Stat: FDA Advisory Panel Endorses Moderna's Covid Booster For Some Groups
A Food and Drug Administration advisory panel voted unanimously Thursday in favor of authorizing booster shots of the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine to people 65 and older, those 18 to 64 with risk factors for severe Covid-19, and those whose jobs put them at high risk for serious complications of Covid-19, such as health care workers. After hours of deliberation, the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee voted 19-to-0 that the Moderna booster should be authorized for these groups at least six months after receiving their second dose. The panel also discussed at what point boosters should be recommended to all adults over 18, saying that at this point it is far too soon to consider the matter. (Herper and Branswell, 10/14)

The Wall Street Journal: Moderna Booster Shot Backed By FDA Advisory Panel 
Moderna said the booster doses can be drawn from the same vials that contain the original two-dose vaccine series, meaning the boosters will be available soon after authorization. Members of the FDA’s vaccine-advisory panel supported Moderna’s booster dose even though the evidence for it was from a small study and had mixed results. (Schwartz and Loftus, 10/14)

AP: FDA Panel Endorses Lower-Dose Moderna COVID Shot For Booster
The recommendation is non-binding but it’s a key step toward expanding the U.S. booster campaign to millions more Americans. Many people who got their initial Pfizer shots at least six months ago are already getting a booster after the FDA authorized their use last month — and those are the same high-risk groups that FDA’s advisers said should get a Moderna booster. But there’s no evidence that it’s time to open booster doses of either the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine to everybody, the panel stressed — despite initial Biden administration plans to eventually do that. (Neergaard and Perrone, 10/14)

Politico: FDA Advisers Endorse Moderna Booster Shot: Three Takeaways
The Moderna plan endorsed by the panel would apply to largely the same groups currently eligible for the Pfizer-BioNTech booster shot. For now, federal regulators only are planning to endorse giving people boosters from the same manufacturer as their initial shots, though the independent advisers will review preliminary data on Friday on so-called “mix-and-match” boosting. The FDA panel’s Friday meeting will also take up of Johnson & Johnson’s proposed booster. (Gardner, Owermohle, Foley and Morello, 10/14)

And in updates on the Johnson & Johnson booster shot —

Stat: Follow The FDA Advisory Panel Meeting On The J&J Covid Vaccine Booster 
The booster-shot question that has been on the top of many minds for many months will be addressed today when the Food and Drug Administration’s vaccines advisory committee reconvenes to complete a two-day meeting. The question before it: Should people who got the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine get a booster shot, and if so, when? Another top-of-mind question, however, may end up not being addressed by the FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC). If the highly active discussion on Twitter is any indication, people who got the J&J vaccine want to know if they should be boosted with one of the messenger RNA vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna. (Branswell and Herper, 10/15)

Fox News: US Navy Set To Boot Sailors Who Refuse COVID Vaccine
The U.S. Navy announced Thursday that it is preparing to discharge sailors who refuse vaccination for COVID-19 as mandated by the Pentagon, and the service members who get the boot over their noncompliance run the risk of losing some veterans benefits. The Navy sent out a press release noting that Nov. 14 is the deadline for active-duty sailors to get either their second shot of a two-dose vaccine or the single shot of a one-dose vaccine. Reservists have until Dec. 14. (Dumas, 10/14)

In other news about vaccine mandates —

Axios: Maine Health Care Staff Won't Get Unemployment Benefits If They Refuse Vaccine 
Maine health care workers who face firing for defying COVID vaccine requirements will not be eligible to receive unemployment benefits, AP reports. The notice comes as Maine's hospitals suffer labor shortages partly related to the state's vaccine mandate. One of the state's biggest hospitals has had to turn away trauma and pediatric patients and shutter an entire department, according to a local CBS affiliate. (Chen, 10/14)

AP: Vaccine Proof Or Negative Test Soon Required At Large Events
Starting Nov. 15, people in Washington state will need to either provide proof of COVID-19 vaccination or a negative test in order to attend large events, Gov. Jay Inslee announced Thursday. The new order — which Inslee’s staff said is modeled after similar policies in California and King County — applies to indoor events with 1,000 or more attendees and outdoor events that have more than 10,000 attendees. Events will be required to verify full vaccination status or a negative test within the last 72 hours for all attendees who are age 12 or older. (La Corte, 10/14)

Fox News: Texas AG Wins Stay Against San Antonio School District Vaccine Mandate
The Texas Supreme Court halted a coronavirus vaccine mandate for the San Antonio, Texas school district employees on Thursday hours before it was set to take effect. Texas’s highest court sided with Gov. Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton by temporarily blocking the mandate but did not rule whether or not the district’s mandate or the governor’s vaccine mandate ban is legal, according to Texas Tribune. The mandate, which said that all employees of San Antonio Independent School District must be vaccinated by Friday, was a direct challenge to Abbott’s recent ban on vaccine mandates and was enacted in August by then-Superintendent Pedro Martinez prompting a lawsuit from Paxton. (Mark Miller, 10/14)

AP: Dozens Of US Nuclear Lab Workers Sue Over Vaccine Mandate
Workers at one of the nation’s premier nuclear weapons laboratories face a deadline Friday — be vaccinated or prepare to be fired. A total of 114 workers at Los Alamos National Laboratory — the birthplace of the atomic bomb — are suing over the mandate, saying exemptions have been unduly denied and their constitutional rights are being violated by Triad National Security LLC, the contractor that runs the lab for the U.S. Department of Energy. (Bryan, 10/14)

CNN: Up To Half Of Chicago Police Officers Face Unpaid Leave Over Vaccine Dispute 
Up to half of Chicago's rank-and-file police officers could be placed on unpaid leave because of a dispute between their union and Mayor Lori Lightfoot over a city requirement for officers to disclose their vaccine status. The dispute in Chicago is emblematic of tension across the country between unions and employers as cities and businesses seek to enforce vaccine mandates. At least 228 officers have died of Covid-19 this year, compared to 245 last year, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page. Covid is the leading cause of death for officers despite them being among the first groups having access to the vaccine at the end of last year. (Nickeas, 10/14)

KHN: KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: The Politics Of Vaccine Mandates
Should covid vaccines be mandated? The answer to that question has become predictably partisan, as with almost everything else associated with the pandemic. Even as the federal government prepares to issue rules requiring large employers to ensure their workers are vaccinated, GOP governors are trying to ban such mandates, leaving employers caught in the middle. (Rovner, 10/14)

In other news on the vaccine rollout —

USA Today: Biden Touts Vaccination Progress As Cases, Hospitalizations Drop
President Joe Biden on Thursday praised the country's progress and vaccination efforts in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic as case and hospitalization rates continue to decline. "It's working. We're making progress," Biden said in a White House address. Daily cases have declined 47% and hospitalizations are down 38% over the past six weeks, Biden said. Biden's comments came a few hours before a federal advisory committee unanimously supported booster shots of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine for people 65 and older, as well as younger adults with certain medical conditions or jobs that put them at increased risk for infection. The booster would be half the regular dose, given at least six months after the second shot. (Ortiz and Miller, 10/14)

AP: 226,000 Massachusetts Residents Have Received Booster Shots
The number of new daily cases of COVID-19 increased by more than 1,500 on Thursday, while the number of newly confirmed coronavirus deaths in Massachusetts rose by 14. The new numbers pushed the state’s confirmed COVID-19 death toll to 18,427 since the start of the pandemic, while its confirmed caseload rose to nearly 776,000. (10/14)

Bloomberg: Hospitals On Lockdown To Be Tracked By CDC, Reversing Trump
The Biden administration is moving the U.S. government’s largest public-health tracking system back to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, undoing a much-criticized move by the Trump administration to shift custody of critical data from the nation’s top epidemiological agency. According to a document obtained by Bloomberg News, the Department of Health and Human Services on Oct. 1 signed off on a recommendation to move the system, designed to track pandemic data, out of the management of its own Office of the Chief Information Officer and into CDC’s oversight. The shift comes in the wake of scrutiny over the federal government’s handling of public health data infrastructure, and is intended to ensure long-term stability and ownership of the data system. (Griffin, 10/14)

In other news about the spread of the coronavirus among children —

NBC News: Data Shows More Children Are Getting Sick And Dying From Covid
As the federal government appears ready to approve Covid-19 vaccines for children ages 5 to 11, data shows that September was the country’s worst month for new cases and deaths. Data from the American Academy of Pediatrics shows that cases among children peaked in September, as many schools opened for in-person classes amid the country’s delta variant Covid surge. More than 6 million children have tested positive for Covid since the beginning of the pandemic, with more than 1.1 million new cases recorded from Sept. 3 to Sept. 30. (Chiwaya and Wu, 10/14)

CIDRAP: Kids May Serve As COVID-19 Reservoirs For Variants, Study Says
Using COVID-19 viral load and viral cultures from 110 children, researchers suggest that children may serve as reservoirs for COVID-19, furthering transmission and viral evolution. The researchers created a prospective cohort of patients 21 years or younger who sought care at Massachusetts General Hospital or its urgent care clinics between April 2020 and 2021 (median age, 10 years). About 56% were boys, and 38% were Hispanic. Thirty-six children (33%) required hospitalization, of whom 18 required supplemental oxygen or respiratory support of any kind. (10/14)

The Boston Globe: Mass. Reports 1,901 New Coronavirus Cases Among Public School Students And 337 Among Staff 
State education leaders on Thursday reported 1,901 new cases among public school students and 337 among staff members for the week that ended Wednesday. The 2,238 total cases were 10 fewer than those reported last week. About 920,000 students across the state are attending school in person, and about 140,000 staff members are inside school buildings. From Oct. 7 to 13, about 0.21 percent of students and 0.24 percent of staff members reported positive cases of the coronavirus to their school leaders. (Gans, 10/14)

Detroit Free Press: New Data: K-12 Schools Without Mask Mandates In Michigan Saw 62% More Coronavirus Spread
Michigan students who attended K-12 schools with mask requirements in August and September had lower rates of coronavirus transmission than those at schools without mandates, new data from the University of Michigan and the state health department shows. "There's a ton of studies out there and we can see it with our own data here in Michigan: Masking helps prevent transmission," said Marisa Eisenberg, an associate professor in U-M's departments of epidemiology and complex systems.Eisenberg led a team at the university comparing case rates among children in school districts with no mask requirements to those with rules in place. (Jordan Shamus, 10/15)

But many are asking: Is the covid surge over? —

The New York Times: ‘Lurching Between Crisis And Complacency’: Was This Our Last Covid Surge?
Rising immunity and modest changes in behavior may explain why cases are declining, but much remains unknown, scientists say.

Axios: UnitedHealth Thinks The Worst Of COVID May Be Over 
UnitedHealth Group raised its profit projections for the rest of 2021 even though the insurer covered 60,000 COVID-19 hospitalizations during the third quarter, a number that was "meaningfully above the second quarter," executives said Thursday. Health insurers expected to incur higher COVID costs in the quarter after the Delta variant ran rampant over the summer, especially in states with low vaccination rates. But UnitedHealth's COVID costs fell in line with its projections and were offset by some providers delaying care again. (Herman, 10/15)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: After Worst Of The Pandemic, Georgia Hospitals Breathe Sigh Of Relief
Now, though, the number of COVID-19 patients in Georgia hospitals has plunged 66%, down to 2,046 Thursday from a record high of 6,040 on Sept. 7. Over the next few weeks, that trend is likely to continue, according to the U.S. Centers for Prevention and Disease Control. That will make it less likely that hospitals will have to turn away patients in need. “It’s a relief that our numbers have gone down,’’ said Dr. Kathy Hudson, chief medical officer for Phoebe Putney Health System in Albany. “That’s a tremendous relief.” (Berard and Mariano, 10/14)

Also —

The Washington Post: Alaska GOP Lawmaker Lora Reinbold Tests Positive For Covid-19 After Being Banned From Alaska Airlines
An Alaska GOP lawmaker banned from flying on the state’s leading airline for refusing to wear a mask, and therefore unable to travel to and from the state capital, has now tested positive for the coronavirus, she said.State Sen. Lora Reinbold, a Republican representing an Anchorage suburb, wrote on Facebook on Tuesday night that it was her “turn to battle Covid head on.” “Game on! Who do you think is going to win?” Reinbold wrote of her infection. “When I defeat it, I will tell you my recipe.” (Hawkins an dBella, 10/14)

11alive.com: Perry Native, UGA Senior Dies From COVID-19 Complications 
A University of Georgia student and Perry native died on Monday due to complications from COVID-19. According to his obituary, Shawn Kuhn, a senior majoring in exercise and sports science, passed away after battling COVID-19-based pneumonia for about six weeks. His sister Sharla Brook Kuhn says he was fully vaccinated, according to The Red and Black. (10/14)

WUSF Public Media: Tampa And Orlando Halt Their Water Supply Emergencies As COVID Hospitalizations Drop 
Tampa and Orlando are ending water emergencies now that COVID-19 hospitalizations have declined in the state. In August, the Tampa Water Department began using chlorine to treat water instead of liquid oxygen. This was due to decreased supply, because liquid oxygen that was used for treating the city’s water was being diverted to hospitals for patients suffering from the virus. The department said it is once again using liquid oxygen to treat water at the David L. Tippin Water Treatment Facility. (10/14)

AP: FDA Unlikely To Rule On Merck's COVID Pill Before December
The Food and Drug Administration said Thursday it will ask its outside experts to meet in late November to scrutinize Merck’s pill to treat COVID-19. The Nov. 30 meeting means U.S. regulators almost certainly won’t issue a decision on the drug until December, signaling that the agency will conduct a detailed review of the experimental treatment’s safety and effectiveness. The panelists are likely to vote on whether Merck’s drug should be approved, though the FDA is not required to follow their advice. (Perrone, 10/14)

Axios: FDA Will Review Merck's COVID-19 Pill 
The FDA opted not to skip the advisory committee step, Bloomberg News notes, which it can do occasionally to get a drug to market faster. That means the drug might not be available to the public, if approved, until December or early next year. The review will focus on whether the available data supports the use of molnupiravir in treating mild-to-moderate COVID-19 cases in "adults who have tested positive for COVID-19, and who are at high risk for progression to severe COVID-19, including hospitalization or death," per the FDA release. (Garfinkel, 10/14)

Philadelphia Inquirer: Merck’s COVID-19 Pill And The ‘Unknown Risk’ Of DNA Mutation
The COVID-19 pill developed by Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics appears to reduce the risk of hospitalization by inducing mutations in the coronavirus, preventing it from making copies of itself. Preliminary results from a clinical trial were so promising that the companies stopped it early, and asked the FDA this month for emergency authorization to market the antiviral drug. But in a study led by University of North Carolina researchers earlier this year, the drug also induced low levels of mutations in the DNA of hamster cells — in theory, suggesting it could pose a slight risk of cancer. (Avril, 10/14)

Stat: Is Robert Califf A Savvy Choice To Helm The FDA — Again? 
The Food and Drug Administration has been without a permanent leader for 10 months in large part because of the Senate confirmation process. Key Democrats have voiced public complaints about nearly every potential agency leader, including longtime agency veteran and acting commissioner Janet Woodcock. Robert Califf isn’t going to have any easier of a time if he gets the nod. (Florko, 10/14)

The New York Times: Biden Considering Robert Califf To Lead F.D.A. Again 
Dr. Califf, a cardiologist who teaches at the Duke University School of Medicine, served only briefly as F.D.A. commissioner, at the end of President Barack Obama’s second term. He was the agency’s deputy commissioner for medical products and tobacco before leading it from February 2016 to January 2017.He was confirmed by the Senate as commissioner in February 2016 in a vote of 89 to 4, after some lawmakers opposed his nomination over what they said was the agency’s poor record on prescription painkillers. His nomination faced its fiercest pushback from Democrats. (Weiland, 10/14)

Politico: Biden Eyeing FDA Veteran Robert Califf To Lead The Agency
Califf previously worked closely with Biden on the Cancer Moonshot initiative launched by the Obama administration. Califf also has a long history with North Carolina, noted Alston & Bird attorney Marc Scheineson, who previously served as FDA associate commissioner for legislative affairs under former FDA Commissioner David Kessler. "Califf should have an inside track for a lot of different reasons," Scheineson said. "Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) can help smooth a confirmation ... to have North Carolina's senator as the ranking member on the committee that confirms him is very important." But consumer advocacy group Public Citizen slammed Califf as a "recycled FDA Commissioner pick" with close ties to the pharmaceutical industry. (Lim, Cancryn and Owermohle, 10/14)

Roll Call: Report: White House Considering Robert Califf As FDA Commissioner
Califf, a cardiologist, had such strong bipartisan support that when President Donald Trump took office in early 2017, many pharmaceutical and medical device industry officials expressed hope he would continue on as the FDA’s leader. Sens. Joe Manchin III, D-W.Va., and Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., both opposed Califf’s confirmation in 2016 and argued that Califf was unlikely to make changes at the agency to reduce access to opioid painkillers. (Cohen and Kopp, 10/14)

Austin American-Statesman: Abortion Law Stands After Appeals Court Sides With Texas
A Texas law banning most abortions is still in effect, after a federal appeals court sided with Texas officials a second time and again suspended a lower court ruling that had blocked the law. A three judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 late Thursday, refusing a request from the U.S. Department of Justice to allow a lower court ruling blocking enforcement of the Texas law to stand. The law prohibits abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. The federal government is expected to appeal Thursday's ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court, which previously allowed the law to go into effect by declining to intervene at the request of Texas abortion providers. (Mekelburg, 10/14)

The Texas Tribune: Texas’ Near-Total Abortion Ban Will Remain In Effect, Appeals Court Says
The three justices of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals — considered perhaps the most conservative appellate court in the nation — also agreed to hear oral arguments in the underlying lawsuit the Biden administration filed against Texas over the law. A U.S. district court previously blocked enforcement of the law for two days before the 5th Circuit initially froze the order. The panel of 5th Circuit justices agreed in a 2-1 decision Thursday to let the law remain in effect until it considers the U.S. Department of Justice’s challenge. Judge Carl Stewart dissented. (Oxner, 10/14)

Also —

AP: Texas Abortion Law Shutting Down Court Avenue For Teens
Veronika Granado anxiously stood before the judge knowing that if she said something wrong, things could end badly for her. But the 17-year-old hadn’t committed a crime. She had not filed a lawsuit. Granado was in a Texas court that day to ask permission to get an abortion. She was among thousands of teens burdened with additional hurdles to legal abortion care, especially if they are of color or live in states where abortion access is already severely limited. (Galvan and Whitehurst, 10/15)

AP: Abortion Supporters Ask Oklahoma Court To Put 3 Laws On Hold
Reproductive rights supporters have filed an appeal asking the Oklahoma Supreme Court to put three anti-abortion laws on hold, including restrictions on medication-induced abortions. The appeal Wednesday comes after District Judge Cindy Truong said she would allow the laws to take effect Nov. 1, pending the outcome of a legal challenge, the Tulsa World reported. (10/14)

Fox News: Worst Emergency Blood Shortage Since 2015 Caused By Pandemic: American Red Cross
The American Red Cross recently issued a public call to action due to a plummeting national inventory of blood donations amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. "The Red Cross is now facing an emergency blood and platelet shortage. Blood donor turnout has reached the lowest levels of the year as many have delayed giving amid a return to the workplace and in-person learning, as well as a recent surge in COVID-19 cases across the country due to the delta variant," Jodi Sheedy, senior director of Biomedical Communications at the Red Cross, told Fox News. (Musto and Sudhakar, 10/14)

New Orleans Times-Picayune: New Orleans Ambulances To Carry Blood For Pre-Hospital Transfusions
Starting Monday, New Orleans Emergency Medical Services will carry blood in its ambulances for transfusions before arriving at a hospital. The agency has partnered up with The Blood Center to launch the initiative, which it says is the first of its kind in the region. Uncontrolled bleeding is the leading cause of preventable death, and death by bleed-out mostly happens before a patient arrives at a hospital, the agency said. Studies have shown that pre-hospital transfusions can significantly improve a patient's chance of surviving traumatic injuries. (Pierce, 10/14)

In other health care industry news —

The Boston Globe: Mass. Medicaid Fraud Case Settled For Record $25 Million, AG’s Office Says
A private equity firm and two former top executives at a Massachusetts chain of mental health centers have agreed to pay $25 million in a whistleblower lawsuit brought by the attorney general’s office, marking the largest MassHealth fraud settlement in state history, officials said Thursday. South Bay Community Services (formerly known as South Bay Mental Health) has operated facilities in more than a dozen Massachusetts communities, including Boston, Brockton, Fall River, Lowell, Pittsfield, and Worcester, the office of Attorney General Maura Healey said in a statement. (Fox, 10/14)

Modern Healthcare: Spending More On Medicare Advantage Doesn't Seem To Buy Better Health
Medicare Advantage and traditional Medicare enrollees visit hospitals and emergency departments at the same frequency, despite members enrolled in the privatized program receiving more care management services, a new report finds. Thirty-four percent of traditional Medicare and Medicare Advantage members aged 65 and older visited an emergency department during the two-year period between 2016 and 2018, for example, according to an analysis published by the Commonwealth Fund Thursday. Hospitalization rates were also similar, with 28% of Medicare Advantage members and 27% of traditional Medicare enrollees visiting a hospital over those two years. (Tepper, 10/14)

NPR: The Pandemic Has Driven Many Americans To Delay Health Care
Last month, Chelsea Titus, a 40-year-old mother of one in Boise, Idaho, needed surgery to relieve severe pain from endometriosis. But hospitals there are so full of unvaccinated COVID-19 patients that doctors told her she'd have to wait. Nearly 1 in 5 American households has had to delay care for serious illnesses in the past few months, according to a new poll from NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Titus, who works for a tech company from the home she shares with her husband, her daughter and a labradoodle named Winston, previously had surgery for endometriosis in which doctors removed her uterus and one ovary. When the condition flared again in September, the pain was severe. (Dawson, 10/14)

Rockdale Newton Citizen: Patient Found On Sidewalk In Front Of Piedmont Rockdale
A man who apparently left Piedmont Rockdale Hospital Thursday collapsed on the sidewalk in front of the hospital and was returned to the hospital’s ER by ambulance, according to the Conyers Police Department. Conyers Deputy Chief of Police Scott Freeman said the man, who appeared to be in his mid-60s, was reportedly escorted out of the hospital by hospital security around 10 a.m. Thursday. Freeman said the man still had medical tubing connected to his body and was lying on the sidewalk unresponsive when police arrived shortly after 11 a.m. (Queen, 10/14)

New Orleans Times-Picayune: Larry Hollier, Chancellor Of LSU Health Sciences Center Who Came Under Fire, Resigns Post
Larry Hollier is out as chancellor of the LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans, bringing an abrupt end to a 15-year tenure amid a raft of allegations that he pushed for improper pay bumps for his inner circle, underpaid women and violated the university’s policies while hiring and firing people. An LSU announcement Thursday said Hollier would vacate his post immediately. His contract was set to expire at the end of the year. An interim chancellor, who has not yet been named, will take over while LSU searches for Hollier’s replacement. (Cranney, 10/14)

KHN: Schedule Online Visits First? It’s The Next Big Thing In Health Insurance 
At the height of the covid-19 pandemic, people often relied on telemedicine for doctor visits. Now, insurers are betting that some patients liked it enough to embrace new types of health coverage that encourages video visits — or outright insists on them. Priority Health in Michigan, for example, offers coverage requiring online visits first for nonemergency primary care. Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, selling to employers in Connecticut, Maine and New Hampshire, has a similar plan. “I would describe them as virtual first, a true telehealth primary care physician replacement product,” said Carrie Kincaid, vice president of individual markets at Priority Health, which launched its plans in January as an addition to more traditional Affordable Care Act offerings. (Appleby, 10/15)

KHN: How To Crush Medical Debt: 5 Tips For Using Hospital Charity Care 
What if a law passed but no one enforced it? That’s essentially what has happened with one small but helpful rule about hospitals and financial assistance for medical bills. The Affordable Care Act, the health law also known as Obamacare, requires nonprofit hospitals to make financial assistance available to low-income patients and post those policies online. Across the U.S., more than half of hospitals are nonprofit — and in some states all or nearly all hospitals are nonprofit. But many people who qualify for financial assistance — or “charity care,” as it is sometimes known — never apply. (Pisacreta, 10/15)

The Wall Street Journal: Johnson & Johnson Places Talc Injury Claims In Bankruptcy 
Johnson & Johnson placed into bankruptcy its liabilities for tens of thousands of lawsuits linking talc-based products to cancer, betting the move will help drive a settlement of personal-injury claims that are expected to grow for decades to come. J&J said Thursday that a corporate affiliate holding talc-related liabilities had filed for chapter 11 protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Charlotte, N.C., shifting the landscape of a yearslong legal fight over whether Johnson’s Baby Powder caused ovarian cancer, asbestos poisoning and other illnesses. The company has maintained that the powder, which it stopped selling last year, is safe and doesn’t contain asbestos. (Scurria, 10/14)

In other pharmaceutical industry news —

Politico: Confusion Clouds FDA’s Approach To E-Cigarettes
The Food and Drug Administration’s decision this week to authorize the sale of an electronic cigarette was a landmark for the vaping industry — but it may only deepen confusion about the sector’s future. More than a month after a court-ordered deadline to determine which e-cigs could stay on the market, FDA has yet to act on applications from some of the industry’s biggest players, including Juul. (Foley, 10/14)

Stat: New Tools Could Fix Diseases Caused By Large DNA Rearrangements 
Ever since the now Nobel-winning discovery of CRISPR genome editing in 2012, scientists have been racing to improve on its DNA-targeting-and-cutting action. A huge step forward came in 2016, with the invention of base editing, and another with prime editing in 2019, both from the Broad Institute lab of David Liu. The advances made it possible to precisely slice open a double-strand of DNA and change the sequence — swap out a nucleotide for another, or add or subtract a few in one go. But when faced with making bigger deletions, anything over 100 base pairs, even these shiny new tools weren’t up to the task. (Molteni, 10/14)

Axios: Walgreens Wants To Be More Than Just A Pharmacy
Walgreens Boots Alliance acquired majority stakes in two companies, VillageMD and CareCentrix, as part of the pharmacy chain's plan to provide more care inside its stores and people's homes. These deals will move the company "away from retail and just dispensing pharmaceuticals," Walgreens CEO Roz Brewer told CNBC. (Herman, 10/14)

In updates on the Theranos trial —

Bay Area News Group: Elizabeth Holmes Trial: Theranos Patients In 'Immediate Jeopardy'
Elizabeth Holmes’ blood-testing company Theranos put patients in “immediate jeopardy” and failed to resolve regulators’ concerns over its laboratory practices and staff training, according to a government report filed Wednesday in connection with her criminal fraud trial. The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which regulates laboratories, noted in a 2016 letter to Holmes and her former Theranos president Sunny Balwani that it had found serious deficiencies in the firm’s Bay Area laboratory, and that the company’s responses to the alleged violations were not sufficient or credible. Patients using Theranos blood testing, the letter said, were still in “immediate jeopardy” in which serious harm or death may occur. (Baron, 10/14)

Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting: Diabetes Cases Exploding Among Children. Here's Why And What Mississippi Is Doing
The number of diabetes cases among adolescents has nearly doubled since 2001, according to a new study by the American Medical Association. Those numbers are expected to quadruple by 2050. The average age of onset for Type 2 diabetes among children? About 14 — an age that was unthinkable decades ago for a disease associated with adults. Spikes for Type 2 diabetes were highest among Black and Hispanic children. Some attribute the recent spike to COVID-19 — fueled by lockdowns and closed schools, which have reduced access to health care, healthy food and places to exercise. (Hensley, 10/15)

In other public health news —

CBS News: Butterball Recalls 14,000 Pounds Of Ground Turkey Sold At BJ's And Kroger Stores 
Butterball is recalling more than 14,000 pounds of ground turkey products sold nationwide because they may contain small pieces of hard blue plastic. The ground turkey items were produced on September 28, 2021, at the Butterball facility in Mt. Olive, North Carolina, according to a notice posted Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service, or FSIS. The 675,000-square-foot plant outside Raleigh is the largest turkey processing plant in the world, processing 17 million turkeys a year, according to Butterball. (Gibson, 10/14)

The Wall Street Journal: Why So Many Products On Grocery Store Shelves Claim They Help Your Immune System 
If you’ve seen a barrage of food packages promising to help your immune system lately, you’re not alone. Even cans of cheese balls now are touting immune-system benefits. Good Crisp Co. this summer launched cheddar cheese balls with an ingredient that “helps strengthen the immune system and enhances its key functions,” the label says. (Chaker, 10/14)

The Washington Post: College Students Struggle With Mental Health As Pandemic Drags On
College students nationwide are more stressed — with the coronavirus pandemic adding loneliness, worry about illness, economic distress, relentless uncertainty and churn to a time of life that is already challenging for many. Demand for mental health services had already been high, but a recent study of college students found increased levels of anxiety and isolation during the pandemic. (Svrluga and Anderson, 10/14)

North Carolina Health News: Helping Moms Beat Addiction In Two Public Health Crises 
The team at UNC Horizons is no stranger to public health crises — the opioid epidemic has ravaged the country for over 20 years and killed thousands — but when the COVID-19 pandemic emerged in March of 2020, they were dealing with a new monster. “The opposite of addiction is connection,” said Hendrée Jones, executive director of Horizons, a Carrboro-based program that provides substance use treatment and resources for mothers. (Thompson, 10/15)

Also —

The Washington Post: Former President Bill Clinton Hospitalized For ‘Non-Covid-Related Infection’ 
Former president Bill Clinton was hospitalized earlier this week for an issue not related to covid-19 and is recovering, his spokesman said Thursday. Clinton was admitted to the University of California at Irvine Medical Center on Tuesday “to receive treatment for a non-Covid-related infection,” his spokesman Angel Ureña said in a statement. (Wang, 10/14)

The Hill: Michigan Orders 'All-Hands-On-Deck' Response To Water Crisis
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) said on Thursday that elevated levels of lead in tap water in the southwestern part of the state would require an "all-hands-on-deck, whole-of-government approach." Whitmer issued an executive order to allocate federal, state and local resources to expeditiously replace all of the lead service lines in Benton Harbor in the next 18 months. (Beals, 10/14)

In other news about the nation's water supply —

The Hill: Agencies Warn Of Cyber Threats To Water, Wastewater Systems
A coalition of federal agencies on Thursday warned that hackers are targeting the water and wastewater treatment sectors, strongly recommending that organizations take steps to protect themselves.  In a joint advisory, the FBI, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Security Agency (NSA) warned of “ongoing malicious cyber activity—by both known and unknown actors—targeting the information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) networks, systems, and devices of U.S. Water and Wastewater Systems (WWS) Sector facilities.” (Miller, 10/14)

In updates from Maine, Kentucky, Michigan and Texas —

AP: New Tool To Allow Mainers To Window Shop For Health Coverage
Federal authorities have signed off on Maine’s health insurance marketplace, and residents can start comparing plans on Friday. The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has approved CoverME.gov. Democratic Gov. Janet Mills said residents will be able to use a new tool called “Plan Compare” to essentially window shop for plans. (10/14)

AP: Kentuckians Can Review Health Coverage Plans On Exchange
Consumers can start logging in to Kentucky’s state-run health insurance exchange to review plans that best suit their needs for 2022, Gov. Andy Beshear said. Starting Friday, Kentuckians can compare state-managed health insurance plans on the web portal, known as kynect, ahead of the enrollment period that begins Nov. 1. (10/15)

AP: Michigan Lawmakers Advance Measure To End 'Tampon Tax'
The Michigan House advanced legislation Thursday that would eliminate sales taxes on menstrual products, bringing the state one step closer to abolishing the so-called “tampon tax.” The legislation, if passed by the Senate and signed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, would eliminate the 6% sales tax on menstrual products as “luxury items.” The proposal passed with bipartisan support 94-13. (Nichols, 10/14)

Houston Chronicle: On Fourth Try, Texas House Passes Controversial Transgender Sports Bill
Texas House Democrats on Thursday put up a fierce fight as they tried over more than 10 hours of debate to shut down a controversial bill that will block transgender student athletes from competing on the team that aligns with their gender identity, but the legislation ultimately passed on party lines. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick made the bill a priority item three times this year, only to see it fail in the Texas House each time — once because it was delayed and the clock ran out, another time because of the Democratic walkout earlier this year and again when a Democrat committee chair blocked it. (Goldenstein, 10/14)

The Wall Street Journal: Pandemic Disruptions Blamed For First Increase In Estimated Tuberculosis Deaths In More Than A Decade 
Estimated deaths from tuberculosis—the deadliest infectious disease until the emergence of Covid-19—increased for the first time in more than a decade last year, the World Health Organization said Thursday, blaming severe disruptions in treatment and diagnosis caused by the coronavirus pandemic. (Bariyo and Steinhauser, 10/14)

And in global covid news —

NPR: United States Commits Another 17 Million COVID Vaccine Doses To The African Union
The White House says the United States will donate more than 17 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine from its domestic supplies to the African Union. President Biden made the announcement Thursday as he met with Kenyan Uhuru Kenyatta at the White House, Biden's first one-on-one meeting with an African leader. "We're continuing our shared fight against COVID," Biden said during the meeting. The vaccine donation comes on top of the 50 million vaccines doses already donated by the United States to the African Union, according to the White House.

Bloomberg: England Eases Travel Rules With Cheaper Covid Tests For Arrivals
New rules allowing fully vaccinated travelers returning to England to take lateral-flow coronavirus tests instead of more expensive PCR tests will come into force on October 24. The change will come into effect for families returning from half-term holidays, the Department for Health and Social Care said in an emailed statement. Passengers will able to book the lateral flow test through private providers listed on a government website and will have to upload a photo of their test on or before day two of their arrival to verify the results. Anyone who tests positive will need to self-isolate and take a PCR test free of charge. (Ashton, 10/15)

Bloomberg: Thousands Of Britons May Have Had False Negative Covid Results
Officials suspended testing at Immensa Health Clinic Ltd.’s laboratory in Wolverhampton, central England, following a probe into reports of people getting negative PCR test results after previously testing positive via lateral flow tests, the U.K. Health Security Agency said on Friday in an emailed statement. NHS Test and Trace estimates that around 43,000 people could have been given incorrect negative PCR results between Sept 9 and Oct 12, mostly in the southwest of England, the agency said. It described it as “an isolated incident attributed to one laboratory” but said all samples were now being redirected to other labs. People affected will be contacted and advised to take another test. (Ashton, 10/15)

The Washington Post: One Of The World’s Toughest Coronavirus Quarantine Regimes Is Finally Ending
Since early in the pandemic, Australia has imposed some of the world's strictest quarantine requirements, effectively walling itself off and stranding thousands of citizens overseas in a bid to keep the coronavirus out. Now, after a surge in vaccinations, those walls are starting to tumble. Sydney, the country’s largest city, will stop requiring fully vaccinated travelers to quarantine — either in a hotel or at home — next month, a major shift that will speed the return of stranded Australians and open the door to international travelers early next year. (Miller, 10/15)

AP: Russia Struggles To Meet Global Orders For Sputnik V Vaccine
Esperita García de Perez got her first vaccination against COVID-19 in May. That, along with her Catholic faith, made her feel better protected against the virus, and she had hoped to get her second shot of the Russian-developed Sputnik V vaccine a few weeks later. But the 88-year-old is still waiting. She was infected with the virus last month, and now her hopes for survival are pinned on the host of medications and home care she is receiving. (Cano, Litvinova and Arraez, 10/15)

In updates on "Havana Syndrome" —

Bloomberg: ‘Havana Syndrome’: Senators Press Blinken To Name Point Person For Investigation
A bipartisan group of senators pressed Secretary of State Antony Blinken to name a point person to lead an investigation into reports about “Havana Syndrome,” a mysterious phenomenon causing diplomats and other U.S. officials to get sick at some overseas posts. The senators “remain concerned that the State Department is not treating this crisis with the requisite senior-level attention that it requires,” they said Thursday in a letter to Blinken. “We continue to hear concerns that the Department is not sufficiently communicating with or responding to diplomats who have been injured from these attacks.” (Flatley, 10/14)

The Washington Post: A TikTok Bone Salesman’s Wall Of Spines Reignites Ethical Debate Over Selling Human Remains 
Human skulls line his shelves. Spines hang on a wall in his showroom, more than 100 backbones from unknown people gathered in perpetual show. They all but certainly never knew one another. Jon Pichaya Ferry, known on TikTok as JonsBones, is a 21-year-old bone salesman. Ferry’s account, where he has garnered nearly 500,000 followers and 22 million likes, features videos where he cheerily answers viewers’ questions on what many see as a macabre field. He also displays his rarest finds, including the skulls of fetuses and toddlers. His cat, Chonk, makes frequent appearances, and fans can even buy JonsBones merchandise. (Anders, 10/10)

The Washington Post: Want To Add Healthy Years To Your Life? Here’s What New Longevity Research Says
Death comes for us all. But recent research points to interventions in diet, exercise and mental outlook that could slow down aging and age-related diseases — without risky biohacks such as unproven gene therapies. A multidisciplinary approach involving these evidence-based strategies “could get it all right,” said Valter Longo, a biochemist who runs the Longevity Institute at the University of Southern California’s Leonard Davis School of Gerontology. (Fuchs, 10/11)

The Washington Post: Plant-Based Diet’s Health Benefits Play Big Role In Its Popularity During Pandemic 
At the pandemic’s height, a majority of American households bought plant-based foods — with the greatest sales coming from milk alternatives, such as oat or almond milk, and from meat alternatives such as the soy-based Impossible Burger or wheat-derived seitan. Today, 1 in 4 Americans still report eating more protein from plant sources than in spring 2020, including foods like quinoa, lentils and tempeh, propelling the more than $7 billion dollar plant-based industry into what many are betting is the future of American cuisine. (Pasricha, 10/9)

The Washington Post: A Recipe For Fighting Climate Change And Feeding The World
“It’s so different from anything I’ve baked with,” says my baking partner, Jenny Starrs. We’re standing in the tiny kitchen of my D.C. apartment, examining palmfuls of a dark, coarse, rich-scented flour. It’s unfamiliar because it was milled from Kernza, a grain that is fundamentally unlike all other wheat humans grow. Most commercial crops are annual. They provide only one harvest and must be replanted every year. ... But Kernza — a domesticated form of wheatgrass developed by scientists at the nonprofit Land Institute — is perennial. A single seed will grow into a plant that provides grain year after year after year. It forms deep roots that store carbon in the soil and prevent erosion. It can be planted alongside other crops to reduce the need for fertilizer and provide habitat for wildlife. (Kaplan, 10/12)

The New York Times: Selma Blair Wants You To See Her Living With Multiple Sclerosis 
Selma Blair could only talk for a half-hour in our first session. That was as long as she trusted her brain and her body to cooperate — any longer and she feared that her focus might start to wander or her speech might begin to trail. “We’re being responsible in knowing that smaller moments will be clearer moments,” she said. For Blair no day is free from the effects of multiple sclerosis, the autoimmune disease that she learned she had in 2018 but that she believes began attacking her central nervous system many years earlier. (Itzkoff, 10/13)

Also —

The New York Times: Newly Discovered Bat Viruses Give Hints To Covid’s Origins 
In the summer of 2020, half a year into the coronavirus pandemic, scientists traveled into the forests of northern Laos to catch bats that might harbor close cousins of the pathogen. In the dead of night, they used mist nets and canvas traps to snag the animals as they emerged from nearby caves, gathered samples of saliva, urine and feces, then released them back into the darkness. The fecal samples turned out to contain coronaviruses, which the scientists studied in high security biosafety labs, known as BSL-3, using specialized protective gear and air filters. (Zimmer, 10/14)

The Washington Post: In Covid Origins Search In China, Enshi Caves And Wildlife Farms Draw New Scrutiny 
Hundreds of caves are spread throughout the mountains of Enshi prefecture, an agricultural corner of China's Hubei province. The most majestic, Tenglong, or "flying dragon," is one of China's largest karst cave systems, spanning 37 miles of passages that contain numerous bats. Nearby are small farms that collectively housed hundreds of thousands of wild mammals such as civets, ferret badgers and raccoon dogs before the pandemic, farm licenses show — animals that scientists say can be intermediate hosts for viruses to cross over from bats to humans. (Standaert and Dou, 10/11)

The Washington Post: How The Nipah Virus Jumped From Humans To Animals And Shaped The Search For Covid’s Origins
The virus had lurked for years, lacking only one thing it needed to inflict widespread human death: a perfect opportunity. In late 1998, it got it. The virus arrived in central Malaysia by air, inside furry bats that alighted on the boughs of fruit trees swaying over pig farms. The bats, messy eaters, dropped their half-consumed meals. The swine, undiscerning eaters, gobbled up the leftovers. The virus, ready to move, hopped into the pigs and passed through their coughs to the humans who worked with them. And within eight months, 105 Malaysians — about 40 percent of those infected — had died of this novel virus, dubbed Nipah, after suffering through fevers, brain inflammation and comas. (Brulliard and Guarino, 10/14)

Bloomberg: Why Some Covid-19 Outbreaks Are Deadlier Than Others With Same Vaccines
It’s one of the great puzzles of the pandemic. Most developed economies are now highly vaccinated with some of the most effective shots on offer, so why are the latest Covid-19 outbreaks more deadly in some places than in others? While it’s clear vaccines led to a drop in fatalities during the most recent delta variant-driven waves compared with earlier bouts with the virus, some countries saw deaths fall to a greater degree than others, an outcome scientists still don’t have answers for. Countries like Germany, Denmark and the U.K. have seen Covid deaths fall to roughly a tenth of previous peaks, according to Bloomberg calculations using data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. In Israel, Greece and the U.S., fatalities fell but remained more than half of the previous peaks. (Hong, Du and Saito, 10/12)

CIDRAP: What Can Masks Do? Part 1: The Science Behind COVID-19 Protection
Confusion continues to abound over the effectiveness of masks to protect people from COVID-19, and recent news stories touting imperfect studies are only compounding the situation. ... This is Part 1 of a two-part commentary explains the differences in cloth face coverings and surgical masks, the science of respiratory protection, and the hierarchy of disease controls. (Brosseau et al, 10/14)

Los Angeles Times: Biohackers At The Gate: The Untold Story Of How DIY Experimenters Waged War On COVID-19
In an old bank building in Brooklyn, N.Y., amateur microbiologists were tinkering with DNA when the anarchist appeared. Then came a robotics expert, coders and other industry revolutionaries. Before long, this collection of inventive, if wildly independent, experimenters would reimagine COVID-19 testing in the fight against a globe-crippling pandemic. That moment in the spring of 2020 was emblematic of how disrupters upend the status quo to advance science and technology. Will Canine, a biohacker and former Occupy Wall Street organizer, and his team of idealists and iconoclasts launched a Kickstarter campaign to build a robot that they hoped would bypass elite labs and corporate monopolies to change the world. They succeeded. (Baumgaertner, 10/14)

The New York Times: Covid Will Be An Era, Not A Crisis That Fades 
The skeletons move across a barren landscape toward the few helpless and terrified people still living. The scene, imagined in a mid-16th-century painting, “The Triumph of Death” by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, illuminated the psychic impact of the bubonic plague. It was a terror that lingered even as the disease receded, historians say. Covid-19’s waves of destruction have inflicted their own kind of despair on humanity in the 21st century, leaving many to wonder when the pandemic will end. (Kolata, 10/12)

Stat: Feeling Guilty About Getting A Booster Shot? Here's What You Can Do 
The same week that Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, gave the green light to booster shots for Pfizer vaccine recipients over age 65, the World Health Organization reported that only 2.2% of people in the world’s low-income countries had received even one dose of a Covid vaccine. That means millions of Americans will receive a third vaccine dose while billions around the world have not had their first. That stark contrast of U.S. haves and global have-nots prompted one of my clinic patients to ask me, “Is it immoral for me to get a booster?” (Tim Lahey, 10/15)

The New York Times: Britain Infected Volunteers With Covid. Why Won’t The U.S.? 
In an age of masking, compulsive hand sanitizing and plexiglass dividers, it seems inconceivable that for more than 40 years people enthusiastically signed up — and were often put on a waiting list — to have respiratory viruses, including coronaviruses, dripped into their noses. They were volunteers at the Common Cold Unit, set up in 1946 by the British government’s Medical Research Council. Housed in an abandoned American military field hospital in the English countryside, the Common Cold Unit’s mission was to find a cure for the common cold and by doing so, boost productivity as the battered nation tried to rebuild after World War II. (Kate Murphy, 10/14)

The Atlantic: The Hypocrisy Of The Anti-Vax Patriot 
Molly didn’t feel particularly patriotic as she said goodbye to her husband, a Navy doctor, early one morning in September. He was leaving on his second deployment in nine months, with just four days’ notice (he’d gotten only 36 hours’ notice ahead of his previous operation). And although his initial mission had been to the Middle East—on an aircraft carrier as a critical-care physician in case of a COVID-19 outbreak on board—this time he was deploying within the continental United States to support a hospital that was overwhelmed with unvaccinated COVID patients. (Julie Bogen, 10/14)

Chicago Tribune: Teachers, Principals And School Staff Should Lead The Charge To Get Students Vaccinated 
In March 2020, when Chicago closed down along with the rest of the world, our schools did what they always do when presented with a huge challenge — they faced it with heart and grit. Teachers and principals hand-delivered laptops to homes, set up food banks in their schools and taught themselves how to run virtual education with no prior training or infrastructure, all while caring for their families and monitoring the remote learning of their own children. During this time, we understood how much more teachers do for our kids than just teach. We reflected on how they provide safe and welcoming spaces, how they feed the hungry, how they allow the rest of us to go about our day. (Nate Pietrini, 10/14)

The New York Times: The Unvaccinated May Not Be Who You Think 
The failure of the United States to vaccinate more people stands out, especially since we had every seeming advantage to get it done. As early as the end of April of this year, when vaccines were in dire short supply globally, almost every adult who wanted to get vaccinated against Covid-19 in the United States could do so, for free. By June, about 43 percent of the U.S. population had received two doses while that number was only about 6 percent in Canada and 3 percent in Japan. Now, just a few months later, these countries, along with 44 others, have surpassed U.S. vaccination rates. And our failure shows: America continues to have among the highest deaths per capita from Covid. (Zeynep Tufekci, 10/15)

Stat: In The Calm Before The Superbug Storm, The World Needs To Prepare 
Failing to plan, it’s been said, is planning to fail. By this standard, the United States and other countries are planning for failure when it comes to preparing for the next public health crises, one of which will certainly be antimicrobial resistance, the phenomenon in which bacteria and fungi evolve to resist even the strongest treatments. (Kevin Outterson, 10/15)

The Star Tribune: Good Medical News Still Needs Support, Celebration 
The COVID-19 outbreak has brought unprecedented challenges to the health care sector, as we have all seen during these last 18 months. Our nation's doctors, nurses and other front-line personnel deserve enormous credit for their heroic work in confronting a once-in-a-generation pandemic. And yet, as much as COVID-19 has dominated our attention — and rightly so — we should not forget that health care workers across the country continue to confront other challenges that predate the pandemic and will continue long after it has been brought under control. Among those challenges are the estimated 18,000 patients in 2020 diagnosed with life-threatening blood cancers or other similar diseases for which a blood stem cell transplant may be the only option for a cure. (Tom Emmer, 10/14)