First Edition: March 2, 2021

KHN: States Aim To Chip Away At Abortion Rights With Supreme Court In Mind
When Rep. Lola Sheldon-Galloway introduced a bill in the Montana House two years ago that would have prohibited abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, the Republican legislator knew it was unlikely to survive the veto pen of the Democratic governor. Sure enough, then-Gov. Steve Bullock vetoed that bill and two other anti-abortion measures passed by the Republican-led state legislature. In his veto message, Bullock wrote that “for over 40 years, the U.S. Supreme Court has recognized that the U.S. Constitution prohibits a state from banning abortion.” (Franz, 3/2)

KHN: Sorting Out How Politics, Policies Figure In Flap Over New York Nursing Home Covid Death Rates 
The plaudits have faded for New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Once hailed as a paragon of pandemic governing, he’s since come under scorching criticism for undercounting the state’s covid deaths among nursing home residents by as much as half. The tallying flap drew attention to another misstep: a policy last March that directed nursing homes to accept covid-positive patients from hospitals, potentially exposing high-risk, medically vulnerable nursing home residents to the deadly virus. Did the governor intentionally fudge nursing home death counts to deflect attention from the impact of an ill-advised directive? That depends on whom you ask. (Andrews, 3/2)

KHN: Beijing’s SARS Lockdown Taught My Children Resilience. Your Covid Kids Will Likely Be Fine.
Many parents are filled with angst as they prepare for their children to exit a year of pandemic isolation: Will it be OK to send them to school, per the recent recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention? Will school feel like school if students are masked and can’t trade snacks? Will children’s development be impaired by nearly a year of seeing few friends? With 20-20 hindsight, I can provide some reassurance, because my kids were 8 and 10 when SARS hit Beijing nearly two decades ago, shutting down the city for months: Your children will likely be fine, and maybe even better as human beings for having lived through this tragic experience. (Rosenthal, 3/2)

KHN: ‘An Arm And A Leg’: Revisiting Insulin: How The Medicine Got So Expensive
We’re re-releasing a story we first reported in 2019, about how insulin got to be so expensive. And this 2021 update  includes a check-in with people working to make the potentially lifesaving medicine more available. The story seems especially relevant right now, for two reasons: The rollout of the covid vaccine has reminded all of us how vital it is to make  breakthroughs in the lab and make sure everyone can afford to benefit from them. The second half of the episode — about ways that people who need insulin are taking action on their own behalf — fits An Arm and a Leg’s current focus on financial self-defense. (Weissmann, 3/2)

KHN: Readers And Tweeters Dispense Timely Advice For Difficult Times
Letters to the Editor is a periodic feature. We welcome all comments and will publish a selection. We edit for length and clarity and require full names. (3/2)

ABC News: 'Please Hear Me Clearly': CDC Director Urges States Not To Reopen Too Soon As Cases Plateau
The U.S. has hit a plateau in coronavirus cases and deaths that signal a "potential shift in the trajectory of the pandemic," the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned states on Monday not to loosen restrictions and get in front of the progress the country has made since it hit a monumental 300,000 cases a day in January, the worst point of the pandemic so far. Over the last week, the daily number of cases and deaths, on average, has risen by about 2% compared to the week prior, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said during a White House press briefing, to about 67,000 cases per day and 2,000 American lives lost to the virus each day. It's nearly a third of what the U.S. was seeing during its holiday surge, but still no better than what the U.S. saw during the summer peak. (Haslett, 3/1)

CIDRAP: Even With 3 Vaccines Now, CDC Head Warns Of Possible 4th COVID Surge 
The welcomed news of a third COVID-19 vaccine was tempered today by warnings from CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, MD, MPH, who said during a White House press briefing that recent declines in case counts are stalling. "The most recent 7-day average of cases, approximately 67,200, represents an increase of a little over 2% compared to the prior 7 days," said Walensky.  "Please hear me clearly—at this level of cases with variants spreading, we stand to completely lose the hard-earned ground we have gained. These variants are a very real threat to our people and our progress. "Walensky said the country cannot settle for 70,000 cases and 2,000 deaths per day due to the virus. She also said if states lift mitigation mandates, like mask-wearing, too quickly, the nation could see a fourth wave of virus activity before enough Americans are vaccinated. (Soucheray, 3/1)

The New York Times: The U.S. Is Edging Toward Normal, Alarming Some Officials 
The positive signs come with caveats. Though the national statistics have improved drastically since January, they have plateaued in the last week or so, and the United States is still reporting more than 65,000 new cases a day on average — comparable to the peak of last summer’s surge, according to a New York Times database. The country is still averaging about 2,000 deaths per day, though deaths are a lagging indicator because it can take weeks for patients to die. (3/2)

Fox News: COVID-19 Not Likely To Be Over By End Of Year, WHO Says
The World Health Organization said Monday that it is unlikely that the coronavirus will no longer be an issue by the end of the year and one official said despite advances, the virus is "very much in control." Dr. Michael Ryan, the head of the WHO’s emergency services arm, told a press conference in Geneva that he believes it is "unrealistic, to think that we’re going to finish with this virus by the year." (DeMarche, 3/2)

AP: WHO: 'Premature,' 'Unrealistic' COVID-19 Will End Soon
A senior World Health Organization official said Monday it was “premature” and “unrealistic” to think the pandemic might be stopped by the end of the year, but that the recent arrival of effective vaccines could at least help dramatically reduce hospitalizations and death. The world’s singular focus right now should be to keep transmission of COVID-19 as low as possible, said Dr. Michael Ryan, director of WHO’s emergencies program. “If we’re smart, we can finish with the hospitalizations and the deaths and the tragedy associated with this pandemic” by the end of the year, he said at media briefing. (Cheng and Keaten, 3/1)

The Washington Post: New Global Virus Cases On The Rise For The First Time In Six Weeks 
The global number of new coronavirus cases rose for the first time in nearly two months, the World Health Organization said Monday, blaming the surge in infections on circulating variants and premature efforts to lift public health restrictions. It would be “unrealistic” to think that the virus will be over by the end of this year, warned WHO’s head of the emergency program, Michael Ryan. (Cunningham, 3/2)

The Wall Street Journal: J&J Covid-19 Vaccine Shipments Head For States 
Trucks carrying Johnson & Johnson’s newly authorized Covid-19 vaccine began rolling out Monday en route to states and sites that have been seeking more doses to boost vaccinations. McKesson Corp., which is serving as the centralized distributor for J&J vaccines, is working with FedEx and UPS to ship the doses nationwide. The shipments are expected to reach states and vaccination sites as early as Tuesday, the Biden administration said. (Loftus and Thomas, 3/1)

The Washington Post: One Dose Or Two? Anthony S. Fauci Says U.S. Must Stick With Two-Shot Plan. 
The government’s top infectious-disease expert on Monday reiterated that the United States will stick to a plan to inoculate tens of millions of Americans with two doses of coronavirus vaccine, as calls mount to protect more people by letting them get one shot now. “There’s risks on either side,” Anthony S. Fauci told The Washington Post, warning that shifting to a single-dose strategy for the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines could leave people less protected, enable variants to spread and possibly boost skepticism among Americans already hesitant to get the shots. (Diamond, 3/1)

Fox News: COVID-19 At-Home Rapid Test Gets Emergency Use Authorization
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued an emergency use authorization on Monday for a rapid at-home COVID-19 test that delivers results without the use of an outside laboratory. The QuickVue At-Home COVID-19 Test must be obtained via prescription and can be used by individuals 14 and older, or individuals 8 and older as long as an adult collects the nasal swab sample. The test can be prescribed by a health care provider for individuals who are within six days of symptom onset. (Hein, 3/1)

CBS News: Twitter Will Label Posts With Misleading Information About COVID-19 Vaccines 
Twitter announced Monday that it will begin applying labels to tweets that include misleading information about COVID-19 vaccines and is introducing a strike policy to curb users from repeatedly violating those rules. In an effort to root out misinformation surrounding the coronavirus from its platform, Twitter said the labels will first be applied by human moderators. But the goal is to eventually use both humans and artificial intelligence to address content that spreads COVID-19 vaccine misinformation. (Bidar, 3/1)

AP: Twitter Cracks Down On COVID Vaccine Misinformation
“Through the use of the strike system, we hope to educate people on why certain content breaks our rules so they have the opportunity to further consider their behavior and their impact on the public conversation,” Twitter said in a blog post Monday. People with one violation — or strike — will see no action. Two strikes will lead to an account being locked for 12 hours. Five or more will get a user permanently banned from Twitter. (3/2)

AP: Some GOP State Lawmakers Help Spread COVID-19 Misinformation
Many Republican lawmakers have criticized governors’ emergency restrictions since the start of the coronavirus outbreak. Now that most legislatures are back in session, a new type of pushback is taking root: misinformation. In their own comments or by inviting skeptics to testify at legislative hearings, some GOP state lawmakers are using their platform to promote false information about the virus, the steps needed to limit its spread and the vaccines that will pull the nation out of the pandemic. (Smyth and Bohrer, 3/1)

CBS News: Democratic Leaders Criticize Biden Administration's "Outmoded" Guidance On Aerosol COVID-19 Spread 
A group of House Democratic leaders are questioning the basis for the Biden administration's guidance on aerosol transmission of COVID-19, which they say relies on "outmoded" science. In a four-page letter addressed to White House COVID response chief Jeff Zients, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky and acting Labor Secretary Al Stewart, four House committee chairs say they have "serious questions" about the adequacy of the CDC's guidance on workplace protection from aerosol transmission. For the last two weeks, scientists, experts and unions have been prodding the administration to be more specific about guidance on exposure to small aerosol particles that carry COVID-19, which they say the CDC's official guidelines downplay. (Erickson and Tin, 3/1)

CBS News: Trump Received COVID-19 Vaccine At White House In January, Sources Say 
Former President Trump and former first lady Melania Trump were vaccinated at the White House in January, two sources confirm to CBS News. It's not clear why the former president made no public remarks about his coronavirus vaccination, given high levels of skepticism about the vaccine, particularly among Republicans. Mr. Trump urged attendees at his speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference on Sunday to get their COVID-19 shots, but he did not mention that he had been vaccinated. Whether the president has received both shots has also not been disclosed. Mr. Trump contracted COVID-19 in October. (Jiang and Farhi, 3/1)

CNN: Donald And Melania Trump Received Covid Vaccine At The White House In January 
Trump's decision to quietly receive the vaccine, without public fanfare, contrasts sharply with his successor and predecessors. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were each vaccinated on live television in December, and former Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton volunteered in December to get their Covid-19 vaccines on camera to promote public confidence in the vaccine's safety. ... During his CPAC speech, Trump, who oversaw the rapid development of coronavirus vaccines through the Operation Warp Speed task force, said his administration deserves much of the credit for the current pace of vaccinations in America and repeatedly referred to Covid-19 using a racist term. "Never let them forget this was us. We did this," he said of the vaccine development. (Acosta and Kelly, 3/1)

Stat: Trump Administration Spent Billions In Hospital Funds On Warp Speed
The Trump administration quietly took around $10 billion from a fund meant to help hospitals and health care providers affected by Covid-19 and used the money to bankroll Operation Warp Speed contracts, four former Trump administration officials told STAT. (Cohrs, 3/2)

The Wall Street Journal: Supreme Court Takes Up Puerto Rico Case Biden Pledged To Abandon 
At issue is Supplemental Security Income, a program Congress added to Social Security in 1972 to assist low-income Americans who are older than 65 years, blind or disabled. It initially applied to residents of the 50 states and the District of Columbia; Congress later extended the program to the Northern Mariana Islands but not to Puerto Rico or other U.S. territories including American Samoa, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Currently, eight million Americans participate in the program, receiving an average monthly benefit of $575, the government says. (Bravin, 3/1)

Politico: Senate Set To Take Up $1.9T Covid Aid Bill As Soon As Wednesday 
The Senate will move forward as soon as Wednesday on President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package, with Majority Leader Chuck Schumer predicting Monday that the chamber would face "some late nights" ahead this week. Democrats are racing to pass the Covid aid package into law before March 14, when boosted federal unemployment benefits expire. Given the evenly divided Senate, they are using a complex tool known as budget reconciliation process to pass the bill without the need to win GOP votes. (Levine, 3/1)

Roll Call: Pension Funding, COBRA Coverage Survive Aid Bill's 'Byrd Bath' 
Senate Democrats won two procedural battles Monday on a $1.9 trillion pandemic relief package they hope to pass by week’s end. The chamber’s parliamentarian said funding to shore up failing union pension plans and to subsidize health insurance for jobless workers do not violate the "Byrd rule," which limits what can be considered under budget reconciliation procedures, according to Senate Finance Chair Ron Wyden, D-Ore. (Lerman and McPherson, 3/1)

The New York Times: Virus Variant In Brazil Infected Many Who Had Already Recovered From Covid-19 
Three studies offer a sobering history of P.1’s meteoric rise in the Amazonian city of Manaus. It most likely arose there in November and then fueled a record-breaking spike of coronavirus cases. It came to dominate the city partly because of an increased contagiousness, the research found. But it also gained the ability to infect some people who had immunity from previous bouts of Covid-19. And laboratory experiments suggest that P.1 could weaken the protective effect of a Chinese vaccine now in use in Brazil. (Zimmer, 3/1)

Houston Chronicle: Houston Is First City To Record All Major COVID Strains, New Study Finds
Houston is the nation’s first city to record every major variant of the novel coronavirus — many of which are more contagious than the original strain. “The numbers of the major variants we have identified in our large sequencing study are disquieting,” said Dr. James Musser, who leads the team of experts at Houston Methodist Hospital behind the new finding. “The genome data indicate that these important variants are now geographically widely distributed in the Houston metropolitan region.” (Downen and Garcia, 3/1)

Fox News: 'Keep An Eye' On New York Coronavirus Variant, Fauci Warns
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, on Monday urged a close watch of a coronavirus variant recently detected in New York. "We certainly are taking the New York variant, the 526 [referring to B.1.526] very seriously," Fauci said during a White House briefing, later adding, "We have to really keep an eye on that for its ability to evade both monoclonal antibodies and to a certain extent, the vaccine-induced antibodies, so it’s something we take very, very seriously." Fauci noted unknowns associated with the variant, like the degree and persistence of viral load in the nasopharynx, and whether variants emerge in immunocompromised individuals. His comments came after reporter Laurie Garrett questioned whether the variant first emerged in an HIV/AIDs patient. (Rivas, 3/1)

The New York Times: A Covid Vaccine Side Effect, Enlarged Lymph Nodes, Can Be Mistaken For Cancer
Coronavirus vaccinations can cause enlarged lymph nodes in the armpit or near the collarbone, which may be mistaken for a sign of cancer. As vaccines are rolled out across the country, doctors are seeing more and more of these swollen nodes in recently immunized people, and medical journals have begun publishing reports aimed at allaying fears and helping patients avoid needless testing for a harmless condition that will go away in a few weeks. (Grady, 3/1)

CIDRAP: Preceding Statin Use Associated With Lower In-Hospital COVID Mortality
Patients who used statins prior to COVID-19 hospitalization were almost 50% less likely to experience 30-day in-hospital mortality compared with those that didn't, according to a retrospective study published late last week in Nature Communications. Statins are drugs meant to reduce blood fat for conditions such as high cholesterol, and, as such, they have anti-inflammatory and anti-clotting properties. (3/1)

The New York Times: High Staff Turnover at U.S. Nursing Homes Poses Risks for Residents’ Care
Extraordinarily high turnover among staffs at nursing homes likely contributed to the shocking number of deaths at the facilities during the pandemic, the authors of a new study suggested. The study, which was published Monday in Health Affairs, a health policy journal, represents a comprehensive look at the turnover rates in 15,645 nursing homes across the country, accounting for nearly all of the facilities certified by the federal government. The researchers found the average annual rate was 128 percent, with some facilities experiencing turnover that exceeded 300 percent. (Abelson, 3/1)

Modern Healthcare: Average Nursing Home Nursing Staff Turnover Exceeds 100%, Report Finds
Nurses working in nursing homes saw an average turnover rate of greater than 100% in a given year, according to a study released today in Health Affairs. While the rates by position varied, the averages were all above 100%: registered nurses, 140.7%; licensed practical nurses, 114.1%; and certified nursing assistant, according to the report. Ashvin Gandhi, assistant professor at UCLA Anderson School of Management and one of the report's authors, characterized the staffing turnover rates as "alarmingly high, higher than most people would have expected." (Christ, 3/1)

Los Angeles Times: L.A. Nursing Home 'Dumped' Residents To Bring In Lucrative COVID Patients, Authorities Say
A nursing home accused of illegally “dumping” patients onto city streets and into ill-equipped homes in order to take in more lucrative COVID-19 patients will nearly double its nursing staff, allow increased oversight and pay $275,000 in penalties and costs to settle a lawsuit brought by the Los Angeles city attorney’s office. City Atty. Mike Feuer on Monday announced the legal agreement with the Lakeview Terrace skilled nursing facility, which he had accused of “sustained” and “intentional” misconduct in failing to adequately tend to some patients, while pushing others out of the 99-bed home. (Rainey, 3/1)

The Washington Post: St. Elizabeths’ Delayed Response To Coronavirus Contributed To 18 Deaths, Report Says 
A report released Monday by advocates for the mentally ill said a delayed response to the coronavirus at the District’s public psychiatric hospital contributed to the deaths of 17 patients and one staff member in the past year. St. Elizabeths Hospital, D.C.’s 166-year-old mental hospital in Southeast Washington, houses patients committed in civil and criminal proceedings. Although it once held thousands of patients, its population has dwindled to about 200 as fewer people have been committed by courts in recent decades and as officials have tried to keep patients out of congregant settings during the pandemic. (Moyer, 3/1)

Stateline: States Fail To Prioritize Homeless People For Vaccines 
Frank Galloway falls into the most vulnerable categories for COVID-19: He is 87, he is Black, and he is experiencing homelessness. “It ain’t no joke,” Galloway said of the coronavirus, which has killed some of his friends in Greensboro, North Carolina. “I don't mind taking something that will help my life to keep going.” He’s waiting for a vaccine while staying in an emergency shelter. Although the state began vaccinating people age 65 and up in mid-January, Galloway, like many others without housing, doesn’t have access to the technology and transportation that people in many places need to get a shot. (Van Ness, 3/1)

NBC News: Blacks And Hispanics Are Being Short-Changed On Covid-19 Vaccines In Florida And Elsewhere
Not long after Florida began its rollout of the coronavirus vaccines, Black leaders and others began raising alarms that the first doses were finding their way into the arms of mostly white senior citizens who supported Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, while their hard-hit communities were left in the cold. Now some numbers appear to support those suspicions. Of the 34 states that shared vaccination data by race and ethnicity, Florida ranks near the bottom in the rate at which Black residents have been inoculated even as the community has suffered a disproportionate share of Covid-19 deaths, concluded Aubrey Jewett, a political science professor at the University of Central Florida. (Siemaszko, 3/1)

The Hill: New Orleans Archdiocese Calls For Catholics To Avoid Johnson & Johnson Vaccine
The Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans urged Catholics on Friday against taking a vaccine for COVID-19 manufactured by Johnson & Johnson because the vaccine is developed from stem cells obtained from two abortions. In a statement on the archdiocese's website, the organization argued that Johnson & Johnson's vaccine was "morally compromised." (Bowden, 3/1)

San Francisco Chronicle: California's Vaccine Sites Don't All Require Proof Of Eligibility, Leaving Room For Line Jumpers
The state has issued no guidelines on how vaccination sites should verify eligibility. Counties have varying rules, with some leaving it up to the vaccination site to decide what verification, if any, to require. The lack of uniform rules and enforcement underscores the porous nature of California’s approach to vaccination. While relying largely on the honor system helps advance the urgent public health goal of quickly vaccinating as many people as possible, it also leaves the rules open to abuse. But because many vaccination sites are not checking for proof of employment-related eligibility, it's unclear how many individuals have cheated the system, or tried to. (Ho and Bobrowsky, 3/1)

Roll Call: Masks Stack Up In US Warehouses As Nurses Reuse N95 Respirators 
U.S. manufacturers say they have enough high filtration respirators like N95s in their warehouses for every American adult, and they are calling on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to revise guidance that discourages the general public from getting them. (Kopp, 3/1)

Stat: Surprise FDA Advisory Panel Imperils Fibrogen's Experimental Anemia Pill
Fibrogen was expecting the Food and Drug Administration to complete a review of its experimental anemia pill and render an approval decision by March 20. But in a surprising — and concerning — move announced Monday evening, the FDA has instead decided to convene a meeting of outside experts to review the drug’s clinical data. (Feuerstein, 3/1)

Modern Healthcare: Rural Residents Twice As Likely To Leave Medicare Advantage As Urbanites, Study Says
Medicare Advantage enrollees living in rural areas are more than twice as likely to switch to traditional Medicare as urban dwellers, according to a new study. Researchers from Drexel University and Brown University analyzed nearly 17,900 member responses to the annual Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey from 2010 to 2016 to find that 10.5% of rural Medicare Advantage members switched to fee-for-service Medicare, while 5% of urbanites switched from the public-private relationship to the government program. The report analyzed 11 different measures to determine beneficiaries' care satisfaction. Coauthor Sungchul Park, an assistant professor at Drexel University, said that rural members' biggest complaints were around the narrow provider networks they were allowed under the program. (Tepper, 3/1)

Modern Healthcare: Bundled Payments Reduce Surgery Costs By 10.7%
Bundled payments helped cut costs for several surgery types by more than 10%, with those savings passed on to employers and patients, a new study found. Joint replacement, spinal fusion and gastrointestinal surgeries were on average $4,229 less when providers charged a set price compared to prior payment models, according to a RAND Corp. analysis of 2,372 procedures covered by self-insured employers between 2016 and 2020. The study, which used data from Carrum Health, was published in Health Affairs on Monday. (Kacik, 3/1)

Bloomberg: Employers Cut Health Costs With Incentives For Patients, Doctors
Employers can cut their health-care expenses by paying top medical providers a flat rate for a bundle of related services while offering incentives to the patients who use them, a study suggests. The study, published Monday in the journal Health Affairs, found that employers using a flat-rate approach run by Carrum Health saved about 11% overall on procedures including joint replacements, spinal fusions and bariatric surgeries. The average prices when people used Carrum providers were between 6% to 41% lower compared with other providers. (Tozzi, 3/1)

Stat: Study: Evictions During Pregnancy Tied To Adverse Birth Outcomes
Babies born to people evicted during pregnancy are more likely to have lower birth weights and be born earlier or prematurely than those whose parents were evicted at other times, according to new research. (Gaffney, 3/1)

CNN: Smartphone Addiction: Effects On Sleep And What You Can Do 
Addiction to smartphones will result in poor sleep, according to a new study. The study, published Tuesday in Frontiers in Psychiatry, looked at smartphone use among 1,043 students between the ages of 18 and 30 at King's College London. Researchers asked the students to complete two questionnaires on their sleep quality and smartphone usage, in person and online. (LaMotte, 3/2)

The Washington Post: Women And Girls Over 13 Can Now Be Screened For Anxiety As Part Of A Routine Checkup
On Jan. 1, women and girls in the United States became eligible for an additional check on their health. Now, starting at 13, they can be screened for anxiety as part of a routine checkup or physical with a primary care doctor or OB/GYN as a preventive service under the Affordable Care Act. “This is a real breakthrough because we’re now saying that the mental health conditions that women suffer from are extremely important and they need to be screened for,” said Maureen Sayres Van Niel, a psychiatrist and the president of the women’s caucus of the American Psychiatric Association. (3/1)

The New York Times: Frontier Cancels Flight, Citing Maskless Passengers 
A Frontier Airlines flight from Miami to La Guardia Airport in New York was canceled on Sunday night after a large group of passengers, including several adults, refused to wear masks, the airline said. By Monday morning, the airline was facing accusations of anti-Semitism for its treatment of the passengers, who are Hasidic Jews, as well as demands for an investigation from the Anti-Defamation League of New York and other groups. Frontier steadfastly held to its position that the passengers had refused to comply with federal rules requiring them to wear masks. (Fazio, 3/1)

AP: Deal Reached To Get California Children Back In Classrooms
The majority of California’s 6.1 million public school students could be back in the classroom by April under new legislation announced Monday by Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislative leaders. Critics panned the plan as inadequate. Most students in the nation’s most populous state have been learning from home for the past year during the pandemic. But with new coronavirus cases falling rapidly throughout the state, Newsom and lawmakers have been under increasing pressure to come up with a statewide plan aimed at returning students to schools in-person. (Beam, 3/2)

AP: Veto Override Of NC School Reopening Bill Fails In Senate
The state Senate failed on Monday to override Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of Republican legislation that would have directed North Carolina’s K-12 school districts to offer in-person instruction to all students in about two weeks. The 29-20 floor vote to override fell just short of the three-fifths majority required, so the veto was upheld. The override still would have had to been approved by the House to be successful. (Robertson, 3/2)

NBC News: Covid Upended The Lives Of Children Everywhere. In These States, They Struggled The Most.
The coronavirus pandemic has disrupted childhood in every state, with particularly devastating consequences in the South, where families are most likely to run low on food and struggle with bills and access to online schooling, according to a new report. Louisiana — where 1 in 4 families lack sufficient food, more than anywhere else in the country — placed as the “worst” state for children during the pandemic, the global nonprofit Save the Children found in its ranking based on U.S. census surveys. It was followed by Mississippi, Texas, New Mexico and Alabama. Minnesota and Utah were the states where children fared the best, with Washington, New Hampshire and North Dakota rounding out the top five. (Harris, 3/2)

CBS News: Jackson, Mississippi, Residents Remain Without Water For More Than 2 Weeks After Storm 
Winter storms that passed through the South last month caused long-term damage in several states, with millions in Texas without power and water for days. While the focus was on the Lone Star State, Jackson, Mississippi continues to suffer from storm-related issues as well. ... Jackson is still feeling the effects of the storm, with a boil water notice still in place, more than two weeks after the snowstorm. Reeves also activated the National Guard to help with water distribution efforts in the area. And the city has set up several sites for distribution of non-potable or flushing water this week. (O'Kane, 3/1)

Stat: Amid Covid-19, Spiking Overdose Deaths Fall To Back Burner In Washington
There’s an epidemic sweeping the country, causing thousands of needless deaths each month and billions in economic damage. The government response is haphazard. Many Americans remain resistant to the prevention and treatment strategies shown to work best. It’s not Covid-19. It’s the country’s “other” health emergency: accelerating drug overdoses, which could soon, for the first time, claim 100,000 U.S. lives in a single year. (Facher, 3/2)

Stat: New Mexico Attorney General Accuses Gilead Of Blocking Competition To Its HIV Medicines 
The New Mexico attorney general has filed a lawsuit against Gilead Sciences (GILD) and two other major drug makers for allegedly conspiring to block competition to several different HIV medicines, which ultimately caused the state to spend millions of dollars for “excessively overpriced” treatments. (Silverman, 3/1)

Stat: A Nascent State Effort Would Tax Drug Makers For Not Providing Clinical Evidence For Price Hikes
In a bid to control the cost of medicines, lawmakers in two states — Hawaii and Washington — recently introduced bills that would tax drug makers for raising prices without providing clinical evidence to justify the increases. Although the bills failed to gain traction and would have to be reintroduced, the idea is likely to irk the pharmaceutical industry. As envisioned, drug makers would face penalties worth 80% of the difference between the sales generated by its medicine in each state and the revenue the drug would have generated if the company had maintained the list price from the previous calendar year, adjusted for inflation. (Silverman, 3/1)

Politico: White House: Biden Not Considering Sharing Covid Vaccine With Mexico 
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday that President Joe Biden would not consider Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s expected request that the U.S. share its coronavirus vaccine supply with its neighbor to the south. Biden and López Obrador are scheduled to meet virtually Monday afternoon for a summit that Psaki said will “reaffirm the enduring partnership between” the U.S. and Mexico, which is “based on mutual respect and the extraordinary bond of family and friendship.” (Forgey, 3/1)

The Wall Street Journal: Covid-19 Vaccine Program In U.K. Cut Deaths, Hospitalizations 
New evidence from the U.K. showed Covid-19 vaccinations sharply reduced serious illness and deaths among elderly people after just one dose, bolstering optimism that successful vaccination programs offer a return to economic growth this year after a year of widespread lockdowns. The real-world data from the country that is vaccinating a greater proportion of its population than any major Western economy also offers support for the U.K. government’s strategy of stretching out limited vaccine supplies by delaying a second shot of vaccine by up to 12 weeks after the first to protect more people from the disease. (Douglas and Strasburg, 3/1)

Reuters: Iraq Receives First Batch Of COVID-19 Vaccines From China 
Iraq received its first 50,000 doses of the Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine donated by China as the country is struggling to cope with a new surge of the disease. An Iraqi military transport plane carrying the first batch of the vaccines from China landed at Baghdad International Airport late on Monday. (3/2)

AP: Slovakia Signs Deal To Acquire 2 Million Doses Of Sputnik V
Slovakia signed a deal to acquire 2 million doses of Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine, Prime Minister Igor Matovic said Monday. Matovic said his country will get 1 million shots in the next two months while another million will arrive in May and June. (Janicek, 3/1)

AP: Ivory Coast Begins Its Vaccination Campaign With COVAX Doses
Ivory Coast has begun giving shots to inoculate against COVID-19 with vaccines delivered last week by the global COVAX initiative, which was created to ensure that low- and middle-income countries have fair access to doses. The West African country’s mass vaccination campaign started Monday with jabs being given to health workers, teachers, and members of the armed forces at the Treichville Sports Palace in the commercial capital, Abidjan, where 95% of the country’s cases have been recorded, according to the health ministry. (N'Gotta, 3/1)

CIDRAP: Study Shows High Rate Of Superbugs Acquired—And Lost—During Travel 
A new study by an international team of scientists suggests that exposure to multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacteria during travel to certain parts of the world may be far greater, and more dynamic, than previously imagined. In the study, published last week in The Lancet Microbe, the scientists collected daily stool samples from 20 European visitors to Laos over a 3-week period in 2015 and analyzed the samples for acquisition of MDR strains. Samples were initially evaluated in Laos, then sent to Switzerland, Finland, and England for further analysis. The participants were also asked to fill out daily reports on what they ate, any gastrointestinal symptoms they were having, and medication use. (Dall, 3/1)