Politico: Nation Hits 1M Vaccinations Benchmark For First Time In Seven Weeks 
More than one million Americans received a dose of Covid-19 vaccine on Thursday, a benchmark the nation has not met in nearly seven weeks amid a resurgence of the coronavirus pandemic. White House Covid-19 Data Director Cyrus Shahpar announced the vaccine upswing on Twitter, noting a 31 percent week-over-week increase in the daily average of those becoming fully vaccinated. He said Thursday’s numbers include 562,000 newly vaccinated people. (Sheehey, 8/19)

The Hill: White House: More Than One Million Vaccine Doses Administered In Past 24 Hours 
The numbers show the vaccination rate is increasing across the country after weeks of stagnating at about 500,000 per day. Vaccinations had slowed down after hitting a peak in mid-April of about 3.3 million doses per day. But according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, just under 60 percent of the entire eligible U.S. population is fully vaccinated, indicating the U.S. still has progress to make to combat the virus, especially as cases, hospitalizations and deaths have surged across the country. (Weixel, 8/19)

CNN: As Covid-19 Hospitalizations Increase, More Americans Are Deciding To Get Vaccinated 
Oklahoma and Louisiana -- two states that have lagged the rest of the nation in vaccinations -- are now outpacing the national average, White House Covid-19 Response Team Chief of Staff Asma Mirza said in calls with local faith leaders Thursday. "We're seeing a new willingness, a new openness to getting vaccinated," she said in a discussion with Louisiana faith leaders. (Caldwell, 8/20)

In related news —

CIDRAP: Early US Vaccine Efforts May Have Prevented 140K COVID Deaths, 3 Million Cases
The first push of the US COVID-19 vaccination campaign averted an estimated 140,000 deaths and more than 3 million infections by early May, saving $625 billion to $1.4 trillion, suggests an observational study yesterday in Health Affairs. In the first known study to evaluate the effects of state-level vaccination campaigns, a team led by Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) researchers modeled the number of COVID-19 deaths that would have occurred from Dec 21, 2020, to May 9, 2021, had it not been for vaccines. (Van Beusekom, 8/19)

CNBC: Fauci: U.S. Expanding Covid Vaccine Manufacturing To Donate More Doses To World
The United States is expanding manufacturing of Covid-19 vaccines to donate more doses to countries that don’t have as much access to the lifesaving shots. “We are now working on greatly expanding the capacity to allow us to donate hundreds and hundreds of millions of doses to the low- and middle-income countries,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, medical advisor to President Joe Biden, said in an interview Thursday on CNBC’s “Closing Bell.” (Mendez, 8/19)

The Hill: CDC Director: Annual COVID-19 Dose After Booster Not Anticipated
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky on Thursday said that while the CDC is recommending booster COVID-19 shots, annual shots going forward may not be necessary. "You know, this virus has been humbling, so I don't want to say never, but we are not necessarily anticipating that you will need this annually," Walensky said told host Tony Dokoupil during an appearance on "CBS This Morning." "It does look like after this third dose you get a really robust response, and so we will continue to follow the science both on the vaccine side but also on the virus side," she said. (Choi, 8/19)

CNBC: CDC Director Says We Might Not Need Annual Covid Boosters After Third Shot
CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said Thursday that Americans may not need yearly Covid-19 booster shots, suggesting that a third shot may sufficiently strengthen the long-term protection of Pfizer’s or Moderna’s vaccines. Walensky’s remarks come a day after she and other top U.S. health officials said they plan to start offering boosters to all eligible Americans eight months after their second vaccine shots. The effectiveness of mRNA vaccines lessens over time, particularly for anyone at high risk for dangerous coronavirus complications or for those who were immunized early in the vaccine rollout, Walensky and several of the country’s top medical officials said in a statement Wednesday. (Towey, 8/19)

In news on tensions over booster use —

Bloomberg: Vaccine Booster Review Postponed By CDC As Debate Swirls Over Third Shot
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has pushed back by one week a meeting by a group of outside advisers who were set to review Covid booster shots as debate swells about the need for a third dose. The Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices, originally scheduled to meet and possibly make a recommendation about the need for boosters on Aug. 24, is now set to convene the following week. The delay was posted on the CDC website and confirmed by multiple committee members. The Biden administration announced on Wednesday that it plans to allow most fully vaccinated adults to get a third shot of vaccines from Pfizer Inc. and Moderna Inc. eight months after their second dose, starting Sept. 20. (Torrence, 8/19)

CNBC: Scientists Blast U.S. Push For Covid Vaccine Booster Shots As Premature, Say Data Isn’t Compelling
Scientists sharply criticized the Biden administration’s push to widely distribute Covid-19 vaccine booster shots in the U.S. next month, saying the data provided by federal health officials this week wasn’t compelling enough to recommend third shots to most of the American population right now. U.S. health leaders say they are preparing to offer booster shots to all eligible Americans beginning the week of Sept. 20. The plan, outlined Wednesday by CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky, acting FDA Commissioner Dr. Janet Woodcock, White House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci and other health officials, calls for a third dose eight months after people get their second shot of either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines. (Lovelace Jr., 8/19)

KHN: ‘We Sent A Terrible Message’: Scientists Say Biden Jumped The Gun With Vaccine Booster Plan 
The Biden administration’s plans to make covid-19 booster shots available next month has drawn a collective scream of protest from the scientific community. As some scientists see it, the announcement is rash and based on weak evidence, and they worry it could undercut confidence in vaccines with no clear benefit of controlling the pandemic. Meanwhile, more information is needed on potential side effects or adverse effects from a booster shot, they say. Perhaps even worse, the announcement has fueled deeper confusion about what Americans need to do to protect themselves from covid. (Pradhan, 8/20)

On vaccine strategies from drugmakers, scientists —

The Wall Street Journal: As Covid-19 Boosters Loom, Pfizer And Moderna Expected To See Billions More In Sales 
Vaccine makers Pfizer Inc. and Moderna Inc. are on track to notch billions more in sales than previously expected, as new booster-shot strategies and concerns about the Delta variant push demand, and the companies raise prices in the U.S. and elsewhere. The Biden administration on Wednesday urged adult Americans who received two doses of messenger RNA vaccines from Pfizer or Moderna to get a third dose eight months later. (Schwartz, 8/19)

Axios: The Importance Of Vaccine Timing 
More time between COVID vaccine doses may help build more durable immunity, experts say. The three- or four-week interval between the first and second doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines was relatively short — and may help explain why the U.S. is now preparing for third doses. "When you make that decision to do a three- or four-week interval, it sacrifices length of protection and durability of protection," said Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College. (Reed, 8/20)

Also —

KHN: KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: Booster Time
As covid-19 cases in the U.S. continue to rise, the Biden administration is countering with new strategies. The latest efforts include preparing for vaccine boosters starting this fall, requiring that nursing home workers be vaccinated and pushing back against state bans on mask mandates in schools. Meanwhile, the U.S. House is returning early from its summer break to begin work on a planned $3.5 trillion budget bill that will address a long list of health issues, including changes to Medicare and Medicaid, extending the Affordable Care Act subsidies and lowering prescription drug prices. (8/19)

Modern Healthcare: Nursing Homes Prepare For Booster Rollout
As U.S. health officials announced Wednesday that they would begin offering booster shots to Americans this fall, nursing homes began preparing for another vaccination push. The Biden administration said anyone who had received their COVID-19 vaccine at least eight months prior would be eligible for a booster shot, pending federal approvals, starting the week of Sept. 20, meaning that healthcare providers, nursing home residents and seniors would be among the first eligible. Health officials said they will begin to directly deliver booster shots to residents of long-term care facilities at that time. (Christ, 8/19)

The Baltimore Sun: Baltimore Will Begin Giving COVID Vaccine Boosters Next Month Pending FDA Approval 
Baltimore will be prepared to begin administering boosters of the coronavirus vaccine by Sept. 20, city officials announced Thursday. Citing a recommendation from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, city Health Commissioner Dr. Letitia Dzirasa said Baltimore will set up a semi-permanent location to distribute booster doses, starting with people who received priority status when getting their initial vaccinations including health care workers and first responders. (Opilo, 8/19)

The Washington Post: U.S. Officials Reviewing Possibility Moderna Vaccine Is Linked To Higher Risk Of Uncommon Side Effect Than Previously Thought 
Federal health officials are investigating emerging reports that the Moderna coronavirus vaccine may be associated with a higher risk of a heart condition called myocarditis in younger adults than previously believed, according to two people familiar with the review who emphasized the side effect still probably remains uncommon. The investigation, which involves the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is focusing on Canadian data that suggests the Moderna vaccine may carry a higher risk for young people than the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, especially for males below the age of 30 or so. The authorities also are scrutinizing data from the United States to try to determine whether there is evidence of an increased risk from Moderna in the U.S. population. (Pager and McGinley, 8/19)

Reuters: U.S. Probing Moderna Vaccine For Higher Heart Inflammation Risk
U.S. health officials are investigating reports that Moderna Inc's COVID-19 vaccine may be linked to a higher risk of a rare heart condition in younger adults than previously thought, the Washington Post reported late on Thursday, citing people familiar with the review. The report quoted a source saying it was too early for the regulators to reach a conclusion, and that additional work was needed before any recommendation was made. (8/19)

Florida Times-Union: Viral Reddit Photo Of COVID Patients On Floor In Florida Library
Louie Lopez showed up to the downtown Jacksonville Main Library Conference Center in the early afternoon for a Regeneron therapy appointment. His primary care doctor recommended it after Lopez tested positive for COVID-19 and was experiencing moderate to severe symptoms. While waiting in line for his turn, two other people got in the line behind Lopez. Both of them, he says, sat down on the floor immediately. They eventually laid down “sick and moaning.” Lopez, 59, told The Florida Times-Union, part of the USA TODAY Network, that the woman pictured in yellow was dragging herself on the floor as the line slowly moved forward. Lopez took a photo and sent it to his wife. (Lewin, 8/19)

CNN: A Florida Library Is Converted To A Covid-19 Treatment Site: 'These People Were In Bad, Bad Shape,' One Patient Says 
The scene at the Jacksonville main public library was haunting, Louis Lopez recalled. As he waited for a Covid-19 monoclonal antibody treatment, he saw people so sick they couldn't even stand. "These people were in bad, bad shape," he said. His experience Wednesday at the library, set up by the state as a location for treatment, has made him even more grateful he's fully vaccinated. "I lost two cousins to Covid in San Diego," he told CNN in an interview. "If I was unvaccinated there's no doubt in my mind it would have taken me out." (Murphy, 8/20)

On what's next for Florida —

AP: 'Bracing For The Worst' In Florida's COVID-19 Hot Zone
As quickly as one COVID patient is discharged, another waits for a bed in northeast Florida, the hot zone of the state’s latest surge. But the patients at Baptist Health’s five hospitals across Jacksonville are younger and getting sick from the virus faster than people did last summer. Baptist has over 500 COVID patients, more than twice the number they had at the peak of Florida’s July 2020 surge, and the onslaught isn’t letting up. Hospital officials are anxiously monitoring 10 forecast models, converting empty spaces, adding over 100 beds and “bracing for the worst,” said Dr. Timothy Groover, the hospitals’ interim chief medical officer. (Kennedy and Jackson, 8/20)

Fox News: Florida COVID-19 Surge To Peak Next Week, Researchers Project
Florida could hit the peak of its latest COVID-19 surge next week with some 23,000 cases, with herd immunity to follow in mid-September, according to an epidemiologist at the University of South Florida. Edwin Michael, PhD, professor of epidemiology at the USF College of Public Health, projected the peak will occur on Aug. 24, and along with the current pace of vaccinations, the state could see herd immunity by Sept. 11. Herd immunity was defined as 90% of the population with antibodies from prior infection or vaccination. (Rivas, 8/19)

In news about mask mandates —

Politico: GOP Governors Embrace Covid Cocktails Over Masks As Cases Surge
Republican governors in some of the states hardest hit by the pandemic are pushing expensive Covid cocktails over cheap masks. The governors in Florida, Missouri and Texas are promising millions of dollars in antibody treatments for infected people even as they oppose vaccine and mask mandates, saying they can potentially keep people with mild Covid symptoms out of hospitals that are being swamped by new cases. But the treatments and cost of providing them are thousands of dollars more than preventive vaccines, and tricky to administer because they work best early in the course of an infection. (Goldberg, 8/19)

Bloomberg: Florida’s DeSantis Must Face Suit Over School Mask Rule Ban
A judge denied a request by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to throw out a lawsuit challenging his ban on mask mandates in schools, setting up a clash next week that could see the court block his executive order. Parents who claim the ban is putting their children at risk just as the delta variant of the coronavirus is ravaging the state can proceed with their suit to block the governor’s action, Judge John C. Cooper ruled Thursday after a hearing in Florida’s Second Judicial Circuit in Tallahassee. Cooper said he will hold a hearing over two to three days starting Monday, with testimony from health experts and parents on both sides before ruling on the plaintiffs’ request for a preliminary injunction against DeSantis. (Larson, 8/19)

Politico: Sens. Wicker, King, Hickenlooper Test Positive For Covid-19 After Vaccination
Sens. Roger Wicker, Angus King and John Hickenlooper all have Covid-19 breakthrough infections, their respective offices announced Thursday. Wicker, a Republican from Mississippi, and King, an independent from Maine who caucuses with Democrats, both tested positive for the virus following mild symptoms, according to their statements, released earlier in the day. Later on Thursday, Hickenlooper, a Democrat from Colorado, announced that he, too, tested positive following mild symptoms. (Sheehey, 8/19)

NPR: How Many Lawmakers Got The Coronavirus Or Self-Quarantined?
Breakthrough infections continue to hit Capitol Hill, with Sens. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, Angus King of Maine and John Hickenlooper of Colorado the latest fully vaccinated members of Congress to announce positive coronavirus cases. The three senators all announced their positive tests on Thursday, stressing that they had just mild symptoms. South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham and Rep. Ralph Norman, and Florida Rep. Vern Buchanan recently announced similar breakthrough infections. Buchanan lost a staffer to the illness last year. (Grisales and Carlsen, 8/19)

In updates on the spread of the coronavirus —

USA Today: US Deaths Nearly Double In 2 Weeks, Rise In 42 States: Updates
Deaths are rising in 42 states, the worst tally seen since December. In the week ending Wednesday, the U.S. reported 5,742 deaths, nearly double the total from two weeks earlier. The 10,991 Americans who died of COVID-19 in the first 18 days of August are already more than all the fatalities in June or July. The nearly 2.2 million U.S. cases in those first 18 days make this the fifth-worst month in the pandemic, blowing past the highest monthly totals of the 2020 spring and summer surges, with case counts rising in 44 states. (Ortiz and Fernando, 8/19)

Mississippi Clarion Ledger: COVID-19 Spikes Case Counts In Mississippi To Numbers Higher Than Ever
Mississippi leads the nation in COVID-19 cases per capita, with 118 cases per 100,000 people, according to a New York Times database. The United States averages 42 per 100,000. The U.S. has had a 47% increase in positive cases in the past two weeks. In Mississippi, the number jumped by over 90%. With rapidly rising case counts in the state, hospitalizations have skyrocketed. For the past week, Mississippi health officials have relayed the message: the state's health care systems are on the brink of failure. (Haselhorst, 8/19)

Macon Telegraph: Macon Children’s Hospital Near COVID Capacity Due To Delta 
Dr. Edward Clark, chief medical officer of the Beverly Knight Olson Children’s Hospital and head of pediatrics for the Medical Center at Atrium Health, says he is running out of hospital beds. “We’re kind of working at our limits,” Clark said Wednesday outside the Macon hospital. The pediatric intensive and medium care units are nearly full in the second largest hospital in Georgia. (Blankenship, 8/19)

11alive.com: Metro Atlanta Hospitals Give 'Urgent' Update On State Of COVID
Several Georgia hospital systems gathered Thursday morning at Mercedes-Benz Stadium to address the public on the state of COVID-19 in our communities. They addressed "an urgent and unified call to action to address the ongoing pandemic." ... Officials from Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Emory Healthcare, Grady Health System, Northeast Georgia Health System, Piedmont Healthcare, and Wellstar Health System provided a current perspective from the front lines of their hospitals and health systems. That perspective was of worry and exhaustion, as emergency rooms and hospital beds operate at near-full capacity. (Braverman and Nussman, 8/19)

AP: Gov: Hospitals In Critical Situation For Capacity, Staffing
Kentucky hospitals are reaching a “critical point” in finding enough space and staff to treat an influx of COVID-19 patients, Gov. Andy Beshear said Thursday. The governor pleaded with the unvaccinated to get inoculated and pushed back aggressively against vaccine and masking skeptics on social media. (Schreiner and Blackburn, 8/20)

AP: Alaska Says 5 Deaths From Facility That Had Virus Outbreak
Five residents of a state-supported elder-care facility in Ketchikan who tested positive for COVID-19 died in the last week, a state health department spokesperson said Thursday. Clinton Bennett, the spokesperson, in a written response to a question on whether the deaths were COVID-19-related, said the state-supported Pioneer Homes “do not determine the cause of death nor do they see the death certificates of residents.” He said the five residents of the Ketchikan Pioneer Home who recently died “had tested positive for COVID-19.” (Bohrer, 8/20)

KHN: After Pandemic Ravaged Nursing Homes, New State Laws Protect Residents
When the coronavirus hit Martha Leland’s Connecticut nursing home last year, she and dozens of other residents contracted the disease while the facility was on lockdown. Twenty-eight residents died, including her roommate. “The impact of not having friends and family come in and see us for a year was totally devastating,” she said. “And then, the staff all bound up with the masks and the shields on, that too was very difficult to accept.” She summed up the experience in one word: “scary.” (Jaffe, 8/20)

In news about covid testing —

USA Today: Delta Variant Spurs More Than 1 Million COVID Tests Each Day
When COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations plummeted in late spring, many large, government-run testing sites from Los Angeles to New York switched to vaccinations or shut down. That was before the highly contagious delta variant became the dominant coronavirus strain, accelerating cases, hospitalizations and deaths. Now Americans are getting checked for COVID-19 at a pace of more than 1 million tests each day, according to Johns Hopkins University. But some experts say it's harder to find testing appointments than last winter, when large, drive-thru sites fueled more than 2 million daily tests. (Alltucker, 8/20)

AP: Kentucky Official: Don't Go To ER Just For COVID Test
Kentuckians who are not in need of emergency care should not visit hospitals for COVID-19 testing and should go to a pharmacy or contact their local health department for more resources instead, said Kentucky’s public health commissioner, Dr. Steven Stack. Kentucky’s emergency rooms have been reeling from record-high ICU admissions among virus patients, Stack said Thursday. Patients who arrive at hospitals seeking only a test may have to wait hours and could be billed even if they leave without being tested. (8/20)

Houston Chronicle: School Mask Rules Stand For Now, As Texas Supreme Court Upholds Pause On Abbott's Order
The Texas Supreme Court on Thursday decided to temporarily allow school districts and some local governments to require masks on their property, rejecting Attorney General Ken Paxton’s attempt to expedite his challenge to the mandates. The court’s decision came within hours of new guidance from the Texas Education Agency that Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s order banning mask requirements would not be enforced “as the result of the ongoing litigation.” (Scherer, 8/19)

The New York Times: Texas Drops Enforcement Of Governor’s Ban On Mask Mandates 
The Texas Education Agency said it would temporarily stop enforcing Gov. Greg Abbott’s ban on mask mandates and the State Supreme Court issued a ruling allowing school districts to require face-coverings. Both decisions are temporary. The agency said in new guidance on Thursday that it would immediately stop enforcing the ban on mask mandates until litigations were resolved. In a reversal, the agency’s new guidance requires schools to notify their local health department if a student tests positive. The school must also notify students in the same classroom as well as those who share extracurricular activities. (DePasquale and Hard, 8/20)

AP: State Supreme Court Declines To Hold Up Mask Mandate Ban
The Texas Supreme Court declined Thursday to block restraining orders against Gov. Greg Abbott’s mask mandate ban. The justices remanded Attorney General Ken Paxton’s appeal to the 3rd Texas Court of Appeal in Austin for a hearing. The court did not issue an opinion for its decision. The move came the same day that the Texas Education Agency suspended enforcement of the state’s public school systems of Abbott’s ban on mask mandates has been dropped, for now, the Texas Education Agency said Thursday. (Wallace, 8/20)

Houston Chronicle: TEA Reverses Course, Now Says Schools Must Notify Families When Kids Are Exposed To COVID
Texas schools now will be required to contact parents of children who are exposed to positive COVID-19 cases, per new guidance from the state. The Texas Education Agency’s new safety guidelines for public schools released Thursday say that schools must notify all teachers, staff and families of students who are in contact with someone in a classroom or extracurricular activity who has a test-confirmed case of COVID. The new requirement is effective immediately. (Dellinger and Serrano, 8/19)

On Texas lawmakers and covid —

The Hill: Greg Abbott Undergoes Antibody COVID-19 Treatment Following Diagnosis
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) has undergone COVID-19 antibody treatment following his breakthrough positive diagnosis. “Governor Abbott’s doctor prescribed Regeneron’s monoclonal antibody therapy treatment, which is available at no cost to all Texans who get a doctor’s referral,” Abbott’s office said in a statement Thursday. “It is recommended that Texans testing positive for COVID-19 seek this antibody therapeutic drug because of its effectiveness to help keep people out of hospitals.” (Oshin, 8/19)

Houston Chronicle: Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick Says Unvaccinated African Americans, Not Republican Policies, To Blame For Rising COVID Cases And Hospitalizations
People criticizing the Republican leadership of Texas for the state’s rising COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths should instead blame unvaccinated African Americans, said Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick in a Thursday night interview with Fox News anchor Laura Ingraham. “The COVID is spreading, particularly, most of the numbers are on the unvaccinated,” Patrick said in response to a question about people attacking the policies of Governor Greg Abbott, who is embroiled in legal battles with school districts and counties that have required masks despite the Republican governor’s ban on such mandates. (Zong, 8/19)

Bay Area News Group: LA County School District Requires COVID Vaccines For Kids
Amid worsening COVID-19 outbreaks and a rash of new vaccine requirements, a Los Angeles County school district is believed to be the first in the state to announce it will require eligible students to prove they’ve had the shots. They may soon have company.“ Other districts are thinking about it,” said Quoc Tran, superintendent of the Culver City Unified School District, which announced the policy this week ahead of Thursday’s first day of school. It is the latest in a series of new federal, state and local orders aimed at controlling a wave of COVID-19 infections throughout the state and across the country, driven by the highly contagious delta variant of the virus. (Woolfolk, 8/19)

Fox News: Connecticut, Oregon Mandate Vaccinations For Staff At K-12 Schools This Fall
As the fall season is ramping up for school districts across the country, some teachers will be required to be vaccinated amid the rise of the delta coronavirus variant, including those in Connecticut and Oregon. Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont, a Democrat, announced a new executive order on Thursday amending current COVID-19 emergency declarations to require all state employees, staff of all childcare facilities, and faculty and teachers at PreK-12 schools to receive at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine by September 27, 2021. (Richard, 8/19)

In updates from colleges and universities —

The Hill: Rice University Announces Switch To Online Classes For Beginning Of School Year
Rice University on Thursday announced that it will be switching to online classes for at least the first two weeks of school amid a higher number of COVID-19 cases. Rice’s provost, Reginald DesRoches, said in a letter to students that classes would start on Aug. 25 and remain virtual through at least Sept. 3. (Vakil, 8/19)

The 19th: Spelman Faculty Won't Teach In Person, Citing COVID-19 Rules
Spelman College’s faculty council, the organizing arm for professors at the influential historically Black women’s college, told students on Thursday morning that they would no longer teach in-person classes, citing a lack of “clear and enforceable” safety guidelines from the school administration, per an email obtained by The 19th. Classes at the college began Wednesday. Spelman, located in Atlanta, is one of the first colleges or universities to feel this kind of pressure from faculty this fall after thousands of instructors at American colleges took a similar stand last summer. (Rummler, 8/19)

AP: Arizona School Board Imposes Gag Rule For Vaccines, Masks
Employees in a northwestern Arizona school district cannot discuss vaccination status or mask-wearing with students under a motion approved unanimously by the local school board. The edict from the Colorado River Union High School District Governing Board carries no repercussions for administrators, staff or teachers who violate it. That would be up to Superintendent Monte Silk, who supported the motion. (8/20)

Oklahoman: Oklahoma Gov. Stitt Condemns Hulbert School District Mask Mandate
Gov. Kevin Stitt and Attorney General John O'Connor reprimanded a small eastern Oklahoma school district for its strict masking policy on Thursday — a day after the federal government admonished the state for discouraging mask mandates in schools. Stitt and O'Connor said Hulbert Public Schools violated state law Wednesday night when its school board voted in favor of a masking requirement for all students and staff. (Martinez-Keel, 8/19)

AP: GOP Governors, School Districts Battle Over Mask Mandates
Millions of students in Florida, Texas and Arizona are now required to wear masks in class as school boards in mostly Democratic areas have defied their Republican governors and made face coverings mandatory. The three states are all hot spots in the nation’s recent COVID-19 surge, and defiant boards in Miami, Dallas, Houston, Phoenix and other urban areas argue that requiring masks protects students, teachers and staff from contracting and spreading the virus as many pediatric hospitals fill. (Spencer, 8/20)

In news on the impact of rules and policies during the pandemic —

Axios: Parents Forced To Navigate Patchwork Of Back-To-School Mask Policies 
Conflicting policies, fiery political debates and the continued spread of the Delta variant of COVID-19 are sowing chaos and uncertainty into the back-to-school season. This will be the third school year in a row with COVID-related disruptions. Many students have already suffered severe learning loss, and the gap between students could grow even wider, thanks to disparities in vaccinations and rising case counts. (8/20)

KHN: School Or ‘Russian Roulette’? Amid Delta Variant And Lax Mask Rules, Some Parents See No Difference 
The child had just started kindergarten. Or, as her mother called it, “Russian roulette.” That’s because her school district in Grand Junction, Colorado, experienced one of the nation’s first delta-variant outbreaks last spring, and now school officials have loosened the rules meant to protect against covid-19. The mother, Venessa, who asked not to be named in full for fear of repercussions for her family, is part of a group of parents, grandparents, medical professionals and community members who assembled in the past few weeks to push back. The group calls itself “S.O.S.,” which stands for “Supporters for Open and Safe Schools,” while nodding to the international signal for urgent help. It’s made up of Republicans and Democrats, Christians and atheists, and its main request: Require masks. (Bichell, 8/20)

AP: Education Secretary: New Mexico Needed More Outdoor Classes
New Mexico’s top education official during the pandemic headed into his final days in Santa Fe saying outdoor classrooms could have allowed more in-person instruction when schools were closed last year and may be key to addressing parents’ masking concerns. Education Secretary Ryan Stewart leaves on Friday, two years into his term, citing the need to be near family as his father faces serious illness. (Attanasio, 8/20)

AP: Mississippi Gov: Try To Keep Schools Open Amid Rise In COVID
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said Thursday that his goal is to keep as many schools open as possible, even as COVID-19 cases continue to rise sharply in the state, because he does not want children to lose academic advancement. Reeves, a Republican, said local school districts have the power to offer vaccinations to children 12 and older, with parents’ permission. He said school districts also can set mask mandates or require students to maintain distance from one another to mitigate the spread of the airborne virus. (Wagster Pettus, 8/19)

Also —

The Washington Post: Carrie Underwood’s Account Clicked Like On An Anti-Mask Tweet. The Outraged Reaction Shows What Happens When Country Stars Are Silent On Politics
Carrie Underwood, one of country music’s most popular superstars, generally does not generate controversy. That changed this week with the click of a button. On Tuesday, a screenshot started making its way around Twitter that showed Underwood’s account “liked” a Twitter video posted by conservative commentator Matt Walsh. The video showed Walsh speaking at a recent contentious school board meeting over a mask mandate for Metro Nashville Public Schools, likening mask requirements for kids to child abuse and saying that more children have died of the flu than covid-19. He argued that the mask mandate was politically motivated and students’ masks are a “symbolic security blanket.” (Yahr, 8/19)

The Washington Post: Unvaccinated Federal Employees Face Discipline For Refusing Testing At Workplace 
Federal employees who are not fully vaccinated will face discipline if they refuse to be tested for the coronavirus when reporting to work in person, the Biden administration warned on Wednesday. The latest guidance from an interagency task force says agencies will have discretion regarding how to administer those tests, including in-house, at another agency or through a contractor. Testing will apply only to employees who are not fully vaccinated and who are working on-site, will be done during working hours, and will be at the agency’s expense. (Yoder, 8/19)

The Boston Globe: As Federal Worker Guidance Gets Stricter, Labor Advocates Denounce Repealed Mass. Protections
With federal workplace safety guidelines now calling for fully vaccinated workers to wear masks in areas with elevated risks of COVID-19 transmission, which currently includes every county in Massachusetts, labor advocates are doubling down on their criticism of the state’s expiring workplace regulations. Massachusetts rules on masking, distancing, and sanitization in the workplace haven’t been enforced since late May and are set to be officially repealed in the coming weeks, despite new guidance from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration that masks should be worn in public indoor spaces in areas of high or substantial transmission, regardless of vaccination status. (Johnston, 8/19)

On mandates in companies, and in health care —

The Washington Post: Companies With Vaccine Mandates Turn To Tech To Verify Employees’ Vaccination Status 
As vaccine mandates become the norm for workers to return to offices, a complicated challenge is emerging for employers: how best to verify vaccination records. A growing number of companies, from Facebook to Google and Salesforce, have implemented employee vaccine mandates for the office amid the spread of the delta variant in recent weeks. Vaccine mandates aren’t solely hitting office workers. Meat processor Tyson Foods, United Airlines, and state governments including New York and California are all requiring their workers to get inoculated. (Abril, 8/19)

Louisville Courier Journal: Humana: Some Workers Must Get COVID Vaccine, Pending FDA Approval
Humana announced Thursday it will require COVID-19 vaccines for any associate who works outside their home on Humana's behalf and some select contractors. "As infection rates of COVID-19 and its variants rise, we have a responsibility once again to be part of the solution – and we must take it," the Humana Management Team wrote in an announcement to staff. Humana, one of Louisville's largest employers with 12,000 employees, had postponed a return to its offices earlier this month, extending the reopening date to Oct. 18, The Courier Journal reported. (Goodman, 8/19)

KHN: Biden’s No-Jab-No-Job Order Creates Quandary For Nursing Homes
President Joe Biden’s edict that nursing homes must ensure their workers are vaccinated against covid-19 presents a challenge for an industry struggling to entice its lowest-paid workers to get shots without driving them to seek employment elsewhere. Although 83% of residents in the average nursing facility are vaccinated, only 61% of a home’s workers are likely to be, according to data submitted by homes and published by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services as of the week ending Aug. 8. More than 602,000 staff members have contracted covid and more than 2,000 have died from it. (Rau and Miller, 8/20)

In news on masking, vaccine rules affecting restaurants —

AP: Vaccine Checks Beginning At San Francisco Eateries, Bars
Anyone who wants to eat, drink or exercise indoors in San Francisco must show they are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 when one of the nation’s most stringent restrictions on unvaccinated people takes effect. Restaurant and bar owners said they’ve contacted people who reserved tables to remind them of the new rule that begins Friday, and planned to have extra staff at the front door to verify people’s proof of vaccination and make sure they match their identity cards. (Nguyen, 8/20)

New Orleans Times-Picayune: Caught Between Anger, Gratitude: New Orleans Restaurants Brace For COVID Vaccine Enforcement
It’s only been a few days since the city’s vaccination mandate took effect, but at the Beachcorner Bar & Grill on Canal Street they have felt like very long days. “You just don’t know what you’re going to get from one person to the next walking in,” said Gina Scala Perret, third-generation owner of the tavern, best known for its burgers. “One group is all ready to show you their (vaccination) cards and they’re great, then the next guy walks in and is screaming in your face about it.” (McNulty, 8/20)

On mandates around the country —

San Francisco Chronicle: California Not Likely To Update Workplace Pandemic Standards Until December
With on-the-job outbreaks of the coronavirus on the rise across California, state workplace safety regulators once again find themselves racing to update rules on vaccines, masking and a host of other virus prevention measures. During a meeting of the Cal/OSHA Standards Board Thursday, members said the soonest they are likely to vote on new rules potentially designed to tamp down outbreaks is December, after the surge in cases driven by the highly infectious delta variant are expected to spike. (DiFeliciantonio, 8/19)

WSB-TV Channel 2 - Atlanta: Gov. Kemp Says Georgia Businesses Will Not Be Forced To Adhere To Mask, Vaccine Mandates
Gov. Brian Kemp issued a new executive order that will keep businesses from being forced to adhere to mask or vaccine mandates put in place by local jurisdictions. In a news conference at the Capitol, Kemp said that businesses can comply with local ordinances if they want to, but they will not be enforced. The executive order also makes it so that local governments can’t put capacity limits on businesses. (8/19)

Iowa City Press-Citizen: Iowa City Mayor Enacts Mask Mandate, Declares Civil Emergency
Iowa City Mayor Bruce Teague declared a civil emergency and ordered a mask mandate Thursday evening due to the rising number of cases of COVID-19 and the highly contagious delta variant. A spokesperson for Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds called the mandate “against the law” and “not enforceable.” "While our path is uncertain and much is unknown we do have the tools to reduce the risk to ourselves and each other," Teague said. "We just have to use them." The order goes into effect Thursday, today, at 11:59 p.m. and will expire Sept. 30, unless he decides to extend it. Teague issued a similar order in July last year. (Ojeda, 8/19)

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: No Deal On St. Louis County Mask Mandate; Judge Issues Preliminary Injunction 
St. Louis County for now has no authority to impose a mask mandate that officials there already rescinded, and have no intention of enforcing anyway, a judge ruled Thursday. Circuit Judge Ellen “Nellie” Ribaudo issued a preliminary injunction Thursday within an hour of a virtual court hearing at which lawyers on both sides of the county’s July 26 mask order reported they could not reach a compromise. Twice this week, the judge had ordered them to negotiate for the sake of public health. (Currier and Benchaabane, 8/19)

The New York Times: Those Anti-Covid Plastic Barriers Probably Don’t Help and May Make Things Worse
Covid precautions have turned many parts of our world into a giant salad bar, with plastic barriers separating sales clerks from shoppers, dividing customers at nail salons and shielding students from their classmates. Intuition tells us a plastic shield would be protective against germs. But scientists who study aerosols, air flow and ventilation say that much of the time, the barriers don’t help and probably give people a false sense of security. And sometimes the barriers can make things worse. (Parker-Pope, 8/19)

In other research and pharmaceutical news —

CIDRAP: Convalescent Plasma Didn't Prevent Severe COVID-19 In High-Risk Patients
Early use of convalescent plasma didn't prevent COVID-19 progression in a group of high-risk adult outpatients, concludes a National Institutes of Health (NIH) study yesterday in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).The randomized, controlled Clinical Trial of COVID-19 Convalescent Plasma in Outpatients (C3PO) trial enrolled more than 500 participants who visited 1 of 48 US emergency departments within 7 days of COVID-19 symptom onset. Enrollees were 50 and older and had one or more risk factors for severe COVID-19 (eg, obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, chronic lung disease). (8/19)

Stat: FDA Agrees To Review Controversial Drug To Prevent Premature Birth
In an unexpected turn of events, the Food and Drug Administration will hold a hearing on whether Covis Pharma should voluntarily withdraw its controversial treatment for preventing premature births after a key study found the medicine is ineffective. The move comes nearly two years after an FDA advisory panel recommended that the medication, known as Makena, should be withdrawn after the trial failed to verify a clinical benefit. The 9-to-7 vote called into question the future of a medication that has been the standard of care across the U.S. since it was approved a decade ago. (Silverman, 8/19)

Stat: A New Technology May Be The Next Big Thing For CRISPR 
On a chilly morning last November, Michael Segel stepped through the glass doors of the Broad Institute in Cambridge, Mass., rode the elevator up to the 10th floor, dropped his jacket and bag at his desk and made a beeline to the tissue culture room. He found his lab mate Blake Lash already there. And Lash had news: Their cells had turned green. (Molteni, 8/19)

Bloomberg: All-Inclusive Magic Mushroom, Ayahuasca Retreats Are New Luxury Trips
Alisa Bigham was looking for a new beginning. She’d recently left her marriage of 47 years and was trying to understand who she was outside of that union. “I kept having the thought, ‘You just need to go on a retreat and get away from everything,’” she says. “My intention was a reset of who I am, something that could bring me a big transformation.” Bigham, 64, had read Michael Pollan’s book How to Change Your Mind, which chronicles the new research into psychedelics and their medicinal properties. She came away from it interested in exploring those possibilities for herself. So she booked a retreat at Silo Wellness, which operates in Jamaica’s Montego Bay resort community. She was drawn to its nightly ceremonies, during which participants take psilocybin mushrooms and, led by local Rastafarians, embark on a series of transcendental journeys that might include visions and an altered emotional state. (Berlinger, 8/19)

Axios: Moderna To Start First Human Trials Of MRNA HIV Vaccine 
Moderna is set to start human trials for its experimental mRNA HIV vaccine as early as Thursday, the first time such a trial has ever been conducted. "There's a pressing need for new ways to prevent infection from viruses like HIV and influenza that conventional vaccines have struggled to address and to treat rare genetic diseases and cancers that kill millions each year," Axios' Alison Snyder writes. "Vaccines and therapies based on messenger RNA (mRNA) hold promise as a solution." (Gonzalez, 8/19)

In other public health news —

The Washington Post: What Is The Pelvic Floor And How Pandemic Life Could Be Harming Yours
Long stretches spent sitting in front of computers at makeshift workstations and less movement throughout the day can shorten the pelvic floor muscles and cause them to become tight, which can lead to pain, experts said. And people who are feeling stress may unknowingly tense their pelvic floor muscles — similar to people who clench their teeth in response to stress. (Chiu, 8/19)

The New York Times: Brazilian Butt Lifts Surge, Despite Risks
In 2020 alone, there were 40,320 buttock augmentations, which include both implants and fat grafting, reports the Aesthetic Society. According to Google keyword data, “BBL” was searched roughly 200,000 times per month between January and May 2021.It’s also one of the deadliest. A July 2017 report by the Aesthetic Surgery Education and Research Foundation in Aesthetic Surgery Journal noted that one to two out of 6,000 BBLs resulted in death, the highest mortality rate for any cosmetic surgery. (Ellin, 8/19)

North Carolina Health News: These Black Farmers Provide More Than Healthy Food 
Dawn Henderson just had a fruitful shopping trip to the Black Farmers’ Market in Durham. Her bag was packed with meat and vegetables. Often on her trips to the Durham site, which is open once a month, she picks up one of the many types of honey and desserts available there. (Huang, 8/20)

CIDRAP: COVID-19 Facebook Ads May Have Deterred Holiday Travel
Facebook videos of healthcare providers encouraging people to stay home for the 2020 holidays were associated with a 3.5% decrease in county-level cases, according to a study today in Nature Medicine. The researchers had physicians and nurses create 20-second videos on their smartphones and presented them as sponsored content to 75% of Facebook users in high-intensity COVID-19 counties and 25% of low-intensity COVID-19 counties before Thanksgiving and before Christmas last year. Recipients were randomized by zip code, and, on average, each user in a treatment zip code received 2.6 videos at Thanksgiving and 3.5 at Christmas. (8/19)

Fox Business: Apple Pushes Back Return To Office Until At Least January: Report
Apple is pushing back the return to corporate offices until January at the earliest because of surging Covid-19 cases and new variants, according to a memo sent to employees on Thursday and reported by Bloomberg. The company will confirm a re-opening timeline with employees a month before they are required to return. (Martin, 8/20)

The Wall Street Journal: Google Health Boss Leaves To Take Over Cerner
David Feinberg, who led Google’s ambitious and sometimes controversial push into healthcare, is leaving the search giant to become Cerner Corp.’s chief executive officer. Dr. Feinberg joined Alphabet Inc.’s Google two years ago in a newly created role as vice president for health. He helped strike partnerships with some of the country’s largest hospital systems to collect and analyze their data. He has also led the company’s initiatives around Covid-19. (Mickle and Armental, 8/19)

The Hill: Johnson & Johnson CEO To Leave Role In January 
Johnson & Johnson announced on Thursday that its current CEO Alex Gorsky will step down from his role and  Joaquin Duato will take the helm in January. Gorsky will instead serve as the executive chairman for the healthcare company, and the new roles will become effective Jan. 3. Duato, who is currently the vice chairman for J&J’s executive committee, will also be named a member of J&J’s board of directors.  (Vakil, 8/19)

In other health care industry news —

Modern Healthcare: It's Time To Get Ready For The Surprise Billing Ban, Experts Say
It's time for hospitals and health systems to start getting ready for the surprise billing ban that takes effect next year. President Joe Biden's administration published an interim final rule last month that covers the basics, but left out essential details about how the No Surprises Act will work in practice. The regulation bars surprise bills for emergency care, high cost-sharing for out-of-network services, out-of-network charges from ancillary providers such as anesthesiologists or assistant surgeons, and out-of-network charges from providers who don't notify patients they are not in-network. (Brady, 8/19)

Modern Healthcare: Cigna, Fresenius To Improve Value-Based Kidney Care Program
Cigna and Fresenius Medical Care North America will extend their national partnership through 2023 to improve outcomes and lower costs for patients with end-stage renal disease and kidney failure. The latest agreement, announced on Monday, will allow the companies to continue to work on the value-based kidney care program under Cigna Collaborative Care. The program engages with providers using incentives to help with better outcomes, affordability and patient satisfaction. The partnership began in 2017 and allows Cigna members to access Fresenius' 2,600 dialysis centers and home dialysis options to manage their health. (Devereaux, 8/19)

Crain's Cleveland Business: MetroHealth To Assist Defendants In 'Gun Court' With Trauma Counseling, Mental Health Support
The Institute for H.O.P.E. Trauma Recovery Center will provide trauma counseling and mental health support for defendants in the Violence Intervention Docket, also known as "Gun Court," through a recently signed contract with the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas. The program aims to target young adults to address their trauma before they are involved in violent crime, Cuyahoga County administrative judge Brendan Sheehan, who oversees the specialized docket, said in a news release. "The progress we can make working together is amazing," Sheehan said in a provided statement. "These efforts will make our community safer and save lives." (8/19)

Stat: Medical Journal Editorial Writers Have Financial Conflicts Of Interest, Too
In the latest look at conflicts of interest in science, a new analysis found 15% of the authors of editorials accompanying studies in prestigious medical journals about heart drugs and devices had financial ties to the companies that sponsored the clinical trials, but they did not disclose the relationships. Generally, financial ties between study authors and manufacturers have generated considerable interest due to concerns over influencing medical research and practice. But this latest analysis, which was published in JAMA Internal Medicine, extends this unease to editorial writers, who are also in a position to sway thinking about trial results. (Silverman, 8/19)

Los Angeles Times: Wildfires Prompt Air Quality Advisories In Northern California 
Smoke from a dozen major wildfires is spreading across Northern California, darkening skies, dropping ash and creating health hazards from Lake Tahoe to San Francisco. Officials have issued air quality alerts warning of hazardous conditions that could last into the weekend. “Overall, there’s smoke pretty much covering most of Northern California,” said Bill Rasch, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Sacramento. (Smith, 8/19)

The New York Times: Sacramento Air Quality Worsens Amid Wildfires
The wildfires burning in Northern California, including the rapidly expanding Caldor fire east of Sacramento, are affecting more people than simply those forced to evacuate. On Thursday, air pollution was projected to remain at unhealthy levels — above 150 on the air quality index — in Sacramento and other cities near the blaze. (Paybarah, 8/19)

Sacramento Bee: Wildfire Smoke: How To Protect Yourself From Particles
California wildfires including the Dixie, Caldor, Monument and McFarland blazes all grew overnight, and more fires means more smoke. Jamie Arno, spokesperson for the Sacramento Air Quality Management District, said though the air looks ugly in Sacramento today, it’s going to get worse on Wednesday and Thursday. A wind from the north is going to push smoke down to ground level throughout the region, Arno said. “When you can smell smoke, that means it’s there, it’s unhealthy to breathe,” Arno said. “So the suggestion is you either go indoors or move to another location where you’re not breathing the smoke.” (Jasper, 8/19)

In related news about heat and climate change —

Bloomberg: Extreme Heat Is Clear And Growing Health Issue, Two Studies Find
More than 356,000 people died in 2019 as a result of extreme heat and that number is likely to grow, according to a study published in The Lancet this week. The Global Burden of Disease review, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, found while cold temperatures still cause a greater number of deaths, mortality rates attributable to heat are growing faster, particularly in hotter regions of the world. (Leon, 8/19)

The Washington Post: Philadelphia’s 1993 Heat Wave Killed More Than 100 And Taught City Important Lessons
The water trickled down quickly, enough to coat the sun-bleached concrete basin in a city park with a layer of wetness. A toddler danced, smiling as water from the park’s sprinklers rained down on her, keeping her cool. It was a blistering midsummer day in July, the kind that as recently as 30 years ago would have proven disastrous for vast numbers of this city’s most vulnerable residents. In the early 1990s, heat pounded Philadelphia’s most at-risk communities, killing or sickening scores. After a raft of changes, including the creation of an extensive heat warning system and opening “spraygrounds,” the city has been able to largely diminish the heat’s threat to its residents. And in a world where climate change is making extreme weather the norm, some say the city could be a model. (Suggs, 8/19)

In other news from California, Kentucky and Tennessee —

San Francisco Chronicle: Did Algae Bloom Kill Family Hiking In Mariposa County? Authorities Checking All Possibilities In Mysterious Deaths
Authorities are considering whether a dangerous algae bloom may have killed a young family whose bodies were found here on a hiking trail this week, and friends and investigators are pinning their hopes on a pending toxicology report for answers. Mariposa County sheriff’s officials are awaiting toxicology results and told The Chronicle that they aren’t ruling out any potential causes of death. The bodies of John Gerrish, his wife, Ellen Chung, their 1-year-old daughter, Muji, and their dog were discovered with no obvious signs of trauma by searchers on Tuesday on the Hite Cove Trail near an area known as Devil Gulch. The family had taken off on a day hike Sunday and was reported missing when they failed to return. (Gafni and Cassidy, 8/19)

AP: HIV Cases Climb In Kentucky City, More Screenings Offered
Health officials in Kentucky’s largest city say an increase in HIV cases has led the agency to offer more screenings and prevention measures. The Louisville Metro Department of Public Health and Wellness also urged local health care providers on Thursday to start conducting HIV testing as a routine part of medical care. There have been 126 people diagnosed with HIV in the first five months of 2021, Louisville health officials said in a statement. Twenty-four of those cases were diagnosed in May, which is the most recent data available, officials said. The average number of cases annually from 2017 to 2020 was 144. (8/20)

AP: Tennessee Adds 3 Counties Under Mental Health Initiative
Tennessee officials have expanded an initiative for youth and young adults who have experienced a first episode of psychosis. The Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services says OnTrack TN will be newly available in Montgomery County through the Mental Health Cooperative, Anderson County through Ridgeview Behavioral Health Services, and Rutherford County through Volunteer Behavioral Health Care Services. The growth of the program for people 15 to 30 years old comes through federal COVID-19 pandemic funding. (8/20)

Politico: U.S. Transport Ship And Field Hospitals Heading To Haiti For Quake Relief 
The United States has dispatched a massive transport ship and begun delivering field hospitals to Haiti after a 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck the southwestern part of the island Saturday, crumbling homes, destroying roads and killing more than 2,000 people. The USS Arlington, a transport dock ship, left Naval Station Norfolk, Va. on Tuesday and is scheduled to reach Haiti by Sunday, according to a spokesperson with U.S. Southern Command. The ship is carrying a fleet surgical team, 200 marines, two helicopters and a landing craft unit. (Custodio, 8/19)

AP: Oxygen Plant Among Earthquake-Damaged Buildings In Haiti
As if Haiti’s 7.2 magnitude earthquake, a tropical storm and the coronavirus pandemic weren’t enough, the temblor damaged the only medical oxygen plant in the southern part of the country. The building that housed the oxygen concentrator machines that the region depended on partially collapsed, and the machines were upended. The Etheuss company is run by the a family famous for their vetiver perfume oils plant in the city of Les Cayes, one of the areas hardest hit by Saturday’s earthquake. (Stevenson and Sanon, 8/20)

In global news about covid —

Bloomberg: Ardern Extends New Zealand Lockdown As Delta Outbreak Spreads
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern extended a nationwide lockdown by four days after an outbreak of the delta strain of coronavirus spread outside largest city Auckland. The entire country will remain at Level 4 restrictions, the highest level of lockdown, until midnight on Aug. 24, Ardern told a news conference Friday in Wellington. The initial three-day lockdown had been due to lift at midnight tonight. (Brockett, 8/20)

CIDRAP: Australia, Japan Report Record COVID-19 Rises 
As many countries struggle to rein in the highly transmissible Delta (B1617.2) COVID-19 variant, Australia and Japan reported new single-day highs, while situations stabilized in some parts of Africa and the Americas. Elsewhere, New Zealand reported 11 new cases in a growing cluster in the Auckland area. (8/19)

AP: Israel Approves Booster Shots For Over-40s
Israel has made third booster shots against COVID-19 available to people age 40 and older in an effort to fight a surge of the delta variant. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who is 49, got his jab on Friday. He pledged to share “all the data, all the information, all the insights” of the effort. Israel has been a leader in the fight against the deadly coronavirus and last month became the first country to offer booster shots. The U.S. has approved, but not yet made available, boosters for older Americans as well. (8/20)

Axios: AAPI Rights Groups To Biden: "Use Precise Language" On COVID Origins 
Twenty-three AAPI civil rights groups led by the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans are calling on the administration to take extra caution as it prepares results from its investigation into the origins of COVID. In late May, the Biden administration launched a 90-day probe into COVID's origins amid controversy over the lab leak theory. In a letter delivered to President Biden on Thursday, advocates warn the "simple existence of that report will put our communities at risk." (Chen, 8/19)

Axios: Oversight Board Upholds Facebook Decision To Keep Post Calling Lockdowns Ineffective 
The independent Oversight Board on Thursday upheld Facebook's decision to leave up a post from a medical council in Brazil that claimed lockdowns are ineffective. The board's decision provides insight into how Facebook's removal threshold for content that creates a risk of imminent harm will be applied to posts about COVID-19. (McGill, 8/19)

In other developments —

AP: Food Agency Warns Of Hunger In Afghan Conflict
The head of the U.N. food agency in Afghanistan says a humanitarian crisis is unfolding with 14 million people facing severe hunger following the Taliban takeover of the country. Mary Ellen McGroarty, the World Food Program’s country director, said in a video briefing to U.N. correspondents from Kabul on Wednesday that the conflict in Afghanistan, the nation’s second severe drought in three years, and the social and economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic have pushed an already dire situation into a “catastrophe.” (8/19)

Bloomberg: Ebola Case In Ivory Coast Spurs Urgent Hunt For Source In Guinea
Disease trackers have yet to identify how a teenager from rural Guinea treated for Ebola in a hospital in Abidjan sparked Ivory Coast’s first outbreak of the deadly viral disease in 27 years. The World Health Organization has sent expert teams to both West African nations to help authorities scale up measures to find and prevent additional cases, the agency’s regional office in Brazzaville said in a statement Thursday. As of Aug. 18, there was one confirmed and three suspected cases in Ivory Coast that later tested negative, WHO said. Six high-risk contacts have been quarantined and 131 contacts identified. No deaths have been reported. (Gale, 8/20)

NPR: Landmarks Around The World Are Lit In Purple For People With Disabilities
Rome's Colosseum, the London Eye, the Empire State Building and Tokyo's Skytree tower are among more than 125 landmarks around the world that are being bathed in purple light Thursday night, recognizing the world's 1.2 billion people with disabilities. The event, a call for inclusion and equal treatment, comes as the Paralympics are set to begin in Tokyo next week. The idea to light the Élysée Palace, Niagara Falls and other iconic places in purple stems from the WeThe15 campaign — named for the 15% of the world's population who live with disabilities, according to the International Paralympic Committee, which is leading the effort along with the International Disability Alliance. (Chappell, 8/19)

The Washington Post: Ben Franklin’s Bitter Regret That He Didn’t Immunize His 4-Year-Old Son Against Smallpox
Five weeks had passed since the death of Benjamin Franklin’s son, and rumors were swirling. Four-year-old Francis “Franky” Franklin had died after being inoculated for smallpox, the rumor went, and now his pro-inoculation father was trying to hide it. The gossip reached such a point that on Dec. 30, 1736, the grieving father, then 30, confronted it in the pages of his newspaper, the Pennsylvania Gazette. “Inasmuch as some People are, by that [rumor] ... deter’d from having that Operation perform’d on their Children,” he wrote, “I do hereby sincerely declare, that he was not inoculated, but receiv’d the Distemper in the common Way of Infection.” (Brockell, 8/14)

Los Angeles Times: 'Here We Go Again': Inside A COVID-19 Unit As Cases Surge
It wasn’t long past noon and Dr. Anita Sircar found herself again saying the phrase she had repeated in the halls of Providence Little Company of Mary Medical Center in Torrance, like the chorus to a rueful song: “Here we go again.” Twelve new patients suffering from the virus had come in overnight, including a 19-year-old whose parents were already hospitalized for COVID-19. And they kept coming in that morning, one after the next. Nurses were strategizing about how to expand the isolated segment of the intensive care unit that they had set aside for the sickest of their COVID-19 patients as room after room was occupied — the kind of planning that the hospital has had to refine for pandemic surges as it juggles the needs of other patients. (Alpert Reyes, 8/15)

Medscape: Shouldn't Docs Who Spread False COVID-19 Info Lose Their Licenses?
Across the country, state medical licensing boards and state and national medical associations are struggling with how to respond to scientifically baseless public statements about COVID-19 by some physicians such as [Dr. Daniel] Stock. They fear such statements are increasing public confusion and are heightening political conflict. Physicians accused of spreading false information include public officials such as Scott Atlas, MD, who served as President Donald Trump's COVID-19 advisor, and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, an ophthalmologist, whose YouTube account was temporarily suspended in August after he posted a video disputing the effectiveness of masking in stopping the spread of COVID-19. (Meyer, 8/18)

Politico: Inside America’s Covid-Reporting Breakdown 
There were too many cases to count. Covid-19 was spreading rapidly throughout the United States, as cold winter weather began to drive people indoors, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was flying blind: The state agencies that it relied on were way behind in their tracking, with numbers trickling in from labs by fax or even snail mail. (Banco, 8/15)

The Washington Post: In Confronting The Opioid Crisis, A Video Game Could Become A Valuable New Tool 
As drug-related deaths have spiked across the United States in recent years, doctors seeking to curb that surge are getting an unlikely new tool: a video game. The game, titled “PlaySmart,” was developed by Lynn Fiellin and funded in part by the National Institutes of Health. A professor at the Yale School of Medicine and Yale Child Study Center, as well as the founder and director of the play2PREVENT video game development lab, Fiellin hopes that by using “PlaySmart,” she and her team will be able to collect more data related to adolescent opioid misuse and provide aid to both kids who play the game and the adults who work those youths. “The more you know that something is dangerous, the less likely you are to do it,” Fiellin said, noting that many opioids are prescription drugs and can sometimes be found in their homes. (Smith, 8/11)

Also —

The Washington Post: Football’s Darrell Green Was Called The ‘Ageless Wonder.’ Now He Wants To Be A Model For Senior Health.
During his 19-year career as a cornerback for the Washington Football Team, Darrell Green could eat pretty much anything he wanted and hardly lose a step. He dined on burgers and fries, and shakes and pies, and still won all four of the National Football League’s Fastest Man competitions that he ran in. Drafted by Washington in 1983, Green was 22, just shy of 5-foot-9, and weighed 173 pounds. When he retired in 2002, at age 42, he weighed 189, having gained only 16 pounds. But in retirement, he was no longer motivated to do Olympic-level workouts twice a day. The fat in that fast-food diet that he used to burn off so easily began clinging to his waistline. (Milloy, 8/17)

The Washington Post: Exercising In This Sticky Heat Can Lead To Chafing. Here’s How To Ease The Pain
The warmer weather and longer days of summer — as well as continuing concerns about visiting indoor workout facilities — mean more outdoor exercise, more sweat and more potential for skin chafing. Generally caused by a combination of excess moisture and friction, chafing can affect runners, hikers, surfers, cyclists and swimmers. But you don’t have to be a fitness buff to experience chafing: Simply going about daily activities in warm weather is enough to create issues for some people. “Summer is a big setup for chafing,” says Harry Dao, dermatologist and chair of the dermatology department at Loma Linda University. He compares skin affected by chafing, also known as intertrigo or irritant contact dermatitis, to a dry riverbed. “When water evaporates out of that area, the mud or dirt will crack.” When your skin cracks after too much continuous exposure to sweat, water, and/or friction, it becomes red, itchy, and painful, and in extreme cases, bloody. As Min Deng,  a dermatologist at MedStar Health in Chevy Chase explains, the top layer of skin can “exfoliate” to the point where it’s completely rubbed off. (Moore, 8/13)

Modern Healthcare: The Doctor At The Statehouse: How Medical Associations Fought Against Anti-Transgender Youth Bills
This past legislative session, Montana Medical Association CEO Jean Branscum knew her group would be quite busy educating lawmakers on the intricacies of care that transgender children receive. Lawmakers were advancing legislation that would have limited doctors’ ability to provide gender-affirming care to children and teens. “(There was) a gap in regards to knowledge of what they were really talking about, and what the reality was in regards to individuals who have gender dysphoria, so we knew there was a great need for education,” Branscum said. “And we thought we could be the best group to come in and provide evidence and science-based conversation with the legislators on what otherwise is a very polarizing topic.” (Gillespie, 8/17)

The Washington Post: He Was Paralyzed And Told He’d Never Walk Again. 12 Years Later, He Walked At His Graduation.
Corey Borner was having such a good spring football practice that he asked his coach to keep it going: “One more play.”Borner, who was looking to make his mark in May 2009 at his Dallas-area high school, prepared as “Deuce 84 P-Bubble and Up” was called as the final play of practice — a call that turned his life upside down. After the freshman cornerback made the tackle on the bubble screen, the 16-year-old urged teammates who came over to congratulate him on the hit not to touch him. Borner could not feel anything from his head to his feet. As he lay motionless on the field at DeSoto High School, he kept repeating the same phrase: “God, be with me.” (Bella, 8/16)

The Washington Post: An Employee Embezzled $12.8 Million From A Medical School’s Nonprofit. He Spent Most Of It At One Adult Site
Ralph Puglisi had been embezzling millions of dollars for years when he decided to try a new trick: laundering money through the pornographic website profile of a relative’s fiancee, investigators found. For a time, it worked. With the millions he stole, Puglisi renovated his house, covered rent for one of his parents, paid for a relative’s wedding expenses, traveled, chartered yachts and bought land on St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands, investigators found.But higher-ups at the nonprofit where Puglisi worked began digging into ballooning expenses. It didn’t take long to unearth what he had been hiding. Puglisi, 59, who was a manager at a nonprofit tied to the University of South Florida’s medical system, admitted he stole at least $12.8 million over a six-year period, according to court records filed in the U.S. District Court in Tampa. He was working as an accounts manager for the University Medical Services Association, which pays for the operation of USF’s sprawling medical system. (Edwards, 8/17)

The New York Times: Are Robotic Surgeries Really Better?
Surgical procedures performed with the aid of a robot is sometimes marketed as the “best” form of surgery. But a recent review of 50 randomized controlled trials, testing robot-assisted surgeries against conventional methods for abdominal or pelvic procedures, suggests that while there may be some benefits to robotic surgery, any advantages over other approaches are modest. Robotic surgery is performed by surgeons, not robots. But instead of conventional hand-held tools used in laparoscopic surgery, which involves tiny incisions, and open surgery, in which the surgeon enters the body through a large incision, the doctor uses a machine. The surgeon controls the machine’s tools remotely by using joysticks and foot controls while viewing the surgical site through a high-definition monitor that provides a three-dimensional image of the procedure. (Bakalar, 8/16)

Bloomberg: Covid Vaccine Boosters: The Case For Extra Shots Is As Shaky As Ever 
Scientists are raising serious questions about the wisdom of the push for Covid-19 boosters unveiled on Wednesday by President Joe Biden. It’ll be hard to judge whether extra shots for the vaccinated will be helpful or counterproductive until more of the data behind the decision become available. The officials announcing the decision to give shots to those vaccinated eight months earlier said it was justified by data on an increase in mild infections and speculation that this might evolve into something worse. (Faye Flam, 8/19)

Dallas Morning News: North Texas Doctor’s Group Retreats On Policy Saying Vaccination Status To Be Part Of Care Decisions
North Texas doctors have quietly developed a plan that seeks to prepare for the possibility that due to the COVID-19 surge the region will run out of intensive-care beds. If that happens, for the first time, doctors officially will be allowed to take vaccination status of sick patients into account along with other triage factors to see who gets a bed. (Dave Lieber, 8/19)

CNN: New Pandemic School Year Is A Nightmare For Parents And A New Test For Biden 
America's kids, more vulnerable than ever to Covid-19 and in the crossfire of a political war over masks, are going back to class in a timeless rite transformed into a moment of fear by the pandemic that interrupted their childhood. For so long, this fall was to be a milestone on the road back to normality, as schools fill with students, many of them returning for the first time after 17 months of online lessons -- an eternity for a young developing mind. But the surge in the Delta variant came at just the wrong time -- plunging America back into its public health nightmare when it had seemed, even as a recently as a month ago, that the crisis was easing. (Stephen Collinson, 8/20)

USA Today: Delta Variant And Schools: What Parents Should Know Now About COVID
At a time when parents should be searching for the perfect lunchbox and picking out their children’s first day of school outfits, many are instead worried about skyrocketing COVID-19 infections in children due to the delta variant. Pediatric infections have surged  – more than 121,000 COVID-19 cases in children were added in the past week. And as 1,900 children were hospitalized on Saturday, a record for the pandemic, pediatric hospitals in many areas are full or overstretched. (Rajiv J. Shah, 8/20)

Scientific American: Masks Are A Must-Have To Go Back To School During The Delta Variant Surge 
Elementary, middle and high schools in the U.S. are opening this month, allowing students to fully attend in person as the country struggles to get back to normal. But open schools have put many parents in an agonizing position. Pediatric hospitalizations for COVID have reached all-time highs in some regions, several governors have banned public school mask mandates, and no vaccines are yet available for children under age 12. And all eyes are on how the march of the Delta variant across the country might affect child safety and disrupt back-to-school plans. (Emily Willingham, 8/19)

Bloomberg: The U.S. Can — and Must — Keep Kids Safe From Covid
Throughout the pandemic, it’s been comforting to know that children weather Covid-19 infection better than adults do. They often suffer no symptoms, and those they have are typically moderate. But the emergence of the delta variant has complicated matters. It’s spreading so fast that kids, most of whom can’t be vaccinated, are being infected in rising numbers — 121,000 in the past week, amounting to 18% of total reported cases in the U.S. Of course, as the numbers grow bigger, even rare serious cases become more common. (8/18)

The New York Times: Covid Isn’t Going Away. So What Now? 
The 1918 influenza pandemic, the deadliest pandemic in modern history, is typically associated with a single year, but it actually lasted for more than two. The virus that caused it is thought to have emerged in the United States in January of that year, and it claimed its tens of millions of victims quickly. By the summer of 1919, the worst was over. But in some parts of the world, the pandemic dragged on into the spring of 1920, cresting in a fourth wave that killed more people in New York City than the first did. (Spencer Bokat-Lindell, 8/19)

Scientific American: A New Resource For Fighting Vaccine Misinformation 
There have been over four million deaths resulting from COVID worldwide, including over 34 million cases and more than 610,000 deaths in the United States alone. Worse, we do not appear to be near the end of the pandemic. Recent increases in hospitalizations and deaths from COVID have occurred, mainly in people who are either fully unvaccinated or partially vaccinated. Making this all the more tragic is its preventability; we know that vaccines are still effective against the Delta variant, which is now the predominant strain in the United States of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID. (Jonathan N. Stea and Krishna Sankar, 8/19)

Stat: Look To Nurses To Help Accelerate The Transformation Of Health Care 
The chaos and crisis of the Covid-19 pandemic have forced remarkable transformations in the U.S. health care system. Nurses — as they have done in public health emergencies from the frontlines of war to the frontlines of deadly infectious diseases like tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and Ebola — have been innovators in helping reshape clinical practice throughout the Covid-19 response. (Lynda Benton, Robyn Begley and Debbie Hatmaker, 8/20)

Dallas Morning News: Seniors On Medicare Are The Last People Who Should Have To Pay For Basic Vaccines
There’s at least one clear lesson from the COVID-19 pandemic: Vaccines work. And we also learned that vaccines are especially important for seniors, who tend to be more susceptible to a host of diseases — not just COVID-19 — than the under-65 population. Because vaccines are considered preventive care under the Affordable Care Act, most private and employer-based health insurance covers the entire cost of vaccinations with no out-of-pocket expense for patients. Medicaid likewise will cover most or all of the cost of vaccines. (Merrill Matthews, 8/20)

Modern Healthcare: Healthcare Payment Should Be Retooled To Focus On Prevention
Vaccinated Americans are angry for a good reason: We have access to a safe and inexpensive source of prevention, and yet despite the availability of vaccines, 25% of Americans will refuse the shots, and many will suffer or die. The anger is familiar for healthcare workers, who regularly see patients suffer or die due to lack of access to preventive care. Healthcare is struggling on this front, but one adjustment to the system could help. (Abigail Hardin, 8/19)

Stat: That 'Damn Machine': Mechanical Ventilators In The ICU 
I walk in to Mr. W’s room to say hello. He is 73 years old and has been in the hospital for three months, ever since he was diagnosed with Covid-19 and developed pneumonia. He smiles at me when I introduce myself but can’t speak because of the tube down his trachea that delivers every breath he receives from the mechanical ventilator at his bedside. He is no longer contagious, but he is still critically ill, stuck on the ventilator, weak and struggling to take a breath by himself. (Hannah Wunsch, 8/20)