First Edition: March 25, 2021

KHN: Stop Blaming Tuskegee, Critics Say. It’s Not An ‘Excuse’ For Current Medical Racism
For months, journalists, politicians and health officials — including New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Dr. Anthony Fauci — have invoked the infamous Tuskegee syphilis study to explain why Black Americans are more hesitant than white Americans to get the coronavirus vaccine. “It’s ‘Oh, Tuskegee, Tuskegee, Tuskegee,’ and it’s mentioned every single time,” said Karen Lincoln, a professor of social work at the University of Southern California and founder of Advocates for African American Elders. “We make these assumptions that it’s Tuskegee. We don’t ask people.” (Dembosky, 3/25)

KHN: Nosing In On Kids Who Had Covid And Lost Their Sense Of Smell
Orange. Eucalyptus. Lavender. Peppermint. Doctors at Children’s Hospital Colorado and Seattle Children’s Hospital will use scents like these to treat children who lost their sense of smell to covid-19. Parents will attend clinics and go home with a set of essential oils for their child to sniff twice a day for three months. Clinicians will check their progress monthly. The Smell Disturbance Clinic at Children’s Hospital Colorado was approved to open March 10. So far, five children have been screened and one enrolled. Seattle Children’s expects to open its program this spring. (Heredia Rodriguez, 3/25)

KHN: Inmates’ Distrust Of Prison Health Care Fuels Distrust Of Covid Vaccines
One November night in a Missouri prison, Charles Graham woke his cellmate of more than a dozen years, Frank Flanders, saying he couldn’t breathe. Flanders pressed the call button. No one answered, so he kicked the door until a guard came. Flanders, who recalled the incident during a phone interview, said he helped Graham, 61, get into a wheelchair so staff members could take him for a medical exam. Both inmates were then moved into a covid-19 quarantine unit. In the ensuing days, Flanders noticed the veins in Graham’s legs bulging, so he put towels in a crockpot of water and placed hot compresses on his legs. When Graham’s oxygen levels dropped dangerously low two days later, prison staff members took him to the hospital. (Berger, 3/25)

Stat: Pushing Back Against U.S. Health Officials, AstraZeneca Says New Analysis Confirms Efficacy Of Its Covid-19 Vaccine
Rejecting sharp criticism from U.S. government scientists, AstraZeneca said Wednesday night that its Covid-19 vaccine was 76% effective at reducing the risk of symptomatic Covid-19, and 100% effective against severe disease, in a new analysis of its large U.S.-based clinical trial. Those estimates were just a few percentage points lower than much more sparse results the company released Monday from an earlier analysis of the study, despite dramatic statements from government scientists that AstraZeneca’s initial release may have used “outdated information” that could have been overly favorable. (Herper, 3/24)

The New York Times: AstraZeneca, After Rebuke, Releases New Data Supporting Its Vaccine
The new results strengthen the scientific case for the embattled vaccine. But they may not repair the damage to AstraZeneca’s credibility after U.S. health officials and independent monitors issued an extraordinary rebuke of the company for not counting some Covid-19 cases when it announced its initial findings this week. (Robbins and Mueller, 3/25)

USA Today: AstraZeneca COVID Vaccine 76% Effective, Not 79%, Updated Data Shows
The updated information, which included 190 symptomatic cases, showed only a slightly different picture. The vaccine prevented 76% of cases of symptomatic disease two weeks after the second dose, as well as all severe disease and hospitalizations, according to the updated data. It was 85% effective against symptomatic COVID-19 in trial volunteers aged 65 and over, according to the new data, instead of the 80% reported earlier. (Weintraub, 3/24)

Reuters: Canada Says AstraZeneca COVID-19 Vaccine Safe, But Adds Blood Clot Warning
Canada’s health department on Wednesday continues to back AstraZeneca Plc’s COVID-19 vaccine even as it updated its label to provide information on rare blood clots associated with a low platelet count following an immunization shot. Health Canada said it has not received any reports of these blood clots to date. Canada, which is using AstraZeneca doses manufactured at the Serum Institute of India, has received 500,000 Covishield doses and expects to get 1.5 million more by May. (3/25)

The Washington Post: Senate Confirms Rachel Levine, Historic Transgender Nominee, As Assistant Health Secretary
The Senate on Wednesday voted 52 to 48 to confirm Rachel Levine as the nation’s assistant secretary for health, making her the highest-ranking openly transgender official in U.S. history. All Democrats and independents voted to support Levine, with Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) crossing the aisle to support her, prompting cheers from advocates who called the vote a breakthrough. (Diamond and Schmidt, 3/24)

NBC News: Biden To Direct $100 Million To Medical Support Network Key To Vaccine Strategy
President Joe Biden plans to make the country's biggest investment ever in an all-volunteer army of doctors, nurses and medical support teams that has been a pillar of his strategy to accelerate the pace of Covid-19 vaccinations in the U.S., two administration officials said. Biden plans to direct $100 million from the recently enacted $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan to bolster the Medical Reserve Corps. Created shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the corps is a network of about 200,000 health professionals who can rapidly deploy to respond to public health emergencies. (Przybyla, 3/25)

Politico: Biden Bets On New Testing Strategy To Help Vanquish Covid-19
The Biden administration is trying to transform the United States’ Covid-19 testing system — shifting focus from diagnosing people who suspect they're infected to regularly screening millions of Americans at school or work. The White House announced last week that it would spend $10 billion on screening programs for K-12 students as part of a broader national effort to return kids to classrooms. The administration has also inked deals with several manufacturers of rapid tests designed for at-home use. The moves come as demand for testing is dropping nationwide, and both lawmakers and the public are focused on the vaccine rollout. (Lim, 3/24)

AP: Lawmakers: Require Nursing Homes To Disclose Vaccine Data
Nursing homes have to publicly disclose their vaccination rates for flu and pneumonia but there’s no similar mandate for COVID-19 shots, even though the steepest toll from the virus has been among residents of long-term care facilities. Now lawmakers of both parties are urging the Biden administration to require disclosure of coronavirus vaccination rates for residents and staff, and to make it easy for family members, advocacy groups and researchers to access such potentially critical details. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 3/25)

CNN: Advocates For The Elderly Call On The Biden Administration To Do Much More To Vaccinate Seniors And Fight Covid-19 
In early April, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention program that delivered Covid-19 vaccines to long-term care facilities should be complete. With cases dropping faster than among the general public, the CDC calls the program a real success, but advocates are concerned about what happens when it ends. (Christensen, 3/24)

Axios: 7 Out Of 10 Elderly Americans Have Had At Least One Dose Of COVID-19 Vaccine 
Seven out of 10 people across the U.S. ages 65 and older — totaling 38 million — have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Older adults are among the most vulnerable to the virus and those in long-term care facilities have been recommended for priority vaccinations. (King, 3/24)

Houston Chronicle: White Republicans Refuse To Get The COVID-19 Vaccine More Than Any Other Demographic Group In Texas
Sam Webb says he’s not against vaccines. His kids are up to date on their vaccines for school, and he got a flu shot a few years ago, the Weatherford truck driver said. But he won’t be getting a COVID-19 shot. Webb, a former Army medic, is among the thousands of Republicans in Texas and across the country who say they do not trust COVID-19 vaccines and will refuse to get one — even as public health experts and elected leaders say mass vaccinations are the key to a return to normalcy from the pandemic that has plagued the nation for a year. (Oxner, 3/24)

Stat: Covid Isn’t Over, But Congress Is Starting Prep For The Next Pandemic 
Congress, in a rare show of bipartisanship, is gearing up to try to prevent the next pandemic. Already, a duo of powerful senators has pledged, publicly, to work together on legislation that will “make sure nothing like [Covid-19] ever happens again,” as the influential Democratic Sen. Patty Murray (Wash.) put it. (Cohrs, 3/25)

The Wall Street Journal: New York Lawmakers Reach Deal To Legalize Marijuana
After years of false starts, New York state lawmakers said Wednesday that they had reached an agreement to legalize the sale of marijuana for recreational use by adults starting next year. State Sen. Liz Krueger said lawmakers were finalizing a bill that would create a new state regulator for cannabis products and decriminalize the possession of up to three ounces of marijuana. New Yorkers will be allowed to cultivate marijuana for personal use and the state will study a new system for determining whether drivers are inebriated because of marijuana use, she said. (Vielkind, 3/24)

The Hill: Cuomo Family Members Received Special Priority For COVID-19 Testing: Report
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s (D) family members and other people with ties to the administration received priority COVID-19 testing last year, the Albany Times Union reported on Wednesday. Three people with direct knowledge of the matter told the Times Union that Cuomo and Health Commissioner Howard Zucker instructed high-level officials at the New York State Department of Health to conduct prioritized testing for these individuals. Cuomo’s brother, mother and at least one of his sisters were among those tested by the officials. (Coleman, 3/24)

CNN: Is It Ever OK To Jump The Vaccine Line? We Asked An Ethicist 
Months before the US Food and Drug Administration even authorized the first Covid-19 vaccine, there were many conversations and debates going on about who should be put at the front of the line to get it. Different advisory panels and patient advocacy groups came out with suggested recommendations. Eventually, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) -- the group that actually develops recommendations for vaccine usage -- issued its guidelines. (Gupta, 3/24)

CNN: Hospital Official Resigns After Covid-19 Vaccines Were Improperly Distributed At Trump Tower In Chicago
The Board of Trustees for Loretto Hospital accepted the resignation of its COO and CFO Dr. Anosh Ahmed on Wednesday following a discovery that the hospital improperly distributed the Covid-19 vaccine at Trump Tower in downtown Chicago. The news comes just days after the city's Department of Health announced it is withholding additional first doses of Covid-19 vaccines from the hospital, which is in a predominantly Black community in zip codes hardest hit by the virus. (Broaddus, 3/25)

Axios: Coronavirus Cases Increase In 19 States, Hold Steady Nationwide 
New coronavirus infections rose over the past week in 19 states while holding steady nationwide. The U.S. is in a race to vaccinate as many Americans as possible before variants of COVID-19, fueled by quick reopening, can cause a new wave of rising caseloads. (Baker and Witherspoon, 3/25)

The Hill: US Records Over 30M Coronavirus Cases Amid Vaccination Effort
The U.S. on Wednesday surpassed 30 million cases of COVID-19, highlighting the continued threat of the virus even as the country makes progress on vaccinations. While new cases per day have decreased significantly from their peak in January, positivity totals remain high, at around 55,000 cases per day. As more vulnerable people get vaccinated, the number of deaths is declining, but there are still about 1,000 people dying from the virus every day. (Sullivan, 3/24)

Roll Call: Fauci: US May ‘Turn The Corner’ On Virus, But Spring Break Poses Big Risks
White House officials expressed optimism Wednesday about the pace of COVID-19 vaccinations while also voicing worries that partying on spring break at sunny tourist destinations could fuel outbreaks. “I’m often asked, ‘Are we turning the corner?’ My response is really more like, ‘We are at the corner. Whether or not we turn the corner remains to be seen,” White House senior medical adviser Anthony Fauci said at a press briefing. “We do have a lot of challenges in front of us with regard to the high level of daily infections.” (Kopp, 3/24)

CNN: Counties With More Asian, Black Or Hispanic Residents Had Higher Number Of Covid-19 Cases Earlier In The Pandemic, CDC Says 
Counties in the United States with large Black, Asian and Hispanic populations were hit harder by Covid-19 in the early months of the pandemic, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In a new study published Wednesday, CDC researchers said more than a quarter of counties with large Asian or Black populations reported a high Covid-19 incidence rate in the first two weeks of April last year. The CDC defines high incidence as more than 100 new Covid-19 cases per 100,000 people in the total population. (McPhillips, 3/24)

CIDRAP: Risk Of COVID Very Low In Vaccinated Medical Workers: Study
COVID-19 infection was very low in a cohort of vaccinated California healthcare workers (HCWs) amid a surge of new cases, according to a research letter yesterday in the New England Journal of Medicine. University of California researchers evaluated COVID-19 infection rates in 36,659 HCWs on the San Diego and Los Angeles campuses vaccinated with at least one dose of the Moderna or Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine from Dec 16, 2020, to Feb 9, 2021. In that timeframe, 28,184 (77%) received the second dose of vaccine. (Van Beusekom, 3/24)

The Hill: Hundreds Of Migrant Children Detained At Border Have Tested Positive For COVID-19
Hundreds of migrant children who have been detained at the U.S.-Mexico border have tested positive for COVID-19, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) told The Hill. The agency said there have been 2,897 lab-confirmed COVID-19 tests among unaccompanied children since March 24, 2020. Of that number, 2,587 have recovered and have moved out of medical isolation. (Williams, 3/24)

CNN: US Will See 27 Million Doses Of Covid-19 Vaccine This Week, White House Says 
A total of 27 million Covid-19 vaccine doses will be distributed across the United States this week, the White House said Wednesday. So far about a third of US adults -- around 84 million -- have received at least one vaccination dose. (Howard, 3/24)

Politico: FDA Authorizes J&J Partner To Help With Vaccine Production
A contract manufacturer helping to produce Johnson & Johnson's coronavirus vaccine has begun delivering millions of doses after the Food and Drug Administration cleared them for emergency use late Tuesday. Catalent, a "fill-finish" facility that bottles vaccines, revealed in a tweet that FDA had authorized its Bloomington, Ind., factory to begin shipping out shots. The company started sending out vaccine immediately after receiving permission from FDA, said one person familiar with the situation. (Owermohle, Roubein and Banco, 3/24)

Stat: Companies Helping Big Covid-19 Vaccine Makers Are Getting Rich 
Pfizer and Moderna aren’t the only vaccine money-makers. Much of the revenue and profits from Covid-19 vaccines are flowing behind the scenes, going to the contract manufacturers and clinical-trial organizers that turn the shots from lab-bench theory to mass-produced reality. (Goldhill, 3/25)

USA Today: Dentists To Give COVID Vaccines To Help Americans Get Vaccinated
Like other dentists, A.J. Acierno is experienced in complex medical procedures and comfortable with oral injections. So he's more than capable of delivering basic COVID-19 shots to the upper arms of patients, he says. And now that the Biden administration is letting dentists and dental students administer vaccines, Americans may now be able to get an inoculation against the deadly virus the next time they get a tooth cleaning.  (Bomey, 3/25)  

The Hill: 12 State Attorneys General Urge Facebook, Twitter To Do More On Vaccine Misinformation
A group of 12 state attorneys general sent a letter to Facebook and Twitter on Wednesday urging them to more aggressively enforce platform policies against coronavirus vaccine misinformation. Led by Connecticut Attorney General William Tong (D), the group argues that content on the social media sites are increasing vaccine hesitancy, which will “slow economic recovery and, more importantly, ultimately cause even more unnecessary deaths.” (Mills Rodrigo, 3/24)

Axios: COVID-19's Misinformation Wake-Up Call 
Outrage over misinformation online has been rising for years, but it was the flood of false information surrounding COVID-19 and vaccinations that finally pushed health officials, tech companies and politicians to take strong action. Political misinformation can sway elections, but COVID misinformation can kill thousands of people a day. (Hart, 3/25)

NPR: Misleading Facts Evade Social Media Moderation, Fuel Covid Misinformation
The odds of dying after getting a Covid-19 vaccine are virtually non-existent. According to recent data from the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention, you're three times more likely to get struck by lightning. But you might not know that from looking at your social media feed. A new NPR analysis finds that articles connecting vaccines and death have been among the most highly-engaged-with content online this year, going viral in a way that could hinder people's ability to judge the true risk in getting a shot. (Parks, 3/25)

CNN: This New Artificial Heart Responds To The Patient 
Heart disease is the world's biggest killer, and around one in five people in developed countries will suffer heart failure in their lifetime.In the worst cases, the only treatment is a transplant. But with more hearts failing than being donated, patients can spend years on a waiting list. To help people awaiting a transplant, French company Carmat has developed a "total artificial heart" -- a device to replace the whole heart until a donor can be found. (Bailey, 3/25)

CIDRAP: Remdesivir Linked With COVID-19 Clinical Improvement And Safety
Remdesivir treatment of hospitalized patients with noncritical COVID-19 is associated with better clinical improvement, shorter recovery and hospital stays, and safety, according to a meta-analysis of five randomized clinical trials published today in the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy. No significant association was found in regards to mortality. The studies covered 13,544 adult patients from at least 30 countries, of which 391 received a 5-day regimen and 3,839 received a 10-day regimen. Of the studies, which were published from Jan 1 to Nov 18, 2020, three were open-label, and two were double-blind. (3/24)

Stat: A 'Conditional' EUA For A CytoDyn Covid Treatment? No Such Thing Exists
Speaking Monday night to investors on a conference call, CytoDyn CEO Nader Pourhassan said the company had requested a “conditional” emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration for an experimental Covid-19 antibody treatment, despite its failure in a late-stage clinical trial. But a “conditional” EUA — as described by CytoDyn’s CEO — does not exist. (Feuerstein, 3/24)

Stat: Pfizer Hopes For Happy Ending For Osteoarthritis Drug With Troubled History
For more than a decade, Pfizer (PFE) has run dozens of trials in hopes of eventually marketing a treatment for osteoarthritic pain, but critics argue the Food and Drug Administration would be mistaken to approve the drug over concerns it could do more harm than good. The debate has emerged as the agency hosts a two-day meeting of experts, which began on Wednesday morning, to assess tanezumab. (Silverman, 3/24)

Bloomberg: Carcinogen Found In Hand Sanitizers That Plugged Covid Gap 
Some widely available hand sanitizers that American consumers snapped up last year to ward off coronavirus infection contain high levels of a chemical known to cause cancer, a testing firm’s analysis found. An assortment of hand cleaners that flooded into the market after mainstays disappeared from retail outlets contain high levels of benzene, according to Valisure, a New Haven, Connecticut-based online pharmacy that tests products for quality and consistency. (Edney, 3/24)

Boston Globe: After Decades Of Study, State Officials Link Drinking Water Contamination With Elevated Rates Of Childhood Cancer In Wilmington
In 2000, Greg Raso began to notice his 3-year-old daughter had become unusually lethargic and had small blood clots beneath her eyes. She was hospitalized with a common bacterial infection that rarely sickens people, and a few months later was diagnosed with leukemia. While undergoing chemotherapy during a two-month stay at Boston Children’s Hospital, their daughter had a roommate who had also been diagnosed with cancer. The young girl, it turned out, also lived in Wilmington, a suburb north of Boston. (Abel, 3/24)

The New York Times: Too Much High-Intensity Exercise May Be Bad For Your Health
If high-intensity exercise is good for us, is more necessarily better? Maybe not, according to an admonitory new study of the molecular effects of high-intensity interval training, also known as HIIT. In the study, people who began working out strenuously almost every day developed sudden and severe declines in the function of their mitochondria, which are the energy powerhouses inside of cells, along with incipient signs of blood sugar dysfunction. (Reynolds, 3/24)

Roll Call: Pandemic Adds Hurdles For Sexually Transmitted Disease Reduction
The pandemic’s stress on the nation’s health system has amplified challenges in rising rates of sexually transmitted infections, which have been overlooked because of a lack of funding and personnel in the past year. The new challenges in preventing the spread of STIs come as contact tracers were shifted to work on COVID-19 prevention. STI clinics also rely on local funding, which was cut in many places during the economic downturn. Meanwhile, testing supplies remain in shortage. (Raman, 3/24)

The Hill: Dentists Report Increased Chipped, Cracked Teeth Amid Pandemic Stress
Stress-related dental issues including chipped and cracked teeth are on the rise amid the COVID-19 pandemic, a survey from the American Dental Association (ADA) found. In the study posted on the ADA's website this month, more than 7 in 10 dentists said they had seen an increased number of patients with tooth damage stemming from stress-related conditions. The study reviewed data from 2,299 physicians. (Bowden, 3/24)

The Wall Street Journal: Cardinal Health, FourKites Target Deeper View Of Medical Supply Chain
When Covid-19 infections surged in New York last spring, a rush on medical supplies caught healthcare providers off guard, challenging inventory and tracking systems built for more predictable demand. To cope with that volatility, more manufacturers and suppliers are scaling up the use of tracking technology to ensure critical medical shipments arrive on time and intact. Sophisticated devices that log a shipment’s location and temperature in real time have become essential tools in the rush to distribute fragile Covid-19 vaccine shots, for example, to pandemic-weary populations. (Smith, 3/24)

Stat: With Amazon And Ro On Its Heels, Uber Expands Prescription Delivery
After steering into prescription delivery in two cities last summer with digital pharmacy startup NimbleRx, ride-hailing giant Uber hitched itself a new and more expansive ride with medication delivery service ScriptDrop on Wednesday. The deal makes Uber the default delivery app for thousands of pharmacies and health systems in 37 states. It also comes at a critical time for the digital pharmacy sector, which has boomed alongside virtual care amid the pandemic. (Brodwin, 3/24)

The New York Times: Mississippi Will Remove ‘Misleading’ Language About Covid-19 Vaccine
Bobby Wayne, a retired reverend with prostate cancer and leukemia, had spent a week calling health agencies around his county in Mississippi, trying to find out where to get the Covid-19 vaccine. But when Mr. Wayne, 64, called the state’s hotline on Monday, he said an operator, whose job was to help residents schedule vaccine appointments, gave him unnerving and incorrect information. “This is the way she put it to me: They had no documentation that the vaccine was effective,” Mr. Wayne said. “And then she asked me did I still want to take it.” (Cramer, 3/24)

The New York Times: As Virus Cases Plateau Nationally, Michigan’s Rapid Surge Worries Experts
In a sea of heartening news about the U.S. battle against the coronavirus, some experts are casting worried glances at a cloud on the horizon: Michigan, where new cases and hospitalizations are rising with alarming speed. The seven-day average of new cases has more than doubled in the last two weeks and tripled in the last month, by far the nation’s fastest rate of growth. The average for hospitalizations has grown 55 percent in the past two weeks.Michigan is now reporting more new cases each day, relative to the size of its population, than any state except New Jersey. (Wines, 3/24)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Atlanta To Allow Outdoor Events With Under 2,000 People After May 15
The city of Atlanta will begin allowing outdoor events with under 2,000 people after May 15, Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms announced Wednesday. Bottoms issued an executive order lifting the city’s moratorium on permit applications for events like festivals and other large gatherings, though outdoor events for more than 2,000 people are still not allowed. The events must occur after May 15, and must observe COVID-19 safety guidelines, according to the mayor’s order. (Capelouto, 3/24)

Dallas Morning News: Texas Spring Football Practice Put On Hold Due To COVID-19 Protocols
New [University of Texas] coach Steve Sarkisian’s first spring practice has hit the pause button. Texas announced late Wednesday that it is pausing spring practice sessions “as a result of student-athletes impacted by COVID-19 protocols.” According to 247Sports, the positive tests occurred among running backs and defensive linemen. The school said COVID-19 testing will continue and that a plan to resume practice is under review. (Carlton, 3/24)

NBC News: Virginia Becomes 1st Southern State To Abolish Death Penalty As Governor Signs Law
Gov. Ralph Northam on Wednesday signed legislation to officially abolish the death penalty in Virginia, making it the first Southern state to ban capital punishment. “Justice and punishment are not always the same thing, that is too clearly evident in 400 years of the death penalty in Virginia,” Northam, a Democrat, said during remarks ahead of signing the legislation, saying that it is both the right and the moral thing to do. (Golden and Bennett, 3/24)

The Philadelphia Inquirer: Pa. House Passes Bill To Let Philly Suburbs Run Their Own Mass Vaccine Clinics, A Bipartisan Rebuke Of The State’s Rollout
The Pennsylvania House of Representatives voted Wednesday to require the Department of Health to retool its coronavirus vaccine rollout and let Philadelphia’s suburbs run their own mass clinics. The bill would require the Department of Health to detail plans for providing “sufficient doses” of vaccine to counties that have requested more doses, as the city’s collar counties have done. And it would kill the state’s plan to set up two Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency mass vaccination clinics in the Southeast, instead allowing county health departments to distribute the shots. (McDaniel and McCarthy, 3/24)

AP: Cooper Seeks Big Debt Package, Pay Hikes, Medicaid Expansion
North Carolina Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper on Wednesday proposed a spending and borrowing spree by state government that he said is critical to fulfilling education, health care and infrastructure demands that were evident before the pandemic but have been exacerbated since. With state coffers filled with unspent funds and $5 billion of additional federal coronavirus relief dollars arriving, Cooper pitched a two-year state budget plan he said is affordable and ensures North Carolina continues a vigorous recovery from the COVID-19 recession. (Robertson, 3/25)

AP: Delaware Marijuana Legalization Bill Clears House Committee
A bill legalizing recreational marijuana use by adults in Delaware cleared its first legislative hurdle Wednesday as a Democratic-led committee voted along party lines, with one lone GOP vote, to send the measure to the House floor. The bill creates a state-controlled and licensed pot industry that supporters say will eliminate the black market while creating jobs and boosting the state’s tax coffers. While the proposal has significant support among Democratic lawmakers, Democratic Gov. John Carney has expressed concerns about legalization. (Chase, 3/24)

The New York Times: New Zealand Approves Paid Leave After Miscarriage
New Zealand — New Zealand’s Parliament on Wednesday unanimously approved legislation that would give couples who suffer a miscarriage or stillbirth three days of paid leave, putting the country in the vanguard of those providing such benefits. Employers in New Zealand, as in some other countries, had already been required to provide paid leave in the event of a stillbirth, when a fetus is lost after 20 weeks or more. The new legislation will expand that leave to anyone who loses a pregnancy at any point, removing any ambiguity. The measure is expected to become law in the coming weeks. (Frost, 3/25)

AP: Germany Funds Vaccine Assistance For Holocaust Survivors
Germany has committed millions of dollars in extra funding to help ensure all Holocaust survivors are able to get vaccinated against the coronavirus, an organization that handles claims on behalf of Jewish victims said Wednesday. By virtue of their ages alone, survivors of the Holocaust are at higher risk of dying of COVID-19. Many suffer serious medical issues related to early childhood malnutrition and mistreatment at the hands of the Nazis during World War II. (Rising, 3/24)

Reuters: More Than Half Of Israelis Receive Both COVID-19 Vaccine Doses
Israel has administered two doses of COVID-19 vaccine to more than half its 9.3 million population, its health minister said on Thursday, a rapid roll-out that has helped the country begin emerging from pandemic closures. Distribution of Pfizer Inc’s vaccine in Israel began in December, with eligibility extended to citizens and residents over 16. People who receive it are deemed fully protected a week after the second shot. (3/25)

The Hill: Brazil Tops 300,000 COVID-19 Deaths Behind U.S.
Brazil hit 300,000 deaths from the coronavirus on Wednesday, becoming the second country behind the U.S. to see that many deaths from the pandemic. The country's health ministry reported the number on Wednesday as Brazil’s hospitals continue to be overwhelmed from the number of cases the country is seeing, The Associated Press reported. Cases have been surging in Brazil and Europe, with Brazil seeing more than 2,000 deaths a day with almost all its state’s hospitals at 80 percent capacity. (Lonas, 3/24)

Politico: Italian Authorities Discover 29M Oxford/AstraZeneca Doses: La Stampa
Italian authorities have discovered 29 million doses of Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine that had been stocked at a manufacturing site in the country, reported La Stampa on Wednesday. According to the newspaper, the doses likely come from AstraZeneca's Halix plant in the Netherlands, which hasn't yet been approved for EU production. La Stampa cites EU sources who say that those doses were originally destined to the U.K. But exports stopped after the bloc introduced a mechanism to restrict exports on vaccines. (Martuscelli, 3/24)