First Edition: March 9, 2021

KHN: Pandemic Aid Package Includes Relief From High Premiums 
As President Joe Biden’s pandemic relief package steams through Congress, Democrats have hitched a ride for a top health care priority: strengthening the Affordable Care Act with some of the most significant changes to insurance affordability in more than a decade. The bill would spend $34 billion to help Americans who buy insurance on the marketplaces created by the ACA through 2022, when the benefits would expire. The Senate sent its relief package, one of the largest in congressional history, back to the House where it could come up as early as Tuesday. It is expected to pass and then go to Biden for his signature. (Huetteman, 3/9)

KHN: In Alabama, South Carolina And Louisiana, CVS Vaccine Appointments Go Unfilled
Last week, as covid vaccine appointment slots were snapped up within an hour at CVS stores in 20 states, slots remained open all day at CVS pharmacies in Alabama, South Carolina and Louisiana. The dozens of open appointment slots in the three Southern states stood in sharp contrast to the availability in states such as Delaware, Connecticut and Pennsylvania, where appointments generally were gone by midmorning or earlier. CVS and other retailers typically post appointment slots around 7 a.m. for the next day. (Galewitz, 3/9)

KHN: Ouch! Needle-Phobic People Scarred By So Many Images Of Covid Shots
Each night it’s the same. Story after story on the TV news is about the covid vaccination effort, and they are all illustrated with footage of needles sinking into exposed upper arms. Could those visuals, ostensibly making this all seem routine, backfire? (Appleby, 3/9)

KHN: Without A Pandemic Safety Net, Immigrants Living In US Illegally Fall Through The Cracks 
Ana’s 9-year-old son was the first in the family to come down with symptoms that looked like covid-19 last March. Soon after, the 37-year-old unauthorized immigrant and three of her other children, including a daughter with asthma, struggled to breathe. For the next three weeks, the family fought the illness in isolation — Ana clutching the top of door frames to catch her breath — while friends and neighbors left food on the porch of their home in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Ana and her children never took tests to confirm they caught the coronavirus, but the pressure in her lungs, the fever, the headache and the loss of smell and taste convinced her it couldn’t be anything else. (Dawson, 3/9)

KHN: Behind The Byline: Reporting Road Trip 
KHN has never been busier ― and health coverage has never been more vital. The Behind The Byline series on YouTube and Instagram TV offers an insider’s view. ... In December, KHN correspondent Aneri Pattani hit the road to report from inside a nursing home that had been largely locked down for months. Such access is something many journalists had not been able to secure throughout the pandemic. This video is about her journey, and what it took to keep a high-risk, older population safe while reporting. (Pattani, 3/9)

The Washington Post: Pfizer Vaccine Neutralizes Brazil Variant As Experts Warn Of Rapid Spread
The Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine appears to be highly effective against a more contagious variant of the virus first discovered in Brazil, according to a new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, raising hopes that ongoing vaccination efforts will help curb the variant’s spread. The study, conducted by Pfizer scientists and researchers at the University of Texas, comes as public health experts warn that the more transmissible variants could drive yet another surge in covid-19 cases, particularly as restrictions are lifted across the United States. (Cunningham, 3/9)

Reuters: Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine Neutralizes Brazil Variant In Lab Study 
In previously published studies, Pfizer had found that its vaccine neutralized other more contagious variants first identified in the United Kingdom and South Africa, although the South African variant may reduce protective antibodies elicited by the vaccine. Pfizer has said it believes its current vaccine is highly likely to still protect against the South African variant. However, the drugmaker is planning to test a third booster dose of their vaccine as well as a version retooled specifically to combat the variant in order to better understand the immune response. (Erman, 3/8)

Crain's Chicago Business: Moderna Vaccine Deal With Baxter For COVID Shot Production
Baxter International and Moderna have entered into an agreement to help increase COVID-19 vaccine production, the companies announced today. The Deerfield-based medical products company will fill vials with Moderna’s vaccine and supply packaging for approximately 60 million to 90 million U.S. doses this year, the companies said in a statement. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. “This additional production will help us continue to scale up our manufacturing capacity in the United States,” Juan Andres, Moderna’s chief technical operations and quality officer, said in the statement. (Goldberg, 3/8)

Bloomberg: Pfizer-BioNTech Covid Shot Neutralizes Brazilian Strain In Lab
The study tested serum samples taken from people either two or four weeks after they had received their second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech shot. That was pitted against viruses that had been engineered to have mutations from the three virus lineages. (Loh, 3/9)

Stat: CDC: Fully Vaccinated Americans Can Be Together Indoors, Unmasked
People who have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19 can now spend time together indoors and unmasked, according to new Biden administration guidance. Fully immunized Americans can also visit with low-risk individuals from other households even if they haven’t yet received a vaccine. And if vaccinated individuals are exposed to Covid-19, there’s no need to either quarantine or get tested for the disease, according to new recommendations released Monday from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Facher, 3/8)

Politico: CDC Cuts Travel Advice From Guidelines For Vaccinated People 
An earlier draft of the guidelines included a travel section but senior health officials decided not to release that portion of the recommendations at this time, one senior administration official told POLITICO. Advice on whether vaccinated people need to quarantine after exposure to someone with Covid-19 also sparked debate at a White House meeting Friday, one day after the guidelines were originally set for release. (Banco, Cancryn and Owermohle, 3/8)

NBC News: CDC Releases New Covid Guidelines For Fully Vaccinated People
The new guidelines do not, however, suggest that fully vaccinated people can go back to life as it was in 2019. In public or around others who are vulnerable to Covid-19 complications, mitigation measures should remain in line with the status quo, the CDC said. Keep up with hand-washing. Wear masks in public places, and continue to adhere to physical distancing guidelines. Avoid crowded areas. Seek out Covid-19 testing if symptoms develop. (Edwards, 3/8)

The Wall Street Journal: CDC Says Fully Vaccinated People Can Gather Privately Without Masks 
A person is considered fully vaccinated two weeks after receiving the second dose of the two-shot vaccines made by Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE as well as by Moderna Inc., or two weeks after getting the single dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, according to the CDC. (Abbott, 3/8)

CBS News: Here's What The CDC Says Fully Vaccinated People Can Do
Fully vaccinated people, according to the CDC, can do the following: visit with other fully vaccinated people indoors without masks or physical distancing; visit with unvaccinated people from a single household who are at low risk for severe COVID-19 disease indoors without wearing masks or physical distancing; and skip quarantine and testing guidelines following a known exposure, if they're asymptomatic. (Bayer, Tin and Watson, 3/8)

NBC News: New CDC Guidelines Have Grandparents Turning Family Reunion Dreams Into Action
Little Juliette Berkhemer is a just few months away from finding out the truth about her grandparents — they don't actually live in her mother's cellphone. And for that, Juliette, a 14-month-old toddler from Jersey City, New Jersey, can thank the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which Monday gave grandparents who have already been vaccinated against Covid-19 the green light to be reunited with loved ones they've had to keep away from because of the pandemic. For almost as long as Juliette has been alive, her only contact with her grandma and grandpa in Houston has been in FaceTime chats, said her mother, Becca Hoffman. (Siemaszko, 3/8)

CNN: US Coronavirus: A Safer Future Is Just Months Away. But Americans Shouldn't Give Up On Safety Measures Yet, Former CDC Director Says 
A safer future is just a few months away, but it's crucial that Americans keep practicing Covid-19 safety precautions and heeding health officials' advice as the country works to vaccinate more people, one expert told CNN on Monday. "We're not done yet, Covid isn't done with us. The variants are still a risk," Dr. Tom Frieden, former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. "You don't declare victory in the third quarter." (Maxouris, 3/9)

CBS News: Workers Worry For Their Safety As More States Lift Mask Mandates 
Leo Carney worries that bigger crowds and maskless diners could endanger workers at the Biloxi, Mississippi, seafood restaurant where he manages the kitchen. Maribel Cornejo, who earns $9.85 an hour as a McDonald's cook in Houston, can't afford to get sick and frets co-workers will become more lax about wearing masks, even though the fast food company requires them. On Wednesday, Governor Greg Abbott of Texas will allow businesses to operate at 100% capacity and is lifting the statewide mask mandate. In response to the governor's decision, industry workers in the state, such as grocery store workers and restaurant workers, plan to gather outside of the State Capitol on Monday at a rally organized by the Texas Service Industry Coalition, a group aimed at organizing restaurant workers and others for better wages and work conditions. (3/8)

CNBC: Gov. Ned Lamont Defends Easing Covid Restrictions In Connecticut
Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont on Monday defended his plans to ease Covid restrictions in the state starting next week, telling CNBC he believes a decline in new infections and the distribution of vaccines support such a move. “We have the vast majority of our population most at risk has now been vaccinated. That’s 65 and above, and the majority of the people 55 and above,” Lamont said on “Squawk on the Street.” “That’s where all the fatalities, that’s where 98% of the hospitalizations were taking place, so we feel pretty confident that March 19 is a good date that we can continue reopening. (Stankiewicz, 3/8)

Bloomberg: Variant’s Spread In Florida Shows Threat To U.S. Covid Recovery
A highly infectious Covid-19 variant is circulating widely in Florida, prompting concern that a resurgence of the virus is possible in the state and beyond, even as cases and hospitalizations drop dramatically. In Florida, as elsewhere in the U.S., Covid cases, hospitalizations and deaths have dropped significantly from recent highs, helped by progress in the vaccination campaign. But conditions aren’t improving quite as quickly in the Sunshine State, at least in certain key categories. The per-capita rate of Covid-19 patients currently in Florida hospitals is now about 25% above the national average. And new patients are arriving at its hospital emergency departments at slightly higher rates than the rest of the country. (Levin, 3/8)

Houston Chronicle: More Contagious COVID Variant 'Actively Spreading' In Houston, Health Officials Find
A more contagious variant of the coronavirus is spreading in Houston and the city’s positivity rate crept up last week, Mayor Sylvester Turner announced Monday, two days before all state COVID-19 restrictions are lifted across Texas. Last month, city officials who sample sewage for traces of the virus detected the B.1.1.7 variant at 31 of the city’s 39 wastewater treatment plants, up from 21 plants earlier in the month. A study published last Wednesday estimated the variant, which was first discovered in the United Kingdom, is 43 to 90 percent more infectious than previous variants. (Scherer and McGuinness, 3/8)

CBS News: "The Perfect Storm": Doctor Warns Spring Break Could Usher In Another COVID-19 Surge
While the U.S. COVID-19 vaccine rollout has seen milestones in recent weeks as inoculations steadily increase, the pandemic is not over yet. Doctors and public health officials are warning Americans — particularly young adults gearing up for spring break — to slow down and think responsibly. "It's kind of like the perfect storm — you're going to have a mix of alcohol, young kids and a potentially deadly virus that don't all mix well," Dr. Ron Elfenbien said on CBSN Monday. "Kids are going to be kids. They want to go out and party and have a good time and drink and fraternize and associate with each other and be in close proximity with each other. Obviously the problem with that is we are in the middle of a global pandemic." (Elkind, 3/8)

AP: Spring-Break Partying Falls Victim To COVID-19 Crisis
Goodbye, sunshine. Hello, study sessions. Colleges around the U.S. are scaling back spring break or canceling it entirely to discourage partying that could spread the virus and raise infection rates back on campus. Texas A&M University opted for a three-day weekend instead of a whole week off. The University of Alabama and the University of Wisconsin-Madison also did away with spring break but are giving students a day off later in the semester. (Hollingsworth, Kennedy and Yoganathan, 3/8)

AP: Airline Industry Pushes US To Standardize Health Papers
Leading airline and business groups are asking the Biden administration to develop temporary credentials that would let travelers show they have been tested and vaccinated for COVID-19, a step that the airline industry believes will help revive travel. Various groups and countries are working on developing so-called vaccine passports aimed at allowing more travel. But airlines fear that a smattering of regional credentials will cause confusion and none will be widely accepted. (Koenig, 3/9)

Bloomberg: Airlines And Travel Groups Urge U.S. To Develop Virus Passport
U.S. airlines, joined by travel groups and labor, urged the Biden administration to take the lead in developing standards for temporary Covid-19 health credentials that would help reopen global travel by documenting vaccinations and test results. The U.S. “must be a leader” in efforts already underway in other regions to implement such travel passports, groups including Airlines for America said in a letter Monday to Jeffrey Zients, the head of President Joe Biden’s Covid-19 recovery team. It’s essential for the government to partner with carriers and the travel industry “to quickly develop” standards, they said. (Schlangenstein, 3/8)

The Hill: House Vote On COVID-19 Relief Expected By Wednesday
An expected House vote on Tuesday to send the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package to President Biden's desk may not end up happening until Wednesday. Democratic aides said Monday that the House is still awaiting bill processing papers from the Senate for the massive proposal. Depending on when the House receives those papers, the final vote could still occur on Tuesday or possibly Wednesday. (Marcos, 3/8)

Roll Call: Final Coronavirus Vote May Be Delayed As House Waits On Senate 'Paper'
House action on the revised $1.9 trillion COVID-19 aid package may slip a day as the chamber waits on the Senate to send its amended version of the budget reconciliation measure back. Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters Monday that the House vote on the Senate-amended bill could still occur Tuesday as originally planned if the Senate finalizes the text in time, but that it would be "Wednesday morning at the latest." (McPherson, 3/8)

The Wall Street Journal: House Progressives Back Revised Covid-19 Aid Bill As Vote Nears 
The House looked on track to pass the latest version of the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package later this week, as liberal Democrats swallowed their frustration with the Senate’s changes and prepared to approve the bill for a second time. Democrats, who hold a slim majority in the House, will need to stay largely united behind the legislation given the absence of any GOP support, providing an early test for party leaders. The House is expected to narrowly pass the bill Tuesday or Wednesday, sending it to the White House for President Biden’s signature. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D., Md.) had initially said the House would take its first procedural vote on the bill Monday, but processing the bill’s Senate paperwork pushed the vote slightly later in the week, aides said. (Peterson and Duehren, 3/8)

The Hill: Biden To Sign COVID-19 Relief 'As Soon As I Can Get It'
President Biden said Monday he intends to sign the American Rescue Plan into law "as soon as I can get it," with the massive coronavirus relief and stimulus bill poised for final passage in Congress by mid-week. Biden made the comments to reporters during a visit to a Department of Veterans Affairs medical center where veterans were receiving vaccine doses. (Samuels, 3/8)

AP: COVID Bill To Deliver Big Health Insurance Savings For Many
Several million people stand to save hundreds of dollars in health insurance costs, or more, under the Democratic coronavirus relief legislation on track to pass Congress. Winners include those covered by “Obamacare” or just now signing up, self-employed people who buy their own insurance and don’t currently get federal help, laid-off workers struggling to retain employer coverage, and most anyone collecting unemployment. Also, potentially many more could benefit if about a dozen states accept a Medicaid deal in the legislation. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 3/9)

Stat: Biden’s Silence On FDA Nominee Underscores How Tough It Is To Fill That Job 
Nearly everyone here expected President Biden to move with record speed to nominate someone to lead the Food and Drug Administration. As the coronavirus pandemic raged, lobbyists, patient advocates and public health experts hypothesized the position would be one of the earlier picks. Biden nominated Xavier Becerra to lead the health department, for example, in December, before his picks for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and assistant secretary for health. (Florko, 3/9)

Stateline: Biden Aims To Build On Obamacare's Cost-Cutting Measures
In the decade-plus since it became law, the Affordable Care Act has helped slow the explosive growth in health spending. But the United States still spends about twice as much per capita as other wealthy nations. That leaves President Joe Biden with an enormous health care challenge, beyond leading the country out of the pandemic: curbing health care cost increases that, economists warn, are unsustainable. The political obstacles will be enormous. Biden faces a Republican Party that has spent the past decade trying to destroy the ACA. There also is a remote possibility that the U.S. Supreme Court will scrap Obamacare when it rules on a challenge to the law mounted by GOP state attorneys general, many legal experts say. And Biden will have to overcome the resistance of powerful medical and pharmaceutical interests that oppose price constraints. (Ollove, 3/8)

San Francisco Chronicle: State Health Officials Confirm Report Of Vaccine Under-Dosing At Oakland Coliseum
California public health officials on Monday said that people who received a coronavirus vaccine at the Oakland Coliseum on Feb. 28 and March 1 likely received less than what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends for a single dose — confirming what a TV station reported last week. The California Department of Public Health on Monday notified people who received a Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine after 4:30 p.m. on Feb. 28 and between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. on March 1 about the findings, which were determined with the help from CDC vaccine experts. (Flores, 3/8)

The New York Times: All U.S. States Are Now Offering Vaccines To Teachers 
As of Monday, all K-12 educators nationwide are officially eligible to be vaccinated against Covid-19, though the situation is more straightforward in some states than others. President Biden had urged states last week to make vaccinating teachers a priority, with a goal of “every educator, school staff member, child-care worker to receive at least one shot by the end of the month of March.” Mr. Biden said all teachers should be able to get vaccinated starting March 8. (3/9)

The Wall Street Journal: As Covid-19 Vaccine Eligibility Expands, Interest Could Wane 
The first months of vaccine distribution have largely been targeted at populations that have shown the most willingness to receive it. Distribution plans differ from state to state, but most gave priority to older Americans in the early phases of the rollout. But as eligibility expands to encompass younger age groups, a continuing Census Bureau survey suggests uptake may slow. The data come from a survey conducted by the Census Bureau and developed in concert with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Center for Health Statistics. The latest release gauged responses from nearly 80,000 adults between Feb. 3 and Feb. 15. (Yeip, 3/8)

The New York Times: Women Report Worse Side Effects After A Covid Vaccine 
On the morning that Shelly Kendeffy received her second dose of the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine, she felt fine. By afternoon, she noticed a sore arm and body aches, and by evening, it felt like the flu. “My teeth were chattering, but I was sweating — like soaked, but frozen,” said Ms. Kendeffy, 44, a medical technician in State College, Pa. (Moyer, 3/8)

CBS News: 12-Year-Old Helps More Than 1,600 People Get Vaccines After Building A Website To Help Seniors
Twelve-year-old Sam Keusch knows how difficult the pandemic has been on seniors. Many older people, like his grandparents, haven't seen their families in months — and now there's a struggle to find vaccines. So the seventh grader from Scarsdale, New York, found a way to help others who might not be as tech savvy book appointments online. Keusch told CBS News he first saw his dad helping his grandparents and neighbors book appointments. "I was already thinking of a Bar Mitzvah project, and I thought that it couldn't be that hard. So I decided to help them out," he said. (O'Kane, 3/8)

ABC News: Daughter Takes Job At Nursing Home To See Dad During Pandemic 
A Minnesota woman took a job in a nursing home facility so she can be close to her father amid COVID-19. Lisa Racine is a part-time food nutrition assistant at the Good Samaritan Society in Stillwater, Minnesota, where her dad, Harold Racine, 87, is a resident. (Pelletiere, 3/8)

AP: COVID-19 Claims 15 People In Life Of One Milwaukee Woman
The first person Kimberly Montgomery lost to COVID-19 was her aunt. She had trouble breathing, so her daughter dropped her off at the emergency room. It was the last time her daughter saw her alive. Then, one after another, 14 other people in Montgomery’s world — family members, friends, friends who were like family — succumbed to the same disease. (Antlfinger, 3/8)

The New York Times: Severe Obesity Raises Risk Of Covid-19 Hospitalization And Death, Study Finds
Over the past year, many scientific teams around the world have reported that obese people who contract the coronavirus are especially likely to become dangerously ill. Now, a large new study, of nearly 150,000 adults at more than 200 hospitals across the United States, paints a more detailed picture of the connection between weight and Covid-19 outcomes. (Anthes, 3/8)

CIDRAP: Intellectual Disability, Obesity Tied To COVID-19 Hospitalization, Death 
Intellectual disability is second only to old age as a risk factor for COVID-19 death, and obesity is linked to coronavirus-related hospitalization and death, two new studies find. The first study, led by researchers from Jefferson Health in Philadelphia and published late last week as a commentary in the New England Journal of Medicine Catalyst, involved analyzing the medical records of 558,672 US COVID-19 patients from January 2019 to November 2020. (Van Beusekom, 3/8)

The New York Times: Many ‘Long Covid’ Patients Had No Symptoms From Their Initial Infection 
Many people who experience long-term symptoms from the coronavirus did not feel sick at all when they were initially infected, according to a new study that adds compelling information to the increasingly important issue of the lasting health impact of Covid-19. The study, one of the first to focus exclusively on people who never needed to be hospitalized when they were infected, analyzed electronic medical records of 1,407 people in California who tested positive for the coronavirus. More than 60 days after their infection, 27 percent, or 382 people, were struggling with post-Covid symptoms like shortness of breath, chest pain, cough or abdominal pain. (Belluck, 3/8)

Genomeweb: CRISPR Screens Identify Host Factors Required For SARS-CoV-2 Infection
By performing genome-wide functional genetic screens, researchers in Belgium have identified host factors that are required for SARS-CoV-2 infection as well as others that are shared by various coronaviruses. These factors could be used to develop drugs to treat SARS-CoV-2 infection or even outbreaks of future zoonotic coronaviruses. In a study published on Monday in Nature Genetics, researchers at KU Leuven described their use of genetic screens of SARS-CoV-2 and human coronavirus (HCoV) 229E, which can cause mild upper respiratory illnesses. These screens uncovered virus-specific as well as shared host factors, including TMEM41B and PI3K type 3. The researchers also found that SARS-CoV-2 requires the lysosomal protein TMEM106B to infect human cell lines and primary lung cells. (Rizk, 3/8)

Stat: Two Drug Makers Withdraw Bladder Cancer Indications
For the second time in less than a month, a drug maker has pulled an indication for a medicine after a follow-up clinical trial failed to meet its primary goal. And the moves come as part of a U.S. regulatory review of so-called accelerated approvals, a controversial strategy that has been used to hasten availability of treatments for serious conditions. (Silverman, 3/8)

Phys.org: Full Evolutionary Journey Of Hospital Superbug Mapped For The First Time
Modern hospitals and antibiotic treatment alone did not create all the antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria we see today. Instead, selection pressures from before widespread use of antibiotics influenced some of them to develop, new research has discovered. By using analytical and sequencing technology that has only been developed in recent years, scientists from Wellcome Sanger Institute, University of Oslo and University of Cambridge have created an evolutionary timeline of the bacterium, Enterococcus faecalis, which is a common bacterium that can cause antibiotic resistant infections in hospitals. (3/9)

Modern Healthcare: Florida Didn't Ensure Abuse And Neglect Reporting In Nursing Homes
A federal watchdog found that Florida didn't make sure that nursing homes were reporting or looking into allegations of potential abuse or neglect of Medicaid beneficiaries. After reviewing 104 hospital claims for 2016 emergency department visits of Medicaid nursing home residents, HHS' Office of Inspector General found that nursing facilities failed to report at least 15 incidents associated with potential abuse or neglect because nursing facility officials and state officials "did not have the same understanding about what incidents must be reported," according to the report. Another seven cases didn't have enough information filed to determine if the incident should have been reported. (Christ, 3/8)

Los Angeles Times: LA School Reopening: Secondary Schools Could Get Ok In Days
Middle and high schools throughout Los Angeles County could be eligible to open within days, with L.A. Unified aiming for a late April reopening of its secondary campuses, marking a major turning point in the pandemic that has forced the closure of California schools for nearly a year. However, several sticking points still could lead to further delays in the nation’s second-largest school district, including the time it would take to get teachers and school staff fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and the ability of the district and its teachers union to reach an agreement about school day schedules and working conditions. (Blume, 3/8)

Boston Globe: In Surprise Move, Baker Administration Sets High Insurance Payments For Vaccinations
As they prepared to roll out COVID-19 vaccines across Massachusetts, the Baker administration in December made a little-noticed decision about how much it would pay hospitals, health centers, pharmacies, and other providers for putting shots in arms of people covered by the state’s Medicaid program. The administration initially said that program, MassHealth, would pay about $45 per vaccination, equal to the national Medicare rate for providers set by the federal government. But a month later, Governor Charlie Baker’s administration sweetened the pot, agreeing to pay providers twice the national Medicare rate. And it required private health plans to pay at least that amount. (Dayal McCluskey, 3/8)

AP: Hawaii Health Department Launches Mental Health Hotline
The Hawaii Department of Health has launched a new mental health crisis counseling hotline to provide residents support during the coronavirus pandemic. The new program is called “Ku Makani – The Hawaii Resiliency Project,” and offers counseling, education and information for people experiencing mental health crises during the pandemic, Hawaii News Now reported Saturday. (3/8)

AP: North Dakota Has 4th New Health Officer Since Start Of Virus
North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum on Monday appointed his fourth state health officer since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Dr. Nizar Wehbi is the deputy director of the Center for Health Policy and assistant professor at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. He is scheduled to take over as leader of the North Dakota Department of Health on May 1. (MacPherson, 3/8)

Stat: Drug Makers Urge Biden To Reject Proposal To Waive Covid-19 Patent Rights
More than two dozen of the largest pharmaceutical companies are urging President Biden to reject a proposal before the World Trade Organization to temporarily waive patent rights in order to widen access to Covid-19 medical products to mostly low-income countries. In a March 5 letter, the drug makers argue that, contrary to assertions, intellectual property is not a barrier to ensuring that vaccines and therapies become available on a global basis. Along with their trade groups, the companies also maintained that eliminating intellectual property protection to allow other manufacturers to make certain products would not speed production or access. (Silverman, 3/8)

The Hill: Swiss Biopharma Company To Produce Russian Sputnik Vaccine In Italy
A Swiss biotech company will manufacture Russia's "Sputnik V" COVID-19 vaccine in facilities across Italy, the firm announced Monday. Bloomberg News reported that Adienne Pharma & Biotech announced a deal with Russia's sovereign wealth fund, the RDIF, to begin production near Milan. The company aims to have several million doses manufactured by the end of 2021, pending Italian regulatory approval. (Bowden, 3/8)

NBC News: Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad Tests Positive For Covid-19
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his wife have tested positive for Covid-19, the Syrian presidency said in a statement Monday. The president and his wife, Asma al-Assad, were tested for the coronavirus after they felt "mild symptoms," according to the statement, which confirmed that the test came back positive. (Smith and Omar, 3/8)

NBC News: Meghan's Candor On Race And Mental Health Hits Home For Black Women, Experts Say
The candor Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, displayed while discussing suicidal ideation during Sunday night’s interview with Oprah Winfrey helped open the door for conversations about race and mental health, experts say. Meghan revealed that she struggled with thoughts of self-harm and sought help amid tabloid headlines that she and her husband, Prince Harry, described as “character assassination.” The couple both expressed that the pressure of royal life had a harmful effect on their mental health, ultimately leading to them stepping back from their duties as senior members of the monarchy. (Madani, 3/8)

The Wall Street Journal: Pope Francis Defends Iraq Trip Despite Covid-19 Risks 
Pope Francis responded to public-health concerns about his trip to Iraq by saying he had considered the dangers, but ultimately trusted in God to protect Iraqis. Several events during the pope’s visit to Iraq, which included a Mass with 10,000 people in a soccer stadium, drew crowds of people with widespread flouting of rules on social-distancing and mask-wearing. Apart from the Mass, some gatherings formed as Iraqis tried to get a glimpse of the pontiff. (Rocca, 3/8)