First Edition: March 8, 2022

KHN: The NFL Has Been Using An Unproven Measure To Get Players With Covid Back On The Field Fast
Two months before the Super Bowl, the omicron surge was decimating NFL rosters as players tested positive for covid-19. In mid-December, the NFL postponed a game between the Los Angeles Rams and the Seattle Seahawks because the Rams, who would go on to win the Super Bowl, had 29 players out with covid. The number of NFL employees testing positive per week in December went from about 30 to about 300, most of them players who would have to sit out of practices and games. The new variant “hit us like a ton of bricks,” said Dr. Allen Sills, chief medical officer for the NFL. (Bichell, 3/8)

NBC News: Lead In Gasoline Blunted IQ Of Half The U.S. Population, Study Says
Exposure to leaded gasoline lowered the IQ of about half the population of the United States, a new study estimates. The peer-reviewed study, published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, focuses on people born before 1996 — the year the U.S. banned gas containing lead. Overall, the researchers from Florida State University and Duke University found, childhood lead exposure cost America an estimated 824 million points, or 2.6 points per person on average. (Chuck, 3/7)

AP: Half Of US Adults Exposed To Harmful Lead Levels As Kids 
Early childhood lead exposure is known to have many impacts on cognitive development, but it also increases risk for developing hypertension and heart disease, experts said. “I think the connection to IQ is larger than we thought and it’s startlingly large,” said Ted Schwaba, a researcher at University of Texas-Austin who studies personality psychology and was not part of the new study. (Costley, 3/7)

Los Angeles Times: EPA Moves To Cut Smog From Trucks And Other Heavy Vehicles
The Biden administration is proposing new emission standards that would reduce smog-forming pollutants from tractor-trailer trucks, buses and other heavy-duty vehicles as part of a multiyear plan to improve air quality across the nation. The draft rule proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency, which would take effect in model year 2027, would reduce emissions of g nitrogen oxides from gasoline and diesel engines by as much as 60% in 2045, the agency said. It would also set updated greenhouse gas standards for certain commercial vehicle categories, including school buses, transit buses, commercial delivery trucks and short-haul tractors — subsectors in which electrification is advancing more rapidly, the EPA said. (Wigglesworth, Kaur and Curwen, 3/7)

The Wall Street Journal: EPA Aims To Cut Toxic Emissions From Commercial Trucks 
EPA officials said the proposed rules are ambitious but feasible, and would benefit the public by reducing asthma and other health problems. “These new standards will drastically cut dangerous pollution by harnessing recent advancements in vehicle technologies from across the trucking industry as it advances toward a zero-emissions transportation future,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said. (Ferek, 3/7)

Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Florida To Recommend Healthy Kids Not Get COVID-19 Vaccine
Defying guidance from the nation's top infectious disease and pediatric health experts, Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo announced Monday that the state will become the first in the nation to recommend that healthy kids not get vaccinated for COVID-19. Ladapo made the announcement at the end of a roundtable discussion in West Palm Beach that Gov. Ron DeSantis convened to discuss "failures" in the response to COVID-19. Florida “is going to be the first state to officially recommend against the COVID-19 vaccine for healthy children,” Ladapo said. (Anderson, 3/7)

The Hill: Florida To Advise Against COVID-19 Vaccine For Healthy Kids, Contradicting CDC 
Florida “is going to be the first state to officially recommend against the COVID-19 vaccines for healthy children,” state surgeon general Joseph Ladapo said at the end of a roundtable discussion on the virus response. Ladapo did not provide details such as who would qualify as a healthy child, or go into the reasoning for his decision.  The move is an escalation in the divide of Florida’s pandemic response under Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) from that of national experts.  (Sullivan, 3/7)

CNN: Florida Coronavirus: Health Experts Decry State's Plan To Recommend Against Covid-19 Vaccine For Healthy Kids 
After Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo declared on Monday the state would issue guidance urging parents not to vaccinate their children against Covid-19, health experts and officials were quick to highlight the dangers of such a policy for individuals and for country at large. Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, said Ladapo's statement is "wholly irresponsible and completely unsupported." "Although it is true that children are less likely to be infected and it is true that children are less likely to be severely infected, they can still be infected, and they can still be severely infected," Offit told CNN. (Caldwell, 3/8)

The Washington Post: White House Must Go Further On New Pandemic Response, Say Former Biden Advisers, Outside Experts
Vaccinate 85 percent of Americans against the coronavirus. Ensure that people experiencing long covid can get disability benefits. Develop a plan to restore trust in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Those are among the more than 250 discrete recommendations issued by a team of former Biden covid advisers and dozens of other outside experts on Monday, arguing that the White House must take additional steps to combat the virus and reduce the risk of other infectious diseases, with the goal of avoiding the societal disruptions that have characterized the past two years. Many of the recommendations were not included, or offer more detail, than those issued as part of the plan last week from the White House, which laid out its own “road map” to help Americans “get back to our more normal routines.” (Diamond, 3/7)

USA Today: White House COVID Plan Aims To Get More Young People Of Color Boosted
Many young people of color are not getting the COVID-19 booster shot at the same rate as young white Americans. The Biden administration said it is determined to close that gap by tapping churches, community health centers and medical professionals in communities of color to get more people vaccinated and boosted. “We need to do better and we all recognize that with equity in boosters,’’ said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and chief medical advisor to President Joe Biden. “Equity remains an important part of any of our plans.” (Barfield Berry, 3/8)

The Hill: Congress Nears Deal On Billions In Coronavirus Aid 
Lawmakers say they are close to an agreement to provide billions in new coronavirus relief, set to be tied to a massive government funding bill. Congress is expected to include at least $15 billion in response to the Biden administration's request for new funding for COVID-19 vaccines, treatments and testing. (Carney, 3/7)

NBC News: Walensky: Covid Will 'Probably' Be A Seasonal Virus, Like The Flu
Even as cases of Covid-19 continue to fall nationwide, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that the coronavirus is most likely here to stay — and that it could behave similarly to influenza. "I do anticipate that this is probably going to be a seasonal virus," said the CDC's director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky. That means it could join the flu and other respiratory viruses that tend to spread during the cold winter months. (Edwards, Snow and Dunn, 3/7)

NPR: Free COVID Test Kits Are Available Again To Order Via USPS
Americans can order more free at-home COVID-19 tests from the U.S. government at COVIDtests.gov to be shipped to their homes, the White House said on Monday. Each household can order a total of eight tests. So if you ordered four in January, when the program launched, you're eligible to order a second batch of four more. President Biden announced the move last week in his State of the Union address. On Monday, the White House released a video telling people the website was ready to go again. "Get your free tests today," Biden said, urging people to have them on hand "so we're prepared no matter what COVID-19 brings." (Keith, 3/7)

USA Today: Even Mild COVID-19 Can Cause Brain Damage, For How Long Isn't Known
A new study provides the most conclusive evidence yet that COVID-19 can damage the brain, even in people who weren't severely ill. The study, published Monday in Nature, used before-and-after brain images of 785 British people, ages 51 to 81, to look for any changes. About half the participants contracted COVID-19 between the scans – mostly when the alpha variant was circulating – which left many people at least temporarily without a sense of smell. Analysis of the "before" and "after" images from the UK Biobank showed that people infected with COVID-19 had a greater reduction in their brain volumes overall and performed worse on cognitive tests than those who had not been infected. (Weintraub, 3/7)

The New York Times: Covid May Cause Changes In The Brain, New Study Finds 
Covid-19 may cause greater loss of gray matter and tissue damage in the brain than naturally occurs in people who have not been infected with the virus, a large new study found. The study, published Monday in the journal Nature, is believed to be the first involving people who underwent brain scans both before they contracted Covid and months after. Neurological experts who were not involved in the research said it was valuable and unique, but they cautioned that the implications of the changes were unclear and did not necessarily suggest that people might have lasting damage or that the changes might profoundly affect thinking, memory or other functions. (Belluck, 3/7)

Crain's Chicago Business: Long COVID Linked To Symptoms Of Anxiety: Northwestern Medicine Researchers
The puzzling neurologic symptoms some COVID-19 patients develop as part of long COVID can be connected with symptoms of anxiety and are related to damage to neurons and activation of glial cells, a sign of brain inflammation, a new study by Northwestern Medicine finds. The study of biomarkers that identify brain inflammation may help determine what diagnostic tests and treatments will work best on long-COVID patients, a Northwestern Medicine statement said. It may also go a long way to further the study of the mechanics of long COVID and, perhaps, even the biomechanics of anxiety in general, the statement said. (Asplund, 3/7)

CIDRAP: COVID Patients With Heart Defects May Be At Higher Risk For Severe Disease
Hospitalized COVID-19 patients with congenital heart defects (CHDs) were more likely to be admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU), require invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV), and die than those without CHDs in the first 11 months of the pandemic, suggests a study published today in Circulation. Congenital heart defects, the most common birth defect in the world, occurs when the heart or blood vessels near the heart don't develop normally in utero. (3/7)

USA Today: COVID Vaccine Side Effects: Most Were Mild For Pfizer, Modena: Study
A new study involving millions of participants has found most side effects from mRNA COVID-19 vaccines were mild and faded substantially after one day. The findings, published Monday in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, should reassure Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna mRNA vaccine recipients that the shots, which were granted U.S. Food and Drug Administration emergency authorization in late 2020, are safe, experts said. "These data are reassuring that reactions to both mRNA vaccines are generally mild and subside after one or two days – confirming reports from clinical trials and post-authorization monitoring," said the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's Tom Shimabukuro, one of the authors of the large-scale study. (Thornton, 3/7)

Houston Chronicle: Over Half Of Houstonians Who Died Of COVID-19 Had Diabetes. Now, It May Be Giving Kids The Condition
Children and teens are significantly more likely to be diagnosed with diabetes after a COVID-19 infection, data show, raising concerns about the virus' long-term consequences in Houston, where the chronic endocrine condition is disproportionately common. A federal study found that children and adolescents diagnosed with COVID were up to 2.5 times more likely to be diagnosed with diabetes in the months following an infection. The study, which looked at youth health outcomes in two large medical claims databases, suggests children who contract the virus may be at increased risk for diabetes compared to their COVID-free peers. (Mishanec, 3/7)

Stat: Prisons Skimp On Covid Treatments Like Paxlovid
Pfizer’s antiviral drug Paxlovid seems tailor-made for combatting Covid-19 in prisons: It doesn’t require an intravenous infusion like other treatments. There are signs it could significantly reduce people’s ability to spread the virus. And it significantly cuts people’s chances of getting seriously ill or dying from Covid-19. But the drug isn’t being made available to the vast majority of federal prisoners, according to STAT’s review of available data. (Florko, 3/8)

The New York Times: Puerto Rico, Among The Last U.S. Holdouts With A Mask Mandate, Is Easing Restrictions.
The governor of Puerto Rico on Monday lifted the territory’s mask mandate for most places, as one of the last holdouts in the United States eased Covid-19 restrictions. Even as the ferocious Omicron wave receded in recent weeks, Puerto Rico, along with Hawaii, had been an outlier in the United States, with mask mandates still in place even as local and state authorities around the mainland rushed to lift them. (3/7)

Bloomberg: Chicago Schools To Remove Mask Mandate As Union Pushes Back
Chicago Public Schools said it plans to shift to optional masking for staff and students in a week, a move that could set up the third-largest U.S. system for another scuffle with its teachers union. The system, which serves more than 300,000 students, is the latest nationally to make the change. It will still encourage students pre-K through grade 12 and staff to use masks but is removing the requirement to wear them after Covid-19 infection rates have dropped and vaccination rates have grown, it said in a statement. (Singh, 3/7)

AP: Masks Are Now Optional In Most Rhode Island School Districts 
In most school districts across Rhode Island, masks became optional on Monday. The exceptions are Providence, the state’s largest district, and Central Falls, which has been among the communities hardest hit by COVID-19. (3/7)

AP: West Virginia Univ. Lifts Mask Requirements In Classrooms
West Virginia University is lifting COVID-19 mask requirements in its classrooms and labs regardless of a person’s vaccination status. The university said in a news release that the change is effective Tuesday. Last month WVU lifted a mask requirement in most indoor spaces. (3/8)

AP: Beshear: People Shouldn't Feel Pressure To Take Off Masks
As COVID-19 cases drop, Kentuckians should resist feeling pressure to peel off masks if they think it’s best for them to keep wearing facial coverings in public, Gov. Andy Beshear said Monday. The governor reported that the number of new coronavirus cases, the test positivity rate and virus-related hospitalizations declined again last week in Kentucky. (Schreiner, 3/8)

Bay Area News Group: Students Sue Santa Clara University Over Booster Mandate
Two students sued Santa Clara University over its COVID-19 vaccine booster shot requirement Monday. The lawsuit said sophomore Harlow Glenn, 20, agreed to get her first Pfizer COVID-19 shot last year to comply with the university’s vaccine mandate, but alleges she suffered numbing in her legs, severe headaches, menstrual cycle disruptions, bloody urine, body pains and hair loss. The university, she said, denied her requests for religious and medical exemptions from the shots. Another sophomore, Jackson Druker, 19, agreed to comply with the initial vaccination requirement and hasn’t suffered a bad reaction, but does not want to take the additional risk of a booster shot, the lawsuit said. Both students face disenrollment under university policy if they have not received the required initial and booster shots by March 17, the lawsuit said. (Woolfolk, 3/7)

AP: New Mexico Court: Grand Juries Can't Challenge COVID Orders
New Mexico’s Supreme Court ruled Monday that citizens can’t convene grand juries to investigate the governor’s response to COVID-19 because her actions were lawful and within the scope of her authority. The unanimous order by the five-member court scuttles three grand jury petitions in the politically conservative southeastern corner of the state against Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham. The justices also ordered district courts to deny any similar petitions as they are filed. (3/7)

Stat: A Gap In New Surprise Billing Law Puts Patients On The Hook For Pricey Tests
For Soung Luy, it seemed easy: His primary care doctor told him he needed blood work, and that he could get it done in the same office building in Marina del Rey, Calif., which was owned by the Cedars-Sinai health system. The doctor even assured Luy, when he asked, that the lab accepted his insurance and was in-network. But even though it was down the hall from Luy’s in-network physician, and even though he asked, the lab was not in his insurance network. His bill came: $686.70 for a handful of blood tests. “If I knew it was out-of-network, I would not have done it there,” Luy said. Cedars-Sinai eventually sent Luy’s account to a debt collector. Luy paid the balance, afraid his credit would get torpedoed. (Herman, 3/8)

Stat: FDA Failed To Improve Clinical Trial Diversity For Black Patients 
Six years ago, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration launched a five-year action plan to improve the diversity and transparency of pivotal clinical trials for newly approved medicines. But a new analysis finds the effort failed to make a difference for Black patients, whose participation in clinical trials remained inadequate. Specifically, Black people accounted for just one-third of the required enrollment for adequate representation, regardless of whether the trials started before, during, or after the FDA plan went into effect. Of 225 drug approvals for which mortality and morbidity information was listed on the FDA plan website, only 20% had data showing benefits and side effects for Black patients, according to the analysis, which was published in Health Affairs. (Silverman, 3/7)

Stat: Key Democrat Moves To Crack Down On FDA Accelerated Approvals 
A powerful Democratic lawmaker has introduced a bill that would dramatically rein in the Food and Drug Administration’s so-called accelerated approval program. Under accelerated approval, the FDA can approve drugs without clear evidence that they actually prolong patients’ lives, so long as drug companies complete follow-up studies and demonstrate that the therapies actually do have a “clinical benefit.” The bill, which was introduced Monday by the chairman of a key health panel, Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), would make it easier for the FDA to crack down on drug companies that do not complete those follow-up studies. (Florko, 3/7)

AP: Gene-Edited Beef Cattle Get Regulatory Clearance In US 
U.S. regulators on Monday cleared the way for the sale of beef from gene-edited cattle in coming years after the Food and Drug Administration concluded the animals do not raise any safety concerns. The cattle by Recombinetics are the third genetically altered animals given the green light for human consumption in the U.S. after salmon and pigs. Many other foods already are made with genetically modified ingredients from crops like soybeans and corn. (Choi, 3/7)

AP: Baby Gets Heart Transplant With A Twist To Fight Rejection
Duke University doctors say a baby is thriving after a first-of-its-kind heart transplant -- one that came with a bonus technique to try to help prevent rejection of the new organ. The thymus plays a critical role in building the immune system. Doctors have wondered if implanting some thymus tissue that matched a donated organ might help it survive without the recipient needing toxic anti-rejection medicines. (Neergaard, 3/7)

Stat: Newly Discovered Brain Cells May Be A Memory Filing System 
A scientist opens a laptop in front of a patient. On screen, a boy, tied to a fleet of balloons, fades in. As he rises into the air, the scene cuts abruptly to an office, where a man sits in front of his boss. A question then appears: “Was anyone in the video wearing a tie?” Jie Zheng, a postdoctoral fellow at Boston Children’s Hospital, had flown to Los Angeles to show the video to this patient, who has a severe seizure disorder. Like with the 18 other patients who were part of the study, neurosurgeons had placed electrodes in the patient’s brain to pinpoint what had been causing their seizures. Zheng and a group of scientists in a federally funded BRAIN Initiative consortium used this opportune moment to find neurons involved in the creation of memories. While subjects watched clips from movies and answered questions that tested their memory of the videos, the electrical activity of their brains was monitored. (Delamerced, 3/7)

The Washington Post: Pentagon To Shutter Pearl Harbor Fuel-Storage Facility That Contaminated Drinking Water
The Pentagon announced Monday it is shutting down a World War II-era underground fuel-storage facility that caused severe contamination last year of the drinking water used by thousands of military families stationed at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. “After close consultation with senior civilian and military leaders, I have decided to defuel and permanently close the Red Hill bulk fuel storage facility,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement. Doing so will force the Pentagon to dramatically alter how it conducts operations in the Indo-Pacific region, where China’s growing influence has become a top strategic challenge for successive administrations. Even so, Austin added, “It’s the right thing to do.” (Demirjian and Horton, 3/7)

Detroit Free Press: Prescription Drugs, Caffeine, Sweeteners Found In Great Lakes Water
Artificial sweeteners, pharmaceuticals, pesticides and nonstick compounds were found in multiple water samples in the corridor between Lake Huron and Lake Erie, including the Detroit River and Lake St. Clair, a new study found. Drugs detected in the water included nicotine, cocaine, antibiotics, acetaminophen pain reliever, the diabetes drug metformin, even contrast dye from CT scans, the study by Wayne State University's Healthy Urban Waters program and the University of Florida found. They're found in very minute concentrations, down to the parts per trillion. (Matheny, 3/7)

USA Today: San Francisco Police Vowed To Stop Using Victims' DNA, Then Kept Doing It
Weeks after the San Francisco Police Department vowed to stop using victim DNA samples to identify suspects in crimes, the department's internal records show officers can continue to do just that – but won't be as transparent about how they found the DNA. The revelation comes as state officials, including the California Attorney General's Office, said last week that no police departments should use victim DNA profiles to name them as suspects and that action could be taken against the San Francisco department if they continue to do so. (Abdollah, 3/7)

NPR: Delaware Is Reducing Cancer Disparities. One Big Reason? Patient Navigators
Sussex County, in the heart of southern Delaware's poultry farm country, is home to many people like Michelaine Estimable, a 62-year-old native of Haiti who came to work on the factory lines of a chicken-processing plant. But Estimable hasn't worked in two years, because of a leg injury that made it impossible for her to drive. Now, she relies on family members she lives with to get rides to medical appointments — one of the logistical headaches that's kept her from scheduling her mammogram for the past year. (Noguchi, 3/7)

Bloomberg: LGBTQ Conversion Therapy Costs U.S. $9 Billion Annually
In a first-of-its-kind look at the financial impact of LGBTQ conversion therapy in the U.S., new research shows the practice creates an economic burden of $9 billion annually. Researchers said the yearly direct cost of conversion therapy performed on LGBTQ young people — including payment of services, health insurance reimbursements or fees to religious organizations that perform the practice —  totals $650 million, found the study, published by medical journal JAMA Pediatrics on Monday. Indirectly, conversion therapy costs $8.58 billion annually due to the expense of treating effects like anxiety, depression, suicide attempts or substance abuse, the paper said. (Butler, 3/7)

CIDRAP: Polio Returns To Israel After 32-Year Absence
Israeli officials reported the nation's first polio case since 1989, involving an unvaccinated 4-year-old boy in Jerusalem. It's not clear from media reports whether a vaccine-derived or wild-type virus caused the infection, but the Israeli Ministry of Health (MOH) said in a news release, "The source of the disease in this case [is] a polio virus that has undergone a change and may cause disease in those who are not vaccinated." (3/7)

Politico: Moderna Says It Will 'Never' Enforce Covid-19 Vaccine Patents In Dozens Of Low- And Middle-Income Countries
Moderna pledged on Monday to “never enforce” its patents for Covid-19 vaccines against manufacturers that are based in or producing in 92 low- and middle-income countries, a shift for the biotechnology firm that has come under pressure to share its mRNA technology to help address global vaccine inequity. The 92 countries are members of the Gavi COVAX Advance Market Commitment, a mechanism aimed at securing financing for vaccines to go to those areas. (Mahr, 3/7)

AP: Moderna Signs With Kenya For First MRNA Facility In Africa 
Moderna signed a memorandum of understanding with Kenya’s government on Monday for the drugmaker’s first mRNA vaccine manufacturing facility in Africa, the company said. The goal is to produce up to 500 million doses of vaccines a year for the African continent, Moderna said in a statement. The focus is on drug substance manufacturing, it said, though the facility could be expanded to include fill-and-finish work. (3/7)

Bloomberg: Moderna Starts Human Trials Of 15 Vaccines As Prepares For Next Pandemic
Moderna Inc. plans to start human trials for vaccines against 15 threatening viruses and other pathogens by 2025, part of a strategy to develop shots that could be made quickly in response to a future pandemic. The effort will include prototype vaccines against the virus that causes Middle East respiratory syndrome, a cousin of Covid-19; the Ebola and Marburg viruses; a tick-borne virus that causes Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever; and mosquito-borne viruses such as chikungunya and dengue fever, according to a company statement Tuesday. (Langreth, 3/8)

AP: As Virus Cases Go From 1 To 24,000, New Zealand Changes Tack 
Back in August, New Zealand’s government put the entire nation on lockdown after a single community case of the coronavirus was detected. On Tuesday, when new daily cases hit a record of nearly 24,000, officials told hospital workers they could help out on understaffed COVID-19 wards even if they were mildly sick themselves. (Perry, 3/8)

The New York Times: 9/11 Suspect Is Returned To Saudi Arabia For Mental Health Care 
The Biden administration on Monday repatriated to Saudi Arabia for mental health care a prisoner who had been tortured so badly by U.S. interrogators that he was ruled ineligible for trial as the suspected would-be 20th hijacker in the Sept. 11 attacks. The prisoner, Mohammed al-Qahtani, in his 40s, is the second to be transferred from the wartime prison under the administration. (Rosenberg, 3/7)

USA Today: UK Man Dies Of Caffeine Toxicity: Consumed Equivalent To 200 Coffees
A man in Wales died after ingesting an amount of caffeine powder equivalent to as many as 200 cups of coffee. Tom Mansfield, 29, a personal trainer and father of two, died from caffeine toxicity in January 2021, officials confirmed last week, the BBC reported. Mansfield was trying to weigh a dose of the powder within a range of 60 milligrams to 300 milligrams. But he was using a scale that had a weighing range of 2 grams to 5,000 grams. (Pitofsky, 3/7)