First Edition: March 22, 2022

KHN: As A Nurse Faces Prison For A Deadly Error, Her Colleagues Worry: Could I Be Next? 
Four years ago, inside the most prestigious hospital in Tennessee, nurse RaDonda Vaught withdrew a vial from an electronic medication cabinet, administered the drug to a patient, and somehow overlooked signs of a terrible and deadly mistake. The patient was supposed to get Versed, a sedative intended to calm her before being scanned in a large, MRI-like machine. But Vaught accidentally grabbed vecuronium, a powerful paralyzer, which stopped the patient’s breathing and left her brain-dead before the error was discovered. (Kelman, 3/22)

KHN: Immunocompromised Patients Worry Vaccine Exemptions Put Them In Peril 
Charlie O’Neill received part of her husband’s liver in a 2013 living donor transplant and has been taking drugs that suppress her immune system ever since to prevent her body from attacking the organ. “I frequently get infections,” she said. “Just being an immune-compromised person, you are faced with just every little cold and flu.” O’Neill lives in the small town of Pony in southwestern Montana’s Madison Valley. Despite living in an uncrowded rural setting, O’Neill said, the first year of the coronavirus pandemic was terrifying. She rarely left home, waiting for covid-19 vaccines to become available. (Bolton, 3/22)

KHN: To Families’ Dismay, Biden Nursing Home Reform Doesn’t View Them As Essential Caregivers
When the Biden administration announced a set of proposed nursing home reforms last month, consumer advocates were both pleased and puzzled. The reforms call for minimum staffing requirements, stronger regulatory oversight, and better public information about nursing home quality — measures advocates have promoted for years. Yet they don’t address residents’ rights to have contact with informal caregivers — family members and friends who provide both emotional support and practical assistance. (Graham, 3/22)

NBC News: GOP Venting, 2024 Auditions And A Historic Moment: Highlights From Day 1 Of Ketanji Brown Jackson Hearing
The first day of the Senate hearings for Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson offered a sharp contrast between the two parties: Democrats focused on the nominee and many Republicans vented about past judicial fights and railed against "dark money." The Judiciary Committee proceedings Monday included opening statements from senators and ended with introductory remarks from Jackson, 51, who is a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Questioning begins Tuesday. (Kapur, 3/21)

The New York Times: Fact Checking Judge Jackson’s Record On Child Sexual Abuse 
Republican lawmakers are misleadingly portraying Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, President Biden’s Supreme Court pick, as uncommonly lenient on felons who possess images of child sexual abuse. During Judge Jackson’s confirmation hearing on Monday, and in social media posts before the hearing, several senators homed in on her judicial record on the issue. In doing so, they omitted the context of her remarks and sentencing decisions. Here’s a fact check. (Qiu, 3/21)

AP: What We Know About Justice Clarence Thomas' Hospitalization
The court provided no additional information about the infection that put Justice Clarence Thomas in the hospital other than to say he is responding to intravenous antibiotics. There was no indication about the seriousness of the infection or what caused it, but the court said Sunday evening he was expected to be out in a day or two. ... At arguments at the court Monday, Thomas’ chair to the right of Chief Justice John Roberts was empty and Roberts took note of Thomas’ absence without explaining why. (Gresko and Sherman, 3/21)

CNN: Obamacare: Low-Income Americans Now Can Sign Up For $0 Premium Plans On Federal Exchange 
Low-income Americans who missed signing up for 2022 Affordable Care Act coverage can now enroll in plans with $0 premiums through the federal exchange's website. Those with incomes less than 150% of the federal poverty level -- $19,320 for an individual and $39,750 for a family of four -- can select policies on healthcare.gov through a special enrollment period, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services told CNN exclusively on Monday. Most people will be able to select plans with no premiums, while others may have to pay a few dollars. The agency is launching advertising and outreach campaigns to spread the word about the new special enrollment period, which lasts for the rest of the year. The effort will also target those experiencing certain life changes, such as losing job-based coverage, getting divorced or aging out of a parent's policy, which have always allowed them to sign up for Obamacare policies during the year. (Luhby, 3/21)

NPR: School Meal Programs To Lose Flexibility, Funding, If Congress Doesn't Act
When schools pivoted to virtual learning early in the pandemic, the National School Lunch Program was thrown into chaos. Millions of children rely on school meals to keep hunger at bay, so school nutrition directors scrambled to adopt new, creative ways to distribute food to families. Some of these changes were improvements on the status quo, they say. And as part of pandemic relief legislation, the federal Food and Nutrition services agency waived the requirement that schools serve meals in a group setting, increased school-year reimbursement rates to summer levels for school food programs and granted more flexibility in how food is prepared and packaged. (Aubrey, 3/21)

NBC News: House Members From New York Want Info On Federal Contract To Manage Health Care For Some 9/11 Survivors
A bipartisan group of House members from New York says an ongoing probe of a health care program for some 9/11 first responders and survivors shows the program “consistently struggled,” and the members are demanding details about a multimillion-dollar contract that brings in a new company to manage it. In November, NBC News broke the news that LHI — the company responsible for administering World Trade Center Health Program benefits for 9/11 first responders and survivors who live outside metropolitan New York — had lost its government contract to Managed Care Advisors (MCA)-Sedgwick. An NBC News investigation in September reported concerns from nearly two dozen 9/11 first responders and survivors served by the program. (Abou-Sabe and Salam, 3/22)

The Hill: Daylight Saving Change Faces Trouble In House
Legislation to make daylight saving time permanent passed the Senate last week, but the House is not ready to be a rubber stamp, spelling potential trouble ahead for its passage in the lower chamber. Leaders on both sides of the aisle have made clear they are not in a rush to act on the legislation, with some citing the focus on the crisis unfolding in Ukraine, as well as the need for further review from members before taking up the proposal. (Folley, 3/21)

Houston Chronicle: Democrats Press Biden To Get Planned Parenthood Back Into Texas Medicaid Program
Democratic congressional members from Texas are asking the Biden administration to push for the return of Planned Parenthood as a Medicaid provider, nearly a year after state leaders kicked out the organization over false claims it was selling fetal tissue. In a letter sent late Monday to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the group urged officials to enforce the program’s “free choice” provision, which allows recipients to access family planning services from any willing and qualified provider. (Blackman, 3/21)

AP: Biden Aides To Congress: Fund COVID Aid, Don't Cut Budget
Congress should provide the $22.5 billion President Joe Biden wants for continuing the battle against COVID-19 without cutting other programs to pay for it, senior administration officials said Monday. And if Republicans continue to insist that additional federal efforts to combat the pandemic must be paid for by culling spending elsewhere, the GOP should specify what it wants to cut, the officials said. (Fram, 3/21)

Roll Call: White House Says New Funds Needed For Boosters, Existing Money Difficult To Repurpose 
The White House said Monday that it has about $300 billion in unspent COVID-19 funding but only about $60 billion that is unallocated as it warned lawmakers that it doesn’t have enough money for additional vaccination efforts unless Congress provides more relief. The administration again requested that Congress provide $22.5 billion in supplemental COVID-19 aid without offsets. It said it would be difficult and controversial to repurpose the $60 billion. Senate Republicans have pushed to repurpose existing funding. (Raman, 3/21)

The Washington Post: Biden Has New Covid Plan That Spurs Worries About Readiness For Next Surge 
Cathy Colledge, who has Stage 4 metastatic breast cancer, feels like she’s on her own trying to avoid a coronavirus infection that might kill her. New guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention telling 99 percent of Americans living in counties labeled green or yellow that they can safely go without masks puts the onus on her to protect herself, whether she goes to the grocery store or travels to Florida to see her grandchildren. “I want to move on, too,” said Colledge, 70, of Salt Lake City. (Sun and Abutaleb, 3/21)

The Washington Post: Covid Infection Associated With A Greater Likelihood Of Type 2 Diabetes, According To Patient Record Review 
People who had covid-19 were at greater risk of developing Type 2 diabetes within a year than those who managed to avoid the coronavirus, according to a large review of patient records released Monday. The finding is true even for people who had less severe or asymptomatic forms of coronavirus infection, though the chances of developing new-onset diabetes were greater as the severity of covid symptoms increased, according to researchers who reviewed the records of more than 181,000 Department of Veterans Affairs patients diagnosed with coronavirus infections between March 1, 2020, and Sept. 30, 2021. (Bernstein, 3/21)

The Wall Street Journal: New Research Shows Higher Risk Of Developing Diabetes After Covid-19 Infection 
A large new study found that people who recovered from Covid-19 within the past year are 40% more likely to receive a new diagnosis of diabetes compared to those who weren’t infected. The increased risk translates into 1% of people who have had Covid-19 developing diabetes who otherwise wouldn’t have, the study’s author says, resulting in potentially millions of new cases world-wide. (Reddy, 3/21)

ABC News: COVID-19 May Double Severe Complications In Pregnancy, Study Finds 
A new study has added to the body of research showing the risks pregnant people face due to COVID-19, especially among those who are not vaccinated. The study, published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine, found pregnant people with COVID-19 had more than double the risk of negative outcomes compared to pregnant people without the virus. (Kindelan, 3/21)

San Francisco Chronicle: COVID’s Severe Risk To Pregnant Women Is Real, A Large Kaiser Study In California Shows
Unvaccinated pregnant women infected with the coronavirus have more than twice the risk of having dangerous sepsis or other severe medical problems, than those who don’t have the virus, according to a study of thousands of Northern California women published Monday. The analysis of 43,886 women who gave birth at Kaiser Permanente Northern California between March 1, 2020, and March 16, 2021 — before coronavirus vaccines were widely available — revealed that babies born to mothers who contracted COVID were also more likely to be born prematurely, placing them at greater risk for brain and heart problems. (Asimov, 3/21)

Fox News: Omicron Subvariant BA.2: Health Officials Call It 'Variant Of Concern'
The subvariant omicron BA.2 has health officials’ attention, just as COVID restrictions have eased up. It has been classified as a "variant of concern," according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO). This variant is also called "stealth" omicron because its genetic mutations could make it difficult to distinguish from the delta variant using PCR tests as compared to the original version of omicron, according to the American Medical Association. WHO said in a recent statement "initial data suggest that BA.2 appears inherently more transmissible than BA.1, which currently remains the most common Omicron sublineage reported." (McGorry, 3/21)

AP: Doctors Finding Hurdles To Using Pills To Treat COVID-19
High-risk COVID-19 patients now have new treatments they can take at home to stay out of the hospital — if doctors get the pills to them fast enough. Health systems around the country are rushing out same-day prescription deliveries. Some clinics have started testing and treating patients in one visit, an initiative that President Joe Biden’s administration recently touted. (Murphy, 3/21)

The New York Times: Vaccination Rates Have Stalled With Another Potential Uptick Coming
Since last summer, the U.S. inoculation campaign has sputtered, undermined by vaccine skepticism, partisan politics and misinformation. And warnings of another potential surge, fueled by the new Omicron subvariant, BA.2, may have little impact on vaccination rates. Rates for boosters are even further behind. Omicron’s emergence in late fall pushed federal regulators to expand booster eligibility, and some Americans rushed to get the additional dose. But the booster campaign has stalled, with about half of eligible U.S. adults still not boosted as of Monday, according to the C.D.C. People may be even less motivated now than before, as masks come off, restrictions are lifted, and the public shifts toward treating the coronavirus as a part of daily life. (Lukpat, Petri and Stolberg, 3/22)

The Hill: Federal Judge Blocks DC Law Allowing Kids To Get Vaccinated Without Parental Consent 
A federal judge temporarily blocked the District of Columbia from enforcing a law that would have allowed children to get vaccinated without the knowledge of their parents, ruling the law violated parents' religious liberties. The law in question, the Minor Consent for Vaccinations Amendment Act of 2020, allows children as young as 11 years old to be vaccinated so long as a provider deems them capable of informed consent.  (Weixel, 3/21)

San Francisco Chronicle: S.F. Expands Mobile COVID-19 Testing In Bid For Greater Equity
San Francisco is boosting its mobile COVID-19 testing options across the city in an effort to make access to testing more equitable and to ensure that testing operations are more responsive to communities’ needs, officials said Monday. The new “mobile testing strategy” is designed to allow the city to target specific neighborhoods that need more testing resources. Communities with particularly high test positivity rates and areas that have seen the greatest impact from COVID-19 will receive more testing opportunities, including access to mobile testing vans, the Department of Public Health said in a news release. (Picon, 3/21)

CIDRAP: Accuracy Of Second SARS-CoV-2 Rapid Antigen Test Estimated At 94%
The estimated overall accuracy of a second COVID-19 rapid antigen test among asymptomatic New York City workers was 94% in a comparative effectiveness study published late last week in JAMA Network Open. Led by a Weill Cornell Medicine researcher, the team tested 179,127 participants in a workplace screening program using Sofia2 SARS Antigen Fluorescent Immunoassay, LumiraDX, and BinaxNow tests at an international service company from November 2020 through October 2021. (3/21)

Los Angeles Times: L.A. Teachers Union Approves Deal To Lift Mask Mandate 
Members of the Los Angeles teachers union have ratified an agreement to make masking optional in the nation’s second-largest school system, the union announced Monday night. Under the agreement, the indoor masking requirement for students and staff will be lifted Wednesday for staff and students ranging from early transitional kindergarten through 12th grade and also including adult school and work sites without students. Among those who cast ballots, 84% voted yes and 16% voted no. (Blume, 3/21)

AP: New Orleans Lifts Proof-Of-Vaccine Rule For Bars, Eateries 
Bars, restaurants and other businesses in New Orleans are no longer required to make patrons show proof of vaccination against COVID-19 or a negative test for the disease, the city said Monday in a news release. The mandate, which dates back to August, was officially lifted at 6 a.m. (McGill, 3/21)

The Boston Globe: Ricardo Arroyo Says Vaccine Opponents Protested Outside His Mother’s Home Monday Morning
Nearly three months after demonstrators began gathering in the early mornings outside Mayor Michelle Wu’s Roslindale home to protest Boston’s vaccine mandates and coronavirus restrictions, City Councilor Ricardo Arroyo says his family is being targeted as well. But when a small group of demonstrators gathered outside a Hyde Park home Monday morning, Arroyo wasn’t there. The house belongs to his mother, a 70-year-old retired Boston Public Schools teacher, he said on Twitter. “She told them it wasn’t my home but they ignored her & kept on for hours,” he wrote. “City Hall is open and they can protest there. It’s clear the goal isn’t protest but targeted harassment and its wrong.” (Stoico, 3/21)

The Washington Post: The Children’s Mental Health Crisis Predates The Pandemic 
The pandemic hasn’t created a children’s mental health crisis out of nowhere; rather, it’s shone a spotlight on a catastrophe that has been hiding in plain sight for a very long time. “This is not a new problem,” Sandy Chung, a pediatrician in Fairfax, Va., and president-elect of the American Academy of Pediatrics, explained to me recently. “Over the last several decades, we’ve been seeing an increase in mental health conditions in children and adolescents.” (Warner, 3/21)

Modern Healthcare: More Insurers Cut Payment For Patient Consultations
Health insurers Anthem and Aetna began denying providers' claims that include consultation codes this year, joining the growing ranks of payers cutting reimbursement amid an industrywide coding change. Consultations are a type of evaluation and management service provided at the request of another physician. For example, a primary care physician may refer a patient to a cardiologist. The specialist would then examine the patient, offer an opinion and send the individual back to the primary care provider for treatment. The cardiologist in this case would bill for the visit using a consultation code. (Tepper, 3/21)

Bloomberg: Health Insurance Startup Raising Funds At $2.7 Billion Valuation
Digital health-insurance startup Alan is in talks to raise new funding with a valuation about 2.5 billion euros ($2.7 billion), according to people familiar with the matter. The round isn’t finalized yet and the details could change, the people said, who asked not to be named discussing private information. A spokesperson from Alan declined to comment. Paris-based Alan last raised 185 million euros in April 2021 at a 1.4 billion-euro valuation from investors including Coatue Management, Temasek and Index Ventures. Other backers include Exor NV, the holding company of Italy’s billionaire Agnelli clan, and Dragoneer, an early backer of Spotify. (Levingston and Berthelot, 3/21)

Stat: The Biggest PBMs Are Handling More Of The Country's Drug Price Deals
Alex Schmelzer didn’t think he’d be the most-hated person in drug pricing negotiations, but he was. Schmelzer founded a consulting firm in 2016 to help companies battle their pharmacy benefit managers, the behemoth intermediaries that negotiate drug prices, process claims, and create networks of pharmacies. Schmelzer and his colleagues pored through data and discovered many employers were paying too much for their workers’ drugs. But after three years, in 2019, Schmelzer had to shut down his shop. It turns out his clients didn’t want him to battle as hard as he did — even if they were getting overcharged. (Herman, 3/22)

Stat: An ALS Therapy Sets Up A Crucial Test Of The FDA’s Independence 
A high-profile, experimental therapy for ALS is teeing up a crucial test of the Food and Drug Administration’s ability to withstand political pressure. The drug, from Amylyx Pharmaceuticals, has been the subject of an immense pressure campaign from ALS patients and advocacy organizations — one with roots in the broader “right-to-try” movement’s successful efforts to weaken the agency’s ability to limit patients’ access to drugs to treat deadly diseases. ALS advocates charge that the FDA has stubbornly blocked access to therapies that might add even a glimmer of hope to a diagnosis that is otherwise a death sentence — an argument that the FDA has worked hard to counter. (Florko, 3/22)

Stat: 'Harmful And Wasteful': Many Pediatric Clinical Trials End Early, Don't Report Results
An extensive analysis of thousands of pediatric trials found one in 10 ended early — and among the studies that were completed, the vast majority of results still hadn’t been reported or published years later, raising concerns about incomplete knowledge about treatments for children. Moreover, the problems existed regardless of the funding sources, although studies supported by the pharmaceutical industry were significantly more likely to be discontinued. And industry-sponsored trials also had lower odds of being published three years after completion, according to the analysis, which looked at 13,200 studies conducted from October 2007 to March 2020 and was published Tuesday in Pediatrics. (Silverman, 3/22)

The New York Times: Concussions Doctor Under Scrutiny In Plagiarism Scandal 
For more than two decades, Paul McCrory has been the world’s foremost doctor shaping the concussion protocols that are used by sports leagues and organizations globally. As the leader of the Concussion in Sport Group, McCrory helped choose the members of the international group and write its quadrennial consensus statement on the latest research on concussions — a veritable bible for leagues, trainers, doctors and academics that an N.F.L. spokesman once called “the foundation of all sports-related research.” (Belson, 3/21)

AP: W.Va. Gov Signs Law Barring Abortion Because Of Disability
West Virginia Republican Gov. Jim Justice has signed a new law barring parents from seeking abortion care because they believe their child will be born with a disability. Justice posted about his signature of the “Unborn Child with a Disability Protection and Education Act” on Twitter on Monday. He made the announcement about the new law in a tweet to celebrate World Down Syndrome Day. (Willingham, 3/21)

The Washington Post: Texas’s Strict New Abortion Law Has Eluded Multiple Court Challenges. Abortion Rights Advocates Think They Have A New Path To Get It Blocked
The initial attacks came in court and on social media, when a group of antiabortion lawyers accused two Texas abortion rights groups of funding abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, the legal limit under Texas’s restrictive abortion ban. They filed official requests in court for more information on the abortions, then took to Twitter, warning that anyone who helped fund abortions through these two groups “could get sued.” ... Now, abortion rights groups think those threats may have opened the door to something that has eluded them ever since the law took effect in September: a viable path for a legal challenge. (Kitchener, 3/21)

NBC News: Texas Appeals Court Reinstates Injunction Blocking Investigations Into Parents Of Transgender Kids
A Texas appeals court on Monday reinstated an injunction blocking a state agency from investigating parents whose transgender children receive gender-affirming care. The Texas Third Court of Appeals ruled on a motion filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas and Lambda Legal, which had filed a lawsuit on behalf of a transgender teen’s parents who were being investigated for possible child abuse by the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. (Richards, 3/21)

NPR: A Third Of Trans Youth Are At Risk Of Losing Gender-Affirming Care, Study Says
The recent wave of Republican-led bans attempting to block transgender minors from accessing gender-affirming medical care may be fertile political ground for conservatives in an election year, but a new study shows the bans are putting tens of thousands of vulnerable young people in jeopardy. A report from the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law estimates that more than 54,000 transitioning transgender youth ages 13 through 17 are at risk of losing access to gender-affirming medical care, even in cases where doctors, therapists and parents concur with the need for those treatments. And in at least three states — Alabama, North Carolina and Oklahoma — lawmakers are pushing legislation that would impact about 4,000 18-to-20-year-olds. The figures are staggering considering that only about 150,000 American youth identify as transgender. (Romo, 3/21)

CNN: For Trans Youth's Health, The More Inclusive Adults' Language Is The Better, Study Says 
There is more we can do to make our kids feel seen, accepted and secure -- and it starts with adding more terms for gender identity and sexual orientation to the official forms we give them, according to a new study. Researchers in Minnesota analyzed data from students across the state in grades eight, nine and 11, finding that a significant portion of the youth population identified with terms including lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, pansexual, transgender, genderqueer, genderfluid or nonbinary. Many of the identities the students in the study use are often absent from forms and surveys given to them, which is especially concerning given the high rates of depression and bias-based bullying many students, particularly those who identified as pansexual, nonbinary or transmasculine. A step as simple as expanding identity options could help, according to the study, published Monday in the American Academy of Pediatrics. (Holcombe, 3/21)

AP: Judge: Ex-Governor Must Testify In Flint Water Civil Trial 
Former Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder and several other officials must testify in a civil trial involving engineering firms being sued over liability for lead-contaminated water connected to the Flint water crisis, a judge ruled Monday. U.S. District Judge Judith Levy denied motions by Snyder, his former advisor, two former state-appointed emergency managers and an ex-Flint city official to quash subpoenas compelling them to testify. (3/21)

AP: Sick Mine Workers Allege Insurer Delaying Medical Payments
Attorneys for Montana mine workers sickened and killed by toxic asbestos exposure filed a lawsuit against Zurich American Insurance on Monday for allegedly stalling legal settlements and medical payments after transferring the workers’ claims to investors who can profit off the delays. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Great Falls on behalf of 17 former workers and representatives of 29 deceased workers who developed lung cancer and other diseases following exposure to asbestos during the 1960s and 1970s at a W.R. Grace & Co. vermiculite mine in Libby, Montana. (Brown, 3/21)

Stat: Teva, Allergan Reach $107 Million Deal With Rhode Island Over Opioid Crisis
Just as a trial was getting underway, Allergan and Teva Pharmaceutical reached a settlement worth $107 million with the state of Rhode Island over their alleged roles in fomenting the U.S. opioid crisis. The deal calls for Teva to pay $21.5 million over 13 years and Allergan, a unit of AbbVie, to pay $8 million over six years. In addition, Teva will supply the state with two medicines to combat the crisis — valued at $78.5 million, based on wholesale prices — over the next decade. The medicines are Teva’s generic version of Narcan, a nasal spray used to reverse an opioid overdose, and buprenorphine, which combats opioid use disorder. (Silverman, 3/21)

The Courier-Journal: Louisville Officials Approve Plan Allowing Drug Rehab Center To Open In Neighborhood
New neighbors are coming to a Valley Station subdivision, with a city committee giving the green light to allow a drug rehabilitation treatment center to open in an old church. In a 3-2 vote that one member called "perhaps the most challenging" case he could remember, Louisville's Board of Zoning Adjustment ruled Monday that Isaiah House, a Christian program that works to help people recovering from drug addiction, can set up a location inside the Valley Hope Center, a former church and current event venue at 10803 Deering Road. The plan calls for the nearly 30,000-square-foot venue to be converted into an inpatient rehab center, where up to 100 men in addiction recovery can get clean and take part in educational opportunities and job training. (Aulbach, 3/22)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Narcan Is Preventing Opioid Overdose Deaths In Milwaukee Communities
Peel. Place. Press. These three simple steps, which can be accomplished in seconds through a nasal spray, could save someone's life. Naloxone, more commonly known as Narcan, is often seen as the most-effective way to reverse an opioid overdose. And while drug overdose deaths continue to hit record levels across the nation and in the Milwaukee area, public health officials are encouraging the use of the medication to save lives in order to get individuals the help they need, as data from the American Medical Association says nearly 80% of opioid overdose deaths happen outside a medical setting. (Casey, 3/21)

AP: Minnesota Republicans Offer Alternate Plan For Family Leave
Republicans in the Minnesota Legislature offered a voluntary proposal for paid family and medical leave Monday that would rely on tax credits for employers who choose to participate, in contrast with Democratic proposals that would require paid time off for workers to care for their families. Sen. Julia Coleman, of Waconia, and Rep. Jordan Rasmusson, of Fergus Falls, depicted their plan as an innovative way to support employees who need time off after childbirth, or to care for sick children, or for parents nearing the end of their lives. They also presented it as an affordable alternative for small businesses that would help them compete with deep-pocketed big companies. (Karnowski, 3/21)

NPR: Great Value Buttermilk Pancake Mix Recalled After Potential Contamination
A single lot of Great Value Buttermilk Pancake & Waffle Mix is being recalled after fragments of a cable used in the processing line were found in some products, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said in a notice. The recall stems from "potential foreign material contamination," said Continental Mills, the manufacturer. The mix is sold at Walmart stores, and the affected product was distributed nationwide, according to the recall notice posted to the FDA's website. (Wamsley, 3/21)

Reuters: No Country Met WHO Air Quality Standards In 2021 - Data
Not a single country managed to meet the World Health Organization's (WHO) air quality standard in 2021, a survey of pollution data in 6,475 cities showed on Tuesday, and smog even rebounded in some regions after a COVID-related dip. The WHO recommends that average annual readings of small and hazardous airborne particles known as PM2.5 should be no more than 5 micrograms per cubic metre after changing its guidelines last year, saying that even low concentrations caused significant health risks. (3/22)

The Washington Post: Hong Kong Lifts Flight Bans, Suspends Mandatory Mass Testing Amid Waning Tolerance For ‘Zero Covid’
Hong Kong will lift flight bans in place for nine countries including the United States and reduce mandatory quarantine for returning residents to seven days, in the first easing of the city’s draconian coronavirus restrictions in many months as the financial hub buckles under the weight of its “zero-covid” policy. (Yu, 3/21)

The Washington Post: David Beckham Lends Instagram Account To Ukrainian Doctor In Kharkiv 
Soccer legend David Beckham handed over control of his Instagram account — and its 71.5 million followers — on Sunday to a Ukrainian doctor caring for pregnant women and their babies in the war-torn city of Kharkiv. Throughout the day, Iryna, a pediatric anesthesiologist and the head of the regional perinatal center in Kharkiv, posted a moving first-person account of her daily life in Ukraine’s second-largest city, an early target in Moscow’s advance that has been ravaged by missile strikes. (Pannett, 3/21)