First Edition: Oct. 26, 2020

KHN: North Carolina Treasurer Took On The Hospitals. Now He’s Paying Political Price. 
Cartel is a term frequently associated with illegal narcotics syndicates. In North Carolina, it has become the favored word of State Treasurer Dale Folwell to describe the state’s hospital industry, the antagonist in his quest to lower health care prices for state employees. The treasurer manages the state employees’ health plan, which insures about 727,000 teachers, police officers, current and retired state workers and dependents. Folwell, a Republican, has tried to persuade hospitals to accept lower payments, but he has struggled to discover the existing rates the plan pays each hospital. (Rau, 10/26)

KHN: Colorado Initiative Would Further Limit Access In Middle America’s ‘Abortion Desert’ 
Colorado voters are deciding a ballot question that seeks to limit how far into pregnancy an abortion can be legally performed. While the measure would change the law only in Colorado, it would resonate throughout the Rocky Mountain states and Midwest amid an intensifying national fight, fueled by a Supreme Court vacancy, over the future of abortion. In 1967 — six years before the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision protected the right to an abortion in the U.S. — Colorado became the first state to pass a law widening access to legal abortion. More than 50 years later, it remains one of just seven states without gestational limits on the procedure, making Colorado one of the few options for people nationwide who need abortions later in pregnancy. (Blossom, 10/26)

KHN: COVID Spikes Exacerbate Health Worker Shortages In Rocky Mountains, Great Plains
COVID-19 cases are surging in rural places across the Mountain States and Midwest, and when it hits health care workers, ready reinforcements aren’t easy to find. In Montana, pandemic-induced staffing shortages have shuttered a clinic in the state’s capital, led a northwestern regional hospital to ask employees exposed to COVID-19 to continue to work and emptied a health department 400 miles to the east. (Houghton, 10/26)

KHN: Verily’s COVID Testing Program Halted In San Francisco And Oakland 
Amid fanfare in March, California officials celebrated the launch of a multimillion-dollar contract with Verily — Google’s health-focused sister company — that they said would vastly expand COVID testing among the state’s impoverished and underserved communities. But seven months later, San Francisco and Alameda counties — two of the state’s most populous — have severed ties with the company’s testing sites amid concerns about patients’ data privacy and complaints that funding intended to boost testing in low-income Black and Latino neighborhoods instead was benefiting higher-income residents in other communities. (Gold and Pradhan, 10/26)

KHN: Florida Fails To Attract Bidders For Canada Drug Importation Program 
Florida’s plan to import cheaper prescription drugs from Canada — designed by Gov. Ron DeSantis and endorsed by President Donald Trump — has tasted its first bitter pill. No private firms bid on Florida’s $30 million contract to set up and operate a drug importation program. Bids were due at the end of September. The setback is likely to delay by at least several months Florida’s effort to become the first state to import drugs. (Galewitz, 10/26)

KHN: DeJa Vu For California Voters On Dialysis 
The survival of California’s dialysis clinics is in the hands of its voters this November. Sound familiar? Voters heard the same dire campaign claim two years ago, when the dialysis industry spent a record $111 million to defeat a statewide ballot measure that would have limited clinic revenues. (Young, 10/26)

Reuters: U.S. Sees Highest Number Of New COVID-19 Cases In Past Two Days
The United States has seen its highest ever number of new COVID-19 cases in the past two days, keeping the pandemic a top election issue as Vice President Mike Pence travels the country to campaign despite close aides testing positive. The United States reported 79,852 new infections on Saturday, close to the previous day's record of 84,244 new cases. Hospitalizations are also rising and have hit a two-month high and deaths are trending upwards, according to a Reuters tally. (Shumaker, 10/25)

AP: Fear And Anxiety Spike In Virus Hot Spots Across US
Preslie Paur breaks down in tears when she thinks of her state’s refusal to mandate face masks. The South Salt Lake City, Utah, woman can’t work at her special education job due to an autoimmune disease. Her husband, also a special ed teacher, recently quit because his school district would not allow him to work remotely to protect her and their 5-year-old son, who has asthma. “I feel forgotten,” Paur said. “We’re living in a world we no longer fit in. We did everything right. We went to college, we got jobs, we tried to give back to our community, and now our community is not giving back to us. And I’m very scared.” (Ramer and Sainz, 10/25)

The Wall Street Journal: Pence’s Chief Of Staff And Other Key Aides Test Positive For Coronavirus 
At least five people close to Vice President Mike Pence, including his chief of staff and a top campaign adviser, have tested positive for Covid-19, but with just days left until Election Day, President Trump’s running mate will maintain a busy campaign schedule. Mr. Pence, the head of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, has been in close contact with his chief of staff Marc Short, who tested positive on Saturday, the vice president’s spokesman Devin O’Malley said. (Bender, Toy and Hernandez, 10/25)

NPR: Marc Short, Pence Chief Of Staff, Tests Positive For Coronavirus 
But Pence — who is considered to have had close contact with his most senior adviser — decided to "maintain his schedule in accordance with the CDC guidelines for essential personnel," O'Malley said in a statement, noting that Pence had consulted with White House physicians. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's guidelines for essential workers who have had close contact with an infected person include wearing a mask for 14 days "at all times while in the workplace." (Bowman, Keith, Ordonez and Sprunt, 10/25)

The New York Times: Infection Of Pence Aides Raises New Questions About Trump’s Virus Response 
“Covid, Covid. Covid, Covid, Covid, Covid,” President Trump groused at a rally in North Carolina on Saturday, expressing dismay that the deadly coronavirus pandemic had come to dominate the final days of his struggling re-election campaign. He made up a scenario: “A plane goes down, 500 people dead, they don’t talk about it. ‘Covid, Covid, Covid, Covid.’” But just seven hours later, the White House made its own Covid headlines when officials acknowledged that another coronavirus outbreak had struck the White House, infecting Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff and four other top aides — and raising new questions about the Trump administration’s cavalier approach to the worst health crisis in a century. (Shear, Karni, Haberman and Gay Stolberg, 10/25)

AP: Health Experts Question Pence Campaigning As Essential Work
Health policy specialists questioned White House officials’ claim that federal rules on essential workers allow Vice President Mike Pence to continue to campaign and not quarantine himself after being exposed to the coronavirus. Campaigning is not an official duty that might fall under the guidelines meant to ensure that police, first responders and key transportation and food workers can still perform jobs that cannot be done remotely, the health experts said. (Marchione, 10/25)

The Washington Post: White House Signals Defeat In Pandemic As Coronavirus Outbreak Roils Pence's Office 
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, who regularly wears a mask on the campaign trail and strictly adheres to social distancing guidelines, sought to capitalize on the remark. “This wasn’t a slip by Meadows; it was a candid acknowledgment of what President Trump’s strategy has clearly been from the beginning of this crisis: to wave the white flag of defeat and hope that by ignoring it, the virus would simply go away,” Biden said in a statement. “It hasn’t, and it won’t.” (Rucker, Dawsey and Wang, 10/25)

Politico: ‘We’re Not Going To Control The Pandemic’: White House Chief’s Comments Undermine Trump’s Message 
Yet President Donald Trump — who continues to insist that the country is “rounding the corner” despite a new surge in cases — is campaigning in New Hampshire and Maine on Sunday before returning to the White House to co-host a Halloween event with first lady Melania Trump. Vice President Mike Pence will also continue to campaign instead of quarantine, after a top staffer tested positive for Covid-19 on Saturday (McCaskill, 10/25)

USA Today: Meadows: US 'Not Going To Control The Pandemic'
President Donald Trump's chief of staff acknowledged Sunday that the Trump administration won't be able to do much about the spread of COVID-19, and is focusing on cures instead. “We’re not going to control the pandemic," White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows told CNN's "State of the Union." Meadows added, "we are going to control the fact that we get vaccines, therapeutics and other mitigations." (Jackson, Brown and Hayes, 10/25)

Politico: Trump Pitches An Alternate Reality As Coronavirus Troubles Deepen
President Donald Trump is heading into the final nine days of the 2020 election with a new nationwide explosion in coronavirus cases and a second outbreak in the top ranks of his own White House — all while he tries to sell an alternate reality to voters. ... “We are coming around, we’re rounding the turn, we have the vaccines, we have everything,” Trump said at a rally in Londonderry, N.H., on Sunday. “Even without the vaccines, we’re rounding the turn. It’s going to be over.” (Kumar and Cook, 10/25)

The Washington Post: From Coronavirus To Race To The Economy, Wisconsin Is A Microcosm Of The Forces Roiling America 
Four years ago, the Wisconsin state fairgrounds were a scene of celebration. The nation’s newly elected president, Donald Trump, stood amid red-bauble-bedecked Christmas trees and regaled thousands of supporters with tales from the night Wisconsin propelled his improbable victory. Today, the grounds are host to a field hospital for treating coronavirus patients, row-upon-row of stark white beds to accommodate overflow from the state’s beleaguered medical centers. (Witte, 10/25)

The Washington Post: Barrett Nomination Clears Senate Hurdle, On Course To Confirmation To Supreme Court 
“We made an important contribution to the future of this country,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Sunday, praising Barrett as a “stellar nominee” in every respect. “A lot of what we’ve done over the last four years will be undone sooner or later by the next election. They won’t be able to do much about this for a long time to come.” ... Democrats, powerless to stop her confirmation, have cast the process as a power grab by Republicans eager to rush the nomination days ahead of the election. They repeatedly warned that Barrett is a threat to health care for millions of Americans, abortion rights and gay rights. (Min Kim, 10/25)

Politico: Barrett Clears Pivotal Senate Hurdle Ahead Of Monday Confirmation Vote
The Senate cleared a key procedural hurdle Sunday for Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination for the Supreme Court, bringing the 48-year-old judge one step closer to confirmation to the high court. In a 51-48 vote, the Senate kicked off 30 hours of debate on Barrett’s nomination, setting up a final confirmation vote for Monday evening, just eight days before the Nov. 3 election. Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), the Democratic vice presidential nominee, wasn’t present for the vote. The Senate is expected to remain in session overnight into Monday. (Levine and Desiderio, 10/25)

Reuters: Trump Asks Supreme Court To Block Deadline Extension For North Carolina Ballot
President Donald Trump’s campaign again asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Sunday to block North Carolina’s plan for counting absentee ballots that arrive after the Nov. 3 Election Day, the latest legal tussle in a wide-ranging fight over mail-in voting. The campaign initially filed the application on Thursday after a U.S. federal appeals court decision last week left in place North Carolina’s plan, dealing a setback to Trump’s re-election campaign. (10/25)

AP: Election Could Stoke US Marijuana Market, Sway Congress
Voters in four states from different regions of the country could embrace broad legal marijuana sales on Election Day, and a sweep would highlight how public acceptance of cannabis is cutting across geography, demographics and the nation’s deep political divide. The Nov. 3 contests in New Jersey, Arizona, South Dakota and Montana will shape policies in those states while the battle for control of Congress and the White House could determine whether marijuana remains illegal at the federal level. (Blood, 10/25)

NPR: Election Stress Getting To You? 4 Ways To Keep Calm
With Election Day just around the corner, many Americans are on edge. Nearly 70% of respondents said the elections are a significant source of stress, according to a survey out this month from the American Psychological Association. The survey also found that a majority — 77% — are worried about the country's future, says Vaile Wright, senior director of health care innovation at the American Psychological Association. "Seventy-one percent said that this is the lowest point in our nation's history that they can remember." (Chatterjee, 10/26)

The Wall Street Journal: Health Agency Halts Coronavirus Ad Campaign, Leaving Santa Claus In The Cold 
A federal health agency halted a public-service coronavirus advertising campaign funded by $250 million in taxpayer money after it offered a special vaccine deal to an unusual set of essential workers: Santa Claus performers. As part of the plan, a top Trump administration official wanted the Santa performers to promote the benefits of a Covid-19 vaccination and, in exchange, offered them early vaccine access ahead of the general public, according to audio recordings. Those who perform as Mrs. Claus and elves also would have been included. The Department of Health and Human Services said Friday the Santa plan would be scrapped. (Wernau, Grimaldo and Armour, 10/25)

NPR: A Federal Coronavirus Vaccine Contract Released At Last, But Redactions Obscure Terms
Late Friday, the Department of Health and Human Services released its August contract with Moderna. ... While the publicly posted Moderna contract includes previously unknown details, extensive redactions leave the public in the dark about some of the company's obligations as well as the extent of protections for taxpayers. It's 53 pages long, but only 14 of them are free of redactions. (Lupkin, 10/24)

Stat: Covid-19 Vaccine Trials From AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson To Restart
Two major studies of vaccines against Covid-19, both paused because of potential safety concerns, are set to restart, the companies running them said Friday. “The restart of clinical trials across the world is great news as it allows us to continue our efforts to develop this vaccine to help defeat this terrible pandemic,” Pascal Soriot, AstraZeneca’s CEO, said in a statement. “We should be reassured by the care taken by independent regulators to protect the public and ensure the vaccine is safe before it is approved for use.” (Herper, 10/23)

Reuters: Oxford COVID-19 Vaccine Produces Immune Response Among Elderly And Young, AstraZeneca Says 
The COVID-19 vaccine being developed by the University of Oxford produces an immune response in both elderly and young people and adverse reactions were lower among the elderly, British drug maker AstraZeneca Plc said on Monday. A vaccine that works is seen as a game-changer in the battle against the novel coronavirus, which has killed more than 1.15 million people, hammered the global economy and shuttered normal life across the world. (Faulconbridge, 10/26)

CIDRAP: Lower COVID-19 Viral Loads Found In Asymptomatic Children
In the first large study looking at SARS-CoV-2 viral loads (VL) in asymptomatic children, researchers found that VL were 3 to 4 logs lower compared with symptomatic children, which was consistent with the difference in median cycle threshold (Ct) values—10.3 cycles—between the two groups. This finding, published yesterday in the Journal of Clinical Microbiology, held true across age (0 to 17 years old), race and ethnicity, sex, and institution, although the researchers found that both the magnitude of Ct difference and the VL lessened with older subgroups. SARS-CoV-2 is the virus that causes COVID-19. (10/23)

Stat: Study: Universal Mask Use Could Save 130,000 Lives By February
Back in April, President Trump picked out a single computer model of coronavirus spread as his oracle of choice. Unsurprisingly, that simulation initially had rosier estimates than other algorithms, projecting many fewer Covid-19 deaths — and its unconventional calculations and fluctuating estimates drew sharp criticism from epidemiologists. But the statisticians behind it have since changed their methods, and their new numbers, published Friday, bolster what scientists have long been saying: That doing away with social distancing measures could entail vast numbers of deaths, and that widespread mask-wearing in public could save tens of thousands of lives. (Boodman, 10/23)

Stat: Why Approval Of Remdesivir To Treat Covid-19 Obscures Scientific Failures
Late Thursday, the Food and Drug Administration gave full approval to remdesivir, Gilead Sciences’ treatment for Covid-19. The news came just a week after a large study conducted by the World Health Organization failed to show that the drug had any benefit on mortality. The approval was largely based on an earlier study, conducted by National Institutes of Health, which showed the drug helps patients recover more quickly, as well as two other studies conducted by Gilead. (Herper and Feuerstein, 10/23)

The New York Times: Why False Positives Merit Concern, Too
In the high-stakes world of coronavirus testing, one mistake has taken center stage: the dreaded false negative, wherein a test mistakenly deems an infected person to be virus-free. These troublesome results, experts have said, can deprive a person of treatment and embolden them to mingle with others, hastening the spread of disease. (Wu, 10/25)

CIDRAP: US Toddler Vaccine Rates Steady, But Lack Of Insurance Plays Role 
More than 90% of children 2 years and younger who were born in 2016 and 2017 received the recommended measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR); poliovirus; hepatitis B (hepB); and varicella vaccines, according to a report today in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (McLernon, 10/23)

The Washington Post: ‘This Is Not A Miss America Contest’: Sexism In Science, Research Is Challenged
In any other year, Londyn Robinson would have interviewed for her medical residency in person. Instead, an Internet search for tips on how to put her best foot forward online resulted in posting a photo of herself in a bikini top and shorts and setting off an uproar over sexism in science. With the high-pressure interviews online because of the coronavirus, Robinson, a 26-year-old medical student at the University of Minnesota, went looking for tips on social media etiquette for medical students as part of her preparation. (Blakemore, 10/24)

The Washington Post: Tuberculosis Is A Major Worldwide Threat And The Pandemic Could Make It Worse, WHO Says
In 2019 alone, an estimated 10 million people worldwide got tuberculosis, a deadly bacterial disease that usually affects the lungs. An estimated quarter of the world’s population has a TB infection. Most aren’t actively sick — yet. People with TB have about a 5 to 15 percent risk of getting ill. Still, the highly contagious disease was one of the top 10 causes of death worldwide last year and is the leading infectious killer worldwide, according to the World Health Organization, the United Nations’ public health agency. (Blakemore, 10/24)

The Washington Post: J. Michael Lane, Epidemiologist Who Helped Conquer Smallpox, Dies At 84 
J. Michael Lane, an epidemiologist who helped see to its end the global campaign to eradicate smallpox, a disease that killed hundreds of millions of people over centuries before it was vanquished in one of the most celebrated feats in the history of medicine, died Oct. 21 at his home in Atlanta. He was 84.The cause was colon cancer, said his wife, Lila Summer Lane. Dr. Lane, the last director of the smallpox eradication bureau at what is now the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, was one of the “disease detectives” who stalked the smallpox virus around the globe until the last naturally occurring case was identified in Somalia in 1977.(Langer, 10/23)

The Wall Street Journal: Bayer To Buy Gene-Therapy Firm AskBio For Up To $4 Billion 
Bayer AG said Monday it would pay as much as $4 billion for U.S. biotech firm Asklepios BioPharmaceutical Inc. to strengthen the German company’s drugmaking arm, as Bayer continues to reel from its acquisition of crops giant Monsanto. The latest deal—for which Bayer will pay $2 billion now and as much as a further $2 billion based on future success milestones—is a bet on cutting-edge gene therapy, in which a functional gene is inserted to counter the effects of a disease caused by a missing or faulty gene. (Bender, 10/26)

Boston Globe: Foghorn Therapeutics Raises $120 Million In IPO
Stock in Foghorn Therapeutics Inc. was up about 14 percent Friday morning in its first day of trading on the Nasdaq exchange, after the Cambridge biotech startup raised $120 million in its initial public offering. The biotech on Thursday said it would offer 7.5 million shares at $16 apiece, the midpoint of its expected range of $15 to $17. The stock is trading under the ticker FHTX. (Gardizy, 10/23)

Stat: Mirati Results Set New Response Bar For KRAS-Blocking Lung Cancer Drugs
A pill from Mirati Therapeutics designed to block the cancer protein called KRAS shrank tumors in 45% of patients with advanced lung cancer, according to pooled results from two clinical trials presented Sunday. The tumor response to the Mirati drug, called adagrasib, is still preliminary, yet it’s also the best and most encouraging data reported so far for an emerging class of treatments that block a cancer target once thought to be “undruggable.” (Feuerstein, 10/25)

The Washington Post: As Holidays Near, The Coronavirus Is Spreading Rapidly, Putting Families In A Quandary About Celebrations And Travel 
The anticipated surge in interstate travel, family gatherings and indoor socializing is expected to facilitate the spread of covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. This isn’t like the run-up to Memorial Day or Independence Day: Barbecues outdoors, or pool parties, aren’t on the itinerary of many people. The fall and winter holidays are homey by nature. Respiratory viruses thrive in dry, warm indoor conditions in which people crowd together. The statistical peak of flu season typically comes close on the heels of Christmas and New Year’s. Colder weather is already driving people indoors. (Achenbach, 10/25)

NPR: Thanksgiving In The Time Of COVID-19: Is It Safe To Celebrate With Family?
It's time to gather the family together for the talk. Not that talk — the talk about what to do for Thanksgiving this year as the pandemic rolls on. It has been months since many of us have seen extended family — we're longing to check in on aging parents, to see old friends from back home, etc. But even though Thanksgiving often conjures up pictures of big happy reunions, how safe is it to make them a reality? (Fulton, 10/24)

The Washington Post: El Paso Imposes Curfew After ICU Beds Reach Capacity
The dreaded cold-weather surge of coronavirus infections is beginning to overwhelm health-care providers in some areas of the country, prompting a return to stay-at-home restrictions and the construction of makeshift field hospitals. El Paso imposed a new curfew on residents Sunday after intensive care units reached full capacity, while Utah’s hospital association warned that it would soon have to begin rationing care if current trends do not improve. (Noori Farzan, 10/26)

AP: Feeding Houston's Hungry: 1M Pounds Of Food Daily For Needy
In car lines that can stretch half a mile, (0.8 kilometers), workers who lost jobs because of the coronavirus pandemic and other needy people receive staggering amounts of food distributed by the Houston Food Bank. On some days, the hundreds of sites supplied by the country’s largest food bank collectively get 1 million pounds. Among the ranks of recipients is unemployed construction worker Herman Henton, whose wife is a home improvement store worker and now the sole breadwinner for their family of five. They tried to get food stamps but were told they only qualified for $25 of federal food assistance monthly. (Snow and Mone, 10/26)

AP: Attorney Will Evaluate Mississippi Mental Health Services
A special assistant attorney general in Mississippi has been appointed to a new role in state government as the coordinator of mental health accessibility. William Rosamond will evaluate the quality of mental health care to possibly change services offered in some counties. Mississippi Department of Finance and Administration executive director Liz Welch recently appointed him to the role, the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal reported. (10/25)

AP: 6th Arkansas GOP Lawmaker Tests Positive For Virus
An Arkansas state lawmaker running for reelection is quarantining after testing positive for the coronavirus, she said, becoming the sixth Republican in the Legislature to become infected. State Rep. Charlene Fite, a Van Buren Republican, revealed the positive test result Saturday night in a Facebook post. She said she was experiencing mild symptoms and would be forced to quarantine for the final days of her reelection campaign. (10/25)

Stat: Can California Afford Stem Cell Research? Voters Are Set To Decide 
This Election Day, California voters are being asked to replenish funding for the state’s ambitious stem cell research program, with a well-financed campaign that’s making heady promises about curing diabetes, paralysis, cancer, and Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases. Backers of Proposition 14 also cast it as a job-creation measure, arguing the money it raises will boost the state economy by cementing the Golden State’s place as a leading incubator of successful biotech startups. But opponents say that amid the Covid-19 pandemic and wildfires, California has far more pressing needs. (McFarling, 10/26)

The Washington Post: Italy Imposes Harshest Coronavirus Restrictions Since Spring Lockdown As Second Wave Sweeps Europe
Italy became the latest European country to announce new restrictions to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus on Sunday as countries across the continent continue to report surging infections. France on Sunday announced more than 50,000 new infections, a new record for the fourth day running. Germany, widely lauded for its initial handling of the virus, reported a surge of its own. The number of coronavirus cases in Poland has doubled in less than three weeks. And Spain has also imposed new restrictions. The World Health Organization reported new daily case records worldwide three days in a row last week, with new infections reaching more than 465,000 on Saturday. Almost half of those cases were in the organization’s Europe region. (Mellen, 10/25)

AP: Mexico Reported 193,170 "Excess Deaths" Through Sept 26
Mexican health authorities acknowledged Sunday that the country’s true death toll from the coronavirus pandemic is far higher than thought, saying there were 193,170 “excess” deaths in the year up to Sept. 26, with 139,153 of those judged to be attributable to COVID-19.That is about 50,000 more deaths than Mexico’s official, test-confirmed death toll of about 89,000, and about 56% higher than the previous estimate of 103,882 pandemic deaths. (10/26)

Reuters: South Korean Authorities Stick To Flu Vaccine Plan After Deaths Rise To 48 
The number of South Koreans who have died after getting flu shots has risen to 48, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said on Saturday, adding that the vaccines would continue to reduce the chance of having simultaneous epidemics. The health authorities said they found no direct link between the deaths and the shots. They plan to carry on with the state-run vaccination programme to try to avoid having to fight both the flu and the coronavirus over the coming winter. (10/24)

AP: UK Doctors Demand Free Meals For Kids As COVID Fuels Hunger
Pediatricians are urging the British government to reverse course and provide free meals for poor children during school holidays as the COVID-19 pandemic pushes more families into poverty. Some 2,200 members of the Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health have written an open letter to Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson, saying they were shocked by his “refusal″ to back down on the issue. The House of Commons last week rejected legislation that would have provided free meals during all school holidays from October through the Easter break. (Kirka, 10/25)

CIDRAP: A Summer Flight To Ireland Led To A 59-Person COVID Outbreak
Despite implementing safety precautions, one summer flight into Ireland led to a 59-person outbreak in six of the country's eight health regions. Tests eventually confirmed that 13 (26.5%) of the original 49 passengers were positive for SARS-CoV-2, with the other 46 infected via contact with infected passengers. In the Eurosurveillance study, researchers looked at four separate passenger groups, analyzing travel itineraries and their interactions with each other, including how close they sat together on the plane. Genome sequencing indicated a single source of COVID-19 spread the disease among the passengers, who came from elsewhere in Europe and two other, unspecified, continents. (10/23)

AP: Finland Shocked By Therapy Center Hacking, Client Blackmail
Finland’s interior minister summoned key Cabinet members into an emergency meeting Sunday after hundreds — and possibly thousands — of patient records at a private Finnish psychotherapy center were accessed by a hacker or hackers now demanding ransoms. Finnish Interior Minister Maria Ohisalo tweeted that authorities would “provide speedy crisis help to victims” of the security breach at the Vastaamo psychotherapy center, an incident she called “shocking and very serious.” (Tanner, 10/26)

The Washington Post: Polish Women's Rights Activists Protest Abortion Law Ruling
Polish women's rights activists disrupted church services Sunday during a weekend of widening demonstrations after a court ruling made some of Europe's strictest laws against abortion tighter. Thousands have taken to the streets in the past four days to protest the ruling by the country’s Constitutional Tribunal on Thursday that made it illegal to abort a fetus with congenital defects, amounting to a near ban on abortion. (Morris, 10/25)