Politico: Social Media Must Do More To Support Vaccination, Surgeon General Says 
Surgeon General Vivek Murthy on Sunday dismissed the idea that the Biden administration is looking for a scapegoat and using Facebook misinformation as an excuse for missing its vaccination goals. “This is about the health of Americans and the reality is that misinformation is still spreading like wildfire in our country, aided and abetted by technology platforms,” Murthy said on "Fox News Sunday.'' “I have been in dialogue with a number of technology companies in good faith efforts to express my concerns to them and where they have taken positive steps. And some of them have, I’ve acknowledged that, as we should do, but what I've also said very clearly to them, privately and also publicly, is that it's not enough.” (Ward, 7/18)

The Hill: Surgeon General: 'We Are Still Seeing A Proliferation Of Misinformation Online'
Surgeon General Vivek Murthy on Sunday said the U.S. is seeing a “proliferation of misinformation online,” as false information regarding COVID-19 and vaccinations is being amplified on social media platforms. “We are still seeing a proliferation of misinformation online, and we know that health misinformation harms people's health. It costs them their lives,” Murthy told host Dana Bash on CNN’s “State of the Union.” (Schnell, 7/18)

The Wall Street Journal: Biden’s Facebook Attack Followed Months Of Frustration Inside White House 
President Biden’s attack on Facebook Inc. on Friday followed months of mounting private frustration inside his administration over the social-media giant’s handling of vaccine misinformation, according to U.S. officials, bringing into public view tensions that could complicate efforts to stop the spread of Covid-19.The tough words between the White House and Silicon Valley escalated over the weekend, as Facebook issued a blunt statement accusing the Biden administration of distorting the facts. U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, who made the rounds on the Sunday talk shows in Washington, countered that social-media companies weren’t doing enough to clamp down on false statements about Covid-19 vaccines. (Restuccia and Needleman, 7/18)

But Facebook says it shouldn't be blamed —

CNBC: Facebook Refutes Biden Claim That It's ‘Killing People’ With Vaccine Misinformation
Facebook on Saturday refuted remarks made by President Joe Biden that social media platforms are “killing people” by allowing coronavirus vaccine misinformation on their services and argued that vaccine acceptance among its users has actually risen in the U.S. In a blog post, Guy Rosen, Facebook’s vice president of integrity, pointed to data suggesting that vaccine hesitancy among U.S. its users has declined by 50%, and 85% of users said they have been or would like to be vaccinated against Covid-19. (Newburger, 7/17)

In related news about misinformation —

Axios: Fauci: Smallpox, Polio Would Be In U.S. If Misinformation Spread Like On COVID 
President Biden's chief medical adviser, Anthony Fauci, told CNN Saturday he's "certain" smallpox and polio would still be in the U.S. if vaccine misinformation spread like it has over COVID-19. Facebook doubled down in its defense Saturday against Biden's comments that social media platforms were "killing people" by allowing coronavirus vaccine misinformation on their sites. (Falconer, 7/18)

Philadelphia Inquirer: Misinformation About Vaccine Door-Knocking Is Spreading. But Neighborhood Outreach Has Worked Around Philly
Since President Joe Biden said last week his administration would push door-knocking efforts as one of several initiatives to boost the nation’s vaccination rate, some Republican elected officials and social media posts have suggested that door-to-door initiatives are efforts to force vaccination or could lead to the confiscation of guns or Bibles. Those claims, for which there is no evidence, add to the misinformation already sowing doubt for some Americans about the coronavirus vaccines. And they come as the effort to increase the nation’s middling vaccination rate takes on new urgency in the effort to prevent the spread of the more contagious delta variant. (McDaniel, 7/16)

Miami Herald: Appeals Court Sides With CDC, Norwegian Cruise Lines Over DeSantis On Vaccination Rules
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention COVID-19 guidelines for cruise lines returning to operation are rules, not suggestions, a federal appeals court ruled Saturday night, reversing a lower court decision in favor of the state of Florida. The 2-1 decision by the U.S. Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals judges was a win for the CDC and, by extension, Norwegian Cruise Lines, which filed an amicus brief in this case. (Neal, 7/18)

South Florida Sun Sentinel: Court Sides With CDC On COVID-19 Cruise Ship Regulations  
In its request for the stay of the injunction, the CDC said that by keeping its safety protocols for cruises in place, it was not shutting the cruise industry down but rather providing a framework for them to continue operating safely during the pandemic. The CDC has battled the state of Florida over the department’s regulations for cruise ships for the past few months. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis originally filed the lawsuit against the CDC in April. (Randall and Svekis, 7/18)

The Wall Street Journal: CDC’s Covid-19 Cruise Guidelines To Stay In Place For Now 
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has highlighted his battle against the federal government over restarting cruises, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The CDC also didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. (Lovett, 7/18)

In related news about vaccine passports —

Newsweek: Vaccine Passport: The Government Can't Share Your Data, But Airlines Can
While these passports continue to garner visceral political reactions, differing from state to state, public companies and nongovernmental organizations have quietly rolled out passports of their own. American Airlines, United, and The Commons Project Foundation, a digital health non-profit, have all created their own passports. In accordance with the privacy policies of these passports, the companies and organizations that collect and store data pertaining to the COVID-19 vaccination status of individuals can share that information with third-party companies, including customs and border officials, business affiliates, contractors, and marketing providers—often for profit. (Rouhandeh and Green, 7/16)

Newsweek: Trump Claims Americans 'Refusing To Take The Vaccine' Due To Mistrust Of Biden Admin
Former President Donald Trump issued a statement on Sunday claiming that Americans are "refusing" to take the coronavirus vaccine due to mistrust of the Biden administration, the media and the 2020 presidential election results. "Joe Biden kept talking about how good of a job he's doing on the distribution of the Vaccine that was developed by Operation Warp Speed or, quite simply, the Trump Administration. He's not doing well at all," Trump's statement said. (Colarossi, 7/18)

Newsweek: Biden Gets 66 Percent Approval From Americans In His Handling Of Pandemic: Poll
President Joe Biden's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic is praised by a majority of Americans, a new poll shows. The CBS News/YouGov poll revealed that 26 percent of Americans believe Biden is doing a "very good" job at managing the pandemic while another 40 percent think he is doing a "somewhat good" job at it. Only 34 percent disapprove of the COVID-19 response, with 18 percent calling it "very bad" on Biden's part. (Hill, 7/18)

In other news about the vaccine rollout —

Detroit Free Press: Hundreds Protest At Henry Ford Hospitals Over COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate
The signs spoke the sentiments. "No jab = no job" "My body, my choice. Let me call my own shots" "From heroes to zeros" Hundreds of people lined the sidewalk in front of Henry Ford West Bloomfield Hospital's main entrance Saturday to protest the health system's COVID-19 vaccine mandate for employees, contractors and others. "We were essential last year, and now we're your villains," one woman yelled. The scene was similar in front of Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, where, as in West Bloomfield, drivers of passing vehicles frequently honked to show support. There also were people protesting at three additional hospitals in the health system — Clinton Township, Wyandotte and Jackson — said organizer Amber Castro of Westland. (Hall and Stein, 7/17)

Modern Healthcare: Association Of American Medical Colleges Pushes For Vaccine Mandate
Medical schools and teaching hospitals should require their workers to get the COVID-19 vaccine, the Association of American Medical Colleges told its members Friday. Unvaccinated Americans account for an overwhelming majority of new COVID-19 hospitalizations, said Dr. David Skorton, CEO of the association, adding that the virus continues to mutate. States with the highest spikes in new cases also have some of the country's lowest vaccination rates, according to data from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine's Coronavirus Tracking Center. (Kacik, 7/16)

In updates on vaccine development —

Axios: FDA Grants Pfizer Priority Review For Full U.S. Approval 
Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine was granted priority review for full approval by the Food Drug Administration for Americans 16 and older, Pfizer and BioNTech announced Friday. A full approval for the Pfizer vaccine could help bolster the U.S. vaccination effort, as many people are reluctant to receive the vaccine under its emergency use status, the Boston Globe notes. (Frazier, 7/16)

Fox News: Moderna's COVID-19 Vaccine Trial In Pregnant Women Should 'Reassure' Public, Expert Says 
Moderna's move to launch a study of its COVID-19 vaccine in pregnant women should reassure the public and help build confidence in the jab's safety, experts said. The trial, which has not yet begun recruiting, is aiming to enroll about 1,000 females over 18 who will be studied over a 21-month period, according to a posting on ClinicalTrials.gov. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states that pregnant women can get a COVID-19 vaccine, but clinical trials specifically studying the jabs among this population were not included when the Food and Drug Administration granted any of the vaccines' emergency use authorization. (Rivas, 7/17)

Stat: Messenger RNA Vaccine Pioneer Katalin Karikó Shares Her Long Journey
In the span of the Covid-19 pandemic, and thanks to the success of two of the currently available vaccines for SARS-CoV-2, messenger RNA, or mRNA, went from being an obscure cell biology concept understood and mentioned only by scientists to being a household term. But the technology behind the mRNA vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer and BioNTech is anything but new. Developed over an arduous 40 years, it was the result of an unlikely success story. One of the key figures behind this achievement was Katalin Karikó, senior vice president of the German biotech company BioNTech and adjunct associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania. (Lloreda, 7/19)

Fox News: California X-Ray Tech Who Died Shortly After COVID-19 Shot Killed By Heart Disease, Coroner's Report Says
An X-ray technician in California whose January death was under investigation as his family suggested a possible link to his second dose of a COVID-19 vaccine died due to heart disease, a coroner’s report concluded. Tim Zook, 60, died of hypertensive and atherosclerotic heart disease with severe cardiomegaly and heart failure, according to his autopsy report. The report did not mention a COVID-19 vaccine and said he died at UC Irvine Medical Center. At the time of his death, Zook’s widow, Rochelle, told local news outlets that her husband "believed in vaccines" and was "sure he would take that vaccine again, and he’d want the public to take it," but that she noticed his health went into a sharp decline after he received his second dose of the Pfizer shot. (Hein, 7/17)

KHN: Novavax’s Effort To Vaccinate The World, From Zero To Not Quite Warp Speed 
On a sweltering June morning, Novavax CEO and covid vaccine maker Stanley Erck stood on a stage unmasked and did something that would have been unthinkable six months ago: He shook hands with Maryland’s governor. Erck was with Gov. Larry Hogan to announce Novavax’s global vaccine headquarters ― a campus expected to house laboratories and more than 800 employees. Hogan called Novavax’s future “bright” and marveled that more than 71% of the state’s adults had received at least one shot. (Tribble and Pradhan, 7/19)

The Washington Post: Surgeon General Vivek Murthy Backs Localized Mask Mandates As Delta Variant Drives Rise In Covid Cases
U.S. Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy said Sunday that he supports individual counties reinstating mask mandates to combat local surges of the coronavirus among unvaccinated people — like Los Angeles County did last week — as the pathogen’s highly contagious delta variant drives a spike in infections and the Biden administration seeks to project a sense of cautious optimism about the country’s return to normalcy. “It’s very reasonable for counties to take more mitigation measures like the mask rules you see coming out in L.A., and I anticipate that will happen in other parts of the country too,” Murthy said on ABC News’s “This Week.“ (Wang and Rowland, 7/18)

NBC News: Former Surgeon General Says CDC 'Premature' To Ease Mask Rules As Delta Variant Spreads
Dr. Jerome Adams, the surgeon general for most of the Trump administration, worries that easing mask guidelines was "premature" in the face of rising infections caused by the delta variant of the coronavirus. Adams expressed regret that he and Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government's leading infectious disease expert, did not more strongly advocate mask-wearing at the beginning of the pandemic last year. Now he worries that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is repeating the mistake after it rolled back its guidelines for indoor mask-wearing. (Madani, 7/18)

In news from California —

The New York Times: Wary And Weary, Los Angeles Largely Accepts Restored Mask Mandate 
Most customers dutifully took their masks on and off at the entrance of shops, where signs were posted to remind them of the policy and where, in some cases, complimentary masks were offered. Out-of-state tourists found themselves wearing masks for the first time in months, sometimes annoyed but largely compliant, and one restaurant employee who forgot about the mandate was able to secure a mask by running across the street and asking employees at the Starbucks if they had extras. “Some people think it’s a punishment,” said Lisa Liu, 38, who said she was fully vaccinated. She was shopping on Sunday and was interviewed outside a clothing store called Tazga. “But for me it’s a mask — it’s not a big deal.” (Craig and Albeck-Ripka, 7/18)

The Washington Post: Los Angeles County Sheriff Will Not Enforce Mask Mandate, Saying It Is ‘Not Backed By Science’
The Los Angeles County Sheriff announced that his department will not enforce a reinstated mask mandate, saying it is not backed by guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Scheduled to go into effect Saturday night, the mandate requires all residents, regardless of vaccination status, to wear masks indoors. Sheriff Alex Villanueva said that while the Los Angeles County Department of Health could enforce the order, “the underfunded/defunded Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department will not expend our limited resources and instead ask for voluntary compliance.” Villanueva also encouraged the county Board of Supervisors and law enforcement to “establish mandates that are both achievable and supported by science.” (Hauptman, 7/17)

Fox News: Sacramento County Advises Vaccinated People Wear Masks Indoors
Sacramento County health officials are advising residents to wear masks indoors regardless of vaccination status citing concerns about the rapid spread of the Delta COVID-19 variant. The guidance, which comes as Los Angeles County reinstates an indoor mask mandate, does not match the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidance, or the state’s public health guidance, which says vaccinated individuals do not have to wear facial coverings. (Hein, 7/17)

USA Today: New Infections Rising In Every State, Hospitalizations Boom
The number of new coronavirus infections is now rising in all 50 states and hospitalizations nationwide are increasing at an alarming rate, data out Sunday reveals. New infections rose in all 50 states Saturday, the third consecutive day, data from Johns Hopkins University shows. And more than 25,000 U.S. patients who likely had COVID-19 were in hospitals Saturday, up 24.1% from a week earlier. Throughout the week hospitals admitted 51,378 likely COVID patients, up 15%. And 6,198 adults with COVID-19 were in intensive-care units, up 25.7% from a week earlier. (Culver and Bacon, 7/18)

CIDRAP: US COVID-19 Cases Climb Steadily All Week
Not only did the moving 7-day average of new daily cases increased every day [last] week, but Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Rochelle Walensky, MD, MPH, said that 10% of US counties were recently reclassified as "high transmission risk" areas and 7% moved into the "substantial risk" category. Many of these areas, she added, corresponded with low vaccination rates. (McLernon, 7/16)

The Atlantic: The Delta Variant Is Surging In Missouri
Last week, Katie Towns, the acting director of the Springfield–Greene County Health Department, was concerned that the county’s daily cases were topping 250. On Wednesday, the daily count hit 405. This dramatic surge is the work of the super-contagious Delta variant, which now accounts for 95 percent of Greene County’s new cases, according to Towns. It is spreading easily because people have ditched their masks, crowded into indoor spaces, resumed travel, and resisted vaccinations. Just 40 percent of people in Greene County are fully vaccinated. In some nearby counties, less than 20 percent of people are. (Yong, 7/16)

Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Sequencing Data Show Mississippians Under 40 Make Up 65% Of COVID-19 Delta Variant Cases
Young people people in Mississippi are the most impacted by a rise in COVID-19 Delta variant cases, with those ages 39 and under making up 65% of cases identified through sequencing from late May to early July, according to data from the Mississippi State Department of Health. The Clarion Ledger requested a breakdown of Delta variant cases by age, race, vaccination status and number of long-term care residents affected. (Haselhorst, 7/16)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Average Wisconsin Daily COVID-19 Cases Rise For 10th Consecutive Day
Average new COVID-19 cases in Wisconsin increased for the 10th consecutive day on Friday, according to state Department of Health Services data. The seven-day average of daily cases increased to 149, up 64 cases from a month ago. (Bentley, 7/16)

Houston Chronicle: COVID Infections Are On The Rise Again In Houston. Will There Be Another Surge?
The Harris Health System’s COVID-19 ward was down to just one patient at the beginning of July. Anxious to hit zero COVID-19 patients, Dr. Esmaeil Porsa, the hospital system’s CEO, purchased and stored a bottle of Martinelli’s sparkling grape juice — “fake champagne” — in his refrigerator. If the COVID ward emptied out, he would drive to Lyndon B. Johnson Hospital, one of the system’s two medical centers, to celebrate with doctors and nurses. Instead, the numbers went the opposite direction. As of Friday morning, nurses were treating 14 COVID patients at LBJ Hospital. (Wu, 7/16)

Albanyherald.com: Delta Variant Threatens Window Of Herd Immunity Opportunity 
There is an ominous undertone, a touch of frustration mixed with the surface optimism, as Scott Steiner and Dr. Eddie Black talk about the emergence of the so-called delta variant of the coronavirus that has emerged as the latest health emergency related to the pandemic that has gripped the world for almost a year and a half.Both talk of a narrow window of opportunity that, because of some people’s reluctance to take vaccinations that have so far proved adept at stopping the spread of the virus, may be closing. (Fletcher, 7/17)

Democratic lawmakers cope with a covid outbreak —

Axios: More Texas Democrats Test Positive For COVID 
Two more Texas Democrats who fled their state for D.C. in an effort to block a state GOP voting bill have tested positive for COVID-19, the state House Democratic Caucus said Sunday. The confirmation comes a day after three other Texas state House members tested positive for the virus, despite being fully vaccinated. (Falconer, 7/19)

In other news about the spread of the coronavirus —

The Oregonian: Officials Investigating 14-Person COVID-19 Outbreak In Vancouver Hospital 
Health officials are investigating a COVID-19 outbreak in a Vancouver, Washington, hospital in which 10 patients and four employees on a single floor tested positive. Five of the 14 cases in PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center were fully vaccinated, and the patients showing symptoms are unvaccinated, officials said. (7/18)

North Carolina Health News: COVID Adds Challenges For Those Leaving Incarceration 
When Jeff Walker came out of incarceration, all he had were the clothes on his back. He was directionless, stigmatized. He didn’t have support. He didn’t have anything. That was five years ago. People leaving jails and prisons and reentering society during the COVID-19 pandemic faced the same stigma, the same lack of direction — all while attempting to navigate a global pandemic. (Thompson, 7/16)

NBC News: Rarely, Covid Vaccine Breakthrough Infections Can Be Severe. Who's At Risk?
Despite the power of Covid-19 vaccines in cutting the risk of hospitalization and death from the disease, fully vaccinated people can get very sick and die from the virus in rare cases. Those individuals tend to be older than 65 or have weakened immune systems or other severe medical conditions, an NBC News survey of health officials nationwide found. "Throughout the pandemic, people who died of Covid-19 were most likely to be older, and that continues to be true with breakthrough cases," a spokesperson for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health said in an email. (Edwards and Strickler, 7/19)

CIDRAP: Studies Elucidate Poorly Understood Long COVID 
Three new studies detail "long-haul" COVID-19, one finding 203 symptoms involving 10 organ systems, another showing that more than five coronavirus symptoms in the first week of infection portends a long disease course, and one finding few long-haul–like symptoms in children. (Van Beusekom, 7/16)

The Hill: Surgeon General: 'I Am Worried About What Is To Come'
Surgeon General Vivek Murthy on Sunday said he is “worried about what is to come” in the COVID-19 pandemic as cases increase throughout the U.S., primarily among those who are not vaccinated. “I am worried about what is to come because we are seeing increasing cases among the unvaccinated in particular. And while if you are vaccinated you are very well protected against hospitalization and death, unfortunately that is not true if you are not vaccinated,” Murthy told host Dana Bash on CNN’s “State of the Union.” (Schnell, 7/18)

The New York Times: C.D.C. Director Warns Of A ‘Pandemic Of The Unvaccinated’ 
As the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus fuels outbreaks in the United States, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned on Friday that “this is becoming a pandemic of the unvaccinated.” Cases, hospitalizations and deaths remain far below last winter’s peak, and vaccines are effective against Delta, but the C.D.C. director, Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky, urged people to get fully vaccinated to receive robust protection, pleading: “Do it for yourself, your family and for your community. And please do it to protect your young children who right now can’t get vaccinated themselves.” (Anthes and Petri, 7/16)

CNN: People Unvaccinated Against Covid-19 Risk The Most Serious Virus Of Their Lives, Expert Says 
With vaccination rates still not at the threshold needed to stop the spread of Covid-19, most Americans who are unprotected will likely contract the rapidly spreading Delta variant, one expert said. "And for most people who get this Delta variant, it's going to be the most serious virus that they get in their lifetime in terms of the risk of putting them in the hospital," Dr. Scott Gottlieb, commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration during the Trump administration, told CBS' "Face the Nation" Sunday. (Holcombe, 7/19)

Politico: Poll: Unvaccinated Americans Least Concerned About Delta Variant 
Unvaccinated and partially vaccinated Americans, the groups most vulnerable to Covid, are the least concerned about the more contagious Delta variant, according to a CBS News poll. While 48 percent of "not fully/not vaccinated" respondents in the poll released Sunday said they were concerned about the Delta variant, 72 percent of fully vaccinated Americans are worried. (Ward, 7/18)

The New York Times: In Undervaccinated Arkansas, Covid Upends Life All Over Again
While much of the nation tiptoes toward normalcy, the coronavirus is again swamping hospitals in places like Mountain Home, a city of fewer than 13,000 people not far from the Missouri border. ... The [delta] variant has highlighted a new divide in America, between communities with high vaccination rates, where it causes hardly a ripple, and those like Mountain Home that are undervaccinated, where it threatens to upend life all over again. Part of the country is breathing a sigh of relief; part is holding its breath. (LaFraniere, 7/17)

Axios: GOP Joins Dems In Taking On Big Pharma 
Senators working to keep the bipartisan infrastructure deal alive are zeroing in on Medicare prescription drug rebate formulas to offset up to $60 billion of the $1.2 trillion package, people familiar with the matter tell Axios. Targeting those funds puts the bipartisan infrastructure plan in competition with the $3.5 trillion, Democrat-only plan proposed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I.-Vt.). It also assumes new money from altering complicated prescription drug formulas. (Nichols, 7/18)

Modern Healthcare: Congress Eyes Fix To Medicaid Expansion Gap That Would Boost Rural Hospitals
Rural hospitals facing potential closures could see a lifeline in the form of a multi-trillion dollar package President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats aim to pass this year. Democrats plan to extend health insurance coverage to 2 million low-income, uninsured people who live in the 12 states that haven't expanded Medicaid , circumventing mostly-Republican governors and state legislatures that have opposed adopting the expansion, which is 90% financed by the federal government under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). More patients with health coverage would be a boon to rural hospitals in non-expansion states like Texas and Florida. (Hellmann, 7/16)

KHN: Biden’s July Executive Order Includes Drug Pricing Provisions. But Will They Do Enough?
President Joe Biden’s executive order of July 9 included various steps toward making good on campaign promises to take on pharmaceutical companies by allowing the importation of prescription drugs and curbing the high cost of medicines. These issues were key to candidate Biden’s 2020 health care platform, which stated he would “stand up to abuse of power” by drugmakers. Biden promised on his campaign website that he would allow consumers to buy prescription drugs from other countries, as long as the Department of Health and Human Services deemed it safe. In speeches, candidate Biden also pledged to bring down drug costs by 60%. (Knight, 7/19)

In updates on the Affordable Care Act —

Modern Healthcare: State Public Options May Suffer Without More Federal Funding
The Biden administration's plan to retool Obamacare marketplaces could open the door to more states offering a public option, but the president's goal to expand coverage could suffer if CMS doesn't give states enough leeway to spend federal money. The language around Section 1332 waivers in the market modernization proposed rule is similar to the Obama administration's 2015 guidance but features more explicit language about improving health equity. Biden's team wants states to apply for waivers that would increase the number of people covered, offer more comprehensive coverage, make comprehensive coverage more affordable or address health equity and the social determinants of health. (Brady, 7/16)

In other news from the Biden administration —

Politico: Frustrated Industry Groups See Biden’s Covid Czar As Obstacle To Reopening Travel 
The White House is resisting lifting U.S. travel bans on a broad swath of foreign countries, despite a rising chorus of voices both inside and outside the administration questioning whether they are still necessary in the fight against Covid-19. Critics of the bans point to Jeff Zients, the coordinator of the White House’s coronavirus pandemic response, as the main obstacle standing in the way of easing the longstanding restrictions, according to five people familiar with the matter. And some of them have grown so frustrated with Zients that they said they have begun discussing ways to go around him and take their case to other top administration officials instead. (Kumar and Meyer, 7/17)

Stat: Atul Gawande, Bureaucrat: A Tough Job Would Await Him At USAID
Atul Gawande has been a renowned surgeon, an award-winning magazine writer and author, a Rhodes scholar, a recipient of a MacArthur “genius grant,” and the CEO of a briefly ballyhooed health care company. Now he is hoping to be a bureaucrat. President Biden nominated the 55-year-old Gawande last week to the post of assistant administrator for global health at the United States Agency for International Development, better known as USAID. (Branswell, 7/19)

CNBC: Kamala Harris Heads To Walter Reed For Routine Checkup
Vice President Kamala Harris is visiting Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Sunday for a routine doctor’s appointment, a White House official told NBC News. There isn’t any indication at this time that the appointment is related to the vice president’s meeting last week with Texas Democratic lawmakers, a few of whom have since tested positive for Covid-19. (Newburger, 7/18)

Modern Healthcare: HHS Slates Funding To Address Healthcare Workforce Burnout
HHS on Friday said it would make approximately $103 million in American Rescue Plan funding available to tackle healthcare worker burnout and promote mental health in the industry. The funds, released by the Health Resources and Services Administration, will go toward several programs to help healthcare organizations in rural and medically underserved communities build resiliency among newer healthcare workers and mentor providers on how to respond to stressful situations. HRSA will distribute the money over a three-year period. (Devereaux, 7/16)

Modern Healthcare: First Half 2021 Marks Record High Healthcare Data Breaches
Healthcare providers, insurers and their business associates have already reported 360 data breaches to the federal government in the first half of 2021—outpacing the same period for all previous years. Those 360 breaches exposed data on nearly 23 million patients, according to data from HHS' Office for Civil Rights, which began maintaining a database of healthcare data breaches in 2010. Last year, organizations reported 270 breaches of 8 million patients' data in the first six months of the year; in 2019, around 230 breaches that exposed data on 11.2 million patients. (Kim Cohen, 7/16)

Modern Healthcare: Hospital-Run Retail Pharmacies At Risk Of Extinction
Intermountain Healthcare's decision to shutter most of its outpatient pharmacies underscores the increasing reality that hospital-owned retail pharmacies are a dying breed. Health systems have shown they're increasingly willing to outsource outpatient pharmacy services to CVS Health or Walgreens and part ways with what's often a money-losing endeavor. Only about one-quarter of health systems had a centralized retail or mail order pharmacy in 2019, according to the American Society of Health System Pharmacists. "I haven't seen too many of those left, to be honest," said Brian Tanquilut, a healthcare services analyst with Jefferies. (Bannow, 7/16)

Axios: Patients Cared For By Female Physicians Had Lower In-Hospital Mortality 
The in-hospital mortality rate among patients treated by physicians who were women was lower compared with those cared for by physicians who were men, a recent study published in JAMA found. To be clear, the difference was small. But it supports previous evidence that suggested women often have different behavioral characteristics in care such as spending longer time communicating with patients, showing higher levels of empathic concern or providing more time researching studies and observing health records. (Fernandez, 7/19)

In corporate news —

The Boston Globe: Hasbro Children’s Hospital Selected To Help Improve Equity In Children’s Health Care
Hasbro Children’s Hospital is one of 12 pediatric facilities chosen to help transform child health care delivery in the U.S. The Providence-based hospital, which is owned by Lifespan Corp., is participating in a program funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation will work with the Center for Health Care Strategies to develop ways to make child health care “more equitable and family focused.” Each hospital in the program will receive a $2,500 stipend. Representatives from the 12 hospitals will meet once a month for nine months to create a guide to making pediatric health care more equitable. The work will focus on adopting anti-racist practices to advance health equity, co-creating equitable partnerships with families and providers, and identifying family strengths and health-related social needs to “promote resilience.” (Gagosz, 7/16)

Georgia Health News: What A Controversial List Says About Nonprofit Hospitals’ Charity Record 
Grady Memorial Hospital ranks first, and Piedmont Hospital last, in a report rating the 10 largest nonprofit Atlanta/Athens area hospitals on their spending on charity care and other community health initiatives. The “Fair Share’’ ranking, from the Lown Institute, was released this week and has already generated controversy. (Miller, 7/16)

North Carolina Health News: The Demise Of Cardinal Innovations 
Beset by “greed” and “avarice.” “Irresponsible” and “unconscionable” behavior. “Extravagant” and “excessive” spending that “eroded the public trust. ”These are just some of the ways that lawmakers and health care experts across the state have described the life – and ultimate demise – of Cardinal Innovations, the state’s first mental health local management entity-managed care organization (LME-MCO) since it launched in the early 2000s. (Gulledge, 7/19)

Axios: Cleveland Clinic Promoted Alzheimer's Drug Aduhelm Before Deciding To Shun It 
Before the Cleveland Clinic said it would not administer Aduhelm, the new FDA-approved Alzheimer's drug, the hospital system was promoting the unproven drug on its social media accounts. Cleveland Clinic was the first major medical center to say it would not use Aduhelm, and two hospital systems have followed the clinic's lead. But the abrupt change could confuse patients, who were told less than two weeks ago by the clinic that the drug offered "hope." (Herman, 7/19)

Stat: Too Close For Comfort: FDA Shouldn't Loosen Conflict Rules For Expert Panels
Never mind the conflicts, there are drugs to approve. In a sorry turn of events, the Food and Drug Administration is facing a confidence-draining debacle thanks to its controversial approval of a pricey Alzheimer’s drug for which evidence appears suspect, at best. Approval standards are being questioned and the acting FDA commissioner asked a federal watchdog to probe its dealings with Biogen, because the company quietly worked to curry favor with a top FDA official in charge of reviewing its drug. (Silverman, 7/19)

In other pharmaceutical industry news —

Stat: Connecticut AG Accuses Some Sacklers Of Intimidation Over Purdue Talks
In the latest drama surrounding Purdue Pharma, Connecticut Attorney General William Tong lashed out at members of the Sackler family who control the drug maker for threatening to seek sanctions against several states that have panned a bankruptcy proposal filed by the company. In a blistering statement, Tong maintained that attorneys for the Raymond Sackler family on Thursday sought to “intimidate” Connecticut, three other states, and the District of Columbia by intending to file a motion that argued the governments lacked evidence to object to the bankruptcy plan. The motion, he added, was withdrawn on Friday morning under “considerable pressure.” (7/16)

Reuters: J&J Exploring Putting Talc Liabilities Into Bankruptcy
Johnson & Johnson is exploring a plan to offload liabilities from widespread Baby Powder litigation into a newly created business that would then seek bankruptcy protection, according to seven people familiar with the matter. During settlement discussions, one of the healthcare conglomerate’s attorneys has told plaintiffs’ lawyers that J&J could pursue the bankruptcy plan, which could result in lower payouts for cases that do not settle beforehand, some of the people said. Plaintiffs’ lawyers would initially be unable to stop J&J from taking such a step, though could pursue legal avenues to challenge it later. (Spector, Dinapoli and Levine, 7/19)

NBC News: The Future Of Cannabis Is Female: Gen Z Women Are Fastest-Growing Consumers Of Legal Weed
Pot has gone retail. In the 1990s, nameless plastic baggies marked with an X for potency, jars adorned with pot leaves and sexually suggestive imagery were the default marketing tactics for marijuana-related products. As legalization grows, with recreational marijuana legal for adults in 18 states and Washington, D.C., and medical marijuana legal in 37 states, investment dollars have poured in — and the largest players in the industry are putting out professionalized products. (Popken, 7/18)

KHN: Journalists’ Topics Range From Rural Pharmacy Deserts To Opioid Overdoses 
KHN senior Colorado correspondent Markian Hawryluk discussed how a rural Colorado town is crowdsourcing ways to get prescription medicines delivered on KUNC’s “Colorado Edition” on Monday. ... KHN Editor-in-Chief Elisabeth Rosenthal discussed how medical education changed during the pandemic on NPR’s “Here and Now” on Tuesday. ... KHN freelancer Amy Worden chatted about high vaccine hesitancy among prison staffers on Newsy’s “Morning Rush” on Tuesday. (7/17)

USA Today: Texas Resident Hospitalized With Rare Monkeypox Diagnosis 18 Years After Outbreak In US
A Texas resident who recently traveled from Africa has been hospitalized after contracting what the Texas Department of State Health Services believes is the first case of monkeypox in the state, a diagnosis that comes 18 years after the nation's last outbreak of the rare disease. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other heath officials are working to trace the person's contacts to help prevent another outbreak of the illness. But health officials say the risk to the public is low, especially because COVID-19 precautions on the person's flights probably kept the virus from spreading. (Segarra, 7/16)

Dallas Morning News: Dallas Resident Has Texas’ First-Ever Case Of Monkeypox, But It’s ‘Not A Reason For Alarm’
Local officials said that the lone case of monkeypox posed little risk to the public at large. “While rare, this case is not a reason for alarm and we do not expect any threat to the general public,” Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said in a written statement. ... Officials noted that because travelers are required to wear masks on flights and in airports to help prevent the spread of COVID-19, the potential for the transmission of monkeypox was diminished. (Steele, 7/16)

And a man in China has died of the rare Monkey B virus, which is different from monkeypox  —

The Washington Post: Chinese Veterinarian Dies From Rare Monkey B Virus
A man in China has died after contracting a rare infectious disease from primates, known as the Monkey B virus, Chinese health officials revealed in a report Saturday. The victim, a 53-year-old veterinarian based in Beijing, was the first documented human case of the virus in China. According to the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the man worked in a research institute that specialized in nonhuman primate breeding and dissected two dead monkeys in March. He experienced nausea, vomiting and fever a month later, and died May 27. His blood and saliva samples were sent to the center in April, where researchers found evidence of the Monkey B virus. Two of his close contacts, a male doctor and a female nurse, tested negative for the virus, officials said. (Tan, 7/19)

Houston Chronicle: Dozens Affected By Chemical Leak At Six Flags Hurricane Harbor Splashtown In Spring
Thirty-one people were taken to hospitals Saturday afternoon after being affected by a chemical exposure at Six Flags Hurricane Harbor Splashtown in Spring, authorities said, as they closed the facility until further notice. A lifeguard first became sick in an area around a kiddie pool at the water park before more people, including children, started feeling ill, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said. Fifty-five people refused to be transported to a hospital by ambulance after being decontaminated by firefighters. (Serrano, 7/17)

NBC News: During Pandemic, Hospitals See Rise In Alcohol-Related Liver Disease
Just months into the pandemic, Kelly White, a 52-year-old mother of three, found herself extremely nauseous and unable to handle alcohol. White, of Chicago, had been laid off when the country locked down, and she found herself at home with nothing to do. Having struggled with alcohol in the past, she found comfort in drinking, and began to increase her alcohol intake by threefold, often starting early in the morning and drinking throughout the day. (Syal, 7/17)

Sacramento Bee: Could Tarantulas Hold The Secret To Relieving Chronic Pain?
Using $1.5 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health, researchers at UC Davis, are looking into whether venom from the widely feared tarantula spider could help relieve chronic pain. “Spiders and scorpions have millions of years of evolution optimizing peptide, protein and small-molecule poisons in their venom, which we can take advantage of,” said Bruce Hammock, a distinguished professor of entomology who is working on the new pain reliever. “The same venoms that can cause pain and neurological dysfunction can also help nerves work better and reduce pain.” Hammock has decades of experience in developing a novel approach to relieving chronic pain. His Davis-based EicOsis earned a Fast Track designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the development of an oral drug candidate, EC5026, which prevents the breakdown of compounds in the body that keep people from feeling pain out of proportion to their injury. (Anderson, 7/18)

The New York Times: Jury Awards $125 Million After Walmart Fires Woman With Down Syndrome 
On Thursday, a jury in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, in Green Bay, found that Walmart had violated the Americans With Disabilities Act, which bans discrimination based on an employee’s disability, and awarded Marlo Spaeth $125 million in punitive damages and $150,000 in compensatory damages. (Levenson, 7/18)

New Orleans Times-Picayune: LSU Medical Students Honored For Helping Ill Passenger On Airline Flight
LSU's president and New Orleans' mayor praised two medical students who rendered emergency aid to a fellow passenger on an airline flight to New York. Lauren Bagneris and Heather Duplessis stepped up on the flight in June, while bound for Greece to celebrate the end of their first year at LSU Health. "Greece has been like a bucket list thing," Duplessis said. "I was really just excited to relax with my sisters and with Heather, of course, so we could have a great time and see a beautiful country," Bagneris said. It was a trip to remember. (Cunningham, 7/17)

The Hill: DC Mayor, Nationals Issue Joint Statement Against Gun Violence 
Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser and the Washington Nationals condemned the “senseless acts of gun violence” that took place just outside Saturday night's game in a joint statement issued on Sunday. Three people were wounded on Saturday in a shooting just outside Nationals Park, where the Nationals were playing the San Diego Padres. It created a scary scene, with fans rushing from the seats uncertain about where the shots were coming from. (Vakil, 7/18)

In news about health and race —

CNN: Black Americans Are Battling 'Three Pandemics,' New Report Finds
Higher unemployment rates, lower household incomes and lack of access to health care left Black Americans more vulnerable to the Covid-19 pandemic and there is an urgency to address these structural inequities, according to a new report on the state of Black America released Thursday by the National Urban League. The report titled "The New Normal: Diverse, Equitable & Inclusive," concluded that Black people are facing the burden of "three pandemics," which include racial inequity in health care, economics and public safety. (Terry Ellis, 7/15)

Axios: Why Communities Of Color Don't Trust Science 
The pandemic mantra has been to "trust the science" — but many people of color don't and won't. The reasons range from the abuses of eugenics to historic hurdles to getting care. Science that supports medical breakthroughs has long taken advantage of people of color. Overcoming the resulting suspicion could take generations. (O'Reilly, 7/17)

Philadelphia Inquirer: As U.S. Overdose Deaths Soar, Rhode Island Legalizes Supervised Injection Sites. Philly’s Effort Remains In Limbo
Rhode Island’s decision to allow sites where people in addiction can use drugs safely has sparked new optimism that momentum for the movement may be building despite Philadelphia’s own stalled bid to open a supervised injection site. The facilities, where medical workers can revive those who overdose and connect people to treatment, already exist in dozens of countries. But Rhode Island is the first state whose legislature approved a two-year pilot to open sites around the state. The governor recently signed the bill into law. (Whelan, 7/19)

Cincinnati Enquirer: Overdose, Relapse Hit Cincinnati: Funding, Narcan, Treatment Needed
A new survey shows just how much people in the Cincinnati region were afflicted with active addiction during the COVID-19 pandemic, as staggering overdose deaths nationwide were announced. One in 12 local adults had a family member or friend who overdosed during the pandemic in 2020. And 1 in 12 said they had a family member or friend who relapsed, the new poll shows. Put another way, the survey result translates to roughly 135,000 of the region's 1.7 million adults – or a little less than half of the population of the city of Cincinnati. (Demio, 7/18)

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette: CDC: Overdose Deaths Rise In Arkansas
Overdose deaths in Arkansas are estimated to have increased by more than 40%, or 152 deaths, in 2020 according to data released this week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention National Center for Health Statistics. It estimates 515 people died because of overdoses in Arkansas during 2020, with 363 people dying in 2019. While nearly all states' overdose deaths increased during the pandemic, Arkansas sits higher than the national average, the report shows. It says the nation saw about 93,331 overdose deaths in 2020, a 29.4% increase from the 72,151 deaths in 2019. (Moss, 7/18)

In updates on the deadly heat wave in the West —

The Wall Street Journal: Heat Waves, Wildfires Intensify In The West
Intense heat engulfed the Northern Rockies and High Plains, while high temperatures and dry air made matters worse for firefighters working to control dozens of wildfires burning across the parched West. State leaders had issued emergency orders activating resources before the weekend, while some local communities said the blazes were complicating plans for a resurgence of tourism and local events after an interruption during the Covid-19 pandemic. (Levitz and Lovett, 7/18)

Fox News: US Heat Wave Sparked Surge In Emergency Department Visits, CDC Report Finds
An intense heat wave affecting the Northwest caused a spike in emergency department (ED) visits for heat-related illness, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Oregon and Washington were most affected by the record-breaking heat, the CDC wrote, with temperatures in Portland climbing to 116 degrees Fahrenheit, over 40 degrees hotter than average monthly highs. While the country sees some 700 deaths due to heat illness each year, the agency warned that climate change will spur increases in fatalities in the years to come in the northwestern U.S. (Rivas, 7/17)

In news from Vermont, Kentucky, South Carolina, Oklahoma and Nevada —

AP: Vermont Marking Return Of Amtrak Service After COVID
Celebrations are planned at Amtrak stations across Vermont to note the return of passenger rail service to the state. Both the Vermonter train and the Ethan Allen Express are scheduled to resume passenger service on Monday. The service was suspended last year at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. (7/19)

Louisville Courier Journal: How The National Blood Shortage Is Impacting Kentucky
The national blood shortage brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic has left Louisville facing a "scary" situation as health officials urge donations. The Kentucky Blood Center, a nonprofit that has donor centers in Somerset, Pikeville, Louisville and Lexington, collected 12,000 fewer donations from March 2020 to February 2021 than from March 2019 to February 2020, according to external relations vice president Mandy Brajuha. “For mobile blood drives, which prior to COVID accounted for 70% of our blood supply, that decrease was 46%,” Brajuha said in an email. “We collected 22,000 less red cells on mobiles this past year.” (Ladd, 7/19)

AP: Food Program Cards Can Be Used At Some SC Self Checkouts
Families who use a supplemental program to help get healthy foods for pregnant women and children can now use the self-checkout at two national chain stores in South Carolina. Walmart and Kroger are now taking electronic cards for the state Women, Infant, and Children program at their terminals without cashiers, the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control said in a statement. (7/18)

Oklahoman: Oklahoma Schools Are Hiring More Mental Health Staff. Counselors Say It's 'A Long Time Coming'
Oklahoma school counselors are hopeful extra investments in student mental health support could be a silver lining from a devastating pandemic. The Oklahoma State Department of Education dedicated $35 million of its COVID-19 stimulus funds to establish a grant program, the Oklahoma School Counselor Corps, to hire more counselors and other mental health professionals to work in schools. (Martinez-Keel, 7/19)

AP: Henderson Water Usage Increased By 1B Gallons After COVID-19
The study found the shift to more people being at home during that time led to roughly 1.1 billion additional gallons of water being used in the city, according to the newspaper. Nicholas Irwin, an assistant professor of economics at UNLV and one of the authors of the study, said “the increase in residential water usage was so large that it overwhelmed that offsetting effect from schools being closed and from commercial buildings being closed. Increased handwashing due to the coronavirus likely contributed to the spike in water usage, according to the study. (7/18)

In news from California —

San Francisco Chronicle: West Nile Virus Found In Contra Costa County Mosquitoes
Mosquitoes infected with West Nile virus have been discovered in Contra Costa County several times this month, prompting officials to warn residents. The disclosure comes one week after California recorded its first West Nile virus death of the year in San Luis Obispo County. Mosquitoes with the virus have been collected from traps in agricultural areas near Byron and Brentwood at the eastern edge of the county, according to the Contra Costa Mosquito and Vector Control District. Entomologists tested insect samples for the disease, which is transmitted to humans by a bite from an infected mosquito. (Mishanec, 7/18)

Las Vegas Review-Journal: Casino Smoking Ban Advocated By California Group
The battle to ban smoking in casinos is heating up again. Americans for Nonsmokers Rights, a California-based advocacy group seeking to ban smoking in casinos nationwide, has jumped on the record and near-record revenue performances of the nation’s casinos since full reopenings began a few months ago to push for smoke-free casinos. When Atlantic City casinos reported an all-time revenue record in the month of June, Americans for Nonsmokers Rights President and CEO Cynthia Hallett jumped to the conclusion that revenue and operating smoke-free are connected. (Velotta, 7/18)

Los Angeles Times: Center Opens To Help Victims Of South L.A. Fireworks Explosion
A second resource center will open Monday to assist the victims of a June 30 explosion in South Los Angeles, where police detonated a cache of illegal fireworks, casting debris across several blocks, damaging multiple structures and leaving more than a dozen people injured. The 27th Street Incident Community Resource Center will open starting at 3 p.m. at 1006 E. 28th St., officials said. It will be housed in a YMCA with staff ready to assist victims who need to access mental health and wellness referrals as well as other urgent services. (Do, 7/18)

KHN: Grab Your Mask And Notepad, We’re Headed Back To California’s State Capitol
The best part about returning to the pandemic-besieged state Capitol is that the elected officials are so unused to seeing us reporters after more than a year that some are occasionally extra chatty. The bad part is that the masks make it harder to eavesdrop on the rest of them. Much like the rest of the state — which is navigating ever-changing covid rules, such as whether vaccinated people should wear masks or how far apart schoolkids should be (3 vs. 6 feet) — the building is subject to a tangle of shifting requirements. All of us — the lawmakers, their staff, the press and the tourists — are making mistakes. (Bluth, 7/19)

Axios: Olympics Athletes Test Positive For COVID In Tokyo
Olympic Games organizers confirmed Sunday three athletes have tested positive for COVID-19 in Tokyo — five days before the event is due to begin, per Reuters. Two of the athletes, all of whom were listed as "non-Japanese," were staying in the Olympic Village, AP notes. The other was outside the village. (Sukin and Falconer, 7/18)

The Wall Street Journal: Days Before The Olympics, More Athletes Test Positive For Covid-19
The long-feared possibility that the Covid-19 pandemic could disrupt the Tokyo Olympics is rapidly emerging as a reality, as Games organizers scramble to deal with a rising load of athletes and officials who are testing positive upon arrival in Japan. The stream of positive cases is quickly demonstrating how difficult it will be to stage one of the world’s largest events during a global pandemic. Tens of thousands of participants from more than 200 countries are entering a country where the vaccination rate of the local population remains low and the more-contagious Delta variant is spreading. (Bachman, Gale and Radnofsky, 7/18)

The Washington Post: Coco Gauff Withdraws From Tokyo Olympics After Testing Positive For Covid
Rising star Coco Gauff announced Sunday afternoon she won’t be able to compete at the Tokyo Olympics after testing positive for the coronavirus. Gauff, 17, was to compete in singles and doubles at her first Olympics. She disclosed her positive test via Twitter, writing: “I am so disappointed to share the news that I have tested positive for covid and won’t be able to play in the Olympic Games in Tokyo. It has always been a dream of mine to represent the USA at the Olympics, and I hope there will be many more chances for me to make this come true in the future.” (Clarke, 7/18)

AP: Zero Risk? Virus Cases Test Olympic Organizers' Assurances
Two South African soccer players became the first athletes inside the Olympic Village to test positive for COVID-19, and other cases connected to the Tokyo Games were also confirmed Sunday, highlighting the herculean task organizers face to keep the virus contained while the world’s biggest sports event plays out. The positive tests came as some of the 11,000 athletes and thousands more team officials expected from across the globe began arriving, having traveled through a pandemic to get to Tokyo. (Wade, Kageyama and Imray, 7/18)

The Wall Street Journal: The Flight Risk In Tokyo Olympics’ Covid Protocols: Getting To Japan
Tokyo Olympics organizers laid out extensive coronavirus-mitigation protocols for national delegations heading for the Games that open Thursday [July 23], including rigorous testing and barring spectators in most Olympic venues. One element over which organizers have virtually no control, however, is turning out to be one of the most problematic: commercial flights. Positive cases among passengers already are forcing changes to protocols to accommodate the possibility that the journey to Tokyo alone could threaten some athletes’ participation in the Games. (Bachman and Hernandez, 7/17)

Reuters: England's 'Freedom Day' Marred By Soaring Cases And Isolation Chaos
Prime Minister Boris Johnson's 'freedom day' ending over a year of COVID-19 lockdown restrictions in England was marred on Monday by surging infections, warnings of supermarket shortages and his own forced self-isolation. Johnson's bet that he can get one of Europe's largest economies firing again because so many people are now vaccinated marks a new chapter in the global response to the coronavirus. (James, 7/19)

Axios: British Health Minister Tests Positive For COVID-19 
The health minister for the United Kingdom tweeted on Saturday that he tested positive for COVID-19 following two doses of the vaccine against the virus. Sajid Javid, who has been in his role for three weeks, has publicly backed Prime Minister Boris Johnson's plan to fully reopen England's economy and lift mask requirements and social distancing rules starting Monday. (Sukin, 7/17)

In other global coronavirus news —

Bloomberg: Europe Gets Tough On Vaccinations As Threats Replace Incentives
In Athens, a Covid-19 vaccine will help get you into a bar. In Prague, it might win you an iPhone. But in some places, you’ll need it to keep your job. As governments across Europe push to get everyday life back to normal, the carrot-and-stick approach to inoculations is shifting more to the latter. In France, President Emmanuel Macron pledged a “summer of mobilizing for vaccinations,” with compulsory shots for health-care workers. Italy, Greece and the U.K. are going down the same road, moving toward making vaccinations a requirement for some. (Kresge and Nikas, 7/17)

Bloomberg: Canada Passes U.S. In Full Covid-19 Vaccinations Amid Gradual Border Reopening
Canada has fully vaccinated 48.8% of its population against Covid-19, overtaking the U.S. rate for the first time after a delayed start caused by procurement troubles and distribution bottlenecks. In the U.S, where vaccinations are plateauing in some regions, 48.5% of the population is fully inoculated. Of those old enough to get the vaccine in Canada, 55% have now received two doses, according to calculations by CTV News based on provincial and federal government data. Health authorities have approved the Pfizer Inc. shot for children 12 years and older. (Hagan, 7/18)

Axios: Burkina Faso, Djibouti, Ethiopia Set To Receive U.S.-Donated COVID-19 Vaccines 
Burkina Faso, Djibouti and Ethiopia are set to receive around 1 million doses of Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine in the coming days as part of the United States' global donation of roughly 80 million vaccines, the Gavi vaccine alliance said on Friday. 49 African countries in total will have access to approximately 25 million doses donated by the U.S., which should help the African Union achieve its goal of vaccinating at least 60% of the African population. (7/16)

AP: Most Of S Korean Warship's Crew Have Coronavirus
The number of infected sailors on a South Korean destroyer on an anti-piracy mission off East Africa has soared to 247, the largest cluster for the country’s military during the coronavirus pandemic. The Defense Ministry said Monday two military aircraft have been sent to bring back all 301 sailors aboard the destroyer Munmu the Great. Authorities suspect the outbreak may have started when the destroyer docked in the region to load goods in late June. None of the crew has been vaccinated against the coronavirus. (7/19)

Axios: Mykonos Temporarily Bans Music To Stall Spread Of COVID 
The Greek government issued special measures for the island of Mykonos in response to the latest coronavirus outbreak, including a 24-hour "[p]rohibition of music," Deputy Minister of Civil Protection and Crisis Management Nikos Hardalia announced Saturday. The music ban will kick off at 6 p.m. local time Saturday. A traffic ban will also go into effect between 1 a.m. and 6 a.m. on Sunday, "with the exception of work reasons and serious health reasons," per a release from the country's general secretariat for civil protection. (Sukin, 7/17)

BBC News: 'Havana Syndrome'-Like Mystery Illness Affects Vienna US Diplomats
The US government is investigating a series of health incidents in the Austrian capital Vienna involving its diplomats and other administration staff. More than 20 officials have reported symptoms similar to Havana Syndrome - a mystery brain illness - since President Joe Biden took office in January. (7/18)

The New Yorker: Vienna Is The New Havana Syndrome Hot Spot
Since Joe Biden took office, about two dozen U.S. intelligence officers, diplomats, and other government officials in Vienna have reported experiencing mysterious afflictions similar to the Havana Syndrome. U.S. officials say the number of possible new cases in the Austrian capital—long a nexus of U.S. and Russian espionage—is now greater than the number reported by officials in any city except for Havana itself, where the first cases were reported. (Entous, 7/16)

In news about global health industry shortages —

Noticias Telemundo: Catastrophic Medical Supply Shortages In Mexico 
Child cancer patients and HIV-positive Mexicans have increasingly had to put life-saving treatments on hold as public hospitals run out of the medications they need. Activists say around 1,600 children with cancer have died from the lack of oncological meds. (Franco, 7/17)

The Guardian: Migration And Covid Deaths Depriving Poorest Nations Of Health Workers
In richer countries, the share of foreign-trained or foreign-born doctors and nurses has been rising for two decades. But the pandemic’s double blows of death and migration are leaving behind knowledge gaps in already fragile health systems, where poor pay and conditions are driving staff to leave, say advocates and health workers. Global health specialists are launching initiatives to protect medical staff, and incentivise them not to be enticed abroad. (Broom, Owings and Badr, 7/19)

The New York Times: Covid Vaccine Booster Shots Are Coming. Are They Needed? 
The drugmaker Pfizer recently announced that vaccinated people are likely to need a booster shot to be effectively protected against new variants of Covid-19 and that the company would apply for Food and Drug Administration emergency use authorization for the shot. Top government health officials immediately and emphatically announced that the booster isn’t needed right now — and held firm to that position even after Pfizer’s top scientist made his case and shared preliminary data with them last week. (Elisabeth Rosenthal, 7/18)

Stat: Vaxxed Or Axed: Health Care Must Mandate Vaccination For Workers 
Masks are off. Theaters and indoor dining are back. Life seems to be returning to normal. And yet the highly transmissible and maybe more deadly Delta variant is spreading quickly, accounting for half of new Covid-19 cases in the U.S. and causing surges in nearly half of all states. New studies demonstrate the effectiveness of vaccines against this new variant’s immune evasiveness properties, which pose a serious threat to partially vaccinated or unvaccinated individuals. Education and factual information haven’t gotten us even halfway to a fully vaccinated population. States have tried $1 million lotteries and other incentives. Yet just 1% of the population is becoming vaccinated every week. We need to move on to something else: employer mandates. (Ezekiel J. Emanuel, Matthew Guido and Patricia Hong, 7/14)

The Hill: COVID-19 Hospitalizations And Deaths: The Unnecessary Cost Of Vaccine Hesitancy 
In the past few days, we have seen a lot of confusing messages regarding COVID-19 vaccinations: How good are the different vaccines against the variants? Do they protect against the Delta variant? Do we need booster shots? With 48.1 percent of the U.S. population fully vaccinated (56.3 percent of the eligible population) why are we seeing an increase in cases, hospitalizations and deaths? All these are important questions that need to be answered by public health in a clear way.  In late June, the U.S. had the lowest number of cases, hospitalizations and deaths as a result of COVID-19 since the early days of the pandemic. Since then, we have witnessed an increase in all three metrics. Cases have increased over 100 percent, hospitalizations and deaths about 20 percent. (Dr. Carlos Del Rio, 7/14)

CNN: War Over Misinformation Heats Up As Covid Case Counts Rise
As the coronavirus mounts a fresh US assault, it is again tearing at the nation's political divides in a way that multiplies its own impact and makes clear in a supposed summer of freedom that the battle against the virus is far from over. President Joe Biden is locked in a showdown with Facebook over vaccine misinformation. His predecessor, Donald Trump, is now weighing in, linking his Big Lie over election fraud to Biden's management of the Covid-19 crisis in a way that could brew even more of the vaccine hesitancy that is causing thousands of Americans to become infected. (Stephen Collinson, 7/19)

The Washington Post: The U.S. Is Backsliding On Covid-19. Republicans Seem To Have Decided That’s Acceptable
n the last two weeks of June, the United States averaged between 11,250 and 13,500 new coronavirus cases per day — the lowest numbers since the virus began spreading widely across the country in early 2020. As of Saturday, it was 31,464 cases per day. With multiple vaccines widely available, this rise was entirely preventable. The backsliding is due in part to Republican politicians and right-wing commentators who have spread misinformation about the virus, as well as colleagues too scared to confront them. Asked on CNN’s “State of the Union” whether “Republicans need to stop questioning the vaccine and start pushing it instead,” Ohio Sen. Rob Portman ducked. “The vaccines are a miracle,” he replied, before crediting former president Donald Trump for their development. (James Downie, 7/18)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Good On The UC System And City Of San Francisco. The U.S. Needs Even More Vaccine Requirements
The situation is nowhere near as dire as when hospitals were overrun and 3,100 Americans a day died in January, but so much for that short-lived sense the U.S. had turned a corner on COVID-19. Los Angeles County just required residents to resume wearing masks indoors. Chicago is restarting a travel order requiring unvaccinated travelers from Missouri and Arkansas to either quarantine for 10 days or show a negative coronavirus test. And in Tennessee, the most disturbing developments across the entire nation last week were the firing of a top state health official lobbying for greater teenage vaccinations, and even more unbelievable, reports that the state’s Department of Health would halt all adolescent vaccine outreach — for all diseases, not just COVID-19 — amid ramped-up Republican state lawmaker pressure. (7/18)

CNN: What Anti-Vaxxers Sound Like To Me 
In October last year, I prepared my two-year-old son's lunch and dropped him off at our neighborhood pre-school. As a working mother, I was forced to decide between sending him to school, where he could socialize and learn, or keeping him at home while working a full-time job as a professor at a large public university. Backed into a corner, I chose to accept the risks of Covid-19, which were considered relatively low for young children. I reviewed the school's safety protocols and consulted with my son's pediatrician and neurologist, since he has epilepsy. On that particular afternoon, I was preparing to deliver a presentation via Zoom when his school called. My son was vomiting. (Tina Sacks, 7/17)

The Boston Globe: After COVID-19, Beacon Hill Should Tighten State’s Vaccine Laws 
It was déjà vu all over again at a tense hearing on childhood vaccines held last week by the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Public Health. The committee is considering a bill that would eliminate the section of the state’s compulsory vaccination law for school children that allows parents to cite “religious” reasons to opt out of otherwise required shots for their kids. Just like a couple of years ago, when the legislation was last filed without success, this week’s virtual hearing drew hundreds of parents and lawyers who testified against the measure for hours. (7/19)

The Atlantic: Influencers With Tourette’s Find A Niche On TikTok 
Cooney has Tourette’s syndrome, which causes tics, twitches, and—in some people—a symptom called coprolalia, which the Tourette Association of America characterizes as “the involuntary outburst of obscene words or socially inappropriate and derogatory remarks.” Living with the disorder is tiring, because of both the tics themselves and the effort of trying to repress them. Coprolalia adds to the burden. Cooney, a 42-year-old who runs a window-cleaning business on the British island of Guernsey, tells me that he recently approached a woman on a mobility scooter and shouted in her face that she was lazy. Soon after that, when he saw nuns in the grocery store where his wife works, he shouted “Nuns on the run!” before observing out loud that “all priests are pedophiles.” ... On Twitter, such behavior would get Cooney canceled a dozen times a day, but on TikTok, it has made him a star. (Helen Lewis, 7/19)

The Baltimore Sun: Experimental Treatments Changed The Course Of The AIDS Epidemic; We Need The Same Approach To Mental Illness Today 
In 1988, at the height of the AIDS pandemic, playwright Larry Kramer exposed the Centers for Disease Control for slow-walking AIDS therapies. ... In 2020, Dr. Anthony Fauci, who had initially resisted Kramer, credited him with totally transforming “the relationship between activism and the scientific, regulatory and government community.” He recognized that end-users of therapies should have the authority to empower doctors and scientists, not the other way around. That thinking must now be applied to America’s mental health crisis, which has reached pandemic proportions. (Monnica Williams and Morgan Campbell, 7/19)

Scientific American: How Designer DNA Is Changing Medicine 
For as long as he could remember, Razel Colón had known pain. It ripped down his neck and back, shot through his legs and traveled on to his feet, often leaving him writhing and incapacitated. He suffered occasional attacks of “acute chest,” in which breathing suddenly becomes difficult. “It felt like an elephant was sitting on my chest, with tight, tight pain,” Colón tells me. ... Colón, from Hoboken, N.J., is just 19, but the sickle cell disease that produced these effects had been a constant, if unwelcome, companion. But he tells his story now from the perspective of one who has gone a year and a half without that pain. (Carolyn Barber, 7/17)

Los Angeles Times: Who Is Responsible For The Opioid Crisis, And Who Ultimately Pays? 
In 2013, I was researching a book about the opioid epidemic and found myself with a lawyer touring a neighborhood known as the Bottoms in the town of Lucasville in southern Ohio. The Bottoms is a neighborhood of poor people living in trailers and small, rough houses, and it is flooded every so often by the Scioto River, which runs nearby. Among the things that had mangled the lives of folks in the Bottoms was addiction to what everyone by then called “OC.” OC was an abbreviation for OxyContin, the narcotic prescription pain pill sold with what we now know was historic flagrancy by the Connecticut company Purdue Pharma, owned by the Sackler family. (Sam Quinones, 7/18)

NPR: 2020's Other Medical Crisis 
"I had no idea how many funerals I'd be going to," Dave Marlon of Las Vegas told us. "Including this weekend. "Marlon is a licensed alcohol and drug counselor and CEO of CrossRoads, an addiction treatment center in Nevada. We spoke just after U.S. government statistics released this week revealed that a record 93,000 people died of drug overdoses in 2020, what we might call the first year of the coronavirus pandemic. (Scott Simon, 7/17)

Stat: Lessons Learned — And Lost — From A Vietnam-Era Addiction Study
Opioids like heroin, morphine, OxyContin, and fentanyl occupy a spot in the public imagination as particularly dangerous and addictive substances. Amid an addiction epidemic with no end in sight, this class of drugs has been given special attention in the news, funding bills, and the 2017 President’s Commission on Combatting Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis. But does the evidence justify that view? (Lauren Aguirre, 7/19)