First Edition: March 11, 2021

KHN: High Obesity Rates In Southern States Magnify Covid Threat
In January, as Mississippi health officials planned for their incoming shipments of covid-19 vaccine, they assessed the state’s most vulnerable: health care workers, of course, and elderly people in nursing homes. But among those who needed urgent protection from the virus ripping across the Magnolia State were 1 million Mississippians with obesity. Obesity and weight-related illnesses have been deadly liabilities in the covid era. A report released this month by the World Obesity Federation found that increased body weight is the second-greatest predictor of covid-related hospitalization and death across the globe, trailing only old age as a risk factor. (Varney, 3/11)

KHN: Meet The Retired Nurse Who Could Give Covid Shots But Couldn’t Get One 
Martha Gallagher, a 75-year-old retired school nurse, wanted to volunteer for the Delaware Medical Reserve Corps to administer covid-19 vaccines. She knew Delaware might need more vaccinators and thought, “Why not do something to help get the vaccine out?” Plus, Gallagher figured, it would be a good way for her to get vaccinated, too. (Knight, 3/11)

KHN: In A Year Of Zoom Memorials, Art Exhibit Makes Space For Grief
Tami Roncskevitz has attended two Zoom memorials for her daughter, Sarah, a 32-year-old emergency room social worker who died of covid on May 30. But she longs to gather Sarah’s friends and family together in one place so they can embrace and mourn together. “It just isn’t the same,” said Roncskevitz. “You feel like your grieving is not complete.” (Almendrala, 3/11)

KHN: Vaccine Altruists Find Appointments For Those Who Can’t
Ana Guevara was determined to get a covid vaccine for her mother, 85-year-old Adelina Coto, but she needed help. Guevara, a full-time nanny in Los Angeles, didn’t have the time or knowledge to search for appointments online. Guevara’s son, a school district employee, lacked the time to park himself in front of a computer waiting for new appointments to drop. Then Guevara’s boss connected her with a group that volunteers to help people like her mother get vaccinated. (Almendrala, 3/11)

KHN: One Year In: How Covid’s Toll Compares With Other Causes Of Death
Now that the coronavirus has been in the United States for roughly a year, new numbers are revealing the scale of covid-19’s impact on American health: Covid has become the country’s third-leading cause of death, and could be on its way to outpacing cancer. As of Wednesday afternoon, 528,603 Americans had died of the coronavirus, according to Johns Hopkins University data. And a closely watched model from researchers at the University of Washington projects that this number will rise past 575,000 by June 1. (Jacobson, 3/11)

NBC News: 'It Felt Like The World Was Falling Apart': An Oral History Of The Day That Changed America
In the days and weeks leading up to March 11, 2020, Americans could be excused for underestimating the coronavirus. The U.S. had faced a variety of infectious diseases in recent decades — SARS, MERS, avian flu, Zika, Ebola and others — and it was unclear how this new coronavirus would be notably different. Some parts of the U.S. had taken action as the initial outbreak in Italy offered a window into just how bad things could get. But any doubt that the Covid-19 pandemic was about to shatter daily life ended on March 11. What had been a steadily building crisis exploded in a handful of hours. (Ingram, Pettypiece and Garcia-Hodges, 3/11)

Roll Call: How The Pandemic Changed Health Care, One Year Later 
The World Health Organization officially declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic on March 11, 2020. More than 500,000 American deaths and trillions of taxpayer dollars later, the virus has reshaped the health care landscape for years to come. That system’s shortcomings became painfully obvious as the virus spread, exposing glaring gaps in care for rural and low-income communities, as well as people of color. The lack of domestic manufacturing capacity for critical supplies like protective equipment forced nurses to reuse masks and dress in garbage bags. Patient care unrelated to COVD-19 suffered. (Clason and McIntire, 3/10)

AP: A Year On, WHO Still Struggling To Manage Pandemic Response
When the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus a pandemic one year ago Thursday, it did so only after weeks of resisting the term and maintaining that the highly infectious virus could still be stopped. A year later, the U.N. agency is still struggling to keep on top of the evolving science of COVID-19, to persuade countries to abandon their nationalistic tendencies and help get vaccines where they’re needed most. (Cheng and Keaten, 3/11)

NBC News: The Last Photo: Images Taken Just One Year Ago Feel A Lifetime Away
Sports games in packed arenas. Weekend getaways and world travels. Birthday parties with family and friends. Just as striking about what is in our photos from one year ago is what is not: No masks. No 6-foot gaps between people. No bottles of hand sanitizer. NBC News asked readers to send in the last photo they took before the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus a pandemic on March 11, 2020. (Chuck, 3/10)

CNN: US Coronavirus: A Year After The Pandemic Was Declared, US Covid-19 Numbers Are Way Too High To Relax Just Yet, CDC Director Warns 
More than 29 million cases have been reported in the US since the World Health Organization declared the novel coronavirus a pandemic one year ago. The virus plunged America into grief and crisis. Several rounds of violent surges in infections prompted local and state leaders from coast to coast to order safety restrictions -- in some cases, curfews -- hoping to curb this invisible enemy's spread. Waves of Covid-19 patients crippled healthcare systems. Spikes in deaths drove some communities to call in mobile units to support their morgues. (Maxouris, 3/11)

Politico: Virus Drove Record U.S. Death Rate In 2020, CDC Finds 
The U.S. death rate increased by 15 percent last year as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, making it the deadliest year in recorded U.S. history, the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention will announce, according to two senior administration officials with direct knowledge of the matter. The agency will summarize its findings in an upcoming issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Its analysis will detail the rates at which U.S. residents of various races and ethnicities died as a result of the virus as well as the total number of deaths in each demographic group, those sources said. (Banco, 3/10)

The Washington Post: Congress Adopts $1.9 Trillion Stimulus, Securing First Major Win For Biden 
Congress approved a sweeping $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package on Wednesday, authorizing a flurry of new federal spending and a temporary yet dramatic increase in anti-poverty programs to help millions of families still struggling amid the pandemic. The 220-to-211 vote in the House of Representatives almost entirely along party lines sends to President Biden’s desk one of the largest economic rescue packages in U.S. history, which Democrats had promised to pass as one of their first acts of governance after securing narrow but potent majorities in Washington during the 2020 presidential election. (Romm, 3/10)

Roll Call: House Sends Massive Coronavirus Relief Bill To Biden 
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has said robust financial aid is needed because of what she calls a “K-shaped” economic recovery in which the wealthy get richer and the poor fall further behind. The legislation marks the sixth aid package Congress has passed since last March. But it’s the first to pass without bipartisan support. (Shutt, 3/10)

The New York Times: Congress Clears $1.9 Trillion Aid Bill, Sending It To Biden 
“This is the most consequential legislation that many of us will ever be a party to,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California said at a news conference after the bill’s passage. “On this day, we celebrate because we are honoring a promise made by our president, and we join with him in promising that help is on the way.” Earlier, she had dismissed the lack of Republican support and said opponents would not hesitate to claim credit for the popular elements of the plan, saying, “It’s typical that they vote no and take the dough.” (Cochrane, 3/10)

The Washington Post: How Big Is The Biden Stimulus Bill? And Who Gets The Most Help? 
Over half the money — 54 percent — in the bill goes toward households. In addition to the popular $1,400 checks, there is also funding for extra unemployment insurance through Labor Day, expanded tax credits, and various programs to make rent, food and health insurance more affordable. Economists say low- and moderate-income Americans will benefit the most from this aid, especially individuals earning $75,000 or less and couples earning $150,000 or less. The number of Americans living in poverty is predicted to drop in 2021 by as much as a third because of this legislation. (Fowers, Long and Schaul, 3/10)

The Hill: Biden Under Pressure To Get $1,400 Payments Out Quickly
With President Biden on the verge of signing his coronavirus relief bill into law, the administration now faces a race against the clock in trying to get relief out the door as quickly as possible. White House officials expect the $1,400 direct payments designated for most Americans will be sent out by the end of March. But other forms of assistance in the $1.9 trillion package could take longer to allocate. (Chalfant and Jagoda, 3/10)

CNBC: Health Insurance Costs To Drop For Millions Under Covid Relief Bill
Private health insurance through the nation’s public exchanges is set to become more affordable — at least for a couple of years. The $1.9 trillion Covid relief package, which received final congressional approval Wednesday and will soon head to President Joe Biden for his signature, includes provisions that will reduce the cost of health insurance amid the ongoing pandemic and elevated unemployment. (O'Brien, 3/10)

AP: Biden Immediately Begins Selling Virus Aid Plan To Public
President Biden tweeted moments after the House of Representatives passed the bill that “Help is here — and brighter days lie ahead.” He later told reporters that “This bill represents a historic victory for the American people,” while the White House also released a slickly produced video touting the passage, and Democrats on Capitol Hill staged an elaborate signing ceremony. (Lemire, 3/10)

ABC News: Biden's 1st Primetime Speech To Reflect On 1 Year Since Pandemic Shutdowns, Challenges Ahead 
For the third time this year, President Joe Biden will mark a landmark moment in the COVID-19 pandemic, delivering his first primetime address Thursday night to recognize one year since widespread shutdowns began across the United States and to ask Americans to help with "what comes next." "I'm gonna launch the next phase of the COVID response and explain what we will do as a government and what we will ask of the American people," Biden said on Wednesday, previewing his remarks. "There is light at the end of this dark tunnel of the past year. But we cannot let our guard down now or assume the victory is inevitable. Together, we're gonna get through this pandemic and usher in a healthier and more hopeful future." (Gomez, 3/11)

The Washington Post: First Address In Office For Biden Marks Anniversary Of Coronavirus Pandemic 
President Biden, in his first prime-time address since taking office, is planning on Thursday night to speak to a nation still reeling from the deadly coronavirus pandemic, offering a look back on the devastating year as well as previewing what he will characterize as a coming return to some sense of normalcy, according to White House officials. Biden views the speech as a key marker to reflect on his first 50 days in office, one that comes almost exactly a year after the nation began to shut down as a result of the pandemic and at an inflection point in his own presidency, officials said. It was last March 11 that then-President Donald Trump gave his own widely criticized Oval Office address, suspending travel from Europe while also telling Americans of the virus: “The risk is very, very low.” (Viser and Parker, 3/10)

AP: Biden’s Speech Goals: Mourn Loss, Urge Caution, Offer Hope
Marking a year of loss and disruption, President Joe Biden will use his first prime-time address since taking office to steer the nation toward a hungered-for sentiment — hope — in the “next phase” of the fight against the pandemic that has killed more than 529,000 Americans. Previewing his remarks, Biden said he would “talk about what we’ve been through as a nation this past year, but more importantly, I’m going to talk about what comes next.” (Miller, 3/11)

CNBC: Biden Says He Will Announce The ‘Next Phase’ Of The U.S. Covid Response Thursday
President Joe Biden said he will announce the “next phase” of the U.S. Covid-19 response during his prime-time address to Americans on Thursday. “Tomorrow night, I’m going on prime time to address the American people and talk about what we went through as a nation this past year. But more importantly, I’m going to talk about what comes next,” Biden said Wednesday from the White House after a meeting with executives from Johnson & Johnson and Merck. (Lovelace Jr., 3/10)

AP: Biden's First 50 Days: Where He Stands On Key Promises
President Joe Biden laid out an ambitious agenda for his first 100 days in office, promising swift action on everything from climate change to immigration reform to the coronavirus pandemic. On his 50th day in office, on Wednesday, his administration celebrated a milestone: congressional passage of his massive $1.9 trillion coronavirus aid package. The bill includes direct payments to millions of Americans and money to help the White House deliver on a number of Biden’s biggest campaign promises, like reopening schools and getting more Americans vaccinated. (Jaffe, 3/10)

The Washington Post: Biden Orders 100 Million More Vaccine Shots From Johnson & Johnson 
The new order, which Johnson & Johnson indicated has not been finalized, will bring total U.S. orders of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to 200 million doses. Because it’s a one-dose vaccine, the supply will represent enough for 200 million people. It is not expected to be fulfilled until the second half of the year, administration officials said. (Rowland and Stanley-Becker, 3/10)

AP: Biden Boosts US Vaccine Stockpile As World Waits
Even before Wednesday’s order, the U.S. was to have enough approved vaccine delivered by mid-May to cover every adult and enough for 400 million people total by the end of July. Enough doses to cover 200 million more people are on order should vaccines from AstraZeneca and Novavax receive approval from the Food and Drug Administration. The new J&J doses, which would cover another 100 million people, are expected to be delivered in the latter half of the year. (Miller, 3/10)

Bloomberg: Biden To Order 100 Million More J&J Covid Vaccine Doses, Boosting U.S. Stockpile
President Joe Biden said doubling the U.S. order of Johnson & Johnson’s one-shot Covid-19 vaccine will help build a stockpile larger than the country’s population, providing backup doses to meet unexpected needs as new variants of the virus emerge. After the U.S. is satisfied that it has enough supply to meet contingencies, it will provide vaccines to other countries, Biden said. (Wingrove and Griffin, 3/10)

Politico: Biden To Order 100M More Doses Of Johnson & Johnson Vaccine 
President Joe Biden said Wednesday that the United States plans to order another 100 million Covid-19 vaccine doses from Johnson & Johnson. The president made the announcement after a White House meeting with J&J CEO Alex Gorsky and Merck CEO Ken Frazier — one week after the two companies struck a deal for Merck to produce millions of doses of Johnson & Johnson's vaccine. (Owermohle and Cancryn, 3/10)

Bloomberg: J&J Vaccine Rollout Slowed By Shifting State Strategies
Almost two weeks after being cleared by regulators, Johnson & Johnson’s single-shot coronavirus vaccine is not yet providing a visible jolt to the U.S. immunization campaign. Roughly 3.6 million doses of the J&J vaccine have been distributed since the shot received emergency authorization on Feb. 27. But only 440,000 have been put in people’s arms. In California, which received 440,000 doses across all providers in the state, only 2,200 shots have been administered, according to federal data. (LaVito and Shah, 3/10)

CNN: Former Presidents Carter, Clinton, Bush And Obama Urge Americans To Get Vaccinated
Former Presidents Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and their respective former first ladies are part of a newly released ad campaign urging Americans to get the coronavirus vaccine when it is their turn, a push that is aimed squarely at combating vaccine skepticism. There are two ads in the campaign: a minute-long, more personal spot that shows the four former presidents and former first ladies receiving their vaccines, and another that features Clinton, Bush and Obama standing together to urge Americans to step up and get vaccinated. (Merica, 3/11)

The Washington Post: Trump Requests A Mail-In Ballot After Months Of Falsely Crying ‘Fraud’ On Mail-In Ballots
Former president Donald Trump recently requested a mail-in ballot for a municipal election in South Florida, according to Palm Beach County records, voting again by mail despite months of repeatedly promoting false claims of election fraud without evidence. Records from the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections, first reported by the Palm Beach Post, show that a mail-in ballot for the town’s local election this week was requested on Friday for the former president’s residence at Mar-a-Lago, his private club on Palm Beach. (Bella, 3/10)

The New York Times: Biden Administration Opens Nursing Home Doors
In a statement of the reasoning behind the updated recommendations, Dr. Lee Fleisher, the chief medical officer at C.M.S., cited the millions of vaccines administered to nursing home residents and staff and a decline in infections in nursing homes. “C.M.S. recognizes the psychological, emotional and physical toll that prolonged isolation and separation from family have taken on nursing home residents, and their families,” Dr. Fleisher said. (3/11)

AP: Nursing Home Residents Can Get Hugs Again, Feds Say
“There is no substitute for physical contact, such as the warm embrace between a resident and their loved one,” CMS said in its new guidance, “Therefore, if the resident is fully vaccinated, they can choose to have close contact (including touch) with their visitor while wearing a well-fitting face mask and performing hand-hygiene before and after.” So while hugs are OK again for residents who have completed their vaccination, precautions such as wearing masks and using hand sanitizer remain in place as a counterbalance to risk. CMS also underscored that maintaining 6 feet of separation is still the safest policy, and outdoor visits are preferable even when residents and visitors have been vaccinated. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 3/11)

Modern Healthcare: CMS Loosens Nursing Home Visitation Guidance To Allow Indoor Visits
CMS on Wednesday relaxed guidance on nursing home visitation, allowing unrestricted indoor visits for the first time in a year. While the guidance permits indoor visitation for both vaccinated and unvaccinated residents, CMS still recommends outdoor visitation to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission. "Given the ongoing risk of COVID-19 transmission, CMS continues to recommend facilities, residents, and families adhere to the core principles of COVID-19 infection control, including maintaining physical distancing and conducting visits outdoors whenever possible," the guidance reads. (Christ, 3/10)

The Hill: First Study Subjects Receive Modified Moderna Vaccine To Fight South Africa Variant
Moderna announced Wednesday that it has administered the first doses of a modified vaccine designed to fight coronavirus variants to study participants. The company said it is observing the efficacy of two different modified vaccines in a small study involving 60 people who already received the original vaccine. (Sullivan, 3/10)

The Wall Street Journal: Covid-19 Variant Vaccine From Moderna Begins Human Testing 
The Cambridge, Mass., company, which has one of the Covid-19 vaccines widely in use, plans to enroll 60 people to test the new shot. The subjects had previously received the standard two doses of Moderna’s original shot as part of a mid-stage study that began last year. In the new portion of the study, these adult volunteers will receive a booster shot containing Moderna’s modified vaccine, code-named mRNA-1273.351. (Loftus, 3/10)

CIDRAP: Death Rate 64% Higher With B117 COVID Variant, Study Finds
The 28-day risk of death for the B117 COVID-19 variant was 64% higher than for previously circulating strains in people older than 30 years, a UK study finds. The study, led by University of Exeter researchers and published today in BMJ, involved community-based testing and death data from 54,906 matched pairs of participants who tested positive for COVID-19 from Oct 1, 2020, to Jan 29, 2021. (Van Beausekom, 3/10)

NBC News: Long-Haul Covid Patients Can Experience 'Waves Of Symptoms,' Early Research Suggests
New research suggests that long-term symptoms of Covid-19 may emerge in a distinct pattern over weeks and months. Natalie Lambert, an associate research professor at Indiana University School of Medicine, surveyed thousands of "long-hauler" Covid-19 patients, finding that specific symptoms tend to emerge at regular intervals — usually a week or 10 days — resulting in what she calls "waves of symptoms." (Edwards, 3/10)

CIDRAP: Long COVID-19 Tied To Certain Symptoms, Having More Than 5 Symptoms
A new study out of the United Kingdom found people who developed "long COVID-19," meaning they experienced symptoms for more than 28 days after initial infection, were more likely to report more than five symptoms in the early days of their illnesses, and long COVID-19 was also tied to certain early symptoms. The study was published today in Nature Medicine. The findings were based on user data from a mobile app called COVID Symptom Study. A total of 4,182 incident cases of COVID-19, in which individuals self-reported their symptoms, showed that 558 (13.3%) participants reported symptoms lasting more than 28 days, 189 (4.5%) for more than 8 weeks and 95 (2.3%) for more than 12 weeks. (3/10)

USA Today: COVID-19 Vaccine Now Available At Over 600 In-Store CVS Locations At Select Target Stores Across 17 States
The COVID-19 vaccine is now available in more than 600 CVS in-store pharmacies at Target stores across 17 states. Target announced the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines Wednesday, saying it would also make its fitting rooms at select stores available to CVS for appointments, which are booked through the drug store chain. The retailer closed fitting rooms in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic. (Tyko, 3/10)

Houston Chronicle: Texans 50 And Older Can Receive A COVID Vaccine Starting Next Monday
All Texans 50 and older will be eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine starting Monday, expanding the pool of possible recipients to nearly half of the state’s population. Now the question is how to find a shot. So far, 4.7 million Texans have received at least one dose of the vaccine, a 15.8 percent vaccination rate that is one of the worst in the nation. State officials say they are going as fast as they can. They have complained the federal government is not sending enough vaccine because it is using old population data to calculate the Texas share. (Harris, Garcia and Wu, 3/10)

Boston Globe: Massachusetts Unveils Vaccine Preregistration System To Ease Appointment Frenzy
Governor Charlie Baker on Wednesday unveiled a new online preregistration tool to make it easier to book an appointment at seven mass vaccination sites, a bid to ease the mounting frustration over the frenzied competition to secure a COVID-19 shot. The new system, which will go into effect Friday, could solve what has become the most glaring problem in the state’s vaccine rollout: a vexing online user experience that has forced thousands to compete for a limited number of appointments. Going forward, users will be able to go online and enter their information, and later be alerted when it is their turn to book a vaccination. (Vaccaro and Andersen, 3/10)

Las Vegas Review-Journal: Vaccine Eligibility Questions Raised While Appointments Go Unfilled
Nevada health officials on Wednesday would not say whether they are considering Clark County’s plea to lower the vaccine eligibility age to 55 years. Instead, they urged the public to ensure people in the 65-to-69 age group knew they were eligible for immunization and how they could schedule an appointment. “We need your help in getting the word out to Nevadans who are currently eligible for the COVID-19 vaccination,” state COVID-19 response director Caleb Cage said. “Please help a friend and neighbor or parents or a loved one get connected to vaccine in their area.” (Scott Davidson and Hynes, 3/10)

Fox News: Some Oakland, Calif., Residents Mistakenly Alerted About Vaccine Underdosing: Report
Officials with the California Health Department were scrambling to allay residents’ fears this week after too many people received a letter telling them they may have received a too-weak dosage of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine. The letters were supposed to go to people who visited the Oakland Coliseum vaccination site but by mistake the letters also were delivered to people who used the Eastmont Mall site, FOX 2 of the Bay Area reported. Either way, there was no cause for alarm regardless of which site people visited, health officials told the station. (Calicchio, 3/11)

CBS News: 70% Of Employees Want COVID-19 Vaccine Required To Return To Offices, Survey Shows 
U.S. employees who are working from the confines — and safety — of their homes during the pandemic appear to be satisfied to stay put, and fear that returning to the office is too risky unless their employers require all co-workers to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, according to a survey published Wednesday by the employment website Glassdoor. A fulll 70% of employees said their companies should institute a vaccine mandate before calling workers back to the office, according to the Glassdoor survey. (Cerullo, 3/10)

CNN: One In Five Health Care Workers Faced Depression And Anxiety During The Pandemic 
Staggering numbers of health care workers -- more than one in five -- have experienced anxiety, depression or post-traumatic stress disorder during the pandemic, new research has revealed. Health care workers have been working for long hours under strenuous conditions. Because of this, Nathaniel Scherer, co-lead author of the systematic review and meta-analysis published Wednesday in PLOS One, said he was not surprised by the numbers. (Marples, 3/11)

CIDRAP: Pneumococcal Vaccine Associated With Lower COVID-19 Risk
People 65 and older who received the 13-valent (13-strain) pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV13) had lower COVID-19 diagnoses, hospitalizations, and deaths, reports a study published yesterday in The Journal of Infectious Diseases. If patients received antibiotics within the past 90 days, though, the relationship weakened. The researchers looked at 541,033 elderly adults in the Kaiser Permanente Southern California healthcare system from Mar 1 to Jul 22, 2020. The vast majority (83.4%) received PCV13, and recipients were more likely to be older, have more comorbidities, and partake in healthcare services more often. Overall, 3,677 COVID-19 cases in the study cohort (0.7%) led to 1,075 hospitalizations (0.2%) and 334 deaths (0.06%). (3/10)

New York Post: Why These Masks Are More Effective At Stopping COVID Spread
Cotton face masks are proving more effective against the spread of the coronavirus than previously thought, a new study found. Even under humid conditions — which is typically the case, as the mask covers the mouth and nose — 100% cotton performed significantly better than synthetic fibers, including nylon, polyester and rayon. In fact, the humidity provided by one’s breath was shown to actually improve filtration in cotton masks. Across the nine types of cotton flannel masks researchers tested, humidity increased efficacy on average from 12% to 45%. (Sparks, 3/10)

Stat: Antibiotic Prescribing During Covid-19 Raises Concern About Drug Resistance
Amid rising worries over antibiotic resistance, a new study suggests the drugs were overprescribed to patients during the first six months of the Covid-19 pandemic. In 96% of the cases, antibiotics were given to patients before a bacterial infection was confirmed. To wit, a first antibiotic was prescribed at the time of admission or within the first 48 hours of hospitalization. Yet such prescribing implies a degree of guesswork, since it can typically take 48 hours or more to confirm a bacterial infection, according to The Pew Charitable Trusts, which conducted the analysis. (Silverman, 3/10)

NPR: Antibiotic Use Ran High In Early Days Of COVID-19, Despite Viral Cause
Doctors treating COVID-19 patients early in the pandemic often reached for antibiotics. But those drugs were not helpful in most cases, and overuse of antibiotics is a serious concern. Several research groups, at Johns Hopkins, the University of Michigan and Bristol, England, have observed this trend. Now researchers at the Pew Charitable Trusts have weighed in with more data and put those findings in the context of long-term worries about the fate of antibiotics. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that nearly 3 million Americans a year get an infection that's caused by a drug-resistant microbe. An estimated 35,000 Americans die from these hard-to-treat infections annually. (Harris, 3/10)

The Wall Street Journal: Covid-19 Antibody Drug Effective In Study, GlaxoSmithKline And Vir Say 
A monoclonal-antibody drug reduced hospitalizations or death from Covid-19 by 85% compared with a placebo in a clinical trial, said Vir Biotechnology Inc. and GlaxoSmithKline PLC, the drug’s developers. Based on the positive results, the companies said Wednesday they will immediately ask health regulators in the U.S. and other countries to authorize the therapy, which would add to the arsenal of Covid-19 treatments that help keep infected people out of hospitals. (Walker, 3/10)

Fox News: Eli Lilly COVID-19 Drug Combo Cuts Risk Of Hospitalizations, Deaths By 87%: Study
A combination of two Eli Lilly antibody drugs cut the risk of COVID-19-related hospitalizations and deaths by 87%, the company announced Wednesday, further upholding dosing already authorized by the Food and Drug Administration. The findings draw from a BLAZE-1 Phase 3 cohort with 769 mild-to-moderate coronavirus patients aged 12 and up at high-risk of progressing to severe disease. There were 15 "events" like hospitalizations or deaths in the placebo group, and four "events" in a group of patients taking 700 mg of bamlanivimab and 1400 mg of etesevimab together, "representing an 87 percent risk reduction," Lilly announced. (Rivas, 3/10)

Crain's Detroit Business: Demand Increasing For Infusion Treatment To Lessen COVID-19 Hospitalizations
More than 4,000 people testing positive for COVID-19 in Michigan have been treated with one of the two approved monoclonal antibody infusion treatments at more than 100 hospitals, pharmacies and urgent care centers that are administering the Eli Lilly and Regeneron cocktail therapies. Early results show hospitalization rates at about 5% compared to 10% to 15% rates in similar high-risk populations, according to the state Department of Health and Human Services. (Greene, 3/10)

Stat: Bluebird Says Its Gene Therapy Was Unlikely To Be Cause Of Patient's Cancer
Bluebird Bio said Wednesday that it was “very unlikely” that its experimental gene therapy for sickle cell disease was the cause of a treated patient’s cancer diagnosis. The company said it will now seek permission from regulators to resume suspended clinical trials. The findings from Bluebird’s investigation into its Lentiglobin gene therapy pushed its stock higher by 11%, and may also relieve broader safety concerns that have weighed on other developers of gene therapies. (Feuerstein, 3/10)

Modern Healthcare: Quest Acquires Mercy's Outreach Lab Business
Quest Diagnostics has entered an agreement to acquire the outreach laboratory services business of healthcare system Mercy, the companies announced this week. With the acquisition, Quest will pick up the business from 29 Mercy hospital labs and two independent clinic labs servicing patients and providers throughout Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma. Testing formerly done by Mercy's outreach business will be done at Quest's laboratory in Lenexa, Kansas and a network of rapid response labs throughout the region. (3/10)

Stat: 4 Lessons From IBM’s Failure To Transform Medicine With Watson Health
The demise of IBM’s Watson Health would be easy to file away as another ill-fated attempt to tackle health care without understanding its complexities. But its downfall offers specific lessons on the implementation of artificial intelligence in an industry still clamoring for new ways to mine mountains of data. (Ross, 3/10)

Modern Healthcare: Surprise Billing Ban Details Yet To Be Determined, Leaving Industry Fights To Come
Providers and insurers will continue their fight over surprise billing as federal officials figure out how to put the No Surprises Act into practice, according to experts. The new law protects consumers from receiving unexpected medical bills resulting from out-of-network emergency care delivered by an out-of-network facility or out-of-network providers at an in-network facility. It also blocks out-of-network providers at in-network facilities from balance billing patients for non-emergency care unless they get patient consent. But patients will still be responsible for paying the in-network cost-sharing amount. (Brady, 3/10)

Axios: Exclusive: YouTube Removed 30,000 Videos With COVID Misinformation 
YouTube has taken down more than 30,000 videos that made misleading or false claims about COVID-19 vaccines over the last six months, YouTube spokesperson Elena Hernandez said, offering the company's first release of numbers for such content. Multiple polls show that roughly 30% of Americans remain hesitant or suspicious of the vaccines, and many of those doubts have been stoked by online falsehoods and conspiracy theories. (Gold, 3/11)

CBS News: Child Care A Major Factor In Women Leaving Jobs During The Pandemic 
More than 2 million women have left their jobs in the past year, bringing women's participation in the labor force to the lowest level in more than 30 years. For many, child care was a major factor. Nicole Johnson worked as a full-time teaching assistant in Scarsdale, New York, until the coronavirus pandemic shuttered her school. She was out of a job, surviving on unemployment. (Battiste, 3/10)

AP: University Offers Students $75 To Avoid Spring Break Travel
The University of California, Davis is offering students $75 to be used for “staycations” to encourage them to avoid nonessential travel during spring break. Students who choose to stay home during the March 22-26 break will get the money in gift cards. Student response has been “awesome,” the university said in statement. (3/10)

Bloomberg: NYC Schools Aren’t Covid Super-Spreaders, City Study Finds
In-person learning in New York City’s public schools was not associated with increased Covid-19 infections compared with the general community, according to a peer-reviewed study released Wednesday. The study, led by senior health adviser Jay Varma and published in the Pediatrics medical journal, provides data to back up claims by city officials that school buildings are among the safest places in New York. (Banjo, 3/10)