First Edition: March 3, 2020
Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
Kaiser Health News:
Maine Voters Consider U-Turn On Vaccine Exemptions
As Mainers head to the polls on Super Tuesday for the presidential primary, they also will decide another issue: vaccine requirements. A statewide referendum asks if voters want to overturn a new law that eliminates religious and philosophical exemptions for childhood vaccines. Molly Frost of Newcastle wants the new law to stay. Her 11-year old son, Asa, has a compromised immune system. (Wight, 3/3)
Kaiser Health News:
Analysis: One Sure Thing About COVID-19: No Telling How Many People Have It
It has been nearly three months since the first cases of a new coronavirus pneumonia appeared in Wuhan, China, and it is now a global outbreak. And yet, despite nearly 90,000 infections worldwide (most of them in China), the world still doesn’t have a clear picture of some basic information about this outbreak. In recent weeks, a smattering of scientific papers and government statements have begun to sketch the outlines of the epidemic. The Chinese national health commission has reported that more than 1,700 medical workers in the country had contracted the virus as of Feb 14. (Elisabeth Rosenthal, 3/3)
The Associated Press:
Supreme Court Will Decide The Fate Of Obama Health Care Law
The Supreme Court agreed Monday to decide a lawsuit that threatens the Obama-era health care law, a case that will keep health care squarely in front of voters even though a decision won't come until after the 2020 election. The court said it would hear an appeal by 20 mainly Democratic states of a lower-court ruling that declared part of the statute unconstitutional and cast a cloud over the rest. (Sherman, 3/2)
The New York Times:
Supreme Court To Hear Obamacare Appeal
The court granted requests from Democratic state officials and House members who wanted to thrust the fate of the Affordable Care Act into the public eye just as Americans prepare to vote this November. The Supreme Court did not say when it would hear the case, but under its ordinary practices, arguments would be held in the fall and a decision would land in the spring or summer of 2021. Democrats, who consider health care a winning issue and worry about possible changes in the composition of the Supreme Court, had urged the justices to act quickly even though lower courts had not issued definitive rulings. They wanted to focus political attention on the health law’s most popular provisions — like guaranteed coverage for pre-existing medical conditions, emergency care, prescription drugs and maternity care — and to ensure that the case was decided while justices who had rejected earlier challenges to the law remain on the court. (Liptak and Goodnough, 3/2)
The Wall Street Journal:
Supreme Court To Review Affordable Care Act Next Term
The timing means the decision is unlikely to come before Election Day, leaving the ACA in legal limbo. The slower timeline also means the Trump administration won’t necessarily be forced to grapple with U.S. health-care policy before voters go to the polls. In weighing the case, the justices could rule on the viability of every provision of the sweeping law. In addition to the mandate that most people carry health insurance, the ACA barred insurers from denying coverage—or charging more—to people with existing health conditions. It also allowed young adults to stay on their parents’ plans until they turned 26 and expanded the availability of Medicaid coverage for limited-income Americans. (Kendall and Armour, 3/2)
The Washington Post:
Supreme Court's Obamacare Review Cheers Democrats With Election Year Health Care Focus
The justices will review a federal appeals court decision that found part of the law, also known as Obamacare, unconstitutional and raised questions about whether the law in its entirety must fall. The Trump administration agreed with the lower court’s decision but said it was premature for the court to join the legal fight now. Trump administration tells Supreme Court no need to rush Obamacare ruling. Democrats seemed delighted that the court had decided to ignore that advice. They said the focus on health care will help their candidates, as polls show it did in 2018 when Democrats won back the House majority, and increase the importance of the Supreme Court with their voters. (Barnes, 3/2)
The Wall Street Journal:
Supreme Court Will Hear First Major Abortion Case Since Two Trump Appointees Joined
The Supreme Court hears its first major abortion case Wednesday since two Trump nominees joined the bench, potentially signalling whether—and how much——reproductive rights may change under a bolstered conservative majority.
“There’s a lot on the line in this case, and more than most people realize,” said Mary Ziegler, a law professor at Florida State University and author of the forthcoming book “Abortion and the Law in America.” Most prominently, the case involves the Supreme Court’s approach to precedent, since it largely is a replay of an issue the court decided in 2016, when by a 5-3 vote it struck down a Texas law requiring that abortion providers obtain admitting privileges at a nearby hospital. (Bravin, 3/2)
The New York Times:
An Abortion Clinic’s Fate Before A Transformed Supreme Court
Kathaleen Pittman, the director of the Hope Medical Group for Women, remembers when there were 11 abortion clinics in Louisiana. Now there are only three, hers among them. Soon, depending on how the Supreme Court rules in a case to be argued on Wednesday, there may be just one, in New Orleans, more than 300 miles away. Since 1973, when the court established a constitutional right to abortion in Roe v. Wade, Louisiana has enacted 89 abortion restrictions, the most of any state. The restriction at issue now requires doctors performing abortions to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals. (Liptak, 3/3)
The Associated Press:
W.Va. Governor Signs 'Born Alive' Abortion Bill
West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice on Monday signed a proposal to penalize physicians who don't provide medical care to a child born after an abortion, a largely symbolic measure due to existing laws that protect newborns. The measure easily passed both the GOP-held Senate and House of Delegates with supporters admitting that it's more about sending a political message than solving an ongoing problem. State law forbids abortions after 20 weeks and many Democrats have pointed out that murder is already a crime in West Virginia. (Izaguirre, 3/2)
The Washington Post:
Coronavirus Has Claimed Six U.S. Lives; Patients Being Treated In At Least 15 States
The U.S. death toll from the coronavirus rose to six on Monday, and patients were being treated in at least 15 states, deepening fears about the outbreak's rapid spread and the medical, psychological and economic toll it will exact on the United States. Four deaths announced Monday and two others this weekend all occurred in Washington state, the center of the nation’s most serious outbreak. Eight of the state’s 18 cases, as well as four of the deaths, are linked to the Life Care Center nursing home in Kirkland, Wash., and at least 50 other residents and staff members have reported coronavirus-like symptoms. (Sacchetti, Hernandez, O'Grady and Wan, 3/2)
The Wall Street Journal:
U.S. Coronavirus Death Toll Climbs To Six As Virus Spreads World-Wide
The nursing home was the site of four of the nation’s deaths and has four other confirmed cases, including one woman in her 80s who is in critical condition, according to King County’s public health department. New cases were also reported in California, Massachusetts, Oregon, New Hampshire and Illinois on Monday as state officials attempted to quell fears. At least 50 people have been diagnosed with the novel infection within the U.S., not including repatriated Americans. (Calfas, Carlton and Craymer, 3/2)
The New York Times:
‘When Is It Going To End?’: Where Coronavirus Has Turned Deadly In The U.S.
Movie nights have been canceled. Residents are restricted to their rooms, their meals delivered by workers in protective gear. Ambulances come and go, taking elderly patients who have fallen ill to the hospital two miles away. Life Care Center, which advertises a “homelike and welcoming atmosphere” in the Seattle suburb of Kirkland, has become the focal point of the coronavirus outbreak in the United States. Four of the six people who have died of the virus in this country were residents of the 190-bed nursing care facility. Several other residents and at least one employee have tested positive. One-quarter of the city’s firefighters are in quarantine as a result of recent visits, and officials said on Monday that some have developed flu-like symptoms. (Baker and Weise, 3/2)
The Wall Street Journal:
Firefighters In Isolation After Responding To Nursing Home With Virus Outbreak
Firefighter Jessica Brassfield donned gloves as she entered the Life Care Center of Kirkland, a nursing home in Kirkland, Wash., not long after midnight Wednesday. But she didn’t wear a mask. The Life Care Center, health authorities later discovered, was harboring the new coronavirus. Now, Ms. Brassfield and 18 other Kirkland firefighters who responded to health-related calls at the facility in recent weeks are under isolation by public-health officials. Eight more are quarantined, according to a union official. (Evans and Carlton, 3/2)
The New York Times:
Close To A Million Could Be Tested For The Coronavirus This Week, Health Official Says
The Trump administration said on Monday that nearly a million tests could be administered for the coronavirus in the United States by the end of this week, a significant escalation of screening as the American death toll reached six and U.S. infections topped 100. Private companies and academic laboratories have been pulled in to develop and validate their own coronavirus tests, a move to get around a government bottleneck after a halting start, and to widen the range and number of Americans screened for the virus, Dr. Stephen Hahn, the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, said Monday at a White House briefing. (Weiland and Cochrane, 3/2)
The New York Times:
As Coronavirus Numbers Rise, C.D.C. Testing Comes Under Fire
The coronavirus has found a crack in the nation’s public health armor, and it is not one that scientists foresaw: diagnostic testing. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention botched its first attempt to mass produce a diagnostic test kit, a discovery made only after officials had shipped hundreds of kits to state laboratories. A promised replacement took several weeks, and still did not permit state and local laboratories to make final diagnoses. And the C.D.C. essentially ensured that Americans would be tested in very few numbers by imposing stringent and narrow criteria, critics say. (Rabin, Sheikh and Thomas, 3/2)
Politico:
Azar In The Crosshairs For Delays In Virus Tests
Even as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention takes blame for testing delays that may have led to hundreds of Americans being infected with the coronavirus, officials inside the health agency and the White House are increasingly pointing the finger at one leader: Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, who they say failed to coordinate the response, as agency chiefs waited for instructions that came too late and other deputies were largely cut out of the process. (Diamond and Cancryn, 3/2)
Politico:
‘This Is The Equivalent Of War’: Pence Faces The Toughest Test Of The Trump Era
Behind Vice President Mike Pence’s steady demeanor and steely look since taking charge of the U.S. government response to coronavirus is a cruel truth: He will emerge either as the architect of a successful containment strategy — boosting his own resumé and President Donald Trump’s reelection odds — or deal a potentially fatal blow to his political aspirations. In the days since Trump tapped his right-hand man to lead the administration’s coronavirus task force, people in Pence’s orbit have been warning him of the gravity of this moment. Some have offered encouragement and advice from afar. Others have used Twitter and TV appearances to tamp down concerns about public health risks and economic disruptions. (Orr, 3/2)
The New York Times:
Pence Says Risk To Americans From Coronavirus Remains Low
Vice President Mike Pence said on Monday the risk to Americans from coronavirus remains low, after authorities in Washington state announced the deaths of four more people, raising the U.S. death toll to six. (3/2)
Politico:
'You Don't Want To Go To War With A President'
Anthony Fauci might be the one person everyone in Washington trusts right now. But at 79, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases is in the thick of one of the biggest battles of 35 years in the role: The race to contain coronavirus when the nation is deeply polarized and misinformation can spread with one tweet — sometimes, from the president himself. (Owermohle, 3/3)
Politico:
Trump's Team Shifts Tone From Preventing Coronavirus To Containing It
Top Trump administration officials are shifting their message on the coronavirus outbreak, emphasizing efforts to contain, rather than prevent, the disease. The tone at a Monday afternoon White House briefing with Vice President Mike Pence and members of Trump's coronavirus task force marked a notable change from earlier efforts to tamp down fear of community spread of the disease — a tacit acknowledgment of a surge in new cases over the past two days and six reported deaths. There are currently 43 confirmed cases in the U.S., including 26 involving people who had no known exposure to the virus. (Ehley, 3/2)
Politico:
HHS Taps Kadlec To Run Department’s Coronavirus Response
HHS is putting its top emergency preparedness official in charge of coordinating the department’s coronavirus response — a sign of renewed urgency toward combating the worsening outbreak, according to an internal announcement obtained by POLITICO. The directive circulated this afternoon designated Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response Robert Kadlec with managing the response across the government’s health agencies. (Cancryn, 3/2)
Reuters:
Trump Administration Says Drug Makers Will Work Together To Combat Coronavirus
The Trump administration said on Monday it had secured commitments from top pharmaceutical companies to work together to develop a vaccine and treatments to fight the coronavirus. At a meeting with industry executives at the White House, President Donald Trump exhorted the companies to collaborate to speed the process of getting a vaccine and therapeutics to victims of the virus. (Mason, 3/2)
Stat:
Seeking Help With Coronavirus, Trump Shifts His Tone Toward Pharma
President Trump had billed the meeting with pharmaceutical executives as a scolding waiting to happen. The gathering was intended to pressure the industry to bring drug prices “way down,” he said on Friday, suggesting it had only later morphed into a “convenient” opportunity to discuss the development of a coronavirus vaccine. But seated across from 10 pharmaceutical executives in the Cabinet Room on Monday, Trump’s long-simmering contempt for the drug industry melted away. (Facher, 3/2)
Stat:
A Detailed Guide To The Coronavirus Drugs And Vaccines In Development
In the months since the novel coronavirus rose from a regional crisis to a global threat, drug makers large and small have scrambled to advance their best ideas for thwarting a pandemic. Some are repurposing old antivirals. Some are mobilizing tried-and-true technologies, and others are pressing forward with futuristic approaches to human medicine. (Garde, 3/2)
Reuters:
Pfizer Identified Some Antiviral Compounds With Potential As Coronavirus Treatments
Drugmaker Pfizer Inc said on Monday that it identified certain antiviral compounds it had in development that have the potential to inhibit coronaviruses and is engaging with a third party to screen the compounds. The company said it hopes to have the results from that screening by the end of March and if any of the compounds are successful, it would hope start testing them by the end of the year. (3/2)
USA Today:
'This Is Not Sustainable': Public Health Departments, Decimated By Funding Cuts, Scramble Against Coronavirus
As state and local public health offices scramble to respond to the coronavirus outbreak, they do so against a backdrop of years-long budget cuts, leaving them without the trained employees or updated equipment to adequately address the virus' growing threat, former public health officials say. In the last 15 years, public health, the country's frontline defense in epidemics, lost 45% of its inflation-adjusted funding for staff, training, equipment and supplies. (O'Donnell, 3/2)
The Associated Press:
Pence Tells Governors Money For Coronavirus Costs Is Coming
The Trump administration on Monday reassured governors that they will be reimbursed for at least some of the costs of responding to the spread of the coronavirus, as several states began setting aside millions of dollars to head off a public health crisis. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Vice President Mike Pence addressed state needs for equipment and funding to fight the spread of the coronavirus during a call with governors. He told them the administration would find the money to reimburse them. (Gomez Licon, 3/2)
The Washington Post:
Congress Closes In On $7.5 Billion Coronavirus Emergency Spending Package
Bipartisan negotiators on Capitol Hill are closing in on a $7.5 billion emergency spending bill to fight the coronavirus, two people familiar with the negotiations said Monday. The legislation is likely to be made public on Tuesday and pass the House later this week, before moving to the Senate. The people spoke on the condition of anonymity ahead of its public release. Negotiators worked through the weekend to try to finalize the spending bill, working with a sense of urgency as the deadly new virus spreads inside the United States and worldwide. On Monday, health officials in Washington state reported six deaths from the virus. (Werner, 3/2)
Politico:
Hill Leaders Close To Striking Emergency Coronavirus Funding Deal
In a sign of the gravity of the situation, Republicans and Democrats appear likely to sidestep a major political fight over reauthorizing FBI surveillance powers that are set to expire on March 15, which had threatened to complicate the passage of any funding package on the floor this month. And GOP leaders have agreed to drop any demand that Congress fully pay for the package, eliminating another major hurdle for the bill’s passage. Both chambers are also moving at a much faster clip than typical funding packages, with the House slated to vote mid-week, followed by a Senate vote as soon as this week. (Ferris and Emma, 3/2)
The Washington Post:
Long Lines And Grocery Stores Emptied As Customers Prepare For The Worst With Coronavirus
The panic began slowly, with shoppers looking for face masks and hand sanitizer. But it hit a fever pitch over the weekend as crowds descended on supermarkets and big-box stores, snapping up cleaning supplies, toilet paper and nonperishable foods to prepare for the coronavirus. “It has gotten crazier by the day,” said a Target employee who fulfills online orders at a store in Richmond, Va. “A lot of it is obviously panic-buying, people stocking up on eight gallons of water or 20 kinds of soups. Items are selling out immediately, as soon as they go up on shelves.” (Telford and Bhattarai, 3/2)
The Washington Post:
Efforts To Control Coronavirus May Be Hurt By Worries About Medical Bills, Lost Pay
The race to curb the spread of the new coronavirus could be thwarted by Americans fearful of big medical bills if they get tested, low-income workers who lose pay if they take time off when sick, and similar dilemmas that leave the United States more vulnerable to the epidemic than countries with universal health coverage and sturdier safety nets. As the test for the virus becomes more widely available, health-care experts predict that some people with flu-like illnesses — or those who may have been exposed — will avoid finding out whether they have been infected because they are uninsured or have health plans that saddle them with much of the cost of their care. (Goldstein, 3/2)
The New York Times:
Coronavirus In N.Y.: Outbreak Will Spread In City, Officials Warn
New York officials warned on Monday that the coronavirus was likely to spread in New York City, a day after confirming that a Manhattan woman had contracted the virus while traveling in Iran and was now isolated in her home. “Community spread is going to be real,” Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said at a news conference, alongside Mayor Bill de Blasio. “That is inevitable.” The patient, the city’s first confirmed case, is not in serious condition, the governor added. (McKinley and Goldstein, 3/2)
Stat:
Who Is Getting Sick, And How Sick? A Breakdown Of Coronavirus Risk By Demographic Factors
The new coronavirus is not an equal-opportunity killer: Being elderly and having other illnesses, for instance, greatly increases the risk of dying from the disease the virus causes, Covid-19. It’s also possible being male could put you at increased risk. For both medical and public health reasons, researchers want to figure out who’s most at risk of being infected and who’s most at risk of developing severe or even lethal illness. (Begley, 3/3)
The Washington Post:
How Is The Coronavirus Outbreak Going To End? Here’s How Similar Epidemics Played Out.
When severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) hit Asia in 2002, it was pretty scary — with a fatality rate of about 10 percent and no drugs shown to be effective against it. (The current coronavirus by comparison has an estimated fatality rate of 2.3 percent.) But within months, SARS was brought under control, and for the most part stamped out, by international cooperation and strict, old-school public health measures such as isolation, quarantine and contact tracing. This would be an ideal outcome. But the difference is that SARS had more severe symptoms than the current coronavirus, so people went to the hospital shortly after being infected. (Wan, 3/2)
The New York Times:
Surfaces? Sneezes? Sex? How The Coronavirus Can And Cannot Spread
A delicate but highly contagious virus, roughly one-900th the width of a human hair, is spreading from person to person around the world. The coronavirus, as it’s known, has already infected people in at least 60 countries. Because this virus is so new, experts’ understanding of how it spreads is limited. They can, however, offer some guidance about how it does — and does not — seem to be transmitted. (Murphy, 3/2)
The Associated Press:
Virus Alarms Sound Worldwide, But China Sees Crisis Ebbing
Iranians hoarded medical supplies, Italians urged doctors out of retirement and South Koreans prepared to pump billions into relief efforts Tuesday as the virus epidemic firmed its hold around the globe. Mushrooming outbreaks in the Mideast, Europe and South Korea contrasted with optimism in China, where thousands of recovered patients were going home. A growing outbreak in the United States led schools and subways to sanitize, quickened a search for a vaccine, and spread fears of vulnerability for nursing home residents. (3/3)
The New York Times:
Coronavirus Updates: Chinese Cities Announce New Travel Restrictions
Major cities across China have announced new travel restrictions on people who have recently visited countries where coronavirus infections are on the rise. On Tuesday, the authorities in Shanghai said that all travelers entering the city who have visited countries with significant outbreaks within the last two weeks must undergo a 14-day quarantine at home or at an approved isolation facility. Officials in Guangdong Province announced similar measures, the state media reported on Tuesday. (3/3)
Stat:
Novartis Generic Unit To Pay $195 Million To Settle Price Fixing Charges
In the latest fallout from a federal probe into generic drug price fixing, the Sandoz unit of Novartis (NVS) agreed to pay $195 million to resolve criminal charges of conspiring with other manufacturers, the third company to be charged as part of the long-running investigation. The company, which is one of the world’s largest purveyors of generic medicines, admitted to working with several rivals to set prices for several medicines, including a blood pressure pill, an eczema ointment, and a cystic fibrosis treatment between 2013 and 2015, the Department of Justice said in a statement. Sandoz admitted that sales affected by its activities exceeded $500 million. (Silverman, 3/2)
The Wall Street Journal:
Novartis Unit To Pay $195 Million In Generic-Drug Price-Fixing Case
Under the agreement, the four felony counts against Sandoz will be dropped after three years if it lives up to its commitments to the Justice Department. “Today’s resolution, with one of the largest manufacturers of generic drugs, is a significant step toward ensuring that prices for generic drugs are set by competition, not collusion, and rooting out antitrust crimes that cheated American purchasers of vital medicines,” said Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim, the Justice Department’s antitrust chief. (Kendall and Hopkins, 3/2)
Stat:
FDA Urged To Recall Some Metformin Pills Over A Possible Carcinogen
An online pharmacy is calling for U.S. regulators to recall batches of the metformin diabetes medicine made by nearly a dozen companies after its tests found excessive amounts of a possible carcinogen, the same substance that has already prompted widespread recalls of blood pressure and heartburn pills. Metformin is used to control high blood sugar levels in people with Type 2 diabetes. (Silverman, 3/2)
The New York Times:
New Guidelines Urge Most U.S. Adults To Be Screened For Hepatitis C
Most adults in the United States should be screened for hepatitis C, according to guidelines published Monday, as the opioid crisis and more prevalent use of illicit injected drugs have driven a nearly fourfold increase in new cases over the last decade. Despite substantial advances in treatment over the past five years, infections are on the rise. Roughly 44,700 new hepatitis C infections were reported in the United States in 2017, according to federal data. (Gross, 3/2)
The Associated Press:
West Virginia Plan: Companies Pay $1.25B To End Opioid Suits
Communities in West Virginia say they would get $1.25 billion from the drug industry in a proposed settlement that would end most of the litigation stemming from the opioid crisis in the state. The deal would be the first of its kind, even as drug makers, distribution companies and pharmacies are considering settling about 3,000 lawsuits nationwide over what many — including the families of those who died of opioid addiction — say was their role in fueling a crisis that has been linked to more than 430,000 deaths in the U.S. since 2000. (Izaguirre and Mulvihill, 3/2)
The Associated Press:
Scientists Meet In Havana On Diplomats' Mystery Illnesses
Some scientists who gathered Monday for a two-day conference on the mysterious illnesses suffered by U.S. and Canadian diplomats in Havana said they suspected pesticides as a possible culprit, although results remained inconclusive. The dozens of illnesses reported in recent years led the U.S. and Canada to sharply reduce the staffing at their embassies in Cuba. The phenomenon also led to increased tension between Cuba and the Trump administration, which accused Cuba of bearing at least some responsibility for the illnesses. (3/2)
The New York Times:
The Hard-Knocks Restaurant World Discovers Wellness
Katie Button gives workers at her Asheville, N.C., restaurants an annual cash incentive of $300 if they get medical checkups and have their teeth cleaned. In Austin, Texas, the people who make bone-marrow tacos and mix carrot-juice margaritas at Comedor attend free yoga classes and run together. At West-bourne, an all-day cafe in Manhattan, service starts with meditation; soon the owners will offer credits at a nearby child-care center. At Honey Butter Fried Chicken, two counter-service spots in Chicago, workers get maternity and paternity leaves. (Severson, 3/2)
Reuters:
Severe Eye Injuries Seen With E-Scooter Accidents
With the rising popularity of electric scooters, emergency rooms are seeing a lot of head injuries, many with vision-threatening damage to the eyes, a small study suggests. Researchers from the University of California San Diego (UCSD) reviewed data on 34 patients treated in two UCSD emergency departments with facial injuries as a result of e-scooter use between June 2018 and May 2019. (3/2)
Reuters:
Women In Top U.S. Medical School Positions Earn Less Than Men
Even in top positions at U.S. medical schools, women earn less than men, a study suggests. Women who chaired departments at state medical schools were paid less than men with the same job, even after accounting for factors such as length of time in the field, number of papers published and number of government grants obtained, according to the analysis published in JAMA Internal Medicine. (3/2)
The Washington Post:
Maine’s Stricter Law On Vaccination Requirements Up For A Vote
When Maine’s voters head to the polls in the presidential primaries Tuesday, they also will cast a vote on an issue many physicians wish had never been politicized — a referendum to overturn a new law that would allow unvaccinated children to attend school only if they have received a waiver from a medical professional. The new law, which would take effect in September 2021, aims to boost immunization among school-age children in a state where just over 5 percent of kindergartners are unvaccinated not only for medical reasons but because of their parents’ religious or philosophical beliefs. That puts Maine below the 95 percent threshold that public health officials say is necessary to stop the spread of preventable and sometimes deadly diseases like the measles. (Sellers, 3/2)