First Edition: July 23, 2021

KHN: Facing Headwinds On New Alzheimer’s Drug, Biogen Launches Controversial Campaign
Do you sometimes lose your train of thought or feel a bit more anxious than is typical for you? Those are two of the six questions in a quiz on a website co-sponsored by the makers of Aduhelm, a controversial new Alzheimer’s drug. But even when all responses to the frequency of those experiences are “never,” the quiz issues a “talk to your doctor” recommendation about the potential need for additional cognitive testing. (Appleby, 7/23)

KHN: After 18 Months, Sutter Antitrust Settlement Finally Poised For Formal Approval
More than 18 months after Sutter Health agreed to a tentative settlement in a closely watched antitrust case joined by the California Attorney General’s Office, the judge presiding over the case indicated she would sign off on the terms, pending agreement on attorney fees. The nonprofit health care giant, based in Sacramento, stood accused of violating California’s antitrust laws by using its market dominance to drive up prices. The settlement is expected to have nationwide implications on how hospital systems negotiate prices with insurers. (Gold, 7/22)

KHN: Contraception Is Free To Women, Except When It’s Not 
For Stephanie Force, finding a birth control method that she likes and can get without paying out-of-pocket has been a struggle, despite the Affordable Care Act’s promise of free contraceptives for women and adolescent girls in most health plans. The 27-year-old physician recruiter in Roanoke, Virginia, was perfectly happy with the NuvaRing, a flexible vaginal ring that women insert monthly to release hormones to prevent pregnancy. But her insurer, Anthem, stopped covering the branded product and switched her to a generic version in early 2020. Force said the new product left her with headaches and feeling irritable and short-tempered. (Andrews, 7/23)

KHN: KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: Delta Changes The Covid Conversation
The resurgence of covid cases in the U.S. — largely attributable to the much more contagious delta variant — has given policymakers the jitters. The Biden administration is redoubling efforts to get people vaccinated, and even some Republicans who had been silent or skeptical of the vaccines are encouraging the unvaccinated to change their status. Meanwhile, it’s not just covid that’s shortening U.S. life expectancy. Nearly 100,000 people died of drug overdoses in 2020, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This week a multibillion-dollar settlement among states, drugmakers and distributors could funnel funding to fight the opioid scourge. (7/22)

KHN: Readers And Tweeters Connect The Dots On Topics From Vaccine Development To Long Covid
KHN gives readers a chance to comment on a recent batch of stories. (7/23)

The New York Times: Mississippi Asks Supreme Court To Overrule Roe V. Wade
Calling Roe v. Wade “egregiously wrong,” Mississippi’s attorney general urged the Supreme Court on Thursday to do away with the constitutional right to abortion and to sustain a state law that bans most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. The court will hear arguments in the case in the fall, giving its newly expanded conservative majority a chance to confront what may be the most divisive issue in American law: whether the Constitution protects the right to end pregnancies. (Liptak, 7/22)

USA Today: Abortion: Mississippi Asks Supreme Court To Overturn Roe V. Wade
Mississippi officials pressed the Supreme Court to overturn its landmark Roe v. Wade decision as an expected flurry of written arguments got underway Thursday in one of the most closely watched abortion cases in years. The high court agreed in May to hear a challenge to Mississippi's ban on most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, giving its new, six-member conservative majority a chance to roll back the 1973 ruling that women have a constitutional right to abortion. In their sharpest framing of the blockbuster dispute since the appeal was filed at the Supreme Court more than a year ago, Mississippi noted the text of the Constitution does not mention abortion and argued that adherence to Roe was "dangerously corrosive to our constitutional system." (Fritze, 7/22)

Politico: Mississippi Asks Supreme Court To Overturn Roe V. Wade 
“The national fever on abortion can break only when this Court returns abortion policy to the states,” Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch writes in the brief, arguing that the country has changed so much since Roe was decided that the court needs to reopen the issue. “In 1973, there was little support for women who wanted a full family life and a successful career,” she wrote. “Maternity leave was rare. Paternity leave was unheard of. The gold standard for professional success was a 9-to-5 with a corner office. The flexibility of the gig economy was a fairy tale.” (Ollstein and Gerstein, 7/22)

The Wall Street Journal: Mississippi Asks Supreme Court To End Roe V. Wade Abortion Rights
In May, the Supreme Court agreed to hear Mississippi’s appeal of a 2019 appeals court decision striking down a state law prohibiting abortions after the 15th week of pregnancy. The case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, is to be argued after the court’s new term begins in October, with a decision expected by next summer. (Bravin, 7/22)

The Hill: White House Announces New Funds For COVID-19 Testing And Vaccination Amid Delta Surge 
The administration announced the release of about $100 million for rural health clinics to do vaccine outreach, given that many rural areas have lower vaccination rates and local health clinics can be a trusted source of information about vaccines. “This funding will give trusted messengers in rural communities the tools they need to counsel patients on how COVID-19 vaccines can help protect them and their loved ones," said Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra. (Sullivan, 7/22)

NBC News: White House Boosts Funding For Covid Tests As Infections Continue To Surge
The Biden administration is accelerating investments in Covid-19 testing to combat a fourth wave of infections washing over states and regions with low vaccination rates as those rates stall and some people resist a return to mask mandates, three administration officials said. The administration said Thursday that it is directing $1.6 billion in Covid testing to high-risk settings like prisons and homeless and domestic violence shelters, the officials said. The administration announced a $398 million boost in funding for small rural hospitals last week for testing and reducing infection. (Przybyla, 7/22)

The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Vaccine Panel Signals Preliminary Support For Covid-19 Booster Shots
A panel of health experts advising the U.S. government on vaccines expressed preliminary support for giving Covid-19 boosters to immunocompromised people, but said they were waiting for regulatory action before making a formal recommendation. A work group of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices panel also on Thursday endorsed the continued use of J&J’s vaccine, despite a recent warning about a low risk of a rare neurological disorder among people taking the shot. (Hopkins and Schwartz, 7/22)

Fox News: J&J COVID-19 Vaccine Benefits ‘Far Outweigh’ Risks, CDC Panel Says After Reports Of Guillain-Barré Syndrome
An advisory panel to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said the benefits of COVID-19 vaccines "far outweigh" potential risks amid an ongoing review of reports of a rare nerve disorder in a small fraction of J&J jab recipients. However, given the possible link, a new update will advise patients with a history of Guillain-Barré syndrome to seek mRNA vaccines. CDC's Dr. Hannah Rosenblum, who presented during the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) meeting Thursday, said "this assessment demonstrates that the benefits of COVID-19 vaccination far outweigh the potential risks." (Rivas, 7/22)

The Hill: Fauci Praises GOP Encouraging Vaccines: 'A Very Good Thing'
Anthony Fauci said Republicans who are now encouraging Americans to get vaccinated are doing “a very good thing” to help stop the spread of COVID-19 as well as misinformation about vaccines. In an interview with The Hill, the president's chief medical adviser said he was glad to hear some top GOP leaders be more outspoken in recent days about the importance of receiving the life-saving vaccine. (Trudo, 7/22)

Politico: Klobuchar Targets Vaccine Misinformation With Section 230 Bill
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) introduced legislation Thursday to fight bogus medical claims online during health crises like the coronavirus pandemic. Her target: Section 230. Klobuchar's bill would carve out an exception to Section 230, the 1996 law that protects internet platforms from liability for content that users post, for health misinformation proliferating during public health emergencies — like the misinformation that has been running rampant about vaccines for Covid-19. (Levine, 7/22)

The Wall Street Journal: Bill Would Strip Social Media Of Protections For Health Misinformation 
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D., Minn.) introduced a bill Thursday that would strip online platforms such as Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc. of their liability protections if their technologies spread misinformation related to public-health emergencies, such as the Covid-19 pandemic. The bill, which Ms. Klobuchar previously telegraphed was in the works, would create an exception to the law known as Section 230, which shields internet platforms from lawsuits for content generated by their users and other third parties. (Hughes, 7/22)

The Washington Post: CDC Warns This Is ‘Pivotal Moment’ In Fight Against Delta Variant
Top Biden administration officials on Thursday said that a hyper-transmissible variant of the coronavirus is posing new challenges for the nation’s health system, urging millions of unvaccinated Americans to get shots to protect themselves and their communities. The delta variant, first detected in India, now represents more than 83 percent of cases circulating in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. People infected with the variant appear to carry a viral load that is more than 1,000 times that of those infected with earlier forms of the virus, allowing the virus to spread rapidly among unvaccinated people, scientists have found. (Diamond, 7/22)

USA Today: Three States Have Contributed To Over 40% Of New COVID Cases
As the number of COVID-19 cases across the country is rising, three states have contributed to over 40% of all recent positive cases, according to the White House on Thursday. White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Jeff Zients said Florida, Texas and Missouri were contributing the highest number of cases, with Florida accounting for one in five positive cases for the second week in a row. Those states also have some of the lowest rates of vaccination, Zients said, adding that "within communities, these cases are primarily among unvaccinated people." (Santucci, 7/23)

The Hill: Florida Reports Highest Daily COVID-19 Cases Since January
Florida on Wednesday reported 12,647 new cases of COVID-19, the highest daily number of cases since late January, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The last time that Florida topped this number was Jan. 30, when it logged 14,654 cases. The U.S. registered 55,132 cases on Wednesday, meaning that Florida’s daily count made up about 23 percent of new cases reported by the CDC for that day. (Vakil, 7/22)

Newsweek: 20% Of New Los Angeles COVID Cases Are In Vaccinated People As Delta Variant Spikes
Los Angeles County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer announced on Thursday that 20 percent of new COVID-19 cases identified in Los Angeles County were in vaccinated individuals. "The Delta variant is a game-changer," Ferrer said. With the Delta variant driving community spread and positive case numbers up in LA County, the percentage of breakthrough cases in fully-vaccinated people has gone up as well. The daily average case rate was 7.1 per 100,000 people on July 15 and shot up to 12.9 on Thursday. (Pedroja, 7/22)

Fox News: Massachusetts Town COVID-19 Outbreak Infects Over 250
A coronavirus outbreak at a northern Massachusetts seaside town has swelled to over 250 infected following a July 4 holiday surge. Local health officials noted 256 confirmed cases linked to a cluster in Provincetown, with 190 infections among state residents, 109 of which involve people in the surrounding Barnstable County, with the remainder of cases among people outside of the state, according to a statement posted Wednesday. More than 3,000 tests were administered locally since July 1. (Rivas, 7/22)

The New York Times: 31 Children Test Positive For Coronavirus At Summer Camp In NY 
The outbreak at Camp Pontiac, a sleep-away camp in upstate New York, started in the girls’ dormitories. Nurses, worried that young campers were showing symptoms of Covid-19, began administering tests. Last Saturday, one came back positive. More would quickly follow: As of Thursday morning, 31 of the camp’s 550 campers had tested positive for the coronavirus, said Jack Mabb, the health director of Columbia County, where the camp is located. (Gold, 7/22)

CNBC: Nightclubs Are The New Covid Battleground
Nightclubs and bars are fast becoming the new battleground in the fight against Covid-19 as the nocturnal economy re-opens in some countries and coronavirus cases soar, particularly among the young. Covid is seeing a resurgence in Europe as the highly infectious delta variant spreads among the unvaccinated and partially-immunized population, which is predominantly young as they were the last in line to receive a vaccine. At the same time, a number of European countries decided to revive their night time economies, allowing bars and clubs to reopen to the public again, some after 16 months of closure which put many out of business. (Ellyatt, 7/23)

AP: Vaccinations Rise In Some States With Soaring Infections
Vaccinations are beginning to rise in some states where COVID-19 cases are soaring, White House officials said Thursday in a sign that the summer surge is getting the attention of vaccine-hesitant Americans as hospitals in the South are being overrun with patients. Coronavirus coordinator Jeff Zients told reporters that several states with the highest proportions of new infections have seen residents get vaccinated at higher rates than the nation as a whole. Officials cited Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Missouri and Nevada as examples. (Hollingsworth and Alonso-Zaldivar, 7/23)

Modern Healthcare: Atrium Health Mandates COVID-19 Vaccines For All Workers
Atrium Health became the latest health system to mandate COVID-19 vaccinations for all employees, the health system announced Thursday. The day before, the American Hospital Association threw its support behind vaccine mandates for hospital and health system workers, as did America's Essential Hospitals. A 200% increase in coronavirus-related hospitalizations—99% were for unvaccinated patients—at Atrium facilities drove the decision, Charlotte, North Carolina-based Atrium Health said. (Brady, 7/22)

CNN: Hospitalized Covid-19 Patients Are Asking For The Vaccine -- When It's Too Late, Two Health Care Workers Say 
As the Delta variant helps fuel a surge in Covid-19 hospitalizations in the US, unvaccinated patients are regretting their inoculation status, two health care workers say. "When they come into the (hospital) system, they say, 'Can I get vaccinated?' And at that point, you can't," Alix Zacharski, an intensive care clinical nurse manager at Miami's Jackson Health System, told CNN's "Newsroom" Thursday. "We have to let the virus run its course, and then hopefully" the vaccine can be given, she said. Not all of these patients live to get the chance, an Alabama doctor says. (Hanna, 7/22)

CBS News: After Son Dies Of COVID, Mother Holds Vaccine Drive At His Funeral
Betty Antoine's 46-year-old son Brandon became a COVID statistic—despite her pleading with him to get a COVID-19 vaccine."I begged him, I said, 'You need to take the vaccine, Brandon.' 'Oh, no, mom, I'm not going to take it. And you better not take the vaccine either,' Antoine recalled in a conversation with CBS News' David Begnaud. ... Antoine offered COVID-19 vaccines during his funeral. Three people stepped up that day to take the vaccine and 10 others followed later. "I just wanted them to see Brandon's ashes. I wanted them to know, look, Brandon is dead because he did not take the vaccine," she said. (7/22)

San Francisco Chronicle: NFL Threatens Teams With Forfeits For COVID-Related Cancellations
The NFL doesn’t want the players to kneel down, but the league certainly knows how to put its foot down. In a memo sent to the teams and obtained by NFL Network on Thursday, the league said any team that has to cancel a game because of a coronavirus outbreak among unvaccinated players will forfeit, and players from both sides will go unpaid. (Simmons, 7/22)

The Atlantic: Unvaccinated Is Different From Anti-Vax
Last week, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said that COVID-19 is “becoming a pandemic of the unvaccinated.” President Joe Biden said much the same shortly after. They are technically correct. Even against the fast-spreading Delta variant, the vaccines remain highly effective, and people who haven’t received them are falling sick far more often than those who have. But their vulnerability to COVID-19 is the only thing that unvaccinated people universally share. They are disparate in almost every way that matters, including why they haven’t yet been vaccinated and what it might take to persuade them. “‘The unvaccinated’ are not a monolith of defectors,” Rhea Boyd, a pediatrician and public-health advocate in the San Francisco Bay Area, tweeted on Saturday. (Yong, 7/22)

Politico: Delta Variant Sweeps Through States That Dialed Back Health Powers 
The Delta strain of the coronavirus is racing across the country, driving a surge of new cases and hospitalizations. But local and state officials this time have fewer options to slow the spread. In Texas, where Covid hospitalizations are up 30 percent and deaths up 10 percent over the past week, Gov. Greg Abbott recently barred counties, cities and school districts from requiring masks. Montana did the same for vaccine and mask mandates, while letting local officials overrule health department orders. And Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, whose state accounts for one in five of new U.S. infections, asserted power to nix local health orders if he concludes they infringe on individual rights. (Ollstein and Goldberg, 7/22)

AP: Juneau Imposing COVID-19 Restrictions Amid Rising Cases
Officials in Juneau on Thursday announced restrictions aimed at curbing rising COVID-19 cases in Alaska’s capital city, including limiting capacity at gyms and indoor service at bars to 50%. Under the measures, set to take effect Friday, indoor gatherings will be limited to 50 people with masks required, unless a COVID-19 mitigation plan has been approved by emergency operations leaders or everyone is fully vaccinated, according to the city’s announcement. (7/23)

Politico: DeSantis Vows No Lockdowns As Florida Covid Cases Surge
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday pledged that there would be no mask mandates in schools or Covid-related lockdowns this fall even as the virus surges in the state and across the nation. Florida has seen its cases explode in July, primarily among the unvaccinated, and hospitals are grappling with a wave of new admissions that have forced some major hospitals across the state to bring back visitation limits and cut back on elective surgeries. More than 8,000 people in Florida tested positive for coronavirus on Wednesday, and even the state’s attorney general announced this week that she has Covid despite being fully vaccinated. (Fineout, 7/22)

AP: Michigan County Officials Used Federal Coronavirus Relief Money For Bonuses
Elected officials in a Michigan county gave themselves $65,000 in bonuses with federal relief money related to the coronavirus pandemic. The money, described as “hazard pay,” included $25,000 for Jeremy Root, chairman of the Shiawassee County Board of Commissioners. The mostly rural county, between Lansing and Flint, has a population of 68,000. (7/22)

AP: Atlanta Schools To Require Masks For All Students, Staff
Atlanta Public Schools will implement a “universal mask wearing” policy in all of its school buildings when the new school year starts Aug. 5, the district announced Thursday. In a statement, the school system cited the dangers of the Delta variant of the coronavirus and guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics. (7/22)

AP: Chicago Schools Requiring Masks When Schools Reopen In Fall
Chicago Public Schools announced Thursday its students, teachers and staff will be required to wear masks indoors when they return to classrooms in August. In a letter to parents, Chief Executive Officer José Torres said the policy is based on feedback from local, state and federal public health experts and the American Academy of Pediatrics. Visitors to school buildings will be required to wear masks regardless of vaccination status. Masks can be removed while eating or drinking and while students are engaged in outdoor activities, Torres told parents. (7/23)

The Boston Globe: Janey Says BPS Students Must Wear Masks As Baker Says He Plans No Changes To COVID-19 Policies
In one of the first signs the resurgence of COVID infections is causing concern among officials, Boston Acting Mayor Kim Janey on Thursday said all public school students in the city will be required to wear face masks when they return to classes in September. Already this week, officials in Cambridge, Provincetown, and Nantucket urged residents and visitors to wear masks in indoor public spaces as new outbreaks have been reported; Cambridge, for example, said that 42 percent of the 83 confirmed and probable infections in July so far are “breakthrough” cases involving people who are fully vaccinated. (Fox, Platoff and McDonald, 7/22)

AP: Big Ten Says Schools Will Decide On COVID-19 Protocols
Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren said the conference will take take a “decentralized” approach to COVID-19 protocols [for athletics] by allowing each school to put in place its own plan. “Our schools are finalizing their proposed policies and procedures for the fall,” Warren said at Big Ten football media days at Lucas Oil Stadium. “We’ll get that information in early August, we’ll combine it, and then we’ll get together with our chancellors and presidents and other key constituents to make the determination as far as how we handle the fall.” (Russo, 7/23)

The Hill: Psaki: Florida Schools Not Having Mask Mandate 'Would Be Greatly Concerning' 
White House press secretary Jen Psaki pushed back on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R) comments that there will be no mask mandates in Florida schools, saying it's "concerning" because no one under the age of 12 is vaccinated. “If I were a parent in Florida, that would be greatly concerning to me because kids under the age of 12 are not vaccinated. They’re not eligible yet,” Psaki said. (Gangitano, 7/22)

Newsweek: Gavin Newsom Sued Over School Mask Mandate As COVID Spikes In California
Two parents' groups are suing Democratic California Governor Gavin Newsom over a mask mandate in public schools. Their lawsuit comes as the state experiences a spike in new COVID-19 infections. The groups—Let Them Breathe and Reopen California Schools—have filed a lawsuit against Newsom and the state's top health officials. The lawsuit says that the statewide mandate requiring schoolchildren to wear masks regardless of their vaccination status will harm the "mental and physical health" of children, especially after a year of isolation and distance learning. (Villarreal, 7/22)

Politico: Capitol Physician Considers Recommending Masks Again Due To Delta Variant
The Capitol's chief physician is considering reimposing a mask recommendation in the Capitol after two months of mostly face-covering-free business in the House and Senate, according to three sources familiar with the matter. An imminent announcement is not expected, but the Office of the Attending Physician is weighing whether to suggest that people don masks again inside the Capitol complex as the Delta variant surges nationwide. (Caygle, Tully-McManus and Everett, 7/22)

AP: ‘Superbug’ Fungus Spread In Two Cities, Health Officials Say
U.S. health officials said Thursday they now have evidence of an untreatable fungus spreading in two hospitals and a nursing home. The “superbug” outbreaks were reported in a Washington, D.C, nursing home and at two Dallas-area hospitals, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported. A handful of the patients had invasive fungal infections that were impervious to all three major classes of medications. ... The fungus, Candida auris, is a harmful form of yeast that is considered dangerous to hospital and nursing home patients with serious medical problems. It is most deadly when it enters the bloodstream, heart or brain. Outbreaks in health care facilities have been spurred when the fungus spread through patient contact or on contaminated surfaces. (Stobbe, 7/22)

Stat: US Sees First Candida Auris Cases Resistant To All Drugs In Untreated People
For the first time ever, researchers have reported cases of people carrying or infected with strains of the dangerous fungus Candida auris that were resistant to all classes of antifungal drugs before any treatment, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday. The agency also reported evidence of some transmission of the strains within health facilities. Candida auris, or C. auris, which was first seen in 2009, has been highly resistant to the few available treatment options for several years, leaving people who treat and study fungal diseases concerned about the toll this superbug could take, particularly on severely ill patients. That there are now so-called pan-resistant cases in people who had never been treated with antifungal drugs is particularly unnerving, experts said. (Branswell, 7/22)

The Hill: Philadelphia Pushes Back Against National Opioid Settlement: 'This Is A Sellout' 
Philadelphia is pushing back against the $26 billion national opioid settlement with three major drug distributors and Johnson & Johnson. Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner (D) filed a lawsuit in a Pennsylvania state court on Thursday asking a court to declare that Attorney General Josh Shapiro (D) lacks the authority to bind the city to the settlement. Krasner called the settlement a “sellout” in a news conference. (Williams, 7/22)

Modern Healthcare: AMA Seeks Overhaul Of CDC Opioid Prescribing Guidelines
The American Medical Association is calling for the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention to overhaul its 2016 opioid prescribing guidelines. The organization says the guidelines limit patients access to pain management treatments. In a letter sent to the CDC on Thursday, the AMA argued the agency's landmark, prescribing guidelines issued in response to the opioid crisis were failing to address how the epidemic has evolved. Drug overdose deaths rose by 30% from 2019 to 2020 to a record 93,000 despite prescribing restrictions becoming a widely adopted practice among most healthcare providers since the release of the guidelines. (Ross Johnson, 7/22)

Stat: Biogen Says 'Misinformation' Is Fueling Controversy Over Alzheimer's Drug
Biogen on Thursday mounted a vigorous defense of its controversial Alzheimer’s drug, Aduhelm, with the company’s head of research and development releasing an open letter to the Alzheimer’s community that took direct aim at critics of approval. Al Sandrock, the R&D chief and an architect of many of Biogen’s successes, wrote that the purpose of the letter was to correct “misinformation” about the drug. (Herper, 7/22)

The Wall Street Journal: Biogen Sees Heavy Patient Interest In New Alzheimer’s Drug
Biogen, which has listed Aduhelm for $56,000 a year, reported second-quarter sales for the drug of $1.6 million. The drug was commercially available for only a few weeks in the quarter. Mr. Vounatsos said it was safe to assume “a big chunk” of those sales came from pharmacies stocking up on the drug. (Walker, 7/22)

CNN: Prescription Drugs Are Too Expensive For Many Americans. These Companies Are Trying To Change That 
It's an experience millions of Americans have had: you go to the doctor, get a prescription, take it to the pharmacy and get hit with a staggering bill, sometimes running into hundreds of dollars even if insurance covers a part of the cost. "In the US, we're unique in letting drug companies basically set their own prices," Andrew Mulcahy, a senior policy researcher at the RAND Corporation who focuses on prescription drugs, told CNN Business. Americans spend around $1,200 a year on average for prescription drugs — more than any other country — according to the latest available OECD data. (Iyengar and Gonzalez, 7/22)

Axios: Americans' Medical Debt Reached About $140 Billion In 2020 
Americans' medical debt added up to about $140 billion last year, according to new research published Tuesday in JAMA. Americans owe debt collectors more medical debt than any other source of debt. Looking at 10% of all credit reports from credit rating agency TransUnion, researchers said they found nearly one in five Americans had medical debt in collections in June 2020. (Reed, 7/21)

CBS News: Regulators Warn Of A Deadly Danger To Kids In Airbnb Vacation Rentals
Federal safety regulators are calling on Airbnb and other vacation rental platforms to take steps to protect young children from a potentially deadly gap involving residential elevators after the death of another child between the product's inner and outer doors. The Consumer Product Safety Commission is urging the platforms to require the "hosts" using their services to disable residential elevators or provide proof of an inspection certifying hazardous gaps don't exist. (Gibson, 7/22)

The Washington Post: Coast To Coast Heat Dome To Deliver Sweltering Weather Next Week 
Another heat wave is set to park over the Lower 48 next week, bringing anomalous summertime heat to parts of the central and eastern United States that may have missed out on previous events. Early estimates indicate that most of the contiguous United States will see highs running 10 to 15 degrees above average. When combined with climbing humidity, it’ll feel like it’s well into the triple digits for millions. The pattern could also spark severe thunderstorms, perhaps packing strong winds, that could roll through the northern Great Lakes and New England during late July and August. (Cappucci, 7/22)

The New York Times: High Temperatures In Montana And The Dakotas Are Heading East
Unseasonably hot weather is projected to move eastward from the Northern Rockies to the Upper Midwest in the coming days, while one of the largest fires in modern Oregon history continues to burn and the Southwest prepares for possible flash flooding from thunderstorms. Temperatures on Thursday are projected to reach the upper 90s or low 100s in eastern Montana and the western Dakotas, the National Weather Service said, before the heat heads toward Minnesota on Friday. More seasonable conditions were found along the West Coast, which is battling a drought. (7/22)

The New York Times: Washington Issues Warning Not To Eat Raw Shellfish After 'Heat Dome'
Washington State health officials have urged consumers not to eat locally harvested raw oysters and other shellfish after an outbreak of intestinal disease caused by bacteria that multiplied rapidly after a recent “heat dome” baked the Pacific Northwest. State health officials said that recent high temperatures and low tides were most likely to blame for the outbreak of the disease, vibriosis, which has sickened at least 52 people this month, the most ever recorded in July. (Levenson, 7/22)

NPR: State Supreme Court Rules Missouri Must Expand Medicaid
Thursday, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled that an additional 275,000 low-income individuals in the state are again eligible for publicly-funded health care. Missouri voters successfully pushed through a state constitutional amendment on the ballot last August to adopt Medicaid expansion, but the Republican-dominated legislature refused to implement it, prompting Gov. Mike Parson, also a Republican, to pull the plug on plans to bolster the health care program. (Thirty-eight states, including red ones, have either expanded Medicaid or are in the process of expanding it.) (Rosenbaum and Lippmann, 7/22)

AP: DOJ Won't Investigate How Pennsylvania Handled Nursing Homes
The Justice Department told Gov. Tom Wolf’s office on Thursday that it has decided not to open an investigation into whether Pennsylvania violated federal law by ordering nursing homes to accept residents who had been treated for COVID-19 in a hospital. The letter comes 11 months after the department told the governors of Pennsylvania, Michigan, New Jersey and New York that it wanted information to determine whether orders there “may have resulted in the deaths of thousands of elderly nursing home residents.” (Levy, 7/23)

The Washington Post: New York Becomes Sixth State In U.S. To Ban Child Marriages
New York on Thursday became the sixth state in the country to ban marriages involving a minor, which disproportionately involve girls being married to adult men. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D) signed into a law a bill raising the age of consent to be married in the state to 18. The legislation will “further protect vulnerable children from exploitation,” he said in a statement. “Children should be allowed to live their childhood.” (Pietsch, 7/23)

AP: Pakistan Is Latest Nation To Pass 1M Virus Cases
Pakistan has passed the grim milestone of 1 million cases of COVID-19 since the pandemic began last year. Pakistan reported another 11 deaths Friday and 1,425 new cases of infection, bringing the country’s tally to 1,000,034 people infected. The nation has confirmed 22,939 deaths.

ABC News: Russia Battered By Deadly COVID 3rd Wave 
Russia is enduring a devastating third wave of the coronavirus pandemic, registering record numbers of daily virus deaths many days for the past month as the virus rages in the country where there are few quarantine restrictions in place and much of the population is reluctant to get vaccinated. In many parts of the country doctors have said hospitals have been overflowing for almost a month, placing huge strain on medical workers already battered by a year and a half of the pandemic. (Reevell, 7/22)

USA Today: Olympic Organizers Report Highest Single-Day Total Of COVID Cases
Olympic organizers reported their largest single-day total of COVID-19 cases on Friday, just as the Games were set to officially begin with the opening ceremony Friday evening (morning in U.S.). Tokyo organizers announced 19 new cases, including three athletes and three residents of the Olympic Village. Among the cases, four are residents of Japan while the remaining 15 are non-residents. The total included three contractors, 10 games-concerned personnel and three media. All of the non-residents are under a 14-day quarantine. The latest update brings the total cases to 106 since July 1. (Axon, 7/22)

AP: At Least 100 US Athletes Unvaccinated As Olympics Begin
About 100 of the 613 U.S. athletes descending on Tokyo for the Olympics are unvaccinated, the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee’s medical chief said hours before Friday night’s opening ceremony. Medical director Jonathan Finnoff said 567 of the American athletes had filled out their health histories as they prepared for the trip, and estimated 83% had replied they were vaccinated. “Eighty-three percent is actually a substantial number and we’re quite happy with it,” Finnoff said. (Pells, 7/23)

NPR: Czech Olympic Team Investigates Charter Flight After 4 Athletes Test Positive
Czech Olympic officials are looking into a cluster of coronavirus cases that are linked to a charter flight that brought a contingent of athletes and staff to Japan. The country's team has six coronavirus cases in total. A doctor who was on the flight was reportedly among the first to test positive. As of late Thursday, four athletes had also tested positive for the coronavirus. Road cyclist Michal Schlegel is the latest athlete to test positive, joining a list that includes two beach volleyball players and a table tennis player. Schlegel will not be able to compete in Saturday's Olympic road race, the Czech Olympic Committee said. (Chappell, 7/22)