First Edition: Oct. 1, 2021

KHN: A Colorado Town Is About As Vaccinated As It Can Get. Covid Still Isn’t Over There
San Juan County, Colorado, can boast that 99.9% of its eligible population has received at least one dose of covid-19 vaccine, putting it in the top 10 counties in the nation, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. If vaccines were the singular armor against covid’s spread, then on paper, San Juan County, with its 730 or so residents on file, would be one of the most bulletproof places in the nation. (Bichell, 10/1)

KHN: Hospitals Confront Climate Change As Patients Sick From Floods And Fires Crowd ERs
When triple-digit temperatures hit the Pacific Northwest this summer, the emergency room at Seattle’s Harborview Medical Center was ill prepared. Doctors raced to treat heat-aggravated illness in homeless people, elderly patients with chronic ailments, and overdosing narcotics users. “The magnitude of the exposure, this was so far off the charts in terms of our historical experience,” said Dr. Jeremy Hess, an emergency medicine physician and professor of environmental and occupational health sciences at the University of Washington. (Green, 10/1)

KHN: Readers And Tweeters Feel Americans’ Pain
KHN gives readers a chance to comment on a recent batch of stories. (10/1)

The Wall Street Journal: Democrats Delay Infrastructure Vote As Talks Fail To Reach Deal 
House Democrats dropped plans to vote on a roughly $1 trillion infrastructure bill Thursday night, as they came up short on reaching agreement around a separate social policy and climate package they hope will unite the party’s dueling factions. Key lawmakers said they were making progress toward a framework mapping out the overall level of spending and central planks of the healthcare, education and climate package, but that the discussions required more time. (Duehren, Peterson and Collins, 10/1)

Politico: Democrats Dial Back Drug-Pricing Plans To Win Over Moderates
Top congressional Democrats are acknowledging for the first time that they’ll have to scale back their drug pricing plans to win centrist votes for their giant social spending package. Leadership may drop efforts to have the government directly negotiate the prices for medicines in private insurance plans and make fewer drugs subject to negotiations in Medicare, among the changes under consideration. (Ollstein and Wilson, 9/30)

Roll Call: Democrats Weigh Health Care Provisions In $3.5 Trillion Bill 
Democratic leaders struggling to satisfy both progressive and moderate factions’ demands are still trying to resolve divisions over scaling back the expansive health care policy wish list in their $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation package. A smattering of members in both chambers have concerns with key issues ranging from drug pricing to Medicare spending, while Democratic holdouts like Sen. Joe Manchin III of West Virginia and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona oppose the legislation’s overall price tag. (Clason and McIntire, 9/30)

Stat: Key Senate Panel Weighs Small Biotech Carveout In Drug Pricing Reforms
A key Senate panel is seriously considering a new policy that would soften the blow of drug pricing reform for small biotech companies, according to two sources familiar with the talks. But the concession isn’t likely to win over the biotech industry. The change would be part of a package of broader drug pricing reforms from Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), who promised, vaguely, to protect the smaller companies earlier this year. (Cohrs and Florko, 9/30)

AP: Ban On 'Surprise' Medical Bills On Track For Jan. 1 Rollout
The Biden administration on Thursday put final touches on consumer protections against so-called “surprise” medical bills. The ban on charges that hit insured patients at some of life’s most vulnerable moments is on track to take effect Jan. 1, officials said. Patients will no longer have to worry about getting a huge bill following a medical crisis if the closest hospital emergency room happened to have been outside their insurance plan’s provider network. They’ll also be protected from unexpected charges if an out-of-network clinician takes part in a surgery or procedure conducted at an in-network hospital. In such situations, patients will be liable only for their in-network cost sharing amount. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 9/30)

Modern Healthcare: HHS Lays Out Surprise Billing Resolution Process In New Rule
Under the interim final rule published Thursday, if an out-of-network provider and payer can't come to an agreement over payment during a 30 day "open negotiation," they may turn to an independent dispute resolution process. The rule "takes consumers out of the middle of a payment dispute between insurers and providers," a Health and Human Services official told reporters Thursday. (Hellmann, 9/30)

Stat: Biden Administration Favors Insurers Over Doctors In Surprise Billing Rule
The Biden administration on Thursday sided with insurers over physicians, hospitals, and other health care providers, choosing the approach they prefer for resolving disputes over surprise medical bills. Congress last year passed a landmark law to protect patients from getting large, unexpected bills in emergencies and non-emergency situations where patients can’t choose their doctors. But many of the controversial details of its implementation were left to the Biden administration. The law barely passed after an all-out, yearslong lobbying war between health care providers and insurers. (Cohrs, 9/30)

The Wall Street Journal: Medical Cost Disputes To Be Settled By Arbitrator 
The new system stems from the No Surprises Act, a milestone legislation for patient advocates and lawmakers because it aims to limit out-of-pocket costs for unexpected medical bills. It applies to more than 130 million people with employer-sponsored health plans covered by federal law and many people who live in parts of the country without a state-based law that bans surprise bills. The 2020 No Surprises Act goes into effect on Jan. 1. The legislation directs insurers and providers who can’t agree on a reimbursement amount to submit to arbitration. It also tasked the administration with setting up the independent resolution process, which has had hospitals and insurers sparring over whether the system will financially favor the other, as third-party dispute resolutions could affect their bottom lines. (Armour, 9/30)

Modern Healthcare: HHS Kills Trump-Era 340B Rule Targeting Community Health Clinics
The Health Resources and Services Administration has formally rescinded a proposed rule targeting community health clinics participating in the 340B Drug Pricing Program. The regulation, which President Donald Trump's administration proposed last year, would have required community health centers pass on the 340B discounts they get for insulin and Epi-Pens directly to patients. HRSA is pulling the regulation because of the "excessive administrative costs and burdens that implementation would have imposed on health centers," the agency wrote in a notice published in the Federal Register Thursday. (Hellmann, 9/30)

Los Angeles Times: Court OKs Biden Administration To Keep Expelling Families For Now
A federal appellate court Thursday temporarily granted the Biden administration permission to continue the use of a public health order to quickly expel migrants with children stopped along the U.S. border. In a brief ruling, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit granted the administration’s request to stay a lower court’s ruling blocking the expulsion policy. The Trump administration had invoked the 1944 health statute known as Title 42 to close the border and prevent people from entering the country, citing concerns about the spread of the coronavirus. The Biden administration has continued the policy. (Castillo, 9/30)

CBS News: Facebook Executive Says Company Doesn't Profit Off Underage Users 
Facebook's global head of safety defended the company against accusations it harms children's mental health in a Senate hearing Thursday, pushing back against claims that the social media giant exploits young users for profit. The hearing before the Senate subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety and Data Security marked the first congressional testimony by a Facebook executive since a recent Wall Street Journal investigation found the company was aware its products harmed underage users. The paper cited internal Facebook research showing the company's products made body image issues worse for a third of teenage girls and prompted suicidal thoughts in 6% of all teenage users. (Bidar, 9/30)

NBC News: Senator's Office Posed As A Girl On Fake Instagram Account To Study App's Effect
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said his office had created a fake Instagram account to pose as a 13-year-old girl to research what the app is like for teens and how it could potentially affect their mental health. "Our research has shown, in real time, Instagram's recommendations will still latch on to a person's insecurities, a young woman's vulnerabilities about their bodies and drag them into dark places that glorify eating disorders and self-harm," Blumenthal said during a Senate hearing Thursday titled “Protecting Kids Online: Facebook, Instagram, & Mental Health Harms." "That's what Instagram does," the senator said. (Rosenblatt, 9/30)

AP: Nation's Most Restrictive Abortion Law Back In Texas Court
A federal judge on Friday will consider whether Texas can leave in place the most restrictive abortion law in the U.S., which since September has banned most abortions and sent women racing to get care beyond the borders of the nation’s second-largest state. A lawsuit filed by the Biden administration seeks to land the first legal blow against the Texas law known as Senate Bill 8, which thus far has withstood an early wave of challenges — including the U.S. Supreme Court allowing it to remain in force. (Weber, 10/1)

The Washington Post: Justice Alito Defends Letting Texas Abortion Law Take Effect 
Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. on Thursday defended the Supreme Court’s actions in letting a controversial and restrictive Texas abortion law go into effect, and said criticism of the court’s recent decisions in emergency cases was an attempt to intimidate the justices. In a speech at the University of Notre Dame, the veteran conservative justice lambasted the use of the term “shadow docket” to describe the emergency applications that come before the court, a process in place for years but which has increased in frequency. (Barnes and Berardino, 9/30)

AP: Judge Delays Implementation Of New Montana Abortion Laws
A judge granted Thursday evening a temporary restraining order delaying the implementation of three laws restricting abortion access in Montana, hours before the laws were set to go into effect. District Court Judge Michael Moses issued the temporary restraining order to remain in effect for 10 days or until Moses rules on a preliminary injunction requested by Planned Parenthood of Montana. The laws would ban abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy, restrict access to abortion pills and require abortion providers to ask patients if they would like to view an ultrasound. (Samuels, 10/1)

The Washington Post: House Members Share Personal, At Times Painful, Accounts Of Undergoing Abortions In Plea To Preserve Right To Procedure 
Three members of Congress on Thursday shared their personal and, at times, painful stories of abortion, in an emotional hearing that came amid an intensifying battle over a Texas law that is the most restrictive in the nation. Two of the lawmakers said they were teenagers when they decided to terminate their pregnancies. Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) described her decision in the mid-1960s to have a “back-alley abortion” in Mexico at age 16, describing herself as “one of the lucky ones” because many other women and girls at the time died of unsafe abortions. Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) said she decided to have an abortion after she was raped at age 17 by a man she met on a church trip. (Sonmez, 9/30)

USA Today: US Near 700K COVID Deaths, A Grim Milestone In The Pandemic Fight
The United States is on the cusp of surpassing 700,000 coronavirus deaths, half of them in the last nine months alone as the delta variant drove a brutal surge across the weary nation. The U.S. reached 600,000 deaths in June, when daily deaths had dropped to under 400 amid hope that the crisis, at least at home, was near an end. Vaccines were widely available to all American adults and teens. For free. Three months and 100,000 deaths later, 2,000 Americans are dying per day. And millions have lost interest in the fight. Football stadiums are packed with maskless fans, some in states that ban vaccination and mask requirements. (Hayes, 10/1)

AP: 2 Children In Virginia Dead From COVID In 3-Day Span
A child under the age of 10 died in eastern Virginia on Wednesday from COVID-19, the second fatal juvenile case this week in the region, health officials confirmed. A health department spokesperson, Larry Hill, told the Richmond Times-Dispatch he could not provide any further information about the child. The child’s death occurred shortly after that of 10-year-old Teresa Sperry, who died Monday from the virus. According to officials, they are the 12th and 13th juvenile deaths in the state since the beginning of the pandemic. (9/30)

Bloomberg: Vaccine Mandates Reach 25% Of U.S. Companies After Biden Order
One in four companies has instituted a vaccine mandate for U.S. workers, a sharp increase from last month, following President Joe Biden’s directive ordering large employers to require shots or weekly testing. Another 13% of companies plan to put a mandate in place, Brian Kropp, chief of human-resources research at consultant Gartner, said in a panel discussion Thursday. The firm’s findings are based off a survey of roughly 400 organizations. (Boyle, 9/30)

CNN: Many States See Significant Increase In Vaccinations Ahead Of Deadlines For Vaccine Mandates 
With more states and health care systems moving toward mandatory inoculations for certain workers, officials are hoping the incentive of employment will eliminate vaccine hesitancy -- while one governor is arranging contingency scenarios. Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont has instructed the National Guard to prepare for activation in the event that there are staffing shortages when a vaccine mandate and testing requirement goes into effect at the end of Monday, he said. State employees must provide proof of vaccination or submit to weekly testing requirements by the deadline, and those who don't comply will be placed on unpaid leave. (Caldwell, 10/1)

The New York Times: ‘Mandates Are Working’: Employer Ultimatums Lift Vaccination Rates, So Far
As California’s requirement that all health care workers be vaccinated against the coronavirus took effect on Thursday, major health systems reported that the mandate had helped boost their vaccination rates to 90 percent or higher. In New York, another mandate that began this week compelled thousands of hospital and nursing home workers to get shots. And at several major corporations, executives reported surges in vaccination rates after adding their own requirements. Until now, the biggest unknown about mandating Covid-19 vaccines in workplaces has been whether such requirements would lead to compliance or to significant departures by workers unwilling to get shots — at a time when many places were already facing staffing shortages. So far, a number of early mandates show few indications of large-scale resistance. (Hubler, 9/30)

Reuters: U.S. Judge Upholds COVID-19 Vaccine Requirement For Those With 'Natural Immunity' 
A U.S. judge upheld the University of California's COVID-19 vaccine requirement against a challenge by a professor who alleged he had immunity due to a prior coronavirus infection, in what appears to be the first ruling on the issue. U.S. District Court Judge James Selna in Santa Ana, California, said the university system acted rationally to protect public health by mandating the vaccine and not exempting individuals with some level of immunity from an infection. (Hals, 9/30)

The Washington Post: Lawsuit Seeks To Halt Biden’s Vaccination Mandates For Federal Workforce
A group of lawsuit plaintiffs, including four Air Force officers and a Secret Service agent, have asked a federal court to block the Biden administration’s coronavirus vaccination mandates, declaring, “Americans have remained idle for far too long as our nation’s elected officials continue to satisfy their voracious appetites for power.” The lawsuit, filed Sept. 23 in U.S. District Court in Washington, seeks an injunction that would halt vaccination requirements announced recently for millions of workers in federal executive-branch agencies, including contractors, as well as U.S. troops. (Duggan and Horton, 9/30)

Bloomberg: NY Health Workers Win Religious Exemption To Vaccine Mandate
New York state must temporarily allow exemptions from a mandate on Covid-19 vaccinations for health care workers with religious objections, a federal appeals court ruled, amid a spate of U.S. legal battles over vaccine and mask requirements. The ruling, in a case filed by three workers who sued to block the state’s vaccine mandate outright, comes amid a national debate over mandates put in place to stem the spread of the coronavirus. President Joe Biden has ordered federal workers and contractors to be vaccinated and called for companies with more than 100 employees to require vaccines or weekly tests. Several legal challenges have been mounted against the mandates. (Van Voris, 9/30)

AP: More Than 1,000 UMaine Students Must Comply With Shot Rules
More than 1,000 University of Maine System students must come into compliance with the system’s vaccination and testing requirements this month or they will be withdrawn from courses without a refund. The system said Thursday it is reaching the end of its campaign to bring students into compliance with the rules. Students have until Oct. 15 to verify their vaccinated status or receive an exemption that requires weekly testing, the system said. (10/1)

PBS NewsHour: Polarization Over Vaccine Mandate Rules Underscores Difficulty For U.S. To Slow Pandemic
Nearly two-thirds of Americans say health care workers in hospitals, home health care facilities and other medical facilities should be vaccinated. But when you break that response down, a far higher share of Democrats (92 percent) support that federal requirement than do Republicans (38 percent) or independents (56 percent). Partisanship drives so much of the nation’s response to the pandemic, said Dr. Céline Gounder, an epidemiologist who advised the Biden-Harris transition team’s COVID-19 response. Despite hosting multiple clinical trials for vaccines and having a shot for every person, American vaccination efforts have “really stalled out,” Gounder said. The U.S. globally ranks 48th in terms of how much of the population is vaccinated. Many fewer Republicans have received at least one dose compared to Democrats and independents, according to recent polling data from the Kaiser Family Foundation COVID-19 Vaccine Monitor. (Santhanham, 9/30)

The Washington Post: Turns Out A Lot Of Those Never-Vaxxers Were Really ‘I’ll Get It If Required’
Since the government approved the first vaccine to fight the coronavirus last year, polling has found that there are four general views of the vaccination process. The first is those who were eager to get vaccinated, telling pollsters that they would do so as soon as possible and then actually doing it. Next, there were those who were cautious, saying that they would wait and see before getting a dose. In polling from the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) over the past 10 months, those two groups combined have been about three-quarters of the country. (Bump, 9/30)

The Washington Post: Messy, Incomplete U.S. Data Hobbles Pandemic Response 
The contentious and confusing debate in recent weeks over coronavirus booster shots has exposed a fundamental weakness in the United States’ ability to respond to a public health crisis: The data is a mess. How many people have been infected at this point? No one knows for sure, in part because of insufficient testing and incomplete reporting. How many fully vaccinated people have had breakthrough infections? The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention decided to track only a fraction of them. When do inoculated people need booster shots? American officials trying to answer that have had to rely heavily on data from abroad. (Achenbach and Abutaleb, 9/30)

AP: Arkansas Court: State Can't Enforce Ban On Mask Mandates
The Arkansas Supreme Court on Thursday said it wouldn’t allow the state to enforce its ban on mask mandates by schools and other government bodies, while lawmakers clashed over efforts to prohibit businesses from requiring employees get the COVID-19 vaccine. In a one-page order, justices denied the request by the state to stay the August decision blocking enforcement of Arkansas’ mandate ban. More than 100 school districts and charter schools have approved mask requirements since the ruling against the law. The requirements cover more than half the state’s public school students. (DeMillo, 10/1)

AP: Health Agencies Rescind Mask Orders Despite Governor's Vow
Two more local health department in Michigan rescinded their school masking requirement Thursday despite Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer saying she will not enforce Republican-written budget provisions that threaten funding for counties with COVID-19 orders. The moves by Allegan County south of Grand Rapids and the Barry-Eaton District west of Lansing came a day after Berrien County in the state’s southwestern corner repealed a face covering mandate. The health department for Dickinson and Iron counties in the Upper Peninsula acted last week. (Eggert, 10/1)

The Boston Globe: Massachusetts Faces Legal Challenges To Universal Mask Mandates In Public Schools
Massachusetts education leaders are facing multiple legal challenges to the statewide indoor mask mandate for public schools, which was extended earlier this week until at least Nov. 1. At least six lawsuits have been filed across the state, naming either the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education or Commissioner Jeffrey Riley as a defendant. Some of the cases also name various public school districts, including Andover, Cambridge, Dover-Sherborn, and many others. Colleen Quinn, a spokeswoman for the state’s education agency, declined to comment on the lawsuits due to the pending proceedings, but said there will be a motion considered in Hampden County next week to consolidate the cases. (Gans, 9/30)

AP: Iowa School District Begins Own COVID-19 Testing Program
Iowa’s largest public school system will offer drive-through COVID-19 tests starting next week, in an effort to counter rising virus infections since the governor discontinued a statewide testing program. Des Moines Public Schools officials said Thursday that they have entered an agreement with Nomi Health to offer testing from Monday at two city locations. It’s the same Utah-based company that the state contracted with in April 2020 to provide Test Iowa services — widely available free tests at accessible drive-through locations. (Pitt, 9/30)

AP: Website Helps Kentuckians Search For Antibody Treatments
Kentuckians can now tap into the state’s COVID-19 website to help them search for health care facilities that provide monoclonal antibody treatment. Supplies of the therapy are limited because of high demand nationally, Dr. Steven Stack, Kentucky’s public health commissioner, said Thursday. For people infected with COVID-19, the treatment can help give their immune system a boost, helping reduce the likelihood of hospitalization, he said. (10/1)

Reuters: Merck Says Research Shows Its COVID-19 Pill Works Against Variants
Laboratory studies show that Merck & Co's (MRK.N) experimental oral COVID-19 antiviral drug, molnupiravir, is likely to be effective against known variants of the coronavirus, including the dominant, highly transmissible Delta, the company said on Wednesday. Since molnupiravir does not target the spike protein of the virus - the target of all current COVID-19 vaccines - which defines the differences between the variants, the drug should be equally effective as the virus continues to evolve, said Jay Grobler, head of infectious disease and vaccines at Merck. Molnupiravir instead targets the viral polymerase, an enzyme needed for the virus to make copies of itself. It is designed to work by introducing errors into the genetic code of the virus. (Beasley, 9/29)

Houston Chronicle: University Of Houston Professors Develop Intranasal COVID Vaccine
A University of Houston professor has developed a COVID-19 vaccine that can be administered through the nose, with hopes to soon test on humans. Dr. Navin Varadarajan, a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at UH, has devoted much of his post-doctoral work to immunology and understanding how the body protects itself. His background in immunology gave him the idea for an intranasal vaccine, which can be effective in triggering a strong immune response at the site of pathogen infection. (Garcia, 9/30)

Reuters: Coronavirus Can Transform Pancreas Cell Function; Certain Genes May Protect An Infected Person's Spouse
When the coronavirus infects cells, it not only impairs their activity but can also change their function, new findings suggest. For example, when insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas become infected with the virus, they not only produce much less insulin than usual, but also start to produce glucose and digestive enzymes, which is not their job, researchers found. (Lapid, 9/29)

AP: US Stem Cell Clinics Boomed While FDA Paused Crackdown
Hundreds of clinics pushing unproven stem cell procedures caught a big break from the U.S. government in 2017: They would have three years to show that their questionable treatments were safe and worked before regulators started cracking down. But when the Food and Drug Administration’s grace period expired in late May — extended six months due to the pandemic — the consequences became clear: Hundreds more clinics were selling the unapproved treatments for arthritis, Alzheimer’s, COVID-19 and many other conditions. (Perrone, 9/30)

Stat: Mapping Proteins Could Offer A Clearer View Of What’s Driving Cancer
Scientists have unveiled new maps of the protein networks underlying different types of cancer, offering a potentially clearer way to see what’s driving the disease and to find therapeutic targets. Sequencing the genetic information of tumors can provide a trove of data about the mutations contained in those cancer cells. Some of those mutations help doctors figure out the best way to treat a patient, but others remain more of a mystery than a clear instruction manual. Many are exceedingly rare, or there are so many mutations it’s not clear what’s fueling the cancer. (Joseph, 9/30)

Stat: Appeals Court Rules FDA 'Capriciously' Approved Rare Disease Drug
In a closely watched battle over regulatory decision-making, a federal appeals court ruled the U.S. Food and Drug Administration wrongly approved a rare disease medicine made by a small, family-run company because another drug maker already held the exclusive right to market a similar treatment. The lawsuit was filed by Catalyst Pharmaceuticals (CPRX), which accused the agency of violating federal law two years ago when it unexpectedly approved a medicine made by Jacobus Pharmaceuticals for treating children with a rare neuromuscular disorder called Lambert-Eaton myasthenic syndrome, or LEMS. The FDA had previously endorsed a Catalyst drug to treat LEMS, but only for adults. (Silverman, 9/30)

Bloomberg: Merck To Buy Rare-Disease Firm Acceleron For $11.5 Billion
Merck & Co. agreed to buy Acceleron Pharma Inc. for about $11.5 billion, building out its portfolio of therapies to treat rare diseases. Acceleron shareholders will get $180 a share in cash, a 34% premium over the price at the end of last month but below the stock’s intraday highs this week. (Davis, Hammond and Court, 9/30)

Modern Healthcare: Independent Pharmacists Urge DOJ To Axe UnitedHealth-Change Healthcare Deal
The National Community Pharmacists Association is calling on federal regulators to block UnitedHealth Group's $13 billion deal to buy Change Healthcare, saying independent pharmacies already struggle to compete against the two companies and that a merger would create an anticompetitive corporate behemoth. UnitedHealth Group announced in January that its fastest-growing subsidiary, Optum, would pay approximately $8 billion to acquire revenue cycle management and data analytics company Change Healthcare. Optum also plans to pay off $5 billion in debt Change Healthcare owes. At the time, analysts predicted the acquisition would allow Optum to expand its OptumInsight provider business, inform its value-based care initiatives and increase patient engagement. (Tepper, 9/30)

Modern Healthcare: Centene Adds $71 Million To State Medicaid Drug Pricing Settlements
Centene Corp. will pay a combined $71 million to Illinois and Arkansas to settle allegations that the St. Louis-based insurer overcharged the states' Medicaid departments for drugs. The company has reserved $1.1 billion for future settlements related to its Envolve pharmacy benefit manager, which it has since restructured to serve solely as a third-party administrator to process customer claims. Kansas, Georgia, Oklahoma and New Mexico are reportedly also investigating their Medicaid programs' PBMs and considering litigation through the Liston & Deas and Cohen & Milstein law firm, according to The Wall Street Journal. (Tepper, 9/30)

Modern Healthcare: 5 Things To Know: Kaiser Staff Prepare To Strike
Labor unions representing at least 27,000 Kaiser Permanente employees in California and Oregon are readying their memberships to vote on whether they will go on strike, union leaders said. The votes come as union contracts expire Thursday. Under national labor law, healthcare unions are required to give employers 10 days' notice of a strike. The United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals, which includes 24,000 registered nurses, pharmacists, rehab therapists, midwives and optometrists, will hold its vote Oct. 1 through Oct. 10. The Oregon Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals, which represents 3,400 healthcare workers, will start its vote Oct. 4. Both unions are part of the 21-union Alliance of Health Care Unions that represents 52,000 Kaiser workers. (Christ, 9/30)

Stat: New Surgical Robot Is Smaller, Nimbler, Cheaper, Its Maker Claims 
The surgical robot market, long dominated by one company, has a new entrant hoping to disrupt the industry with a more immersive, 3D experience for surgeons — even as the need for surgical robots in most procedures remains hotly debated. Robot-assisted surgery has boomed in the past 20 years, led by Intuitive, the company that makes the popular da Vinci robot. Vicarious Surgical, the new company that went public last month, claims it can do better than what exists on the market — “legacy systems,” as co-founder and roboticist Adam Sachs refers to them, declining to critique Intuitive specifically. (Cueto, 10/1)

Stat: In Biotech, ‘Offboarding’ Is Now Just As Important As Onboarding
In today’s biotech job market — where competition for people with in-demand experience is fiercer than ever — it’s become critical for biotech startups and venture capitalists to ensure people have a smooth exit when their companies downsize or go under. Biotech is a notoriously small world, especially in regions like Boston and the Bay Area. If an employee leaves a job with hard feelings or a bad taste in their mouth, it may not be the last time an executive team will see them. And biotech companies often fail — in one recent analysis, more than half of all the studied biotech startups failed. (Sheridan, 10/1)

The Wall Street Journal: A Hospital Hit By Hackers, A Baby In Distress: The Case Of The First Alleged Ransomware Death
When Teiranni Kidd walked into Springhill Medical Center on July 16, 2019, to have her baby, she had no idea the Alabama hospital was deep in the midst of a ransomware attack. For nearly eight days, computers had been disabled on every floor. A real-time wireless tracker that could locate medical staff around the hospital was down. Years of patient health records were inaccessible. And at the nurses’ desk in the labor and delivery unit, medical staff were cut off from the equipment that monitors fetal heartbeats in the 12 delivery rooms. Doctors and nurses in the unit texted each other with updates. “We have no computer charting for I don’t know how long,” one manager informed a nurse in a message later filed in court. “They are printing out the labs in the laboratory and sending them by paper,” another worker wrote. One overwhelmed nurse texted, “I want to run away.” (Poulsen, McMillan and Evans, 9/30)

USA Today: Study: Police Kill More People In This State Than Any Other. And Many Deaths Go Unreported
Oklahoma has the highest mortality rate of police violence of all 50 states and the highest rate of underreporting the killings, according to estimates in a study released Thursday. About 84% of police killings in the state from 1980 to 2018 were unreported or misclassified in official government reports, according to the peer-reviewed study in The Lancet, one of the world's oldest and most renowned medical journals. (Hauck, 9/30)

AP: Big Drop In US Teen Vaping Seen With COVID School Closures
Teen vaping plummeted this year as many U.S. students were forced to learn from home during the pandemic, according to a government report released Thursday. U.S. health officials urged caution in interpreting the numbers, which were collected using an online questionnaire for the first time. But outside experts said the big decrease in electronic cigarettes use is likely real and makes sense given that young people often vape socially. “They found a dramatic drop from last year and it’s hard to imagine that doesn’t represent a real decrease in use among high school and middle school students,” said Dr. Nancy Rigotti of Harvard University, who was not involved in the research. (Perrone, 9/30)

CBS News: Drug Enforcement Administration Seizes 1.8 Million Fentanyl-Laced Pills And Arrests More Than 800 In Nationwide Sting
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency has seized approximately 1.8 million fentanyl-laced pills and nearly 1,570 pounds of fentanyl powder — enough to kill more than 700,000 people and to potentially make tens of millions more lethal pills, the agency announced Thursday. The two-month search was part of the DEA's effort to target criminal drug networks within the country. It resulted in the arrests of 810 people and the seizure of nearly 8,843 pounds of methamphetamine, 1,440 pounds of cocaine and 158 weapons, according to the Department of Justice. Multiple felony charges are pending as a result of the investigation for crimes including drug trafficking and drug distribution. (Powell, 9/30)

NBC News: Opioid Vaccine Eyed By Scientists As A Shot To Stem Overdose Epidemic
The vaccination felt like most others — a slight pinprick in M.'s  upper arm, followed by the application of a Band-Aid and advice to monitor the injection site for any unusual reactions. The vaccine, however, is unlike any other. It's not meant to protect against the coronavirus, or any germ, for that matter. It is meant to protect against a deadly opioid overdose. When M. (who requested that her full name not be used to protect her identity) got the shot this Tuesday, she became just the sixth person to receive it. (Edwards, 10/1)

The New York Times: How To Ease And Avoid Seasonal Affective Disorder 
For about 1 in 20 people in the northern half of the United States, cooling temperatures and shorter, darker days may signal the onset of seasonal affective disorder, or SAD, a type of depression that typically arrives in the fall or winter, then goes away in the spring. Unlike mild cases of the “winter blues,” SAD symptoms make it difficult to function. It tends to start with so-called “vegetative symptoms”: an increased appetite and a craving for carbohydrates like french fries or ice cream, the urge to sleep longer hours, difficulty getting up in the morning and feeling wiped out at work. (Caron, 9/30)

USA Today: Coppertone Sunscreen Recall 2021: Select Products Recalled For Benzene
Coppertone is voluntarily recalling five of its aerosol sunscreen products due to the presence of benzene, a chemical that can cause cancer with repeated exposure. The company announced the recall Thursday of 12 lots of sunscreen and advised consumers to stop using the affected products, which were manufactured between Jan. 10 and June 15, 2021. According to a recall notice posted on the Food & Drug Administration's website, the affected products were sold at retailers nationwide and include: Pure & Simple SPF 50, Pure & Simple Kids SPF 50, Pure & Simple Baby SPF 50, Sport Mineral SPF 50 and travel-size Coppertone Sport Spray SPF 50. (Tyko, 9/30)

GMA: 'Dancing With The Stars' Competitor Cody Rigsby Has COVID-19 
"Dancing With the Stars" competitor Cody Rigsby has tested positive for COVID-19 for the second time this year.Four days ago, his dancing partner, Cheryl Burke, announced that she has the virus. (9/30)

Politico: Newsom Signs #FreeBritney Bill To Help Reform Conservatorship Laws
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday signed into law the so-called #FreeBritney bill, legislation designed to reform the state’s legal guardianship laws that critics say have led to the exploitation of many Californians, including pop star Britney Spears. The bill by Assemblymember Evan Low (D-Campbell) holds professional conservators to a higher standard by requiring them to disclose their fees online, prohibits financial conflicts of interest involving the conservator and increases enforcement actions against those who are not acting in their clients’ best interest. (Colliver, 9/30)

The Washington Post: Australia To Ease International Travel Ban, Shedding 'Hermit Kingdom' Tag
Australia will drop some restrictions on international travel in November, easing one of the world's longest covid border closures. Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced Friday that the country would reopen its mostly shut international border next month, ending more than 18 months of restrictions that earned the Pacific nation the nicknames of “Fortress Australia” and the “Hermit Kingdom,” and left tens of thousands of Australians stuck overseas. (Miller, 10/1)

Bloomberg: China’s Sinovac Shot Approved By Australia Ahead Of Border Open
Australia recognized China’s Sinovac Biotech Ltd. Covid-19 shot and India-made AstraZeneca Plc jabs, paving the way for overseas travelers and fee-paying foreign students who have received those vaccinations to enter the country. The nation’s top drugs regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Administration, said the shots should be “recognized vaccines” in determining incoming travelers as being inoculated, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Friday. (Whitley, 10/1)

Bloomberg: Philip Morris Takeover Of U.K. Drugmaker Vectura Near Completion
Philip Morris International Inc. has control of most of Vectura Group Plc’s shares and is in the final stages of taking the U.K. asthma drug maker private. Philip Morris has acquired about 97% valid acceptances and can now compulsorily acquire any remaining shares, the company said in a statement Friday. The deal had already become unconditional in mid-September, when it obtained majority control. The offer will remain open until further notice. (Gretler, 10/1)