The Boston Globe: MGH Vaccinating Workers Against Monkeypox, The First Time The Shots Have Been Used In The US
Massachusetts General Hospital this week began vaccinating a small group of workers against monkeypox — the first time the new medicine has been used in this country outside of clinical trials. The workers were in close contact with a man diagnosed with the virus and hospitalized at Mass General from May 12 to May 20. The patient was the first person in the United States to be tied to an ongoing outbreak of the rare virus in Europe and North America. Monkeypox has now been identified in nine people across seven states, including Massachusetts, Florida, Utah, Washington, California, Virginia, and New York, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday. Among the latest cases, reported Thursday by health officials in Virginia, is a woman who recently traveled to an area in Africa where the disease is known to occur. They said she was not infectious during travel and did not require hospitalization. (Lazar, 5/26)

NBC News: Nine Monkeypox Cases Identified In U.S.: What We Know About Each Of Them
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has identified nine cases of monkeypox across seven U.S. states, officials said Thursday: in California, Florida, Massachusetts, New York, Utah, Virginia and Washington. "The U.S. has the resources we need to help us respond to monkeypox in this country right now. We've been preparing for this type of outbreak for decades," CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said in a briefing. (Bendix, 5/26)

Bloomberg: Treatments Are Being Sent to Nine Monkeypox Patients in US
The monkeypox outbreak in the US has expanded to include nine cases in seven states, senior health officials said Thursday, adding that the outbreak is expanding in countries where the virus does not normally circulate. Officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the new monkeypox infections were found in Virginia, California and Washington state. Earlier this week, the agency said four cases had been identified in Massachusetts, Florida, Utah and New York. Some but not all of the US patients had recently traveled abroad. (Muller and Stein, 5/26)

The Washington Post: Monkeypox Case Reported In Virginia, CDC Says 
Virginia public health officials on Thursday reported the state’s first presumed case of monkeypox, in a Northern Virginia woman who had recently traveled to an African country. The case is among nine recently identified in seven states, officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told reporters Thursday morning. The state lab identified the case, and as of Thursday afternoon, the Virginia Department of Health was awaiting CDC confirmation. (Portnoy, 5/26)

Colorado Sun: Presumptive Case Of Monkeypox Identified In Colorado
A presumptive case of monkeypox has been identified in Colorado, the state Department of Public Health and Environment announced Thursday. The infection occurred in a Denver-area man who had recently traveled from Canada, where there is an ongoing outbreak of the virus. Health officials are working to identify and monitor close contacts of the man’s, but Dr. Rachel Herlihy, the state epidemiologist, said there is not believed to be a high risk of community transmission. “Risk to Coloradans is low,” Herlihy said. (Ingold, 5/26)

Health experts warn against stigmatizing gay and bisexual men —

Stat: Officials Scramble To Raise Monkeypox Awareness Ahead Of Pride Month
Public health authorities are scrambling to raise awareness of the growing monkeypox outbreak in advance of this weekend’s start of Pride Month celebrations. In doing so, they are trying to strike a delicate balance — getting out the message that monkeypox may currently be a risk to men who have sex with men, without stigmatizing the community by linking them to a scary-sounding virus that can infect anyone in certain circumstances. (Branswell, 5/27)

Los Angeles Times: Monkeypox Outbreak Raises Fears Of Gay Stigmatization
As mysterious cases of a rare and ominously named virus began surfacing in Europe, Germany’s disease-control center quickly told people to be on the lookout. In a May 19 alert, the agency listed telltale symptoms of monkeypox: fever, aches, a rash. Then, in a further comment that set different alarm bells ringing, the bulletin pointedly warned men who have sex with men to “seek immediate medical attention” if they detect signs of the disease. (Kirschbaum and Chu, 5/26)

More on monkeypox —

Stat: As Monkeypox Spreads, Bavarian Nordic's CEO Fields Calls For His Vaccine
As monkeypox threatens to become the latest global health concern, Bavarian Nordic has suddenly become very popular. In 2019, its Jynneos vaccine became the only shot approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to combat smallpox, as well as monkeypox, which is closely related but less severe. And now that the infectious disease is spreading quickly among countries where it is not considered endemic, a growing number of governments are reaching out to Paul Chaplin, who runs the Danish pharmaceutical company. We spoke with Chaplin about the vaccine, the potential for increasing production, and how the company might cope with access issues raised by the Covid-19 pandemic. (Silverman, 5/26)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: In 2003, Wisconsin Was The Epicenter Of A Monkeypox Outbreak. The Latest Cases Shouldn't Cause Alarm, Yet
 "The average person shouldn't be worried about monkeypox. It's more about knowing when and where it's been found and monitoring your own health," said Dan Shirley, medical director for infection prevention at UW Health in Madison. "If you have anything that seems like monkeypox, report it right away." However, the outbreak should be a greater concern to public health officials, said Richard Kennedy, co-director of the vaccine research group at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. "Looking back, we had the first human cases in 1970," he said. "But we didn't really see a lot of cases outside of Africa. Now we're seeing more cases outside of Africa than we have in the entire history of the disease. We need to find out why." (Johnson, 5/26)

CNBC: How To Protect Yourself Against Monkeypox, What To Do If You Catch It
A recent monkeypox outbreak across the U.S., Europe, Australia and the Middle East has baffled health experts and is raising concerns of a wider outbreak. As of Wednesday, there were 346 confirmed and suspected cases in 22 countries outside of Africa, where the virus is endemic, according to Our World in Data. It marks the first known community spread of the virus. Prior to this outbreak, cases had been linked to travel to regions where the virus is endemic or imported animals carrying the virus. (Gilchrist, 5/27)

The Hill: Formula Shortage Won’t End Until July, FDA Chief Says 
The nation’s infant formula shortage likely won’t be fully resolved until late July, the head of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) told senators Thursday. During a Senate Health Committee hearing, FDA Commissioner Robert Califf said it will take time to get to the point when store shelves are fully stocked but that eventually there will be a surplus. (Weixel, 5/26)

The Wall Street Journal: National Baby-Formula Stockpile Is Urged By FDA Commissioner 
Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Robert Califf proposed a national stockpile of baby formula that authorities could tap to ease future shortages. Dr. Califf said in a hearing Thursday before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee that he expects recent government and private sector moves will produce a surplus of formula in about two months. (Whyte, 5/26)

Reuters: U.S. FDA Expands Collaboration With Danone To Boost Baby Formula Supply
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Thursday it has expanded its collaboration with Danone's Nutricia business to boost supplies of specialized medical baby formula bottles to address its shortage among infants with certain allergies or critical health conditions. The health regulator said about 500,000 additional cans manufactured by Danone would be sent to the United States. (5/26)

Also —

The Washington Post: As Baby Formula Shortage Continues, D.C. Charity Offers Free Formula Bottles To Families 
Behind the refrigerator’s glass door Mark Bucher saw a single 8-ounce bottle of Similac baby formula. It was 9:30 a.m. at the Glassmanor Community Center in Prince George’s County. The fridge had been filled once this morning with formula, Bucher said, and this was all that was left a few hours later. “These bottles individually are like $4,” Bucher said as he propped open the fridge door and began placing bottles inside from a new Similac 24-pack. “It’s expensive. And if you don’t have SNAP benefits, that’s $16 a day to feed your kid, roughly speaking. That’s stressful.” The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program provides benefits to needy families to purchase food. (Swenson, 5/26)

North Carolina Health News: StarMed Comes To The Rescue With Baby Formula 
On Thursday morning at 8:30 a.m., cars were lined across the StarMed Healthcare parking lot on the outskirts of Charlotte. Under a white tent, volunteers were handing out small paper bags filled with one canister of baby formula to people who had waited an hour to get nourishment for their babies. StarMed has become a part of a statewide effort to distribute formula  to families who have searched far and wide to find the necessity on store shelves. (Whitlow, 5/27)

AP: Baby Formula Shortage Highlights Racial Disparities 
As parents across the United States struggle to find formula to feed their children, the pain is particularly acute among Black and Hispanic women. Black women have historically faced obstacles to breastfeeding, including a lack of lactation support in the hospital, more pressure to formula feed and cultural roadblocks. It’s one of many inequalities for Black mothers : They are far more likely to die from pregnancy complications, and less likely to have their concerns about pain taken seriously by doctors. (Martin, Licon and Tang, 5/27)

Kansas City Star: KC Docs: Here’s What Not To Do During Baby Formula Shortage 
A few days ago an Ohio mom with more than 12,000 Facebook followers shared a recipe for homemade baby formula that’s making the social media rounds. The ingredients? Water, Karo syrup, evaporated milk and baby vitamin supplements. “This is how a lot of kids grew up!!!” she wrote. Facebook flagged the post for missing context: “Independent fact-checkers say this information could mislead people." Overland Park pediatrician Natasha Burgert is so worried that parents are following advice like that that she recently issued a warning on Twitter. She and other pediatricians and health officials are cautioning parents who are scrambling for alternatives during the ongoing baby formula shortage. (Gutierrez, 5/27)

NBC News: ‘This Is Our Lane’: Doctors Speak Out Against Gun Violence After Texas School Shooting
Dr. Bindi Naik-Mathuria, a pediatric surgeon at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, knows what assault rifles can do to a child’s body. The damage, she said, is often insurmountable. “It’s not just the hole you see on the outside. It’s a huge blast effect,” Naik-Mathuria said. “You see completely shredded organs. Vessels are completely disrupted. There’s no way to salvage them. ”That’s why Naik-Mathuria is full-throatedly proclaiming that the issue of gun violence is “very much our lane.” “We have our hands inside these people, these children, trying to save them,” she said. “How can anyone tell us that it’s not our problem?” (Edwards, 5/26)

NBC News: Surgeon On Treating Texas Shooting Victims: 'Moment Of Crisis With Lifetime Of Impact'
Sitting in a quiet conference room, away from the chaos of the trauma unit at University Hospital [in San Antonio], Dr. Ronald Stewart paused and closed his eyes several times Thursday before choking back tears. “I feel so bad for those families,” he said, “and guilty, to some degree, that they don’t have their children and I do.” Stewart, senior trauma surgeon at University Hospital and the father of three adult children, was one of the doctors who treated the victims of Tuesday’s mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, where a gunman opened fire with a weapon of war, killing 19 children and two teachers. (Lozano, 5/26)

Houston Chronicle: In Uvalde, A County Without A Medical Examiner, This Judge Had Horrific Duty Of Identifying Slain Children
Sitting in his office on the third floor of the courthouse here, Judge Eulalio Diaz first saw a post around noon Tuesday from the city’s police. Not a first responder, he went about his day, watching ambulances and buses out two windows behind his desk, hearing and reading reports. About two hours later, he got a call requesting he “make a location,” indicating that at least one person is dead in a Texas county without a medical examiner. As the county’s justice of the peace, his duties usually include court cases and officiating weddings, but his role also includes serving as the coroner. “We were under impression that it was two or three people,” Diaz, 49, recounted Thursday. (Serrano, 5/26)

On gun legislation —

Houston Chronicle: Cornyn Calls For Bipartisan Gun Law As Schumer Blasts Abbott
As negotiations on possible gun reform got underway in the U.S. Senate on Thursday, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer blasted Gov. Greg Abbott as an “absolute fraud.” Schumer accused Abbott of offering nothing but “empty platitudes about healing and hope” after he was confronted by Beto O’Rourke during a press conference in Uvalde on Wednesday. “He asked the people to put their agendas aside and think about someone other than themselves,” Schumer said. “How dare he. What an absolute fraud the governor of Texas is." (Wermund, 5/26)

CalMatters: CA Advances Gun Control Bills Amid School Shooting
As news traveled around the country Tuesday of a mass shooting at a Texas elementary school that left at least 22 dead — including 19 children, two teachers and the 18-year-old gunman — California lawmakers were advancing a package of gun control bills, including one sponsored by Gov. Gavin Newsom that co-opts the structure of Texas’ abortion ban to crack down on illegal firearms. The striking timing highlighted a shared challenge facing California, Texas and other states: reducing gun deaths, which have ticked up dramatically nationwide amid the pandemic. (Hoeven, 5/25)

More about the gun violence epidemic —

Reuters: Texas School Shooting Swells Ranks Of Traumatized Teachers
After a teenage gunman killed two of her high school students and wounded four others in her Florida classroom in 2018, Ivy Schamis found the strength to carry on teaching for two more years. Missy Dodds, who watched five of her pupils gunned down by a former student who shot his way into her classroom in Minnesota in 2005, returned for six weeks before abandoning the career she loved. (Reid, 5/26)

Los Angeles Times: What Should You Do In A Mass Shooting?
A grocery store. A church. An elementary school. Again. Within 10 days this month, mass shootings in Buffalo, N.Y., Laguna Woods, and Uvalde, Texas, have claimed dozens of lives, shattered families and communities, and put people around the U.S. on edge. (Amato, 5/25)

The Washington Post: How To Stay Up-To-Date On Terrible News Without Burning Out 
It’s important to stay informed, engaged and even outraged. But it’s also important to pay attention to our own limits and mental health by taking breaks, looking for signs of burnout, connecting with our families and consuming news in the smartest way possible. That means setting some ground rules for the main portal connecting us to nonstop tragedy: our phones. (Kelly, 5/25)

KHN: KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: A(Nother) Very Sad Week 
This week’s mass shooting of elementary schoolers in Texas (just 10 days after a racially motivated mass shooting at a Buffalo, New York, grocery store) has reignited the gun debate in Washington, D.C., and around the country. But the political disagreements over guns and their appropriate role in American society are as insoluble as ever. Meanwhile, Oklahoma becomes the first state to try to ban all abortions, as the nation awaits the Supreme Court’s ruling in a case it is expected to use to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade decision. (5/26)

AP: Planned Parenthood Workers In 5 Midwest States Seek Union
About 400 workers at Planned Parenthood offices in five states said Thursday they plan to unionize as their employer deals with the potential loss of business in states where abortions may become illegal if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling. Workers for Planned Parenthood North Central States in Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota said they have signed cards showing majority support for unionization, and on Thursday they formally filed for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board, said Ashley Schmidt, a training and development specialist for Nebraska and western Iowa. (Pitt, 5/26)

Des Moines Register: Union Drive Seeks To Organize Iowa Planned Parenthood Workers
Citing understaffing and a "sense of urgency" amid reports that the U.S. Supreme Court will overturn abortion protections, Planned Parenthood employees in Iowa have announced their intention to unionize. Workers at the nonprofit, which provides abortions and other reproductive services, have filed an election petition with the National Labor Relations Board, forming a potential bargaining unit with Planned Parenthood North Central States employees. In addition to employees in Iowa, the unit would cover those in Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota. (Jett, 5/26)

Fortune: The Head Of Planned Parenthood Has Advice For CEOs Preparing For The End Of Roe V. Wade
Before Alexis McGill Johnson became the CEO of Planned Parenthood, she was the cofounder of Perception Institute, an organization that advises C-suite executives and other leaders on issues of bias and discrimination. It’s a background that’s serving her well today. Since the May leak of the Supreme Court draft decision overturning Roe v. Wade, her phone has been ringing nonstop. On the line: CEOs seeking her counsel as they face not only an end to the constitutional protection of abortion rights, but also the growing expectation that they do something about it. (Hinchliffe, 5/26)

In other news about abortion and reproductive health —

AP: On Remote US Territories, Abortion Hurdles Mount Without Roe 
Women from the remote U.S. territories of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands will likely have to travel farther than other Americans to terminate a pregnancy if the Supreme Court overturns a precedent that established a national right to abortion in the United States. Hawaii is the closest U.S. state where abortion is legal under local law. Even so, Honolulu is 3,800 miles (6,100 kilometers) away — about 50% farther than Boston is from Los Angeles. (McAvoy, 5/27)

Oklahoman: Oklahoma Anti-Abortion Group Spent More On Salaries Than Pregnancy Centers
When a newly created nonprofit won a contract with the state to administer millions of dollars to crisis pregnancy centers across Oklahoma as part of a plan by lawmakers to reduce abortion procedures by encouraging women to carry their pregnancy to term, it pledged to help 9,300 women in less than 16 months. But records show only 524 women were served as the organization spent twice as much on its own administrative costs and salaries as it did on supporting anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers across the state. (Felder, 5/26)

Detroit Free Press: Whitmer To Michigan Supreme Court: 'Time Is Of The Essence' On Abortion
A temporary ban on enforcing a dormant state law that criminalizes most abortions makes it even more important for the Michigan Supreme Court to quickly consider whether there is a state constitutional right to an abortion, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and her team argued in a recent legal filing. The filing, submitted Wednesday, included answers to multiple questions posed by the state Supreme Court in response to a Whitmer lawsuit. The responses ranged from how the governor had standing to bring the case to the relatively obscure power she's using to ask the high court to immediately consider her arguments. (Boucher, 5/26)

The 19th: Most Americans Don’t Want Key Decisions Overturned By Supreme Court
Two-thirds of Americans say they don’t want the Supreme Court to reverse its decision that legalized abortion federally, and even larger majorities say they do not want opinions on personal liberties involving marriage and contraception overturned. An exclusive The 19th/Momentive poll of more than 8,000 Americans revealed strongly held opinions on maintaining Supreme Court precedent on cases rooted in the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of personal liberty. (Gerson, 5/26)

Reuters: The Next U.S. Abortion Battle Is Over Pills, And It's Already Begun
The U.S. Supreme Court has not yet released its decision that looks set to dramatically scale back abortion rights, but one of the next legal battles has already begun in a Mississippi court. That is where the manufacturer of a pill used to carry out medication abortions, Las Vegas-based GenBioPro Inc, has filed a federal lawsuit challenging the conservative state's restrictions on the pill, used in more than half of all U.S. abortions. (Hurley, 5/26)

Modern Healthcare: Senate Finance Leaders Propose Bill To Expand Telehealth For Mental Healthcare
A bipartisan group of Senate Finance Committee leaders on Thursday proposed expanding telehealth access for mental health services. The committee issued a discussion draft that pushes to eliminate Medicare's in-person visit requirement prior to patients seeking online mental health services. This requirement has not gone into effect due to the COVID-19 public health emergency. But when the emergency ends, it would limit older adults' ability to access virtual care. Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), ranking member Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Sens. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and John Thune (R-S.D.) released the draft urging stronger legislative action.Telehealth services proved to be a "game-changer" during the pandemic, Wyden said in a news release. (Berryman, 5/26)

Fierce Healthcare: Senate Finance Committee Details Telehealth 'Bill Of Rights' For Mental Health Care Services
The Senate Finance Committee released a discussion draft Thursday outlining the legislative priorities for telehealth services to address mental health. The discussion draft is expected to be part of a larger package the committee is working on to address mental health reforms. “The pandemic made clear that telehealth is a game-changer, particularly so Americans can get mental health care when they need it,” Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, the committee chair, said. “These policies will help strengthen access, awareness and support for telehealth, including by creating a ‘bill of rights’ for information on the availability of telehealth for mental health care.” (King, 5/26)

Roll Call: With July Approaching, Mental Health Bill Seems Far Off 
Lawmakers are facing increased pressure to pass a comprehensive mental health and substance use package but are unlikely to make an initial goal of advancing legislation before the implementation of a three-digit suicide hotline in July. At least four congressional committees have committed to advancing a swath of bipartisan mental health bills under their jurisdiction, but lawmakers have not yet unlocked the puzzle of how to incorporate a growing laundry list of programs to authorize and establish existing and new programs dedicated to treatment, prevention, education, crisis care, drug interdiction and the workforce. (Raman, 5/26)

In news from the Health and Human Services Department —

Modern Healthcare: HHS Scraps Trump-Era SUNSET Rule That Mandated Regulatory Reviews
The Health and Human Services Department has withdrawn a policy initiated under President Donald Trump that would have required extensive reviews of its regulations. Under the SUNSET rule, nearly all HHS regulations would be scrutinized for economic impact and other factors after 10 years, and automatically eliminated if they were not reviewed within that time frame. President Joe Biden's administration formally canceled this policy in a rule issued Thursday. The SUNSET rule would have substantially altered HHS operations and had negative consequences for people affected by departmental regulations, HHS announced in a Federal Register notice. (Goldman, 5/26)

Los Angeles Times: U.S. Moves To Make COVID Antiviral Drug More Available
The White House announced more steps Thursday to make the antiviral treatment Paxlovid more accessible across the U.S. as it projects that COVID-19 infections will continue to spread over the summer travel season. The nation’s first federally backed test-to-treat site is opening Thursday in Rhode Island, providing patients with immediate access to the drug if they test positive for the coronavirus. More federally supported sites are set to open in the coming weeks in Massachusetts and New York City, both hit by a marked rise in infections. (Miller, 5/26)

The New York Times: White House Pushes To Get Paxlovid Pills In More Covid Patients’ Hands
White House officials said on Thursday that they were introducing new models for distributing Paxlovid, the Covid-19 oral medication made by Pfizer, in an effort to get the treatment to more people and keep coronavirus death rates relatively low even as cases increase. The federal government will start reimbursing a clinic in Providence, R.I., for evaluating patients who test positive and immediately prescribing Paxlovid to those eligible for it — the first of what the White House said would be a series of federally supported sites, with others set to open in New York and Illinois. Federal workers are also being sent to state-run testing sites in Minnesota, transforming them into “test-to-treat” locations, the White House said. (Weiland, 5/27)

More on Paxlovid —

The Conversation: COVID Made Things Taste Weird, Now 'Paxlovid Mouth' Sounds Disgusting. What Causes Dysgeusia?
Loss or alteration of taste (dysgeusia) is a common symptom of COVID. It’s also a side effect of several illnesses and medications, including Paxlovid, the new antiviral medication to treat COVID infection. Although it affects fewer than 6% of people who are given Paxlovid, some report a “horrible” taste that came on soon after they started taking the drug. Dysgeusia is described as a bitter, metallic or sour taste in the mouth. But what exactly is it, and what’s going on in the body when it happens? (Hellewell, 5/23)

The Atlantic: Rebound COVID Is Just The Start Of Paxlovid’s Mysteries
The first data on Paxlovid, out last November, hinted that the COVID antiviral would cut the risk of hospitalization and death by 89 percent. Pundits called the drug “a monster breakthrough,” “miraculous,” and “the biggest advance in the pandemic since the vaccines.” “Today’s news is a real game-changer,” said Albert Bourla, the CEO of Pfizer, which makes the drug. The pills are “a game changer,” President Joe Biden repeated a few months later. Now, finally, the game is being changed. The government has ordered 20 million courses of Paxlovid, committing half of the $10 billion in additional COVID funding that is being negotiated in the Senate; and Pfizer says that the number of patients taking the drug increased by a factor of 10 between mid-February and late April. (Gutman, 5/26)

Stat: Coronavirus Hasn't Developed Resistance To Paxlovid. Can That Last? 
When the patient came back 10 days later, coughing repeatedly and complaining of headache, Davey Smith feared the worst. Smith had prescribed the patient Pfizer’s new antiviral pill, Paxlovid, on the previous visit, after a Covid-19 test came back positive. A resurgence of symptoms probably meant one thing, especially after Smith tested the patient and got another positive. “I was pretty sure it was resistance,” said Smith, an infectious disease physician at the University of California, San Diego. “I’m a virologist, I combat resistance all the time.” (Mast, 5/27)

In related news about covid shortages —

The New York Times: Imaging Contrast Dye Shortage Delays Tests For Diseases 
Doctors cannot seem to pinpoint what is wrong with Michael Quintos. Mr. Quintos, 53, a Chicago resident, has constant stomach pain. He has been hospitalized, and his doctors have tried everything including antibiotics, antacids, even removing his appendix. “I still don’t feel good,” Mr. Quintos said. His doctors recommend using a CT scan with contrast, imaging that relies on a special dye often injected into patients to better visualize their blood vessels, intestines and organs like the kidney and liver. But a nationwide shortage of the imaging agents needed for the procedure — the result of the recent lockdown in Shanghai to quell a Covid outbreak — has prompted hospitals to ration these tests except in emergencies. Like thousands of others in recent weeks, Mr. Quintos cannot get an exam using the contrast dye. (Abelson, 5/26)

Bloomberg: CDC Plans To Stop Reporting Suspected Covid Cases To Ease Burden
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention plans to simplify the Covid-19 hospital data it collects as the demands of the pandemic evolve and some assembled information has become outdated or redundant. The agency is likely to stop collecting data from hospitals on suspected Covid cases that haven’t been confirmed by tests, for example, and may also wind down federal reporting from rehabilitation and mental health facilities that aren’t major intake points for virus cases, according to a draft of the plan that was viewed by Bloomberg News. (Griffin and Armstrong, 5/26)

NPR: COVID Rates May Be Much Higher Than Reported. How Bad Is The Current Surge?
Cases of COVID-19 are – yet again – on the rise. The U.S. is seeing an average of more than 100,000 reported new cases across the country every day. That's nearly double the rate a month ago and four times higher than this time last year. And the real number of cases is likely much higher than that, according to health officials. Because many people now rely on at-home tests, "we're clearly undercounting infections," White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha told reporters at the most recent COVID press briefing. Hospitalizations are trending upwards too, though only gradually in most places. (Simmons-Duffin, 5/27)

Politico: CMS Turning Attention To Hospitals With Covid Outbreaks
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is probing hospitals where a high rate of patients have gotten Covid-19 infections after cases spiked to record highs this year. Jon Blum, the agency’s principal deputy administrator and chief operating officer, told POLITICO on Wednesday that the regulator is focusing on facilities with Covid outbreaks, taking into account patient and health workers’ safety complaints, a change from the agency’s “less rigorous” process early in the pandemic. (Levy, 5/26)

Salt Lake Tribune: Utah COVID-19 Case Counts Jump, And 12 More Die — Including A Child, State Reports
This week Utah reported more than 5,000 new coronavirus cases, more than 100 new hospitalizations and a dozen more deaths — including one girl between the ages of 1 and 14. The Department of Health said it had no additional information about her death. Last week, state health officials and doctors told reporters Utah was in the midst of a coronavirus surge and would likely see rising case counts and other metrics for several more weeks. Intermountain’s Dr. Brandon Webb said high positivity rates suggested case counts showed a “significant undercount.” (Harkins, 5/27)

More on the spread of covid —

AP: Dominant Coronavirus Mutant Contains Ghost Of Pandemic Past 
The coronavirus mutant that is now dominant in the United States is a member of the omicron family but scientists say it spreads faster than its omicron predecessors, is adept at escaping immunity and might possibly cause more serious disease. Why? Because it combines properties of both omicron and delta, the nation’s dominant variant in the middle of last year. A genetic trait that harkens back to the pandemic’s past, known as a “delta mutation,” appears to allow the virus “to escape pre-existing immunity from vaccination and prior infection, especially if you were infected in the omicron wave,” said Dr. Wesley Long, a pathologist at Houston Methodist in Texas. That’s because the original omicron strain that swept the world didn’t have the mutation. (Ungar, 5/26)

MedPage Today: When Will We Know If COVID Is Seasonal? 
COVID-19 may indeed become a seasonal illness with predictable patterns of infection -- but it's not there yet, epidemiologists and infectious disease experts say. While the virus has had some element of seasonality since it first came into the world more than 2 years ago, other factors -- including variant evolution, population immunity, and behavioral changes -- have made seasonality less apparent. (Fiore, 5/24)

The New York Times: Why Covid Is More Likely To Spread At The Gym
Many gyms and health clubs seem to be filling up again with people eager to return to their old routines and communities or get in shape for summer, at the same time that new Omicron variants are pushing Covid infections up. So, how safe is it to go back to the gym? Put another way, how many microscopic aerosol particles are the other cyclists in your spin class breathing out into the room? How many is the runner on the nearby treadmill spewing forth? A small study about respiration and exercise published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences provides some rather startling answers. (Reynolds, 5/24)

Also —

KHN: Burned Out By Covid And 80-Hour Workweeks, Resident Physicians Unionize
In the early weeks of the pandemic, Dr. Lorenzo González, then a second-year resident of family medicine at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, ran on fumes, working as many as 80 hours a week in the ICU. He was constantly petrified that he would catch the covid-19 virus and guilt-ridden for not having enough time to help his ailing father. In April 2020, his father, a retired landscaper, died of heart and lung failure. González mourned alone. His job as a doctor-in-training put him at high risk of catching the virus, and he didn’t want to inadvertently spread it to his family. Financial stress also set in as he confronted steep burial costs. (Kwon, 5/27)

USNI News: Navy Separates More Than A 1,000 Sailors For COVID-19 Vaccine Refusal 
The Navy exceeded 1,000 separations due to sailors’ continued refusal to get vaccinated against COVID-19. The service has now approved 1,074 separations for sailors who will not get vaccinated against COVID-19 and do not have a waiver, according to the sea service’s weekly update. The Navy cannot currently separate anyone who applied for a religious exemption due to a ruling in a federal lawsuit. (Mongilio, 5/26)

WPMI: Navy Lieutenant Who Refused Vaccine Cleared Of Misconduct, Will Remain In Service 
In a unanimous decision, a Navy administrative board has found that a lieutenant who refused to get vaccinated against COVID-19 did not commit misconduct by doing so. ... The board, which was composed of three Navy officers, made its decision on May 20, 2022. Younts successfully argued that the order for military members to receive a dose of the COVID-19 vaccine was not a lawful order, according to the release. (Rogers, 5/23)

In other news about mandates —

Los Angeles Times: UCLA Reinstates Indoor Mask Mandate As COVID Cases Rise In L.A.
UCLA has ordered a mask mandate in indoor settings on campus, effective Friday, as coronavirus cases continue to climb in Los Angeles County. Officials said the mask order was needed to avoid disrupting in-person learning and campus activities, including graduation. “An important strategy to curb the spread of COVID-19, in addition to ongoing testing and daily symptom monitoring, is the consistent use of well-fitting masks indoors,” the campus said in a letter Thursday. (Lin II and Money, 5/26)

More on the vaccine rollout —

MarketWatch: The FDA's Decision On Novavax's COVID-19 Vaccine Could Come In Weeks 
Novavax Inc. is still waiting for U.S. regulators to decide whether to authorize its COVID-19 vaccine, which some experts believe could serve as an alternative option for people who are hesitant to get a mRNA vaccine. Novavax’s vaccine, called Nuvaxovid, is a recombinant protein-based shot that is similar in design to a flu shot that’s been available in the U.S. since 2013. This type of vaccine has a different makeup than the mRNA vaccines developed by Moderna Inc., BioNTech and Pfizer Inc., as well as the adenovirus shot from Johnson & Johnson. (Lee, 5/26)

Healthline: Can I Donate Plasma After Getting The COVID-19 Vaccine?
There were close to 40 million plasma donations in the United States in 2017. Many people who regularly donate plasma know how important their donations are for use in lifesaving medical treatments. Some have raised questions about plasma donation during the coronavirus 19 (COVID-19) pandemic. For instance, if you’re a regular donor, you’ll likely have heard false reports that you won’t be able to donate if you get a COVID-19 vaccination. (Behring, 5/26)

CIDRAP: 1 COVID Vaccine Dose May Boost Protection After Infection, Vaccination
Long-lasting yet flagging protection conferred by a previous COVID-19 infection or vaccination can be reinforced by even a single vaccine dose, concludes an Israeli study published yesterday in NEJM.A team led by researchers from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa mined the Israeli Ministry of Health database for data on all patients who tested positive for COVID-19 or received any dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine from August to September 2021, when the Delta variant was dominant. (5/26)

CIDRAP: Mix-And-Match Booster Shots Shown More Effective Against Omicron Strain
A letter yesterday in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention scientists shows homologous (same-vaccine) boosting for Johnson & Johnson (J&J) vaccine recipients was significantly less effective than mix-and-match booster doses when the Omicron strain was predominant in the United States. Approximately 18 million Americans received the one-dose J&J vaccine as their primary COVID-19 vaccine. The study tracked COVID-19 cases among J&J recipients with no booster, a J&J booster, an mRNA booster, and adults who received three doses of mRNA vaccine (a primary series plus a booster). (5/26)

Axios: FDA: Pharmacists And Wholesalers Can Import Drugs From Canada
Pharmacists and drug wholesalers can import prescription medicines from Canada for up to two years as part of state programs aimed at bringing down drug costs, according to final FDA guidance released Thursday. With President Biden's drug pricing agenda still stalled, the FDA is further clarifying how states could take advantage of lower drug costs abroad without the need to limit prices in the U.S. Both the Biden and Trump administrations embraced limited importation to bring down health costs, though experts view the policy as having limited impact. (Bettelheim, 5/26)

In other global news —

FiercePharma: Global Cancer Drug Launches—And Cost—Hit A Record In 2021
A flurry of innovation in oncology has led to a record number of new cancer drugs launched globally in 2021. But spending on oncology medicines also reached a new high. The world welcomed 30 novel oncology medicines in 2021, IQVIA found in its annual Global Oncology Trends report published Thursday. That’s compared to 104 new rollouts in the past five years. (Liu, 5/26)

CNBC: India Needs To Fill China Gaps To Become The "Pharmacy Of The World"
India has embarked on an ambitious plan to cut dependence on China for key raw materials as it seeks to become self-sufficient in its quest to be the “pharmacy of the world.” Already the world’s third-largest manufacturer of medicines by volume, India has one of the lowest manufacturing costs globally. About one in three pills consumed in the U.S. and one in four in the U.K. are made in India. However, India’s $42 billion pharmaceutical sector is heavily dependent on China for key active pharmaceutical ingredients or API — chemicals that are responsible for the therapeutic effect of drugs. (Buddhavarapu, 5/26)

More pharmaceutical updates —

Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Miss. Businessman Allegedly OK's Invoice For Drugs Never Sold In Texas
A Texas pharmacist's guilty plea in federal court opened a new door into the world of health care fraud in Mississippi. Jada Gilbert, a 51-year-old pharmacist from Liberty County, Texas, pleaded guilty April 29 in U.S. District Court in Gulfport to conspiracy to commit health care fraud. She was accused of filing claims for reimbursement for a number of high-priced scar treatment medications she allegedly purchased from a pharmaceutical company in Ocean Springs. The company, Gulf Coast Pharmaceuticals Plus, was owned by Kenneth Ritchey, an Ocean Springs businessman indicted in 2021 on federal charges of conspiracy and fraud for allegedly purchasing a large supply of personal protection equipment. (Beveridge, 5/26)

Stat: Mirati Expects To Take On Amgen's KRAS-Blocking Lung Cancer Drug
As Mirati Therapeutics waits for the Food and Drug Administration to complete a review of its KRAS-targeting lung cancer drug later this year, final results from a clinical trial reported Thursday could both help and hinder the biotech’s efforts to stand apart from a rival Amgen treatment approved one year ago. In its own clinical trial, the Mirati drug, called adagrasib, shrank tumors in 43% of patients with advanced lung cancer — a result that tops the 37% response rate from a study reported by Amgen for its drug, called Lumakras. However, the tumor-shrinking effect of Amgen’s drug may be longer-lasting. Mirati on Thursday said the median durability of treatment response in the adagrasib study was 8.5 months. For Amgen’s own study of Lumakras, the comparable number was 11.1 months. (Feuerstein, 5/26)

Bloomberg: Psychedelic Therapy Retreats Target Corporate Executives
Even as interest in psychedelics grows, the lack of formal scientific data on the drugs—and the fact that they’re illegal in most of the world—means businesses entering the market typically seek to create prescription medications for specific ailments. But a handful of companies are trying to sell mind-expanding substances to customers ranging from corporate executives to their blue-collar employees. These upstarts are focusing on jurisdictions where drugs such as psilocybin and ketamine are legal, betting they’ll be able to expand when more places decriminalize or legalize popular substances like ayahuasca and MDMA. Oregon, for example, will introduce licensed therapeutic use of psilocybin next year, and several cities have decriminalized plant-based drugs used for spiritual or religious purposes. (Kary, 5/26)

Modern Healthcare: CVS Health Launches Virtual Primary Care Platform 
CVS Health's new digital platform intends to give consumers access to health services on demand, whether they are at home or in a retail or community-based setting. Eligible Aetna and CVS Caremark members will be able to use CVS Health Virtual Primary Care to request remote primary care, chronic condition management and mental health services, in addition to being seen at an in-network provider in person, the company said Thursday. The platform will roll out to Aetna memberson Jan. 1, 2023, and CVS Caremark during the second quarter of 2023. (Devereaux, 5/26)

Modern Healthcare: Community Health Centers Face Trouble After Public Health Emergency Ends
A perfect storm looms for federally qualified health centers whenever the federal government decides the COVID-19 public health emergency is over. When that declaration ends, which isn't likely to happen until at least October, many community health center patients are expected to lose Medicaid coverage, which will leave clinics without reimbursement for services they provide. Planning for the future is further complicated by a pending funding cliff in fiscal 2023 and numerous other policy challenges. "It's very stressful looking for money rather than taking care of people," said Mary Elizabeth Marr, CEO of community health center chain Thrive Alabama. "We are the ones that take care of people that nobody else wants to take care of, and yet we're having to do all kinds of heroic things to try to raise funds." (Goldman and Hartnett, 5/26)

Dallas Morning News: Encompass Health Details Spinoff Of $1 Billion Dallas Home Health Care Business Enhabit
Enhabit’s business included 252 home health locations and 99 hospice locations nationwide at the end of March. It operates in 34 states. By Medicare expenditures, the company said its home health business ranked among the largest in the nation in 2020. Its hospice business accounted for just 1% of the Medicare hospice market that same year. “Although we entered hospice more recently than home health, we expect hospice to generate significant growth in the business going forward and to contribute to ongoing efforts to grow scale and density,” the company said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Home health care makes up roughly 80% of the company’s revenue, while hospice services make up the other 20%. (DiFurio, 5/26)

KHN: Betting On ‘Golden Age’ Of Colonoscopies, Private Equity Invests In Gastro Docs 
Mariel needed a new gastroenterologist. Having just moved back to San Antonio, the 30-something searched for a doctor to manage her Crohn’s disease, an inflammatory bowel condition that is successfully managed with medications and lifelong monitoring — including regular colonoscopies. Mariel booked an appointment and learned she would be on the hook for a $1,100 colonoscopy — about three times what she had paid for the same test in a different state. Almost three-quarters of the bill would be a “facility fee” for the in-office procedure at a colonoscopy clinic. (KHN agreed not to disclose Mariel’s last name because she is concerned speaking out might affect her doctor’s willingness to manage her medical condition.) (Pisacreta and Huetteman, 5/27)

KHN: ‘An Arm And A Leg’: Private Equity Is Everywhere In Health Care. Really
When a listener wrote to us about a pricey colonoscopy quote, we got curious. It turns out, a few years back, investors identified gastroenterology as their next hot-ticket item. Private equity companies are the house-flippers of the investment world, and they’ve found their way into many areas of our lives. Now, they’re at gastroenterologists’ offices, too, hoping to change the way these doctors do business and make a quick buck selling the practice down the road. (Weissmann, 5/27)

NPR: Jif Peanut Butter Recall: Other Companies' Products Contaminated By A Bad Batch
The Jif peanut butter recall has rapidly expanded in the past week and it now affects at least 69 other products. The cascading effect is due to the many companies who use the peanut butter in their own chocolates, peanut butter sandwiches and more. J.M. Smucker Co., Jif's parent company, issued the initial voluntary recall last week, after the Food and Drug Administration traced a salmonella outbreak to a manufacturing facility in Lexington, Ky. Almost every day since, other companies have issued their own recall notices, after confirming that their products also were affected. They range from fruit or veggie snack packs that include individually wrapped Jif cups to confections made with Jif peanut butter, including fudge and store-brand pies. (Chappell, 5/26)

In other health news from Wisconsin, Texas, and Virginia —

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: High PFAS Levels Force Marshfield To Shut Down Four City Wells
Marshfield is the latest city to find elevated levels of "forever chemicals" in its water supply. The city found levels of PFAS above the state's current recommended health standard of 20 parts per trillion in one entry point to its water system, according to a news release from the city Thursday. The system consists of three entry points fed by 15 wells throughout the area. The city shut down the entry point upon learning its results on Tuesday, the release said, as well as the four wells that contribute to it. Residents in the meantime can continue to use their water as normal, as all of the other wells are below the recommended health guidance of 20 parts per trillion. (Schulte, 5/26)

Dallas Morning News: Survey Finds Many Dallas Firefighters Struggle With Mental Health
Most Dallas firefighters don’t trust their top leaders, around a quarter of almost 900 workers say they’ve experienced symptoms of depression, and nearly 1 in 10 say they’ve thought of harming themselves, according to the results of an internal city survey released Thursday. The survey accessing the mental health of Dallas Fire-Rescue workers also found that 37% of respondents reported drinking more alcohol since starting their job, 34% say they have increased anxiety, and most are aware of several programs offered through the city to decrease stress, but 83% say they don’t use any of them. (Bailey Jr., 5/26)

AP: Carnival: Paint Project Affected Some Cruise Passengers 
A painting project is to blame for an odor that affected some cruise ship passengers in Virginia and prompted the U.S. Coast Guard to send a crew to investigate Thursday, Carnival Cruise Line said. The Coast Guard first received reports on Wednesday of an odor and people feeling ill on the Carnival Magic ship, Petty Officer Stephen Lehmann said. He said a crew went to the vessel on Thursday morning but no one needed to be evacuated for medical treatment. The vessel is docked in Norfolk. (5/26)

In LGBTQ+ news —

Oklahoman: Oklahoma Bathroom Bill Signed Into Law, Effective Immediately
An Oklahoma bill limiting access to public-school bathrooms by a person's birth sex is now law. School districts and charter schools that don't comply face a 5% deduction in their state funding. That could subtract thousands to millions of dollars, depending on the school system. Gov. Kevin Stitt signed Senate Bill 615 into law Wednesday. An emergency provision in the bill caused it to take effect as soon as the governor wrote his signature. (Martinez-Keel, 5/25)

Billings Gazette: Democrats Say Emergency Birth Certificate Rule Is Unlawful
Calling it unlawful, the Democratic lawmakers on an interim health and human services legislative committee are asking the state health department to rescind an emergency rule it recently issued that stops transgender Montanans from being able to update gender markers on their birth certificates. The state health department issued the emergency rule earlier this week. It blocks people from changing their birth certificates in all cases except if there was a data entry error. In 2021 state lawmakers passed a law requiring a person to have gender-affirming surgery and petition a court to update their birth certificate, but a Billings judge temporarily blocked that law earlier this year. (Bichels, 5/26)

AP: Widespread Disbelief Over N. Korea's Tiny COVID Death Rate
According to North Korea, its fight against COVID-19 has been impressive: About 3.3 million people have been reported sick with fevers, but only 69 have died. If all are coronavirus cases, that’s a fatality rate of 0.002%, something no other country, including the world’s richest, has achieved against a disease that has killed more than 6 million people. (Kim, 5/27)

Insider: North Korea Is Calling Its Covid Vaccines An 'Immortal Potion Of Love' From Kim Jong Un: Report
Covid-stricken North Korea has finally begun its vaccination program — calling the COVID-19 jabs an "immortal potion of love" from their leader Kim Jong Un, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported. However, the vaccines are so far reserved only for soldiers working on national construction projects, according to the US-funded non-profit media outlet.  (Yip, 5/27)

In other global developments —

The Washington Post: WHO: World Health Assembly Votes To Condemn Russia Over Ukraine Invasion 
The World Health Assembly on Thursday voted in favor of a resolution that condemned Russian attacks on the health-care system in Ukraine before rejecting a parallel proposal presented by Moscow that Kyiv’s representative to the United Nations in Geneva had called a “subterfuge” that presented a “twisted alternative reality” of the conflict. (Taylor, 5/26)

AP: Cancer Patients Seek Damages From Fukushima Nuclear Plant
A Tokyo court began hearings Thursday in a lawsuit seeking nearly $5 million in damages for six people who were children in Fukushima at the time of its 2011 nuclear power plant disaster and later developed thyroid cancer. The plaintiffs are suing the operator of the nuclear plant, saying radiation released in the accident caused their illnesses. It is the first group lawsuit filed by Fukushima residents over health problems allegedly linked to the disaster, their lawyers say. (Yamaguchi, 5/26)

AP: Chile Apologizes To Woman Forcibly Sterilized For HIV Status 
Chile’s president publicly apologized to a woman who was sterilized without her consent at a public hospital two decades ago because she was HIV-positive, ending a years-long legal process that included taking her case to the Inter American Commission on Human Rights in Washington. (Politi, 5/26)

CIDRAP: World's Second Human H3N8 Avian Flu Case Reported In China
The Hunan Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported last week that a retrospective H3N8 avian flu case was confirmed in Changsha City in a 5-year-old boy, according to a report translated and posted today on Avian Flu Diary (AFD), an infectious disease news blog. This case marks the world's second known infection from this particular avian flu strain, with the first case confirmed 1 month ago. (5/26)

The Washington Post: In Wyoming, A Suicide-Attempt Survivor Takes On Toxic Masculinity
Bill Hawley believes too many men are unwilling or unable to talk about their feelings, and he approaches each day as an opportunity to show them how. ... On paper, Bill is the “prevention specialist” for the public health department in Johnson County, a plains-to-peaks frontier tract in Wyoming that is nearly the size of Connecticut but has a population of 8,600 residents. His official mandate is to connect people who struggle with alcohol and drug abuse, tobacco addiction, and suicidal impulses to the state’s limited social service programs. Part bureaucrat, part counselor, much of Bill’s life revolves around Zoom calls and subcommittees, government acronyms and grant applications. But his mission extends beyond the drab county building on Klondike Drive where he works. One Wyoming man at a time, he hopes to till soil for a new kind of American masculinity. (Del Real, 5/23)

Fortune: Mental Health At Work: How Accommodations Can Help Employees—And Companies—Thrive 
Mental distress can have a huge impact on job performance, leading to lack of engagement, lowered communication with coworkers, errors in work, and for some, a total inability to function. And it's not uncommon for physical health to suffer alongside these issues, which can lead to further disability. What many employees—and leaders—may not know is that people with a mental disorder diagnosis are afforded protections under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). That means they have a right to request changes to the hiring process, the way the job is done, or certain aspects of their work environment if their disability presents a barrier for them in these areas. (Ellis, 5/22)

The Washington Post: Apple And Google Are Building More Smartphone Features For People With Disabilities
Together, Apple and Google are responsible for the software that powers nearly all of the world’s smartphones. And within the last week, both of them have outlined plans to make that software more useful for users with disabilities. Google was up first, showcasing this month accessibility updates that will be folded into some of the support apps the company maintains. Apple followed suit with a bevy of accessibility feature announcements, too, which are widely expected to appear in the new iOS 16 software update due later this year. Some of the features these companies previewed aim to make the world easier to navigate for the blind and vision impaired. Others were designed to make music, movies and conversations easier to follow for people who can’t hear well — or at all. (Velazco, 5/19)

The Wall Street Journal: Alzheimer’s Researchers Probe New Treatment Paths 
The commercial failure of Biogen Inc.’s drug Aduhelm is putting new focus on the state of research into the causes of Alzheimer’s disease. More than six million people in the U.S. are living with the progressive type of dementia, according to the Alzheimer’s Association, an advocacy group. Aduhelm was hailed as a potential blockbuster that targeted a root cause of the disease by clearing a sticky protein known as amyloid from the brain. Abnormal accumulations of amyloid called plaque and tangles of another protein known as tau are characteristic features of the brains of people with Alzheimer’s. (Mosbergen, 5/22)

The Washington Post: Surviving Inflation One Plasma Donation At A Time 
Tuesdays she asked for the needle in her left arm, and one afternoon in late April, Christina Seal, 41, arrived at the clinic after work. The parking lot was almost full, as usual. She had been giving plasma for nearly six months, and she had a routine locked in place. Tuesdays and Thursdays. Two Sam’s Club protein shakes and an iron supplement a day to keep herself serviceable. Afterward, vitamin E oil on her skin to prevent needle scars. The routine had helped tame into normalcy what at first had felt so bizarre. “I never thought I would be in a position where I would have to sell my plasma to feed my children,” she would say later. (Swenson, 5/21)

The Washington Post: Menstrual Leave: Why Some Companies Are Offering Time Off For Periods 
The job descriptions at CHANI, a queer- and feminist-led company that makes a popular astrology app, list a variety of perks to entice potential employees: salaries starting at $80,000 a year, an annual tech stipend, a nice 401(k) match and four months of paid parental leave. The Los Angeles-based company also offers a more unusual benefit: “unlimited menstrual leave for people with uteruses.” The policy is one example of a growing push to eliminate the taboo around periods and recognize the physical discomforts menstruation can cause. “It’s incredibly painful to have a uterus, and yet from a young age, we’re taught to push through this pain and keep working,” said Sonya Passi, the company’s CEO. (Haupt, 5/25)

Los Angeles Times: TikTok And Instagram Algorithms Are Scaring Pregnant People
When Adriana Lopez found out that she was pregnant, one of the first places she turned was TikTok. Immediately, she began to search for posts about morning sickness and other side effects, Lopez recalls. This was the Stockton resident’s first pregnancy, and she wanted to be prepared. But the app soon began pushing her in a direction that made her uncomfortable. During her first trimester, she said, her “For You” page — the TikTok feed where the app’s seemingly psychic algorithm curates an ever-more-personalized stream of videos — filled up with videos about miscarriages. By her second trimester, it had switched over to clips about genetic disorders and stillbirths. (Contreras, 5/25)

AP: New Law Puts NHL Great Konstantinov's 24/7 Care In Jeopardy
Vladimir Konstantinov has traded hockey sticks for an Uno deck. Many, in fact. The onetime Soviet and Detroit Red Wings star plays so often that he goes through a pack per week, wearing out cards with the hands that once made him one of the world’s best defensemen. During a recent visit to the Konstantinovs’ suburban Detroit condominium, he handily defeated his longtime nurse, Pam Demanuel, and smiled. That’s about as good as it gets for him these days. Since suffering severe brain damage when his drunken limousine driver crashed while Konstantinov was a celebrating the first of the Red Wings’ back-to-back championships in the late 1990s, the former NHL great and Red Army team captain has had to rebuild his life. Now 55, he needs help walking, eating, drinking and brushing his teeth, and a caregiver stays awake while he sleeps in case he needs to walk to the bathroom. Although he seems to comprehend questions, his answers are limited to a few words and aren’t always easy to understand. (Lage, 5/27)

On covid —

The New York Times: The Michigan Mink Mystery: How Did An Interspecies Outbreak Unfold?
To date, coronavirus infections have been detected in mink on 18 American farms, the most recent in Wisconsin in February. Even as Congress considers a ban on mink farming, there is still no national system for proactive surveillance on mink farms, which are not required to report cases to federal authorities. And officials have not released much information about the outbreak investigations they have conducted; some of those details are reported here for the first time. Together, the secrecy and spotty surveillance make it difficult to determine how much of a risk mink farms pose, scientists say. And it threatens to leave experts blind to the emergence of worrisome new variants that could spill back into humans, extending the pandemic. (Anthes, 5/22)

The Washington Post: Tracking Coronavirus In Animals Takes On New Urgency 
Researchers Sarah Hamer and Lisa Auckland donned their masks and gowns as they pulled up to the suburban home in College Station, Tex. The family of three inside had had covid a few weeks earlier, and now it was time to check on the pets. Oreo the rabbit was his usual chill self, and Duke the golden retriever was a model patient, lying on his back as Hamer and Auckland swabbed their throats and took blood samples. But Ellie, a Jack Russell terrier, wiggled and barked in protest. “She was not exactly happy with us,” Auckland recalled. “But we’re trying to understand how transmission works within a household, so we needed samples from everyone.” (Cha, 5/20)

Chicago Tribune: How A Dirty Factory And Government Meddling Left Babies Crying For Food 
A U.S. Air Force C-17 cargo plane flew from Germany to Indianapolis on Sunday carrying not troops nor military equipment, but a load of European-made formula for infants and toddlers. It was a mercy mission to heal a self-inflicted wound. America is struggling to feed its babies. (5/26)

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Birth Control Is Key 
As contentious as the issue of abortion rights is at the moment, it would be easy to assume there's no overlap between those who believe women have a right to biological self-determination and those who believe that terminating a pregnancy at any stage is murder — an argument that some lawmakers in red-state America are already attempting to press into law. But there's actually one area where the two sides of this fraught debate should be able to agree: The ideal solution to the abortion conundrum is fewer unwanted pregnancies to begin with. If abortion-rights activists are serious about helping the women who are most vulnerable in this debate, and if anti-abortion activists are serious about reducing the number of abortions taking place, both should work together — maybe just this once — to make oral contraceptives available over the counter. (5/26)

Los Angeles Times: Can California Afford To Be A Haven For Abortion? It Can't Afford Not To Be 
California has long been a safe harbor for reproductive rights. Abortion was legal here even before the 1973 Supreme Court decision in Roe vs. Wade made the right to have the procedure constitutionally protected in this country. In the intervening half-century, California has guaranteed the right to an abortion through the second trimester — and later if the life of the pregnant person is endangered — without constraints. While other states were passing multiple restrictions on abortion, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a proclamation in 2019 inviting women to come to the state to “exercise their reproductive rights.” (5/26)

The Washington Post: If Roe Falls, More Women Will Be Prosecuted For Miscarriages
About 10 years ago, a longtime state medical examiner in Texas and Mississippi told me something that has stuck with me ever since. He said there’s a type of prosecutor who believes that innocent babies just don’t die on their own. “They don’t believe in accidents,” he said, “especially when the parents are poor. Someone must be at fault. So someone has to pay.” (Radley Balko, 5/26)

Also —

The New York Times: It’s Still Covid’s World. We’re Just Living In It
There are days, now, when you can almost forget about the virus. Hundreds of thousands of people around the world are still being infected with Covid-19 daily — an average of about 361 Americans died from it every day in the last week — but after more than two years and millions of lost lives, the pandemic has given way in headlines and breaking-news crawls to older and more familiar atrocities. (Farhad Manjoo, 5/26)

Scientific American: Keeping A Business Safe Without A Mask Mandate Requires A Nuanced Approach 
All remaining U.S. states with COVID-related public mask requirements have recently lifted them, and in mid-April, a district judge in Florida ended a federal mask mandate on trains, planes, buses or other public transport. For the first time in about two years, consumers can shop, exercise, travel, work and lounge in public spaces without wearing a mask, despite recent surges in COVID infections. (Isabella Bunosso, Grant E. Donnelly, Selin A. Malkoc, 5/27)

Newsweek: Why You Should Care About ALS
My mother told me she was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, also known as ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease, the weekend that I graduated from law school. At the time I didn't even know what it was. I quickly learned that ALS is a fatal, neurological disorder. The progressive degeneration of motor neurons leads to death while a person's cognition remains intact. It is estimated that 5,000 Americans are diagnosed with ALS annually. On average a person dies within 3-5 years after symptoms first appear. (Katie C. Reilly, 5/26)

Los Angeles Times: 'CARE Court' Is No Solution For Unhoused People In California 
In March, Gov. Gavin Newsom unveiled a proposed framework to force some people living with mental health conditions to undergo treatment under court order. On Wednesday the California Senate passed a bill to enact this framework and create the deceptively named Community Assistance Recovery and Empowerment (CARE) Court. There is nothing empowering about involuntary treatment. (Olivia Ensign and John Raphling, 5/27)

Scientific American: Antifatness In The Surgical Setting 
It was 6:30 A.M., and I was getting ready to head down to the operating room (OR) for the first case of the day: an abdominal wall hernia repair. In preparation for the case, I logged on to the electronic health record portal and read through the patient’s medical history and the preoperative notes written by the surgical team. In many of the physician notes, the first line noted the patient’s body mass index (BMI) of 41. The patient’s ventral hernia was estimated to be 30 centimeters by 20 cm, one of the largest hernias ever repaired by the surgeon I was working with. The CT scan showed sections of the large intestine protruding through the hernia, which posed a high risk for bowel twisting, which can lead to perforation and sepsis or tissue deoxygenation and necrosis. The patient’s condition had reached a critical point. (Ashley Andreou, 5/27)

The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer: Proposed Federal Law Would Give Older Ohioans More Choices For Health Care
The trauma of the last two years during the pandemic has reminded us to be cautious. This is particularly true for older individuals and their families. While Ohio’s COVID-19 situation seems to have finally turned a corner, older adults still remain at higher risk of contracting chronic illnesses, diseases, and injuries. This is especially true for older adults who have been hospitalized. As we return to more normalcy, it will be critical to respect seniors’ wishes and empower them with greater options when it comes to their health. (Joseph Russell, 5/27)

Also —

The Boston Globe: Gun Violence Is A Disease. Health Care Can Help.
If an infection killed a dozen or more people at one time in a specific location, health care workers, epidemiologists, and other scientists would rush in to try to find the cause. We would provide support, prevention measures, any mitigation possible to reduce spread of the infection. If we couldn’t find the cause, we would work to protect those most at risk. Whether the cause was environmental, genetic, microbial, or psychiatric, we would feel compelled to intervene in the most effective and compassionate way. This is exactly what has happened with COVID-19 and with other horrible infectious conditions, such as Ebola, tuberculosis, and SARS. The strategy is always to manage the most acutely affected, reduce the likelihood of further contamination, study the condition to understand its most dangerous characteristics, and begin to look for a cause. (Alex Johnson, 5/26)

The Washington Post: Demands Not To ‘Politicize’ Tragedy Are Themselves Political Demands 
Humans beings generally recognize how and when to allow people to grieve. A parent losing a child in an act of random violence deserves some modicum of privacy and support. That can be tricky for reporters, tasked with telling the stories of such acts but wary of exacerbating a family’s pain. We, reporters and everyone else, evaluate boundaries and balance needs. One thing on which everyone would probably agree is that no one should force a parent, friend or family member who has lost a loved one to engage in a political discussion about their loss — or, for that matter, any other discussion. Often, though, we’re told that any such discussion is somehow an unacceptable intrusion, that talking abstractly about political factors to those not directly affected by a tragedy is “politicizing” what occurred in a disrespectful way. (Philip Bump, 5/26)

The New York Times: On Uvalde, Caring About Gun Control Is All We Seem Able To Do
The problem is not one of caring. Even the people with whom I vehemently disagree probably care. I concede that. The problem is what they care about more and how little it matters how much the rest of us care. We post pictures of the dead and the bereaved. We do this because we cannot or will not accept that others know the same facts that we know but care less about them than we do. In these moments, we struggle to make the other side care. Parents know that children are murdered. Religious faithful know that the elderly are murdered in church. Politicians know that their constituents live in fear of being gunned down. But other things matter more to them. Winning an argument. Owning a gun. Making money. Never having to think of distasteful things. And winning more arguments. Theirs is a challenge for a priest, not politics. (Tressie McMillan-Cottom, 5/26)