First Edition: May 18, 2021

KHN: Aiding Her Dying Husband, A Geriatrician Learns The Emotional And Physical Toll Of Caregiving 
The loss of a husband. The death of a sister. Taking in an elderly mother with dementia. This has been a year like none other for Dr. Rebecca Elon, who has dedicated her professional life to helping older adults. It’s taught her what families go through when caring for someone with serious illness as nothing has before. “Reading about caregiving of this kind was one thing. Experiencing it was entirely different,” she told me. (Graham, 5/18)

KHN: Doctors Now Must Provide Patients Their Health Data, Online And On Demand 
Last summer, Anna Ramsey suffered a flare-up of juvenile dermatomyositis, a rare autoimmune condition, posing a terrifying prospect for the Los Angeles resident: She might have to undergo chemotherapy, further compromising her immune system during a pandemic. After an agonizing three-day wait, the results of a blood test came back in her online patient portal — but she didn’t understand them. As hours passed, Ramsey bit her nails and paced. The next day, she gave in and emailed her doctor, who responded with an explanation and a plan. (Kwon, 5/18)

The Wall Street Journal: Supreme Court To Review Mississippi Law Limiting Abortion Rights 
The Supreme Court said it would consider the legality of a Mississippi abortion law that sought to ban the procedure after 15 weeks of pregnancy, a case that gives the justices an opportunity to revisit precedents protecting abortion rights. The court’s one-sentence order on Monday, coming after eight months of deliberation, crystallized hopes and fears of partisans who have battled for decades over the abortion issue and the direction of the high court. (Kendall and Bravin, 5/17)

The New York Times: Supreme Court To Hear Abortion Case Challenging Roe V. Wade 
The justices will hear the case in their next term, starting in October, and are likely to deliver a decision in the spring or early summer next year, as the 2022 midterm elections are gearing up. The stakes of the case ensure that the abortion debate will remain a political flash point, rallying conservative and liberals alike. Last summer, the Supreme Court struck down a restrictive Louisiana abortion law by a 5-to-4 margin, with Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. providing the decisive vote. His concurring opinion, which expressed respect for precedent but proposed a relatively relaxed standard for evaluating restrictions, signaled an incremental approach to cutting back on abortion rights. (Liptak, 5/17)

AP: Supreme Court Throws Abortion Fight Into Center Of Midterms
In agreeing to hear a potentially groundbreaking abortion case, the Supreme Court has energized activists on both sides of the long-running debate who are now girding to make abortion access a major issue in next year’s midterm elections. For many evangelicals, the case could serve as a validation of more than four decades of persistent work and a sometimes awkward relationship with former President Donald Trump, whose three Supreme Court appointments sealed a 6-3 conservative majority. If those justices unite to uphold a Mississippi law banning abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy, it would mark a first step toward the possible demise of the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which established a nationwide right to abortion at any point before a fetus can survive outside the womb, roughly 24 weeks. (Crary and Colvin, 5/18)

AP: EXPLAINER: The Supreme Court Takes A Major Abortion Case
The case is an appeal from Mississippi in which the state is asking to be allowed to ban most abortions at the 15th week of pregnancy. The state is not asking the court to overrule Roe v. Wade, or later cases that reaffirmed it. But many supporters of abortion rights are alarmed and many opponents of abortion are elated that the justices could undermine their earlier abortion rulings. If the court upholds Mississippi’s law, it would be its first ratification of an abortion ban before the point of viability, when a fetus can survive outside the womb. Such a ruling could lay the groundwork for allowing even more restrictions on abortion. That includes state bans on abortion once a fetal heartbeat is detected, as early as six weeks. (Gresko and Sherman, 5/18)

Politico: Supreme Court Pulls Biden Into An Abortion Fight He Didn't Want 
The Supreme Court’s Monday decision to reconsider the right to an abortion drags President Joe Biden into an incendiary political fight that will loom large heading into the mid-term election. As a presidential candidate, Biden largely stayed quiet on the issue while Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris and other Democratic contenders took the lead in putting forward sweeping abortion rights policy platforms. He conceded when pressed, however, that the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nationwide should be written into federal law and the longtime ban on federal funding for abortion should be abolished. (Ollstein, 5/17)

CNN: Most Americans Want To See The Supreme Court Uphold Roe V. Wade, Polling Shows 
Most of the public wants to see the Roe v. Wade decision remain in place, polling on the issue finds, as the partisan divide on the issue of legalized abortion has widened in the past decade and a half. The Supreme Court announced Monday that it would take up a case that revolves around a Mississippi abortion law and that could potentially serve as a challenge to Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion nationwide prior to viability, which can occur at around 24 weeks. (Edwards-Levy, 5/17)

NPR: U.S. To Send Moderna, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson Vaccines Overseas
President Biden on Monday announced his intention to ship surplus doses of the coronavirus vaccine to needy nations abroad, including millions of doses of the U.S.-authorized Moderna, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson vaccines. The majority of the planned shipments will be of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which does not yet have authorization for use in the United States. "We need to help fight the disease around the world," Biden told reporters at a briefing on the nation's progress against the virus. "It's the right thing to do, it's the smart thing to do, it's the strong thing to do." (Wise, 5/17)

Bloomberg: Biden Eyes More U.S. Jobs In Expansion Of Vaccine Sharing Abroad
[Biden] also signaled that he intends for U.S. manufacturers to hold or grow their share of the global market for vaccines, casting his decision to begin supplying other countries as an engine for American jobs. He cautioned that American contributions alone won’t resolve the crisis. (Wingrove, 5/18)

Modern Healthcare: Biden Lifting Green Card Insurance Requirements Could Boost ACA, Analysts Say
President Joe Biden on Friday rescinded a Trump-era rule that required green card applicants to provide proof of health insurance, or evidence they could pay for it, before entering the country, saying the move does not advance the interests of the U.S. "My administration is committed to expanding access to quality, affordable healthcare," Biden said in a statement. "We can achieve that objective, however, without barring the entry of noncitizens who seek to immigrate lawfully to this country but who lack significant financial means or have not purchased health insurance coverage." (Tepper, 5/17)

CNN: 'Havana Syndrome': US Investigates Second Suspected Case Of Mystery 'Syndrome' Near White House 
Two White House officials were struck by a mysterious illness late last year -- including one who was passing through a gate onto the property -- newly revealed details that come as investigators are still struggling to determine who or what is behind these strange incidents. Multiple sources tell CNN that the episodes affected two officials on the National Security Council in November 2020, one the day after the presidential election and one several weeks later. The cases are consistent with an inexplicable constellation of sensory experiences and physical symptoms that have sickened more than 100 US diplomats, spies and troops around the globe and have come to be known as "Havana Syndrome." (Williams, Herb and Bertrand, 5/17)

Stat: CDC's Anne Schuchat To Resign In Second High-Level Agency Departure
The principal deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Anne Schuchat, is retiring from the agency. CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky announced the news Monday, saying Schuchat would be leaving the agency over the summer. The news was first reported by Politico. (Branswell, 5/17)

Politico: Mask Controversy Spurs CDC To Rethink Its Pandemic Response
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky is shaking up the agency’s Covid-19 response to consolidate oversight amid mounting criticism over its guidance for vaccinated people, according to three senior health officials with the knowledge of the situation. The changes in recent weeks include creating a clear reporting chain from the new director of the agency’s vaccine task force — which helped rewrite rules for mask-wearing — up to Walensky. The head of that task force had originally reported to both CDC and the White House. Walensky has also reshuffled the CDC’s pandemic modeling and data, analytics and visualization task forces. (Banco and Cancryn, 5/17)

CBS News: We Asked A Former CDC Director About The New Mask Guidelines. Here's What He Said
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced last Thursday that fully vaccinated Americans no longer need to wear masks or social distance in most indoor and outdoor settings, regardless of gathering size. This followed the CDC's approval for children between the ages of 12 and 15 to receive the Pfizer vaccine. These announcements signal a return to normalcy in the U.S., but how "normal" will this summer and the rest of the year look? Here's what Dr. Richard Besser, former acting CDC director and president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, told "Face the Nation." (5/17)

Fox News: New CDC Mask Guidance ‘Should Not Send Message Pandemic Is Over,’ Expert Group Says
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) updated mask guidance "should not send the message that the pandemic is over," a group of infectious disease experts said Monday. While applauding the guidance as "an important step, signifying our capability to eventually end the pandemic," the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) emphasized that the recommendations "make no change to mask-wearing guidance in health care settings, schools and public high-traffic areas including airports, as well as on airplanes, buses and other forms of public transportation." (Hein, 5/17)

The New York Times: New York And New Jersey Make Big Moves To Reopen 
The governors of New York and New Jersey, both Democrats, took major steps on Monday toward fully reopening their states. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said that New York will lift several mask requirements beginning Wednesday, and Gov. Philip D. Murphy said that New Jersey’s public school students will no longer have the option to learn remotely starting in September. (5/18)

The Boston Globe: Mass. To Lift Remaining COVID-19 Restrictions, Relax Mask Guidance On May 29
In a major move heralding the end of pandemic-era regulations, Governor Charlie Baker on Monday said Massachusetts will lift all restrictions on businesses Memorial Day weekend, moving up the full reopening date by two months. It was a telling sign that the state is returning to something akin to normal after more than a year of death, sickness, and punishing lockdowns. Baker announced the change at a press briefing, which followed the CDC’s easing last week of indoor mask guidance for fully vaccinated people. His office also confirmed the news in a statement that declared, “The Commonwealth is on track to meet the goal of vaccinating 4.1 million residents by the first week of June and all remaining COVID-19 restrictions will be lifted effective May 29.” (Andersen, Kovatch, Kaufman, Hilliard, Stout and Gardizy, 5/17)

The Washington Post: D.C. Lifts Mask Mandate Monday For Fully Vaccinated People 
D.C.’s broad mask order, which has required residents for months to wear masks almost every time they leave their ­houses, will no longer apply to fully vaccinated people, Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) announced Monday. Vaccinated or not, all residents still must wear masks on public transit, in schools (even outdoors on the playground), in medical offices and hospitals, and inside any business that chooses to require masks. (Zauzmer, Brice-Saddler and Davies, 5/17)

Los Angeles Times: L.A. County Orders Trader Joe's, Other Chains Not To Relax Mask Rules
L.A. County’s director of public health Monday said officials have been contacting a number of retail chains to emphasize that existing rules that require everyone to wear masks indoors in a store remain in effect in California. The education effort came after the Trader Joe’s in South Pasadena posted a sign in front of its store on Friday that gave permission for vaccinated shoppers to enter its market without a mask — a policy that violates California orders. (Lin II, 5/17)

CBS News: Many Small Businesses Say They'll Leave Decision To De-Mask Up To Customers 
Americans who are vaccinated against COVID-19 now have a green light from federal health authorities to take off their masks, signaling a more hopeful phase in the nation's 14-month battle against the pandemic. Yet many small businesses, nearly battered into submission by the virus, are choosing to proceed more cautiously. Kay Lee, the owner of Otte, a women's boutique in Manhattan's West Village neighborhood in New York City, said her customers typically mask up without her having to ask. Her staff, who are are fully vaccinated, also wear masks. "When customers walk in, they wear their masks. No one takes them off," Lee told CBS MoneyWatch. (Cerullo, 5/17)

USA Today: Infections Down 50% From Last Month
The United States' pace of new coronavirus infections fell last weekend below the low of Sept. 12, the day before the fall surge got underway and turned into a disastrous winter. The country reported 241,099 cases in the week ending Sept. 12, a few thousand above the reported 232,489 in the week ending Sunday. Daily infections now total less than half what they were a month ago and a small fraction of January's raging numbers. The U.S. continues to report about 600 deaths a day, roughly one-fifth the pace seen in January. (Aspegren, 5/18)

Houston Chronicle: Texas Records Zero COVID-19 Deaths For First Day In Over A Year
What was statistically Texas’ best day of the pandemic was followed by a sobering number one day later. On Sunday, the state’s Department of State Health Services reported its first day without recording a COVID-19 death since March 21, 2020. The good news was dampened less than 20 hours later, when DSHS reported 23 new COVID deaths Monday — the highest Monday count in nearly two months. (Downen, 5/17)

CIDRAP: Plasma From Recovered Patients Found Not Helpful For COVID Hospital Patients 
Convalescent plasma given to hospitalized COVID-19 patients did not improve survival or rates of release from the hospital within 28 days, need for invasive mechanical ventilation, or death, according to the most recent findings of the Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19 Therapy (RECOVERY) trial in the United Kingdom. (Van Beusekom, 5/17)

NBC News: Ohio Sees Boost In Shots After It Announces $1 Million Vaccination Lottery
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine's $5 million lottery to encourage vaccinations appears to be an early win. State health officials said Monday that more than 25,400 Covid-19 vaccine shots were administered Friday, two days after the program was announced, making it the highest vaccination day in three weeks. Maybe more telling were the people who got vaccinated. Vaccinations for residents ages 30 to 74 spiked by 6 percent after weeks of steady decline. (Hampton, 5/17)

AP: How Ohio's Vax-A-Million Lottery Will Work
With the first drawing for Ohio’s Vax-a-Million lottery system scheduled for May 26, state officials announced a change to the process Monday that will require participants to opt-in. The lottery system unveiled by Republican Gov. Mike DeWine last week will begin next Wednesday and continue for five weeks, offering residents a $1 million prize or a full-ride scholarship to a four-year university in the state. Ohio had initially planned to use state voter registration in addition to an opt-in program to automatically enroll every resident into the drawing but changed it Monday to opt-in only, state Health Director Stephanie McCloud said during a briefing. (Amiri, 5/18)

NPR: COVID-19 Vaccine Trials Underway For Kids 5 And Younger
Eloise LaCour clutches her dolly as a nurse takes her blood pressure, then swabs the 3-year-old's delicate arm with alcohol. "Tickle tickle," says Eloise's mom, Angelica LaCour. She's trying to get a smile. "Mommy's going to hug you, OK?" A Stanford University nurse carefully gives the little girl her shot. Eloise is one of 144 children in the country who are part of a Phase 1 clinical trial to test Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines in the most adorable of study cohorts — those 5 and younger. "That's it!" exclaims nurse manager Richard Brotherton, pulling the needle out of Eloise's arm. (McClurg, 5/17)

The New York Times: The Future Of Virus Tracking Can Be Found On This College Campus 
“Colorado Mesa has the most sophisticated system in the country to track outbreaks,” said Dr. Pardis Sabeti, a geneticist at the Broad Institute of M.I.T. and Harvard who has helped health officials around the world respond to Ebola, Lassa fever and other infectious diseases. “It’s definitely the kind of analytics that people talk about having but nobody actually has access to in this way.” (Anthes, 5/17)

Fox News: Pfizer Produces Much Stronger Protection If Doses Months Apart: Study
A study in the United Kingdom led by the University of Birmingham in collaboration with Public Health England reported that waiting months between doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine produces much stronger protection against COVID-19. Dr. Helen Parry, a senior author on the study at Birmingham, said: "We’ve shown that peak antibody responses after the second Pfizer vaccination are really strongly boosted in older people when this is delayed to 11 to 12 weeks. There is a marked difference between these two schedules in terms of antibody responses we see." (Miles, 5/17)

CNN: Community Health Systems: One Of America's Largest Hospital Chains Has Been Suing Patients During The Pandemic
As the coronavirus spiked in Missouri last fall, a wave of cases hit a nursing home in the state's rural heartland. Robin Bull, a part-time nurse, remembered an ambulance "coming and going constantly" on one especially scary morning, rushing residents to Moberly Regional Medical Center, the local hospital. But even as Bull was helping send patients to Moberly Regional, the hospital was in the process of suing her and at least one other former employee at the nursing home. They were two of more than 600 former patients that the hospital has sued over medical bills during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a CNN analysis of court records. (Tolan, 5/18)

Stat: FDA Issues Major Rebuke To CytoDyn Over Claims On Covid-19 Drug 
The Food and Drug Administration on Monday took the extraordinary step of issuing a lengthy statement on an unapproved drug, rejecting claims made by the troubled drug maker CytoDyn about its failed antibody treatment for Covid-19. CytoDyn’s CEO, Nader Pourhassan, has repeatedly touted the potential of the drug, leronlimab, on conference calls, YouTube videos, and in press releases, saying the treatment was shown to have saved lives in clinical trials. The FDA said it had determined otherwise. (Feuerstein, 5/17)

Stateline: New Premiums Prompt Some Michigan Medicaid Recipients To Drop Out
Imposing premiums on healthy Medicaid enrollees in Michigan caused an uptick in dropouts in the first six months of enrollment, according to a recent study. Charging premiums increased the percentage of healthier Medicaid enrollees leaving the program from 25% to 28% in the six months after enrollment, the study found. Michigan charges premiums ranging from $12 to $29 a month for Medicaid enrollees with incomes at or above the federal poverty line. (Ollove, 5/17)

Stat: Cel-Sci CEO's Remarks To Investors Raise Doubts On Cancer Drug
Cel-Sci CEO Geert Kersten spoke privately with investors last week as part of a “non-deal roadshow” organized by Kingswood Capital Markets, an investment bank that has helped the drug maker raise money in the past. The timing of the meetings is curious, given that more than one year has passed since Cel-Sci completed a Phase 3 clinical trial of its cancer immunotherapy Multikine. As I wrote recently, the only logical explanation for burying results this long is to put off admitting the study’s failure. Multikine does not work. (Feuerstein, 5/17)

Stat: Drug Makers Must Offer Discounts To Safety-Net Hospitals Or Face Penalties
After a year of controversy, the Health Resources and Services Administration notified six large drug makers that they violated the law by ending discounts to a federal program providing discounted medicines to hospitals and clinics serving mostly low-income populations. At issue is the 340B drug discount program, which requires drug makers to offer discounts that are typically estimated to be 25% to 50% — but could be much higher — on all outpatient drugs to hospitals and clinics that serve low-income populations. There are approximately 12,400 so-called covered entities, including 2,500 hospitals, participating in the program. (Silverman, 5/17)

Modern Healthcare: HHS Warns Drugmakers That Won't Give 340B Discounts To Contract Pharmacies
HHS' Health Resources and Services Administration on Monday sent letters to six drugmakers, warning them that they could face steep fines if they don't discount drug prices for pharmacies that contract with 340B providers. Pharmaceutical companies started aggressively cracking down on 340B drug discounts through contract pharmacies and demanding more data from healthcare providers last summer. They have been seemingly testing how far they could challenge HRSA guidance that allows 340B providers to receive discounts while working with multiple contract pharmacies. That led to several lawsuits from community health centers and hospital groups. (Brady, 5/17)

Stat: Congress Is Ready To Grill AbbVie’s CEO Over Drug Pricing  
AbbVie CEO Richard Gonzalez is in for a congressional tongue-lashing of outsized proportion. And it couldn’t come at a worse time. Just two years ago, AbbVie seemed on the verge of serious financial trouble. Now, investors are openly proclaiming the pharma giant as one of their favorite stock picks. AbbVie exceeded its projected earnings last month, even while other pharma giants like Merck fell short. Its stock is trading near a 52-week high. (Florko, 5/18)

Modern Healthcare: HIMSS To Require COVID-19 Vaccination For Annual Conference
Attendees at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society annual conference in August will be required to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination, the trade association announced Monday. The move comes after HIMSS canceled the 2020 conference because of the pandemic. This year conference goers will have to provide proof of vaccination, and the group said it will specify what proof will be accepted, with a focus on, "accessible, privacy-preserving technologies." (Gillespie, 5/17)

Modern Healthcare: Clover Health's Losses Climb 71% In Q1 Following SEC Review
New Medicare Advantage members pushed Clover Health's revenue up 21% during the first quarter of 2021. The Nashville-based insurtech company reported $200.3 million in revenue during the first quarter ended March 31, up from $165.3 million the year prior. Much of the revenue growth came from new Medicare Advantage membership, which grew 18% year-over-year to 66,300 enrollees. The company counted 130,000 total members. (Tepper, 5/17)

Stat: How A Startup Is Turning Unwieldy Health Data Into A Patient-Friendly Platform
Once seen as the place technological innovation went to die, health records are seeing a resurgence of interest as companies roll out creative new ways to let people interact with their health information. One of those startups, PicnicHealth, has a clear mission: Make it possible for users to access all of their medical encounters, no matter how unwieldy the format. The company has built a system to field everything from PDFs to unstructured doctor’s notes to let its users focus on self-care rather than data management. (Brodwin, 5/18)

Fox News: Pacemakers Recalled Over Risk Of Electrical Short
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a recall of nearly 62,000 pacemakers that were distributed between April 2015 and February 2019 after it was discovered that moisture could get inside the device causing an electrical short. The agency said there have been 135 complaints, 135 injuries but no deaths related to the recall of Assurity and Endurity implantable pacemakers. The devices, made by Abbott, work to detect when the heart is beating too slowly, and then send signals to the brain to make it beat at the correct pace. If there is an electrical short in the device, it could spur wrong information, impact battery life, lose pacing function or require replacement. (Hein, 5/16)

NPR: Overwork Killed More Than 745,000 People In A Year, WHO Finds
Working long hours poses an occupational health risk that kills hundreds of thousands of people each year, the World Health Organization says. People working 55 or more hours each week face an estimated 35% higher risk of a stroke and a 17% higher risk of dying from heart disease, compared to people following the widely accepted standard of working 35 to 40 hours in a week, the WHO says in a study that was published Monday in the journal Environment International. "No job is worth the risk of stroke or heart disease," WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, calling on governments, businesses and workers to find ways to protect workers' health. (Chappell, 5/17)

The Washington Post: A More Powerful Naloxone Is On The Way. The Question Is Whether It’s Needed.
With deaths from opioids soaring again, the Food and Drug Administration last month approved a more powerful version of the fast-acting antidote naloxone, an emergency medicine that restores breathing halted by overdoses of fentanyl, heroin or oxycodone. ... But there is widespread disagreement about the value of more potent naloxone. Some research shows that more than 4 milligrams is seldom needed. Some experts and harm reduction advocates, who work to reduce death on the streets, said the decision was driven by false beliefs that the increasing potency of illegal fentanyl requires a stronger antidote and by the marketing strategy of the drug company, Hikma Pharmaceuticals. Some are concerned stronger naloxone could cause harm by precipitating intense, rapid withdrawal from opioids. (Bernstein, 5/17)

The New York Times: Aspirin May Help Protect The Brain From Pollution's Toll, Study Suggests 
Long-term exposure to air pollution has many health consequences, including accelerating brain aging and increasing the risk for dementia. Now new research suggests that short-term exposure to polluted air, even at levels generally considered “acceptable,” may impair mental ability in the elderly. (Bakalar, 5/17)

CIDRAP: Irrigation Water Spotlighted As Likely Red Onion Salmonella Outbreak Source
A Food and Drug Administration (FDA) investigation into a large Salmonella Newport outbreak linked to red onions from California's Southern San Joaquin and Imperial Valley growing regions found several contributing factors, with the main hypothesis that contaminated irrigation water may have been the source. The outbreak was unusual, because it was the nation's largest in more than a decade, with hundreds of related cases reported in Canada, and it involved red onions, which hadn't been linked to earlier foodborne illness outbreaks. The event that unfolded in 2020 sickened 1,127 people in the United States and 515 in Canada. (5/17)

Consumer Reports: Little Evidence For Zinc Supplements 
Although many of us are getting fewer colds this year than usual (thanks to all our coronavirus precautions), we’re also more concerned than ever with keeping our immune systems strong. For some, that means reaching for supplements thought to boost your body’s defenses, and zinc is one of the more popular choices. According to estimates from Nutrition Business Journal, consumers spent $162 million on zinc supplements in 2020, a 35 percent increase over the previous year. Zinc has a reputation for ending colds more quickly and helping you feel better faster. But as with many supplements, the science surrounding the claims still hasn’t quite caught up to consumer interest. (Wadyka, 5/17)

NBC News: Carnival Cruise Line In 'Active Discussions' With CDC To Return To Sailing In July
Carnival Cruise Line is in talks with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and is "working towards" restarting sailing in July, Carnival President Christine Duffy said Monday. With their close confines and larger share of passengers who are older and more vulnerable, cruise ships were the sites of some of the first coronavirus outbreaks outside China. (Popken, 5/17)

Des Moines Register: Iowa Senate Passes Bill Cutting Taxes, Shifting Mental Health Care Funding To The State
Iowa lawmakers have reached a deal on a sweeping plan to move funding for mental health services from county property taxes to the state while cutting income taxes, ending Iowa's inheritance tax and boosting a range of tax credits for affordable housing and child care. The Iowa Senate passed the bill Monday on a vote of 29-15 with every Republican and Sens. Kevin Kinney, D-Oxford, and Tony Bisignano, D-Des Moines, voting yes and every other Democrat voting no. The measure now goes to the House, which is expected to pass it and send it to Gov. Kim Reynolds' desk. (Gruber-Miller, 5/17)

Crain's New York Business: N.Y. Bill Limiting Mandatory Mail-Order Pharmacy Services For Specialty Drugs Advances Assembly
A New York Assembly bill that would potentially prevent patients from being forced to use mail-order services for specialty drug prescriptions—legislation that has been introduced before—made headway last week. Although independent pharmacists lauded the development, pharmacy benefit managers said the bill not only would increase costs for employers and patients but also compromise patient safety. The bill seeks to amend a 2011 law that pharmacy benefit managers cannot make it mandatory for patients with prescriptions for "specialty drugs" to obtain them only through mail-order from "specialty pharmacies." The bill also removes a requirement for independent pharmacies to meet certain terms and conditions before they can dispense such drugs. Additionally, it further defined what a mail-order pharmacy is and included exemptions for collective-bargaining agreements. (Sim, 5/17)

USA Today: Texas Senate Tries Again To Ban Gender-Affirming Care For Transgender Youths
The Texas Senate, thwarted in two previous efforts directed at young transgender Texans, took a third bite of the apple Monday by giving initial passage, on a party-line vote, to a Republican bill that would ban gender-affirming medical care for those under age 18. Senate Bill 1311 would prohibit doctors from offering a range of treatments to youths, including puberty blockers — reversible medications commonly prescribed to delay the onset of physical changes — providing teenagers time to decide if more permanent changes are desired. (Lindell, 5/17)

AP: Scott Declares EMS Week, Asks Vermonters To Get Vaccinated
Gov. Phil Scott is asking all Vermonters to show their appreciation for emergency medical service workers by getting vaccinated against COVID-19.Scott has declared this week as EMS week. More than 100,000 requests for EMS response are answered yearly across Vermont, the Republican governor said Monday. (5/18)

AP: West Virginia To Get $2.4M For Cancer Prevention Programs
West Virginia is set to receive $2.4 million in federal funds for cancer prevention programs. The state’s U.S. senators announced the funding from the Department of Health and Human Services on Monday. The money will flow to cancer control programs in the state health department. (5/18)

NBC News: States Are Turning Away Unemployment Aid. Workers Fear Choice Between Health And A Paycheck.
For Kelvin Wade, 34, the pandemic is far from over. He recently marked the anniversary of his mother's death from Covid-19, a loss that still feels fresh. He and his wife, D'Anna, 23, who live in Ridgeland, Mississippi, fear for the safety of their 15-month-old daughter, so Wade goes out on errands alone, hoping to reduce the family's exposure. The couple is hesitant to get vaccinated, worried that the shots could bring additional risks. And more than a year after the coronavirus first began shuttering businesses and displacing people from their jobs, both are still out of work. (Harris and Silva, 5/18)

San Francisco Chronicle: One Of San Francisco's Last Big Homeless Camps Has Been Taken Down
By 9 a.m. Monday, the front-end loaders and dump trucks were lined up outside the abandoned state-owned parking lot under Highway 101 in SoMa. A few weary residents who lived there in tents, trucks and a half-built tiny home dragged their belongings onto a nearby sidewalk as social workers and California Highway Patrol officers made their final rounds. Overhead, traffic thundered as San Francisco continued to reawaken from a year in pandemic-induced limbo. Slowly, the tents and tarps and other makeshift structures started to come down. (Hepler, 5/17)

San Francisco Chronicle: S.F. Finally Has A New Mental Health Team To Respond To Homeless People In Distress. Is It Helping?
The teams, which will be fully initiated this summer, have been hailed as a compassionate way to coax the city’s most vulnerable into care. Mayor London Breed has also touted them as a key element in her road map for police reform, which she introduced last year amid the national protests over police brutality. The goal is to reduce what supporters say is the city’s over-reliance on police, particularly during sensitive situations that require a trained mental health professional. (Thadani and Cassidy, 5/17)

Reuters: India's COVID Tally Passes 25 Mln; Cyclone Complicates Efforts In Modi's State 
India total COVID-19 caseload surged past 25 million on Tuesday as a powerful cyclone complicated the health crisis in one of the states where the disease is spreading most quickly. COVID-19 tests were administered to 200,000 people evacuated from coastal districts of the western state of Gujarat before the cyclone struck late on Monday and efforts were being made to try to limit any spread of infections. (5/18)

CIDRAP: UN Agencies Make Urgent Appeal For COVAX Vaccine Doses
Ahead of the G7 summit next month in the United Kingdom, UNICEF today put out an urgent call for leaders to pool their excess COVID-19 vaccine capacity to make up for a 125-million-dose gap in the COVAX program. The plea, which comes as the B1617 and other variants are sparking fresh surges in several countries, was followed by an announcement from US President Joe Biden that the United States will donate 20 million doses of approved vaccine abroad. (Schnirring, 5/17)

NPR: Doses From U.S. Vaccine Surplus Offered To Canadians
In the U.S., more than 36% of the population are fully vaccinated, although the pace of daily doses administered has been slowing. The cross-border vaccine offers have come after frustrations grew in Canada over the pace of arrival of the large numbers of doses the Canadian government has ordered. Even as provinces ramp up vaccinations this month, several remain under severe public health restrictions enacted to overcome a variant-driven wave of COVID-19 infections that has strained hospitals. As vaccine demand slips in the U.S., some Canadians have jumped at the chance to put America's surplus doses to use. (Jacobs, 5/17)

CBS News: U.K. Eases COVID Restrictions Despite Concern Over Indian Variant 
The people of Great Britain were given the go-ahead on Monday to share a hug, drink a pint with dinner indoors, and return to movie theaters and playhouses. But as the U.K. emerges from the worst of the coronavirus pandemic, the spread of the so-called Indian variant of COVID-19 in England is causing concern, and Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned people to embrace the easing of restrictions "with a heavy dose of caution." (Saberi, 5/17)

Bloomberg: More Than 2,300 People In U.K. Infected With India Variant
The highly transmissible India variant of coronavirus has now been found in 86 districts across the U.K., Health Secretary Matt Hancock said, as he urged the public to stay cautious when meeting friends indoors. Authorities have identified 2,323 cases of the variant as of Monday, with cases doubling in the past week in Bolton and Blackburn in northwestern England, Hancock told the House of Commons on Monday. With 86 local authorities confirmed to have five or more cases of the India variant, Hancock said it was vital that people get vaccinated. Most people with the strain known as B.1.617.2 in areas around Bolton had not received a shot, he said, and early evidence suggests vaccines still work against this variant. (Ashton and Ross, 5/17)

The Washington Post: Japan Doctors Group Calls For Olympics Cancellation Amid Mounting Concern 
The Tokyo 2020 Games start in 66 days but a major Japanese doctors’ group is calling for the already-delayed event to be canceled over fears that the country’s health-care system cannot accommodate the potential medical needs of thousands of international athletes, coaches and media amid a surge of coronavirus cases in the country. “We strongly request that the authorities convince the [International Olympic Committee] that holding the Olympics is difficult and obtain its decision to cancel the Games,” said the Tokyo Medical Practitioners Association. (Ang, 5/18)