The Washington Post: U.S. Coronavirus Cases Drop As Spring Wave Of Infections Ebbs 
The spring wave of coronavirus infections that began in March is subsiding in most of the country, with 42 states and D.C. reporting lower caseloads for the past two weeks. Hospitals in hard-hit Michigan and other Upper Midwest states that were flooded with patients in mid-April are discharging more than they’re admitting. The daily average of new infections nationwide has dropped to the lowest level since mid-October. Many cities are rapidly reopening after 14 months of restrictions. The mayor of virus-ravaged New York City, Bill de Blasio (D), said he plans to have the city fully open by July 1. (Achenbach, Keating and Dupree, 4/30)

The New York Times: Reaching ‘Herd Immunity’ Is Unlikely In The U.S., Experts Now Believe
Now, more than half of adults in the United States have been inoculated with at least one dose of a vaccine. But daily vaccination rates are slipping, and there is widespread consensus among scientists and public health experts that the herd immunity threshold is not attainable — at least not in the foreseeable future, and perhaps not ever. Instead, they are coming to the conclusion that rather than making a long-promised exit, the virus will most likely become a manageable threat that will continue to circulate in the United States for years to come, still causing hospitalizations and deaths but in much smaller numbers. (Mandavilli, 5/3)

In the states —

Bay Area News Group: California's Coronavirus Hospitalizations Hit All-Time Low
Coronavirus hospitalizations in California have dropped to their lowest levels since the start of the pandemic more than a year ago, fueled by a surge in vaccinations and one of the lowest case rates in the country. Across the Golden State, the scenes of crowded emergency rooms and cadres of traveling nurses have given way to quieter hallways and, finally, hope. “Things are shockingly positive in ways that we expected,” said Kristina Kramer, medical director of critical care for John Muir Health in Contra Costa County. “But to be living and seeing it in real time is so incredibly gratifying.” (DeRuy, 5/1)

Los Angeles Times: Los Angeles County Reports No New COVID-19 Deaths
Los Angeles County public health authorities on Sunday reported no new deaths related to COVID-19. Although officials cautioned that the figure was probably an undercount because of reporting delays on weekends, it still marked a bright spot, capping several months of progress in the fight against the coronavirus. The county also reported 313 new cases of the virus. There were 390 COVID-19 patients in county hospitals as of Saturday, a drop of about 16% from two weeks before. (Wigglesworth, 5/2)

Salt Lake Tribune: COVID-19 Case Counts Flatten After Rising In Utah Last Week
Coronavirus cases were on the rise in Utah last week. On Wednesday, the Utah Department of Health reported 518 new cases, marking the second day in a row that the number of cases eclipsed 500. On the same day, the state reported four deaths, the most in a single day in roughly a month. Those four deaths helped the statewide toll top 2,200 since the pandemic started, now sitting at 2,204 through Sunday. But by the end of the seven-day period beginning April 26 and ending Sunday, things had started to flatten. (Newman, 5/2)

The Baltimore Sun: Fewer Than 1,000 Marylanders Hospitalized With COVID As Key Metrics Continue To Decline 
Fewer than 1,000 people are hospitalized Sunday with the coronavirus for the first time in more than a month, and the Maryland Department of Health reported a continued decline in other key metrics. Here’s how the state’s key pandemic metrics broke down Sunday. (Davis, 5/2)

Fox News: Louisiana Identifies First Brazilian Coronavirus Variant Cases In 2 Residents
Health officials in Louisiana this week identified the state’s first cases of a coronavirus variant first identified in Brazil. The so-called P.1. variant, which has been dubbed as a "variant of concern" by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), was found in one resident from the Greater New Orleans area and another from Southwest Louisiana. Neither resident reported having a recent history of travel, indicating the variant was acquired locally, officials said in a news release. (Farber, 5/1)

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette: Active Cases Of Virus Rise 6 Days In A Row
Arkansas saw 137 new cases of covid-19 on Sunday, outpacing the number of Arkansans who have recovered from the coronavirus, according to the state Department of Health. The number of active cases increased by 19 to 2,055. The Health Department has not reported that many active cases since March 26. (Eley, 5/3)

NPR: Younger People Make Up Growing Share Of Serious COVID Cases
After spending much of the past year tending to elderly patients, doctors are seeing a clear demographic shift: young and middle-aged adults make up a growing share of the patients in COVID-19 hospital wards. It's both a sign of the country's success in protecting the elderly through vaccination and an urgent reminder that younger generations will pay a heavy price if the outbreak is allowed to simmer in communities across the country. "We're now seeing people in their 30s, 40s and 50s — young people who are really sick," says Dr. Vishnu Chundi, an infectious disease physician and chair of the Chicago Medical Society's COVID-19 task force. "Most of them make it, but some do not. ... I just lost a 32-year-old with two children, so it's heartbreaking." (Stone, 5/1)

CNBC: U.S. To Restrict Travel From India Effective May 4
The new travel order isn’t expected to ban flights, but rather non-U.S. citizens or permanent residents who have recently been in India — a similar format as restrictions that have been placed on much travel from the EU, China and Brazil, according to a person familiar with the matter. (Breuninger and Lovelace Jr., 4/30)

The Washington Post: Biden Officials Say U.S. Doing All It Can To Help India 
White House officials said Sunday they are doing all they can to help India cope with the country’s escalating coronavirus crisis, pushing back against criticism that the United States should be moving faster on actions such as waiving patent rights on vaccines. In interviews on several political shows Sunday, Biden administration officials emphasized the aid the United States has already delivered to its South Asian ally, including sending the first planeloads of medical supplies and oxygen to the country on Friday. The United States has also diverted raw materials for vaccines to India. (Wang, 5/2)

Axios: Fauci: India Should "Temporarily Shut Down" Amid COVID-19 Rise 
White House chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci said in an interview that India ought to consider a temporary shutdown as the country currently faces the worst coronavirus outbreak in the world. India on Saturday for the first time reported more than 400,000 new coronavirus cases in a 24-hour period, Reuters writes. The country also reported a total of 211,853 deaths. (Gonzalez, 5/1)

CNBC: U.S. To Discuss Wider Covid Vaccine Licensing As India Calls To Waive Patent Protections
White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain said Sunday that the Biden administration is looking to distribute the coronavirus vaccine to India and other countries now that millions of Americans have received their doses. In recent weeks, India has grappled with a staggering rise in new coronavirus infections. Over the weekend, India reported 400,000 daily cases, bringing the nation’s cumulative total to 19,557,457 cases, according to figures compiled by Johns Hopkins. The spike may have been triggered by a highly contagious Covid variant, known as B.1.617, which was first identified in the country. (Macias, 5/2)

In related news about India —

Reuters: India’s COVID-19 Cases Near 20 Million, Peak Seen Nearing 
India reported more than 300,000 new coronavirus infections for a 12th straight day on Monday to take its overall number of cases to just shy of 20 million, as scientists predicted a peak in the pandemic in the coming days. With 368,147 new cases over the past 24 hours, India's total infections stand at 19.93 million, while total fatalities rose by 3,417 to 218,959, according to health ministry data. (Mehta and Jamkhandikar, 4/3)

Axios: Australia Bans All Arrivals From India 
The Australian government said late Friday that its citizens and residents who have been in India within the past two weeks will be barred from re-entry starting Monday. Government officials said that anyone who disobeys the ban will face fines and up to five years imprisonment, making it the first time Australia has made it a criminal offense for its citizens to go home, per Reuters. (Gonzalez, 5/1)

Reuters: Pfizer In Talks With India Over Expedited Approval For COVID-19 Vaccine
Pfizer is in discussions with the Indian government seeking an "expedited approval pathway" for its COVID-19 vaccine, its CEO Albert Bourla said on LinkedIn on Monday, announcing a donation of medicines worth more than $70 million. "Unfortunately, our vaccine is not registered in India although our application was submitted months ago," he said. (%/3)

Axios: Foreign Aid Pours Into India As COVID-19 Crisis Worsens 
Countries around the world are sending supplies and aid to India to help the country fight its COVID-19 outbreak, currently the world's worst. Hospitals are running out of supplies, crematoriums are burning around the clock, and experts are increasingly concerned about the presence of a new variant in India. (Saric, 5/2)

Axios: Fire In COVID-19 Hospital Ward In India Kills 18 Patients
A fire in a COVID-19 ward in the Welfare Hospital in Bharuch, a town in Gujarat state in western India, killed at least 18 patients on Saturday, according to AP. The blaze — the cause of which is being investigated — comes on the heels of several tragedies involving coronavirus patients as hospitals across the country struggle with oxygen supplies amid a massive spike in new cases and a slowed vaccine rollout. (Knutson, 5/1)

NPR: TSA Keeps Face Mask Requirement On Public Transportation Through September
Wearing a face mask will continue to be a requirement at airports, aboard commercial flights and on other public transportation across the country through the summer. The federal mask mandate, which was set to expire on May 11, will remain in effect through Sept. 13, according to updated guidance issued by the Transportation Security Administration on Friday. The rule, which also applies to buses and rail systems, was first put in place by President Biden shortly after he took office in January. (Moore, 5/1)

USA Today: COVID: Colorado, New Jersey Ease Restrictions As Cases Fall
The White House says the U.S. trade representative will begin talks with the World Trade Organization on ways to overcome intellectual property issues that are keeping critically needed COVID-19 vaccines from being more widely distributed. The White House has been under intense pressure to join an effort to help waive patent rules for the vaccines so that poorer countries can begin to make their own generic versions. White House chief of staff Ron Klain said Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation” that U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai will be starting talks “on how we can get this vaccine more widely distributed, more widely licensed, more widely shared.” (Aspegren, 5/3)

AP: Adviser Suggests Biden Still Wears Mask Outside Out Of Habit
One of President Joe Biden’s top White House advisers suggested Sunday that he’s still wearing a mask outdoors out of habit although the latest public health guidance says he doesn’t need it. Questioned about Biden’s practice, senior adviser Anita Dunn told CNN’s “State of the Union” that she realized that she was also still wearing her mask outdoors even after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said fully vaccinated people like her and Biden can stop wearing masks outside when they’re alone or not among strangers. (Superville, 5/2)

CNN: Confusion Over Masks Sparks New Political Showdown 
America's emerging limbo between a full-blown pandemic and a return to normal is throwing up new public health dilemmas that spark instant political fires -- like a fresh round of grandstanding over mask wearing. Top White House adviser Anita Dunn Sunday defended President Joe Biden over his continued use of a mask outdoors -- even though the practice appears to conflict with new and relaxed administration guidelines for fully vaccinated citizens. In comments that didn't necessarily clarify the situation, Dunn told CNN's Jake Tapper on "State of the Union" that "extra precautions" were being taken for the President and that mask wearing was "a matter of habit." (Collinson, 5/3)

In other news on the spread of the coronavirus —

The Washington Post: Some Schools Skip Student Quarantines
In the continuing struggle to strike a balance between safety and classroom learning, Ohio joined a handful of states that have now remade their rules to cut back on student quarantines. Many point to lower than expected spread of the virus inside schools and note that school leaders say there are few infections among students who get quarantined. In Ohio’s case, quarantines are no longer required for potential classroom exposures as long as students were masked and other safeguards were in place. (St. George, 5/2)

CIDRAP: Study Finds Low Rate Of Mom-To-Baby COVID-19 Spread, Effect On Infants
Infants born to women with COVID-19 have a low chance of contracting the disease from their mothers and having complications, according to a study published yesterday in JAMA. The study included 88,159 Swedish newborns, 92% of those born in the country from Mar 11, 2020, to Jan 31, 2021. Of those, 2,323 (1.6%) were delivered by mothers who tested positive for COVID-19, and only 21 infants in that group (0.9%) tested positive for COVID-19 themselves. (4/30)

Philadelphia Inquirer: These Dogs Are Learning To Detect COVID-19, And They Could Work At Airports And Stadiums
Now researchers are teaching dogs to detect COVID-19. The skill could be used to screen for asymptomatic carriers of the coronavirus at airports, sporting events, schools, “pretty much any place you have large gatherings where everyone can go through one door,” said Cindy Otto, director of the Working Dog Center. The applications are promising, but training dogs to detect a disease like COVID-19 isn’t easy. Explosives, illicit drugs, human remains, and other physical things dogs can be trained to find have a scent humans can smell, too. It’s easy to know when the item has been found because both dog and trainer can see it. (Gantz, 5/1)

AP: US To Launch Trade Talks On COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution
The U.S. top trade negotiator will begin talks with the World Trade Organization on ways to overcome intellectual property issues that are keeping critically needed COVID-19 vaccines from being more widely distributed worldwide, two White House officials said Sunday. The White House has been under pressure from lawmakers at home and governments abroad to join an effort to waive patent rules for the vaccines so that poorer countries can begin to produce their own generic versions of the shots to vaccinate their populations. (Superville, 5/2)

The Week: Sanders: Waiving COVID-19 Vaccine Patents Both Practical And 'Moral' Responsibility For U.S.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Sunday said it's not only a "moral responsibility" for the United States to help vaccinate the rest of the world — including India which is experiencing a devastating surge — against COVID-19. It's "also in our own self-interest," Sanders argued, because otherwise "this pandemic ... is going to come back and bite us at one point or another." To avoid that, he told NBC News' Chuck Todd, "we should deal with this issue through the World Trade Organization of protecting the intellectual property rights of the drug companies." In other words, Sanders wants to waive patents so poorer countries can produce their own vaccines, rather than relying only on excess supply from wealthier nations. (5/2)

HuffPost: What To Know About The Growing Debate Over COVID-19 Vaccine Patents And Equity
The ability of wealthy countries like the United States and the United Kingdom to place huge orders for vaccines before companies had even proved their efficacy has attracted critics since the earliest months of the pandemic ― and the results they warned about are playing out now. Wealthy countries are at the front of the vaccine supply line and have essentially cleared the shelves: High-income and upper-middle-income countries have secured more than 6 billion vaccine doses, according to data provided to the journal Nature by the Duke University Global Health Innovation Center. Two major manufacturers, Pfizer and Moderna, are also American companies, giving the U.S. a leg up. (Boboltz, 5/2)

In related news about patents —

Los Angeles Times: Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna Refused To Join WHO's C-TAP For Vaccines. Now The India Surge Is Causing Crisis
Pfizer and Moderna — backed by the Trump administration — were concerned about protecting the trade secrets of their mRNA technology and refused to participate. As a result, the job of manufacturing vaccine for much of the world fell largely on a single producer in India, the Serum Institute, a central manufacturer for the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca. Now facing its own COVID-19 catastrophe, India has all but halted its vaccine exports, leaving dozens of mostly poor countries it supplies in the lurch — a problem that experts said could have easily been avoided had vaccine makers signed on to C-TAP. (Baumgaertner, 4/30)

Stat: Brazilian Senate Votes To Suspend Patents In A Bid To Boost Vaccine Access
After a year of politicking, the Brazilian senate passed a bill that would permit the government to temporarily suspend any and all patents for medical products that could be used to fight Covid-19, as well as any future public health emergency declared by Brazilian authorities or the World Health Organization. Any license would be valid only for the duration of such an emergency. The legislation now goes to the lower house of Congress, although it remains unclear if it will have the same level of support. (Silverman, 4/30)

Axios: Pfizer To Offer Smaller Shipments Of COVID Vaccine 
Pfizer will begin distributing smaller packages of COVID-19 vaccine to states by the end of May to reduce potential waste. As public demand for vaccine teeters, health officials see smaller clinical settings as the next step in vaccinating Americans who haven’t sought out a shot already. (Fernandez, 5/3)

KHN: CVS And Walgreens Have Wasted More Vaccine Doses Than Most States Combined 
Two national pharmacy chains that the federal government entrusted to inoculate people against covid-19 account for the lion’s share of wasted vaccine doses, according to government data obtained by KHN. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recorded 182,874 wasted doses as of late March, three months into the country’s effort to vaccinate the masses against the coronavirus. Of those, CVS was responsible for nearly half, and Walgreens for 21%, or nearly 128,500 wasted shots combined. (Eaton and Pradhan, 5/3)

In other updates on the vaccine rollout —

Axios: There's Not Just One Kind Of Coronavirus Vaccine Hesitancy 
Around 10% of Americans aren't very eager to get the vaccine, but they're not really hesitant either — they're just waiting to get it until they get around to it, according to new Harris polling. Making vaccination more convenient will be a big part of the difficult process of getting more shots in arms, now that many of the most eager Americans have gotten their shots. (Owens, 5/3)

The Washington Post: Low Police Vaccination Rates Pose Public Safety Concerns 
Police officers were among the first front-line workers to gain priority access to coronavirus vaccines. But their vaccination rates are lower than or about the same as those of the general public, according to data made available by some of the nation’s largest law enforcement agencies. The reluctance of police to get the shots threatens not just their own health, but also the safety of people they’re responsible for guarding, monitoring and patrolling, experts say. (Stanley-Becker, 5/2)

Bangor Daily News: Maine Makes Quick Shift To Walk-In COVID-19 Vaccine Appointments
More than a dozen COVID-19 vaccination sites in Maine will offer doses without appointments next week in a rapid and marked shift from scarce doses and few appointments to little issue getting a shot as the vaccine effort continues. The prevalence of walk-ins is striking because of how quickly it was adopted. Just over two weeks ago, Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention Director Nirav Shah gingerly discussed the possibility of appointment-free clinics, warning they could come with logistical hurdles to ensure doses would not be wasted. (Andrews and Piper, 5/3)

Axios: Colorado Battles COVID Vaccine Hesitancy With Get-Out-The-Vote Tactics 
Colorado is using tried-and-true get-out-the-vote tactics to boost COVID-19 vaccination rates across the state. The novel approach is part of a broader effort by state public health officials to reach herd immunity by targeting populations that are hesitant or too busy to get vaccinated. (Frank, 5/3)

Philadelphia Inquirer: Philly’s Vaccination Effort Reaches Out To Another Community: The Deaf
In fact, the Esperanza site, at Fourth and Bristol Streets, and the Convention Center site in Center City both have American Sign Language interpreters every day they are open, said Charlie Elison, a spokesperson for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which runs the clinics in partnership with the city and the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency. On average, the sites vaccinate about five to 10 people daily who are deaf or hard-of-hearing, Elison said. But for the last few weeks, FEMA, the city’s Department of Public Health, SEPTA, the Pennsylvania School for the Deaf, and the Archdiocese of Philadelphia had promoted Saturday as a day at Esperanza dedicated to those who are deaf or have hearing loss, with more ASL and Certified Deaf Interpreters on hand. (Shaw, 5/1)

KHN: As Vaccine Demand Slows, Political Differences Go On Display In California Counties 
Demand for covid vaccines is slowing across most of California, but as traffic at vaccination sites eases, the vaccination rates across the state are showing wide disparities. In Santa Clara County, home to Silicon Valley, nearly 67% of residents 16 and older have had at least one dose as of Wednesday, compared with about 43% in San Bernardino County, east of Los Angeles. Statewide, about 58% of eligible residents have received at least one dose. (Almendrala, 5/3)

Also —

The Hill: Gottlieb Predicts 10M Kids Would Get Inoculated Before Fall If Pfizer Coronavirus Vaccine Is Authorized 
Former Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, who sits on Pfizer's board of directors, on Sunday predicted that 10 million kids would be vaccinated against the coronavirus before fall if the Pfizer vaccine is authorized for use on younger teens. ... "I'm hopeful the FDA is going to authorize that in a very short time period," he said. (Oshin, 5/2)

Bloomberg: Second Pfizer Covid Vaccine Needed For Full Inoculation, UK Study Shows
People who haven’t fought off Covid-19 before are still vulnerable to infection from variants after getting the first dose of Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE’s vaccine, underscoring the need for fast and full inoculation regimens, according to a U.K. study published Friday. Among those who previously had mild or asymptomatic cases of Covid, the protection was “significantly enhanced” after a single dose against the variants first seen in the U.K. and South Africa, researchers said in the study, published Friday in the journal Science. (Loh, 4/30)

Boston Globe: U.S. Government Has Invested $6 Billion In Moderna's Covid-19 Vaccine
The federal government has now invested about $6 billion in the Covid-19 vaccine from Moderna, the Cambridge, Mass., biotech that few outside the scientific and investment worlds had heard of a couple of years ago. Moderna said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday that under a change in its government contract on April 18, it will receive as much as $236 million in additional reimbursement for costs associated with its late-stage vaccine trial on about 30,000 volunteers, including safety monitoring. (Saltzman, 4/30)

The Atlantic: Pfizer Gang And The Sadness Of Vaccine Culture
Weirder still, one vaccine in particular—from Pfizer—has somehow become the cool vaccine, as well as the vaccine for the rich and stylish. Slate’s Heather Schwedel recently discussed the “Pfizer superiority complex” at length. As one source told her: “One of my cousins got Moderna, and I was like, ‘That’s OK. We need a strong middle class.’” On Twitter, the vaccinated are changing their usernames to reflect their new personal identities: There are Pfizer Princesses and Pfizer Floozies and Pfizer Pfairies and at least one Portrait of a Lady on Pfizer. “Pfizer is what was available when I signed up,” Jagger Blaec, a 33-year-old podcast host told me, “but it’s no coincidence every baddie I know has Pfizer and not Moderna.” Isn’t it a coincidence, though? (Tiffany, 4/30)

The Hill: CDC: Dozens Of Adverse Reactions Caused By Anxiety, Not Johnson & Johnson Vaccine
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has concluded that dozens of Johnson & Johnson vaccine recipients experienced adverse physical reactions because of anxiety and not the vaccine itself, according to a report published Friday. The agency investigated clusters of anxiety-related events, with a total 64 incidents out of 8,624 doses administered, reported to the CDC by five mass vaccination sites across five different states. (Coleman, 4/30)

Fox News: Fainting After Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 Vaccination 164 Times More Common Than Post-Flu Shot: CDC
Prior to reports of rare but serious blood clotting with Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine, federal health authorities were investigating dozens of anxiety-related events and fainting episodes in vaccine recipients, according to the latest report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In early April, four of out five mass vaccination sites across different states temporarily shuttered while the CDC analyzed 64 anxiety-related events, including 17 instances of syncope, or fainting among some 8,600 vaccine recipients. None of the reports were classified as serious, the agency said. (Rivas, 5/1)

Bloomberg: Victims Of Rare Vaccine Injury Wait To See If U.S. Fund Will Pay
High school senior Emma Burkey received her “one and done” Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine on March 20, and within two weeks was in an induced coma following seizures and clotting in her brain. She’s making a slow recovery, having recently been transfered from the hospital to a rehabilitation center, and the first round of bills totaled $513,000. The 18-year-old’s family friends in the Las Vegas area started a GoFundMe account to help with medical expenses from the very rare vaccine reaction. (Decker, 5/3)

KHN: Detecting Rare Blood Clots Was A Win, But US Vaccine Safety System Still Has Gaps
The quick detection of an ultra-rare blood clotting reaction in some covid-19 vaccine recipients showed the power of a federal warning system for vaccine safety issues, but experts worry that blind spots in the program could hamper detection of other unexpected side effects. Before the pandemic began, the Food and Drug Administration had scaled back a program it used successfully to track adverse events during and after the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic, and the agency is still ramping up its replacement, said Dr. Robert Chen, scientific director of the Brighton Collaboration, a nonprofit global vaccine safety network. (JoNel Aleccia, 5/3)

And an analysis found few injuries from nasal swabs —

CIDRAP: Report Details Rare Injuries From Nasopharyngeal COVID-19 Swabbing
Risk of complication from COVID-19 nasopharyngeal swab tests is low (1.24 per 100,000 people), according to a research letter published yesterday in JAMA Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery. The researchers found 8 instances among 2,899 patients admitted to Helsinki University's otorhinolaryngology emergency department from Mar 1 to Sep 30, 2020; 643,284 reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction tests occurred during this time. Of the patients, seven were female, and mean age was 39.5 years. Four experienced severe nosebleeds, and four had broken swabs. None were positive for COVID-19. (4/30)

The Hill: Schumer Backs Sanders Push On Drug Prices, Lowering Medicare Age
Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in an interview published Friday that he supports measures to allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices, as well as lowering the Medicare eligibility age and creating a public health insurance option. The comments from Schumer give important backing to a push from progressives, who have been calling for a range of major health care reforms from President Biden, including in his next major economic package, which he laid out for Congress during a joint address on Wednesday night. (Sullivan, 4/30)

AP: Democrats Seek Narrow Path To Rein In Cost Of Medicines
President Joe Biden’s call for authorizing Medicare to negotiate lower prescription drug prices has energized Democrats on a politically popular idea they’ve been pushing for nearly 20 years only to encounter frustration. But they still lack a clear path to enact legislation. That’s because a small number of Democrats remain uneasy over government price curbs on pharmaceutical companies. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer will need every Democratic vote in a narrowly divided Congress. Otherwise Democrats may have to settle for a compromise that stops short of their goal. Or they could take the issue into the 2022 midterm elections. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 5/3)

Roll Call: Biden Walks Political Tightrope In Drug Pricing Dispute 
Congress will likely try to move forward with drug pricing legislation although President Joe Biden excluded such changes from his latest economic policy proposal. Biden called on Congress in his joint address Wednesday night to enact health care legislation this year that would expand Medicare and allow the massive program to negotiate drug prices. But the White House and Democrats on Capitol Hill disagree on whether to include it in the upcoming legislative push on family aid, which could be one of the last major bills to move this year besides spending legislation. (McIntire and Clason, 4/30)

In other news from the federal government —

Modern Healthcare: Congress Mulls Long-Term Care Reform
Demand for long-term care has increased in recent years as the aging population grows, and a wave of baby boomers retire in coming decades. But as of now, the long-term care system is failing to meet the needs of the current population. It's fragmented, expensive and often inaccessible for low-and-middle income aging adults and people with disabilities. While most people are cared for at home by unpaid caregivers, lawmakers have looked to expand access to home and community services covered by Medicaid, the largest payer of long-term care in the U.S. (Hellmann, 4/30)

Roll Call: Health Officials Plan Major Research On COVID-19 Long-Haulers 
The National Institutes of Health is preparing to award grants in the next three weeks to researchers studying the long-term effects of COVID-19 and patients experiencing “long COVID. ”NIH Director Francis Collins told the Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee this week that the agency expects laboratory research and imaging studies to be underway by the summer. The agency received 273 research proposals after Congress provided more than $1 billion for research into the long-term effects of COVID-19. (McIntire, 4/30)

The Washington Post: Pelosi’s Archbishop In San Francisco Says Public Figures Who Support Abortion Rights Should Be Barred From Communion 
The Most Rev. Salvatore J. Cordileone was careful not to single out any Catholics in his latest letter calling for Holy Communion to be withheld from public figures who support abortion rights. But the 17-page missive from the archbishop of San Francisco may have important implications for one of the archdiocese’s most famous parishioners: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. (Thebault, 5/2)

KHN: Journalists Track Biden’s First 100 Days 
Chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner discussed Biden’s first 100 days on WAMU/NPR’s “1A” on Wednesday. She also joined Wisconsin Public Radio’s “Central Time” to talk about why hospitals aren’t cooperating with price transparency requirements. ... KHN senior correspondent Julie Appleby discussed changes in insurance coverage for covid-19 care on NBC News NOW on Tuesday. (5/1)

Modern Healthcare: CMS: Obamacare Cost-Sharing Change Cuts Out-Of-Pocket Costs By $400
CMS on Friday significantly changed how Affordable Care Act exchanges will run next year, intending to lower out-of-pocket costs for Obamacare customers, streamline enrollees' user experience and update how insurers are paid for the risks they take on their members. In its second update to the annual benefit and payment parameters rule, the agency announced consumers' maximum out-of-pocket costs will be limited to $8,700 for individuals and $17,400 for plans that cover multiple people. The update is $400 lower than previous caps, CMS said. (Tepper, 4/30)

Fierce Healthcare: CMS Extends Special Enrollment Period Qualifications In Latest ACA Rule
The Biden administration finalized a rule that makes it easier for consumers to qualify for a special enrollment period for Affordable Care Act exchange coverage, in addition to several other major changes. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services finalized on Friday the second part of the Notice of Benefit and Payment Parameters that outlines regulations on the ACA exchanges for the 2022 coverage year. A key part of the rule was more flexibility for consumers to sign up for a special enrollment (SEP) period to get coverage outside of open enrollment. (King 4/30)

Forbes: Biden’s Special Obamacare Sign-Up Already A Boon To Health Insurers
Health insurance companies may have one of their best years selling individual coverge under the Affordable Care Act thanks to a special open enrollment period implemented by the Biden administration. ... Just six weeks into the special enrollment period, the Biden administration said in early April that more than 500,000 have signed up for coverage via the healthcare.gov website, also known as the federal healthcare exchange or marketplace as insurers like to call it. Health insurers expect even more Americans to sign up to the ACA’s individual coverage, also known as Obamacare. (Japsen, 5/2)

Syracuse.Com: Federal Stimulus Covers Health Insurance For Many Who Lost Jobs, But Confusion Remains 
Matthew Van Ryn has been paying $1,800 a month for health insurance since he lost his job last year at a Syracuse law firm. So he was relieved when President Biden signed the recent stimulus package, which provides six months of free health insurance to people who were forced out of jobs during the Covid-19 pandemic. But getting those benefits is more complicated than anyone would like. (Knauss, 5/3)

In other health insurance news —

MarketWatch: Why Many Nursing-Home Owners Have Escaped Scrutiny Of Their Roles In The COVID-19 Crisis
Private-equity firms have been prime targets in long-term-care reform proposals emerging during the COVID-19 crisis. But efforts to overhaul the industry are hitting a snag: that it’s tough to regulate nursing-home owners, operators and related parties when many of them remain in the shadows. A report set to be released Friday by the Roosevelt Institute, a New York think tank, underscores the problem. Arguing that private-equity firms focus on extracting profits to the detriment of patient care, the report calls on Congress to ban these firms from buying nursing homes and to require those that currently operate facilities to divest from them within five years. While the report points out that the government’s data on nursing-home ownership are incomplete, it doesn’t describe exactly how private-equity firms are to be banned from the industry when no one has a full picture of how many facilities the firms own or the corporate webs that link them with property, management and related companies. (Laise, 4/30)

AL Reporter: Report: 38 Percent Of Alabama COVID Deaths Tied To Insurance Coverage Gaps
An updated report shows that a third of COVID-19 deaths in Alabama were associated with high community rates of uninsured, while a separate report shows that Black Alabamians and women make up a disproportionate percentage of low-wage workers without health insurance. Alabama is one of 12 states that has not expanded Medicaid, and if the state were to do so, approximately 204,000 more, or nearly half of the state’s total uninsured, would gain health insurance, studies have estimated.  (Burkhalter, 4/30)

Healthcare Dive: Kentucky Must Rebid Medicaid Contracts Again, Judge Rules
A Kentucky judge ruled Wednesday that the state must again rebid its lucrative Medicaid contracts previously awarded to some of the nation's largest health insurers. ... This ruling puts six insurers at risk of losing their contracts with the state. However, to prevent any disruption for the more than 1 million patients covered by Kentucky Medicaid, the current awards will remain in place for now. It's unclear when the state will begin the rebidding process. (Liss, 4/30)

Madison.Com: State Health Insurance Pool For Schools Could Save Money, Has Bipartisan Interest 
Wisconsin school districts would get health insurance through a state-run program like that for state workers, potentially saving $500 million a year, under a plan in Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ budget and in a similar proposal by an administrator for former Republican Gov. Scott Walker. (Wahlberg, 5/3)

Tampa Bay Times: Florida Lawmakers Put Brakes On ‘No Fault’ Auto Insurance
Florida motorists are one step closer to no longer having “no fault” auto insurance, after lawmakers Friday approved ditching the decades-old system and its requirement of carrying personal-injury protection coverage. ... Florida is one of just two states that don’t require some level of bodily-injury coverage. Proponents said the $10,000 in PIP coverage available in the no-fault system to help pay for health-care costs after accidents has not kept up with the times. The coverage level has been on the books since 1979. (Turner, 4/30)

Axios: FDA Approves High-Dose Naloxone Nasal Spray To Treat Opioid Overdoses 
The Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved a higher dose of naloxone hydrochloride nasal spray to reverse the effects of opioid overdoses. "Experts and patient advocates say the more potent medicine is needed because low-dose naloxone sprays and injections sometimes must be given multiple times to keep someone alive until medical help arrives," AP writes. (Gonzalez, 5/1)

Charleston Gazette-Mail: As WV Drug Overdose Deaths Increase, Huntington, Cabell County First In Country To Face Distributors In Courtroom
Cabell County and the city of Huntington are set to go to trial Monday against drug distributors they accuse of helping to fuel the area’s drug epidemic. At stake is up to $500 million or $1.25 billion to help local communities deal with the damages from the opioid abuse epidemic. Cabell County’s lawsuit was filed in March 2017, with Huntington following. It alleges that AmerisourceBergen Drug Co., Cardinal Health Inc. and McKesson Corp. — the “Big Three” — hold some responsibility for the drug crisis after more than 80 million doses of opioid medication was sent to the area in an eight-year period. (Hessler, 4/30)

CNN: These People Started Using Opioids As Children 
Honesty Liller started using drugs when she was 12. "I just wanted to fit in with my friends," she said. It was the start of a rocky journey that Liller, now 40, said took her to many dark places and made her a very different person. "With a name like Honesty I would lie, lie, lie," she added. But when she was 26 years old, a phone call with her father made her realize the "living hell" she had put her family through. That's when she decided to reach out for help. (Kallingal, 5/2)

In news about marijuana use —

Politico: The Cannabis Industry's Next War: How Strong Should Its Weed Be? 
The nation’s booming weed industry has a potency problem. As more and more states legalize marijuana, companies are facing new pressure from lawmakers across the country — and Capitol Hill — to limit the strength of their products. It’s a level of scrutiny that comes with being allowed to operate in the open after decades in the shadows. (Demko and Fertig, 4/29)

Stat: HHS To Prioritize Newborn Screening Programs’ Pipette Tip Orders 
Programs that screen newborns for potentially deadly genetic conditions will now have higher priority when ordering pipette tips — a critical laboratory supply that is in shortage. STAT highlighted the pipette tip shortage, which is affecting researchers across the country, on Wednesday. (Sheridan, 4/30)

In other pharmaceutical industry news —

Stat: Six Dementia Patients Got An Unapproved Gene Therapy, CEO Says 
Six patients with dementia traveled to Mexico last year to be injected with a gene therapy not authorized for use in the U.S., according to the CEO of a Seattle-area startup that wants to accelerate testing of unproven anti-aging medicines and views U.S. drug safety regulations as a hindrance. At the heart of the project is a controversial biotech called BioViva, whose CEO had herself injected with an experimental gene therapy in Colombia and whose advisory board includes renowned Harvard geneticist George Church. It is part of a growing ecosystem of entrepreneurs and scientists, dreamers and schemers, who believe aging is not inevitable and aim to develop treatments to extend the human life span. (Molteni, 5/3)

Fox News: Ultra-Expensive Medicine A Desperate Need For Thousands Of Babies Around The World
Imagine your child is dying. There's a drug that promises hope, promises to stop your baby's illness dead in its tracks. But this dream medicine is out of reach because it costs around $2 million, depending where you live. This is the story of many of parents of children with Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA), a rare motor neuron disease. Between one in 6,000 and 10,000 children born have the disorder in some form. More than two-thirds of those diagnosed with the most common and serious derivation, SMA1, die before the age of 2, if left untreated — and treatment is complex. (Kellogg and Zakrzewski, 5/1)

Stat: With Amgen's KRAS Cancer Drug, Worry About Pricing, Not Safety
Investors do not like surprises with negative overtones, so they reacted badly when Amgen announced last Tuesday that it was conducting a new study to compare a 240 mg dose of its KRAS-targeted lung cancer pill, sotorasib, against the 960 mg dose that is now under review by the Food and Drug Administration. Amgen’s stock price fell 6% last week, the most among all the large-cap drug makers. The reaction was mostly interpreted as concern about the drug’s safety. But the real issue and risk for sotorasib could be its price. (Feuerstein, 5/3)

Modern Healthcare: Critical-Care Nurses Were Physically And Mentally Fried Before The Pandemic Struck
A new analysis found that a majority of critical-care nurses scored themselves low on physical and mental health status even before the pandemic began. Survey results conducted by researchers at Ohio State University College of Nursing found 61% of more than 700 critical care nurses rated their physical health a score of five or lower out of a possible 10, while 51% reported their mental health with a score of five or lower The data were collected from Aug. 31, 2018, through Aug. 11, 2019. (Ross Johnson, 5/1)

KHN: Mental Health Services Wane As Insurers Appear To Skirt Parity Rules During Pandemic
Therapists and other behavioral health care providers cut hours, reduced staffs and turned away patients during the pandemic as more Americans experienced depression symptoms and drug overdoses, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office. The report on patient access to behavioral health care during the covid-19 crisis also casts doubt on whether insurers are abiding by federal law requiring parity in insurance coverage, which forbids health plans from passing along more of the bill for mental health care to patients than they would for medical or surgical care. (Huetteman, 4/30)

Modern Healthcare: Texas Hospital Uses Quality Model To Increase Depression Screenings For Cancer Patients
UT Southwestern Medical Center in North Texas reports that it increased depression screenings of oncology patients by 44% in a quality improvement project. More than 90% of the hospital's oncology patients received a screening and follow-up care, or about 14,000 patients. The findings were published Friday in the Journal for Healthcare Quality from the National Association for Healthcare Quality. (Gillespie, 4/30)

In corporate news —

Fierce Healthcare: Physician Enablement Company Privia Health Pops In Public Debut With Outsized IPO 
Healthcare technology company Privia Health made a strong debut on the Nasdaq exchange Thursday, with its stock soaring above $30 per share. The company, which provides technology and services to physician practices, began trading Thursday and saw its share price jump during trading. The company's stock closed at around $34.75 per share, about 50% above its $23 per share offering price, according to Yahoo. (Landi, 5/2)

CNBC: Neuralink Cofounder Max Hodak Leaves Elon Musk's Brain Implant Company
Neuralink President Max Hodak announced on Saturday, via Twitter, that he is no longer with the health tech venture in which he was a co-founder with Elon Musk and seven other scientists and engineers. He said he has not been working there for a few weeks, but did not reveal the circumstances of his departure. (Kolodny, 5/1)

Asheville Watchdog: Profits Up At HCA, Ratings Down At Mission 
HCA Healthcare, which owns and operates Mission Hospital in Asheville, reported this month that it made $1.4 billion in profits for the first three months of 2021, more than double the amount for the same period last year. The new figures follow HCA’s report in February that annual profits rose to a record $3.8 billion in 2020, despite the pandemic, based on what the company called “solid cost management.” (Lewis, 5/1)

Fierce Healthcare: Stakeholders Laud 'Incremental Improvement' To Star Ratings Methodology But Call For Further Updates 
Healthcare organizations are always on the lookout for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS') annual hospital star ratings, but this week’s release of the quality measures carried a bit more weight for stakeholders than in years prior. Unveiled Wednesday, the latest star ratings represent CMS’ first crack at a long-awaited refinement of the methodology it uses to generate quality scores ranging from one to five stars. (Muoio, 5/1)

AP: Employers, Insurers Push To Make Virtual Visits Regular Care
Make telemedicine your first choice for most doctor visits. That’s the message some U.S. employers and insurers are sending with a new wave of care options. Amazon and several insurers have started or expanded virtual-first care plans to get people to use telemedicine routinely, even for planned visits like annual checkups. They’re trying to make it easier for patients to connect with regular help by using remote care that grew explosively during the COVID-19 pandemic. (Murphy, 5/2)

In other health care industry news —

NJ.com: Here Are N.J.’s Safest Hospitals. See How Yours Ranked In New National Report.
New Jersey hospitals ranked 14th safest in the country based on how well they prevented infections, accidents and errors and communicated with their patients, the latest Leapfrog Hospital Safety report card released on Thursday found. (Livio, 4/29)

CIDRAP: Flu Vaccine Uptake Increases After Text Reminders
Text message "nudges" before primary care visits may boost seasonal flu vaccine uptake more than 10%, a study yesterday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) shows. The finding was based on 47,306 patients in Penn Medicine and Geisinger Health systems who received 1 of 19 different possible nudges delivered to their mobile devices during the fall of 2020. The patients had opted in for text message from providers, and electronic health records showed they had not yet received a flu shot. (4/30)

Boston Globe: Eli Broad, Whose Gift Established A Science Powerhouse, Dies At 87
Eli Broad, the billionaire entrepreneur whose philanthropy enabled the creation of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard in Cambridge, one of the most influential scientific research centers in the country, died Friday at 87, according to the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation. Mr. Broad, who cofounded homebuilding pioneer Kaufman and Broad Inc. and launched financial services giant SunAmerica Inc., had devoted his life to philanthropy since 1999, according to a statement from the Broad Foundation. He and his wife, known as Edye, have committed more than $5 billion through their foundations. (Fox, 5/1)

The New York Times: Hundreds Reported Abnormal Menstruation After Exposure To Tear Gas, Study Finds 
At some point last summer, there were just too many reports of protesters who had experienced abnormal menstrual cycles after being exposed to tear gas for Britta Torgrimson-Ojerio, a nurse researcher at the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research in Portland, to dismiss them as coincidence. A preschool teacher told Oregon Public Broadasting that if she inhaled a significant amount of gas at night, she’d get her period the next morning. Other Portland residents shared stories of periods that lasted for weeks and of unusual spotting. Transgender men described sudden periods that defied hormones that had kept menstruation at bay for months or years. (Murphy, 5/1)

The Hill: Judge Rules Columbus Police Can't Use Tear Gas Or Rubber Bullets Against Peaceful Protesters 
A federal judge on Friday prohibited police in Columbus, Ohio, from using force against nonviolent protesters. In an 88-page opinion obtained by the local NBC station, Chief Judge Algenon L. Marbley of the Southern District of Ohio described the officers' use of physical violence, tear gas and pepper spray as “the sad tale of officers, clothed with the awesome power of the state, run amok.” (Choi, 5/2)

In other public health news —

Axios: Youth Unemployment Spiked Because Of The Pandemic 
American jobs are starting to come back, but youth unemployment is still high. And many young people are postponing college. Young people across the country are falling behind because of the pandemic, and they will feel the macroeconomic consequences of these months of pain long after the pandemic is over. (Pandey, 5/3)

CIDRAP: COVID Studies Note Online Learning Stress, Fewer Cases In Schools With Protocols 
A trio of new studies describe the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on public school students and staff, one finding that a quarter of children and teens in Chicago schools were stressed after school closures and the implementation of distance learning, another showing that coronavirus cases were elevated in schools that took few or no mitigation measures, and the last concluding that in-person learning in New York City public schools wasn't tied to increased viral infections. (Van Beusekomm, 4/30)

KHN: As Schools Spend Millions On Air Purifiers, Experts Warn Of Overblown Claims And Harm To Children
Last summer, Global Plasma Solutions wanted to test whether the company’s air-purifying devices could kill covid-19 virus particles but could find only a lab using a chamber the size of a shoebox for its trials. In the company-funded study, the virus was blasted with 27,000 ions per cubic centimeter. In September, the company’s founder incidentally mentioned that the devices being offered for sale actually deliver a lot less ion power — 13 times less — into a full-sized room. The company nonetheless used the shoebox results — over 99% viral reduction — in marketing its device heavily to schools as something that could combat covid in classrooms far, far larger than a shoebox. (Weber and Jewett, 5/3)

AP: Nurses, Doctor Help 'Lucky' Mom Who Gave Birth On Flight
A doctor and a team of neonatal medical professionals were in the right place at the right time — helping a Utah woman deliver her baby onboard an hourslong flight to Hawaii. Lavinia “Lavi” Mounga was traveling from Salt Lake City to Hawaii on April 28 for a family vacation when she gave birth to her son, Raymond, at just 29 weeks gestation. (5/3)

Crain's Chicago Business: New Black Mothers In Illinois Are Dying At Alarming Rates
Black women in Illinois are nearly three times as likely as white women to die of a pregnancy-related condition, according to a new report from the Illinois Department of Public Health, which analyzed 129 deaths that occurred in 2016 and 2017. During that period, 83% of deaths among women who were pregnant or within one year of pregnancy were "potentially preventable." While Black women were more likely to die from pregnancy-related medical conditions, including chronic disease, white women were more likely to die from pregnancy-related mental health conditions, such as suicide or drug overdose, the report says. (Goldberg, 4/30)

AP: Lubbock Votes To Ban Abortion, Setting Up Likely Legal Fight
Lubbock voters have approved a measure aimed at outlawing abortion in the West Texas city, a move likely to prompt legal action from opponents who call it an unconstitutional ban on the procedure. Residents voted Saturday to declare Lubbock a “sanctuary city for the unborn,” bypassing the City Council’s rejection of the proposal last year over concerns that it would be unenforceable and tie the city up in costly litigation. (5/2)

The Washington Post: Caitlyn Jenner Says She Opposes Transgender Girls Competing In Girls’ Sports 
Caitlyn Jenner, a former Olympic decathlon champion who is among the country’s most prominent transgender women, said Saturday she is opposed to transgender girls competing in girls’ sports. Jenner, 71, described it as a “question of fairness” and declared that girls’ sports require protection. She was making her first public comments on the issue since announcing her candidacy to replace California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) in a potential recall election. (Bieler, 5/2)

Las Vegas Review-Journal: Real Water Technician Testifies As Hepatitis Lawsuits Continue
Las Vegas-based Real Water, the focus of an ongoing U.S. Food and Drug Administration investigation into liver illnesses, hired a man with almost no experience in the business to oversee testing at one of its Southern Nevada bottling plants. When the pandemic struck and businesses closed across the valley, Casey Aiken lost his job as a strip club promoter and was forced to look for new work. In June, he landed a job at Real Water’s since-closed plant on Desert Inn Road that paid $10 an hour, loading bottled water onto pallets to be shipped out for home deliveries. (Ferrara, 5/1)

AP: Maine Foundation Provides $1M In Food, Shelter Grants
A foundation in Maine has provided $1 million in grants for essential services such as food and shelter to dozens of groups around the state. The John T. Gorman Foundation said it increased funding to its annual Direct Services Grant Program this year because of increased need caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The grants are mostly in the $10,000 to $20,000 range. (5/2)

Axios: WHO Lists Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine For Emergency Use 
The World Health Organization late Friday listed Moderna's coronavirus vaccine for emergency use. With the listing, WHO authorizes that the mRNA vaccine can be part of the U.N.-backed COVAX initiative, which looks to ensure that every country in the world has access to inocculations. (Gonzalez, 5/1)

Axios: Pfizer To Send 4.5 Million COVID-19 Vaccine Doses To South Africa 
Pfizer has committed to sending 4.5 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine to South Africa by June, with some 300,000 set to arrive Sunday, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize has announced. South Africa is battling the worst coronavirus outbreak on the continent and has struggled with a low vaccine supply, per Bloomberg. The country is also grappling with a dangerous variant of the virus. (Saric, 5/3)

AP: Russia, Facing Lags, Turns To China To Produce Sputnik Shots
Russia is turning to multiple Chinese firms to manufacture the Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine in an effort to speed up production as demand soars for its shot. Russia has announced three deals totaling 260 million doses with Chinese vaccine companies in recent weeks. It’s a decision that could mean quicker access to a shot for countries in Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa that have ordered Russia’s vaccine, as the U.S. and the European Union focus mainly on domestic vaccination needs. (Wu and Litvinova, 5/3)

Axios: Argentina Tops 3 Million COVID Cases, Hospitals Full 
Argentina surpassed 3 million COVID-19 cases since the pandemic's start Sunday amid reports of hospitals operating at capacity. Argentina's government last week imposed new restrictions following new national records for cases and deaths in April. Argentine health workers told Reuters hospitals are "full" and the "stalled" vaccine rollout needed to be stepped up to curb the spread. "The health system does not support one more patient," one health worker said. (Falconer, 5/3)

Reuters: Indonesia Says Finds Two Cases Of Indian COVID-19 Variant In Jakarta 
Indonesia has recorded its first cases of a highly infectious COVID-19 variant first detected in India, the health minister said on Monday, as authorities implored people not to travel to their hometowns for the end of the Muslim fasting month. Indonesia, which has been trying to contain one of the worst COVID-19 outbreaks in Asia, stopped issuing visas last month for foreigners who had been in India in the previous 14 days. (5/3)

Reuters: English Music-Lovers Party Like It's 2019 At COVID Pilot Festival
Live music returned to the birthplace of The Beatles after a long coronavirus-enforced silence on Sunday when the English city of Liverpool hosted a one-off music festival to test whether such events spread the virus. Around 5,000 people ditched face coverings and social distancing rules in the name of science and music. They attended the outdoor event having tested negative for COVID-19, and promised to get themselves tested again five days after the festival. (Rantala, 5/2)

Reuters: Thousands Of Revelers Attend Wuhan Music Festival 
Thousands of people attended the first day of the Wuhan Strawberry Music Festival on Saturday. In warm conditions on the first day of a five-day May Day national holiday revelers in the central Chinese city danced, bounced and screamed with delight as some of their favorite acts took the stage. (Pollard, 5/2)

AP: Tokyo Games Need 500 Nurses; Nurses Say Needs Are Elsewhere
Some nurses in Japan are incensed at a request from Tokyo Olympic organizers to have 500 of them dispatched to help out with the games. They say they’re already near the breaking point dealing with the coronavirus pandemic. Olympic officials have said they will need 10,000 medical workers to staff the games, and the request for more nurses comes amid a new spike in the virus with Tokyo and Osaka under a state of emergency. “Beyond feeling anger, I was stunned at the insensitivity,” Mikito Ikeda, a nurse in Nagoya in central Japan, told the Associated Press. “It shows how human life is being taken lightly.” (Kageyama and Wade, 5/3)

In other global developments —

Stat: WHO's Tedros To Seek Reelection, Setting Up Referendum On Leadership
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization, plans to run for a second five-year term as the head of the agency, according to a person familiar with his thinking, setting up a referendum on the WHO’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic under his leadership. It is unclear at this point whether others will emerge to challenge the 56-year-old from Ethiopia, who made history in 2017 when he became the first African elected to the global health agency’s top job. WHO director-generals may only serve two five-year terms, and must be elected each time. (Branswell, 5/3)

NPR: 'Silent Epidemic' Of Drowning Addressed By New U.N. Resolution
An underrecognized public health issue kills more than 235,600 people every year worldwide. It's not a disease. It's not a health condition. It's drowning. Even as severe new outbreaks of the COVID-19 pandemic take hold in places like India and parts of the Middle East, this week the U.N. passed a resolution that commits member state governments to making greater efforts to combat death by drowning — one of the top ten causes of death for children between the ages of 5 and 14. (Vaughn, 4/30)

Stat: Neglect Of India's Health System Fueled Its Covid Catastrophe 
Covid-19 is surging uncontrollably throughout India, disrupting big cities like Mumbai and devastating rural areas where there is extreme poverty and hardly any health care. The heart-rending images of funeral pyres set up in public parks, burning an endless line of bodies, is only a glimpse into the tragedy unfolding across the country. (Kalpana Jain, 5/2)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Herd Immunity For COVID-19 Isn't A Pipe Dream. Vaccination Incentives Can Help. 
After 575,000 U.S. deaths from COVID-19 and five months of public service announcements urging people to get vaccinated to protect against infections, 55 percent of American adults (including all seven members of The San Diego Union-Tribune Opinion team) have at least one dose and 39 percent are fully vaccinated. But polls taken in March suggest 20 percent to 25 percent of Americans won’t get vaccinated, jeopardizing America’s shot at herd immunity, which scientists say requires the inoculation of 60 percent to 90 percent of the population. Skeptics cite fear of side effects, mistrust in the government and questions about the speed with which the vaccines were developed. (4/30)

NBC News: With Covid Variant Raging, U.S. Puts Restrictions On Travel From India. How This Happened.
India's second Covid-19 wave has left much of the populace literally gasping for air. More daily infections — almost 390,000 — are now being logged there than in any other country since the start of the pandemic. Yet the true numbers likely dwarf these official figures as many cases and deaths are going uncounted. The spike led the U.S. to announce it would restrict travel from India starting on Tuesday. To handle the overwhelming number of cases, makeshift funeral pyres are being built in parking lots as crematories are overflowing with bodies. Hospitals have been overrun by infections, with sick patients being turned away and lifesaving medicines and oxygen supplies woefully low. As journalist Rana Ayyub wrote in Time, “If the apocalypse had an image, it would be the hospitals of India.” (Dr. Jalal Baig, 5/1)

Bloomberg: Joe Rogan's Bad Vaccine Advice Has An Upside 
When the popular podcaster Joe Rogan questioned whether young, healthy people should get Covid-19 vaccines in front of millions of listeners, he did the public health community a favor. His comments made it clear that they’ve done a terrible job so far in explaining why this low-risk group should get the shots. And some people just aren’t going to inject something into their bodies unless they’ve clearly been given a good reason. We’ve been told, correctly, that almost all the deaths from Covid-19 are in people over 60, and that many (though not all) of the younger people who’ve been hospitalized were obese or had other health conditions. We’ve also been told that the vaccines are 100% effective against hospitalization and death, so it’s not clear that an unvaccinated twentysomething is going to kill their vaccinated grandma or grandpa. (Faye Flam, 5/2)

Los Angeles Times: How Conspiracy Theories About COVID-19 Prey On Latinos 
Since the pandemic began, Latinos like my dad, a Mexican immigrant, have been hit with a torrent of false claims about COVID-19 on social media, including that the pandemic is a hoax. When I called Papi to urge him to wear a mask, his mind was made up: He said I was brainwashed. He didn’t believe my mother, who is a doctor, about COVID risks, either. I was frightened for his safety and angry at the people preying on Latinos’ learned distrust of authorities. Latinos, like other communities of color, have long been targets of inhumane medical policies and practices, such as the sterilization of a third of Puerto Rico’s women between the 1930s and 1970s and of thousands of California Latinos. Our hard-earned skepticism can be an asset, but in the pandemic, it has contributed to high infection and death rates in the Latino community. (Jean Guerrero, 5/2)

USA Today: COVID Vaccine Plan Reflects Racial, Ethnic Disparities In Healthcare
Last summer, the country seemingly woke up to how systems and policies drive widespread racial disparities. With the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, it was painfully clear that Black people were not only more likely to be killed by police than white people – Black people were more likely to die of COVID-19, more likely to lose work during the pandemic, and more likely to face food and housing insecurity. People poured onto the streets to demand change.  As Derek Chauvin is found guilty in George Floyd’s death, policies continue to exacerbate disparities. The recommendation to distribute vaccines based on age thresholds was “raceblind” and profoundly inequitable. About 12% of Black people and 8% of Latinx people in the U.S. are over the age of 65, relative to 21% of white people; together, Black and Latinx people were about half as likely as white people to be eligible for vaccination based on a 65 year age threshold. (Julia Raifman and Lorraine Dean, 4/30)

NBC News: Mental Health Issues In Kids Can Be Linked To Early Puberty. Parents Need To Be Prepared.
Being uncomfortable and self-conscious could be synonyms for puberty. Less universal was her experience of entering that transitional state before reaching an age in the double digits — which only compounds many of the traditional difficulties associated with pubescence. Now Brusie is a mother of five. And in our current era, early puberty — defined as starting before age 8 in girls and age 9 in boys (the average ages are 11 and 12, respectively) — is on the rise. That means parents like her have to have conversations and attend to these life-altering changes earlier than previous generations. Failing to do so could end up intensifying the mental health challenges and social dislocation kids face, as studies suggest these difficulties can be associated with early puberty and can persist into adulthood and beyond. (Dr. Connie Chang and Dr. Juli Fraga, 5/2)

Scientific American: How Big Data Are Unlocking The Mysteries Of Autism 
When I started my pediatric genetic practice over 20 years ago, I was frustrated by constantly having to tell families and patients that I couldn’t answer many of their questions about autism and what the future held for them. What were the causes of their child’s particular behavioral and medical challenges? Would their child talk? Have seizures? What I did know was that research was the key to unlocking the mysteries of a remarkably heterogeneous disorder that affects more than five million Americans and has no FDA-approved treatments. Now, thanks in large part to the impact of genetic research, those answers are starting to come into focus. (Wendy Chung, 4/30)

The Boston Globe: Gender-Affirming Care Offers A Model For All Of Health Care 
A patient once told me how she was forced to live in the world as a man, after having come out as a woman years earlier. Let’s call her “Sara.” She had to “retransition” because she could not find a psychiatric provider willing to write a letter granting her permission for surgery and did not feel safe as “a woman with a beard living on the streets.” My patient was a victim of a cycle of discrimination that started with a lack of access to basic gender-affirming care, leading to a lifetime of substance abuse, mental struggle, and an inability to find a place to call home. (Dalla Ducar, 5/3)

Stat: People Recover From Addiction. They Also Go On To Do Good Things 
The news about addiction — rising rates of addiction, record numbers of overdose deaths, and the like — tends to be bleak. As clinicians and researchers, however, we have the good fortune to often see its bright side: recovery. (David Eddie and John Kelly, 5/3)

Georgia Health News: It’s Time To Address Health Inequities In Lung Cancer 
Lung cancer is called the “silent killer” because it is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths and is often diagnosed in its later stages. It is generally associated with cigarette smoking, though it can be caused by pollutants in the air. Additionally, lung cancer has an especially large impact on communities of color, which is why we must work together to end social and health inequalities contributing to disparities in cancer screening, diagnosis, treatment and research. (Rochelle Smalls and Dr. Daniel Miller, 4/30)

Stat: FDA 'Master Plan' Will Affect NIH Funding For Digital Medicine Work 
The term B.C. took on a new meaning — Before Covid — last year when almost everything we knew changed. Among those changes is the way health care research and development are being conducted after the way Covid-19 vaccines were developed and brought to market. While it’s true that a good deal of research on the use of mRNA technology — the secret sauce in two of the Covid-19 vaccines authorized so far in the U.S. — is more than a decade old, the speed with which those vaccines were developed and authorized for widespread use was unprecedented. (Shira Machluf, 5/3)