First Edition: May 28, 2021
Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations. (Editor's note: We will not publish newsletters on Monday, Memorial Day).
KHN:
Caring For An Aging Nation
Health care for the nation’s seniors looms large as the baby-boom generation ages into retirement. President Joe Biden tacitly acknowledged those needs in March with his proposal to spend $400 billion over the next eight years to improve access to in-home and community-based care. The swelling population of seniors will far outpace growth in other age groups. That acceleration — and the slower growth in other age groups — could leave many older Americans with less family to rely on for help in their later years. Meanwhile, federal officials estimate that more than half of people turning 65 will need long-term care services at some point. That care is expensive and can be hard to find. (Zuraw and Heredia Rodriguez, 5/28)
KHN:
In California, Nursing Home Owners Can Operate After They’re Denied A License
The pandemic has highlighted poor care in America’s nursing homes, where nearly 175,000 people have died of covid-19 — a third of all deaths from the disease nationwide. Even before the pandemic, patient advocates pointed to dangerous conditions in U.S. nursing homes, including staffing shortages and infection control failures. Many nursing homes didn’t provide quality care, they charged. (Mendelson and Yu, 5/28)
KHN:
Opioids Like ‘Lean’ Permeate Hip-Hop Culture, But Dangers Are Downplayed
Nykerrius Williams knows about the close relationship between hip-hop and opioid use. Williams, 27, an independent rapper from Gibsland, Louisiana, who goes by the name Young Nyke, took oxycodone pills for the first time when he was 16 and has continued patterns of misuse of those pills, as well as Lortabs, Xanax and codeine cough syrups, until recently. To him, it’s part of the business. “If you ain’t rapping about being on no drugs, or you out here in the streets selling some drugs,” he said of his chosen profession, “you ain’t got some of that going on — like, don’t nobody wanna hear what you talking about.” (Giles, 5/28)
KHN:
KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: The Return Of The Public Option
The “public option” is back — both in Washington, D.C., and the states. President Joe Biden as a candidate supported the idea of a government-run or heavily regulated insurance plan that would compete with private insurance. But until now it has been more of a concept than a plan. Two top health leaders in Congress say they will try to put a plan together, while public options in various forms work their way through legislatures in Colorado and Nevada. Meanwhile, bioethicists are debating whether the U.S. should be vaccinating low-risk adolescents against covid-19 while high-risk adults in other countries remain vulnerable. (5/27)
CNN:
CDC Predicts Covid-19 Cases, Hospitalizations And Deaths Will Fall Over Next Four Weeks
There is good news for the US as people get ready for Memorial Day weekend. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is predicting that Covid-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths will fall over the next four weeks. The CDC ensemble forecasts conclude that there will be a total of 596,000 to 606,000 Covid-19 deaths by June 19. As of Thursday, Covid-19 has killed at least 593,288 people and infected more than 33 million in the US, according to Johns Hopkins University. (Kallingal, 5/28)
ABC News:
Biden To Praise Progress Against COVID-19 Pandemic Ahead Of Major Holiday Weekend
Appearing in Virginia ahead of Memorial Day weekend, President Joe Biden is expected to tout the state's and the country's "strong progress" against the coronavirus pandemic, while encouraging more Americans to get vaccinated, according to a White House official. Nearly 130 days after he urged Americans in his inaugural speech to persevere through the "dark winter" with the coronavirus, Biden is also expected to take an optimistic and hopeful tone in a speech in Alexandria, Virginia, on Friday, the official said. (Siegel, 5/28)
CIDRAP:
Ten States Reach 70% COVID-19 Vaccination Goal
So far ten states have reached President Biden's Jul 4 goal of vaccinating 70% of eligible residents against COVID-19, according to White House COVID-19 response coordinator Andy Slavitt. Pennsylvania joined Vermont, Hawaii, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maine, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and New Mexico as the tenth state to reach the 70% goal of having citizens with at least one dose of vaccine. Slavitt tweeted that another 10 states are above 65% coverage. (Soucheray, 5/27)
NBC News:
White House Vaccine Diplomacy Push Confronts Logistical, Diplomatic Hurdles
The White House commitment to ship millions of doses of Covid-19 vaccines abroad has generated diplomatic and logistical challenges for administration officials to untangle as more countries seek U.S. assistance to overcome dire vaccine shortages. Since President Joe Biden announced this month that 80 million shots would be shipped abroad by the end of June, the White House has yet to send out any of the doses because of a variety of hurdles from logistical to regulatory. In the meantime, infections are surging in countries from Haiti to Japan, which struggle with organizational challenges and have only a small fraction of the doses they need. (Pettypiece, 5/28)
The Wall Street Journal:
Biden Is Expected To Unveil $6 Trillion Spending Plan
The White House is expected to release President Biden’s first budget proposal Friday, offering new details on how the administration would implement plans over the coming decade to spend $4.5 trillion and increase taxes. The president is proposing a $6 trillion budget for fiscal year 2022, which begins Oct. 1, according to people familiar with the plans. That includes $1.52 trillion in discretionary spending for the military and domestic programs, including more funding for education, healthcare, research and renewable energy, White House officials said in April. (Davidson, 5/28)
CNN:
New York Times: Intelligence Officials Said To Have Untapped Evidence On Covid-19 Origins
President Joe Biden's instructions to the US intelligence community to redouble its efforts in investigating the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic came on the heels of intelligence officials informing the White House that they possessed unreviewed evidence necessitating greater computer analysis that could potentially provide answers, The New York Times reported Thursday. The paper cited senior administration officials, who opted not to detail the new evidence or the computational analysis to be done. The disclosure raises the question of whether the government fully examined existing intelligence and public health information in seeking out the virus's emergence. (Kelly, 5/28)
The Hill:
Democratic State Treasurers Warn Against Repurposing COVID-19 Funds For Infrastructure
Democratic state treasurers are warning Congress against a GOP pitch to repurpose funds from President Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief law to pay for infrastructure investments. In an open letter to lawmakers Thursday, 14 Democratic state treasurers argued that taking funds from the COVID-19 relief measure would imperil the economic recovery. (Chalfant, 5/27)
The Hill:
Top Senate Republican Says 'Structural Reforms' Needed At CDC For Next Health Threat
Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) issued a scathing memo criticizing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) response to the coronavirus pandemic, calling for “structural” reform of the agency following what he called “mistakes” responding to COVID-19. “Structural and cultural reforms at CDC are needed to ensure the organization is modern, nimble, mission-focused, and able to leverage cutting-edge science so that the United States is better prepared for the next threat that will come our way,” Burr, the top Republican on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, wrote in a five-page brief. (Axelrod, 5/27)
The Wall Street Journal:
Resistance To Medicaid Expansion Sets Up 2022 Fight In Holdout States
Democrats look to Medicaid expansion fights to juice 2022 races in battleground states like Wisconsin and Florida, and even red ones like Missouri. They have been boosted by several state ballot referendums showing popular support for the expansions, and a carrot-and-stick approach from the Biden administration aided by American Rescue Plan funds. Resistant Republicans are tying the expansions to other Democratic policies, like expanded unemployment benefits, that they say are hampering the economic recovery from the pandemic. (Rubin, 5/28)
AP:
Governor Lets Medicaid Bill Become Law Without Signature
Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt said Thursday he has let a bill putting some restrictions on his plan to privatize Medicaid become law without his signature. Stitt has pushed forward with a plan to outsource management of the state’s Medicaid system to for-profit insurance companies, maintaining that that approach will maximize health care quality while cutting costs. But much of the Republican-controlled Legislature opposes that proposal. The bill they passed imposes some restrictions on the privatization proposal, dubbed managed care. (5/27)
Stat:
FDA Revives Program Trump Administration Ended Based On 'Inaccuracies'
In an unexpected move, the Food and Drug Administration is reversing a decision by the Trump administration to end a controversial program that forces drug makers to win regulatory approval for medicines already on the market, but were never actually approved. At issue is the Unapproved Drugs Initiative, which was launched in 2006 to gather data on numerous medicines that had been available for years on a grandfathered basis because they predated stricter approval requirements. But the program prompted complaints that some companies established monopolies after winning approval for a drug that, in some cases, led to big price hikes or shortages. (Silverman, 5/27)
CNBC:
Elizabeth Holmes' Lawyers Cite Negative Coverage In Request To Expand Jury Selection
In the case of Elizabeth Holmes apparently all publicity isn’t good publicity. Attorneys for the former Theranos CEO are citing widespread negative coverage as a reason to expand selection for the pool of jurors in her upcoming criminal fraud trial. A 21-page motion filed late Thursday spelled out example after example of highly descriptive and unflattering stories in the past several years about Holmes. (Khorram, 5/28)
Stat:
How A Single Pfizer Decision Disrupted The Covid Vaccine Rollout
Pfizer Covid-19 vaccines arrive in an insulated box, tightly packed with dry ice, roughly double the size of a carry-on suitcase. Fully loaded, it weighs about 80 pounds. Unremarkable as it may be, this rectangular package helps explain the considerable obstacles in rolling out Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine. The large box also represents how the pharma behemoth rebuffed the federal government, creating public health setbacks but greater profits. (Goldhill and Cohrs, 5/28)
The Wall Street Journal:
FDA, J&J Near Deal For Covid-19 Vaccine Production At Baltimore Plant
The Food and Drug Administration and vaccine maker Johnson & Johnson JNJ -0.15% expect to announce within days that contamination problems at a Covid-19 vaccine plant in Baltimore are resolved, clearing the way for millions more doses to become available. Vaccine production at the plant run by contract manufacturer Emergent BioSolutions Inc. EBS 0.61% was halted after unsanitary conditions led to contamination of J&J vaccines. The facility made vaccine substance and finished vaccine doses for J&J and AstraZeneca AZN 0.62% PLC. Emergent chief executive Robert Kramer told a House committee last week that the company had produced enough of a key ingredient to yield more than 100 million doses of the J&J vaccine. (Burton, 5/27)
Reuters:
U.S. Opens Criminal Probe Into Alleged Lapses At Eli Lilly Plant
The U.S. Justice Department has launched a criminal investigation into Eli Lilly and Co (LLY.N) focused on alleged manufacturing irregularities and records tampering at a factory in Branchburg, New Jersey, that produces the pharmaceutical giant’s COVID-19 therapy and other drugs, three people familiar with the matter said. The probe represents a significant escalation of the government scrutiny on Lilly. The pharmaceutical company, one of the world's largest, has been under examination for more than a year by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration over alleged manufacturing and records violations at the Branchburg factory. (Taylor, Spector and Levine, 5/27)
NPR:
CDC Approach To Breakthrough Infections Sparks Concerns
The CDC has decided to focus investigations of cases in which the COVID-19 vaccines fail on people who get hospitalized or die, but critics say that's short-sighted. (Stein, 5/27)
The Hill:
ACLU Calls For COVID-19 Vaccines For Those In ICE Detention
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is pushing the Biden administration to vaccinate everyone in immigration detention along with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) staff. “Given the urgency posed by COVID-19 — including the introduction of new variants and continued outbreaks throughout detention centers across the country from increased population numbers — it is imperative that ICE act quickly to provide vaccines to all detained people and staff in all detention facilities nationwide,” the ACLU wrote in a letter to both Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and ICE acting Director Tae Johnson. (Beitsch, 5/27)
The Wall Street Journal:
Covid-19 Fraud Charges Leveled Across The Country
Billy Joe Taylor set up a medical testing lab in 2017 in Arkansas, submitting around $23 million in claims to Medicare through early 2020. His billing activities had already left a former business partner uneasy, the partner later told the FBI, but once the pandemic hit the activities appeared to go into overdrive. Mr. Taylor acquired a California lab for $60,000 in February 2020, according to a Federal Bureau of Investigation affidavit filed last week, and used it to bill more than $42 million in fake claims through last month. Mr. Taylor bundled expensive and unnecessary tests with those coded as Covid-19-related, in an apparent effort to slip them through for approval, the affidavit alleged. The document said $11 million of those claimed were paid. (Viswanatha, 5/27)
CIDRAP:
State COVID-19 Vaccine Websites Found Wanting In Accessibility, Usability
Many state-run COVID-19 vaccine websites could improve their accessibility and usability, according to a research letter yesterday in JAMA Network Open. The researchers conducted a qualitative study on each state's website for COVID-19 vaccine information and looked at accessibility and usability from the standpoint of someone who was trying to understand vaccine eligibility, wanting to schedule an appointment online, or needing to be added to a wait list. (5/27)
The Hill:
Shrinking Number Of Unvaccinated People Eager To Get Coronavirus Jab: Poll
A shrinking population of unvaccinated people say they're eager to get the COVID-19 vaccine as soon as possible this month, according to a poll released Friday. The Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) Vaccine Monitor determined that while 62 percent of respondents reported getting their COVID-19 shot, 4 percent say they will get vaccinated at soon as possible. The overall vaccination rate does show improvement since April’s survey, when 56 percent reported getting their shot. But the percentage of people who wanted the vaccine as soon as possible dropped from 9 percent in April. (Coleman, 5/28)
CBS News:
Kroger To Give Away $5 Million To Promote U.S. Vaccination Effort
Kroger will give $1 million to five customers and free groceries for a year to another 50 to encourage more Americans to get vaccinated against COVID-19, the nation's biggest grocery chain said Thursday. The move has Kroger joining a national effort to get more Americans immunized and derail a pandemic behind the deaths of more than 593,000 Americans. Details of the Kroger Health campaign will come next week, and follows a collaboration with the Biden administration to push toward a target of having at least 70% of U.S. adults given their first vaccine dose by July 10, the company said. That target could be hard to reach amid hesitancy by a sizable chunk of the population. (Gibson, 5/27)
Axios:
CVS Health Offers Vacation Sweepstakes For COVID Shots
Since protection against a potentially deadly virus isn't enough incentive for some to get the COVID-19 vaccine, companies have begun offering everything from date nights to tropical vacations to coax Americans to get the shot. The giveaways are just the latest examples of increasingly lucrative rewards, including Ohio's $1 million lottery prizes, aimed at luring the hesitant. (Reed, 5/28)
CIDRAP:
Review Finds Persistent Symptoms In 73% Of COVID-19 Patients
Almost three quarters of patients reported at least one persisting COVID-19 symptom during follow-up, with the most common being shortness of breath and fatigue, according to a literature review published in JAMA Network Open yesterday. The researchers looked at 45 studies published from Jan 1, 2020, to Mar 11, 2021, and defined long-haul COVID as either 60 days after diagnosis, symptom onset, or hospitalization, or at least 30 days after acute illness recovery or hospital discharge. The largest proportion of studies came from China (7), followed by the United Kingdom (6), Spain (6), Italy (5), France (4), and the United States (3). (5/27)
AP:
Heart Inflammation After Virus Is Rare In Big Ten Athletes
The results from the Big Ten COVID-19 Cardiac Registry show just 37 of nearly 1,600 athletes — a little over 2% — had evidence of heart inflammation on imaging tests. Of these, nine athletes had any chest pain, palpitations or other symptoms, according to the study published Thursday in JAMA Cardiology. Follow-up testing showed inflammation had disappeared a month later in most of the athletes affected, but about 40% of the 37 had scarring. The researchers said it is uncertain whether these affects pose a substantial health risk, although myocarditis, the medical term for the type of heart inflammation involved, is a leading cause of sudden death in athletes. (Tanner, 5/27)
The Hill:
Naomi Osaka Cites Mental Health In Skipping French Open Press Room
Japanese tennis star Naomi Osaka says that in an effort to protect her mental health, she won't be speaking to the media at this year's French Open, risking substantial fines. Osaka, the current world No. 2, said on her Instagram Wednesday that seeing other players have mental breakdowns in the press room after losses led to her decision, adding she doesn’t believe in "kicking a person while they are down." (Oshin, 5/27)
NPR and WLRN:
Trying To Avoid Racist Health Care, Black Women Seek Out Black Obstetricians
Black women are three times more likely to die in childbirth than white women. Some of them look to black doctors for a sense of safety and connection, while medical schools add antiracism training. (Zaragovia, 5/27)
CIDRAP:
Big Spikes In Overdose Cardiac Arrests, Opioid Deaths Amid COVID-19
Two new JAMA studies reveal startling jumps in overdose-related cardiac arrests and fatal opioid overdoses during the COVID-19 pandemic. The first study, led by University of California, Los Angeles, researchers and published yesterday in JAMA Psychiatry, involved 33.4 million patient emergency medical services (EMS) encounters from the beginning of the pandemic to May 2020 in the US National EMS Information System, a database of EMS visits from more than 11,000 agencies in 49 states. These visits made up more than 87% of all EMS encounters in 2020. (Van Beusekom, 5/27)
NPR:
Vaccine Patches Use Microneedles To Eliminate Pain
It's the rare individual who actually looks forward to getting jabbed with a needle, even if what's in the needle can protect them from a serious disease such as COVID-19. But several teams around the world are working on a way to inject a vaccine without the ouch. The trick is to make the needles small. Really small. So small they don't interact with the nerve endings that signal pain. (Palca, 5/27)
CIDRAP:
CARB-X To Fund Development Of CRISPR-Based Drug For E Coli Infections
CARB-X announced today that it is awarding up to $3.9 million to a Danish microbiome biotechnology company to develop a CRISPR-based drug to prevent Escherichia coli infections in cancer patients. The award will help Copenhagen-based SNIPR BIOME ApS develop its lead drug candidate, SNIPR001, which uses CRISPR/Cas DNA editing technology to selectively eradicate E coli bacteria in the gut and prevent translocation of the bacteria to the bloodstream while sparing other beneficial bacteria in the patient's microbiome. (5/27)
Reuters:
AstraZeneca Drug Tagrisso Gets EU Nod For Early Lung Cancer Treatment
AstraZeneca’s (AZN.L) top-selling Tagrisso drug has been approved for use in the European Union to treat patients with a type of early-stage lung cancer, the company said on Friday. The European Commission has approved the lung cancer drug as an add-on treatment for adults diagnosed early enough for the tumour to be surgically removed, and who have a mutation of the EGFR gene, the British drugmaker said. The approval was based on positive results from a late-stage trial called ADAURA, which showed Tagrisso cut the risk of the tumour growing back in patients or death by 80%. (5/28)
Stat:
Inequities In Cancer Genomics Undercut Precision Medicine
Translating the promise of cancer genomics into health equity has not yet become a reality, two experts write in a commentary published recently in Cancer Cell. Instead, the racial gaps in cancer mortality have only slightly narrowed since the human genome was sequenced two decades ago, they note, and in preventable cancers such as breast and colorectal cancer, socioeconomic inequalities in cancer deaths are widening. (Cooney, 5/28)
AP:
Future Pandemics Targeted By New Oxford Research Center
Oxford University is launching an effort to bring together academic, industry and government experts from around the world to use the lessons learned from COVID-19 in the fight against future pandemics. The Pandemic Sciences Centre will unite Oxford researchers in disciplines ranging from immunology and public health to computing and social sciences in an effort to improve the rapid identification of and response to emerging threats, the university said in a statement released Friday. (Kirka, 5/28)
Axios:
Hospital Chain Ascension Has Weathered The Pandemic Just Fine
Taxpayer bailouts and massive gains from Wall Street investments helped Ascension — the largest tax-exempt hospital system in the country — glide through the coronavirus pandemic. Dominant hospital chains like Ascension really haven't had to worry about their financial status during the pandemic, unlike smaller hospitals and safety-net systems, in part because those chains already accumulated massive rainy day funds over the years. (Herman, 5/27)
The New York Times:
NYC And Homelessness: Lawmakers Take Dramatic Step To Stem Rise
For nearly a decade, New York City has struggled to help homeless people find apartments of their own, as rents hovered in the stratosphere and the number of people stuck in shelters surged past 60,000. So on Thursday, the City Council took its most dramatic step in years to address the city’s affordable housing crisis, voting overwhelmingly to expand a subsidy program in ways that could make apartments affordable to tens of thousands of people who are homeless or threatened with eviction. (Newman, 5/27)
AP:
Idaho Lieutenant Governor Bans Mask Mandates
With the governor out of the state, Idaho’s lieutenant governor issued an executive order Thursday banning mask mandates in schools and public buildings, saying the face-covering directives threatened people’s freedom. Republican Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin is acting governor while Gov. Brad Little is at the Republican Governors Association conference in Nashville, Tennessee. He was expected to return Thursday evening. (Ridler, 5/27)
NBC News:
Tennessee Woman Accused Of Driving Through Clinic, Shouting 'No Vaccine' Is Charged
A Tennessee driver accused of yelling "no vaccine!" while speeding through a Covid-19 vaccination tent has been charged with reckless endangerment, the Blount County Sheriff's Office said Thursday. Virginia Christine Lewis Brown, 35, of Greenback, is facing seven counts of felony reckless endangerment in the incident Monday at the vaccination site outside a mall, the sheriff's office said. No one was hurt, but the sheriff's office said the lives of workers were placed in danger. (Helsel, 5/28)
Health News Florida:
Florida Hits Managed Care Plans For Damages
Florida relies on managed-care companies to provide Medicaid coverage to 3.7 million low-income and elderly residents, but a review of data assembled by regulators shows that the companies have been hit with dozens of complaints that have resulted in the state requesting millions of dollars in payments. In the first three months of 2021, Florida Medicaid officials assessed more than $1 million in liquidated damages against managed-care plans, according to Agency for Health Care Administration data updated last week. (Sexton, 5/27)
Health News Florida:
Florida Planned Parenthood Clinics Expand Mental Health Offerings
May is mental health awareness month, and it seems the need for mental health services grows in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. Now a new source for these services has emerged in the form of Southeast and North Florida's Planned Parenthood clinics. Dr. Karen Peters is Planned Parenthood's Behavioral Health Program director. She said Florida locations are among the first in the organization to expand health care offerings in this direction. (Flanigan, 5/27)
AP:
Oregon Reaches 200,000 Confirmed Coronavirus Cases
Oregon has surpassed 200,000 confirmed coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic, health officials said Thursday. The state’s death toll is 2,660. “As we head into the Memorial Day holiday weekend, this milestone is a grim reminder that while case counts are decreasing statewide in large part due to vaccination, there remains a risk of COVID-19 in Oregon, especially for those who are not yet vaccinated,” said Oregon Health Authority Director Patrick Allen. “I urge caution for Oregonians who are not yet vaccinated.” Oregon’s daily case count, hospitalizations, deaths and positivity rates have been decreasing. (Cline, 5/27)
The Oregonian:
Oregon State Hospital Calls For 30 National Guard Personnel To Help As Staffing Crisis Intensifies
The Oregon State Hospital’s critical staff shortage reached a new level this week, and officials have called for the National Guard to help fill roles vacated by staff on coronavirus-related leave, the hospital announced late Wednesday. The announcement was a sudden change from a plan released to the public Tuesday, when the psychiatric hospital said it would pull in managers from around the Oregon Health Authority and other state agencies to help with emergency staffing. The hospital still plans to use those managers for temporary staffing. (Ramakrishnan, 5/27)
AP:
Lamont Holds Last COVID Briefing, But Says Work Isn't Done
Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont held his last regular COVID-19 briefing for the media on Thursday, a sign that he and his administration believe the state is well on its way to finally emerging from the pandemic. But Lamont said he wasn’t proclaiming “mission accomplished” after about 15 months of giving regular, televised updates. He warned there could still be some flare-ups of infections, especially with variants of the virus, in parts of the state where vaccinations have lagged such as eastern Connecticut and some urban areas. “So that’s why we are not taking our foot off the accelerator when it comes to getting everybody vaccinated,” he said. (Haigh, 5/27)
Politico:
New Jersey Lifts Mask Mandate, Social Distancing Rules In Time For Memorial Day
New Jersey is lifting its mask mandate after having been one of the few holdouts in adopting the latest Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance, Gov. Phil Murphy announced Monday. Murphy’s new directive, which takes effect Friday, the start of the Memorial Day weekend, gives New Jersey residents — even those who aren’t fully vaccinated — the green light to remove their masks and other face coverings in most cases. Matching the CDC’s guidance, the order excludes settings such as health care facilities, jails, schools, child care centers and public transportation networks. (Sutton, 5/27)
AP:
California Giving $116 Million To People Who Get Virus Shots
The goal is to motivate roughly 12 million people who are eligible but not yet vaccinated, though the more than 20 million Californians already partially or fully vaccinated also are in the running for the most valuable prizes. “We’re putting aside more resources than any other state in America, and we’re making available the largest prizes of any state in America for those that seek to get vaccinated,” Newsom announced at an East Los Angeles high school where people were being vaccinated in the gymnasium. (Melley and Ronayne, 5/28)
AP:
The Latest: W Virginia Steps Up Prizes For Vaccination
West Virginia will step up its prizes for vaccines, enrolling all residents who have received a coronavirus shot into a lottery for the chance to win a college scholarship, an F-150 pickup truck or cash rewards. Republican Gov. Jim Justice announced the plan for the new incentives Thursday, but more details are expected to be finalized next week. The governor has aimed to turn around a vaccination drive that drastically slowed down after a strong early start. (5/28)
AP:
Sheriff At WVa Opioid Trial Worried About Future Generations
A West Virginia sheriff testified Thursday during a landmark trial against three large opioid distributors that he is worried the scourge of the pain pill epidemic will remain a very real part of life. “It’s long from being over,” Cabell County Sheriff Chuck Zerkle said. “I fear for what comes for my grandchildren and the next generation. This is not about me. I’m an old guy. I’m done. What comes down the road, that’s what I worry about.” A civil lawsuit filed by Cabell County and the city of Huntington accuses drug distributors AmerisourceBergen Drug Co., Cardinal Health Inc. and McKesson Corp. of fueling the U.S. crisis. (5/28)
ABC News:
These Florida Concert Tickets Are $18 If You're Vaccinated, $1,000 If You're Not
A concert promoter in Florida came up with a creative way to encourage his community to get vaccinated by offering $18 discounted tickets to an upcoming show for those who have been vaccinated -- and charging $999.99 per ticket for those who have not. Paul Williams of Leadfoot Promotions in Tampa Bay said he came up with the idea as vaccination appointments in his state opened up to all, and while trying to plan a concert that people could safely enjoy after over a year of living through a pandemic that shut down most live events with crowds. (Thorbecke, 5/27)
The Wall Street Journal:
Russia Rolls Out Covid-19 Vaccine For Animals
As Russia’s efforts to vaccinate its population against Covid-19 sputter, authorities have turned to a new target group: animals. Russian officials said they rolled out a homegrown animal vaccine, Carnivac-Cov, after trials showed that it generates antibodies in dogs, cats, foxes and mink. While scientists say there is no strong evidence that animals play a large part in spreading Covid-19 to people, infections have been recorded in various species worldwide, including dogs, cats and apes. Massive outbreaks have been observed especially in mink farms, with Denmark culling millions of the mammals last year amid fears of new mutations. (Kantchev, 5/27)
NBC News:
As Europe Eases Travel Restrictions, Vacation Hot Spots Hope American Tourists Return
They have a reputation for being loud and obnoxious, but as Europe looks set to reopen its borders to foreign visitors in time for the summer travel season, it’s hoping American tourists will make a comeback. The European Union signaled last week that it will ease restrictions for vaccinated travelers from outside the bloc, including the United States. The E.U. shut its borders last year in a bid to stop Covid-19 from spreading, but many member states that are heavily reliant on tourism are desperate for foreign travelers to return. (Talmazan and Lavanga, 5/28)
The Hill:
EU Health Official: People Probably Died Due To AstraZeneca Vaccine Delays
A European Union health official on Thursday argued that some people in the region likely died from COVID-19 due to delays in the delivery of the AstraZeneca vaccine. Pierre Delsaux, the deputy director general at DG SANTE, the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety, said during a Politico Live virtual panel titled, “Health in the EU’s post-COVID-19 recovery,” that some EU states relying on the AstraZeneca shot, which was developed in partnership with Oxford University, resulted in a “disaster.” (Castronuovo, 5/27)
The Wall Street Journal:
Ireland’s Health Service Warns Staff Not To Use Work Devices
A ransomware attack on May 14 forced Ireland’s public healthcare system to shut down its technology services, leading to delays and cancellations of medical appointments. Shortly after the attack, the Health Service Executive published instructions for employees on its website. Many of the systems run by the organization are still down, and services such as X-rays and radiology are unavailable in many places. Employees could potentially spread ransomware if they leave their work devices on, or they could leave an opening for attackers to enter the network again after the initial attack, said Brian Honan, executive director of BH Consulting, a Dublin-based firm that advises companies, including those hit by ransomware attacks. (Stupp, 5/28)