First Edition: July 13, 2022

KHN: Three Things To Know About Insurance Coverage For Abortion 
Will your health plan pay for an abortion now that the Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade? Even before the June 24 ruling, insurance coverage for abortion varied widely. Now the issue is even more complex as states set varying rules — about half are expected to limit or ban abortion in almost all circumstances. (Appleby, 7/13)

KHN: Patients With Epilepsy Navigate Murky Unregulated CBD Industry 
In 2013, Tonya Taylor was suicidal because her epileptic seizures persisted despite taking a long list of medications. Then a fellow patient at a Denver neurologist’s office mentioned something that gave Taylor hope: a CBD oil called Charlotte’s Web. The person told her the oil helped people with uncontrolled epilepsy. However, the doctor would discuss it only “off the record” because CBD was illegal under federal law, and he worried about his hospital losing funding, Taylor said. (Berger, 7/13)

Stat: Citing Omicron BA.5 Risks, White House Recommends Covid-19 Boosters
The Biden administration on Tuesday urged the public to strengthen their protections against Covid-19, noting that the BA.5 subvariant of Omicron has become the dominant strain in the country. (Joseph, 7/12)

The Hill: Fauci: Take New Subvariant Seriously, But Don’t ‘Let It Disrupt Our Lives’ 
Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert, said Tuesday that a new omicron subvariant on the rise is something to take seriously but should not be a cause for panic. “We should not let it disrupt our lives, but we cannot deny that it is a reality we need to deal with,” Fauci said at a White House press briefing. (Sullivan, 7/12)

Politico: FDA To Authorize Novavax's Covid-19 Vaccine
The Food and Drug Administration is expected to authorize Novavax’s coronavirus vaccine for emergency use as early as Wednesday, two people with knowledge of the matter told POLITICO. The regulatory clearance would likely permit the two-dose vaccine to be given to adults as a primary immunization series, limiting its use in the U.S. since roughly two-thirds of people have already received their initial shots. (Cancryn and Foley, 7/12)

AP: Superbug Infections, Deaths Rose At Beginning Of Pandemic
Dr. Arjun Srinivasan, a CDC expert, called it “a startling reversal” that he hopes was a one-year blip. CDC officials think several factors may have caused the rise, including how COVID-19 was treated when it first hit the U.S. in early 2020. Antimicrobial resistance happens when germs like bacteria and fungi gain the power to fight off the drugs that were designed to kill them. The misuse of antibiotics was a big reason — unfinished or unnecessary prescriptions that didn’t kill the germs made them stronger. (Stobbe, 7/12)

The Washington Post: Justice Dept. Announces Task Force To Fight Overreach On Abortion Bans 
The Justice Department is launching a “reproductive rights task force” to marshal federal legal resources aimed at preventing overreach from state and local governments seeking to impose new bans on abortion access after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, officials said Tuesday. Justice officials said the move should consolidate work that was underway in the months leading up to the high court’s June decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which struck down federal safeguards for abortion that had stood for five decades. (Nakamura and Roubein, 7/12)

Politico: Congress Tees Up Bills To Protect Travel For Abortion
Bills aimed at protecting a person’s ability to cross state lines to seek reproductive care could see action in the House and Senate later this week — though neither bill has a clear path to becoming law, especially in the Senate. The House plans to bring its bill to the floor on Friday; Senate Democratic leadership could attempt to call the bill up for a voice vote on the Senate floor later this week, though Republicans are expected to block it. (Snyder and Ollstein, 7/12)

AP: Telemedicine Abortion Continues On Guam After Roe Overturned
Guam’s attorney general said a 1990 law that prohibited virtually all abortion is invalid and won’t take effect even though the U.S. Supreme Court last month overturned the national right to abortion outlined in Roe v. Wade, the landmark case that legalized abortion nationwide. That means the status quo allowing women to obtain abortions via telemedicine may continue in the predominantly Catholic U.S. territory in the Pacific. (McAvoy, 7/13)

AP: Pennsylvania Governor Says He'll Protect Abortion Seekers 
Gov. Tom Wolf is following in the footsteps of other Democratic governors following the U.S. Supreme Court’s abortion ruling and looking to protect patients who travel to Pennsylvania for the procedure from being prosecuted by their home states. Wolf on Tuesday said in a statement that he would refuse a request from any other state to arrest or detain any out-of-state resident who had traveled to Pennsylvania to seek an abortion, as well as anyone providing or assisting with it. (7/12)

AP: Indiana Governor Won't Specify Anti-Abortion Steps He Backs
Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb sidestepped taking a stance Tuesday on how far the Republican-dominated Legislature should go in restricting abortions when state lawmakers begin a special session in less than two weeks. Republican legislative leaders have provided no details on whether they will push for a full abortion ban or allow exceptions, such as in cases of rape, incest or to protect the woman’s life. (Davies, 7/12)

AP: Big Arizona Provider Won't Resume Abortions Despite Ruling
The leader of Arizona’s largest abortion provider said Tuesday her organization will not resume the procedures in one county even though a federal judge has blocked a fetal “personhood” law they feared could lead to criminal charges against doctors and others. Brittany Fonteno, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Arizona, blamed “vague and confusing” statements from Republican Attorney General Mark Brnovich about a near-total pre-statehood ban on abortions for the decision. (Christie, 7/12)

AP: Memphis Council Resolution Addresses Abortion Prosecutions 
The Memphis City Council approved a resolution Tuesday urging that law enforcement and the district attorney in Tennessee’s most populous county refrain from investigating and prosecuting doctors who perform abortions. (Sainz and Kruesi, 7/12)

The Washington Post: Antiabortion Activists Sentenced For Trespassing At Alexandria Clinic
Two antiabortion activists who claimed earlier this year to have obtained dozens of fetuses from a D.C. facility that provides abortions were sent to jail Tuesday for trespassing at an Alexandria women’s clinic last year. Lauren Handy, who faces similar charges in multiple cases around the country, was sentenced in Alexandria District Court to 30 days in jail, starting immediately. Terrisa Bukovinac was sentenced to four days. (Boorstein, 7/12)

Politico: Senate Confirms Biden's Pick To Lead Gun Regulation Agency 
The Senate approved Steven Dettelbach’s nomination Tuesday to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, making him only the second Senate-confirmed director in the gun regulatory agency’s history. In a 48-46 vote, Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Rob Portman of Ohio joined Democrats in supporting the former U.S. attorney. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) said before the vote that confirming a permanent director is “another important step in protecting Americans from violent gun crimes.” (Levine, 7/12)

Austin American-Statesman: Exclusive: Surveillance Video Of Uvalde School Shooting Shows Police Response
The gunman walks into Robb Elementary School unimpeded, moments after spraying bullets from his semi-automatic rifle outside the building and after desperate calls to 911 from inside and outside the Uvalde school. He slows down to peek around a corner in the hallway and flips back his hair before proceeding toward classrooms 111 and 112. (Plohetski, 7/12)

USA Today: Latest Organ Transplant Milestone: Pig Hearts To Brain-Dead People
Doctors at NYU Langone Health have taken another step toward making pig organs available for transplant, by successfully implanting pig hearts into two newly deceased people. (Weintraub, 7/12)

The Washington Post: A Death Row Inmate Wants To Donate A Kidney. Texas Won’t Let Him.
Ramiro Gonzales has been on death row since 2006, when he was sentenced for the 2001 murder of an 18-year-old woman. He was 18 at the time of the shooting and a drug addict after an abusive childhood, his attorneys have said. Now, in an attempt to atone for his crime, he has petitioned for a temporary release to undergo organ donation surgery. The state of Texas, however, won’t allow it. Officials have objected to the procedure because of Gonzales’s approaching execution date. (Paul, 7/12)

The Boston Globe: Boston Biotech Verve Tests ‘CRISPR 2.0′ In A Patient For The First Time
Scientists are rewriting the code of life with a new technology that promises to cure inherited diseases by precisely correcting genetic typos. Known as base editing, the technology empowers researchers to pick a single letter amongst the three billion that compose the human genome, erase it, and write a new letter in its place. (Cross, 7/12)

Los Angeles Times: Hospitals Launch Effort To Repeal L.A. Healthcare Wage Rule
A coalition of Los Angeles hospitals and other health facilities launched a campaign on Tuesday to repeal a newly enacted ordinance boosting the minimum wage for thousands of healthcare workers to $25 per hour, saying the law will have a harmful effect on medical care across the city. (Zahniser, 7/12)

The Boston Globe: Nursing Shortage At Hospitals Leads To Multimillion-Dollar Costs
A widespread shortage of nurses at Massachusetts hospitals is only getting more extreme, with an estimated 5,000 vacancies across the state and institutions hemorrhaging cash as they are forced to hire temporary staff at much higher rates. (Bartlett, 7/12)

AP: Health System Plans Initiative To Increase Nurses
The West Virginia University Health System plans to launch an initiative that will increase the number of nurses in the state, officials said. WVU Health President and CEO Albert Wright Jr. told the Charleston Gazette-Mail’s “Outside the Echo Chamber” that the system plans to start an associate’s degree nursing program. Wright said the aim is to alleviate a “particularly challenging” nursing shortage in the state. (7/12)

AP: Doctors Urge Access To Psychedelic Therapies In New Mexico
Physicians and researchers are urging New Mexico legislators to allow the use of psychedelic mushrooms in mental health therapy aimed at overcoming depression, anxiety, psychological trauma and alcoholism. A legislative panel on Tuesday listened to advocates who hope to broaden the scope of medical treatment and research assisted by psilocybin, the psychedelic active ingredient in certain mushrooms. Oregon is so far the only state to legalize the therapeutic use of psilocybin. (Lee, 7/13)

Politico: New Contractor To Manage NYC’s Monkeypox Vaccination 
The city has tapped a new contractor to administer New York’s monkeypox vaccines, after the last provider botched appointment scheduling. Medical services company Affiliated Physicians will take over from walk-in clinic chain MedRite when the city resumes taking appointments on Tuesday — and handle things moving forward, according to reps from City Hall and the health department. (Rosenberg, 7/12)

San Francisco Chronicle: Highly Vulnerable To Monkeypox, San Francisco Is ‘Literally Begging’ Feds For Vaccine
San Francisco’s LGBTQ community, led by a city supervisor, is calling on the federal government to greatly step up distribution of vaccines against monkeypox, a highly infectious virus now spreading mostly through male-to-male sex. (Asimov, 7/12)

San Francisco Chronicle: Opioid Manufacturers Agree To Pay San Francisco $54 Million In Groundbreaking Case
Opioid manufacturers Allergan and Teva have agreed to pay San Francisco $54 million in cash and curative products to settle claims that they were responsible for drug addictions and deaths, leaving Walgreens, which sells the opioids, as the only defendant in the city’s groundbreaking federal court trial. The trial was wrapping up with closing statements Tuesday. (Egelko, 7/12)

AP: Judge: NC Voters With Disabilities Can Choose Who Help Them 
A federal judge has blocked North Carolina laws that greatly restrict who can help people with disabilities request absentee ballots, fill them out and return them. A disabled person needing help to vote by mail can now seek assistance from anyone they choose, not just from a close relative or legal guardian as state law has limited, the State Board of Elections told county election officials after the decision filed Monday by U.S. District Judge Terrence Boyle. (Robertson, 7/12)

NBC News: Brain-Eating Amoeba That Infected Swimmer In Iowa Is Increasingly Found In Northern States
The brain-eating amoeba that sickened a Missouri resident who'd recently visited Iowa has been found in Northern states more often in recent years as air and water temperatures rise, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Fieldstadt, 7/12)

The Washington Post: Buttigieg Announces A Bill Of Rights For Passengers With Disabilities
The Department of Transportation on Friday announced its first bill of rights for travelers with disabilities. The document does not establish any policy. It is a summary meant to help travelers “understand and assert their rights” under the Air Carrier Access Act (ACAA) and ensure the airlines and airports uphold them. The law, passed in 1986 under President Ronald Reagan, made it illegal for airlines to discriminate against passengers because of their disabilities. It applies to all flights to, from and within the United States. (Benveniste, 7/12)

Stat: Apgar Scores Are Less Predictive Of Infant Mortality For Black Babies
A standard screening test given to newborns minutes after birth is a less accurate predictor of infant mortality for Black babies than other children, a new study shows, but the authors said the Apgar test should still be used. (Muthukumar, 7/12)

The Washington Post: Sleep Joins The List Of Eight Key Factors For Heart Health
Routinely getting a good night’s sleep has been added to the American Heart Association’s list of key components of cardiovascular health, lengthening the list to eight factors the association believes can lead to a longer, higher-quality life without heart disease. (Searing, 7/12)

NBC News: Honey-Based Sexual Supplements May Contain Cialis And Viagra Ingredients, FDA Warns
The Food and Drug Administration has issued warning letters to four companies selling honey-based supplements that claim to provide sexual enhancement. The products, with names like "Royal Honey for Him" and "X Rated Honey for Men," may contain hidden pharmaceuticals, the FDA said: the active ingredients in Cialis and Viagra. (Lewis, 7/12)

AP: Ukraine Gets $1.7B In Fresh Aid To Pay Health Care Workers 
Ukraine is getting an additional $1.7 billion in assistance from the U.S. government and the World Bank to pay the salaries of its beleaguered health care workers and provide other essential services. The money coming Tuesday from the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Treasury Department and the World Bank is meant to alleviate the acute budget deficit caused by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “brutal war of aggression,” USAID said in a statement. (Hussein, 7/12)

The Washington Post: Mexico’s Lopez Obrador Meets Biden Amid Tension Over Migration, Fentanyl 
The meeting between the two men came a month after Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador boycotted President Joe Biden’s Western Hemisphere summit, and was intended to reflect something of a detente amid rising concerns over migration, trade and the flow of fentanyl across the southwest U.S. border. (Sheridan and Parker, 7/12)

The Washington Post: Move Faster In Aiding Global Food Crisis, Senators Urge 
U.S. food aid is taking months to reach needy nations despite an urgent global food crisis, a bipartisan group of senators said Tuesday, urging the Biden administration to accelerate delivery as the war in Ukraine pushes more countries closer to famine. In a letter to U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Samantha Power, one Democrat and 12 Republican lawmakers said that inadequate stewardship of funding and staffing shortages jeopardized the effectiveness of U.S. efforts against mounting global hunger. (Ryan, 7/12)