First Edition: March 5, 2021

KHN: Firefighters — ‘Health Care Providers On A Truck’ — Signal Pandemic Burnout
Tim Dupin thought — or at least hoped — that Missouri firefighters, paramedics and other emergency medical services personnel would be among the first to get vaccinated against the coronavirus. After months of feeling overlooked by elected leaders in the distribution of safety equipment and other resources, surely, Dupin thought, their role on the front line of the medical system would be recognized. They had, throughout the pandemic, responded to calls the way they always had: Without regard to whom or what they would encounter at the scene, interacting with people who could have the coronavirus, despite often having makeshift personal protective equipment and masks that were old, faulty or moldy. (West, 3/5)

KHN: One School District’s Struggle Over Public Health, Parents And Politics 
Brandon Dell’Orto listened to the comments and complaints as the school board meeting dragged on hour after hour. Many parents were angry. Their kids were sad, bored, borderline depressed, fed up with a school model that didn’t allow them to be on campus every day. The parents wanted schools open. They demanded it. Dell’Orto, a history teacher and teachers union leader in the Roseville Joint Union High School District near Sacramento, knew it wasn’t so simple. Many of the district’s classrooms couldn’t meet new state guidelines for resuming safe on-campus instruction. Further, 4 in 5 teachers in his union, the Roseville Secondary Education Association, opposed a full return to the physical classroom. They feared for their safety and that of some students, and many preferred to wait to be vaccinated before once again teaching in person. (Kreidler, 3/5)

KHN: KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: Good And Not-So-Good News On Covid 
There’s good news and bad news on covid-19 this week. On the one hand, several million doses of the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine authorized by the FDA for emergency use are already going into the arms of people around the nation. And the Biden administration has brokered a deal with rival manufacturer Merck to produce even more doses of the J&J vaccine, which can be transported and administered more easily than the covid vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. (3/4)

KHN: Kaiser Permanente, Big Player In State Vaccine Effort, Has Had Trouble Vaccinating Own Members 
As managed-care giant Kaiser Permanente assumes a prominent role in California’s new covid-19 vaccination strategy, it is drawing mixed reviews from members across the country for the way it has run its own vaccine program over the past two months. Conversations with 10 Kaiser enrollees in five states — Colorado, Washington, Virginia, Maryland and California — revealed a common frustration: difficulty snagging an appointment. Many also described receiving sporadic and sometimes confusing information from the company, though some said Kaiser has been doing better recently. (Wolfson, 3/4 )

CNN: Leaders And Businesses Say Masks Are Essential Protection As Texas And Mississippi Lift Covid-19 Restrictions 
Leaders and businesses across the US are pushing back against states lifting mask mandates by doubling down on their commitment to enforcing Covid-19 precautions as variants continue to cause concern. This week, Texas and Mississippi joined the list of states expanding business capacity and lifting the mandates for residents to wear masks. A representative for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said that the mandates were no longer necessary, but a restoration of livelihoods and normalcy was urgent. (Holcombe, 3/5)

The Washington Post: Fauci Says Moves To Reopen ‘Inexplicable’ As U.S. Case Numbers Plateau 
Health experts warned that pandemic fatigue in the United States could jeopardize recent progress against the virus. ... “I don’t know why they’re doing it but it’s certainly, from a public health standpoint, ill-advised,” the nation’s top infectious-disease expert, Anthony S. Fauci, said in an interview with CNN on Thursday. Citing what he said was a high baseline for case numbers, Fauci called the decision to pull back on precautions “inexplicable.” (Cunningham, 3/5)

The New York Times: As Biden Urges Caution On Covid, Governors Split On How Fast To Reopen 
Despite President Biden’s sharp criticism of Texas and Mississippi for abruptly removing mask mandates, states and cities are aggressively going their own ways on Covid-19 restrictions as they decide when and how to reopen their economies. The change in presidents has brought nearly diametrical federal responses to the pandemic, but the country is facing a patchwork of rules, state to state and city to city, similar to what was seen when the virus arrived a year ago and during the last months of the Trump administration. (Bosman, Shear and Epstein, 3/4)

The Hill: Abbott Defends Scrapping Mask Mandate: It 'Isn't Going To Make That Big Of A Change' 
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) on Thursday defended his decision to eliminate a statewide mask mandate amid an avalanche of criticism over the decision. Abbott said in an interview with Fox News that officials in Austin are still advocating that Texans wear face coverings and that the state's residents are more aware now of how to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. (Axelrod, 3/4)

The Washington Post: With The Pandemic Far From Over, Texas Leaders Blame Immigrants For Spreading The Virus
Gov. Greg Abbott (R-Tex.) made a surprising announcement on Tuesday: His state would entirely scale back its restrictions aimed at containing the spread of the coronavirus, including the mandate that Texans wear face coverings. Shortly afterward, Gov. Tate Reeves (R-Miss.) made a similar announcement. The announcements were puzzling. The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had on Monday cautioned states about being overeager to rescind containment measures, given that data indicated that the sharp decrease in cases over the past few weeks had stalled. Shortly after Abbott’s announcement, President Biden offered another reason for patience: millions more vaccine doses will soon be available. (Bump, 3/4)

Houston Chronicle: Masks In Restaurants? The Texas Restaurant Association Says Yes
The debate over Gov. Greg Abbott’s lifting of the statewide mask mandate has roared through Texas, most vocally within the restaurant industry. Texas restaurants looking for answers on how to negotiate mask and other safety measures come March 10 got new guidance Thursday when the Texas Restaurant Association updated its best practices advice, called the Texas Restaurant Promise. The association is suggesting that all restaurant employees continue to wear face coverings while working and pass a health screening before each shift. Additionally, it recommends social distancing when seating parties, and cleaning, disinfecting, and hand hygiene practices. (Morago, 3/4)

ABC News: Which States Have Dropped Mask Mandates And Why
Five states -- Texas, Mississippi, Iowa, Montana and North Dakota -- have ended, or soon will end, statewide mask mandates, despite the looming threat of COVID-19 and highly transmissible variants. They're joining 11 other states -- Alaska, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Tennessee -- that never required face coverings statewide. (Lenthang, 3/4)

ABC News: Alabama's Governor Extends Mask Order Until April 9, Eases Some Restrictions 
Alabama's governor said Thursday she is extending the state's mask mandate until April 9. "After April the 9th I will not keep the mask order in effect," Gov. Kay Ivey said at a news conference. "We've kept the mask mandate in place for more than a generous period of time because it's helped," she said. "We've seen dramatic results and real progress being made." (Shapiro, 3/4)

NBC News: GOP Sen. Johnson Delays Covid Relief Bill By Forcing All 628 Pages To Be Read Out Loud
A Republican senator severely delayed passage of a $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief package Thursday by insisting that the entire 628-page bill be read out loud. In protest of the bill, which had been expected to pass after a marathon round of votes overnight Thursday, Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., objected to waiving the reading of the legislation. (Clark, 3/4)

The Hill: Ron Johnson Grinds Senate To Halt, Irritating Many 
It is just the latest step by Johnson, who is up for reelection in a state narrowly won by Biden, to burnish his Trump credentials, whether that’s by repeating unfounded theories about the Jan. 6 attack or becoming the face of GOP opposition to the coronavirus bill that is broadly popular even among Republicans. (Carney, 3/4)

CNN: Covid-19 Relief Plan: Here's What's In The Senate Stimulus Bill 
The $1.9 trillion coronavirus package being considered by the Senate contains a wide range of proposals to help Americans still struggling with the economic fallout of the pandemic. The legislation, released Thursday, differs in at least two major ways from the bill that passed the House of Representatives last week. The final Senate package will have to be approved again by the House before it can be sent to President Joe Biden for his signature. (Luhby and Lobosco, 3/4)

The Hill: Jobs Report To Provide First Measure Of Biden Economy
The first monthly jobs report covering the Biden presidency will be released Friday morning as congressional Democrats race to pass a massive economic relief package. Economists expect the February jobs report to show a modest rebound in hiring as progress against COVID-19 boosted confidence in a quicker end to the pandemic. Analysts estimate that U.S. employers added 180,000 jobs last month — a pace that’s not nearly fast enough to quickly fill the hole left by COVID-19, but better than January’s meager addition of 49,000 jobs. (Lane, 3/4)

CBS News: Low-Wage Workers Bearing The Brunt Of The COVID Recession 
Steve Roth has more homeless Americans to help now than he did during the Great Recession over a decade ago, he tells Scott Pelley. The retired firefighter and EMT says the pandemic has increased the number of people living in the encampments around Columbus, Ohio, that he has been providing food and medical aid to for 22 years. Roth talks to Pelley for a report on the disproportionate economic impact the pandemic is taking on the country's low-wage workers to be broadcast on 60 Minutes, Sunday, March 7 at 7 p.m. ET/PT on CBS.  The economic impact of the pandemic not only cost them their jobs – often in restaurants, hotels and small retailers – but also shuttered many of the places offering the things they needed to get by, says Roth. (3/4)

The Washington Post: Congress Questions Cardinal Health, Other Drug Makers On Opioid Settlement Tax Breaks 
Congress is questioning four large drug companies about their plans to deduct some of the costs of a landmark opioid settlement from their taxes, disclosures first revealed in an analysis last month by The Washington Post. On Thursday, the House Committee on Oversight and Reform sent letters asking Johnson & Johnson, McKesson, AmerisourceBergen and Cardinal Health to provide details about the tax deductions, which would lower the cost of a legal settlement in which they have proposed to pay a combined $26 billion to compensate communities impacted by the opioid crisis. (MacMillan and Schaul, 3/4)

The New York Times: U.S. Vaccination Pace Increases To 2 Million Doses A Day 
The average number of vaccine doses being administered across the United States per day topped two million for the first time on Wednesday, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A month ago, the average was about 1.3 million. President Biden set a goal for the country shortly after taking office to administer more than 1.5 million doses a day, which the nation has now comfortably exceeded. (3/5)

The New York Times: One And Done: Why People Are Eager For Johnson & Johnson’s Vaccine 
In North Dakota this week, health officials are sending their first Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccines to pharmacies and urgent care clinics, where people who don’t necessarily have a regular doctor can get the single jab. In Missouri, doses are going to community health centers and rural hospitals. And in North Carolina, health providers are using it to inoculate meatpacking, farm and grocery workers. Since Johnson & Johnson revealed data showing that its vaccine, while highly protective, had a slightly lower efficacy rate than the first shots produced by Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech, health officials have feared the new shot might be viewed by some Americans as the inferior choice. (Weiland, 3/4)

CNN: Detroit Mayor Declines Johnson & Johnson Allotment, Saying The Other Vaccines Are Better
Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan declined an initial allocation of the newly authorized Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine this week even as nationwide demand continues to outpace available supply. Duggan, a Democrat who has been mayor since 2014, said he turned down the shipment because the city is able to meet current demand with its supply of the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines -- even as his administration expanded vaccine eligibility Thursday to residents ages 50 and older with chronic medical conditions. (Setty, 3/4)

CNN: DeSantis Denies Involvement In Vaccine Drive Following Revelation Of $250,000 PAC Donation From Former Illinois Governor 
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is denying the state had any involvement in a vaccine drive at a private, gated community after questions arose about a $250,000 donation from a resident to a PAC supporting him following the drive. Ocean Reef Club resident and former Illinois governor Bruce Rauner made the massive donation to the Friends of Ron DeSantis PAC on February 25, after a vaccine drive was held in January. That donation makes Rauner one of the PAC's top donors. (Murphy, 3/4)

Philadelphia Inquirer: 9,000 Philly Teachers Have Been Vaccinated And Thousands More Are Eligible As Some Schools Prepare To Open Monday
Every educator who works in Philadelphia and wants the COVID-19 vaccine can be inoculated by the end of the month, officials said Thursday. Through a partnership of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, the city, and the Philadelphia School District, about 9,000 teachers and other school staff have received their first doses of the Pfizer vaccine, and in all, 20,000 district, charter, parochial, and independent school teachers, as well as day-care workers, have appointments for shots. (Graham, 3/4)

The Washington Post: San Diego Zoo Great Apes Get Coronavirus Vaccines 
On Wednesday, the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, the zoo’s nonprofit parent organization, said that four orangutans and five bonobos have now received two doses of a coronavirus vaccine made specifically for animals. They’re the first nonhuman primates to be vaccinated against the virus, which has been shown to infect a number of mammals. “This isn’t the norm. In my career, I haven’t had access to an experimental vaccine this early in the process and haven’t had such an overwhelming desire to want to use one,” said Nadine Lamberski, chief conservation and wildlife health officer at the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, told National Geographic. (Peiser, 3/5)

CIDRAP: Large, Local, Delayed Skin Reactions Noted After Moderna COVID Vaccine
A small number of Moderna COVID-19 vaccine recipients experienced delayed, large, localized skin irritations at the point of injection, according to a letter published yesterday in the New England Journal of Medicine. While the symptoms cleared up in a median of 8 days, the researchers want to make sure clinicians are aware of this side effect and can navigate appropriate treatment and vaccine guidance. The letter details these delayed skin reactions in 12 people, 4 of whom didn't have any allergy history. (3/4)

The Washington Post: Most Coronavirus Deaths Occurred In Countries Where Majority Of Adults Are Overweight 
Among the nations with overweight populations above the 50 percent threshold were also those with some of the largest proportions of coronavirus deaths — including countries such as Britain, Italy and the United States. Some 2.5 million people have died around the world of covid-19, more than 517,000 of which were in the United States. (Cunningham and Hassan, 3/4)

The Hill: Most Virus Deaths Recorded In Nations With High Obesity Levels: Analysis
The WOF observed, however, that a few countries appeared to go against the trend. "Countries that appear to run against the trend include New Zealand, Australia and several Gulf states, where overweight prevalence among adults is high (over 60%) but reported deaths from COVID-19 are relatively low (below 10 per 100,000)," the WOF wrote. "These figures are clearly affected by national responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, and will change as the pandemic unfolds and as vaccination programmes are extended." (Choi, 3/4)

CIDRAP: Study In Mississippi Finds COVID-19 Vastly Underestimated In Kids
A retrospective seroprevalence study in Mississippi indicates that only a fraction of COVID-19 cases in children and adolescents were detected last spring and summer. In the study, published today in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC's) Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), researchers from the University of Mississippi Medical Center, the Mississippi State Department of Health (MSDH), and the CDC tested a convenience sample of 1,603 residual serum specimens from people under the age of 18, collected from May 17 through Sep 19, 2020, for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies. They then estimated the cumulative number of coronavirus infections during that period by extrapolating the seroprevalence to all Mississippi children and compared it with the number of reported pediatric COVID-19 cases through Aug 31. (3/4)

ABC News: Pediatric COVID-19 Cases In Mississippi 10 Times Higher Than Previously Thought: Study 
The number of children and adolescents with COVID-19 in Mississippi may be more than 10 times the number of previously reported cases, according to a new study. Pediatricians have previously suggested that because children are more likely to have COVID-19 without showing any symptoms, many infections in children are never diagnosed. (Jain, 3/4)

The New York Times: Cuomo Aides Rewrote Nursing Home Report To Hide Higher Death Toll 
Top aides to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo were alarmed: A report written by state health officials had just landed, and it included a count of how many nursing home residents in New York had died in the pandemic. The number — more than 9,000 by that point in June — was not public, and the governor’s most senior aides wanted to keep it that way. They rewrote the report to take it out, according to interviews and documents reviewed by The New York Times. (Goodman and Hakim, 3/4)

The Wall Street Journal: Cuomo Advisers Altered Report On Covid-19 Nursing-Home Deaths
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s top advisers successfully pushed state health officials to strip a public report of data showing that more nursing-home residents had died of Covid-19 than the administration had acknowledged, according to people with knowledge of the report’s production. The July report, which examined the factors that led to the spread of the virus in nursing homes, focused only on residents who died inside long-term-care facilities, leaving out those who had died in hospitals after becoming sick in nursing homes. As a result, the report said 6,432 nursing-home residents had died—a significant undercount of the death toll attributed to the state’s most vulnerable population, the people said. The initial version of the report said nearly 10,000 nursing-home residents had died in New York by July last year, one of the people said. (Palazzolo, Vielkind and O'Brien, 3/4)

The New York Times: Ivermectin Does Not Alleviate Mild Covid-19 Symptoms, Study Finds 
Ivermectin, a controversial anti-parasitic drug that has been touted as a potential Covid-19 treatment, does not speed recovery in people with mild cases of the disease, according to a randomized controlled trial published on Thursday in the journal JAMA. Ivermectin is typically used to treat parasitic worms in both people and animals, but scientific evidence for its efficacy against the coronavirus is thin. Some studies have indicated that the drug can prevent several different viruses from replicating in cells. And last year, researchers in Australia found that high doses of ivermectin suppressed SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, in cell cultures. (Anthes, 3/4)

CIDRAP: California Farmworkers Show Higher COVID-19 Incidence Than Community
From June to November 2020, farmworkers in Salinas Valley, California, had 22.1% COVID-19 positivity compared with 17.2% of adults living in the same communities with a 7.2% rate in higher-risk farmworkers who had no symptoms, according to a study yesterday in Emerging Infectious Diseases. From Jun 15 to Nov 30, 2020, researchers gathered COVID-19 diagnoses from 6,864 farmworkers and 7,305 non-farmworkers who were tested through the Clinica de Salud del Valle de Salinas (CSVS). Farmworkers, 75% of whom were Latino, had a 28.5% higher probability of positive tests (95% confidence interval [CI], 20.1% to 37.4%). (3/4)

AP: Heart Problems May Be Rare In Pro Athletes After COVID-19
Heart inflammation is uncommon in pro athletes who’ve had mostly mild COVID-19 and most don’t need to be sidelined, a study conducted by major professional sports leagues suggests. The results are not definitive, outside experts say, and more independent research is needed. But the study published Thursday in JAMA Cardiology is the largest to examine the potential problem. The coronavirus can cause inflammation in many organs, including the heart. (Tanner, 3/4)

The Washington Post: Infrared Fever Scanners Popular In The Covid Fight Can Be Wildly Inaccurate, Researchers Say 
Temperature-scanning devices that check for fevers in schools, workplaces and public venues across the United States distort the results in a way that could overlook the telltale sign of a coronavirus infection, according to new research that casts doubt on the systems’ effectiveness in helping people resume normal life. The thermal cameras and “temperature tablet” kiosks have been heralded as a critical first line of defense against new pandemic outbreaks. But in a new study of the scanners by the surveillance research organization IPVM, researchers warn that the tools are dangerously ineffective, raising the risk that infected people could be waved through medical screening checkpoints and go on to spread the virus unchecked. (Harwell, 3/4)

USA Today: Universal Flu Vaccine: Study Suggests Protection May Be Possible
Every year the flu kills thousands of people and sickens millions more who didn't get a flu shot or in whom it didn't work well. In 1918, the worldwide death toll from flu topped 50 million and researchers have been worried about a repeat ever since. Now, a team of government and former government scientists has developed a vaccine that seems – at least in monkeys – to protect against the strains most likely to cause a global pandemic. The group, which published their monkey results in a Wednesday study, has begun a small trial to test the vaccine in healthy adults. (Weintraub, 3/4)

Stat: Eli Lilly’s Diabetes Drug Reduced Weight And Blood Sugar In Trial
Eli Lilly said Thursday that a study showed its experimental diabetes drug, tirzepatide, reduced patients’ blood sugar and body weight more than a rival medicine, Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic. Investors had been nervously awaiting the result, which was reported in a press release. (Herper, 3/4)

Stat: Kronos Bio Speeds Development Of Genetically Targeted Leukemia Drug
Kronos Bio said Thursday that it had reached an agreement with the Food and Drug Administration for a unique, late-stage clinical trial that will accelerate the development — and potentially the approval — of its drug for patients with a genetically defined type of leukemia. To demonstrate the efficacy of the drug, called entospletinib, Kronos will use highly sensitive sequencing tests to confirm undetectable levels of leukemic cells in patients. Achieving a negative finding for “measurable residual disease” is associated with longer remission and improved survival. (Feuerstein, 3/4)

CNBC: Altria Asks FDA To Spread The Word That Nicotine Doesn't Cause Cancer
Marlboro parent Altria is asking the Food and Drug Administration to help it spread the word that nicotine doesn’t cause cancer. CNBC on Thursday obtained a copy of a letter Altria sent to the FDA asking the agency to help get the message out about nicotine as part of a proposed advertising campaign on the risks of tobacco use. (Tsai, 3/4)

The Hill: NY Doctor Charged With Five Counts Of Murder For Prescribing Large Amounts Of Opioids 
A doctor in Long Island, N.Y, doctor was charged on Thursday with five counts of second-degree murder and 11 counts of reckless endangerment over allegations that he disregarded medical ethics and began prescribing high amounts of opioids to patients without examining them. The Nassau County District Attorney's Office said in a news release that 75-year-old George Blatti faces the 16 new charges alongside more than 50 others stemming from his now-defunct medical work. Blatti is accused of prescribing tens of thousands of opiate pills to patients in many cases without reviewing their medical history or conducting a medical exam. He pleaded not guilty at a Thursday hearing, according to The Associated Press. (Bowden, 3/4)

The New York Times: Drinking Alcohol And Cancer: Should Your Cocktail Carry A Cancer Warning?
When the pandemic struck last year, many Americans rushed to stock up on alcohol, causing retail sales of wine, beer and liquor to surge across the country. But the uptick in sales was a worrying sign for health experts focused on cancer prevention. In recent years, a growing number of medical and public health groups have introduced public awareness campaigns warning people to drink with caution, noting that alcohol is the third leading preventable cause of cancer, behind tobacco and obesity. (O'Connor, 3/4)

The Washington Post: Consumer Product Safety Commission Finds Mix Of Product Injuries Changed During Pandemic 
The pandemic saw a dramatic shift in how Americans got hurt last year, as months of lockdowns and stay-home orders reshaped everyday routines and presented unfamiliar dangers, according to a study released today by the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Sports injuries collapsed. Injuries from fireworks and bicycles spiked. Severe injuries caused by home power tools soared. More people were hurt by chain saws and skateboards. But bad injuries on playground equipment plummeted. (Frankel, 3/4)

CBS News: COVID-19 Vaccine Doses Have Been Sold On The Dark Web. Are They Real? 
Sellers on 15 different "dark web" marketplaces have dispersed hundreds of doses of what they allege are COVID-19 vaccines, according to a new study by cybersecurity firm Kaspersky. What's more, Kaspersky's researchers believe a significant portion of those sales, as much as 30%, could be of actual vaccines. "There is evidence that suggests some of these sellers are providing real doses," said Dmitry Galov, a researcher at Kaspersky who led the study of illicit online vaccines sales. "There are pictures of packaging and medical certificates. It looks like some of these people do have inside access to medical institutions." (Gandel, 3/5)

The Washington Post: Fake Coronavirus Vaccines Seized In Several Countries Are ‘Tip Of The Iceberg,’ Interpol Says 
First came the fake medical-grade masks and coronavirus tests. Now, a new threat has emerged, global police organization Interpol warns: fake doses of the coronavirus vaccine. Interpol said Wednesday that police in China and South Africa have seized thousands of doses of fake vaccines — a cache it said was just the “tip of the iceberg.” (Berger, 3/4)

AP: North Carolina To Offer Reopened Schools Widespread Testing
The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services told education leaders Thursday it would offer charter schools and local school districts rapid COVID-19 tests for free to help control outbreaks. The more robust testing would be available to students, families and school staff who are symptomatic or get exposed to someone who tested positive for the virus. Schools could also ask for weekly screening of teachers and staff. They could even request testing for both scenarios. The agency described the plan for the state education board. (3/4)

AP: Pennsylvania Extends Nursing-Home Virus Response Program
Wolf administration officials said Thursday that Pennsylvania will extend a key feature of its response to coronavirus outbreaks in nursing homes, albeit on a scaled-down model after federal funding ran out in December. The Regional Congregate Care Assistance Teams now will run through May, costing $6 million a month to support services such as testing, staffing and rapid response services for outbreaks, administration officials said. Some of that money is state aid that the Wolf administration expects to get reimbursed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. (3/5)

San Francisco Chronicle: S.F. Pays $61,000 A Year For One Tent In A Site To Shelter The Homeless. Why?
San Francisco is paying $16.1 million to shelter homeless people in 262 tents placed in empty lots around the city where they also get services and food — a steep price tag that amounts to more than $61,000 per tent per year. The city has created six tent sites, called “safe sleeping villages,” since the beginning of the pandemic to get vulnerable people off crowded sidewalks and into places where they have access to bathrooms, three meals and around-the-clock security. The annual cost of one spot in one site is 2½ times the median rent for a one-bedroom apartment in San Francisco. (Thadani, 3/4)

Bloomberg: To End Homelessness, Santa Fe Found A Better Plan
For years, the plan for solving homelessness in Santa Fe wasn’t much of a plan at all. As in a lot of communities, reaction was the rule. Cleaning up encampments only meant chasing them from one part of the city to another. The city didn’t have a data-driven strategy; it couldn’t boast a people-oriented focus, either. Different agencies saw unique parts of the problem, but rarely the whole issue. By 2018, New Mexico topped U.S. lists for the percentage of people experiencing chronic homelessness. “We spent a lot of money not solving the problem,” said Santa Fe Mayor Alan Webber. Late that year, Webber decided to try something different. He committed the city to the “Built for Zero” strategy, an administrative philosophy that focuses on better use of data and coordination to tackle homelessness. Santa Fe is one of more than 80 communities that have taken up the Built For Zero pledge, a commitment to reduce homelessness to a standard called “functional zero.” (Capps, 2/4)

The New York Times: Desperate Italy Blocks Exports Of Vaccines Bound For Australia 
Italy has blocked 250,000 doses of coronavirus vaccine from being flown to Australia, the government said on Thursday, making good on the European Union’s recent threats to clamp down on vaccine exports amid a global tug of war over desperately needed shots. The decision to stop the shipment by AstraZeneca was a sharp escalation in the competition for vaccines, one that has become ever more frantic as Europe confronts the early signs of a possible new wave of infections driven by new coronavirus variants. (Mueller and Stevis-Gridneff, 3/4)

AP: Australia Asks EU To Stop Blocking Vaccine Exports
Australia is seeking assurances from the European Union’s executive arm that future shipments of vaccines will not be blocked, after Italy banned a large export of the AstraZeneca coronavirus shots. The shipment to Australia of more than a quarter-million doses was blocked from leaving the 27-nation bloc — the first use of an export control system instituted by the EU to make sure big pharma companies respect their EU contracts. (3/5)

AP: Ontario Leader Disappointed In Biden For Not Sharing Vaccine
The leader of Canada’s most populous province expressed irritation Thursday with the U.S. refusal to ship vaccines north of the border, saying he’d hoped for a change of stance with a new American president, but it remains “every person for themselves.” The U.S. so far isn’t allowing locally made vaccines to be exported, so Canada — like the other U.S. neighbor, Mexico — has been forced to get vaccines from Europe and Asia. “I thought I’d see a little bit of a change with the administration but again it’s every person for themselves out there,” Ontario Premier Doug Ford said. (Gillies, 3/4)

The New York Times: Brazil’s Covid Crisis Is A Warning To The Whole World, Scientists Say
Covid-19 has already left a trail of death and despair in Brazil, one of the worst in the world. Now, a year into the pandemic, the country is setting another wrenching record. No other nation that experienced such a major outbreak is still grappling with record-setting death tolls and a health care system on the brink of collapse. Many other hard-hit nations are, instead, taking tentative steps toward a semblance of normalcy. (Andreoni, Londono and Casado, 3/4)

Los Angeles Times: Did Air Pollution Play Role In Italy's Big COVID Death Toll?
For decades, Bergamo and other picturesque cities in the Po River Valley in northern Italy have suffered some of the worst air quality in Europe. Pollution has long been considered a leading cause of cancer in the area, which is full of factories and highways crowded with trucks hauling commercial goods. Many of the homes are off the main gas grid, meaning that, in winter, wood-burning and pellet stoves release particulate matter into the stagnant air. Now, scientists are investigating whether one longstanding health crisis has played a role in making a new one worse. Early research suggests that long-term exposure to microscopic particles abundant in Bergamo’s dirty air — and that are also in Los Angeles’ — is associated with greater risk of death from COVID-19, which is, after all, a respiratory disease. (Brancolini, 3/5)

CNN: COVAX Offers Hope Of Vaccine Equality With Roll Out Across Africa 
When Covid-19 vaccinations arrived in Kenya for the very first time this week, the country's health minister likened them to critical weapons of defense. "We have been fighting this virus, but we have been fighting it with rubber bullets," said Kenya's Minister of Health Mutahi Kagwe. "But what we have received here is equivalent, metaphorically speaking, to acquisition of machine guns, bazookas, and tanks to fight this war against Covid-19." (Gafas, 3/4)

The New York Times: Some Scientists Question W.H.O. Inquiry Into The Coronavirus Pandemic’s Origins 
A small group of scientists and others who believe the novel coronavirus that spawned the pandemic could have originated from a lab leak or accident is calling for an inquiry independent of the World Health Organization’s team of independent experts sent to China last month. While many scientists involved in researching the origins of the virus continue to assert that the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic almost certainly began in a leap from bats to an intermediate animal to humans, other theories persist and have gained new visibility with the W.H.O.-led team of experts’ visit to China. Officials with the W.H.O. have said in recent interviews that it was “extremely unlikely” but not impossible that the spread of the virus was linked to some lab accident. (Gorman, 3/4)