AP: CDC: Many Healthy Americans Can Take A Break From Masks
Most Americans live in places where healthy people, including students in schools, can safely take a break from wearing masks under new U.S. guidelines released Friday. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention outlined the new set of measures for communities where COVID-19 is easing its grip, with less of a focus on positive test results and more on what’s happening at hospitals. The new system greatly changes the look of the CDC’s risk map and puts more than 70% of the U.S. population in counties where the coronavirus is posing a low or medium threat to hospitals. Those are the people who can stop wearing masks, the agency said. (Johnson and Stobbe, 2/25)

Stat: CDC Issues Long-Awaited New Guidance On When To Wear Masks
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued long-awaited new guidance Friday on when Americans should consider wearing masks to protect themselves against Covid-19. Under the new guidance, roughly 70% of the U.S. population can now contemplate removing their masks. The guidance lays out a system that designates individual counties as being at either low, medium, or high risk from Covid-19. Roughly 62.6% of counties — home to 71.7% of Americans — fall into the low- and medium-risk categories. The new system moves beyond sheer numbers of new cases to look at how well the health care system in each county is holding up. The idea, the CDC said, is to focus on minimizing severe disease and ensuring that hospitals are able to cope with Covid cases while still delivering standard care. (Branswell, 2/25)

The New York Times: Find The C.D.C.'s New Pandemic Guidance For Your Area
The C.D.C.’s new tool allows users to identify their state and then choose their county. That yields a color-coded gauge — green for low risk, yellow for medium and orange for high — along with the relevant guidance. All results offer reminders of the importance of vaccinations and boosters, measures that have kept the Omicron wave from inflicting a far more devastating toll in serious illness, hospitalization and death. (Downes, 2/26)

Also —

The Washington Post: What You Need To Know About The CDC’s New Coronavirus Guidance
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a new framework for dealing with the coronavirus Friday that eases recommendations on mask-wearing for much of the country — a move that arrives as many state and local officials had already taken such steps. The guidelines illustrate that after more than two years of living with the virus, many communities have gained greater protection against severe illness through vaccination, treatments, better testing and higher-quality masks. (Stead Sellers and Rizzo, 2/25)

AP: Some Americans Welcome New CDC Mask Guidance, Others Wary
Many Americans, including parents of school children, have been clamoring for an end to masking while others remain wary that the pandemic could throw a new curveball. Now, states, cities and school districts are assessing Friday’s guidance to determine whether it’s safe to stop mask-wearing — long after others threw out such mandates and many Americans ignored them. (Babwin and Webber, 2/26)

Axios: A Case For (Some) Continued Masking
Public health experts are trying to make the case for keeping masks on even though the CDC no longer recommends them in many public places. In the push to return to normal, there are lingering concerns about the consequences of letting our guard down, particularly when millions of immunocompromised Americans remain vulnerable to COVID and kids under 5 still don't qualify for vaccinations. (Reed, 2/28)

And in research on how masks helped battle omicron —

The New York Times: Masking And Isolating Reduced Omicron Spread In Homes, C.D.C. Finds
The Omicron variant of the coronavirus has been so contagious that it may have seemed a foregone conclusion that if one person in a household became ill, other people living there would catch the virus, too. But that turns out to be less certain: A small study of households by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released on Friday found that when the first person infected wore a mask and stayed in a separate room at least part of the time, the risk of other household members contracting the virus became markedly lower. (Mueller, 2/25)

The New York Times: New York Ends Its Mask Mandate For Schools
Mayor Eric Adams announced on Sunday that New York City was poised to eliminate school mask mandates and vaccine requirements for restaurants, gyms and movie theaters, by March 7, if case numbers remain low. The rollback of pandemic restrictions, which had served as a crucial weapon in the city’s battle against the coronavirus, is a milestone that many hope will help to restore a sense of normalcy in the city and boost its economic recovery. (Ashford, Shapiro and Fitzsimmons, 2/27)

Los Angeles Times: Newsom Scales Back Some Special Pandemic Rules, But Not California's State Of Emergency
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday rescinded a slate of COVID-19-related executive orders in response to signs of a subsiding pandemic, but did not end California’s nearly two-year-long state of emergency despite criticism from Republican lawmakers that he no longer needs its immense executive powers. The governor’s office summarized 19 provisions in executive orders that will be immediately terminated, which included requirements that all state-owned properties be made available for emergency use and state agencies to identify facilities for housing and medical treatment. (Willon and Luna, 2/25)

San Francisco Chronicle: California Will Reveal New School Masking Rules Today. Here’s What We Know
When California officials lifted the state’s mask requirement for vaccinated individuals in public indoor spaces a week and a half ago, they retained the mask mandate for K-12 schools, promising to announce a plan and schedule on Monday, Feb. 28 for eliminating it. The reason cited for the delay was needing more time to gather data on cases and vaccination rates. Now the day has arrived, and it’s still unclear what the state will recommend. Public health officials haven’t said exactly what criteria they’re examining, but Dr. Mark Ghaly, California’s top public health officer, said last week that officials “anticipate being able to share what the next period of time will look like, and with some specificity give a date when the masking requirement will move to a recommendation.” (Echeverria, 2/28)

Chicago Tribune: Illinois COVID-19 Mask Mandate Ends Monday. Is It For Good?
Just shy of the second anniversary of his proclamation declaring the coronavirus a statewide disaster, Gov. J.B. Pritzker will try again to turn the page on COVID-19 restrictions Monday when he lifts his much-contested mask mandate for most indoor public places. Masks still will be mandatory on public transportation and in places such as hospitals and day care centers, and businesses still can require them as they see fit. But the end of mandatory masking in most settings represents a big step in getting back to normal, even though it comes as the highly unpredictable virus remains in wide circulation. (Petrella and Mahr, 2/27)

Elsewhere across the country —

AP: Boston Health Officials To Consider Ending Mask Mandates
Public health officials in Boston are weighing lifting the city’s facemask requirement for schools and businesses. The city’s Public Health Commission will meet Tuesday to discuss the matter. It comes the day after students and staff at Massachusetts public schools are officially not required to wear face coverings indoors. Gov. Charlie Baker announced earlier this month that the statewide mandate for schools would end Feb. 28. (2/27)

Hartford Courant: Experts Point To Health Inequality As Connecticut Mask Mandates Fall Along Geographic Lines
As students in all but a handful of Connecticut districts head into their last day of mandated mask wearing in schools, experts say the issue brings into focus health disparities in the state and how COVID-19 has affected people of color. Though vocal and well-organized protests have lent a political flavor to the issue of masks in schools, local decisions regarding whether to extend mandates beyond Feb. 28 have largely fallen along geographic lines, not political ones. (McAvoy, 2/28)

St. Louis Public Radio: Schools Move To Mask Optional
In recent weeks in Missouri, more than a dozen public school districts in the St. Louis region implemented mask-optional policies, including Rockwood, Parkway, Mehlville and Francis Howell. Monday is also the first day that St. Louis County will no longer have a mask mandate in indoor, public spaces. Public health officials indicate cases in schools are falling. Many large school districts’ public COVID-19 dashboards were reporting just a handful of positive cases at the end of last week. (Grumke, 2/27)

The Wall Street Journal: Covid-19 Booster Shots Are Slowing As Omicron Surge Fades
Fewer people are getting vaccine booster shots in the U.S. as the Omicron Covid-19 surge fades and more Americans return to normal patterns of life, federal data show. The seven-day average for booster shots administered daily was about 149,000 on Feb. 19, down from a little more than a million in early December, when authorities expanded access and Omicron was first detected in the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates. The agency says about half of booster-eligible people have gotten one so far, compared with about 69% of the eligible population who have completed a regular vaccine series. (Kamp, 2/26)

KHN: From Alabama To Utah, Efforts To Vaccinate Medicaid Enrollees Against Covid Run Into Obstacles
Medicaid enrollees continue to get vaccinated against covid at far lower rates than the general population despite vigorous outreach efforts by government officials and private organizations to get low-income people inoculated, according to data from several states. That leaves many Medicaid enrollees — who tend to be sicker than those with private insurance — at higher risk for severe illness, hospitalization, or death from the virus. (Galewitz, 2/28)

CalMatters: COVID-19 Has Turned Deadlier For Black Californians, Who Have The State’s Lowest Vaccination Rate
COVID-19 has become deadlier for Black Californians since the widespread availability of vaccinations, and vaccine hesitancy could be among the reasons why. Other races, which have higher vaccination rates, have seen death rates rise, but not as dramatically. A CalMatters analysis shows since last summer, the rate of Black Californians dying from COVID-19 has increased tenfold — from one death per 100,000 people last July to 10.4 deaths this week. That surpasses Latinos and all races except Pacific Islanders, who are dying at the rate of 14.7 per 100,000, according to state data. (Hwang, 2/25)

Alaska Public Media: Alaska Kids’ COVID Vaccination Rates Remain Low. Pediatricians Say Misinformation Is The Challenge
Vaccination rates for Alaska children lag far behind the rates for older kids and adults, according to data from the state health department. In Alaska, only 25% of kids ages 5 to 11 had received at least one shot by mid-February. Nationally, 31% have. (Anastas, 2/27)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Nearly Half Of Georgia Has Not Been Fully Vaccinated
As of Tuesday, Georgia was tied with Tennessee for having the seventh lowest percentage of its population fully vaccinated at 53.5%, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention statistics. The CDC records show that only Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi and Wyoming have lower rates than Georgia. Meanwhile, people keep dying from the virus in the Peach State. Georgia’s seven-day rolling average of newly confirmed and probable deaths from COVID reached 94 on Tuesday, compared to the Delta variant wave’s peak of 133. Total COVID deaths in the state stood at 28,560 on Feb. 12, meaning one in every 370 Georgians has died of the virus since the pandemic began. (Redmon, 2/26)

Also —

The Wall Street Journal: Community Workers Push To Get Covid-19 Tests To The Vulnerable
As the Biden administration distributes hundreds of millions of Covid-19 tests, some public-health workers are moving to deliver the kits a final mile to some of the people most vulnerable to the virus. Alejandra Flores-Miller, a community health worker at Johns Hopkins University, is referring people around Baltimore to a phone hotline and chatting with day laborers and others in the community about at-home Covid-19 tests. Some people say that they didn’t know tests were available or how to get them, Ms. Flores-Miller said, sometimes due to language barriers. (Abbott, 2/27)

AP: Arizona Health Agency Reduces Frequency Of Pandemic Updates
Arizona’s public health agency on Saturday provided its last planned daily update of the state’s coronavirus dashboard of pandemic data such as additional COVID-19 cases, new deaths and hospitalization levels. The state Department of Health Services announced Feb. 18 that it would switch to weekly dashboard updates starting next Wednesday because the outbreak is slowing and to be consistent with other infectious disease that are reported. (2/27)

The New York Times: Experts Warn That The End Of The Omicron Surge Is Not The End Of The Pandemic
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shifted its guidelines on Friday to say that fewer communities were in need of coronavirus restrictions such as masks and social distancing, a change that coincided with moves by several states to drop such protections. But the rush to return to normality in light of an improving national outlook for coronavirus cases has many public health experts concerned that the end of the Omicron surge is incorrectly being conflated with the end of the pandemic. (Holpuch, 2/27)

And in news on the origin of covid —

CNN: Studies Offer Further Evidence That Coronavirus Pandemic Began In Animals In Wuhan Market 
Two preprint studies posted Saturday offer further evidence that the coronavirus originated in animals and spread to humans in late 2019 at the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan, China. One of the studies -- neither of which has been peer-reviewed or published in a professional journal -- used spatial analysis to show that the earliest known Covid-19 cases, diagnosed in December 2019, were centered on the market. The researchers also report that environmental samples that tested positive for the virus, SARS-CoV-2, were strongly associated with live-animal vendors. The other study says the two major viral lineages were the result of at least two events in which the virus crossed species into humans. The first transmission most likely happened in late November or early December 2019, the researchers say, and the other lineage was probably introduced within weeks of the first event. (Dillinger, 2/27)

The New York Times: ‘An Extraordinarily Clear Picture’: New Research Points To A Wuhan Market As The Origin Of The Pandemic
Scientists released a pair of extensive studies that point to a market in Wuhan, China, as the origin of the coronavirus pandemic. Analyzing data from a variety of sources, they concluded that the coronavirus was very likely present in live mammals sold in the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in late 2019 and suggested that the virus twice spilled over into people working or shopping there. They said they found no support for an alternate theory that the coronavirus escaped from a laboratory in Wuhan. (Zimmer and Mueller, 2/27)

AP: Nearly Half Of 500 Million Free COVID Tests Still Unclaimed
Nearly half of the 500 million free COVID-19 tests the Biden administration recently made available to the public still have not been claimed as virus cases plummet and people feel less urgency to test. Wild demand swings have been a subplot in the pandemic, from vaccines to hand sanitizer, along with tests. On the first day of the White House test giveaway in January, COVIDtests.gov received over 45 million orders. Now officials say fewer than 100,000 orders a day are coming in for the packages of four free rapid tests per household, delivered by the U.S. Postal Service. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 2/27)

The Hill: Advocates Criticize 'Tepid' Biden Request For Global COVID-19 Funding
Democratic lawmakers and advocacy groups say the Biden administration's request for $5 billion from Congress for efforts to fight COVID-19 globally, including vaccinations, falls far short of what is needed. They had been pushing for months for $17 billion to step up global vaccination and treatment efforts, but the White House asked for less than a third of that amount in informal talks with Congress last week, without offering an explanation. “Honestly, it’s not enough,” said Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), who has been helping lead the push in Congress for more funding. (Sullivan, 2/27)

In preparation for the State of the Union address —

The Hill: House Lifting Mask Mandate Ahead Of State Of The Union Address
The House is lifting its mask mandate ahead of President Biden’s State of the Union address this week, making mask wearing optional throughout the Capitol complex. In a letter on Sunday, Capitol Physician Brian Monahan shared the changes with lawmakers returning to Washington this week. "Individuals may choose to mask at any time, but it is no longer a requirement," he wrote. Monahan said positive COVID-19 test rates at the Capitol are down to 2.7 percent in the last two weeks, below the current rate for the DC-Metropolitan area (4.7 percent). (Oshin, 2/27)

MarketWatch: Ahead Of Biden's State Of The Union, Here's How He's Delivered On His Priorities So Far
President Joe Biden is slated to deliver his State of the Union address on Tuesday night, a speech coming just under a year since his last remarks before a joint session of Congress. In that prior address, in April 2021, Biden laid out priorities for U.S. infrastructure, child care, COVID-19, taxes and other areas. So how’s he doing? (Reklaitis, 2/25)

Pew Research Center: State Of The Union 2022: How Americans View Major National Issues
President Joe Biden will deliver his first State of the Union address on Tuesday night. The speech comes as the country approaches the third year of the coronavirus pandemic, and amid rising concerns about the economy and challenges from abroad. Here’s a look at public opinion on some of the key issues facing the country, drawn from recent Pew Research Center surveys. (Schaeffer, 2/25)

More from the Biden administration —

Politico: FTC’s Top Economist Resigned Amid Dispute Over Pharma Study
The Federal Trade Commission’s top economist abruptly quit last week amid internal disagreements over a proposed study into pharmacy benefit managers, three people familiar with the situation said. Marta Wosinska, the FTC’s Bureau of Economics director, resigned on Feb. 16, a day before the FTC was set to vote on a study into PBMs, the companies that negotiate rebates from pharmaceutical manufacturers and develop lists of prescription drugs that health insurers will cover. Wosinska — who specializes in health care economics and previously worked for the Food and Drug Administration — had served as the FTC’s top economist since April 2021. (Nylen, 2/25)

Stat: NIH Official Accused Of 'Bias' Against Applying March-In Rights 
The campaign to use so-called march-in rights to widen access to a cancer drug is getting personal. Universities Allied for Essential Medicines, one of several advocacy groups backing the use of a controversial U.S. law to counter high drug prices, is arguing that an official at the National Institutes of Health should be recused from any decision-making role in responding to a petition to sidestep patents for the Xtandi prostate cancer drug. (Silverman, 2/25)

Politico: WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala Calls For More 'Political Will' On Covid, Future Pandemics
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the director-general of the World Trade Organization, told POLITICO that member states are still in “difficult” conversations about a potential agreement on an intellectual property waiver that would allow countries to more easily manufacture the Covid-19 vaccine. For more than a year, WTO members have discussed a possible agreement on a Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights waiver. In recent weeks, Okonjo-Iweala and a small group of representatives, including those from the U.S., European Union, South Africa and India, have held targeted talks about a potential agreement. Okonjo-Iweala met with the organization’s general council this week in Geneva to discuss what she described in an interview as a “landing zone.” (Banco, 2/25)

KHN: Journalists Discuss The Cost Of Service Dogs And Medicaid Coverage For People With HIV
KHN and California Healthline staff made the rounds on national and local media this week to discuss their stories. Here’s a collection of their appearances. (2/26)

Stat: J&J, Three Pharma Wholesalers Finalize $26 Billion Opioid Crisis Settlement
Johnson & Johnson and three major pharmaceutical wholesalers have finalized nationwide settlements over their role in the opioid crisis, paving the way to distribute $26 billion to numerous state and local governments across the country. The settlement is the largest so far among many lawsuits filed by communities seeking compensation for the decades-long expenses of coping with the fallout from addiction to opioid painkillers. J&J, AmerisourceBergen (ABC), Cardinal Health (CAH), and McKesson (MCK) agreed to the deal last year, but payouts have been contingent on getting participation from a majority of state and local governments. (Silverman, 2/25)

Reuters: Drug Distributors, J&J Agree To Finalize $26 Bln Opioid Settlement
The deal aims to resolve around 3,000 lawsuits by state and local governments seeking to hold the companies responsible for an opioid abuse crisis that has led to hundreds of thousands of overdose deaths in the United States over the last two decades. read more. The distributors and J&J in separate statements on Friday confirmed they had determined there was "sufficient" participation to move forward with the settlement, which was first announced in July. They are not admitting wrongdoing. (Raymond, 2/25)

AP: Illinois Expects $760 Million From Opioid Settlement+
Illinois is expected to receive $760 million as part of a settlement with pharmaceutical distributors sued for their role in the opioid crisis, the state attorney general announced Friday. Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s office said the state’s share of a $26 billion opioid settlement agreement is the result of three years of talks. The majority of the state’s award will be used for programs around the state aimed at prevention and recovery from opioid addiction. (2/27)

Durham Herald Sun: ‘Tragedy Beyond Words’: 1st Payments From National Opioid Settlement Coming To NC Soon
North Carolina will start seeing payments in just a few months from the $750 million it will receive in a national settlement finalized with four major pharmaceutical companies over their role in the opioid crisis, Attorney General Josh Stein said Friday. (Bajpai, 2/26)

AP: Kentucky AG: Opioid Settlement Will Help Heal Communities 
Attorney General Daniel Cameron says Kentucky will receive $483 million from nationwide settlements with four companies over their roles in the opioid addiction crisis. Cameron said Friday that the money will help heal communities ravaged by opioids. The state has the framework in place to distribute its share of settlement money. (2/28)

Fox 13: Utah To Receive $266 Million In Opioid Settlement
Utah will receive $266 million, as it was one of the 52 states and territories involved in the agreement. Twenty-seven of Utah's counties also signed onto the agreement, according to an announcement made Friday by Attorney General Sean Reyes. (2/25)

CIDRAP: CDC: Flu Sporadic But Increasing In Some Spots; 6th Child Has Died Of Flu
US flu levels are mostly sporadic but some areas are seeing increasing flu activity, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in its weekly FluView update, which also included a report of the sixth child to die this season of flu. Nationwide during the week ending on Feb 19, 1.5% of patient visits were for influenza-like illness (ILI), well below the national baseline. Just two states—Colorado and Oklahoma—reported moderate ILI activity, with all other states and territories reporting lower levels. The CDC did not specify which areas saw rising flu levels last week. (2/25)

CIDRAP: WHO Advisors Switch 2 Strains For Next Northern Hemisphere Season
World Health Organization (WHO) flu vaccine strain selection advisors met this week to recommend the strains to include for the Northern Hemisphere's 2022-2023 flu season, swapping out the components for the H3N2 and influenza B Victoria lineage strains. In an announcement today, the group recommends that flu shots use an A/Darwin/9/2021-like strain for the H3N2 component, rather than this season's A/Cambodia/e0926360/2020. And for the influenza B Victoria lineage component, the experts recommend using a B/Austria/ 1359417/2021-like strain instead of this season's B/Washington/02/2019. (2/25)

In other public health news —

The Washington Post: AAA Study: Unsafe Drivers Made Up Larger Share Of Motorists During Covid
Although there have been fewer cars on the road nationwide during the coronavirus pandemic, a study released Monday found that younger and riskier drivers were increasingly on the roads during a surge in traffic fatalities across the country. The more dangerous drivers made up a small proportion of drivers overall, but they were likely to take the most risks as traffic levels were down, according to an AAA study. The study sought to understand why traffic deaths rose while driving was down at least 20 percent during much of 2020. During that time, crashes involving impairment, speeding, red-light running, aggressiveness and non-seatbelt usage spiked to their highest level in more than a decade, AAA said. (George, 2/28)

The Wall Street Journal: Sperm Banks Struggle To Recruit Black Donors And Other Donors Of Color
A few years after her marriage broke up, Aisha Jenkins started thinking about having a baby on her own. She used a leading sperm bank whose catalog contained hundreds of potential donors from which to choose. But when Ms. Jenkins, who is Black, narrowed the search down to Black donors, only six remained. “That can’t be right,” said Ms. Jenkins, a 46-year-old project manager for a software company who lives in the Washington, D.C., metro area. When she realized how difficult it is to find a Black sperm donor, Ms. Jenkins said she expanded her search, adding, “I knew there were other colors in the spectrum that would give me a brown child.” She now has two daughters, ages 7 and 2 1/2, using different donors—one with Egyptian ancestry, the other with Indian ancestry. (Dockser Marcus, 2/26)

AP: University Starts Deer Cull On Detroit-Area Campus
A statement from the school on Tuesday said the objective was to “protect ... biodiversity … to help reduce health risks ... due to tick exposure and to reduce car-deer collisions near campus.” The university considered alternatives, including relocating deer, but concluded other methods either wouldn’t work or weren’t permitted. It is the third cull of deer by the university in recent years. There were others in 2015 and 2018. (2/27)

AP: Rash-Causing Moth Spreading Due To Warming, Scientists Find
A forest pest that bedevils Maine residents and tourists with hairs that cause an itchy rash appears to be spreading due to warming temperatures, a group of scientists has found. The browntail moth is a scourge in America’s most forested state, where it defoliates trees and causes a rash in humans that resembles poison ivy. The hairs of the caterpillars, which have been the subject of an outbreak in the state for about seven years, can also cause respiratory trouble. The growth and spread of the moth is tied to increasingly warm weather, especially in the fall, the scientists wrote recently in the journal Environmental Entomology. And, unfortunately, climate trends suggest upcoming years could be even worse, they wrote. (Whittle, 2/26)

On developments concerning abortion —

Politico: Abortion Pill Use Spikes In Texas As Thousands Of Patients Circumvent State’s Ban
Texans have been ordering abortion pills online at record rates in the wake of the state’s law banning the procedure after six weeks of pregnancy, according to a new study published Friday in JAMA Network Open. Orders for the drugs from the international nonprofit Aid Access spiked 1,180 percent in the first week after the Texas law took effect in September, increasing from about 11 purchases per day to more than 137 per day. And though orders decreased over the next few months, researchers found that they remained 175 percent higher than before the Texas law took effect. (Miranda Ollstein, 2/25)

Bloomberg: Texas At-Home Abortion Pill Requests Spiked Following New Limits
The study provides yet another dataset detailing the impacts of Texas’s near total ban on abortions. The Texas law, which went into effect on Sept. 1, bans almost all abortions after fetal cardiac activity can be detected, usually about six weeks into a pregnancy. Not only have more Texans been looking to pill deliveries by mail, but they have also been going to neighboring states. Planned Parenthood said this week that its clinics in Oklahoma, New Mexico, Kansas, Colorado and Missouri saw a nearly 800% increase in abortion patients from Texas from Sept. 1 through Dec. 31, compared with the year before. (Hagan, 2/25)

Miami Herald: Florida Bill Could Prohibit Abortions In Many Birth-Defect Cases 
By the squat rental house at the back of the four-acre plot, past the horse paddock but not quite to the barn, a sapling grows. It’s obscured by the toys: a toddler-sized plastic car, a stomp rocket, all types of miniature sports equipment. It’s dwarfed by the American flag, weather-worn and a little too big for its place, but hung with pride by the door. The sapling, a sweet bay magnolia, has branches that look more like twigs. It’s only ever sprouted one flower — last spring. Nathaniel’s tree. His parents, Danielle and Jason Tallafuss, planted it on Nov. 1, 2020, one day after their son’s expected due date. (Wilson, 2/26)

Reuters: Degenerative Disease Found In More Than Half Of Donated Brains From Ex-Australia Athletes: Study
More than half of the first 21 brains donated to the Australian Sports Brain Bank by former athletes showed signs of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative disease caused by repeated concussions, a study showed. CTE, which can only be detected when the brain is examined after death, has been linked to mental health issues ranging from mood and behavioural symptoms to cognitive impairment and dementia. The study, which was approved by the Sydney Local Health District Ethics Review Committee (Royal Prince Alfred Hospital), reported its preliminary findings based on the first 21 completed donations up to March 26, 2021. (2/28)

Los Angeles Times: Former Hawaii Quarterback Colt Brennan Had CTE At Time Of Death
Former Hawaii quarterback Colt Brennan was found to have had Stage 1 chronic traumatic encephalopathy in a post-mortem examination, his family was told this week. After his death in May of 2021, Brennan’s brain was sent to the CTE Center at Boston University. The test results confirmed what his parents had suspected. “We knew Colt was struggling,” said his father, Terry. “We just didn’t know everything. He certainly had his challenges… This is just a piece of the puzzle, I guess.” Brennan, who grew up in Orange County and played at Mater Dei High and Saddleback College, dealt with drug and alcohol issues and died after an overdose that included fentanyl. He was 37. (Miller, 2/25)

In mental health news stemming from the pandemic —

The Wall Street Journal: Why Is Everyone Standing So Close? Personal-Space Boundaries Shifted During The Pandemic
If it feels as if everyone you encounter is a close talker these days, you’re not alone: Distances that would have felt comfortable for most people before the pandemic are much too close for many now, researchers and mental-health experts say. Among a small group of subjects whose personal-space boundaries were tested by researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital before and during the Covid-19 pandemic, personal-space requirements increased by 40% to 50% on average, says Daphne Holt, who led the study and is an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. (Janin, 2/27)

The Washington Post: Pandemic Leads Colleges To Revise, Improve Mental Health Efforts
With the pandemic dragging on, the string of setbacks that recently hit Lucas Regnier, a sophomore at Concordia University Wisconsin, seemed oddly routine. A wrestler and physical education major, he suffered a concussion and a sprained ACL. Then, he and half his team contracted covid-19, forcing him to isolate in the basement of his girlfriend’s parents’ home, disrupting his academics and prized training time with teammates. “I have been out eight weeks,” said Regnier, who has anxiety and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and was sporting sweats as he finally attended practice in early February. “I have been struggling to keep mentally strong.” (Pappano, 2/25)

On other developments —

San Diego Union-Tribune: San Diego County Reimagines Response To Mental Health Calls
A man in the throes of a panic attack called 911 from his Chula Vista apartment on a recent morning. It’s the kind of call police officers would usually go to. Instead, the Chula Vista Police Department forwarded the call to Lauren Muecke, who works for the county’s Mobile Crisis Response Teams. “We’re not going to be sending an ambulance, and we’re not going to be sending police officers,” Muecke told the man. “We’re happy to talk to you today and support you today. How does that sound to you?” (Winkley and Murga, 2/27)

The Washington Post: ‘No-Strings-Attached’ Cash Boosts Mental Health, Food Security For Low-Income DC Families, Report Finds
Hundreds of low-income D.C. families reported better mental health and food security after participating in a direct cash pilot program that could be a model for efforts elsewhere, according to an Urban Institute analysis of the program’s effectiveness. The THRIVE East of the River cash-payment program, a combined effort of four established D.C. nonprofits, launched in 2020 soon after the pandemic began. It gave $5,500 with no-strings-attached to approximately 600 families in Ward 8, where the median income is $40,000, under half the Districtwide median. (Heim, 2/26)

UNC Media Hub: UNC: Seeking Psychedelic Treatment For Mental Illness 
Dr. Bryan Roth found himself dealing with the complexities of the psyche when he was 5 or 6 years old: his mother suffered her first episode of schizophrenia. The impact of that experience has shaped Roth’s life. “In junior high I decided I wanted to be a psychiatrist, and by high school I was reading the collective works of Sigmund Freud,” Roth said. “It wasn’t until college that I heard about brain receptors, and they fascinated me.” (Ketwitz, 2/28)

Reuters: GSK Halts Three Trials Of Respiratory Virus Vaccine In Pregnant Women
Britain's GSK said on Monday it had halted enrollment and vaccination in three trials of its experimental vaccine against the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in pregnant women, the latest setback in developing a vaccine for the microbe. GSK said on Feb. 18 that it had paused a late-stage trial, dubbed "GRACE," as well as two other studies, based on safety recommendations from an independent committee but did not give further details on what had prompted the recommendations. (2/28)

On research relating to covid —

CIDRAP: Studies: No To Very Slight Risk Of Hearing Loss After COVID Vaccine
Two studies yesterday in JAMA Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery explore sudden hearing loss after COVID-19 vaccination, one finding no link and the other showing a marginally higher incidence among Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine recipients. A team led by Johns Hopkins University researchers investigated 555 cases of sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSNHL) among adults within 3 weeks of COVID-19 vaccination reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS) during the first 7 months of the US COVID vaccine rollout (Dec 14, 2020, to Jul 16, 2021). (Van Beusekom, 2/25)

Reuters: COVID-Related Diabetes May Be Temporary
Researchers studied 594 patients who showed signs of diabetes while hospitalized for COVID-19, including 78 with no previous diagnosis of diabetes. Compared to patients with pre-existing diabetes, many of the newly diagnosed patients had less severe blood sugar issues but more serious COVID-19. Roughly a year after leaving the hospital, 40% of the newly diagnosed patients had gone back to blood sugar levels below the cutoff for diabetes, researchers reported in the Journal of Diabetes and Its Complications. "This suggests to us that newly diagnosed diabetes may be a transitory condition related to the acute stress of COVID-19 infection," study coauthor Dr. Sara Cromer of the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston said in a statement. (Lapid, 2/25)

The New York Times: Study Finds High Rates Of Covid-Related Discrimination Against U.S. Minorities
People in the United States who belong to racial and ethnic minority groups reported experiencing Covid-related discrimination far more often than white people during the pandemic, and far more often than had been estimated, according to a new study that is one of the largest to date on the issue. The study, from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, a division of the National Institutes of Health, found that members of minority groups were more likely to report instances of being harassed or threatened and situations in which other people treated them as though they might be carrying the disease. People of Asian ethnicity, who have been victims of several high-profile bias crimes during the pandemic, reported the highest rates of being taunted by racist comments, insults, threats and name-calling related to Covid. (Caryn Rabin, 2/25)

On developments in treating migraines —

C-HIT.ORG: The Migraine Breakthrough
Migraines have baffled humankind at least as far back as the ancient Egyptians, who blamed the excruciating headaches, and their often-accompanying visual auras and nausea, on the supernatural. Now, in a development doctors are calling revolutionary, an international group of neurologists has deciphered the mystery of why people get migraines and, in doing so, has determined how to greatly reduce their frequency and severity. (Frank, 2/26)

Stat: AI Gone Astray: How Shifts In Patient Data Send Health Algorithms Reeling
A novel investigation by STAT and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that subtle shifts in data fed into popular health care algorithms — used to warn caregivers of impending medical crises — can cause their accuracy to plummet over time, raising the prospect AI could do more harm than good in many hospitals. In a monthslong experiment, STAT and MIT traced the performance of algorithms past their early days of peak performance into the grinding years that follow, when the hype has faded and they must prove their reliability to caregivers. Instead of transforming care, the algorithms withered in the face of fast-moving clinical conditions — unable to keep up with the pace of change. Their frailty exposes gaping holes in the governance of products whose quiet deterioration in hospitals around the country threatens to mislead doctors and undermine patient safety. The initial signs of dysfunction are often faint, making it difficult to root out faulty information before it bleeds into decision-making. (Ross, 2/28)

Stat: How STAT And MIT Rooted Out Weaknesses In Health Care Algorithms
In July 2021, STAT and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology set out to answer a simple question with big implications for the use of AI in medicine: How do popular algorithms used to warn of bad outcomes for patients hold up over time? The months-long experiment, born of a novel partnership in journalism and science, yielded an illuminating result: the algorithms deteriorated over several years, delivering faulty advice about which patients were at the highest risk of deadly complications and prolonged hospital stays. (Yang, Karstens, Ross and Yala, 2/28)

The Hill: Advisory Panel Recommends Overhaul For US Transplant System
A scientific advisory panel said that the U.S. transplant system must be overhauled in the next five years, The Associated Press reported. A report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine published on Friday detailed flaws that prevent the country from performing more life-saving transplants, according to the AP. More than 41,000 organ transplants were performed last year in the U.S. — a record-breaking number, the AP noted. However, more than 106,000 patients are waiting for transplants, 17 of whom die each day before they are able to undergo surgery. (Folmar, 2/25)

On race matters in health care —

WPLN: Health Care Firms Were Pushed To Confront Racism. Now Some Are Investing In Black Startups. 
Marcus Whitney stands out in Nashville’s $95 billion health care sector as an investor in startups. In addition to co-founding a venture capital firm, he’s organized an annual health tech conference and co-founded the city’s professional soccer club. And, often, he’s the only Black man in the room. So in summer 2020, as Black Lives Matter protesters filled city streets around the country following George Floyd’s murder, Whitney pondered the racial inequalities that are so obvious in his industry — especially locally. “I sat at the intersection of two communities — one that I was born into and one that I had matriculated into,” he said. (Farmer, 2/25)

Detroit Free Press: Detroit Had 18 Black-Owned And Operated Hospitals: Why They Vanished
This year, the Association for the Study of African American Life and History set health and wellnes as the theme for Black History Month. In Detroit, the history of Black health care is largely a saga of Black physicians who established a parallel medical universe alongside the white hospitals that shunned them and their Black patients. In 1844, four Catholic nuns — Loyola Ritchie, Rebecca Delone, Felicia Fenwick and Rosaline Brown — came to Detroit. On June 9, 1845, they established St. Vincent's Hospital, the first hospital in the entire Northwest Territory. It was located at Randolph and Larned in what is now downtown Detroit. (Jordan, 2/27)

Also —

Carolina Public Press: ‘Running Calls Around The Clock’: FEMA Ambulances Assist Depleted EMS Crews 
Before a new batch of 25 FEMA-contracted ambulances arrived in North Carolina in early February, overworked crews at Forsyth County Emergency Services had weathered a rising number of calls amid the winter surge of the omicron variant. Like many other EMS agencies across the state, the pandemic heightened demand for their services, but heavy workloads and the ensuing burnout had led to a shortage of qualified paramedics and emergency medical technicians to fully staff Forsyth County’s fleet of ambulances. (Darrough, 2/26)

CIDRAP: Workforce In Nursing Homes, Other Healthcare Areas Shrank Amid COVID
US skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) faced sharp employment losses during the pandemic—particularly in counties with a large infection burden—and did not rebound like other healthcare sectors, finds a study today in JAMA Health Forum. In the study, a team led by RAND Corp. researchers examined the effect of COVID-19 on the US healthcare workforce in 2020 and the first half of 2021, a time of elevated health risks, burnout, and childcare disruptions. "While federal programs have provided financial assistance to hospitals and institutions, the net effect of these forces on health care employment levels and wages has not been examined," the researchers wrote. (2/25)

Anchorage Daily News: Alaska’s Depleted Public Health Nurse Program Is Evolving Amid Chronic Job Vacancies And Burnout
State officials are looking for new ways to operate Alaska’s decades-old public health nursing program as they struggle to fill scores of empty positions two years into a pandemic. They say the program, established in 1943, needs to evolve to address emotional fatigue and burnout, as well as better meet the needs of the communities served by public health centers. (Zaz Hollander, 2/27)

AP: New $70 Million Hospital Planned For Louisville's West End
A new hospital has been announced for Louisville’s west end, the first to be built in the predominantly African American area in 150 years. City leaders announced a $100 million investment by two major employers, including the $70 million hospital from Norton Healthcare, the Courier Journal reported. The large campus on Broadway and 28th Street will include a $30 million headquarters for Goodwill Industries of Kentucky. Russell Cox, CEO of Norton Healthcare, said during the announcement Wednesday that it was a “transformational day in the history of health care in our community.” (2/26)

On health insurance, payment matters —

Georgia Health News: Prescription Drugs: Another Potential Legislative Change That Medicaid Insurers Face
One House bill would make Georgia’s Medicaid managed care insurers face stricter requirements on how they spend their government dollars. There’s a second bill that has also captured their attention – an attempt to wrest control of patients’ prescription drugs from those health plans. House Bill 1351 would remove the function of the three managed care companies — Peach State, Amerigroup and CareSource — to oversee the dispensing of medication, instead placing it under state supervision. The goal of the bill is to improve care for patients and save the state money, said its lead sponsor, Rep. David Knight, a Griffin Republican. (Miller, 2/25)

KHN: The Demise Of Single-Payer In California Trips Up Efforts In Other States
Single-payer health care didn’t stand a chance in California this year. Even in this deep-blue bastion, Democratic lawmakers shied away from legislation that would have put state government in charge of health care and taxed Californians heavily to do so — a massive transformation that would have forced them to take on the powerful health care industry. (Hart, 2/28)

Bangor Daily News: Bangor Motel Wants Judge To Say Whether It Has To Accept Homeless Guests Using Vouchers
A Bangor motel wants a judge to decide whether it has to take in homeless guests paying for their rooms with city-issued vouchers. The Travelodge on Odlin Road filed a lawsuit earlier this month in Penobscot County Superior Court after it received a notice from a legal aid group saying it and other motels had violated the Maine Human Rights Act when they turned away homeless guests with housing vouchers. (2/28)

AP: Two Hotels To Stop Housing Homeless Following Complaints
Two hotels in Maine will stop hosting hundreds of people experiencing homelessness because of complaints from neighboring businesses. The Days Inn and Comfort Inn near the Maine Mall in South Portland will not renew its contract with MaineHousing to provide emergency shelter when it expires May 31, the Portland Press Herald reports. Suresh Gali, head of New Gen Hospitality Management that operates the hotels, made the announcement at a meeting Friday, according to the newspaper. (2/26)

Billings Gazette: Severe Frostbite In Billings Homeless Follows Record-Breaking Cold
The record-breaking cold that settled over Billings this week is the kind of cold that can freeze bare skin in minutes. And for those experiencing homelessness, frostbite and hypothermia are a major concern. By Wednesday, temperatures dropped to minus 21 at the airport and minus 26 on the West End of Billings. The high for the day was minus 3. (Schabacker, 2/26)

Albuquerque Journal: City's Gateway Center To Open For Women Only
When the city of Albuquerque’s years-in-the-making homeless shelter finally opens, it will cater exclusively to women – and it will maintain that focus for the undetermined future. The city has decided to launch the Gateway Center in Southeast Albuquerque with 50 beds for women. While officials have in the past described the Gateway as a 24/7 operation to aid anyone regardless of gender, religion or sobriety, they say starting exclusively with women makes the most sense from a resources perspective. (Dyer, 2/28)

Billings Gazette: Patients Find Care At Home With New St. V's Cardiac Program
Debbie Ettleman is one of the first patients at St. Vincent Healthcare to receive a full-support heart pump that just a month ago would have required her to fly to a major city. When patients’ hearts are weak, surgeons attach the device to replace function of the left side of the heart – allowing those muscles to completely rest, said Dr. Simon Maltais, a cardiac surgeon recently hired at SCL Health. (Ackerman, 2/26)

Des Moines Register: Polk Residents To Get $35M In Unspent Iowa Rental Assistance Funds
Polk County residents will soon be able to apply for another $35 million in pandemic-related rental assistance after some prodding of the U.S. Treasury Department by U.S. Rep. Cindy Axne. Axne, D-Iowa, announced Friday that the Treasury had approved the reallocation of the federal funds from the state of Iowa to Polk County after she wrote a letter earlier this month to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. (Rood, 2/25)

The Baltimore Sun: An Emergency Room Trip Almost Canceled A Baltimore Couple’s Wedding. But Ascension St. Agnes Hospital Nurses Made It Happen. 
Tony and Neunutae Bell had been counting down the days until their wedding. After getting engaged three years ago and waiting for COVID-19 cases to wane, the couple realized this past Thanksgiving that a rare date would be coming up: Feb. 22, 2022. It’s a palindrome day, which is a number or word that can be read the same way forward and backward — and it was a Tuesday. Such a “Twosday” won’t happen again for 400 years. But a few days before the planned courthouse nuptials, Tony found himself in the emergency department at Ascension Saint Agnes Hospital. The Baltimore couple was ready to call off the wedding. But once Erynn Bossom, a nurse manager on the neurology and stroke floor found out, she started to put a plan into motion. (Oxenden, 2/28)

Reuters: Medical Oxygen Running Out In Ukraine As War Rages, WHO Warns
Ukraine is running out of oxygen supplies that critically ill people need, the World Health Organization said on Sunday, calling for safe passage for emergency imports as combat rages. "The oxygen supply situation is nearing a very dangerous point in Ukraine. Trucks are unable to transport oxygen supplies from plants to hospitals across the country, including the capital Kyiv," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and WHO Regional Director for Europe Hans Kluge said in a statement. (2/27)

CNBC: Russia Invasion Ukraine: Hospitals Could Run Out Of Oxygen Supplies In 24 Hours, WHO
Ukrainian hospitals could run out of oxygen supplies in the next 24 hours as Russia’s invasion disrupts transportation across the country, putting thousands of more lives at risk, according to the World Health Organization. The WHO, in a statement Sunday, said trucks are unable to transport oxygen supplies from plants to hospitals around the country, including the capital, Kyiv, which faced a barrage of Russian missile attacks overnight. (Kimball, 2/27)

In news from Europe —

Bloomberg: Swedish Covid Inquiry Finds Fault With Nation’s Initial Response
Sweden’s initial response to the Covid-19 pandemic was partly misguided and slow, according to the findings of a government-appointed commission. However, the commission’s final report concluded that the country did relatively well during the pandemic. Sweden was one of the nations in Europe that had the lowest level of excess mortality in 2020 and 2021, despite a policy that shunned many of the harsh restrictions elsewhere on the continent. As death rates surged in early 2020, Sweden kept shops, restaurants and most schools open--a response that was blasted by critics at the time. The agency responsible for the strategy argued that all aspects of public health should be taken into account, including restricting people’s movements. It also said that a sustainable strategy should rely mainly on people’s willingness to adjust their lives voluntarily to help curb transmission. (Rolander, 2/25)

CNBC: Europe’s Travel Rules Are Dropping As Fast As Its Covid Cases
Travel restrictions are quickly disappearing in Europe, with new announcements coming by the week — and, more recently, by the day. Changes to eliminate Covid-related travel rules gained momentum in January, as a wave of omicron-related infections engulfed the continent. But parts of Europe didn’t wait to act. Citing high vaccination rates and the mildness of most omicron infections, nations moved to drop rules deemed no longer effective in the global fight against Covid-19. (Pitrelli, 2/28)

And around the rest of the world —

The New York Times: Hong Kong Hospitals Can’t Keep Up With The Deaths Amid An Omicron Surge
Dead bodies are piling up on gurneys in hospital hallways as Hong Kong’s health system is overloaded by its biggest Covid-19 outbreak of the pandemic. Officials said they were struggling to move the dead to the city’s public morgues quickly enough after more than 400 people died from Covid-19 last week, according to the latest official statistics. The news comes as the city is struggling to tamp down on an Omicron-fueled outbreak, with more than 26,000 cases and 83 deaths reported on Sunday. (Stevenson, 2/27)

Bloomberg: Hong Kong Pharmacies Run Out Of Flu Meds Amid Covid Panic Buying
Hong Kong’s pharmacies are running out of flu and cold medicines as residents stock up on essential supplies to ride out any potential lockdowns in a city overwhelmed by record Covid-19 cases and surging deaths. There’s been a run on Panadol, a popular brand of the pain reliever paracetamol, and the drug was mostly unavailable Monday at local chains including Watsons and Mannings, as well as online shopping platform HKTVMall. Other medicines such as Mucinex, Fluimucil and Fortune Coltalin were also out of stock. (Zheng, 2/28)

AP: South Korea Posts Virus Death Record
South Korea on Saturday reported its deadliest day of the pandemic, with 112 fatalities in a 24-hour period as it grapples with a wave of coronavirus infections driven by the omicron variant. (2/27)

AP: Travelers To New Zealand Will No Longer Need To Isolate
New Zealand is ending a requirement that incoming travelers isolate themselves as it continues to remove coronavirus border protections in the face of a growing domestic outbreak. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Monday said the requirement that vaccinated travelers isolate for a week after arriving would end on Wednesday. Initially the changes will apply only to returning New Zealanders, as tourists are still not allowed to visit. Travelers will still need to test negative for the virus before leaving and after arriving. (Perry, 2/28)

Los Angeles Times: Could The COVID-19 Virus Mutate To Evade The Vaccines? 
It is now well known that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, can mutate to evade vaccine protection against infection. The Omicron variants — BA.1, B1.1 and BA.2 — can infect those who were previously infected by other variants, even when vaccinated. A third booster shot offers some protection from an Omicron infection, but it wanes after three or four months, leaving most people susceptible to reinfection. That said, the immunity conveyed by prior infection or vaccination still dramatically reduces the incidence of hospitalization and death. (William A. Haseltine, 2/27)

The Washington Post: The CDC’s Decision To Ease Mask Recommendations Marks A Pandemic Shift, But It’s Not Over Yet 
The decision by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to ease mask recommendations for the vast majority of the country marks a shift. The pandemic virus is becoming endemic. A pandemic is an emergency, with disease spreading out of control across countries and continents. “Endemic” suggests the malady is regular, present and predictable. But making the shift must not entail surrender or abandon. (2/26)

NBC News: CDC Eases Mask Guidelines For Schools And Other Indoor Places. Here's How To Stay Safe
According to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, most Americans can take off their masks. Based on new metrics that take into account Covid hospitalizations, hospital capacity and new Covid cases, more than 70 percent of the country lives in an area where indoor masks are no longer recommended. For schools located in these parts of the U.S., this represents a seismic shift. Up until now, the agency had recommended universal indoor mask use in K-12 schools to reduce Covid transmission. (Dr. Jalal Baig, 2/25)

The Washington Post: The CDC’s New Mask Guidelines Finally Got It Right 
The CDC finally got masking right. After months of pleading from governors, local officials, educators and health experts, their new recommendations make clear that masks are no longer required in much of the United States — including in most schools. (Leana S. Wen, 2/25)

The Baltimore Sun: The Pandemic Is Not Over For Black People 
Across the nation and in various counties in Maryland, mask mandates are being lifted. Politicians on all sides waiting for midterms and upholding promises to the business community have decided it’s OK to put Black lives at risk for personal gain. Black people know this game. Our whole lives are based on survival since the founding of this nation. Horrifically, Black people are always the first to be sacrificed and the last to be protected. Everything from the polluted air we breathe in our neighborhoods to mass incarceration and food insecurity are intentional symptoms of the legacy of racism. (Antoin Quarles, 2/25)

Also —

Los Angeles Times: This Bill May Be The Only Thing That Guarantees Women's Reproductive Rights 
Never has there been a more urgent time for Congress pass the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would ensure the right to a legal abortion nationwide — a right that is now imperiled. The Supreme Court is considering gutting or overturning Roe vs. Wade, the landmark decision that has guaranteed the right to a legal abortion for nearly half a century, at the request of the state of Mississippi, which is defending its unconstitutional 15-week abortion ban. (2/27)

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: With Roe On The Ropes, Red States Are Ready To Return Women To The Back Alleys 
Elections have consequences, as they say, and the majority of Americans who support abortion rights may soon get a startling demonstration of that principle in action. In dozens of Republican-led states, including Missouri, lawmakers are filing bills to restrict abortion rights in anticipation of a likely weakening of Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court. In essence, the GOP’s aggressive campaign of the past few years to stack the court with right-wing ideologues — a campaign driven overwhelmingly by their zeal to roll back abortion rights — is on the cusp of paying off. If and when the court acts and these state laws take effect, impoverished women in particular will again be denied control over their bodies, and dangerous back-alley abortions will again be the only choice for some. (2/27)

The Atlantic: The Twitches That Spread On Social Media 
Three years ago, the psychiatrist Kirsten Müller-Vahl began to notice something unusual about the newest patients at her clinic in Hannover, Germany. A typical Tourette’s patient is a boy who develops slow, mild motor tics—blinking or grimacing—at about age 5 to 7, followed later by simple vocalizations such as coughing. Only about one in 10 patients progress to the disorder’s most famous symptom—coprolalia, which involves shouting obscene or socially unacceptable words. Even then, most patients utter only half a dozen swear words, on repeat. (Helen Lewis, 2/27)

Chicago Tribune: Our Leaders Ignore The Real Pandemic Damaging Our Children, Lead In Drinking Water
The only thing worse than denying science and inflicting damage on children through closed schools has been ignoring science and doing next to nothing to remove lead from drinking water. Brain damaging lead is the real pandemic inflicting incalculable damage on successive generations of children. For years, reporters such as Michael Hawthorne of the Tribune (among others, including me) sounded the alarm about lead in our drinking water that elected and appointed officials paid little more than lip service. (Paul Vallas, 2/28)

Modern Healthcare: Will We Maintain The Momentum On New Therapy Breakthroughs?
Scientists had an astoundingly productive 2021. The Food and Drug Administration fully approved more than 50 new drugs—one of the best years on record—and granted emergency use authorization to numerous other therapies, including antiviral pills that reduce the risk of death from COVID-19 by up to 89%. (Dr. Michelle McMurry-Heath, 2/25)

Crain's Detroit Business: Pandemic Proved Fee-For-Service Healthcare Payment Model Is Broken. Here's How To Fix It
It's no shock to anyone reading this that there is an affordability crisis in American healthcare. And while much of the focus is rightly centered on the cost of services, how those services are paid for also is a factor that influences the pocketbook pressures consumers face every day. The COVID pandemic continues to spotlight the heroic efforts of those within our healthcare system — particularly those on the front lines of delivering care. (Todd Van Tol and Dr. James D. Grant, 2/25)

Miami Herald: Heart Disease Kills More Americans That Cancer Does 
February is Heart Disease Awareness Month. It is recognized during the shortest month of the year, and now it’s almost over. Sadly, I’ve heard next to nothing about the topic during the month dedicated learning more about heart disease. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, heart disease accounts for more deaths than any other disease, killing about 690,000 people a year in this country. It’s a staggering number, that merits more attention. The media, the CDC, elected officials and health organizations need to push heart disease to the forefront, especially because people do not seem to understand how important this is. We should not let another year go by, without hearing the words “heart disease” or seeing the cute “Go Red” campaigns — that really do not say much. After all, it’s that No. 1 killer disease in the United States. (Liliam M. Lopez, 2/26)

Scientific American: Doctors Prescribing Opioids In Good Faith Should Not Be Prosecuted 
On March 1 the Supreme Court will hear arguments in a case that could have an enormous impact on American medicine. The case, which involves combined appeals from two doctors, Xiulu Ruan and Shakeel Kahn, is intended to resolve an important question that has had a chilling effect on both pain and addiction care. If the court decides against these defendants, people in the U.S. who are in agony may be unable to get needed relief. (Maia Szalavitz, 2/25)

Stat: Treating Kids With Sleep Disorders Echoes A Lifetime Of Restless Nights
When I was about 7 years old, I lost the ability to place my head on my pillow, close my eyes, and trust that I would soon slide away into that mysterious state of sleep. Since then, some nights I drift in and out of sleep, others I lay awake all night. Why did this happen to me? An easy answer is genetics. (Christopher Hartnick, 2/27)

USA Today: Surgeon Denied My Sister Care Because Of 'Low Quality Of Life'. She Proved Him Wrong
When my older sister was 6 years old, she needed surgery to rebuild her chest, which was caving in and beginning to crush her organs. The surgeon at our local children’s hospital who was most qualified to perform it declined, saying Heidi had too low a quality of life to be worth his time. What had Heidi, with dark brown hair that our mom arranged with brightly colored bows, done to offend him? What had Heidi, who giggled and bopped around the community swimming pool with assistance from her bright red plastic innertube, done to be deemed unworthy of medical care? (Holly Kearl, 2/27)