The New York Times: Biden Signs Short-Term Spending Bill, Averting Government Shutdown
Racing to avoid a government shutdown at midnight, President Biden signed a spending bill on Thursday evening that extends federal funding through early December and provides emergency aid to support both the resettlement of Afghan refugees and disaster recovery efforts across the country. The president’s signature came after lawmakers hastily cleared the measure in both chambers earlier in the day. The Senate’s vote was 65 to 35; the House’s was 254 to 175. (Cochrane, 9/30)

The Wall Street Journal: Democrats Delay Infrastructure Vote As Talks Fail To Reach Deal 
House Democrats dropped plans to vote on a roughly $1 trillion infrastructure bill Thursday night, as they came up short on reaching agreement around a separate social policy and climate package they hope will unite the party’s dueling factions. Key lawmakers said they were making progress toward a framework mapping out the overall level of spending and central planks of the healthcare, education and climate package, but that the discussions required more time. (Duehren, Peterson and Collins, 10/1)

Politico: Democrats Grit Their Teeth After Manchin Lists Demands
Democrats are desperately trying to make lemonade out of the bag of lemons Joe Manchin handed them Thursday. Senate Democrats spun away Manchin’s utter rejection of their $3.5 trillion spending dreams and embrace of a $1.5 trillion plan as a positive development, saying that it offered them a path forward for negotiation on a potential deal. When that deal will come to fruition, however, is anyone’s guess. (Levine and Everett, 9/30)

Democrats take a second look at their drug-pricing plans —

Politico: Democrats Dial Back Drug-Pricing Plans To Win Over Moderates
Top congressional Democrats are acknowledging for the first time that they’ll have to scale back their drug pricing plans to win centrist votes for their giant social spending package. Leadership may drop efforts to have the government directly negotiate the prices for medicines in private insurance plans and make fewer drugs subject to negotiations in Medicare, among the changes under consideration. (Ollstein and Wilson, 9/30)

Roll Call: Democrats Weigh Health Care Provisions In $3.5 Trillion Bill 
Democratic leaders struggling to satisfy both progressive and moderate factions’ demands are still trying to resolve divisions over scaling back the expansive health care policy wish list in their $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation package. A smattering of members in both chambers have concerns with key issues ranging from drug pricing to Medicare spending, while Democratic holdouts like Sen. Joe Manchin III of West Virginia and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona oppose the legislation’s overall price tag. (Clason and McIntire, 9/30)

Roll Call: Nonprofit Linked To PhRMA Behind Ads Opposing Drug Pricing Changes 
The nonprofit organization behind a wide-reaching ad campaign against allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices has deep ties to pharmaceutical lobbyists. A cable ad campaign has made a patient group called the Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease ubiquitous on television screens in Washington, D.C., and 13 states including Arizona, Colorado and Georgia. (Kopp, 9/30)

Stat: Key Senate Panel Weighs Small Biotech Carveout In Drug Pricing Reforms
A key Senate panel is seriously considering a new policy that would soften the blow of drug pricing reform for small biotech companies, according to two sources familiar with the talks. But the concession isn’t likely to win over the biotech industry. The change would be part of a package of broader drug pricing reforms from Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), who promised, vaguely, to protect the smaller companies earlier this year. (Cohrs and Florko, 9/30)

CNBC: Lawmakers Give Facebook A Clear Message: Don't Build Instagram Kids
Facebook’s testimony to members of the U.S. Senate on Thursday led to one overwhelming conclusion from the lawmakers in attendance: Instagram has no business creating an app for kids. Using Facebook’s own internal research from documents leaked to the Wall Street Journal and some eventually released by the company, senators sharpened their preexisting criticism of the company and expressed their concern about its effect on young people. (Feiner, 9/30)

CBS News: Facebook Executive Says Company Doesn't Profit Off Underage Users 
Facebook's global head of safety defended the company against accusations it harms children's mental health in a Senate hearing Thursday, pushing back against claims that the social media giant exploits young users for profit. The hearing before the Senate subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety and Data Security marked the first congressional testimony by a Facebook executive since a recent Wall Street Journal investigation found the company was aware its products harmed underage users. The paper cited internal Facebook research showing the company's products made body image issues worse for a third of teenage girls and prompted suicidal thoughts in 6% of all teenage users. (Bidar, 9/30)

CNBC: Senators Say Facebook Used Big Tobacco Playbook To Exploit Kids
U.S. lawmakers from opposite sides of the aisle agree on virtually nothing these days. The exception is when the topic is Facebook. Republicans and Democrats grilled Antigone Davis, Facebook’s global head of safety, on Thursday, in a hearing before the Senate Commerce subcommittee on consumer protection. Antigone, who testified by video, was called to answer questions about Instagram’s impact on the mental health of teens and Facebook’s efforts to build more products targeting children. (Rodriguez, 9/30)

NBC News: Senator's Office Posed As A Girl On Fake Instagram Account To Study App's Effect
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said his office had created a fake Instagram account to pose as a 13-year-old girl to research what the app is like for teens and how it could potentially affect their mental health. "Our research has shown, in real time, Instagram's recommendations will still latch on to a person's insecurities, a young woman's vulnerabilities about their bodies and drag them into dark places that glorify eating disorders and self-harm," Blumenthal said during a Senate hearing Thursday titled “Protecting Kids Online: Facebook, Instagram, & Mental Health Harms." "That's what Instagram does," the senator said. (Rosenblatt, 9/30)

AP: Ban On 'Surprise' Medical Bills On Track For Jan. 1 Rollout
The Biden administration on Thursday put final touches on consumer protections against so-called “surprise” medical bills. The ban on charges that hit insured patients at some of life’s most vulnerable moments is on track to take effect Jan. 1, officials said. Patients will no longer have to worry about getting a huge bill following a medical crisis if the closest hospital emergency room happened to have been outside their insurance plan’s provider network. They’ll also be protected from unexpected charges if an out-of-network clinician takes part in a surgery or procedure conducted at an in-network hospital. In such situations, patients will be liable only for their in-network cost sharing amount. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 9/30)

Stat: Biden Administration Favors Insurers Over Doctors In Surprise Billing Rule
The Biden administration on Thursday sided with insurers over physicians, hospitals, and other health care providers, choosing the approach they prefer for resolving disputes over surprise medical bills. Congress last year passed a landmark law to protect patients from getting large, unexpected bills in emergencies and non-emergency situations where patients can’t choose their doctors. But many of the controversial details of its implementation were left to the Biden administration. The law barely passed after an all-out, yearslong lobbying war between health care providers and insurers. (Cohrs, 9/30)

Modern Healthcare: HHS Lays Out Surprise Billing Resolution Process In New Rule
Under the interim final rule published Thursday, if an out-of-network provider and payer can't come to an agreement over payment during a 30 day "open negotiation," they may turn to an independent dispute resolution process. The rule "takes consumers out of the middle of a payment dispute between insurers and providers," a Health and Human Services official told reporters Thursday. (Hellmann, 9/30)

The Wall Street Journal: Medical Cost Disputes To Be Settled By Arbitrator 
The new system stems from the No Surprises Act, a milestone legislation for patient advocates and lawmakers because it aims to limit out-of-pocket costs for unexpected medical bills. It applies to more than 130 million people with employer-sponsored health plans covered by federal law and many people who live in parts of the country without a state-based law that bans surprise bills. The 2020 No Surprises Act goes into effect on Jan. 1. The legislation directs insurers and providers who can’t agree on a reimbursement amount to submit to arbitration. It also tasked the administration with setting up the independent resolution process, which has had hospitals and insurers sparring over whether the system will financially favor the other, as third-party dispute resolutions could affect their bottom lines. (Armour, 9/30)

Modern Healthcare: HHS Kills Trump-Era 340B Rule Targeting Community Health Clinics
The Health Resources and Services Administration has formally rescinded a proposed rule targeting community health clinics participating in the 340B Drug Pricing Program. The regulation, which President Donald Trump's administration proposed last year, would have required community health centers pass on the 340B discounts they get for insulin and Epi-Pens directly to patients. HRSA is pulling the regulation because of the "excessive administrative costs and burdens that implementation would have imposed on health centers," the agency wrote in a notice published in the Federal Register Thursday. (Hellmann, 9/30)

Fierce Healthcare: PhRMA Sues Arkansas Over Law Requiring Companies To Offer Products To 340B Contract Pharmacies 
A top pharma lobbying group sued to strike down an Arkansas law that requires drugmakers to provide pharmaceuticals discounted under 340B to contract pharmacies. The lawsuit, filed Wednesday by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), comes as six drugmakers have restricted sales of 340B products to contract pharmacies, which has prompted a legal clash with the federal government. PhRMA’s lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas, wants the court to find a law passed by the state in May 2021 unconstitutional. (King, 9/30)

Also —

Modern Healthcare: American Rescue Plan's $8.5 Billion Rural Fund Isn't Just For Rural Providers
Rural healthcare providers cheered the Health and Human Services Department's announcement earlier this month that it was sending $8.5 billion in COVID-19 stimulus funding their way. But large health systems with more than 100 hospitals and billions of dollars in revenue are also eligible for the money as standalone, rural hospitals, and they intend to get their share. The grants are part of the American Rescue Plan, a sweeping, $1.9 trillion pandemic relief package Congress approved earlier this year. HHS combined its September 10 news about the rural ARP grants with its decision to release another $17 billion in highly anticipated Provider Relief Fund grants, the fourth distribution under that package. (Bannow, 9/30)

Los Angeles Times: Court OKs Biden Administration To Keep Expelling Families For Now
A federal appellate court Thursday temporarily granted the Biden administration permission to continue the use of a public health order to quickly expel migrants with children stopped along the U.S. border. In a brief ruling, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit granted the administration’s request to stay a lower court’s ruling blocking the expulsion policy. The Trump administration had invoked the 1944 health statute known as Title 42 to close the border and prevent people from entering the country, citing concerns about the spread of the coronavirus. The Biden administration has continued the policy. (Castillo, 9/30)

AP: Nation's Most Restrictive Abortion Law Back In Texas Court
A federal judge on Friday will consider whether Texas can leave in place the most restrictive abortion law in the U.S., which since September has banned most abortions and sent women racing to get care beyond the borders of the nation’s second-largest state. A lawsuit filed by the Biden administration seeks to land the first legal blow against the Texas law known as Senate Bill 8, which thus far has withstood an early wave of challenges — including the U.S. Supreme Court allowing it to remain in force. (Weber, 10/1)

AP: Judge Delays Implementation Of New Montana Abortion Laws
A judge granted Thursday evening a temporary restraining order delaying the implementation of three laws restricting abortion access in Montana, hours before the laws were set to go into effect. District Court Judge Michael Moses issued the temporary restraining order to remain in effect for 10 days or until Moses rules on a preliminary injunction requested by Planned Parenthood of Montana. The laws would ban abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy, restrict access to abortion pills and require abortion providers to ask patients if they would like to view an ultrasound. (Samuels, 10/1)

Justice Samuel Alito defends the Supreme Court's recent actions on abortion —

The Washington Post: Justice Alito Defends Letting Texas Abortion Law Take Effect 
Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. on Thursday defended the Supreme Court’s actions in letting a controversial and restrictive Texas abortion law go into effect, and said criticism of the court’s recent decisions in emergency cases was an attempt to intimidate the justices. In a speech at the University of Notre Dame, the veteran conservative justice lambasted the use of the term “shadow docket” to describe the emergency applications that come before the court, a process in place for years but which has increased in frequency. (Barnes and Berardino, 9/30)

Politico: Alito Speaks Out On Texas Abortion Case And 'Shadow Docket' 
Justice Samuel Alito leapt into a political fray over the Supreme Court on Thursday, lashing back at critics who have accused the justices of increasingly issuing momentous decisions on its emergency docket without the benefit of a full briefing or oral arguments. Alito said complaints about the court’s “shadow docket” are misplaced and intended to conjure up images of justices conspiring to advance their ideological agendas under the cover of darkness. (Gerstein, 9/30)

And three congresswomen testified about their own abortions —

The Washington Post: House Members Share Personal, At Times Painful, Accounts Of Undergoing Abortions In Plea To Preserve Right To Procedure 
Three members of Congress on Thursday shared their personal and, at times, painful stories of abortion, in an emotional hearing that came amid an intensifying battle over a Texas law that is the most restrictive in the nation. Two of the lawmakers said they were teenagers when they decided to terminate their pregnancies. Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) described her decision in the mid-1960s to have a “back-alley abortion” in Mexico at age 16, describing herself as “one of the lucky ones” because many other women and girls at the time died of unsafe abortions. Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) said she decided to have an abortion after she was raped at age 17 by a man she met on a church trip. (Sonmez, 9/30)

The New York Times: A Congresswoman’s Story: Raped at 17, ‘I Chose to Have an Abortion’
Representative Cori Bush, a Democrat from Missouri, is known on Capitol Hill as a nurse, a pastor, a Black Lives Matter activist and a member of a “squad” of progressive women lawmakers. On Thursday, she told a House panel that she is also a rape survivor who had an abortion after she was attacked on a church trip when she was 17. Ms. Bush said she is no longer ashamed. “In the summer of 1994,” she declared, “I was raped, I became pregnant and I chose to have an abortion.” (Stolberg, 9/30

ABC News: Lawmakers Give Intimate Testimony About Their Own Abortions 
Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash, testified that after a high-risk pregnancy, she was unprepared to have another child. But, even after taking birth control "religiously," she became pregnant. After consulting with her husband and doctors, she chose to have an abortion. Until two years ago, she never talked about it -- even with her mother, Jayapal said. (Donaldson, 9/30)

In other U.S. and global news about abortion —

The Washington Post: Belgium To Help Polish Women Travel Aboard For Abortions
The Belgian government will provide funding for women in Poland to access abortions abroad that are not permitted under one of Europe’s most restrictive abortion laws. The move comes amid ongoing disputes between Poland and the European Union over human rights and the independence of Poland’s judiciary. Abortion restrictions in Poland lie squarely at the intersection of those issues. (Parker, 9/30)

CNN: China Says It's Restricting Abortions To Promote Gender Equality. Experts Are Skeptical 
For decades, Chinese authorities imposed strict limits on families that forced millions of women to abort pregnancies deemed illegal by the state. That harsh practice has become less common since China relaxed its one-child policy in 2015. So when news emerged this week that the government wants to reduce abortions for "non-medical reasons," the backlash was swift and furious. (Yeung and Gan, 10/1)

The Boston Globe: Women Across The Nation Will Take To The Streets For Abortion Rights On Saturday — Again
A coalition of women’s groups plans to take to the streets in 660 communities nationwide on Saturday to rally for the right to an abortion, two days before the Supreme Court reconvenes in a session widely expected to overturn it. “It’s a break-glass moment for us,” said Rachel O’Leary Carmona, executive director of the Women’s March, which is leading the mobilization with numerous reproductive rights organizations. (Ebbert, 10/1)

Reuters: Merck Says Research Shows Its COVID-19 Pill Works Against Variants
Laboratory studies show that Merck & Co's (MRK.N) experimental oral COVID-19 antiviral drug, molnupiravir, is likely to be effective against known variants of the coronavirus, including the dominant, highly transmissible Delta, the company said on Wednesday. Since molnupiravir does not target the spike protein of the virus - the target of all current COVID-19 vaccines - which defines the differences between the variants, the drug should be equally effective as the virus continues to evolve, said Jay Grobler, head of infectious disease and vaccines at Merck. Molnupiravir instead targets the viral polymerase, an enzyme needed for the virus to make copies of itself. It is designed to work by introducing errors into the genetic code of the virus. (Beasley, 9/29)

CNBC: Merck To Seek Emergency Authorization For Oral Covid-19 Treatment
Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics plan to seek emergency authorization for their oral antiviral treatment for Covid-19, after the medicine showed “compelling results” in clinical trials. The drug, molnupiravir, reduced the risk of hospitalization or death by around 50% for patients with mild or moderate cases of Covid-19, the companies announced on Friday. Molnupiravir is administered orally and works by inhibiting the replication of Covid-19 inside the body. (Taylor, 10/1)

In other covid research —

Houston Chronicle: University Of Houston Professors Develop Intranasal COVID Vaccine
A University of Houston professor has developed a COVID-19 vaccine that can be administered through the nose, with hopes to soon test on humans. Dr. Navin Varadarajan, a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at UH, has devoted much of his post-doctoral work to immunology and understanding how the body protects itself. His background in immunology gave him the idea for an intranasal vaccine, which can be effective in triggering a strong immune response at the site of pathogen infection. (Garcia, 9/30)

CIDRAP: REGEN-COV Lowers Risk Of COVID-19 Hospital Stay, Death By 71% 
Regeneron's combination of two monoclonal antibodies lowered the risk of COVID-19–associated hospitalization and death from any cause by 71% and resolved symptoms and reduced SARS-CoV-2 viral load faster than a placebo, a phase 3 clinical trial finds. (Van Beusekom, 9/30)

Reuters: Coronavirus Can Transform Pancreas Cell Function; Certain Genes May Protect An Infected Person's Spouse
When the coronavirus infects cells, it not only impairs their activity but can also change their function, new findings suggest. For example, when insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas become infected with the virus, they not only produce much less insulin than usual, but also start to produce glucose and digestive enzymes, which is not their job, researchers found. (Lapid, 9/29)

CIDRAP: ECMO Patients Appeared To Have Higher Mortality As 2020 Went On
Critically ill COVID-19 patients who received extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) at the end of 2020 had a higher mortality rate than those who received it in the first half of the year, according to a study published yesterday in The Lancet. Researchers looked at 4,812 COVID-19 patients 16 years and older who received ECMO in 2020 across 349 sites and 41 countries. Using May 1, 2020, as an arbitrary marker of the release of COVID-specific guidelines for ECMO, the patients were divided into three groups: those who received ECMO through May 1, those who received ECMO after that point, and those who received it after May 1 who were also at hospitals that didn't offer COVID-19–related ECMO until after May 1 ("late adopters"). (9/30)

The Washington Post: Messy, Incomplete U.S. Data Hobbles Pandemic Response 
The contentious and confusing debate in recent weeks over coronavirus booster shots has exposed a fundamental weakness in the United States’ ability to respond to a public health crisis: The data is a mess. How many people have been infected at this point? No one knows for sure, in part because of insufficient testing and incomplete reporting. How many fully vaccinated people have had breakthrough infections? The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention decided to track only a fraction of them. When do inoculated people need booster shots? American officials trying to answer that have had to rely heavily on data from abroad. (Achenbach and Abutaleb, 9/30)

CNBC: Covid-19: ‘I'm Still Really Afraid This Is Just Another Lull Before Another Potential Surge,’ Warns Doctor Treating Pregnant Patients
On the heels of the deadliest month of the pandemic for pregnant people yet, Dr. Manisha Gandhi told CNBC that she’s not optimistic about Covid-19 this winter. “To be dealing with this surge and taking care of really sick women, has just really taken a toll,” said Gandhi, who is chief of maternal-fetal medicine at Texas Children’s hospital. “I’m still really afraid this is just another lull before another potential surge.” (DeCiccio, 9/30)

Fox News: US COVID-19 Cases, Hospitalizations Down 30% Over Prior Month
Daily COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations have each declined by about 30% since late August, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). As of Sept. 27, the country was logging a seven-day moving average of 110,232 new daily cases, down 30.9% from 159,515 on Aug. 27, whereas new COVID-related hospitalization dropped 31% from 12,330 to 8,507 over the same time period. Dr. Gregory Poland, infectious disease expert and director of the Mayo Clinic’s Vaccine Research Group, anticipates that as COVID-19 case rates fall, fewer Americans will take precautions against infection, resulting in a potential surge of respiratory illnesses come winter. (Rivas, 9/30)

USA Today: US Near 700K COVID Deaths, A Grim Milestone In The Pandemic Fight
The United States is on the cusp of surpassing 700,000 coronavirus deaths, half of them in the last nine months alone as the delta variant drove a brutal surge across the weary nation. The U.S. reached 600,000 deaths in June, when daily deaths had dropped to under 400 amid hope that the crisis, at least at home, was near an end. Vaccines were widely available to all American adults and teens. For free. Three months and 100,000 deaths later, 2,000 Americans are dying per day. And millions have lost interest in the fight. Football stadiums are packed with maskless fans, some in states that ban vaccination and mask requirements. (Hayes, 10/1)

In other news about the spread of the coronavirus —

AP: 2 Children In Virginia Dead From COVID In 3-Day Span
A child under the age of 10 died in eastern Virginia on Wednesday from COVID-19, the second fatal juvenile case this week in the region, health officials confirmed. A health department spokesperson, Larry Hill, told the Richmond Times-Dispatch he could not provide any further information about the child. The child’s death occurred shortly after that of 10-year-old Teresa Sperry, who died Monday from the virus. According to officials, they are the 12th and 13th juvenile deaths in the state since the beginning of the pandemic. (9/30)

Axios: COVID Eases Its Grip On Tennessee 
Tennessee's top health official, Health Commissioner Lisa Piercey, told reporters Wednesday she is "cautiously optimistic" that the state was easing out of its latest COVID-19 surge. Tennessee had a rolling seven-day average of 3,526 cases Tuesday, down from an average of 9,411 on Sept. 11. Total hospitalizations fell to 2,636, a decrease from 3,831 on Sept. 9. (Tamburin and Rau, 9/30)

San Francisco Chronicle: These Charts Show What 'Red COVID' Looks Like In California Now
A recent Chronicle analysis found that during this year’s surge fueled by the delta variant, California counties that voted heavily for then-President Donald Trump in the November election saw higher death rates than their more Democratic counterparts — a trend mirrored on the national level, dubbed “red COVID” by the New York Times. Now, new data shows the discrepancy in California has grown in September. Since June 21, the COVID-19 death rate in red-voting counties has outpaced that of blue counties, a trend that continued through September even though overall coronavirus case rates and deaths have dropped off since mid-August, a Chronicle analysis shows. (Echeverria and Neilson, 9/30)

WUSF Public Media: Hear How The Surge In COVID-19 Deaths Is Taking A Toll On This Florida Doctor 
COVID-19 hospitalizations are declining in Florida. But the situation is still bleak for many health care workers, who are watching patients admitted during the delta surge die after weeks of battling the disease. Dr. Syed Zaidi, practices internal medicine, as an independent contractor at hospitals in Brandon and Bradenton. In his own words, he shared his experience treating severely ill COVID-19 patients, most of whom are unvaccinated, and said that the past couple of months have been some of the hardest of his life. (Colombini, 9/30)

AP: Website Helps Kentuckians Search For Antibody Treatments
Kentuckians can now tap into the state’s COVID-19 website to help them search for health care facilities that provide monoclonal antibody treatment. Supplies of the therapy are limited because of high demand nationally, Dr. Steven Stack, Kentucky’s public health commissioner, said Thursday. For people infected with COVID-19, the treatment can help give their immune system a boost, helping reduce the likelihood of hospitalization, he said. (10/1)

Georgia Health News: Georgia Getting ‘Plenty’ Of Antibody Drugs Despite Feds’ Restrictions 
Despite new federal supply limits, Georgia has received enough shipments of monoclonal antibodies to treat patients newly exposed or infected by Covid-19, state officials said Thursday. Concerns about supply shortages of these powerful antibody drugs have emerged in states that are heavy users of the treatment, including Georgia. (Miller, 9/30)

Axios: Data Holes Could Complicate Moderna And J&J Coronavirus Booster Shot Process 
Deciding which Moderna and Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine recipients should get booster shots may end up being even messier than the process for Pfizer recipients was. More Americans may very well need another round of shots, particularly older people and those who received J&J's one-dose vaccine. But regulators had issues with the quantity of data available for boosting with Pfizer, and there's even less — at least publicly available at this time — for the other two vaccines. (Owens, 10/1)

The Boston Globe: J&J Recipients Feel Left Out In Rollout Of Booster Shots
“As a physician and as a public health professional and as someone who’s just on Twitter, I frequently get questions from patients, colleagues, and strangers who say, ‘What about me? I got J&J, and nobody’s talking about me,’ ” Ranney said. “It’s like the world forgot that 14½ million people got this vaccine.” Forgotten or not, federal regulators and J&J have provided scant guidance to recipients of the vaccine, who make up just 8 percent of the more than 185 million fully vaccinated Americans. In Massachusetts, 336,269 people have received the J&J vaccine as of Wednesday, compared with 1.7 million who have received both doses of Moderna and 2.6 million who have received both doses of Pfizer, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In Rhode Island, those numbers are 52,941 for J&J, 263,170 for Moderna, and 406,018 for Pfizer. (Saltzman, 9/30)

In more news about the vaccine rollout —

USA Today: Americans Getting Vaccinated At The Lowest Rates This Year
Americans are getting vaccinated at the lowest rates yet this year, a USA TODAY analysis of CDC data shows. The U.S. is giving first-dose COVID-19 vaccinations to fewer than 1.5 million people each week, down from a peak of nearly 14 million in mid-April. It's also less than half the rate the country was administering during part of August, when people were more worried about surging case counts driven by the delta variant. A Kaiser Family Foundation survey released earlier this week found racial disparities in vaccination have closed. But the survery warned "large gaps in vaccine uptake remain by partisanship, education level, age, and health insurance status." (Stucka, 9/30)

The Washington Post: Turns Out A Lot Of Those Never-Vaxxers Were Really ‘I’ll Get It If Required’
Since the government approved the first vaccine to fight the coronavirus last year, polling has found that there are four general views of the vaccination process. The first is those who were eager to get vaccinated, telling pollsters that they would do so as soon as possible and then actually doing it. Next, there were those who were cautious, saying that they would wait and see before getting a dose. In polling from the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) over the past 10 months, those two groups combined have been about three-quarters of the country. (Bump, 9/30)

The Boston Globe: Mass. Begins Reporting Number Of COVID-19 Booster Shots Administered
Eligible Massachusetts residents have started receiving their COVID-19 vaccine booster shots, and the state on Thursday released data for the first time showing how many such shots have been administered so far. The Department of Public Health said in its daily COVID-19 vaccination report on Thursday that 93,344 boosters have been administered in Massachusetts. The state also reported that 86,751 boosters had been administered as of Wednesday, though it did not provide a day-by-day breakdown for the number of shots reported on previous days. (Kaufman, 9/30)

AP: AP Source: NBA Vaccination Rate Climbing, Now To 95%
The NBA has seen a rise in vaccination rates in recent days when factoring in those players who have received at least one of the necessary shots, a person with direct knowledge of the situation said Thursday. The leaguewide rate is now around 95% when counting those who are now at least in the vaccination process, said the person, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because neither the NBA nor the National Basketball Players Association released the figure publicly. (Reynolds, 9/30)

KHN: A Colorado Town Is About As Vaccinated As It Can Get. Covid Still Isn’t Over There
San Juan County, Colorado, can boast that 99.9% of its eligible population has received at least one dose of covid-19 vaccine, putting it in the top 10 counties in the nation, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. If vaccines were the singular armor against covid’s spread, then on paper, San Juan County, with its 730 or so residents on file, would be one of the most bulletproof places in the nation. (Bichell, 10/1)

The New York Times: ‘Mandates Are Working’: Employer Ultimatums Lift Vaccination Rates, So Far
As California’s requirement that all health care workers be vaccinated against the coronavirus took effect on Thursday, major health systems reported that the mandate had helped boost their vaccination rates to 90 percent or higher. In New York, another mandate that began this week compelled thousands of hospital and nursing home workers to get shots. And at several major corporations, executives reported surges in vaccination rates after adding their own requirements. Until now, the biggest unknown about mandating Covid-19 vaccines in workplaces has been whether such requirements would lead to compliance or to significant departures by workers unwilling to get shots — at a time when many places were already facing staffing shortages. So far, a number of early mandates show few indications of large-scale resistance. (Hubler, 9/30)

Bloomberg: Vaccine Mandates Reach 25% Of U.S. Companies After Biden Order
One in four companies has instituted a vaccine mandate for U.S. workers, a sharp increase from last month, following President Joe Biden’s directive ordering large employers to require shots or weekly testing. Another 13% of companies plan to put a mandate in place, Brian Kropp, chief of human-resources research at consultant Gartner, said in a panel discussion Thursday. The firm’s findings are based off a survey of roughly 400 organizations. (Boyle, 9/30)

Also —

The Washington Post: Lawsuit Seeks To Halt Biden’s Vaccination Mandates For Federal Workforce
A group of lawsuit plaintiffs, including four Air Force officers and a Secret Service agent, have asked a federal court to block the Biden administration’s coronavirus vaccination mandates, declaring, “Americans have remained idle for far too long as our nation’s elected officials continue to satisfy their voracious appetites for power.” The lawsuit, filed Sept. 23 in U.S. District Court in Washington, seeks an injunction that would halt vaccination requirements announced recently for millions of workers in federal executive-branch agencies, including contractors, as well as U.S. troops. (Duggan and Horton, 9/30)

Bloomberg: NY Health Workers Win Religious Exemption To Vaccine Mandate
New York state must temporarily allow exemptions from a mandate on Covid-19 vaccinations for health care workers with religious objections, a federal appeals court ruled, amid a spate of U.S. legal battles over vaccine and mask requirements. The ruling, in a case filed by three workers who sued to block the state’s vaccine mandate outright, comes amid a national debate over mandates put in place to stem the spread of the coronavirus. President Joe Biden has ordered federal workers and contractors to be vaccinated and called for companies with more than 100 employees to require vaccines or weekly tests. Several legal challenges have been mounted against the mandates. (Van Voris, 9/30)

CNN: Covid-19 Vaccine Health Care Worker Holdouts: For Them, It's Personal. For Their Hospitals It's Professional 
Being a nurse means everything to Andrea Babinski, but she is willing to risk it all -- the connections to colleagues she likes, the patients she cares for, not to mention the steady paycheck -- for a simple belief. Babinski believes that the decision of whether she should get vaccinated against Covid-19 should be a personal medical choice. So far, she has chosen not to be vaccinated. She says she's not anti-vaccine, or against the Covid-19 vaccine. She encouraged her father to get one. (Christensen, 9/30)

PBS NewsHour: Polarization Over Vaccine Mandate Rules Underscores Difficulty For U.S. To Slow Pandemic
Nearly two-thirds of Americans say health care workers in hospitals, home health care facilities and other medical facilities should be vaccinated. But when you break that response down, a far higher share of Democrats (92 percent) support that federal requirement than do Republicans (38 percent) or independents (56 percent). Partisanship drives so much of the nation’s response to the pandemic, said Dr. Céline Gounder, an epidemiologist who advised the Biden-Harris transition team’s COVID-19 response. Despite hosting multiple clinical trials for vaccines and having a shot for every person, American vaccination efforts have “really stalled out,” Gounder said. The U.S. globally ranks 48th in terms of how much of the population is vaccinated. Many fewer Republicans have received at least one dose compared to Democrats and independents, according to recent polling data from the Kaiser Family Foundation COVID-19 Vaccine Monitor. (Santhanham, 9/30)

In other news about mandates —

Axios: Polk County's New Employee Vaccine Policy Takes Effect 
Starting today, Polk County's 1,400 employees must show proof of COVID-19 vaccination or submit to weekly testing. Those who refuse both options will be considered insubordinate and face termination, county administrator John Norris told Axios this week. It's still too early to determine whether there might be an employee exodus linked with the new policy approved by county supervisors this month, he said. (Clayworth, 9/30)

Axios: Denver City Employee Vaccine Mandate Deadline Arrives 
Time has run out. Denver Mayor Michael Hancock’s deadline has arrived for city workers and some "high-risk" private sector employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19. As of Wednesday, Hancock’s office said more than 600 employees were still out of compliance. They could face 10 days of unpaid leave, and termination, if they fail to prove they’re vaccinated by today without a religious or medical exemption. (Alvarez, 9/30)

AP: Mayor Apologizes For Backing Mask Critics' Holocaust Imagery
The mayor of Alaska’s largest city apologized Thursday for his comments supporting some residents’ use of Holocaust imagery to liken a proposed citywide mask mandate to the oppression of Jewish people in Nazi Germany. Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson has said he staunchly opposes the proposal and initially defended the use of yellow Stars of David worn by other critics this week at heated public hearings. Such imagery has been used by opponents of mask and vaccine mandates across the U.S., drawing condemnation from the Anti-Defamation League and other Jewish organizations. (10/1)

AP: Arkansas Court: State Can't Enforce Ban On Mask Mandates
The Arkansas Supreme Court on Thursday said it wouldn’t allow the state to enforce its ban on mask mandates by schools and other government bodies, while lawmakers clashed over efforts to prohibit businesses from requiring employees get the COVID-19 vaccine. In a one-page order, justices denied the request by the state to stay the August decision blocking enforcement of Arkansas’ mandate ban. More than 100 school districts and charter schools have approved mask requirements since the ruling against the law. The requirements cover more than half the state’s public school students. (DeMillo, 10/1)

AP: Teachers Turn To US Supreme Court Over NYC Vaccine Mandate
A group of teachers asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday for an emergency injunction blocking implementation of New York City’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for public schools staff. The city has given its roughly 148,000 school employees until 5 p.m. Friday to get at least their first vaccine shot, or face suspension without pay when schools open on Monday. (9/30)

In other school news on mask and vaccine mandates —

AP: Health Agencies Rescind Mask Orders Despite Governor's Vow
Two more local health department in Michigan rescinded their school masking requirement Thursday despite Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer saying she will not enforce Republican-written budget provisions that threaten funding for counties with COVID-19 orders. The moves by Allegan County south of Grand Rapids and the Barry-Eaton District west of Lansing came a day after Berrien County in the state’s southwestern corner repealed a face covering mandate. The health department for Dickinson and Iron counties in the Upper Peninsula acted last week. (Eggert, 10/1)

The Boston Globe: Massachusetts Faces Legal Challenges To Universal Mask Mandates In Public Schools
Massachusetts education leaders are facing multiple legal challenges to the statewide indoor mask mandate for public schools, which was extended earlier this week until at least Nov. 1. At least six lawsuits have been filed across the state, naming either the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education or Commissioner Jeffrey Riley as a defendant. Some of the cases also name various public school districts, including Andover, Cambridge, Dover-Sherborn, and many others. Colleen Quinn, a spokeswoman for the state’s education agency, declined to comment on the lawsuits due to the pending proceedings, but said there will be a motion considered in Hampden County next week to consolidate the cases. (Gans, 9/30)

AP: Iowa School District Begins Own COVID-19 Testing Program
Iowa’s largest public school system will offer drive-through COVID-19 tests starting next week, in an effort to counter rising virus infections since the governor discontinued a statewide testing program. Des Moines Public Schools officials said Thursday that they have entered an agreement with Nomi Health to offer testing from Monday at two city locations. It’s the same Utah-based company that the state contracted with in April 2020 to provide Test Iowa services — widely available free tests at accessible drive-through locations. (Pitt, 9/30)

USA Today: Lack Of COVID Tests Could Jeopardize School Safety
Senators on both sides of the aisle on Thursday grilled Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and Education Secretary Miguel Cardona about the lack of available and affordable rapid COVID-19 testing options, pointing to testing as key to keeping students and staff safe in schools during the pandemic. "It’s not true that there’s an adequate supply of affordable tests," Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said at a Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee meeting. The cheapest over-the-counter rapid COVID-19 tests in the U.S. go for $12 for a two-pack, Kaine said. "In Germany, you can get a rapid COVID test at the grocery store for less than $1," he said. (Hayes, Bacon and Hauck, 9/30)

In higher-education news —

AP: More Than 1,000 UMaine Students Must Comply With Shot Rules
More than 1,000 University of Maine System students must come into compliance with the system’s vaccination and testing requirements this month or they will be withdrawn from courses without a refund. The system said Thursday it is reaching the end of its campaign to bring students into compliance with the rules. Students have until Oct. 15 to verify their vaccinated status or receive an exemption that requires weekly testing, the system said. (10/1)

Reuters: U.S. Judge Upholds COVID-19 Vaccine Requirement For Those With 'Natural Immunity' 
A U.S. judge upheld the University of California's COVID-19 vaccine requirement against a challenge by a professor who alleged he had immunity due to a prior coronavirus infection, in what appears to be the first ruling on the issue. U.S. District Court Judge James Selna in Santa Ana, California, said the university system acted rationally to protect public health by mandating the vaccine and not exempting individuals with some level of immunity from an infection. (Hals, 9/30)

Axios: Proteins Give A Clearer Picture Of Cancer Growth 
A new analysis found unique networks of hundreds of proteins that may drive the growth of breast, head and neck cancers, according to three studies out today. Cancers differ in many aspects, including their mutations. But, there are some common systems of cells involved, including protein networks, that may affect cancer growth and scientists hope to target them with therapies. (O'Reilly, 9/30)

Stat: Mapping Proteins Could Offer A Clearer View Of What’s Driving Cancer
Scientists have unveiled new maps of the protein networks underlying different types of cancer, offering a potentially clearer way to see what’s driving the disease and to find therapeutic targets. Sequencing the genetic information of tumors can provide a trove of data about the mutations contained in those cancer cells. Some of those mutations help doctors figure out the best way to treat a patient, but others remain more of a mystery than a clear instruction manual. Many are exceedingly rare, or there are so many mutations it’s not clear what’s fueling the cancer. (Joseph, 9/30)

In other pharmaceutical and biotech industry news —

AP: US Stem Cell Clinics Boomed While FDA Paused Crackdown
Hundreds of clinics pushing unproven stem cell procedures caught a big break from the U.S. government in 2017: They would have three years to show that their questionable treatments were safe and worked before regulators started cracking down. But when the Food and Drug Administration’s grace period expired in late May — extended six months due to the pandemic — the consequences became clear: Hundreds more clinics were selling the unapproved treatments for arthritis, Alzheimer’s, COVID-19 and many other conditions. (Perrone, 9/30)

Stat: Appeals Court Rules FDA 'Capriciously' Approved Rare Disease Drug
In a closely watched battle over regulatory decision-making, a federal appeals court ruled the U.S. Food and Drug Administration wrongly approved a rare disease medicine made by a small, family-run company because another drug maker already held the exclusive right to market a similar treatment. The lawsuit was filed by Catalyst Pharmaceuticals (CPRX), which accused the agency of violating federal law two years ago when it unexpectedly approved a medicine made by Jacobus Pharmaceuticals for treating children with a rare neuromuscular disorder called Lambert-Eaton myasthenic syndrome, or LEMS. The FDA had previously endorsed a Catalyst drug to treat LEMS, but only for adults. (Silverman, 9/30)

CNN: Hormone Replacement Therapy Not Linked To An Increased Risk Of Developing Dementia, Study Finds 
Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is, for the most part, not linked with an increased risk of developing dementia, according to a large study of women in the United Kingdom. However, the study -- which published in the BMJ medical journal Wednesday -- did show a slightly increased risk of developing Alzheimer's disease, a specific form of dementia, among women who used estrogen-progestogen therapies for between five and nine years and for 10 years or longer. That translated into five and seven extra dementia cases, respectively, per 10,000 women. (Hunt, 9/30)

Stat: New Surgical Robot Is Smaller, Nimbler, Cheaper, Its Maker Claims 
The surgical robot market, long dominated by one company, has a new entrant hoping to disrupt the industry with a more immersive, 3D experience for surgeons — even as the need for surgical robots in most procedures remains hotly debated. Robot-assisted surgery has boomed in the past 20 years, led by Intuitive, the company that makes the popular da Vinci robot. Vicarious Surgical, the new company that went public last month, claims it can do better than what exists on the market — “legacy systems,” as co-founder and roboticist Adam Sachs refers to them, declining to critique Intuitive specifically. (Cueto, 10/1)

Stat: In Biotech, ‘Offboarding’ Is Now Just As Important As Onboarding
In today’s biotech job market — where competition for people with in-demand experience is fiercer than ever — it’s become critical for biotech startups and venture capitalists to ensure people have a smooth exit when their companies downsize or go under. Biotech is a notoriously small world, especially in regions like Boston and the Bay Area. If an employee leaves a job with hard feelings or a bad taste in their mouth, it may not be the last time an executive team will see them. And biotech companies often fail — in one recent analysis, more than half of all the studied biotech startups failed. (Sheridan, 10/1)

In corporate news —

Bloomberg: Merck To Buy Rare-Disease Firm Acceleron For $11.5 Billion
Merck & Co. agreed to buy Acceleron Pharma Inc. for about $11.5 billion, building out its portfolio of therapies to treat rare diseases. Acceleron shareholders will get $180 a share in cash, a 34% premium over the price at the end of last month but below the stock’s intraday highs this week. (Davis, Hammond and Court, 9/30)

Stat: After Acceleron Deal, New Merck CEO Says Industry Giant Is Still On The Hunt
Merck will continue to search out more acquisitions after its $11 billion purchase of biotech firm Acceleron Pharma, the company’s CEO told STAT in an interview Thursday. But the CEO, Rob Davis, said he also believes that investors have not yet come to realize the value of the experimental drugs Merck is developing. (Herper, 9/30)

Modern Healthcare: Independent Pharmacists Urge DOJ To Axe UnitedHealth-Change Healthcare Deal
The National Community Pharmacists Association is calling on federal regulators to block UnitedHealth Group's $13 billion deal to buy Change Healthcare, saying independent pharmacies already struggle to compete against the two companies and that a merger would create an anticompetitive corporate behemoth. UnitedHealth Group announced in January that its fastest-growing subsidiary, Optum, would pay approximately $8 billion to acquire revenue cycle management and data analytics company Change Healthcare. Optum also plans to pay off $5 billion in debt Change Healthcare owes. At the time, analysts predicted the acquisition would allow Optum to expand its OptumInsight provider business, inform its value-based care initiatives and increase patient engagement. (Tepper, 9/30)

Modern Healthcare: Centene Adds $71 Million To State Medicaid Drug Pricing Settlements
Centene Corp. will pay a combined $71 million to Illinois and Arkansas to settle allegations that the St. Louis-based insurer overcharged the states' Medicaid departments for drugs. The company has reserved $1.1 billion for future settlements related to its Envolve pharmacy benefit manager, which it has since restructured to serve solely as a third-party administrator to process customer claims. Kansas, Georgia, Oklahoma and New Mexico are reportedly also investigating their Medicaid programs' PBMs and considering litigation through the Liston & Deas and Cohen & Milstein law firm, according to The Wall Street Journal. (Tepper, 9/30)

NBC News: Opioid Vaccine Eyed By Scientists As A Shot To Stem Overdose Epidemic
The vaccination felt like most others — a slight pinprick in M.'s  upper arm, followed by the application of a Band-Aid and advice to monitor the injection site for any unusual reactions. The vaccine, however, is unlike any other. It's not meant to protect against the coronavirus, or any germ, for that matter. It is meant to protect against a deadly opioid overdose. When M. (who requested that her full name not be used to protect her identity) got the shot this Tuesday, she became just the sixth person to receive it. (Edwards, 10/1)

In other news about opioids —

CBS News: Drug Enforcement Administration Seizes 1.8 Million Fentanyl-Laced Pills And Arrests More Than 800 In Nationwide Sting
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency has seized approximately 1.8 million fentanyl-laced pills and nearly 1,570 pounds of fentanyl powder — enough to kill more than 700,000 people and to potentially make tens of millions more lethal pills, the agency announced Thursday. The two-month search was part of the DEA's effort to target criminal drug networks within the country. It resulted in the arrests of 810 people and the seizure of nearly 8,843 pounds of methamphetamine, 1,440 pounds of cocaine and 158 weapons, according to the Department of Justice. Multiple felony charges are pending as a result of the investigation for crimes including drug trafficking and drug distribution. (Powell, 9/30)

Axios: Sen. Capito: COVID Pandemic "Put The Accelerator" On Opioid Addiction 
The COVID-19 pandemic worsened the nation's opioid crisis but brought important lessons on new treatment methods and the importance of public education campaigns, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.V.) explained during an Axios virtual event on Thursday. The pandemic "put the accelerator" on opioid addiction and overdoses nationwide because of people's increased isolation and disrupted treatment, Capito said. (Saric, 9/30)

In other news about the drug crisis —

KQED: To Combat Meth, California Will Try A Bold Treatment: Pay Drug Users To Stop Using 
When Billy Lemon was trying to kick his methamphetamine addiction, he went to a drug treatment program at the San Francisco AIDS Foundation three times a week and peed in a cup. If it tested negative for meth, he got paid about $7."For somebody who had not had any legitimate money – without committing felonies – that seemed like a cool thing," says Lemon, who was arrested three times for selling meth before starting recovery. (Dembosky, 9/30)

Health News Florida: Duval County Could Launch A Needle Exchange Program For Drug Users 
Duval could be the next Florida county to launch a safe syringe exchange in response to a 2019 state law that authorized counties to implement such harm-reduction programs as long as they’re not funded with tax dollars. During an informational meeting Wednesday, Jacksonville City Council member Michael Boylan said he plans to introduce legislation to authorize a program for intravenous drug users to safely exchange used needles for new ones at no cost. (Heddles, 9/30)

Carolina Public Press: High Cost Of Treating Addiction In NC 
For North Carolinians with addiction, finding a suitable treatment plan is only the beginning of an often lifelong process. After patients navigate the matrix of treatment services and regulations, they have to find a way to pay for care. A lack of funding can cause a life-or-death setback. (Deen, 9/30)

Modern Healthcare: Unnecessary Emergency Department Visits Cost $47B A Year: Report
NYC Health + Hospitals has redirected more than 2,400 911 calls since the public health system launched its telehealth service last March. NYC H+H works with city emergency medical services via its virtual ExpressCare platform to evaluate low-acuity 911 callers who may not need an ambulance. About 1,300 of those rerouted calls were during an ambulance ride directed toward a NYC H+H emergency department, where the patient decided with an emergency medicine provider to not go to the hospital. (Kacik, 9/30)

In other health care industry news —

Modern Healthcare: 5 Things To Know: Kaiser Staff Prepare To Strike
Labor unions representing at least 27,000 Kaiser Permanente employees in California and Oregon are readying their memberships to vote on whether they will go on strike, union leaders said. The votes come as union contracts expire Thursday. Under national labor law, healthcare unions are required to give employers 10 days' notice of a strike. The United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals, which includes 24,000 registered nurses, pharmacists, rehab therapists, midwives and optometrists, will hold its vote Oct. 1 through Oct. 10. The Oregon Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals, which represents 3,400 healthcare workers, will start its vote Oct. 4. Both unions are part of the 21-union Alliance of Health Care Unions that represents 52,000 Kaiser workers. (Christ, 9/30)

Fox News: Nursing Programs Struggle To Keep Up Amid A Nationwide Shortage Of Nurses
According to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) more than 80,000 qualified applications from baccalaureate and graduate nursing programs were turned away nationwide during 2019-2020. Katelyn Barley is an assistant professor of nursing at Notre Dame of Maryland and teaches senior level nursing students. Barley says hands on learning is critical for students, "they do need the in person and hands on skills, absolutely. For the students that graduated during the pandemic and maybe had that cut short, they had experiences in the hospital during their orientation to help get them to where they needed to be." (Whitfield, 10/1)

The Wall Street Journal: A Hospital Hit By Hackers, A Baby In Distress: The Case Of The First Alleged Ransomware Death
When Teiranni Kidd walked into Springhill Medical Center on July 16, 2019, to have her baby, she had no idea the Alabama hospital was deep in the midst of a ransomware attack. For nearly eight days, computers had been disabled on every floor. A real-time wireless tracker that could locate medical staff around the hospital was down. Years of patient health records were inaccessible. And at the nurses’ desk in the labor and delivery unit, medical staff were cut off from the equipment that monitors fetal heartbeats in the 12 delivery rooms. Doctors and nurses in the unit texted each other with updates. “We have no computer charting for I don’t know how long,” one manager informed a nurse in a message later filed in court. “They are printing out the labs in the laboratory and sending them by paper,” another worker wrote. One overwhelmed nurse texted, “I want to run away.” (Poulsen, McMillan and Evans, 9/30)

Stat: Why The Medical AI Company Dascena Hopes Hard Evidence Will Separate It From Its Rivals
Think of it as digital health’s chicken and egg problem. Which comes first: national distribution of your algorithm, or clinical evidence that it works? For a startup, it is almost impossible to have one without the other. The medical artificial intelligence company Dascena is among many early-stage companies in the throes of this debate. (Ross, 10/1)

KHN: Hospitals Confront Climate Change As Patients Sick From Floods And Fires Crowd ERs
When triple-digit temperatures hit the Pacific Northwest this summer, the emergency room at Seattle’s Harborview Medical Center was ill prepared. Doctors raced to treat heat-aggravated illness in homeless people, elderly patients with chronic ailments, and overdosing narcotics users. “The magnitude of the exposure, this was so far off the charts in terms of our historical experience,” said Dr. Jeremy Hess, an emergency medicine physician and professor of environmental and occupational health sciences at the University of Washington. (Green, 10/1)

AP: Big Drop In US Teen Vaping Seen With COVID School Closures
Teen vaping plummeted this year as many U.S. students were forced to learn from home during the pandemic, according to a government report released Thursday. U.S. health officials urged caution in interpreting the numbers, which were collected using an online questionnaire for the first time. But outside experts said the big decrease in electronic cigarettes use is likely real and makes sense given that young people often vape socially. “They found a dramatic drop from last year and it’s hard to imagine that doesn’t represent a real decrease in use among high school and middle school students,” said Dr. Nancy Rigotti of Harvard University, who was not involved in the research. (Perrone, 9/30)

Fox News: CDC Issues Warning After Study Finds 2 Million Teens Used E-Cigs This Year
The number of teenagers who have used e-cigarettes has reached 2 million, and more than 80% of those middle and high school students used flavored e-cigs in 2021, according to a study released today by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Since 2014, they have been the most frequently used smoking product among U.S. youth.Of the students that were surveyed, 43.6% of high school students and 17.2% of middle school students have used e-cigs in the past month. Of those students, 27.6% of high school and 8.3% of middle school students admitted to daily use. Flavored e-cigs are prevalent. (Jones, 9/30)

In other public health news —

The New York Times: How To Ease And Avoid Seasonal Affective Disorder 
For about 1 in 20 people in the northern half of the United States, cooling temperatures and shorter, darker days may signal the onset of seasonal affective disorder, or SAD, a type of depression that typically arrives in the fall or winter, then goes away in the spring. Unlike mild cases of the “winter blues,” SAD symptoms make it difficult to function. It tends to start with so-called “vegetative symptoms”: an increased appetite and a craving for carbohydrates like french fries or ice cream, the urge to sleep longer hours, difficulty getting up in the morning and feeling wiped out at work. (Caron, 9/30)

CNN: Food Stamps: Historic Increase In Benefits Starts In October
Food stamp recipients will see their monthly payments go up in October thanks to a major update to the program, even though a special pandemic boost has now expired. Benefits will jump 27% above pre-pandemic levels, on average -- the largest increase in its history. The change stems from a revision of the Thrifty Food Plan, which determines the benefit amounts of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, the formal name for food stamps. (Luhby, 10/1)

The Washington Post: $15 Million Grant Is Awarded To University Researchers Finding Solution To Food Waste
If America went grocery shopping, it would leave with five bags of food and empty two into the street, according to estimates by experts from the Natural Resources Defense Council. The United States wastes up to 40 percent of all the food it produces — between 125 and 160 billion pounds annually — at nearly every stage of production, researchers have found. “Think about the greenhouse gas implications, of water use,” said Sauleh Siddiqui, an associate professor of environmental science at American University. “This is a big chunk of all our resources that we’re using that we should be doing better on.” (Lumpkin, 9/30)

USA Today: Coppertone Sunscreen Recall 2021: Select Products Recalled For Benzene
Coppertone is voluntarily recalling five of its aerosol sunscreen products due to the presence of benzene, a chemical that can cause cancer with repeated exposure. The company announced the recall Thursday of 12 lots of sunscreen and advised consumers to stop using the affected products, which were manufactured between Jan. 10 and June 15, 2021. According to a recall notice posted on the Food & Drug Administration's website, the affected products were sold at retailers nationwide and include: Pure & Simple SPF 50, Pure & Simple Kids SPF 50, Pure & Simple Baby SPF 50, Sport Mineral SPF 50 and travel-size Coppertone Sport Spray SPF 50. (Tyko, 9/30)

Fox News: Exercise More Important Than Weight Loss For A Healthy Life
A new study indicates that consistent exercise – not weight loss – contributes more towards a healthier and longer life. The study, led by Glenn Gaesser of Arizona State University in Phoenix, analyzed the relationship between fitness, weight, heart health and longevity. Results showed that exercise, even for overweight or obese people, typically lowered the risk of heart disease and premature death far more than dropping weight or dieting. "A weight-neutral approach to treating obesity-related health conditions may be as, or more, effective than a weight-loss-centered approach, and could avoid pitfalls associated with repeated weight loss failure," the study concluded. (Aitken, 9/30)

GMA: 'Dancing With The Stars' Competitor Cody Rigsby Has COVID-19 
"Dancing With the Stars" competitor Cody Rigsby has tested positive for COVID-19 for the second time this year.Four days ago, his dancing partner, Cheryl Burke, announced that she has the virus. (9/30)

KHN: Readers And Tweeters Feel Americans’ Pain
KHN gives readers a chance to comment on a recent batch of stories. (10/1)

Bloomberg: New Study Quantifies Vast Undercount Of Police Deaths
More men died of police violence than of testicular cancer, or lymphoma, or STDs in the U.S. in 2019. Depending on where you get your information, that could come as a surprise, or a grave confirmation. A new study published in The Lancet found that a government-run database has undercounted the number of deaths at the hands of police in the U.S. by more than half. That’s unacceptable, said Fablina Sharara, one of the lead authors of the report and a researcher for the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. “We rely on official statistics for every other cause of death: for cancer, for example, or homicide,” she said. “From our perspective, it's important for the official statistics to be accurate for every cause.” (Holder, 10/1)

USA Today: Study: Police Kill More People In This State Than Any Other. And Many Deaths Go Unreported
Oklahoma has the highest mortality rate of police violence of all 50 states and the highest rate of underreporting the killings, according to estimates in a study released Thursday. About 84% of police killings in the state from 1980 to 2018 were unreported or misclassified in official government reports, according to the peer-reviewed study in The Lancet, one of the world's oldest and most renowned medical journals. (Hauck, 9/30)

In other news about health and race —

The New York Times: More Hispanic Americans Have Received Covid Vaccinations, Poll Shows
The share of Hispanic adults in the U.S. who say they have received at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine reached 73 percent in September, an increase of 12 percentage points from July, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation survey. The increase was the fastest of any demographic group in the survey, and it put the reported vaccination rate for Hispanic adults slightly ahead of that of white adults. (Medina, 9/29)

Los Angeles Times: For Black Community, Nicki Minaj's Vaccine Drama Is No Joke
Dr. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, an epidemiologist, physician and researcher at UC San Francisco, has been a voice in the fight against COVID-19 on behalf of minorities. She is not surprised at the hip-hop community’s overall skepticism. “Blacks and Latinos have historically had a mistrust or a wait-and-see attitude,” toward vaccines, she explains, adding that the hesitancy, especially among Black people, goes way beyond the Tuskegee Experiment, the infamous syphilis study that began in 1932 recruiting Black men from Alabama who were never told by doctors that they had the disease. (Murphy, 9/27)

Health News Florida: The Suicide Rate Among Black Children Remains High. An Expert Urges Families To Seek Help
Mental health shouldn't be seen as different from physical health. Think of the brain as just needing some extra attention. "When someone even describes any symptoms around depression or anxiety, there tends to be that pulling back," said Veronica James, founder and CEO of Our Children Our Future in Hollywood. "That really is very unfortunate because it prevents many people from getting the preventive services they need that could also safeguard them from more serious mental disturbances later in life. (Zaragovia, 9/30)

NPR: 2020 Census: Many Latinos Identified With 'Some Other Race'
Nationwide, some 45 million Latinos did not identify last year with any of what the federal government considers to be the major racial groups, and they were recorded as "Some other race" after either just marking that box or writing in a response that the bureau sorted into that category. In recent decades, many immigrants have also come to see "Some other race" as their preferred check box, especially people with roots in the Middle East or North Africa (whom the U.S. government categorizes as "White") or from Afro-Caribbean groups. Altogether totaling close to 50 million — or more than 1 in 7 people living in the U.S. — their numbers helped the catchall category rise through the ranks of census results. (Lo Wang, 9/30)

Politico: Newsom Signs #FreeBritney Bill To Help Reform Conservatorship Laws
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday signed into law the so-called #FreeBritney bill, legislation designed to reform the state’s legal guardianship laws that critics say have led to the exploitation of many Californians, including pop star Britney Spears. The bill by Assemblymember Evan Low (D-Campbell) holds professional conservators to a higher standard by requiring them to disclose their fees online, prohibits financial conflicts of interest involving the conservator and increases enforcement actions against those who are not acting in their clients’ best interest. (Colliver, 9/30)

NBC News: Texas Has Considered Dozens Of Anti-Trans Bills. These Moms Have Helped Stop Them
Rachel Gonzales has been to the Texas Capitol at least a dozen times since 2017, when she advocated against a bill that would’ve banned her then-6-year-old transgender daughter, Libby, from using the girls’ bathroom. That bill died in 2017, but the fight hasn’t stopped. Since January, Texas has considered 52 bills that target trans people, particularly youth, according to Equality Texas, an LGBTQ advocacy group in the state. Parents like Gonzales and advocates have defeated all of the bills so far. But last week, during a third special legislative session, the Texas Senate passed a bill that would ban transgender student athletes in public schools from competing on school sports teams that align with their gender identity, as opposed to their sex assigned at birth. (Yurcaba, 9/30)

AP: Scammers Got Nearly 30% Of Arizona Virus Unemployment Pay
Scammers were able to pocket nearly 30% of the $16 billion in unemployment insurance payments sent out by Arizona since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, the director of the state agency overseeing the program said Thursday. Most of the fraud happened in the first several months of the pandemic and mainly hit federally funded emergency unemployment insurance programs. Those programs were designed to help people who normally would not be eligible for assistance because they had contract jobs or were so-called “gig workers” such as Uber drivers. Their employers generally did not pay into the unemployment insurance system. (Christie, 9/30)

AP: Cause Of Deaths Of California Family On Hike Remains Mystery 
Authorities say they are still investigating the mysterious deaths of a Northern California family and their dog who were found in a remote hiking area, but have so far determined their deaths were not caused by a gun or any other weapon, a lightning strike, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, cyanide exposure, illegal drugs, alcohol or suicide. The bodies of John Gerrish, his wife, Ellen Chung, their 1-year-old daughter, Miju, and their dog were found on Aug. 17 on a hiking trail close to the Merced River in the Sierra National Forest. A family friend had reported them missing. (9/30)

The Washington Post: Australia To Ease International Travel Ban, Shedding 'Hermit Kingdom' Tag
Australia will drop some restrictions on international travel in November, easing one of the world's longest covid border closures. Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced Friday that the country would reopen its mostly shut international border next month, ending more than 18 months of restrictions that earned the Pacific nation the nicknames of “Fortress Australia” and the “Hermit Kingdom,” and left tens of thousands of Australians stuck overseas. (Miller, 10/1)

Bloomberg: China’s Sinovac Shot Approved By Australia Ahead Of Border Open
Australia recognized China’s Sinovac Biotech Ltd. Covid-19 shot and India-made AstraZeneca Plc jabs, paving the way for overseas travelers and fee-paying foreign students who have received those vaccinations to enter the country. The nation’s top drugs regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Administration, said the shots should be “recognized vaccines” in determining incoming travelers as being inoculated, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Friday. (Whitley, 10/1)

Bloomberg: China Has Ordered Up A Chain Of Giant Covid Quarantine Centers
China is asking city governments to create specialized quarantine facilities that can house thousands of overseas arrivals, as the country continues to take a zero-tolerance approach to keeping out Covid-19. Local authorities have until the end of October to convert or build the hubs, National Health Commission official Cui Gang told a briefing this week, with the requirement for at least 20 rooms for every 10,000 residents. The goal is to prevent the country’s quarantine facilities from becoming “scattered” and “disorganized,” Cui said. (10/1)

CNN: Vaccine Hesitancy: These EU Nations Are Still Miles Behind Their Neighbors 
With nearly three quarters of all adults fully vaccinated against Covid-19, the European Union is a world leader in inoculations. But the impressive headline number is obscuring an uncomfortable reality: the rollout has been extremely unequal across the union. Some countries, including Ireland, Malta, Portugal and Denmark, have achieved near universal vaccination, boasting coverage rates of around 90%, according to the European Center for Disease Control (ECDC). On the other side of the bloc, Romania and Bulgaria have fully vaccinated only 33% and 22% of their adults, respectively. (Kottasova, 10/1)

CIDRAP: WHO- And CIDRAP-Led Flu Vaccine Roadmap Presents Path To Better Vaccines
After 2 years of meetings, research, and collaboration, the Influenza Vaccine Research & Development Roadmap (IVR) was published today. The project, which was created through a partnership between the World Health Organization (WHO) and the University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP), outlines a decade's worth of milestones leading up to two goals: a universal flu vaccine and improved seasonal flu vaccines. (McLernon, 9/30)

In other global news —

Bloomberg: Philip Morris Takeover Of U.K. Drugmaker Vectura Near Completion
Philip Morris International Inc. has control of most of Vectura Group Plc’s shares and is in the final stages of taking the U.K. asthma drug maker private. Philip Morris has acquired about 97% valid acceptances and can now compulsorily acquire any remaining shares, the company said in a statement Friday. The deal had already become unconditional in mid-September, when it obtained majority control. The offer will remain open until further notice. (Gretler, 10/1)

AP: Brazilian Soccer Great Pelé Leaves Hospital After Weeks
Brazilian soccer legend Pelé has been discharged from the hospital where he received treatment for nearly a month. “I am so happy to be back at home,” Pelé wrote in a post on his official Instagram. “I want to thank the entire Albert Einstein Hospital team, who made my stay a pleasant one, with a humane and very affectionate welcome.” The 80-year-old removed a tumor from his colon on Sept. 4 and spent days in intensive care after the surgery. (9/30)

The Wall Street Journal: Covid’s Hidden Toll: One Million Children Who Lost Parents 
A year and a half into the Covid-19 pandemic, contagious variants have been killing many in the prime of parenthood, a group that remains mostly unvaccinated in many parts of the world. From March 2020 to April 2021, an estimated 1.1 million children lost a primary caregiver to the virus, according to a recent study in the medical journal the Lancet. Many of the most affected countries are in Latin America, which accounts for about one-third of coronavirus deaths despite having just 8% of the global population. On a per capita basis, Peru has been the hardest hit, with an estimated 10.2 children per 1,000 losing a primary caregiver, according to the study published in the Lancet. Mexico, Brazil and Colombia also are in the study’s top five. (Dube and Magalhaes, 9/26)

The Wall Street Journal: Behind Israel’s Swift Rollout Of Covid-19 Vaccine Boosters 
Throughout the global effort against Covid-19, Israel’s public health experts have been consistently ahead of their counterparts elsewhere in the world. By securing an early supply deal with Pfizer for its vaccine, sweetened in part by a promise to share data from Israel’s extensive network of health maintenance organizations, they have had an edge in understanding how the vaccine behaves in the real world. (Lieber and Grove, 9/28)

The New York Times: Why Scores Of Female Athletes Are Speaking Out On Abortion Rights
Crissy Perham had never spoken publicly about her choice. In 31 years, Perham, a three-time Olympic medalist, told only a handful of people what it was like to be pregnant as a struggling college sophomore and decide to have an abortion. She kept quiet about the freedom and the second chance that ending her pregnancy gave her. Kept quiet about how it helped pave the way for a swimming career and the success she experienced once it was over. But now, she said, speaking up is a must. (Streeter, 9/27)

The Washington Post: ‘Race-Norming’ Kept Former NFL Players From Dementia Diagnoses. Their Families Want Answers
For Michelle Haselrig, widow of former Pittsburgh Steeler Carlton Haselrig, the moment she realized her husband’s race might have deprived him of money from the NFL concussion settlement came this summer, after a friend texted her a news story about something called “race-norming.” For Laurie Dirden, wife of former Houston Oiler Johnnie Dirden, that moment came last month, she said, when a doctor told her that if her husband were White, he would’ve met the settlement’s definition for a dementia diagnosis, and a six-figure payment, last year. (Hobson, 9/29)

The Washington Post: D.C. Boosts Spending On Housing To Fight Homelessness Problem 
The District is preparing to embark on an unprecedented effort to combat homelessness. At a moment when the decades-long crisis seems to have reached a boiling point, with people at risk of eviction as federal pandemic protections end and residents in bitter arguments over how to address the growing encampments on the streets, the city plans to try something new with an increase in public spending with the potential to come close to ending chronic homelessness altogether. (Weil, 9/24)

The New York Times: Cancer Without Chemotherapy: ‘A Totally Different World’ 
Dr. Seema Doshi was shocked and terrified when she found a lump in her breast that was eventually confirmed to be cancerous. “That rocked my world,” said Dr. Doshi, a dermatologist in private practice in the Boston suburb of Franklin who was 46 at the time of her diagnosis. “I thought, ‘That’s it. I will have to do chemotherapy.’” She was wrong. Dr. Doshi was the beneficiary of a quiet revolution in breast cancer treatment, a slow chipping away at the number of people for whom chemotherapy is recommended. Chemotherapy for decades was considered “the rule, the dogma,” for treating breast cancer and other cancers, said Dr. Gabriel Hortobagyi, a breast cancer specialist at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. But data from a variety of sources offers some confirmation of what many oncologists say anecdotally — the method is on the wane for many cancer patients. (Kolata, 9/27)

The New York Times: One Broken Bone? You May Be At Risk For Another 
Let’s say you’re a woman in your mid-50s, or perhaps a man in your early 70s, and you break a leg or a hip after falling from a six-foot ladder. That would be distressing, to be sure, but neither you nor your doctor would likely be surprised by the severity of your injury given the nature of the accident. And, chances are, your doctor would not likely warn you after your fall that weakened bones may have contributed to your break, or that you might be at risk of breaking another bone next time from a minor mishap, like tripping over the dog. And so, after the break is immobilized in a cast or surgically repaired, your doctor would likely do nothing more to head off the possibility of a future fracture. (Brody, 9/27)

The Wall Street Journal: Sore Is Good, Pain Is Bad: The Workout Of A 79-Year-Old Who Twice Summited Mount Everest 
When Bill Burke retired from practicing corporate law in 2003, he craved an activity that would indulge his passion for travel and challenge him mentally and physically. He had already been hiking in the mountains around his home in Costa Mesa, Calif., and learning the art of alpinism had more appeal than tennis or golf, he says. He attended a high-altitude climbing course, upped his training and within a year was peak bagging mountains around the world. By age 67, he had climbed the highest mountain on every continent, including Mount Everest twice. Today, he is one of the most respected mountaineers in the world and even has a peak near the Nepal-Tibet border named for him. (Murphy, 9/25)

The Washington Post: Police Arrested A Man Who Didn’t Comply With Their Commands. That’s Because He Is Deaf, A New Lawsuit Says.
When police in Idaho Springs, Colo., saw a vehicle roll through a stop sign on a September evening in 2019, they followed it into a laundromat’s parking lot and turned on their flashing lights. The driver, Brady Mistic, parked his car and stepped out of the vehicle. He later said he did not understand what was happening, or even that he was being pulled over — Mistic is deaf and communicates primarily through American Sign Language. In the confusion, the situation escalated. According to a new lawsuit filed by Mistic, the officers threw him to the ground, stunned him with a Taser and put him in handcuffs. He tried to use some of the words he is able to speak: “No ears.” It seemed to make no difference. (Lipscomb, 9/27)

CBS News: He Lost His Vision At 7, But Went On To Become A Starting Quarterback
Jasen Bracy, a 15-year-old starting quarterback, has a clear vision of what it takes to win on the field, even though he'll never see it with his own eyes. Bracy developed retinal cancer as a toddler. By the time he turned 7, his sight was gone. He liked other sports, but he really wanted to play football. His parents' response: "No way!" said his dad, who is also named Jasen Bracy. "How is this going to be possible for him to get out there and play?" (Evans, 9/28)

The New York Times: Marilyn Golden, Effective Voice For The Disabled, Dies At 67 
Marilyn Golden was a college student on a summer backpacking trip in Switzerland when she fell from a tree after a rotting limb snapped. Her back was broken. She spent two years of rehabilitation at Houston Medical Center and had used a wheelchair ever since. “I got radicalized, in a general sense, after I got hurt,” she said.Ms. Golden would devote the rest of her life to championing civil rights for people with disabilities, all the while rejecting as “ridiculousity” the notion that people like her with disabilities desired or deserved pity. (Roberts, 9/28)

The New York Times: Rapid Tests For Covid-19 Make Pandemic Life Easier 
In Germany, you can buy a rapid Covid-19 test at the grocery store for one euro (a little more than a dollar). In Britain, any household can obtain a pack of seven rapid tests every day for free. In Singapore, you can get a free rapid test from a vending machine. Families in Israel receive at-home rapid tests for their children to use before school. Rapid testing is commonplace in many parts of the world because policymakers recognized early on that the tests could blunt the pandemic by stopping chains of transmission. By letting people know they are infectious, rapid tests are useful even in areas with high vaccination rates and can allow for a safer return to in-person activity. (Michael J. Mina and Steven Phillips, 10/1)

Kansas City Star: MO Science Teacher Tells The Truth About Ivermectin, COVID
It has been said that the best way to tell a lie is to speak part of the truth and then simply stop. This tactic has been used repeatedly to attack the new COVID-19 vaccines, while promoting semi-quack medicines such as hydroxychloroquine, ivermectin and oleandrin. Let me explain what I mean by semi-quack medicines. These are real prescription drugs with genuine appropriate uses in modern medicine, but are being misapplied to treat other diseases in a manner bordering on quackery. This has continued despite having adequate supplies of effective vaccines because: (Pat Ryan, 10/1)

Bloomberg: The People’s Guide To Assessing Covid Risk 
We’re often told that humans are lousy at judging risk, and the pandemic seems to have confirmed this in spades. What else can explain vaccine hesitancy or otherwise healthy people wearing two masks as they walk alone, outside? Yet despite all the evidence pointing to our inability to make sense of risk, I’m still optimistic we can do better. To be fair, we’ve received many confusing messages from public health officials and the media. Take this excerpt from Smithsonian Magazine: (Allison Schrager, 9/30)

Modesto Bee: No, You Don’t Know Better Than Dr. Fauci 
As soon as I was eligible, I got my COVID-19 vaccination. After an anxious year of waiting, I felt like a kid on Christmas Day when I got my shots last winter. Having always heard that a great aunt was a victim of the 1918 flu pandemic, I didn’t want to extend that part of my family’s legacy. Vaccinations have been a normal part of life for us baby boomers. Over the years, I’ve gotten vaccinated for polio, measles, mumps, and rubella. More recently, I’ve gotten vaccines for both pneumococcus and shingles. (Marc Medefind, 9/30)

Houston Chronicle: Texas Legislators Should Protect Public Health, Not Limit Vaccine Mandates
The Legislature convened last week for its third special session with instructions to pass legislation regarding whether any state or local government entities in Texas can mandate that an individual receive a COVID-19 vaccine, and if so, what exemptions would apply to such a mandate. The Immunization Partnership is concerned that a broad interpretation of the governor’s proclamation could put at risk Texas lives, businesses and families at a time when unvaccinated individuals account for over 90 percent of COVID hospitalizations and an even greater percentage of those who die. (John T. Dugan III and Lindy McGee, 10/1)

The Washington Post: Covid-19 Is Sticking Around. Time To Stop Pretending It’s Not Your Problem
The most senseless and self-destructive battle in this country today is not between Democrats and fellow Democrats, despite what the headlines might suggest. It is between the vaccinated and the unvaccinated — a split with dire consequences for the nation and the world. It is mystifying to me, and to many others, that such a divide could possibly exist. Yet an estimated 70 million Americans who are eligible to protect themselves against being hospitalized or dying from covid-19 have not done so. To be as generous as possible, some of those people may still worry about losing days off work to side effects or fear that getting a shot could reveal their undocumented status. But the selfishness and foolishness of people who don’t face those obstacles endanger not only their own health but everyone else’s as well. (Eugene Robinson, 9/30)

Scientific American: Big Data, Questionable Benefits And My Girlfriend's Magic Ring 
My girlfriend, “Emily,” who likes to hack her health, recently purchased a clever little gadget called the Ōura Ring. From the outside, it looks like an ordinary silver ring, but it’s lined with sensors that monitor heart rate, respiration, temperature, body motion and other variables. Algorithms analyze data and draw conclusions, displayed on her iPhone. The ring tells Emily how much exercise and sleep she’s getting, and it advises her, in a gently bossy way, on how she might change her routines to be healthier. Maybe go to sleep a little earlier tonight, exercise a little more tomorrow. The Ōura app even provides recordings of boring stories, read by someone with a wonderfully soporific voice, to help her fall asleep. The ring is an almost magical piece of engineering. All that sensory and analytic power packed into that tiny, elegant package! And the logic behind the ring seems, at first glance, unassailable. The ring transmits more and more data from users to its maker, Ōura, which keeps refining its algorithms to make its “precise, personalized health insights” more accurate. Ideally, the ring will help you cultivate healthier habits and alert you to problems requiring medical intervention. That’s Emily’s hope. (John Horgan, 9/30)

Stat: With Medication Abortion, Clinicians Don't Need To Be Gatekeepers 
I have come to think that people who provide abortion care are models of the ideal health care provider. Practicing this stigmatized work requires them to be nonjudgmental, ask open-ended questions and let patients take the lead. In the face of a building wave of restrictions against abortion, I’ve seen providers move heaven and earth to get people care — staying past closing time and finding lawyers, childcare, lodging, and funding for costs. They’ve had to become experts in deciphering policy, legal decisions and health care financing just to provide patients a service they need. (Jennifer Karlin, 10/1)

The Atlantic: The Texas Abortion Law Could Backfire On Its Supporters 
One month ago today, abortion opponents in Texas won a major victory: The Supreme Court allowed a novel and near-total ban on abortion to go into effect, making the state the first since Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973 to effectively outlaw the procedure. The law now faces multiple challenges in the lower courts after two out-of-state men sued a Texas abortion provider; they say they plan to collect a bounty if they win, making the stakes of the law—and its Wild West absurdity—remarkably clear. The Department of Justice has sued Texas over the law, aiming to prevent its enforcement; the first hearing on that case is happening today. (Jill Filipovic, 10/1)

The Boston Globe: How Black Women Are Advancing The Cause Of Reproductive Justice 
When it comes to the new abortion wars, fueled by GOP state lawmakers passing increasingly draconian bans, race matters — particularly for Black women, who are uniquely threatened by these policies. The extreme “abortion car” bans passed by Republican-led legislatures in Texas, Mississippi, and elsewhere were designed to give the Supreme Court ample opportunity to strike down Roe v. Wade and the constitutional privacy protection it affords to all child-bearing people. I know this includes white people, particularly poorer ones. (No need to flood my Twitter mentions or inbox with the usual excoriations I get each time I write, tweet, or publicly comment on the impact of a policy on the most marginalized Americans.) (Kimberly Atkins Stohr, 9/30)

The New York Times: The Broad Uses Of Disability Rights Protections 
In the fight between red state governors and the federal government over measures to control the pandemic, the Biden administration has deployed an unexpected weapon: disability rights law. Citing the Americans with Disabilities Act (A.D.A.), President Biden’s Department of Education launched investigations into five states that have prohibited schools from requiring masks. Already, a Federal District Court has blocked Iowa’s ban on mask requirements, citing the A.D.A. The legal reasoning is simple: by prohibiting mask mandates, these states may be pushing disabled students — who are at greater risk from Covid — out of the classroom. (Ari Ne'eman, 10/1)

Newsweek: Suicide Prevention Must Be Taught In Every Middle And High School
As students head back to school, many administrators across the country have made valiant efforts to prioritize students' health and safety by implementing measures to protect them from the COVID-19 virus. Yet, COVID-19 is not the only public health threat schools need to be prepared to address this year. As the chief medical officer at Crisis Text Line—and a parent of two teenagers—I believe that suicide prevention education in every middle and high school across the country is essential. Suicide is the leading cause of death for young people ages 10-24. And with the right measures in place, it's largely preventable. (Shairi Turner, 9/30)

The Washington Post: While Democrats Bicker, Our Unacceptable Health-Care Status Quo Continues 
For all of Americans’ political divisions, on some issues there is more agreement than many of us may realize. Medical care is one such area. A majority of Democrats, Republicans and independents want the federal government to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies over prices for prescription drugs covered by Medicare, polling this summer shows. Here’s another point of agreement: Most U.S. adults think Medicare should offer dental coverage. Simply put: We need both. The United States is the only first-world country that does not negotiate or regulate what Big Pharma can charge for its offerings. Not surprisingly, Americans pay more for pharmaceuticals than citizens in other nations. Public Citizen reported this week that Americans shell out more for the top 20 bestselling prescription drugs than the total paid by every other nation on the planet combined. (Helaine Olen, 9/30)

Dallas Morning News: Most Senior Citizens Want To Grow Old At Home. Texas Can Do More To Make That Happen
The number of seniors 65 and older in Texas is likely to more than double from 3.9 million in 2020 to 8.3 million by 2050, and for the first time in our nation’s history, there will be more people over the age of 65 in the United States by 2034 than under 18. More to the point, surveys show that 76% of Americans age 50 and older want to stay in their homes as they age. And that poses major policy challenges and opportunities that Texas must pursue sooner rather than later. (10/1)