First Edition: May 16, 2022

KHN: States Have Yet To Spend Hundreds Of Millions Of Federal Dollars To Tackle Covid Health Disparities
The Biden administration in March 2021 announced it was investing $2.25 billion to address covid health disparities, the largest federal funding initiative designed specifically to help underserved communities hardest hit by the virus. Two months later, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention awarded grants to every state health department and 58 large city and county health agencies. The money is intended to help limit the spread of covid-19 among those most at risk in rural areas and within racial and ethnic minority groups, as well as improve their health. The CDC initially said the grant had to be spent by May 2023 but earlier this year told states they could apply to extend that time. (Galewitz, Weber and Whitehead, 5/16)

KHN: After The Pandemic Hit Nursing Homes Hard, California Lawmakers Push To Tighten Licensing Rules 
When Johanna Trenerry found a nursing home for her husband after his stroke, she expected his stay would be temporary. He never came home. Arthur Trenerry died at Windsor Redding Care Center in Northern California in October 2020. The 82-year-old great-grandfather is among more than 9,900 California nursing home residents who have died of covid-19. (Young, 5/16)

KHN: No Prison Time For Tennessee Nurse Convicted Of Fatal Drug Error 
RaDonda Vaught, a former Tennessee nurse convicted of two felonies for a fatal drug error, whose trial became a rallying cry for nurses fearful of the criminalization of medical mistakes, will not be required to spend any time in prison. Davidson County criminal court Judge Jennifer Smith on Friday granted Vaught a judicial diversion, which means her conviction will be expunged if she completes a three-year probation. (Kelman, 5/13)

KHN: Journalists Recap The Latest On The Supreme Court Leak, Mental Health Care, And Fentanyl Testing Strips
KHN chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner discussed the leaked Supreme Court draft opinion on abortion rights on Deep State Radio on May 5 and again on WFAE’s “Charlotte Talks with Mike Collins” on May 9. ... KHN correspondent Aneri Pattani discussed how our mental and physical health is connected on WNPR/Connecticut Public Radio’s “Where We Live” on May 6. ... KHN interim Southern bureau editor Andy Miller explored how fentanyl testing strips are gaining acceptance on WABE on May 5. (5/14)

The Washington Post: With Fear And Fury, Thousands Across U.S. Rally For Abortion Rights
Lisa Branscomb marched on Saturday outside the Supreme Court among scores of abortion rights protesters and tried to hold back her tears. All day she heard stories of women choosing abortion and saw others holding signs proudly declaring they had, too. She had listened to the crowd chant, “My body! My choice!” (Silverman, Swenson, Asbury and Elwood, 5/14)

The Boston Globe: ‘I Cannot Contain My Rage.’ Abortion Rights Activists Rally In Boston And Across The Country
Thousands of abortion rights activists rallied and marched through the streets of downtown Boston Saturday to protest the leaked Supreme Court draft decision that would overturn the constitutional right to abortion established nearly 50 years ago in the landmark case, Roe v. Wade. The demonstrations on Boston Common and in Copley Square coincided with nationwide demonstrations supporting abortion rights, including a protest in Washington, D.C., where thousands listened to speeches at the Washington Monument and then marched to the Supreme Court. In speeches and chants of the slogan, “Bans Off Our Bodies,” demonstrators on Boston Common expressed fury over the prospect of the Supreme Court overturning Roe. (Crimaldi and Stoico, 5/14)

Columbus Dispatch: Ohio Abortion Rights Advocates Support Roe V. Wade Outside Statehouse
Organizers handed out signs reading "Bans off our bodies" and "Stand with Black women," while handmade signs in the crowd had more scathing messages, such as "If you cut off my reproductive choice, can I cut off yours?" with a hand-drawn picture of a pair of scissors, and "If I wanted the government in my uterus, I'd (expletive) a senator." "I want Mike DeWine to understand, or hopefully Nan Whaley, if she gets elected, but I want the Ohio Legislature to understand that we need access to safe abortion," said Christina Pusecker, 48, of Cedarville. "The first rally I attended was in Washington, D.C., in April 1992, when the Supreme Court was deciding the Casey case." (Hanks, 5/14)

San Francisco Chronicle: Pro-Choice Marchers Throng S.F.’s Market Street, Demand Abortion Protections
The demonstration was the largest women’s rights-focused march in San Francisco this year, drawing an estimated 10,000 people, said Sophia Andary, co-chair and director of leadership at Women’s March San Francisco, which co-sponsored the event. Participants came from across the Bay Area and were united in their desire to shape the national conversation around reproductive health care and related issues. The right to have an abortion “shouldn’t even be any form of law in the government,” Andary told The Chronicle. “This is about women’s autonomy and (people’s) right to choose. We need people to stay engaged and march, but more importantly, we need people to go beyond that.” (Picon, 5/14)

AP: California Governor: $98B Surplus Backs True Pro-Life State 
California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday pledged to use the state’s record-breaking $300 billion budget, including an unprecedented nearly $100 billion surplus, to “future proof” the state from the impacts of a volatile midterm election cycle that he fears will undermine abortion access, gun safety and privacy protections across the country. The first-term governor of the nation’s most populous state — and a potential Democratic presidential candidate — used his budget presentation on Friday to prop up his progressive credentials while attacking his rivals in conservative states. (Beam and Ronayne, 5/13)

The Hill: Oklahoma Governor Warns Tribes Not To Create Abortion Havens 
Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) on Sunday warned Native American tribes not to create abortion safe havens if Roe v. Wade is overturned and his state enacts a near-total ban on abortions. Stitt told “Fox News Sunday” there was a “possibility” tribes could establish abortion havens if his state makes most abortions illegal. “Oklahomans will not think very well of that if tribes try to set up abortion clinics,” Stitt said, warning he is monitoring the situation. (Dress, 5/15)

The Hill: Pelosi: Current Supreme Court ‘Dangerous’ For Families, Freedom
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Sunday said the current Supreme Court is “dangerous” for families and freedom in the U.S., as justices appear poised to overturn the 1973 landmark decision legalizing abortion in the U.S. Pelosi, during an interview with co-anchor Dana Bash on CNN’s “State of the Union,” said if the court scales back abortion rights on the federal level, restrictions on marriage equality could be next. (Schnell, 5/15)

Politico: Thomas Blasts Disclosure Of Draft Supreme Court Opinion As 'Tremendously Bad' 
Justice Clarence Thomas, the longest-serving sitting member of the Supreme Court, declared Friday that the publication of a draft majority opinion on abortion has permanently damaged trust within the nation’s highest court and is a symptom of a broader decline in America’s institutions. “I do think that what happened at the court is tremendously bad,” Thomas declared during a discussion at a conference for Black conservatives in Dallas. “I wonder how long we’re going to have these institutions at the rate we’re undermining them and then I wonder when they’re gone or destabilized what we will have as a country and I don’t think the prospects are good if we continue to lose them.” (Gerstein, 5/13)

NPR: Turnaway Study Offers Insights On The Impact Of Losing Access To Abortion
Though it's impossible to know exactly what will happen to abortion access if Roe v. Wade is overturned, demographer Diana Greene Foster does know what happens when someone is denied an abortion. She documented it in her groundbreaking yearslong research project, The Turnaway Study and her findings provide insight into the ways getting an abortion – or being denied one – affects a person's mental health and economic wellbeing. For over 10 years, Dr. Foster and her team of researchers tracked the experiences of women who'd received abortions or who had been denied them because of clinic policies on gestational age limits. (Burbank and Kwong, 5/15)

NBC News: Support For Abortion Rights Hits New High As Midterm Outlook Is Grim For Democrats
Support for abortion rights has reached a record high, and nearly two-thirds of Americans oppose the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, according to a new national NBC News poll conducted after the leak of a draft opinion that would strike down the constitutional right to abortion. What’s more, the survey finds abortion climbing up the list of issues that Americans believe are the most important, and that Democratic interest in the upcoming midterms has increased since earlier this year. (Murray, 5/15)

AP: Some Catholic Abortion Foes Are Uneasy About Overturning Roe
Top leaders of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops called on the faithful to pray and fast Friday, in hopes the Supreme Court is on track to overturn the constitutional right to abortion. Yet even among Catholics who oppose abortion, there is some unease about the consequences of such a ruling. A recently leaked Supreme Court draft opinion suggests that a majority of the nine justices are poised to reverse the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision – a move that would allow individual states to outlaw abortion. (Crary, 5/13)

Bloomberg: Abortion Misinformation Surges On Facebook, Twitter After Leak
Conspiracy theorists have latched on to the debate over US abortion rights on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and TikTok, leading to a spike in misinformation around what is already one of the most politically-charged topics online — and signaling the complex decision-making that lies ahead for social media companies if the procedure becomes illegal in some states. For years, social networks have been criticized for hosting user posts and advertisements that seek to confuse people about their right to access abortion or about the safety of the procedure. Since May 2, when Politico published a draft Supreme Court decision that would overturn Roe v. Wade if finalized, researchers have seen a surge in posts connecting the leak itself to already-problematic conspiratorial storylines. (Alba, 5/13)

Politico: 'Lord, Forgive The Anger In My Heart': Hochul Vows To Battle Hate, Gun Violence After Buffalo Massacre 
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul pledged to crack down on gun violence and the proliferation of online racism after a white man wearing military gear opened fire at a Buffalo supermarket, killing 10 people and wounding three others in an act being investigated as a hate crime. Hochul, speaking at True Bethel Baptist Church in her hometown of Buffalo on Sunday morning, told the congregation “this is personal to the Hochul family." "Lord, forgive the anger in my heart but channel that into my passion to continue to fight to protect people, get the guns off the streets and silence the voices of hatred and racism and white supremacy all over the internet,” she said. (Gronewold, 5/15)

AP: Buffalo Shooter's Prior Threat, Hospital Stay Face Scrutiny 
The white gunman accused of committing a racist massacre at a Buffalo supermarket made threating comments that brought police to his high school last spring, but he was never charged with a crime and had no further contact with law enforcement after his release from a hospital, officials said. The revelation raised questions about whether his encounter with police and the mental health system was yet another missed opportunity to put a potential mass shooter under closer law enforcement scrutiny, get him help, or make sure he didn’t have access to deadly firearms. (Thompson and Balsamo, 5/16)

The New York Times: Buffalo Shooting: Suspect Was Held For Mental Health Evaluation Last Year 
Last spring, as the end of the academic year approached at Susquehanna Valley High School outside Binghamton, N.Y., students were asked for a school project about their plans after graduation. Payton Gendron, a senior, said he wanted to commit a murder-suicide, according to a law enforcement official briefed on the matter. He claimed to be joking, the official said. But the state police were summoned to investigate and took Mr. Gendron, then 17, into custody on June 8 under a state mental health law, police officials said Sunday. (Southall, Marcius and Newman, 5/15)

Buffalo News: Racist Manifesto Details Hateful Views, Methodical Planning Of Accused Gunman 
Law enforcement officials who investigate mass shootings sometimes struggle to to find out what led the assailant to commit such heinous crimes. In the case of the man who they say perpetrated Saturday's assault that took the lives of 10 people and wounded three more, they did not have to look far. In chilling detail, the accused shooter laid out in a 180-page manifesto why he wanted to kill, how he came to believe a racist conspiracy theory and then recorded himself driving to a supermarket on Jefferson Avenue and carrying out the attack. (Watson and Michel, 5/15)

The Hill: Biden Calls Hate ‘Stain On The Soul Of America’ In Aftermath Of Buffalo Shooting
President Biden on Sunday called on Americans to root out hatred after a gunman shot and killed 10 people in Buffalo, N.Y., in what police have deemed a racially motivated mass shooting.  “We must all work together to address the hate that remains a stain on the soul of America,” Biden said during an address at the National Peace Officers’ Memorial Service outside the U.S. Capitol. (Chalfant, 5/15)

Modern Healthcare: RaDonda Vaught Sentencing Raises Alarms In Medical Community
The fear of prison time may the latest thing making healthcare workers wonder if they're better off in another line of work. Former Vanderbilt University Medical Center nurse RaDonda Vaught was sentenced to three years in prison but granted probation Friday for committing a medication error that killed a patient. In March, a jury convicted Vaught of negligent homicide and abusing an impaired adult when she accidentally administered the wrong drug to 75-year-old Charlene Murphey in 2017. On Friday, a judge in Nashville, Tennessee, handed down the sentence for those felonies. (Christ and Kacik, 5/13)

The New York Times: How America Reached One Million Covid Deaths 
The magnitude of the country’s loss is nearly impossible to grasp. More Americans have died of Covid-19 than in two decades of car crashes or on battlefields in all of the country’s wars combined. Experts say deaths were all but inevitable from a new virus of such severity and transmissibility. Yet, one million dead is a stunning toll, even for a country the size of the United States, and the true number is almost certainly higher because of undercounting. (5/15)

ABC News: Without COVID-19 Vaccines, Death Toll Would Be Much Higher: Pfizer Analysis 
In the wake of the tragic milestone of 1 million official COVID-19 deaths in the United States, a new analysis found that without vaccines, the virus would have likely claimed more than 100,000 additional lives in 2021. The analysis, sponsored by Pfizer, estimated that the Pfizer vaccine alone likely saved more than 110,000 lives in 2021, the first year of the vaccination campaign. (Fujimora, 5/16)

The Hill: Pelosi Calls Title 42 Hold-Up In COVID-19 Bill ‘Blackmail’ 
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Sunday said holding up a COVID-19 relief bill as a way to demand a vote on Title 42, a Trump-era pandemic public health policy that allows for the rapid expulsion of migrants at the border and prevents them from seeking asylum, is “blackmail,” but she appeared open to the notion of Congress holding a vote on the controversial measure. (Schnell, 5/15)

The Hill: Fauci Says He Would Not Serve Under Trump Again
White House chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci on Sunday said if former President Trump wins the presidency again in 2024, Fauci will not return to serve Trump in the White House. Fauci, the chief medical adviser to President Biden, gave CNN’s Jim Acosta a plain “no” when asked if he would work with the 45th president again. (Dress, 5/15)

CIDRAP: Omicron COVID-19 Variant Tied To Croup In Children
Boston Children's researchers have found evidence that the COVID-19 Omicron variant is more likely to cause croup in children that previous SARS-CoV-2 iterations, according to a study today in Pediatrics. The investigators noted that, from Mar 1, 2020, to Jan 15, 2022, 75 children were diagnosed as having COVID-19–associated croup at Boston Children's Hospital. Of those, 61 (81%) were diagnosed during the Omicron period. One child tested positive for rhinovirus in addition to SARS-CoV-2. (5/13)

AP: 4 Air Force Cadets May Not Graduate Due To Vaccine Refusal 
Four cadets at the Air Force Academy may not graduate or be commissioned as military officers this month because they have refused the COVID-19 vaccine, and they may be required to pay back thousands of dollars in tuition costs, according to Air Force officials. It’s the only military academy, so far, where cadets may face such penalties. The Army and Navy said that as of now, not one of their seniors is being prevented from graduating at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, or the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, due to vaccine refusals. The graduations are in about two weeks. (Baldor, 5/14)

AP: Judge Tosses COVID-19 Vaccine Objections Of Hanford Workers
A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit brought by several hundred Hanford nuclear reservation and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory workers in Richland, Washington, over COVID-19 vaccine requirements. The lawsuit was filed in November to halt enforcement of President Joe Biden’s executive orders requiring COVID-19 vaccinations for Department of Energy employees and the employees of contractors and subcontractors on federal projects, The Tri-City Herald reported. (5/13)

San Francisco Chronicle: Major Vaccine Bills Are Dying In The California Legislature. Here’s Why
When it comes to passing legislation to mandate or urge more people to get COVID-19 vaccines, there seems to be a common refrain at the California Capitol: Maybe next year. Lawmakers still have months left in their 2021 session, but an ambitious slate of vaccine bills proposed by Democrats is on life support. Its two cornerstone bills — one to require employers to vaccinate their workers and another to require the shot for school children regardless of whether their parents object — have been dropped. (Gardiner, 5/13)

AP: Kansas Governor Vetoes Republican Plan To Ban Mask Mandates 
Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly on Friday vetoed a bill that would prohibit government mask mandates in Kansas and curb the power of state and local health officials during outbreaks of infectious diseases. The measure was the Republican-controlled Legislature’s response to mask mandates and other restrictions that outraged many conservative constituents during the coronavirus pandemic. But the measure split GOP lawmakers enough when it passed last month that supporters were far short of the two-thirds majorities in both chambers needed to override a veto. (5/13)

AP: Louisiana Justices Toss COVID-Related Charges Against Pastor 
The Louisiana Supreme Court threw out charges Friday against a pastor who flouted restrictions on gatherings early in the coronavirus pandemic, ruling 5-2 that the governor’s executive orders violated freedom of religion. “This is a tremendous win for religious civil liberties and it has vindicated us in our ... battle with the governor trying to close the churches down,” said the Rev. Tony Spell, who drew national attention when his congregation continued to meet in the spring of 2020, while much of the nation was in lockdown. (McConnaughey, 5/13)

AP: Missouri House OKs Hospital Visitors On Final Day
Missouri’s GOP-led House spent its last day of the session Friday passing language protecting patient visitor access at hospitals after senators hindered work by leaving a day early. House lawmakers had little left available to do after the Republican-led Senate on Thursday approved new congressional districts then adjourned for the session, cutting off work on all other bills. (Ballentine, 5/13)

Stat: FDA Approves Lilly Diabetes Drug That Analysts Expect To Be A Big Seller
The Food and Drug Administration said Friday it had approved Mounjaro, a new injection for type 2 diabetes made by Eli Lilly that lowers blood sugar and can help patients lose weight. The agency emphasized in a press release that in clinical trials Mounjaro was more effective than other treatments that were studied. “Given the challenges many patients experience in achieving their target blood sugar goals, today’s approval of Mounjaro is an important advance in the treatment of type 2 diabetes,” Patrick Archdeacon, associate director of the Division of Diabetes, Lipid Disorders, and Obesity in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said in a statement. (Herper, 5/13)

Colorado News Collaborative: Mental Health Workers Say They Falsified Patient Records
A troubled Western Slope mental health care center falsified assessments of its patients’ conditions for at least nine years in an effort to make its treatment programs seem more effective and secure funding from the state, whistleblowers say. The state overlooked what former workers describe as a long practice by the Grand Junction-based Mind Springs Health of intentionally writing bogus patient evaluations. The three departments tasked with regulating Colorado’s mental health safety net system did not include the allegedly falsified reports in a multi-agency audit of the center released Thursday. (Greene, 5/15)

Modern Healthcare: Oscar Health Hit With Shareholder Proposed Class-Action
Oscar Health was hit with a proposed class-action from stockholders alleging the insurtech concealed the negative impact the COVID-19 pandemic was having on its business ahead of its $7 billion initial public offering. Shareholder Lorin Carpenter sued the company in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District Court of New York on Thursday, alleging the startup, its executives and the investment banks that underwrote its IPO violated the federal Securities Act. The proposed class could include the thousands of shareholders who bought stock during the company's public debut, the complaint said. Oscar Health did not respond to an interview request. (Tepper, 5/13)

Modern Healthcare: 5 Things To Know About HHS OIG's Patient Harm Report
A quarter of Medicare patients experienced patient harm during their short-term acute-care hospital stays in 2018, and that rate barely changed from a decade earlier, according to a recent report. The study, conducted by the Health and Human Services Department's Office of the Inspector General, looked at a sample of 770 Medicare patients, out of approximately 1 million, who had inpatient stays during October 2018 at 629 hospitals nationwide. (Devereaux, 5/13)

Stat: Real Estate Firms Own Nearly 1 In 10 Health Care Properties
Not all hospitals and nursing homes own the property they sit on, and new research attempts to quantify just how many health care providers are tenants in their own buildings. Real estate investment trusts, or REITs, own 8% of all health care properties, according to estimates published in JAMA Health Forum. This new data provide a fresh look into the world of REITs — which essentially act as landlords to hospitals, nursing homes, and other providers — and underscores how they operate a highly lucrative business that is out of the view of patients but is an inextricable and growing part of the country’s $4.3 trillion health care system. (Herman, 5/13)

AP: Transgender Medication Law In Alabama Blocked By Judge
A federal judge on Friday blocked part of an Alabama law that made it a felony to prescribe gender-affirming puberty blockers and hormones to transgender minors. U.S. District Judge Liles Burke issued a preliminary injunction to stop the state from enforcing the medication ban, which took effect May 8, while a lawsuit goes forward. The ruling was a victory for families and advocacy groups who challenged the first-of-its-kind law as an illegal intrusion into family and medical decisions. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey referred to the ruling as a “temporary legal roadblock.” Alabama’s state attorney general indicated he will appeal. (Chandler, 5/14)

The Washington Post: Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. And Democratic Senate Candidate John Fetterman Suffers Stroke 
Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, a leading Democratic candidate vying for the state’s open U.S. Senate seat, says he suffered a stroke on Friday but is on his way to a full recovery. In a statement Sunday, Fetterman, 52, said he wasn’t feeling well Friday and went to the hospital to get checked out at the insistence of his wife, Gisele. (Wang, 5/15)

AP: Delaware's Public Health Director To Step Down In June 
Delaware’s top public health official, who has led the state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, has announced that she will leave her job next month. The News Journal reports that Dr. Karyl Rattay, the country’s longest-serving public health director, will be stepping down on June 30 after leading the Division of Public Health for 13 years. It’s unclear where she will work next and who her successor will be. The state did not make Rattay available for an interview. (5/15)

Stat: Puzzling Pediatric Hepatitis Cases Echo An Earlier Mysterious Illness 
In early April, when word began to circulate that hospitals in the United Kingdom were seeing unexplained hepatitis cases in very young children, some physicians and researchers on this side of the Atlantic experienced a moment of déjà vu. Kevin Messacar and colleagues at Children’s Hospital Colorado found themselves remarking on how reminiscent the unfolding investigation was of a medical mystery they’ve been enmeshed in for the past eight years — acute flaccid myelitis, or AFM, a polio-like condition in children. (Branswell, 5/16)

Fox News: SIDS Breakthrough? Possible Sudden Infant Death Syndrome Biomarker Identified
Babies at risk for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) could be identified through a biochemical marker, a new study published in The Lancet’s eBioMedicine finds. SIDS is the unexplained death of a seemingly healthy baby less than a year old, typically during sleep, according to the Mayo Clinic. The CDC reports SIDS accounted for 37% of infant deaths in the United States in 2019. Researchers investigating the cause of SIDS at the Children’s Hospital at Westmead (CHW) in Australia said they identified the first biochemical marker that could help detect babies more at risk of sudden infant death syndrome while they are still alive. (McGorry, 5/13)

Stat: Senate FDA Legislation Will Include Dietary Supplement, Cosmetic Reforms
Senate lawmakers are set to unveil draft legislation as soon as Monday that will reform the FDA’s regulation of dietary supplements, cosmetic products, and certain lab-based tests, three lobbyists and a senior aide on the Senate health committee confirmed to STAT. The policies will be included in the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee’s version of the legislation that sets out the fees industry pays to have the Food and Drug Administration regulate their products, known as user fee reauthorization legislation. The current funding agreement expires at the end of September. (Florko, 5/13)

CIDRAP: Antibiotics Linked To Inflammatory Bowel Disease In Older Adults
A new study suggests antibiotic use in people over 60 may be linked to an increased risk of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The study, which will be presented at the upcoming Digestive Disease Week conference, to be held May 21 through 24, found that, in a cohort of more than 2.3 million adults ages 60 to 90, any antibiotic use was associated with a 64% increase in developing ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease—the primary components of IBD. The risk rose with each additional dose of antibiotics. (Dall, 5/13)

CBS News: Skittles, Starburst And Life Savers Gummies Recalled Over Possible Metal Strips
Certain varieties of Skittles, Starburst and Life Savers gummies have been voluntarily recalled over the possibility of "a very thin metal strand embedded in the gummies or loose in the bag," Mars Wrigley announced Friday. The company said it hasn't received any reports of anyone falling ill from the products, which were made a third party and distributed in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. (Tursi, 5/16)

AP: Shanghai Says Lockdown To Ease As Virus Spread Mostly Ends
Most of Shanghai has stopped the spread of the coronavirus in the community and fewer than 1 million people remain under strict lockdown, authorities said Monday, as the city moves toward reopening and economic data showed the gloomy impact of China’s “zero-COVID” policy. Vice Mayor Zong Ming said 15 out of Shanghai’s 16 districts had eliminated virus transmission among those not already in quarantine. (5/16)

AP: New Zealand Leader Jacinda Ardern Tests Positive For COVID 
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has tested positive for COVID-19 but said she still plans to travel to the U.S. later this month for a trade trip and to give the commencement speech at Harvard University. Ardern on Saturday posted a photo of her positive test result on Instagram and said she was disappointed to miss several important political announcements over the coming week, including the release of the government’s annual budget and a plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. (Perry, 5/13)

The New York Times: How Australia Saved Thousands Of Lives While Covid Killed A Million Americans 
If the United States had the same Covid death rate as Australia, about 900,000 lives would have been saved. The Texas grandmother who made the perfect pumpkin pie might still be baking. The Red Sox-loving husband who ran marathons before Covid might still be cheering at Fenway Park. For many Americans, imagining what might have been will be painful. But especially now, at the milestone of one million deaths in the United States, the nations that did a better job of keeping people alive show what Americans could have done differently and what might still need to change. (Cave, 5/15)

Press Association: Number Seeking Help For Long Covid Doubles, Charity Says
A charity has seen a doubling in the number of people seeking help for long Covid as it warned that NHS services are failing to meet demand. Asthma and Lung UK said around half a million people have visited its long Covid advice web pages or called its helpline for support in the last six months. The number of people viewing the web pages nearly doubled from September to March, as cases of Omicron rose across the UK, it said. Latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that an estimated 1.8 million people in UK households (2.8% of the population) were experiencing long Covid as of April 3 - the most recent data available. (Kirby, 5/15)

AP: G7 Warn Of Ukraine Grain Crisis, Ask China Not To Aid Russia
The Group of Seven leading economies warned Saturday that the war in Ukraine is stoking a global food and energy crisis which threatens poor countries, and urgent measures are needed to unblock stores of grain that Russia is preventing from leaving Ukraine. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock ... said up to 50 million people, particularly in Africa and the Middle East, would face hunger in the coming months unless ways are found to release Ukrainian grain, which accounts for a sizeable share of the worldwide supply. (Jordans, 5/14)