First Edition: May 19, 2021

KHN: To The Bat Cave: In Search Of Covid’s Origins, Scientists Reignite Polarizing Debate On Wuhan ‘Lab Leak’
Once dismissed as a conspiracy theory, the idea that the covid virus escaped from a Chinese lab is gaining high-profile attention. As it does, reputations of renowned scientists are at risk — and so is their personal safety. At the center of the storm is Peter Daszak, whose EcoHealth Alliance has worked directly with Chinese coronavirus scientists for years. The scientist has been pilloried by Republicans and lost National Institutes of Health funding for his work. He gets floods of threats, including hate mail with suspicious powders. In a rare interview, he conceded that he can’t disprove that the deadly covid-19 virus resulted from a lab leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology — though he doesn’t believe it. (Allen, 5/19)

KHN: Racism Derails Black Men’s Health, Even As Education Levels Rise
More education typically leads to better health, yet Black men in the U.S. are not getting the same benefit as other groups, research suggests. The reasons for the gap are vexing, experts said, but may provide an important window into unique challenges faced by Black men as they try to gain not only good health but also an equal footing in the U.S. (Anderson, 5/19)

KHN: Why Your Dentist Might Seem Pushy
In 1993, Dr. David Silber, a dentist now practicing in Plano, Texas, was fired from the first dental clinic he worked for. He’d been assigned to a patient another dentist had scheduled for a crown preparation — a metal or porcelain cap for a broken or decayed tooth. However, Silber found nothing wrong with the tooth, so he sent the patient home. He was fired later the same day. “Never send a patient away who’s willing to pay the clinic money,” he was told. (Austin, 5/19)

CNN: About 60% Of American Adults Have Had At Least One Dose Of Covid-19 Vaccine, Including More People Of Color 
The US has reached a "landmark day" in the Covid-19 pandemic as 60% of American adults have gotten at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, the director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. In addition, more than 3.5 million people ages 12 to 17 have received their first dose, Dr. Rochelle Walensky said. And more people of color are getting vaccinated -- marking "encouraging national trends," said White House Covid-19 Response Team senior adviser Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith. (Maxouris and Yan, 5/19)

NBC News: 600,000 Children, Ages 12-15, Have Received Their First Covid-19 Vaccine Dose
At least 600,000 children, ages 12 to 15, have received their first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccination, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said during a media briefing Tuesday. The count comes just over a week after the Food and Drug Administration greenlighted it for emergency use in this age group, a total of 17 million in the U.S. — though many major pharmacies and hospitals did not start administering the shots until last Thursday, after the CDC also signed off on it. (Edwards, 5/18)

CNN: Average Covid-19 Cases Are Lowest They've Been In Nearly A Year. Vaccines Can Push Them Even Lower, Officials Say 
Covid-19 vaccines have proven a tremendous ally in America's battle against the virus. "For the first time since the pandemic began, Covid cases are down in all 50 states," White House senior Covid-19 adviser Andy Slavitt said in a Tuesday briefing. "We are winning the war on the virus, and we need you to help us finish the job." His comments come as state leaders and public health officials express optimism about the country's Covid-19 trends and where we could be by summertime. (Maxouris, 5/19)

Axios: Several States Report Zero COVID Deaths For The First Time In Months 
Over the weekend, Texas reported reaching the milestone of zero deaths from COVID-19 for the first time since March 2020. Arizona, Minnesota, and Massachusetts also recently reported COVID death-free days for the first time in months. Other states also posted positive COVID metrics at the top of the week while COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. fell to their lowest in nearly 14 months, Reuters reported. (Reed, 5/18)

The Hill: G20 Leaders Commit To 'Patent-Pooling' For COVID-19 Vaccines: Report
Leaders of the Group of Twenty (G20) are expected to commit to "patent-pooling" for COVID-19 vaccines, bucking the World Health Organization’s call for a waiver on patent rights, Reuters reports. According to a draft document seen by the news outlet, the leaders will back “voluntary licensing” of vaccine patents. The news outlet reported that it was the result of a compromise among experts from the various nations. A patent pool would allow drugmakers to voluntarily share licenses for manufacturing their products. (Williams, 5/18)

Reuters: Under Pressure EU Presents WTO Plan To Boost Vaccine Output
The European Union put forward a plan on Wednesday it believes will help boost production and availability of COVID-19 vaccines more effectively than a proposed waiver of patent rights now backed by the United States. Under pressure from developing countries to agree to waiving intellectual property (IP) rights for vaccines and treatments, the EU plan will focus on export restrictions, pledges from vaccine developers and use of existing World Trade Organization rules. (Blenkinsop, 5/19)

Roll Call: Could Supreme Court Supercharge Midterms With Abortion Ruling?
If redistricting hadn’t complicated the midterm elections enough, a Supreme Court decision on one of the country’s most polarizing issues has the potential to supercharge the fight for the House and Senate. This week, the Supreme Court announced it would hear a challenge to a new Mississippi law — Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization — that would ban abortion, with limited exceptions, after 15 weeks. The case is widely viewed as having the potential to reverse the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. (Gonzales, 5/19)

The Washington Post: House Passes Bill To Combat Hate Crimes Against Asian Americans
The House on Tuesday passed legislation to aggressively investigate hate crimes, especially those targeting Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, that have increased during the coronavirus pandemic. The vote was 364 to 62; all the votes in opposition came from Republicans. The legislation heads to President Biden for his signature. Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) introduced the Covid-19 Hate Crimes Act in March after attacks against Asian Americans increased after the coronavirus emerged in China. Just five days after Hirono introduced the legislation, eight people were killed — including six women of Asian descent — in a mass shooting at three Atlanta-area spas. (Scott, 5/18)

The New York Times: Texas Governor Will Prohibit Local Mask Mandates
Most government authorities in Texas will soon be prohibited from requiring people to wear masks, Gov. Greg Abbott announced on Tuesday, days after federal health officials announced new guidance that encourages people who have been completely vaccinated to forego masks in most situations. The executive order Mr. Abbott announced on Tuesday would prevent counties, cities, public health authorities and local government officials from requiring people to wear masks beginning on Friday. Violators could be fined $1,000. (Slotnik, Hassan and Pietsch, 5/18)

Axios: States Reconsidering Governors' Waning COVID-19 Powers 
Governors are seeing their pandemic-related broad reach and executive powers wane as the public health emergency subsides and the necessity for restrictions and emergency action ends. Governors took on outsize roles from Maine to California as much of the burden fell to the states. In some, their powers are about to revert to the norm. In others, their expanded reach is triggering a re-examination of whether they should have such authority in the future. (Mucha, 5/18)

CIDRAP: Disparities In US COVID Vaccine Distribution Spotlighted
Two studies today describe US COVID-19 vaccination disparities, one evaluating vaccine allocation plans aimed at reducing distribution differences, and the other revealing urban versus rural inequities. The first study, led by University of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia researchers and published in Nature Medicine, involved analysis of COVID-19 vaccine allocation plans provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC's) 64 jurisdictions, which consist of 50 states, five large cities, eight territories, and Washington, DC. (Van Beusekom, 5/18)

The Hill: State Vaccine Rates Fall Along Red, Blue Divide
The U.S. vaccine map looks a lot like a map of how states vote in presidential elections, with most blue states vaccinating at levels well above the national average and GOP states bringing up the rear. The politics of COVID-19 have been partisan from almost the onset of the pandemic, and polls consistently show that Republicans, particularly men, are more hesitant than Democrats to get vaccinated. The deep-blue state of Vermont has the highest share of its population with at least one vaccine dose, at 65 percent, according to data compiled by The New York Times, followed by Massachusetts, Hawaii, New Hampshire and Connecticut. (Weixel, Sullivan and Coleman, 5/18)

WUSF Public Media: Hispanics Are The Most Eager To Get Vaccinated, Survey Shows — But Face Obstacles 
Hispanics who have yet to receive a COVID-19 shot are about twice as likely as non-Hispanic whites or Blacks to say they’d like to get vaccinated as soon as possible, according to a survey released this past week. The findings hint at fixable, though difficult, vaccine access problems for the population. One-third of unvaccinated Hispanics say they want the shots, compared with 17% of Blacks and 16% of whites, according to the survey released Thursday by the Kaiser Family Foundation. (Kaiser Health News is an editorially independent program of KFF.) (Almendrala, 5/18)

The Washington Post: Millions Of Immunocompromised Americans May Not Be Fully Protected By Covid Vaccines
Hoffman, 39, is fully vaccinated and eager to rejoin the world. But as a kidney transplant patient, she is hesitant to participate for fear of becoming infected. “Risk is very different for people in my situation,” she said. “I am 100 percent acting like I am not immunized.” The state worker is among millions of immunocompromised Americans, about 3 to 4 percent of the U.S. population, for whom the shots may not work fully, or at all, and who are unsure of their place in a country that is increasingly opening up. Emerging research shows that 15 to 80 percent of those with certain conditions, such as specific blood cancers or who have had organ transplants, are generating few antibodies. (Eunjung Cha, 5/18)

CBS News: U.S. Lags Behind Russia And China In Sending COVID-19 Vaccines To Struggling Nations In Need
While about 37% of Americans are fully vaccinated, many nations struggle to get vaccines and have turned to other world powers like China and Russia to secure doses. President Biden on Monday announced the U.S. will send 20 million doses of federally authorized COVID-19 vaccines to other countries. That's in addition to the 60 million doses of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine the Biden administration committed to be sent to other nations by July. America ordered enough vaccines to vaccinate its population twice, while many other countries are still struggling to secure them. A United Nations program backed by the U.S. has so far delivered fewer than 70 million coronavirus vaccine doses worldwide when billions are needed. (5/18)

The New York Times: India Records The Pandemic’s Highest Daily Death Toll For A Single Country.
Many experts believe the true number of deaths and infections in India, a country of 1.4 billion people, is even higher, and evidence has emerged across the country of large numbers of people dying from Covid who have not been officially counted. (Mashal, 5/19)

Reuters: Indian Variant's Transmissibility Edge Might Be Smaller Than Feared, UK Expert Says
"There's... a glimmer of hope from the recent data that, whilst this variant does still appear to have a significant growth advantage, the magnitude of that advantage seems to have dropped a little bit with the most recent data," Neil Ferguson, an epidemiologist at Imperial College London, told BBC radio. Ferguson, who is member of the government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), said that it was tricky to immediately determine by how much how the B.1.617.2 outcompetes the Kent variant, and more data was needed. (5/19)

NBC News: Covid Variant From India: How Contagious Is The New Variant?
The B.1.617 variant is one of the factors driving the current crisis in India and neighboring Nepal. It may also be linked to recently rising cases among unvaccinated people in the United Kingdom. The variant is believed more contagious than the original SARS-CoV-2 virus, but as yet there’s no clear evidence it causes more severe disease or more deaths. The same public health measures — masks and social distancing — can prevent the spread of the virus variant, experts say. And while it might have some impact on the vaccines, its mutations will likely not be enough to weaken protection against serious illness, research suggests. (Syal, 5/18)

The Wall Street Journal: Covid-19 Shots For Teens Can Hit Legal Snags And Parental Pushback
A 16-year-old in South Carolina can get a Covid-19 vaccine without a parent’s permission. A 17-year-old in New York can’t. In Oregon, anyone 15 or older can, but not if a pharmacist is the one giving a shot. With children aged 12 to 15 newly able to receive a Covid-19 vaccine, the patchwork of state laws that govern whether minors can receive the shots without their parents’ permission brings a new wrinkle to inoculation efforts. And vaccine providers—from family doctors to drugstores—are sorting out how to navigate situations in which children want the shot but their parents say no. The situation is creating consternation for some as the U.S. aims to speed its vaccination campaign. (Terlep, 5/19)

The Hill: Study Shows Nearly 100 Percent Develop COVID-19 Antibodies After Second Shot
A new study from the United Kingdom found that nearly 100 percent of people develop COVID-19 antibodies after receiving their second shot of the AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines. “We found that 96.42% of Virus Watch participants were antibody positive 28-34 days after a single dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. This increased to 99.08% 7-14 days after a second vaccine dose,” the study found. The study comes as the U.K. has been spacing the first and second dose of the coronavirus vaccine further apart in order to get more people vaccinated. (Lonas, 5/18)

CIDRAP: Bamlanivimab Cuts Hospitalization, Deaths In High-Risk COVID Outpatients
Fewer high-risk outpatients with mild or moderate COVID-19 needed hospitalization or died within 28 days when given bamlanivimab soon after infection compared with their matched peers, finds an observational study yesterday in Open Forum Infectious Diseases. University of Pittsburgh researchers compared the outcomes of 232 COVID-19 outpatients given the monoclonal antibody (mAb) from Dec 9, 2020, to Mar 3, 2021, with those of 1,160 coronavirus patients of similar age and health status who didn't receive the drug. (5/18)

Stat: Google Debuts An AI-Powered App To Analyze Skin Conditions
Google on Tuesday debuted an artificial intelligence-powered dermatology tool that analyzes a user’s photos, asks a series of questions, and produces a list of possible causes. Although the tool, an app called “dermatology assist,” remains in the pilot stages in the U.S., Google has received approval from European regulators to market it as a low-risk medical device, enabling the tech giant to release it to some consumers as part of Google search later this year. (Brodwin, 5/18)

CIDRAP: Fewer Drug-Resistant Microbes Found In Organic Meat
A new study examining antibiotic-resistant bacterial contamination in retail meat samples indicate that how the meat is produced matters. But how the meat is processed also matters. The study, published last week in Environmental Health Perspectives, found that retail meat samples from producers certified as organic by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) had a significantly lower prevalence of multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs) than meat raised conventionally. (Dall, 5/18)

AP: Americans Urged To Get Colon Cancer Screening Earlier
Americans should start getting screened for colon cancer earlier -- at age 45 instead of waiting until they’re 50, according to guidelines released Tuesday. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force said it’s time for the change because colorectal cancer increasingly is appearing in younger adults. Colorectal cancer is one of the nation’s leading cancer killers, claiming about 50,000 lives a year. Overall, cases and deaths have inched down in recent years, thanks in part to screening tests that can spot tumors early -- or even prevent them by removing precancerous growths. (5/18)

Axios: Task Force Lowers Recommended Age For Colon Cancer Screening To 45 
Americans should start getting screened for colon cancer at age 45 instead of at 50, according to new guidance from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF). The taskforce said the recommendation reflects the fact that colon cancer — the third-leading cause of cancer death for men and women in the country — is increasingly occurring among adults younger than 50. (Knutson, 5/18)

NBC News: Back To Normal? Psychologists Warn The Pandemic Could Have Lasting Effects
“I’m very concerned about the effects being long-term,” said Luana Marques, an associate professor of psychology at Harvard Medical School. “Given that — consistently, globally — you’ve seen the levels of depression and anxiety high since last March, that tells me that we’re going to see an increasing prevalence of mental health [problems] globally.” Since the Covid-19 pandemic began, conversations surrounding public health have primarily focused on protecting people’s physical health. As a deadly virus spread across the globe, strategies were developed to contain its spread. (Benson, 5/18)

The Baltimore Sun: Johns Hopkins University To Begin Sending Mental Health Providers On Security Calls 
The Johns Hopkins University plans in the fall to begin sending trained mental health providers on calls to campus security from students and staff who may be having a crisis. The move is similar to pilot programs recently announced in Baltimore city and county, and reflects a movement around the country to better tend to the mental health needs of the community and avoid unnecessary police involvement. (Cohn, 5/18)

Stat: Some Drug Makers Could Be 'Highly' Susceptible To Ransomware Attacks
The latest high-profile incident of a ransomware attack caused one of the biggest gas and fuel suppliers in the U.S. to close its East Coast pipeline for several days, a worrisome reminder that each industry remains vulnerable to cyberattacks. And not surprisingly, pharmaceutical companies also are easy targets, according to a new analysis. (Silverman, 5/18)

Boston Globe: Atlas Venture Launches Another Biotech To Tackle Vision Loss
Call it “Quest for Sight: The Sequel. ”In September, the Swiss drug giant Novartis paid $150 million for a Cambridge startup that had developed a pair of potential gene therapies to restore vision to people with blindness stemming from genetic diseases. It was a sizable return for the biotech, which had used roughly half of the $21 million in venture capital it had raised after its founding about 17 months earlier by Atlas Venture. (Saltzman, 5/18)

Stat: As Teladoc Bolsters Mental Health Business, Competitors Make Their Case
If Teladoc, the bigfoot of virtual care, comes poking around your turf, you’d better be ready. For several billion-dollar mental health startups, that moment came last week, when the company announced a retooled, expansive offering for employers and health plans, trampling into a crowded market. (Aguilar, 5/19)

The Wall Street Journal: House Committee Takes On Pricing, Patents For Top-Selling Drug Humira
Democratic members of the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Reform have been investigating how AbbVie sets the prices of some of its products, including its top-selling immunology drug, Humira. At the hearing, committee members questioned AbbVie Chief Executive Richard Gonzalez about price increases for Humira as well as AbbVie’s patents and other efforts to protect the drug from competition from lower-priced copies known as biosimilars. Mr. Gonzalez said lowering drug prices alone wouldn’t increase access to prescription drugs for patients, including some Medicare patients. He said AbbVie provides medications to some patients who can’t afford them at no-cost or through co-pay assistance. (Hopkins, 5/18)

AP: West Virginia Nutrition Program To Offer Benefits Boost
West Virginia women and children who participate in a nutrition program will receive a temporary benefit boost this summer for the purchase of additional fruits and vegetables, state health officials said. The Women, Infants and Children program will increase the benefit amount to $35 per month for each eligible participant from July through September. The current benefit is $9 per child, $11 for pregnant or postpartum women and $16.50 for mothers who breastfeed, the Bureau for Public Health’s office of nutrition services said in a statement. (5/19)

AP: 'City In Transition': New York Vies To Turn Page On Pandemic
More than a year after coronavirus shutdowns sent “the city that never sleeps” into a fitful slumber, New York could be wide awake again this summer. Starting Wednesday, vaccinated New Yorkers can shed their masks in most situations, and restaurants, stores, gyms and many other businesses can go back to full capacity if they check vaccination cards or apps for proof that all patrons have been inoculated. (Peltz, 5/19)

The New York Times: Virginia Doctor Gets 59 Years For Unneeded Surgery And Improper Sterilizations
A Virginia obstetrician and gynecologist was sentenced Tuesday to 59 years in prison after being convicted on federal charges of performing medically unnecessary surgeries including hysterectomies and improper sterilizations on scores of patients over nearly a decade, prosecutors said. In November 2020, a federal jury also convicted the doctor, Javaid Perwaiz, of Chesapeake, of 52 counts of health care fraud and false statements for procedures he performed from 2010 through 2019, according to the U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia. (Paybarah, 5/18)

Axios: Tennessee Becomes Second State To Pass Bill Limiting Medical Care For Trans Minors 
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee (R) signed a bill into law Tuesday that includes an amendment to keep health care providers from prescribing hormone treatment for transgender minors who haven't yet hit puberty, according to the state's General Assembly. Tennessee is now the second state to pass legislation that aims to restrict transition-related or gender-affirming care for trans minors, as a record number of state bills targeting trans youth have been introduced across the U.S. (Rummier, 5/18)

Georgia Health News: A Widening War Against Lead In West Atlanta 
In a well-kept west Atlanta yard Saturday, two women held up small pieces of a rock-like material they had spotted on the ground. It wasn’t rock, the two agreed: It was slag. Rosario Hernandez and Eri Saikawa know plenty about west Atlanta’s deposits of slag. The stuff is a byproduct of smelting, and many years ago people used it to fill in low-lying areas in the neighborhood. In this west Atlanta community of high unemployment and child poverty, the slag typically is evidence of lead — a powerful neurotoxin that’s especially harmful to children. (Miller, 5/18)

AP: Irish Health System Struggling To Recover From Cyberattack
Ireland’s health system struggled to restore computers and treat patients Tuesday, four days after it shut down its entire information technology system in response to a ransomware attack. Thousands of diagnostic appointments, cancer treatment clinics and surgeries have been canceled or delayed since Friday’s cyberattack. Authorities said hundreds of people were assigned to get crippled systems back online, but it could be weeks before the public health service will return to normal. (Hui, Kirka and Bajak, 5/18)

AP: Singapore Chides Indian Politician For False Virus Claims
Singapore criticized an Indian politician on Wednesday for making unfounded claims on social media that a new COVID-19 variant in Singapore was particularly harmful to children and could cause a fresh surge of infections in India. Singapore’s Foreign Ministry said it summoned India’s high commissioner over the comments made by Arvind Kejriwal, the chief minister of Delhi, India’s capital territory. Kejriwal called for a halt in air traffic between the two nations because of the new “Singapore variant.” It was unclear why he made such a call because Singapore has already banned flights from India over the high number of cases there. (5/19)

The Wall Street Journal: Steep Covid-19 Rise In Nepal Mirrors India’s Surge
With all six ventilators at a hospital in central Nepal already being used by Covid-19 patients on Sunday, doctors asked the son of Lal Bahadur Thakur to try to find one somewhere else, as his father gasped for breath. As India’s Covid-19 surge has swept into Nepal, hospitals are reporting an overwhelming number of severe cases and similar shortages of beds, oxygen and ventilators. Much like what happened in India, cases have risen faster here than during any previous outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, quickly overwhelming a healthcare system with fewer resources than its much larger neighbor to the south. (Pokharel, 5/18)

The Washington Post: UAE Offers Third Dose Of Sinopharm Coronavirus Vaccine
The United Arab Emirates said on Tuesday that it will offer an additional dose of the Chinese-developed Sinopharm coronavirus vaccine to people who have already received two shots of the vaccine more than six months ago. The decision marks a significant expansion in the UAE’s booster shot program, which is among the first in the world. The country had previously administered a third Sinopharm shot to some people whose immune systems did not create enough antibodies after vaccination. In March, a top researcher at G42, an Abu Dhabi-based firm that held late-stage trials of the Sinopharm vaccine said that very few people would likely need the booster. (Ang, 5/19)

AP: IOC Offers Tokyo Medical Help Amid Call For Cancellation
Confronted in Japan with some of the strongest medical-community opposition yet to the Tokyo Olympics, IOC President Thomas Bach offered Wednesday to have added medical personnel available to help out when the games open in just over nine weeks. Bach gave few details, speaking remotely at the opening of three days of meetings between the International Olympic Committee and local organizers. He said the help would come from various national Olympic committees and be available in the Olympic village and sports venues. (Wade, 5/19)

The New York Times: Airstrike Damages Gaza's Only Covid-19 Testing Lab, Officials Say
Since Covid-19 first emerged in the blockaded Gaza Strip, a shortage of medical supplies has allowed authorities to administer only a relatively tiny number of coronavirus tests. Now, the sole laboratory in Gaza that processes test results has become temporarily inoperable after an Israeli airstrike nearby on Monday, officials in Gaza said. The strike, which targeted a separate building in Gaza City, sent shrapnel and debris flying across the street, damaging the lab and the administrative offices of the Hamas-run Health Ministry, said Dr. Majdi Dhair, director of the ministry’s preventive medicine department. (Rasgon, 5/18)