The Hill: Surgeon General Says He's Lost 10 Family Members To Coronavirus 
Surgeon General Vivek Murthy on Thursday made a personal plea with Americans to get vaccinated and stop spreading misinformation about the coronavirus pandemic, revealing the toll the virus has taken on his family. "It’s painful for me to know that nearly every death we are seeing now from COVID-19 could have been prevented," Murthy said in remarks in the White House briefing room. "I say that as someone who has lost 10 family members to COVID-19, and who wishes each and every day that they had the opportunity to get vaccinated." (Samuels, 7/15)

NPR: The U.S. Surgeon General Is Asking You To Help Fight COVID-19 Misinformation
With about a third of adults in the U.S. still completely unvaccinated, and cases of COVID-19 on the rise, the U.S. surgeon general is calling for a war against "health misinformation." On Thursday, Dr. Vivek Murthy released the first surgeon general's advisory of his time serving in the Biden administration, describing the "urgent threat" posed by the rise of false information around COVID-19 — one that continues to put "lives at risk" and prolong the pandemic. Murthy says Americans must do their part to fight misinformation. (Brumfiel, 7/15)

The Washington Examiner: Surgeon General Calls On Tech Platforms To Counter COVID-19 Misinformation
U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy issued an advisory on Thursday about health misinformation focused heavily on misinformation regarding the coronavirus pandemic. "During the COVID-19 pandemic, health misinformation has led people to resist wearing masks in high-risk settings. It's led them to turn down proven treatments and to choose not to get vaccinated. This has led to avoidable illnesses and deaths," Murthy told reporters Thursday. (Hogberg, 7/15)

Reuters: White House Slams Facebook As Conduit For COVID-19 Misinformation 
Facebook is not doing enough to stop the spread of false claims about COVID-19 and vaccines, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Thursday, part of a new administration pushback on misinformation in the United States. Facebook, which owns Instagram and WhatsApp, needs to work harder to remove inaccurate vaccine information from its platform, Psaki said. (7/15)

In related news about misinformation —

Salt Lake Tribune: Cox Says Anti-Vax ‘Propaganda’ From Right-Wing Media Is ‘Killing People’
Gov. Spencer Cox said the anti-vaccination “propaganda” coming from right-wing media is likely harming efforts to get more Utahns vaccinated against COVID-19. “I think it’s harmful. It’s certainly not helpful,” Cox said Thursday, during his monthly KUED news conference. Cox noted that Utah’s vaccination rate has started to tick up recently, but that’s been accompanied by a sharp increase in new COVID-19 cases. (Schott and Pierce, 7/15)

The Washington Post: Four Pinocchios For Ron Johnson’s Campaign Of Vaccine Misinformation 
Johnson has emerged as the leading vaccine skeptic in Congress this year. For months, the senator has been peddling misinformation about coronavirus vaccines, undeterred by fact checkers, federal health agencies, medical experts and a growing body of scientific research. More cases and research studies have accumulated since our fact checks were published, but Johnson’s statements remain unsupported by science. (7/15)

Politico: Biden's Covid Surge Teams Begin Rolling Out To A Hostile Heartland
The Biden administration’s coronavirus surge teams have yet to materialize in states across the Midwest and South where the highly contagious Delta variant is leading to a rapid rise in hospitalizations, according to four state health officials and two senior administration officials. The administration has sent a surge team to Nevada, but multiple local health officials there said they aren’t sure if the federal aid — including help with Covid testing and door-to-door visits to promote vaccines — could help the state respond to the spread of Delta, or whether it would have an immediate and significant impact. Nor had the officials decided whether they need the assistance. (Banco and Goldberg, 7/16)

The New York Times: After A Steep Plunge In Virus Cases, Every State Is Seeing An Uptick
The number of new coronavirus cases is increasing in every state, setting off a growing sense of concern from health officials who are warning that the pandemic in the United States is far from over, even though the national outlook is far better than during previous upticks. The 160 million people across the country who are fully vaccinated are largely protected from the virus, including the highly contagious Delta variant, scientists say. In the Upper Midwest, the Northeast and on the West Coast — including in Chicago, Boston and San Francisco — coronavirus infections remain relatively low. (Smith and Bosman, 7/15)

ABC News: WHO Warns Of 'Strong Likelihood' Of New, Possibly More Dangerous Variants 
The World Health Organization warned Thursday that the surging COVID-19 pandemic in many parts of the world increases the likelihood that new, potentially dangerous variants may emerge in the future. "The pandemic is nowhere near finished," said Professor Didier Houssin, chair of the WHO Emergency COVID-19 Committee. (Acholonu, 7/15)

From the states —

CNN: Louisiana's Latest Covid-19 Surge Features More Unvaccinated People In Their 30s And 40s
For Dr. Frank Courmier, the latest Covid-19 surge hitting his Louisiana hospital is different from the three preceding waves -- the people now getting sick are younger. "We're getting people in their third and fourth decades, otherwise healthy with no real preexisting conditions coming in, unvaccinated and very sick, very fast," Courmier told CNN. "We see almost no vaccinated patients." (Marquez, Dolan and Levenson, 7/15)

San Francisco Chronicle: S.F. Officials Sound Alarm On Rising Cases In Black, Latino Communities As Delta Variant Spreads
As the more contagious delta variant continues driving up COVID-19 infections among the unvaccinated, San Francisco officials Thursday pleaded anew for residents to get their shots — particularly Black and Latino residents who officials said are more than twice as likely to contract COVID compared to the citywide population. The highly infectious delta variant of the virus will lead to at least 250 more deaths, with most being African American and Latino, Mayor London Breed said at a news conference in the Bayview neighborhood. (Ho, 7/15)

WJCT 89.9 FM Jacksonville: Northeast Florida Is CDC Hotspot For COVID As Delta Variant Spreads 
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention considers Northeast Florida’s six-county area a COVID-19 hotspot, an area where the virus is spreading rapidly. The more transmissible delta variant is taking hold in counties with low vaccination rates like Baker, which saw a 267% increase in cases over the past two weeks. UF Health Jacksonville director of Infection Prevention Chad Neilsen said Wednesday on WJCT's First Coast Connect with Melissa Ross that his hospital’s COVID-19 ward is seeing a 10% to 15% rise in admissions per day. (Corum, 7/15)

The Washington Post: Covid Cases Are On The Rise In The D.C. Region. Experts Say Several Factors Are To Blame. 
New coronavirus cases are slowly increasing in Virginia, Maryland and the District, and public health experts say the rise is being fueled by three factors: relaxed restrictions on gatherings and mask mandates, persistent pockets of unvaccinated people and a rise in the highly contagious delta variant. Experts say it is too soon to tell if the increase represents a temporary blip from July Fourth parties and vacations, or the start of a lasting trend as the pandemic stretches into its 17th month. (Portnoy, Wiggins and Fadulu, 7/15)

In sports news —

The New York Times: Yankees’ Shutdown Emphasizes Staying Power of the Coronavirus
The Yankees have reached the 85 percent vaccination rate M.L.B. requires to operate under relaxed Covid protocols, but General Manager Brian Cashman said the team had again experienced breakthrough cases, two months after an outbreak of nine cases, mostly within the coaching staff. ... The Red Sox are one of seven M.L.B. teams that have not reached the 85 percent vaccination threshold. Another one of those teams, the Philadelphia Phillies, put four players on the Covid-19 injured list before Sunday’s game in Boston, but that game was played. This one was postponed, the league said, to allow for continued testing and contact tracing. (Kepner, 7/15)

The Atlantic: Post-Vaccination Infections Come in 2 Different Flavors
The first thing to know about the COVID-19 vaccines is that they’re doing exactly what they were designed and authorized to do. Since the shots first started their rollout late last year, rates of COVID-19 disease have taken an unprecedented plunge among the immunized. We are, as a nation, awash in a glut of spectacularly effective vaccines that can, across populations, geographies, and even SARS-CoV-2 variants, stamp out the most serious symptoms of disease. The second thing to know about the COVID-19 vaccines is that they’re flame retardants, not impenetrable firewalls, when it comes to the coronavirus. Some vaccinated people are still getting infected, and a small subset of these individuals is still getting sick—and this is completely expected. (Wu, 7/12)

AP: AP Source: 4 NFL Teams Remain Under 50% Vaccinated
Four NFL teams remain under 50% vaccinated less than two weeks from the start of training camp, a person familiar with the vaccination rates told The Associated Press. Washington, Indianapolis, Arizona and the Los Angeles Chargers had the four lowest COVID-19 vaccination rates in the league as of Thursday, according to the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity, because the league hasn’t released the numbers. (Maaddi, 7/16)

In other news about the spread of the coronavirus —

Noticias Telemundo: COVID-19 Found In The Bodies Of Migrants Recovered At Southern Border 
About 40% of undocumented immigrants who died on their way to the U.S. and ended up in a Falfurrias, Texas, morgue had contracted COVID-19 prior to their deaths. A Noticias Telemundo Investiga report shows an increased incidence of coronavirus in the bodies of migrants recovered in border states, as the number of deceased John and Jane Does rises this summer. (Franco, 7/15)

NBC News: 'Horrific': 2 Unvaccinated Covid Patients Require Lung Transplant, Partial Lung Removal
The families of two unvaccinated men who underwent major lung surgery after they contracted the coronavirus are encouraging others to get the shots and re-evaluating their own vaccine hesitancy. A 24-year-old Georgia man who was hesitant about getting vaccinated against Covid-19 underwent a double lung transplant after months in the hospital battling the virus. His mother urges people to protect themselves and get the shots. (Burke, 7/15)

Los Angeles Times: L.A. County Will Require Masks Indoors Amid COVID-19 Surge
Starting Saturday night, residents will again be required to wear masks in indoor public spaces, regardless of their vaccination status. The latest order not only puts the county further at odds with both the California Department of Public Health and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — both of which continue to maintain that vaccinated people need not cover their faces indoors — but puts officials in the precarious position of asking the inoculated to forfeit one of the benefits recently enjoyed. “This is an all-hands-on-deck moment,” said Dr. Muntu Davis, the county’s health officer. (Money, Lin II and Hernandez, 7/15)

Los Angeles Daily News: Pandemic-Weary LA County Crestfallen Over News Of Masks’ Return, Mere Weeks After Restrictions Eased
Disappointment. It was in the air on Thursday; July 15, as medical leaders lamented the the reluctance of so many Los Angeles County residents to get vaccinated against the coronavirus, stalling the onset of the much-coveted herd immunity. It was on the lips of business owners– just starting to see the fruits of returning foot traffic after the human and economic toll of the pandemic — worried what renewed mask-wearing indoors would mean to their clientele. (Carter, 7/15)

Los Angeles Times: Be Wary Of Travel To Nevada, Florida Amid COVID Surge, L.A. County Health Officer Says
The Los Angeles County health officer has suggested that residents reconsider travel to states with the nation’s worst rates of coronavirus transmission, including Nevada and Florida. “I do want to recommend — especially if you’re unvaccinated — reconsider traveling to places where the seven-day COVID-19 case rates are increasingly high, like Nevada, our neighbor, or Missouri, Florida, Arkansas and Louisiana and others,” Dr. Muntu Davis said in his briefing to the county Board of Supervisors this week. (Lin II and Money, 7/15)

Politico: Newsom Faces Backlash Over Masks In California Schools
California Gov. Gavin Newsom is facing sudden backlash over his student mask rules, the latest sign that the recall-threatened leader must tread lightly as schools prepare to open next month. Students will return to classrooms just as recall ballots land in mailboxes across the state, and Newsom has to strike the right tone with parents and voters after a tumultuous stretch marked by some of the nation's longest school closures. The governor has built momentum this summer, making his ouster a long shot, but schools remain a sensitive political topic in California. (Mays, 7/15)

And Hawaii and Chicago hit the pause button —

AP: Hawaii Keeps Indoor Mask Requirement Amid COVID-19 Surge
Hawaii Gov. David Ige said Thursday he will maintain a requirement that people wear masks indoors as the spread of the COVID-19 delta variant fuels a spike in cases. Ige told a news conference the number of new cases in Hawaii has exceeded 100 during three of the last five days. That contrasts to the past couple of months when the seven-day average of new hovered around 50. (7/16)

AP: Chicago Restarts COVID Travel Rules With Cases Up In States
Rising COVID-19 infections in other states have prompted Chicago to restart a travel order after several weeks without travel restrictions, city officials announced Tuesday. The Chicago Department of Public Health said starting Friday unvaccinated travelers from Missouri and Arkansas have to either quarantine for 10 days or have a negative COVID-19 test. (7/16)

Bloomberg: Half Of Covid Hospital Patients Develop Complication, Study Says
One in two people hospitalized with Covid-19 develop another health complication, a U.K. study showed, in the broadest look yet at what happens to those sick enough to need inpatient treatment. Though complications were most common in those over the age of 50, the study found a significant risk for younger people as well. Among 19- to 29-year-olds hospitalized with Covid, 27% experienced a further injury or attack in an organ system in the body, while 37% of 30- to 39-year-olds experienced a similar complication, the researchers said in The Lancet on Thursday. (Kresge, 7/15)

The New York Times: Covid Is Especially Risky For People With H.I.V., Large Study Finds
People living with H.I.V. are more likely to become severely ill with Covid-19 and more likely to die if hospitalized than others infected with the coronavirus, according to a large new study. Nearly half of H.I.V.-infected men older than 65 who are hospitalized for Covid-19 may die, the study found. The results, released ahead of an AIDS conference in Berlin, suggest that people with H.I.V. should be first in line for vaccines, along with older adults and others with weak immune systems, scientists said. (Mandavilli, 7/15)

CIDRAP: Learning Disabilities Tied To Higher Risk Of COVID-19 Hospitalization, Death
Adults with learning disabilities who were diagnosed as having COVID-19 were five times more likely to be hospitalized and eight times more likely to die during England's first COVID wave, according to a study in BMJ. The researchers noted that data from the second wave (September 2020 to early February 2021) showed similar results. (7/15)

Fox News: MRNA COVID-19 Vaccines Effective In Cirrhosis Patients, Study Finds
U.S. veterans experiencing cirrhosis, or damage to the liver, and who also received an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine saw high levels of protection against virus-related hospitalization and death, a study found. The findings come as federal health authorities said the two groups of concern relating to potential use of booster shots include people 75 and older and those with a weakened immune system, or immunocompromised patients. The study authors at hand noted "patients with cirrhosis have immune dysregulation that is associated with vaccine hyporesponsiveness." Ongoing research by the FDA and a CDC panel is working to determine if, when and for whom booster shots could be necessary. However, for now, the FDA and CDC said "Americans who have been fully vaccinated do not need a booster shot at this time," citing highly effective vaccines. (Rivas, 7/14)

NBC News: Can Vaccinated People Get Long Covid? Doctors Say Risk Is 'Very, Very Small'
Coronavirus infections leading to long-haul Covid-19 in fully vaccinated people are probably very rare, experts say. The Covid-19 vaccines have been shown to significantly reduce infections, as well as the risk of severe consequences of the illness, including hospitalization and death. That means that if a fully vaccinated person does become infected, the illness is much more likely to be mild. (Edwawrds, 7/15)

In updates on remdesivir —

Axios: Gilead's Remdesivir May Not Shorten All COVID Hospital Stays 
Veterans who had COVID-19 last year and were given Gilead's coronavirus drug remdesivir (marketed as Veklury) stayed in the hospital longer than other similar patients who did not receive it, according to a new study in JAMA Network Open. "Perhaps [patients] were being kept in the hospital to finish remdesivir," said Mike Ohl, one of the study's authors and an infectious disease physician at the VA Medical Center in Iowa City who has treated COVID patients. "We shouldn't be keeping people in the hospital just to complete remdesivir if they're otherwise ready to leave." (Herman, 7/15)

CIDRAP: COVID-19 Remdesivir Study Finds Long Hospital Stay, But Context Matters 
Remdesivir, the only antiviral fully approved for COVID-19 treatment by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), was associated with a longer hospital stay yet no improvement in survival rates, according to a real-world observational study of military veterans today in JAMA Network Open. The researchers suggest that the prescribed regimen (5 or 10 days) may have led to longer hospitalizations as patients finished the treatment course, and a related commentary agrees. (McLernon, 7/15)

Scientific American: There Are Few Good COVID Antivirals, But That Could Be Changing 
In an interview with Scientific American, Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said he was cautiously optimistic that the new Antiviral Program for Pandemics (APP) would save lives and prevent surging hospitalizations. “It’s an ambitious program,” he said. “But if we can block the virus early on, then we can avoid the progression to advanced stages of the disease, which are so devastating to so many.” (Schmidt, 7/15)

The Hill: WHO Chief: 'Premature' To Rule Out COVID-19 Lab Leak Theory
The World Health Organization (WHO) chief said on Thursday that there was a “premature push” to rule out the COVID-19 lab leak theory without enough evidence. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus acknowledged to reporters during a briefing that the theory that COVID-19 originated from a lab is possible, in remarks that strayed from the WHO’s controversial report designating the hypothesis as “extremely unlikely.” (Coleman, 7/15)

Reuters: China Should Provide Raw Data On Pandemic's Origins - WHO's Tedros
The head of the World Health Organisation said on Thursday that investigations into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic in China were being hampered by the lack of raw data on the first days of spread there and urged it to be more transparent. A WHO-led team spent four weeks in and around the central city of Wuhan with Chinese researchers and said in a joint report in March that the virus had probably been transmitted from bats to humans through another animal. (7/16)

And in pandemic news from the White House —

CBS News: More Than 600,000 White Flags Will Be Placed On The National Mall To Honor Americans Who Died From COVID-19 
More than 600,000 white flags will cover the National Mall in Washington, D.C., honoring each person who has died from COVID-19 in the United States. There have been 33,948,497 COVID-19 cases and 608,141 deaths in the U.S. The art installation, "In America: Remember," was created by Suzanne Brennan Firstenberg, who first placed white flags outside of the capital's RFK Stadium in October 2020. (O'Kane, 7/15)

Politico: GOP Messaging Guru Luntz Advised Biden's Covid Task Force
Frank Luntz, the Republican communications specialist known for his Fox News focus groups, has for months shared research with the Biden White House to help develop its strategy for reaching people reluctant to get the Covid vaccine. In an unofficial capacity, Luntz invited members of the White House Covid task force into focus groups. He was also invited to be a guest on several briefing calls the White House held with TV networks where they discussed how certain terms used on air risked politicizing the pandemic, according to Andy Slavitt, who until June served as senior adviser to the Covid task force. (Korecki, 7/14)

The Hill: CDC Advisory Panel To Consider Third COVID-19 Shot For Immunocompromised
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) vaccine advisory panel will consider a third COVID-19 shot for immunocompromised individuals. The panel will meet on July 22 to discuss “clinical considerations for additional doses in immunocompromised individuals,” the meeting’s agenda states.  (Williams, 7/15)

CNBC: Some Portion Of The U.S. Population Will Get Booster Shots, Dr. Scott Gottlieb Says
Former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb said Thursday that Covid booster shots may become a reality for certain swaths of the population. Gottlieb made the prediction on the heels of news that a panel of expert advisors to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention plan to consider booster shots for immunocompromised patients. “I think the bottom line is that we’re going to be boosting some portion of the population,” Gottlieb told CNBC’s “The News with Shepard Smith.” “I think considering boosters, especially in the older, more vulnerable population, is something that we are going to have to do.” (DeCiccio, 7/15)

CNBC: Not Prudent To Deploy Vaccine Boosters At This Point: Ex-FDA Director
There isn’t enough evidence right now to show that booster shots for Covid vaccines are needed, according to a former FDA director. “Being prepared to make boosters is a good thing, but we really don’t have … evidence, at least in the United States, where we’re seeing vaccine failures or we’re seeing waning in immunity, such that it’s time to deploy a booster,” said Norman Baylor, who was previously with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s office of vaccines research and review. (Ng, 7/15)

Chicago Tribune: Some Who Got J&J COVID-19 Vaccines Seeking Booster Shots 
Earlier this year, Erkin Peksoz wanted a COVID-19 vaccine so badly that he drove 640 miles roundtrip from Chicago to Quincy to get a Johnson & Johnson shot. Peksoz was happy with that decision — until recently, when the more contagious delta variant of the virus emerged. Now, he’d like to get a shot of a Moderna or Pfizer vaccine, in hopes of increasing his protection. (Schencker, 7/15)

NBC News: Covid Vaccines For Kids Under 12 Expected Midwinter, FDA Official Says
Emergency authorization for Covid-19 vaccines in children under 12 could come in early to midwinter, a Food and Drug Administration official said Thursday, a move that could bring relief to many parents who have been unable to vaccinate their children. The agency hopes to then move quickly to full approval of the vaccine for this age group. One sticking point for some families who remain hesitant, the official said, is that the vaccines currently in use are administered under emergency use authorization and have not been given full approval by the FDA. Full approval, if it comes quickly after the emergency round, could alleviate that concern. (Edwards, 7/15)

CBS News: Cases Of Respiratory Virus Surge In Young Children Amid Rare Summer Outbreak 
For 10 days, a machine at Cook Children's Medical Center in Forth Worth, Texas, has helped a 9-month-old baby breathe. At first, Kate Crowell thought her son, Bridger, was coming down with a cold. "He would have coughing bouts where he was choking," Crowell said. Bridger is among the children battling a rare summer outbreak of a virus that attacks the lungs. Parents around the country are being warned about Respiratory Syncytial Virus, or RSV, a disease that infects the lungs and breathing passages and usually occurs in the winter. (Villarreal, 7/15)

The Atlantic: COVID-19’s Effects on Kids Are Even Stranger Than We Thought
The U.S. fell short of its goal of giving at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine to 70 percent of adults by July 4, but not by much. About two-thirds of everyone above the age of 18 had gotten a shot when the holiday arrived, with coverage among seniors surpassing even that benchmark. That leaves kids—mostly unvaccinated—as the Americans most exposed to the pandemic this summer, while the Delta variant spreads. It’s said that COVID-19 may soon be a disease of the young. If that’s what’s coming, then its effects on children must be better understood. (Khamsi, 7/15)

Scientific American: Kids Get 'Long COVID' Too 
As COVID-19 has ripped through communities, children have often been spared the worst of the disease’s impacts. But the spectre of long COVID developing in children is forcing researchers to reconsider the cost of the pandemic for younger people. The question is particularly relevant as the proportion of infections that are in young people rises in countries where many adults are now vaccinated—and as debates about the benefits of vaccinating children intensify. (Lewis, 7/15)

In other pediatric news —

Modern Healthcare: Lagging Childhood Vaccinations Lead To Call For Action
Pediatric office visits fell 27% during the pandemic, the result of economic hardship and safety measures meant to limit exposure to COVID-19, according a report published by the American Academy of Pediatrics and Georgetown University Center for Children and Families Thursday. The decline in well-child appointments has led to a lag in childhood vaccinations. Orders for vaccines from Vaccines for Children program were down by more than 11 million doses as of May 2 compared to two years ago. Vaccines for Children is managed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and provides free immunizations to families unable to afford vaccines. (Ross Johnson, 7/15)

CNN: What The New CDC Guidance For Schools Means For Children 
Five full days a week, every week: After more than a year of remote learning, hybrid schedules and missed experiences, getting back to school -- "normal" school -- is all many parents and students want. But with Covid-19 surging again in some US states and concerns over new virus variants growing, what classrooms will look like exactly in the fall is still evolving. (Chakraborty, 7/15)

Axios: The Hunt For Celebrity COVID Vaccine Endorsements 
Gen Z pop star Olivia Rodrigo was at the White House this week to create promotional videos aimed at spurring sluggish COVID-19 vaccination rates among America's youth. Rodrigo is among the most high-profile recruits aimed directly at appealing to Generation Z by the Biden Administration when it comes to the vaccine. (Fernandez, 7/16)

KHN: Fútbol, Flags And Fun: Getting Creative To Reach Unvaccinated Latinos In Colorado 
Horns blared and drums pounded a constant beat as fans of the Mexican national soccer team gathered recently at Empower Field at Mile High in Denver for a high-profile international tournament. But the sounds were muted inside a mobile medical RV parked near the stadium, and the tone was professional. During halftime of Mexico’s game against the U.S., soccer fan Oscar Felipe Sanchez rolled up his sleeve to receive the one-dose covid-19 vaccine. (Daley, 7/16)

Las Vegas Review-Journal: MGM, State Partner On Prize-Laden Vaccine Clinic On The Strip
In a new twist on COVID-19 inducements, the state of Nevada and Park MGM will hold a pop-up vaccination clinic at the Strip resort on Saturday, complete with live entertainment, “special guests” and prizes. Immunize Nevada and Park MGM said in a news release that the clinic, which will operate from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., will be open to anyone 12 years and older who has not been vaccinated. And anyone who gets a shot will be entered into the prize drawings. Prizes will include hotel packages, football and boxing tickets and all-inclusive VIP packages to Maluma and Bruno Mars concerts, it said. (Dylan, 7/15)

The Charlotte Observer: Charlotte Area Woman Wins $1 Million In NC COVID Lottery 
A Charlotte-area woman is the second person to win North Carolina’s COVID-19 vaccination lottery, the state announced Thursday. Natalie Everett of Pineville received a $1 million prize in the second Your Shot at A Million Summer Cash drawing held on July 7. Jessica Klima, 16, of Greensboro won the second $125,000 Summer Cash 4 College scholarship for post-secondary education. Everett said she’s feeling “beyond excited, grateful and just very overwhelming” during a news conference in Raleigh on Thursday. (Limehouse, 7/15)

The Washington Post: Vaccine Hesitancy Becomes Vaccine Hostility As Opposition To Shots Hardens 
What began as “vaccine hesitancy” has morphed into outright vaccine hostility, as conservatives increasingly attack the White House’s coronavirus message, mischaracterize its vaccination campaign and, more and more, vow to skip the shots altogether. (Diamond, Knowles and Pager, 7/15)

In news from Tennessee —

AP: Fired Tennessee Vaccine Official Received Dog Muzzle In Mail 
Tennessee's former top vaccination official received a dog muzzle in the mail a few days before she was fired this week in what she has said was an attempt to use her as a scapegoat to appease lawmakers, a newspaper reported. “Someone wanted to send a message to tell her to stop talking,” said Brad Fiscus, the husband of Dr. Michelle Fiscus, told The Tennessean. “They thought it would be a threat to her.” (7/15)

AP: Records Reveal Tennessee's Claims For Firing Vaccine Leader
As controversy raged on over the firing of Tennessee’s vaccination leader after state lawmakers complained about efforts to promote COVID-19 vaccination among teenagers, state officials released documents Thursday that for the first time offer other reasons for her dismissal. Tennessee’s chief medical officer reasoned that the state’s now-fired vaccination leader should be removed partly due to complaints about her leadership approach and how she handled a letter about vaccination rights of minors that incensed some Republican lawmakers, state records show. (Mattise, 7/16)

ABC News: Tennessee Hospital Latest Employer To Announce COVID-19 Vaccine Requirements 
A major children's hospital in Tennessee is the latest to announce a requirement that all employees be vaccinated against COVID-19, which comes at a time when workplace mandates have sparked showdowns and lawsuits. In a memo to staff sent Wednesday afternoon, employees of the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, and its fundraising offshoot ALSAC, were informed of the requirement and given a Sept. 9 deadline to get vaccinated. (Thorbecke, 7/15)

In other news on the vaccine rollout —

Los Angeles Times: UC Mandates COVID-19 Vaccinations And Will Bar Most Students Without Them From Campus
The University of California announced Thursday that COVID-19 vaccinations will be required before the fall term begins for all students, faculty and others, becoming the nation’s largest public university system to mandate the vaccines even though they don’t have full federal approval. As the highly contagious Delta variant spreads amid lower vaccination rates among younger people, unvaccinated students without approved exemptions will be barred from in-person classes, events and campus facilities, including housing — and not all classes will be offered online, a UC memo outlining the mandate said. Physical distancing and mask wearing are expected to continue. (Watanabe and Shalby, 7/15)

AP: Maine To Try To Drive Up Vaccine Rate With Airport Clinic
Maine health officials are hopeful a new COVID-19 vaccine clinic at the largest airport in the state will help drive up immunization rates. The Maine Department of Health and Human Services is working with Portland International Jetport on the new clinic, which will be open to travelers and residents. The clinic, which does not require appointments, began on Tuesday and is operating seven days per week. (7/16)

Philadelphia Inquirer: Philadelphia Zoo Plans To Vaccinate At-Risk Animals Against COVID-19
Gorillas, otters, aye-ayes, and more will soon be joining the ranks of those vaccinated against COVID-19. The Philadelphia Zoo is gearing up to vaccinate its highest-risk animals with an experimental vaccine developed by Zoetis, a former subsidiary of Pfizer that develops drugs for animals. While animals are not a major concern for spreading the virus to humans, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, they may still get infected. Cases have been reported in some big cats and gorillas at zoos, household pets, and farmed minks, motivating zoos nationwide to help their animals build up immune defenses. (Nathan, 7/16)

AP: Pharmacist Gave Out Vaccine Cards But No Shots, Order Says
A Utah pharmacist has been stripped of his license and fined after acknowledging he gave people COVID-19 vaccination cards without administering the vaccine. The pharmacist said he was giving six reluctant patients “a choice,” the Salt Lake Tribune reported from a stipulation order. (7/15)

Modern Healthcare: Key House Committee Approves $120 Billion Health Spending Bill
A spending bill that would give a 24% funding boost to HHS healthcare research, public health preparedness and workforce training programs cleared the House Appropriations Committee Thursday. HHS would get $120 billion in the bill, a significant increase compared to the the budgets approved during President Donald Trump's administration. The funding measure still must pass the House and Senate. (Hellmann, 7/15)

Politico: Senate Nears Pivotal Vote On Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal That’s Still Unwritten
The Senate left town Thursday with the fate of a bipartisan infrastructure package uncertain, despite Majority Leader Chuck Schumer's attempt to force it forward by advancing a floor vote next week. Schumer has scheduled the vote for next Wednesday, a hardball tactic Democrats hope will allow them to pass President Joe Biden’s domestic agenda before the August recess. But negotiators face several outstanding issues, both on funding mechanisms and spending priorities. (Levin and Everett, 7/15)

Roll Call: Menendez Drug Pricing Concerns Highlight Budget Obstacles For Democrats
New Jersey Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez isn't ready to commit to voting for a budget blueprint that will count on hundreds of billions of dollars extracted from the prescription drug industry to help offset $3.5 trillion in new spending over a decade. “I’m not ready to make any decisions on the budget resolution,” Menendez said Thursday in a brief interview. He reiterated his concerns that Democrats’ plans to have Medicare negotiate drug prices will be a tax on pharmaceutical companies and that savings won’t be passed onto consumers. (McPherson, Clason, and Lerman, 7/15)

The Hill: Manchin Signals He'll Be Team Player On Spending Deal
Sen. Joe Manchin (W.Va.), a crucial centrist vote in the Democratic caucus, is signaling to colleagues that he won’t derail a $3.5 trillion budget resolution that contains many of President Biden’s legislative priorities. Senate Democrats say Manchin has indicated he will not stand in the way of the measure moving forward and will be generally supportive as long as he’s kept in the loop on his top concerns: how to pay for the bill and a clean energy provision. (Bolton, 7/16)

In related news about President Biden's health care agenda —

Modern Healthcare: Biden Order May Boost Healthcare Private Equity, End State Licensing
President Joe Biden's latest executive order promoting competition in the U.S. economy could be a boon to private equity and disrupt the medical profession's long-standing guilds, depending on how far federal officials want to take matters. The order empowers federal agencies to use existing federal law to lower healthcare costs, particularly prescription drugs. While few healthcare-specific measures seem groundbreaking on the surface, they contain warning signs of potential profound change. (Brady, 7/15)

Stateline: Drowning Prevention Could Get A Boost In Federal Budget
With greater awareness of deficits in the nation’s public health infrastructure since the pandemic and the Biden administration’s willingness to spend billions to improve the health and welfare of Americans, drowning prevention may finally get the attention and investment it deserves, said Richard Hamburg, executive director of Safe States Alliance. The CDC, he said, may for the first time receive funding for drowning prevention that can be allocated to state public health agencies to save lives. A subcommittee of the U.S. House is slated to vote July 15 on a bill that would appropriate $2 million for drowning prevention. (Vestal, 7/15)

Modern Healthcare: Biden Right-To-Repair Executive Order Could Reduce Healthcare Costs
Health systems could reduce supply chain costs if third-party companies were permitted to repair medical devices, as President Joe Biden's executive order directs. Biden issued a sweeping antitrust-related executive order on July 9 that, in part, seeks to make it easier and cheaper for consumers to repair their own products or to pay a third party to do so. Biden's order targets manufacturers that only allow them to fix their products at prices they set. Healthcare providers could try to amend their current arrangements with medical devicemakers to eliminate that restriction, which could reduce maintenance costs, supply chain experts said. (Kacik, 7/15)

KHN: KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: Here Comes Reconciliation
The expansion of health benefits is a major piece of the tentative budget deal reached this week by Democrats in Congress. They plan to press ahead — without Republican support — on a bill that could expand Medicare, extend the generous premium subsidies for the Affordable Care Act and provide options for people with low incomes who have been shut out of coverage in states that didn’t expand Medicaid. It could be paid for, at least in part, by changes aimed at reducing prescription drug prices. But that assumes Democrats can reach an agreement on the details, because the bill cannot pass without every Democrat in the Senate and nearly every Democrat in the House. (7/15)

Also —

Stat: Collins: New Research Agency Will Have To Prepare For Some Projects To Fail
Francis Collins is ready for the National Institutes of Health to fail spectacularly. At least, he’s ready for a few of the agency’s potential new projects to go up in flames: the high-risk, high-reward pursuits that would come out of a new research wing that President Biden has proposed. The potential for earth-shattering successes makes the proposed new agency a risk worth taking, Collins said during an interview at STAT’s Breakthrough Science Summit. (Facher, 7/15)

Health News Florida: Florida Still Leads Nation In New Obamacare Enrollment 
Florida continues to lead the nation in the number of new people enrolling in Obamacare health plans during a special enrollment period that began earlier this year, according to data released Wednesday by the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. In all, 1.5 million people in 36 states that use a federal health insurance exchange enrolled in plans available under the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare, between Feb. 15 and June 30. With 413,409 Floridians enrolling, the Sunshine State accounted for 27 percent of the selections made nationwide, the data show. (7/15)

Axios: Scoop: HHS Launches Campaign To Bolster ACA Sign-Ups Before Aug. 15 Deadline 
The Biden administration plans to launch a massive campaign Thursday to get more Americans to sign up for the Affordable Care Act — 30 days before the Aug. 15 deadline to do so. Administration officials announced Wednesday more than 2 million people have signed up for health insurance during the special enrollment period using both federal and state marketplaces. (Fernandez, 7/15)

In other news about covid's economic toll —

NBC News: Child Tax Credit Payments Started Hitting Bank Accounts Today. Here's What You Need To Know.
Most eligible families in the U.S. will get their first monthly payments of the expanded child tax credit Thursday. The payments, which were included in the American Rescue Plan, change an existing tax credit by expanding the eligibility pool and increasing the money families get. Under the expanded credit, the IRS, also for the first time, is offering the option to receive the payments monthly, rather than in a lump sum as a tax refund. (Egan, 7/15)

The Wall Street Journal: Your Child Tax Credit Payment Just Arrived. Are You Sure You Want It? 
Check your bank account. It may have jumped today if you have children ages 17 or younger—thanks to the Internal Revenue Service, of all things. But before going on a splurge, find out if the extra dollars are truly extra for you. If they aren’t, you could be in for a bad surprise at tax time next year. The IRS has now made the first of six monthly payments in 2021 to more than 35 million families with nearly 60 million children. These payments can be large: An eligible family with three young children could receive up to $900 per month for the rest of the year. The first round of payments comes to about $15 billion, according to a Biden administration official. (Saunders, 7/15)

The Hill: Biden Hails 'Transformative' Child Tax Credit Payments
President Biden on Thursday hailed the expanded child tax credit as a “transformative” achievement that would offer needed relief for families and made the case for Congress to further extend the payments in forthcoming legislation. In remarks from the White House, Biden said the payments would spur the largest one-year decrease in child poverty in the United States and outlined how eligible families can expect to receive payments or sign up to receive them. Experts say that the tax credit could slash child poverty in half. (Chalfant, 7/15)

CBS News: Jobless Claims Dip, With 360,000 Americans Applying For Unemployment Benefits
The number of Americans filing for first-time unemployment benefits reached a new pandemic low last week, demonstrating the job market's continued recovery. Some 360,000 people applied for regular jobless aid in the week ended July 10, according to the Labor Department. That's down 26,000 from the previous week and the lowest level of claims since March 14, 2020. (Ivanova, 7/15)

Stat: U.K. Issues Record Fine To Drug Makers For Price Gouging And Collusion
After a lengthy investigation, the U.K. antitrust regulator has fined several drug makers a record-setting $370 million for their role in an “egregious” scheme to significantly hike the cost of medicines and delay the sale of lower-cost versions. At issue was the cost of hydrocortisone tablets, which cost the U.K. government and taxpayers $110 million annually by 2016, up from roughly $700,000 in 2008. During that time, Auden Mckenzie and Actavis UK, which is now known as Accord UK, increased the price by more than 10,000%. For instance, the National Health Service paid $142 for a 20m pack in 2016, up from $1.48 in 2008. (Silverman, 7/15)

FiercePharma: After 10,000% Price Hike, Pharma Companies Face $350M-Plus Fine In U.K. 
The U.K.’s long-running investigation of the 10,000% price hike for generic hydrocortisone tablets has now yielded hefty fines for several drugmakers. After a years-long probe, the U.K.'s Competition and Markets Authority on Thursday handed down fines worth more than £260 million ($360 million) to more than 10 pharmaceutical companies. (Sagonowsky, 7/15)

In updates on Aduhelm —

Stat: Panel Votes Unanimously That Alzheimer's Drug Doesn't Offer Benefits
A prominent panel of medical experts unanimously voted that there is no evidence to suggest the recently approved Alzheimer’s drug offers patients any health benefits beyond the usual care. The meeting, which was convened to review both clinical and cost effectiveness of the new drug, is the latest blow to Biogen (BIIB) and its efforts to win acceptance amid a firestorm of controversy over study data and its dealings with the Food and Drug Administration. (Silverman, 7/15)

The Boston Globe: Mass General Brigham Unlikely To Recommend Alzheimer’s Drug To Patients On Blood Thinners - The Boston Globe
Mass General Brigham is unlikely to offer Biogen’s controversial new Alzheimer’s drug to patients taking blood thinners because of concerns about the risk of bleeding in the brain, according to two doctors helping to develop a policy on the medicine for the state’s largest health care provider. Dr. Teresa Gomez-Isla and Dr. Kirk Daffner, Alzheimer’s specialists at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, respectively, noted that patients on anticoagulant medications were excluded from clinical trials of the recently approved Aduhelm. The Cambridge biotech’s medicine was associated with “microhemorrhages,” or small amounts of bleeding, in the brains of some patients in the studies but usually didn’t cause serious problems. (Saltzman, 7/15)

In other pharmaceutical industry news —

AP: Pfizer, Subsidiaries Agree To Pay $345M In EpiPen Settlement
Pfizer Inc. and two of its subsidiaries have agreed to pay $345 million under a proposed settlement to resolve lawsuits over EpiPen price hikes. In documents filed Thursday in federal court in Kansas City, Kansas, the New York-based Pfizer and its subsidiaries — Maryland-based Meridian Medical Technologies Inc. and Tennessee-based King Pharmaceuticals — asked the court to grant preliminary approval to the settlement, Kansas City’s NPR station KCUR-FM reported. (7/15)

Stat: Expert Panel Votes Down Fibrogen's Anemia Pill Due To Safety Risks
A panel of outside experts convened by the Food and Drug Administration concluded Thursday that the risks of blood clots and other safety concerns tied to Fibrogen’s anemia pill were too high to support the drug’s approval for patients with chronic kidney disease. The FDA is not required to abide by the panel’s recommendations, but the lopsided votes against the Fibrogen drug called roxadustat — backed by strong concerns about its safety in vulnerable patients — makes it all but certain the drug will not reach the market without more data from additional clinical trials. (Feuerstein, 7/15)

FiercePharma: Sprout's Female Libido Drug Addyi Back In FDA's Crosshairs Years After Controversial Approval 
Sprout Pharmaceuticals' female libido drug Addyi has traveled a winding path through FDA gatekeepers, multiple M&A deals, marketing restrictions and more. With a possible new safety flag, the controversial medicine could be set for even more scrutiny. In a rundown of potential new safety concerns on approved products, the FDA flagged the Addyi for possible risks of drug hypersensitivity. The FDA said it is "evaluating the need for regulatory action." The latest chapter in Addyi's history comes after several relatively quiet years for the drug. (Sagonowsky, 7/14)

Fox Business: Fat Burner, Growth Hormone Drugs Recalled Over Product Sterility Concerns
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced Innoveix Pharmaceuticals' voluntary recall of two medications over product sterility concerns. The prescribed injection drugs under the recall involve Sermorelin/ Ipamorelin 3mg and AOD-9604 3mg, meant to stimulate the release of growth hormones and help fight obesity through metabolism regulation. Consumers were advised not to use the products and seek a full refund. (Rivas, 7/15)

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: DaVita, Former CEO Indicted On Labor Market Collusion Charges 
Dialysis provider DaVita and its former CEO Kent Thiry were indicted by a federal grand jury in Denver on charges they conspired with competitors not to hire each other’s key employees, the U.S. Justice Department said on Thursday. DaVita and Thiry allegedly had an anti-poaching agreement with Surgical Care Affiliates LLC from 2012 to 2017 that sought to prevent each company from wooing away senior-level employees, the department said. SCA was charged in January. DaVita had a similar agreement with another, unnamed company that ran from 2017 to 2019, the department said. (Reuters, 7/15)

In other health care industry news —

Modern Healthcare: Aetna Dismisses Suit Alleging Mednax Overbilled By $50M
Aetna has dismissed its lawsuit against Mednax, marking the end to a three-year-long legal battle that claimed the neonatal services provider ordered $50 million worth of unnecessary tests. The Hartford, Conn.-based insurer, which is owned by CVS Health, filed a voluntary dismissal with the U.S. District Court of Eastern Pennsylvania on Wednesday. Each side will bear its own costs. Aetna did not immediately respond to an interview request. But according to Aetna's complaint, in January 2015, the insurer contacted Mednax over suspicion that the company was exaggerating the severity of the clinical condition of its newborn patients and ordering unneeded checks. (Tepper, 7/15)

KHN: Hospital ‘Trauma Centers’ Charge Enormous Fees To Treat Minor Injuries And Send People Home 
The care was ordinary. A hospital in Modesto, California, treated a 30-year-old man for shoulder and back pain after a car accident. He went home in less than three hours. The bill was extraordinary. Sutter Health Memorial Medical Center charged $44,914 including an $8,928 “trauma alert” fee, billed for summoning the hospital’s top surgical specialists and usually associated with the most severely injured patients. The case, buried in the records of a 2017 trial, is a rare example of a courtroom challenge to something billing consultants say is increasingly common at U.S. hospitals. (Hancock, 7/16)

Axios: UnitedHealth's Profit Dips As Patients Get Delayed Care 
UnitedHealth Group collected $4.3 billion of profit in the second quarter, a 36% decline from the health care conglomerate's historically profitable second quarter last year, when the coronavirus suppressed care and led to the company paying out fewer medical claims. The company's revenue in this quarter soared 15% year over year, and the $4.3 billion of profit was still 30% higher than the same period in 2019, before the coronavirus hit. UnitedHealth remains the most financially powerful private entity in the health care system. (Herman, 7/15)

Axios: UnitedHealth Grows Profits By Being Both Your Insurer And Your Doctor 
UnitedHealth Group isn't just making more money because people deferred care throughout the coronavirus pandemic. It's making more money because it's owning a bigger piece of the health care system. Insurers keep more of the premiums they collect when they also own the medical providers that are paid those premium dollars. And no insurer has expanded as aggressively into care delivery over the years as UnitedHealth. (Herman, 7/16)

AP: 21 WVa Hospitals Receiving $258K Apiece For COVID Work
Hospitals throughout West Virginia will receive a total of $5.4 million from the federal government for COVID-19 testing and mitigation efforts. Democratic U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin announced the funds Thursday, saying each of the 21 rural hospitals will receive $258,376. The funds are distributed through the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration Small Rural Hospital Improvement Program. (7/16)

In news about health care workers —

Fierce Healthcare: Cook County Health's Workers, Nurses Return To Work Touting Contract Wins
Cook County Health staff and nurses are back to work following dual strikes at the Chicago public health system and other county facilities. The first, backed by SEIU Local 73, saw roughly 2,000 members walk off the job due to contract demands for greater pay and cheaper benefits. Many of these members were directly employed by the health system in roles such as care coordinators, medical assistants, medical technologists and food services workers. (Muoio, 7/15)

WUSF Public Media: His Sights Were On Medical School, When Tragedy Struck His Family, Twice 
Ryan May was the middle brother, the brainy one who played violin and football, was often talkative, inquisitive, and smart in science and math. “I’ve been saying I wanted to be a doctor since I was like, 4 or 5 years old,” he recalled. Almost two decades later, when Ryan got his first interview at a medical school, one of the first people he told was his older brother, Brennan. “Brennan and I talked almost every day. He was so excited,” said Ryan, now 24. (Sheridan, 7/15)

Cincinnati Enquirer: Childhood Trauma Leads To Violence Later In Life, Experts Say
Dr. Bob Shapiro is the director of the child abuse team at the Mayerson Center for Safe and Healthy Children at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. He said childhood trauma, such as being separated from a parent, can change the architecture of the brain. "The regions of the brain involved in fear and impulsive response have an overproduction of neural connections," Shapiro said. "Therefore those kids are more likely to result in impulsive and violent responses to circumstances." (Knight, 7/15)

ScienceDaily: Childhood Trauma Can Make People Like Morphine More
People who have experienced childhood trauma get a more pleasurable "high" from morphine, new research suggests. Those with no childhood trauma were more likely to dislike the effects and feel dizzy or nauseous. (University of Exeter, 6/22)

In other science and research news —

Stat: How A 3D-Printed Graft Could Speed Healing Ruptured Eardrums
In the weeks that followed the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, doctors saw a flood of patients with a common injury: a ruptured eardrum. Ruptured eardrums aren’t rare — patients with chronic ear infections or some traumatic injury often develop them. But the influx of cases made it clear to otolaryngologist Aaron Remenschneider, at the time a resident at specialty hospital Massachusetts Eye and Ear, that the standard surgical technique of using a graft to patch up the injury could use an upgrade. (Lin, 7/16)

Stat: By Creating Mouse Eggs Entirely From Scratch, Researchers Raise The Prospect Of A Futuristic Fertility Treatment
The tiny clump of mouse cells didn’t look like an ovary. For one thing, it was much smaller, microscopic. And instead of being attached to a uterus it was floating in a test tube. And yet, from within the pocket of cells, oocytes began to form, then grow, maturing into eggs. Later, when some of these eggs would get fertilized and gestate all the way to healthy, fertile, newborn mice, this feat would be made all the more astonishing by the fact that the “ovarioids” that had made them were produced entirely from stem cells. (Molteni, 7/15)

Modern Healthcare: CDC Commits $90M For Pathogen Genomics Research Centers
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has earmarked $90 million to fund the establishment of six centers of excellence that will be tasked with developing technologies to address microbial threats to public health. The Public Health Pathogen Genomics Centers of Excellence will work with academic and public health organizations to advance pathogen genomics and molecular epidemiology to improve the control of, and response to, infectious disease, the CDC said. Grant funding is expected to be awarded in August 2022, with projects beginning the following month. (7/15)

Stat: DeepMind And A Rival Release Dueling Code For Protein-Folding AI
Computational biologists have been on tenterhooks for the past seven months, ever since DeepMind took a hammer to one of their field’s most persistent challenges: accurately predicting the 3D shape of a protein from its amino acid sequence. The Alphabet-owned AI research outfit had developed a neural network that predicts protein structures with near-perfect accuracy, blowing the competition out of the water at a protein structure prediction contest called CASP. The field’s response was ebullient — and then, just as quickly, disgruntled. DeepMind didn’t share details of how its blockbuster method worked, limiting its disclosures to a press release and a brief presentation at the contest. (Palmer, 7/15)

Axios: The Trinity Test And Its Lingering Impact On Hispanics, Mescalero Apache 
Hispanics and Mescalero Apache tribal members in New Mexico this month are marking the anniversary of the 1945 Trinity Test — an experiment resulting in health problems for generations living near the site of the world's first atomic bomb explosion. Descendants of those families use the July 16 anniversary to pressure lawmakers to compensate those who have suffered rare forms of cancer ever since the explosion. (Contreras, 7/15)

Bay Area News Group: Gillian Anderson Hits Nerve By Ditching Her Bra, But May Be Wrong About Sagging Breasts
“I don’t care if my breasts reach my belly button,” the 52-year-old star of “The X-Files” and “The Crown” said. Anderson was essentially repeating the popular idea that wearing bras can forestall the normal sagging that occurs over time due to breastfeeding, weight loss or gain, menopause and aging. Certainly, the brassiere industry has pushed that message over the years, as it sells undergarments designed to hold breasts up and ideally make them appear perky and youthful. But in an extensive report earlier this month, Shape magazine found that experts are split on whether going bra-less leads to sagging, after, yes, studying the effects that bras have on women’s breasts. (Ross, 7/14)

Fox News: Coronavirus-Related Stress Likely A Factor In Record Overdose Deaths, Experts Say
Overdose deaths hit a record 93,000 amid coronavirus last year due to pandemic-driven instabilities and loss of support systems, inaccess to medical care and the increasing presence of deadly synthetic opioids, top experts in addiction suspect. "It’s a horrifically tragic loss of life, particularly considering where we have been going as a country, as a world, with so many people dying," Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse at the NIH told Fox News. "We have all been affected by COVID in so many ways." The provisional data released by the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics reflects a 29.4% increase in drug overdose deaths by December 2020, or a marked increase over the approximate 72,000 deaths recorded the year prior. (Rivas, 7/15)

AP: For Pregnant Women, Pandemic Made Hunt For Drug Rehab Harder
After using drugs on and off for years, Megan Sims wanted to get clean again. But she couldn’t bring herself to stop during the coronavirus pandemic, even when she discovered she was going to have a baby. She had been to rehab before but couldn’t fathom how to do it while pregnant. Sims, a 28-year-old from North Carolina, was forced to confront her heroin addiction like never before when her drug use was reported to child protective services last summer. “None of my relapses had had a consequence until this last one,” she said. (Ho and Fassett, 7/15)

San Francisco Chronicle: San Bruno Police Say They Arrested Woman Who Had Enough Fentanyl To Kill 65,000 People
San Bruno police arrested a Northern California woman on suspicion of possessing narcotics for sale and seized roughly 65,000 potentially fatal doses of fentanyl, a deadly opioid, police said. Police said they contacted the Anderson (Shasta County) woman — whose name was not released — shortly after 9:30 p.m. Monday in the area of El Camino Real and Kains Avenue in San Bruno. Police said they found her with more than 4.5 ounces of fentanyl, which authorities said equates to roughly 65,000 potentially lethal doses of the drug. Two milligrams of fentanyl can be lethal. (Hernandez, 7/15)

In other public health news —

Bloomberg: CVS Pulls Sun-Care Products After Carcinogen Benzene Found - Bloomberg
CVS Health Corp. has halted the sale of two sun-care products found to contain the carcinogen benzene a day after Johnson & Johnson issued a voluntary recall of five sunscreen sprays also contaminated with the chemical. The actions by the two health-care giants came after an independent testing lab first reported finding the cancer-causing chemical in the products to regulators earlier this year. Benzene can be absorbed through the skin, inhaled or ingested, and health risks vary depending on level and duration of exposure. (Edney, 7/15)

CIDRAP: CDC Notes Seasonal Rise In Cyclospora Cases: 208 Cases In 22 States
In a regular update on domestically acquired Cyclospora cases, which typically rise in the spring and summer, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) yesterday said 208 cases have been reported in 22 states and New York City. So far, no food items have been linked to the illnesses, but cyclosporiasis in the past has been associated with fresh produce including basil, cilantro, mesclun lettuce, raspberries, and snow peas. Earlier cases have been linked to outbreaks, such as a bagged salad event in 2020, but often cases aren't directly linked to outbreaks, because there is no validated genetic fingerprinting method for Cyclospora. (7/15)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Black Maternal Health: Pregnant Black Women Face Hurdles In Green Bay
When longtime Green Bay resident Kateesha Mitchell was pregnant with her first child, she remembers feeling pain in her lower abdomen. Her doctors insisted that the pain was normal, but Mitchell continued to advocate for a closer look. Mitchell, a Black woman who was 19 at the time, spent much of her young life battling undiagnosed chronic pain; so by the time she was pregnant with her first child, she knew exactly how to stand her ground, even when doctors claimed that her symptoms were normal for a pregnant woman. “No one would listen to me,” Mitchell, now 33, said in an interview. “But I kept being persistent.” (Phillips, 7/15)

NBC News: Western Wildfires Rage Across 12 States, U.S. At Highest Alert Level
Emblematic of the difficulties firefighters are facing across the American West, crews scrambled Thursday to quell a rapidly growing blaze in Northern California, just 10 miles from the town of Paradise, where the collective trauma of the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in the state's history remains palpable nearly three years later. Since it began Wednesday morning, the Dixie Fire in Butte County has scorched more than 2,250 acres of brush and timber near the steep terrain of the Feather River Canyon, and was zero percent contained 24 hours later, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said. (Ortiz and Murray, 7/15)

Reuters: Oregon Wildfire Displaces 2,000 Residents As Blazes Flare Across U.S. West
Hand crews backed by water-dropping helicopters struggled on Thursday to suppress a huge wildfire that displaced roughly 2,000 residents in southern Oregon, the largest among dozens of blazes raging across the drought-stricken western United States. The Bootleg fire has charred more than 227,000 acres (91,860 hectares) of desiccated timber and brush in and around the Fremont-Winema National Forest since erupting on July 6 about 250 miles (400 km) south of Portland. (Bloom, 7/15)

The New York Times: Work Injuries Tied To Heat Are Vastly Undercounted, Study Finds 
Extreme heat causes many times more workplace injuries than official records capture, and those injuries are concentrated among the poorest workers, new research suggests, the latest evidence of how climate change worsens inequality. Hotter days don’t just mean more cases of heat stroke, but also injuries from falling, being struck by vehicles or mishandling machinery, the data show, leading to an additional 20,000 workplace injuries each year in California alone. The data suggest that heat increases workplace injuries by making it harder to concentrate. (Flavelle, 7/15)

In news from Massachusetts, Minnesota, Iowa and Oregon —

USA Today: FDA Ban On Electric Shock Treatment At Massachusetts School Overturned
A Massachusetts school can continue using electric shock devices on its students with intellectual disabilities after the U.S. Court of Appeals overturned the Food and Drug Administration’s ban on the controversial practice last week. The judges ruled 2-1 in favor of the practice that is still being used at the Judge Rotenberg Education Center in Canton, Massachusetts, and said that "the FDA lacks the statutory authority to ban a medical device for a particular use." (Vargas, 7/16)

The Hill: Minnesota Governor Signs Executive Order Restricting Conversion Therapy
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) on Thursday signed an executive order restricting conversion therapy for minors, adding it to the growing number of states taking similar action. The order says the state will not fund the practice, and it will investigate any discriminatory actions by health care providers regarding the therapy. (Scully, 7/15)

Des Moines Register: Iowa Abortions Increased 14% In 2020 After Rising 25% In 2019
The number of abortions performed in Iowa climbed nearly 14% in 2020, after jumping 25% the previous year, new state data show. Iowa had seen years of steady declines in abortions before 2019. But that trendline has changed. The state saw 4,058 abortions performed in 2020, up from 3,566 in 2019 and 2,849 in 2018, the new numbers show. The new data were shared with legislative staff Thursday by the Iowa Department of Public Health. (Leys, 7/15)

The Oregonian: Two Arrested After Confrontation In Front Of Salem Planned Parenthood 
Police arrested two men during a Tuesday evening protest in front of Planned Parenthood in northeast Salem. The arrests followed a confrontation where people protesting against abortion and counter-demonstrators clashed and maced each other, Salem police said. (7/15)

CBS News: Canada Likely To Reopen Border To Vaccinated Americans In August 
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Thursday Canada could start allowing Americans fully vaccinated against the coronavirus into Canada as of mid-August for non-essential travel. He said the country should be in a position to welcome fully vaccinated travelers from all countries by early September. (7/16)

In other global developments —

CBS News: Russia Sees COVID Cases Skyrocket As Many Refuse Vaccine, Or Lie About Getting It 
Russia is battling a deadly third wave of coronavirus infections. For days, the country has reported record numbers of daily deaths, and hospitalizations are skyrocketing thanks in part to the spread of the highly infectious Delta variant. On Thursday, Russia reported 25,293 new infections, and it set a grim new record for daily deaths with 791 confirmed fatalities. Overall, Russia has officially identified more than 5.8 million COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began. (Ilyushina, 7/15)

Bloomberg: Delta Engulfs Southeast Asia With Fastest-Growing Deaths
Southeast Asia is emerging as a battlefield for one of the world’s worst Covid-19 outbreaks, due to the fast-spreading delta variant and the slow rollout of vaccines. With a population about twice that of the U.S., the momentum of the region’s outbreak has now eclipsed previously hard-hit places like Latin America and India, with cases jumping 41% over the past week to more than a half-million, according to Bloomberg analysis of Johns Hopkins University data. Deaths rose 39% in the seven days through Wednesday, the quickest pace in the world, and will likely rise further as a spike in fatalities typically follows a surge in cases. (Arnold, 7/15)

NPR: Seoul's New COVID-19 Rules Bar Fast Music, Fast Running In Gyms
Some in South Korea may be stuck listening to slow ballads during their next high-energy workout. In an attempt to curb the spread of the coronavirus, health officials have banned fast music and even fast running at some fitness clubs. Gyms in the capital Seoul and other nearby areas are no longer allowed to play music faster than 120 beats per minute (the speed of "Call Me Maybe" by Carly Rae Jepsen) during group fitness classes. Treadmill speeds may not surpass 6 kilometers per hour (or 3 miles per hour). (Pruitt-Young, 7/13)

AP: UK's Top Medic Warns Of 'Scary' COVID Numbers In Hospital
The British government’s top medical adviser has warned that the number of people hospitalized with the coronavirus could reach “quite scary” levels within weeks as cases soar as a result of the more contagious delta variant and the lifting of lockdown restrictions. Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty told a webinar hosted by London’s Science Museum late Thursday that the U.K. is “not out of the woods yet.” (Pylas, 7/16)

AP: EU Likely To Decide On Moderna COVID Shot For Kids Next Week
A top official at the European Medicines Agency said a decision on whether to recommend that Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine be authorized for children is expected late next week. If approved, it would be the first such license for the shot’s use in children globally. At a press briefing on Thursday, Dr. Marco Cavaleri, the EU drug regulator’s head of vaccines strategy, said its expert committee was currently evaluating Moderna’s application to extend the use of its coronavirus vaccine for children 12 to 17 years old. (7/15)

AP: COVID-19 Takes Toll On Catholic Clergy In Hard-Hit Countries
The coronavirus has taken a heavy toll among Roman Catholic priests and nuns around the world, killing hundreds of them in a handful of the hardest-hit countries alone. The dead include an Italian parish priest who brought the cinema to his small town in the 1950s; a beloved New York pastor who ministered to teens and the homeless; a nun in India who traveled home to bury her father after he died from COVID-19 only to contract the virus herself. (Henao and Wardarski, 7/15)

Also —

The New York Times: China Reports A Human Case Of H5N6 Bird Flu 
A man has been hospitalized in southwestern China after contracting the H5N6 strain of avian flu, Chinese state news media reported on Thursday, a reminder that the world is full of flu viruses even during a coronavirus pandemic. The man, 55, was hospitalized in Bazhong, a city in the southwestern province of Sichuan, after coming down with a fever and testing positive for the virus on July 6, the state-run China Global Television Network reported. (Ives, 7/15)

CBS News: Olympic Athlete And Five Other Personnel Test Positive For COVID-19
An unnamed Olympic athlete and five other personnel for the Tokyo Olympics have tested positive for COVID-19, organizers announced Thursday. The announcement comes as more athletes are arriving in Japan, and amid growing concern over the potential spread of the virus at the games — which begin in just eight days. Officials said the athlete, who is not a resident of Japan, has been placed under a 14-day quarantine period. Four local contractors and one "Games-connected personnel" also tested positive. (Powell, 7/15)

Reuters: Olympics Virus Outbreaks At Olympic Hotels Sow Frustration, Stoke Infection Fears 
Coronavirus outbreaks involving Olympic teams in Japan have turned small-town hotels into facilities on the frontline of the pandemic battle, charged with implementing complex health measures to protect elite athletes and a fearful public. Infections have hit at least seven teams arriving in Japan barely a week out from the July 23 opening ceremony and after host city Tokyo reported its highest daily tally of new COVID-19 infections since late January. (Park, Yamamitsu and Slodkowski, 7/16)

Bloomberg: Tokyo Virus Cases Hit Six-Month High Just Days Before Olympics
New coronavirus virus cases hit a six-month high in Tokyo, a worrying sign just a little more than a week before the city hosts the Olympics. Cases in the capital tallied 1,308 on Thursday, the most since January, when the capital was experiencing its worst wave of infections, hitting a daily record of 2,520 new cases. The surge comes as International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach is visiting Japan ahead of the July 23 opening ceremony, trying to reassure residents the IOC and local government are doing all they can to reduce public health risks. The Olympics will be held without spectators for events in the Tokyo area, a first for the modern Olympic movement that dates back to the late 19th century. (Herskovitz, 7/15)

Forbes: Ugandan Olympic Athlete Goes Missing In Japan In Possible Breach Of Covid-19 Rules
A Ugandan athlete training in Japan in preparation for the Tokyo Olympics went missing on Friday, triggering a search by local officials and police, in an incident that has raised doubt about the security measures put in place by the games’ organizers to keep the spread of Covid-19 in check. (Ray, 7/16)

Reuters: Risk Of COVID Spread Is 'Zero,' IOC Chief Says, Amid Rising Cases 
International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach said on Thursday there was "zero" risk of Games participants infecting Japanese residents with COVID-19, as cases hit a six-month high in the host city. Bach said Olympics athletes and delegations had undergone more than 8,000 coronavirus tests, resulting in three positive results. "Risk for the other residents of Olympic village and risk for the Japanese people is zero," he added. (7/15)

The Washington Post: The Snoo: Touchstone Of Modern Parenting Privilege 
Seven weeks after Jessica Scalia gave birth to her son James, the situation was both extremely common and completely dire. Her son was not sleeping, which meant she and her husband weren’t, either. “I was desperate,” she says. “I was willing to try anything.” So, at an ungodly hour on one particularly bad night, she made an impulse decision to rent a Snoo — a nearly $1,500 robotic bassinet that automatically soothes fussy babies with motion and white noise. (Judkis, 7/13)

Los Angeles Times: How California Medical Board Keeps Negligent Doctors In Business
Lenora Lewis hoped spinal surgery would relieve her chronic back pain. But when the mother of three from Lancaster awoke from the operation in 2013, she was paralyzed from the waist down, her feet numb but for the horrifying sensation of “a billion ants running through them.” What she didn’t know then was that her surgeon, Dr. Mukesh Misra, had been publicly accused by the Medical Board of California of operating on the wrong side of another patient’s brain. (Dolan and Christensen, 7/14)

The New York Times: How Black Women Can Interpret Those Scary Health Statistics
When Halona Black lost her 49-year-old mother to breast cancer in 2006, she was sure she was destined to suffer the same fate. She had seen the data: Black women were 40 percent more likely to die of breast cancer than white women, especially those with close relatives who had been diagnosed with it. Ms. Black, then based in Florida, became determined to outwit her destiny, though she didn’t have much reliable information about how to do that. She stopped using store-bought deodorant, based on unproven claims that they can cause cancer, and started making her own with baking soda. “I attempted veganism for a while,” she said. “I know all of this sounds crazy, but I was desperate to have a long, happy life.” (Kerubo, 7/12)

The Washington Post: Creativity May Be Key To Healthy Aging. Here's How To Stay Inspired
If you’re interested in staying healthy as you age — and living longer — you might want to add a different set of muscles to your workout routine: your creative ones. Ongoing research suggests that creativity may be key to healthy aging. Studies show that participating in activities such as singing, theater performance and visual artistry could support the well-being of older adults, and that creativity, which is related to the personality trait of openness, can lead to greater longevity. When researchers talk about creativity, they aren’t limiting it to the arts. Author and Georgetown University psychiatrist Norman Rosenthal defines being creative as “having the ability to make unexpected connections, either to see commonplace things in new ways — or unusual things that escape the attention of others — and realize their importance.” (Fuchs, 7/12)

The Atlantic: The FDA Is A Melting Iceberg
The byzantine world of pharmaceutical regulation has recently broken into the public consciousness, causing a bit of a panic. Aducanumab—the first new Alzheimer’s treatment in nearly two decades—was approved by the Food and Drug Administration on June 7 despite scant evidence of benefit, and against the nearly unanimous advice of the agency’s expert advisers. Op-eds called the decision, which could trigger billions of dollars in new government spending, a “false hope,” “bad medicine,” and “a new low.” (FDA officials have said that their decision was based on “rigorous science,” and that it reflects the willingness of people with Alzheimer’s and their families’ to accept a treatment that might help, despite “some degree of uncertainty.”) On Thursday, the FDA tried to clarify that the drug should be used only for patients with mild dementia; the next day, amid concerns about inappropriate interactions between the drugmaker and FDA officials, Acting Commissioner Janet Woodcock called for her own agency to be investigated. (Mazer, 7/13)

Bloomberg: Moderna’s Next Act Is Using mRNA vs. Flu, Zika, HIV, and Cancer
But for Moderna Chief Executive Officer Stéphane Bancel, the Covid vaccine is just the beginning. He’s long promised that if mRNA works, it will lead to a giant new industry capable of treating most everything from heart disease to cancer to rare genetic conditions. Moderna has drugs in trials for all three of these categories, and Bancel says his company can also become a dominant vaccine maker, developing shots for emerging viruses such as Nipah and Zika, as well as better-known, hard-to-target pathogens such as HIV. (Langreth, 7/14)

The Washington Post: A Virginia Defendant Could Be The First To See Secret Software Transforming DNA Evidence
The Exxon clerk never got a good look at the assailants who robbed him at gunpoint in Fairfax County, so investigators hoped to bolster their case with the smallest of clues: the minuscule number of skin cells one perpetrator left behind when he grabbed the victim’s shirt. Crime labs that have long pulled DNA from blood or semen have been pushing the frontiers of forensics by teasing genetic material from ever tinier and more challenging samples, such as sneaker sweat. But this time, the Virginia crime lab could not make a match because of a ubiquitous problem: DNA from too many people was on the shirt. (Jouvenal, 7/13)

The Washington Post: Outdoor Dining: Restaurant Access Challenging For Disabled 
During D.C.'s annual Pride weekend, Katie Bruckmann and a friend joined the large crowds Saturday evening on U Street NW. Colorful decorations celebrating the LGBT+ community dotted the road and sidewalks, and shops and restaurants welcomed festive patrons who stayed home last year because of the coronavirus. Bruckmann is a wheelchair user and part of at least 12 percent of D.C. adult residents with a mobility disability, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. During Pride, she noticed some restaurants blocking curb cuts to create more space for outdoor dining, making it harder for her to get back on the sidewalk when she needed. When she was on the sidewalk, some of the already narrow walkways were congested with large signs. (Mayes and Aguilar, 7/13)

The New York Times: Parents Who Never Stopped Searching Reunite With Son Abducted 24 Years Ago 
For nearly 24 years, the father crossed China by motorbike. With banners displaying photos of a 2-year-old boy flying from the back of his bike, he traveled more than 300,000 miles, all in pursuit of one goal: finding his kidnapped son. This week, Guo Gangtang’s search finally ended. He and his wife were reunited with their son, now 26, after the police matched their DNA, according to China’s public security ministry. ... Child abduction is a longstanding problem in China. Historically, child abduction was linked, at least in part, to China’s one-child policy. At the height of the policy’s enforcement in the 1980s and 1990s, some couples resorted to buying young boys on the black market to ensure they would have a son, according to research by scholars at Xiamen University in Fujian Province. Chinese society has traditionally favored sons. (Wang and Dong, 7/14)

Stat: With Current Mask Guidance, We're No Longer All In This Together 
Before there were magnificently effective Covid-19 vaccines, “We’re all in this together” was a crucial message for Americans. More than a message, it was a fundamental fact of the pandemic, even if we were too polarized to feel it or act on it. That message was shattered when the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Rochelle Walensky, issued her bombshell announcement on May 13 that people who are vaccinated — but not those who aren’t — can safely ditch their masks in most indoor venues. (Peter M. Sandman, 7/16)

The Hill: Pandemic Amnesia: Have We Forgotten What We Learned About PPE Shortages?
Although things have improved following the national vaccination program, we are still far from the end of the COVID-19 pandemic. India is recovering from a massive surge; Israel, which seemed to be completely out of the water, just announced that face coverings again will be necessary while indoors, even for those fully vaccinated; and the Delta variant now accounts for half of all new U.S. cases. Yet, many state mask mandates are ending, a bipartisan group of senators wants the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to lift the mask mandate for travelers, and some factories that manufacture masks are starting to shut down amid waning demand. With a year and a half of the pandemic behind us, are we forgetting some of the hard lessons we learned, such as problems that arose from shortages of masks and personal protective equipment (PPE)? (Gad Allon, 7/15)

The Washington Post: America Is About To Be Passed In Vaccinations By France, To Our Eternal Shame 
Government officials have tried just about everything to get Americans to be vaccinated against the coronavirus: lotteries, cash, weed, pop stars. Yet the country not only failed to hit President Biden’s goal of 70 percent of adults receiving at least one dose by July 4 — denying us free beer — but we still haven’t hit that mark. As of writing, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that about 68 percent of American adults have received one dose and 59 percent have been fully vaccinated. The implications are grim, as the number of cases nationally has begun rapidly climbing back up, doubling in the past week. So allow us to introduce another incentive: raw patriotism. (Philip Bump, 7/15)

CNN: What's Behind Macron's Bold Bet On A Covid Health Pass 
France's president, Emmanuel Macron, is betting his political future on a nationwide Covid health pass. Approaching the launch of his campaign for re-election to a second five-year term next April, Macron went on nationwide television on the eve of France's national holiday of Bastille Day with a series of some of the world's most stringent anti-pandemic edicts -- an effort to stifle the surging Delta variant, he said, and fend off a fourth Covid wave. Seemingly prepared to take hard and politically polarizing choices, Macron announced Monday that all health care workers — in hospitals, nursing and retirement homes, even home-care nurses — must be fully inoculated against Covid or, quite simply, they won't be paid after September 15. (David A. Andelman, 7/15)

The Wall Street Journal: Stealing From Drug Makers Is No Way To Vaccinate The World 
The innovative pharmaceutical industry confounded critics by delivering highly effective vaccines for a novel disease in less than a year. The vaccines are working against all known Covid-19 variants, although the newest variant features some unusual mutations. Resistant variants become more likely the longer the virus circulates. Wealthy nations are scrambling to vaccinate the world, but they need to pay for it instead of asking vaccine innovators for a free ride. Wealthy countries have both selfish and altruistic reasons to help vaccinate developing countries. Developed countries want to prevent vaccine-resistant strains from cropping up. And they want to prevent human suffering, illness and death. (Tomas J. Philipson and Joel Zinberg, 7/14)

Scientific American: The Problem With Pain Scores 
If you recognize that question, you probably know this scenario: you’re sitting in a health care facility and, after telling your clinician about a pain in your back (or somewhere), they ask: how bad is it? As a pain physician, I always feel that the pain score (as it’s called) is a strange ritual. For one thing, a patient telling me they have “seven out of 10” gives me little to work with because while “seven” is a number, it isn’t an objective, replicable measure of pain. I ask patients to think of “10” as the worst pain they’ve ever felt or can imagine. But, as you might guess, because people's experiences and imaginations differ substantially, one patient might have a broken pinky, while another has a broken femur and both might (correctly and accurately from their perspective) report "seven out of ten" pain. (Daniel Barron, 7/15)  

The New York Times: ‘Mommy Brain’ Is Real 
I’ve been playing a not-so-fun guessing game lately: Is my inability to form a coherent thought a result of pandemic fogginess or “mommy brain”? Like many other vaccinated adults, I’ve been dipping my toe back into being social again. But on top of having spent a year-plus largely at home, I’m also adapting to motherhood after having my first child in October. As I gather once more with friends and relatives, I often find myself pausing in the middle of a story because a word has completely escaped me. The other day, I was trying to describe a mask I saw someone wearing but couldn’t remember the word for “fabric.” I frantically waved my hands across my face and finally landed on “pattern covering” as a close-enough substitute. (Katie Hawkins-Gaar, 7/14)

Stat: Physicians, Mental Illness, And The Problem With 'Passing' 
My patient sits with her back hunched, eyes fixed on the taupe industrial carpet as though she is fervently avoiding Medusa’s gaze. She tells me about the depression that has dogged her life, subverted her career, infiltrated her relationships. She tells me about the medications she’s tried and “failed,” as if patients fail medicines and not the other way around. She tells me about lovers and friends who have become burnt out and fallen by the wayside. In short, she tells me about loss, and shame, and the desperation that accompanies a life lived on the edge in an experiential war zone. (Susan T. Mahler, 7/16)

Philadelphia Inquirer: Hospitals And Medical Institutions See Inequity Every Day. Why Aren’t They Spending More To Help?
Like most, I have a bittersweet relationship with taxes. I bristle when I see the total amount I pay every year, but intellectually and emotionally, I believe it is part of my duty within my community. As an emergency physician, after these past 17 months, I know what it looks and feels like when a lack of investment and development in our systems and infrastructure impacts the health and safety of a population. So much sadness could have been prevented. That’s a lesson we’re learning the hard way as a society: If we don’t focus on development and investment now, we will pay later for the consequences. And nowhere is that clearer than in our public health. (Priya Mammen, 7/15)