NPR: The Pandemic Led To The Biggest Drop In U.S. Life Expectancy Since WWII, Study Finds
A new study estimates that life expectancy in the U.S. decreased by nearly two years between 2018 and 2020, largely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. And the declines were most pronounced among minority groups, including Black and Hispanic people. In 2018, average life expectancy in the U.S. was about 79 years (78.7). It declined to about 77 years (76.9) by the end of 2020, according to a new study published in the British Medical Journal. "We have not seen a decrease like this since World War II. It's a horrific decrease in life expectancy," said Steven Woolf of the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine and an author of the study released on Wednesday. (The study is based on data from the National Center for Health Statistics and includes simulated estimates for 2020.) (Aubrey, 6/23)

NBC News: U.S. Life Expectancy Decreased By An 'Alarming' Amount During Pandemic
Health experts anticipated life expectancy would drop during the pandemic, but how much it did came as a surprise. “I naively thought the pandemic would not make a big difference in the gap because my thinking was that it’s a global pandemic, so every country is going to take a hit,” said Steven Woolf, director emeritus of the Center on Society and Health at Virginia Commonwealth University, who led the new study. “What I didn’t anticipate was how badly the U.S. would handle the pandemic.” (Sullivan, 6/23)

USA Today: US Life Expectancy Falls Further Behind Other Countries
A country's life expectancy is shaped by its health care system, personal health behaviors, social and economic factors, physical and social environment, and public policies. Even if the U.S. fixed all these problems overnight, it would still take decades to catch up to other high-income countries, said Jessica Ho, assistant professor of gerontology, sociology, and spatial sciences at the University of Southern California, who was unaffiliated with the study. “If we do everything perfectly, we can increase (life expectancy) 2.5 years every decade,” she said. (Rodriguez, 6/23)

KHN: Black And Hispanic Americans Suffer Most In Biggest US Decline In Life Expectancy Since WWII 
Although James Toussaint has never had covid, the pandemic is taking a profound toll on his health. First, the 57-year-old lost his job delivering parts for a New Orleans auto dealership in spring 2020, when the local economy shut down. Then, he fell behind on his rent. Last month, Toussaint was forced out of his apartment when his landlord — who refused to accept federally funded rental assistance — found a loophole in the federal ban on evictions. (Szabo, 6/24)

CIDRAP: US COVID-19 Cases In First Pandemic Wave May Have Been 5 Times Higher
During the first US wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, there may have been almost 17 million undiagnosed COVID-19 infections in addition to the known 3 million cases, or about five times more than officially reported, according to a study in Science Translational Medicine yesterday. The researchers conducted enzyme-linked immunoassay serologic tests for COVID-19 antibodies on 8,058 undiagnosed US adults from May 10 to Jul 31, 2020, and found that 304 (4.6%) had COVID-19 antibodies. This indicates that there were 4.8 undiagnosed infections for every diagnosed case during this period, the researchers say, adding about 16.8 million infections to the country's total. (6/23)

ABC News: US Had Nearly 17 Million Undiagnosed COVID-19 Cases In Early Months Of Pandemic: Study
There may have been nearly 17 million undiagnosed COVID-19 cases in the United States in the early months of the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new National Institutes of Health study. The study suggests that the prevalence of COVID-19 in the spring and summer of 2020 "far exceeded" the number of confirmed cases -- especially in people who were asymptomatic. (Delios, 6/23)

In other news about the spread of the coronavirus —

CNN: These Are The Two Key Groups Now Being Hit Hardest By Covid-19 
Covid-19 deaths have been falling dramatically in the US, but -- with many people still unvaccinated -- the number of daily deaths remains in the hundreds. And the groups most at risk are increasingly younger people and Black Americans. Throughout the pandemic, Black people have been disproportionately affected by Covid-19, accounting for about 12.5% of the population but more than 15% of total deaths, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In May, that percentage went up to 19%. Recently, the average age of people dying from the virus also shifted younger. Adults under the age of 40 represented about 3% of Covid-19 deaths in May, more than double their share of total deaths since the pandemic began. (Holcombe, 6/24)

Des Moines Register: Iowa's COVID-19 Hospitalizations Reach Lowest Point Since March 2020 As Cases, Deaths Drop
Earlier this week, Iowa reported its lowest number of COVID-19 hospitalizations since March 2020, the month when the novel coronavirus was first reported in Iowa. The number of COVID-19 hospitalizations reported Monday — 54 — has since ticked back up slightly, to 69. But that's still lower than it had been the previous week. New reported cases and deaths also decreased over the past seven days. The Iowa Department of Public Health on Wednesday, June 23, was reporting a total of 373,310 coronavirus cases in Iowa since the start of the pandemic, an increase of 490 over the previous week. In the past seven days, Iowa has reported an average of 70 new cases each day. (Webber, 6/23)

In news about long covid —

CIDRAP: Young Adults With Mild Acute Infection May Be At Risk For Long COVID
More than 60% of 312 COVID-19 patients had symptoms persisting after 6 months, including 52% of older teens and young adults with mild acute infections, according to a Nature Medicine study today. The cohort consisted of 312 patients from Bergen, Norway, identified from Feb 28 to Apr 4, 2020, or about 82% of the city's total cases. About 80% were outpatients and the remaining were hospitalized; the median age was 46 years. Those hospitalized tended to be older, have a higher body mass index, and have more comorbidities. (6/23)

Axios: With Kids And Long COVID, There Are More Questions Than Answers 
Children, like adults, are at risk of developing "long COVID." But experts are still struggling to understand what, exactly, that risk level is. As the work to determine how common certain coronavirus vaccine side effects are in children, it's important to balance these risks against the risk of children remaining unvaccinated — which includes their risk of long-term health issues if they get infected. (Owens, 6/23)

CNN: Nick Guthe's Wife Died By Suicide After A 13-Month Battle With Long-Haul Covid. He Hopes Help Is On The Way For Others 
Filmmaker Nick Guthe says in the months before his wife, Heidi Ferrer, died by suicide, she suffered debilitating long-haul Covid symptoms. It started last summer, with "excruciating, unexplained" pain in her feet, Guthe told CNN's Alisyn Camerota on Wednesday. Digestive problems followed. She suffered body aches and her heart would race every time she got out of bed. And several weeks before her death last month, neurological tremors began that wouldn't let her sleep for more than an hour at a time, Guthe said. (Maxouris, 6/23)

USA Today: Missouri Newest COVID Hotspot Due To Variant And Vaccine Hesitancy
Missouri now has the nation's highest rate of new COVID-19 infections due to a surge largely in a politically conservative farming region in the northern part of the state. Another hot spot is the southwestern corner, which includes Springfield and Branson, the country music mecca in the Ozark Mountains where big crowds are gathering again at the city’s theaters and other attractions. While over 53% of all Americans have received at least one shot, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, most southern and northern Missouri counties are well short of 40%. One county is at just 13%. (Aspegren, 6/24)

AP: Unvaccinated Missourians Fuel COVID: 'We Will Be The Canary'
As the U.S. emerges from the COVID-19 crisis, Missouri is becoming a cautionary tale for the rest of the country: It is seeing an alarming rise in cases because of a combination of the fast-spreading delta variant and stubborn resistance among many people to getting vaccinated. Intensive care beds are filling up with surprisingly young, unvaccinated patients, and staff members are getting burned out fighting a battle that was supposed to be in its final throes. (Hollingsworth, 6/23)

The Washington Post: Delta Variant Spread In U.S. Exposes Poorly Vaccinated Regions To Renewed Danger 
The rapid spread of the delta variant of the coronavirus is poised to divide the United States again, with highly vaccinated areas continuing toward post-pandemic freedom and poorly vaccinated regions threatened by greater caseloads and hospitalizations, health officials warned this week. The highly transmissible variant is taxing hospitals in a rural, lightly vaccinated part of Missouri, and caseloads and hospitalizations are on the rise in states such as Arkansas, Nevada and Utah, where less than 50 percent of the eligible population has received at least one dose of vaccine, according to data compiled by The Washington Post. (Cha, Adam, Guarino and Bernstein, 6/23)

In global news about the delta variant —

Bloomberg: Europe Delta Covid Variant Spread Prompts Vaccination Pace, Reopening Warning
The growing threat of the delta coronavirus variant in the European Union has prompted a fresh warning from the bloc’s disease prevention agency about the pace of vaccinations and not rushing reopenings. The mutation, first seen in India, is considered even more infectious than the alpha strain, and could hamper efforts to get past the pandemic. It accounts for at least 20% of new cases in Ireland and parts of Germany, while in localized hotspots such as Lisbon, the figure is above 60%. (Loh, 6/23)

CIDRAP: ECDC Warns Of Extensive Delta COVID-19 Variant Spread This Summer 
In a risk assessment today, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) estimated that the Delta (B1617.2) variant will make up 90% of SARS-CoV-2 viruses in Europe by the end of August. Also, the World Health Organization (WHO) said yesterday in its weekly snapshot of the pandemic that 6 more countries have detected the Delta variant, raising the total to 85, as a number of nations battle steady rises in COVID-19 cases. (Schnirring, 6/23)

AP: Merkel: Europe 'On Thin Ice' Amid Delta Virus Variant Rise
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Thursday that Europe is “on thin ice” in its battle against the coronavirus, as the highly contagious delta variant threatens to undo progress made in reducing infections. In what may be her last government declaration to the German parliament, Merkel said the further response to the pandemic would be a main topic of discussion among European Union leaders at a meeting in Brussels on Thursday. (6/23)

Bloomberg: Sydney Maintains No-Lockdown Balancing Act As Delta Cases Climb
Authorities in Sydney are rejecting calls from some health experts for Australia’s most-populous city to enter lockdown to control a delta strain outbreak, despite case numbers doubling in the past two days. In a balancing act that’s being backed by Prime Minister Scott Morrison, New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian on Thursday said the city’s current restrictions were correct, even as the cluster has grown to around 40 cases and now includes a lawmaker from her own state government. (Scott and McKay, 6/24)

Also —

Fox News: AstraZeneca, Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccines Effective Against Delta Variant, Study Finds
Both the AstraZeneca and Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines maintained effectiveness against the Delta variant in a recent study, with researchers noting "no evidence of widespread complete escape from neutralization." The study, of which a pre-proof appeared in Cell, said it would "seem likely from these results" that the vaccines would provide protection against the B.1.617 variant, "though an increase in breakthrough infections may occur as a result of the reduced neutralizing capacity of sera." The Delta variant, which first originated in India, has been dubbed a variant of concern by both the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization as it’s increasingly turning up in surveillance data across the world. (Hein, 6/23)

The New York Times: Scientist Finds Early Coronavirus Sequences That Had Been Mysteriously Deleted
About a year ago, genetic sequences from more than 200 virus samples from early cases of Covid-19 in Wuhan disappeared from an online scientific database. Now, by rooting through files stored on Google Cloud, a researcher in Seattle reports that he has recovered 13 of those original sequences — intriguing new information for discerning when and how the virus may have spilled over from a bat or another animal into humans. The new analysis, released on Tuesday, bolsters earlier suggestions that a variety of coronaviruses may have been circulating in Wuhan before the initial outbreaks linked to animal and seafood markets in December 2019. (Zimmer, 6/23)

The Wall Street Journal: Chinese Covid-19 Gene Data That Could Have Aided Pandemic Research Removed From NIH Database 
Chinese researchers directed the U.S. National Institutes of Health to delete gene sequences of early Covid-19 cases from a key scientific database, raising concerns that scientists studying the origin of the pandemic may lack access to key pieces of information. The NIH confirmed that it deleted the sequences after receiving a request from a Chinese researcher who had submitted them three months earlier. (Marcus, McKay and Hinshaw, 6/23)

CNN: Coronavirus Samples From China: Scientist Jesse Bloom Says Early Samples Were Deleted From NIH Database 
Scientists investigating the origins of the coronavirus pandemic might be working with the wrong samples, because some early samples of the virus submitted by a Chinese researcher were deleted from a shared database, an expert in the evolution of viruses says. Jesse Bloom, a researcher at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle, said he found genetic sequences taken from early coronavirus cases in China that were deleted from a US National Institutes of Health database. Examination shows some of the early cases in the Chinese city of Wuhan are different, genetically, from the variants that eventually spread to cause the pandemic. (Fox, 6/23)

Roll Call: 3 Questions Experts Say Need To Be Asked About Pandemic’s Origin
Biosecurity experts are pushing Congress to investigate a theory that the virus that causes COVID-19 escaped from a lab in Wuhan, China, saying important information could be uncovered even without the help of Chinese authorities. “Many threads of investigation are available in the U.S. and would be accessible to a congressional inquiry with subpoena power,” said Rutgers University molecular biologist Richard Ebright, who believes the pandemic resulted from a lab accident. (Kopp, 6/23)

The Washington Post: White House Prepares Final 30-Day Extension Of Eviction Moratorium
Federal officials are expected to extend a national moratorium on evictions by 30 days, although no final decision has been made, according to two people familiar with the matter. The decision will be made by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which first implemented the moratorium. The eviction moratorium was set to expire June 30. (Stein, 6/23)

CBS News: Americans Most Likely To Be Evicted Are The Least Likely To Be Vaccinated 
As COVID-19 vaccination rates across America creep up, landlords are calling for an end to tenant protections, arguing that the public health crisis that led federal health authorities to freeze evictions is over. But data on evictions tell a different story. Across nine major U.S. cities, the neighborhoods with the highest rates of eviction lawsuits are also the areas with the lowest rates of vaccination, according to research from Princeton University. (Ivanova, 6/23)

In related news about covid's economic toll —

Crain's New York Business: Paid Sick Leave Law Reduced ER Usage, But Biz Leaders Decry Complicated Mandate
Business leaders acknowledge the importance of protecting employees’ right to paid sick leave, especially during the pandemic, but they are criticizing what they call vague language and the various prohibitions that make it hard to comply with the legislation. The state’s version of the paid sick leave law took effect Jan. 1. Some employers say the way it has been implemented has put an undue burden on them. “Employers providing paid sick leave is a good thing. That’s why 80% of businesses had provided it in some form even before the legislation,” said Frank Kerbein, director of the Center for Human Resources at the Business Council of New York State. “But the way New York state has done it is bad.” (Sim, 6/23)

The Washington Post: Retail Workers Are Quitting At Record Rates For Higher-Paying Work: ‘My Life Isn’t Worth A Dead-End Job’
Retail workers, drained from the pandemic and empowered by a strengthening job market, are leaving jobs like never before. Americans are ditching their jobs by the millions, and retail is leading the way with the largest increase in resignations of any sector. Some 649,000 retail workers put in their notice in April, the industry’s largest one-month exodus since the Labor Department began tracking such data more than 20 years ago. (Bhattarai, 6/21)

Health News Florida: As COVID Eases, Children's Advocates Worry Food Assistance Will Dwindle
A statewide organization representing farmworkers is raising alarms about food insecurity among Latino Floridians. “Now that the pandemic is kind of easing up, we see that the resources are now going back, going back. And pretty soon, we’re going to not have any of the resources that are trying to feed families," says Arturo Lopez, executive director of the Coalition of Florida Farmworker Organizations. (Prieur, 6/23)

Also —

The Washington Post: FEMA Pressed On Historically High Rejection Rates For Disaster Survivors 
At a time of worsening natural disasters and with the Biden administration leaning more heavily on the Federal Emergency Management Agency to handle a host of crises, the head of the agency was called before Congress on Wednesday to explain to a key subcommittee why FEMA’s approval rates for disaster survivors who apply for help have fallen to historic lows. “Survivors who have lost literally everything should not have to go through a rigmarole to try to prove eligibility for often meager FEMA assistance. It’s demoralizing,” said Peter A. DeFazio (D-Ore.), chairman of the House Transportation subcommittee on transportation and infrastructure, at Wednesday’s hearing. (Dreier, 6/23)

Stat: Officials See ‘Likely Association’ Between Covid Vaccines, Rare Heart Condition
U.S. scientists said Wednesday that there was a “likely association” between mRNA Covid-19 vaccines and an elevated risk of heart issues in adolescents and young adults, the strongest statement yet on the link between the two. The evidence presented Wednesday echoes what other experts and health officials in other countries have identified: that younger groups, particularly men under 30, have higher rates of myocarditis (inflammation of the heart muscle) and pericarditis (inflammation of the lining around the heart) following vaccination with the shots from Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech. Most cases have occurred soon after the second shot of the two-dose regimens. (Joseph, 6/23)

Politico: FDA To Add Warning About Rare Heart Inflammation To Moderna, Pfizer Vaccine Fact Sheets 
FDA plans to "move rapidly" to add a warning to fact sheets for Pfizer and Moderna's Covid-19 vaccines about the rare risk of developing inflammatory heart conditions, an agency official said Wednesday. "Based on the available data, a warning statement in the fact sheets for both health care providers and vaccine recipients and caregivers would be warranted in this situation," Doran Fink, deputy director of FDA's vaccines division, said during a CDC advisory committee meeting on Covid vaccines. (Gardner, 6/23)

NPR: Heart Inflammation In Young Adults After COVID-19 Vaccine Is Rare, CDC Says
Most people who have experienced this side effect have recovered from symptoms and are doing well, according to data presented Wednesday at a public meeting of the CDC's vaccine advisory committee. Of the 323 cases, 295 were discharged from the hospital, nine remained hospitalized as of last week and 14 were not hospitalized at all. Outcome data was missing for five of the cases. No deaths have been associated with this side effect. (Neel and Wamsley, 6/23)

NBC News: Teens, Young Adults Should Get Covid Vaccines, Despite Rare Heart Risks, CDC Advisers Urge
The benefits of Covid-19 vaccination far outweigh the risks of heart inflammation in young people, a panel of independent advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday. Still, members of the group, called the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, agreed that a warning about the potential risk should be added to the Food and Drug Administration's official fact sheets on the vaccines. (Miller, 6/23)

CNBC: CDC Group Says There Isn't Enough Data Yet To Recommend Booster Shots
A group of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention scientists said Wednesday that currently there isn’t enough data to support recommending Covid-19 booster shots to the general population but that more-vulnerable groups, such as elderly people or transplant recipients, may need an extra dose. The Covid-19 working group of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices didn’t rule out the possibility that the general population eventually may need booster shots if immunity from the vaccines wanes or a variant reduces the effectiveness of current shots. (Mendez, 6/23)

NBC News: No Evidence Yet To Suggest Covid Vaccine Booster Is Needed, CDC Group Says
There’s no evidence yet to suggest that a Covid-19 vaccine booster shot is needed, a working group for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday. That could change as the pandemic evolves, however, and public health officials will continue to monitor the virus to determine if additional shots are warranted in the future. (Miller, 6/23)

The Boston Globe: Studies On Third Dose Of COVID-19 Vaccine Offer ‘Hope’ To Immunocompromised People
The COVID-19 vaccine has offered most people the ability to return to their pre-pandemic lives. But people with weakened immune systems, such as transplant recipients and cancer patients, have had to remain vigilant because their bodies have not responded as robustly to the vaccine. Now, new research may offer hope that a third dose of the vaccine could boost immunity for the roughly 10.5 million immunocompromised people in the United States, including those with autoimmune diseases. “It may just be that their immune system just needs to see the proteins one more time in order to get to a level of immunity that people with more intact immune systems can accomplish with two doses,” said Dr. Dorry Segev, a professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. (Caldera, 6/23)

In other updates on the vaccine rollout —

AP: Ohio Ends Incentive Lottery With Mixed Vaccination Results
Ohio, the state that launched the national movement to offer millions of dollars in incentives to boost vaccination rates, planned to conclude its program Wednesday — still unable to crack the 50% vaccination threshold. The state’s not alone in mixed results for prize giving. Republican Gov. Mike DeWine’s May 12 announcement of the incentive program had the desired effect, leading to a 43% boost in state vaccination numbers over the previous week. But numbers of vaccinations have dropped since then. (Welsh-Huggins, 6/24)

Los Angeles Times: Did Newsom's California COVID Vaccine Lottery Boost Doses?
California has long been a leader in vaccinations. But the uptick in recent weeks offers an early suggestion that Gov. Gavin Newsom’s elaborate — and, in some corners, derided — program offering the chance at cash prizes to those who got vaccinated may have reaped some rewards. While it’s impossible to say for certain why each individual resident decided to get inoculated, the timing is nevertheless striking, and some suggest the state’s $116.5-million incentive program probably sparked renewed interest in the shots. (Lin II, Money and Stiles, 6/23)

North Carolina Health News: COVID Vaccine And A Haircut? Could Be! 
Walk into Reggie Winston’s barbershop, and you’ll know immediately that you’ll get more than just a haircut. A small studio set up in the back left corner of the shop pipes soft R&B music that pulses underneath the buzzing of electric clippers, the chop-chop of scissors, the whir of blow dryers, and the occasional chatter. Clients of all ages are greeted with a smile as they come in, and kids pick out Hot Wheels cars and toy dinosaurs to take home. House rules listed on the wall remind you that you’re more than just a client: You’re family. (Dougani, 6/24)

USA Today: New York City To Provide In-Home Vaccinations For All
New York City residents who want a vaccination now can get a house call. Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Wednesday that the city will provide in-home inoculations in an effort to get more New Yorkers vaccinated. The mayor said the new plan is ideal for people "for whom it's been a challenge to get to a vaccination site or they haven't been sure" if the want the vaccine. City officials already had been offering the service to homebound residents and are expanding it to include everyone. The city has counted more than 9 million jabs thus far. (Aspegren and Bacon, 6/23)

Health News Florida: First Lady Making Florida Stops To Push For COVID Vaccinations 
The White House announced that first lady Jill Biden will be in Kissimmee and Tampa on Thursday to encourage Floridians to get vaccinated against COVID-19. In Kissimmee, Biden will visit a vaccination site administered by Osceola Community Health Services. Later, she will be at Amalie Arena in downtown Tampa with the Tampa Bay Lightning vaccination event called Shots on Ice. AdventHealth will provide free Pfizer or Johnson & Johnson shots at the event. (6/23)

Fox News: Pete Buttigieg Says Federal Government Should 'Encourage' Vaccine Passports
Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg said that the federal government should "encourage" private businesses to implement vaccine passports when he was asked this week about Texas's ban on the practice. "If a company, a business wants to take steps to keep their workers and their passengers safe, I would think that, from a government perspective, we want to do everything we can to encourage that," Buttigieg told KDFW FOX 4 in Dallas on Monday. "And that’s certainly our view at the federal level." (Best, 6/23)

Axios: New App Will Help Employers Verify Workers' Coronavirus Vaccine Status 
A tech company is announcing a new health app Thursday that it says will help employers bring their employees back to the office safely by verifying their COVID-19 vaccination status. The app, or others like it, could be a sign of how employers can enforce vaccination requirements without relying on the honor system or hand-checking CDC vaccine cards. (Owens, 6/24)

San Francisco Chronicle: S.F. Will Require All City Workers To Be Vaccinated. Those Who Don't Could Be Fired
San Francisco will require all 35,000 city employees to be vaccinated against the coronavirus once a vaccine receives full approval from the Food and Drug Administration, city officials said Wednesday. The new policy makes San Francisco the first city or county in California — and probably the U.S. — to mandate COVID vaccinations for all government employees. (Allday, 6/23)

In updates on colleges that require the covid vaccine —

AP: 2 Private WVa Schools Will Require Student Vaccination
At least a couple of private West Virginia schools are requiring students to be vaccinated against COVID-19 this fall. The University of Charleston and Bethany College both say vaccinations will be required for the upcoming school year. University of Charleston President Marty Roth told news outlets that it is the school’s responsibility to provide a healthy environment for the 1,500 students expected at the Charleston campus and 200 at the Beckley campus. The way to do that is to require students to be vaccinated, he said. (6/24)

The Washington Post: Colleges Split On Coronavirus Vaccine Mandates 
Indiana University, a flagship institution in a staunchly Republican state, will require its more than 100,000 students and employees to get vaccinated against the novel coronavirus as it turns the page on a strange pandemic school year. “This is saving lives, it’s as simple as that,” said university President Michael A. McRobbie. “And it will enable us to have a normal fall semester.” Purdue University, also prominent in Indiana, is strongly encouraging vaccination for students and employees but avoiding mandates. A campaign for personal choice and responsibility, Purdue President Mitchell E. Daniels Jr. said, will get better public health results than requirements that “might come across as ham-handed and dictatorial.” (Anderson, Svrluga, Stanley-Becker, Lumpkin and Aguilar, 6/23)

In related news about hospital workers refusing the vaccine —

Houston Chronicle: 'Inappropriate' Or A Relief? How Houston Methodist Patients, Workers Feel About Vaccination Firings
A day after Houston Methodist finalized the terminations and resignations of 153 workers who had refused the COVID-19 vaccine, opinions swirled across one of Houston's largest hospital systems: "Dramatic." "Good patient care." "It's their choice." Although some patients and workers thought the first-in-the-nation firings went too far, they also felt safer going to the hospital knowing that their doctors and nurses were inoculated against the virus. Alex Chamorro, director of Houston Methodist’s central business office, was fully vaccinated by mid-January, a choice she made after she was hospitalized for COVID-19 last summer and lost her husband to the infection. (Wu and Zong, 6/23)

Bangor Daily News: Staff At Some Hospitals Are Getting Vaccinated At Lower Rates Than The Rest Of Mainers
Several hospitals in central and western Maine are seeing staff vaccination rates lower than the corresponding rate for the adult population here, opening them to a higher risk of outbreaks and reflecting the challenges of vaccine hesitancy. The hospitals with fewer staff vaccinated are largely in regions of the state with lower overall vaccination rates. Seven hospitals spread across Oxford, Somerset, Kennebec, Androscoggin, Franklin and Piscataquis counties saw less than 65 percent of employees fully vaccinated as of the end of May. At the time, just more than 65 percent of Maine adults were fully vaccinated. (Piper, 6/24)

The Washington Post: Biden To Focus On Guns In Crime Strategy 
Responding to a spike in homicides across the country, President Biden on Wednesday laid out an anti-crime strategy from the White House that cracks down on gun stores that don’t follow federal rules, steps up programs for recently released convicts and provides more support for police departments across the country. The speech is an attempt by the White House to show it is being proactive on an issue that historically has been politically difficult for Democrats and to refocus attention on its efforts to beef up gun regulations. (Linskey, 6/23)

CBS News: "We Will Find You": Biden Signals Crackdown On Gun Dealers Who Break The Law
President Biden said he is holding out hope for the reinstatement of the Assault Weapons Ban after a speech outlining a strategy on crime and gun prevention. Mr. Biden's speech focused heavily on guns, saying his administration plans to reduce gun violence through revoking licenses to sell guns through loopholes. "Today the [Justice] Department is announcing a major crackdown to stem the flow of guns used to commit violent crimes," Mr. Biden said. "It's zero tolerance for gun dealers who willfully violate key existing laws and regulations. And I repeat, zero tolerance. If you willfully sell a gun to someone who is prohibited from possessing it, if you willfully fail to run a background check, if you willfully falsify a record, if you willfully fail to cooperate with inspections, my message to you is this: We will find you." (Erickson, Linton and Segers, 6/23)

In related news —

Gothamist: How Does Treating Gun Violence As A Public Health Crisis Work? One Bronx Program Offers A Potential Flagship Model 
Now entering its seventh year, the Jacobi Medical Center program known as Stand Up to Violence is the first of its kind in the state to use a hospital-based approach that treats violence like a disease. There are roughly 18 gun violence prevention programs scattered across the city, several of which have shown promising results. But those behind the Jacobi initiative say its unique model and outcomes stand out among them: Between 2014 to 2018, gun violence in the areas it serves dropped by 45% compared to the four years prior before Stand Up To Violence was initiated, according to Dr. Noè Romo, a pediatrician who serves as the program's medical director. (Kim, 6/21)

Los Angeles Times: Court Mulls California Ban On High-Capacity Gun Magazines 
A federal appeals court grappled Tuesday with a key dispute that may determine the fate of several challenges to California gun laws. An 11-member en banc panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals considered a challenge to a voter-approved ban of large-capacity magazines with more than 10 rounds of ammunition. (Dolan, 6/22)

The Hill: Ex-NRA President, Gun Rights Advocate Unknowingly Speak At Fake Graduation Representing Kids Killed By Gun Violence
A former NRA president and gun rights advocate both unknowingly delivered commencement speeches at a fake high school graduation that represented thousands of children who died from gun violence before they could graduate alongside the class of 2021. In two videos shared on Wednesday, former NRA President David Keene and author and gun rights activist John Lott are seen delivering commencement speeches to a field of empty white chairs. (Pitofsky, 6/23)

BBC News: 'Heartbreaking' Conditions In US Migrant Child Camp
The tented camp in the Fort Bliss military base in El Paso, Texas, is the temporary home for over 2,000 teenaged children who have crossed the US-Mexico border alone and are now awaiting reunification with family in the US. Findings from the BBC's investigation include allegations of sexual abuse, Covid and lice outbreaks, a child waiting hours for medical attention, a lack of clean clothes and hungry children being served undercooked meat. The BBC has spoken to camp employees about these conditions and seen photos and video smuggled out by staff. (Andersson, 6/23)

CBS News: Migrant Children Endure "Despair And Isolation" Inside Tent City In The Texas Desert
The level of distress among migrant boys and girls held by the U.S. government at a tent city in the Texas desert has become so alarming that they are constantly monitored for incidents of self-harm, panic attacks and escape attempts, people who worked at the federal site told CBS News. Some children held at the large tent complex at the Fort Bliss U.S. Army base have required one-on-one supervision 24 hours a day to ensure they don't hurt themselves. Others have refused to eat or spend most of their days sleeping on cots. Workers said they saw migrant girls and boys with cut marks on their wrists and arms. (Montoya-Galvez, 6/22)

Roll Call: Kamala Harris To Visit Southern Border Amid Mounting Pressure
Vice President Kamala Harris will visit the U.S.-Mexico border during a trip Friday to El Paso, Texas, the White House said Wednesday. The visit will be Harris’ first to the border since she took office, and Republicans have criticized her for months for not visiting the area sooner despite her role in addressing an influx of migrants from the region. (Simon, 6/23)

Axios: Border Democrats Want Migrants Vaccinated 
Some Democrats representing border districts want President Biden to vaccinate migrants crossing into the U.S. — especially if he lifts public health restrictions that have prevented them from claiming asylum on American soil. Inoculating migrants treads a fine line of protecting the U.S. population while possibly incentivizing more migration with the offer of free COVID-19 vaccines. Republicans are likely to pounce on that. (Nichols, 6/23)

Modern Healthcare: Hospitals Again Ask HHS For More Time To Spend Relief Funds
Hospitals are again pleading with the Biden administration for more time to spend COVID-19 relief grants received before June 30, 2020. HHS' latest guidance, released June 11, laid out four separate deadlines for when providers need to spend or return their Provider Relief Fund grants. But the deadline for returning money received before June 30, 2020 was unchanged: Providers will still have to give back any unspent money by June 30. In a letter to HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra this week, AHA CEO Rick Pollack urged him to let providers keep PRF money distributed before June 30, 2020 until the end of the COVID public health emergency or June 30, 2022, the final deadline in HHS' most recent guidance. (Bannow, 6/23)

Fierce Healthcare: AHA Makes Last-Ditch Effort To Get HHS To Extend COVID Relief Fund Deadline 
The American Hospital Association (AHA) is imploring the Biden administration to give some hospitals more time to spend their relief dollars ahead of a June 30 deadline. The AHA wrote to Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra for flexibility on next week’s deadline as they warn that the pandemic is still impacting facilities. HHS did give providers more time to repay the relief funding, but only if the provider got that funding after June 30, 2020. Providers that got money before that date must still meet next week’s deadline. (King, 6/23)

In other news from the Biden administration —

The Washington Post: The Under-The-Radar Fight Over A New Health Agency 
There’s at least one proposal leftover from the Trump administration that President Biden is set on reviving: the creation of the Advance Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H). In the administration’s debut budget proposal, the National Institutes of Health received $6.5 billion to launch the new agency modeled after the military’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). ARPA-H would accelerate the development of medical treatments for Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and more. But there’s a battle brewing over where exactly the agency should be housed — and how it should be structured to have the most impact.  (Alemany and Rji, 6/23)

Politico: Obamacare Supporters See Opening To Shore Up Law After Court Win
After the latest Supreme Court ruling on Obamacare secured its survival, some of the law’s staunchest supporters have a clear message on what President Joe Biden should do next: Fix it. The Affordable Care Act, after more than a decade of political turmoil, has never loomed larger. The law provided a new safety net during the coronavirus pandemic, mostly through its expansion of Medicaid. The Biden administration has boosted federal aid to purchase Obamacare coverage, which could help bring in millions of new customers. Insurers who fled the marketplaces in the law’s turbulent early years have returned, lured partly by the richer government aid. (Luthi, 6/24)

Bloomberg Law: Biden HHS Can Act Alone To Push Campaign Bid To Shrink Uninsured
The administration can act on its own to further President Joe Biden’s campaign promise to get more Americans affordable health coverage and shrink the number of uninsured, even though Congress is mulling broader measures. Tweaks to regulations under the Affordable Care Act and other health laws can be implemented while lawmakers debate major proposals to expand coverage, such as forcing several states to expand for Medicaid, the low-income health program. The administrative changes can make a big difference in the number of people who have insurance in the long term and aren’t likely to meet as much resistance as some of the measures on Capitol Hill. (Stein, 6/24)

Bloomberg Law: HHS Can’t Ditch Drug Suits By Disavowing Letter, Attorneys Say
The Biden administration’s withdrawal of a Trump-era policy on prescription drug price cuts for low-income patients sets the stage for new tactics to incentivize cheaper medicines. Pharmaceutical companies vow to keep fighting. (Lopez, 6/24)

The Hill: Biden Nominates Cindy McCain As Ambassador To UN Food Agency
McCain will need to be approved by the Senate in order to serve in the role, which involves representing the U.S. at a specialized U.N. agency focused on ending hunger and making sure people worldwide have access to good-quality food. (Chalfant, 6/23)

Stat: Senators Call On Congress To Examine Expensive New Alzheimer’s Drug 
Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.) want Congress to take a deeper look at how Biogen’s controversial and pricey new Alzheimer’s drug, Aduhelm, will affect the Medicare program, they wrote in a letter Wednesday. The bipartisan duo is pressing the Senate Finance Committee to take on “the vexing new questions and challenges that approval raises for the Medicare program and other health programs” the panel oversees, they wrote. (Florko, 6/23)

Stat: FDA’s Woodcock Is Just ‘Not That Concerned’ About The Aduhelm Criticism
The Food and Drug Administration has been without a permanent commissioner for six months. The agency is facing a barrage of criticisms over its approval of an as-yet-unproven Alzheimer’s drug. And now critics are calling for the ouster of the acting commissioner. But speaking to that acting FDA Commissioner, longtime agency vet Janet Woodcock, you’d think everything is peachy. (Florko, 6/24)

The Boston Globe: State’s Second-Largest Health Insurer Slams Biogen For Costly Alzheimer’s Drug
The state’s second-biggest health insurer is threatening to limit or not cover Biogen’s new Alzheimer’s drug, accusing the Cambridge biotech of putting “excessive corporate profits” ahead of patients by charging $56,000 a year for the controversial treatment. Michael Sherman, chief medical officer for Point32Health, the insurance company formed by the recent merger of Tufts Health Plan and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, said Biogen should cut the cost of the drug called Aduhelm by a factor of roughly 10, to $5,400, given the medicine’s questionable benefits and potential risks. (Saltzman, 6/23)

Stat: Crucial Question On Alzheimer's Drug: When Should Patients Stop Taking It?
For families and physicians grappling with the historic approval this month of the controversial Alzheimer’s drug Aduhelm, there’s no shortage of unanswered questions. But a critical one has largely been overlooked: Once patients start taking the medication, how will they know when it’s time to stop? (Molteni, 6/24)

Stat: Key Democrats Slam FDA For Failing To Crack Down On Juul 
Congressional Democrats openly pressured acting Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Janet Woodcock to crack down on e-cigarette manufacturers Wednesday, with one powerful lawmaker blasting the agency for what they say is inaction on the issue. “Who is the cop on the beat to whom we entrust our children? It’s the Food and Drug Administration. And this agency has been timid and reluctant for way too long,” said Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the second most powerful Democrat in the Senate, who was testifying before the House hearing as a witness. “I worry the agency is going to fail again.” (Florko, 6/23)

Bloomberg: FDA Chief Ties E-Cigarette Maker To Youth Vaping Epidemic
The head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration suggested at a congressional hearing that e-cigarette maker Juul Labs Inc. has played a significant role in creating a youth vaping epidemic. Acting FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock was asked at a Wednesday hearing of the House Oversight Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy if Juul was “the e-cigarette company most responsible for creating this epidemic.” (Torrence, 6/23)

In other news from Capitol Hill —

Fox News: HHS Should Reinstate Fetal Tissue Research Ethics Board, 37 Senators And 100 Reps Demand In Letter
Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker and two of his House Republican colleagues are leading a letter to Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra demanding the Cabinet secretary reverse his decision to nix the National Institute of Health (NIH) ethics board overseeing human fetal tissue research. Wicker, alongside Missouri Reps. Blaine Luetkemeyer and Vicky Hartzler, are leading more than 100 other Republicans in a letter to Becerra expressing their concern of the HHS secretary cutting the NIH's Human Fetal Tissue Ethics Advisory Board (EAB) as well as the reversal of a department policy "prohibiting funding for intramural research using human fetal tissue." (Keene, 6/23)

The Hill: Senate Democrats Call For FDA Action On High Levels Of Heavy Metals In Some Baby Food 
A group of Democratic senators led by Sen. Amy Klobuchar (Minn.) is calling on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to step up efforts to eliminate toxic heavy metals that have been reported in some baby foods. Klobuchar, along with Democratic Sens. Tammy Duckworth (Ill.), Richard Blumenthal (Conn.), Cory Booker (N.J.) and Patrick Leahy (Vt.), made the request in a Thursday letter to acting FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock that was shared with The Hill. (Castronuovo, 6/24)

Politico: Senators Say A Deal With The White House Is In Hand On Infrastructure 
A group of bipartisan senators said Wednesday evening that they had agreed with the White House on a framework for an infrastructure package and will brief President Joe Biden in person Thursday on the details. “I’m optimistic that we’ve had a breakthrough," said Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) after the latest in a series of huddles with White House aides. (Mintz, 6/23)

Axios: Border Democrats Want Migrants Vaccinated 
Some Democrats representing border districts want President Biden to vaccinate migrants crossing into the U.S. — especially if he lifts public health restrictions that have prevented them from claiming asylum on American soil. Inoculating migrants treads a fine line of protecting the U.S. population while possibly incentivizing more migration with the offer of free COVID-19 vaccines. Republicans are likely to pounce on that. (Nichols, 6/23)

CNN: Judge Blocks Medicaid Expansion In Missouri 
A Missouri judge blocked Medicaid expansion in the state on Wednesday, saying the ballot initiative that voters approved last year was unconstitutional. The court action stems from Republican Gov. Mike Parson's decision last month not to expand Medicaid to roughly 275,000 low-income adults on July 1 because lawmakers did not appropriate funding. (Luhby, 6/23)

AP: Missouri Judge: Medicaid Expansion Unconstitutional
Cole County Circuit Court Judge Jon Beetem wrote that the voter-approved amendment unconstitutionally sought to force lawmakers to set aside money for the expansion. Under the Constitution, lawmakers can’t be forced to make appropriations unless the ballot measure includes a funding mechanism. Beetem wrote that the amendment “indirectly requires the appropriation of revenues not created by the initiative and is therefore unconstitutional.” (Ballentine, 6/23)

More on Medicaid —

Reuters: Will SCOTUS Mend 'Untenable' Medicaid Reimbursement Split?
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last year created an “untenable” conflict between federal and Florida precedent on the extent of Medicaid reimbursement rights, attorneys for both sides said in urging the U.S. Supreme Court to review the decision. On Thursday, the justices are scheduled to consider the certiorari petition filed by the parents of Gianinna Gallardo, who has been in a coma since she was hit by a truck as she got off a school bus in 2008. Her parents reached an $800,000 settlement with the alleged tortfeasors, of which just $35,000 was earmarked for “past medical expenses.” (Grzincic, 6/32)

WMUR: Advocates Push To Restore Dental Benefits To Medicaid Program In State Budget
A last-minute maneuver at the State House in Concord means Medicaid adult dental benefits are no longer in the [New Hampshire] state budget, but there appears to be bipartisan support to fund a program that advocates contend will ultimately save taxpayer dollars. Chloe Bertrand, 21, and her family recently made a trip to the State House to thank lawmakers for fully funding developmental services and to try to convince them to put the long-sought Medicaid adult dental benefit back into the budget after it was removed last week. (Sexton, 6/22)

KHN: Biden Quietly Transforms Medicaid Safety Net
The Biden administration is quietly engineering a series of expansions to Medicaid that may bolster protections for millions of low-income Americans and bring more people into the program. Biden’s efforts — which have been largely overshadowed by other economic and health initiatives — represent an abrupt reversal of the Trump administration’s moves to scale back the safety-net program. (Levey and Galewitz, 6/24)

In Medicare news —

Modern Healthcare: HHS Watchdog: Lax Oversight Of IoT Creates Cybersecurity Risks For Hospitals
Medicare needs to keep a closer eye on the cybersecurity of hospitals' internet-connected medical devices, an HHS' Office of Inspector General report found Wednesday. The agency recommended that CMS change its hospital quality reviews to address the issue, noting that Medicare accrediting organizations, which CMS relies on to monitor hospital quality, rarely use their power to examine networked devices' cybersecurity during routine hospital surveys. "Such a requirement would allow the (accrediting organizations) to consistently and routinely review hospitals' cybersecurity protections for their networked devices," the report said. (Brady, 6/23)

The Baltimore Sun: Maryland Hospital Workers Rally Outside Psychiatric Facility For COVID Pay 
Chants of “respect the worker’s voice” and “ho-ho, hey-hey, we deserve response pay!” echoed Wednesday afternoon around the campus of Spring Grove Hospital Center, a state psychiatric facility in Catonsville. Spring Grove hospital workers, including dietary and maintenance staff, gathered outside the central kitchen to rally for COVID-19 response pay — extra salary given to Maryland’s front-line state employees. (Lawrence, 6/23)

NPR: A Shortage Of Mental Health Treatment Beds Can Trap Kids In Crisis Inside ERs
Emergency rooms are not typically places you check in for the night. If you break an arm, it gets set, and you leave. If you have a heart attack, you won't wait long for a hospital bed. But sometimes if your brain is not well, and you end up in an ER, there's a good chance you will get stuck there. Parents and advocates for kids' mental health say the ER can't provide appropriate care and that the warehousing of kids in crisis can become an emergency itself. What's known as emergency room boarding of psychiatric patients has risen between 200% and 400% monthly in Massachusetts during the pandemic. The CDC says emergency room visits after suicide attempts among teen girls were up 51% earlier this year as compared to 2019. There are no current nationwide mental health boarding numbers. (Bebinger, 6/23)

Also —

San Francisco Chronicle: More Medical Calls In S.F. Can Mean Longer Waits For Ambulances. Here's How City Aims To Fix It
San Francisco doesn’t always have enough ambulances for medical calls, with a backlog of up to six calls at times. That means an ambulance has been requested but isn’t immediately available. Though paramedics are already at the scene delivering potentially life-saving care, and each delayed request may be resolved in minutes or even seconds, it can delay transport to a hospital in situations where each minute could matter. While medical calls have grown nearly 16% since 2015, the number of ambulance personnel has remained at 200, according to a Fire Department memo. The impacts of more calls can be increased wait times for patients to get ambulances in outlying areas and reliance on overtime to meet staffing needs, the memo said. (Moench, 6/23)

AP: Tennessee Doctor Pleads Guilty In Opioid Overdose Death
A Tennessee doctor has pleaded guilty to causing the overdose death of a patient by illegally prescribing the painkiller hydrocodone, federal prosecutors said. Thomas K. Ballard III faces 20 years in prison under a plea agreement, the U.S. attorney’s office in Memphis said Wednesday. Sentencing is set for Sept. 21. Ballard was one of 53 medical professionals in the U.S. who were indicted in April 2019 on federal charges related to the illegal prescribing of painkillers. (6/24)

AP: Ex-West Virginia Cabinet Secretary Named Hospital Chief
A former cabinet secretary in West Virginia has been named president and CEO of Princeton Community Hospital. Karen Bowling currently serves as West Virginia University Health System’s executive vice president of government affairs, as well as president and CEO of WVU Medicine’s Braxton County Memorial Health System and Summersville Regional Medical Center. (6/24)

Axios: Cigna's Express Scripts Sues U.S. To Obtain Decade-Old Tax Refunds 
Express Scripts is suing the U.S. government, according to a lawsuit filed this week. The pharmacy benefit manager, owned by health insurer Cigna, is demanding $43 million in tax refunds from 2010 and 2011, alleging the IRS wrongfully denied the company's use of a now-repealed income tax deduction. Cigna, one of the largest medical and pharmacy benefit administrators in the country, is suing for an amount that equates to 0.5% of its net profit in 2020 — a year in which the company boosted income as people delayed care due to the pandemic. (Herman, 6/23)

Modern Healthcare: Hospitals Are Largely Not Complying With Price Transparency Rule
Less than one-fourth of hospitals were fully compliant with federal price transparency regulations in early 2021, according to new data. A study by University of Minnesota School of Public Health faculty found that only 23.7% of hospitals reported all required data on service rates in both machine-readable and consumer-shoppable formats. CMS' Hospital Price Transparency Rule, which went into effect on Jan. 1, requires hospitals to publish information about the prices they charge for inpatient and outpatient services, as well as the rates negotiated with various private insurers. (Devereaux, 6/23)

Los Angeles Times: UC Regents Tighten Oversight In Catholic Hospital Deals
The University of California Board of Regents on Wednesday tightened UC’s rules on affiliations with hospitals that impose religious restrictions on care. The policy approved almost unanimously by the board places greater limits than before on interference by religious authorities with the medical judgments of UC physicians practicing at sectarian hospitals. The policy states that UC physicians must be permitted to provide any treatment to a patient at a sectarian hospital even if the treatment violates religious restrictions and the patient can’t be safely transferred to another facility. Affiliated hospitals will have until Dec. 31, 2023, to comply with the policy, or the affiliation agreement must be canceled. (Hiltzik, 6/23)

Modern Healthcare: New Law Offers Rural Hospitals New Payment Model—If They Scrap Inpatient Beds
Rural hospitals facing closure will soon have another option: a payment model that allows them to convert to standalone emergency departments while ending inpatient services. Starting in 2023, CMS will offer a new "Rural Emergency Hospital" designation to facilities that agree to wind down inpatient care and build up outpatient services. The program, authorized by a spending bill President Donald Trump signed last December, aims to help facilities become more financially stable by scaling back their operations while maintaining some critical services for patients. (Hellman, 6/23)

North Carolina Health News: Vidant Looks To Tie Future More Closely To ECU 
East Carolina University and one of the largest hospital systems in the state have announced the “first step” toward full clinical integration, eyeing a future “ECU Health” that will rival existing partnerships in North Carolina. On Wednesday, the university’s board of trustees approved the appointment of Michael Waldrum, CEO of Vidant Health, as the dean of the Brody School of Medicine at ECU. (Gulledge, 6/24)

Stat: Arcus’ Anti-TIGIT Immunotherapy Shows ‘Encouraging' Tumor Response
Arcus Biosciences said Wednesday that a two-drug combination that includes an anti-TIGIT antibody delivered “encouraging clinical activity” following a preliminary look at a clinical trial of patients with lung cancer. Beyond a verbal description of the interim study results, however, the Hayward, Calif.-based biotech isn’t saying much about its closely tracked TIGIT immunotherapy, called domvanalimab. Gilead Sciences has an option to license domvanalimab, but is deferring a decision until later this year, Arcus said Wednesday. (Feuerstein, 6/23)

In other pharmaceutical and biotech news —

Stat: What The Cancer Research Community Can Learn From The Covid Response
The Covid-19 pandemic’s rapid spread across the world demanded a quick, collaborative response. Now, experts are asking how they can take the lessons from combating Covid-19 and apply them to diseases like cancer. “As we look at Covid and the lessons we’re learning in the last year-and-a-half, it certainly is a lesson of successes and failures,” said John Oyler, CEO of BeiGene, in an event at the Milken Institute Future of Health Summit this week. “I strongly believe in oncology that we can and will learn from this set of experiences.” (Lin, 6/23)

Stat: 5 Companies Harnessing AI For Drug Discovery To Watch
A decade ago, the business of drug discovery changed forever. Machine learning researchers were beginning to crack open the potential of deep neural networks — the powerful technology at work when a computer recognizes what’s in a photo. At the same time, the field of single cell genomics was taking off, generating detailed data at a scale that could only be tackled by tech. Today, those techniques have matured, and their combined forces are beginning to pay off for AI-driven drug discovery companies — if not yet for the patients clamoring for new medicines. (Palmer, 6/24)

Stat: Peter Bach, Industry Critic, Joins Company Aiming To Make Liquid Biopsies
Peter Bach, well-known as a drug pricing researcher and pharma industry gadfly, is leaving academia for an executive role at a biotech firm that aims to develop a blood test that can detect lung cancer, the company announced Wednesday. Bach, 56, the director of Memorial Sloan Kettering’s Center for Health Policy and Outcomes, will become the chief medical officer of Delfi Diagnostics, a Baltimore startup that raised $100 million from a syndicate of investors in January to develop a new form of a technology, known as liquid biopsy, that can detect fragments of cancer DNA in the bloodstream. (Herper, 6/23)

NBC News: Back To Not-So-Normal: Psychologists Eye Pandemic Stress As U.S. Reopens
The Covid-19 pandemic has had a major impact on Americans' mental health since the first cases were recorded at the beginning of last year. A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey from December found 42 percent of Americans reported experiencing symptoms of anxiety or depression, a major increase from the 11 percent  who reported experiencing those symptoms prior to the pandemic. Psychologists are worried about the ramifications, and some say there could be a connection between these mental health issues and behavioral changes that are starting to manifest across the country. (Benson, 6/22)

USA Today: Despite Decreasing COVID-19 Anxiety, 4 In 10 Americans Are Still Wearing Masks, Poll Shows
As cases continue to drop in the United States, Americans are less anxious about COVID-19 affecting their family members, according to a new Monmouth University poll. Only 23% of Americans said they were “very concerned” about a family member experiencing severe illness due to COVID-19, compared to 60% in January, according to the poll published Monday. Another finding: Four in 10 Americans haven’t changed their mask-wearing habits since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention dropped mask requirements for vaccinated people in mid-May. (Avery, 6/23)

In travel news —

The Wall Street Journal: As U.S. Cruises Resume, Operators Outfit Ships With Contact-Tracing Tech 
Cruise operators, whose U.S. operations have been suspended for more than a year amid the Covid-19 pandemic, are betting on technology to help keep passengers safe when they finally start leaving U.S. ports this summer. Royal Caribbean Group, MSC Cruises and Virgin Voyages are among the cruise companies looking to smartphone apps, wearable devices, artificial intelligence and other technologies to keep passengers distanced, which lessens the chance of airborne transmission of the virus, and to provide contact-tracing if anyone does get sick. (McCormick, 6/21)

Health News Florida: Royal Caribbean CEO: 'All Is Good,' Awaiting CDC Feedback After Test Cruise
Royal Caribbean is waiting for feedback from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention after a simulated voyage of its Freedom of the Seas cruise ship, the company said. CEO Michael Bayley wrote on social media that the ship returned Tuesday morning to PortMiami after three days and two nights at sea testing CDC safety and health protocols put in place due to the COVID pandemic. (6/23)

CNBC: 'It's Out Of Control.' Airlines, Flight Attendants Want Stiffer Penalties For Unruly Passengers
A JetBlue Airways flight bound for New York returned to the Dominican Republic in early February after a passenger allegedly refused to wear a facemask, threw an empty alcohol bottle and food, struck the arm of one flight attendant, and grabbed the arm of another. The Federal Aviation Administration, which detailed the incident in a report, slapped the passenger with a $32,750 fine. (Josephs, 6/22)

Also —

The New York Times: Britney Spears Told Court She Wanted Her IUD Removed 
One of the most explosive details in Britney Spears’s testimony on Wednesday came when she said that the people who control her affairs had refused to allow her to get her IUD removed so that she could try to have a third child. ... She told the court that she wanted to remove the birth control device “so I could start trying to have another baby, but this so-called team won’t let me go to the doctor to take it out because they don’t want me to have children, any more children.” ... Alexis McGill Johnson, president and chief executive of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, weighed in on Twitter, calling Ms. Spears’s account “reproductive coercion.” (Jacobs, 6/23)

KHN: Calming Computer Jitters: Help For Seniors Who Aren’t Tech-Savvy
Six months ago, Cindy Sanders, 68, bought a computer so she could learn how to email and have Zoom chats with her great-grandchildren. It’s still sitting in a box, unopened. “I didn’t know how to set it up or how to get help,” said Sanders, who lives in Philadelphia and has been extremely careful during the coronavirus pandemic. (Graham, 6/24)

Health News Florida: DeSantis Signs Bipartisan Legislation Affecting Children With Disabilities
Schools across Florida must soon follow stricter guidelines when it comes to restraining students with cognitive, developmental and behavioral disabilities. Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday signed a bipartisan bill that will prohibit staff from forcing K-12 students with disabilities to isolate in a room, a practice known as seclusion. (Crowder, 6/23)

Health News Florida: AHCA Gives Tentative Approval To Additional Hospice Expansion
Florida health care regulators announced this year that the state needed an additional four hospice programs by July 2022 to care for people who are dying. This week, though, the state Agency for Health Care Administration gave tentative approval to twice that many. The decisions, announced Monday, could bring additional hospice programs to seven counties, including Broward, Lee and Manatee, which were not included in a Feb. 5 published list of areas that needed new programs. (Sexton, 6/23)

CNN: Here's How Coronavirus Spread Inside A Government Office In Florida -- And How One Official Says It Stopped 
Officials in Manatee County, Florida, were able to identify the patient zero in a recent outbreak of the coronavirus that swept through a government building and left two employees dead and several hospitalized, all of whom were unvaccinated. Officials learned through contact tracing that the patient, an employee in the IT department, was infected by an unknown contact, Manatee County Administrator Scott Hopes said during a virtual news conference on Wednesday. (Lynch and Maxouris, 6/24)

In news from Illinois and Pennsylvania —

ABC News: Company Defends Use Of Toxic Chemicals To Fight Plant Fire 
A company whose northern Illinois chemical plant was heavily damaged in a fire last week defended its use of firefighting foam containing toxic chemicals Wednesday, saying crews had taken steps to contain the material. An industrial team hired by Lubrizol Inc., parent company of Chemtool, used foam containing PFAS compounds June 15 before switching to another foam without them on orders of the fire chief in Rockton, a town near the Wisconsin border. (Flesher, 6/23)

Philadelphia Inquirer: Pa. Dentists Struggle To See More Patients For Cleanings, X-Rays And More As Pandemic Wanes
Add to the toll of COVID-19 oral health. “Tooth pain and periodontal abscesses and face swelling,” said Kari Hexem, chief dental officer at Philadelphia FIGHT Family Dentistry, in Center City, listing some of the conditions that have worsened in people who avoided the dentist for more than a year due to fear of COVID-19. “Some people lost teeth they wouldn’t have lost if they had come in,” said Bernadette Logan, a suburban dentist at Paoli Smiles. “Definitely harder cleans, more tartar, broken teeth.” (Laughlin, 6/23)

In news from South Dakota, Utah, Arizona and Nevada —

AP: South Dakota Board Of Regents: No Medical Pot On Campus
Medical marijuana won’t be allowed on the campuses of South Dakota’s public universities, the Board of Regents announced Wednesday. The board, which oversees the state’s six public universities, changed its policy on medical marijuana as the state prepares for the drug to be legalized on July 1. It reasoned that it had to stay in compliance with federal law, which still outlaws the drug. (6/23)

Salt Lake Tribune: Utah AIDS Foundation Will Provide Mental Health Counseling To Its Clients
In addition to helping people living with HIV with their physical health, the Utah AIDS Foundation (UAF) is about to begin helping them with their mental health. Beginning July 1, UAF will expand its services to include long-term mental health counseling. It is the first new program the organization has added in more than a decade. It comes in response to “the persistent need and the long-term trauma experienced by clients living with HIV,” said UAF executive director Ahmer Afroz. Although UAF is based in Salt Lake City, its staff works with people living with HIV across the state of Utah. The new program will offer this “extremely marginalized population” individualized, long-term mental health therapy — the first program of its kind in Utah. (Pierce, 6/23)

AP: 8 Marijuana Products Being Recalled By Arizona Dispensaries
Arizona Department of Health Services officials announced Wednesday that dispensaries are voluntarily recalling eight marijuana products because of possible contamination. They said no illnesses have been reported so far, and the move is just a precaution after Salmonella bacteria and Aspergillus fungus were detected in some samples. (6/24)

Las Vegas Review-Journal: Sisolak Praises Private Sector COVID Task Force As It Disbands
Gov. Steve Sisolak on Wednesday marked the disbanding of a Nevada COVID-19 private sector task force by praising the lengths to which it went to find personal protective equipment for medical workers and to increase coronavirus testing early in the pandemic. “In March of 2020, none of us knew what toll this pandemic would take on the world, especially on the state of Nevada,” Sisolak said at an afternoon news conference. “We were deeply affected, but for all that we suffered, we had a distinct advantage in tackling our needs and shoring up our resources,” he said. “The private sector is an advantage Nevada had that no one else did. (Hynes, 6/23)

The New York Times: U.S. To Send Brazil 3 Million Doses Of J&J’s Vaccine
The White House said on Wednesday that the United States would send three million doses of Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine to Brazil on Thursday. The country’s virus cases and fatalities are surging again, with a death toll above 500,000. Less than a third of the country’s population has had at least one shot, and an average of 74,490 new cases per day were reported in the country in the last week — an increase of 26 percent from the average two weeks ago. (6/24)

Reuters: Brazil Sets Single-Day Record For Coronavirus Cases 
Brazil registered a single-day record of 115,228 new confirmed coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, the Health Ministry said on Wednesday, as its outbreak shows new signs of accelerating despite long-delayed vaccination efforts finally gaining steam. Brazil has recorded the world's highest COVID-19 death toll outside the United States, with more than half a million lives lost, according to the ministry's official tally. (6/23)

Reuters: Let Down By Rich And Failing The Poor, Global Vaccine Scheme To Be Shaken Up
Shunned by rich countries and failing to meet the needs of the poorest, a programme co-led by the World Health Organization (WHO) for fair distribution of COVID-19 vaccines is planning a shake-up, internal documents seen by Reuters show. The COVAX programme is far short of its target of delivering 2 billion doses by the end of the year, but does expect a big increase in supplies by early 2022, and wants to make sure that those, at least, reach the countries in direst need. (Guarascio, 6/23)

Bloomberg: World’s Worst-Hit Virus Region Offered $500 Million Vaccine Aid
A key Latin American development bank is helping countries secure Covid-19 vaccines and can deploy about $500 million to fight the pandemic in the world’s most affected region. The Inter-American Development Bank is in talks with Argentina and Panama and vaccine makers to provide credit for purchases of about $50 million to $100 million for each country, said Mauricio Claver-Carone, president of the Washington-based institution. They would be the first countries to use an IDB initiative rolled out in March to help resolve vaccine indemnity obligations in contract negotiations with vaccine makers. (Martin, 6/23)

In other covid developments around the globe —

CNN: Covid Outbreak At US Embassy In Afghanistan Grows
The Covid-19 outbreak at the US Embassy in Kabul has grown to 159 cases, according to a diplomatic cable sent Tuesday, as a devastating third wave of the deadly disease continues to hit Afghanistan. A source familiar with the cable said it noted that several people at the diplomatic mission are on oxygen or have been medically evacuated from the post, which was put under immediate lockdown last week to try to stem the spread of the coronavirus. (Hansler and Atwood, 6/23)

Al Jazeera: Angela Merkel Receives Moderna Dose After First AstraZeneca Shot
German Chancellor Angela Merkel received a Moderna coronavirus vaccine as her second jab, after getting the first dose of AstraZeneca vaccine, a government spokesman said on Tuesday. The 66-year-old took her first dose of AstraZeneca’s vaccine in April, more than two weeks after German authorities recommended the use of the jab only for people aged 60 and above. (6/22)

AP: Indonesian Cleric Gets 4 Years For Concealing COVID-19 Test
An influential firebrand cleric was sentenced to another four years in prison in Indonesia on Thursday for concealing information about his coronavirus test result. The three-judge panel at East Jakarta District Court, which was under heavy police and military guard, ruled that Rizieq Shihab had lied about his COVID-19 test result, which made contact tracing more difficult. (Karmini and Alangkara, 6/24)

In other news —

The Wall Street Journal: Illicit Covid-19 Drugs Bound For Mexico Seized By U.S. Authorities 
Federal authorities have seized at U.S. airports unauthorized versions of the Covid-19 treatment remdesivir destined for distribution in Mexico, the latest effort by the government to root out criminal activity related to the pandemic. Counterfeit or generic versions of remdesivir, an antiviral manufactured by Gilead Sciences Inc., are arriving in the U.S. by plane from Bangladesh and India and being smuggled by individuals to Mexico for patients willing to pay top dollar for the drugs, people familiar with the investigation said. (Hopkins, 6/23)

AP: Europe Seeks Disabled Astronauts, More Women In Space
The European Space Agency says it was “blown away” by the record number of applicants — more than 22,000 — hoping to become the continent’s next generation of space travelers, including more women than ever and some 200 people with disabilities. ... ESA specifically sought out people with physical disabilities, for a first-of-its-kind effort to determine what adaptations would be necessary to space stations to accommodate them. (6/23)

The Washington Post: The Tokyo Olympics Just Got An Important No-Confidence Vote — From Japan’s Emperor
Japanese Emperor Naruhito appears “concerned” that this summer’s Olympics in Tokyo could cause a rise in coronavirus infections, according to the head of the Imperial Household Agency (IHA).“His majesty is very worried about the current infection situation of the COVID-19 disease,” Yasuhiko Nishimura, grand steward of the agency, told a regular news conference on Thursday, the Kyodo News agency reported. (Denyer, 6/24)

CNBC: Doctor Shortage Contributed To Japan's Slow Vaccine Rollout: Professor
A shortage of doctors and nurses in Japan’s aging population contributed to the country’s sluggish Covid vaccine rollout, says Keio University professor Sayuri Shirai. As of June 21, only 18.3% of Japan’s population has received at least one Covid vaccine dose, according to Our World in Data. In comparison, more than 50% of people in the U.S. have received one dose of the vaccine while that figure is even higher in the U.K. at 63.6%. (Huang, 6/23)

The Wall Street Journal: Positive Tests In Uganda Olympic Delegation Challenge Protocols For Tokyo Games 
The scenario cuts through several of the layers of protection that Tokyo organizers have been banking on in preparation for the Games. Participants do not have to be vaccinated, but officials have said they expect that up to 80 percent of them will be. Pre-departure testing is a major part of their plan in order to avoid the prospect of infected people traveling to the Games, where they will be crowded together indoors from the moment of their arrival, and then every day they are at the Olympic Village.  (Radnofsky and Gale, 6/23)

CNBC: Paralympic Games Could Enable A More Inclusive Post-Pandemic Recovery
This summer’s Tokyo Paralympics present an opportunity for businesses to embrace a vastly underrepresented segment of the workforce and aid the global coronavirus recovery, experts said. The decades-old Games, which showcase the sporting talents of leading disabled athletes, have been instrumental in removing taboos around often “shunned or excluded” members of society, International Paralympic Committee CEO Mike Peters told CNBC. (Gilchrist, 6/24)

American Heart Association and ScienceDaily: Starchy Snacks May Increase CVD Risk; Fruits And Veggies At Certain Meals Decreases Risk 
Eating fruits with lunch, vegetables at dinner and a dairy snack in the evening was associated with a reduced risk of early death by cardiovascular disease (CVD) and all-cause mortality, according to a study of U.S. adults. Eating a Western lunch (typically containing a high quantity of refined grains, cheese and cured meat) was associated with an elevated risk of CVD and all-cause mortalities in the same study. (6/23)

New England Journal of Medicine: A Novel Circulating MicroRNA For The Detection Of Acute Myocarditis
After identifying a novel microRNA in mice and humans with myocarditis, we found that the human homologue (hsa-miR-Chr8:96) could be used to distinguish patients with myocarditis from those with myocardial infarction. (Funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and others.) (Blanco-Dominguez et al, 5/27)

King's College London and ScienceDaily: Fertility Drugs Do Not Increase Breast Cancer Risk, Study Finds
Drugs routinely used during fertility treatments to release eggs do not increase the risk of developing breast cancer, new research has shown. (6/21)

American Academy Of Pediatrics: Self-Reported And Documented Substance Use Among Adolescents In The Pediatric Hospital
In this study of hospitalized adolescents, the most commonly reported substances used were alcohol, marijuana, and electronic cigarettes. Positive substance use documentation was rare and often discordant with self-reported substance use. Efforts to improve systematic screening for substance use and interventions for prevention and cessation in hospitalized adolescents are critically needed. (Masonbrink et al, 6/1)

Nationwide Children's Hospital and ScienceDaily: Virtual Reality As Pain Relief: Reducing Dressing Change Pain In Pediatric Burn Patients
Prior studies have investigated alternative approaches to pain reduction in burn injury patients that focus on distraction, such as music, hypnosis, toys, and virtual reality (VR). A research team has now reported the use of smartphone-based VR games during dressing changes in pediatric patients with burn injuries. (6/21)

American Academy Of Pediatrics: Trends In Bronchiolitis ICU Admissions And Ventilation Practices: 2010–2019
The proportions of children with bronchiolitis admitted to an ICU and receiving NIV have substantially increased, whereas the proportion receiving IMV is unchanged over the past decade. Further study is needed to better understand the factors underlying these temporal patterns. (Pelletier at al, 6/1)

The Washington Post: The Delta Variant Spells Trouble. The Best Way To Counter It Is Vaccines
Earlier in the coronavirus pandemic, it was thought that a threshold of natural and vaccine-acquired immunity, say 70 percent, would leave the virus little room to grow. President Biden set a goal of 70 percent of Americans getting at least one shot by July 4. The hope was that once the nation reached herd immunity, the virus would die out. Thanks to the delta variant, it is time to reconsider. The country will fall short of Mr. Biden’s goal by Independence Day. But more importantly, the current level of vaccine immunity is insufficient to end the pandemic in the United States. Since it began, SARS-CoV-2 has evolved to become far more contagious. The goal posts must move when the virus moves. The higher the contagion, the larger share of the population must be immune; for example, measles, which is even more contagious than the coronavirus, requires about 94 percent to be immune to stop the virus from spreading. To really end the pandemic, a chunk of the unvaccinated in the United States must gain immunity, and the best way is through vaccines. (6/23)

Scientific American: How To Prevent The Next Pandemic
How do we prevent a pandemic like this from happening again? As we start to tackle that question, inevitably part of it will involve looking back at the mistakes that were made with COVID-19, and rightly so. But it’s also important to learn from the things we got right, because this pandemic could have been worse, much worse. So, if we want to ensure that this is the last pandemic to cause devastation on this scale, then not only do we need to build on these successes, but the time to do that is now. (Seth Berkley, 6/23)

USA Today: After COVID: Deeper Bonds, New Possibilities, Openness On Mental Health
It finally feels like the United States is turning a corner on COVID-19. Vaccines are widely available, new cases are dropping and restrictions are starting to lift. But we’re also realizing that we’ve barely begun to reckon with the emotional impact of this crisis. An estimated 5 million Americans have lost loved ones. Devastating new surges in Africa, India and Latin America are a constant reminder that the virus is still a threat. And for many of us, the prospect of returning to “normal” is more daunting than exciting –  nearly half of Americans say they’re uncomfortable with the idea of going back to living life as they did before the pandemic. We’re weary of our present reality, but many of us are not energized for what comes next, either.  (Sheryl Sandberg and Dr. Adrienne Boissy, 6/23)

Stat: Breaths, Deaths, And Missed Breaks: A Nurse Counts Through The Pandemic
I woke myself up the other morning counting out loud. Twenty-seven. Twenty-eight. Twenty-nine. Thirty. Rhythmic, staccato counting, the familiar cycle of CPR. Even though I was home in my own bed, it didn’t stop me from worrying about the patient I’d abandoned in my dream. I make my living as a travel nurse. Though my home is in Montana, I spent most of the pandemic working on Covid-19 units in Arizona, including the winter and spring of 2021 when the state’s surge was overwhelming its health care system. (Karla Theilen, 6/24)

Scientific American: Abortion Is At The Supreme Court Again--It's Different This Time 
When Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed a new abortion restriction into law on May 19, it marked a chilling milestone—a staggering 1,300 restrictions enacted by states since Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973. I know because I have read and logged all of them—many as they were being enacted—in my 22 years at the Guttmacher Institute tracking state legislation on abortion and other issues related to sexual and reproductive health and rights. It’s an astounding number, and while many of these restrictions were blocked in court, most of them are in effect today. (Elizabeth Nash, 6/23)

The Washington Post: Here’s Why We Approved The First New Alzheimer’s Drug In Two Decades 
Earlier this month, the Food and Drug Administration approved aducanumab (under the brand name Aduhelm), the first new drug for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease in nearly 20 years. Patients with Alzheimer’s have shared stories of the disease’s devastating effects, including knowing that it will alter their sense of who they are and rob them of the ability to care for themselves. We understand that an approval of this magnitude is of intense interest, so we want to explain what we have done and why we have done it. (Patricia Cavazzoni, Billy Dunn and Peter Stein, 6/23)

The Boston Globe: Longing For The Day When Sexism In Medicine Is DOA 
I met recently via Zoom with a group of female medical residents taking a rare break in their hectic schedules. As we discussed how their experiences compared with my own as a new doctor 35 years ago, I was surprised and alarmed. My young colleagues related to how overworked and overwhelmed I’d felt; how I developed a dangerous pregnancy complication because I was too afraid to ask for any reduction in my hours on duty; how a man in my program informed me that I’d been chosen to be a chief resident as a “token woman”; how I’d feared any display of weakness or emotion on my part would mark me as unworthy. Three decades after my residency, in 2021, as we mark the bicentenary of the birth of Elizabeth Blackwell, the first female graduate of an American medical school, have we really made so little progress? (Suzanne Koven, 6/23)

Houston Chronicle: Texas Has An Opportunity To Expand Health Insurance Coverage
For approximately one-quarter of uninsured Texans, there has been a solution that state leaders could have adopted since 2014 — Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act. While the state’s political leaders still refuse to embrace this straight-forward solution, there’s a new opportunity for coverage expansion in Texas. Texas has the highest number (more than 5 million) and largest percentage (18.4 percent) of residents without health insurance. The problems caused by these high numbers are well-documented. Uninsured Texans who lack access to basic preventive and primary care have poorer health outcomes. Then, there’s the unsustainable financial pressure on health care providers and the shifting of costs of providing health care for the uninsured, often in expensive hospital settings, to those with insurance. (Elena Marks, 6/24)

Modern Healthcare: Clinical Leaders, Health System Executives Need To Work Hand In Hand
High-quality, affordable and accessible healthcare increasingly relies on team collaboration and interdisciplinary work to deliver excellent outcomes and high patient satisfaction. The challenges that healthcare organizations face today (e.g., continued recovery from the pandemic, rising costs, regulatory mandates, decreasing reimbursement, new technology, access concerns, etc.) create an urgent need for executives and clinical leaders to partner to help create healthy communities together. (Dr. Lydia Watson, 6/23)

Stat: Next Steps For Wastewater Testing, A Valuable Tool For Public Health 
Essential data can be found in the most unexpected places, including the wastewater flowing freely through sewers. During the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic, cities began tapping their wastewater to look for evidence of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19. Now, more than a year into the pandemic, it’s clear that sewage surveillance carries several advantages over traditional surveillance. (Aparna Keshaviah, 6/24)

Chicago Tribune: Physician-Assisted Suicide Would Be Dangerous Policy
Is legalizing physician-assisted suicide really the most compassionate option for Americans at the end of life? If it is, then I am certainly for it. No physician would disagree with the aim of relieving the suffering of the dying. However, physician-assisted suicide is not a treatment option; it is premature death. It is a dangerous public policy that threatens the most vulnerable in society. Assisted suicide is a grossly simplified “solution” to the complexities of end-of-life concerns. Patients seeking it do experience problems that can and should be addressed, but often not by medications alone. The field of medicine should focus on doing what it can to heal and to help patients find a state of wholeness, not seek to make death more accessible. For this reason, I oppose physician-assisted suicide and urge the Illinois state legislature to do the same. (Dr. Benjamin German, 6/23)

Los Angeles Times: High School Soccer Player's Death In Heat Was Preventable 
After participating in a club soccer practice last August in Chino on one of the hottest days of the year, 17-year-old Shane Thomas collapsed and died. This month, the San Bernardino County Coroner’s Division ruled that extreme heat played a role in his death. He died from “hyperthermia due to elevated environmental temperature,” the autopsy report said. The temperature had reached 111 degrees around the time of practice. Shane didn’t have to die. Athlete deaths related to heat exertion are 100% preventable. Unfortunately, California has a severe shortage of policies that could prevent such deaths. (Jason Bennett, 6/24)