First Edition: July 14, 2022

KHN: Rural Hospital Rescue Program Is Met With Skepticism From Administrators 
In West Texas, the tiny hospital in Crosbyton has only two beds, and they’re not always occupied. “We rarely admit patients,” said Steve Beck, chief executive of the hospital, which is 40 miles east of Lubbock and serves a town of about 1,500 residents. The hospital has trouble keeping staff, and “we’re lacking in technology and expertise,” he said. And money. (Tribble and Leys, 7/14)

KHN: Kids Want To Put Montana On Trial For Unhealthy Climate Policies
For her birthday every October, Grace Gibson-Snyder and her family explore the Lamar Valley just inside the northern border of Yellowstone National Park. Carved long ago by meandering glaciers, the valley is home to bison and bald eagles, grizzly bears and gray wolves. Gibson-Snyder has seen them all. She calls it “my favorite place.” “I know how special it is to have this in my life,” said Gibson-Snyder, an 18-year-old from Missoula, Montana, “and I don’t want it to go away.” (Ehli, 7/14)

KHN: ‘American Diagnosis’: A Tribal Court In California Works To Heal Family Separation 
Abby Abinanti is chief judge of the Yurok Tribal Court and a member of the tribe. While previously working in the California court system, she was discouraged and angered by the number of cases in which Indigenous families were separated or tribal members were removed from their communities because of nontribal foster care placements or incarceration. The Prison Policy Initiative, a research and advocacy organization, found that Native people are overrepresented in jails in the United States. (7/14)

The Washington Post: FDA Authorizes Novavax Coronavirus Vaccine, Adding To Pandemic Arsenal 
U.S. regulators Wednesday authorized the nation’s fourth coronavirus vaccine, a shot developed by Novavax, a Maryland biotechnology company that has been a straggler in the vaccine race. For a relatively small niche of people who want to be vaccinated, but can’t or won’t take existing vaccines, Wednesday’s decision by the Food and Drug Administration has been impatiently awaited. Some people are allergic to an ingredient in messenger RNA vaccines or simply prefer the more traditional technology at the core of Novavax’s shot, which is the United States’ first protein-based vaccine. (Johnson, 7/13)

NBC News: FDA Authorizes Novavax's Covid Vaccine
The FDA’s signoff isn’t the last step: The decision will now to go the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and its advisory committee to issue their own recommendation on how the shots should be used. The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices is scheduled to meet on July 19. (Lovelace Jr., 7/13)

Politico: Novavax Covid-19 Vaccine Wins FDA Authorization 
In a trial of more than 26,000 adults in the U.S. and Mexico, two doses of the Novavax Covid vaccine were more than 90 percent effective at preventing symptomatic disease. For adults 65 and older, effectiveness was more than 78 percent. There were no serious side effects or safety concerns, including for the approximately 21,000 adults who were followed for more than two months after their second shot. (Foley and Lim, 7/13)

The New York Times: U.S. Tells Pharmacists Not To Withhold Pills That Can Cause Abortion 
The Biden administration warned the nation’s 60,000 retail pharmacies on Wednesday that they risk violating federal civil rights law if they refuse to fill prescriptions for pills that can induce abortion — the second time this week that it has used its executive authority to set up showdowns with states where abortion is now illegal. In four pages of guidance, the federal Department of Health and Human Services ticked off a series of conditions — including miscarriage, stomach ulcers and ectopic pregnancy — that are commonly treated with drugs that can induce abortion. It warned that failing to dispense such pills “may be discriminating” on the basis of sex or disability. (Stolberg, 7/13)

The Washington Post: Federal Officials Warn Pharmacists About Denying Abortion Medication 
Under the guidance issued Wednesday, officials pointed to federal civil rights laws, including provisions in the Affordable Care Act, that they said prohibit pharmacists from making their own decisions about the suitability of a prescribed medication for patients, as well as other situations that they said would constitute discrimination against patients. For instance, a woman who experiences a miscarriage may be prescribed drugs such as mifepristone and misoprostol, and health officials warned pharmacists against refusing to fill those prescriptions. (Diamond, 7/13)

Columbus Dispatch: Arrest Made In Rape Of Ohio Girl That Led To Indiana Abortion Drawing International Attention
A Columbus man has been charged with impregnating a 10-year-old Ohio girl, whose travel to Indiana to seek an abortion led to international attention following the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v Wade and activation of Ohio's abortion law. Gerson Fuentes, 27, whose last known address was an apartment on Columbus' Northwest Side, was arrested Tuesday after police say he confessed to raping the child on at least two occasions. He's since been charged with rape, a felony of the first degree in Ohio. (Bruner, Trombly and Cook, 7/13)

NPR: A Rape, An Abortion, And A One-Source Story: A Child's Ordeal Becomes News 
A July 1 news report that a pregnant ten-year-old girl from Ohio sought an abortion in neighboring Indiana has drawn intense national attention in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling last month striking down Roe v. Wade. Abortion rights proponents — including President Biden — pointed to the incident as evidence of the cruel consequences of the Court's decision. But in the initial absence of any public corroborating details beyond an Indianapolis obstetrician's account, opponents of abortion rights repeatedly cast doubt on whether the incident happened at all. ... The episode illustrates the high stakes of both the new legal landscape on abortion and of reporting in an age of deep political polarization and mistrust of major news outlets. (Folkenflik and McCammon, 7/13)

Politico: Republican AG Says He'll Investigate Indiana Doctor Who Provided Care To 10-Year-Old Rape Victim 
Indiana’s Republican attorney general said on Wednesday that his office planned to investigate the Indiana doctor who helped a 10-year-old rape victim who crossed state lines to have an abortion. Dr. Caitlin Bernard, an obstetrician-gynecologist in Indianapolis, has told multiple outlets that she provided care to the 10-year-old after a child abuse doctor in Ohio contacted her. The child was six weeks and three days into the pregnancy, Bernard said. After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last month, a wave of state-level abortion restrictions took effect, including in Ohio, a state that bans abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy, with no exceptions for rape or incest. (Ward, 7/13)

AP: Arizona Attorney General Asks Court To Unblock Abortion Ban 
Arizona’s Republican attorney general on Wednesday asked a court to lift an injunction blocking the enforcement of a law that bans all abortions except when the life of the mother is at risk. The filing from Attorney General Mark Brnovich asks a court in Tucson to lift an order in place since shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1973′s Roe v. Wade case that abortions are a constitutional right. (Christie, 7/14)

The Boston Globe: Mass. House, Senate At Odds Over Later-Term Abortion Law
The Massachusetts Senate on Wednesday followed the House in passing a wide-ranging abortion rights bill in the wake of the Supreme Court overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade decision. But Democratic leaders must now wrestle with thorny differences, particularly in what circumstances to allow later-term abortions, a disagreement that could complicate the late-session scramble to expand the state’s already extensive reproductive rights law. (Stout, 7/13)

AP: Missouri's Answer To Abortion Law Questions: Don't Ask Us 
The Parson administration’s response to questions from Missouri hospitals, doctors and others about what’s legal under the state’s new abortion ban is to tell people to read the law and otherwise leave it to prosecutors to interpret. The state health department released a factsheet on the law Wednesday following questions and confusion since the abortion ban kicked in when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last month. (Ballentine, 7/13)

The Washington Post: Texas Abortion Provider Alan Braid Will Reopen Clinics In Ill., N.M.
A high-profile abortion provider is opening new clinics in Illinois and New Mexico and shuttering his two clinics in Oklahoma and Texas, where abortion has been banned in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. Alan Braid, who defied the Texas abortion ban last fall, selected locations most accessible to patients who can no longer access the procedure in their home states. One of his clinics, in Albuquerque will be located near a major airport, while the other, in Carbondale, Ill., will open 24 miles from Illinois’ southern border, within striking distance of the vast abortion deserts spreading throughout the Southeast and Midwest. (Kitchener, 7/13)

The New York Times: House Passes Bill To Expand Health Benefits For Burn Pit Exposure 
It would be one of the largest expansions of veterans benefits in the history of the Department of Veterans Affairs, said Denis McDonough, the agency’s secretary, on par with the Agent Orange Act that broadened access for Vietnam War veterans exposed to the toxic substance that was used as an herbicide and endangered generations of Laotians. (Lai and Ismay, 7/13)

CNN: House Passes Amended Burn Pit Legislation 
The House on Wednesday passed long-awaited legislation that would help millions of veterans who were exposed to toxic burn pits during their military service. The bill, which removes the burden on veterans to prove that their toxic exposure resulted in certain harmful conditions, passed the House in a 342-88 vote, correcting a legislative snag that had held up the legislation through the July Fourth recess. (Dean, Foran and Mizelle, 7/13)

Roll Call: Compromise Veterans Bill Passes House, Heads Back To Senate 
The revised bill drops the Senate-passed tax provision, though House members expressed frustration with the additional time and effort needed to get the bill to President Joe Biden’s desk. “Our veterans do not have the time for technicalities. Their lives are literally on the line," Rep. Raul Ruiz, D-Calif., said during floor debate. (Lerman, 7/13)

AP: Masks Could Return To Los Angeles As COVID Surges Nationwide
Los Angeles County, home to 10 million residents, is facing a return to a broad indoor mask mandate later this month if current trends in hospital admissions continue, county health Director Barbara Ferrer said this week. (Johnson and Weber, 7/14)

Modern Healthcare: Health Systems Watch For Next COVID Surge Amid Rising Cases
The strains, including BA.4, BA.5 and, most recently, BA.2.75, are highly transmissible, evading vaccines and immune responses. The seven-day moving average for new cases topped 118,000 this week, compared with about 31,000 cases three months ago, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Recent case numbers are largely underreported, however, because of the availability of at-home tests. (Hudson, 7/13)

AP: Experts Rue Simple Steps Not Taken Before Latest COVID Surge 
“It’s well past the time when the warning could have been put out there,” said Dr. Eric Topol, head of the Scripps Research Translational Institute, who has has called BA.5 “the worst variant yet.” ... Ali Mokdad, a professor of health metrics sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle, said federal health officials need to be push harder on masks indoors, early detection and prompt antiviral treatment. “They are not doing all that they can,” Mokdad said. (Johnson, 7/13)

Politico: Low Demand For Young Kids’ Covid Vaccines Is Alarming Doctors 
States where parents have hesitated to inoculate their children against Covid-19 are now ordering fewer doses of the vaccines for children under 5 than others, underscoring the challenge facing the Biden administration as a highly transmissible variant sweeps the nation. (Mahr and Gardner, 7/14)

CIDRAP: Study: Kids Have Stronger COVID-19 Antibody Response Than Adults
A new prospective study of 252 families with members diagnosed as having mild COVID-19 in Italy finds that, while all age-groups had detectable SARS-CoV-2 antibodies up to 1 year after infection, children—especially those younger than 3 years—had higher antibody levels than adults at all intervals tested. (Van Beusekom, 7/13)

CIDRAP: Co-Infection With Influenza Could Suppress Replication Of SARS-CoV-2
A study yesterday in the Journal of Virology suggests that, while co-infection with influenza A and SARS-CoV-2 does not change the trajectory of influenza A, contracting influenza A first could suppress any COVID-19 infection caused by SARS-CoV-2. (7/13)

The Washington Post: Nearly 800,000 Doses Of Monkeypox Vaccine May Be In U.S. By End Of July 
Nearly 800,000 more doses of monkeypox vaccine could be ready for distribution in the United States by the end of July following a Food and Drug Administration inspection of a Danish vaccine plant and the expected authorization of the facility, part of an effort to control a record U.S. outbreak of the disease, according to the federal government. About 780,000 doses are at the supplier in Denmark, according to the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the national stockpile where the vaccines are maintained. The shots have been stored in Denmark awaiting the completion of the FDA on-the-ground inspection and authorization. (Sun and McGinley, 7/13)

USA Today: Monkeypox Vaccines In Short Supply At Public Health Clinics Across US
As lines stretched around the block at San Francisco General Hospital with people waiting to get vaccinated against monkeypox, public health officials said Wednesday the city had only 50 remaining doses. (Weise, 7/13)

AP: Demand For Monkeypox Vaccine Overwhelms NYC System
Soaring demand for the monkeypox vaccine caused the appointment system to crash in New York City, one of many places where supplies have been running out almost as soon as they arrive. City health officials acknowledged the frustration over the limited supply of the vaccine and vowed to build a “stable appointment infrastructure” as the vaccine supply increases. (Calvan, 7/13)

Bay Area News Group: Bay Area Seeing Uptick In Monkeypox Cases As Vaccine Supplies Run Dry
Monkeypox infections are steadily rising in much of the Bay Area, with nearly 100 cases diagnosed among six counties in the region as of Wednesday, mirroring a national trend as the vaccine supply to combat the growing global outbreak remains critically low. “There’s a tremendous need but it is not being met,” said UC Berkeley epidemiologist John Swartzberg of the dwindling supply of vaccines from the federal government. (Greschler, 7/13)

AP: Bill Gates Gives $20 Billion To Stem 'Significant Suffering'
Bill Gates, concerned about the “significant suffering” caused by global setbacks including the COVID-19 pandemic, announced Wednesday that he will donate $20 billion to his foundation so it can increase its annual spending. The donation, combined with longtime board member Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett’s $3.1 billion gift last month, brings The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s endowment to approximately $70 billion, making it one of the largest, if not the largest in the world, depending on daily stock valuations. (Gamboa, 7/13)

AP: St. Jude Expanding Investment For Research, Additional Jobs
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital is increasing its investment by $1.4 billion for a strategic plan that includes programs advancing the study and treatment of pediatric cancer and other catastrophic diseases, the hospital said Wednesday. The additional funding is part of a six-year expansion plan that launched last year, and it will raise the six-year operating and capital budget to $12.9 billion, the Memphis, Tennessee-based hospital said in a news release. (Sainz, 7/13)

Modern Healthcare: NewYork-Presbyterian Invests $15M In AI Partnership
The program will bring together physicians and researchers from NewYork-Presbyterian, Cornell Tech and Cornell Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science. NewYork-Presbyterian is providing $15 million in funding for the program over three years. (Kim Cohen, 7/13)

Modern Healthcare: Molina To Buy Insurer My Choice Wisconsin
Molina Healthcare plans to acquire a Medicaid managed care organization in Wisconsin for about $150 million, the insurer said Wednesday. Under terms of the agreement, Long Beach, California-based Molina said it will purchase substantially all the assets of My Choice Wisconsin. (Kim Cohen, 7/13)

AP: Officials Call For Hearings On Proposed Insurance Increases
Democrats and Republicans called Wednesday for special hearings to be held on proposed double-digit rate increases being sought by nine health insurers that offer coverage on and off the state’s Access Health CT exchange. (7/13)

AP: NC Health Plan Resumes Coverage Of Transgender Surgeries
The North Carolina state employee health plan will resume coverage of gender affirming treatments for transgender employees, the state treasurer said Wednesday, complying with a recent federal court ruling that declared the refusal of coverage unconstitutional. (Schoenbaum, 7/13)

Houston Chronicle: Nearly 200K Disabled Texans Are Waiting For Help, Some For A Decade
Texas has multiple waiting lists for different types of care, including six for Medicaid waiver programs — which use state and federal funds to get people care in the community instead of in an institution — and one for safety net services provided locally. As of March, nearly 170,000 people were waiting for care through a Medicaid waiver program — a 115 percent increase since 2010. State data shows that some residents have been waiting for nearly 20 years to receive help. (Stuckey, 7/13)

AP: Oregon Therapeutic Psilocybin Program Sparks Some Confusion
In 2020, Oregon became the first state in the nation to legalize the therapeutic, supervised use of psilocybin after 56% of voters approved Ballot Measure 109. Psilocybin is the active hallucinogenic ingredient in what are commonly referred to as magic mushrooms. But the measure allows counties to opt out of the program if their constituents vote to do so, and several are hoping to do just that, sparking confusion among residents hoping to get involved in the nascent sector. (Rush, 7/14)

AP: Relaxed Methadone Rules Appear Safe, Researchers Find
As the coronavirus pandemic shut down the nation in March of 2020, the U.S. government told methadone clinics they could allow stable patients with opioid addiction to take their medicine at home unsupervised. Methadone, an opioid itself, can be dangerous in large amounts and most patients are required to take the liquid medicine daily at clinics. It wasn’t clear whether the relaxed take-home policy would cause more harm than good. Now, a new study of fatal overdoses from January 2019 to August 2021 suggests that easing access was safe. It did not lead to more deaths involving the treatment drug. (Johnson, 7/13)

The Boston Globe: West Nile Virus Detected In Mosquitoes Eastern Massachusetts
Mosquitoes carrying the West Nile virus have been detected in Massachusetts for the first time this year, state public health officials said on Wednesday. (Fonseca, 7/13)

CIDRAP: CDC Urges Clinicians To Be On Alert For Parechovirus In Babies
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) yesterday sent a Health Alert Network (HAN) advisory to health providers warning that parechovirus (PeV), a childhood pathogen with infections ranging from asymptomatic to severe, is circulating in the United States. Since May, multiple states have reported PeV infections in newborns and young infants. (7/13)

Houston Chronicle: Houston Health Officials Found Dioxin Near Kashmere Gardens Creosote Treatment Site
The Houston Health Department has discovered dioxin, a powerful toxic chemical, in a soil sample collected in the Kashmere Gardens neighborhood, the city of Houston said on Wednesday. The sample was taken from soil near a former Union Pacific Railroad creosote treatment facility, the city said in a press release. Residents and activists, as well as city and county leaders, have called for more clean-up actions to be taken at the site since a cancer cluster was discovered there in 2019. (Wayne Ferguson, 7/13)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: White House Infrastructure Czar Visits Milwaukee To Talk Lead Pipes
President Joe Biden's infrastructure czar Mitch Landrieu made a stop in Milwaukee to tout the benefits of the $1.2 trillion federal infrastructure plan for the city. Landrieu's visit came as city officials hope to use money from infrastructure plan to significantly speed up lead lateral replacements in an effort to ensure clean drinking water and combat Milwaukee's longstanding problem of lead poisoning among children. (Spicuzza and Dirr, 7/12)

The New York Times: Florida Company Recalls Ice Cream Linked To Listeria Outbreak, F.D.A. Says 
A Florida business is recalling its ice cream amid an investigation into a listeria outbreak that has been blamed for the death of one person and the hospitalization of two dozen, the Food and Drug Administration said on Wednesday. The company, Big Olaf Creamery, a family-owned business in Sarasota, Fla., recalled all flavors of its ice cream with expiration dates through June 30 “because it has the potential to be contaminated” with listeria bacteria, the F.D.A. said. (Medina, 7/13)

CBS News: Facebook Marketplace Rife With Banned, Recalled Products, Regulator Says
"CPSC staff has found that such consumer products constitute a serious threat to the health and lives of consumers, including infants and toddlers, and are appearing with regular frequency on Facebook Marketplace," CPSC Chair Alex Hoehn-Saric stated in a letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. (Gibson, 7/13)

Bay Area News Group: Campbell School District Becomes First In California To Screen All Student Athletes For Heart Conditions
Student athletes in the Campbell Union High School District will now be screened for heart conditions this school year through a partnership with a Los Gatos-based nonprofit. The district’s board of trustees partnered with the Kyle J. Taylor Foundation to screen its student athletes in grades 9 and 11 for heart abnormalities or conditions to prevent sudden cardiac arrest. (Kanik, 7/13)

Stat: Study: Treatment For Fatal Condition In Newborns Fails To Improve Outcomes
For babies born with hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, commonly called birth asphyxia, doctors have limited options. And a treatment that many had hoped would be effective turns out not to be. (Chen, 7/13)

AP: Amid COVID Worries, Fist Bumps For Biden — With Exceptions 
The White House said President Joe Biden would try to limit physical contact during his Middle East trip because of concern about rising COVID-19 cases — but the president swiftly reverted to his old-school, back-slapping ways after landing in Israel on Wednesday. ... The issue of contact is arising amid intense speculation about Biden’s upcoming meeting with leaders in Saudi Arabia and whether he will shake hands with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who U.S. intelligence officials said probably sanctioned the killing of a critic. The ostensible COVID-19 rule could give Biden cover to avoid a potentially problematic image with the crown prince. (Madhani and Boak, 7/13)

Bloomberg: New Zealanders Urged To Wear Masks As Winter Covid Wave Hits
New Zealand’s government is urging people to wear masks and test for Covid-19 more frequently as a winter wave of infections puts the health system under pressure. (Brockett, 7/14)