Politico: Biden Touts ‘Monumental Commitment’ To Send 500M Covid Vaccine Doses Abroad 
President Joe Biden on Thursday formally announced U.S. plans to procure and donate 500 million Covid-19 vaccine doses while making his first overseas trip, as part of a speech steeped in the imagery of World War II and other eras defined by their need for urgent collective action. “This is a monumental commitment by the American people,” Biden said in St. Ives, England. “We’re a nation full of people who step up in times of need to help our fellow human beings, both at home and abroad. We’re not perfect, but we step up.” (Niedzwiadek, 6/10)

Bloomberg: Biden Says Donated Pfizer Covid Vaccines To Ship Globally In August
President Joe Biden announced the U.S. would begin shipping a half-billion donated doses of Pfizer Inc. coronavirus vaccines to countries in “dire need” in August, making good on a promise to lead the global campaign against the pandemic. Biden said Thursday the U.S. purchase and donation of Pfizer’s shots would be the largest of any single country so far, and that the vaccines would come “with no strings attached” -- a veiled criticism of Russia and China, which he’s accused of using vaccines as leverage in their foreign policy. (Wingrove and Jacobs, 6/10)

In related news about sharing vaccines —

CNBC: G7 Leaders To Pledge 1 Billion Doses Of Covid Vaccines To Poorer Nations
The leaders of the G-7 are expected to pledge a donation of 1 billion coronavirus vaccine doses to poorer nations this weekend as they try to ease concerns over vaccine nationalism. The “most-advanced” economies of the world — as the G-7 defines itself — have been criticized for not sharing more vaccines with countries that have more limited resources. The United States, for example, legislated that it should only send vaccines abroad after it reached a satisfactory level of vaccination within its own borders. The U.K. and the EU have also received similar criticism. (Amaro, 6/11)

Reuters: G7 Vaccine Pledge Is Just A Drop In The Ocean, Campaigners Say
A Group of Seven plan to donate 1 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses to poorer countries lacks ambition, is far too slow and shows Western leaders are not yet up to the job of tackling the worst public health crisis in a century, campaigners said on Friday. (Smout and Holton, 6/11)

Bloomberg: Johnson & Johnson Vaccine’s Shelf Life Is Extended By FDA
Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine can be kept in a refrigerator for four and a half months, extending the shot’s shelf life by 50% as doses languish amid a slowing immunization campaign. The company said in a statement that the Food and Drug Administration adopted the extension based on study data showing the vaccine is stable when refrigerated at 36 to 46 degrees Fahrenheit (2.2 to 7.8 degrees Celsius) for four and a half months. The FDA confirmed the adoption in an email. (Griffin, 6/10)

AP: US Extends Expiration Dates For J&J COVID Vaccine By 6 Weeks
Johnson & Johnson said Thursday that U.S. regulators extended the expiration date on millions of doses of its COVID-19 vaccine by six weeks. The company said a Food and Drug Administration review concluded the shots remain safe and effective for at least 4 1/2 months. In February, the FDA originally authorized J&J’s vaccine for up to three months when stored at normal refrigeration levels. (Perrone, 6/10)

In related news about Johnson & Johnson shots —

The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Suspends J&J Covid-19 Vaccine Shipments As States Face A Surplus Of Expiring Doses 
The U.S. government has halted new shipments of the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine, according to state and federal health officials, one of several steps federal agencies are taking that could help clear a backlog of unused doses before they expire. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has stopped making available the one-dose shot to states, the state and federal health officials said. The stoppage is believed to be temporary, some of these officials said. (Hopkins and McKay, 6/10)

Fox News: US Halts Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 Vaccine Shipments: Report
Federal officials suspended new shipments of Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine doses in a bid to relieve states’ pileup of expiring doses, according to a report. The Wall Street Journal reported the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ceased availability to states, though deliveries are expected to resume. The Journal cited health officials from several states, like Oklahoma and Illinois, who reportedly said they could not order new J&J doses in the last weeks. Some said they have enough supply. (Rivas, 6/10)

NBC News: Moderna Files For FDA Authorization For Covid Vaccine In Younger Teens, Adolescents
Moderna on Thursday filed for emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration to use its Covid-19 vaccine in adolescents ages 12 to 17. If cleared by the FDA, it will become the second Covid-19 vaccine available in the United States for teens under 18 along with Pfizer-BioNTech's vaccine, which was authorized for adolescents ages 12 to 15 in May. Moderna said in May that results from its clinical trial among children ages 12 to 17 showed its two-dose mRNA vaccine to be safe and highly effective. The trial included more than 3,700 participants. (Weaver, 6/10)

Fox News: Moderna Seeks COVID-19 Vaccine Authorization For Teens
The request follows promising data from a Phase 2 /3 TeenCOVE study involving 3,732 teens ages 12 to 18 that found the vaccine produced immune responses similar to those observed in adults. Additionally, Moderna said that no cases of COVID-19 were observed in participants who had received two doses of the jab. (Hein, 6/10) 

The Washington Post: FDA Advisers Debate Standards On A Coronavirus Vaccine For Young Children
With coronavirus vaccines available to adolescents and adults, regulators are now turning their attention to younger children and the level of proof needed before authorizing shots for children as young as 6 months. On Thursday, many members of a panel that advises the Food and Drug Administration on vaccines argued that faster authorization should be an option because of uncertainties about virus variants and a potential fall surge in cases. (Johnson, 6/10)

Politico: Kid Covid-19 Vaccines: 3 Takeaways From The FDA's Big Meeting 
With Covid-19 vaccines authorized for adults and teens, shotmakers and regulators are turning their attention to ensuring that the vaccines are safe and effective for younger children. The FDA’s independent vaccine advisory committee grappled Thursday with how to ensure the safety of Covid shots in children as disease caseloads continue to dwindle in the U.S. (Gardner and Foley, 6/10)

In other youth vaccination news —

Los Angeles Times: Kaiser Launches COVID-19 Vaccine Trial For Children 5 To 11
Luci is one of 75 children expected to be enrolled in the study, which is also being conducted at Kaiser sites in Oakland and Santa Clara. It’s part of a nationwide effort involving about 4,600 children to evaluate a vaccine being developed by Pfizer-BioNTech, sponsors of the trial. A few weeks ago, Kaiser’s Los Angeles Medical Center kicked off a trial evaluating a Moderna vaccine for children 6 months to 11 years old, a Kaiser spokesperson said. So far, it has enrolled participants as young as 6. (Seidman, 6/10)

The Wall Street Journal: Can Schools Mandate Covid-19 Vaccines For Children? What We Know
Many education officials, public-health officials and parents believe that vaccinating children against Covid-19 will play a key role in resuming normal life in time for in-person learning in the fall. That stance has led some parents to wonder: Will K-12 students be mandated to receive the vaccine to be allowed on campus this fall? (Koh, 6/11)

CBS News: CDC Plans "Emergency Meeting" On Rare Heart Inflammation Following COVID-19 Vaccines
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Thursday that it will convene an "emergency meeting" of its advisers on June 18th to discuss rare but higher-than-expected reports of heart inflammation following doses of the mRNA-based Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines. So far, the CDC has identified 226 reports that might meet the agency's "working case definition" of myocarditis and pericarditis following the shots, the agency disclosed Thursday. The vast majority have recovered, but 41 had ongoing symptoms, 15 are still hospitalized, and 3 are in the intensive care unit. The reports represent just a tiny fraction of the nearly 130 million Americans who have been fully vaccinated with either Pfizer or Moderna's doses. (Tin, 6/10)

Stat: Officials Flag Rare Myocarditis Cases After Covid Vaccination
Federal health officials said Thursday they’re seeing rare but higher-than-expected cases of a heart issue called myocarditis among adolescents and young adults who received their second shot of one of the mRNA Covid-19 vaccines. The data are preliminary and limited, and experts are still trying to determine if there is indeed a link or if there is no connection at all. Officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration also said it was too early to establish a rate for how frequently myocarditis — an inflammation of the heart muscle — might occur, particularly for different age groups. (Joseph, 6/10)

NBC News: Evidence Grows Stronger For Covid Vaccine Link To Heart Issue, CDC Says
A higher-than-usual number of cases of a type of heart inflammation has been reported following Covid-19 vaccination, especially among young men following their second dose of an mRNA vaccine, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday. Overall, 226 cases of myocarditis or pericarditis after vaccination in people younger than age 30 have been confirmed, Dr. Tom Shimabukuro, deputy director of the CDC's Immunization Safety Office, said during a presentation to a Food and Drug Administration advisory group. Further investigation is needed, however, to confirm whether the vaccination was the cause of the heart problem. (Edwards, 6/10)

CNN: A Link Between Covid-19 Vaccination And A Cardiac Illness May Be Getting Clearer 
The CDC says on its website that benefits of Covid-19 vaccination outweigh the known and potential risks "including the risk of myocarditis or pericarditis," which is swelling of the tissue around the heart. The agency says it is "actively monitoring these reports, by reviewing data and medical records, to learn more about what happened and to see if there is any relationship to COVID-19 vaccination." The agency advises people to be on the lookout for certain symptoms following Covid-19 vaccination, such as chest pain, shortness of breath and heart palpitations. (Cohen, 6/10)

USA Today: Ohio Governor Opposes Anti-Vaccination Bill After Conspiracy Theorists Claim Vaccines 'Magnetized' People
Gov. Mike DeWine came out against a controversial bill that would weaken Ohio's vaccination laws and grant more individual freedom, after false claims at a hearing on the bill that coronavirus vaccines "magnetized" people drew mockery and anger across the internet. On Thursday, DeWine said he opposes House Bill 248 and asked Ohioans to think of the impact vaccines have had on society. "Before modern medicine, diseases such as mumps, polio, whooping cough were common and caused great, great, great suffering and death to thousands of people every single year," said DeWine during a news conference on the latest Vax-a-Million winners. (Bischoff, 6/10)

AP: Winner Of First $250K In State Vaccine Lottery Claims Prize
The first winner in Washington state’s COVID-19 vaccine lottery has claimed his $250,000 prize. The man identified by Washington State Lottery officials Thursday as Lance R. did not want to be further identified, KING-TV reported. But in a statement he said he “got lucky,” and encouraged others to get vaccinated not only to have a chance at winning money, but to protect the community. (6/11)

Anchorage Daily News: Alaska Used To Lead The Nation In COVID-19 Vaccinations. Six Months In, The State Has Fallen Behind
This spring, Alaska was hailed as a vaccination success story — shipping doses via plane, snowmachine and boat to remote corners of the vast state. But it has gradually fallen from first place to the middle of the pack in the six months since the first doses of COVID-19 vaccine arrived here in mid-December. In March, Alaska became the first state in the country to open up vaccinations to all residents 16 or older, without other restrictions on eligibility. Health officials say that in the months since then, however, a saturation of available vaccine hasn’t translated into a corresponding number of vaccine recipients. “We’re definitely seeing more supply than demand,” said Matt Bobo, the director of Alaska’s immunization program, during a call with reporters Thursday. (Krakow and Berman, 6/10)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Georgia Shifts COVID Vaccine Strategy As Pace Slows To A Crawl
At the Fox Theatre, the parking and popcorn came free on a recent Friday evening, along with an exquisite violin performance — all in hopes of coaxing the hesitant to get a COVID-19 vaccine there. In a conference room inside Truist Park, the Atlanta Braves offered two free game tickets in exchange for an on-site vaccine shot. Mobile vaccination clinics are setting up before dawn at farms, and teams are vaccinating workers on their breaks inside poultry plants. They’ve given shots at churches, grocers and soccer matches. In the months ahead, the teams will hit nearly every county in Georgia. (Oliviero and Trubey, 6/11)

Philadelphia Inquirer: NFL Players Union Urging Its Members To Get Vaccinated, But Many Players Are Balking
DeMaurice Smith pleaded ignorance Thursday when the NFL players union boss was asked on a conference call for the vaccination rate of his rank and file. “We don’t have all the information yet,” Smith claimed. “We’ll take a look and see if we have that data. We’ll get you the numbers when we have them.” It’s becoming increasingly apparent that, despite the urging of the NFLPA to its members to get vaccinated, many players aren’t doing so. There have been reports that less than 50% of the league’s 2,880 players have been vaccinated. The NFL is said to be considering relaxing COVID-19 restrictions on teams that hit an 85% vaccination threshold, but many clubs aren’t anywhere close to that figure. (Domowitch, 6/10)

In updates on vaccine development —

Bloomberg: Pharma Executives Seeking Higher Immunity Mix Own Covid Shots
When it comes to their own health, some in the pharma industry aren’t waiting for governments to tell them they can mix two different Covid-19 vaccines. While research is still underway on the effects of taking mismatched shots, some people who’ve studied the science are switching up their doses to get what they claim is better protection. At least one industry veteran even crossed borders to do it. (Gillespie, 6/11)

CIDRAP: High COVID Vaccine Uptake May Protect The Unvaccinated
Higher levels of COVID-19 vaccination in a population are tied to lower rates of infection in unvaccinated youth younger than 16 years, who were ineligible for the vaccine at the time of the trial, according to an observational, real-world, Israeli study today in Nature Medicine. Researchers from Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa led the study, which involved mining vaccination records and COVID-19 test results gathered during a rapid vaccine rollout in 177 communities. (Van Beusekom, 6/10)

The Wall Street Journal: Covid-19 Deaths This Year Have Already Eclipsed 2020’s Toll
More people have died from Covid-19 already this year than in all of 2020, according to official counts, highlighting how the global pandemic is far from over even as vaccines beat back the virus in wealthy nations. It took less than six months for the globe to record more than 1.88 million Covid-19 deaths this year, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of data collected by Johns Hopkins University. The university’s count for 2021 edged just ahead of the 2020 death toll on Thursday. (Kamp, Douglas and Forero, 6/10)

Stateline: Deadlier Variant Is Now Dominant Strain Of COVID CDC Confirms
A mutation of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, known as the British variant or B-117, was found in 66% of new U.S. COVID-19 cases tested during the two weeks ending April 24, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported. A second mutation, known as the Brazilian variant or P-1, was found in 5% of new cases during the same period. Public health officials have been warning that if not enough people are vaccinated as soon as possible, a more virulent coronavirus that causes COVID-19 could take hold and become the dominant strain in the United States. The CDC report confirms that already has happened. (Vestal, 6/10)

In related news about the spread of the coronavirus —

ABC News: 2 Passengers Test Positive For COVID-19 On 1st North American Cruise Since 2020 
Two passengers sharing the same stateroom on board the first North American cruise since 2020 tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday. All crew and adult passengers on board the Celebrity Millennium had to show proof that they were fully vaccinated as well as provide a negative COVID-19 test prior to or at the time of boarding. The passengers found out they were positive while undergoing testing before disembarking the ship in St. Maarten. (Kaji and Benitez, 6/10)

CNBC: Bitcoin 2021 Attendees Report Covid Cases After Returning From Miami
Some of the 12,000 attendees who flew into Miami last weekend for the biggest bitcoin event in history have started testing positive for Covid. Bitcoin 2021 drew crypto enthusiasts from around the world to the Mana Wynwood convention center in Miami’s arts and entertainment district. For three days, conference goers packed into crowded auditoriums, glad-handed and hugged. It was the first major conference since the pandemic started, and many attendees said they were relieved to be out among colleagues trading news and updates. (Sigalos, 6/10)

Also —

The New York Times: The C.D.C.’s New Leader Follows The Science. Is That Enough?
On her first day as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in January, Dr. Rochelle Walensky ordered a review of all Covid-related guidance on the agency’s website. Some of its advice had been twisted by the Trump administration, and her message was clear: The C.D.C. would no longer bend to political meddling. Four months later, Dr. Walensky announced that vaccinated people could stop wearing masks in most settings. The recommendation startled not just the White House but also state and local leaders, prompting criticism that she had failed to prepare Americans for the agency’s latest about-face during the pandemic. (Mandavilli, 6/10)

Modern Healthcare: OSHA Releases COVID-19 Healthcare Worker Safety Requirements
Health providers must start paying employees for time to get vaccinated and recover from any side effects under an emergency temporary standard order from the Biden administration. They'll also have to put in physical barriers where social distancing isn't possible. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration's standards put new enforcement teeth on prior recommendations, and may add administrative burden and costs to health systems. (Gillespie, 6/10)

Roll Call: OSHA Issues Safeguards For Health Workers, But Goals For Others 
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, after months of delay, released standards to protect essential workers from COVID-19 Thursday, but those policies were scaled back significantly to apply only to health care settings. In a major win for corporate lobbyists, OSHA issued separate guidance that offers largely unenforceable recommendations for other high-risk workplaces. (Kopp, 6/10)

KHN: Labor Department Issues Emergency Rules To Protect Health Care Workers From Covid 
Labor Department officials on Thursday announced a temporary emergency standard to protect health care workers, saying they face “grave danger” in the workplace from the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The new standard would require employers to remove workers who have covid-19 from the workplace, notify workers of covid exposure at work and strengthen requirements for employers to report worker deaths or hospitalizations to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. (Jewett, 6/10)

In related news about protecting workers from covid —

CBS News: Hospitals Across U.S. Are Requiring Workers To Get Vaccinated Against COVID-19
Tens of thousands of medical workers across the U.S. are being told they must get vaccinated against COVID-19 to stay employed. The scenario is well underway in Texas, where nearly 200 hospital workers have been suspended without pay by Houston Methodist, the first hospital system in the nation to require the shots. Houston Methodist — a major medical center and six community hospitals — said nearly 25,000 of its workers were fully immunized against the coronavirus by Monday's deadline. While Houston Methodist was first to make the move, a slew of other medical institutions are following suit. Health care workers in Indiana, Maryland, New Jersey and Pennsylvania face looming deadlines to get fully immunized against a virus that's killed nearly 600,000 Americans. (Gibson, 6/10)

Indianapolis Star: Community Health Network To Require COVID-19 Vaccinations For Staff
Community Health Network is the latest hospital system to announce that it will require all employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19. On Thursday, the health system said that all employees will be required to be fully vaccinated by Sept. 15. The requirement applies to vendors, contractors and volunteers who work at Community locations, hospital officials said. “The evidence is clearer every day that those who are vaccinated very rarely pass the virus to others,” said Dr. Ram Yeleti, chief physician executive for Community Health Network, in an emailed news release. “We have an obligation to the patients who put their health in our hands to create the safest environment possible.” (Rudavsky, 6/10)

CBS News: Goldman Sachs Asking Returning Workers To Say If They've Been Vaccinated
Goldman Sachs is requiring that bankers and other employees tell the financial firm whether they are vaccinated before returning to the office. The investment bank has started bringing some of its 20,000 U.S.-based employees back, with most workers expected to return by June 14. Employees who had not yet submitted their vaccination status received a memo earlier this week explaining that "registering your vaccination status allows us to plan for a safer return to the office for all of our people as we continue to abide by local public health measures." The memo said it is "mandatory" that workers indicate if they've gotten their shots via a company app by noon on June 10. (Cerullo, 6/10)

The Baltimore Sun: Maryland Companies, Retailers Say They Won’t Make COVID-19 Vaccinations Mandatory For Workers, At Least Not Yet
A day after Maryland hospitals said they would start requiring COVID-19 vaccinations as a condition of employment, businesses, retail associations and consumer groups in the state said they would not rush to make the same decision. The exception might be in nursing homes, where the coronavirus ravaged staff and residents in the early weeks and months of the pandemic, accounting for much of the state’s early death toll. At least one in Maryland already has imposed immunization requirements on workers. (Miller and Cohn, 6/11)

In other news about safety on the job —

USA Today: Amazon, Safety Council Join Forces To Combat Common Workplace Injuries
The National Safety Council and Amazon announced a partnership Thursday aimed at cutting musculoskeletal injuries, common workplace injuries including sprains and tears, hernias, carpal tunnel syndrome and back pain. The goal of the campaign is to better understand how musculoskeletal disorders develop and find ways to prevent them. Amazon will contribute $12 million to NSC, the largest corporate donation made to the consumer and workplace safety nonprofit in its 108-year existence, said Lorraine Martin, the president and CEO of the National Safety Council. (Avery, 6/10)

San Francisco Chronicle: States Like California With Strict COVID Rules Fared Better In Pandemic, UCLA Economists Say
Large states such as California that implemented stricter pandemic restrictions had better economic and health outcomes on average than those with less stringent measures, according to UCLA economists. The states’ economies, measured in gross domestic product, declined everywhere in 2020, according to the June 2021 UCLA Anderson Forecast, the widely followed quarterly economic outlook on California and the nation put out by the university’s Anderson School of Management. Large states with stricter government responses like mask mandates and business restrictions, like California and Washington, had smaller declines than those with less strict interventions such as Florida and Texas, the UCLA researchers said. (Echeverria, 6/10)

Los Angeles Times: As California Reopens, Mask-Wearing And Symbolism Change
With California’s full economic reopening days away, there remains one question that has not been fully resolved in the minds of many eager to get back to normal life: To mask, or not to mask? Beginning Tuesday, most of California’s mask rules imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic — covering customers’ trips to the store, the gym and restaurants — will disappear for those who are vaccinated. There is growing evidence of the shots’ power to prevent serious disease and blunt transmission of the coronavirus, and health officials are increasingly unified in their belief that those who are fully inoculated can safely resume many activities without wearing face coverings. (Lin II and Money, 6/10)

AP: California Businesses Baffled By Various Reopening Rules
Businesses in California remain baffled by the shifting rules over who needs to wear masks and where as the nation’s largest state fully reopens from the pandemic on Tuesday. While Gov. Gavin Newsom’s health agency has said vaccinated people won’t need to wear face coverings in many public places, state regulators — following several lengthy and hotly contested debates — are still drafting rules for workers. (6/11)

Los Angeles Times: L.A. Teacher Union Pact Requires Masks, COVID Tests In Fall
Masks will remain on for students and staff at Los Angeles schools this fall, and coronavirus testing will continue for all, under a tentative agreement announced Thursday between district officials and the teachers union. The mask mandate would continue regardless of whether employees or students are vaccinated, with rare potential exceptions for students with disabilities. And the coronavirus testing would take place at least once every two weeks. That’s a possible step back from the current practice, which has required testing every week since campuses gradually reopened in April. (Blume, 6/10)

AP: California Debates Public Health Spending As Virus Recedes
California Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to spend the state’s extraordinary budget surplus on correcting the most widespread financial impacts of the pandemic, pledging to give $600 payments to most taxpaying adults while committing to pay off all of their outstanding rent and utility bills. But left out of the governor’s $267.8 billion budget proposal last month: Money to rebuild local public health departments, whose staffing shortages and fragmented funding were exposed by the coronavirus, impeding a more coordinated response to the crisis. (Beam, 6/11)

Stat: Third Member Of FDA Expert Committee Resigns Over Alzheimer's Decision
A third member of a Food and Drug Administration expert panel has resigned over the agency’s contentious approval of an Alzheimer’s therapy this week, a sign of a growing backlash over the decision. In a letter to acting FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock on Thursday, Aaron Kesselheim, who had served on the FDA’s advisory committee for nervous system therapies since 2015, wrote that the approval of Biogen’s Aduhelm “was probably the worst drug approval decision in recent U.S. history.” (Joseph, 6/10)

Axios: Biogen Says FDA Didn't Push For Trial Before Alzheimer's Approval 
Two Biogen executives said in an interview the company's newly approved Alzheimer's drug is priced fairly, and that it didn't conduct another clinical trial before approval because the FDA didn't push them to do so. The scientific consensus is the drug, Aduhelm, has not been proven to work. But Biogen and the FDA are content with "hopefully" validating the $56,000 drug's efficacy at some unknown point in the future. (Herman, 6/11)

Stat: Advocates Blast The FDA For Not Moving As Fast On ALS As On Alzheimer’s 
The Food and Drug Administration fast-tracked Biogen’s divisive Alzheimer’s drug Aduhelm, but it’s not going to do the same for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis anytime soon — and ALS advocates are outraged. The FDA approved Aduhelm on Monday under “accelerated approval,” a special pathway that lets the agency greenlight drugs based on so-called surrogate endpoints. That means drug makers can prove that tumors shrank or plaques in the brain disappeared, rather than demonstrating that the drug helps cure or treat a disease itself. The pathway had until now been used almost exclusively for cancer drugs, but FDA’s drug center chief Patrizia Cavazzoni told reporters Monday that she hopes it will be used more frequently for neurodegenerative diseases. (Florko, 6/11)

Boston Globe: What’s Next For The New Alzheimer’s Drug? Lots Of Thorny Issues Ahead
Despite all the excitement surrounding the FDA’s approval on Monday of a controversial treatment for Alzheimer’s disease, the drug won’t be flowing into a lot of patients’ arms anytime soon. Aduhelm, made by Cambridge-based Biogen, poses an array of thorny issues that have yet to be untangled, including how to provide the monthly hour-long infusions and whether insurers will pay for the drug despite the $56,000 annual price tag. And some consumers may face hefty out-of-pocket charges, which could make them think twice about taking a drug with known risks and uncertain benefits. (Freyer, 6/10)

ABC News: Medicare Copays For New Alzheimer's Drug Could Reach $11,500
A new $56,000-a-year Alzheimer’s drug would raise Medicare premiums broadly, and some patients who are prescribed the medication could face copayments of about $11,500 annually, according to a research report published Wednesday. The drug, called Aduhelm, was approved by the Food and Drug Administration only this week. It's the first Alzheimer's medication in nearly 20 years, though it doesn't cure the life-sapping neurological condition. Some experts question whether Aduhelm provides any benefit to patients, but the FDA determined it can reduce harmful clumps of plaque in the brain, potentially slowing dementia. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 6/10)

Fierce Healthcare: Top Dem Senator Calls Price Of Aducanumab 'Unconscionable'
A top senator criticized Biogen’s $56,000 price tag for a controversial new Alzheimer’s disease drug and revived calls for a bipartisan approach to fixing drug prices. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, slammed the price for the drug aducanumab, which goes by the brand name Aduhelm and was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) earlier this week. The accelerated approval comes after FDA advisers questioned the effectiveness of the treatment. “There is little data showing it actually does what the company says it will do,” said Wyden during a Thursday hearing of the Senate Finance Committee. “Despite that, Aduhelm has an unconscionable list price of $56,000 per year.” (King, 6/10)

Also —

The Washington Examiner: Scientists Discover Potentially Dangerous Metals In Brains Of Alzheimer's Patients 
Scientists have discovered particles of copper and iron in the brains of deceased Alzheimer’s patients, a discovery that could lead to new treatments for the disease. In an article in the journal Science Advances, researchers from Keele University and the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom found traces of the elemental forms of copper and iron in amyloid plaque, proteins that form in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients. (Hogberg, 6/10)

KHN: KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: Our 200th Episode!
The Food and Drug Administration found itself in the hot seat this week when it approved a controversial new drug to treat Alzheimer’s disease with scant evidence of its effectiveness. Meanwhile, as health policy watchers wait for the Supreme Court to rule in a case threatening the Affordable Care Act, the Biden administration is reporting that a record 31 million Americans have health insurance as a direct result of the health law. And President Joe Biden seeks to gain goodwill overseas as he announces the U.S. will provide 500 million doses of covid vaccine to aid international health efforts. (6/10)

Stat: FDA Accuses Firm Of Distributing An Unapproved Covid-19 Test 
The Food and Drug Administration announced a recall Thursday of a coronavirus rapid antigen test, accusing the company that makes the tests of distributing them without regulatory approval and using falsified data that inflates their performance. The agency announced a “Class 1 recall” — its most serious type, indicating that use of the tests may cause serious injuries or death — and fired off a warning letter to Innova Medical Group of Pasadena, Calif., saying an FDA investigation revealed serious problems in the company’s data, but also in its making unapproved rapid tests available to consumers in the United States. (McLaughlin, 6/10)

KHN and Politifact: Biden Kept His Promise To Increase Covid-Testing Capacity, Even As Demand For Testing Drops 
Before vaccinations were widely available, covid-19 tests were considered one of the few tools to help control the spread of the coronavirus. That’s why then-candidate Joe Biden promised during the 2020 presidential campaign to boost the United States’ testing capacity as one way he would “beat covid-19.” Specifically, Biden’s campaign website promised that, if elected, he would “double the number of drive-through testing sites” and “invest in next-generation testing, including at-home tests and instant tests, so we can scale up our testing capacity by orders of magnitude.” (Knight, 6/11)

In other pharmaceutical and biotech news —

Stat: Vertex Shelves Drug For Inherited Lung Disease, Raising Concerns On Growth
Vertex Pharmaceuticals said Thursday that it would shelve an experimental protein “corrector” drug — the highest-priority medicine in the biotech’s pipeline — after it failed to achieve the goals of a small clinical trial involving patients with an inherited disorder that causes serious damage to the liver and lungs. The failure of the oral drug, called VX-864, is the second setback for Vertex and its effort to develop a treatment for patients with a genetic disease called alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency, or AATD. The company’s first attempt, with a different drug, was shelved due to liver toxicity last year. (Feuerstein, 6/10)

Stat: CRISPR Treatment For Blood Diseases Shows Promise In Small Study
Twenty-two patients with inherited blood disorders were free of severe pain and the need for transfusions months after receiving an experimental genome-editing medicine, more evidence the CRISPR-based treatment could be a functional cure. The therapy, jointly developed by Vertex Pharmaceuticals and CRISPR Therapeutics, is designed to treat sickle cell disease and beta-thalassemia by boosting the body’s production of hemoglobin. According to data from two clinical trials presented at the European Hematology Association annual meeting Friday, all patients in both studies have been free from symptoms of the diseases since their treatment and have not needed blood transfusions. (Garde, 6/11)

Stat: In Potential Big Step, Bristol Says CAR-T Outperformed Stem Cell Transplant
The treatment known as CAR-T, in which white blood cells are genetically modified to attack blood cancer, is one of the most exciting and expensive in medicine. But it has not been directly compared to standard treatments in a randomized trial — until now. (Herper, 6/10)

Bloomberg: Superbugs Fight Hinges On Struggling Small Biotechs: Report
The world has become dependent on small drugmakers to develop antibiotics that can prevent bacteria pandemics, even as these companies face funding shortfalls and bankruptcy risk, a new report said. About 75% of all late-stage antibiotics in the research and development pipeline came from small and medium-sized businesses, according to the Access to Medicine Foundation, an Amsterdam-based non-profit group. That’s after many larger pharmaceutical companies all but abandoned antibacterial research. This puts promising drugs at risk of being left stranded and impedes the fight against drug-resistant bacteria, the foundation said in a statement. (Gemmell, 6/10)

USA Today: UnitedHealthcare Delays ER Claims Policy Following Backlash
Facing mounting criticism from hospitals and doctors groups, health insurance giant UnitedHealthcare said it will delay a policy that would scrutinize payments for non-urgent emergency room visits. The policy to review and potentially clamp down on some hospital payments drew outcries from the American Hospital Association and the American College of Emergency Physicians about potential harm of patients' health and finances. In a Thursday statement, the Minnesota-based insurer said the policy will be halted until the end of the pandemic. (Alltucker and Freeman, 6/10)

In other health care industry news —

The Wall Street Journal: The Ruthless Hackers Behind Ransomware Attacks On U.S. Hospitals: ‘They Do Not Care’
A ransomware attack on a national hospital chain nearly brought Las Vegas hospitals to their knees. Another attack in Oregon abruptly shut down alerts tied to patient monitors tracking vital signs. In New York, one county’s only trauma center briefly closed to ambulances, with the nearest alternative 90 miles away. Multiple attacks were carried out in recent months against U.S. hospitals, suspending some surgeries, delaying medical care and costing hospitals millions of dollars. The Wall Street Journal tracked the most disruptive attacks to one group: a notorious gang of Eastern European cybercriminals once called the “Business Club,” with ties to Russian government security services, according to threat analysts and former law-enforcement officials who closely follow Eastern European cybercrime operations. (Poulsen and Evans, 6/10)

WUSF Public Media: Forget The Nasal Swab: Dog At Sarasota Hospital Smells Patients With COVID 
When visitors enter the lobby of Doctor's Hospital of Sarasota they're greeted by Buffy, a friendly yellow Lab sporting a work vest. Her handler, hospital employee Grace Welsby, approaches guests and asks if Buffy can smell their shoes. "I'm going to have her walk by you and she's going to sniff at your feet,” Welsby tells them. “If you do have COVID, she will lay down. If not, she's just going to walk on by.” (Carter and Miller, 6/10)

The Baltimore Sun: As Coronavirus Pandemic Winds Down, Demand For Psychiatric Beds In Maryland Remains Stubbornly High 
Nearly all of the beds in use at state-run psychiatric facilities are occupied and private providers said they’re also packed, as the strains of the coronavirus pandemic threaten to overwhelm the state’s mental health system. Even as the worst of the sickness and death recedes from view, behavioral health professionals and mental health advocates warn a shortfall in treatment options could have devastating effects on those rubbed raw and reeling from the monthslong public health crisis. (Miller, 6/10)

Modern Healthcare: Mental Health Startup IPOs Boom As Insurers Add Benefits
Shares for mental health company LifeStance Health soared during its public debut Thursday, with the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based startup reaching a nearly $8 billion valuation after raising $720 million in its initial public offering. LifeStance, which is owned by private equity firm TPG, claims to be one of the largest mental health platforms in the nation, employing more than 3,300 licensed mental health professionals across 27 states and 370 centers. The company offers a mix of in-person and virtual care for its 357,000 patients, who can suffer from schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression and more. In 2020, the startup conducted 2.3 million patient visits on the platform, according to its S-1 filed in May with the Securities and Exchange Commission. (Tepper, 6/10)

KHN: Doctor On Call? Lawmakers Debate How Much To Pay For Phone Appointments 
It took covid-19 to give millions of Americans the option of telling their doctor about their aches and pains by phone. But now that more doctors and patients are returning to in-person appointments, policymakers across the country are divided over how much taxpayer money to keep spending on phone appointments. Although they were a lifeline for Medicaid and Medicare patients who don’t have the technology for video visits, critics say they don’t provide the same level of patient care and aren’t worth the same price. (Bluth, 6/11)

Stat: NIH Releases A Plan To Confront Structural Racism. Critics Say It’s Not Enough
Saying structural racism is a chronic problem throughout biomedical research and within their own walls, leaders of the National Institutes of Health Thursday unveiled a plan intended to eliminate a big gap in grants awarded to white and minority scientists and boost funding for research on health disparities. The agency, the largest funder of biomedical research in the United States, said it would also expand a program to recruit, mentor, and retain researchers from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups, and appoint diversity and inclusion officers at each of its 27 institutes and centers. (McFarling, 6/10)

In other news about health care personnel —

The Boston Globe: Dartmouth Medical School Drops All Cheating Sanctions Against Students
The medical school at Dartmouth College has dropped sanctions against all students it had found guilty of cheating on exams, a stunning reversal that came after students vigorously maintained their innocence. Duane Compton, dean of the Geisel School of Medicine, announced the development Wednesday in an e-mail to the medical school community, writing the decision came “upon further review and based on new information received from our learning management system provider.” He apologized for the stress the accusations put on students and vowed to restore trust. “We will learn from this and we will do better,” Compton wrote. (Krantz, 6/10)

Modern Healthcare: Poor EHR Design Leads To Nurse Burnout, Higher Surgical Patient Mortality, Study Finds
Poorly designed electronic health record systems may accelerate clinician burnout and increase risks safety risks for patients having surgery, according to a new study published in Medical Care, the journal of the medical care section of the American Public Health Association. The study, which included 12,004 nurses, 1.3 million surgical patients and 343 hospitals in four states, found that surgical patients receiving care in hospitals with poor EHR usability were 21% more likely to die in the hospital after their procedures and 6% more likely to be readmitted within 30 days than those being treated in hospitals with better EHR usability. (Christ, 6/10)

Health News Florida: USF Expanding Enrollment In Nursing Program To Meet Growing Need 
The University of South Florida College of Nursing is expanding enrollment in response to a nationwide shortage of nurses due in part to the coronavirus pandemic. Health care professionals have played a major role in the nation’s response to the pandemic but it has taken a toll, especially on frontline workers like nurses. The pandemic caused many nurses to leave the profession or retire early. According to the university, more than 22% of nurses nationally are expected to leave the industry within the next year. (Marlow, 6/10)

North Carolina Health News: Residents Tackle NC Rural Health Care Provider Shortage
Later on this month, more than 550 newly graduated physicians will hang their stethoscopes around their necks, don their scrubs and begin residency training at medical centers across North Carolina. Despite a crushing need for primary care practitioners, few of those residents — roughly 1 in 4 — will train in family medicine. (Engel-Smith, 6/11)

Modern Healthcare: Providers Focus On Staff Mental Health 5 Years After Pulse Shooting
After receiving an early morning call about a mass casualty incident on June 12, 2016, Dr. Joseph Ibrahim, trauma medical director for Orlando Regional Medical Center, made his way to the hospital. At first, everything was relatively quiet and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. But he was one of many clinicians aiding the victims of a mass shooting at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, that killed 49 and injured 53. "Once I opened the doors into the trauma bay, it was obvious that this was something on a larger scale than what I anticipated and what we had seen before," Ibrahim said. (Devereaux, 6/10)

The Washington Post: Drop In Childhood Vaccinations During Pandemic May Raise Risk Of Other Outbreaks When Schools Reopen, CDC Says 
Routine childhood vaccinations dropped dramatically during the early months of the coronavirus pandemic, and although they began rebounding last summer as families rescheduled doctors’ visits, many children and adolescents are behind on their shots, according to a federal health report released Thursday. The lag might pose “a serious public health threat” of outbreaks of vaccine-preventable illnesses, such as measles and whooping cough, that have the potential to derail school-reopenings, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Sun, 6/10)

CNN: CDC Warns About Spike In RSV Cases Across South 
A common cold virus called respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is spreading across the South, causing an unusual wave of late spring disease, the US Centers for Disease Control and prevention said Thursday. The CDC issued a Health Advisory Network warning to doctors and other health care providers to be on alert for the virus, which can cause pneumonia, especially in very small children and babies. (Fox, 6/10)

In other public health news —

The New York Times: E.P.A. To Review Rules On Soot Linked To Deaths, Which Trump Declined To Tighten 
The Biden administration will reconsider federal limits on fine industrial soot, one of the most common and deadliest forms of air pollution, with an eye toward imposing tough new rules on emissions from power plants, factories and other industrial facilities. The announcement, made Thursday by Michael S. Regan, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, comes after the Trump administration declined last year to tighten pollution limits, despite warnings from federal scientists and others that doing so could save more than 10,000 lives a year, particularly in urban areas. (Davenport, 6/10)

The Washington Post: Dartmouth College Researchers Report Students Are Feeling More Anxious And Depressed Than Ever 
College students are feeling more anxious and depressed as they sleep less and spend more time on their phones, researchers said after spending four years monitoring the behaviors of young people. Dartmouth College researchers began tracking 217 students when they entered the school as freshmen in 2017 in the hopes of understanding how they behave. They’ve seen students’ stress levels rise and fall, usually in tandem with midterm and final exams. But since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, rates of depression and anxiety have soared — and have showed no signs of coming down, said Andrew Campbell, a researcher and computer science professor. (Lumpkin, 6/10)

The Washington Post: Bo Schembechler’s Son Says Ex-Michigan Doctor Abused Him
Matt Schembechler was 10 years old when he tried repeatedly to tell his father, legendary University of Michigan football coach Bo Schembechler, that he had been molested by the team’s doctor. Bo Schembechler replied: “I don’t want to hear this.” Then, the coach’s son says, Schembechler punched his fourth-grade son in the chest. (Hensley-Clancy, 6/10)

In updates on the opioid trial in West Virginia —

Charleston Gazette-Mail: Expert: Pain Pills, Not Just Heroin, Fentanyl, Play Major Role In WV Opioid Crisis
Prescription painkillers played a major role in fatal overdoses in Huntington and Cabell County over a two-decade period, an epidemiologist said Thursday at the federal opioid trial in Charleston. The testimony came after the local governments turned the presentment of their case to look at the role prescription pain pills have in the ongoing opioid crisis. The governments hope it will show the connection between prescription pain pills and heroin and other illicit opioids. Huntington and Cabell County accuse the “Big Three” drug wholesalers — AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson — of fueling the opioid epidemic by sending excessive shipments of opioids into the area for eight years, before a reduction in the number of pills shipped made users turn to illicit drugs. (Hessler, 6/10)

AP: N. Carolina Ban On Down Syndrome Abortions Goes To Governor
North Carolina senators approved a bill on Thursday to bar women from getting abortions on the basis of race, sex or a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome. With the Senate’s party-line vote, the prohibition Republicans are seeking now heads to Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, who is likely to veto it, having rejected previous anti-abortion restrictions. (Anderson, 6/10)

Houston Chronicle: After Abbott Lifted Texas' Mask Mandate, COVID Has Waned - But The Flu Hasn't
Houston has seen a “rapid” increase in respiratory illnesses since Gov. Greg Abbott ended Texas’ mask mandate nearly three months ago, according to new research from Houston Methodist Hospital epidemiologists. In a study published last week, Methodist researchers documented “a marked increase” in cases of rhinovirus/enterovirus, an upper respiratory infection, in the weeks after mask mandates were lifted in Texas. The report found similar upticks of influenza cases over the same period. Influenza, the paper’s authors said, typically peaks during winter months before dropping to low levels in the summer. (Downen, 6/10)

Houston Chronicle: Houston Is No. 1 In The US For Dog Attacks On Postal Workers, New USPS Report Shows
The City of Houston is known for so many things — great food, birthing world-renowned artists, the world capital of space exploration and international energy, the most diverse city in the U.S. and the fourth largest city in the country. And, it's the city with the most dog attacks on postal workers. The United States Postal Service released its dog attack national rankings showing the Bayou City as No. 1, with 73 attacks reported in 2020. (Welch, 6/10)

Rome News-Tribune: Nonprofit: 1 In 6 Ga. Children Aren't Sure Where Their Next Meal Is Coming From 
Food insecurity is a much greater problem than most Georgians would ever imagine. Carla Harward, an attorney who retired and moved to Trion several years ago, took it on herself to do something about the combination of food waste in schools and making sure that children across the state don’t go hungry. An estimated one in six children across Georgia, more than 400,000, are considered food insecure, according to Harward. At the same time, schools across the state have been throwing away thousands of tons of food. (Walker, 6/10)

The Advocate: Louisiana Could Become Latest State To End $300 Federal Unemployment Benefit In 11th-Hour Deal
Louisiana is poised to soon stop accepting the federal $300-a-week boost to jobless benefits a month early under a deal passed by lawmakers in the waning hours of the legislative session Thursday, a move that would make the state the latest to end the benefits over concerns from business groups that they are causing a worker shortage. Lawmakers approved a bill to boost the state’s unemployment benefits by $28 a week starting next year. But it would only take effect if Gov. John Bel Edwards ended the state’s participation in the federal program by July 31, which appears likely. That program is giving thousands of laid-off workers $300 a week in addition to whatever they get from the state, which currently is a maximum of $247 a week. (Karlin, 6/10)

KHN: Colorado Bill Aims To Give Farmworkers Easier Access To Medical Care
A woman with pregnancy complications needed permission from her boss to visit a doctor. Community health volunteers were turned away from delivering food and covid information to worker housing. A farmworker had a serious allergic reaction but was afraid to seek treatment. To Nicole Civita, policy director with Colorado advocacy group Project Protect Food Systems Workers, such stories encapsulate an entrenched power dynamic that covid-19 has brought into focus: Farmworkers are “essential but treated as expendable,” including when it comes to accessing health care. (Honig and Bichell, 6/11)

Axios: BioNTech Plans To Expand MRNA Vaccine Production Into Africa 
BioNTech announced this week that it plans to establish mRNA vaccine production facilities in Africa, according to the Financial Times. The blockbuster success of mRNA vaccines for the COVID-19 pandemic could give a boost to efforts to use the adaptable technology to tackle cancers, malaria and other intractable illnesses, as Axios has previously reported. (Doherty, 6/10)

Fox News: Indian States Told To Improve Second Dose COVID-19 Vaccination Coverage Among Essential Workers
India’s Health Ministry has recommended that states improve second dose coverage of COVID-19 vaccinations among health care personnel and frontline workers. In a meeting on Thursday, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan emphasized lagging coverage among the group, allegedly calling it a "cause of serious concern," per multiple news reports. One outlet reported an 82% national average in first dose administration among health care workers, while second dose administration fell to 56%. At least a half dozen states fell below the national average. (Rivas, 6/10)

ABC News: Germany Starts Rolling Out A Digital EU Vaccination Pass 
Germany on Thursday started rolling out a digital vaccination pass that can be used across Europe as the continent gets ready for the key summer travel season.The country's health minister said starting this week vaccination centers, doctors practices and pharmacies will gradually start giving out digital passes to fully vaccinated people. The CovPass will let users download proof of their coronavirus vaccination status onto a smartphone app, allowing them easy access to restaurants, museums or other venues that require proof of immunization. (Grieshaber, 6/10)

NPR: Japan Aims To Convince A Wary Public The Olympics Will Be Safe
Olympic organizers and Japan's government are ramping up vaccinations, inside and outside the Olympic Village. It remains to be seen whether the push will be the antidote to widespread opposition in Japan to holding the games amid the pandemic and pervasive fear that the event will threaten public health. The International Olympic Committee said Wednesday that about 75% of prospective Olympic and Paralympic athletes have either had their shots, or are scheduled to do so. It predicts more than 80% will be inoculated by the time the games start in just over six weeks. (Kuhn, 6/10)

In other global developments —

AP: US Urges World To Ensure HIV Services For LGBTQ Community
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged the world’s nations Thursday to ensure equal access to HIV services to those most at risk of getting AIDS -- the LGBTQ community, drug users, sex workers, racial and ethnic minorities and women and girls. He warned in pre-recorded video remarks on the final day of a three-day high-level meeting on AIDS at the U.N. General Assembly that the goal of ending AIDS cannot be reached “if we deny people’s sexual and reproductive rights, or foster discrimination against the very people who are the most vulnerable to HIV.” (Lederer, 6/10)

AP: Mystery Over Claim World's 1st 'Decuplets' Born In S. Africa
South Africa has been gripped by the mystery of whether a woman has, as has been claimed, actually given birth to 10 babies, in what would then be the world’s first recorded case of decuplets. Gosiame Thamara Sithole from the Tembisa township near Johannesburg gave birth to the babies on Monday, according to the Pretoria News newspaper which quoted the parents. The babies — seven boys and three girls — have not made a public appearance or been captured on camera, although they were born prematurely, the newspaper reported. (Magome, 6/11)

The New York Times: China Still Buys American DNA Equipment For Xinjiang Despite Blocks 
The police in the Chinese region of Xinjiang are still buying hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of American DNA equipment despite warnings from the U.S. government that the sale of such technologies could be used to enable human rights abuses in the region. The U.S. government has tried to prevent the sale of DNA sequencers, test kits and other products made by American firms to the police in Xinjiang for years, amid concerns raised by scientists and human rights groups that the authorities could use the tools to build systems to track people. (Wee, 6/11)

The Washington Post: Scientists Begin To Unravel The Mysteries Of The Coronavirus And Brains 
In the coronavirus pandemic’s early weeks, in neuropathology departments around the world, scientists wrestled with a question: Should they cut open the skulls of patients who died of covid-19 and extract their brains? Autopsy staff at Columbia University in New York were hesitant. Sawing into bone creates dust, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had issued a warning about the bodies of covid patients — airborne debris from autopsies could be an infectious hazard. (Guarino and Sellers, 6/7)

The Washington Post: Vaccinated Travel: Is It Ethical To Visit Countries With Low Vaccination Rates? 
Like billions of people around the world, lockdowns throughout the pandemic caused Courtney Shay deep frustration. The American expat who has lived in Istanbul for nearly nine years wasn’t only exasperated by indefinite timelines or feeling trapped at home — it was the incoming tourists, too. By April 2021, all of her friends and family in the United States were getting vaccinated while she continued to deal with curfews and restrictions, waiting for her own shot. Unable to fly or drive out of town, Shay watched tourists stroll the city, sightseeing. (Compton and Sampson, 6/8)

The New York Times: Sweet Cherries, Bitter Politics: Two Farm Stands And The Nation’s Divides 
The two farm stands lie just 12 miles apart along Route 31, a straight, flat road running through a bucolic wonderland of cherry orchards and crystalline lakes in northwestern Michigan. Yet when one stand instituted a no mask, no service rule last July and the other went to court to combat the state’s mask mandate, they set in motion a split that still ripples across Antrim County. (MacFarquhar, 6/6)

Also —

CNN: From 'Geriatric Pregnancy' To '35+ Pregnancy:' A Better Way To Talk To Pregnant People 
Ours is not a culture that makes life easy for pregnant people. There's the side-eye from busybody strangers, in disapproval of a coffee order or workout routine (or lack thereof). There are the bosses and colleagues who refuse to accommodate their pregnant employees, in ways subtle and not. ... One might hope that the doctor's office, a site of reason and science, would be an island of support and empathy amid the sea of judgment. So often, it's anything but. "Hostile uterus." "Geriatric pregnancy." "Failed pregnancy." "Lazy ovary." Peanut, a social network for mothers, has heard again and again the pain, frustration and anger these terms have caused its members. These are all relatively common sentiments, according to research. This spring, Peanut decided to try to help. Its staff convened a panel including a linguist, obstetrician and two psychologists and tasked them with rewriting the phrases used to describe pregnancy and early parenthood. The resulting glossary, which they're calling the Renaming Revolution, includes more than 60 new and improved, nonjudgmental medical terms. It's one piece of a broader, ongoing effort to make conception and pregnancy language more humane. (Strauss, 6/8)

ABC News: 'Sex After 6 Weeks' And Other Postpartum Consents Some Women Aren't Ready For 
A mother of two is addressing postpartum well-being and the care she says women actually need. "Birth is a major trauma to the body,” Jesse Truelove of Guymon, Oklahoma, told "Good Morning America." "Not only a C-section, because that’s obviously a major abdominal surgery, but giving birth vaginally is major trauma. There's stretching and tearing of ligaments and connective tissues, and you also carried a baby for nine months." (Pelletiere, 6/8)

The New York Times: We Could All Use A Health Coach 
Are you among the 133 million Americans suffering from one or more chronic health conditions? Conditions like diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity, arthritis, respiratory or digestive disease, among others that can diminish the quality of your life? How well do you understand your condition and its treatment? Do you know how to minimize potentially disabling effects and delay its progression? Are you having difficulty following your doctor’s advice? Or maybe you’re currently healthy but one or more of your habits could ultimately undermine your health and result in a chronic disorder. In either case, you’d likely benefit from the help of a health coach. (Brody, 6/7)

The Washington Post: How To Jump Rope For Exercise, Safely And Effectively 
If you think jumping rope is for “girls in their skirts, jumping on a playground,” Alysia Mattson suggests you reconsider. “It’s way more of a badass sport than that,” said the 28-year-old Seattle jump-rope maven. When she was without access to the gym and sick of Zoom workouts during shutdowns in April 2020, she bought one of the few pieces of fitness equipment that hadn’t sold out — a jump-rope. Since then, Mattson has found camaraderie in the online jump-rope community, which she said has seen its numbers “skyrocket” since the pandemic started. (Moore, 6/2)

The New York Times: How To Be Happy
All humans have a tendency to be a bit more like Eeyore than Tigger, to ruminate more on bad experiences than positive ones. It’s an evolutionary adaptation — over-learning from the dangerous or hurtful situations we encounter through life (bullying, trauma, betrayal) helps us avoid them in the future and react quickly in a crisis. But that means you have to work a little harder to train your brain to conquer negative thoughts. Here’s how. (Parker-Pope, 6/8)

The Atlantic: Commuting Has Surprising Mental-Health Benefits 
Back when commuting was a requirement for going to work, I once passed through a subway tunnel so filthy and crowded that the poem inscribed on its ceiling seemed like a cruel joke. “overslept, / so tired. / if late, / get fired. / why bother? / why the pain? / just go home / do it again.” “The Commuter’s Lament,” which adorns a subterranean passage in New York City’s 42nd Street station, made the already grim ritual of getting to and from work positively Dante-esque. But no one questioned the gist of it. The commute, according to the Nobel Prize–winning economist Daniel Kahneman’s research, ranked as the single most miserable part of our day. A Swiss study held long commutes responsible for “systematically lower subjective well-being.” (Useem, 6/9)

Philadelphia Inquirer: Breast Cancer Patients Face Insurance Denials That Complicate Recovery: ‘The Emotional Toll Was Enormous’
Federal and state laws require that health insurance cover breast reconstruction following a mastectomy, as well as any follow-up procedures to restore symmetry between the breasts. But patients often struggle to get insurance coverage for surgery to restore the appearance of other parts of their bodies when tissue was harvested for reconstruction. The process of appealing insurance denials can be daunting, especially for people who are physically and emotionally exhausted after cancer treatment and recovery. Those unable to navigate the denials process may ultimately go without the followup care. “At a time when a woman is literally fighting for her life in receiving breast cancer treatments and a very disfiguring surgery, she should not have to fight her insurance company,” said Pat Halpin-Murphy, president of PA Breast Cancer Coalition. “She needs all her energy to heal.” (Gantz, 6/9)

Philadelphia Inquirer: Coffee Lovers Going Into The Hospital Might Consider Post-Surgery Caffeine Withdrawal
Given that 90% of adults are caffeine users, you’d think that hospitals might consider what those orders not to eat or drink before and after surgical procedures might mean for people who have to miss their daily doses of coffee, tea, or Diet Coke. Caffeine withdrawal = fatigue, nausea, muscle pain, and wicked headaches. Jeffrey Goldberger, a University of Miami cardiologist and electrophysiologist, admits that he, like other doctors he knows, didn’t give it much thought until last fall when he and his son-in-law discussed how 25 hours of fasting for the Jewish holidays affects coffee drinkers. “People get all kinds of crazy ideas about how to avoid the coffee withdrawal,” he said. (Burling, 6/9)

The New York Times: Looking To Tackle Prescription Overload 
The last straw, for Leslie Hawkins, was her mother’s 93rd-birthday gathering in 2018. Her mother, Mary E. Harrison, had long contended with multiple health problems, including diabetes and the nerve pain it can cause; hypertension; anxiety; and some cognitive decline. She was prone to falling. Still, she had been a sociable, churchgoing nonagenarian until Ms. Hawkins, who cared for her in their shared home in Takoma Park, Md., began seeing disturbing changes. (Span, 6/7)

The New York Times: A Multibillion-Dollar Plan To End Polio, And Soon 
As the world adjusts to the idea of coexisting with the coronavirus for the foreseeable future, global health organizations are laying plans to eradicate another scourge that has already lingered for thousands of years: poliovirus. The Global Polio Eradication Initiative, a public-private partnership led by national governments and health groups, on Wednesday released a $5.1 billion plan to eradicate polio by 2026. (Mandavilli, 6/9)

Houston Chronicle: No, Houston Methodist's Vaccine Mandate For Staff Isn't Nazi Torture. It's Basic Science.
It was the first glimmer of hope in a dark and destructive year: the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for emergency use authorization. The December milestone marked the beginning of the end of the COVID-19 pandemic that had already killed a million and a half people across the globe. Several months before, on Sept. 18, Houston Methodist CEO Dr. Marc Boom issued an advance warning to more than 25,000 employees that, once there was ample supply of the vaccine, they would be required to receive it. It was a logical step for one of the region’s leading health care providers, which already required flu shots. (6/10)

The New York Times: The Vaccines We Have Are Good. But They Could Be So Much Better. 
Soon after the novel coronavirus emerged, its genome was sequenced and vaccines were developed at, yes, warp speed. These are all herculean tasks that deserve praise. But America’s achievement stops there. The initial vaccine strategy was reactive and tactical, not decisive and strategic. While it prioritized getting safe, effective vaccines into bodies as quickly as possible, it did not consider how to prevent variants or subsequent waves of the virus. All coronaviruses produce variants, and as with prior coronavirus outbreaks, variants of SARS-CoV-2 emerged as the virus spread from Wuhan, China, across the planet. The next danger is the further evolution of variants that can overcome the immunity provided by existing Covid-19 vaccines and prior infections. (Michael V. Callahan and Mark C. Poznansky, 6/10)

The Washington Post: Biden Is Showing That The U.S. Can Help Vaccinate The World — And Lead It 
President Biden's announcement that the United States will purchase and share with lower-income nations 500 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine this year and next is a sign of much-needed empathy for millions of people whose lives are threatened by the global pandemic. Mr. Biden also makes a large down payment on restoring American leadership in a world that has been doubting it .Just last year, then-President Donald Trump announced that he had pulled the United States out of the World Health Organization, frozen U.S. funding for the WHO and refused to participate in the Covax facility to help vaccinate the poorest countries. He advocated an “America first” strategy that pleased his political base but left many allies feeling bruised and wondering whether the United States could reassert the leadership role it had held for more than half a century. (6/10)

USA Today: COVID Vaccine Conspiracies: Misinformation Hurts All Of Us
This morning I walked around our house with a magnet to test a theory that had made its Ohio debut in our statehouse on Wednesday and quickly ricocheted across the country. By Wednesday evening, CNN’s Jake Tapper was on the air pretending to be serious as he tried to attach a metal pen to his forehead to see whether his COVID-19 vaccine had turned him into an electromagnetic force field. Cheer with me, fellow Ohioans :O-H. I-Oh, no, no, no.  (Connie Schultz, 6/11)

USA Today: COVID-19 Burnout Is One Reason There Might Not Be A Doctor Next Time You Need One
As COVID-19 recedes in the United States, the medical community is taking stock of its impact – not only on the population at large but on our own profession. Over the past year, the pandemic has intensified a worrying trend: America is facing a shortage of physicians – and that shortage will likely get worse. The United States was heading for a physician shortfall long before the pandemic. The AAMC (Association of American Medical Colleges) has been tracking this trend for many years now, and the warning signs have been clear: We have consistently found that demand for physicians outpaces supply. Our latest report – which we are releasing Friday – suggests the problem will likely get worse. (David J. Skorton and Janis M. Orlowski, 6/11)

Kansas City Star: Many Kansans Won’t Help Us Reach COVID-19 Herd Immunity 
The United States is unlikely to reach herd immunity to COVID-19. A virus that might be knocked out if we all agreed to step up will instead “most likely become a manageable threat that will continue to circulate in the United States for years to come, still causing hospitalizations and deaths but in much smaller numbers,” reported The New York Times. This is apparently acceptable to at least 20-24% of Kansas residents, based on information from the Department of Health and Human Services showing the share of adults who would “definitely” or “probably” get the vaccine or who have already been vaccinated. (Susan Thacker, 6/11)

Los Angeles Times: Hold On To Your Post-Pandemic Joy 
A week ago, I met a group of friends at a bar for the first time in a year. We were outdoors, in a parking lot. There was traffic going by and our unhoused neighbors had an encampment across the street. Pre-pandemic, my friends and I would not have chosen to meet there, but we drank margaritas and ate chips and guacamole and laughed and talked for hours. Without masks. I was so happy to see their faces I almost cried. (Diana Wagman, 6/10)

Stat: The U.S. Urgently Needs An Affordable Treatment For Severe Malaria 
When Eli Lilly announced in 2017 that it would stop producing quinidine, it was the only medication approved for severe malaria treatment in the U.S. As quinidine supplies dwindled, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention made available artesunate, a better drug that is the international gold standard for treating severe malaria, free of charge via request. But that process posed problems. (Anne E.P. Frosch, Aileen Ahiskali and Chandy C. John, 6/11)

Bloomberg: Do I Need Glasses? Pandemic Myopia Shows Screen Time Is Bad For Eyes 
I have been four-eyed since I was 19. My prescription for nearsightedness was so mild, however, that I could manage without glasses if I wanted to. Over the years, my myopia needle moved only slightly, generally hovering around -1.0. A slight reading prescription was added in middle age, introducing me to the joys of varifocal lenses and a new chance to shop for frames. (Therese Raphael, 6/11)

The Baltimore Sun: Mental Health Stigma Persists; Lessons From The Treatment Of Naomi Osaka 
More so than any other illness, injury or disease, mental health disorders are subject to intense stigma, scrutiny and even discrimination. While individuals contend with the intense effects of their illness, they also have to fight battles over whether to “disclose” what they are dealing with and the repercussions that can accompany that. This is why we and so many others commend Naomi Osaka, the No. 2 ranked woman in the French Open for speaking out about her years-long experiences with recurrent depression and social anxiety. She may not have won the Roland-Garros, but she’s taken her place as a champion of mental health advocacy, and we can’t have enough winners in our corner. (Ken Thakker, 6/11)

Modern Healthcare: Medical Student Precepting Is Crucial For A Robust Primary-Care Workforce
The American Board of Family Medicine recently released the results of its 2020 National Family Medicine Graduate Survey. This is an annual survey of family physicians three years out of residency. The 2020 data included responses to a new question: "Do you currently work in a practice or for an organization where you completed a clerkship or another part of your training during medical school?" Nearly 1 in 5, 19%, responded yes. This data suggests that the undergraduate medical experience influences the selection of future practice settings of family physicians. (Dr. H. Andrew Selinger and Mary Theobald, 6/10)

USA Today: Alzheimer's Drug Aduhelm May Have Prolonged Reagan's Pain
In the early stages of my father’s Alzheimer’s, his eyes were usually veiled with fear. His face would tense up when he struggled to remember something or identify an object he was looking at. Sometimes he would say, “I have this thing …” It was heartbreaking.In 2011, I started my support group program, Beyond Alzheimer’s, and I have now heard hundreds of stories that are both unique and achingly similar. One of the few constants of Alzheimer’s is that the early stages are the hardest. You watch as your loved ones struggle with an inescapable reality – they are being pirated away piece by piece, and there is nothing they can do to stop it. The one mercy in the latter stages is that fear leaves their eyes. They settle into the distance they now inhabit. (Patti Davis, 6/10)

New England Journal of Medicine: HIPAA And The Leak Of “Deidentified” EHR Data
It is ironic that although patients (and their physicians) still have difficulty obtaining complete medical record information in a timely fashion, the HIPAA Privacy Rule permits massive troves of patients’ digital health data to traverse the medical–industrial complex unmonitored and unregulated. Privacy is essential for reducing the potential for abuse of power, supporting self-determination and individual preferences, and allowing people to preserve their reputations and avoid stigma. Although the HIPAA Privacy Rule governs uses of identifiable data, it doesn’t apply to data that are considered deidentified. (Dr. Kenneth D. Mandl and and Eric D. Perakslis, 6/10)

New England Journal of Medicine: HIPAA at 25 — A Work in Progress
HIPAA regulations critically aim to balance privacy protection with promotion of information access and technologies to improve health care quality and efficiency. Frankly, regulatory momentum, along with popular culture, has been pulling toward greater data sharing and less privacy. Yet privacy is a kind of power; without it, health care consumers are at the mercy of those who would control, exploit, and manipulate our data. Big business and algorithms have greatly diminished our ability to exercise meaningful control over our data privacy. (Anita L. Allen, 6/10)