: Senate Votes To Avert Medicare Cuts To Providers
The Senate on Thursday evening voted 59-34 to avert looming Medicare cuts to providers, sending the legislation to President Biden's desk for signature. The highly-anticipated vote comes weeks before the cuts were set to take effect, putting providers on edge as lawmakers hammered out a final deal. The bill, which passed the House earlier this week, will delay 2% cuts to Medicare rates through March 2022 and punt a separate round of 4% Medicare cuts totaling about $36 billion to 2023. (Hellmann, 12/9)

The New York Times: Senate Clears Last Major Hurdle To Raising Debt Ceiling 
The Senate on Thursday cleared away the last major hurdle to raising the debt ceiling, approving legislation that would all but guarantee that Congress will be able to move quickly in the coming days to steer the government away from a first-ever federal default. ... The measure was packaged with legislation that would postpone scheduled cuts to Medicare, farm aid and other mandatory spending programs, a sweetener for reluctant Republicans who have held firm against giving Democrats the ability to raise the debt ceiling. (Cochrane, 12/9)

Politico: Congress Clears Schumer-McConnell Debt Pact
The Senate passed a one-time loophole Thursday night to empower Democrats to raise the debt limit on their own, a major step toward warding off mid-December economic fallout. The chamber cleared the bill in a 59-35 vote, sending it on to President Joe Biden. Once signed into law, the measure would give Senate Democrats a free pass to raise the U.S. borrowing limit in a simple-majority vote, rather than facing the usual 60-vote hurdle to move legislation forward. ... The bill the Senate passed Thursday would also avert another fiscal cliff, staving off billions of dollars in cuts to Medicare payments and agriculture subsidies that come as a side effect of using the budget reconciliation process Democrats employed to enact a $1.9 trillion pandemic aid package in March. (Scholtes, 12/9)

Modern Healthcare: Key Lawmakers Seek To Make Telehealth Flexibilities Permanent
A powerful House chairman introduced a bill Thursday that would permanently remove restrictions on where Medicare patients can access telehealth services but would make other telehealth coverage policies only temporary. The bill, sponsored by Ways and Means Committee Chairman Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas), would permanently lift a restriction that says patients must live in rural areas and receive telehealth services at participating health facilities for it to be covered by Medicare. Rep. Devin Nunes (Calif.), the senior Republican on the panel's health subcommittee, is a cosponsor. (Hellman, 12/9)

The Wall Street Journal: Democrats Drop Vaping Tax From Senate Plan As They Negotiate Bill Details 
Senate Democrats are dropping a proposal that would have imposed taxes on vaping, removing a $9 billion provision backed by some public-health advocates from the party’s healthcare, education and climate-change bill, people familiar with the matter said. Lawmakers made the decision as they wrap up the details of the $2 trillion Build Back Better package and attempt to get it through the Senate before Christmas. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D., Nev.), a Finance Committee member in a tough re-election race, pushed to remove the tax and helped force its deletion. (Duehren and Rubin, 12/9)

Houston Chronicle: Texas Judge Finds State Abortion Ban Unconstitutional, As Supreme Court Decision Looms
A Texas judge on Thursday ruled that parts of the state’s new abortion ban violate the state constitution, but stopped short of declaring an injunction against its enforcement. The ruling, by state District Judge David Peeples, is the first opinion issued on the law’s legality in state courts, where it is designed to be enforced. It was not immediately clear if the ruling, which is certain to be appealed, would lead to any change in abortion access. (Blackman, 12/9)

USA Today: FDA Authorizes Pfizer Booster For Kids Ages 16-17
Hours after the Food and Drug Administration on Thursday authorized the extra doses of Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine for adolescents in that age group, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that those teens get the added protection as soon as they're six months past their initial shots. “Today, CDC is strengthening its booster recommendations and encouraging everyone 16 and older to receive a booster shot,'' the agency's website says. "Although we don’t have all the answers on the Omicron variant, initial data suggests that COVID-19 boosters help broaden and strengthen the protection against Omicron and other variants.'' (Ortiz, Bacon and Tebor, 12/9)

Cincinnati Enquirer: Vaccinated Teens Lead Ad Campaign Targeted To Hesitant Black Residents
A teenage girl looks into the camera and speaks openly about why she got the COVID-19 vaccine. "I didn't want my mom to die from COVID."Another shares her reason: "One of my family members catching COVID, I think it just opened my eyes to see that anyone can get it." (Demio, 12/9)

The Atlantic: Omicron Will Change The Risk Landscape For Vaccinated People
Here’s the upshot: Each fully vaccinated person might still be at minimal risk of getting seriously ill or dying from COVID this winter, but the vestiges of normalcy around them could start to buckle or even break. In the worst-case scenario, highly vaccinated areas could also see “the kind of overwhelmed hospital systems that we saw back in 2020 with the early phase in Boston and New York City,” Samuel Scarpino, a network scientist at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Pandemic Prevention Institute, told me. If only a small percentage of Omicron infections lead to hospitalization, the variant is still spreading with such ferocity that millions of people could need a bed. (Gutman, 12/9)

The Wall Street Journal: Covid-19 Vaccine Makers Are Unsure If Fine-Tuning Shots For Omicron Is Worthwhile 
A big hurdle for developing variant vaccines is what immunologists call “original antigenic sin,” a phenomenon documented in flu and other infectious diseases, where the body returns to the immune response mounted against its first encounter with a pathogen—or vaccine—when faced with a slightly different variant. Evidence is building that this phenomenon, also known as immune imprinting, is at work in Covid-19. The implication: Boosting with an Omicron-specific vaccine might only reawaken earlier immune responses, whether they were spurred by vaccination or infection. In other words, an Omicron-specific vaccine may have no advantage over simply boosting with the original vaccines. (Roland, 12/9)

Stat: Fauci Says Omicron-Specific Version Of Covid-19 Vaccines May Not Be Necessary
Anthony Fauci isn’t convinced Covid-19 vaccine manufacturers are going to need to produce an Omicron-specific version of their vaccines. Rather, the long-time director of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases suggested to STAT in an interview Thursday, it’s possible the current vaccines will provide enough protection against the new variant for most vaccinated and boosted individuals. (Branswell, 12/10)

NPR: 1 In 10 Americans Say The COVID Vaccine Conflicts With Their Religious Beliefs
Only 10% of Americans believe that getting a COVID-19 vaccine conflicts with their religious beliefs, and 59% of Americans say too many people are using religious beliefs as an excuse not to get vaccinated, a new survey from the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) and the Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC) shows. A majority of Americans, 60%, also say there is no valid religious reason to refuse a COVID-19 vaccine – but the number changes when it comes to white evangelicals. While a majority of every other major religious group says their faith doesn't include a valid reason to refuse the vaccine, just 41% of white evangelicals believe the same. (Shivaram, 12/9)

Axios: Chief Justice John Roberts Rejects Air Travel Mask Mandate Block Request 
Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts on Thursday dismissed an emergency request to block the federal mask mandate for air travel amid litigation in the lower courts. Michael Seklecki, a Florida resident, filed a lawsuit against the Transportation Security Administration on behalf of himself and his 4-year-old son, and Lucas Wall, from Washington joined the suit, all citing medical reasons. (Falconer, 12/10)

The Washington Post: Amtrak Likely To Cut Service Over Coronavirus Vaccine Rules 
An Amtrak executive told Congress on Thursday the railroad doesn’t expect to have enough people to operate all of its trains next month, when a federal coronavirus vaccination mandate takes effect. Amtrak President Stephen Gardner said about 5 percent of its workforce has yet to get vaccinated less than four weeks before the Jan. 4 deadline. (Lazo, 12/9)

Crain's Detroit Business: Employers Should Prep For Possibility Federal COVID Vaccination Mandates Pass Legal Muster, Experts Say
With all three federal COVID-19 vaccination mandate rules held up in court, employers are left in limbo. Prior to the court injunctions, health systems, federal contractors and employers with 100 or more employees were obligated to have in place a mandate in place for their employees by Jan. 4. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration rule allowed employers to also install a weekly testing regimen for unvaccinated employees. The other two federal rules prohibit the testing portion. (Walsh, 12/9)

NBC News: Apple Store In Texas Closes In Covid Outbreak
An Apple store in Southlake, Texas, is closed Wednesday through Sunday this week following an outbreak of positive Covid-19 cases among staff members. The store, which has 151 employees, reported four positive cases immediately after Black Friday on Nov. 26, according to an internal email obtained by NBC. Now, 22 employees "have shared that they’re positive for Covid-19,” a store manager told staff during a Webex meeting on Wednesday, according to employees who attended. (Schiffer, 12/9)

Politico: Biden Health Team Ruled Out Free Covid Tests For All Over Cost, Logistics 
The Biden administration opted for a controversial plan to pay for at-home Covid-19 testing through private insurance after officials concluded it would be too costly and inefficient to simply send the tests to all Americans for free, three administration officials told POLITICO. The decision to forgo a European-style approach to testing — which hinges on the government buying and widely distributing rapid tests — has sparked days of backlash, putting the White House on the defensive over its newest plan for containing the virus. (Cancryn and Lim, 12/9)

The Wall Street Journal: Covid Spurs Biggest Rise In Life-Insurance Payouts In A Century 
The Covid-19 pandemic last year drove the biggest increase in death benefits paid by U.S. life insurers since the 1918 influenza epidemic, an industry trade group said. Death-benefit payments rose 15.4% in 2020 to $90.43 billion, mostly due to the pandemic, according to the American Council of Life Insurers. In 1918, payments surged 41%. (Scism, 12/9)

Indianapolis Star: IU Health Requests Indiana National Guard Help In Its Hospitals
As hospitals across the state fill to capacity with both COVID and non-COVID patients, Indiana National Guard teams are providing staff support in 13 hospitals around the state with "several others" expected to join them next week, Indiana Department of Health officials said in an email. (Rudavsky, 12/9)

Stateline: With Too Few Nurses, It Won't Take Much To Overwhelm Hospitals This Winter
Even as a new COVID-19 variant starts to spread in the United States, staff shortages have made it impossible for many hospitals to operate at full capacity. That means they’re less prepared to manage an influx of patients this winter, whether those patients have complications from COVID-19 or other significant health problems. Hospitals nationwide are canceling nonemergency surgeries, struggling to quickly find beds for patients and failing to meet the minimum nurse-patient ratios experts recommend. Some even have had to turn away critical patients. While hospitals are under the most strain in Midwestern and Northeastern states where COVID-19 cases are surging, workforce shortages also are creating problems in Southern states where cases are relatively low—for now. (Quinton, 12/9)

AP: Pandemic Nurse Shortage: Kentucky Gov Declares An Emergency
Kentucky’s governor declared the state’s chronic nursing shortage to be an emergency Thursday, taking executive actions amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic to boost enrollment in nurse-training programs. Kentucky is projected to need more than 16,000 additional nurses by 2024, to help fill gaps caused by retirements and people leaving the profession, Gov. Andy Beshear said. His new executive order includes “immediate actions that we believe will provide some relief,” the Democratic governor said. “Obviously long term there is a lot to do.” (Schreiner, 12/9)

AP: COVID-19 Reunion: Tearful Patients, Nurses Share Memories
Brian Patnoe never saw the faces of the masked health care workers who nursed him back to health from the coronavirus that nearly killed him. But he knew each by their eyes, which peered out through layers of protective gear as he lay in their hospital’s COVID-19 unit. He was reunited Thursday with some of those who treated him for weeks after he arrived at Providence Mission Hospital in March 2020, just as the virus was descending on California. They still wore masks and he still recognized them. (Taxin, 12/10)

AP: Companies Rethink Return-To-Office Plans Amid Omicron Cases 
Companies of all sizes are rethinking their plans to send workers back to the office as the new omicron variant adds another layer of uncertainty. Alphabet’s Google and the nation’s second largest automaker Ford Co. are among those once again delaying their return-to-office plans, while other businesses whose employees have already returned are considering adding extra precautions like requiring masks. Officials in the United Kingdom, Denmark, Norway and Sweden also have asked people in recent days to work from home if they can because of concerns about the variant. (D'Innocenzio, 12/10)

The Washington Post: Long Covid Is Destroying Careers, Leaving Economic Distress In Its Wake 
Before the coronavirus ruined her plans, Tiffany Patino expected to be back at work by now. She and her boyfriend intended to move out of a basement in suburban Maryland, where his grandmother lets them stay for free, so they could raise their infant son in a place of their own. Maybe get a new car. But Patino got sick with covid-19 more than a year ago. Instead of getting better, chronic exhaustion and other symptoms persisted, delaying her return to a restaurant job and swamping her goal of financial independence. After reaching what she calls her “hell-iversary” last month, Patino remains unable to rejoin the workforce. With no income of her own, she’s exhausted, racked with pain, short of breath, forgetful, bloated, swollen, depressed. (Rowland, 12/9)

USA Today: Flu On The Rise During COVID: Experts Urge Americans To Get Flu Shots
The U.S. may have dodged a ‘twindemic’ last year, but health experts say the country may not be so lucky this season. While the U.S. continues to report more than 800,000 coronavirus cases per week, flu cases and hospitalizations are also steadily increasing. Flu is back, said Dr. Robert Glatter, an emergency physician at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. “We talked about a ‘twindemic’ last year, but I think we’re going to see it now this year because there’s been a relaxation of masks and social distancing," he said. (Rodriguez, 12/10)

The Wall Street Journal: Did Covid-19 Cause Flu Strain To Go Extinct? 
Australian researchers who have spent much of the past two years studying Covid-19 recently turned their attention to another public-health mystery: the possible disappearance of one of the four main strains of flu that infect humans. Around the world, labs that use genetic sequencing to determine which flu strain has sickened a patient upload their findings to an international database known as GISAID. Since early last year, none of those labs have confirmed the presence of the influenza B Yamagata lineage, the technical name for one of the four strains. (Cherney, 12/9)

The New York Times: How Nursing Homes’ Worst Offenses Are Hidden From The Public 
In Arizona, a nursing home resident was sexually assaulted in the dining room. In Minnesota, a woman caught Covid-19 after workers moved a coughing resident into her room. And in Texas, a woman with dementia was found in her nursing home’s parking lot, lying in a pool of blood. State inspectors determined that all three homes had endangered residents and violated federal regulations. Yet the federal government didn’t report the incidents to the public or factor them into its influential ratings system. The homes kept their glowing grades. (Gebeloff, Thomas and Silver-Greenberg, 12/9)

Modern Healthcare: Tower Health Closing Two Hospitals After Deal Fizzles
Tower Health on Thursday said it will close two hospitals in southeastern Pennsylvania after its deal with an Austin-based turnaround firm fell through. The West Reading, Pennsylvania-based hospital system will shutter Jennersville Hospital in West Grove at 11:59 p.m. Dec. 31 and Brandywine Hospital in Coatesville at 11:50 p.m. Jan. 31. In late November, Tower Health had said it had signed a deal with Canyon Atlantic Partners to assume ownership of the two acute-care hospitals on Jan. 1. However, on Thursday Tower Health said, "Canyon Atlantic Partners has ultimately not demonstrated the necessary regulatory and operational preparedness, nor validated its financial ability to complete this transaction and operate these hospitals." (Christ, 12/9)

AP: Report: Hospitals, Health Systems Took Pandemic Revenue Hit 
Hospitals and health care systems across the state took a major revenue hit during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic but most have managed to remain profitable, according to a new report from the Connecticut Office of Health Strategy. The total statewide gain in operating revenue for Connecticut hospitals was nearly $41 million over the recent federal fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30. That’s a 93% decline compared to the operating revenue gains from the prior fiscal year. (12/9)

AP: CVS Outlines Push Into Primary Care Services
CVS Health is launching a plan to use telemedicine, new clinics and teams of doctors, nurses and pharmacists to push deeper into managing customer health. (Murphy, 12/10)

Axios: 35-Year-Old Stool, Blood Samples Reap New HIV Discovery 
A tranche of blood and stool samples that have been in storage since 1984 are now helping scientists learn more about HIV and AIDS. Applying modern science to these decades-old samples offers a glimpse back in time into the role gut microbes may have played in the early spread of HIV and AIDS. Men who contracted HIV back in the 1980s appear to have had a different microbiome than their counterparts who remained HIV-negative, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Microbiome. (Reed, 12/10)

CNN: Vaping Doubled The Risk Of Erectile Dysfunction, Or ED, In Men Age 20 And Older, Study Finds
Healthy men between the ages of 20 and 65 who vaped nicotine daily were more than twice as likely to report experiencing erectile dysfunction, commonly known as ED, than men who did not vape, a recent study discovered. This association held true even for men without any other health concerns or habits connected to sexual dysfunction, including smoking, a known contributor to erectile dysfunction. (LaMotte, 12/10)

AP: Indiana To Place 19 Naloxone Vending Machines Around State 
The first of 19 naloxone vending machines to be located around the state will be placed at the St. Joseph County Jail in South Bend, Gov. Eric Holcomb has announced. Naloxone, also known as Narcan, is a drug to reverse overdoses from opioids. ... The machine holds up to 300 naloxone kits and is free to the public to access. (12/9)

The New York Times: Met Museum Removes Sackler Name From Wing Over Opioid Ties 
In the wake of growing outrage over the role the Sacklers may have played in the opioid crisis, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Sackler family jointly announced on Thursday that the Sackler name would be removed from seven exhibition spaces, including the wing that houses the Temple of Dendur. “Our families have always strongly supported the Met, and we believe this to be in the best interest of the museum and the important mission that it serves,” the descendants of Dr. Mortimer Sackler and Dr. Raymond Sackler said in a statement. “The earliest of these gifts were made almost 50 years ago, and now we are passing the torch to others who might wish to step forward to support the museum.” (Pogrebin, 12/9)

The Boston Globe: The US Has The Highest Rate Of Pregnancy-Related Deaths Of Industrialized Nations. The Biden Administration Is Pushing To Address That — But Its Efforts Might Not Be Enough
The Biden administration is making a major push to expand Medicaid coverage for new mothers from two months to a full year in an effort to address a shocking reality: the United States has the highest rate of pregnancy-related deaths of any industrialized nation. Starting in the spring, states have the option to expand Medicaid postpartum benefits over the next five years as part of the American Rescue Plan enacted in March. Money for further expansion is included in the Democrats’ other big legislative priority, the social safety net and climate change bill known as Build Back Better. (Thanikachalam, 12/9)

The Wall Street Journal: Peloton: Don’t Blame Us For What Happened In ‘And Just Like That…’ 
Spoiler alert: Mr. Big dies in the “Sex and the City” reboot. Surprised? So was Peloton Interactive Inc., according to a company spokeswoman. Peloton said it knew the company’s stationary bike would be used in the new show and approved one of its instructors to appear in “And Just Like That…” But it didn’t know Mr. Big would drop dead after a 45-minute ride in the first episode. Peloton insisted it wasn’t to blame for his demise. “Mr. Big lived what many would call an extravagant lifestyle—including cocktails, cigars, and big steaks—and was at serious risk,” said Dr. Suzanne Steinbaum, a cardiologist on Peloton’s health and wellness advisory council, in a statement from the company. (Pisani and Graham, 12/9)

Bloomberg: Europe Sees Early Signs Latest Virus Surge Is Leveling Off
Europe’s virus surge appears to be leveling off after governments across the continent clamped down with another round of tough measures, including lockdowns and restrictions on the unvaccinated. While the trend varies across countries, overall European Union numbers look to have hit a plateau. Austria and Germany have seen a dramatic shift, with the former’s seven-day case rate plunging by more than half since late last month. (O'Brien, 12/10)

Bloomberg: U.K. Omicron Spread May Be Faster Than In South Africa
The omicron strain may be spreading faster in England than in South Africa, with U.K. cases of the variant possibly topping 60,000 a day by Christmas, according to epidemiologist John Edmunds. It’s likely there are more omicron cases than confirmed by tests, Edmunds, who works at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said on a webinar organized by the Royal Society of Medicine on Thursday. The U.K. may be at risk of more hospitalizations because the average age of the population is higher than in South Africa, Edmunds also said. (Gretler, 12/10)

The Washington Post: Warning Of Vaccine Inequality, WHO Again Avoids Endorsing Boosters For General Public
A World Health Organization advisory group has decided against endorsing a broad-based global rollout of coronavirus vaccine booster shots. The experts reiterated the wide disparity in access to vaccines between rich and poor countries and continued to recommend that first vaccine doses remain the priority. (Jeong and Suliman, 12/10)

Reuters: S.Korea To Cut COVID-19 Booster Shot Interval Again As Infections Rise 
South Korea will further cut the interval for coronavirus booster vaccines for all adults from four to five months to three, officials said on Friday, as it struggles to fight record levels of infections amid concerns over the Omicron variant. The move came three weeks after the government reduced the booster gap for people aged 60 and older and primary groups to four months from six. The interval for all other adults had been five months. (Shin, 12/10)

Bloomberg: Mouse With Covid Sparks Taiwan Alert After Biting Lab Worker
A mouse bite is at the center of an investigation into a possible new Covid-19 outbreak in Taiwan, after a worker at a high-security laboratory was confirmed as the island’s first local case in more than a month. The lab worker, a woman in her 20s, tested positive for Covid this week after coming into contact with the virus during her work at Academia Sinica, Taiwan’s top research institute, in mid-November, Health Minister Chen Shih-chung said at a quickly organized briefing Thursday evening. She had not traveled abroad recently and had received two doses of Moderna Inc.’s vaccine. (Ellis, Wan and Matsuyama, 12/10)

AP: Pandemic Mystery: Scientists Focus On COVID's Animal Origins
Nearly two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, the origin of the virus tormenting the world remains shrouded in mystery. Most scientists believe it emerged in the wild and jumped from bats to humans, either directly or through another animal. Others theorize it escaped from a Chinese lab. Now, with the global COVID-19 death toll surpassing 5.2 million on the second anniversary of the earliest human cases, a growing chorus of scientists is trying to keep the focus on what they regard as the more plausible “zoonotic,” or animal-to-human, theory, in the hope that what’s learned will help humankind fend off new viruses and variants. (Ungar, 12/10)

Reuters: Chinese Woman Dies From H5N6 Strain Of Bird Flu 
A woman in China's Sichuan province died from the H5N6 strain of avian influenza last month, a regional health bureau said this week, in the latest human fatality from the lethal disease. The 54-year-old woman from Zigong city developed symptoms on Nov. 17 and was admitted to hospital on Nov. 21. She died on Nov. 23, according to a Wednesday statement on the website of the health bureau of semi-autonomous region Macau. (12/8)

The Washington Post: Canada Bans LGBTQ ‘Conversion Therapy’ As France Moves To Criminalize It
Canada has approved a law banning “conversion therapy” and criminalizing profiting off the discredited, anti-LGBTQ practice with sentences of two to five years in prison. The legislation — which describes the practice as seeking to change a person’s sexual orientation to heterosexual or gender identity to cisgender — makes promoting the practice a criminal offense and authorizes courts to order the removal of ads for it. The bill became law Wednesday after members of Parliament passed it unanimously this month. (Francis, 12/9)