First Edition: May 3, 2020

KHN: CVS And Walgreens Have Wasted More Vaccine Doses Than Most States Combined 
Two national pharmacy chains that the federal government entrusted to inoculate people against covid-19 account for the lion’s share of wasted vaccine doses, according to government data obtained by KHN. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recorded 182,874 wasted doses as of late March, three months into the country’s effort to vaccinate the masses against the coronavirus. Of those, CVS was responsible for nearly half, and Walgreens for 21%, or nearly 128,500 wasted shots combined. (Eaton and Pradhan, 5/3)

KHN: Detecting Rare Blood Clots Was A Win, But US Vaccine Safety System Still Has Gaps
The quick detection of an ultra-rare blood clotting reaction in some covid-19 vaccine recipients showed the power of a federal warning system for vaccine safety issues, but experts worry that blind spots in the program could hamper detection of other unexpected side effects. Before the pandemic began, the Food and Drug Administration had scaled back a program it used successfully to track adverse events during and after the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic, and the agency is still ramping up its replacement, said Dr. Robert Chen, scientific director of the Brighton Collaboration, a nonprofit global vaccine safety network. (JoNel Aleccia, 5/3)

KHN: As Vaccine Demand Slows, Political Differences Go On Display In California Counties 
Demand for covid vaccines is slowing across most of California, but as traffic at vaccination sites eases, the vaccination rates across the state are showing wide disparities. In Santa Clara County, home to Silicon Valley, nearly 67% of residents 16 and older have had at least one dose as of Wednesday, compared with about 43% in San Bernardino County, east of Los Angeles. Statewide, about 58% of eligible residents have received at least one dose. (Almendrala, 5/3)

KHN: Mental Health Services Wane As Insurers Appear To Skirt Parity Rules During Pandemic
Therapists and other behavioral health care providers cut hours, reduced staffs and turned away patients during the pandemic as more Americans experienced depression symptoms and drug overdoses, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office. The report on patient access to behavioral health care during the covid-19 crisis also casts doubt on whether insurers are abiding by federal law requiring parity in insurance coverage, which forbids health plans from passing along more of the bill for mental health care to patients than they would for medical or surgical care. (Huetteman, 4/30)

KHN: Journalists Track Biden’s First 100 Days 
Chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner discussed Biden’s first 100 days on WAMU/NPR’s “1A” on Wednesday. She also joined Wisconsin Public Radio’s “Central Time” to talk about why hospitals aren’t cooperating with price transparency requirements. ... KHN senior correspondent Julie Appleby discussed changes in insurance coverage for covid-19 care on NBC News NOW on Tuesday. (5/1)

KHN: How We Reported On Rural Stroke Access 
KHN and InvestigateTV analyzed the driving times to stroke-certified hospitals in the Mississippi Delta and Appalachia to determine how many people in those regions live far from stroke care. The regions of Appalachia and the Delta are taken from the Appalachian Regional Commission and the Delta Regional Authority, respectively. (5/3)

The Washington Post: U.S. Coronavirus Cases Drop As Spring Wave Of Infections Ebbs 
The spring wave of coronavirus infections that began in March is subsiding in most of the country, with 42 states and D.C. reporting lower caseloads for the past two weeks. Hospitals in hard-hit Michigan and other Upper Midwest states that were flooded with patients in mid-April are discharging more than they’re admitting. The daily average of new infections nationwide has dropped to the lowest level since mid-October. Many cities are rapidly reopening after 14 months of restrictions. The mayor of virus-ravaged New York City, Bill de Blasio (D), said he plans to have the city fully open by July 1. (Achenbach, Keating and Dupree, 4/30)

NPR: TSA Keeps Face Mask Requirement On Public Transportation Through September
Wearing a face mask will continue to be a requirement at airports, aboard commercial flights and on other public transportation across the country through the summer. The federal mask mandate, which was set to expire on May 11, will remain in effect through Sept. 13, according to updated guidance issued by the Transportation Security Administration on Friday. The rule, which also applies to buses and rail systems, was first put in place by President Biden shortly after he took office in January. (Moore, 5/1)

AP: Adviser Suggests Biden Still Wears Mask Outside Out Of Habit
One of President Joe Biden’s top White House advisers suggested Sunday that he’s still wearing a mask outdoors out of habit although the latest public health guidance says he doesn’t need it. Questioned about Biden’s practice, senior adviser Anita Dunn told CNN’s “State of the Union” that she realized that she was also still wearing her mask outdoors even after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said fully vaccinated people like her and Biden can stop wearing masks outside when they’re alone or not among strangers. (Superville, 5/2)

CNN: Confusion Over Masks Sparks New Political Showdown 
America's emerging limbo between a full-blown pandemic and a return to normal is throwing up new public health dilemmas that spark instant political fires -- like a fresh round of grandstanding over mask wearing. Top White House adviser Anita Dunn Sunday defended President Joe Biden over his continued use of a mask outdoors -- even though the practice appears to conflict with new and relaxed administration guidelines for fully vaccinated citizens. In comments that didn't necessarily clarify the situation, Dunn told CNN's Jake Tapper on "State of the Union" that "extra precautions" were being taken for the President and that mask wearing was "a matter of habit." (Collinson, 5/3)

USA Today: COVID: Colorado, New Jersey Ease Restrictions As Cases Fall
The White House says the U.S. trade representative will begin talks with the World Trade Organization on ways to overcome intellectual property issues that are keeping critically needed COVID-19 vaccines from being more widely distributed. The White House has been under intense pressure to join an effort to help waive patent rules for the vaccines so that poorer countries can begin to make their own generic versions. White House chief of staff Ron Klain said Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation” that U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai will be starting talks “on how we can get this vaccine more widely distributed, more widely licensed, more widely shared.” (Aspegren, 5/3)

Roll Call: Biden Restricts Travel From India Amid Calls For Further U.S. Aid To Fight COVID-19 
The Biden administration is imposing new restrictions on travel from India as members of Congress call for further assistance to help the country battle a devastating spread of COVID-19. New travel limitations take effect on May 4, the White House confirmed Friday. (Lesniewski, 4/30)

The Washington Post: Biden Officials Say U.S. Doing All It Can To Help India 
White House officials said Sunday they are doing all they can to help India cope with the country’s escalating coronavirus crisis, pushing back against criticism that the United States should be moving faster on actions such as waiving patent rights on vaccines. In interviews on several political shows Sunday, Biden administration officials emphasized the aid the United States has already delivered to its South Asian ally, including sending the first planeloads of medical supplies and oxygen to the country on Friday. The United States has also diverted raw materials for vaccines to India. (Wang, 5/2)

USA Today: India Reports Record-Breaking 400K New Daily Cases
President Joe Biden's administration plans to restrict travel between the U.S. and India beginning Tuesday due to a surge in COVID-19 cases in the country of 1.4 billion people. India set another daily global record of new cases Saturday, with more than 400,000 new cases and 3,500 deaths, according to official totals experts suspect are undercounts. Less than 2% of the country is fully vaccinated, with just under 150 million doses administered. With oxygen in short supply at medical facilities, patients are gasping for breath, and their families – overwhelmed by grief and helplessness – are running frantically to obtain oxygen themselves. This week, the U.S. sent supplies to the country, including rapid tests, N95 masks and oxygen cylinders. (Hauck, 5/1)

AP: US To Launch Trade Talks On COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution
The U.S. top trade negotiator will begin talks with the World Trade Organization on ways to overcome intellectual property issues that are keeping critically needed COVID-19 vaccines from being more widely distributed worldwide, two White House officials said Sunday. The White House has been under pressure from lawmakers at home and governments abroad to join an effort to waive patent rules for the vaccines so that poorer countries can begin to produce their own generic versions of the shots to vaccinate their populations. (Superville, 5/2)

Los Angeles Times: Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna Refused To Join WHO's C-TAP For Vaccines. Now The India Surge Is Causing Crisis
Pfizer and Moderna — backed by the Trump administration — were concerned about protecting the trade secrets of their mRNA technology and refused to participate. As a result, the job of manufacturing vaccine for much of the world fell largely on a single producer in India, the Serum Institute, a central manufacturer for the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca. Now facing its own COVID-19 catastrophe, India has all but halted its vaccine exports, leaving dozens of mostly poor countries it supplies in the lurch — a problem that experts said could have easily been avoided had vaccine makers signed on to C-TAP. (Baumgaertner, 4/30)

Roll Call: Biden Walks Political Tightrope In Drug Pricing Dispute 
Congress will likely try to move forward with drug pricing legislation although President Joe Biden excluded such changes from his latest economic policy proposal. Biden called on Congress in his joint address Wednesday night to enact health care legislation this year that would expand Medicare and allow the massive program to negotiate drug prices. But the White House and Democrats on Capitol Hill disagree on whether to include it in the upcoming legislative push on family aid, which could be one of the last major bills to move this year besides spending legislation. (McIntire and Clason, 4/30)

AP: Democrats Seek Narrow Path To Rein In Cost Of Medicines
President Joe Biden’s call for authorizing Medicare to negotiate lower prescription drug prices has energized Democrats on a politically popular idea they’ve been pushing for nearly 20 years only to encounter frustration. But they still lack a clear path to enact legislation. That’s because a small number of Democrats remain uneasy over government price curbs on pharmaceutical companies. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer will need every Democratic vote in a narrowly divided Congress. Otherwise Democrats may have to settle for a compromise that stops short of their goal. Or they could take the issue into the 2022 midterm elections. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 5/3)

Modern Healthcare: CMS: Obamacare Cost-Sharing Change Cuts Out-Of-Pocket Costs By $400
CMS on Friday significantly changed how Affordable Care Act exchanges will run next year, intending to lower out-of-pocket costs for Obamacare customers, streamline enrollees' user experience and update how insurers are paid for the risks they take on their members. In its second update to the annual benefit and payment parameters rule, the agency announced consumers' maximum out-of-pocket costs will be limited to $8,700 for individuals and $17,400 for plans that cover multiple people. The update is $400 lower than previous caps, CMS said. (Tepper, 4/30)

Modern Healthcare: Congress Mulls Long-Term Care Reform
Demand for long-term care has increased in recent years as the aging population grows, and a wave of baby boomers retire in coming decades. But as of now, the long-term care system is failing to meet the needs of the current population. It's fragmented, expensive and often inaccessible for low-and-middle income aging adults and people with disabilities. While most people are cared for at home by unpaid caregivers, lawmakers have looked to expand access to home and community services covered by Medicaid, the largest payer of long-term care in the U.S. (Hellmann, 4/30)

The Hill: Gottlieb Predicts 10M Kids Would Get Inoculated Before Fall If Pfizer Coronavirus Vaccine Is Authorized 
Former Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, who sits on Pfizer's board of directors, on Sunday predicted that 10 million kids would be vaccinated against the coronavirus before fall if the Pfizer vaccine is authorized for use on younger teens. ... "I'm hopeful the FDA is going to authorize that in a very short time period," he said. (Oshin, 5/2)

Philadelphia Inquirer: Philly’s Vaccination Effort Reaches Out To Another Community: The Deaf
In fact, the Esperanza site, at Fourth and Bristol Streets, and the Convention Center site in Center City both have American Sign Language interpreters every day they are open, said Charlie Elison, a spokesperson for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which runs the clinics in partnership with the city and the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency. On average, the sites vaccinate about five to 10 people daily who are deaf or hard-of-hearing, Elison said. But for the last few weeks, FEMA, the city’s Department of Public Health, SEPTA, the Pennsylvania School for the Deaf, and the Archdiocese of Philadelphia had promoted Saturday as a day at Esperanza dedicated to those who are deaf or have hearing loss, with more ASL and Certified Deaf Interpreters on hand. (Shaw, 5/1)

Fox News: Fainting After Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 Vaccination 164 Times More Common Than Post-Flu Shot: CDC
Prior to reports of rare but serious blood clotting with Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine, federal health authorities were investigating dozens of anxiety-related events and fainting episodes in vaccine recipients, according to the latest report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In early April, four of out five mass vaccination sites across different states temporarily shuttered while the CDC analyzed 64 anxiety-related events, including 17 instances of syncope, or fainting among some 8,600 vaccine recipients. None of the reports were classified as serious, the agency said. (Rivas, 5/1)

Becker's Hospital Review: Some J&J Vaccine Reactions Caused By Anxiety, CDC Says
Dozens of people who experienced physical adverse reactions after getting Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 shot had the reactions due to anxiety, not the shot itself, the CDC said in a report released April 30. Mass vaccination sites in five states shut in early April after a cluster of adverse reactions, including nausea and dizziness. The CDC investigated the reactions, a total of 64 incidents out of 8,624 doses administered, at five mass vaccination sites, The Hill reported. The incidents were reported between April 7 and April 9 in California, Colorado, Georgia, Iowa and North Carolina.  (Anderson, 4/30)

Bloomberg: Victims Of Rare Vaccine Injury Wait To See If U.S. Fund Will Pay
High school senior Emma Burkey received her “one and done” Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine on March 20, and within two weeks was in an induced coma following seizures and clotting in her brain. She’s making a slow recovery, having recently been transfered from the hospital to a rehabilitation center, and the first round of bills totaled $513,000. The 18-year-old’s family friends in the Las Vegas area started a GoFundMe account to help with medical expenses from the very rare vaccine reaction. (Decker, 5/3)

The Washington Post: Low Police Vaccination Rates Pose Public Safety Concerns 
Police officers were among the first front-line workers to gain priority access to coronavirus vaccines. But their vaccination rates are lower than or about the same as those of the general public, according to data made available by some of the nation’s largest law enforcement agencies. The reluctance of police to get the shots threatens not just their own health, but also the safety of people they’re responsible for guarding, monitoring and patrolling, experts say. (Stanley-Becker, 5/2)

Fox News: Louisiana Identifies First Brazilian Coronavirus Variant Cases In 2 Residents
Health officials in Louisiana this week identified the state’s first cases of a coronavirus variant first identified in Brazil. The so-called P.1. variant, which has been dubbed as a "variant of concern" by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), was found in one resident from the Greater New Orleans area and another from Southwest Louisiana. Neither resident reported having a recent history of travel, indicating the variant was acquired locally, officials said in a news release. (Farber, 5/1)

Roll Call: Health Officials Plan Major Research On COVID-19 Long-Haulers 
The National Institutes of Health is preparing to award grants in the next three weeks to researchers studying the long-term effects of COVID-19 and patients experiencing “long COVID. ”NIH Director Francis Collins told the Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee this week that the agency expects laboratory research and imaging studies to be underway by the summer. The agency received 273 research proposals after Congress provided more than $1 billion for research into the long-term effects of COVID-19. (McIntire, 4/30)

NPR: Younger People Make Up Growing Share Of Serious COVID Cases
After spending much of the past year tending to elderly patients, doctors are seeing a clear demographic shift: young and middle-aged adults make up a growing share of the patients in COVID-19 hospital wards. It's both a sign of the country's success in protecting the elderly through vaccination and an urgent reminder that younger generations will pay a heavy price if the outbreak is allowed to simmer in communities across the country. "We're now seeing people in their 30s, 40s and 50s — young people who are really sick," says Dr. Vishnu Chundi, an infectious disease physician and chair of the Chicago Medical Society's COVID-19 task force. "Most of them make it, but some do not. ... I just lost a 32-year-old with two children, so it's heartbreaking." (Stone, 5/1)

CIDRAP: Study Finds Low Rate Of Mom-To-Baby COVID-19 Spread, Effect On Infants
Infants born to women with COVID-19 have a low chance of contracting the disease from their mothers and having complications, according to a study published yesterday in JAMA. The study included 88,159 Swedish newborns, 92% of those born in the country from Mar 11, 2020, to Jan 31, 2021. Of those, 2,323 (1.6%) were delivered by mothers who tested positive for COVID-19, and only 21 infants in that group (0.9%) tested positive for COVID-19 themselves. (4/30)

CIDRAP: COVID Studies Note Online Learning Stress, Fewer Cases In Schools With Protocols 
A trio of new studies describe the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on public school students and staff, one finding that a quarter of children and teens in Chicago schools were stressed after school closures and the implementation of distance learning, another showing that coronavirus cases were elevated in schools that took few or no mitigation measures, and the last concluding that in-person learning in New York City public schools wasn't tied to increased viral infections. (Van Beusekomm, 4/30)

The New York Times: How The Centner Academy Became A Beacon For Anti-Vaxxers 
A fifth-grade math and science teacher peddled a bogus conspiracy theory on Wednesday to students at Centner Academy, a private school in Miami, warning them that they should not hug parents who had been vaccinated against the coronavirus for more than five seconds because they might be exposed to harmful vaccine shedding.“Hola Mami,” one student wrote in an email to her parents from school, saying that the teacher was “telling us to stay away from you guys.” Nearly a week before, the school had threatened teachers’ employment if they got a coronavirus vaccine before the end of the school year. (Mazzei, 5/2)

The Washington Post: Some Schools Skip Student Quarantines
In the continuing struggle to strike a balance between safety and classroom learning, Ohio joined a handful of states that have now remade their rules to cut back on student quarantines. Many point to lower than expected spread of the virus inside schools and note that school leaders say there are few infections among students who get quarantined. In Ohio’s case, quarantines are no longer required for potential classroom exposures as long as students were masked and other safeguards were in place. (St. George, 5/2)

CIDRAP: Report Details Rare Injuries From Nasopharyngeal COVID-19 Swabbing
Risk of complication from COVID-19 nasopharyngeal swab tests is low (1.24 per 100,000 people), according to a research letter published yesterday in JAMA Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery. The researchers found 8 instances among 2,899 patients admitted to Helsinki University's otorhinolaryngology emergency department from Mar 1 to Sep 30, 2020; 643,284 reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction tests occurred during this time. Of the patients, seven were female, and mean age was 39.5 years. Four experienced severe nosebleeds, and four had broken swabs. None were positive for COVID-19. (4/30)

Philadelphia Inquirer: These Dogs Are Learning To Detect COVID-19, And They Could Work At Airports And Stadiums
Now researchers are teaching dogs to detect COVID-19. The skill could be used to screen for asymptomatic carriers of the coronavirus at airports, sporting events, schools, “pretty much any place you have large gatherings where everyone can go through one door,” said Cindy Otto, director of the Working Dog Center. The applications are promising, but training dogs to detect a disease like COVID-19 isn’t easy. Explosives, illicit drugs, human remains, and other physical things dogs can be trained to find have a scent humans can smell, too. It’s easy to know when the item has been found because both dog and trainer can see it. (Gantz, 5/1)

Modern Healthcare: Critical-Care Nurses Were Physically And Mentally Fried Before The Pandemic Struck
A new analysis found that a majority of critical-care nurses scored themselves low on physical and mental health status even before the pandemic began. Survey results conducted by researchers at Ohio State University College of Nursing found 61% of more than 700 critical care nurses rated their physical health a score of five or lower out of a possible 10, while 51% reported their mental health with a score of five or lower The data were collected from Aug. 31, 2018, through Aug. 11, 2019. (Ross Johnson, 5/1)

Stat: HHS To Prioritize Newborn Screening Programs’ Pipette Tip Orders 
Programs that screen newborns for potentially deadly genetic conditions will now have higher priority when ordering pipette tips — a critical laboratory supply that is in shortage. STAT highlighted the pipette tip shortage, which is affecting researchers across the country, on Wednesday. (Sheridan, 4/30)

Modern Healthcare: Texas Hospital Uses Quality Model To Increase Depression Screenings For Cancer Patients
UT Southwestern Medical Center in North Texas reports that it increased depression screenings of oncology patients by 44% in a quality improvement project. More than 90% of the hospital's oncology patients received a screening and follow-up care, or about 14,000 patients. The findings were published Friday in the Journal for Healthcare Quality from the National Association for Healthcare Quality. (Gillespie, 4/30)

NJ.com: Here Are N.J.’s Safest Hospitals. See How Yours Ranked In New National Report.
New Jersey hospitals ranked 14th safest in the country based on how well they prevented infections, accidents and errors and communicated with their patients, the latest Leapfrog Hospital Safety report card released on Thursday found. (Livio, 4/29)

Fierce Healthcare: Stakeholders Laud 'Incremental Improvement' To Star Ratings Methodology But Call For Further Updates 
Healthcare organizations are always on the lookout for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS') annual hospital star ratings, but this week’s release of the quality measures carried a bit more weight for stakeholders than in years prior. Unveiled Wednesday, the latest star ratings represent CMS’ first crack at a long-awaited refinement of the methodology it uses to generate quality scores ranging from one to five stars. (Muoio, 5/1)

AP: Employers, Insurers Push To Make Virtual Visits Regular Care
Make telemedicine your first choice for most doctor visits. That’s the message some U.S. employers and insurers are sending with a new wave of care options. Amazon and several insurers have started or expanded virtual-first care plans to get people to use telemedicine routinely, even for planned visits like annual checkups. They’re trying to make it easier for patients to connect with regular help by using remote care that grew explosively during the COVID-19 pandemic. (Murphy, 5/2)

Stat: Six Dementia Patients Got An Unapproved Gene Therapy, CEO Says 
Six patients with dementia traveled to Mexico last year to be injected with a gene therapy not authorized for use in the U.S., according to the CEO of a Seattle-area startup that wants to accelerate testing of unproven anti-aging medicines and views U.S. drug safety regulations as a hindrance. At the heart of the project is a controversial biotech called BioViva, whose CEO had herself injected with an experimental gene therapy in Colombia and whose advisory board includes renowned Harvard geneticist George Church. It is part of a growing ecosystem of entrepreneurs and scientists, dreamers and schemers, who believe aging is not inevitable and aim to develop treatments to extend the human life span. (Molteni, 5/3)

CIDRAP: Flu Vaccine Uptake Increases After Text Reminders
Text message "nudges" before primary care visits may boost seasonal flu vaccine uptake more than 10%, a study yesterday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) shows. The finding was based on 47,306 patients in Penn Medicine and Geisinger Health systems who received 1 of 19 different possible nudges delivered to their mobile devices during the fall of 2020. The patients had opted in for text message from providers, and electronic health records showed they had not yet received a flu shot. (4/30)

Fierce Healthcare: Physician Enablement Company Privia Health Pops In Public Debut With Outsized IPO 
Healthcare technology company Privia Health made a strong debut on the Nasdaq exchange Thursday, with its stock soaring above $30 per share. The company, which provides technology and services to physician practices, began trading Thursday and saw its share price jump during trading. The company's stock closed at around $34.75 per share, about 50% above its $23 per share offering price, according to Yahoo. (Landi, 5/2)

Stat: With Amgen's KRAS Cancer Drug, Worry About Pricing, Not Safety
Investors do not like surprises with negative overtones, so they reacted badly when Amgen announced last Tuesday that it was conducting a new study to compare a 240 mg dose of its KRAS-targeted lung cancer pill, sotorasib, against the 960 mg dose that is now under review by the Food and Drug Administration. Amgen’s stock price fell 6% last week, the most among all the large-cap drug makers. The reaction was mostly interpreted as concern about the drug’s safety. But the real issue and risk for sotorasib could be its price. (Feuerstein, 5/3)

CNBC: Neuralink Cofounder Max Hodak Leaves Elon Musk's Brain Implant Company
Neuralink President Max Hodak announced on Saturday, via Twitter, that he is no longer with the health tech venture in which he was a co-founder with Elon Musk and seven other scientists and engineers. He said he has not been working there for a few weeks, but did not reveal the circumstances of his departure. (Kolodny, 5/1)

Boston Globe: Eli Broad, Whose Gift Established A Science Powerhouse, Dies At 87
Eli Broad, the billionaire entrepreneur whose philanthropy enabled the creation of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard in Cambridge, one of the most influential scientific research centers in the country, died Friday at 87, according to the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation. Mr. Broad, who cofounded homebuilding pioneer Kaufman and Broad Inc. and launched financial services giant SunAmerica Inc., had devoted his life to philanthropy since 1999, according to a statement from the Broad Foundation. He and his wife, known as Edye, have committed more than $5 billion through their foundations. (Fox, 5/1)

Philadelphia Inquirer: Vaccination Rates For Children Dropped During The Pandemic. Here’s How Philly-Area Pediatricians Worked To Increase Wellness Visits
When early pandemic lockdowns closed many doctors’ offices, the numbers of routine childhood vaccine doses administered decreased dramatically, concerning pediatricians around the country. A study by Kaiser Permanente published in Pediatrics this April found the decrease was most serious and persistent in older children. The trend was consistent with what pediatricians at Philadelphia-area hospitals experienced during the early stages of the pandemic. At Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children, pediatricians saw a 43% decrease in immunizations given for vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles, whooping cough, and the chicken pox. (Ao, 4/30)

The New York Times: Hundreds Reported Abnormal Menstruation After Exposure To Tear Gas, Study Finds 
At some point last summer, there were just too many reports of protesters who had experienced abnormal menstrual cycles after being exposed to tear gas for Britta Torgrimson-Ojerio, a nurse researcher at the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research in Portland, to dismiss them as coincidence. A preschool teacher told Oregon Public Broadasting that if she inhaled a significant amount of gas at night, she’d get her period the next morning. Other Portland residents shared stories of periods that lasted for weeks and of unusual spotting. Transgender men described sudden periods that defied hormones that had kept menstruation at bay for months or years. (Murphy, 5/1)

The Hill: Judge Rules Columbus Police Can't Use Tear Gas Or Rubber Bullets Against Peaceful Protesters 
A federal judge on Friday prohibited police in Columbus, Ohio, from using force against nonviolent protesters. In an 88-page opinion obtained by the local NBC station, Chief Judge Algenon L. Marbley of the Southern District of Ohio described the officers' use of physical violence, tear gas and pepper spray as “the sad tale of officers, clothed with the awesome power of the state, run amok.” (Choi, 5/2)

Fox News: Ultra-Expensive Medicine A Desperate Need For Thousands Of Babies Around The World
Imagine your child is dying. There's a drug that promises hope, promises to stop your baby's illness dead in its tracks. But this dream medicine is out of reach because it costs around $2 million, depending where you live. This is the story of many of parents of children with Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA), a rare motor neuron disease. Between one in 6,000 and 10,000 children born have the disorder in some form. More than two-thirds of those diagnosed with the most common and serious derivation, SMA1, die before the age of 2, if left untreated — and treatment is complex. (Kellogg and Zakrzewski, 5/1)

Politico: The Cannabis Industry's Next War: How Strong Should Its Weed Be? 
The nation’s booming weed industry has a potency problem. As more and more states legalize marijuana, companies are facing new pressure from lawmakers across the country — and Capitol Hill — to limit the strength of their products. It’s a level of scrutiny that comes with being allowed to operate in the open after decades in the shadows. (Demko and Fertig, 4/29)

CNN: These People Started Using Opioids As Children 
Honesty Liller started using drugs when she was 12. "I just wanted to fit in with my friends," she said. It was the start of a rocky journey that Liller, now 40, said took her to many dark places and made her a very different person. "With a name like Honesty I would lie, lie, lie," she added. But when she was 26 years old, a phone call with her father made her realize the "living hell" she had put her family through. That's when she decided to reach out for help. (Kallingal, 5/2)

Crain's Chicago Business: New Black Mothers In Illinois Are Dying At Alarming Rates
Black women in Illinois are nearly three times as likely as white women to die of a pregnancy-related condition, according to a new report from the Illinois Department of Public Health, which analyzed 129 deaths that occurred in 2016 and 2017. During that period, 83% of deaths among women who were pregnant or within one year of pregnancy were "potentially preventable." While Black women were more likely to die from pregnancy-related medical conditions, including chronic disease, white women were more likely to die from pregnancy-related mental health conditions, such as suicide or drug overdose, the report says. (Goldberg, 4/30)

AP: Lubbock Votes To Ban Abortion, Setting Up Likely Legal Fight
Lubbock voters have approved a measure aimed at outlawing abortion in the West Texas city, a move likely to prompt legal action from opponents who call it an unconstitutional ban on the procedure. Residents voted Saturday to declare Lubbock a “sanctuary city for the unborn,” bypassing the City Council’s rejection of the proposal last year over concerns that it would be unenforceable and tie the city up in costly litigation. (5/2)

Las Vegas Review-Journal: Real Water Technician Testifies As Hepatitis Lawsuits Continue
Las Vegas-based Real Water, the focus of an ongoing U.S. Food and Drug Administration investigation into liver illnesses, hired a man with almost no experience in the business to oversee testing at one of its Southern Nevada bottling plants. When the pandemic struck and businesses closed across the valley, Casey Aiken lost his job as a strip club promoter and was forced to look for new work. In June, he landed a job at Real Water’s since-closed plant on Desert Inn Road that paid $10 an hour, loading bottled water onto pallets to be shipped out for home deliveries. (Ferrara, 5/1)

The Washington Post: Caitlyn Jenner Says She Opposes Transgender Girls Competing In Girls’ Sports 
Caitlyn Jenner, a former Olympic decathlon champion who is among the country’s most prominent transgender women, said Saturday she is opposed to transgender girls competing in girls’ sports. Jenner, 71, described it as a “question of fairness” and declared that girls’ sports require protection. She was making her first public comments on the issue since announcing her candidacy to replace California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) in a potential recall election. (Bieler, 5/2)

AP: Maine Foundation Provides $1M In Food, Shelter Grants
A foundation in Maine has provided $1 million in grants for essential services such as food and shelter to dozens of groups around the state. The John T. Gorman Foundation said it increased funding to its annual Direct Services Grant Program this year because of increased need caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The grants are mostly in the $10,000 to $20,000 range. (5/2)

AP: Nurses, Doctor Help 'Lucky' Mom Who Gave Birth On Flight
A doctor and a team of neonatal medical professionals were in the right place at the right time — helping a Utah woman deliver her baby onboard an hourslong flight to Hawaii. Lavinia “Lavi” Mounga was traveling from Salt Lake City to Hawaii on April 28 for a family vacation when she gave birth to her son, Raymond, at just 29 weeks gestation. (5/3)

Reuters: India’s COVID-19 Cases Near 20 Million, Peak Seen Nearing 
India reported more than 300,000 new coronavirus infections for a 12th straight day on Monday to take its overall number of cases to just shy of 20 million, as scientists predicted a peak in the pandemic in the coming days. With 368,147 new cases over the past 24 hours, India's total infections stand at 19.93 million, while total fatalities rose by 3,417 to 218,959, according to health ministry data. (Mehta and Jamkhandikar, 4/3)