ABC News: Fauci Optimistic Omicron Will Peak In February
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease specialist, said Sunday he is "as confident as you can be" about the prospect of most states reaching a peak of omicron cases by mid-February. "You never want to be overconfident when you're dealing with this virus," Fauci told ABC "This Week" co-anchor Martha Raddatz, adding that the COVID-19 virus has "surprised us in the past." (Gomez, 1/23)

The Washington Post: U.S. Cases ‘Going In The Right Direction,’ Fauci Says
The rate of new coronavirus cases in the United States is “going in the right direction,” Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious-disease expert, said on Sunday. Pointing to other countries that have experienced sharp drops in cases after a surge of infections from the omicron variant, Fauci, speaking on ABC’s “This Week,” said that “things are looking good.” Still, he cautioned that the virus “has certainly surprised us in the past," and that cases are still rising in the South and West, where omicron outbreaks started later than in the Northeast. (Pietsch and Timsit, 1/24)

USA Today: Omicron Cases Falling Sharply In Some States, Fauci Says
The nation's top infectious disease expert is "as confident as you can be" that most states will have reached a peak of omicron COVID-19 cases by mid-February. Dr. Anthony Fauci, speaking Sunday on ABC's "This Week," said several states in the Northeast and Upper Midwest have seen cases peak and begin to decline sharply but that cases are still rising in the South and West. "You never want to be overconfident when you're dealing with this virus," Fauci said, adding that the coronavirus "surprised us in the past." (Bacon and Ortiz, 1/23)

Fox News: Fauci Outlines Pandemic Long-Term Return To Normal: 'Best-Case Scenario' We Learn To Live With It
Dr. Anthony Fauci outlined a path toward a long-term plan to live with COVID-19, claiming it's the "best-case scenario." The president’s chief medical advisor predicted this week the current surge of cases caused by the omicron variant will peak by mid-February, leaving officials wondering what happens next. Fauci said on ABC’s "This Week" that the best-case scenario will be to bring the virus under control and learn to live with it. (Aitken, 1/23)

AP: Arkansas Sets New Record For COVID Hospitalizations 
Arkansas reported on Saturday its biggest number of COVID-19 hospitalizations since the pandemic began in 2020. The increase in hospitalizations comes as the state continues to feel the surge of the omicron variant of the coronavirus. (1/23)

Anchorage Daily News: Omicron Peak In Alaska Could Be A Few Weeks Away As New COVID-19 Case Numbers Continue To Shatter Records
As new cases reported Friday in Alaska again shattered previous records, state health officials say the latest COVID-19 surge, driven by the highly contagious omicron variant, could peak within just a few weeks, based on trends they’re seeing in other states. Dr. Joe McLaughlin, Alaska’s chief epidemiologist, said on a recent call with reporters that in places like South Africa, Canada and the U.K., cases peaked recently and have since been trending downward. Nationally, according to Alaska chief medical officer Dr. Anne Zink, the country is making a “U-turn,” with hard-hit East Coast states trending downward significantly. Alaska tends to follow behind the rest of the United States, she said. (Berman and Krakow, 1/22)

Houston Chronicle: It Took Houston 21 Months To Hit 300K COVID Cases. Thanks To Omicron, A Month Later We're Nearing 400K
Houston is poised to officially hit 400,000 COVID cases Monday, about a month after the city crossed the 300,000-case mark, as infections level off across the region. The Houston Health Department on Friday reported 3,286 new and backlogged cases to bring the total number to 399,987, including recoveries and deaths. That means the virus has infected about 17 percent of Houstonians since the start of the pandemic. (Gill and Mishanec, 1/22)

The New York Times: How Omicron Is Different Than Delta 
In less than two months, the Omicron variant of the coronavirus has spread around the globe and caused a staggering number of new infections. ... Scientists have been working overtime to study Omicron. Many questions remain unanswered, but here’s what they’ve learned so far. (Anthes and Corum, 1/22)

Also —

AP: COVID-19 Patient At Center Of Ventilator Fight Dies In Texas
An unvaccinated COVID-19 patient flown from Minnesota to Texas during a legal battle over whether his ventilator should be turned off died Saturday, the family’s attorney said. A Minnesota judge had issued a restraining order on Jan. 13 blocking Mercy Hospital from turning off the machine that was keeping Scott Quiner alive, after his family sued the Coon Rapids health care facility. The family flew Quiner to a Texas hospital. (1/23)

The New York Times: Court Battle Over A Ventilator Takes A Patient From Minnesota To Texas 
What followed was a legal case that raised questions over who has the right to make wrenching life-or-death decisions when patients cannot speak for themselves. It also underscored the tensions between people who refuse the coronavirus vaccine and the hospitals that have been filled with patients sick with the virus, a majority of them unvaccinated. (Cramer, 1/21)

San Francisco Chronicle: COVID Cases May Have Peaked, But Hospitals Still Face A Torrent Of Patients
This winter’s omicron surge — the most explosive wave yet of the 2-year-old coronavirus pandemic — may be cresting in the Bay Area, but hospitals expect more challenging weeks ahead as the astonishingly high case counts continue to translate into a torrent of patients. Though the highly infectious omicron variant is causing less severe illness than earlier strains of the coronavirus, this winter has in some ways been just as difficult for hospitals, health care staff and administrators say. They may have fewer very sick patients, but most hospitals are about as busy this year as last as they deal with staffing shortages caused by COVID on top of profound physical and emotional fatigue among workers. (Allday, 1/23)

The Wall Street Journal: In Hospital Strained By Omicron, Weary Nurses Treat Too Many Patients
Houston Methodist Hospital, inundated with patients from the pandemic’s latest surge, had too few nurses one recent morning to open all its beds. Six nurses had been recruited away by staffing firms days earlier. Dozens more were out sick with Covid-19. Those still left were working extra hours to help the hospital accommodate a daily crush of new, very sick patients. “I’m not running the same size hospital today that I did two months ago,” said Roberta Schwartz, head of incident command at the hospital. (Evans, 1/23)

Los Angeles Times: In South L.A., Busy Hospital Deals With More Widespread But Less Severe COVID Infections
A man with painfully swollen legs from congestive heart failure lies on a gurney outside the emergency room, looking up at a leaden sky that is threatening rain. A wife helps her husband into a triage tent, after his dialysis center refused to admit him after a positive coronavirus test. Arriving at the emergency department of Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital, people are treated in field tents, hallways, cubicles, former administrative offices and ambulance bays. Many wait in the open air with coughs and sore throats to get tested for the coronavirus. Others come for all sorts of chronic diseases that perpetually curse South Los Angeles. (Mozingo, 1/23)

The New York Times: A Shrinking Band Of Southern Nurses, Neck-Deep In Another Covid Wave 
Bobbie Anne Sison was heading to the hospital just before dawn when she got a panicked call from one of her best nurses saying she couldn’t come to work because her car had overheated on Route 63. Ms. Sison, a nurse manager at Pascagoula Hospital, slammed on the brakes, made a U-turn and raced to fetch her. “We have staff members dropping like flies from Covid so there was no way I was going to leave her on the side of the road,” Ms. Sison said a few hours later as she walked the corridors of her 350-bed hospital, which has been steadily filling with Covid patients after a monthslong lull. (Jacobs, 1/23)

Chicago Tribune: Latest COVID-19 Surge Has Made It Difficult To Get Basic Medical Care 
After a year of undergoing treatments to fight off an aggressive form of breast cancer, Heather Mingay was scheduled to have her ovaries removed this month, in an attempt to help prevent the cancer from returning. Mingay, 37, of Northbrook, told her manager at work she’d be gone. She secured extra child care for her three kids. She mentally prepared. And then her doctor’s office called her about 2½ weeks ago to cancel the surgery. The call came as hospitals across the state suspended elective procedures to help keep beds open, amid a nasty COVID-19 surge that’s sent many people to hospitals, especially the unvaccinated. (Schencker, 1/22)

Also —

Reuters: Rich Countries' Access To Foreign Nurses During Omicron Raises Ethical Concerns, Group Says
The Omicron-fuelled wave of COVID-19 infections has led wealthy countries to intensify their recruitment of nurses from poorer parts of the world, worsening dire staffing shortages in overstretched workforces there, the International Council of Nurses said. ... "We have absolutely seen an increase in international recruitment to places like the UK, Germany, Canada and the United States," said Howard Catton, CEO of the Geneva-based group that represents 27 million nurses and 130 national organisations. (1/23)

AP: Governor Delays New Nursing Home Staffing Requirements 
Rhode Island is delaying a new law that would fine nursing homes for failing to comply with minimum staffing requirements. Gov. Dan McKee signed an executive order Friday that delays the law from going into effect until at least Feb. 14, the Providence Journal reported. The law was supposed to go into effect Jan. 1, but nursing homes warned they were be unable to meet the requirements amid ongoing staffing shortages. (1/23)

Axios: Walensky: CDC Language "Pivoting" On "Fully Vaccinated" 
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is not changing the definition of "fully vaccinated," but is instead "pivoting the language" to get people "up to date" on their vaccinations, CDC director Rochelle Walensky said Friday. Walensky's remarks come after health officials and Walensky herself have gone back and forth on whether or not they would change the definition of "fully vaccinated" with the emergence of the Omicron variant. (Doherty, 1/21)

Axios: The Shifting Definition Of Fully Vaccinated 
The definition of what it means to be "fully vaccinated" is evolving even as the CDC has remained careful not to officially change it. CDC officials have been balancing the job of convincing Americans who've already gotten two doses of the importance of boosters with getting many Americans who still need their first doses to get their shots at all. "What we're really working to do is pivot the language to make sure everyone is up to date with their COVID-19 vaccines as they personally could be, should be based on when they got their last vaccine," CDC director Rochelle Walensky said during a press briefing. (Reed, 1/24)

Politico: ‘The CDC Alone Can’t Fix This’: Walensky Calls For Overhaul Of U.S. Public Health System
The U.S. needs to rethink its approach to tackling Covid-19 by rebuilding the nation’s public health system, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky said in an interview with POLITICO. It’s been a year since Walensky took over the public health agency and the country has gone through a vaccine rollout, seen variants emerge and witnessed three massive surges. To Walensky, the pandemic shows no signs of vanishing. This week, an average of 740,000 infections were reported each day. On Thursday, the day she spoke with POLITICO, more than 2,400 people were reported as having died from Covid-19. (Banco, 1/21)

Some places are requiring the booster to be considered fully vaxxed —

CNET: Why Doesn't 'Fully Vaccinated' For COVID-19 Mean Booster Shots? 
Despite the CDC's reticence to change the definition, many organizations and governments who use the term "fully vaccinated" are adding booster requirements to their COVID-19 rules. Read on to learn which colleges, businesses and countries now require boosters. (Colby and Butler, 1/23)

Maui Now: Booster Required On Maui To Be Considered Fully Vaccinated
Come Monday, a COVID-19 booster shot will be required for eligible individuals in order to be considered fully vaccinated in Maui County. Proof of a booster will be required to confirm patrons are “up to date” with their vaccination, if they want to dine indoors at a restaurant or bar, or exercise inside of a gym. (Osher, 1/21)

Travel + Leisure: Spain To Require A Booster Shot For Travelers Next Month — What To Know 
Travelers heading to Spain will be required to show proof of a COVID-19 booster dose starting next month, becoming the latest country to rely on the extra shot. Starting Feb. 1, most international travelers, including from the United States, will be required to show proof they have received a booster dose of a coronavirus vaccine no more than 270 days (about 9 months) after the last dose of their initial vaccine series, according to Spain's tourism site. (Fox, 1/21)

In other news from the Biden administration —

KHN: One Year In, How Much Of Trump’s Health Agenda Has Biden Undone? 
It’s been a year since President Joe Biden took the reins of the federal executive branch, and with them the power to undo health policies of his predecessor. So how much has this administration accomplished? It depends on how — and what — you count. Biden or his health officials were quick to reverse many of the policies President Donald Trump implemented that did not require formal regulations. Those include having the U.S. rejoin the World Health Organization, rolling back the “Mexico City” policy that banned aid or international organizations that support abortion rights, and canceling a ban on the use of federal funds to study fetal tissue from elective abortions. (Rovner, 1/21)

The New York Times: Biden’s Pandemic Fight: Inside The Setbacks Of The First Year 
Dr. Rochelle Walensky was stunned. Working from her home outside Boston on a Friday night in late July, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had just learned from members of her staff that vaccinated Americans were spreading the coronavirus. Vaccines had been the core of President Biden’s pandemic strategy from the moment he took office. But as Dr. Walensky was briefed about a cluster of breakthrough cases in Provincetown, Mass., the reality sank in. The Delta variant, which had ravaged other parts of the world, was taking hold in the United States. And being vaccinated would not, it turned out, prevent people from becoming infected with the variant or transmitting it. (Shear, Stolberg, LaFraniere and Weiland, 1/23)

The New York Times: As Omicron Crests, Booster Shots Are Keeping Americans Out Of Hospitals 
Booster shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines are not just reducing the number of infections with the highly contagious Omicron variant, they’re also keeping infected Americans out of hospitals, according to data published on Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The extra doses are 90 percent effective at preventing hospitalization with the variant, the agency reported. Booster shots also reduce the likelihood of a visit to an emergency department or urgent care clinic. The data also showed that extra doses are most beneficial against infection and death among Americans ages 50 and older. (Mandavilli, 1/21)

The Washington Post: Booster Shots In U.S. Have Strongly Protected Against Severe Disease From Omicron Variant, CDC Studies Show 
Vaccine boosters provide robust protection against severe disease from the omicron variant in the United States, according to three reports released Friday that use real-world data to show the shots are effective at keeping vaccinated people out of the hospital. But the reports by scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention arrived late to the winter surge in coronavirus cases that have choked the corridors of hospitals across much of the country. (Sun, Achenbach and Keating, 1/21)

In other news about booster shots —

Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Ron DeSantis Still Won't Answer COVID-19 Vaccine Question
Gov. Ron DeSantis again declined Friday to say whether he received the COVID-19 booster shot, even after his mentor, Donald Trump, called politicians who dodge the booster question "gutless." DeSantis called his booster status a "private matter" during an event in Sarasota, despite having revealed details of his vaccination status in the past. (Anderson, 1/21)

Axios: Annual COVID Vaccine Preferable To Boosters, Says Pfizer CEO 
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said Saturday he would recommend an annual COVID-19 vaccine over frequent booster shots, Reuters reports. The rise of the Omicron variant has pushed the need for vaccine boosters, and businesses, universities and others have begun to require the booster shots. Bourla said in an interview with Israel's Channel 12 News that he does not think the long-term COVID response should rely on booster shots that would need to be administered every four to five months, per Reuters. (Frazier, 1/22)

Reuters: Fourth COVID Vaccine Shot Raises Resistance To Serious Illness For Over-60s: Israel 
A fourth dose of COVID-19 vaccine given to people over 60 in Israel made them three times more resistant to serious illness than thrice-vaccinated people in the same age group, Israel's Health Ministry said on Sunday. The ministry also said the fourth dose, or second booster, made people over 60 twice as resistant to infection than those in the age group who received three shots of the vaccine. (1/24)

The Washington Post: FDA Approves Use Of Antiviral Drug Remdesivir As An Outpatient Therapy For People With Covid-19
Federal regulators Friday approved the use of the antiviral drug remdesivir for covid-19 outpatients at high risk of being hospitalized, providing a new treatment option for doctors struggling with shortages of effective drugs to counter the coronavirus. The Food and Drug Administration said the intravenous treatment, which had been limited to patients in the hospital, could be administered to outpatients with mild-to-moderate illness. Remdesivir, manufactured by Gilead Sciences, was among the first coronavirus treatments authorized in 2020. The drug received full agency approval later that year for people 12 and older. Treatment of younger children is permitted under an emergency use authorization, but Friday’s expansion to outpatients includes both age groups. (McGinley, 1/21)

Fox News: FDA Acts To Expand Use Of Treatment For COVID-19 Patients With Mild-To-Moderate Disease
The agency has expanded the approved indication for Veklury to include its use in adults and pediatric patients 12 years and older – and weighing at least 88 pounds – with positive results of direct SARS-CoV-2 viral testing and who are not hospitalized, have mild-to-moderate COVID-19 and are at high risk for progression to severe disease. The FDA also revised Veklury's emergency use authorization (EUA) to also authorize the drug for treatment of pediatric patients less than 12 years of age, weighing at least 3.5 kilograms to less than 88 pounds, with the same conditions. High-risk, non-hospitalized patients may receive Veklury via intravenous infusion for a period of three days. (Musto, 1/22)

Politico: Game-Changing Covid Pills Remain Out Of Reach For Some Patients 
Antiviral Covid-19 pills were billed as game-changers for the way they could provide a convenient way to treat infections at home and keep people out of the hospital. But that assumed patients could get the drugs quickly. Instead, a flurry of regulatory, testing and logistical issues is complicating the rollout, potentially requiring people with symptoms to make multiple stops at doctors' offices or testing sites within the five-day window when the drugs are recommended. (Gardner, 1/23)

In other news about covid treatments—

Salt Lake Tribune: Utah Eliminates Race And Sex As Factors In Monoclonal Antibody COVID Treatments After ‘Legal Concerns’
After complaints by right-wing media personalities, Utah is eliminating race and sex as factors in allocating its limited supply of monoclonal antibodies and antiviral treatments for COVID-19. Based on clinical data that showed men and patients of color were at a heightened risk of being hospitalized or dying from COVID-19, state health officials previously had included both markers as risk factors in determining who is eligible for the popular but vanishingly scarce COVID-19 treatments. But the Utah Department of Health on Friday announced that it was now eliminating race and sex in its determinations, citing “legal concerns.” (Alberty, 1/21)

AP: New Conservative Target: Race As Factor In COVID Treatment
Some conservatives are taking aim at policies that allow doctors to consider race as a risk factor when allocating scarce COVID-19 treatments, saying the protocols discriminate against white people. The wave of infections brought on by the omicron variant and a shortage of treatments have focused attention on the policies. (Richmond, 1/23)

AP: Newspaper: Maine Monoclonal Doses Drop With Testing Backlog 
Maine’s backlog of 46,000 positive COVID-19 tests artificially lowered its numbers of confirmed cases, coinciding with a reduction in the amount of lifesaving monoclonal antibody treatments shipped to the state. Shipments of sotrovimab, one of few medications that are effective against the omicron variant, are rationed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services based on hospitalizations and new cases over the previous seven days, the Portland Press Herald reported. (1/23)

In related news —

Stat: New Effort Aims To Accelerate Clinical Trials For Common Diseases 
A group of scientists who did more than perhaps any other to test new treatments for Covid, including establishing that the steroid dexamethasone can save lives, is now turning its focus to the rest of medicine. The first step, announced today: a partnership with the Paris-based drug giant, Sanofi. Sanofi will give the U.K. non-profit Protas $6.8 million to begin its work to accelerate how clinical trials are done and make them far cheaper. It aims to build on what the researchers learned studying treatments against Covid-19 to test medicines for heart disease, cancer, depression, Alzheimer’s, and other common ailments. (Herper, 1/24)

CBS News: COVID-19 Vaccination Doesn't Reduce Fertility For Women, But Men Catching COVID Might, Study Finds 
Getting vaccinated against COVID-19 does not reduce the chances of successfully becoming pregnant for couples who are trying to conceive, suggests data from a study by researchers at Boston University. However, men in the study who tested positive for the virus appeared to have at least "a short-term decline in fertility." (Tin, 1/21)

CIDRAP: No Reduced Fertility With COVID Vaccines, But Infection Ups Risk In Men
A cohort study of more than 2,000 US and Canadian women indicates that COVID-19 vaccination does not impair fertility—but men who become infected with SARS-CoV-2 may experience short-term reduced fertility, according to surveys of the women's partners. (1/21)

In other updates on the vaccine rollout —

CIDRAP: Moderna Vaccine Outperforms Pfizer Against Delta Breakthrough Cases
A study yesterday in JAMA shows the Moderna mRNA vaccine was more protective than the Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA vaccine at preventing breakthrough COVID-19 cases during the US Delta surge. The study was based on electronic health records from 637,000 fully vaccinated patients from 63 healthcare organizations across the United States, dated from July to November 2021. Full vaccination was considered to be 2 or more weeks since a second dose of mRNA vaccine. Patients who were boosted (given a third dose) or who had prior COVID-19 infections were excluded from the study. (1/21)

The Atlantic: What’s Even Happening With Vaccines For Kids Under 5?
Back in September, the party line was that under-5 trial data would arrive “before the end of the year,” as Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla declared at The Atlantic Festival. Those data never appeared. Instead, the week before Christmas, Pfizer announced in a maddeningly cryptic press release that two little-kid-size doses of vaccine had failed to elicit a hefty-enough immune response in 2-, 3-, and 4-year olds in late-stage trials. (Doubly dosed kids in the six-month-to-2-year-old range, though, did produce enough antibodies to satisfy the company’s criteria.) But the company had a plan—researchers would test a third injection eight weeks after the second—and a new timeline, with data arriving in the “first half of 2022,” maybe April-ish. Add to that the few weeks the FDA typically takes to review the data submitted for emergency-use authorization, and the earliest shots for this group are still probably two or three months away. (Wu, 1/21)

In news about vaccine mandates —

The Washington Post: Anti-Vaccine Activists March In D.C. — A City That Mandates Coronavirus Vaccination — To Protest Mandates
Thousands of protesters from across the country — including some of the biggest names in the anti-vaccination movement — descended on the nation’s capital Sunday for a rally against vaccine mandates. Almost two years into a coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 860,000 Americans, the gathering on the National Mall was a jarring spectacle: A crowd of demonstrators, many unmasked, decrying vaccine mandates in the middle of a city that has adopted mask and vaccine mandates to reduce sickness and death from the surge of the virus’s omicron variant, which has battered D.C. for weeks. (Mettler, Johnson, Moyer, Contrera, Davies, Silverman, Hermann and Jamison, 1/23)

KHN: Vaccine Wars Ignite In California As Lawmakers Seek Stronger Laws
California is poised to become the front line of America’s vaccination wars. State lawmakers are drafting the toughest covid-19 vaccine legislation in the country, backed by a new pro-vaccine lobbying force promising to counter anti-vaccine activists who have threatened government officials and shut down public meetings across the state. Legislators want to require most Californians to get the shots — not just schoolchildren and health care workers — and eliminate the exemptions that would allow many people to get out of them. (Hart, 1/24)

Las Vegas Review-Journal: Las Vegas Pagan Nurse May Be Fired For Vaccination Stance
Labor and delivery nurse Julia Kidd has managed to avoid the pandemic burnout driving other nurses out of the profession at a time of crisis-level staffing shortages. But the pandemic is exacting a different toll: University Medical Center this month suspended Kidd after rejecting her request for a religious exemption from the hospital’s mandate that all employees be vaccinated against COVID-19. Kidd, who has worked at UMC for 18 years and now faces possible termination from her job, practices paganism, an alternative nature-based religion. She also follows the Wiccan Rede, an ethical code that states, “If it harm none, do what you will.” (Hynes, 1/22)

Los Angeles Times: LAUSD Students Must Wear Non-Cloth Masks Starting Monday 
Students in Los Angeles Unified School District will now be prohibited from wearing cloth masks, according to an announcement distributed Saturday by the district. Starting Monday, students must wear “well-fitted, non-cloth masks with a nose wire” at all times, including outdoors. District officials said surgical masks or higher-grade masks were acceptable, and that such masks would be available to students upon request. (Hamilton, 1/22)

In news from Virginia and the D.C. region —

The Washington Post: Glenn Youngkin’s Masking Order Plunges Virginia Schools Into Utter Chaos 
A level of statewide chaos unprecedented in recent memory is looming for Virginia schools, as a new Republican governor prepares to enforce a mask-optional mandate on Monday that many superintendents and parents have vowed to fight, or to uphold, with all the ammunition they can muster. (Natanson, 1/23)

CBS News: Virginia Parent Charged After She Threatens To "Bring Every Single Gun Loaded" Over School's Mask Dispute
A Virginia mother was charged Friday after she said at a school board meeting that she would "bring every single gun loaded and ready" to fight mask requirements for her children. Amelia King later emailed the board to apologize for her choice of words, saying she was not referring to "actual firearms."  (Powell, 1/21)

The Washington Post: Across The Region’s Schools, A Wildly Varied Treatment Of Masks 
Hannah Donart, a mother of two in Maryland, was glad her school system, in Montgomery County, planned to hand out KN95 masks for students and staff — but then frustrated by what her 7- and 10-year-olds brought home: a mask in a plastic sandwich bag, with no label or packaging. “I can’t trust them blindly, not with my children’s health,” said Donart, not wanting to chance that the items were less effective than what she already had. (St. George, Natanson and Asbury, 1/22)

In other school news from across the U.S. —

CNN: New Mexico's Governor Signs Up To Be Volunteer Substitute Teacher Amid Staffing Shortage
Faced with a dire staffing shortage in schools, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has taken drastic measures. The Democratic governor launched an initiative Wednesday asking state workers and National Guard members to become licensed volunteer substitute K-12 teachers and child care workers. Lujan Grisham has completed the registration to become licensed as a substitute teacher, her press secretary Nora Sackett confirmed to CNN. (Stracqualursi and Watson, 1/23)

Health News Florida: Judge Gives Go-Ahead To Revamped Mask Case For Disabled Children 
Despite objections from Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration, a federal judge has allowed parents and children with disabilities to pursue a revamped lawsuit challenging state decisions that included banning student mask mandates in public schools during the COVID-19 pandemic. U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore on Wednesday issued an order that allowed attorneys for the plaintiffs to file an amended complaint contending that the state is violating federal laws designed to protect the rights of people with disabilities. The plaintiffs contend that children with disabilities are more at risk for serious illness and death from COVID-19 and need protections against infection. They argue that the state is violating the Americans with Disabilities Act and a federal law known as the Rehabilitation Act. (Saunders, 1/21)

The Wall Street Journal: Schools May Be Open—But They’re Struggling 
Schools should be open, pandemic or not, much of the public says. If only they all had what they need to function. Students at New York City’s elite Brooklyn Technical High School played Hangman in psychology class recently while a substitute sat behind the teacher’s desk. They were eager to prepare for a coming midterm exam, the students said, but their usual instructor was out sick again. “Everybody’s kind of freaking out,” said Delia Marcus, 17. “We haven’t really learned anything.” (Chapman and Calvert, 1/23)

The 19th: When Kids Under 5 Get COVID-19, Parents Are Screwed
Catherine Dicicco and her husband both got vaccinated, then boosted. They wore masks and limited social activities to outside, with a small circle of friends. Dicicco, an occupational therapist in Tennessee, just wanted to keep her infant twins from getting COVID-19. But on January 5, the twins’ first birthday, both boys tested positive for the virus. Soon the whole family fell ill. And while for Dicicco and her husband the virus was like a bad cold or a mild flu, shortly after the positive test one of her sons ended up in the hospital for two days. “I literally hear his every breath. And he couldn’t get air through, it was so swollen,” she recalled. “I tried to give him a bottle, and it was a disaster.” (Luthra, 1/22)

In related news about children's mental health —

Billings Gazette: Billings Elementary Schools Receive $500,000 Annually For Mental Health Efforts
K-8 public schools in Billings are undergoing mental health training with around $500,000 annually going to the district from 2020 to 2025. “The kids that are coming in just don’t have the social skills,” said Katie Tatum, school counselor at Poly Drive. “We’re spending so much more time on behaviors than we ever have just to do our jobs.” This isn’t unique from other parts of the state or the country, administrators say. The exact reason is difficult to pinpoint, but changes in families over time and social consequences from the pandemic have contributed and escalated to the point that behavior issues need to be addressed. (Ackerman, 1/23)

Axios: Goldie Hawn Launches Online Tool For Kids' Mental Health 
The widespread toll on children's mental health is one of the most potentially harmful impacts the pandemic has had, actress Goldie Hawn told Axios in an interview. "We are dealing with a global epidemic of mental illness," Hawn said. Nearly 20 years after founding MindUP for Life, an organization that has provided tools to help schools teach millions of kids about brain health, Hawn announced this week the organization expanded onto a digital platform. (Reed, 1/21)

USA Today: FBI Searches Center For COVID Control Headquarters Amid Investigations Into Multi-Million Dollar Testing Business
The FBI on Saturday searched the headquarters of a nationwide string of coronavirus testing sites known as the Center for COVID Control. The company and its main lab, which has been reimbursed more than $124 million from the federal government for coronavirus testing, are under investigation by state and federal officials. The company and lab are registered at the same address in Rolling Meadows, Illinois. (Hauck, 1/23)

In other news about covid tests —

Modern Healthcare: Many Large Insurers Lack Consumer-Friendly COVID-19 Test Coverage Policies
Large insurers are beginning to implement the Biden administration's new requirements to cover at-home COVID-19 tests, but some payers' policies are more consumer-friendly than others, according to a new analysis from the Kaiser Family Foundation. While some insurers like UnitedHealth Group allow members to purchase rapid tests for free at in-network pharmacies or "preferred" retailers like Walmart, others including Cigna and Care First require members buy tests out-of-pocket and mail in claims for reimbursement. (Hellmann, 1/21)

KHN: Why Medicare Doesn’t Pay For Rapid At-Home Covid Tests
What group is especially vulnerable to the ravages of covid-19 even if fully vaccinated and boosted? Seniors. And who will have an especially tough time getting free at-home covid tests under the Biden administration’s plan? Yes, seniors. As of Jan. 15, private insurers will cover the cost of eight at-home rapid covid tests each month for their members — for as long as the public health emergency lasts. Finding the tests will be hard enough, but Medicare beneficiaries face an even bigger hurdle: The administration’s new rule doesn’t apply to them. (Andrews, 1/24)

The Charlotte Ledger: A Combination Of Luck And Risk-Taking Quickly Propel Small Medical Clinic To Forefront Of Covid Testing 
To see the lines of cars weaving through parking lots of StarMed testing centers all over Charlotte, it might be tempting to think that the company running the show is drawing on a deep reservoir of healthcare experience. In fact, it’s a relative newcomer, an unlikely overnight sensation that has successfully waded into the heavily regulated healthcare industry and become a household name, with more than a dozen testing centers in Mecklenburg County. It’s doing 40,000 Covid tests a week and employs nearly 2,000 people, up from just 100 two years ago. (Mecia, 1/22)

Philadelphia Inquirer: At-Home Rapid Antigen COVID-19 Tests, PCR Tests An Important Part Of Pandemic Management
Although rapid antigen test results can be done at home and produce results quickly, the gold standard for accuracy remains the PCR lab test — though it can take days. Experts say the value of rapid testing varies, depending on circumstances. Some who already feel sick may want to confirm whether they have COVID-19, while others may use the tests to protect themselves or a loved one from potential exposure to the virus. Many are optimistic that the tests will be a passport back to normalcy, adding a new level of confidence that it’s safe to travel and see family or attend a wedding. But misunderstanding the usefulness of rapid tests could give people false confidence, possibly leading them to unwittingly transmit the virus. (Laughlin and Gantz, 1/24)

NPR: How Well Do Rapid COVID Tests Work To Detect Omicron?
How much should you trust the results of a rapid antigen test? That's a question many people are asking these days, amid recent research and anecdotes suggesting these tests may be less sensitive to omicron. Researchers are working fast to figure out what's going on and how to improve the tests. That includes people like Dr. Wilbur Lam, a professor of pediatrics and biomedical engineering at Emory University and one of the lead investigators assessing COVID-19 diagnostic tests for the federal government. His research team began evaluating rapid antigen tests against live samples of the omicron variant last December in the lab, and in early assessments, he says, some tests failed to detect the coronavirus "at a concentration that we would have expected them to catch it if it were another variant." (Godoy, 1/23)

NECN: Maine Considers Bill To Allow Recreational Weed Delivery 
Maine is considering a bill that would allow recreational marijuana stores to deliver to residents across the state even if a town prohibits recreational marijuana stores. During a hearing Wednesday, a legislative committee heard from the bill’s supporters and sponsor, Democratic Rep. Joe Perry, The Portland Press Herald reported. Perry said that since a majority of Maine towns have not opted into the state’s recreational program, the bill would make marijuana accessible, which would keep people from buying from the illegal market. (1/21)

WKRC: Maine Dispensaries Support Bill To Allow Marijuana Deliveries
State Rep. Joseph Perry is introducing a bill to change the law. “Rather than have people drive very long distances to go to an adult use store or turn to the illegal market, I think it makes sense to allow them to purchase it legally and have it delivered to their homes,” Perry said. Perry’s bill would allow certain retail marijuana stores to deliver adult use marijuana, regardless of location and regardless of whether or not towns have approved retail recreation stores in their communities. (1/23)

In more news about marijuana —

AZFamily.com: First Year Recreational Cannabis Sales Surpass $1.2 Billion In Arizona 
It's been one year since the first legal sale of recreational marijuana began in Arizona. And state officials are reporting that total gross sales have surpassed more than a billion dollars. "Rarely does an industry produce over $1.2 billion in revenue in its first year. This number shows that the legalization of cannabis is something Arizonans believe strongly in and the many benefits it contributes to the state's economy," said Samuel Richard, the Executive Director of the Arizona Dispensaries Association (ADA). (1/23)

NBC News: Recreational Marijuana Sales Showered States With Cash In 2021
Legal, recreational-use marijuana sales boomed across the United States in 2021, reaching new levels in nearly a dozen states. Nationwide, those sales generated more than $3 billion in tax revenue for 11 states, including California, Colorado, Illinois, Michigan and Nevada. That's higher than the $2.7 billion collected from the 10 states that allowed recreational marijuana sales in 2020, according to a report from the Marijuana Policy Project. (Ramos, 1/21)

AP: SC Senator To Get Medical Marijuana Debate After 7 Years 
A South Carolina senator who has fought to allow medical marijuana in the state for seven years appears to finally be getting a debate on the Senate floor. Senators put Sen. Tom Davis’ medical marijuana bill in a special debate slot where they will have to take it up before almost all other bills. The Beaufort Republican expects that could be either Tuesday or Wednesday. (1/23)

Politico: Big Weed Is On The Brink Of Scoring Big Political Wins. So Where Are They? 
Marijuana advocates are stuck in the weeds. Cannabis policy has never had a rosier outlook on Capitol Hill: Democrats control both Congress and the White House, seven new states just legalized recreational marijuana, and the cannabis industry has gained powerful new allies in companies like Amazon and conservative groups like Americans for Prosperity that are backing federal reform. The industry has even lured powerful advocates like former GOP House Speaker John Boehner and former Democratic Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle to help push its agenda. (Fuchs and Fertig, 1/22)

In news about the opioid crisis —

AP: Youth's Overdose Death Renews Pleas For Narcan In Schools 
The death of a 13-year-old student who apparently overdosed on fentanyl at his Connecticut school has drawn renewed pleas for schools to stock the opioid antidote naloxone, as well as for training of both staffers and children on how to recognize and respond to overdoses. The seventh grader died Jan. 15 after falling ill at a Hartford school that did not have naloxone on hand. City officials vowed Wednesday to put the antidote in all city schools, as part of a wider drug use and overdose prevention strategy. (Collins, 1/23)

Houston Chronicle: Texas Pharmacist Accused Of Ignoring ‘Red Flags’ When Filling Opioid Prescriptions
The Justice Department is seeking to close a Southwest Side pharmacy accused of ignoring signs of abuse and illegally filling opioid prescriptions. Jitendra Chaudhary, the pharmacist-in-charge and part owner of Rite-Away Pharmacy and Medical Supply #2, is accused of unlawfully filling controlled substance prescriptions, according to a civil complaint filed Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas. The complaint alleges that Chaudhary and Rite-Away ignored numerous “red flags,” or obvious signs of abuse or diversion, when filling opioid prescriptions. One patient died from toxic effects of fentanyl nine days after Rite-Away filled her prescription for that drug, according to the complaint. (Beltran, 1/23)

The New York Times: Some Women Are Keeping Their Pregnancies Secret During Pandemic
The pandemic has transformed the reality for many women, allowing pregnant women to stay out of sight of colleagues (if they are working remotely) and friends and family, since socializing is so limited. With that comes the freedom to talk about their pregnancy when they are comfortable and when they feel it won’t harm them professionally or psychologically. (Krueger, 1/22)

In other public health news —

CIDRAP: US Flu Levels Drop Slightly For Second Consecutive Week
For the second week in a row, US flu markers showed a slight decline, though activity is still elevated and will likely continue for several more weeks, the US Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) said today in its weekly update. The percentage of outpatient visits for flulike illness is still above the national baseline, but it dropped from 4.3% to 3.5% last week. The CDC has said that flu is just one of multiple respiratory viruses contributing to flulike illness levels and that flu levels vary in different parts of the country. (1/21)

The Washington Post: Most Adults Don’t Consume The Recommended Amount Of Fruits And Vegetables 
Although fruits and vegetables are considered a key part of healthy eating, most U.S. adults are not consuming enough of them, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It found that only 12 percent of adults consume 1½ to 2 cups of fruit daily, the amount recommended by the federal Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Even fewer — just 10 percent — eat the suggested 2 to 3 cups of vegetables daily. (Searing, 1/23)

The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Food Supply Is Under Pressure, From Plants To Store Shelves
The U.S. food system is under renewed strain as Covid-19’s Omicron variant stretches workforces from processing plants to grocery stores, leaving gaps on supermarket shelves. In Arizona, one in 10 processing plant and distribution workers at a major produce company were recently out sick. In Massachusetts, employee illnesses have slowed the flow of fish to supermarkets and restaurants. A grocery chain in the U.S. Southeast had to hire temporary workers after roughly one-third of employees at its distribution centers fell ill. (Newman and Kang, 1/23)

ABC News: 'Multiple' Dogs May Have Been Sickened By Rat-Transmitted Illness, NYC Official Says
New York City dog owners are being warned after several pets may have been sickened by leptospirosis, a disease commonly associated with rats.A city council member said this week his office had received "reports of multiple dog fatalities" in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Williamsburg. (Deliso, 1/22)

Politico: How A Toxic Chemical Ended Up In The Drinking Water Supply For 13 Million People 
New Jersey’s largest drinking water supplier discovered a toxic chemical in the river where it gets water for hundreds of thousands of customers, setting off a major search for polluters that led back to a Pennsylvania wastewater treatment plant and a South Jersey company. The chemical New Jersey American Water Co. found, 1,4-Dioxane, is a byproduct of plastic manufacturing that is considered a likely carcinogen by the federal government. While the chemical has been found in water supplies before, this discovery in early 2020 set off alarms because of the high levels in a section of the Delaware River close to American Water’s treatment plant in South Jersey that sends drinking water to customers in Burlington, Camden, Gloucester and Salem counties. (Rivard, 1/23)

The Washington Post: People Who Survive Multiple Disasters Have Worse Mental Health
In the aftermath of a disaster such as a fire or flood, the focus tends to be on rebuilding and getting back to normal. But in places that have experienced multiple disasters, mental resiliency could be harder to rebuild than a house or business. That’s the implication of a recent study that shows people who have been through multiple disasters have worse mental health than the national average. (Blakemore, 1/23)

And conjoined twins are separated in Philadelphia —

USA Today: Conjoined Twins Successfully Separated After 10-Hour CHOP Surgery
A couple and hospital were celebrating after the separation of 10-month-old conjoined twins Addison and Lilianna Altobelli. Addison and Lilianna were joined at abdomen and chest, according to a news release from the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. The twins shared a liver, diaphragm, chest and abdominal wall. Their parents, Maggie and Dom Altobelli, learned they were having conjoined twins at a 20-week ultrasound appointment. “I was trying to find out the gender of one baby I thought we were having, and then it turned out to be a little more complicated,” Maggie told NBC's "Today." “It was an out-of-body experience. It’s like, ‘What do you mean their stomachs are connected? Is this even a thing?” (Gilbert, 1/21)

Sacramento Bee: Sutter Health Sued By Five Workers For ‘Corrosive’ Cleanser Use
Sutter Health faced high rates of infection in its hospitals from a germ that causes severe diarrhea, and to combat the problem, the company procured a cleanser so noxious that dozens of employees have reported illnesses after using it, according to a lawsuit filed in Alameda Court earlier this week. The new product, Ecolab’s OxyCide, was cheaper than a two-step cleaning process that workers had previously used, saving Sacramento-based Sutter millions of dollars, attorneys alleged in a suit that seeks class-action status to represent 1,800 environmental services workers. (Anderson, 1/19)

In other health care industry developments —

Modern Healthcare: IBM Watson Health Data Sale To Include Imaging, Population Health Software
IBM Corp. plans to sell its imaging and population health software along with Watson Health's data and analytics business, the company said Friday. The tech conglomerate and private equity firm Francisco Partners have signed a definitive agreement and expect the deal to close in the second quarter, subject to customary regulatory approvals. The transaction, of which financial terms were not disclosed, includes IBM's medical imaging and population health software, Merge Healthcare and Phytel. (Kacik, 1/21)

Stat: Buyer Of Watson Health's Assets Has A Shot At Success Where IBM Failed
With the sale of core parts of its Watson Health business, IBM is seeing its once-exciting entry point into the world of medicine slam shut. But for its buyer, the scraps could offer a shot at success where IBM failed. A San Francisco-based private equity firm with a broad portfolio of health care investments will soon be the owner of some of the most comprehensive datasets in the industry, including the massive tranche of insurance claims data contained in MarketScan. Business analysts said the data dump instantly makes Francisco Partners a significant player in the multibillion-dollar business of buying and selling sensitive information about the care of patients. (Ross, 1/21)

Stat: Health Systems Invest More Aggressively Than Ever In Digital Health
During his talk at the recent J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, Mayo Clinic CEO Gianrico Farrugia laid out a sweeping vision for technology transformation, driven largely by private sector upstarts that have partnered with the health system. Every few minutes, he punctuated references to this cadre of companies with a disclosure: Mayo owns equity in all of them. The Rochester, Minn., health system has long invested in for-profit businesses through its venture capital arm. But it has dramatically increased its allocation to digital health companies in recent years, pouring more than $100 million into a sector it had previously only acknowledged with sporadic, six-figure checks. (Ross, 1/24)

Modern Healthcare: Another Health System Outsources Its Administrative Services To Optum
MarinHealth Medical Center is the latest health system to enlist Optum for operational support, with the not-for-profit California provider inking a 10-year contract with the healthcare services giant on Thursday. MarinHealth will lean on Optum to streamline its administrative processes, offer insight into its supply chain and for revenue cycle management services. Optum's technology will also provide a simplified consumer experience for patients, MarinHealth said. (Tepper, 1/21)

Georgia Health News: Anthem Names New Chief In Georgia Amid Dispute With Northside 
Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield has named a new president of its Georgia operation just days before a possible contract cutoff with Northside Hospital. Robert Bunch, a longtime Anthem official, replaces Pam Stahl, who has taken a job in another industry, the insurer said late last week. The leadership change comes amid a flurry of court activity in the dispute, which has caught the attention of many of the estimated 400,000 Anthem patients in metro Atlanta who use Northside hospitals, clinics and doctors. (Miller, 1/23)

Also —

Philadelphia Inquirer: Pa. Nurses Flood Student Loan Relief Program Offering Up To $7,500. ‘We Can Do More’, State Senator Says
State Sen. Maria Collett (D., Montgomery/Bucks) says there’s overwhelming demand for a program offering Pennsylvania nurses up to $7,500 in student loan debt relief, and she’s fighting to expand and make the program law. Collett and Gov. Tom Wolf have been heavily promoting the new Student Loan Relief for Nurses (SLRN) program for nurses working in Pennsylvania. Qualified nurses can receive relief of up to $2,500 for each year of work during the COVID-19 pandemic, starting in 2020, with a maximum benefit of $7,500 over three years. (Arvedlund, 1/22)

AP: $25M Gift To Help Cancer Research At Dartmouth-Hitchcock 
A $25 million gift will help establish a cancer research institute at Dartmouth-Hitchcock’s Norris Cotton Cancer Center in New Hampshire. The donation is from Dorothy Byrne, a long-time supporter of cancer research and patient care. It is the lead gift in a $50 million campaign to create the Byrne Family Cancer Research Institute. (1/23)

North Carolina Health News: Three Indicators That May Predict A Rural Hospital Closure 
Since 2005, 181 rural hospitals across the country have shut their doors permanently — 56 of those between 2017 and 2020. Scholars at the North Carolina Rural Health Research Program and the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research at UNC Chapel Hill watch the issue closely. Two researchers recently decided to investigate: did the most recent closures have anything in common financially? The answer they found was a resounding yes. In the year before their closure, most of the now-closed rural hospitals nationwide had low cash on hand, negative operating margins, and negative total margins, compared to rural hospitals that stayed open. (Donnelly-DeRoven, 1/24)

KHN: The Doctor Didn’t Show Up, But The Hospital ER Still Charged $1,012
Dhaval Bhatt had been warned about hospital emergency rooms. “People always told me to avoid the ER in America unless you are really dying,” said Bhatt, an immigrant from India who got a Ph.D. in pharmacology in the U.S. and is now a research scientist at Washington University in St. Louis. But when Bhatt’s 2-year-old son burned his hand on the kitchen stove on a Wednesday morning in April, the family’s pediatrician directed them the next day to the local children’s hospital. (Levey, 1/24)

USA Today: Elon Musk's Neuralink Set To Begin Implanting Chips In Human Brains
Elon Musk's Neuralink has begun recruiting for a clinical trial director, bringing it one step closer to developing technology that could connect the human mind directly to devices. Neuralink's goal is to build something called a "brain computer interface" that allows people to transmit and receive information between their brain and a computer wirelessly, according to Neuralink's website. (Shen, 1/23)

In other pharmaceutical and biotech news —

Modern Healthcare: CVS Caremark Agrees To Settlement Over Transaction Fees
The Oklahoma Insurance Department has entered into a settlement agreement with CVS Caremark over transaction fees the pharmacy benefit manager charges pharmacists to process Medicare Part D and group health plan claims, the agency announced Thursday. The CVS Health subsidiary will pay $4.8 million to settle the alleged violations of the state's Patient's Right to Pharmacy Choice Act. CVS Caremark will pay $2.3 million in restitution to drugstores and $2.5 million in penalties to the state. (Devereaux, 1/21)

Stat: Did Veteran Drug Developer Hal Barron Accomplish His Mission At GSK?
So here’s the big question for Hal Barron as he departs GlaxoSmithKline: Did he accomplish his mission? The mission, put simply, was to turn around GSK’s labs when he was hired as chief scientific officer four years ago. At the time, the British drug maker was struggling to develop new medicines, its pipeline not exactly flush. Now, Barron is leaving, having announced Wednesday he is taking a job as CEO of a new company called Altos Labs, backed with a stunning $3 billion in investor commitments and focused on “cellular rejuvenation programming.” So what of GSK? (Herper, 1/24)

Stat: Biotech Stocks Are A Dumpster Fire. An Analyst Explains What's Going On
In the midst of a pandemic that proved that the biotech industry has the power to help save the world, one can be excused for not realizing the industry is actually having kind of a rough time on Wall Street. The value of a widely followed biotech stock index fund, the IBB, is down 23% over the last year. But that doesn’t even tell the whole story because it’s dominated by bigger companies like Moderna, whose stock is benefiting, of course, mightily from its Covid vaccine. Another index fund, the XBI, which tracks smaller and mid-sized biotech companies, has lost almost 43% in the past year. (Feuerstein, Tirrell and Garde, 1/24)

Indianapolis Star: Fix High Hospital Costs Or We Will Act, Indiana Legislators Warn Healthcare Systems
Indiana lawmakers have inserted themselves into the ongoing conversation over health care prices in the state, which are among the highest in the nation, asking hospital and insurance leaders to work together to develop a plan to lower the cost of medical care. Saying that they have the “utmost respect” for health care workers, Senate President Rodric Bray and Speaker of the House Todd Huston direct about 20 letter recipients to work together to match Indiana’s health care costs to the national average by 2025. The legislative leaders say if the letter’s recipients have not come up with a viable plan by April, they will have “no choice but to pursue legislation to statutorily reduce prices.” (Rudavsky and Lange, 1/24)

In other news from across the U.S. —

Sacramento Bee: ‘I Accepted I Was Going To Die.’ Uninsured Californians Make Tough Health Care Decisions 
Honduran immigrant Sergio Tulio Arévalo Soliz suffered chest pains, heart palpitations and shortness of breath for four days before arriving at Adventist Health Hospital in Hanford on Jan. 6. Doctors told the 42-year-old Soliz he needed emergency heart surgery but the undocumented Fresno County farmworker is uninsured and doesn’t qualify for full-scope Medi-Cal. He couldn’t afford to pay for the surgery, so he told the doctor to discharge him. (Lopez, 1/23)

NBC News: 'Indelible Mark Of Shame': L.A. Pivots To Clearing Homeless Camps Amid Covid Surge, Housing Crisis
Montgomery Garnett clung to his incense, quietly attempting to convince Los Angeles police officers that he was breaking no law by sitting on the sidewalk. Every day he lights incense on the same corner in the heart of the Skid Row neighborhood, less than a mile from the trendy Japanese restaurants of Little Tokyo and the hip haunts of the Arts District. Across the street, a small dog barked as a woman yelled from her tent: “He needs housing!” (Lozano, 1/23)

Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Advocates: Bills Would Lessen Self-Expression For Transgender Children
Two bills filed in the Mississippi Senate seek to place new restrictions on transgender children, which could further discrimination and attacks against members of the trans community, advocates say. The bills, filed by senators Chad McMahan, R-Guntown, and Angela Hill, R-Picayune, are wildly different from one another, but both would limit a young person's ability to express their gender identity. "It’s another example of how trans people are under attack in this country and Mississippi is no exception," said Rob Hill, state director for the Human Rights Campaign in Mississippi. "It’s pretty disappointing the response from lawmakers is to file bills to embolden hateful people and increase stigma for a group of already vulnerable people." (Sanderlin, 1/24)

In news about abortion —

Chicago Tribune: With Roe V. Wade At Risk, Illinois Abortion Providers Seek To Help Out-Of-State Patients 
Each year, thousands of women cross state lines to have an abortion in Illinois — and that number could grow exponentially as pending U.S. Supreme Court decisions and new laws in various states challenge reproductive rights across large swaths of the nation. But women traveling here to terminate a pregnancy will have a new resource designed to make the process easier: Two southern Illinois abortion providers have partnered to create one centralized location where patients can get assistance with travel needs like finding transportation, booking lodging and setting up child care. (Lourgos, 1/21)

AP: With Roe In Doubt, States Act On Abortion Limits, Expansions 
It didn’t take long for abortion to re-emerge as a flashpoint in state legislatures. Less than a month into the 2022 legislative sessions, battles over the future of abortion already are setting up around the U.S. Republican lawmakers are proposing new restrictions modeled after laws in Texas and Mississippi that present a direct challenge to the landmark Roe v. Wade decision, while some Democratic-led states are working to preserve or expand access. (Whitehurst, 1/22)

The New York Times: How U.S. Abortion Law Compares With Other Nations 
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said last month that the United States was an international outlier in allowing abortion more than halfway through pregnancy. That later cutoff, he said, places the United States in the company of North Korea and China. It’s true in some ways, but not all. Few countries allow abortion without restriction until fetal viability, the cutoff set by Roe v. Wade, which was decided 49 years ago today. Because of medical advances, that is now around 23 weeks. And only around a dozen other countries allow abortions for any reason beyond 15 weeks of pregnancy, the threshold in the Mississippi law the Supreme Court is considering, which could overturn Roe. (Miller and Sanger-Katz, 1/22)

Bloomberg: Thailand Offers 4th Covid Shot In Tourist Spots Before Borders Reopen
Thailand is ramping up the rollout of fourth Covid-19 shots to residents in its tourism-dependent regions as the nation gears up for border reopening next month. Authorities are offering AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines in Bangkok, Phuket, Krabi and seven other provinces to those who have received their third dose at least three months ago, the health ministry said. The Southeast Asian nation has already administered more than 800,000 fourth doses, mostly to healthcare workers and those in high-risk groups, official data showed. (Thanthong-Knight, 1/24)

In updates from China —

Axios: Beijing Olympic Committee Lowers COVID Testing Threshold Ahead Of Games 
Beijing Olympics organizers and Chinese authorities have lowered the threshold for producing a negative COVID-19 test for participants arriving to participate in the Winter Games, CBC reported on Sunday. Organizers for the Beijing Games had instituted testing standards tougher than those used by many sports leagues in the U.S. and Europe, per the Wall Street Journal. (Saric, 1/23)

Bloomberg: No Evidence You Can Catch Covid From Overseas Mail, China Says
Chinese officials say experts have seen little to suggest that Covid-19 is spreading via non-frozen goods after a recent infection of the omicron variant in Beijing was said to be traced to overseas mail. Experts have insufficient evidence so far on non-frozen imported goods transmitting Covid-19 to people in China, according to He Qinghua, an official with the National Health Commission, at a press conference on Saturday. Earlier this week, the Beijing Municipal Health Commission said a positive case sometimes handled international mail at work and authorities couldn’t rule out the possibility of the person getting infected through such an instance. (1/22)

And more global covid news —

CNN: Australia Was A Model In How To Handle Covid. Now It's A Mess 
Summer in Australia is traditionally a time of beaches and barbecues, but this year it's become a hot mess of rising Covid cases and a national shortage of rapid antigen tests. Last week, worker absences due to Covid isolation and illness became so severe that the national cabinet considered lowering the age limit for forklift licenses so that minors could pitch in to smooth supply chains. Ministers ultimately decided not to go ahead with the plan. But the idea that Australia, a country once lauded for its Covid-19 response, was considering such a move appeared to show how much the country's leaders were struggling. (Whiteman, 1/23)

Fox News: COVID-19: Researchers Study Long-Term Impact First Round Of Infection Had On Sense Of Smell
Researchers in Sweden are trying to learn more about the long-term impact that the first wave of COVID-19 infections had on individuals who lost their sense of smell when they first learned they had the virus. Scientists at Stockholm’s Karolinska Institute studied 100 people who came down with the virus in 2020 and found that nearly half had a level of distortion in their sense of smell, 18 months after recovering, the Guardian reported. (DeMarche, 1/24)

In other news from around the world —

AP: Pakistan Launches Anti-Polio Drive As COVID-19 Cases Rise
Pakistani authorities on Monday launched this year’s first nationwide anti-polio campaign even as coronavirus infections surge. About 150,000 health workers are taking part in the five-day, anti-polio drive to inoculate 22.4 million children under age 5, according to a statement issued by Shahzad Beg, the coordinator for polio program. The previous campaign took place weeks ago when Pakistan witnessed decline in COVID-19 cases. (1/24)

Bloomberg: Covid Isn’t Going Away. So How Do We Live With It?
As we near the end of our second year living through a pandemic, countries are taking somewhat different approaches to handling the virus. In the U.K., disgraced Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced an end to all Plan B restrictions and a target date for ditching the legal requirement to isolate after contracting Covid-19. Meanwhile, Hong Kong has sentenced more than 2,000 hamsters — including beloved pets — to death after 11 hamsters in a single pet shop were found to have traces of the coronavirus. (Lara Williams, 1/23)

The New York Times: Omicron Is (Still) Confusing. Two Experts Help Untangle The Covid Chaos
With canceled plans, restaurants shuttering and talk of school shutdowns, the experience of the Covid pandemic can sometimes feel like two steps forward, one step back. And it’s not helped by changing (and sometimes confusing) guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the lack of key resources like at-home rapid tests, and the misinformation that abounds from Dr. Google. (Dr. Ashish Jha and Emily Oster, 1/24)

Stat: Done Right, Antigen Testing Could Reshape The Future Of Health Care 
The Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 has renewed attention on Covid-19 antigen test kits. They are in high demand across the United States, and many Americans are having trouble getting them, prompting President Biden to announce that the White House will buy and ship 500 million rapid tests for free beginning in January. The untold backstory here is that many people are growing accustomed to simultaneously serving as doctor and patient. Before the pandemic struck, the idea that millions of people would administer tests on themselves at home to determine whether they had a life-threatening illness seemed difficult to imagine. Today, it’s part of daily life. (Yonatan Adiri, 1/24)

NBC News: As Covid Surges, Health Officials Must Remember That In-Person Postpartum Care Is Essential
With the omicron variant forcing hospitals to make difficult decisions once again about what care to provide, Covid-19 must not again defer postpartum care. Postpartum follow-up care is essential health care, and we should be expanding rather than constricting access. The experiences of women who gave birth during the early days of the pandemic make that clear. (Tova Walsh, 1/24)

Dallas Morning News: The Risk To Our Health Care System Goes Far Beyond COVID
The moral injury health care workers face is fundamentally structural. With omicron on track to shatter hospitalization records in Texas, some patients continue to deny that COVID-19 is real, even on their deathbeds. Health care workers undertake the grueling task of managing more and more patients with less and less support (18% quit during the pandemic, according to Morning Consult), while the cycles of death and disruption fail to cure people of this collective delusion. (Dona Kim Murphey, 1/23)

Stat: Using Force Crossed My Mind When Examining A Defiant Young Patient
As I struggled to examine Johnny, an 8-year-old boy who refused to let me see into his mouth, yelling and screaming and spitting his defiance, I thought of another doctor who wrote of his own struggles examining a child’s throat more than 80 years ago. In 1938, doctor, writer, and poet William Carlos Williams wrote a short story entitled “The Use of Force” in which he painted a disturbing picture of the mix of emotions — frustration, anger and more — that boiled inside of him as he tried to examine a recalcitrant young patient during one of the diphtheria epidemics of his time. (Christopher Hartnick, 1/23)

CNN: If You Think That Glass Of Wine Is Good For You, It's Time To Reconsider
Several years ago, at the end of a clinic visit, a long-time patient with end-stage heart disease who was nearing the end of his life asked me if it was OK to drink some wine. The patient was a physician, and he knew what most lay people do not: Despite the widespread belief a little alcohol is good for your heart, it isn't. I thought for a moment, and told him, "Only good wine." (Jonathan Reiner, 1/23)

Kansas City Star: Health Cost Consumer Protections In Effect 
On Jan. 1, amid celebrations, fireworks and last-minute resolutions, American health care policy took a major step forward for patients. You may have missed it — but for millions of Americans who have been asking for relief on health care costs and me, it was the culmination of years of work to make our system more affordable, fair and accessible. Because on New Year’s Day, new consumer protections against surprise medical billing went into effect, essentially ending one of the most egregious practices in our country’s health care system. (Sharice Davids, 1/23)

Modern Healthcare: Insurers Already Exploiting The Surprise Billing Law 
Congress passed the No Surprises Act last year to protect patients from surprise medical bills. This bipartisan legislation was on its way to being celebrated as a victory by all involved—something increasingly rare in Washington, D.C., these days. Unfortunately, insurance companies are already exploiting the way the Biden administration is implementing the law. (Dr. Gillian Schmitz, 1/21)

Stat: We All Need Help Working Through Grief And Hardship 
What do you say at work when you’re not really OK? More to the point, how do you know you’re not OK when you’ve practiced showing everyone just how OK you are through all manner of hardship? We are clinicians and researchers working in geriatrics and palliative care, trying to improve systems of care to meet the needs of seriously ill older adults. Before the pandemic, our workplaces operated on thin margins, with barely enough clinical staff to meet patients’ needs. To fund our research, we had to act like entrepreneurs, writing grants to fund salaries and benefits for ourselves and any research staff, as well as money to pay for data collection and analysis. We are also grieving losses that transformed each workday into a minefield of triggers. (Krista Lyn Harrison, Meridith Greene and Anthony Galanos, 1/24)

The CT Mirror: Republicans Should Embrace Medicare-For-All
The greed and inefficiency of hospital conglomerates is destroying health care. Thanks to the costs of electronic medical records (EMR) and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) imposed on physicians, independent practices –- especially primary care — can no longer afford to stay in business. They are forced to sell out to hospitals who are more interested in paying administrators huge salaries rather than patient care. (Joseph Bentivegna MD, 1/24)