First Edition: March 16, 2021

KHN: ‘Painless’ Glucose Monitors Pushed Despite Little Evidence They Help Most Diabetes Patients 
In the nation’s battle against the diabetes epidemic, the go-to weapon being aggressively promoted to patients is as small as a quarter and worn on the belly or arm. A continuous glucose monitor holds a tiny sensor that’s inserted just under the skin, alleviating the need for patients to prick their fingers every day to check blood sugar. The monitor tracks glucose levels all the time, sends readings to patients’ cellphone and doctor, and alerts patients when readings are headed too high or too low. (Galewitz, 3/16)

KHN: For Spring Season, Young Athletes Get Back In The Game Despite Covid Risk 
This spring, high school senior Nathan Kassis will play baseball in the shadow of covid-19 — wearing a neck gaiter under his catcher’s mask, sitting 6 feet from teammates in the dugout and trading elbow bumps for hugs after wins. “We’re looking forward to having a season,” said the 18-year-old catcher for Dublin Coffman High School, outside Columbus, Ohio. “This game is something we really love.” (Ungar, 3/16)

KHN: How Covid Has Changed Our Movement, As Revealed By Your Cellphone 
For all of our grousing about covid fatigue, a few novel trends are clear one year into the pandemic. In the early weeks of 2021, Californians are staying home way more than we did in our pre-pandemic life. Even so, we’re heading out to shop, dine and work far more now than in March 2020, when state officials issued the first sweeping stay-at-home order, or the dark period that followed the winter holidays, when we hunkered down as covid-19 caseloads exploded. And to the extent we are venturing out, we are using cars rather than resuming pre-covid commute patterns on buses and trains, a trend with troubling implications for transit services and the environment should it become long-standing. (Reese, 3/16)

KHN: Analysis: The Trump Health Care Policies That Deserve To Stick Around 
President Joe Biden’s goal of providing health care for more Americans advanced this week with his signing of an economic stimulus package that includes subsidies for health insurance premiums and new incentives for states to expand Medicaid, as well as the potential confirmation of Xavier Becerra as secretary of Health and Human Services. But as the current administration works to reverse the actions of its predecessor, it should recognize that former President Donald Trump introduced policies on medical care and drug price transparency that are worth preserving. Those measures could help struggling patient-consumers while the new administration pushes for the far more ambitious reforms Biden campaigned on, which include a public health insurance option and a system that would allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices. (Rosenthal, 3/16)

USA Today: EU Countries Suspend AstraZeneca Vaccine As US Considers Authorization
Germany, France, Spain, Italy and Portugal on Monday suspended use of AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine over new reports of blood clots, even as a U.S. official said the vaccine could win U.S. authorization next month. Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, told Reuters that data from the 30,000-person vaccine trial were being reviewed by independent U.S. monitors to determine whether the shot is safe and effective. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration could complete its reviews and issue an emergency use authorization next month if all goes well, he said. (Ortiz, Bacon and Aspegren, 3/15)

The Wall Street Journal: Germany, France, Italy Suspend Use Of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 Vaccine 
Germany, Italy, France and Spain joined the ranks of European countries that have temporarily halted use of the Covid-19 shot made by AstraZeneca PLC over blood-clot concerns, dealing another blow to the continent’s sluggish vaccination rollout and threatening the credibility of the vaccine itself. A cascade of cautionary pauses that started last week picked up Monday. Denmark was the first to suspend the shots. Ireland, Norway, the Netherlands and Iceland have also said they would wait for Europe’s bloc-wide medicines regulator to investigate a small number of serious blood-clotting issues among people who had received the AstraZeneca shot. (Strasburg and Pancevski, 3/15)

AP: Sweden Is Latest Country To Stop Using AstraZeneca Vaccine
Sweden on Tuesday became the latest European country to pause use of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine amid reports of dangerous blood clots in some recipients. The company and international regulators continue to say the vaccine is safe, however, and many countries elsewhere in the world are forging ahead with their vaccination campaigns. (Grieshaber, 3/16)

AP: Thai PM Gets AstraZeneca Jab, 1 Asian Country Suspends
Thailand’s prime minister received a shot of the COVID-19 vaccine manufactured by AstraZeneca on Tuesday, as much of Asia shrugged off concerns about reports of blood clots in some recipients in Europe, saying that so far there is no evidence to link the two. Many countries using the vaccine also said the benefits from inoculation far outweighed possible risks, even as parts of Europe suspended it pending investigation of potential side effects. AstraZeneca has developed a manufacturing base in Asia, and the Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest vaccine maker, has been contracted by the company to produce a billion doses of the vaccine for developing nations. Hundreds of millions more are to be manufactured this year in Australia, Japan, Thailand and South Korea. (Quinn, 3/16)

Bloomberg: AstraZeneca Vaccine: Canada's Justin Trudeau Says All Approved Shots Are Safe
Justin Trudeau sought to reassure Canadians that every Covid-19 vaccine approved in the country is safe even as the European Union’s three biggest economies suspended use of AstraZeneca Plc’s shot. Germany, France and Italy ordered health officials to stop administering the vaccine Monday after inoculated citizens reported suffering blood clots in their legs and lungs. Trudeau said his government is following the developments closely. “Health Canada, our experts and scientists have spent an awful lot of time making sure that every vaccine approved in Canada is both safe and effective,” the prime minister told reporters in Montreal. “Therefore, the best vaccine for you to take is the very first one that is offered to you.” (Bolongaro, 3/15)

The New York Times: AstraZeneca Concerns Throw Europe’s Covid-19 Vaccine Rollout Into Deeper Disarray 
The company has strongly defended its vaccine, saying that there is “no evidence” of increased risk of blood clots or hemorrhages among the more than 17 million people who have received the shot in the European Union and the United Kingdom. “The safety of all is our first priority,” AstraZeneca said in a statement Monday. “We are working with national health authorities and European officials and look forward to their assessment later this week.” (Horowitz, 3/15)

The New York Times: Should You Be Concerned About Blood Clots, Bleeding And The AZ-Vaccine?
Dr. David Wohl, director of the vaccine clinic at the University of North Carolina, said he had seen no evidence that any of the Covid vaccines had caused blood clots, also called thrombosis, in the large clinical trials that led to their authorization. But Dr. Wohl also noted, “There are differences between trials and real life.” (Grady and Robbins, 3/15)

The Washington Post: AstraZeneca And Blood Clots: Without Causality, Experts Say Reports Shouldn’t Rule Out A Vaccine
Amid growing concerns about reports of blood clots among AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine recipients, health experts are urging the public not to jump to conclusions about any vaccine’s safety based solely on reports of adverse events and in the absence of further research. “A vaccine is designed to prevent a certain kind of thing — prevent an infection or prevent disease,” said Susan Ellenberg, a professor of biostatistics, medical ethics and health policy at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine. “It’s not going to prevent every bad thing that could possibly happen to anybody, so when a vaccine is widely used, all the other kinds of bad things that could happen to people are still going to happen. (Chiu, 3/15)

Stat: The Curious Case Of AstraZeneca's Covid-19 Vaccine
AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine is facing a crisis of confidence, with one European country after another, as if seized by a fit of panic, temporarily suspending its use over concerns about reports of blood clots in people who received it. Denmark, Iceland, and Norway had earlier said they would temporarily stop using the two-dose vaccine. On Sunday, Ireland announced a similar decision. France, Germany, and Italy followed on Monday. (Herper, 3/15)

Fox News: New COVID-19 Variant Discovered In France
The French health ministry said in a statement Monday that health officials in the country identified a new coronavirus variant that is not believed to be more deadly than earlier mutations. Reuters reported that the variant was found inside a hospital in Lannion. Disease experts have been warning about COVID-19 variants and the threats that they pose when it comes to controlling the virus. (DeMarche, 3/16)

Reuters: New Coronavirus Variant Found In French Region Of Brittany: French Government 
A new coronavirus variant has been found in the French region of Brittany, said the French health ministry in a statement late on Monday, adding that initial analysis did not show this new variant to be more serious or transmissible than others. The health ministry said the new variant had been found in a cluster of cases in a hospital centre in Lannion. (3/16)

CIDRAP: B117 Deadlier Than Other COVID-19 Strains, More Data Affirm
The B117 COVID-19 variant, which was first identified in the United Kingdom in October 2020, may pose a 61% higher risk of 28-day mortality, according to a study published today in Nature. The finding is in line with last week's BMJ study that reported B117 had a 64% higher 28-day risk of death among people older than 30, although both studies note absolute 28-day mortality risk remains low for most populations. (McLernon, 3/15)

Fox News: Moderna's Next Generation COVID-19 Vaccine Candidate Tested In Clinical Trial Participants
Moderna on Monday announced that it began administering its next generation COVID-19 vaccine candidate in a Phase 1 study. The new candidate, mRNA-1283, can be stored in a refrigerator which could potentially ease storage and shipping hurdles. "We are pleased to begin this Phase 1 study of our next generation COVID-19 vaccine candidate, mRNA-1283," Stephane Bancel, Moderna CEO, said in a press release Monday. "Our investments in our mRNA platform have enabled us to develop this next generation vaccine candidate which is a potential refrigerator-stable vaccine that could facilitate easier distribution and administration in a wider range of settings, including potentially for developing countries. We remain committed to helping address this ongoing public health emergency." (Hein, 3/15)

Axios: Moderna Begins Testing On Refrigerator-Stable COVID-19 Vaccine 
Moderna announced Monday that it has begun testing on a potentially refrigerator-stable version of its coronavirus vaccine. Moderna's "next generation COVID-19 vaccine," if found to be effective, could be handled by ordinary pharmacies that aren't equipped with ultra-low freezers, which have been an impediment in the vaccine rollout. (Rummier, 3/15)

The Hill: CDC Review Finds Trump-Era Guidance Was Not Based On Science 
Federal health officials have identified and removed guidance documents released during the Trump administration that were not grounded in science and not "primarily authored" by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) staff, according to an agency internal review. The review specifically cited three reports issued by the Trump administration that had already been removed from the agency's website: guidance on reopening schools issued in July, guidelines on "reopening America" issued in April, and guidance on COVID-19 testing issued in August.  (Weixel, 3/15)

The Washington Post: CDC Identifies Public-Health Guidance From The Trump Administration That Downplayed Pandemic Severity 
CDC Director Rochelle Walensky ordered the review as part of her pledge to restore public trust in the beleaguered agency, which had seen its recommendations watered down or ignored during the Trump administration to align with the former president’s efforts to downplay the severity of the pandemic. (Sun, 3/15)

CNN: Agency Review Finds Some Trump Administration CDC Guidance Was Not Grounded In Science Or Free From Undue Influence 
The review found that some guidance "used less direct language than available evidence supported," "needed to be updated to reflect the latest scientific evidence" and "presented the underlying science base for guidance inconsistently," according to the spokesperson. Additionally, the review identified three documents that were not primarily authored by the CDC and yet were presented as CDC documents, according to the spokesperson. The agency has removed two of the documents from its website, and updated and replaced the third. (Bonifield, Howard and Kelly, 3/15)

ABC News: Birx On Trump's Disinfectant 'Injection' Moment: 'I Still Think About It Every Day' 
The former coronavirus response coordinator in the Trump White House, Dr. Deborah Birx, says she still thinks about the moment last year when she sat silently while former President Donald Trump raised the possibility of injecting disinfectant into people to treat COVID-19. "Frankly, I didn't know how to handle that episode," Birx said Monday in an interview with ABC News' Terry Moran for ABC News Live's "The Breakdown." "I still think about it every day." (Gittleson, 3/15)

ABC News: Biden, Fauci Appear At Odds Over Calling On Trump To Urge Supporters Get Vaccinated 
President Joe Biden appeared to be at odds with his top scientist in the pandemic fight, Dr. Anthony Fauci, about whether former president Donald Trump should urge his supporters to get vaccinated, given a poll that shows they are the Americans most likely not to get the shots. "Should President Trump help promote the vaccine amongst skeptics, sir? Especially those Republicans who say that they’re not willing ... ," a reporter at the White House asked Biden at the end of an event Monday. (Stoddart, 3/15)

The Hill: Former Coronavirus Testing Czar Says It's 'Very Important' For Trump To Encourage Followers To Get Vaccinated 
Adm. Brett Giroir, former President Trump's coronavirus testing czar, said Monday that it is “very important” for the former president to encourage his supporters to get vaccinated. “I think it's very important for former President Trump, as well as the vice president, to actively encourage all the followers to get the vaccine,” Giroir, the former assistant secretary for health at the Department of Health and Human Services, told Jake Tapper on CNN’s “The Lead” on Monday. (Schnell, 3/15)

The Hill: White House Would Welcome Trump Urging Supporters To Get Vaccinated
The Biden administration on Monday indicated it would welcome former President Trump getting more involved in vaccine outreach efforts, but signaled it would spend its time investing in local doctors and community leaders who might convince skeptical conservatives to get the shot. "If former President Trump woke up tomorrow and wanted to be more vocal about the safety and efficacy of the campaign, of the vaccine, certainly we’d support that," White House press secretary Psaki said at a briefing with reporters. (Samuels, 3/15)

AP: Biden To Join Road Show Promoting Relief Plan With Pa. Visit
President Joe Biden is joining top messengers already crisscrossing the country to highlight the benefits of his massive COVID-19 rescue plan, in his case by promoting aid for small businesses. Biden is set to visit a small business in suburban Philadelphia on Tuesday, his initial trip outside Washington for the “Help is here” tour that got underway Monday. Vice President Kamala Harris dropped in on a COVID-19 vaccination site and a culinary academy in Las Vegas while first lady Jill Biden toured a New Jersey elementary school. (Superville, Lemire and Miller, 3/16)

Politico: Needing To Sell The Covid Bill, The White House Calls In Dr. Jill 
A rubber-floored playground outside an elementary school in a small city in central New Jersey may not seem like the most traditional of political settings. But on a windy, cold afternoon on Monday, it was the spot where the Biden administration chose to begin its salesmanship of the most ambitious piece of legislation in at least a decade. There, outside Samuel Smith Elementary School, First Lady Jill Biden told a small crowd of school board members, elementary school teachers and members of the New Jersey congressional delegation that help was on the way. And if they had trouble hearing it over the wind, a sign in all caps was there, on the lectern, to remind them: “Help is Here Tour.” (Daniels, 3/15)

The Washington Post: In The Coronavirus Relief Package, A Prescription To Expand Medicaid 
Florida and 11 other states, most of them across the South, are the intended audience for a few paragraphs deep in the 630-page American Relief Plan. The legislation offers a novel and generous financial incentive to states if they agree to open Medicaid to more poor people and some in the working class. The White House has embraced the incentive, designed in Congress. It will pose an early test of Biden’s powers of persuasion as he tries to make good on his pledge to close the nation’s considerable gaps in insurance and health care — gaps the pandemic has thrown into vivid light. (Goldstein, 3/15)

Modern Healthcare: CMS Boosts Reimbursement For Administering COVID-19 Vaccinations
The Biden administration on Monday increased how much Medicare pays providers to administer COVID-19 vaccinations to encourage them to vaccinate more people, hire additional staff and do more patient outreach and education. CMS boosted the average payment for COVID-19 immunizations from $28 to $40 for single-dose vaccines and $45 to $80 for two-dose vaccines. But the amount each provider receives varies depending on what type of entity carries out the immunization and where it's located, according to the agency. The changes take effect immediately. (Brady, 3/15)

CIDRAP: US Ups COVID Vaccine Payment, Notes Good Dosing Compliance
Today, the Biden administration bumped up Medicare reimbursements to healthcare providers for COVID-19 vaccines from $28 to $40 for a single dose and from $45 to $80 for a two-dose regimen, said Andy Slavitt, White House senior advisor for COVID response, in a morning coronavirus press briefing. "This will make it easier for more healthcare providers to get out into communities and give more COVID shots to people in need," Slavitt said. "We need this heroic team in particular to make sure that our highest-risk and underserved populations are cared for." (Van Beusekom, 3/15)

CBS News: JPMorgan Chase And Wells Fargo Face Customer Anger Over Stimulus Checks 
The IRS is now starting to distribute the third round of stimulus checks, worth up to $1,400 per eligible adult and child. But the timing of getting a check may depend partly on a bank's policies, with some customers of JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo expressing frustration after the banks said the coronavirus relief payments won't be available until March 17. (Picchi, 3/15)

CBS News: Face Mask Standard In Workplaces Misses President's Deadline
The White House's self-imposed deadline to impose a nationwide face mask standard in workplaces won't be met, since deliberations are still underway. President Biden on January 21 directed the Labor Department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration to determine by Monday, March 15, if such a standard is needed. An emergency temporary standard on face masks in the workplace is ultimately expected to be issued, but the analysis has not yet been completed, three people familiar with the process told CBS News. (Erickson, 3/15)

Stat: Xavier Becerra’s 4 Most Urgent Challenges As HHS Secretary
Xavier Becerra has survived the worst of a tense confirmation battle to become HHS secretary, but in the days ahead he will face a much more intimidating challenge: governing during a pandemic. The Biden administration couldn’t slow down its Covid-19 response efforts to wait for Becerra’s confirmation, so his responsibilities have so far been farmed out to the White House and officials who didn’t need Senate approval. Once he’s confirmed, which is expected this week, Becerra will have to carve out his role in the Covid-19 response while juggling the demands of other crises and staffing a massive department. (Cohrs, 3/16)

Politico: Psaki Calls Cuomo Vaccine Chief's Political Outreach 'Inappropriate' 
White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Monday called reports that Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s vaccine czar blurred lines by querying county officials about their loyalty to New York’s embattled governor “concerning” and “inappropriate.” “We work to ensure that [the Covid vaccine] is equitably distributed and that there are not steps that are taken that are concerning,” Psaki told reporters Monday. “So we were concerned, of course, about the reports of this inappropriate behavior, but we also have a number of steps in the system to ensure that the people of New York, the people of any state [that] the vaccines are being distributed fairly and equitably.” (Niedzwiadek, 3/15)

Axios: White House Rolls Back COVID-19 Testing For Staffers 
The Biden administration issued new internal guidance Monday saying it would reduce daily coronavirus testing for White House staff to once a week, Axios has learned. Now that a majority of officials working on the 18-acre complex have been vaccinated, the administration is relaxing some of its coronavirus restrictions — a step closer to normalcy. (Treene, 3/15)

NPR: Sackler Family Offers Billions More In Opioid Settlements
Under a bankruptcy plan filed late Monday night, Purdue Pharma would pay roughly $500 million in cash up front to settle hundreds of thousands of injury claims linked to the company's role in the deadly opioid epidemic. The company said additional payments would be spread over the next decade, including installments on roughly $4.2 billion promised by members of the Sackler family who own the firm. No fixed schedule was provided for when most of those disbursements would occur, though Purdue Pharma predicted as much as $1 billion in additional payouts would happen by 2024. (Mann, 3/16)

The Wall Street Journal: OxyContin Owner Increases Settlement Offer To $4.28 Billion 
The family that owns OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma LP agreed to pay roughly $4.28 billion—a larger sum than previously promised—to resolve lawsuits accusing it of helping to fuel the opioid epidemic. The payment from members of the Sackler family is part of a larger restructuring plan filed Monday night in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in White Plains, N.Y., that is intended to get Purdue out of chapter 11. (Randles and Randazzo, 3/16)

CBS News: Purdue Pharma Proposes $10 Billion Plan To Come Out Of Bankruptcy 
Purdue Pharma, which helped revolutionize the prescription painkiller business with its drug OxyContin, is proposing a $10 billion plan to emerge from bankruptcy that calls for it to be transformed into a different kind of company funneling profits into the fight against the nation's intractable opioid crisis. Those efforts would include a significant boost - more than $4 billion - from members of the Sackler family who own the Connecticut-based pharmaceutical giant. The plan, filed late Monday night in U.S Bankruptcy Court in White Plains, N.Y., after months of negotiations, marks the company's formal offer to settle more than 2,900 lawsuits from state and local governments, Native American tribes, hospitals and other entities. (3/15)

The New York Times: Purdue Pharma Offers Plan To End Sackler Control And Mounting Lawsuits 
If the plan is approved by a majority of the company’s creditors and Judge Robert D. Drain of federal bankruptcy court in White Plains, N.Y., payments will start pouring into three buckets: one to compensate individual plaintiffs, like families whose relatives overdosed or guardians of infants born with neonatal abstinence syndrome, as well as hospitals and insurers; another for tribes; and the third — and largest — for state and local governments, which have been devastated by the costs of a drug epidemic that has only worsened during the Covid-19 pandemic. (Hoffman and Walsh, 3/16)

AP: OxyContin Maker Purdue Proposes $10B Plan To Exit Bankruptcy
Most of the parties in the case are on board with the plan. But attorneys general representing 23 states and the District of Columbia issued a statement saying the offer “falls short of the accountability that families and survivors deserve.” They want more money from the Sackler family members and for Purdue to wind down in a way that “does not excessively entangle it with states.” The group includes most of the Democratic attorneys general across the U.S. and Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden, a Republican. (Mulvihill, 3/16)

NBC News: Latinos Grapple With Opioid Overdose Rise As Covid Pandemic Triggers Surge In U.S. Addictions
Diego considers himself fortunate. The 49-year-old man, who is only being identified by his first name for privacy reasons, thinks back on some dark moments in his life —all associated with drugs. He said his brothers introduced him to narcotics when he was 12 and living in his hometown of Springfield, Massachusetts. By the time he was 17, said Diego, who is of Puerto Rican descent, he was not only using drugs, but also trafficking in them. He said the drugs plunged him into a spiral of addiction, fracturing his family relationships and landing him in jail numerous times. (Carrasco, 3/15)

NBC News: Biden: U.S. Will Reach 100M Shots Ahead Of Schedule As Millions Of Stimulus Checks Go Out
President Joe Biden said Monday that the United States will reach his goal of administering 100 million coronavirus vaccination shots ahead of schedule, hitting the milestone as 100 million stimulus checks go out to Americans under his Covid-19 relief package. "It's here, sooner than many ever thought possible," Biden said in remarks at the White House. "Over the next 10 days, we will reach two giant goals: One hundred million shots in people's arms and 100 million checks in people's pockets." (Shabad and Pettypiece, 3/15)

Philadelphia Inquirer: Philly Suburbs Can’t Inoculate Everyone In Group 1A By May 1 Unless They Get A Lot More Vaccine, Officials Say
The Philadelphia suburbs are prepared to meet the state’s March 28 deadline to schedule coronavirus vaccinations for all eligible residents who want one. But it may be months before those shots actually get into the arms of the counties’ most vulnerable residents, officials said Monday. Chester County expects it will take as long as three months to vaccinate all their residents in phase 1A, which includes people 65 and older and adults with high-risk conditions, while Montgomery County anticipates it could take up to five months. And these estimates, county officials say, do not allow for any appointments by people in lower-priority groups. (McCarthy, 3/15)

Politico: Why Newsom Still Isn't Getting The Vaccine
President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and their spouses have it. The governors of Texas, Iowa and West Virginia have gotten theirs. But in California, elected officials from Gov. Gavin Newsom on down have largely chosen not to get vaccines yet. (Kahn, 3/15)

San Francisco Chronicle: Bay Area Counties Open Vaccines To All Adults With Disabilities And Health Conditions, But Access Is Spotty
Even as California, including many Bay Area counties, opened up coronavirus vaccine eligibility to roughly 4.4 million younger residents with disabilities and underlying medical conditions on Monday, access to appointments remained spotty for some. Jenny Panighetti, who lives in Mountain View and uses a wheelchair because of arthrogryposis, a muscle and joint disease, has been trying since last week to book a vaccine appointment. But she found that many sites are either not scheduling first-dose shots or have yet to update their eligibility to include people under 65 with disabilities or health conditions associated with serious illness and death from COVID-19. (Ho and Gafni, 3/15)

Boston Globe: State Police Were Offered COVID-19 Vaccines At Work. Hundreds Have Declined To Get Them
Thirty percent of the Massachusetts State Police, totaling nearly 850 members in all, have not been vaccinated against COVID-19 at department-run clinics, reflecting a potential hesitancy that has lingered even among front-line law enforcement who interact with the public. The data among some State Police personnel stands in contrast to the acceptance of vaccines among the Massachusetts public, where shot-seekers have faced fierce competition as they join the state’s eligibility pool. Police, firefighters, and other emergency personnel were among the first to be made eligible, getting clearance to be vaccinated two months ago. Educators and school staff became eligible Thursday. (Stout and Moore, 3/15)

USA Today: COVID-19 Vaccines Pose Questions For People With Immune Issues
None of the large-scale vaccine trials included people who are immunocompromised, though every indication is that vaccines are safe in this group. Organizations representing experts in cancer, organ transplantation and autoimmune diseases all support vaccination for their patients. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Wednesday that there are still questions about vaccines and the immunocompromised. It's remains unclear, he said at a news conference, whether people who are immunocompromised make a comparable immune response to those without these conditions, whether the protection from vaccines will last as long in them and whether they will be able to transmit the disease after vaccination. (Weintraub, 3/15)

AP: How Well Do COVID Vaccines Protect After Organ Transplant?
On Monday, researchers at Johns Hopkins University reported a first attempt to find out. They tested 436 people who had received new organs in recent years and were getting the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines. A few weeks after the first dose, 17% of the transplant recipients had developed antibodies against the coronavirus, said Dr. Dorry Segev, a Hopkins transplant surgeon who co-authored the study. Segev acknowledged transplant recipients may fare better after the needed second dose — he’ll also check that — but prior studies show the first shot is enough to kickstart antibody production in just about everybody with a well-functioning immune system. (Neergaard, 3/15)

CNN: Covid-19 Antibodies Present In About 1 In 5 Blood Donations From Unvaccinated People, According To Data From The American Red Cross 
In the first week of March, more than 20% of blood donations from unvaccinated people had Covid-19 antibodies, according to data shared with CNN by the American Red Cross. Between mid-June 2020 and early March 2021, the American Red Cross tested more than 3.3 million donations from unvaccinated people in 44 states for the presence of Covid-19 antibodies. Overall, about 7.5% of the donations tested in that time frame were positive for Covid-19 antibodies, meaning the donors had likely been infected with the coronavirus at some point. (Bonifield and McPhillips, 3/16)

CIDRAP: Small Saudi Study Finds 12% In ICU Had Both MERS And COVID-19
Out of 67 intensive care unit (ICU) patients who underwent simultaneous SARS-CoV-2 and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) testing in Saudi Arabia, 8 (11.9%) had coinfections, according to a new Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease study. The study didn't find any anomalous symptoms or mortality rates, although the researchers say more data are needed around mortality. (3/15)

Stat: Insulin Makers Win A Round In Minn. Lawsuit Accusing Them Of Racketeering
In a setback to efforts to control insulin prices, a U.S. court judge tossed key accusations made in a high-profile lawsuit filed by the Minnesota Attorney General accusing three drug makers of price gouging. The lawsuit, which was filed in 2018, alleged that Eli Lilly (LLY), Novo Nordisk (NVO), and Sanofi (SNY) fraudulently set artificially high wholesale prices, but then negotiated lower prices by paying rebates and discounts to pharmacy benefit managers. In turn, pharmacy benefit managers create lists of medicines that receive preferred insurance coverage known as formularies. But the negotiations are confidential. (Silverman, 3/15)

Stat: A Deep Dive Into Eli Lilly’s Tantalizing Alzheimer’s Drug Data
Here is some analysis and perspective, not to mention a few burning questions, about the Phase 2 data Eli Lilly disclosed on its experimental Alzheimer’s therapy donanemab on Saturday. STAT earlier asked five independent scientists involved in Alzheimer’s research about the study; unsurprisingly, their opinions were quite mixed, with the data representing a Rorschah test for their views on Alzheimer’s drug development. The study was also published in the New England Journal of Medicine. (Feuerstein and Herper, 3/15)

Stat: Rubius Drug Produces Anti-Tumor Responses — And More Questions
Two patients with cancer showed partial tumor shrinkage after infusions of a novel immune-boosting treatment derived from red blood cells, its maker Rubius Therapeutics said Monday. Rubius said the preliminary results of its early-stage clinical trial provided “clinical validation” of its treatment, called RTX-240. However, the company was unable to show data proving RTX-240 triggered the expected immune system attack against the patients’ tumors, leaving questions about its future unanswered. (Feuerstein, 3/15)

Stat: The Viability Of The U.S. Biosimilar Market Is Thrown Into Question Again
Despite periodic reports that biosimilars have finally arrived and will save the U.S. health care system billions of dollars, Peter Bach and Mark Trusheim remain unconvinced. So the high-profile skeptics have refreshed their controversial, two-year-old argument for overhauling the approach for making alternative versions of pricey biologic medicines available to the American public. (Silverman, 3/15)

Stat: Solid Reports No Serious Toxicity With 'Safer' Duchenne Gene Therapy 
Solid Biosciences said Monday that it has restarted a clinical trial involving its experimental gene therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy without the serious safety issues that forced the study to shut down in 2019. The biotech also disclosed for the first time interim results from patients treated before the study was stopped, showing small improvements in muscle and lung function after one year of follow up. (Feuerstein, 3/15)

CNN: Mental Health Issues Plague Nearly Half Of Parents Said Their Teens During The Pandemic 
Nearly half of parents reported their teenagers faced new or worsening mental health conditions since the pandemic began, a new poll has found. A survey of 977 parents with children ages 13 to 18 analyzed teen mental health conditions like anxiety, depression and aggressive behavior during the pandemic. The national poll, conducted by Ipsos for C.S. Mott Children's Hospital at the University of Michigan Medical School, looked at how parents were helping teens cope and whether they believed their strategies were successful. (Marples, 3/16)

NPR: Alcoholic Liver Disease Sharply Rising Among Young Women, U.S. Doctors Say
For many years, Jessica Duenas led what she calls a double life. She was the first in her immigrant family to go to college. In 2019, she won Kentucky's Teacher of the Year award. That same year, Duenas typically downed nearly a liter of liquor every night. By the time she was 34, she was diagnosed with alcoholic hepatitis, a serious inflammation of her liver that doctors warned could could soon lead to irreversible scarring and even death if she didn't didn't stop drinking, and quickly. "I couldn't keep down any food," Duenas says. "My belly was supersensitive, like if I pressed on certain parts of it, it would hurt a lot. My eyes were starting to get yellowish." (Noguchi, 3/16)

ABC News and Good Morning America: 5-Year-Old Girl Receives Kidney Donated By Her Teacher 
A 5-year-old girl in Missouri did not have to look far to find a perfect match for the kidney she needed after being on dialysis for more than four years. Kayleigh Kulage, 5, of Pacific, Missouri, underwent a successful kidney transplant last month with her preschool teacher, Robin Mach. (Kindelan, 3/16)

The Washington Post: U-Conn.’s Geno Auriemma Tests Positive For Coronavirus, Will Miss Start Of NCAA Tournament 
Decorated University of Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma will miss the start of the NCAA women’s basketball tournament after he tested positive for the coronavirus. ... U-Conn. (24-1) won the Big East tournament March 8, bolstering its status as one of the favorites to win the NCAA tournament. The Huskies received one of the four No. 1 seeds in the tournament. (Bieler, 3/15)

CNN: The Number Of Unruly Passengers On US Flights Is Too High, FAA Says, So It's Extending A Get-Tough Policy On Masking
The Federal Aviation Administration will extend its stricter enforcement against unruly passengers -- specifically targeting those who disobey masking policies -- after receiving more than 500 reports of misbehaving passengers since December, the agency said Monday. "The number of cases we're seeing is still far too high, and it tells us urgent action continues to be required," FAA Administrator Steve Dickson said. (Wallace, Muntean and Silverman, 3/16)