Stat: Tracking An FDA Advisory Panel's Meeting On J&J's Covid-19 Vaccine
Now it’s Johnson & Johnson’s turn. A panel of outside experts is meeting Friday for a third time to consider whether the Food and Drug Administration ought to give an emergency use authorization for a Covid-19 vaccine, this one from J&J. (Branswell and Herper, 2/26)

USA Today: Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 Vaccine, Which Requires Just One Shot, Is On Track To Become Third Allowed For Use In US
A government advisory committee is likely to give a thumbs up Friday to a third COVID-19 vaccine, paving the way to increased supply of the much-in-demand vaccines. The new vaccine, from drugmaker Johnson & Johnson, offers a few advantages over the two that have been administered to 45 million Americans since mid-December, although it may be somewhat less effective. (Weintraub, 2/26)

CNN: Johnson & Johnson: FDA Advisers To Consider Third Covid-19 Vaccine Friday 
It's the next step in a process that could end with the new vaccine's rollout early next week. As with the two currently authorized vaccines, advisers and federal agencies are meeting over a weekend to try to get the vaccines to the US public as soon as possible. The FDA has already considered the advanced, Phase 3 clinical trial testing data presented by Janssen and says it shows the vaccine is safe and effective. The Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee or VRBPAC is made up of vaccine experts and other medical professionals, industry and consumer representatives who will consider presentations from FDA about its findings, as well as from Janssen. (Fox, 2/26)

In related news on Johnson & Johnson's covid vaccine —

NBC News: White House Plans Messaging Campaign To Stress Johnson & Johnson Vaccine's Benefits
With the first shipments of Johnson & Johnson's Covid-19 vaccine expected as early as next week, White House officials are prepping a campaign to send the message that it provides good protection against the virus and that, just like the two other major vaccines, it will be distributed equally among all communities in the U.S. (Przybyla, 2/26)

AP: Bahrain Becomes 1st Nation To Grant J&J Shot Emergency Use
Bahrain became the first nation to authorize Johnson & Johnson’s new single-dose coronavirus vaccine for emergency use on Thursday, the government announced, just a day after U.S. regulators concluded the shot offers strong protection against severe COVID-19. The island kingdom off the coast of Saudi Arabia said it would dole out J&J’s shot to the most vulnerable people, including older adults and those with chronic conditions, without specifying when. It was also unclear when doses would be delivered to the country, which already offers vaccines by state-backed Chinese firm Sinopharm, Pfizer-BioNtech and Oxford-AstraZeneca, as well as Russia’s Sputnik V to its roughly 2 million residents. (2/25)

KHN: Why AstraZeneca And J&J’s Vaccines, In Use The World Over, Are Still On Hold In America
The World Health Organization greenlighted emergency use of AstraZeneca and Oxford’s covid-19 vaccine this month, following in the steps of the United Kingdom, the European Union and others, who are already injecting it as quickly as possible into the masses. But the United States is still waiting. As covid deaths mount daily, critics say the Food and Drug Administration is moving too slowly. Meanwhile, the novel coronavirus is evolving, with new variants stalking populations the world over. (Tribble, 2/26)

Reuters: FDA Allows Storage, Transport Of Pfizer Vaccine At Higher Temperatures
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday approved storage and transportation of COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc and German partner BioNTech SE at standard freezer temperatures for up to two weeks instead of ultra-cold conditions. Last week, the companies had asked the U.S. health regulator to relax requirements for their COVID-19 vaccine to be stored at ultra-low temperatures, potentially allowing it to be kept in pharmacy freezers. (2/25)

Forbes: Pfizer’s Covid Vaccine Doesn’t Need Ultra-Cold Storage, FDA Says
It’s not uncommon for vaccines to need refrigeration, but Pfizer initially thought its drug needed especially frigid storage to stay potent, posing a challenge for distributors and local health officials. Ultra-cold freezers are pricey, making them out of reach for many rural hospitals and resource-strapped medical clinics, and the sudden demand for those specialized freezers sparked a worldwide rush to buy them. (Walsh, 2/25)

The Washington Examiner: FDA Greenlights Pfizer Vaccine To Be Stored At Normal Freezer Temperatures, Instead Of Ultra-Cold
"The alternative temperature for transportation and storage will help ease the burden of procuring ultra-low cold storage equipment for vaccination sites and should help to get vaccine to more sites," Peter Marks, director of the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said in a statement. (Soellner, 2/25)

Time: FDA: Pfizer-BioNTech Vaccine Doesn’t Need Ultra-Cold Storage
When Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine became the first authorized for use in the U.S., the good news came with a catch: the vaccine, the first of its kind using a new mRNA-based technology, needs to be stored at ultra-cold temperatures (-80°C to -60°C) until thawing just before being injected into people’s arms. State health centers, hospitals and other potential vaccination sites scrambled to acquire special freezers that could reach these deep-freeze temperatures, and Pfizer developed a special shipping container that could keep doses appropriately chilled for up to a month as long as the container was continuously supplied with dry ice. Still, the temperature requirement meant some locations opted not to order the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. (Park, 2/26)

AP: Biden Marks 50M Vaccine Doses In First 5 Weeks In Office
Days after marking a solemn milestone in the pandemic, President Joe Biden is celebrating the pace of his efforts to end it. On Thursday, Biden marked the administration of the 50 millionth dose of COVID-19 vaccine since his swearing-in. The moment came days after the nation reached the devastating milestone of 500,000 coronavirus deaths and ahead of a meeting with the nation’s governors on plans to speed the distribution even further. (Miller and Superville, 2/25)

The Hill: Biden Marks 50 Million Coronavirus Vaccines But Warns Virus Fight Not Over 
“We are moving in the right direction, though, despite the mess with inherited from the previous administration, which left us with no real plan to vaccinate all Americans,” [President] Biden said, echoing other administration officials who have characterized the Trump administration’s vaccination plan as insufficient. (Chalfant, 2/25)

The Washington Post: Biden Defends Vaccine Rollout As He Marks 50 Millionth Shot
[Biden] repeated multiple times that he was not taking a “victory lap” on Thursday. That reflected the sober and somber tone toward the pandemic that Biden and his aides have taken since the start of his presidency, despite some recent good news that suggests the spread of the virus in the United States was slowing somewhat. (Kim, 2/25)

The Hill: Vaccine Distribution To Jump 40 Percent Next Week, UPS Executive Says 
FedEx and UPS said they plan to increase distribution of the coronavirus vaccine by 40 percent next week, with peak distribution likely to come in May. Wes Wheeler, the head of UPS’s health care unit, said the courier service is currently handling about 10 million weekly doses but that the figure is set to increase to 14 million next week. (Budryk, 2/25)

Politico: White House Planning To Forecast Vaccine Shipments Months In Advance 
The Biden administration is planning to provide states with estimates of their expected vaccine shipments likely months ahead of time rather than weeks, according to multiple sources with knowledge. The longer planning window, which is expected to start as soon as next week, could address concerns from governors who had complained that limited shipment forecasts affect their ability to plan vaccination clinics and figure out where to steer doses. And it represents the growing confidence among vaccine makers and the Biden administration in the production of shots, with substantial boosts in supply expected over the coming weeks. (Roubein, 2/25)

In updates from the states —

Salt Lake Tribune: Utahns Age 16 And Older With Certain Health Conditions Can Make Vaccine Appointments Now, Gov. Cox Says
Beginning immediately, Utahns age 16 and older with certain severe and chronic health conditions can make appointments to be vaccinated, Gov. Spencer Cox said Thursday. That shift had been planned to happen on March 1, but is running a few days ahead of schedule. Cox credited the change to the speed of Utah’s work to vaccinate groups who were already eligible. For example, in the first week that Utahns between the ages of 65 and 69 could make appointments, 29% received their first dose of vaccine. As Utah now invites residents with qualifying health conditions to be vaccinated, the state is working on the honor system, he noted. (Means, 2/25)

Houston Chronicle: Texas National Guard Deployed To Get COVID-19 Vaccines To Older Texans Who Are Homebound
Some 1,100 members of the Texas National Guard will administer vaccines to older people in their homes in rural and isolated areas of the state in an effort to get the majority of Texans who are 65 and older inoculated against COVID-19 by the end of March, Gov. Greg Abbott said Thursday. Abbott also said that with vaccine supply ramping up considerably starting next week, combined with the anticipated approval of a third vaccine this week, the state could open up eligibility to more Texans beyond the first two identified priority groups sometime next month. (Brooks Harper, 2/25)

The Washington Post: D.C. Coronavirus Vaccine Registrations Freeze Up; Vice President Kamala Harris Visits D.C. Pharmacy 
A glitch in the District’s coronavirus vaccine registration system caused it to freeze up Thursday amid a flood of submissions on the first day of eligibility for people in hard-hit areas who have underlying health conditions. On a day when Vice President Harris showed up to observe vaccinations inside a Southeast Washington pharmacy, an unknown number of qualified residents were locked out from registering for an appointment. City health officials blamed “a technical review failure,” which sparked more confusion in what has been a frustrating vaccination process in the Washington region. (Olivo, Fadulu and Brice-Saddler, 2/25)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Thousands Of Vaccine Appointments At UW Health Canceled Again
One of the state's largest health systems is canceling thousands of COVID-19 vaccine appointments this week after not receiving enough doses. UW Health is rescheduling more than 4,000 vaccine appointments in Wisconsin's capital city, including those for people who already had to delay their appointments once. "The supply of the vaccine we have received from the state so far is just a small fraction of what we need to reach the patients we care for in our community," the message sent Thursday to patients said. Virtually all of the appointments are for people over the age of 65, a spokeswoman said. (Beck, 2/25)

ABC News: Massachusetts Residents Told They Could Wait Hours Or Days To Schedule COVID-19 Vaccine Appointment 
Nearly 50,000 COVID-19 vaccine appointments in Massachusetts were snatched up in 90 minutes Thursday morning, as residents were told they could be waiting hours, or even days, to schedule one of the limited slots. (Deliso and Mitropoulos, 2/25)

Boston Globe: State Health Secretary Explains Why Employer-Hosted Vaccine Programs Are Being Suspended
The Baker administration had hoped companies could play a key role in inoculating their workers, by establishing employer-hosted vaccination programs. Now, that plan is on hold. Only several weeks after soliciting help from the business community, the administration is telling companies to suspend their COVID-19 vaccination efforts for now. On Thursday, Marylou Sudders, Governor Charlie Baker’s health and human services secretary, chalked up the problem to supply issues, during an online discussion hosted by the Massachusetts High Technology Council. The official word came out via a memo from her agency Wednesday night. (Chesto, 2/25)

Philadelphia Inquirer: Most Kids And Teens Can’t Get The COVID-19 Vaccine. So Why Did Pa. Send Thousands Of Doses To Pediatricians?
Meanwhile, the department allocated more than 12,000 doses to pediatric offices statewide. The Food and Drug Administration has not authorized emergency use of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for anyone younger than 16, or the Moderna vaccine for anyone under 18. Older teens must have serious underlying health conditions to get the vaccine now. Pediatric offices have a lot of expertise doling out vaccines, and they do have older teen and even adult patients who might qualify. But what puzzles many doctors is why practices that cater to seniors — the most vulnerable to serious illness and death from COVID-19 — weren’t able to get doses. “I honestly don’t know what the distribution method is because it just seems so random,” said Tracey Conti, a physician with University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and president of the Pennsylvania Academy of Family Physicians. (Laughlin, 2/25)

The Washington Post: People Giving Covid Vaccines Are Surrounded By Joy And Hope 
The happiest place in medicine right now is a basketball arena in New Mexico. Or maybe it’s the parking lot of a baseball stadium in Los Angeles, or a Six Flags in Maryland, or a shopping mall in South Dakota. The happiest place in medicine is anywhere there is vaccine, and the happiest people in medicine are the ones plunging it into the arms of strangers. “It’s a joy to all of us,” says Akosua “Nana” Poku, a Kaiser Permanente nurse vaccinating people in Northern Virginia. (Judkis, 2/25)

Also —

The Washington Post: Disabled People Are Not Being Prioritized For The Coronavirus Vaccine, Advocates Say. This Dashboard Could Help 
In early January, while she was helping her grandfather register for a coronavirus vaccine, 21-year-old Sabrina Epstein realized that she was also eligible to be vaccinated in Texas, where her grandfather lived. But in Maryland, where she is a senior studying public health at Johns Hopkins University, she wasn’t eligible. As she started looking more closely at policies, Epstein realized that states across the country had prioritized people with chronic health conditions and disabilities, like hers, either in varied phases or not at all — and according to vastly different definitions and standards.On Twitter, she began connecting with other people with disabilities, and she discovered that many of them were similarly frustrated, confused or discouraged by their states’ vaccine rollouts. So, Epstein approached her mentor at Johns Hopkins’s Disability Health Research Center, Director Bonnielin Swenor, about creating a resource for people with disabilities to find their state guidelines. Disability activists could also reference it as they advocated for more equitable vaccine distribution, Epstein hoped. (Nowell, 2/25)

NBC News: Parents Desperate To Get Their Disabled Kids Vaccinated Face Big Hurdle: CDC Guidelines
They're caught in a Covid-19 catch-22. Karen Woodall is desperate to get Liam, her disabled son who is in the seventh grade, back into his North Carolina school because he can't learn on the computer and, as a result, has lost a full year of schooling. (Syed and Siemaszko, 2/26)

Capital & Main: Missteps In L.A.'s Pandemic Response Left Disadvantaged Communities Behind 
As Los Angeles’ COVID-19 winter surge hit its deadly peak last December, the county government launched a new initiative meant to tap trusted community leaders to slow the virus’s spread through information campaigns and distribution of vaccines in hard-hit neighborhoods. Community organizers told Capital & Main that they’re grateful for the support. But many say the slow rollout of the government-community partnership, which started after the recent surge was waning, is illustrative of both the missteps that have led to lives lost and the change of course needed ahead. (Albaladejo, 2/25)

KHN: As Covid Surged, Vaccines Came Too Late For At Least 400 Medical Workers 
As health care workers in the U.S. began lining up for their first coronavirus vaccines on Dec. 14, Esmeralda Campos-Loredo was already fighting for oxygen. The 49-year-old nursing assistant and mother of two started having breathing problems just days earlier. By the time the first of her co-workers were getting shots, she was shivering in a tent in the parking lot of a Los Angeles hospital because no medical beds were available. When she gasped for air, she had to wait all day for relief due to a critical shortage of oxygen tanks. (McCormick, 2/26)

The Hill: Fauci: Whatever COVID-19 Vaccine Is Available, 'Take It' 
Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious diseases expert, is advising Americans to not wait for certain COVID-19 vaccines to become available before getting inoculated. “When a vaccine becomes available, take it,” Fauci told Savannah Guthrie during an interview on the "Today" show Thursday. (Williams, 2/25)

NBC News: Fauci Says He Expects Vaccine Supply To Increase Soon With Johnson & Johnson Approval
In an interview with NBC's "TODAY" show, Fauci told co-host Savannah Guthrie that he expects "nothing but good news" Friday when the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee is expected to vote to recommend authorization of the vaccine. ... When asked by Guthrie about the varying percentage effectiveness of each Covid-19 vaccine, Fauci urged Americans to "take the vaccine" whenever it becomes available. "This is a race, Savannah, between the virus and getting vaccines into people," Fauci said. "The longer one waits on getting vaccinated, the better chance the virus has to get a variant or mutation." (Wong, 2/25)

CBS News: Dr. Fauci Answers Coronavirus Vaccine Questions In CBSN Special 
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, is encouraging everyone to get the coronavirus vaccine as soon as it becomes available to them, and he answered questions about the vaccines from viewers as part of the CBSN special, "A Shot of Hope: Vaccine Questions Answered." (Yilek, 2/25)

And Vice President Kamala Harris encourages people to get the vaccine —

The Hill: Harris Visits DC Pharmacy To Promote Vaccine Program 
Vice President Harris, along with Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), visited a pharmacy in Southeast Washington, D.C., on Thursday to promote the Biden administration’s coronavirus vaccine pharmacy program and try to address vaccine hesitancy. (Chalfant, 2/25)

Los Angeles Times: Harris Tries To Ease Black Communities' Vaccine Concerns
Vice President Kamala Harris stood by the pharmacy counter of a Giant grocery store in a largely Black neighborhood here Thursday, talking an older customer through her booster dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. “It will feel, when you get the shot, the same way the first one felt,” Harris told her, recounting her own experience. “The next day, I realized I needed to take it a little slow.” This latest example of Harris’ retail effort to promote the vaccine, as the vice president stood between the frozen pizza bin and bags of quinoa, underscored her central role for the Biden administration in persuading Black Americans to take the shot. With many of them wary based on a history of mistreatment by the medical system, Harris’ participation is seen as crucial, especially as some other high-profile Black influencers, including NBA stars, have declined to take on a public role. (Bierman, 2/25)

NBC News: Harris Implores Black Americans To Get Covid Vaccines Despite 'Righteous Skepticism'
Vice President Kamala Harris addressed concerns that some Black Americans have had about Covid-19 vaccines, encouraging them to get the shot despite historical skepticism of the medical field. "We must speak truth about the history of medical testing in this country," Harris said in an interview with MSNBC's Rev. Al Sharpton. (Richardson, 2/25)

NBC: Pfizer, Moderna Investigate Third Vaccine Shots 
In an exclusive interview with Lester Holt airing Thursday night on NBC Nightly News, [Pfizer CEO Albert] Bourla said if a third shot is recommended, they would become similar to other vaccines that require booster shots. “Every year, you need to go to get your flu vaccine. So, it's going to be the same with COVID. In a year, you will have to go and get your annual shot for COVID to be protected,” said Bourla. “And that could be an annual booster either with the same vaccine or if there is a change in the variant with an adapted to the new variant vaccine.” (Jones, 2/25)

Stat: Pfizer Hopes Booster Of Its Covid Vaccine Might Work Against Variants
Could the solution to emerging variants of the coronavirus that causes Covid-19, some of which seem to make current vaccines less effective, be more of the current vaccines? While Moderna and Pfizer, along with its partner BioNTech, have announced plans to test vaccines specifically targeted at variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, they are also planning to test the idea of simply giving people three doses instead of two of their vaccines that have already been authorized. (Herper, 2/25)

CNBC: Pfizer Director Dr. Scott Gottlieb Explains How A Third Covid Shot May Protect Against Variants
Pfizer board member Dr. Scott Gottlieb told CNBC on Thursday that the company is researching two distinct methods to try providing vaccine protection against new coronavirus variants. In an interview on “Squawk Box,” Gottlieb said the first approach is focused on whether a booster shot using the current formulation of the two-dose vaccine would provide additional defense. Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech announced earlier Thursday a trial examining just that. (Stankiewicz, 2/25)

In other news about vaccine development —

Fox News: 'No Evidence' NYC Coronavirus Variant Impacts Vaccines, Causes Severe Illness: Official
A New York City health official on Thursday said there is no evidence showing the newly reported coronavirus variant, B.1.526, is driving trajectory of infections, reduces vaccine efficacy or results in more severe illness. "We don’t have any evidence at this point [that] this New York variant, the B.1.526, is what is contributing to the trajectory of cases, which we should emphasize continue to decrease," Dr. Dave Chokshi, New York City health commissioner, said during a briefing Thursday. The comments come after researchers from Columbia University and the California Institute of Technology each posted early findings on the variant this week ahead of peer-review. Among other results, scientists found the variant included a E484K mutation. This specific mutation on other variants has been a cause for concern regarding impact on vaccine efficacy. (Rivas, 2/25)

ABC News: COVID-19 Vaccine Testing On Children: What Scientists Want You To Know 
Though Dr. Anthony Fauci, the White House chief medical adviser, predicted a COVID-19 vaccine may not be available for high schoolers until the fall and for younger kids until early next year, scientists and vaccine makers say studies are moving as quickly as possible to ensure the vaccines are safe and effective for the nation's children. (Jamshidi, 2/26)

NBC News: Data On Pregnancy And The Covid Vaccine Is Sparse. These Women Are Changing That.
When Caitlynn Ott of Silver Bow County, Montana, found out she was pregnant with her third child, her excitement was tinged with anxiety. Ott, 32, knew that pregnancy raises a woman’s risk of getting severely ill if she catches the coronavirus. But she did not know whether it was safe for pregnant women to get vaccinated against the virus — because there is hardly any data on the subject yet. (Chuck, 2/25)

Also —

FiercePharma: Moderna Has Sewn Up $18 Billion In COVID-19 Vaccine Orders—And It's Negotiating More 
Moderna, racing to produce as many COVID-19 vaccine doses as possible this year, says it expects to reap $18.4 billion from its shot this year. Moderna has already signed advance purchase agreements worth $18.4 billion for vaccine deliveries in 2021, the company said Thursday in reporting 2020 results. And it has more orders in the works: It's in talks to deliver more doses this year and next, and it’s involved in supply discussions with global organizations seeking to distribute coronavirus vaccines equitably worldwide. (Sagonowsky, 2/25)

CNN: Another Covid-19 Surge Hangs In The Balance. This Is How Experts Say We Keep It From Becoming Reality
Even with slowed infection rates and increased vaccinations, officials say another devastating Covid-19 spike could be on the horizon depending on what the United States does next. "The question that hangs in the balance right now is, will we have a fourth surge?" the former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Dr. Tom Frieden told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Thursday. "Every uncontrolled spread increases the risk that there will be dangerous variants that can be more infectious, more deadly, or can escape from immune protection." (Holcombe, 2/26)

The New York Times: The Coronavirus Is Plotting A Comeback. Here’s Our Chance To Stop It For Good 
Across the United States, and the world, the coronavirus seems to be loosening its stranglehold. The deadly curve of cases, hospitalizations and deaths has yo-yoed before, but never has it plunged so steeply and so fast. Is this it, then? Is this the beginning of the end? After a year of being pummeled by grim statistics and scolded for wanting human contact, many Americans feel a long-promised deliverance is at hand. Americans will win against the virus and regain many aspects of their pre-pandemic lives, most scientists now believe. Of the 21 interviewed for this article, all were optimistic that the worst of the pandemic is past. This summer, they said, life may begin to seem normal again. (Mandavilli, 2/25)

In related news about the spread of covid in the military —

AP: 2 US Navy Warships In Mideast Affected By Coronavirus
Two U.S. Navy warships operating in the Mideast have been affected by the coronavirus, authorities said Friday, with one already at port in Bahrain and another heading to port now. A dozen troops aboard the USS San Diego, an amphibious transport dock, tested positive for COVID-19, said Cmdr. Rebecca Rebarich, a spokeswoman for the Bahrain-based 5th Fleet. The ship is at port in Bahrain. ... The second ship, the guided-missile cruiser USS Philippine Sea, has “several persons under investigation” for possible coronavirus infections, Rebarich said. The ship is expected to pull into port for further testing at a location she declined to name, citing “operational security.” (Gambrell, 2/26)

CIDRAP: Low COVID-19 Transmission Occurred In Air Force Trainees
A 7-week Air Force camp for more than 10,000 trainees had 143 cases (1.3%) after a 2-week quarantine, reports a JAMA Network Open study published today. The researchers write that cohorts, systematic testing, restricted access to public spaces, universal masking, physical distancing, and rapid isolation of COVID-19 cases helped contribute to this low prevalence. Within 48 hours of arrival at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, trainees were tested for COVID-19, and all were quarantined for 2 weeks, after which they had another test. If a trainee developed any COVID-19 symptom during the camp, they received a diagnostic test at the clinician's discretion. Anyone with a positive test, regardless of symptoms, was quarantined for 10 days and had to be free of fever for 24 hours without the use of anti-fever medications before rejoining the camp. (2/25)

Also —

CNBC: CDC Study Finds Nursing Home Residents Who Appear To Have Recovered From Covid Were Reinfected With An Even Worse Case
A new CDC study found that some elderly people who apparently recovered from the coronavirus later came down with a second, even worse case — indicating that asymptomatic or mild cases may not provide a lot of protection against becoming reinfected with Covid-19. The study, published Thursday in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, studied two separate outbreaks that occurred three months apart at a skilled nursing facility in Kentucky. Between mid-July and mid-August, 20 residents and five health-care personnel tested positive for the virus, according to the study. (Higgins-Dunn, 2/25)

ABC News: Do-It-Yourself COVID Treatments An Evolving Threat 
Since the beginning of the pandemic, toxicologists across the country have reported an uptick in poisonings as more people have begun trying at-home coronavirus remedies -- to both prevent catching the virus and to attempt to cure it. (Widmer, 2/26)

ABC News: Children Of Color Disproportionately Impacted By COVID-19, Data Reveals 
Since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, the nation's health inequalities have become even more glaring, with millions of Americans of color, Black and Latino in particular, experiencing more severe illness and death due to COVID-19, than white Americans. New data now reveals that the same racial and ethnic disparities which have affected adults throughout the pandemic, also extend to children of color. (Mitropoulos, 2/25)

ABC News: 'COVID's So Wicked': Families Confront Losing Multiple Loved Ones 
COVID-19 has killed more than 500,000 people in the United States -- an unimaginable toll that has had ripple effects across the country. But some families have endured that loss multiple times over, with the virus taking parents, children and siblings, often in quick succession. (Deliso, 2/25)

KHN: Learning To Live Again: A Lazarus Tale From The Covid Front Lines 
The twinkle in his eyes, the delight in his smile, the joyous way he moved his disease-withered frame. They all proclaimed a single, resounding message: Grateful to be alive! “As my care team and my family tell me, ‘You were born again. You have to learn to live again,’” said Vicente Perez Castro. “I went through a very difficult time.” Hell and back is more like it. (Wolfson, 2/26)

Reuters: U.S. Senate Referee Says Democrats Cannot Include $15 Minimum Wage In COVID Bill 
In a blow to Democrats, the Senate parliamentarian ruled the chamber cannot include President Joe Biden’s proposed $15-an-hour minimum wage in a $1.9 trillion coronavirus bill the party aims to pass without Republican votes, lawmakers said on Thursday. Democrats and progressives had hoped to include the minimum wage increase in the legislation to help cushion the economic blow of the coronavirus pandemic and better compensate low-wage workers who have spent months on the front lines of the health crisis as essential workers. (2/25)

Politico: Democrats Short Of A Backup Plan After Minimum Wage Ruling 
Democrats' $15 minimum wage increase isn’t going to survive the Senate. And they don’t have a Plan B yet. The Senate parliamentarian’s decision to rule the wage hike out of order ahead of debate on President Joe Biden’s coronavirus relief plan saves Democrats from an internal fight over whether to increase it to $15 an hour. But it also leaves Democrats without a clear path forward on fulfilling a key campaign promise. (Everett and Levine, 2/25)

The Hill: House Democrats To Keep Minimum Wage Hike In COVID-19 Relief Bill For Friday Vote 
House Democrats will leave a provision to increase the minimum wage to $15 per hour in their version of the COVID-19 relief package set for a vote on Friday despite a ruling from the Senate parliamentarian that the measure does not comply with budgetary rules. (Marcos, 2/25)

NBC News: House To Vote On Biden's $1.9 Trillion Covid Relief Bill With $1,400 Checks
The House will vote on President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief package Friday, just days after the U.S. crossed 500,000 deaths from the coronavirus. The Democratic-controlled House is expected to pass the sweeping bill, which includes $1,400 direct payments, a $400-a-week federal unemployment bonus, a per-child allowance of up to $3,600 for one year and billions of dollars to distribute the coronavirus vaccines and to assist schools and local governments. (Kapur, 2/26)

In related news about covid's economic toll —

The Hill: Judge Rules CDC Eviction Moratorium Unconstitutional 
A federal judge in Texas ruled on Thursday that an order from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) temporarily halting evictions amid the pandemic is unconstitutional. In a 21-page ruling, U.S. District Judge John Barker sided with a group of landlords and property managers who alleged in a lawsuit that the CDC's eviction moratorium exceeded the federal government's constitutional authority. (Kruzel, 2/25)

The New York Times: F.C.C. Approves A $50 Monthly High-Speed Internet Subsidy 
The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday approved an emergency subsidy for low-income households to get high-speed internet, an effort to bridge the digital divide that has cut off many Americans from online communication during the pandemic. The four-member commission unanimously agreed to offer up to $50 a month to low-income households and up to $75 a month to households on Native American land for broadband service. The F.C.C. will also provide a one-time discount of up to $100 on a computer or tablet for eligible homes. (Kang, 2/25)

NBC News: Black Women Feel Outsize Burden From The Covid-19 Economy, Survey Finds
Her 7-year-old daughter has spent the past year at home, learning virtually. That meant Hargrove, a postal carrier in Pittsburgh, had to stop working during the week. She's now collecting partial unemployment and working on Saturdays and Sundays, while her mother watches her daughter. (Fox and Epperson, 2/26)

ABC News: 1st Transgender Nominee Deflects Inflammatory Questions From GOP Senator 
At a historic hearing Thursday, Rachel Levine, President Joe Biden's nominee for assistant secretary of health at the Department of Health and Human Services, and the first openly transgender person nominated for federal office, told lawmakers she would fight to improve health care access for all Americans if confirmed and deflected inflammatory questions from a GOP senator who likened transgender surgery to "genital mutilation." As the HHS assistant secretary of health, Levine would oversee the nation's public health system amid the pandemic. A pediatrician, she recently led Pennsylvania's pandemic response as the state's health secretary and was the state's physician general before that. (Haslett, 2/25)

The Hill: Rand Paul Criticized For Questioning Of Transgender Health Nominee 
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is facing criticism for his questioning of one of President Biden’s health nominees, Rachel Levine, a former state health official who would be the first openly transgender federal official confirmed by the Senate. (Hellmann, 2/25)

The New York Times: At A Senate Hearing And On The House Floor, Emotional Debates Erupt Over Transgender Rights.
A culture war over transgender rights erupted on Capitol Hill on Thursday, as a Republican senator attacked President Biden’s nominee to a top health post, and two members of the House — one the mother of a transgender daughter — sparred over legislation that would extend civil rights protections to L.G.B.T.Q. people. The nominee, Dr. Rachel Levine, a former Pennsylvania health secretary and Mr. Biden’s pick to be assistant secretary of health, stands to be the first openly transgender federal official confirmed by the Senate, and her nomination has been cheered by advocates for transgender rights. (Stolberg, 2/25)

In other news from the health agencies —

The Hill: Republicans See Becerra As Next Target In Confirmation Wars 
Senate Republicans are setting their sights on California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, President Biden’s choice to head the Department of Health and Human Services, as their next target in the battle over Biden’s Cabinet. Republicans, on the cusp of quashing Neera Tanden’s nomination to head the White House budget office, are looking for their next scalp and see Becerra as a tough vote for Democrats. (Bolton, 2/26)

Newsweek: Susan Collins Undecided On Vote For Deb Haaland, Xavier Becerra, Opening Door For Rocky Confirmations
Disunity among Senate Democrats is keeping President Joe Biden from finalizing his Cabinet sooner than later, while Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine hasn't signaled if she'll be the one to provide the chamber with the necessary support for confirmations. Collins, who has already voted no on Neera Tanden, the president's Office of Management and Budget nominee, told reporters this week she is undecided on Democratic Congresswoman Deb Haaland of New Mexico, Biden's nominee for Department of the Interior, as well as Xavier Becerra, the president's pick for Health and Humans Services secretary. Haaland and Becerra each testified before the Senate this week. (Fallert, 2/25)

The Washington Post: Fact Check: Biden’s Pick For HHS Sued The Trump Administration, Not A Group Of Nuns 
In hearings on Xavier Becerra’s nomination to be secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) and others brought up a case involving California, contraceptives and a group of Catholic nuns. It’s misleading to say Becerra sued the nuns. The California attorney general has not filed lawsuits or brought enforcement actions against the Little Sisters of the Poor, a charity run by Catholic nuns. (Rizzo, 2/26)

KHN: Journalists Weigh In On Biden’s HHS Pick
KHN senior correspondent Noam Levey discussed Xavier Becerra’s nomination to lead the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services with KQED’s “Forum” on Tuesday. ... KHN senior correspondent JoNel Aleccia discussed the story of an organ transplant patient who died after receiving lungs infected with covid-19 on KFI’s “The Daily Dive” podcast on Wednesday. (2/26)

KHN: Biden’s Straight-Talking CDC Director Has Long Used Data To Save Lives
In early December, Dr. Katy Stephenson was watching TV with her family and scrolling through Twitter when she saw a tweet that made her shout. “I said ‘Oh, my God!'” she recalled. “Super loud. My kids jumped up. My husband looked over. He said, ‘What’s wrong, what’s wrong, is everything OK?’ I was like, ‘No, no, it’s the opposite. It’s amazing. This is amazing!'” Dr. Rochelle Walensky had just been tapped to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Goldberg, 2/26)

Modern Healthcare: Hospitals' Medicare Billing Practices Suggest Upcoding, OIG Says
Hospitals are increasingly billing Medicare for the most complex treatment even though data indicate that patients aren't sicker, according to a new government report. The number of inpatient stays billed at the highest severity codes increased nearly 20% from fiscal year 2014 through the 2019 fiscal year, an HHS' Office of Inspector General analysis of Medicare Part A claims revealed. The average length of stay decreased for those cases, which suggests that hospitals may be upcoding, the OIG said. "The implication is that the population being hospitalized hasn't changed very much—they're not actually sicker as the billing rate suggests," said Rachel Bryan, co-author of the study and program analyst at the OIG. (Kacik, 2/25)

Modern Healthcare: Universal Health Services Lost $67 Million In Cyberattack Recovery
Universal Health Services said Thursday that the company lost $67 million in the second half of 2020 as a result of a September cyberattack. The Sept. 29 malware attack caused King of Prussia, Pa.-based UHS to temporarily take all of its U.S. information technology networks offline, including systems for medical records, laboratories and pharmacies. Servers weren't completely restored until October. That caused some ambulance traffic and elective procedures at UHS' acute-care hospitals to be sent to competitors, the company said. UHS also incurred labor costs to restore its IT operations quickly and had to delay some administrative functions like billing and coding until December, which affected fourth quarter cash flows. (Christ, 2/25)

Modern Healthcare: Telehealth Company Sues HHS For Allegedly Excluding Overseas Physicians
A telemedicine physician group sued HHS and CMS for allegedly refusing to cover care provided by its critical-care physicians residing overseas. Regulators issued a waiver mandating that Medicare pay for critical-care services offered virtually during the COVID-19 pandemic even if the providers and beneficiaries are in different locations. But HHS said that it cannot pay for services that are administered outside the U.S., according to a lawsuit filed by RemoteICU (RICU) Monday in a Washington D.C. federal court. (Kacik, 2/25)

In news about health care workers —

CIDRAP: Dental Hygienist Survey Suggests 3% Contracted COVID-19
A survey of US registered dental hygienists reported that 3.1% had been diagnosed as having COVID-19 as of October 2020, according to a Journal of Dental Hygiene study published yesterday. At the time, the study says an estimated 2.3% of the general US population had been infected. The researchers asked for survey responses from the American Dental Hygienists' Association database between Sep 29 and Oct 8, 2020. Of the 4,776 who answered, 35.4% had been tested for COVID-19 at least once, and 23 had been diagnosed by a physician, resulting in a 3.1% rate of infection. Only 55 of those who had COVID reported that contact tracing was performed, of which 14 (25.5%) said that workplace transmission was the most likely cause. (2/25)

Crain's Detroit Business: Beaumont Nurse Anesthetists To Vote On Union In Wake Of Outsourcing
Nurse anesthetists at Southfield-based Beaumont Health's three northern hospitals are taking steps to form a union after being absorbed by Irving, Texas-based NorthStar Anesthesia on Jan. 1. About 180 certified registered nurse anesthetists, who were formerly employed at Beaumont's Royal Oak, Troy and Grosse Pointe hospitals, signed union petition cards on Jan. 4 indicating they support the idea of forming their own local union. It would be governed by them under the name Southeast Michigan CRNAs & Associates, or SEMCA. Two CRNAs told Crain's they are forming a union to gain a seat at the policy table at each of the three Beaumont hospitals to directly advocate for safe staffing ratios and greater patient safety measures. (Greene, 2/25)

GMA: Black Health Care Workers Shine Spotlight On Issues Of Diversity In Medical Field 
As the U.S. continues to celebrate Black History Month, Black medical workers are shining a spotlight on the lack of diversity in their profession. A biennial study conducted in 2018 by the Association of American Medical Colleges found that only 5% of physicians in the U.S. are Black or African American, compared to 56.2% of U.S. physicians who are white. (Bernabe, 2/26)

Stat: A U.S. Court Ruling May Force Biologics Makers To Review Patent Protections
In a decision with broad implications for the pharmaceutical industry, a U.S. appeals court recently restricted wide-ranging patent claims for antibody treatments, a ruling legal experts say may force biologics makers to re-examine patent protections for their products. (Silverman, 2/25)

In other pharmaceutical industry news —

Stat: Why Sen. Bill Cassidy Is Backing A Bill Aimed At Drug-Resistant Bacteria
The Covid-19 pandemic has shown the damage that an uncontrolled infectious disease can cause society. It’s something experts have been warning about for decades, yet society was unprepared. (Herper, 2/26)

Stat: GSK's Covid-19 Drug Falls Short In Trial, But May Benefit Older Patients
An experimental rheumatoid arthritis drug being developed by GlaxoSmithKline failed to show a significant benefit in hospitalized patients with Covid-19, the drug maker said Thursday. However, patients older than 70 were more likely to be free of respiratory failure, a result that GSK plans to test in a new cohort of the study. (Herper, 2/25)

Stat: New Report Lays Out Ways To Address The Issue Of Discarded Drugs
File this under ‘Waste not, want not.’ In response to the cost of medicines, a fierce debate has broken out in recent years over ways to reduce the amount of unused liquids left in vials of infused or injectable cancer treatments and other therapies. One widely cited estimate suggested the U.S. health care system wasted $2.8 billion each year. (Silverman, 2/25)

Stat: Sarepta Wins New Approval For Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy Drug 
The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday approved a new medicine from Sarepta Therapeutics that treats certain patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy. The new drug, called Amondys 45, is Sarepta’s third marketed treatment for the rare, inherited muscle-wasting disease. (Feuerstein, 2/25)

Fox News: FDA Warns Against Feeding Infants Homemade Formula After Illnesses
The Food and Drug Administration is warning parents and caregivers against making or feeding infants homemade formula. The agency said it recently received reports of hospitalized infants who were suffering from low calcium after being fed formula that was homemade. "Infant formula can be the sole source of nutrition for infants and is strictly regulated by the FDA," the agency said in an alert posted Wednesday. "The agency has requirements for certain nutrients in infant formulas, and if the formula does not contain these nutrients at or above the minimum level or within the specified range, the infant formula is adulterated. Homemade infant formula recipes have not been evaluated by the FDA and may lack nutrients vital to an infant’s growth." (Hein, 2/25)

The Hill: Class-Action Lawsuit Filed Over Heavy Metals In Baby Food After Congressional Report 
A baby food company is facing a class-action lawsuit in New York after a congressional report uncovered internal documents from several companies revealing potentially dangerous levels of heavy metals in their products. (Bowden, 2/25)

In other public health news —

Cincinnati Enquirer: Health Alert Issued In Ohio And Kentucky For Whole Foods Meatballs
A health alert has been issued for a beef meatball product that was sold at Whole Foods Inc. locations in Ohio and Kentucky. The retailer sold an unknown amount of "Whole Foods Market Beef Meatballs with Marinara," which were misbranded and produced with an undeclared allergen, according to a release from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service. Officials said the product contains a dairy allergen that was not declared on its label. (Bentley, 2/25)

The Wall Street Journal: Beyond Meat Signs Supply Deals With McDonald’s, Yum 
Beyond Meat Inc. said it struck deals to supply plant-based meat imitations to McDonald’s, KFC and Pizza Hut, a victory in the company’s effort to take meat alternatives into the American dining mainstream. ... “They are the biggest deals you could possibly put together in food,” said Ethan Brown, Beyond Meat’s chief executive and founder, of the new agreements with McDonald’s and Yum. (Bunge, 2/25)

AP: MLB's Reds Cleared To Welcome About 12,700 Fans
The Cincinnati Reds have been cleared to have around 12,700 fans at Great American Ball Park for games this year. The team made the announcement Thursday after the state of Ohio said sports teams can allow up to 30% of capacity of their venues for games beginning April 1, which happens to be the day of the Reds opener against the St. Louis Cardinals. Fans will be physically distanced and be required to wear masks. Ticketing will be all digital, and concession and merchandise stands will be cashless. (2/26)

The Washington Post: A Woman Gave Birth Alone In A Kentucky Jail. It’s A Harrowing Example Of A Bigger Problem, Experts Say.
When a female deputy at Kentucky’s Franklin County Regional Jail first encountered Kelsey Love in her cell early May 16, 2017, the incident report she wrote after was sparse. She noted that Love, who was eight months pregnant at the time, was suffering from back and leg pain. But Love was actually experiencing labor pains. Her attorney, Aaron J. Bentley, argues that was clear to the officer, who was wearing a body camera that recorded the entire conversation. (Branigin, 2/24)

The Washington Post: Danger Lurks In National Parks, But Not Necessarily Where You Expect It
Every national park has its own hazards that are most likely to cause serious injuries and deaths; and some of them might surprise you. The outdoor travel site Outforia recently ranked the parks by number of deaths after it obtained systemwide data spanning 2010 to the start of 2020 via a Freedom of Information Act request and categorized the fatalities. A heart attack would be classified as medical/natural death, while tripping and cracking your skull on a rock — or losing your balance on a ledge — counts as a fall. (Howard, 2/25)

In mental health news —

KHN: College Tuition Sparked A Mental Health Crisis. Then The Hefty Hospital Bill Arrived. 
Despite a lifelong struggle with panic attacks, Divya Singh made a brave move across the world last fall from her home in Mumbai, India. She enrolled at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York, to study physics and explore an interest in standup comedy in Manhattan. Arriving in the midst of the covid-19 pandemic and isolated in her dorm room, Singh’s anxiety ballooned when her family had trouble coming up with the money for a $16,000 tuition installment. Hofstra warned her she would have to vacate the dorm after the term ended if she was not paid up. At one point, she ran into obstacles transferring money onto her campus meal card. (Rau, 2/26)

KHN: New California Law Makes It Easier To Get Care For Mental Health And Substance Abuse 
Karen Bailey’s 20-year-old daughter has struggled with depression and anxiety for years. Since 2017, she’s been in three intensive group therapy programs and, each time, the family’s insurer cut her coverage short, says Bailey. “At a certain point, they would send us a form letter saying: We have determined that she is all better, it’s no longer necessary, so we are not covering it anymore,” says Bailey, 59, who lives in Los Angeles. “And believe me, she was not all better. In one case, she was worse.” (Wolfson, 2/26)

The New York Times: As Infections Dip, Governors Across U.S. Start Easing Restrictions 
With the coronavirus slowly receding, governors around the United States are beginning to relax pandemic restrictions. But the rules are being eased much in the same way as they were imposed: in a patchwork fashion that largely falls along party lines. Republicans are leaning toward rollbacks, and Democrats are staying the course or offering a more cautious approach. On Thursday, Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas said he was considering lifting a statewide mask mandate that has been in place since July. (Tumin and Wright, 2/26)

In nursing home news —

The Hill: New COVID-19 Cases Among Nursing Home Residents Fell 80 Percent In A Month 
New coronavirus cases among nursing home residents have plummeted by nearly 80 percent from late December to early February, according to The New York Times. In an analysis of federal data, the news outlet found that outbreaks at long-term care facilities have dropped at a rate almost double that of the general population. (Jenkins, 2/25)

Stat: Cuomo’s Nursing Home Fiasco Shows The Ethical Perils Of Policymaking
The humbling of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on pandemic policy has been spectacular and swift. Within a matter of days, one of America’s most trusted voices in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic became a political pariah. (Cohrs, 2/26)

Boston Globe: Hot Spots No More: Nursing Homes Far Outpace Nation In COVID Declines
Throughout the pandemic, there has been perhaps nowhere more dangerous than a nursing home. The coronavirus raced through some 31,000 long-term care facilities in the United States, killing more than 163,000 residents and employees — more than one-third of all virus deaths since late spring. But for the first time since the US outbreak began roughly a year ago, at a nursing care center in Kirkland, Wash., the threat at nursing homes may have reached a turning point. Since the arrival of vaccines, which were prioritized to long-term care facilities starting in late December, new cases and deaths in nursing homes, a large subset of long-term-care facilities, have fallen steeply, outpacing national declines, according to a New York Times analysis of federal data. The turnaround is an encouraging sign that vaccines are effective and offers an early glimpse of what may be in store for the rest of the country as more people are vaccinated. (2/25)

In news about HIV/AIDS —

Charleston Gazette-Mail: Public Safety Committee Hears CDC Presentation, Drafts Harm Reduction Survey
For the second time in as many weeks, officials from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told Charleston city leaders Wednesday that urgent action is needed to avert a full-scale HIV outbreak. Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, head of the CDC’s division on HIV/AIDS prevention, shared data with members of Charleston’s public safety committee that showed no relationship between crime and syringe service programs, as well as the settled science on how such programs should run for community benefit. Daskalakis recommended a three-pronged approach to control the growing spread of HIV in the region: increased testing, ensuring medication and treatment is accessible for those who need it, and making clean syringes widely available for the at-risk populations. (Coyne, 2/25)

Bloomberg: Israel Covid Vaccination Milestone As Half The Population Given At Least 1 Dose
Israel has now vaccinated half its population against Covid-19, another milestone on the way to subduing the pandemic. More than 4.6 million people have gotten at least one dose of the vaccine from Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE, according to Health Ministry data released Friday. With nearly 8% of the country having recovered from the disease and likely developing some resistance to reinfection, that could bring Israel closer to herd immunity. Vaccinating about 60% to 70% of the population should be enough to rein in infections, illness and death, estimates Raina MacIntyre, a professor of biosecurity at the University of New South Wales, based off the latest data from Israel. (Benmeleh, 2/26)

AP: China Approves Two More COVID-19 Vaccines For Wider Use
China approved two more COVID-19 vaccines for wider use Thursday, adding to its growing arsenal of shots. The National Medical Products Administration gave conditional approval to a vaccine from CanSino Biologics and a second one from state-owned Sinopharm. Both are already being used among select groups of people under an emergency use authorization. China now has four vaccines to immunize its population. (Wu, 2/25)

The New York Times: Germans Clamor For Covid Vaccines, But Shun AstraZeneca’s Offering 
At the start of the year, many Germans were complaining about a shortage of coronavirus vaccines that could free them from onerous lockdowns and limited social lives. Just weeks later, many are now upset that they’re not getting the vaccine they want. As people around the world clamor for inoculations, and many countries have seen severe shortages, a preference for a vaccine developed by the German company BioNTech with Pfizer, is causing a pileup in Germany of the shot developed by AstraZeneca, a British-Swedish company, according to state health officials. (Eddy, 2/25)

NBC News: COVAX: Why Biden's Billions Won't Fix Covid Vaccine Inequality Worldwide
It seemed like a windfall in the campaign to vaccinate the world. President Joe Biden last week announced $4 billion for a humanitarian program called COVAX — short for Covid-19 Vaccines Global Access plan — which aims to fairly distribute vaccines between rich countries and the developing world. (Smith, 2/26)

Also —

Bloomberg: EU Told To Back Vaccine Passports Or Google May Do It Anyway
European Union leaders inched toward establishing bloc-wide vaccine certificates to enable countries to reopen to travel as Commission President Ursula von der Leyen warned that unless they hurry Apple Inc. and Google will step into the vacuum. During a five-hour video call, the EU’s 27 leaders focused on how to haul their nations back to a form of normalcy after a pandemic that’s claimed more than 500,000 lives and shut down large parts of their economies. While there was broad support for certificates of some sort, leaders didn’t agree on the type of privileges they would grant. (Wishart, Dendrinou and Delfs, 2/25)

Reuters: Don't Be Selfish - Get A COVID Shot, Says UK's Queen Elizabeth 
Britain’s 94-year-old Queen Elizabeth, who last month had her first COVID-19 vaccination dose, has encouraged the public to follow suit, saying it did not hurt and those who were wary should think of others. The monarch and her 99-year-old husband Prince Philip, who is currently in hospital with a non-COVID infection, received their shots from a household doctor at the queen’s Windsor Castle residence, with their age putting them in the priority group for England’s coronavirus vaccine rollout. (2/26)

AP: Hold It! Belgian Govt Warns Against Using Its Own Free Masks
Ten months after promising free cloth facemasks to protect all Belgians from COVID-19, the country’s government is having second thoughts — warning they could be dangerous and shouldn’t be used. Belgian authorities said the masks contain miniscule traces of silver and a chemical compound that initial studies now show could affect the respiratory system when inhaled deeply. More studies are continuing. (2/25)

The Hill: State Dept Says It 'Never Agreed' To China Giving US Diplomats COVID-19 Anal Tests 
Chinese officials who forced American diplomats to undergo an anal swab for COVID-19 testing did so "in error," the State Department told The Hill on Thursday, as Beijing denies it conducted the tests at all. The Washington Post reported last week that U.S. officials had said some American personnel in China complained that they were being subjected to anal swab tests for coronavirus by Chinese authorities. (Kelly, 2/25)

The Washington Post: 500,000 Coronavirus Deaths Visualized: A Number Almost Too Large To Grasp
Here are three ways to visualize the monstrous death toll of the coronavirus in this country. (Galocha and Berkowitz, 2/21)

The Washington Post: History’s Deadliest Pandemics: Plague, Smallpox, Flu, Covid-19 
The novel coronavirus took just a few months to sweep the globe. More than 2.5 million people around the world have died, including 500,000 in the United States. How many more will die, how countries will recover — the answers remain elusive as the disease continues raging. But history shows that past pandemics have reshaped societies in profound ways. Hundreds of millions of people have died. Empires have fallen. Governments have cracked. Generations have been annihilated. Here is a look at how pandemics have remade the world. (Rosenwald, 2/22)

The Atlantic: When Will Life Be 'Normal' Again, Post-Pandemic?
The end of the coronavirus pandemic is on the horizon at last, but the timeline for actually getting there feels like it shifts daily, with updates about viral variants, vaccine logistics, and other important variables seeming to push back the finish line or scoot it forward. When will we be able to finally live our lives again? Pandemics are hard to predict accurately, but we have enough information to make some confident guesses. A useful way to think about what’s ahead is to go season by season. In short: Life this spring will not be substantially different from the past year; summer could, miraculously, be close to normal; and next fall and winter could bring either continued improvement or a moderate backslide, followed by a near-certain return to something like pre-pandemic life. (Pinsker, 2/22)

Los Angeles Times: For Two COVID Patients, Life And Death Rests On Intubation 
They call it el tubo, and it haunts places like South Los Angeles, the Latino-majority neighborhoods hit harder by COVID-19 than almost anywhere in the U.S. Intubation has become more than a medical procedure. It represents the terrible crossroad of this disease: the moment patients must decide whether to have a tube inserted into their trachea so a machine can take over their breathing. (Mozingo, 2/19)

Politico: How Covid-19 Could Make Americans Healthier 
If you tried to design a weapon customized to exploit every weakness in the U.S. health care system, you might have come up with SARS-CoV-2: the novel coronavirus. The pandemic caused by that spiky virus, now in its second year, has rampaged across the country in part because our disease defense system — the critical but neglected discipline known as “public health” — has been so starved of resources for so long that it had been effectively dismantled before the coronavirus arrived. Without robust disease surveillance, stockpiles of emergency equipment and a skilled public health work force, we were all but defenseless. (Kenen, 2/18)

The New York Times: Positive Coronavirus Test? Canadians Worry Their Neighbors Will Find Out 
For a time, Cortland Cronk, 26, was Canada’s most famous — and infamous — coronavirus patient. Mr. Cronk, a traveling salesman, went viral after testing positive in November and recounting his story of being infected while traveling for work to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. He was called a virus-spreader, a job-killer, a liar and a sleaze. Online memes painted him as the Grinch, since subsequent outbreaks led to restrictions against Christmas parties. Many people, including a newspaper columnist, made elaborate fun of his name. (Porter, 2/21)

The New York Times: ‘I Am Worth It’: Why Thousands Of Doctors In America Can’t Get A Job 
Dr. Kristy Cromblin knew that as the descendant of Alabama sharecroppers and the first person in her family to go to college, making it to medical school might seem like an improbable dream. Her parents watched in proud disbelief as she inched closer to that goal, enrolling in a medical school in Barbados and enlisting in the military with plans to serve one day as a flight surgeon. Then came an unexpected hurdle: A contentious divorce led Dr. Cromblin to take seven years away from medical school to care for her two sons. In 2012, she returned for her final year, excited to complete her exams and apply for residency, the final step in her training. But no one had told Dr. Cromblin that hospital residency programs, which have been flooded with a rising number of applications in recent years, sometimes use the Electronic Residency Application Service software program to filter out various applications, whether they’re from students with low test scores or from international medical students. (Goldberg, 2/19)

Bloomberg: How The Pandemic Is Transforming Hospital Design
For health-care institutions, the pandemic has been a powerful engine of transformation, for better and worse. It’s accelerated the trend to adopt remote technology and move care out of big acute-care complexes to ambulatory settings closer to patients. It’s exposed the huge disparities in hospitalizations and deaths by poorer and minority patients. And it’s changing the ways hospitals look and feel, as the extraordinary stresses that Covid has put on staff, patients and families has health providers focusing on wellness as well as disease treatment. (Russell, 2/23)

Also —

The New York Times: Would Americans Have More Babies If The Government Paid Them? 
A Republican senator, Mitt Romney, joined Democrats this month in supporting an idea: a monthly child allowance for parents. One reason, he said, was to increase the number of births. Family policies have lots of goals, including decreasing child poverty, helping parents manage work and family, and improving children’s health and education. But would a child allowance increase fertility? (Miller, 2/17)

The Atlantic: Levaquin And Cipro Side Effects And The Drug Label Problem
Beyond being difficult to ascribe to a single circumstance, suicide is a vanishingly rare outcome for people taking fluoroquinolones, which were until recently some of the most commonly prescribed antibiotics in the United States. No study has proved that taking fluoroquinolones causes people to kill themselves, and the number of fluoroquinolone-associated suicides that have been reported to the FDA is much lower than the U.S. suicide rate would lead one to expect. But in hundreds of cases in which people killed themselves after taking the drugs, either they or their family members blamed the fluoroquinolone at least partially for their death. And the FDA’s numbers for post-fluoroquinolone suicides and pain are likely an undercount, since doctors and patients don’t tell the agency about every problem patients experience after taking a drug. (Khazan, 2/18)

The Washington Post: A Woman’s Laborious Search Uncovered The Probable Cause Of Her Searing Abdominal Pain. Getting A Doctor To Help Was Much Harder. 
Timothy M. Whitney remembers his first impression of Juliane Potter Marx as she stood in his Bellingham, Wash., office on April 15, 2020, clutching a sheaf of papers and leaning heavily against a wall. Sitting, his new patient told him, was too painful. “She failed the eyeball test,” the plastic surgeon recalled, referring to the quick once over doctors use to assess a patient. Despite a mask that obscured much of her face, Whitney said it was clear to him “this patient was really uncomfortable.” (Boodman, 2/20)

The New York Times: Venezuelan Women Lose Access To Contraception, And Control Of Their Lives 
The moment Johanna Guzmán, 25, discovered she was going to have her sixth child she began to sob, crushed by the idea of bringing another life into a nation in such decay. For years, as Venezuela spiraled deeper into an economic crisis, she and her husband had scoured clinics and pharmacies for any kind of birth control, usually in vain. They had a third child. A fourth. A fifth. (Turkewitz and Herrera, 2/20)

The Wall Street Journal: The Old New York Won’t Come Back 
You can know something yet not fully absorb it. I think that’s happened with the pandemic. It is a year now since it settled into America and brought such damage—half a million dead, a nation in lockdown, a catastrophe for public schools. We keep saying “the pandemic changed everything,” but I’m not sure we understand the words we’re saying. It will be decades before we fully appreciate what the pandemic did to us, and I mean our entire society—our culture, power structures, social ways, economic realities. We’ll see it more clearly when we look back from 2030 and 2040. A lot is not fully calculable now, and some problems haven’t presented themselves. One is going to be the profound psychological impact on some young people—how anxious and frightened this era will leave them, even how doom-laden. (Peggy Noonan, 2/25)

The Washington Post: Beijing’s SARS Lockdown Taught My Children Resilience. Your Covid Kids Will Likely Be Fine. 
Many parents are filled with angst as they prepare for their children to exit a year of pandemic isolation: Will it be okay to send them to school, per the recent recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention? Will school feel like school if students are masked and can’t trade snacks? Will children’s development be impaired by nearly a year of seeing few friends? With 20-20 hindsight, I can provide some reassurance, because my kids were 8 and 10 when SARS hit Beijing nearly two decades ago, shutting down the city for months: Your children will likely be fine, and maybe even better as human beings, for having lived through this tragic experience. (Elisabeth Rosenthal, 2/25)

Boston Globe: Two Masks Could Be One Too Many 
The Centers for Disease Control now says you’re better off doubling up on certain kinds of masks. But after talking to several experts and examining the research, I’m sticking with one mask for now — one that fits well and has several layers — and I fear the CDC’s recommendation is confusing. Here’s why. Cloth masks are now like Legos and toy vehicles, the kind of thing I find in every nook of my home. My kids and I have been trying out masks for the product review site Wirecutter since last July, and I’ve been closely following mask research and policies since the start of the pandemic. (Christina Szalinski, 2/26)

The New York Times: The Masks Of Mexico
We Mexicans live behind masks of our own creation, even if in these portraits they are more a symbolic gesture of futility than protection. Masks have long been a part of our cultural history, from the Lucha Libre masks to those worn for la Danza de los Viejitos, a traditional folk dance from the State of Michoacán. (Russell Monk and Valerie Mejer, 2/25)

Dallas Morning News: Here’s Another Reason To Hate The Pandemic: Rats.
When we say rats, we aren’t uttering a mild swear word or expletive. But it certainly would be appropriate given what seems to be North Texas’ ongoing battle with rodents. Blame the pandemic for what appears to be an increase in rat sightings in residential neighborhoods. With less food waste available in restaurant dumpsters, rats are fleeing more often to residential areas for food, water and shelter. And, if you hoped that the cold snap that left you shivering and without electricity would thin out the rat population, think again. That noise in the attic may be — guess who? After all, they didn’t have the option of escaping to Cancún, either. (2/25)

Stat: Discarded Drugs: A Wasteful And Costly Problem 
Controlling the rising costs of pharmaceuticals, particularly those administered by physicians, has been a top health care priority for policymakers, with recent actions in both Congress and the executive branch. Reducing the waste from discarded drugs is a piece of the broader approach to drug affordability. (Kavita Patel, Julie M. Donohue and Edward H. Shortliffe, 2/25)

Los Angeles Times: Treating Mentally Ill Accused Felons Saves Money, Prevent Crime
The Los Angeles County jail is filled with hundreds of inmates accused of crimes but too mentally ill to understand the charges against them or assist in their own defense. Being incompetent to stand trial, they burn through county taxpayers’ money as they wait in jail. Wait for what? Not to get completely and sustainably well, but just well enough to be fit for trial. (2/26)

Boston Globe: As Massachusetts Shows, Strong Gun-Safety Laws Work
For gun-safety activists or everyday Massachusetts citizens concerned about gun violence, it doesn’t get much better than this. Newly released data from the for Disease Control and Prevention show Massachusetts is the state with the least amount of gun violence per capita, while a new study by Everytown for Gun Safety concludes that the Commonwealth has the lowest-in-the-nation per capita costs from gun violence. Building on that good news, US Senator Ed Markey hopes to make the Massachusetts approach to guns the model for other states. All of which leaves John Rosenthal, cofounder of Stop Handgun Violence and a longtime force for strong gun laws, feeling pretty good. (Scot Lehigh, 2/5)

CNN: Black Americans Are Bearing The Brunt Of The Pandemic. Here's How To Make The Vaccine Rollout More Equitable 
Covid-19 has disproportionately devastated the Black community. Black Americans are dying from the coronavirus at nearly twice the rate of White Americans -- and have been hospitalized nearly three times as often, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Black Americans, who make up a disproportionate share of essential workers, are also shouldering greater socioeconomic burdens during the pandemic. You would think that one way to bring back a measure of racial justice would be to work vigorously to eliminate this disparity when it comes to who can get the vaccine. (Bhaskar Chakravorti, 2/23)

The Wall Street Journal: Prayer And Science Led Me To The Vaccine
Like many African-Americans, I had a great deal of trepidation about the Covid-19 vaccine. But last week my wife and I completed our course of vaccinations. My experience as a pastor and leader in the black community led me to believe it was the right thing to do. Opinion polls show that African-Americans have the greatest hesitation of any group about the Covid vaccine. (T.D. Jakes, 2/25)

Miami Herald: Miami-Dade’s Black Residents Finally Get Their Shot. It’s A Start — And It’s About Time
Suddenly, everyone wants to reach Black seniors to help them get COVID-19 vaccines in South Florida. First the federal government said it is opening a mass vaccination site at Miami Dade College’s North Campus to reach more of the Black community, starting next week. Then the state followed on Thursday with six smaller sites it will open in Black and Hispanic communities, including one in Miami’s Overtown neighborhood. ...It’s particularly hard to understand, two months into this process, why Black seniors are only now getting this rush of attention. (2/26)

Dallas Morning News: Government Failure On A Grand Scale
There has been a lot of talk about a market failure that left millions of Texans in the dark last week. While we await the results of investigations into precisely what made the lights go out, there is another massive failure unfolding in slow motion in our communities — one that should be noted and corrected. We’re talking, of course, about vaccine distribution. Giving a shot is a relatively simple task. It takes only a few seconds and virtually everyone can get it safely. So giving millions of shots should have been a relatively straightforward endeavor. The operational obstacles here are about scale, not complexity. The goal should have been efficiency and clarity. Set ‘em up and knock ‘em down. At least, that’s the way it should have been. (2/26)

Stat: Primary Care Could Be Biden's Secret Weapon Against Covid-19 
For a small-town physician, being given a supply of the Covid-19 vaccine can make a world of difference. In Cut Off, La., 30 of primary care physician Gary Birdsall’s patients have died from Covid-19. In his small rural community, they were neighbors and friends. (Farzad Mostashari and Emily Maxson, 2/26)

The New York Times: Companies Shouldn’t Require Employees To Get Vaccines
Since banishing the coronavirus from workplaces will be a key to opening the economy — and keeping it open — some companies are considering whether to require their workers to be vaccinated. The chief executive of United Airlines has said he favors making the shots mandatory, and several cruise lines will ask their crews to be vaccinated before returning to work. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has said it is legal for companies to require their employees to get coronavirus vaccines. But these types of mandates are best imposed by governments, not by private companies. (Katie Attwell and Mark Navin, 2/26)

Los Angeles Times: My Wife Is Vaccinated. I'm Not. The Difference Feels Huge
In my house, we have a problem. My wife has been vaccinated; I haven’t. Am I envious? Of course I am. Resentful? Yeah, some of that too. When she came home all cheerful after her second COVID-19 vaccine shot last week, I couldn’t help feel that she had crossed safely to the other side of a giant chasm, while I remained at the edge of the cliff. Later, when she complained of a headache and some chills from the second shot, I was, perhaps, a tad less sympathetic than I could have been. For a year we’ve been housebound together. But suddenly she was eligible for her shots and I was not. And now (or presumably very soon), she’ll be able to traipse off to a restaurant or a rave or an orgy or a national insurrection, while I’ll still be cowering at home hiding from the virus. (Nicholas Goldberg, 2/26)

The New York Times: The Secret Life Of A Coronavirus 
Last spring, coyotes strolled down the streets of San Francisco in broad daylight. Pods of rarely seen pink dolphins cavorted in the waters around Hong Kong. In Tel Aviv, jackals wandered a city park, a herd of mountain goats took over a town in Wales, and porcupines ambled through Rome’s ancient ruins. As the canals in Venice turned strangely clear, cormorants started diving for fish, and Canada geese escorted their goslings down the middle of Las Vegas Boulevard, passing empty shops displaying Montblanc pens and Fendi handbags. Nature was expanding as billions of people were retreating from the Covid-19 pandemic. The change was so swift, so striking that scientists needed a new name for it: the anthropause. (Carl Zimmer, 2/26)

The New York Times: Get Whatever Covid-19 Vaccine You Can
More vaccines are coming soon. The one-dose coronavirus vaccine developed by Johnson & Johnson will be reviewed on Friday by an advisory committee for the Food and Drug Administration, with authorization by the agency possible as early as Saturday. Assuming F.D.A. approves emergency use of the vaccine, which has been shown to strongly protect recipients against severe disease and death from the virus, there may soon be three different shots on the market in the United States. Another available vaccine for Covid-19 will be a welcome boost to the effort of getting people vaccinated faster. While any approved vaccine has been deemed safe and effective, there’s a chance some vaccines may be more effective than others. You may wonder if you should hold out for what you perceive to be the very best vaccine, but the evidence suggests that we all should get the first vaccine available to us. (Bruce Y. Lee, 2/26)

The Wall Street Journal: Biden And Allies Stoked Vaccine Fears
President Biden has proposed an “unprecedented” information campaign to persuade people to get Covid-19 vaccinations. Why, when a pandemic has killed 500,000 Americans, does the public need to be convinced? In part because Mr. Biden and his allies spent 2020 stoking fear for political reasons. (Joel Zinberg, 2/25)