First Edition: March 29, 2022
Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
KHN:
At A Tennessee Crossroads, Two Pharmacies, A Monkey, And Millions Of Pills
It was about 1 a.m. on April 19, 2016, when a burglary alarm sounded at Dale Hollow Pharmacy in Celina, a tiny town in the rolling, wooded hills near the Kentucky border. Two cops responded. As their flashlights bobbed in the darkness, shining through the pharmacy windows, they spotted a sign of a break-in: pill bottles scattered on the floor. (Kelman, 3/29)
KHN:
‘American Diagnosis’: ‘Water Warriors’ Tap Diné Resilience To Increase Access On Navajo Land
Over decades, federal and state policies have left many tribal communities without access to clean, running water. This episode explores what separates some Diné and other Native people in the western United States from this critical resource. (3/29)
KHN:
Colorado Doubles Down On Abortion Rights As Other States — And The High Court — Reconsider
With the Supreme Court expected to overturn or severely weaken its landmark Roe v. Wade decision, clinics in Colorado are preparing for an increase in the number of out-of-state residents seeking abortions, and lawmakers are cementing abortion access protections in state law. Colorado is one of the few states without any restrictions on when in pregnancy an abortion can occur and is one of the few states in the region without a mandatory waiting period of up to 72 hours after required abortion counseling. (Bichell, 3/29)
The Wall Street Journal:
Walmart Stops Selling Cigarettes In Some Stores
Walmart Inc. is ending cigarette sales in some U.S. stores after years of debate within the retail company’s leadership ranks about the sale of tobacco products, according to people familiar with the matter. Cigarettes are being removed in various markets, including some stores in California, Florida, Arkansas and New Mexico, according to the people and store visits. In some of these stores, Walmart has rolled out a design with more self-checkout registers, as well as other items such as grab-and-go food or candy sold near the front of stores in place of Marlboro, Newport and other tobacco products. (Nassauer and Maloney, 3/28)
AP:
Walmart To End Cigarette Sales In Some Stores
Walmart is not the first national retail chain to cut off cigarette sales even on a trial basis, but it is the largest. Target ended cigarette sales in 1996 and the drugstore chain CVS Health did the same in 2014. CVS Health sales in areas outside the pharmacy fell for a few quarters after it pulled tobacco products, and the company had predicted that missing tobacco products would hurt annual earnings by 7 to 8 cents per share. (D'Innocenzio, 3/28)
Modern Healthcare:
Biden Proposes Nearly 27% Funding Increase For HHS
The Health and Human Services Department would get a 26.8% spending boost in fiscal 2023 under a budget proposal the White House issued Monday. The budget plan outlines President Joe Biden's health priorities, which include improving public health infrastructure, advancing mental healthcare and making maternal health more equitable. Biden is asking Congress to authorize $127.3 billion in discretionary funding for HHS, or $26.9 billion more than the department's allotment for fiscal 2021. The White House compared its budget proposals to fiscal 2021 because Congress only passed fiscal 2022 appropriations earlier this month. (Goldman, 3/28)
The New York Times:
Biden’s Budget Proposal Pushes For More Pandemic Preparedness And Local Public Health Spending
President Biden’s proposed budget for the Department of Health and Human Services emphasizes pandemic preparedness, signaling the administration’s concern about future pathogens that could complicate progress against the coronavirus or threaten a different pandemic altogether. Swaths of the proposed spending would build on funding passed by Congress earlier this month as part of a major annual spending bill. The budget proposes an increase of nearly 27 percent in discretionary funding for H.H.S. over spending in 2021. (Weiland, Sanger-Katz and Patil, 3/29)
Stat:
Lawmakers, Pelosi Aide Turn Lobbyist To Push For ARPA-H’s Independence
Health secretary Xavier Becerra is suddenly the target of a frenzied lobbying campaign aimed at ensuring the independence of ARPA-H, the new high-stakes research agency that President Biden has said will “end cancer as we know it.” But in a strange turn, many of the lobbyists are actually lawmakers. In recent days, Becerra has met with members of Congress, and a top aide to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — a far more powerful set than the cohort of patient advocates or pharma and hospital representatives who usually seek meetings at the Humphrey building. By and large, their message has been identical: That for the new agency to succeed, it must exist independently of the National Institutes of Health. (Facher, 3/29)
Bloomberg:
U.S. Covid Response Showing Cracks As Congress Delays Funds
Personic Health Care has been providing free Covid testing for uninsured families in Philadelphia and northern Virginia throughout the pandemic, thanks in part to federal support. But earlier this month when the White House said that the U.S. doesn’t have the funds to cover those costs, it put Personic, a mid-sized patient-monitoring and telehealth company, in a precarious spot. The company wants to continue offering the free tests, but that’s not sustainable through another surge of infections, said Azmat Husain, its founder and chief medical officer. (Rutherford, 3/28)
NPR:
As Federal COVID Funding Runs Out, Support For Uninsured Suffers
The first real-world consequences of dwindling federal COVID-19 funds have started to be felt in recent days. Coronavirus tests for uninsured patients are no longer free in some places. That's because the program that reimbursed clinics and hospitals for the testing, as well as for treating uninsured patients with COVID-19, stopped accepting claims last week "due to lack of sufficient funds." Some clinics have already started to turn away people without insurance who come to get tested and can't afford to pay for it. (Simmons-Duffin, 3/29)
The Washington Post:
Clinics, Hospitals Brace For End Of Cushion For Uninsured Covid Care
Christina Paz was typing up notes about a patient she’d just seen at Centro San Vicente, El Paso’s largest community health center, when an email from Washington showed up. “Lord,” she thought as she read it at the clinic’s nursing station. “Oh, my God.” The brief email told Paz, a nurse practitioner who is the clinic’s chief executive officer, that at 11:59 p.m. on March 22 the federal COVID-19 Uninsured Program would stop accepting claims for testing and treating for the deadly virus on patients who had no way to pay their medical bills. (Goldstein, 3/28)
The Wall Street Journal:
Biden Administration Begins Vaccinating Asylum Seekers At Southern Border
The Biden administration has started vaccinating migrants claiming asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border for Covid-19, the Department of Homeland Security said Monday. The decision comes after months of debate within the Biden administration, in which time nonprofit organizations along the border including Catholic Charities started administering Covid-19 vaccines to those migrants released to nonprofit shelters so they could apply for asylum. (Hackman, 3/28)
Los Angeles Times:
Only 30% Of L.A. County Kids Are Vaccinated, Months After COVID Shots Became Available
As kids were spilling out of the gates at Helen Keller Elementary School in Lynwood, outreach worker Alma Aracen tried to talk to the parents crowded outside. “We’re offering COVID vaccines,” Aracen said in Spanish to one mother, gesturing to the mobile clinic and tables set up by St. John’s Community Health near the school. The woman, glancing over, replied in English, “Her daddy doesn’t want her to have it.” In Los Angeles County, some parents jumped at the chance to get kids vaccinated when the shots first became available for them. But here and across the country, new immunizations for kids fell after an initial rush. (Alpert Reyes and Do, 3/28)
AP:
Idaho Gov Vetoes Bill Banning Business Vaccine Requirements
Idaho Gov. Brad Little has vetoed legislation that would make it illegal for most businesses to require the coronavirus vaccine. “I am vetoing this legislation because I am a lifelong advocate of limited government,” Little wrote in his transmittal letter on Monday, saying the bill “significantly expands government overreach into the private sector.” (Boone, 3/28)
Bay Area News Group:
COVID-19: Sharks And Warriors Drop Vax, Test Requirements For Fans
Responding to updated health guidelines from the state, Sharks Sports & Entertainment announced Monday that starting this weekend, fans attending hockey games at SAP Center will no longer be required to show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test for entry. The change is in line with the Chase Center’s modification announced last week. California’s Department of Public Health on March 17 stated that instead of requiring proof of full vaccination or evidence of recent negative COVID-19 test for entry into indoor mega-events, it would move to a “strong recommendation” to the public to use those measures for limiting the spread of the virus. (Pashelka and Kenney, 3/28)
AP:
Convoy Protesting COVID Mandates Rolling On To California
A group of truck drivers protesting COVID-19 mandates on roads and highways around the Washington, D.C., area in recent weeks will head to California next, an organizer announced Sunday night. During a livestream of the People’s Convoy nightly rally Sunday, organizer Mike Landis read a list of measures aimed at controlling COVID-19 in California, The Herald-Mail reported. (3/28)
The New York Times:
U.S. Virus Deaths Drop To Lowest Point Since Summer
Fewer than 800 coronavirus deaths are being reported each day in the United States, the lowest daily average since before the Omicron variant took hold late last fall. The last time the rate was this low was in mid-August, according to a New York Times database. Trends in deaths lag behind cases and hospitalizations by weeks because of the time it takes for people to become seriously ill, and the time needed to complete and file death records. (Hassan and Cahalan, 3/29)
CIDRAP:
Contact Tracing May Have Averted 1.4 Million US COVID Cases In 2 Months
A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) modeling study used data from 59 US case investigation and contact tracing (CICT) programs to estimate that the programs prevented 1.11 to 1.36 million COVID-19 cases, and 27,000 to 34,000 hospitalizations over 60 days in winter 2020-21, well before the Delta and Omicron variant surges. The researchers collected data from Nov 25, 2020, to Jan 23, 2021, for analysis from July to September 2021. (3/28)
CIDRAP:
COVID-19, Flu An Especially Dangerous Pair
Adult COVID-19 patients also infected with the flu are four times more likely to require mechanical ventilation and 2.4 times more likely to die than if they had COVID-19 alone, finds a UK study published late last week in The Lancet. (Van Beusekom, 3/28)
CIDRAP:
CDC: Influenza Activity Increasing Across US
Late last week, the CDC Fluview update showed that rates of flu activity in the Unites States are increasing in a second wave of activity, though numbers are still below baselines for the 2021-22 flu season. Influenza A (H3N2) accounts for almost all influenza case detections, and 7.7% of submitted clinical lab samples were positive for flu in the past week. States in the Midwest and Southwest saw the highest levels of influenza positivity. (3/28)
AP:
Minnesota Makes Free At-Home COVID-19 Tests Available Online
Minnesota is launching a new online program to provide free at-home rapid COVID-19 tests. Beginning Tuesday, Minnesotans can order two test kits per home for a total of four tests via mn.gov/covid19. (3/28)
Salt Lake Tribune:
Utah To Shut Down Many COVID-19 Test Sites As Daily Case Counts Remain Low
Utah is shutting down some state COVID-19 testing sites and turning others over to private companies, the state health department announced Monday. The move was announced as the state transitions to a more “long-term, sustainable response” to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a news release from the Utah Department of Health. The health department on Monday also reported a total of 255 new COVID-19 cases over the weekend — 65 on Friday; 87 on Saturday; and 112 on Sunday. There have been fewer than 200 new cases reported in Utah each day for the past 20 days in a row. (Pierce, 3/28)
ABC News:
US Capitol Resumes Limited Tours 2 Years After Pandemic Began
The U.S. Capitol finally reopened its doors Monday after being closed for nearly two years due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. It will be a limited reopening that will involve member-led and staff-led tours of up to 15 people as well as school groups that have registered in advance, according to a statement from Maj. Gen. William Walker, the House sergeant-at-arms, and Dr. Brian Monahan, the Capitol’s attending physician. (Gelpi, 3/28)
NBC News:
WHO Examining Covid Vaccines Linked To Potential Hearing Problems
The World Health Organization is examining rare reports of hearing loss and other auditory issues following Covid-19 vaccinations. In a newsletter posted on its website, the international public health agency said that it has been made aware of sudden hearing problems, particularly tinnitus, or ringing of the ears, that may be associated with Covid vaccines. (Edwards, 3/28)
The Wall Street Journal:
U.S. Healthcare Spending Growth Slowed In 2021 After Covid-19 Surge
U.S. healthcare spending growth is expected to have slowed last year after reaching a nearly two-decade high driven by the pandemic, according to a new report by federal regulators. National health spending is projected to have grown 4.2% to $4.3 trillion in 2021, compared with a growth surge of 9.7% in 2020, according to the report from actuaries at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The slowdown came from a decline in the use of healthcare services and federal financial stimulus as Covid-19 cases fell amid a pandemic that has led to nearly 975,000 deaths and almost 80 million cases in the U.S. (Armour, 3/28)
Axios:
New Normal For Health Care Spending
U.S. health care spending is likely to grow at about the rate of inflation over the rest of the decade after the pandemic fueled a nearly 10% jump between 2019 and 2020, federal experts said Monday. The CMS actuaries' projections in Health Affairs came with plenty of caveats. But if trends hold, out-of-pocket spending is going up, as is spending on private coverage, Medicare and Medicaid. "This outlook is contingent on a virus that has evolved and surprised at every turn — and could do so again," the authors wrote. (Reed, 3/29)
Modern Healthcare:
CMS: Healthcare Prices Projected To Rise 3.6% In 2022
Healthcare prices are expected to rise this year, driving up out-of-pocket expenses, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' Office of the Actuary said Monday. Price growth will fuel healthcare spending inflation in 2022, stemming from providers' higher labor and supplies costs, according to a report in Health Affairs released Monday. Prices are expected to rise by 3.6% in 2022 and boost overall healthcare spending growth 4.6% to $4.5 trillion. Prices grew 2.7% in 2021, 3.1% in 2020 and 1.1% in 2019. As a result, out-of-pocket costs are projected to climb 6.1% in 2022 and an average of 4.6% from 2021 to 2030. (Kacik, 3/28)
Modern Healthcare:
Hospitals Remain At An Operating Loss Following Omicron Surge
Hospitals saw a median operating margin decline of 11.8% between January and February, as healthcare providers dealt with lower inpatient and outpatient volumes, higher resource costs and the omicron surge's effects. COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations subsided in February, and hospitals experienced fewer, but more costly expenses due to the nationwide labor shortage and supply chain challenges, according to healthcare consultancy Kaufman Hall, which reports monthly on the finances of more than 900 mostly not-for-profit hospitals. (Devereaux, 3/28)
Indianapolis Star:
2 Black-Owned Health Care Centers Open In Indianapolis
TaQuita Taylor did not set out to break any barriers when she decided to open a pediatric urgent care clinic. The family nurse practitioner has a business planning spa parties, or sparties, for young girls but then had another idea that called to her — opening a pediatric urgent care clinic. And her conviction that she made the right decision in opening Children Express Care Clinic, grew even stronger when she learned that northeast side clinic is the first Black-owned urgent care site in the state. (Rudavsky, 3/29)
Modern Healthcare:
Fragmented Regulations Exacerbate Saline Shortage
Different regulations for pharmaceuticals and medical devices are complicating the sodium chloride shortage. Hospitals have been dealing with intermittent shortages of sodium chloride and its related components since late last year, as manufacturers and distributors have been focused on COVID-19 vaccine production, some suppliers have pulled out of the market and those that remain have experienced production delays. About 60% of hospitals' requests for sodium chloride were not being filled as of Thursday, according to the group purchasing and consulting organization Premier. In normal times, less than 10% of hospital requests go unfulfilled. (Kacik, 3/28)
AP:
FDA Skeptical Of Benefits From Experimental ALS Drug
Federal health regulators issued a negative review Monday of a closely watched experimental drug for the debilitating illness known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, after months of lobbying by patient advocates urging approval. The drug from Amylyx Pharmaceuticals has become a rallying cause for patients with the deadly neurodegenerative disease ALS, their families and members of Congress who’ve joined in pushing the Food and Drug Administration to greenlight the drug. (Perrone, 3/28)
AP:
Oregon Ends Residency Rule For Medically Assisted Suicide
Oregon will no longer require people to be residents of the state to use its law allowing terminally ill people to receive lethal medication, after a lawsuit challenged the requirement as unconstitutional. In a settlement filed in U.S. District Court in Portland on Monday, the Oregon Health Authority and the Oregon Medical Board agreed to stop enforcing the residency requirement and to ask the Legislature to remove it from the law. (Johnson, 3/29)
USA Today:
'Don't Say Gay': Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis Signs Schools Bill Into Law
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law Monday new restrictions on discussion of sexual orientation or gender identity in Florida schools, derided by opponents as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. The measure drew criticism from the LGBTQ community nationwide, Hollywood and the White House, and even drew walkouts in schools across the state from students concerned about its potential impact. The legislation was ridiculed by hosts Wanda Sykes, Amy Schumer and Regina Hall during their opening comments at Sunday night’s 94th Academy Awards. (Kennedy, 3/28)
CNBC:
Disney Vows To Help Repeal 'Don't Say Gay' Law
After Gov. Ron DeSantis signed Florida’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill into law on Monday, the Walt Disney Company condemned the legislation and vowed to help have it repealed. “Florida’s HB 1557, also known as the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill, should never have passed and should never have been signed into law,” the company said in a statement. “Our goal as a company is for this law to be repealed by the legislature or struck down in the courts, and we remain committed to supporting the national and state organizations working to achieve that.” (Whitten, 3/28)
Dallas Morning News:
Dallas Hospitals Receive Lowest Scores In Texas In Latest Health Care Equality Scoring System
The Human Rights Campaign, a national LGBTQ rights organization, significantly lowered the ranking of two Dallas hospitals in its scoring system for health care inclusivity after the facilities halted medical treatment for new adolescent transgender patients. Children’s Health and UT Southwestern Medical Center are now the two lowest scoring hospitals in Texas in the biennial Healthcare Equality Index 2022, published Monday. HRC said it applied the “responsible citizenship criteria” penalties because the hospitals stopped providing “necessary and medically approved care” to transgender youth while continuing the same care for cisgender patients. Genecis — which stood for Gender Education and Care, Interdisciplinary Support — was an acclaimed 7-year-old program created by the hospitals to provide comprehensive care to trans and gender-diverse youth. It was the only such program in the state of Texas before it stopped providing gender-affirming medical care for new patients in November 2021. (Wolf, 3/28)
AP:
Portland Expands Unarmed Emergency Response Program
People across Portland, Oregon, looking to help someone experiencing a mental health crisis have a new option: They can call 911 and ask for the Portland Street Response. The unarmed emergency response program began serving people citywide on Monday, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported. (3/28)
AP:
Lawmakers Hear Calls To Improve State Psychiatric Hospital
Five years after a patient abuse scandal, Connecticut’s only maximum-security psychiatric hospital still needs significant improvements to its treatment programs, staff behaviors and oversight, members of a state task force told lawmakers Monday. Members of the panel also told the Public Health Committee that Whiting Forensic Hospital in Middletown needs to be moved into an entirely new building because the current hospital is inadequately designed for psychiatric care and is in disrepair. (Collins, 3/28)
The Washington Post:
Inside The Plan To Create An Abortion Refuge For A Post-Roe Era
When the woman called Planned Parenthood to schedule her abortion, Alexandria Ball picked up the phone and explained exactly what would happen next. Ball and her colleagues would book her bus ticket to Illinois. They would put her up in a hotel. They would help find funding for her abortion. And they would pay for her 15-year-old son to come along. “Is this a dream?” asked the pregnant mother from western Missouri. Attached to an abortion clinic on the Missouri-Illinois border, this first-of-its-kind call center offers a window into the splintered future of abortion care in the United States if the Supreme Court decides this summer to roll back Roe v. Wade, the landmark decision that established a constitutional right to abortion. (Kitchener, 3/28)
The Washington Post:
Tracking Major Abortion Restrictions And Protections Across The U.S.
While a lot of the bills this year look similar to bills we’ve seen before, the stakes are completely different. In recent years, the most restrictive bans were blocked by the courts, ruled unconstitutional because they violated Supreme Court precedent established in Roe v. Wade, which has protected the constitutional right to abortion for nearly 50 years. (Kitchener, Schaul and Santamarina, 3/26)
NBC News:
Oscars Feud Was A ‘Missed Opportunity’ To Educate Public, Say Women With Alopecia
Dia DiRosa was about 6 years old when fistfuls of her hair started coming out as her mom washed it. She began waking up to clumps of hair on her pillow. Diagnosed with alopecia areata, DiRosa was the subject of stares, snickers and rumors. The medical condition results in loss of hair, which sometimes grows back and sometimes does not, left DiRosa completely bald for many years. (Chuck and Bellamy, 3/28)
AP:
What Is Alopecia? Oscars Spat Centers On Hair Loss Condition
The National Alopecia Areata Foundation says the condition affects about 2% of the population, or as many as almost 7 million Americans. It can occur at any age, but most often during the teen years or young adulthood. Jada Pinkett Smith is 50.Other public figures with the condition include Ayanna Pressley, a Democratic congresswoman from Massachusetts, British actor and comedian Matt Lucas and bluegrass musician Molly Tuttle. Alopecia tends to run in families. Total hair loss affecting the entire body can happen, but is rare. The condition can also cause dents and ridges in fingernails and toenails, but affected people are otherwise healthy. (Tanner, 3/28)
CNN:
Men's Use Of Diabetes Drug Just Before Conception Is Linked To A 40% Increase In Birth Defects, Study Finds
Metformin use by men in the three-month period before they conceived a child was linked to a 40% higher risk of birth defects in the offspring, according to a study published Monday in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine. Metformin is a first-line drug in the treatment of type 2 diabetes. The research, which was done out of Denmark, used national registries to follow over 1 million births between 1997 and 2016 and compared the risk of major birth defects in babies based on paternal exposures to diabetes medications. The study observed only children who were born to women under 35 and men under 40. Babies born to women with diabetes were excluded. The researchers considered men exposed to metformin if they filled a prescription for it in the three months before conception, which is how long it takes the fertilizing sperm to fully mature. (Ahmed, 3/28)
The Washington Post:
Early Puberty Cases In Girls Are Surging In Pandemic, Doctors Say
Before the pandemic, Vaishakhi Rustagi, a Delhi-based pediatric endocrinologist, found that cases of early puberty were pretty uncommon, but not unheard of: In a typical year, she would see about 20 such patients. Then the pandemic hit, and the cases started to pile up. Since June 2020, Rustagi has seen more than 300 girls experiencing early puberty, she said. (Changoiwala, 3/28)
CNN:
Prediabetes More Than Doubled Among American Kids. How To Reduce Risk
Prediabetes in America's youth is following a concerning trend: Rates among children have more than doubled in about 20 years, according to a new study. The increase was seen over almost all subpopulations of young Americans, regardless of income, ethnicity and education, said study author Junxiu Liu, assistant professor of population health science and policy at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York. The study, published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics, included children from 12 to 19 years old and looked at data in the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 1999 to 2018. Over that time, the rate of prediabetes in adolescents went from 11.6% to 28.2%, rising fairly steadily in that time frame. (Holcombe, 3/28)
The New York Times:
Cancer Patients Are At High Risk Of Depression And Suicide, Studies Find
One day years ago, during her training in neurology, Dr. Corinna Seliger-Behme met a man with end-stage bladder cancer. Before the diagnosis, the man had a stable family and job, and no history of mental health problems, Dr. Seliger-Behme recalled. But, soon after learning of his terminal disease, he tried to kill himself with a knife in the bathtub. He spent the last week of his life in the psychiatric ward. That patient’s situation was extreme, but the psychological distress brought on by cancer is significant for many patients. Two studies published on Monday quantify the psychological burden of cancer in fine detail, pulling from much larger data sets than previous research. The findings make a compelling case for oncologists to have more discussions with their patients about mental health struggles. (Wapner, 3/28)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Surprising Study Reveals Greater Risks For Moms With Female, Vs. Male, Partners
A surprising, first-of-its kind study from Stanford University reveals that women have a greater risk of complications during and after childbirth — including induced labor, postpartum hemorrhaging, and even having twins or triplets — if their partner is female instead of male. “The disparities faced by people who were mothers in partnership with a mother were striking,” said Stephanie Leonard, a Stanford instructor and lead author of the study being published Monday in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. (Asimov, 3/28)
ABC News:
Baby Born At 25 Weeks Goes Home After 460 Days In NICU
For the first time in his life, 15-month-old Kendall Jurnakins is home. The baby boy spent the first year of his life in the neonatal intensive care unit at Ascension St. Vincent Women's Hospital in Indianapolis before being cleared for discharge on March 16. (Yu, 3/28)
ABC News:
How Meals On Wheels Serves Record Numbers Of Elderly Amid Inflation, Other Pandemic Hurdles
As many Americans resume some sense of normalcy in daily life, a large sector of the population hit hard by the pandemic requires more assistance than ever and nonprofit groups are working tirelessly to deliver essential help for the increasing number of seniors in need. Hundreds of thousands of older adults across the country struggled with hunger and isolation before COVID-19, and Meals on Wheels said it has doubled down its efforts to meet growing demand even as compounding issues of inflation, food costs and gas prices rock its channels of support and funds. (McCarthy, 3/28)
Fox News:
Ukraine War: Kyiv Transforms Surgical Hospital Into Battleground Medical Facility
Russia’s bloody invasion of Ukraine has forced the staff to transform Kyiv’s largest hospital, Clinical Hospital #8, into a battleground medical facility, according to a recent Wall Street Journal report. Dermatologists and cardiologists now assist with triaging wounded patients arriving from artillery and rocket barrages as the hospital sits within 10 miles of the battleground, the paper noted. The staff are numb to the air raid sirens because they are so frequent to take seriously anymore, and don’t wear face masks because of the constant background noise of fighting as they try to talk to communicate, per the Journal. (Sudhakar, 3/28)
The Washington Post:
Ukraine Invasion Could Spell End To Russian Hopes For Sputnik Vaccine
It is still not clear what impact the sanctions are having on the supply and demand of Sputnik V. There is an exemption for coronavirus-related supplies in the U.S. sanctions on Russia. But even during a pandemic, sanctions are often a messy business — as Iran and Cuba found out earlier during the health emergency. And Andrea Taylor, a researcher at Duke University who tracks global vaccine supply, said that even before the sanctions, data about Sputnik V was spotty and unreliable. (Taylor, 3/29)
Bloomberg:
Moderna’s Covid Booster Shot Will Be Offered to South African Health Workers
Moderna Inc.’s coronavirus vaccine will be offered as a booster to some South African health workers, who received either one or two shots of Johnson & Johnson’s inoculation as part of a vaccine trial involving almost half a million people. The Moderna shot will be offered to 10,000 health workers in a trial known as Sherpa that is likely to start in the second half of April, Glenda Gray, the co-lead of J&J’s vaccine trials in South Africa and president of the South African Medical Research Council. (Sguazzin, 3/28)
Bloomberg:
Covid Vaccines: World Moves From Shortages To Possible Glut Of Shots
After racing to build capacity and meet once seemingly insatiable orders for Covid-19 shots, the global vaccine industry is facing waning demand as many late-to-market producers fight over a slowing market. The trend is poised to rein in the blockbuster sales that global pharmaceutical giants from Pfizer Inc. to AstraZeneca Plc saw at the peak of the pandemic. It also stands to create new problems for local manufacturers from India to Indonesia that built mammoth capacity to make shots but are now grappling with excess supply. (Kay and Kaur Makol, 3/28)