First Edition: Sept. 24, 2021

KHN: California Moves On Climate Change, But Rejects Aggressive Cuts To Greenhouse Emissions 
As California trudges into another autumn marred by toxic wildfire smoke and drought-parched reservoirs, state lawmakers have cast climate change as a growing public health threat for the state’s 40 million residents. But they were willing to push the argument only so far. On Thursday, against the smoldering backdrop of Sequoia National Park, where the massive KNP Complex Fire is burning uncontained, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a $15 billion legislative package that he described as an unprecedented investment by any state in climate resiliency. The legislation outlines significant new efforts to bolster wildfire prevention, expand clean water supplies and build a network of community-level safeguards to protect people from episodes of extreme and potentially deadly heat. (Young, 9/23)

KHN: A Daily Pill To Treat Covid Could Be Just Months Away, Scientists Say 
Within a day of testing positive for covid-19 in June, Miranda Kelly was sick enough to be scared. At 44, with diabetes and high blood pressure, Kelly, a certified nursing assistant, was having trouble breathing, symptoms serious enough to send her to the emergency room. When her husband, Joe, 46, fell ill with the virus, too, she really got worried, especially about their five teenagers at home: “I thought, ‘I hope to God we don’t wind up on ventilators. We have children. Who’s going to raise these kids?” (Aleccia, 9/24)

KHN: Mounting Covid Deaths Fuel School Bus Drivers’ Fears 
Natalia D’Angelo got sick right after school started in August. She was driving a school bus for special education students in Griffin-Spalding County School System about 40 miles south of Atlanta and contracted covid-19. One of her three sons, Julian Rodriguez-D’Angelo, said his mother, who was not vaccinated against the covid virus, had a history of health problems, including Graves’ disease and cancer. (Miller and Galewitz, 9/24)

KHN: Low Wages And Pandemic Gut Staffing Support For Those With Disabilities 
Ernestine “Erma” Bryant likes her job, but the pay is a problem. She works in a caregiver role as a “direct support professional” in Tifton, Georgia, helping people who have intellectual and developmental disabilities with basic functions such as dressing, bathing and eating. Bryant said it’s fulfilling work. “You can help people be successful — people who are confined to the bed,” she said. “It gives me joy knowing that I can help that person get out of the house.” But she said she’s being paid less than $10 an hour and is trying to get a second job. (Miller, 9/24)

KHN: KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: The Autumn Of Democrats’ Discontent
Democrats in Congress and the White House are feverishly negotiating to pass as much of President Joe Biden’s domestic agenda as they can agree on, even as Republicans who oppose much of the increased spending threaten to shut down the government and default on the nation’s debt. Meanwhile, confusion over so-called booster shots for covid-19 continues, and advocates on both sides of the abortion debate try to test Texas’ novel abortion law that the Supreme Court allowed to take effect Sept. 1. (9/23)

The New York Times: C.D.C. Chief Overrules Agency Panel And Endorses Pfizer Boosters For Frontline Workers 
The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday overruled a recommendation by an agency advisory panel that had refused to endorse booster shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid vaccine for frontline workers. It was a highly unusual move for the director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, but aligned C.D.C. policy with the Food and Drug Administration’s endorsements over her own agency’s advisers. The C.D.C.’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices on Thursday recommended the boosters for a wide range of Americans, including tens of millions of older adults, and younger people at high risk for the disease. But they excluded health care workers, teachers and others whose jobs put them at risk. That put their recommendations at odds with the F.D.A.’s authorization of booster shots for all adults with a high occupational risk. (Mandavilli and Mueller, 9/24)

Reuters: CDC Director Breaks With Panel, Backs COVID-19 Boosters For High-Risk Workers 
CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said her agency had to make recommendations based on complex, often imperfect data. "In a pandemic, even with uncertainty, we must take actions that we anticipate will do the greatest good," she said in a statement. ... The CDC recommendation follows U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorization and clears the way for a booster rollout to begin as soon as this week for millions of people who had their second dose of the Pfizer shot at least six months ago. (Erman and Maddipatla, 9/24)

The Washington Post: Moderna’s Chief Expects Enough Vaccines For Everyone By Next Year. Much Of The World Is Still Waiting.
Moderna’s chief executive says that the coronavirus pandemic could be over in a year and that a boost in production will mean enough vaccines for “everyone on this Earth” by then. More booster shots should be available, too, to some extent, and even babies will be able to get vaccines, Stéphane Bancel told a Swiss newspaper in an interview published Thursday. Asked whether that could spell “a return to normal” next year, he replied: “As of today, in a year, I assume.” (Francis, 9/23)

AP: Lamont: Pfizer Booster Shots Ready For 270,000 Over 65 Years
An estimated 270,000 Connecticut residents who are 65 years and older and who originally received Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, including nursing home residents, can begin getting their third booster shot as soon as Friday, Gov. Ned Lamont’s administration said Thursday. Residents ages 50 to 64 with risky underlying health conditions and who received the Pfizer vaccine will also be allowed to obtain a third dose at more than 800 locations across the state. They can be found online. (Haigh, 9/23)

AP: California Making Plans To Give COVID-19 Boosters
California is preparing to administer third “booster” vaccine shots against COVID-19 for older people and immunocompromised adults as well as initial shots for students under 12 once the federal government approves them for children. On Thursday, state officials released a vaccine action plan. It still depends on direction that is expected to come from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (9/23)

The New York Times: Abortion Providers Ask Supreme Court For Fast Review Of Texas Ban
Abortion providers in Texas returned to the Supreme Court on Thursday, asking the justices to take another look at their challenge to a state law that bans most abortions after six weeks and was designed to evade review in federal court. By a 5-to-4 vote on Sept. 1, the court refused to block the law, citing the “complex and novel” procedural questions it presented. Since then, abortion providers in Texas have turned away most patients seeking the procedure. (Liptak, 9/23)

The Hill: Chicago Encourages Texans To Leave State 
The city of Chicago has taken out full-page ads in The Dallas Morning News to encourage Texans unhappy with the state’s new abortion law and other issues to leave the state. The ads tout Chicago’s tech and business sector as well as the city’s more liberal politics, pointing to voting rights, abortion and an emphasis on science as a means to combat COVID-19. (Kelley, 9/23)

AP: Guam Appeals Ruling Striking Down Abortion Restriction
Guam’s government is appealing a judge’s ruling that removed a barrier to women in the U.S. territory accessing telemedicine abortions. ... The Guam attorney general’s office and the Guam Medical Board of Examiners filed notice in court this week they are appealing a preliminary injunction that temporarily blocked a provision of Guam law that forced patients to have an in-person visit before abortion medication can be prescribed via telemedicine. (Kelleher, 9/24)

AP: Georgia Abortion Law To Be Argued In Federal Appeals Court
A federal appeals court plans to hear arguments Friday on whether it should overturn a lower court ruling that permanently blocked a restrictive abortion law passed in Georgia in 2019.The hearing comes amid a heightened focus on abortion with the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this month allowing a similarly restrictive Texas law to take effect. The justices also plan to hear arguments in December on Mississippi’s attempt to overturn the high court’s decisions in Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which affirmed the right to an abortion. (Brumback, 9/24)

The Washington Post: Pelosi Defends House Abortion Rights Legislation After San Francisco Archbishop Denounces It As ‘Child Sacrifice’
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Thursday pushed back against a San Francisco archbishop’s denunciation of the Women’s Health Protection Act, a bill in Congress to create a statutory right for health-care professionals to provide abortions. ... The House legislation, H.R. 3755, would codify the protections provided by the Supreme Court’s landmark Roe v. Wade ruling, legalized abortion nationwide. In a statement Tuesday, Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone condemned the measure as “nothing short of child sacrifice” and asked Catholics to “immediately to pray and fast for members of Congress to do the right thing and keep this atrocity from being enacted in the law.” (Sonmez, 9/23)

The Hill: Democrats Steamroll Toward Showdown On House Floor
House progressives appear poised for a showdown with their own leadership team as Democrats steamroll toward a Monday vote on a Senate-passed infrastructure bill that is a key part of President Biden’s agenda. Progressives on Thursday — one day after a high-profile White House meeting — insisted they’ll vote against Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure bill, which some call the “BIF,” if Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) goes ahead with a vote she promised to deliver to centrists in her caucus by Sept. 27. (Lillis and Wong, 9/23)

The Hill: Democrats Surprised, Caught Off Guard By 'Framework' Deal 
Several Senate Democrats on Thursday said that they hadn't seen a "framework" for how to pay for their sweeping social spending bill and appeared to be caught off guard by Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer's (D-N.Y.) announcement of a deal between the Senate, House and White House. Schumer, speaking at a press conference and separately with reporters, described it as a deal on the "menu of options" that Democrats will use to pay for the eventual bill, which will cover climate change policies, health care and a host of other party priorities. (Carney, 9/23)

The Hill: Manchin Fires Warning Shot On Plan To Expand Medicare
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) is firing a warning shot at progressives' hopes of using a sweeping social spending bill to expand Medicare, arguing Democrats should first focus on shoring up the program.  Manchin, leaving the Capitol after a vote on Thursday, was asked about expanding Medicare to cover hearing, vision and dental, something included in House Democrats' $3.5 trillion plan and being championed in the Senate by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). (Carney, 9/23)

Stat: DoD Watchdog Criticizes Oversight Of Military's Pharmaceutical Supply Chain
Amid mounting concerns over the U.S. pharmaceutical supply chain, a Department of Defense watchdog found an overreliance on foreign suppliers that could harm national security and that the Pentagon failed to assess the risks of shortages or develop strategies to mitigate disruptions. Among the shortcomings, the Defense Department did not aggregate and analyze the origins of finished medicines or active ingredients to determine the reliance on foreign suppliers or identify gaps in information about where the products are made, according to the Office of Inspector General at DOD. The OIG report also noted the military is not required to run such analyses. (Silverman, 9/23)

The Washington Post: Trump’s Election Challenges Distracted From Covid Response, White House Adviser Told Colleagues
White House officials prioritized President Donald Trump’s attempt to challenge the election over the pandemic response last winter, according to emails obtained by the House select subcommittee probing the government’s coronavirus response and shared with The Washington Post. Steven Hatfill, a virologist who advised White House trade director Peter Navarro and said he was intimately involved in the pandemic response, repeatedly described in the emails how “election stuff” took precedence over coronavirus, even as the outbreak surged to more than 250,000 new coronavirus cases per day in January. (Diamond, 9/23)

AP: Alabama Leading US In COVID-19 Death Rate Over Last Week
Alabama has averaged more than 100 deaths a day from COVID-19 over the last week, statistics showed Thursday, giving it the nation’s highest death rate over the period even as hospitalizations linked to the coronavirus pandemic continue to decline. Statistics from Johns Hopkins University show 106 deaths were reported statewide daily over the last seven days, although some of those could have occurred earlier because of a lag in reporting. Alabama’s rate of 18 deaths for every 100,000 people over the last week is far above second-place West Virginia, which had 10 deaths per 100,000 people, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (9/23)

AP: Arizona Nurse Shortage Sidelines Non-COVID Patient Transfers
An ongoing nursing shortage in Arizona will likely keep non-COVID-19 patients from quickly getting transferred to more equipped hospitals. State health officials this week rejected a request to expand the state “surge line,” a call-in system to find beds for critically ill COVID-19 patients, to include people with other medical needs, the Arizona Daily Star reported. (9/23)

AP: Restarted Nebraska Hospital Transfer System Sees Complaints
Health care officials are lodging complaints about a reopened transfer center intended to help Nebraska hospitals find places to send patients who need additional care as COVID-19 cases have surged in recent weeks. Officials at Lincoln’s Bryan Health and at smaller hospitals around the state have complained that the transfer center has not proven helpful in recent cases where very sick patients need to get to a larger hospital, the Lincoln Journal Star reported. In some cases, hospital staff reported they got no help from the system and, instead, had to make numerous calls themselves to find an intensive care bed. (9/23)

AP: Beshear: Hospitals Can't Sustain Current COVID Case Levels
While Kentucky’s prolonged surge of COVID-19 cases has shown signs of leveling off, overstressed hospitals can’t sustain the current pace of seriously ill virus patients, Gov. Andy Beshear said Thursday as he pleaded with people to take preventive steps. The governor — who had much of his pandemic-fighting authority taken away by lawmakers — stressed that the more Kentuckians who get vaccinated and wear masks when indoors in public, the “faster we can get this thing on the way down.” (Schreiner, 9/23)

Politico: Education Secretary Backs Mandatory School Covid-19 Vaccines
Education Secretary Miguel Cardona on Thursday declared his support for mandatory Covid-19 vaccinations for eligible schoolchildren, saying the FDA’s full approval of jabs for certain adolescents should clear the way for state officials to implement plans to begin vaccinations. “Not only do I support it, but I’m encouraging states to come up with a plan to make sure it happens,” Cardona told POLITICO between stops on a multistate tour of schools and child care facilities. “I would like governors who hold those decisions to make those decisions now that [vaccines] are FDA-approved.” (Perez Jr., 9/23)

The Hill: Education Secretary Says COVID-19 Vaccines Should Be Mandatory For Eligible Students 
Cardona pointed to the effectiveness of the measles vaccine — which is required for children in childcare or public schools in all 50 states and Washington, D.C. — in protecting against infections as reason why the coronavirus vaccine should be mandatory for schoolchildren. “There’s a reason why we’re not talking about measles today,” Cardona added. “It was a required vaccination, and we put it behind us. So I do believe at this point we need to be moving forward.” (Schnell, 9/23)

AP: 1st Florida School District Gets US Cash For Virus Mask Vote
A Florida school district has received cash from President Joe Biden’s administration to make up for state pay cuts imposed over a board’s vote for a student anti-coronavirus mask mandate. Alachua County school Superintendent Carlee Simon said in a news release Thursday the district has received $148,000 through a U.S. Department of Education program. (9/23)

Politico: Biden Picks Up The Tab For Florida School Leaders Fined By DeSantis
The U.S. Department of Education on Thursday repaid several Florida school board members who saw their salary slashed by the DeSantis administration for requiring students to wear masks this fall. In total, the Biden administration sent school officials in Alachua County $147,719 to make up for fines from the Florida Department of Education, marking the first awards granted by the feds in the fight against Republican-led states and their Covid-19 policies. Alachua is one of 11 school districts in Florida to mandate masks for students in defiance of Gov. Ron DeSantis, who wants parents to have the ultimate say on face coverings in schools. (Atterbury, 9/23)

AP: Indiana State U. Requiring Vaccinations Or Tests In 2022
Indiana State University will require that all students and staff show proof of vaccination by Jan. 1 or be tested each week for COVID-19, the school’s president said Thursday. The announcement by Deborah Curtis is a shift in policy. The university has been encouraging vaccinations this fall but has not made them mandatory. Masks are required indoors. (9/24)

CIDRAP: Routine COVID Testing Doubles Detection At 3 Public Schools
Weekly COVID-19 testing of asymptomatic students and staff at three K-12 public schools in Omaha, Nebraska, roughly doubled the detection rate of symptom-based testing and exceeded that of the rest of the local county, according to a study yesterday in JAMA Network Open. ... At that time, all district schools offered hybrid instruction, alternating cohorts for distance and in-person instruction; 50% to 60% of students chose in-person learning. Routine staff COVID-19 testing was mandatory, while it was optional for students. (Van Beusekom, 9/23)

AP: Ohio Governor Offers New Vaccine Incentive For Young People
Ohioans ages 12-25 who receive the coronavirus vaccine can enter a new lottery making them eligible for five $100,000 college scholarships and 50 $10,000 scholarships, Gov. Mike DeWine announced Thursday in his latest effort to boost number of people vaccinated against COVID-19. Details of the new Ohio Vax-to-College program will be announced soon, and is aimed at the group of Ohioans with the most room to grow in terms of receiving the vaccination, the Republican governor said. (Welsh-Huggins, 9/23)

AP: Providers Challenge Only US Law Banning Vaccine Mandates
Medical providers and Montana residents with compromised immune systems are challenging the only law in the U.S. that prevents employers from mandating workers get vaccinated amid a surge of COVID-19 infections. They argue the new law violates federal requirements for safe workplaces and reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities and want a federal judge to rule that it doesn’t apply to hospitals and other medical providers. (Hanson, 9/23)

AP: 'We Want To Get Back To Life': Most NHL Players Get Vaccine
Sporting a mask, Toronto Maple Leafs winger William Nylander opened his news conference at the start of training camp by informing reporters he was not yet fully vaccinated. “Had couple medical things to take care of,” he said. “I’ll be fully vaccinated by the beginning of the season.” The NHL is counting on it and said last week that 98% of its players will be vaccinnated by the time the season begins Oct. 12. That would leave 10-15 players out of 700 on 32 teams lacking the vaccine, including Detroit’s Tyler Bertuzzi. (9/23)

AP: Health Officer Resigns, Citing Pushback On COVID Guidelines
The public health officer in a small northern Montana county is resigning because of the “constant negativity, pushback, disregard and lack of support” that health officials have faced throughout the coronavirus pandemic, she said. Blaine County public health nurse Jana McPherson-Hauser said her resignation would take effect Oct. 15, KOJM-AM reported. The county’s health board accepted her resignation Wednesday. (9/23)

Modern Healthcare: Hospital CEOs Have No Regrets About COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates 
Rancorous opposition to vaccine mandates from a fraction of the hospital workforce has drowned out the voices of the administrators and staff who desperately want to feel safer at work during a pandemic that has killed thousands of healthcare personnel. Before President Joe Biden declared that all healthcare providers that participate in Medicare and Medicaid must vaccinate their 17 million employees against COVID-19, dozens of hospitals and health systems around the U.S. took the step on their own. The CEOs of three pioneer hospitals—Houston Methodist, the Medical University of South Carolina and Inova Health System—say their successes demonstrate the wisdom of requiring vaccines. (Young, 9/23)

The Washington Post: Many Unvaccinated People Are Not Opposed To Getting A Shot. The Challenge Is Trying To Get It To Them.
Yolanda Orosco-Arellano decided she would get the coronavirus vaccine long before it became available. But securing an appointment for it was less straightforward. The hotel housekeeper and mother of four worried about her anemia, a risk factor for severe illness from the virus. But Orosco-Arellano doesn’t have a car and needed a vaccination slot scheduled around her shifts at the hotel. Barriers to getting the shot and information about the vaccines have hindered the “unvaccinated but willing,” who account for approximately 10 percent of the American population, according to a report last month by the Department of Health and Human Services. (Kornfield, 9/23)

CBS News: Want A Medical Exemption For The COVID-19 Vaccine? Good Luck With That.
As the Biden administration urges workers across the U.S. to get their shots against COVID-19, many Americans are asking their employers to exempt them from vaccination requirements on medical grounds. ... Although an individual may be allergic to a given ingredient in one vaccine that is not present in another, allergies to vaccine components are extremely uncommon, according to disease experts. "The only real exemption I can imagine is severe allergic reaction mainly in the Pfizer and Moderna mRNA vaccines, but they are very, very rare — like one in a million," Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease physician at the University of California San Francisco, told CBS MoneyWatch. "Someone would have to argue that they had a severe allergic reaction to a previous dose of the vaccine or to a vaccine component — not just a rash or some muscle soreness, but having difficulty breathing, swelling in their throat or something of that nature," said Dr. David Dowdy, an infectious disease epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. (Cerullo, 9/23)

AP: Fond Du Lac Officer, 26, Dies Of Coronavirus Complications
A 26-year-old Fond du Lac police officer died of complications from COVID-19, his department said Thursday. Officer Joseph Kurer’s death on Wednesday came a day after his second child was born, according to police Chief Aaron Goldstein. Because evidence indicates he contracted COVID-19 while working, he died in the line of duty and his death will be treated as such, Goldstein said. (9/23)

CIDRAP: COVID-Related Syndrome In Adults Severe, Hard To Diagnose, Study Finds
Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in adults (MIS-A) is a rare but severe hyperinflammatory condition that begins roughly 4 weeks after COVID-19 symptom onset and likely results from an outsized immune response, concludes a systematic review yesterday in JAMA Network Open. Researchers from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conducted a literature review from May 1, 2020, to May 25, 2021, identifying 221 patients around the world diagnosed as having MIS-A. First identified in children (MIS-C) in April 2020, the syndrome has since also been recognized in adults. (9/23)

The New York Times: Dr. Fauci, Movie Star 
Dr. Anthony Fauci — arguably the nation’s most famous, and suddenly most polarizing doctor — is a movie star, in a manner of speaking. A new documentary titled, simply, “Fauci,” had a limited run this month in 11 cities (in theaters that required proof of vaccinations and masks) and will begin streaming in early October on Disney+. (Stolberg, 9/22)

Genomeweb: Geisinger To Expand Precision Medicine Research Under NIH Grant 
The National Institutes of Health will renew three awards totaling $73.2 million over the next five years to expand a precision medicine effort at several large systems and medical schools. Five institutions and principal investigators will receive the awards: Christa Martin and Erin Riggs at Geisinger Health System, Jonathan Berg at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Sharon Plon and Aleks Milosavljevic at Baylor College of Medicine, Teri Klein at Stanford University, and the Broad Institute's Heidi Rehm. (9/23)

Stat: Paper Flags Possible Risks Of Acetaminophen Use During Pregnancy 
Nearly 100 doctors and scientists issued a consensus statement Thursday warning of possible links between the use of acetaminophen during pregnancy and developmental problems in children, including neurological and reproductive issues that start in the womb. In a paper published by Nature Reviews Endocrinology, the authors reviewed the medical literature going back 25 years to make a set of recommendations. The group is calling on clinicians and regulatory agencies to change their guidelines for the use of acetaminophen during pregnancy while more research is conducted to study the full range of effects the drug could have on fetal development and children. (Cueto, 9/23)

Modern Healthcare: Drugmakers Face Fines For 340B Contract Pharmacy Violations
Six drugmakers could soon face steep fines over their refusal to discount drug prices for pharmacies that contract with 340B providers. The Health Resources and Services Administration on Wednesday sent letters to Eli Lilly, AstraZeneca, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Sanofi and United Therapeutics, informing them that it has asked the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of the Inspector General to determine whether they should pay fines for the violations. The drugmakers could get fined more than $5,000 for each instance. (Brady, 9/23)

Modern Healthcare: CMS Reevaluating Hospital Outpatient Pay Rate Cut Exemptions 
CMS is reevaluating hospitals' applications for exceptions from reimbursement cuts to their off-campus outpatient facilities following pushback from the industry. In January, CMS rejected more than 60% of the mid-build exceptions, which is designed to preserve higher payments if hospitals document that their off-campus outpatient departments were under construction when the Bipartisan Budget Act passed in 2015. (Kacik, 9/23)

Stat: Panel Recommends Against Use Of Race In Assessment Of Kidney Function
An expert task force on Thursday released a new and much-anticipated approach for diagnosing kidney function, saying there is no need for controversial algorithms that consider race in the assessment of kidney disease. The new recommendations come as a victory for a growing number of physicians and activists who argue the use of race-based tools in medicine is outdated and wrong because race is not a good proxy for genetic difference — and sends the message that some races are biologically inferior. Many also argue that the separate racial thresholds for classifying kidney disease underestimate the extent of disease in Black patients, leaving them less likely to receive the specialty kidney care they need or be placed on transplant waitlists. (McFarling, 9/23)

The New York Times: 3 Million Baby Cushions Are Recalled After 8 Reported Infant Deaths
A prominent baby-product manufacturer is recalling 3.3 million lounger pads for newborns after at least eight infant deaths were associated with the pillows in less than five years, federal safety regulators said on Thursday. The pillowlike pads, made by the Boppy Company, are not safe for babies to sleep in because they can cause suffocation, the Consumer Product Safety Commission said. (Vigdor, 9/23)

AP: 15 Deaths Among Nursing Home Patients Moved To Warehouse
The death toll has risen from seven to 15 among nursing home residents evacuated before Hurricane Ida to a warehouse where conditions were found too squalid for safety, the state health department said Thursday. However, a department statement noted that some deaths may be unrelated to the storm or conditions in the warehouse. “As time passes and given the health conditions that required a nursing home level of care, unfortunately the number of deaths among this group is likely to increase,” it said. “That is why it is important to make a distinction between the number of total deaths regardless of cause and the number of storm-related deaths.” (McConnaughey, 9/23)

NBC News: Supermodel Linda Evangelista Sues CoolSculpting Owner, Alleges Fat-Freezing Procedure Disfigured Her
Supermodel Linda Evangelista filed a lawsuit alleging that a fat-freezing procedure left her permanently disfigured and ruined her career. "Today I took a big step towards righting a wrong that I have suffered and have kept to myself for over five years. To my followers who have wondered why I have not been working while my peers' career have been thriving, the reason is that I was brutally disfigured by Zeltiq's CoolSculpting procedure which did the opposite of what it promised," she wrote in an Instagram post Wednesday. (Burke and Dasrath, 9/23)

Politico: California Becomes First State To Target Amazon Production Quotas
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation Wednesday making California the nation's first state to impose restrictions on online delivery giants like Amazon to ensure that warehouse workers get required rest and bathroom breaks despite production quotas. Labor unions and worker advocates argued that Amazon and others have demanded an unsustainable pace from workers to achieve rapid and often same-day delivery. Assembly Bill 701 seeks to combat that by requiring distributors to disclose fulfillment quotas and barring companies from compelling workers to forgo rest and bathroom breaks to meet their numbers. (White, 9/22)

AP: Drug Take Back Site Offered At West Virginia Capitol Complex
West Virginia’s Capitol Complex will offer a place for people to dispose of unused or expired medications next month as part of National Prescription Drug Take Back Day, officials said. The new Safe Zone at the bus turnaround next to the Culture Center will serve as a collection site on Oct. 23, a statement from the West Virginia Department of Homeland Security said. (9/24)

AP: Mississippi Negotiators Reach Proposal On Medical Marijuana
Mississippi House and Senate negotiators said Thursday that they have agreed on a proposed medical marijuana program. Leaders are expected to ask Republican Gov. Tate Reeves to call the Legislature into session to put the plan into law. The step comes months after the Mississippi Supreme Court tossed out a medical marijuana initiative that voters approved last November. Justices ruled in May that Mississippi’s initiative process was out of date and the medical marijuana proposal was not properly on the ballot. (Pettus, 9/23)

AP: Ex-Tempe Police Detective Dies After Getting West Nile Virus
A former Tempe police detective has died after contracting West Nile virus, authorities said Thursday. Police officials said Nathan Ryberg had been in a medically induced coma since Sept. 11 while fighting the virus plus encephalitis, which is an inflammation of the brain. ... There have been 132 cases of West Nile virus so far this year and five deaths reported in Arizona as of Thursday with nearly all of the cases being in Maricopa County. (9/23)

CIDRAP: COVID-19 Summit Nets Several More Vaccine Pledges 
In a statement today summing up major announcements that came at the summit, the WHO said Sweden pledged an additional $243 million in cash contributions and vaccine that it will make available in 2021 and 2022.Other dose donations came from Japan, with a pledge of 60 million doses, Italy with 30 million, and Spain with 7.5 million. Denmark announced at the UN General Assembly that it would double its dose donation, which will now total 6 million. In another development, Team Europe added to its previous pledge, which now totals 500 million vaccine doses by the middle of 2022. (Schnirring, 9/23)

AP: 'Vaccine Apartheid': Africans Tell UN They Need Vaccines
As wealthy countries begin to consider whether to offer their populations a third COVID-19 shot, African nations still waiting for their first gave this stark reminder to world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday: “No one is safe unless we are all safe.” That message was repeated throughout the day as the inequity of vaccine distribution came into sharp focus. As of mid-September, fewer than 4% of Africans have been fully immunized and most of the 5.7 billion vaccine doses administered around the world have been given in just 10 rich countries. (Sarkar, 9/23)

CBS News: Battling COVID In Africa Takes More Than Vaccines. It Takes "Flying Doctors," And Even They Need Help. 
As dawn breaks, pilot Matthew Monson makes the final checks on his small plane and gets ready for a busy day. He'll spend it flying health workers on the front line of the fight against the coronavirus pandemic to the most remote parts of the tiny African nation of Lesotho.   Dubbed "The Mountain Kingdom" for good reason, the towering peaks and deep river valleys make many parts of Lesotho incredibly hard to reach. That's why the work being done by the Lesotho Flying Doctor Services is so vital. Thanks in part to donations from the U.S., the country has all the vaccine doses needed to inoculate its entire adult population — but acquiring them was only the first challenge. Now it must get them to the people. (Patta, 9/23)

CNN: Canadian Man Punches Nurse In The Face Multiple Times After His Wife Is Vaccinated For Covid-19 Without His Consent 
Police are looking for a man in Canada they say punched a nurse in the face multiple times, knocking her to the ground after she administered a Covid-19 vaccine to his wife without his permission. On Monday, around 9:15 a.m., a man walked into a Brunet Pharmacy in Sherbrooke, a city in southern Quebec, and accused a nurse in her 40s, who police have not named, of vaccinating his wife, Sherbrooke Police spokesman Martin Carrier told CNN. (Ebrahimji, 9/23)

AP: UN Summit Seeks To Fix Food's Many Problems, But Draws Fire
Nations, companies and foundations pledged billions of dollars to feed the world in connection with an ambitious United Nations food summit Thursday, while some grassroots anti-hunger groups and food experts blasted the event as too corporate, tech-focused and top-down. Held as part of the annual U.N. General Assembly meeting of world leaders, the “food systems summit” aimed to tackle the life-and-death puzzle of hunger, nutrition, environmental sustainability and inequality. Worldwide, more than 2 billion people don’t have enough to eat, while 2 billion are overweight or obese, and nearly a third of the food that gets produced ends up discarded, according to the U.N. (Peltz, 9/23)