First Edition: June 15, 2021

KHN: Violent Colorado Arrest Puts Spotlight On How Police Treat Disabled People 
Nearly a year after police officers in Loveland, Colorado, injured an elderly woman with dementia and then laughed at footage of her arrest, two of those officers are facing criminal charges while the rest of the department undergoes additional training. The fallout has drawn national attention to a problem that experts say is widespread across law enforcement agencies: Police often lack the skills to interact with people with mental and physical disabilities. Last June, a Walmart employee called police after Karen Garner, 73 at the time, tried to leave without paying for $14 worth of items. Soon after, Officer Austin Hopp’s body camera video showed, he pulled over beside her as she walked down a road and wrestled her to the ground in handcuffs after she failed to respond to his questions. Afterward, Garner’s lawyers say, she sat in jail for several hours with a dislocated and fractured shoulder as Hopp and two other officers laughed while watching the body camera video. (Paterson, 6/15)

KHN: Being Vaccinated Doesn’t Mean You Must Go Maskless. Here’s Why
For more than a year, public health officials have repeatedly told us that masks save lives. They’ve warned us to keep our distance from our neighbors, who’ve morphed into disease vectors before our eyes. Now they are telling us that if we’re vaccinated, we no longer need to wear masks or physically distance ourselves in most cases — even indoors. To many people, myself included, this seems hard to reconcile with so many long months of masking and physical distancing and sacrificing our social lives for fear of covid-19. What is an anxious, pandemic-weary (and wary) soul to do? (Wolfson, 6/15)

AP: California Reopens, Says Goodbye To Most COVID-19 Rules
California, the first state in America to put in place a coronavirus lockdown, is now turning a page on the pandemic. At the stroke of midnight, California is lifting most of its COVID-19 restrictions and ushering in what has been billed as the state’s “Grand Reopening. ”Starting Tuesday, there will be no more state rules on social distancing, and no more limits on capacity at restaurants, bars, supermarkets, gyms, stadiums or anywhere else. And masks — one of the most symbolic and fraught symbols of the pandemic — will no longer be mandated for vaccinated people in most settings, though businesses and counties can still require them. (Gecker, 6/15)

USA Today: California Lifting COVID Restrictions
The nation's largest state will reopen Tuesday, effectively ending a slew of 15-month restrictions to stem the COVID-19 pandemic. California is ranked 41st among the states where coronavirus was spreading the fastest on a per-person basis, according to a USA TODAY Network analysis of Johns Hopkins University data. With 11.87% of the country's population, California had 6.19% of the country's cases in the last week. The Golden State is in a markedly different place than it was in December when it was declared by many to be the epicenter of the pandemic. California broke records for hospitalizations and single-day case numbers multiple days in a row. Deaths topped 30,000, then 45,000 the next month, and many funeral homes in Southern California were overrun by the surge. (Aspegren, 6/15)

Bay Area News Group: California's COVID-Vaccinated Eligible To Win Dream Vacations
If chances to win cash and $50 grocery gift cards aren’t enough to tempt Californians who haven’t yet been vaccinated to get their COVID-19 shots, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a new incentive Monday — a chance to win one of a half-dozen vacation packages around the state. The announcement of what Newsom called “a series of spectacular items and packages and experiences, including culinary experiences, that really highlight the best of California” comes as California plans to reopen Tuesday, dropping physical distancing, mask-wearing, gathering and indoor capacity limits at midnight. (Woolfolk, 6/14)

The New York Times: Customer Fatally Shoots Cashier In Argument Over Mask At Georgia Supermarket 
A customer who argued about wearing a face mask at a Georgia supermarket shot and killed a cashier on Monday and wounded a deputy sheriff working off duty at the store, law enforcement officials said. The gunman was shot by the deputy, and both are expected to survive their injuries, according to law enforcement officials. (Paybarah, 6/14)

CNN: Georgia Grocery Store Shooting After Mask Dispute Leaves 1 Dead, 2 Injured, DeKalb County Sheriff Says 
A dispute over a mask Monday at a grocery store led to shootout that left an employee dead and two people, including a sheriff's deputy, injured, according to DeKalb County Sheriff Melody Maddox. The suspect entered the Big Bear Supermarket at South DeKalb Mall in Decatur, in the Atlanta-metro area, where there was an argument with the cashier over a mask. Maddox gave few details about the argument but said it was over a face mask. (Vera and Lynch, 6/14)

Reuters: Delta Variant Doubles Risk Of COVID Hospitalisation - Scottish Study
The Delta coronavirus variant doubles the risk of hospitalisation compared with the previously dominant variant in Britain, but two doses of vaccine still provide strong protection, a Scottish study found on Monday. The study said early evidence suggested the protection from vaccines against the Delta variant, first identified in India, might be lower than the effectivessness against the Alpha variant, first identified in Kent, southeast England. (6/14)

AP: Vaccinated Hawaiian Positive For Delta Variant
Hawaii says a vaccinated Oahu resident who traveled to Nevada last month has tested positive for the delta variant of COVID-19. The delta variant was first detected in India and is a more transmissible version of the disease. The variant currently makes up 6% of all cases in the U.S. Hawaii Health Director Dr. Libby Char says this is a “very rare breakthrough” case in which a COVID-19 vaccine didn’t prevent infection. (6/15)

Fox News: Delta COVID-19 Variant 'Probably Going To Become' Dominant Strain In US, Gottlieb Says
The former head of the FDA said that while the Delta variant currently accounts for about 10% of coronavirus infections in the U.S., it’s doubling at a rate of every two weeks meaning "it’s probably going to become the dominant strain." However, Dr. Scott Gottlieb, who was appearing on CBS’s "Face the Nation," said, that doesn’t necessarily mean there will be a sharp rise in infections over the coming weeks. (Hein, 6/14)

The Washington Post: Coronavirus Infections Dropping Where People Are Vaccinated, Rising Where They Are Not 
States with higher vaccination rates now have markedly fewer coronavirus cases, as infections are dropping in places where most residents have been immunized and are rising in many places people have not, a Washington Post analysis has found. States with lower vaccination also have significantly higher hospitalization rates, The Post found. Poorly vaccinated communities have not been reporting catastrophic conditions. Instead, they are usually seeing new infections holding steady or increasing without overwhelming local hospitals. (Keating, Ahmed, Nirappil, Stanley-Becker and Bernstein, 6/14)

Axios: Vermont Becomes First State To Reach 80% Vaccine Threshold 
Vermont Gov. Phil Scott (R) announced Monday that 80% of its eligible population has received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. Vermont is the first state in the country to reach that threshold. As a result, Scott said he is removing all COVID-19 restrictions. (Doherty, 6/14)

CNN: Efforts To Vaccinate The US May Continue For Years As Covid-19 Variants Circle The Globe, Expert Says
Covid-19 infections may be on the decline, but the urgency to continue vaccinating the US population is far from over, one expert said. "We are going to need to have a highly vaccinated population for years if not longer. This virus is going to be circulating in the world for a long time," said Dr. Paul Offit, a member of the US Food and Drug Administration's Vaccine Advisory Committee. (Holcombe, 6/15)

San Francisco Chronicle: UC Reverses Course, Will Require All Students, Faculty And Staff To Be Vaccinated This Fall
In an about-face, the University of California will require all students, staff and faculty to be vaccinated against the coronavirus this fall, even though the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the vaccines only for emergency use. UC President Michael Drake “does plan to move forward with the vaccine mandate,” Regent Eloy Oritz Oakley told The Chronicle on Monday. The decision reverses a proposed policy UC announced in April of requiring vaccinations only after the FDA fully approved at least one of the three vaccines now being administered to American under emergency authorization. It’s not clear when the FDA will give full approval. (Asimov, 6/14)

The Wall Street Journal: Companies Push Employees To Prove They Are Vaccinated For Covid-19 
Companies are stepping up the pressure on workers to get vaccinated—not necessarily with mandates but with strong nudges. For months, many employers have attempted to coax workers into receiving a Covid-19 vaccine. Companies dangled cash, time off and other prizes to encourage vaccinations. Executives made personal appeals in town-hall meetings and internal memos. (Cutter and McCaffrey, 6/14)

Des Moines Register: Iowa Fires Prison Nurses Who Gave COVID Vaccine Overdoses To Inmates
The Iowa Department of Corrections has fired two nurses who gave large overdoses of coronavirus vaccine to dozens of inmates at the Fort Madison prison in April, an agency official said Monday. Department spokesman Cord Overton said in an email to the Des Moines Register that the nurses had been terminated. Overton did not identify them, or cite a legal reason for keeping their names private. The incident happened April 20 at the maximum security prison for men. Authorities said at the time that 77 inmates were given up to six times the proper dose for the Pfizer version of the coronavirus vaccine. The department has never explained how the overdoses happened. (Leys, 6/14)

AP: Kansas Governor Tries To Keep COVID State Of Emergency Alive
Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly is trying to persuade deeply skeptical Republican lawmakers to extend Kansas’ state of emergency for the coronavirus pandemic, arguing that it’s still necessary for vaccinations and some testing for COVID-19. Eight leaders of the GOP-controlled Legislature, six of them Republicans, were meeting Tuesday to consider whether to extend a state of emergency that’s been in place since early March 2020. A law enacted in late March requires the legislative leaders to sign off on an extension, and if top Republicans reject Kelly’s request, the state of emergency will expire by day’s end. (Hanna, 6/15)

AP: Extra COVID Vaccine May Help Protect Transplant Patients
A small study offers the first hint that an extra dose of COVID-19 vaccines just might give some organ transplant recipients a needed boost in protection. Even as most vaccinated people celebrate a return to near normalcy, millions who take immune-suppressing medicines because of transplants, cancer or other disorders remain in limbo — uncertain how protected they really are. It’s simply harder for vaccines to rev up a weak immune system. (Neergaard, 6/14)

Fox News: Novavax COVID-19 Vaccine, Flu Shot Coadministration Likely ‘Viable Strategy,’ Company Says
Maryland-based biotech company Novavax on Monday announced its experimental COVID-19 vaccine remained effective when coadministered with an approved flu shot. Researchers and drug makers are interested in studying coadministration and associated safety and efficacy, or giving multiple vaccines to a person during one visit, to ease logistics and help patients catch up on missed vaccinations, especially amid the pandemic. The news comes hours after Novavax announced on Monday that its COVID-19 vaccine was found to be over 90% effective overall, and offered 100% protection against moderate and severe disease in a Phase 3 clinical trial. The company said it intends to file for FDA authorization in the third quarter. (Rivas, 6/14)

ABC News: Novavax COVID-19 Vaccine: How It Works And Other Things You Should Know 
Novavax's COVID-19 vaccine is a two-shot formula that can be stored at refrigerator temperatures and utilizes different technology than the United States' three existing vaccines. ... Novavax is a protein subunit vaccine, meaning it uses a fragment of a harmless protein of the virus that's grown in a cell culture and stimulates an immune response. (Schumaker, 6/14)

The Washington Post: Pfizer To Study Vaccinated People Who Get Virus For Guidance On Booster Shots
A top Pfizer researcher said the company is looking at “breakthrough cases” of fully vaccinated people who later got infected by the coronavirus in an attempt to understand if, and when, booster shots need to be administered. “We’re going to be monitoring this closely and using immunological data, clinical data, and real world data to help us think about when a booster might be needed,” David Swerdlow, Pfizer’s clinical epidemiology lead, told a conference, according to Bloomberg Law. (Ang and Berger, 6/15)

Reuters: AstraZeneca Says Antibody Treatment Failed In Preventing COVID-19 In Exposed Patients
Anglo-Swedish drugmaker AstraZeneca said on Tuesday a study of its monoclonal antibody treatment, AZD7442, did not meet the main goal of preventing symptomatic COVID-19 in people recently exposed to the novel coronavirus. The company said the participants in the trial were unvaccinated adults older than 18 years with confirmed exposure to a person with the coronavirus within the past eight days. (6/15)

The New York Times: Scientist Opens Up About His Early Email to Fauci on Virus Origins
Among the thousands of pages of Dr. Anthony S. Fauci’s emails released recently by BuzzFeed News, a short note from Kristian Andersen, a virologist at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif., has garnered a lot of attention. Over the past year, Dr. Andersen has been one of the most outspoken proponents of the theory that the coronavirus originated from a natural spillover from an animal to humans outside of a lab. But in the email to Dr. Fauci in January 2020, Dr. Andersen hadn’t yet come to that conclusion. He told Dr. Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert, that some features of the virus made him wonder whether it had been engineered, and noted that he and his colleagues were planning to investigate further by analyzing the virus’s genome. (Gorman and Zimmer, 6/14)

The New York Times: Shi Zhengli, A Virologist In Wuhan, Speaks Out Against 'Lab Leak' Theory
To a growing chorus of American politicians and scientists, she is the key to whether the world will ever learn if the virus behind the devastating Covid-19 pandemic escaped from a Chinese lab. To the Chinese government and public, she is a hero of the country’s success in curbing the epidemic and a victim of malicious conspiracy theories. Shi Zhengli, a top Chinese virologist, is once again at the center of clashing narratives about her research on coronaviruses at a state lab in Wuhan, the city where the pandemic first emerged. (Qin and Buckley, 6/14)

Modern Healthcare: Cano Health Acquires University Health Care For $600 Million
Senior primary care provider Cano Health has acquired medical provider University Health Care for $600 million. The bolt-on acquisition grows Miami-based Cano's projected 2021 revenue to as much as $1.5 billion. The combined company has 143,000 members, 88 medical centers and more than 1,000 staff and affiliated providers nationwide. The news comes amid a flurry of activity in the primary care space, with insurers and providers racing to capture stakes of the growing Medicare Advantage market. The purchase was funded using $540 million in cash and $60 million in common equity issued to University's shareholders. Cano expects full-year membership could reach as high as 162,000 by year's end. Combining with University added 24,000 Medicare Advantage members, 13 facilities and more than 300 providers to Cano's platform. (Bannow, 6/14)

Modern Healthcare: Humana To Acquire Home Health Provider One Homecare Solutions
Humana on Monday announced it had signed a definitive agreement to purchase One Home Healthcare Solutions from private equity affiliate Waypoint Capital Partners, according to a news release. Financial terms were not disclosed, and the sale is expected to close in the second quarter of 2021. The acquisition of the home-based service provider One Home Healthcare, which does business as onehome, will build on Humana's growing value-based home health segment, the company said. The Louisville, Ky.-based insurer recently announced its plan to fully acquire and integrate Kindred at Home. (Christ, 6/14)

Modern Healthcare: Centene To Pay $143 Million For Overcharging Medicaid For Drugs
Centene Corp. will pay a combined $143 million to Ohio and Mississippi to settle allegations that the St. Louis-based insurer overcharged states' Medicaid departments for drugs. The company will also reserve $1.1 billion for future settlements related to its Envolve pharmacy benefit manager, which it has now restructured to serve solely as a third-party administrator to process customer claims. A Centene spokesperson declined to provide information about other investigations currently pending against the payer's pharmacy benefit manager. The settlement will benefit, at least in part, a group of plaintiffs represented by the Liston & Deas and Cohen & Milstein law firm, which reportedly is consulting at least four other states about their pharmacy benefit manager programs. (Tepper, 6/14)

Axios: Most Hospitals Aren't Complying With A Federal Price Transparency Rule 
Most hospitals aren't fully complying with a new federal rule requiring them to make their prices available, according to a new study in JAMA Internal Medicine. The goal of the regulation is to allow price shopping and, thus lower costs, although it's unclear whether it'd have this effect. (Owens, 6/15)

USA Today: US News & World Report Ranks Children's Hospitals By Region, Specialty
Ben Harder, chief of health analysis and managing editor at U.S. News & World Report, said the publication chose to include state and regional rankings this year so families could find hospitals closer to home as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact travel. “Parents are looking at a ranking of the top 50 hospitals in the country and for them, some of them are not actionable,” he said. “We wanted to give them information that would be relevant to the actions they’re trying to take.” The list also ranks the top 50 centers in 10 specialties: cancer, cardiology and heart surgery, diabetes and endocrinology, gastroenterology and GI surgery, neonatology, nephrology, neurology and neurosurgery, orthopedics, pulmonology and lung surgery, and urology. (Rodriguez, 6/15)

Stat: Health Lobbyists Fund Their Own Policy Analyses, Clouding Debates 
Sen. Chuck Grassley’s voice boomed through the Senate hearing room — it sounded like the voice of God, the committee chair chuckled — as he demanded an explanation for why the hospital industry was giving him information that directly contradicted the findings of academic researchers. The hospital representative testifying had offered up an analysis paid for by the American Hospital Association showing that hospital mergers lowered the amount hospitals collect per patient. A growing body of independent research proved the opposite: that consumers’ costs rise when hospitals merge. (Cohrs, 6/15)

The Washington Post: Trump’s FDA Commissioner Takes Job At Moderna Backer 
Former Food and Drug Administration commissioner Stephen Hahn is joining the venture capital firm that launched Moderna and remains closely tied to the coronavirus vaccine maker, the firm confirmed on Monday. Hahn will serve as a chief medical officer at Flagship Pioneering — which incubated Moderna more than a decade ago — as the life sciences venture firm announced its expansion into new projects like pandemic preparedness. (Diamond, 6/14)

Stat: GSK Buys Rights To TIGIT-Targeted Cancer Immunotherapy From Iteos
Iteos Therapeutics said Monday that it has sold ownership rights to an experimental anti-TIGIT cancer antibody to GlaxoSmithKline — the most recent and largest licensing deal yet for a drug in the unproven, but highly sought-after class of immunotherapy treatments. Glaxo has struggled to compete against its pharma rivals in the cancer drug business, so it had little choice but to pay up big for rights to an anti-TIGIT drug — in this case, an upfront cash payment of $625 million for rights to the drug, called EOS-448. (Feuerstein, 6/14)

Stat: Why Two Scientific Powerhouses Are Teaming Up To Tackle Rare Cancers
As a medical school student, oncologist Vinod Ravi felt like he understood what it took to treat disease. Then his brother was diagnosed with a very rare form of bone cancer, a reality check on the limitations of not only his own education, but the entire field of rare cancer research. Ravi combed through the research and treatment protocols for Ewing’s sarcoma, the cancer his brother had been diagnosed with, but found them patchy and outdated. The drugs to treat the disease fell far short, and Ravi’s brother passed away. (Lin, 6/15)

Stat: Scientists CRISPR Patients' Immune Cells In Bid To Shrink GI Tumors
Last year, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, led by immunotherapy pioneer Carl June, showed that it was safe and feasible to treat cancer patients with infusions of their own immune cells that had been edited with the technology known as CRISPR. The trial was small, and the patients weren’t cured of their cancer. The study was designed only to test safety. (Mullin, 6/15)

The Washington Post: 2020 Was The Deadliest Gun Violence Year In Decades. So Far, 2021 Is Worse
The shootings have come at a relentless pace. Gun violence this year has cut through celebrations and funerals, places of work and houses of worship. It has taken lives at a grocery store and in a fast-food drive-through lane. And most of all, it has unfolded on city streets and in family homes, away from the cameras and far from the national spotlight. By almost every measure, 2021 has already been a terrible year for gun violence. Many fear it will get worse. Last weekend alone, more than 120 people died in shootings, according to the Gun Violence Archive, with three especially dangerous incidents in Austin, Chicago and Savannah, Ga., leaving two dead and at least 30 injured. (Thebault, Fox and Tran, 6/14)

CNN: 3,000 Unruly Airplane Passengers Reported This Year, FAA Says 
Authorities have received more than 3,000 reports of unruly airplane passengers this year, and the majority of those involve face mask rules, the Federal Aviation Administration told CNN on Monday. The sharp spike in misbehaving and even violent passengers includes 2,300 reports that passengers refused to comply with the federal requirement to wear face masks on airplanes. The mandate also applies to other modes of public transportation such as buses. (Wallace, 6/14)

AP: Doctors Warn Of Burns From Asphalt As Heat Wave Hits US West
Doctors who work in Arizona and Nevada burn centers are warning of injuries from contact with super-heated roadways and other surfaces as the first extreme heat wave of the year extends across the U.S. West. A high pressure system is expected to push temperatures above 115 degrees Fahrenheit (46 Celsius) this week in Las Vegas and Phoenix. Health officials advised people to be mindful of hot asphalt, sidewalks and even desert sand. (Christie, 6/15)

The Washington Post: CNN’s Christiane Amanpour Diagnosed With Ovarian Cancer, Had ‘Successful Major Surgery,’ She Says
With her characteristic poise, Christiane Amanpour stared directly into the camera just as she does every day to deliver the news. Only this time, it was personal. The world-renowned CNN chief international anchor shared with her viewers Monday that she has been diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Amanpour, 63, told her audience that she has had a “successful major surgery” to remove it and that she is undergoing “several months of chemotherapy,” hoping for the “very best possible long-term prognosis.” (Villegas, 6/14)

The New York Times: Stephen Colbert Returns To ‘Late Show’ Stage Before Vaccinated Fans 
There was a hug for the bandleader, Jon Batiste, without any need for social distancing. There were chants of “Ste-phen! Ste-phen! Ste-phen!” And a standing ovation that lasted a minute and a half. “So how ya been?” Stephen Colbert said to a roar of laughter from a crowd of more than 420 people — all vaccinated, most of them maskless — at the Ed Sullivan Theater in Midtown Manhattan. The CBS late night host was back in his element on Monday, connecting with a capacity crowd 460 days after the coronavirus pandemic had emptied the theater where he has worked since 2015. He was reveling in the moment. (Koblin, 6/14)

AP: Alcohol-Involved Utah Traffic Deaths Doubled During Pandemic
Transportation officials have reported nearly twice as many people died in alcohol-involved crashes on Utah roads last year compared to the year before, despite less commuter traffic during the coronavirus pandemic. The state Department of Transportation said there were 61 fatal crashes involving alcohol last year compared to the 32 crashes in 2019, The Salt Lake Tribune reported. (6/14)

AP: Groups Ask Judge To Block Arkansas' Near-Total Abortion Ban
Abortion rights supporters asked a federal judge on Monday to prevent Arkansas’ near-total ban on the procedure from taking effect while the groups challenge its constitutionality. The American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood asked the judge to issue a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction against the ban, which is set to take effect July 28. The groups filed a lawsuit last month challenging the ban, which prohibits abortions except those to save the life of the mother. (DeMillo, 6/14)

Bloomberg: Illinois Chemical Fire Leads To Evacuations
A massive fire at a chemical plant in northern Illinois spurred the governor to deploy the National Guard to the area as local residents were evacuated. No injuries have been reported. The industrial fire broke out early Monday morning at a lubricants plant operated by Chemtool, owned by a unit of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. The blaze, burning in Rockton, Illinois, continued to send a thick plume of black smoke into the sky in the late afternoon. Residents are being evacuated within a 1-mile (1.6-kilometer) radius from the plant and asked to wear face masks within a 3-mile radius as a precaution to protect themselves from the smoke, officials said during a press conference Monday. Governor J.B. Pritzker activated the state’s National Guard on Monday afternoon and deployed emergency vehicles to support local authorities. (Chapa and Singh, 6/14)

Stat: Mississippi Sues Drug Makers And PBMs Over The Cost Of Insulin
In a first-of-its-kind move, the Mississippi attorney general last week filed a lawsuit accusing several drug makers and pharmacy benefit managers of conspiring to set prices for insulin, the life-savings diabetes treatment that has become a poster child for the high cost of prescription medicines. The lawsuit alleged that the manufacturers benefited from a scheme in which prices were “artificially” inflated to win placement on formularies, the list of medicines for which insurance is provided. And pharmacy benefit managers profited by receiving “secret” rebates from the manufacturers and also through their own mail-order pharmacy sales. (Silverman, 6/14)

Los Angeles Times: California Offers $100 Million To Aid Legal Cannabis Industry
The California Legislature on Monday approved a $100-million plan to bolster California’s legal marijuana industry, which continues to struggle to compete with the large illicit pot market nearly five years after voters approved sales for recreational use. Los Angeles will be the biggest beneficiary of the money, which was proposed by Gov. Gavin Newsom to be provided as grants to cities and counties to help cannabis businesses transition from provisional to regular licenses. (McGreevy, 6/14)

AP: Los Angeles Dentist Charged With Sex Assaults On Patients
A Los Angeles dentist was charged Monday with sexually abusing nine women while they were undergoing procedures. Emad Fathy Moawad, 50, was charged with more than a dozen counts of sexual battery by restraint and other acts involving force. ... Prosecutors allege that between 2013 and 2018, Moawad molested women ranging from 27 to 73 years old. Moawad was sued in 2019 by a woman who alleged that while under anesthesia in 2017, Moawad molested her and that she reported the allegations to police, the Los Angeles Times reported. (6/15)

The New York Times: England Extends Covid Restrictions A Month
With a rapid and successful vaccine campaign on track, the path seemed clear not long ago for Prime Minister Boris Johnson to scrap all of England’s coronavirus rules on June 21, ending curbs that he resisted imposing in the first place. But on Monday, Mr. Johnson postponed by four weeks the moment dubbed “freedom day” by the tabloids after a spike in cases of a highly transmissible new variant that may cause more serious disease than earlier variants. Restaurants and pubs in England, while open, will still have to observe social distancing rules indoors, limiting capacity, and nightclubs and theaters will remain firmly closed. (Castle and Mueller, 6/14)

The Washington Post: WHO Warns That G-7 Pledge To Donate One Billion Vaccine Doses Too Little, Too Late
The World Health Organization warned Monday that the G-7’s pledge to share a billion doses with low-income countries would not be enough and has not come soon enough to stave off the fast-moving coronavirus. “I welcome the announcement that G-7 countries will donate 870 million (new) vaccine doses, primarily through Covax,” World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. “This is a big help, but we need more, and we need them faster. Right now, the virus is moving faster than the global distribution of vaccines.” (Berger, 6/15)

AP: Tokyo Organizers Roll Out Final Editions Of COVID Rule Books
IOC Vice President John Coates arrived in Tokyo on Tuesday, the same day that organizers and the International Olympic Committee were set to roll out the third and final edition of their so-called Playbooks. Coates is the International Olympic Committee’s official in charge of overseeing the Tokyo Games. He has been a controversial figure in Japan, saying the postponed Olympics would go ahead even if the country were under a state of emergency. (Wade, 6/15)

NBC News: CDC Temporarily Bans Dogs From Some Countries From Entering U.S. Because Of Rabies Risk
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Monday that it is temporarily banning dogs from being imported from more than 100 countries because of a risk of rabies. The ban will go into effect July 14. The move was prompted by an increase in inadequate rabies vaccination certificates abroad, the agency said. "This temporary action is necessary to ensure the health and safety of dogs imported into the United States and to protect the public's health against the reintroduction" of dog rabies into the country, the CDC wrote on its website. (Edwards, 6/14)

The New York Times: Vatican Warns U.S. Bishops: Don’t Deny Biden Communion Over Abortion 
The Vatican has warned conservative American bishops to hit the brakes on their push to deny communion to politicians supportive of abortion rights — including President Biden, a faithful churchgoer and the first Roman Catholic to occupy the Oval Office in 60 years. But despite the remarkably public stop sign from Rome, the American bishops are pressing ahead anyway and are expected to force a debate on the communion issue at a remote meeting that starts on Wednesday. (Horowitz, 6/14)

The New York Times: No, Christian Eriksen’s Sudden Collapse Was Not From The Covid Vaccine
The sudden collapse of the Danish soccer player Christian Eriksen during a game at Euro 2020 on Saturday has spurred a wave of unfounded speculation over his vaccination status. Mr. Eriksen, a 29-year-old midfielder who also plays for the Italian champions Inter Milan, went into cardiac arrest in the first half of Denmark’s opening game against Finland and was resuscitated. Contrary to some social media posts, his condition was not because he had received a coronavirus vaccine. (Qiu and Decker, 6/14)