First Edition: Oct. 5, 2021

KHN: Solitary Confinement Condemns Many Prisoners To Long-Term Health Issues 
Sometimes, Pamela Winn isn’t sure how to connect with people, even those she loves, like her 9-month-old granddaughter. When the baby is in her arms, “I sit there quietly, and I don’t know what to say. What to do,” she said, her eyes filling with tears. “My socializing skills are just not there anymore.” On days like these, Winn, who lives south of Atlanta, is haunted by the memory of her 6-by-9-foot prison cell, where she spent eight months in solitary confinement more than 10 years ago. She said she now feels “safest when I’m by myself.” It’s a common paradox of solitary confinement, said Craig Haney, a professor of social psychology at the University of California-Santa Cruz. Instead of craving the company of others after release from social isolation, many former prisoners want just the opposite. (Ridderbusch, 10/5)

KHN: Racism A Strong Factor In Black Women’s High Rate Of Premature Births, Study Finds
The tipping point for Dr. Paula Braveman came when a longtime patient of hers at a community clinic in San Francisco’s Mission District slipped past the front desk and knocked on her office door to say goodbye. He wouldn’t be coming to the clinic anymore, he told her, because he could no longer afford it. It was a decisive moment for Braveman, who decided she wanted not only to heal ailing patients but also to advocate for policies that would help them be healthier when they arrived at her clinic. In the nearly four decades since, Braveman has dedicated herself to studying the “social determinants of health” — how the spaces where we live, work, play and learn, and the relationships we have in those places, influence how healthy we are. (Barry-Jester, 10/5)

KHN: The Pandemic Forced My Transgender Wife To Fight Our Insurer Over Hormones 
For the past eight years, my wife, Ky Hamilton, has undergone gender-affirming hormone therapy. As a transgender woman, she injects Depo-Estradiol liquid estrogen into her thigh once a week. This drug has allowed her to physically transition as a woman, and each vial, which lasts around five weeks, was completely covered by insurance. That was until she lost her job in April 2020 and we switched to a subsidized private health insurance plan in Colorado’s Affordable Care Act marketplace. We discovered that our new insurance from Anthem doesn’t cover Depo-Estradiol and it would cost $125 out-of-pocket per vial. With both of us — and our four pets — depending heavily on Ky’s weekly $649 unemployment check, such medical expenses proved difficult. And as of Sept. 6, those unemployment checks ran out. (Santoro, 10/5)

Politico: Francis Collins To Step Down As NIH Director 
National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins plans to announce his resignation on Tuesday after nearly three decades at the agency, including 12 years at the helm, three sources tell POLITICO. The 71-year-old physician-geneticist led the agency under three consecutive presidents — making him the first presidentially appointed NIH director to serve in more than one administration and the longest-serving NIH director. (Wilson, Owermohle and Banco, 10/4)

Stat: NIH Director Francis Collins To Step Down 
During Collins’ tenure at NIH, the agency’s budget grew by nearly a third and largely staved off major controversies. An evangelical Christian with a medical degree and Ph.D. in physical chemistry, Collins, 71, is among the most revered political figures in Washington — so much so that President Trump and President Biden, upon their elections, each chose to reappoint him to lead the agency. (Facher, 10/4)

The Washington Post: NIH Director Francis S. Collins Will Step Down By Year’s End
After more than 12 years directing the nation’s premier biomedical research center, Collins, a 71-year-old physician-geneticist, will return to his lab at the National Human Genome Research Institute, part of NIH. He is the longest-tenured director of the Bethesda, Md.,-based NIH, which he ran through the Obama and Trump administrations and into the first year of the Biden presidency. No decision has been made on an interim director, an NIH official said. In the midst of the pandemic, President Biden will nominate a new director who must be confirmed by the evenly divided Senate. (Bernstein and Johnson, 10/4)

The New York Times: Biden Officials End Ban On Abortion Referrals At Federally Funded Clinics 
The new rule, set to take effect on Nov. 8, deals with what is known as the Title X family planning program, which was created in 1970 and subsidizes birth control, breast and cervical cancer screenings and related preventive care for millions of predominantly low-income patients. ... President Biden signaled shortly after taking office that he intended to rescind the Trump-era rule, writing in a memorandum calling for action on women’s health issues that it put “women’s health at risk by making it harder for women to receive complete medical information.” (Weiland, 10/4)

AP: Biden Lifts Abortion Referral Ban On Family Planning Clinics
The Biden administration reversed a ban on abortion referrals by family planning clinics, lifting a Trump-era restriction as political and legal battles over abortion grow sharper from Texas to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Department of Health and Human Services said Monday its new regulation will restore the federal family planning program to the way it ran under the Obama administration, when clinics were able to refer women seeking abortions to a provider. The goal is to “strengthen and restore” services, said HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 10/5)

Oklahoman: Judge Blocks Oklahoma Fetal Heartbeat Abortion Law, Lets Others Stand
A judge Monday blocked Oklahoma laws that would have banned abortions if a fetal heartbeat can be detected and would have deemed abortions as "unprofessional conduct" by doctors. The judge, however, refused to block enforcement of a new law that requires abortion doctors in Oklahoma to be board-certified in obstetrics and gynecology. "This court … believes that irreparable harm would occur if we don't put this requirement into effect," Oklahoma County District Judge Cindy Truong said. (Clay, 10/4)

AP: New Rules On Missouri Abortion Clinics Set To Take Effect
Republican Gov. Mike Parson’s administration has enacted more rules on Missouri abortion clinics. The new emergency regulations, which take effect Oct. 13, require abortion providers to cooperate with state health department investigators and ensure physicians perform pelvic exams 72 hours before abortions, if medically necessary. (10/4)

NPR: Poll: Most Republicans Oppose Texas Abortion Law Provisions
A clear majority of Americans, including most Republicans, opposes key provisions of the controversial new Texas abortion law, the latest NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll finds. The law, signed by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, bans abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy, which is before many women know they're pregnant. It also allows private citizens to sue abortion providers or anyone who helps a woman obtain an abortion. The survey found that almost 6 in 10 Americans oppose a ban on abortions after cardiac activity is detected, at about six to eight weeks into a typical pregnancy. That includes 59% of Republicans, 61% of Democrats and 53% of independents. (Montanaro, 10/4)

The Washington Post: Top Vatican Cardinal Says Biden Should Not Be Denied Communion 
A top Vatican cardinal says President Biden should not be denied Communion amid a push by U.S. Catholic bishops to withhold the sacrament from the president because of his support for abortion rights. Cardinal Peter Turkson, who works closely with Pope Francis, said the sacrament, also known as the Eucharist, should “not in any way become a weapon,” and denying it should only occur in “extreme cases.” (Cassata, 10/4)

The Washington Post: Supreme Court Takes The Bench After Long Absence, But Things Have Changed 
The Supreme Court’s justices returned to work Monday in their grand courtroom for the first time in 19 months, but little seemed the same as when the coronavirus pandemic forced their departure. In a first for an oral argument at the court, Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh participated by telephone from home after testing positive for the coronavirus last week. The courtroom was largely empty, with about two dozen reporters scattered around the seating gallery, along with the justices’ clerks. All spectators, including the arguing attorneys, wore N95 masks. (Barnes, 10/4)

AP: Trial Against Pharmacy Chains' Opioid Sales Begins
Retail pharmacy chains contributed to a deadly and expensive public nuisance in two Ohio counties where the opioid crisis continues to rage, an attorney for the counties said in an opening statement Monday in federal court in Cleveland. It was the first day of trial in the lawsuit filed in 2018 by Lake and Trumbull counties outside Cleveland against retail pharmacy companies CVS, Walgreens, Walmart and Giant Eagle. (Gillispie, 10/4)

Bloomberg: Walmart, CVS, Walgreens Face Billions In Claims They Fueled Opioid Epidemic
Walmart Inc., CVS Health Corp. and Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. face billions of dollars in damages as they go to trial over the role their pharmacies played in the U.S. opioid epidemic. Two counties in Ohio will be among the first to try the companies in federal court over lawsuits filed by communities across the country. They say pharmacies created a public nuisance by failing to properly monitor doctor prescriptions and patient drug-use habits, forcing communities to spend taxpayer money to cope with addiction and fatal overdoses. Similar suits are pending against drug makers and distributors. (Feeley, 10/4)

ProPublica: McKinsey Never Told The FDA It Was Working For Opioid Makers While Also Working For The Agency 
Since 2008, McKinsey & Company has regularly advised the Food and Drug Administration’s drug-regulation division, according to agency records. The consulting giant has had its hand in a range of important FDA projects, from revamping drug-approval processes to implementing new tools for monitoring the pharmaceutical industry. During that same decade-plus span, as emerged in 2019, McKinsey counted among its clients many of the country’s biggest drug companies — not least those responsible for making, distributing and selling the opioids that have ravaged communities across the United States, such as Purdue Pharma and Johnson & Johnson. ... Yet McKinsey, which is famously secretive about its clientele, never disclosed its pharmaceutical company clients to the FDA, according to the agency. (MacDougall, 10/4)

AP: Pentagon Mandates COVID-19 Vaccine For Civilian Workers
All civilians who work for the Defense Department and the military services must be fully vaccinated for COVID-19 by Nov. 22, under new guidelines released Monday. A memo signed by Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks on Friday said the new mandate is in line with the presidential directive issued last month requiring federal agencies to implement vaccine requirements. (Baldor, 10/4)

AP: US Unveils Guidance For Federal Vaccine Mandate, Exemptions
With just weeks remaining before federal workers must be vaccinated against COVID-19, the federal government on Monday outlined procedures for employees to request medical or religious exemptions from President Joe Biden’s mandate. The Office of Management and Budget released the new guidance Monday afternoon ahead of the Nov. 22 deadline for workers to be fully vaccinated, outlining specific medical conditions that would warrant an exemption. Under the guidelines, agencies are to direct workers to get their first shot within two weeks of an exemption request being denied, or the resolution of a medical condition. They also make clear that federal agencies may deny medical or religious exemptions if they determine that no other safety protocol is adequate. (Miller, 10/4)

The Washington Post: Pfizer Vaccine 90% Effective Against Hospitalization, Death Six Months Later, Study Says 
The Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine continues to be 90 percent effective in protecting against hospitalization and death from covid-19 up to six months after the second dose, even in the face of the widespread delta variant, a major study has found. The study was based on research from Pfizer and the Kaiser Permanente Southern California health system, and analyzed more than 3.4 million people who were members between December 2020 and August 2021. The findings were published in the Lancet medical journal on Monday and had been released in August but were not peer-reviewed until this week. (Pietsch and Suliman, 10/5)

Los Angeles Times: Pfizer Vaccine Wanes Over Time, And Not Due To Delta, Study Says
Research conducted in Southern California has confirmed the dramatic erosion of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine’s protection against “breakthrough” coronavirus infections. The new study, one of the largest and longest to track the effectiveness of a vaccine in Americans, found that the vaccine’s ability to protect against infection stood at 88% in its first month, then fell to 47% after just five months. (Healy, 10/4)

CIDRAP: Model Predicts Natural COVID-19 Immunity Wanes Fast, Re-Infection Likely
Reinfection from SARS-CoV-2 under endemic conditions will most likely occur at a median of 16 months, according to a modeling study published late last week in The Lancet Microbe. The researchers looked at the human-infecting coronaviruses SARS-CoV-2, SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV, HCoV-229E, HCoV-OC43, and HCoV-NL63 from Feb 12 to Jun 15, 2020, analyzing about 58 alphacoronavirus, 105 betacoronavirus, 11 deltacoronavirus, and 3 gammacoronavirus genome sequences. They compared peak-infection and reinfection data in endemic scenarios. The method also used antibody optical density data spanning 128 days to 28 years post-infection from 1984 to 2020. (10/4)

FiercePharma: Researchers Retract Preprint Study That Miscalculated Higher Heart Inflammation Risk For Moderna, Pfizer COVID Vaccines
In the past few weeks, anti-vaxxers have rallied behind a nonpeer-reviewed study by a group of Canadian researchers as evidence against COVID-19 vaccines. Turns out, the paper made a fatal mistake in reaching its conclusion. Scientists at The University of Ottawa Heart Institute have retracted the preprint study, which falsely calculated a 1 in 1,000 risk of heart inflammation for Moderna's and Pfizer-BioNTech's mRNA COVID vaccines. The study authors have withdrawn the manuscript “because of a major error pertaining to the quoted incidence data,” the team said in a retraction statement on Sept. 24. (Liu, 10/4)

The Hill: FDA Authorizes New Rapid COVID-19 Test, Says Capacity Will Double
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Monday authorized a new rapid, at-home COVID-19 test, in a move it said is expected to double the availability of such tests in the coming weeks. The FDA said it has authorized a coronavirus test from the company ACON Laboratories. It is not the first authorization of such a test, which can deliver results in as little as 15 minutes, but, amid supply shortages, the move could be key in boosting their availability. (Sullivan, 10/4)

Genomeweb: FDA Approves Labcorp's Combo COVID-19/Flu Home Collection Kit
Laboratory Corporation of America has received Emergency Use Authorization from the Food and Drug Administration for a combined home collection kit for molecular testing for COVID-19 and influenza A/B. The kit is intended for individuals two years of age and older and is available at no upfront cost to those who meet clinical guidelines, which include individuals experiencing symptoms, those who have been exposed to someone with COVID-19, or those who have been recommended for testing by a healthcare provider. The kit will become available in early October and can be ordered by an individual's physician. (10/4)

Stateline: COVID Antibody Tests Won't Tell You What You Want To Know
Talk of the need for COVID-19 booster shots has prompted many Americans to seek antibody tests. In most cases, however, getting an antibody test to determine immunity is a fool’s errand, infectious disease doctors agree. The tests for antibodies, also known as serology tests, do not provide the answers that most people are seeking. Both the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration advise against using antibody tests to determine one’s level of immunity against COVID-19. So does the Infectious Disease Society of America, which represents infectious disease specialists. (Ollove, 10/1)

Bloomberg: AstraZeneca Seeks U.S. Emergency Approval For Covid Antibody
AstraZeneca Plc submitted its antibody cocktail for U.S. emergency approval to prevent Covid-19 infection as therapeutic options for the pandemic broaden beyond vaccination. It’s the first regulatory filing for the medicine, which was 77% effective in preventing symptomatic Covid in a clinical trial that included patients with high-risk factors for severe infection. The cocktail can supplement vaccines for people who haven’t mounted a strong response to the shots -- or to protect those who couldn’t be immunized. The news comes just days after Merck & Co. fueled optimism that it will soon have the first Covid pill. Both treatments could offer a simple way to treat many patients before they ever reach the hospital. (Fourcade, 10/5)

Stat: Questions Emerge About Cost Of Merck Pill To Treat Covid-19
Behind the unvarnished enthusiasm over an experimental Covid-19 pill, questions are emerging about the cost of the treatment and the leverage the U.S. government may have to address excessive pricing. At issue is molnupiravir, which is being developed by Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics. Last week, the companies released top-line data showing the pill reduced the risk that newly diagnosed patients would be hospitalized by about 50%. Moreover, no deaths were reported among those given the pill, compared with eight deaths among people who received a placebo. (Silverman, 10/4)

The Hill: Largest New York Healthcare Provider Fires 1,400 Employee Over Vaccine Refusal
Northwell Health, the largest healthcare provider in New York state, on Monday fired 1,400 of its employees who did not comply with the state's COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The company's assistant Vice President of public relations Joe Kemp confirmed to The Hill that Northwell had terminated 1,400 employees who did not get vaccinated as was ordered by former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D). These employees represented less than one percent of Northwell's workforce of more than 76,000 who are all immunized against COVID-19. (Choi, 10/4)

The Dallas Morning News: Southwest Airlines Will Require All Workers To Be Vaccinated 'To Continue Employment'
Dallas-based Southwest Airlines will require all 60,000 employees to be vaccinated or get an exemption to “continue employment with the airline”, following competitors such as United, American and JetBlue that have already announced plans to follow the White House mandates on the COVID-19 vaccines. Southwest has 60,000 employees nationwide and was the country’s largest airline in pandemic-stricken 2020. The company and other airlines are under pressure from the Biden Administration to make sure all employees receive at COVID-19 vaccine. The company confirmed that it spoke with a White House representative last week. (Arnold, 10/4)

AP: Nevada Adds Rapid Tests To COVID Tally, Joining Most States
Nevada health officials as of Monday are counting results from rapid antigen tests in the coronavirus data that they present to the public and use to determine whether the pandemic is prevalent enough to trigger mask and capacity mandates. The state updated its health response dashboard, adding more than 600,000 tests to its count. The dashboard started displaying “cumulative tests” on its testing page and divides the new infections into “confirmed cases” and “probable cases” on its page that reports total cases. (10/5)

Modern Healthcare: Digital Health Companies Raked In $8.1 Billion In Q3
Digital health companies around the globe raised a collective $8.1 billion in venture capital from investors in 2021's third quarter—a record for the sector, according to new data from market research firm Mercom Capital Group. Venture-capital funding was up 5% from $7.7 billion raised in 2021's second quarter, which previously held the record for the largest funding quarter among digital health companies. The $8.1 billion funding total for the quarter is also more than double the $3.9 billion that digital health companies raised in 2020's third quarter. (Kim Cohen and Broderick, 10/4)

AP: Union Reaches Deal With Group Home Agency, Cancels Strike
Several hundred unionized group home and day program workers in Bridgeport and eastern Connecticut have reached a new contract with the latest provider, ending a strike that was threatened to begin Tuesday, their union announced Monday, The agreement with Whole Life Inc., which has more than 39 locations, is the second reached by the New England Health Care Employees Union, District 1199, SEIU in less than a week. While the union withdrew its strike notice to Whole Life, unionized workers are still planning to walk out at Sunrise Northeast Inc. and Alternative Services-Connecticut Inc. on Oct. 12, affecting 160 and 100 workers respectively. (10/4)

Modern Healthcare: GAO Highlights Provider Complaints About MIPS
A new government watchdog report offers more doubt about the effectiveness of a heavily criticized Medicare provider payment program. The Merit-based Incentive Payment System scores physicians and other providers based on quality and cost measures uses those scores to adjust future Medicare payments. Congress and President Barack Obama established MIPS in a 2015 law intended to improve outcomes and reduce spending. MIPS lets providers cherry-pick the measures they report and doesn't yield enough of a payoff to be worth participating in, said most stakeholders the Government Accountability Office interviewed for an analysis published Friday. (Bannow, 10/4)

San Francisco Chronicle: Alameda County Reprimands Ambulance Provider, Demands Improvement In Response Times
Alameda County officials on Monday rebuked the county’s contracted ambulance provider, Falck, for failing to meet performance requirements in August and demanded that Falck implement a plan to correct its shortfalls. In a letter to local Falck administrators Monday, Lauri McFadden, director of the Alameda County Emergency Medical Services Agency, which coordinates first responder and ambulance service, said a review of Falck’s performance in August showed that the contractor responded to incidents on time less than 90% of the time — a violation of Falck’s contract with the county. (Picon, 10/4)

Fox Business: Facebook Whistleblower To Appear Before Senate, Compare Company To Big Tobacco
The Facebook employee who stepped forward as the source in a Wall Street Journal investigation into the social media giant will testify in front of US lawmakers on Tuesday, just a day after accusing her former employer of "tearing our societies apart." Fox Business, citing a source, reported last month that the whistleblower, who was later identified as Frances Haugen, planned to reveal their identity as part of an agreement to cooperate with Congress. Haugen is expected to appear before the Senate Commerce Committee Consumer protection panel. (10/5)

CNN: Instagram Promoted Pages Glorifying Eating Disorders To Teen Accounts 
"I have to be thin," "Eternally starved," "I want to be perfect." These are the names of accounts Instagram's algorithms promoted to an account registered as belonging to a 13-year-old girl who expressed interest in weight loss and dieting. Proof that Instagram is not only failing to crack down on accounts promoting extreme dieting and eating disorders, but actively promotes those accounts, comes as Instagram and its parent company Facebook (FB) are facing intense scrutiny over the impact they have on young people's mental health. (O'Sullivan, Duffy and Jorgensen, 10/4)

CIDRAP: Screen Time, Physical Activity Linked To Youth Mental Health In Pandemic
More screen time and suboptimal physical activity during the pandemic were linked to more mental health difficulties in US children ages 6 to 17, according to a JAMA Network Open study late last week. ... About one in five children (20.9%) had at least 60 minutes of physical activity every day, but 8.4% didn't reach that benchmark any day of the week (average, 3.9 days). Children also reported an average of 4.4 hours per day of recreational screen time. (10/4)

USA Today: Woman's Depression Cured By Targeted Electrical Brain Stimulation, A First, Pioneered By UCSF Researchers
Sarah, who asked to be identified by her first name, is the only person to ever be treated with electrodes implanted deep in her brain that send quick energy bursts when they detect activity in a brain circuit involved in her depression. Those 6-second zaps – as many as 300 a day – have transformed her life and provided new insights into the biological nature of depression. What she's been through is way too complicated to replicate for the millions of people who suffer from deep, unrelenting despair, but her success may suggest new ways to address one of the most hard-to-reach mental illnesses. (Weintraub, 10/4)

CBS News: Big Jump In E-Scooter, E-Bike Injuries The Last Four Years, CPSC Finds 
It's a good idea to wear a helmet when taking a spin on electric scooters, electric bikes, hoverboards and other so-called micro-mobility products. That's because injuries stemming from their use spiked 70% over the past four years, spurring nearly 200,000 emergency room visits, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. Viewed as eco-friendly (studies have found that's not exactly the case) and cost-effective modes of transportation for short distances, the battery-powered products were part of the equation in more than 190,000 E.R. visits and at least 71 deaths from 2017 through 2020, according to the federal agency. (Gibson, 10/4)

The New York Times: Losing Your Hair? You Might Blame The Great Stem Cell Escape. 
Every person, every mouse, every dog, has one unmistakable sign of aging: hair loss. But why does that happen? Rui Yi, a professor of pathology at Northwestern University, set out to answer the question. A generally accepted hypothesis about stem cells says they replenish tissues and organs, including hair, but they will eventually be exhausted and then die in place. This process is seen as an integral part of aging. Instead Dr. Yi and his colleagues made a surprising discovery that, at least in the hair of aging animals, stem cells escape from the structures that house them. (Kolata, 10/4)

The Washington Post: 70 Years Ago, Henrietta Lacks’s Cells Were Taken Without Consent. Now, Her Family Wants Justice.
Descendants of Henrietta Lacks, the Black woman whose cells have been central to some of the most important scientific breakthroughs over the past 70 years, sued a pharmaceutical company Monday, alleging it profited off Lacks’s cells despite knowing that they were extracted and used for research without her consent. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Baltimore, accuses Thermo Fisher Scientific of using Lacks’s cells without approval from or payment to her family members — thus depriving them of billions of dollars and “the knowledge that a loved one’s body has been treated with respect.” (Davies, 10/4)

NBC News: Casey DeSantis, Wife Of Florida Governor, Diagnosed With Breast Cancer
Florida first lady Casey DeSantis has been diagnosed with breast cancer, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced in a statement Monday. “As the mother of three young children, Casey is the centerpiece of our family and has made an impact on the lives of countless Floridians through her initiatives as first lady,” he wrote. “As she faces the most difficult test of her life, she will have not only have my unwavering support but the support of our entire family, as well as the prayers and well wishes from Floridians across our state.” (Fulton, 10/4)

Bloomberg: Seattle Votes To Decriminalize Psilocybin And Similar Substances
Seattle becomes at least the ninth U.S. city to take such action in recent years, joining Denver, Washington and Ann Arbor, Michigan, among others. In 2020, Oregon became the first state to legalize psilocybin for therapeutic use. Seattle City Councilmember Andrew Lewis, who sponsored the effort, said it was the first step in the city’s move to change its drug policies. “Our overall goal is to follow the lead of Oregon,” he said, speaking in a phone interview before the vote. (Kary, 10/4)

Los Angeles Times: California Will Impose New Vaping Tax To Help Curb Teen Use
Amid concern over widespread teen vaping, Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday approved a new 12.5% excise tax on electronic cigarettes to be paid by California consumers to boost public health and education programs. The aim of the legislation is to discourage vaping by minors and bring taxes on e-cigarettes more in line with levies on other tobacco products, said state Sen. Anna Caballero (D-Salinas), who authored Senate Bill 395. “Vaping has become increasingly popular despite the risks,” Caballero said. “This is especially evident among our youth, and made worse by the availability of youth-appealing flavors such as gummy bears and cotton candy.” (McGreevy, 10/4)

Bloomberg: Justin Bieber Launches Pre-Rolled Joints Called "Peaches" In Marijuana Push
Justin Bieber is entering the marijuana market with prerolled joints that’s he calling “Peaches,” the name of a song from his most recent album. The Canadian singer is working with a Los Angeles-based company, Palms, on the products. Palms specializes in prerolled cannabis products, with its seven-joint packs selling for $32 at locations in Nevada and California, according to its website. (Kary, 10/4)

San Francisco Chronicle: Opioid Overdose Epidemic Is Rapidly Spreading Across The Bay Area
In just the past week, three people died at three different stations inside the vast Bay Area Rapid Transit system from causes believed to be drug overdoses. Efforts to resuscitate them, including by administering the opioid reversal drug Narcan, were unsuccessful, reports said. The deaths occurred in Fremont, Daly City, and Pleasant Hill, cities in three different counties — Alameda, San Mateo, and Contra Costa, respectively — that are all miles from San Francisco’s toughest streets. (Jung, 10/4)

AP: New California Law Aims To Reduce Deaths Among Black Moms
Black women in California are more likely to die within a year of pregnancy than women of other races, prompting a wave of policy changes this year in the nation’s most populous state that culminated on Monday with Gov. Gavin Newsom signing a new law aimed at reducing the disparity. The law, among other things, creates a new committee within the Department of Public Health to review maternal deaths throughout the state by interviewing family members and doctors while exploring records and other reports. (Beam, 10/4)

Los Angeles Times: Hospice Reforms To Become Law After Times Investigation
Decades of unchecked growth in the California hospice industry will come to a halt Jan. 1, when a moratorium on new licenses takes effect along with reforms aimed at curbing widespread fraud in end-of-life care. The licensing moratorium and a crackdown on kickbacks and patient-recruiting schemes are at the heart of legislative reforms outlined in two bills largely spurred by a Los Angeles Times investigation of the state’s booming hospice business last year. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the bills into law Monday. An extensive examination by the state auditor also is underway to identify deficiencies and recommend improvements to hospice licensing and oversight. (Christensen and Poston, 10/4)

CNN: Missouri Medicaid Expansion: Coverage Begins For Low-Income Residents 
Medicaid expansion has finally begun in Missouri, nearly five months after Republican Gov. Mike Parson unsuccessfully tried to block it. Roughly 275,000 low-income adults in the state are now eligible for coverage. MO HealthNet, the state's Medicaid program, has already received more than 17,000 applications since the sign up process started in August. (Luhby, 10/4)

Fox News: Connecticut Mosquitoes Test Positive For Potentially Deadly EEE Virus, Officials Say
Connecticut health officials are cautioning southeastern area state residents over the potentially deadly mosquito-borne eastern equine encephalitis (EEE) virus after detecting virus-positive mosquitoes. According to the state health department, mosquitoes trapped in the Pachaug State Forest in Voluntown tested positive for the EEE virus, marking Connecticut’s first EEE-positive mosquitoes of the year, per a release posted Monday. (Rivas, 10/4)

AP: Australia Won't Welcome International Tourists Until 2022
International tourists won’t be welcomed back to Australia until next year, with the return of skilled migrants and students given higher priority, the prime minister said on Tuesday. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Australia was expected to reach the vaccination benchmark on Tuesday at which the country could begin to open up: 80% of the population aged 16 and older having a second shot. (McGuirk, 10/5)

AP: Anti-Vaccine Villagers In Guatemala Hold Coronavirus Team
Anti-vaccine residents of a village in Guatemala seized and held a team of nurses who were trying to administer coronavirus shots Monday, authorities said. The team was held for about seven hours in the village of Nahuila, in the province of Alta Verapaz, north of Guatemala City. The villagers said they didn’t want the shots, and later blocked a road and let the air out of the nurses’ tires. A cooler and about 50 doses of vaccine were destroyed. Police and local officials later negotiated their release. (10/5)