First Edition: July 20, 2021

KHN: With a Diagnosis at Last, Black Women with ADHD Start Healing
Miché Aaron has always been a high achiever. The 29-year-old is in her third year of a planetary sciences doctoral program at Johns Hopkins University, where she researches minerals found on Mars. She’s a former NASA space grant scholar and hopes to become an astronaut one day. But last year, Aaron was barely keeping it together — missing classes, late on assignments and struggling to explain that she understood the required material to pass her qualifying exams. Her academic adviser warned that if she didn’t get professional help she would flunk. (Sibonney, 7/20)

KHN: Sen. Wyden: $3.5T Budget May Have To Trim But It Can Set A Path To ‘Ambitious Goals’
Exactly what American health care will look like if Democrats can pass their $3.5 trillion spending plan is unclear, but the senator negotiating its health-related provisions hopes what emerges will be dramatic: the first complete health care system for older Americans and significantly reduced costs for everyone else. “We are setting very, very ambitious goals,” Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) told KHN. “And that’s appropriate because the fact is a lot of challenges have gotten short shrift — and I’m not just talking about the last four years, I’m talking about 10 years.” (McAuliff, 7/20)

KHN: California Makes It Easier For Low-Income Residents To Get And Keep Free Health Coverage 
Getting clean drinking water cost Ignacio Padilla his health insurance. The World War II veteran needed to repay the loan for the water pump installed on his 1-acre property in rural Tulare County, the only source of water to his mobile home. He carefully socked away a few thousand dollars so he could make the payoff — only to find that those savings put him over the asset threshold to remain on Medi-Cal, California’s Medicaid program for low-income people. He was booted from the health insurance program in 2019. ... A provision in California’s newly approved state budget will eliminate the asset test for the 2 million Californians enrolled in both Medi-Cal and Medicare, the federal health insurance program for people 65 and older and people under 65 with certain disabilities. Instead, their financial eligibility will be based solely on income, as it is for the millions of other people in Medi-Cal. (Bluth, 7/20)

USA Today: Biden Softens "They're Killing People" Remark On Facebook Misinformation
President Joe Biden on Monday softened his criticism of Facebook, days after he said the platform is “killing people” because of vaccine misinformation the social media giant allows to circulate on its platform. During an unrelated event on the economy, Biden jumped at the chance to clarify his previous remark, shifting the blame from Facebook to a dozen people he said are circulating most of the misleading claims. “Facebook isn’t killing people,” Biden said in response to a reporter's question. “These 12 people who are out there giving misinformation – anyone listening to it is getting hurt by it.” (Groppe, 7/19)

The Hill: White House Looks To Cool Battle With Facebook
The White House on Monday sought to cool its heated confrontation with Facebook, which had festered over the weekend after President Biden accused the social media giant of “killing people” with misinformation about coronavirus vaccines. The unusual attack by Biden had triggered a tough response from Facebook, and on Monday the president and his aides were clearly looking to bring down the temperature. (Rodrigo and Samuels, 7/19)

The Wall Street Journal: Biden Seeks To Clarify Comments On Facebook, Vaccine Misinformation
White House press secretary Jen Psaki echoed Mr. Biden’s apparent effort to lessen tensions with Facebook. “We’re not in a war or a battle with Facebook. We’re in a battle with the virus,” she told reporters on Monday. Facebook has pushed back aggressively on criticism by Mr. Biden and his senior advisers in recent days, prompting a new level of tension between the social-media company and the U.S. government. (Restuccia, 7/19)

The Washington Post: Facebook Isn't Sharing How Many Americans Viewed Vaccine Misinformation 
Facebook’s back-and-forth with the Biden administration got ugly over the weekend. The social network scrambled to respond to the president’s striking accusation that the company is “killing people” for allowing the spread of misinformation about coronavirus vaccines. Shortly after President Biden’s comments to reporters, Facebook spokeswoman Dani Lever said the company wouldn’t respond to accusations that weren’t “supported by the facts.” ... But Facebook still isn’t sharing a key statistic: how many people have seen vaccine misinformation on the platform. It's part of a broader pattern of little transparency from the company, which has sought to downplay its role in spreading vaccine misinformation amid growing pressure from the White House and the surgeon general. Independent researchers and journalists have pressed the company for years to make more data available so they can study the impact of Facebook on society. (Zakrzewski and Schaffer, 7/19)

USA Today: Twitter Suspends Marjorie Taylor Greene For COVID-19 Misinformation
Twitter said Monday that it had suspended the account of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene for 12 hours. The social media platform suspended the outspoken Georgia Republican around 9 p.m. on Monday for violating its policy after posting misleading two tweets about COVID-19. In two tweets posted Sunday and Monday, Greene said that the coronavirus wasn't dangerous for people under the age of 65 who are not obese, and said vaccines should not be required. (Collins, 7/20)

The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Proposes Raising Penalty For Hospitals That Don’t Publish Prices
The Biden administration on Monday proposed sharply higher penalties for larger hospitals that don’t make their prices public. The proposal would also clamp down on the use of special coding embedded in hospital webpages that prevents Alphabet Inc.’s Google and other search engines from displaying price pages in search results. (Evans, Mathews and McGinty, 7/19)

Modern Healthcare: Biden To Crackdown On Hospital Price Transparency Violations
The Biden administration wants to increase fines for hospitals that are not making clear, accessible pricing information available online, according to CMS' proposed outpatient pay rule on Monday. The agency has proposed increasing the minimum fine for violations of the hospital price transparency rule to $300 per day for hospitals with 30 or fewer beds. Hospitals with more than 30 beds would have to pay $10 per day for each bed up to $5,500 daily. Hospitals could face annual fines of $110,000 to more than $2 million, depending on their size. (Brady, 7/19)

NBC News: As Many As 200 Americans Have Now Reported Possible Symptoms Of 'Havana Syndrome,' Officials Say
As many as 200 Americans have come forward to describe possible symptoms of directed energy attacks, part of a wave of fresh reports that includes newly identified incidents around the world, Western officials say. A U.S. official with knowledge of new potential cases of so-called Havana Syndrome said a steady drumbeat of cables has been coming in from overseas posts reporting new incidents — often multiple times each week. (Dilanian, Lederman and Kube, 7/20)

Politico: GOP: Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal Has 'No Chance' On Wednesday 
In his floor remarks Monday evening, Schumer said the legislation could be amended as early as Thursday if the bipartisan group finalizes legislative text by then. If not, Schumer said the Senate could begin voting on legislation that has passed infrastructure-focused committees with bipartisan support. Schumer said all five Democrats negotiating the bill, including Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), supported his approach. He reiterated that Wednesday's vote is part of a "routine process" and that "it's a sign of good faith from both sides that negotiations will continue in earnest." (Everett and Levine, 7/19)

The New York Times: Biden Legal Team Decides Inmates Must Return To Prison After Covid Emergency 
The Biden administration legal team has decided that thousands of federal convicts who were released to home confinement to reduce the risk of spreading Covid-19 will be required by law to return to prison a month after the official state of emergency for the pandemic ends, according to officials. The administration has come under pressure from criminal justice reform activists and some lawmakers to revoke a Trump-era memo by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, which said inmates whose sentences lasted beyond the “pandemic emergency period” would have to go back to prison. (Savage and Kanno-Youngs, 7/19)

Bloomberg: U.S. Marijuana Legalization Bill Gets A Frosty Reception
The U.S. cannabis industry had eagerly awaited a federal legalization bill that executives, investors and interest groups had hoped would be a panacea for the partisan divide over a hotly contested issue. What they saw last week from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer left many underwhelmed. Cannabis stocks flagged after the bill was unveiled, and critics piled on from all directions. It’s not a surprise that the legislation wouldn’t please everyone, given the controversies around cannabis. Even the bill’s own authors acknowledge shortcomings, saying in a summary of the proposal that there’s still no standard to measure drugged driving, or research on how marijuana affects fetal health, and that limits their ability to be as comprehensive as they’d like. The plan is to fund more research on those and other topics, but that could take years. (Kary, 7/19)

Reuters: Rising Coronavirus Cases Fuel Resurgence Fears As Biden Ramps Up Vaccination Push
Swiftly rising coronavirus cases across the United States and abroad fueled fears of a pandemic resurgence on Monday and sent shockwaves through stock markets as the highly contagious Delta variant appeared to be taking hold. Many of the new outbreaks were in parts of the country where COVID-19 vaccinations have lagged, prompting political leaders to ramp up pressure on reluctant Americans to get the inoculations. (Caspani and Whitcomb, 7/19)

Los Angeles Times: L.A. County Coronavirus Spike Hits Alarming Levels, With 10,000 Infected In A Week, As Delta Variant Spreads
Los Angeles County is now recording more than 10,000 coronavirus cases a week — a pace not seen since March — an alarming sign of the dangers the Delta variant poses to people who have not been vaccinated and heightening pressure on health officials to reverse the trend. A Los Angeles Times data analysis found L.A. County was recording 101 weekly coronavirus cases for every 100,000 residents, up from 12 for the seven-day period that ended June 15. That means the county has surpassed the threshold to have “high” community transmission of the disease, the worst tier as defined by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A region must hit 100 or more weekly cases per 100,000 residents to enter the worst tier. (Lin II, Greene and Suh Lauder, 7/19)

Bay Area News Group: COVID Case Spike Would Land Much Of California Back In Purple Tier
How bad is California’s Delta COVID-19 surge? If the Golden State was still using its four-color reopening blueprint for ranking counties by infection rates, at least a dozen, including Los Angeles, Alameda, Contra Costa and Solano now would be in the most-restrictive purple tier, and many businesses would not be fully open. And that’s using new metrics introduced in March that made it easier for counties with higher case rates to move into lower-restriction tiers once the state reached what it considered equitable vaccination rates. Using the state’s original tier definitions, 29 counties, including San Francisco, now would be purple, which meant that the virus was widespread, a Bay Area News Group analysis found. (Woolfolk and Blair Rowan, 7/19)

NBC News: Jacksonville Hospital Breaks Covid Record In Latest Florida Surge
With the state's Covid-19 cases roughly doubling each week, Florida has become one of the country's biggest hot spots for the latest surge fueled by the highly contagious delta variant, as well as vaccine skepticism. UF Health in Jacksonville said it broke its record for most hospitalized Covid patients Monday. At the start of Sunday, the hospital had 86. At one point Monday, the number reached 126, an increase of more than 40 percent in just one day. (Gutierrez, 7/19)

NBC News: Southern Surge: Hospitals Brace For Wave Of Covid Cases Not Seen In Months
For doctors at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, a rush of new Covid-19 cases and a dwindling availability of beds feels like the hospital is backsliding to how it was at the end of 2020. The latest projections from the school's college of public health suggests statewide Covid hospitalizations will triple in the next two weeks, which would mean a return to a chaotic period when staffing and resources were strained, elective operations were limited and it seemed like there was no end to the crisis in sight. (Ortiz, 7/19)

AP: Health Officer: Mississippi Seeing '4th Wave' Of COVID Cases
Mississippi’s top public health official said Monday that the state is seeing a rapid increase in COVID-19 cases in July. “4th wave is here,” Dr. Thomas Dobbs, the state health officer, wrote on Twitter. The Mississippi State Department of Health said 2,326 new cases of COVID-19 were confirmed Friday through Sunday. That is largest three-day increase of cases reported in the state since February. (Wagster Pettus, 7/19)

Houston Chronicle: Houston Methodist Hospital Records First Lambda Variant As COVID Cases Double Since July 1
COVID-19 hospitalizations at Houston Methodist Hospital have increased by 70 percent over the last week, including a large number of delta variant cases and the hospital's first recorded case of the lambda mutation, the hospital said Monday. As of Monday morning, Methodist was treating 184 people for COVID-19, double the number recorded on July 1, CEO Marc Boom wrote in an email to hospital staff that was shared with the Chronicle. At least one hospitalization was for the lambda variant, the first such case at Methodist. (Downen, 7/19)

Fox News: Common Cholesterol Drug May Reduce COVID-19 Severity, Study Finds
Coronavirus patients taking statins prior to hospitalization substantially reduced their odds of in-hospital death and severe COVID-19, researchers found, confirming earlier findings. Statin drugs are frequently used to lower blood cholesterol levels and prevent cardiovascular disease. A team of scientists from University of California San Diego School of Medicine published findings in PLOS ONE last week, analyzing anonymized records on over 10,500 hospitalized COVID-19 patients admitted across 104 U.S. hospitals between January-September 2020 and enrolled in the American Heart Association’s COVID-19 Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) Registry. (Rivas, 7/19)

AP: Illinois College Boards Suggest Schools Require Vaccination
Two state agencies that oversee higher education in Illinois on Monday encouraged colleges and universities to require COVID-19 vaccinations of students heading to campuses this fall. The Illinois Board of Higher Education and the Illinois Community College Board made the recommendation, which they say follows recently released guidance from the Centers for Disease Control. The state agencies contend the guidance will help facilitate the safe transition back to campus, as more students return to in-person learning. (7/20)

AP: Central Michigan University Sets Vaccine Scholarship Raffle
Students fully vaccinated against COVID-19 at Central Michigan University can enter to win full-year scholarships and hundreds of gift cards, the university announced Monday. The university will name winners Aug. 2 and 23, Sept. 13, and Oct. 4. Each drawing will have 100 students who will get a $75 gift card and one student who will win full-year scholarship equal to 30 domestic undergraduate credit hours or 18 domestic graduate credit hours to be used for the 2021-2022 school year. (7/19)

NBC News: Vaccine Mandates More Likely Once FDA Grants Full Approvals, Health Experts Say
The United States could see a wave of Covid-19 vaccine mandates as soon as the Food and Drug Administration grants full approval to one or more of the shots, public health experts predicted. The three vaccines authorized by the FDA for emergency use against the coronavirus have proven safe and effective under that expedited review process and in the real world, and doctors and the nation's top public health officials have said there's no need for anyone to wait to get inoculated. (Pettypiece, 7/20)

AP: More Than 70% Of Mainers Age 20 And Older Fully Vaccinated
More than 70% of Maine residents age 20 and older are now fully vaccinated against coronavirus. The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday that more than 67% of all the eligible people in the state are fully vaccinated. The number tracks higher for older age groups. It’s more than 80% for Maine residents who are age 50 and older. (7/20)

USA Today: Arkansas, Missouri And NY Discuss Mask Mandates As COVID Cases Spike
Even though the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that vaccinated individuals did not need to wear masks indoors two months ago, experts now are calling for people to "vax it and mask it." Los Angeles County this weekend mandated that people mask indoors, though the county sheriff announced he wouldn't enforce it. Other California counties also recommended mask-wearing indoors. Arkansas, Missouri and New York are weighing mask mandates as cases spike in those states. And the American Academy of Pediatrics issued recommendations Monday for the 2021-22 school year that include everyone older than age 2 wearing masks, regardless of vaccination status. (Aspegren, 7/20)

Bloomberg: NYC Mask Mandates: De Blasio Won't Require Them Inside Despite Delta Variant, LA 
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said he has no plans to renew indoor mask mandates despite a spike in cases stemming from the delta Covid-19 variant and a move by Los Angeles to again require residents to wear masks inside. “The simple answer is no,” de Blasio said when asked about the issue during a Monday briefing. “Masks have value unquestionably, but they’re not going to the root of the problem. Vaccination is.” The seven-day average Covid-19 positivity rate in the city jumped to 1.69% on Saturday, more than double the percentage of residents who tested positive from last month. (Banjo, 7/19)

Newsweek: Kentucky Gov. Pushes For Masks After Fully-Vaxxed Lawmakers Catch COVID Amid Delta Surge
Democratic Governor Andy Beshear of Kentucky issued new coronavirus recommendations Monday pushing for more mask-wearing amid a rise in Kentucky cases, even among the fully-vaccinated, driven by the Delta variant. During a press conference on Monday, Beshear said after months of dropping case rates, Kentucky is now seeing a rise in positive coronavirus cases, likely driven by the more contagious Delta variant. There has also been an increase in hospitalizations. (Pedroja, 7/19)

USA Today: Pediatrics Group Says Kids Should Wear Masks At School
The American Academy of Pediatrics issued recommendations Monday for the 2021-22 school year that include everyone older than age 2 wearing masks, regardless of vaccination status. The academy also "strongly recommends" in-person learning and urges all who are eligible be vaccinated to protect against COVID-19. AAP said it amplifies the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommendations for building ventilation, testing, quarantining, cleaning and disinfection in the updated guidance. (Bacon, Aspegren and Hayes, 7/19)

AP: Review Praised Vaccine Director's Leadership Before Firing 
Before a top Tennessee health official recommended firing the state's former vaccine director over claims that include shortcomings in her leadership, her supervisor had praised her “strong leadership” as recently as last month while her program faced “very intense scrutiny and performance expectations,” according to a state job performance evaluation circulated publicly on her behalf. The interim performance review sheds additional light on the circumstances leading up to the July 12 termination of Dr. Michelle Fiscus, who has spent the last week speaking nationally in rebuttal to a firing she argues was political appeasement for Republican lawmakers who were fuming over the department's COVID-19 vaccine outreach efforts for eligible minors. (Mattise, 7/19)

NPR: Justice Department Blasts Purdue Pharma's Bankruptcy Plan
The U.S. Justice Department is condemning a proposed bankruptcy settlement for Purdue Pharma, the maker of Oxycontin. In court filings Monday, two divisions of the DOJ described the plan as fatally flawed. The DOJ's U.S. Trustee program, which serves as a national watchdog over the federal bankruptcy system, said the deal is unconstitutional and illegal. In a separate brief, the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York said the plan violated the "constitutional right to due process" for those with potential opioid claims. (Mann, 7/19)

ABC News: Justice Department Has 'Concerns' About Purdue Pharma Bankruptcy Exit Plan 
The Justice Department said Monday it has "fundamental concerns" with Purdue Pharma’s plan to exit Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Purdue filed for Chapter 11 protection in 2019 as it faced thousands of lawsuits across the country over its aggressive marketing of OxyContin and other opioid products. (Katersky, 7/19)

Modern Healthcare: Prime Healthcare, Dr. Prem Reddy To Pay $37.5 Million Over Alleged Kickbacks
For-profit Prime Healthcare and two of its doctors have agreed to pay the federal government $37.5 million to settle allegations of kickbacks involving implantable medical devices and the health system's purchase of a surgery center. The settlement agreement announced Monday is a joint resolution with the U.S. Department of Justice and the California Department of Justice. It centers on alleged violations of the federal False Claims Act and California's False Claims Act. (Bannow, 7/19)

Stat: Dutch Authorities Fine Drug Maker $23 Million Over Rare Disease Drug Pricing
Antitrust regulators in the Netherlands have fined a drug maker $23 million for years of “excessive” price hikes for a rare disease medicine, the latest instance in which European authorities cracked down on the pharmaceutical industry for harming consumers and taxpayers. In this case, the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets cited Leadiant for a complicated set of maneuvers that saw prices rise from the equivalent of $54 in early 2009 to more than $16,000 by 2017 (see more here). The escalating cost caused what the agency called a “large public outcry” until a major medical center in Amsterdam eventually made its own, cheaper version available in 2020. (Silverman, 7/19)

Stat: Scott Peters Collected Pharma Cash After Opposing Pelosi Drug Pricing Bill
The very next day after Rep. Scott Peters attempted to torpedo House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s signature drug pricing bill by gathering a cadre of moderates to challenge the measure, pharmaceutical industry executives and lobbyists flooded his campaign with cash, according to campaign finance disclosures. Peters, a California Democrat, made waves in early May when he co-led a letter with nine other moderate Democrats taking a stand against the part of Pelosi’s painstakingly crafted drug pricing bill that would allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices — especially because Peters voted for the same bill in 2019 and 2020. Democrats have control of the House by a narrow margin, so the signatories’ opposition would essentially mean the bill can’t pass as is. Drug lobbyists largely viewed it as a death knell for the package. (Cohrs, 7/20)

Stat: Kadmon Wins Approval For Drug To Treat Chronic Graft-Versus-Host Disease
Kadmon Pharmaceuticals won approval from the Food and Drug Administration on Friday to market a new treatment for chronic graft-versus-host disease — a debilitating immune condition that can affect as many as half of the blood cancer patients who undergo bone marrow transplants. The newly approved drug, called Rezurock, is Kadmon’s first internally developed medicine to reach the market. (Feuerstein, 7/19)

Modern Healthcare: Buyer's Market: Physicians Are Weighing The Best Pitch
Doctors are leveraging a competitive market as more leave their private practices behind. Health systems, insurers, private equity firms, large physician groups and growing for-profit primary-care practices are making their best pitch to lure physicians and their referral networks. "We have to think about all of the choices they have and be competitive," said Renee Buckingham, segment president of Humana's care delivery division. "Most of the doctors expect compensation to be competitive; it is the clinical culture and support capabilities inside our practice that resonates—salary is kind of a given." (Kacik, 7/20)

Modern Healthcare: Artificial Cadavers, Daily Huddles Helping Hospitals Care For Firearm Injuries
Dr. Gainosuke Sugiyama was tucking his son into bed when he got a call: a teenage patient had been unexpectedly dropped off at his hospital's emergency department with multiple gunshot wounds. “I rushed (to the hospital) with a T-shirt and shorts and slippers,” he said. “I literally ran out of the house.” Sugiyama is not a trauma surgeon. He’s chief of general surgery at Northwell’s Long Island Jewish Valley Stream (N.Y.) hospital, and can typically be found performing a range of procedures like appendectomies and bowel obstruction surgeries. (Kim Cohen, 7/20)

Modern Healthcare: Hospitals Tackling Gun Violence As A Public Health Issue
The "surge in gun violence" spurred President Joe Biden in June to introduce a new strategy to target gun crime prevention and response — including encouraging local governments to scale up "wraparound services" for crime victims and calling on Congress to allocate billions of dollars toward community-based violence intervention programs that provide such services among other measures related to gun control. Some hospitals have already taken on that mantle, launching programs that link patients with mental health services, community resources and other follow-up care in the aftermath of a firearm injury, with a goal of reducing future violent injuries by encouraging patients to change behaviors that might lead them down a similar path or to retaliate against the person who injured them. (Kim Cohen, 7/20)

The New York Times: Heart Failure Tied To Increased Cancer Risk, Study Finds 
People with heart failure may be at increased risk for cancer. Cancer patients are usually monitored for heart failure because some cancer drugs can damage the heart. Now a new study suggests that heart failure patients, who may live for many years with the condition, might benefit by being monitored for cancer. (Bakalar, 7/19)

CIDRAP: CDC Reports Salmonella Tied To Lettuce Salad, Other Foodborne Outbreaks
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) yesterday reported a two-state outbreak involving eight Salmonella cases linked to BrightFarms Sunny Crunch lettuce salad that was produced in Rochelle, Illinois. The cases are in Wisconsin and Illinois, and the salad was distributed in "at least" Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, and Wisconsin, the CDC said. The outbreak strain is Salmonella Typhimurium. Sick people range in age from 31 to 61 years, with a median age of 46, and five are women. Illness-onset dates range from Jun 10 to 15. No hospitalizations or deaths were reported. The CDC is advising people not to eat, sell, or serve BrightFarms brand Sunny Crunch salad. (7/16)

AP: Study: Wildfire Smoke May Add To COVID-19 Risk
Nevada-based scientists argue in a new study that wildfire smoke may increase the risk of contracting the coronavirus. A study published last week by scientists at the Desert Research Institute found that coronavirus infection rates increased disproportionately during wildfire season in 2020, when smoke from fires in neighboring states blanketed much of northern Nevada. (Metz, 7/19)

The Washington Post: Extreme Heat Bakes West Amid Elevated Fire Danger, Drought 
For the fourth time in the past month and a half, a strong heat wave is roasting parts of the western U.S., as wildfires run amok. High-temperature records could fall in parts of the northern Rockies on Monday, where the most exceptional lobe of warmth is concentrated. There are signs that the seemingly unrelenting heat that has proved a staple of summer 2021 won’t be going anywhere anytime soon, with prolonged hot, dry conditions likely for weeks over large areas of the western Lower 48. (Cappucci, 7/19)

ABC News: Soon-To-Be Youngest American In Space Shares How Surviving Cancer Helped Prepare Her For Mission 
Hayley Arceneaux's dreams of becoming an astronaut were crushed after being diagnosed with pediatric bone cancer at 10 years old, but now she's set to go to space in the world's first all-civilian mission to orbit Earth. Now, the 29-year-old St. Jude Children's Research Hospital physician assistant is set to make history as the youngest American, first pediatric cancer survivor, and person with a prosthesis to go to space as one of the crew members in SpaceX's Inspiration4 mission. (Rosa, 7/19)

Houston Chronicle: Gov. Abbott Plans To Ban Gender-Affirming Medical Care For Transgender Youth
Lacking the support to advance such a proposal in the state Legislature, Gov. Greg Abbott says he has found another way to stop transgender children from receiving gender-affirming medical care. The Texas Legislature had considered a bill to ban transition-related health care for minors during the regular session. It passed the Senate but died in the House of Representatives in May — at the time, a temporary relief for activists who decried the legislation as an unnecessary attack on transgender youth. “I have another way of achieving the exact same thing, and it’s about a finished product as we speak right now and may be announced as soon as this week,” Abbott told Mark Davis, a conservative radio talk show host, in an interview Monday morning. (Harris, 7/19)

San Francisco Chronicle: Newsom Bans Sending Foster Youth To Faraway Treatment Programs After Chronicle Abuse Investigation
California has banned the practice of sending foster youth and teens charged with crimes to faraway residential treatment programs, following a Chronicle investigation into reports of violent abuse at some of these out-of-state campuses. The policy change, signed into law last week by Gov. Gavin Newsom, commits $100 million over five years to create new programs closer to home for these vulnerable children and teenagers. (Palomino and Tiano, 7/19)

The Washington Post: State Department, CDC Warn Against United Kingdom Travel As Coronavirus Cases Surge, Restriction Lift 
The U.S. government issued its most severe warnings against travel to Britain this week as coronavirus cases there soared to the highest levels in months and authorities in England scrapped nearly all remaining restrictions in a bid to restart the economy. The State Department and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday urged all Americans to avoid visiting the country. “Even fully vaccinated travelers may be at risk for getting and spreading COVID-19 variants,” the CDC said in an updated travel notice. (Cunningham, 7/20)

Reuters: UK PM Johnson Dismissed COVID-19 Lockdown As Only Elderly Would Die, Ex-Aide Says
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was not prepared to impose lockdown restrictions to stop the spread of COVID-19 to save the elderly and denied the National Health Service would be overwhelmed, his former top adviser said in an interview aired on Monday. In his first TV interview since leaving his job last year, excerpts of which were released on Monday, Dominic Cummings said Johnson did not want to impose a second lockdown in the autumn last year because "the people who are dying are essentially all over 80". (MacAskill, 7/20)

NBC News: Canada Will Open Its Borders To Fully Vaccinated Americans On Aug. 9
Canada will allow fully vaccinated Americans to enter the country in just three weeks, authorities said Monday. U.S. citizens who have been vaccinated for at least 14 days and meet other entry requirements may cross the northern border starting at 12:01 a.m. on Aug. 9, the Public Health Agency of Canada said. (Li, 7/19)

CBS News: Biden Administration To Send 3 Million Vaccine Doses To Guatemala 
The U.S. plans to announce Monday that it is sending 3 million doses of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine to Guatemala, according to a White House official. This shipment is going to the Central American country Monday as a part of an agreement between the U.S. and Guatemala and will arrive on Tuesday, the official said. The Biden administration has already sent millions of doses to Guatemala, a country at the forefront of the immigration debate. The last batch of 1.5 million doses arrived on July 8 in Guatemala City. (Gomez and O'Keefe, 7/19)

AP: Research: India's Deaths During Pandemic 10X Official Toll
India’s excess deaths during the pandemic could be a staggering 10 times the official COVID-19 toll, likely making it modern India’s worst human tragedy, according to the most comprehensive research yet on the ravages of the virus in the south Asian country. Most experts believe India’s official toll of more than 414,000 dead is a vast undercount, but the government has dismissed those concerns as exaggerated and misleading. (Saaliq and Pathi, 7/20)

AP: Total COVID-19 Cases Rise To 71 At Tokyo Olympics
An American gymnast and a Czech beach volleyball player were added to the tally Tuesday of people accredited for the Tokyo Olympics who have tested positive for COVID-19 this month. Tokyo Olympics organizers said 71 people have now tested positive. The total includes 31 people among the tens of thousands of international visitors expected in Japan to compete or work at the Games, which open Friday. Positive tests for United States gymnastics alternate Kara Eaker and Czech team member Ondřej Perušič were announced Monday. Eaker was at a training camp in Chiba prefecture and Perušič stayed at the Olympic Village in Tokyo Bay. (7/20)

The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Women’s Gymnastics Alternate Tests Positive For Covid-19 At Tokyo Olympics 
USA Gymnastics said that after the Covid protocols for the Games were reviewed, the local government put the gymnast who tested positive and one other additional alternate gymnast into quarantine. Neither athlete was named. The father of 18-year-old Kara Eaker confirmed on Monday that his daughter was the gymnast who had tested positive. Mark Eaker said in a text message that Kara had been vaccinated under the two-dose Pfizer regimen, and was not currently experiencing any symptoms. (Radnofsky and Beaton, 7/19)

AP: Olympic Athletes Test Positive In Tokyo Days Before Games 
A third athlete at the Olympic Village in Tokyo has tested positive for COVID-19, with the Czech Republic team reporting the case Monday of a beach volleyball player who could miss his first game. Czech beach volleyball player Ondřej Perušič could miss his opening game on Monday after a PCR test confirmed his infection. Perušič and his playing partner are due to the begin their Olympic program against a team from Latvia. (Dunbar, 7/19)

AP: Samuelson Tests Positive For COVID-19, Out Of Olympics 
Katie Lou Samuelson is out of 3-on-3 basketball at the Olympics after contracting COVID-19 while training in Las Vegas. “I will not be able to go and compete in Tokyo," Samuelson said in a statement. "Competing in the Olympics has been a dream of mine since I was a little girl and I hope someday soon I can come back to realize that dream. I am especially heartbroken as I am fully vaccinated and took every precaution, but I know everything will work itself out in the way it’s supposed to. I wish nothing but the best to my USAB teammates as they go out there and crush it. I’ll be cheering you in every step of the way.” (Feinberg, 7/19)

Reuters: Athletes' Village COVID-19 Infection Bubble Already 'Broken' - Health Expert
The so-called bubble to control COVID-19 infections at the Olympic athletes' village in Tokyo is already "broken" and poses a risk of spreading infections to the general populace, a prominent public health expert said on Tuesday. Games officials on Sunday reported the first COVID-19 case among competitors in the village in Tokyo where 11,000 athletes are expected to stay. There have been 67 cases detected among those accredited for the Games since July 1, organisers said on Tuesday. (Swift, 7/20)