First Edition: Jan. 12, 2021

KHN: Health Workers Unions See Surge In Interest Amid Covid
The nurses at Mission Hospital in Asheville, North Carolina, declared on March 6 — by filing the official paperwork — that they were ready to vote on the prospect of joining a national union. At the time, they were motivated by the desire for more nurses and support staff, and to have a voice in hospital decisions. A week later, as the covid-19 pandemic bore down on the state, the effort was put on hold, and everyone scrambled to respond to the coronavirus. But the nurses’ long-standing concerns only became heightened during the crisis, and new issues they’d never considered suddenly became urgent problems. (Pattani, 1/12)

KHN: Only A Smokescreen? Big Tobacco Stands Down As Colorado And Oregon Hike Cigarette Taxes
Big Tobacco did something unusual in Marlboro Country last fall: It stood aside while Colorado voters approved the state’s first tobacco tax hike in 16 years. The industry, led by Altria Group, one of the world’s largest tobacco companies, has spent exorbitantly in the past to kill similar state ballot initiatives. In 2018, Altria’s lobbying arm spent more than $17 million to help defeat Montana’s tobacco tax ballot initiative. That same year, it spent around $6 million to help defeat South Dakota’s similar measure. (Ramachandran, 1/12)

KHN: California Budget Reflects ‘Pandemic-Induced Reality,’ Governor Says 
The coronavirus pandemic doomed Gov. Gavin Newsom’s ambitious plans last year to combat homelessness, expand behavioral health services and create a state agency to control soaring health care costs. But even as the pandemic continues to rage, California’s Democratic governor said Friday he plans to push forward with those goals in the coming year, due to a rosier budget forecast buoyed by higher tax revenue from wealthy Californians who have fared relatively well during the crisis. (Hart, 1/12)

KHN: An Urban Hospital On The Brink Vs. The Officials Sworn To Save It
Illinois and Chicago officials are trying to figure out how to stop a private company from closing a money-losing urban hospital in a poor, underserved Chicago neighborhood. Trinity Health, a national Catholic tax-exempt chain, wants to close Mercy Hospital and Medical Center on Chicago’s Near South Side by May 31. Last month, in an unusual move, the Illinois Health Facilities & Services Review Board unanimously denied Trinity permission to close the 412-bed facility, which predominantly serves Black and other minority patients on Medicaid. (Meyer, 1/12)

Politico: Biden To Unveil Vaccination Plan This Week 
President-elect Joe Biden is set to unveil a sweeping coronavirus vaccination plan on Thursday, calling the nationwide distribution effort his "number one priority." The plan, which Biden teased on Monday, will serve as the incoming administration's roadmap to quickly vaccinating millions of Americans amid frustration over the slow rollout of the initial doses. (Cancryn and Pager, 1/11)

Politico: Biden Dresses Down His Covid Team Over Plans To Speed Vaccinations 
President-elect Joe Biden has grown frustrated with the team in charge of plotting his coronavirus response, amid rising concerns that his administration will fall short of its promise of 100 million vaccinations in the first 100 days, according to people familiar with the conversations. Biden has expressed criticism on multiple occasions to groups of transition officials — including one confrontation where Biden conveyed to Covid coordinator Jeff Zients and his deputy, Natalie Quillian, that their team was underperforming. (Cancryn and Pager, 1/11)

Politico: Biden Team Gets Access To Warp Speed-Related Meetings 
The Trump administration this week will give Biden transition officials their first direct access to certain regular meetings tied to the government's coronavirus vaccine development effort, Operation Warp Speed, a senior administration official told POLITICO. The invite to those meetings comes after POLITICO reported that the Biden team had been denied access to standing meetings on the pandemic response, hampering its planning efforts. (Cancryn, 1/11)

The Hill: Biden Publicly Receives Second Dose Of Coronavirus Vaccine 
President-elect Joe Biden publicly received his second dose of the vaccine for the novel coronavirus on Monday in a continued bid to bolster public confidence in the inoculation. “My number one priority is getting vaccine into people’s arms, like I just did today, as rapidly as we can,” Biden, wearing a black face mask, told reporters immediately after receiving his second dose of the vaccine produced by Pfizer and BioNTech. (Chalfant, 1/11)

Reuters: CDC Says 9 Million Americans Now Vaccinated As U.S. States Scramble
Nearly 9 million Americans had been given their first COVID-19 vaccination dose as of Monday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said, as states scrambled to step up inoculations that have yet to slow the roaring pandemic. The 8,987,322 people who have been jabbed with the first of two shots, according to the CDC, represent less than one-third of the 25 million total doses distributed to states by the U.S. government. (Caspani, Whitcomb and Allen, 1/11)

The New York Times: Andrew Cuomo Outlines New York's Plan To ‘Win The Covid War’ 
Facing a daunting budget crisis and a surging second wave of the coronavirus, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo on Monday unveiled his vision of New York’s agenda for the year, focused on righting the state’s finances and its citizens’ health in a moment of profound concern about the nation’s well-being. Speaking from a nearly empty room in the State Capitol — the ceremonial War Room just steps from his office — Mr. Cuomo unveiled a seven-point plan for the state, with many of the points touching on the coronavirus and its ramifications. (McKinley and Ferre-Sadurni, 1/11)

Politico: Governors’ Red Tape Blamed As Vaccine Doses Pile Up
Governors face a growing outcry over inflexible vaccine policies that are now being blamed for leaving millions of doses to pile up in freezers — and some to land in the trash. Pharmacists and hospital leaders, scrambling to get the scarce Covid-19 vaccine doses into the arms of the willing, are begging state leaders not to tie their hands. They say a patchwork of Byzantine-like state regulations — and, in at least one case, the threat of monetary penalties for stepping out of line — have left the medical community paralyzed over what to do with extra supplies. (Luthi, Young and Colliver, 1/11)

Modern Healthcare: Moderna's Top Doc: No Data Supports Halving COVID Vaccine Doses
Moderna's top doctor on Monday cautioned against giving patients only half doses of its COVID-19 vaccine in an attempt to innoculate more people, saying there isn't data to prove its efficacy. Chief Medical Officer Dr. Tal Zaks said at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, which kicked off virtually on Monday, that the company is studying the question but has only preliminary findings to date. Once it has more information, he said the company will discuss the issue with regulators. Moderna's data showing the vaccine is 94% effective is based on two doses administered four weeks apart. "On cutting the dose in half, we're advocating for following the data and the science," Zaks said. "We do not have data on efficacy for half the dose." (Bannow, 1/11)

The Washington Post: Coronavirus Vaccine Rollout Reaches Next Phase In D.C., Northern Virginia 
The District and much of Virginia moved into their next phases of coronavirus vaccinations Monday, targeting older residents and other vulnerable populations as a post-holiday surge of new infections in the Washington region continued to reach record highs. D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser said the city will begin vaccinating residents 65 and older, while some jurisdictions in Virginia on Monday began making appointments to inoculate residents 75 and older. Health officials previously had worked to inoculate residents of nursing homes and assisted-living communities before moving to the next phase. (Olivo, Fadulu and Wiggins, 1/11)

Los Angeles Times: COVID-19 Vaccines Will Be Administered At Disneyland 
Health officials will begin distributing COVID-19 vaccines this week at Disneyland, the Orange County Board of Supervisors said Monday, making the resort the first “super” vaccination site in the county. In a statement Monday night, county supervisors said Disneyland will be one of five large “point-of-dispensing” sites that collectively would be able to vaccinate thousands of residents each day. Arrangements for the other sites are being finalized, the statement said. (Ormseth, 1/11)

AP: Going Big: US Dispensing Shots At Stadiums And Fairgrounds
Emily Alexander, a fourth-grade teacher in hard-hit Arizona, got vaccinated in a round-the-clock, drive-thru operation that opened Monday at the suburban Phoenix stadium where the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals play. She said she hopes it means she can be reunited in person with her students and colleagues before the end of the year. ... Similarly, in Britain, where a more contagious variant of the virus is raging out of control and deaths are soaring, seven large-scale vaccination sites opened Monday at such places as a big convention center in London, a racecourse in Surrey and a tennis and soccer complex in Manchester. (Pane, Nieberg and Watson, 1/11)

Los Angeles Times: How Will The Self-Employed Get Vaccinated? There’s No Clear Answer
As a midwife, Tania McCracken spends hours with pregnant women and their families inside their homes, helping deliver newborns. The essential hands-on work puts McCracken and other California midwives at risk of COVID-19. “There’s a lot of breathing involved,” she said, noting that scientists have found that labor, like singing, may spread the virus through the air. But McCracken, who works in homes around Redlands in San Bernardino County, and many other state-licensed midwives have not yet been able to get the COVID-19 vaccine even though health workers have been prioritized to receive the shots before all others. (Petersen, 1/11)

The Washington Post: Recovered Coronavirus Patients Should Still Get The Vaccine, Experts Say 
Research suggests most people who recovered from covid-19 are immune for at least eight months. Yet epidemiologists are largely still urging this population to get the vaccine if it’s their turn in line.  That’s per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which also says the vaccine is safe for people who have had a prior infection. Former CDC director Thomas Frieden said he’d advise most people to get the vaccine, even if they’ve had covid-19. (Ellerbeck, 1/11)

Bloomberg: Pfizer, BioNTech Boost Vaccine Output Goal By More Than 50%
Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE plan to produce 2 billion doses of their Covid-19 vaccine this year, boosting previously expected output by more than 50% in response to surging global demand. The companies have already agreed to deliver more than 1 billion doses in pacts with various countries, BioNTech said in a presentation at the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference on Monday. The European Union last week sealed a deal to double its supply of Pfizer-BioNTech shots to as many as 600 million, while the U.S. has locked in a total of 200 million doses. (Kresge and Griffin, 1/11)

Modern Healthcare: J&J In 'Final Stages' Of Analyzing Trial Results For Its One-Dose COVID Vaccine
Johnson & Johnson expects to share clinical trial results for its much-anticipated one-dose COVID-19 vaccine candidate "very soon," company CEO Alex Gorsky said Monday. Johnson & Johnson last year enrolled 45,000 patients into a phase three clinical trial for its vaccine candidate. Those patients are still being monitored. "We're in the final stages of that analysis as we speak," Gorsky said at J.P. Morgan's annual healthcare conference. "We hope to have that information very soon." (Kim Cohen, 1/11)

The Washington Post: CDC: No Sign Of Homegrown U.S. Coronavirus Variant, But Scientists Need To Look Harder 
Infectious-disease experts say there is no evidence the massive winter surge that is killing thousands of people a day in the United States is linked to the U.K. variant or to a homegrown strain. But they acknowledge their battlefield awareness is limited. Some states have minimal capacity to conduct genomic sequencing that allows scientists to trace the random mutations that could give a virus variant some advantage over other strains. Like any virus, this one mutates randomly, and countless variants are in circulation. (Achenbach, Bellware and Shaban, 1/11)

Los Angeles Times: At Least 9 U.S. States Have New Coronavirus Strain From U.K.
The coronavirus variant from the United Kingdom is now in at least nine U.S. states, and scientists expect that number to rise in short order. A total of 63 infections with the strain known as B.1.1.7 were reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as of Friday, the most recent data available. Given the limited amount of genetic analysis conducted on coronavirus samples collected here, health officials say the true number of cases is surely higher. California currently has more confirmed cases than any other state, with 32, according to the CDC. Florida is next, with 22. (Kaplan and Healy, 1/11)

The Hill: WHO: Japan Identifies Another New Coronavirus Variant 
The World Health Organization (WHO) said Monday that Japan has notified it of a new variant of coronavirus, amid concern over more infectious strains discovered in the United Kingdom and South Africa. "Over the weekend, WHO was notified by Japan about a new variant of the virus," said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general, at a news conference. (Sullivan, 1/11)

Politico: Democrats Demand Plan From Trump To Fix ‘Failed’ Vaccine Rollout 
The Trump administration must urgently provide states with new resources and guidance to correct "significant failures" in the rollout of Covid-19 vaccines, according to a new letter from Senate Democrats shared with POLITICO. The United States "cannot afford for this vaccination campaign to continue to be hindered by the lack of planning, communication, and leadership we have seen so far," Democrats wrote to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, citing data that just over one-third of distributed vaccines have been administered. "The metric that matters, and where we are clearly moving too slowly, is vaccines in arms." (Diamond, 1/11)

Modern Healthcare: AHRQ Director Gopal Khanna Resigns In Response To Capitol Riot
Gopal Khanna, who has served as the director of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality since 2017, announced Monday that he resigned from his role. In an email to staff, Khanna said he submitted his resignation to HHS Secretary Alex Azar. He resigned in response to the riot last week at the Capitol, saying "As a first-generation American and a proud citizen of this country, nothing is more sacred than the values embedded in our Constitution, and the principles we hold dear. However, based on the horrific events last Wednesday at the nation's Capitol, the very seat of our democracy and a beacon of freedom the world over, I have decided to step aside." (Castellucci, 1/11)

The Hill: New Jersey Democrat Thinks She Contracted Coronavirus During Capitol Siege 
A Democratic congresswoman said Monday she has tested positive for COVID-19 after being locked in a room with maskless members of Congress during the riots at the Capitol last week. Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-N.J.) said she believes she was exposed to COVID-19 while being held in protective isolation with other lawmakers, including some who did not wear masks. (Hellmann, 1/11)

The Washington Post: Pramila Jayapal Tests Positive For Coronavirus After Capitol Riots, She Says
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) has tested positive for the coronavirus, she said early on Tuesday, after hiding with other lawmakers, including some Republicans who refused to wear masks, as a pro-Trump mob stormed the U.S. Capitol last week. ... Jayapal, who is isolating at home, said she was one of over 100 people who took shelter in a large committee room during the violent takeover last Wednesday. She had already been quarantining because she feared the event could have exposed her to the virus, she told The Cut last week. (Armus, 1/12)

The New York Times: Was The US Capitol Riot A Coronavirus Superspreader Event? 
A grim reality has begun to dawn on Capitol Hill: The riot on Wednesday may have started a coronavirus superspreader event, fueled by the mob that roamed through the halls of Congress and unmasked Republicans who jammed into cloistered secure rooms. It could have been worse. Because of the pandemic, lawmakers were instructed to remain in their offices unless speaking during debate over the certification of votes, tourists had been temporarily barred and the number of reporters allowed in each chamber at a time had been substantially curtailed. (Cochrane, 1/11)

The New York Times: Washington Grapples With High Number Of Coronavirus Cases 
While Mayor Muriel E. Bowser of Washington, D.C., was grappling with the riot that tore through the Capitol last week, another crisis was slowly unfolding: a surge of coronavirus in the district. Washington averaged 290 new coronavirus cases a day in the seven-day period that ended Sunday, the most the city has seen during any week of the pandemic. The surge is part of a broader upward tide throughout the nation’s Mid-Atlantic region: Virginia, Maryland and Delaware also set weekly case records on Sunday. (1/12)

The Washington Post: Bowser To Keep Indoor Dining, Museums Closed Past Inauguration Day
D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) ordered indoor restaurants and museums to remain closed until two days after President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration, in a mayoral fiat meant to both curb the rising coronavirus infections in the city and make Washington less hospitable to visitors considering traveling to see Biden sworn in. (Zauzmer, 1/12)

Stat: In Intra-Agency Scuffle, HHS Overrules FDA Pick For Key Position 
Health secretary Alex Azar suddenly appointed a new top lawyer at the Food and Drug Administration just hours after the subagency had announced its own pick for the post. The move is already raising concerns among FDA officials; two senior staffers at the agency told STAT they see it as another instance of HHS meddling in FDA policymaking — a criticism that has been raised repeatedly about the two agencies during the Covid-19 pandemic. (Florko, 1/11)

Stat: Health Companies, Groups Suspend Campaign Donations After Capitol Riot 
Following last week’s riot here, several major health care corporations are re-evaluating their support for the 147 Republican lawmakers who voted against certifying the results of November’s presidential election. (Facher, 1/12)

Houston Chronicle: Two Texas Lawmakers Boycott 'Superspreader' Opening Day Ceremony
Two Dallas-area Texas House members are calling the Legislature’s planned Opening Day ceremony on Tuesday a “superspreader” event and say they do not plan to participate. Reps. Ana-Maria Ramos and Michelle Beckley, both Democrats, said Monday they will be sworn in by Ramos’ husband, Johnny, who is a public notary, at an alternative location. The Texas House is requiring that attendees wear masks at the abbreviated ceremony and is encouraging them to get tested. Guests and media are required to be tested. (Goldenstein, 1/11)

The Wall Street Journal: Lilly Alzheimer’s Drug Helped Patients In Small Trial 
An experimental Alzheimer’s drug from Eli Lilly LLY 11.74% & Co. helped patients in a small trial, the company said Monday, renewing hopes that researchers are closing in on therapies that can fight the disease. The drug slowed the decline in memory and ability to perform activities of daily living by 32% after 18 months among people who received the therapy compared with those who got a placebo, Lilly said. (Rockoff, 1/11)

Stat: Eli Lilly Says Drug Slowed Alzheimer’s Decline In Preliminary Study 
An experimental medicine appeared to slow the decline of patients with the early symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease, the drug’s maker, Eli Lilly, said. The results are likely to generate both excitement and debate in the Alzheimer’s field, because the study is small — enrolling just 272 patients — and because the medicine, donanemab, is the latest in a line of similar drugs that all target the same basic chemical mechanism, known as beta amyloid. (Herper, 1/11)

The New York Times: Eli Lilly's Alzheimer's Drug Shows Promise In Small Trial 
If accurate, it is the first time a positive result has been found in a so-called Phase 2 study, said Dr. Lon S. Schneider, professor of psychiatry, neurology and gerontology at the University of Southern California. ...Participants who received the drug had a 32 percent deceleration in the rate of decline, compared with those who got a placebo. In six to 12 months, plaques were gone and stayed gone, said Dr. Daniel Skovronsky, the company’s chief scientific officer. At that point, patients stopped getting the drug — they got a placebo instead — for the duration of the study. (Kolata, 1/11)

Stat: Lilly’s Preliminary Alzheimer’s Data Adds $4 Billion To Biogen’s Value 
Biogen added more than $4 billion in market value on Monday after a rival Alzheimer’s disease treatment from Eli Lilly showed promise in a small clinical trial. The preliminary benefit of Lilly’s treatment, which works similarly to Biogen’s controversial aducanumab, “adds momentum and belief” to the idea that targeting a toxic brain plaque called amyloid can slow the cognitive decline associated with Alzheimer’s, Biogen CEO Michel Vounatsos said at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference. (Garde, 1/11)

Stat: Gilead's Remdesivir Sales Are Surging, But Investors Aren't Impressed
A lot more Covid-19 patients in the U.S. are being treated with Gilead Sciences’ remdesivir because of the accelerating case counts. But even with sales of the medicine surging, investors are not impressed. (Feuerstein and Herper, 1/11)

The Washington Post: Vitamin D And Covid: Experts Say More Research Needed 
Interest in vitamin D supplements has spiked during the pandemic as many people have sought ways to improve their immune health. According to Nielsen data from December, sales for vitamin D supplements increased 41.5 percent year over year. But although more research has emerged suggesting a possible connection between vitamin D deficiencies and cases of covid-19, experts say there is not yet sufficient evidence to support taking supplements to prevent or treat the disease caused by the coronavirus. (Chiu, 1/11)

The New York Times: A Colonoscopy Alternative Comes Home 
Most Americans who are due for a colon cancer screening will receive a postcard or a call — or prompting during a doctor’s visit — to remind them that it’s time to schedule a colonoscopy. But at big health care systems like Kaiser Permanente or the federal Veterans Health Administration, the process has changed. Patients who should be screened regularly (age 50 to 75) and who are of average risk, get a letter telling them about a home test kit arriving by mail. (Span, 1/11)

Modern Healthcare: Mental Health Treatment Was Most Common Telehealth Service During COVID
A new study finds during the first few months of the pandemic, patients were more likely to use telehealth services for behavioral health treatment than physical conditions. The study, published recently by RAND Corp., shows that 53.6% of patients with a behavioral health condition sought treatment via telehealth from mid-March to early May of 2020. By comparison, 43.2% of patients with a chronic physical condition used telehealth to receive care during the same period. (Castellucci, 1/11)

The Wall Street Journal: Suppliers Of Medical Equipment In Talks To Merge 
Steris PLC is in talks to combine with Cantel Medical Corp. , according to people familiar with the matter, in a deal that would bring together two big providers of sterilization products. The companies are discussing a mostly stock deal that could be completed as soon as Tuesday, assuming talks don’t fall apart, the people said. Cantel has a market value of around $3.5 billion, while Steris’s is around $17.3 billion. (Lombardo, 1/11)

Stat: Vertex Taking More Aggressive M&A Stance To Bolster Its Research Pipeline
Vertex Pharmaceuticals is looking to acquire “mid- and late-stage assets” to bolster its current research pipeline, CEO Reshma Kewalramani said Monday at the virtual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference. The company also sees more growth for its cystic fibrosis drug business. (Feuerstein, 1/11)

Stat: Tempus Unveils Prototype Cube That Talks Back To Oncologists 
Tempus, a Chicago-based health technology company, wants oncologists to talk to the cube. The cube, in this case, is a device called Tempus One that doctors will be able to put in their lab coat pockets and bring with them as they round at hospitals, asking questions about their patients, the genetic data of tumors, and the availability of clinical trials. Think of it as a tumor science version of Amazon’s Alexa. (Herper, 1/11)

The Wall Street Journal: Bluebird Bio To Spin Off Cancer-Drug Unit 
Bluebird Bio Inc., a biotech pioneer in the field of gene therapies, plans to split itself in two later this year, spinning off its cancer-drug unit into a new, publicly traded company so it can focus on rare diseases. Bluebird Chief Executive Nick Leschly will helm the new cancer company and assume a new position as executive chairman of Bluebird. Andrew Obenshain, currently Bluebird’s president of severe genetic diseases, will become its chief executive, the company said. (Walker, 1/11)

Stat: Crossing The Threshold: Violence Against Home Visiting Nurses 
It’s a difficult time to be a nurse. It’s an even more difficult time to be a home visiting nurse. This large group of health care providers, who are largely invisible in the media, are poorly paid and more stressed than ever before. (Ha Do Byon, 1/12)

The Washington Post: Hundreds Of Alabama Fans Pack Streets To Celebrate Championship Win, Defying Covid Safety Orders
Hordes of Alabama football fans packed the streets of Tuscaloosa after Monday night’s national championship victory over Ohio State, ignoring pleas from the city’s mayor and university officials. Eyebrow-raising photos and videos showed thousands of people crowding together to celebrate the win in the city’s downtown strip, most of them young and many of them not wearing masks. Some fans “hugged and kissed, with social distancing out the window,” AL.com reported, noting that there was a large police presence in the area but seemingly little enforcement of the statewide mask mandate. (1/12)

Stat: Add Covid-19 Exposure Apps To Popular Social Media Apps 
The beginning of the end of the Covid-19 pandemic may be at hand in the U.S. with the approval and ongoing rollout of vaccines developed by Pfizer/BioNTech and by Moderna. Yet it will be months — at the least — before this or other vaccines are available to all. (Ben Alsdurf, 1/12)

Houston Chronicle: Texas Becomes The Second State To Surpass 30,000 COVID-19 Deaths
Texas recorded its 30,000th death from COVID-19 over the weekend, making it the second state in the country to surpass the milestone. The development coincides with a sharp spike in statewide deaths, which reached a seven-day average of nearly 279 on Sunday, the highest mark since early August. Texas’ rate of tests coming back positive also peaked earlier this month at nearly 21 percent, surpassing the previous high set during early July, shortly after Gov. Greg Abbott ordered bars to close and issued a mask mandate for most of the state. COVID hospitalizations now make up more than 15 percent of hospital capacity in all but one of the state’s 22 hospital regions, the threshold that triggers restrictions such as bar closures and the suspension of elective surgeries. (Scherer and Rubio, 1/11)

USA Today: 'It's What We Feared:' Hospitals From Georgia To California Face Surging COVID-19 Cases, Staff Shortages And Rising Deaths
During the past week, a record 22,676 people died from COVID-19, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University. That's more Americans dying every day than the 2,977 victims on Sept. 11, 2001. Four states with the largest share of hospital beds occupied with COVID-19 patients – California, Arizona, Nevada and Georgia – are struggling to keep pace with the unprecedented surge. The situation has become so dire in California that the state required hospitals to complete crisis-care plans detailing how they will prioritize care when they don’t have enough workers, space or supplies. (Alltucker, 1/12)

Los Angeles Times: Gorillas Contract Coronavirus At San Diego Zoo Safari Park
Multiple gorillas at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park have contracted the coronavirus in the first known instances of natural transmission to great apes, the zoo announced Monday. The zoo tested the gorillas’ fecal samples after two of them began coughing Wednesday, the zoo said in a news release. Preliminary results returned Friday showed the animals had tested positive, and U.S. Department of Agriculture laboratories confirmed the results Monday, the zoo said. (Wigglesworth and Wosen, 1/11)

AP: Study: Wildfires Produced Up To Half Of Pollution In US West
Wildfire smoke accounted for up to half of all health-damaging small particle air pollution in the western U.S. in recent years as warming temperatures fueled more destructive blazes, according to a study released Monday. Even as pollution emissions declined from other sources including vehicle exhaust and power plants, the amount from fires increased sharply, said researchers at Stanford University and the University of California, San Diego. (Brown, 1/12)

Boston Globe: Day-Care Workers Feel Forgotten In State’s Testing Program
Early childhood education providers are furious after the state announced a new coronavirus testing program last week for public schools without including day-care centers and after-school programs, which are still struggling to serve more than 100,000 children almost a year into the pandemic. On Monday, more than 250 early education and out-of-school providers, advocates, and associations sent a letter to Governor Charlie Baker urging him to include their industry in the testing program. “Clearly, we are not essential enough to benefit from the same health and safety measures meant to protect the lives and wellbeing of our K-12 brothers and sisters who care for the same families that we do,” the letter read. (Krantz, 1/11)

Reuters: India Delivers COVID-19 Shots To Prepare For 'World's Biggest Vaccination Drive' 
Indian airlines started delivering batches of COVID-19 vaccines across the country on Tuesday, getting ready for the launch of a campaign to offer shots to 1.3 billion people in what officials call the world’s biggest vaccination drive. Authorities hope to inoculate 300 million high-risk people over the next six to eight months. Vaccinations are scheduled to begin on Saturday. (Shah and Ravikumar, 1/11)

Stat: A Covid-19 Vaccine Maker In India Stirs Controversy Over Its Clinical Trial
For the second time in two weeks, patient groups in India are raising concerns about a domestic vaccine manufacturer and its Covid-19 shot, which is one of two vaccines that were recently granted emergency use by the Indian government for combating the pandemic. (Silverman, 1/11)

AP: Gunmen Kill Policeman Escorting Polio Workers In Pakistan
Gunmen riding on a motorcycle shot and killed a policeman in northwestern Pakistan on Tuesday as he escorted a team of polio workers. The attack in the district of Karak in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province came on the second day of a nationwide anti-polio vaccination campaign that Pakistani authorities launched in an effort to eradicate the crippling disease by the end of the year. (1/12)