First Edition: June 1, 2021

KHN: Little-Known Illnesses Turning Up In Covid Long-Haulers 
The day Dr. Elizabeth Dawson was diagnosed with covid-19 in October, she awoke feeling as if she had a bad hangover. Four months later she tested negative for the virus, but her symptoms have only worsened. Dawson is among what one doctor called “waves and waves” of “long-haul” covid patients who remain sick long after retesting negative for the virus. A significant percentage are suffering from syndromes that few doctors understand or treat. In fact, a yearlong wait to see a specialist for these syndromes was common even before the ranks of patients were swelled by post-covid newcomers. For some, the consequences are life altering. (Loose, 6/1)

KHN: Behind The Byline: Finding A ‘Superstar’ To Interview 
Senior correspondent Jenny Gold started her yearlong project with a question: How will covid shape the next generation of doctors? In June 2020, more than 30,000 new doctors graduated from medical school and started their training on the front lines of the pandemic. Dr. Paloma Marin-Nevarez — a woman from Los Angeles whom Gold describes as thoughtful and outgoing — stood out from the beginning. She was about to start her residency in Fresno, California, a city in the state’s agricultural Central Valley that had become a hot spot for covid infections. (Gold, 6/1)

KHN: Mississippi’s Black Communities Turned Around Their Covid Rates. Next Up: Make Strides On Vaccines. 
At its first pop-up vaccination event on April 10, the Northeast Mississippi Coalition Against Covid 19 gave shots to nearly 40 people in Shannon, a town where roughly 60% of some 1,800 residents are African American. Though a fraction of the doses typically given out at large mass vaccination sites, the event was a success, say organizers — a coalition of health care providers and elected officials. Held outdoors, it allowed for a physically distant, communal atmosphere that many have missed over the past year. (Gibson Morris, 5/30)

KHN: Biden Administration Signals It’s In No Rush To Allow Canadian Drug Imports 
The Biden administration said Friday it has no timeline on whether it will allow states to import drugs from Canada, an effort that was approved under President Donald Trump as a key strategy to control costs. Six states have passed laws to start such programs, and Florida, Colorado and New Mexico are the furthest along in plans to get federal approval. (Galewitz, 5/28)

KHN: KHN Journalist Combs For Clues On Covid’s Origins 
California Healthline editor Arthur Allen discussed the investigation into the origins of the coronavirus on KPBS’ “Midday Edition” on Wednesday. ... Senior Colorado correspondent Markian Hawryluk discussed Colorado’s efforts to reduce prescription drug costs on KUNC’s “Colorado Edition” on Tuesday. (5/29)

NBC News: Biden Observes Memorial Day At Arlington Cemetery With Calls For Empathy, Unity
President Joe Biden paid tribute to the men and women who gave their lives in service to their country during a ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day, speaking in deeply personal terms about overcoming loss and the importance of upholding democratic values at home and abroad. In addressing the sacrifice made by military families who have lost a loved one, Biden spoke at length about his personal experience of losing his son Beau Biden, a veteran of the Iraq war, who died of brain cancer six years ago Sunday. (Pettypiece, 5/31)

The Washington Post: Public Swarms Arlington National Cemetery On Memorial Day For The First Time Since The Pandemic 
On Monday, families gathered mask-free beside graves, spread out blankets, and placed mementos and flowers beside them. A group of women sang Tibetan chants beside a grave. Families chatted as small children played around them. Some people just stood and bowed their heads. ... A cemetery spokesperson said about 10,000 people were expected to have visited by the end of the day. That is fewer than the 18,000 to 20,000 who typically come on Memorial Day. But a year ago, just 4,149 people, mostly family members, came for the holiday. (Bahrampour and Linskey, 5/31)

Fox News: Americans Unmask, Gather, Remember Over Memorial Day Weekend As Sense Of Normalcy Returns 
Memorial Day Weekend services looked a bit different this year than they did in 2020 as Americans — more than half of which have received the COVID-19 vaccine — gathered to remember fallen heroes. President Biden attended a memorial service in Delaware on Sunday as he remembered his late son, Beau Biden, who served in the Iraq War and died of brain cancer on May 30, 2015. (Conklin, 5/31)

AP: A Nation Slowly Emerging From Pandemic Honors Memorial Day
A nation slowly emerging from social distancing measures imposed by the coronavirus pandemic honored generations of U.S. veterans killed in the line of duty on a Memorial Day observed without the severe pandemic restrictions that affected the day of tribute just a year ago. Memorial Day parades and events were held in localities large and small across the country Monday, many resuming after being canceled last year as the pandemic hit with full force. (Anderson, 6/1)

The New York Times: Air Travel Hits A Pandemic Peak, But More Passengers Are Resisting Mask Mandates.
Memorial Day weekend is typically the start of the busy summer travel season, but this year it represents something more: the end of one of the roughest chapters in U.S. airline history. Passenger traffic has been climbing for much of this year and hit a pandemic peak on Friday, when more than 1.95 million passengers passed through security checkpoints in the nation’s airports, according to the Transportation Security Administration. That level was last reached in early March 2020, as the coronavirus was just beginning its devastating spread across the United States. (Cramer, Levenson, Chokshi and Kannapell, 5/31)

Reuters: Americans Hit The Road On Memorial Day Holiday, A Year After Pandemic Slammed Travel
A year after Memorial Day weekend travel was depressed by fears of the spreading virus, Americans took to the skies and roads. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) said 7.1 million people were screened at U.S. airport checkpoints from Thursday through Sunday. Friday was the highest single travel day since March 2020, when COVID-19 slashed air travel demand, as 1.96 million people were screened. (Szekely, 5/31)

AP: Indianapolis 500 Welcomes 135,000 Fans In Global Benchmark
The largest crowd in the world for a sports event showed up in joyous force on Sunday, 135,000 of them packing the stands at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It was only 40% of capacity — that was the figure deemed safe in the pandemic — but it felt like a full house nonetheless. (Gelston, 5/30)

USA Today: WHO Renames COVID Variants With Greek Letter Names To Avoid Stigma
In a release. WHO said that while scientific names have advantages, they can be difficult to say and are prone to misreporting. "As a result, people often resort to calling variants by the places where they are detected, which is stigmatizing and discriminatory," WHO said. It's also often wrong. Where a disease or virus is first discovered isn't usually where it actually first emerged. (Weise, 5/31)

Bloomberg: WHO: Virus Strains To Use Greek Alphabets For Names
With coronavirus variants sweeping the globe, the World Health Organization has devised a less technical way of describing them than their scientific, number-heavy names -- using the Greek alphabet. Deploying letters like Alpha, Beta and Gamma -- instead of B.1.1.7, B.1.351 and P.1 -- to refer to the variants will make it “easier and more practical” to discuss them with non-scientific audiences, the WHO said in a statement. The organization convened a group of scientists to consider easy-to-pronounce and non-stigmatizing labels for the virus strains, which it divides into categories as “of interest” and “of concern.” (Davies, 6/1)

The Washington Post: Understanding The Origin Of Covid-19 Is The Only Way To Prevent Future Pandemics, Scientist Says 
A prominent scientist on Sunday added his voice to the growing number of experts calling for a full investigation into the origins of the novel coronavirus, saying the future of public health is at stake. “There’s going to be covid-26 and covid-32 unless we fully understand the origins of covid-19,” Peter Hotez, a professor of pediatrics and molecular virology and microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine and a leading expert on the virus, said Sunday on NBC News’s “Meet The Press.” He said coming to firm conclusions about how the virus emerged was “absolutely essential” in preventing future pandemics. (Zeitchik, 5/30)

Politico: Rep. McCaul: Covid Origin 'Worst Cover-Up In Human History' 
Texas Rep. Mike McCaul on Sunday said it was "more likely than not" that the coronavirus originated from a lab accident, calling it the "worst cover-up in human history." Bipartisan support has grown for a congressional probe into whether the virus originated in a Chinese lab following a Wall Street Journal report that three scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology had been hospitalized in November 2019 with symptoms consistent with the virus. (Parthasarathy, 5/30)

Modern Healthcare: Biden Budget Boosts Funds For Health, Pandemic Preparedness
President Joe Biden's proposed budget requests a 23% funding increase for HHS and urges Congress to take action on high drug costs while expanding and improving health coverage. The fiscal 2022 budget plan reiterates Biden's calls on Congress to pass legislation allowing the federal government to negotiate for lower prices on drugs covered by Medicare, reducing deductibles in ACA plans, improving Medicare benefits to include dental, hearing and vision, creating a public option, lowering the Medicare eligibility age and closing the Medicaid coverage gap in non-expansion states. (Hellmann, 5/28)

Houston Chronicle: Bill Fails, Leaving Gov. Abbott With Near-Complete Control Of Texas Pandemic Response
The state Legislature won’t curtail Gov. Greg Abbott’s pandemic powers, after members of the House and the Senate failed to hash out their differences over it. The measure, House Bill 3, was priority legislation in the lower chamber, and variations of the bill had passed both the House and the Senate. But representatives appointed to find a compromise missed a key deadline late Saturday to release new bill text, killing the measure. (Harris, 5/30)

USA Today: US Companies Can Mandate Vaccinations, Federal Agency Says
U.S. companies can mandate that employees must be vaccinated against COVID-19, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced in a Friday statement. Federal EEO laws do not prevent employers from requiring that all employees physically entering a workplace be vaccinated as long as employers comply with the reasonable accommodation provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act and other laws, according to the statement. Employers may also offer incentives to employees to get vaccinated, "as long as the incentives are not coercive," the statement said. (Fernando, 5/29)

Houston Chronicle: Methodist Hospital Employees Sue Over Vaccine Requirement, Citing Violation Of Nuremberg Code
A group of Houston Methodist Hospital employees are suing the hospital over its recent decision to require workers to be vaccinated for COVID-19. In a lawsuit filed Friday in Montgomery County District Court, 117 Methodist employees allege the rule violates their rights under the Nuremberg Code, a set of medical ethics standards that were created in response to Nazi atrocities during World War II. They allege that, because the three major vaccines have only been approved for “emergency use” by the Federal Drug Administration, they should not be required to take them in order to work for the healthcare provider. (Downen, 5/28)

NBC News: Cruise Lines And Florida Gov. DeSantis Square Off Over Vaccine Passports
Florida, which is by far the biggest embarkation point for cruises in the U.S., is home to the headquarters and key infrastructure of several major cruise lines, including Norwegian, whose CEO said the Miami-based company might have to pull its ships out of the state because of the vaccine passport prohibitions. (Seitz-Wald, 5/31)

NPR: No Masks Needed At Summer Camp For Vaccinated Campers And Staff, CDC Says
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has revised earlier guidelines regarding mask use and vaccinations at summer camps. The updated guidelines, released Friday, now say that at camps where everyone has been fully vaccinated, campers can sing, play sports and weave baskets mask-free – except where required by local law. "In a camp setting where everybody is fully vaccinated, there's no need for masking, there's no need for distancing. There's no need for screening, testing," said Cmdr. Erin Sauber-Schatz, lead of the CDC's Community Interventions and Critical Populations Task Force, which wrote the guidance. (Huang and Neel, 5/28)

Politico: Foster And Migrant Kids Shut Out From Covid Vaccinations 
Nearly a half-million foster children in the U.S. and unaccompanied migrant teens at the southern border could be prevented from receiving coronavirus vaccines because of federal and state consent laws that require a parent or guardian’s approval. Regulators authorized emergency use of one Covid-19 shot in kids as young as 12 this month, accelerating the Biden administration’s broad immunization plans and school reopening plans. But that created unintended consequences for at-risk children: Because the vaccine, from Pfizer, has not received full regulatory approval, it has a murky status compared to the battery of routine vaccinations recommended by federal agencies. That means kids in many states can only receive it with a parent or guardian’s consent — a hurdle that’s impossible to meet for many children separated from their biological parents. (Owermohle, 5/30)

CIDRAP: Children Have More Complications With COVID Than With Flu, Study Finds
Hospitalization, hypoxemia, pneumonia, and other complications were found more in children who contracted COVID-19 than in those who had seasonal flu, according to a study today in Pediatrics. The researchers drew from databases in France, Germany, Spain, South Korea, and the United States to analyze data on 242,158 youth (18 years and younger) diagnosed as having COVID-19 from January to June 2020, 4.0% of whom were hospitalized. They then compared 30-day outcomes, including hospitalization, death, pneumonia, and multi-system inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), with 2,084,180 children who had the flu during the 2017-18 season. (5/28)

The Washington Post: A Nashville Hat Shop Is Apologizing After Advertising Anti-Vaccine Yellow Star Of David Badges
A Nashville hat store is facing backlash after announcing on social media that it was selling yellow patches similar to the Star of David with the words “NOT VACCINATED,” sparking widespread condemnation, a protest and severed business ties. Iconic hat company Stetson announced Saturday that it will stop selling its merchandise at HatWRKS, the company at the center of the controversy. Goorin Bros., another prominent hat company, also announced its distribution with HatWRKS would end immediately. (Beachum, 5/30)

CNN: Covid-19 Infection Leaves Big Medical Bills For Some Survivors
"My job is to go out and sing, and entertain these residents in the senior living facilities. And I need to be able to hear the frequencies, and I lost those during my infection with Covid." A battle with Covid-19 left singer Irena Schulz with pain in her ears and hearing loss, jeopardizing her job performing for elderly and dementia patients if she could no longer hear the music. "I have been suffering from severe depression because I can't hear. And then I had this ringing in my ears that is just -- it's deafening. I didn't really want to wake up in the morning. I just was that depressed," Schulz told CNN's Elizabeth Cohen in an interview. (Enriquez, 5/31)

Crain's New York Business: Armed With Its New Covid Lab, Mount Sinai Vies For City Vaccination Contract
Having expanded its Covid-19 testing lab, Mount Sinai is gunning for a contract that would provide testing services to the city's schools, it announced Tuesday. Earlier this year the health system established the Mount Sinai Covid Lab with Hell's Kitchen–based Pershing Square Foundation, a not-for-profit organization tackling social issues, as part of a pilot program to provide saliva-based testing for charter schools. The foundation provided $500,000 to launch that program, said Dr. David Reich, president of Mount Sinai Hospital. (Sim, 5/31)

Fox News: Diabetes Vaccine Shows Promise For Some Patients In Early Trial
In a small, early study, a vaccine for type 1 diabetes helped preserve the body's natural production of insulin, at least in a subset of newly diagnosed patients. In patients with type 1 diabetes, the body's immune system attacks the beta cells in the pancreas that produce insulin, a hormone that's necessary for cells to absorb glucose from the bloodstream. These patients need lifelong insulin injections to stay alive. And because so many hidden factors inside the body can affect how much insulin a person needs, people who are insulin-dependent often have high and low blood sugar. High blood sugar, or hyperglycemia, damages the organs over the long term, while low blood sugar, or hypoglycemia, can lead to seizures or death in the short term. (Saplakoglu, 5/29)

The Washington Post: Alzheimer’s Drug Aducanumab Sparks Emotional Battle As FDA Nears Deadline On Whether To Approve 
When Phil Gutis was diagnosed with early-stage Alzheimer’s disease at 54, he immediately enrolled in a clinical trial for an experimental drug but had little hope of being helped. Over time, though, he started feeling better, his brain less cloudy. “There was just a fogginess I remember having a couple of years ago that I don’t really feel I have now,” said Gutis, who has received monthly infusions of a medication called aducanumab for five years, except for a short interruption. (McGinley, 5/31)

Stat: Amgen Wins FDA Approval For First KRAS-Blocking Lung Cancer Drug
The Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved the first drug that benefits patients with lung cancer caused by a specific genetic mutation to a protein called KRAS, a target that for decades was considered to be “undruggable.” The new medicine, a pill called Lumakras, was developed by Amgen. Lumakras was cleared to treat patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer containing a specific type of KRAS alteration called G12C. The mutation, previously untreatable, is found in approximately 13% of lung tumors. (Feuerstein, 5/28)

NPR: Scientists Studying Cannabis Now Have Access To More Plants For Their Research
Since 1968, U.S. researchers have been allowed to use cannabis from only one domestic source: a facility based at the University of Mississippi, through a contract with the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). That changed earlier this month, when the Drug Enforcement Administration announced it's in the process of registering several additional American companies to produce cannabis for medical and scientific purposes. It's a move that promises to accelerate understanding of the plant's health effects and possible therapies for treating conditions — chronic pain, the side effects of chemotherapy, multiple sclerosis and mental illness, among many others — that are yet to be well studied. (Stone, 5/30)

Modern Healthcare: Nursing Home Price Per Bed Climbs Nearly 22% In First Quarter
The total price per bed for nursing homes jumped nearly 22% during the first quarter of 2021, increasing after four straight years of year-over-year losses, according to a new housing survey by JLL Valuation Advisory, a professional services firm that specializes in real estate and investment management. The average price per bed rose to $90,700 during the first quarter, which is the second-highest annual price point for nursing homes on record, according to the report. Gains are largely attributed to government stimulus funds, including about $4.9 billion sent to nursing homes from HHS and $100 billion sent to qualified healthcare providers from the CARES Act, which helped operators maintain cash flows, the report said. (Christ, 5/28)

Modern Healthcare: Primary Care Providers Face New Challenges, New Competitors
Primary care providers during the pandemic are facing an increased number of challenges that are opening opportunities for competitors. But experts say patients need to be wary of what those competitors offer. The pandemic led the way for virtual care to become more mainstream in the U.S. and that threatened primary care providers who practice in smaller facilities and were buffeted by closures in 2020. Smaller practices did not make the transition to telehealth prior to the pandemic and therefore did not have the infrastructure to provide virtual care. (Devereaux, 5/31)

New Orleans Times-Picayune: Louisiana Has A Nursing Shortage. This University Is A Offering Tuition-Free Program To Help
Aiming to better meet a critical nursing shortage in Louisiana, Chamberlain University, the largest nursing school in the country, is teaming up with LCMC Health to offer a tuition-free nursing program. The "Called-to-Care Scholars Program" is open to applicants nationwide, but will address health care workforce shortages in New Orleans and Jefferson Parish, where LCMC Health has six hospitals, officials announced this week. Based in Chicago, Chamberlain has a campus in Jefferson. (Hasselle, 5/29)

CNBC: Covid Is Driving An Exodus Among Health-Care Workers
For Audra Williams, intensive care unit (ICU) nursing was her “passion.” And for almost eight years, it was her career, leading her to work across four U.S. states including, most recently, New York. But when the coronavirus pandemic broke out last year, and when New York City turned into the virus’ global epicenter at one point, she was faced with a difficult decision: Should she leave behind the job she loves for the sake of her own health? (Gilchrist, 5/30)

Stat: New Pediatricians See Fewer Routine Cases, But Many Mental Health Crises
In his first month as a pediatric intern at the University of California San Francisco, Alexander Hartman saw his first patient with an eating disorder. The same night, he saw a dozen more. His first rotation of his first year of residency was in the general pediatrics ward, and on nights, Hartman and the other interns covered the adolescent service, seeing teens starting from puberty. One night in June 2020, there were around a dozen patients in the ward, all with eating disorders. It was double the usual caseload. (Gaffney, 6/1)

Modern Healthcare: N.Y. Public Hospital Board Chair Resigns, Citing Need For Reform
The chair of the board that manages Nassau University Medical Center has resigned, echoing concerns about the hospital's viability. In recent years, the hospital has been in a state of financial decline, its total operating revenue dropping from around $607,000 in 2018 to $509,000 in 2021. Currently, Nassau University Medical Center has an operating deficit of $116.2 million. Robert Detor, who has chaired Nassau Health Care Corp., or NuHealth, since January 2020, resigned on Friday after notifying Nassau County Executive Laura Curran and stating his issues with the center's governance and lack of reforms. (Devereaux, 5/28)

The New York Times: More Than A Third Of Heat Deaths Are Tied To Climate Change, Study Says 
More than a third of heat-related deaths in many parts of the world can be attributed to the extra warming associated with climate change, according to a new study that makes a case for taking strong action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in order to protect public health. (Schwartz, 5/31)

Fox News: Number Of Smokers Soars To 1.1B Worldwide, Study Says
A new study suggests there were a record 1.1 billion smokers worldwide in 2019, and nearly 8 million related deaths. Researchers warn progress against the prevalence of smoking tobacco use has slowed in the last 10 years in many countries, and population growth is resulting in an increasing number of smokers. "Countries have a clear and urgent opportunity to pass strong, evidence-based policies to accelerate reductions in the prevalence of smoking and reap massive health benefits for their citizens," study authors wrote. (Rivas, 5/29)

Bloomberg: Sunscreen With Leukemia-Causing Benzene Is Latest Summer Worry
Four decades ago, the U.S. government used rarely deployed emergency powers to reduce workers’ exposure to benzene, a chemical linked to a five-fold increased risk of potentially deadly leukemia. After a landmark study in 1977 highlighted its health risks, employers and manufacturers were forced to limit the industrial compound in their workplaces. Yet just within the past few months, elevated levels of benzene have appeared in some hand sanitizers, and on Tuesday, an analysis by an independent testing lab revealed its presence in some sunscreens and after-sun skin soothers. (Edney, 5/28)

Los Angeles Times: O.C. Health Officials Impose Quarantine — On Toxic Mussels
Officials with the Orange County Health Care Agency, the body tasked with oversight of public health programs during the COVID-19 pandemic, on Thursday announced a different kind of quarantine would be imposed through October: on mussels for human consumption. Through Oct. 31, residents across California are being warned not to eat mussels and other potentially toxic shellfish collected by sports harvesters from coastal waters. The reason? Harmful marine biotoxins produced by some species of microscopic algae can be absorbed by the digestive systems of mussels, clams, oysters and scallops. The consumption of affected mollusks puts humans at risk of paralytic shellfish poisoning. (Cardine, 5/28)

CNN: Falling Out Of Shape Can Take Mere Weeks, Researchers Say
Getting in shape isn't easy. But after all that hard work, how long do we actually maintain it? Turns out that even the great effort we put into training, taking a bit of time off can mean that we become "unfit" much faster than it took us to actually get in shape. To understand how the body becomes "unfit," we first need to understand how we become fit. The key to becoming fitter -- whether that's improving cardiovascular fitness or muscular strength -- is to exceed "habitual load." This means doing more than our body is used to. The stress that this has on our body makes us adapt and become more tolerant, leading to higher fitness levels. (Gordon and Roberts, 5/31)

AP: NY Lifts Statewide Virus Curfew For Indoor Bars, Eateries
Bars and restaurants no longer have to close at midnight across New York state, as its coronavirus curfew for indoor dining ended Monday. Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced last month that the restriction would be lifted. With that, establishments can return to the closing times that their liquor licenses or other regulations allow. A similar pandemic curfew for outdoor dining ended May 17, although some local governments have their own closing-time rules for outdoor tables. (5/31)

Cincinnati Enquirer: Ohio's COVID-19 Health Orders End After Tuesday, But Some Remain
Starting Wednesday, there is no state order requiring nonvaccinated adults to wear face coverings indoors or bars and restaurants to space out tables. State-set restrictions have waned in recent months: first in February with the elimination of the curfew and most recently with exemptions for fully vaccinated people. The mask order has been in place since July 23, 2020. DeWine announced May 12 the orders would come off in three weeks, despite not yet meeting his goal of 50 new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents in the previous two weeks. A few days later, DeWine halted enforcement of the mask mandate at retail businesses. (Borchardt, 5/31)

Los Angeles Times: Teachers Not Trained For Students' COVID Mental Health Trauma
Before the pandemic, Jessica Bibbs-Fox’s eighth-graders would parade into her classroom bursting with energy. “Settle down,” she’d playfully shout over the clamor of voices. Now, Room 18 at Kelly Elementary is eerily quiet. Her 14 pupils are cordoned off by plexiglass shields. She pleads with them to participate during a math lesson — to say something, anything. The 20 students she teaches on Zoom are just as withdrawn. They turn in work sporadically, if at all. Every single student in her homeroom class has an F. (Newberry, 5/31)

The New York Times: Two New Laws Restrict Police Use Of DNA Search Method
New laws in Maryland and Montana are the first in the nation to restrict law enforcement’s use of genetic genealogy, the DNA matching technique that in 2018 identified the Golden State Killer, in an effort to ensure the genetic privacy of the accused and their relatives. (Huges, 5/31)

The Boston Globe: As Contaminated Water Concerns Grow, Massachusetts Towns Urge The State To Stop Spraying Pesticides In Their Communities
After announcing that the town’s water supply contained elevated levels of the toxic chemicals known as PFAS, selectmen at a recent virtual meeting in Pepperell turned to another thorny subject: Should the town try to opt out of state-mandated aerial and roadside spraying of pesticides? The issues, in significant ways, were connected. To reduce the spread of eastern equine encephalitis and other mosquito-borne diseases, the state has sprayed millions of acres in recent years with a pesticide found to contain significant amounts of PFAS. The PFAS leached into the pesticide from its packaging. (Abel, 5/31)

The New York Times: Peru Says Its True Covid Death Toll Is Almost Triple Its Official Count
Peru said its Covid-19 death toll is almost three times as high as it had officially counted until now, making it one of the hardest-hit nations during the pandemic relative to its population. In a report released on Monday — which combined deaths from multiple databases and reclassified fatalities — the government said that 180,764 people died from Covid-19 through May 22, almost triple the official death toll of about 68,000. The new figure would mean that more people have died in Peru relative to its population than Hungary and the Czech Republic, the countries with the highest official death tolls per person, according to a New York Times database. (Martinez, 5/31)

NPR: Vietnam Detects New Highly Transmissible Coronavirus Variant
Vietnam has detected a new coronavirus variant that is highly transmissible and has features of two other strains. "Vietnam has uncovered a new COVID-19 variant combining characteristics of the two existing variants first found in India and the U.K.," Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long said, according to Reuters. "That the new one is an Indian variant with mutations that originally belong to the U.K. variant is very dangerous." The announcement came on Saturday as the country is dealing with a recent spike of infections that started in May. (Davis, 5/29)

Reuters: Long Lines And Confusion As Venezuela Begins COVID-19 Vaccination 
Hundreds of senior citizens and health workers stood in long lines on Monday to get vaccinated against the coronavirus as part of Venezuela's inoculation campaign, which has been held up by payment problems and political disputes. The government of President Nicolas Maduro for months said it was unable to pay for vaccines due to U.S. sanctions, but last month announced it had come up with the funds to enter the global COVAX program. The campaign that officially began over the weekend is using vaccines provided by Russia and China. Reuters data shows that only 1.1% of the population has received at least one vaccine shot so far. (5/31)

The Washington Post: Doctors Prepare To Ration Care As Covid Surge Leaves Malaysia In ’Total Lockdown’
Coronavirus cases are soaring. Hospitals are growing crowded. And officials are warning that doctors may soon have to decide who lives. While India’s covid-19 crisis is far from over, the number of new coronavirus infections per million people in Malaysia has overtaken that of the more populous South Asian country. Malaysia, with its roughly 32 million people, now registers more new cases per capita than any medium- or large-sized country in Asia, according to Our World in Data, which tracks publicly available figures. (Miller, 5/31)

The New York Times: China Says It Will Allow Couples To Have 3 Children, Up From 2 
China said on Monday that it would allow all married couples to have three children, ending a two-child policy that has failed to raise the country’s declining birthrates and avert a demographic crisis. The announcement by the ruling Communist Party represents an acknowledgment that its limits on reproduction, the world’s toughest, have jeopardized the country’s future. The labor pool is shrinking and the population is graying, threatening the industrial strategy that China has used for decades to emerge from poverty to become an economic powerhouse. (Wee, 5/31)

Reuters: China Reports First Human Case Of H10N3 Bird Flu 
A 41-year-old man in China's eastern province of Jiangsu has been confirmed as the first human case of infection with the H10N3 strain of bird flu, China's National Health Commission (NHC) said on Tuesday. The man, a resident of the city of Zhenjiang, was hospitalised on April 28 after developing a fever and other symptoms, the NHC said in a statement. ... H10N3 is a low pathogenic, or relatively less severe, strain of the virus in poultry and the risk of it spreading on a large scale was very low, the NHC added. (6/1)

The New York Times: U.S. Mask Companies Struggle To Compete With China 
Mask mandates have eased, a welcome milestone in the battle against Covid-19. But for the two dozen domestic companies that jumped into the mask-making business last year, the good news comes with a downside: a calamitous drop in sales. Some of the slackening demand is tied to the loosening of masking guidelines by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but industry experts say a bigger factor has been the return of inexpensive protective gear from China that began flooding the American market earlier this year. (Jacobs, 5/29)

NPR: The 'Time Has Come' For A Global Pandemic Treaty, WHO's Tedros Says
The COVID-19 pandemic proves that the world needs a pandemic treaty, says WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. It's the one major change, Tedros said, that would do the most to boost global health security and also empower the World Health Organization. "This is an idea whose time has come," Tedros told diplomats attending the final day of the World Health Assembly in Geneva. (Chappell, 5/31)

AP: Protesters Slam Choice Of Syria For Board Of UN Health Body
Dozens of medical workers in rebel-held northwest Syria on Monday protested a decision to grant President Bashar Assad’s government a seat on the executive board of the World Health Organization. They said Assad is responsible for bombing hospitals and clinics across the war-ravaged country. The decision to give Syria a seat came a decade into the country’s devastating civil war that has left untold numbers of civilians — including many health care workers — dead and injured. (Mroue, 6/1)

Politico: Commission Proposes Plan To Avoid EU Travel Chaos 
The European Commission Monday set out a plan to streamline travel policies across the EU ahead of the summer season. Under an agreement struck earlier this month, EU-wide COVID certificates — proving whether travelers got a test, vaccine or are immune following an infection — are set to be rolled out in July. But the deal leaves it up to individual governments whether to impose additional measures, such as quarantines or tests, and the Commission wants to avoid chaos caused by diverging policies. (Cokelaere, 5/31)

AP: Australian Court Upholds Ban On Most International Travel
An Australian court on Tuesday rejected a challenge to the federal government’s draconian power to prevent most citizens from leaving the country so that they don’t bring COVID-19 home. Australia is alone among developed democracies in preventing its citizens and permanent residents from leaving the country except in “exceptional circumstances” where they can demonstrate a “compelling reason.” (McGuirk, 6/1)

CIDRAP: No COVID-19 Cases Found After Well-Controlled Indoor Concert 
No attendees at an indoor concert that employed rapid COVID-19 lateral-flow screening, N95 respirators, and a well-ventilated venue tested positive for COVID-19 in the next 8 days, showing no increased virus transmission risk associated with the event, according to preliminary findings from a randomized, controlled trial published yesterday in The Lancet Infectious Diseases. A team led by researchers from the Germans Trias i Pujol University Hospital (GTPUH) in Barcelona, Spain, compared the coronavirus infection rate in 465 concert-goers aged 18 to 59 who were screened for COVID-19 and fever before entry and wore an N95 respirator throughout the event with 495 participants who were screened and then asked to go home. No concert-goers or 58 staff members tested positive 8 days after the event, compared with 2 in the control group. (Van Beusekom, 5/28)