The Washington Post: With Fear And Fury, Thousands Across U.S. Rally For Abortion Rights
Lisa Branscomb marched on Saturday outside the Supreme Court among scores of abortion rights protesters and tried to hold back her tears. All day she heard stories of women choosing abortion and saw others holding signs proudly declaring they had, too. She had listened to the crowd chant, “My body! My choice!” (Silverman, Swenson, Asbury and Elwood, 5/14)

The Boston Globe: ‘I Cannot Contain My Rage.’ Abortion Rights Activists Rally In Boston And Across The Country
Thousands of abortion rights activists rallied and marched through the streets of downtown Boston Saturday to protest the leaked Supreme Court draft decision that would overturn the constitutional right to abortion established nearly 50 years ago in the landmark case, Roe v. Wade. The demonstrations on Boston Common and in Copley Square coincided with nationwide demonstrations supporting abortion rights, including a protest in Washington, D.C., where thousands listened to speeches at the Washington Monument and then marched to the Supreme Court. In speeches and chants of the slogan, “Bans Off Our Bodies,” demonstrators on Boston Common expressed fury over the prospect of the Supreme Court overturning Roe. (Crimaldi and Stoico, 5/14)

Columbus Dispatch: Ohio Abortion Rights Advocates Support Roe V. Wade Outside Statehouse
Organizers handed out signs reading "Bans off our bodies" and "Stand with Black women," while handmade signs in the crowd had more scathing messages, such as "If you cut off my reproductive choice, can I cut off yours?" with a hand-drawn picture of a pair of scissors, and "If I wanted the government in my uterus, I'd (expletive) a senator." "I want Mike DeWine to understand, or hopefully Nan Whaley, if she gets elected, but I want the Ohio Legislature to understand that we need access to safe abortion," said Christina Pusecker, 48, of Cedarville. "The first rally I attended was in Washington, D.C., in April 1992, when the Supreme Court was deciding the Casey case." (Hanks, 5/14)

Chicago Tribune: ‘I Hope People Get As Scared As I Am’: Thousands Gather, March In Chicago Supporting Abortion Rights 
Carly Mostar started marching for abortion rights almost 20 years ago and though she said she’ll keep showing up when needed, she finds it hard to believe that giving a woman a choice still needs to be fought for. Mostar was one of about 1,000 people representing many different communities gathered in Union Park in West Town Saturday morning under the beaming sun to support the right to choose whether or not to have an abortion. (Ahmad and Casanova, 5/14)

Kansas City Star: Hundreds Attend Abortion Rights Rally At Plaza In KC 
M’Vyonne Payne was 11 weeks pregnant when she collapsed on her bathroom floor and was rushed to a Kansas City hospital in 2018. She was bleeding internally and lost up to a liter of blood. Doctors told her she had an ectopic pregnancy, which occurs when a fertilized egg implants outside the uterus. The pregnancies are not viable and can threaten a woman’s life. Payne spoke to more than 300 people gathered Saturday at Mill Creek Park at a rally for abortion rights. “Bans Off Our Bodies” was organized by the Reale Justice Network and numerous other organizations. It was the latest protest in the Kansas City area in the weeks since Politico published a Supreme Court draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade. Rallies were held Saturday in several cities across the country. (Torres, 5/15)

Salt Lake Tribune: Abortion-Rights Rally Draws About 2,500 To Utah Capitol, Including Women Who Fought For Roe V. Wade Decades Ago
It’s been over 49 years since the U.S. Supreme Court decided Roe v. Wade, which established a constitutional right to abortion. But decades later, the women who fought for that ruling are still screaming to be heard. And they are fearful for what the recently leaked draft opinion from the Supreme Court, which showed a a majority of the court privately voted to overturn Roe, will mean for the future of women’s rights in the U.S. “I remember when the decision was made for birth control, let alone for abortion,” said Beverly Cooper, who was 26 when Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973. “And so I’ve lived in times, and I never imagined I’d be living in a time like this. Never would I have thought this would be my future.” (Miller, 5/14)

Star-Tribune: Protesters March In Support Of Abortion Rights In Wyoming
Between Veteran’s Park and the Healing Park on Conwell, a crowd filled the sidewalk. They were protesting on Saturday the recently leaked U.S. Supreme Court draft opinion, which shows that the justices seem poised to overturn Roe v. Wade this summer. Around 200 abortion rights demonstrators — children, parents, grandparents, students and friends — clutched cardboard signs and posterboards with slogans including “I marched for this 50 years ago,” “Stop the madness” and “Whose rights will be next?” As they walked, they chanted “My body, my choice.” When they arrived at Conwell Street, they chanted, “Hey hey, ho ho, the patriarchy has got to go.” (Shimizu Harris Casper, 5/15)

San Francisco Chronicle: Pro-Choice Marchers Throng S.F.’s Market Street, Demand Abortion Protections
The demonstration was the largest women’s rights-focused march in San Francisco this year, drawing an estimated 10,000 people, said Sophia Andary, co-chair and director of leadership at Women’s March San Francisco, which co-sponsored the event. Participants came from across the Bay Area and were united in their desire to shape the national conversation around reproductive health care and related issues. The right to have an abortion “shouldn’t even be any form of law in the government,” Andary told The Chronicle. “This is about women’s autonomy and (people’s) right to choose. We need people to stay engaged and march, but more importantly, we need people to go beyond that.” (Picon, 5/14)

The Hill: Oklahoma Governor Warns Tribes Not To Create Abortion Havens 
Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) on Sunday warned Native American tribes not to create abortion safe havens if Roe v. Wade is overturned and his state enacts a near-total ban on abortions. Stitt told “Fox News Sunday” there was a “possibility” tribes could establish abortion havens if his state makes most abortions illegal. “Oklahomans will not think very well of that if tribes try to set up abortion clinics,” Stitt said, warning he is monitoring the situation. (Dress, 5/15)

Politico: Oklahoma's New Abortion Law Could Be Undermined, Governor Admits 
Stitt was discussing that new law in the context of a 2020 Supreme Court ruling, McGirt v. Oklahoma, that held that crimes committed on tribal lands cannot be prosecuted by state or local law enforcement, only in tribal courts or federal courts, if a Native American is involved. A significant portion of Oklahoma is tribal land. “You know, the tribes in Oklahoma are super liberal,” he said. “They go to Washington, D.C. They talk to President [Joe] Biden at the White House; they kind of adopt those strategies. So yeah, we think that there’s a possibility that some tribes may try to set up abortion on demand. They think that you can be 1/1,000th tribal member and not have to follow the state law. And so that’s something that we’re watching.” (Cohen, 5/15)

In abortion news from California, Louisiana, Texas, and North Carolina —

AP: California Governor: $98B Surplus Backs True Pro-Life State 
California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday pledged to use the state’s record-breaking $300 billion budget, including an unprecedented nearly $100 billion surplus, to “future proof” the state from the impacts of a volatile midterm election cycle that he fears will undermine abortion access, gun safety and privacy protections across the country. The first-term governor of the nation’s most populous state — and a potential Democratic presidential candidate — used his budget presentation on Friday to prop up his progressive credentials while attacking his rivals in conservative states. (Beam and Ronayne, 5/13)

The 19th: Failed Louisiana Abortion Bill Shows Limits On How Far Anti-Abortion Groups Will Go
The failure of a Louisiana bill that would have classified abortion as a homicide exposed a limit in how far anti-abortion organizations and lawmakers are willing to go to end the practice. The legislation’s singular sponsor, Rep. Danny McCormick, removed the bill, titled the Abolition of Abortion in Louisiana Act of 2022, from consideration for a House vote after a proposed amendment would have stripped the most extreme sections of the legislation, making it more akin to a trigger ban already on the books. (Kutz, 5/13)

Dallas Morning News: Most Texans Do Not Want Supreme Court To Overturn Roe V. Wade, New Poll Shows
Most Texans don’t want the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the landmark Roe vs. Wade ruling that established abortion rights nationwide, but they do support limits, according to a Dallas Morning News-University of Texas at Tyler poll released Sunday. With a ruling now pending in a key court challenge to Roe, 53% of Texans said they oppose overturning the 1973 case that originated in Dallas County, while 46% prefer abortion policy be decided by the states. Opposition to overturning Roe increased to 53% from 50% in a February poll, while support dipped to 46% from 47% – a shift that wasn’t statistically significant. Poll director Mark Owens, a political scientist at UT-Tyler, said the leak of the Supreme Court’s draft opinion might have driven the 3% increase. (Hollers, 5/15)

The Washington Post: In N.C., A Black Senate Candidate Talks Abortion. Her Rival Doesn’t
Speaking to two dozen staunch Democrats on a day so windy some campaign signs blew away, Senate hopeful Cheri Beasley issued a warning about a leaked Supreme Court draft ruling on abortion. “No matter how you feel about the issue of abortion, the way that opinion was written, what we all know for sure is that all of our civil rights are under attack,” Beasley, a Democrat who made history as the first Black woman to be chief justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court, said at an outdoor town hall meeting at a park here Thursday. “We must all feel a sense of urgency around this election.” (Linskey, 5/15)

In polling updates —

NBC News: Support For Abortion Rights Hits New High As Midterm Outlook Is Grim For Democrats
Support for abortion rights has reached a record high, and nearly two-thirds of Americans oppose the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, according to a new national NBC News poll conducted after the leak of a draft opinion that would strike down the constitutional right to abortion. What’s more, the survey finds abortion climbing up the list of issues that Americans believe are the most important, and that Democratic interest in the upcoming midterms has increased since earlier this year. (Murray, 5/15)

New York Post: Supreme Court Leak Over Abortion Rights Didn't Sway Voters: Poll
The recent leak of a draft opinion from the Supreme Court that could scrap abortion rights has done little to influence voters’ choice of which party they want running Congress next year, according to a new NBC poll. The opinion from Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, leaked earlier this month, indicates Roe v. Wade could be overturned, dramatically changing abortion rights in the country. (Propper, 5/15)

Also —

Bloomberg: Abortion Misinformation Surges On Facebook, Twitter After Leak
Conspiracy theorists have latched on to the debate over US abortion rights on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and TikTok, leading to a spike in misinformation around what is already one of the most politically-charged topics online — and signaling the complex decision-making that lies ahead for social media companies if the procedure becomes illegal in some states. For years, social networks have been criticized for hosting user posts and advertisements that seek to confuse people about their right to access abortion or about the safety of the procedure. Since May 2, when Politico published a draft Supreme Court decision that would overturn Roe v. Wade if finalized, researchers have seen a surge in posts connecting the leak itself to already-problematic conspiratorial storylines. (Alba, 5/13)

AP: Some Catholic Abortion Foes Are Uneasy About Overturning Roe
Top leaders of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops called on the faithful to pray and fast Friday, in hopes the Supreme Court is on track to overturn the constitutional right to abortion. Yet even among Catholics who oppose abortion, there is some unease about the consequences of such a ruling. A recently leaked Supreme Court draft opinion suggests that a majority of the nine justices are poised to reverse the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision – a move that would allow individual states to outlaw abortion. (Crary, 5/13)

NPR: Turnaway Study Offers Insights On The Impact Of Losing Access To Abortion
Though it's impossible to know exactly what will happen to abortion access if Roe v. Wade is overturned, demographer Diana Greene Foster does know what happens when someone is denied an abortion. She documented it in her groundbreaking yearslong research project, The Turnaway Study and her findings provide insight into the ways getting an abortion – or being denied one – affects a person's mental health and economic wellbeing. For over 10 years, Dr. Foster and her team of researchers tracked the experiences of women who'd received abortions or who had been denied them because of clinic policies on gestational age limits. (Burbank and Kwong, 5/15)

KHN: Journalists Recap The Latest On The Supreme Court Leak, Mental Health Care, And Fentanyl Testing Strips
KHN chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner discussed the leaked Supreme Court draft opinion on abortion rights on Deep State Radio on May 5 and again on WFAE’s “Charlotte Talks with Mike Collins” on May 9. ... KHN correspondent Aneri Pattani discussed how our mental and physical health is connected on WNPR/Connecticut Public Radio’s “Where We Live” on May 6. ... KHN interim Southern bureau editor Andy Miller explored how fentanyl testing strips are gaining acceptance on WABE on May 5. (5/14)

Politico: Thomas Blasts Disclosure Of Draft Supreme Court Opinion As 'Tremendously Bad' 
Justice Clarence Thomas, the longest-serving sitting member of the Supreme Court, declared Friday that the publication of a draft majority opinion on abortion has permanently damaged trust within the nation’s highest court and is a symptom of a broader decline in America’s institutions. “I do think that what happened at the court is tremendously bad,” Thomas declared during a discussion at a conference for Black conservatives in Dallas. “I wonder how long we’re going to have these institutions at the rate we’re undermining them and then I wonder when they’re gone or destabilized what we will have as a country and I don’t think the prospects are good if we continue to lose them.” (Gerstein, 5/13)

The Hill: Pelosi: Current Supreme Court ‘Dangerous’ For Families, Freedom
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Sunday said the current Supreme Court is “dangerous” for families and freedom in the U.S., as justices appear poised to overturn the 1973 landmark decision legalizing abortion in the U.S. Pelosi, during an interview with co-anchor Dana Bash on CNN’s “State of the Union,” said if the court scales back abortion rights on the federal level, restrictions on marriage equality could be next. (Schnell, 5/15)

Vanity Fair: Mitch McConnell On Abortion: It’s The Supreme Court’s Job To Issue Rulings Americans Don’t Want 
Speaking to NPR, [Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell] claimed that the whole point of the Supreme Court is to make decisions that most of the country doesn’t agree with. “For the Supreme Court to on any issue, to reach a decision contrary to public opinion it is exactly what the Supreme Court is about,” he argued. “It’s to protect basic rights, even when majorities are in favor of something else, that happens all the time.” McConnell then chose to bizarrely point to the issue of flag burning, the prohibition of which the court ruled in 1989 was a violation of the First Amendment. “If you took public opinion polls on that issue, people would overwhelmingly support a legislative prohibition of flag burning, but the Supreme Court interpreted that as a violation of the First Amendment freedom of speech.” (Levin, 5/13)

An editorial in the Lancet warns against overturning Roe v. Wade —

Yahoo News: Leading Medical Journal Warns 'Women Will Die' If Supreme Court Overturns Roe
One of the world’s oldest and most well-known medical journals published an editorial on Thursday warning that if the U.S. Supreme Court were to confirm Justice Samuel Alito’s draft opinion to overturn Roe v. Wade, “women will die.” “The fact is that if the U.S. Supreme Court confirms its draft decision, women will die,” the Lancet said in its editorial. “The Justices who vote to strike down Roe will not succeed in ending abortion, they will only succeed in ending safe abortion. Alito and his supporters will have women's blood on their hands.” (Stableford, 5/13)

The Lancet: Why Roe V. Wade Must Be Defended 
What is so shocking, inhuman, and irrational about this draft opinion is that the Court is basing its decision on an 18th century document ignorant of 21st century realities for women. History and tradition can be respected, but they must only be partial guides. The law should be able to adapt to new and previously unanticipated challenges and predicaments. Although Alito gives an exhaustive legal history of abortion, he utterly fails to consider the health of women today who seek abortion. (5/14)

In related news —

NBC News: Trump Isn't Talking About Delivering On A Major Abortion Campaign Promise
When Donald Trump ran for president in 2016, he promised to appoint Supreme Court justices who were certain to overturn Roe v. Wade. And he did just that. More than anyone in Republican politics, Trump reshaped the court so that the landmark abortion rights ruling was bound to fall. Yet the former president, always eager to tout his every accomplishment, has been uncharacteristically quiet about his own decisive role. (Nicholas, 5/14)

The Washington Post: For Decades, Patty Murray Has Blocked GOP Attempts To Limit Abortion 
Moments before the Senate took a doomed vote on abortion rights Wednesday, it fell to Sen. Patty Murray — the highest-ranking Democratic woman and the party’s preeminent leader on health care — to sound a rallying cry against those seeking to reverse Roe v. Wade.“ To everyone who is scared, everyone who is furious, know this: They have some big roadblocks in their way — me, Senate Democrats, House Democrats, and millions of patients across this country who are going to stand up and speak out,” she said. (DeBonis, 5/15)

AP: Buffalo Shooter's Prior Threat, Hospital Stay Face Scrutiny 
The white gunman accused of committing a racist massacre at a Buffalo supermarket made threating comments that brought police to his high school last spring, but he was never charged with a crime and had no further contact with law enforcement after his release from a hospital, officials said. The revelation raised questions about whether his encounter with police and the mental health system was yet another missed opportunity to put a potential mass shooter under closer law enforcement scrutiny, get him help, or make sure he didn’t have access to deadly firearms. (Thompson and Balsamo, 5/16)

The New York Times: Buffalo Shooting: Suspect Was Held For Mental Health Evaluation Last Year 
Last spring, as the end of the academic year approached at Susquehanna Valley High School outside Binghamton, N.Y., students were asked for a school project about their plans after graduation. Payton Gendron, a senior, said he wanted to commit a murder-suicide, according to a law enforcement official briefed on the matter. He claimed to be joking, the official said. But the state police were summoned to investigate and took Mr. Gendron, then 17, into custody on June 8 under a state mental health law, police officials said Sunday. (Southall, Marcius and Newman, 5/15)

The attack is being investigated as a racially motivated hate crime —

Buffalo News: Racist Manifesto Details Hateful Views, Methodical Planning Of Accused Gunman 
Law enforcement officials who investigate mass shootings sometimes struggle to to find out what led the assailant to commit such heinous crimes. In the case of the man who they say perpetrated Saturday's assault that took the lives of 10 people and wounded three more, they did not have to look far. In chilling detail, the accused shooter laid out in a 180-page manifesto why he wanted to kill, how he came to believe a racist conspiracy theory and then recorded himself driving to a supermarket on Jefferson Avenue and carrying out the attack. (Watson and Michel, 5/15)

The Hill: Biden Calls Hate ‘Stain On The Soul Of America’ In Aftermath Of Buffalo Shooting
President Biden on Sunday called on Americans to root out hatred after a gunman shot and killed 10 people in Buffalo, N.Y., in what police have deemed a racially motivated mass shooting.  “We must all work together to address the hate that remains a stain on the soul of America,” Biden said during an address at the National Peace Officers’ Memorial Service outside the U.S. Capitol. (Chalfant, 5/15)

Politico: 'Lord, Forgive The Anger In My Heart': Hochul Vows To Battle Hate, Gun Violence After Buffalo Massacre 
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul pledged to crack down on gun violence and the proliferation of online racism after a white man wearing military gear opened fire at a Buffalo supermarket, killing 10 people and wounding three others in an act being investigated as a hate crime. Hochul, speaking at True Bethel Baptist Church in her hometown of Buffalo on Sunday morning, told the congregation “this is personal to the Hochul family." "Lord, forgive the anger in my heart but channel that into my passion to continue to fight to protect people, get the guns off the streets and silence the voices of hatred and racism and white supremacy all over the internet,” she said. (Gronewold, 5/15)

The Hill: Democrats Call For Action After Buffalo, Milwaukee Shootings: ‘It Doesn’t Have To Be This Way’
A number of lawmakers condemned what authorities said were racist motivations behind the Buffalo shooting and called for Congress to take action to try to reduce further gun violence. “My heart goes out to the victims’ loved ones, our emergency personnel and the entire Buffalo community. Racism, prejudice and hatred have no place in our state or our country,” Sen. Kristen Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) tweeted. “I pledge to the people of New York that I will continue to fight my hardest to pass commonsense gun safety measures and to confront and defeat the scourge of white supremacy.” (Lonas, 5/14)

KHN: No Prison Time For Tennessee Nurse Convicted Of Fatal Drug Error 
RaDonda Vaught, a former Tennessee nurse convicted of two felonies for a fatal drug error, whose trial became a rallying cry for nurses fearful of the criminalization of medical mistakes, will not be required to spend any time in prison. Davidson County criminal court Judge Jennifer Smith on Friday granted Vaught a judicial diversion, which means her conviction will be expunged if she completes a three-year probation. (Kelman, 5/13)

Modern Healthcare: RaDonda Vaught Sentencing Raises Alarms In Medical Community
The fear of prison time may the latest thing making healthcare workers wonder if they're better off in another line of work. Former Vanderbilt University Medical Center nurse RaDonda Vaught was sentenced to three years in prison but granted probation Friday for committing a medication error that killed a patient. In March, a jury convicted Vaught of negligent homicide and abusing an impaired adult when she accidentally administered the wrong drug to 75-year-old Charlene Murphey in 2017. On Friday, a judge in Nashville, Tennessee, handed down the sentence for those felonies. (Christ and Kacik, 5/13)

The New York Times: Ex-Nurse Convicted In Fatal Medication Error Gets Probation 
The nurse, RaDonda Vaught, apologized to the relatives of the 75-year-old victim, Charlene Murphey, who was injected with a fatal dose of vecuronium, a paralyzing drug, instead of Versed, a sedative, while at Vanderbilt University Medical Center for a brain injury on Dec. 26, 2017, according to court papers. ... “Saying ‘I’m sorry’ doesn’t seem like enough,” Ms. Vaught, 38, who broke down in tears, told Ms. Murphey’s family at the sentencing. “But you deserve to hear that. You deserve to know that I am very sorry for what happened.” (Medina, 5/15)

ABC News: Without COVID-19 Vaccines, Death Toll Would Be Much Higher: Pfizer Analysis 
In the wake of the tragic milestone of 1 million official COVID-19 deaths in the United States, a new analysis found that without vaccines, the virus would have likely claimed more than 100,000 additional lives in 2021. The analysis, sponsored by Pfizer, estimated that the Pfizer vaccine alone likely saved more than 110,000 lives in 2021, the first year of the vaccination campaign. (Fujimora, 5/16)

More on the death toll —

Bangor Daily News: Vaccines Could Have Prevented An Estimated 1,100 COVID-19 Deaths In Maine
More than half of Maine’s COVID-19 deaths since the start of 2021 could have been prevented by broader uptake of vaccines and boosters, a new study found. Maine still saw fewer “preventable” COVID-19 deaths than most states, according to researchers from Brown, Harvard and Microsoft AI for Health. Nationwide, they estimated there were roughly 318,000 vaccine-preventable deaths through the end of last month. The estimates show how Maine’s high vaccination rate has substantially reduced virus deaths here, but they also suggest that greater uptake of both the original vaccine and boosters could have saved more lives. It comes at a time when Maine is seeing another resurgence of the virus, with hospitalizations as of Friday more than double the total from a month ago. (Piper, 5/14)

Bay Area News Group: How The Bay Area Kept Its COVID-19 Death Rate Low
Six-hundred-fifty-thousand Americans would still be alive. If the United States had the Bay Area’s death rate from COVID-19, 350,000 people would have died so far — not 1 million, the astounding number of deaths the country will reach this month, about as many as the entire population of San Jose. How did the Bay Area avoid the worst of the virus’s wrath? While good fortune and good health played a role, new analysis makes clearer than ever the advantage bestowed by the region’s whole-hearted embrace of public health restrictions and vaccines. (Blair Rowan and Woolfolk, 5/15)

San Francisco Chronicle: Why Is The SF COVID Case Rate So Much Higher Than The US Right Now?
For almost the entire pandemic, San Francisco’s COVID-19 case rates have been lower than the nation’s as a whole. But not anymore. Earlier this spring, the city’s confirmed new case rates climbed above those of the U.S. Then, on May 3, San Francisco’s case rate doubled that of the U.S. As of May 10, the national daily case rate was at about 23 new cases per 100,000 people, whereas in S.F. the rate was at 42 per 100,000, according to data from the New York Times analyzed by The Chronicle. (Neilson, 5/14)

The New York Times: How America Reached One Million Covid Deaths 
The magnitude of the country’s loss is nearly impossible to grasp. More Americans have died of Covid-19 than in two decades of car crashes or on battlefields in all of the country’s wars combined. Experts say deaths were all but inevitable from a new virus of such severity and transmissibility. Yet, one million dead is a stunning toll, even for a country the size of the United States, and the true number is almost certainly higher because of undercounting. (5/15)

In other news about the spread of covid —

The Hill: Pelosi Calls Title 42 Hold-Up In COVID-19 Bill ‘Blackmail’ 
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Sunday said holding up a COVID-19 relief bill as a way to demand a vote on Title 42, a Trump-era pandemic public health policy that allows for the rapid expulsion of migrants at the border and prevents them from seeking asylum, is “blackmail,” but she appeared open to the notion of Congress holding a vote on the controversial measure. (Schnell, 5/15)

CIDRAP: Omicron COVID-19 Variant Tied To Croup In Children
Boston Children's researchers have found evidence that the COVID-19 Omicron variant is more likely to cause croup in children that previous SARS-CoV-2 iterations, according to a study today in Pediatrics. The investigators noted that, from Mar 1, 2020, to Jan 15, 2022, 75 children were diagnosed as having COVID-19–associated croup at Boston Children's Hospital. Of those, 61 (81%) were diagnosed during the Omicron period. One child tested positive for rhinovirus in addition to SARS-CoV-2. (5/13)

Also —

The Hill: Fauci Says He Would Not Serve Under Trump Again
White House chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci on Sunday said if former President Trump wins the presidency again in 2024, Fauci will not return to serve Trump in the White House. Fauci, the chief medical adviser to President Biden, gave CNN’s Jim Acosta a plain “no” when asked if he would work with the 45th president again. (Dress, 5/15)

The CT Mirror: As COVID Hangs On, The 'New Normal' Is Leaving Many Behind
In early May, a day after the legislative session ended, Gov. Ned Lamont reflected on the recent passage of what he called the state’s “first post-pandemic budget.” “I know we’re still at a 10% infection rate,” he quickly added, “but as we move on to our new normal, this was important.” Lamont also acknowledged a package of recently adopted bills aimed at expanding children’s mental health services. “Coming out of COVID,” he said, “I think we’ve seen in no uncertain terms the stress that was on mental health.” But is Connecticut and the rest of the world “coming out” of COVID? Is this a “post-pandemic” era? (Carlesso and Golvala, 5/15)

KHN: States Have Yet To Spend Hundreds Of Millions Of Federal Dollars To Tackle Covid Health Disparities
The Biden administration in March 2021 announced it was investing $2.25 billion to address covid health disparities, the largest federal funding initiative designed specifically to help underserved communities hardest hit by the virus. Two months later, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention awarded grants to every state health department and 58 large city and county health agencies. The money is intended to help limit the spread of covid-19 among those most at risk in rural areas and within racial and ethnic minority groups, as well as improve their health. The CDC initially said the grant had to be spent by May 2023 but earlier this year told states they could apply to extend that time. (Galewitz, Weber and Whitehead, 5/16)

KHN: After The Pandemic Hit Nursing Homes Hard, California Lawmakers Push To Tighten Licensing Rules 
When Johanna Trenerry found a nursing home for her husband after his stroke, she expected his stay would be temporary. He never came home. Arthur Trenerry died at Windsor Redding Care Center in Northern California in October 2020. The 82-year-old great-grandfather is among more than 9,900 California nursing home residents who have died of covid-19. (Young, 5/16)

AP: Kansas Governor Vetoes Republican Plan To Ban Mask Mandates 
Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly on Friday vetoed a bill that would prohibit government mask mandates in Kansas and curb the power of state and local health officials during outbreaks of infectious diseases. The measure was the Republican-controlled Legislature’s response to mask mandates and other restrictions that outraged many conservative constituents during the coronavirus pandemic. But the measure split GOP lawmakers enough when it passed last month that supporters were far short of the two-thirds majorities in both chambers needed to override a veto. (5/13)

AP: 4 Air Force Cadets May Not Graduate Due To Vaccine Refusal 
Four cadets at the Air Force Academy may not graduate or be commissioned as military officers this month because they have refused the COVID-19 vaccine, and they may be required to pay back thousands of dollars in tuition costs, according to Air Force officials. It’s the only military academy, so far, where cadets may face such penalties. The Army and Navy said that as of now, not one of their seniors is being prevented from graduating at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, or the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, due to vaccine refusals. The graduations are in about two weeks. (Baldor, 5/14)

AP: Judge Tosses COVID-19 Vaccine Objections Of Hanford Workers
A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit brought by several hundred Hanford nuclear reservation and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory workers in Richland, Washington, over COVID-19 vaccine requirements. The lawsuit was filed in November to halt enforcement of President Joe Biden’s executive orders requiring COVID-19 vaccinations for Department of Energy employees and the employees of contractors and subcontractors on federal projects, The Tri-City Herald reported. (5/13)

But covid mandates strike out in Louisiana and California —

AP: Louisiana Justices Toss COVID-Related Charges Against Pastor 
The Louisiana Supreme Court threw out charges Friday against a pastor who flouted restrictions on gatherings early in the coronavirus pandemic, ruling 5-2 that the governor’s executive orders violated freedom of religion. “This is a tremendous win for religious civil liberties and it has vindicated us in our ... battle with the governor trying to close the churches down,” said the Rev. Tony Spell, who drew national attention when his congregation continued to meet in the spring of 2020, while much of the nation was in lockdown. (McConnaughey, 5/13)

San Francisco Chronicle: Major Vaccine Bills Are Dying In The California Legislature. Here’s Why
When it comes to passing legislation to mandate or urge more people to get COVID-19 vaccines, there seems to be a common refrain at the California Capitol: Maybe next year. Lawmakers still have months left in their 2021 session, but an ambitious slate of vaccine bills proposed by Democrats is on life support. Its two cornerstone bills — one to require employers to vaccinate their workers and another to require the shot for school children regardless of whether their parents object — have been dropped. (Gardiner, 5/13)

Fox News: SIDS Breakthrough? Possible Sudden Infant Death Syndrome Biomarker Identified
Babies at risk for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) could be identified through a biochemical marker, a new study published in The Lancet’s eBioMedicine finds. SIDS is the unexplained death of a seemingly healthy baby less than a year old, typically during sleep, according to the Mayo Clinic. The CDC reports SIDS accounted for 37% of infant deaths in the United States in 2019. Researchers investigating the cause of SIDS at the Children’s Hospital at Westmead (CHW) in Australia said they identified the first biochemical marker that could help detect babies more at risk of sudden infant death syndrome while they are still alive. (McGorry, 5/13)

On the hepatitis outbreak —

Stat: Puzzling Pediatric Hepatitis Cases Echo An Earlier Mysterious Illness 
In early April, when word began to circulate that hospitals in the United Kingdom were seeing unexplained hepatitis cases in very young children, some physicians and researchers on this side of the Atlantic experienced a moment of déjà vu. Kevin Messacar and colleagues at Children’s Hospital Colorado found themselves remarking on how reminiscent the unfolding investigation was of a medical mystery they’ve been enmeshed in for the past eight years — acute flaccid myelitis, or AFM, a polio-like condition in children. (Branswell, 5/16)

On the baby formula shortage —

Politico: Infant Formula Shortage 'Is Very Personal For Us,' Buttigieg Says
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Sunday his own family has felt the impact of a national shortage of infant formula. In an interview on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” Buttigieg defended the Biden administration’s steps to address the formula shortage as parents struggle to locate formula across the country and the supply crunch increasingly consumes the attention of the White House and Congress. (O'Brien, 5/15)

The Texas Tribune: Baby Formula Shortage Hits Texas’ Poorest Mothers 
Each day, Ashley Beattie and her fiancé spend hours driving around Bell County looking for baby formula to feed her eight-month-old son. First H-E-B, then Walmart, then Target. She searches until she can find something. On Tuesday, a friend alerted her that there were eight cans of Enfamil Gentlease at a nearby Sam’s Club. The brand meant Beattie, one of nearly 200,000 Texas moms whose lower income qualifies her to have her formula purchases paid for through the Texas Women, Infant and Children, or WIC, program, had to quickly calculate how much that would put her budget behind yet again. “I feel stressed,” Beattie said. “It's hard, it's a lot of money being taken out of pocket.” (Beeferman, 5/13)

And a candy recall —

CBS News: Skittles, Starburst And Life Savers Gummies Recalled Over Possible Metal Strips
Certain varieties of Skittles, Starburst and Life Savers gummies have been voluntarily recalled over the possibility of "a very thin metal strand embedded in the gummies or loose in the bag," Mars Wrigley announced Friday. The company said it hasn't received any reports of anyone falling ill from the products, which were made a third party and distributed in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. (Tursi, 5/16)

Stat: FDA Approves Lilly Diabetes Drug That Analysts Expect To Be A Big Seller
The Food and Drug Administration said Friday it had approved Mounjaro, a new injection for type 2 diabetes made by Eli Lilly that lowers blood sugar and can help patients lose weight. The agency emphasized in a press release that in clinical trials Mounjaro was more effective than other treatments that were studied. “Given the challenges many patients experience in achieving their target blood sugar goals, today’s approval of Mounjaro is an important advance in the treatment of type 2 diabetes,” Patrick Archdeacon, associate director of the Division of Diabetes, Lipid Disorders, and Obesity in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said in a statement. (Herper, 5/13)

In other pharmaceutical news —

Stat: Senate FDA Legislation Will Include Dietary Supplement, Cosmetic Reforms
Senate lawmakers are set to unveil draft legislation as soon as Monday that will reform the FDA’s regulation of dietary supplements, cosmetic products, and certain lab-based tests, three lobbyists and a senior aide on the Senate health committee confirmed to STAT. The policies will be included in the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee’s version of the legislation that sets out the fees industry pays to have the Food and Drug Administration regulate their products, known as user fee reauthorization legislation. The current funding agreement expires at the end of September. (Florko, 5/13)

CIDRAP: Antibiotics Linked To Inflammatory Bowel Disease In Older Adults
A new study suggests antibiotic use in people over 60 may be linked to an increased risk of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The study, which will be presented at the upcoming Digestive Disease Week conference, to be held May 21 through 24, found that, in a cohort of more than 2.3 million adults ages 60 to 90, any antibiotic use was associated with a 64% increase in developing ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease—the primary components of IBD. The risk rose with each additional dose of antibiotics. (Dall, 5/13)

In research news —

The Boston Globe: MIT, Harvard Scientists Find AI Can Recognize Race From X-Rays — And Nobody Knows How
A doctor can’t tell if somebody is Black, Asian, or white, just by looking at their X-rays. But a computer can, according to a surprising new paper by an international team of scientists, including researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard Medical School. The study found that an artificial intelligence program trained to read X-rays and CT scans could predict a person’s race with 90 percent accuracy. But the scientists who conducted the study say they have no idea how the computer figures it out. “When my graduate students showed me some of the results that were in this paper, I actually thought it must be a mistake,” said Marzyeh Ghassemi, an MIT assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science, and coauthor of the paper, which was published Wednesday in the medical journal The Lancet Digital Health. “I honestly thought my students were crazy when they told me.” (Bray, 5/15)

The Boston Globe: Peter Nicholas, Cofounder Of Boston Scientific, Dies At 80
Boston Scientific Corp., the company Peter M. Nicholas cofounded in 1979 with John E. Abele, vaulted the partners into the ranks of the most recognizable entrepreneurs in the medical device field — but fame wasn’t one of their goals. “We’ve never issued a press release,” Mr. Nicholas said in 1992, when the company he proudly called “a stealth business” went public. “If we’d had our druthers,” he added, “we’d have stayed private.” Mr. Nicholas, who had been president and chief executive of the global company whose success allowed him to become a generous philanthropist, died of cancer Saturday in his Boca Grande, Fla., home. He was 80 and had formerly lived for many years in Concord. (5/15)

Colorado News Collaborative: Mental Health Workers Say They Falsified Patient Records
A troubled Western Slope mental health care center falsified assessments of its patients’ conditions for at least nine years in an effort to make its treatment programs seem more effective and secure funding from the state, whistleblowers say. The state overlooked what former workers describe as a long practice by the Grand Junction-based Mind Springs Health of intentionally writing bogus patient evaluations. The three departments tasked with regulating Colorado’s mental health safety net system did not include the allegedly falsified reports in a multi-agency audit of the center released Thursday. (Greene, 5/15)

In corporate news —

Modern Healthcare: Oscar Health Hit With Shareholder Proposed Class-Action
Oscar Health was hit with a proposed class-action from stockholders alleging the insurtech concealed the negative impact the COVID-19 pandemic was having on its business ahead of its $7 billion initial public offering. Shareholder Lorin Carpenter sued the company in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District Court of New York on Thursday, alleging the startup, its executives and the investment banks that underwrote its IPO violated the federal Securities Act. The proposed class could include the thousands of shareholders who bought stock during the company's public debut, the complaint said. Oscar Health did not respond to an interview request. (Tepper, 5/13)

Stat: Real Estate Firms Own Nearly 1 In 10 Health Care Properties
Not all hospitals and nursing homes own the property they sit on, and new research attempts to quantify just how many health care providers are tenants in their own buildings. Real estate investment trusts, or REITs, own 8% of all health care properties, according to estimates published in JAMA Health Forum. This new data provide a fresh look into the world of REITs — which essentially act as landlords to hospitals, nursing homes, and other providers — and underscores how they operate a highly lucrative business that is out of the view of patients but is an inextricable and growing part of the country’s $4.3 trillion health care system. (Herman, 5/13)

Crain's New York Business: Rensselaer, Mount Sinai Partner On Center To Tackle Uncured Diseases
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai on Thursday announced the creation of the Center for Engineering and Precision Medicine. The schools said the lab will combine engineering, science and medicine with the goal of tackling uncured diseases. The institute is leasing 23,000 square feet in the Hudson Research Center in Midtown from Taconic Partners and Silverstein Properties, the developers said. Rensselaer, which is funding the project, declined to share the amount it is paying for the space. (Treffeisen, 5/13)

Valley News: AG Objects To Dartmouth, GraniteOne Health Hospital Merger 
Dartmouth Health and GraniteOne Health, which includes Manchester’s Catholic Medical Center, are abandoning plans to combine forces after the state Attorney General’s Office said the collaboration as proposed would violate the New Hampshire constitution. The New Hampshire Attorney General’s office released a report Friday objecting to the proposed combination. In a statement, Attorney General John Formella said the combination would have violated a clause in the state constitution that requires “free and fair competition in the trades and industries.” (Doyle-Burr, 5/13)

AP: Transgender Medication Law In Alabama Blocked By Judge
A federal judge on Friday blocked part of an Alabama law that made it a felony to prescribe gender-affirming puberty blockers and hormones to transgender minors. U.S. District Judge Liles Burke issued a preliminary injunction to stop the state from enforcing the medication ban, which took effect May 8, while a lawsuit goes forward. The ruling was a victory for families and advocacy groups who challenged the first-of-its-kind law as an illegal intrusion into family and medical decisions. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey referred to the ruling as a “temporary legal roadblock.” Alabama’s state attorney general indicated he will appeal. (Chandler, 5/14)

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

AP: Missouri House OKs Hospital Visitors On Final Day
Missouri’s GOP-led House spent its last day of the session Friday passing language protecting patient visitor access at hospitals after senators hindered work by leaving a day early. House lawmakers had little left available to do after the Republican-led Senate on Thursday approved new congressional districts then adjourned for the session, cutting off work on all other bills. (Ballentine, 5/13)

The Washington Post: Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. And Democratic Senate Candidate John Fetterman Suffers Stroke 
Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, a leading Democratic candidate vying for the state’s open U.S. Senate seat, says he suffered a stroke on Friday but is on his way to a full recovery. In a statement Sunday, Fetterman, 52, said he wasn’t feeling well Friday and went to the hospital to get checked out at the insistence of his wife, Gisele. (Wang, 5/15)

AP: Delaware's Public Health Director To Step Down In June 
Delaware’s top public health official, who has led the state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, has announced that she will leave her job next month. The News Journal reports that Dr. Karyl Rattay, the country’s longest-serving public health director, will be stepping down on June 30 after leading the Division of Public Health for 13 years. It’s unclear where she will work next and who her successor will be. The state did not make Rattay available for an interview. (5/15)

Kansas City Star: Kansas City Outdoor Summer Grief Camp Helps Children Mourn 
College student Devin Rice was about 9 the first time he went to Express Yourself Camp. It was a day camp, so he didn’t have to pack an overnight bag. But he and the other kid campers all arrived with something from home: Their grief. Rice had lost a close family friend, a woman he loved like an aunt. It was his first experience with death, and “it was definitely really weird because I had known her for such a big part of my life. And then all of a sudden she was gone,” said Rice, who is now 19. (Gutierrez, 5/16)

Houston Chronicle: Muslim Community Leaders Tackle Mental Health At First-Of-Its-Kind Conference
The often-stigmatized subject of mental health brought together Muslims from across Houston for a first-of-its-kind event Saturday. Around 300 community leaders, including counselors, imams, and mental health and refugee service providers, met for the Muslim Mental Health Conference for Community Leaders in Sugar Land to address addiction, youth mental health and the effects of COVID-19. (Trovall, 5/14)

Oklahoman: Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Laws Aimed To Boosting Enforcement
New laws recently signed by Gov. Kevin Stitt will increase funding for local enforcement of the medical marijuana industry, as well as target illicit sales of cannabis in Oklahoma. Each of the bills moved through the Legislature last week, and as a result county sheriffs are now able to receive grant funding to dedicate a full-time deputy to assist with compliance visits conducted by the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority. (Gore, 5/16)

Bloomberg: North Korea Leader Kim Jong Un Blames Officials For Covid Outbreak
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un held an emergency meeting over a Covid-19 outbreak sweeping the unvaccinated country and causing one of the biggest crises under his rule, reprimanding cadres for failing to execute his public health orders. At the meeting, North Korea reported 392,920 new “fever cases” and eight new deaths nationwide in a 24-hour period ending 6 p.m. Sunday, the state’s official Korean Central News Agency reported. Since late April, 50 people have died and the total number of people reportedly infected topped 1.2 million, of which at least 564,860 are under medical treatment, it said in a Monday report. (Lee, 5/16)

AP: Shanghai Says Lockdown To Ease As Virus Spread Mostly Ends
Most of Shanghai has stopped the spread of the coronavirus in the community and fewer than 1 million people remain under strict lockdown, authorities said Monday, as the city moves toward reopening and economic data showed the gloomy impact of China’s “zero-COVID” policy. Vice Mayor Zong Ming said 15 out of Shanghai’s 16 districts had eliminated virus transmission among those not already in quarantine. (5/16)

AP: New Zealand Leader Jacinda Ardern Tests Positive For COVID 
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has tested positive for COVID-19 but said she still plans to travel to the U.S. later this month for a trade trip and to give the commencement speech at Harvard University. Ardern on Saturday posted a photo of her positive test result on Instagram and said she was disappointed to miss several important political announcements over the coming week, including the release of the government’s annual budget and a plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. (Perry, 5/13)

Press Association: Number Seeking Help For Long Covid Doubles, Charity Says
A charity has seen a doubling in the number of people seeking help for long Covid as it warned that NHS services are failing to meet demand. Asthma and Lung UK said around half a million people have visited its long Covid advice web pages or called its helpline for support in the last six months. The number of people viewing the web pages nearly doubled from September to March, as cases of Omicron rose across the UK, it said. Latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that an estimated 1.8 million people in UK households (2.8% of the population) were experiencing long Covid as of April 3 - the most recent data available. (Kirby, 5/15)

The New York Times: How Australia Saved Thousands Of Lives While Covid Killed A Million Americans 
If the United States had the same Covid death rate as Australia, about 900,000 lives would have been saved. The Texas grandmother who made the perfect pumpkin pie might still be baking. The Red Sox-loving husband who ran marathons before Covid might still be cheering at Fenway Park. For many Americans, imagining what might have been will be painful. But especially now, at the milestone of one million deaths in the United States, the nations that did a better job of keeping people alive show what Americans could have done differently and what might still need to change. (Cave, 5/15)

Scientific American: To Better Understand Women's Health, We Need To Destigmatize Menstrual Blood 
Women with endometriosis are often told they are pain-pill seekers, scam artists trying to take advantage of the health system. They are called “disruptive,” “crazy,” “faking it” and “psychosomatic.” They are told that their pain may be in their heads and to move beyond it. To stop being—well, stop being a woman. We are talking about young teens and women with endometriosis who want a diagnosis, effective treatments and compassionate care. There is no cure, and these women deserve one. (Christine N. Metz, 5/13)

Los Angeles Times: Would 'Menstrual Leave' Create A Backlash Against Women In The Workplace? 
Last week, Spain signaled it may become one of a handful of countries offering workers a benefit called “menstrual leave” for people whose periods are accompanied by debilitating pain. The country is also considering abolishing the “tampon tax,” something California did, at least temporarily, in 2020 and the United Kingdom did last year. In 2020, Scotland became the first country in the world to make period products such as tampons and pads free to anyone who needs them. (Robin Abcarian, 5/15)

On Roe v. Wade —

Chicago Tribune: Why — And How — We Need To Talk About Racial Disparities In Abortion Rates 
Remember the old days when President Bill Clinton brought a temporary calm to the raging abortion debate by declaring the ultra-controversial procedure should be “safe, legal and rare?” That was in 1992, when compromise still sounded like an achievable goal in Washington. Trend lines already were showing abortion to be in a slow but persistent decline across major demographic groups, although not nearly fast enough to satisfy the politically potent anti-abortion movement. (Clarence Page, 5/13)

NBC News: How Abortion Clinic Protesters Are Emboldened By Supreme Court's Roe Draft Opinion Leak
When the leaked draft of the Supreme Court’s impending decision on Roe v. Wade came out last week, one of my first thoughts was: I’ve got to get to the clinic. Since early last fall, I’ve volunteered as an escort at my local abortion clinic in North Carolina, helping patients and their companions make it through the front doors without getting stopped and harassed by the anti-abortion protesters that congregate daily outside. (Rachel Simon, 5/14)

Also —

Bloomberg: Zoonotic Spillover Is One Of The Greatest Threats Humanity Is Facing 
The word zoonosis comes from the Greek for “animal disease.” It applies to pathogens that can jump both between critters and from them to us. HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, hopped to humans from chimps, for example. MERS, a respiratory virus, spread to us from dromedary camels. Ebola probably came from apes, monkeys or bats, or all of them. In similar ways, we’ve imported hundreds of other ills from the wild kingdom — not least, SARS-CoV-2, which we also picked up from bats. (Andreas Kluth, 5/16)

Modern Healthcare: Could ‘Superbugs' Drive The Next Pandemic? 
There's up to a 57% chance that another pandemic of COVID-19 proportions will occur in within the next 25 years, according to risk-modeling firm Metabiota. In other words, it's likely not a matter of if, but rather when, we will face the next infectious-disease crisis. Experts even have rough ideas of how this future crisis will emerge—and it's increasingly possible that it could be a bacterium that resists all existing medicine. (Kenneth Thorpe, 5/13)

Dallas Morning News: The Data Say Texas Should Expand Medicaid
It’s been a little over two years since I wrote an op-ed for this newspaper aiming to present, in an objective non-partisan way, the enormous benefits of Medicaid expansion for Texas: healthier people living better and more dignified lives, vast economic growth and job creation, and net revenue growth for state and local budgets (without new taxes). Theories and myths about the perils of Medicaid expansion, I explained, had long since been disproven and dispelled by empirical data from the 36 (now 38) states that had already expanded Medicaid. (Nathan Johnson, 5/15)

The Boston Globe: The Next ‘Massachusetts Miracle’ 
At Flagship Pioneering, we start our scientific explorations by asking “What If?” to imagine a future outcome or capability, unconstrained by what seems possible today. In 2010 we asked: What if patients could make drugs inside their own bodies? The answer led us to create LS18 — our 18th life science company — better known as Moderna. (Noubar Afeyan, 5/13)

The New York Times: A Nasal Vaccine For Covid Could Prevent Infections 
The Covid-19 vaccines authorized for use today were developed at unprecedented speed and surpassed expectations in how well they worked. The billions of people who are protected by them have avoided severe symptoms, hospitalization and deaths. These vaccines are a scientific success beyond measure. And yet they could be even better. (Akiko Iwasaki, 5/16)

The Star Tribune: Vaccines During Pregnancy? Here's Reassurance. 
A new analysis in a prestigious journal offers timely reassurance about the COVID-19 shots' safety and effectiveness to a vitally important but vaccine-hesitant group: expectant mothers. Making safety judgments for two is a daunting responsibility during pregnancy. Mothers-to-be are cautious about medications, food, alcohol and cigarettes and anything else that could harm fetal development during this crucial window of time. During the COVID pandemic, that concern has understandably included questions about vaccination against this new viral threat. (5/15)

CNN: Michael Osterholm: Covid-19 Keeps Firing 210-Mph Curveballs At Us 
After more than two years, the United States has now passed the tragic milestone of a million Covid-19-related deaths -- and the pandemic is not remotely done. To learn more about where we are in the deadliest pandemic in American history, I spoke with Michael Osterholm, who has publicly warned of the dangers of a global pandemic for more than a decade and half and was a member of Joe Biden's Covid task force during the presidential transition. Osterholm said Covid-19 keeps firing "210-mph curveballs" at us and anyone who tries to predict what will happen in the coming months is using a crystal ball caked with 5 inches of hardened mud. Osterholm is also the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota and author of The New York Times bestseller "Deadliest Enemy: Our War Against Killer Germs." (Peter Bergen, 5/13)

The Washington Post: For Covid Wave Caused By Subvariant BA.2.12.1, Be Prepared, Not Alarmed 
Here we go again. The United States and many other nations appear to be starting another covid wave due to an omicron subvariant that is more transmissible than the last. But this time looks different. Cases are going up, but so far without the accompanying serious disease and death that characterized earlier waves. That should not lead to complacency. (5/14)

The Atlantic: How Public Health Failed America 
Even though Anthony Fauci, the White House’s chief medical adviser, backed off his statement that the United States is “out of the pandemic phase,” elected officials and much of the public seem to think that he had it right the first time. But if the end of the COVID-19 emergency is at hand, the United States is reaching it with lower vaccination and higher per-capita death rates than other wealthy nations. The conventional wisdom is that the American political system failed at public health—by prioritizing individual rights over collective safety; sowing doubt about the benefits of vaccines, masks, and other protective measures; and, most important, failing to implement universal health care, paid sick leave, and other safety-net programs. (Jay Varma, 5/15)

Also —

USA Today: Prosecuting Nurses Won't Make Health Care Safer
With turnover and vacancy rates barely below record highs, hospital and health care leaders face a workforce reckoning. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that each year over the next decade there will be nearly 400,000 vacancies for registered nurses and nursing assistants – and there are a host of other shortages among physicians, social workers and the like. (J. Stephen Jones, MD, 5/13)

Stat: RaDonda Vaught Case: A Double Standard For Nurses, Physicians 
RaDonda Vaught, a former nurse in Tennessee, was sentenced on Friday to three years of supervised probation after being convicted in March of making a fatal medication error in 2017, which resulted in the death of a patient under her care. Although Vaught isn’t being sent to prison, her conviction and sentencing, meted out for the kind of error that routinely occurs in health care institutions across the U.S., are a true travesty of justice. That’s a far cry from what happened to William Husel, a former Ohio physician, who was acquitted of murder in April for hastening the deaths of 14 critically ill patients under his care by ordering doses of the painkiller fentanyl that were 10 times the amount ordinarily ordered for critically ill patients. (Michelle Collins and Cherie Burke, 5/13)