AP: Biden COVID Coordinators Leaving In April, Jha To Take Over
President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients and his deputy Natalie Quillian are leaving the administration next month, the White House announced Thursday. They will be replaced by Dr. Ashish Jha, the dean of the Brown University School of Public Health. Zients, an experienced manager and government executive, was brought on by Biden before he took office to devise and execute a “ wartime” federal government response to the coronavirus pandemic, including shoring up supply and distribution of vaccines, therapeutics and tests. His departure comes as the White House is shifting its posture from one of confronting an emergency to nudging Americans back to normalcy as the nation learns to live with a less-severe virus that is likely to remain endemic. (Miller, 3/17)

The New York Times: Jeff Zients To Leave As Biden’s Covid Czar And Be Replaced By Ashish Jha
Dr. Jha, who is also a health policy researcher with expertise in pandemic preparedness and response, will coordinate the government’s Covid response from inside the White House, officials said. But the selection of a veteran public health expert signaled that Mr. Biden believes the country has moved into a new phase of the fight against the virus. With much of the country vaccinated, officials said the federal response would become more of a long-term public health effort and less of a moment-by-moment crisis requiring rapid government action. If new variants of the virus spread, they said, Dr. Jha will be able to draw upon the tools his predecessor put in place during the past 14 months. (Shear and Gay Stolberg, 3/17)

Bloomberg: President Biden Taps Brown’s Ashish Jha To Be Covid Czar As Zients Exits
The departure of Zients, a management consultant and entrepreneur who served as director of the National Economic Council in the Obama administration, comes as the White House has said the pandemic is entering a new phase with a majority of the country vaccinated. Zients spent much of his time securing the purchase and distribution of vaccines, as well as treatments, tests, and protective equipment. During his tenure, around 213 million Americans became fully vaccinated, but in recent weeks the federal government has rolled back masking recommendations and Biden has encouraged workers to return to work in person. (Sink, 3/17)

NBC News: Biden Names Dr. Ashish Jha New Covid Response Coordinator, To Replace Jeff Zients
Biden noted that when Zients first took on the role, less than 1 percent of people in the U.S. were fully vaccinated against Covid, fewer than half of schools were open and the country lacked at-home Covid tests. "Today, almost 80 percent of adults are fully vaccinated; over 100 million are boosted; virtually every school is open; and hundreds of millions of at-home tests are distributed every month," Biden said. "In addition, the U.S. leads the global effort to fight Covid, delivering more free vaccines to other countries than every other nation on Earth. The progress that he and his team have made is stunning and, even more important, consequential. Lives have been saved." (Shabad, 3/17)

How will Jha approach the federal pandemic response? A recent opinion piece offers a glimpse —

The New York Times: Opinion: We’ve Entered A New Phase Of The Pandemic. It’s Time For New Metrics.
New guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for community masking are a welcome change. They are reasonable, well-timed and consistent with the science that needs to be guiding the United States’ pandemic response. They also mark a turning point for how people, institutions and governments should respond to the coronavirus. ... This change may feel like a sharp break from prior guidance, and in some ways, it is. But at this point in the pandemic, the change is also entirely appropriate. (Dr. Ashish Jha, 2/25)

The Washington Post: Biden Interacted With Taoiseach Of Ireland Before Positive Coronavirus Test 
President Biden interacted with Micheál Martin, the Taoiseach of Ireland, on Wednesday night, shortly before the Irish leader disclosed a positive coronavirus test, a U.S. official said. But White House officials said Biden is not considered a close contact, according to the guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC defines a close contact as being in the presence of someone with the virus for a cumulative total of 15 minutes or more. Biden and the Taoiseach both attended the Ireland Funds National Gala on Wednesday night before the Irish leader left due to a positive test. (Pager and Hudson, 3/16)

Politico: Irish Prime Minister Michael Martin Tests Positive For Covid While In D.C. To Meet Biden 
Few could be seen wearing face masks at Thursday night’s gathering at the National Building Museum, where President Joe Biden delivered remarks onstage for roughly 15 minutes. He left the event after his speech. Pelosi, 81, who appeared to be having a conversation at the dinner table with Martin, is second in line behind Vice President Kamala Harris in the presidential line of succession. (Ward, 3/16)

NBC News: Irish Prime Minister, Who Attended Biden Event, Tests Positive For Covid
Martin left the event after the positive Covid test was returned and is not experiencing symptoms, the source said. A spokesman for the prime minister told Reuters that Martin received a positive PCR test. Biden, who has Irish roots, spoke onstage Wednesday for around 15 minutes, according to video and a press pool report. (Helsel and O'Donnell, 3/17)

NBC News: CDC Confirms Uptick In Covid-19 Found In Wastewater
Government scientists confirmed Tuesday that there has been an uptick in the presence of Covid-19 in wastewater samples across the U.S. The potentially troubling trend comes as the country is shedding masks and easing pandemic restrictions aimed at stopping the spread of a virus that in two years has killed nearly a million people in the United States. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention acknowledged the increase after Bloomberg reported that a third of the agency’s wastewater sample sites showed a rise in Covid cases from March 1 to March 10. (Edwards and Siemaszko, 3/15)

Fox News: Uptick In Covid Virus Cases Detected In Wastewater Sample Sites: CDC
COVID-19 virus detected in wastewater sampling sites is on the rise, according Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data. The trend comes as the country recently began lifting mask mandates and easing pandemic restrictions aimed at stopping the spread of the coronavirus. Of the 398 current wastewater sampling sites with active data, 44 sites saw an increase of 1000% or more in detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA wastewater levels and 62 sites saw a 100% to 999% percent increase, during the period of Feb 26, 2022 – Mar 12, 2022, according to the CDC COVID data tracker. (McGorry, 3/16)

The Washington Post: U.S. Experts Bracing For Another Coronavirus Surge 
A surge in coronavirus infections in Western Europe has experts and health authorities on alert for another wave of the pandemic in the United States, even as most of the country has done away with restrictions after a sharp decline in cases. Infectious-disease experts are closely watching the subvariant of omicron known as BA.2, which appears to be more transmissible than the original strain, BA.1, and is fueling the outbreak overseas. (Bernstein and Achenbach, 3/16)

Stat: With Variant On The Rise, Experts Warn U.S. Could Face A Covid Resurgence
On the surface, U.S. Covid-19 metrics continue to show improvement, with cases, hospitalizations, and deaths down dramatically from their peaks just two months ago. But some experts are growing increasingly nervous that the positive trends may be slowing down or even headed for reversal. The country needs to prepare for another spike in cases, they’re warning, even if it turns out to be a minor one. Europe has seen a surge of cases in recent weeks, and the situation there has typically foreshadowed that in the United States. Moreover, some U.S. wastewater surveillance sites are picking up increased viral levels. Individual testing is down, and is increasingly done at home, so it’s harder to see the full landscape. (Joseph, 3/17)

Also —

CNN: This Key Indicator May Determine How Bad A BA.2 Wave Could Be 
With a new version of the Omicron coronavirus variant picking up steam in the United States, as many as 28 million seniors remain at risk of becoming severely ill from Covid-19, either because they are unvaccinated or partially vaccinated, or because it has been more than five months since their second or third dose of a vaccine, according to a CNN analysis of federal data. As America casts a wary eye on rising cases caused by the BA.2 subvariant in Europe, the immune status of adults over the age of 65 will be a key indicator of how future variants will affect the US because the risk of severe outcomes rises dramatically with age. (Goodman and McPhillips, 3/16)

The Atlantic: Our Antibodies Can Tell Us About Future COVID Surges
The hunt for the next big, bad coronavirus variant is on. Scientists around the world are sampling wastewater and amassing nose swabs from the sick; they’re scouring the microbe’s genetic code for alarming aberrations. The world of outbreak surveillance “is all virus,” says Danny Douek, an immunologist at the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases. We’re laser-focused on getting eyes on a variant that would be well-equipped to wallop us, then alerting the globe. But that, Douek told me, is just one half of the infectious playing field where offense and defense meet. (Wu, 3/16)

The Washington Post: Hospitalizations Of Young Children Increased Fivefold During Omicron Surge, But Few Died, Says CDC Report
Young children in the United States were hospitalized at much higher rates this winter as omicron became the dominant variant than they were during the delta surge, according to a new report published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. At the peak of the omicron wave, infants and other children under 5 were hospitalized at about five times the rate documented during the delta wave, although few deaths were reported, the study said. For infants under six months, hospitalizations were about six times higher during the omicron surge. (Shepherd, 3/16)

And the Biden administration issues more warnings over the lack of covid funding —

Politico: White House Warns Free Covid Treatments Are At Risk As Subsidies Run Out 
The Biden administration is debating how to wind down the federal subsidies that guarantee free treatments for coronavirus patients, as it prepares for a scenario where Congress fails to authorize new funding for the pandemic response. The move would bring a halt to government coverage for certain Covid-19 therapeutics, shifting them onto the private market and potentially forcing some Americans to pay out of pocket for pricey treatments like monoclonal antibody drugs that can cost as much as $2,000 per dose. (Cancryn, 3/16)

CIDRAP: COVID Of Any Severity May Lead To Long-Term Small Airways Disease
COVID may lead to lasting disease of the small airways, regardless of infection severity, according to a single-center study published yesterday in Radiology. Based on observations that many COVID-19 survivors later showed signs of chronic lung disease, University of Iowa researchers led the study of 100 adults who still had COVID-19 symptoms more than 30 days after diagnosis, or post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC). Participants, who were prospectively enrolled from June to December 2020, were compared with 106 matched healthy controls enrolled from March to August 2018. (3/16)

Healthline: How Long COVID May Bring On Lung, Heart, And Brain Complications
In a study published March 15 in the journal Radiology, researchers used CT imaging to examine the lungs of 100 adults who had COVID-19 and continued to have symptoms for at least 30 days after their diagnosis Researchers compared the CT findings of these participants with those from a group of 106 healthy participants. Participants who had COVID-19 — even if not hospitalized for it — were more likely to have signs of damage in the small airways of the lungs compared with healthy participants. (Radcliffe, 3/16)

In other covid research —

MassDevice: Roche Says Its Research-Only COVID-19 Tests Can Detect A Range Of Variants, Subvariants 
Roche announced today that its TIB Molbiol subsidiary has made available testing solutions that can identify a number of COVID-19 variants. Basel, Switzerland-based Roche’s testing offerings can identify the SARS-CoV-2 (the virus causing COVID-19) B.1.1.529 variant and differentiate between the omicron subvariants BA.1, BA.1.1, BA.2, BA.2.2, BA.3 and delta, according to a news release. (Whooley, 3/16)

CIDRAP: Twice As Many Black COVID Patients Deemed Lowest Priority In ICU Triage System 
A crisis-standards-of-care (CSOC) scoring system used to triage COVID-19 intensive care unit (ICU) patients assigned twice the proportion of Black patients as other patients to the lowest-priority group, finds a modeling study published yesterday in JAMA Network Open. During the pandemic, health systems developed CSOC scoring systems to prioritize the allocation of scarce resources such as ventilators. While the Massachusetts Department of Health published and then revised guidelines for COVID-related resource rationing, and Beth Israel preemptively scored patients to prepare for shortages, resources remained adequate, and allocation didn't occur. This study is an analysis of that data. (Van Beusekom, 3/16)

AP: Diabetes & COVID-19: Scientists Explore Potential Connection 
When their 11-year-old son started losing weight and drinking lots of water, Tabitha and Bryan Balcitis chalked it up to a growth spurt and advice from his health class. But unusual crankiness and lethargy raised their concern, and tests showed his blood sugar levels were off the charts. Just six months after a mild case of COVID-19, the Crown Point, Indiana, boy was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. His parents were floored — it didn’t run in the family, but autoimmune illness did and doctors said that could be a factor. (Tanner, 3/16)

Inside Higher Ed: Report: U of Florida Did Not Suppress COVID-19 Research
Reports that the University of Florida or state officials destroyed or suppressed COVID-19 research data are baseless, says a faculty panel assembled to investigate. The anonymous allegations first came to light in a December ad hoc faculty report detailing broader faculty concerns about the climate for academic freedom at the university, and UF promptly asked three distinguished professors to investigate. (Flaherty, 3/17)

NBC News: Pfizer's Covid Vaccine Safe In People With Prior Myocarditis, Study Says
The Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine appears to be safe in people previously diagnosed with myocarditis, according to a small study presented Thursday at a European medical conference. The findings, experts say, should help reassure people who previously experienced myocarditis that Covid vaccination is safe. (Lovelace Jr., 3/17)

More on the vaccine rollout —

AP: NH To Close State-Managed COVID-19 Vaccination Sites 
New Hampshire is going to close its state-managed COVID-19 vaccination sites and demobilize most of its mobile vaccination teams on March 31. “The effort over the last one and a half years to get our residents vaccinated has been an immense success,” Gov. Chris Sununu said in a statement Wednesday. (3/16)

Philadelphia Inquirer: In Third Gaffe Of The Pandemic, Philly Health Department Says Its Own Mistake Led To Inflated Kids' COVID Vaccine Rate
Philadelphia’s child vaccination rates were wrongly inflated for weeks because the city’s health department counted thousands of vaccinated children twice, the city’s health commissioner said. The Philadelphia Department of Public Health was wrong last week, Health Commissioner Cheryl Bettigole said Tuesday, when it blamed the error on merging data from Pennsylvania’s health department into its own records. It is the latest in a series of embarrassing gaffes plaguing the department since the start of the pandemic two years ago. (Laughlin, 3/16)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin's Black COVID Vaccine Rate Just Barely Trails The U.S.
In a country where roughly 17 million Black Americans — 41% of the Black population — are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, Wisconsin's Black vaccine rate slightly trails the U.S. A high-ranking Black health official with the state’s health department hasn’t given up hope. Jasmine Zapata grew up in Milwaukee, in the 53224 ZIP code, to be exact. In her nine years working in the medical field, she's seen how a variety of factors, including misinformation and historical factors, can breed apathy in the Black community when it comes to health care. (Bentley, 3/16)

Axios: The Coronavirus Vaccine Booster Debate Is Back In The U.S.
Pfizer says that at least some Americans will soon need a fourth shot of its coronavirus vaccine. The problem is that, if true, that may raise questions about the utility of the vaccine in the long run. Regulators want to see more data before they're convinced another booster is necessary. If the data does show the third shot's ability to ward off severe disease drops after a few months, that may suggest Americans need a better booster. (Owens, 3/17)

KHN: Covid’s ‘Silver Lining’: Research Breakthroughs For Chronic Disease, Cancer, And The Common Flu 
The billions of dollars invested in covid vaccines and covid-19 research so far are expected to yield medical and scientific dividends for decades, helping doctors battle influenza, cancer, cystic fibrosis, and far more diseases. “This is just the start,” said Dr. Judith James, vice president of clinical affairs for the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation. “We won’t see these dividends in their full glory for years.” (Szabo, 3/17)

Louisville Courier Journal: Andy Beshear Vetoes Bill That Would Forfeit $50M In Food Stamp Benefit
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear has vetoed a plan by the General Assembly to end the COVID-19 health emergency six weeks early, saying it triggers a loss of $50 million a month in food stamp benefits for some of the state's poorest residents. Beshear, in a video released on social media Wednesday, said the measure meant "over half a million Kentuckians, our seniors, our children, could go hungry on any given day." In his written veto message, Beshear described the General Assembly's plan as a "callous act" and said it  "would severely harm Kentucky families by taking food off their tables." (Yetter, 3/16)

In other covid mandate news —

The Washington Post: TSA Has Investigated 3,800 Mask-Related Incidents, Issued $644,000 In Fines
The Transportation Security Administration has investigated more than 3,800 incidents of potential violations involving the federal mask mandate, assessing more than $644,000 in civil penalties, according to a report this week by the Government Accountability Office. The TSA, charged with enforcing the mandate in airports and other public transportation settings, has issued more than 2,700 warning notices, the report said. It issued civil penalties in about 900 instances, roughly 24 percent of cases that occurred between Feb. 2, 2021, and March 7, 2022. The average civil fine for violators was $699, the report said. (Aratani, 3/16)

Anchorage Daily News: Bill Limiting COVID-19 Vaccine Requirements Passes The Alaska Senate, But It Faces Slim Odds In The House
A bill that would ban discrimination on the basis of COVID-19 vaccination status passed in the Alaska Senate Wednesday in a move to limit state service providers and private businesses from requiring the life-saving vaccine. The bill, sponsored by Eagle River Republican Sen. Lora Reinbold, would make it illegal for the state to withhold services based on COVID-19 vaccination status, such public education or assisted living in Pioneer Homes. The bill would also ban private businesses from requiring COVID-19 vaccinations as a condition for employment. (Samuels, 3/16)

AP: MLB Drops Regular COVID Tests, Can Move Games For Health 
Major League Baseball is dropping regular COVID-19 testing for all but symptomatic individuals while maintaining an ability to move games if the public health situation in an area deteriorates. MLB and the players’ association finalized their 2022 coronavirus protocols on Tuesday, easing pandemic restrictions five days after reaching a collective bargaining agreement. Some on-field issues have not yet been addressed, such as whether to continue the pandemic rule calling for “ghost runners” at second base in extra innings. (Blum, 3/16)

And anti-vax protesters were given a tour of the U.S. Capitol —

Politico: GOP Senator Gives Trucker Protesters A Capitol Tour
Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) gave truckers in the so-called “People’s Convoy” a tour of the Capitol last week — even as the building remains mostly closed to the public. A senior congressional aide alerted the Department of Justice about the truckers’ presence out of concern that the guided tour could help the protesters plan an entry into the building. (Palmeri, 3/16)

The Hill: Members Of The 'People's Convoy' Given Capitol Tour By GOP Senator 
Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) gave a tour of the Capitol to truckers from the “People’s Convoy,” his office confirmed to The Hill, noting it was compliant with the Senate sergeant-at-arms policies. ... Capitol Police declined to comment about the matter to The Hill. “Who would have known that taking a friendly group of hard-working American truckers, including Kansans, on a public tour of their nation’s Capitol building would cause such a stir. Let’s not forget, these are the essential workers who showed up to work every day in the earliest months of the pandemic to deliver goods and food to Americans,” Marshall said in a statement. (Vakil, 3/16)

Politico: Some Hospitals Ask Patients, Visitors To Remove N95s, Citing CDC
Late last year, Laura Wing-Kamoosi visited her 79-year-old father at the hospital in northern Michigan. To her surprise, a worker asked her to remove her N95 and replace it with a surgical mask. She declined, layering the surgical mask atop her N95 instead. She saw no staff wear N95s, among the best respiratory protection available, while they treated her father for a tear in his aorta and other medical issues, she told POLITICO. One doctor wore his surgical mask under his nose, she said. Her father, who was hospitalized for about a month, contracted Covid-19 during his stay, and while he survived, the virus slowed his recovery. (Levy, 3/16)

In other health care industry news —

The Baltimore Sun: Medical Supply Company Plans $350 Million Plant At Tradepoint Atlantic In Baltimore County, Employing 2,000 
A medical supply company founded in the early stages of the pandemic said Wednesday that it intends to build a $350 million glove-manufacturing facility at Tradepoint Atlantic and ultimately bring more than 2,000 new jobs to the Baltimore County site through a multiphase, three-year development. If all goes to plan, United Safety Technology will move into a 735,000-square-foot former Bethlehem Steel warehouse and make nitrile gloves — the kind worn every day by clinicians, doctors, dentists and first responders — as early as the first quarter of next year. These thin blue rubber gloves are made almost exclusively outside America, and they grew scarce amid skyrocketing demand during the COVID-19 pandemic. (Bologna, 3/16)

Modern Healthcare: Judge Greenlights Proposed Class Action Against Aetna
A federal judge revived a proposed class action that alleged Aetna Life Insurance Co. violated its own contractual obligations by using an overly restrictive definition of "medically necessary", in order to avoid paying for physical therapy. U.S. District Court of Connecticut Judge Michael P. Shea gave the greenlight for the proposed class action on Tuesday, leaving Aetna to defend itself from accusations that its coverage limits violated the Employment Income Retirement Security Act. The potential class action includes anyone who is insured through an employment plan administered by Aetna. The insurer did not respond to an interview request. (Tepper, 3/16)

Columbus Dispatch: Hospital Mergers: Health Care Costs Rise, Patients Suffer, Studies Say
If you need to go to the hospital in Ohio these days, your choices are dominated by a handful of multibillion-dollar medical systems. Ohio's seven largest medical systems run a combined 58 community hospitals — more than 40% of the total — American Hospital Association statistics for 2019 show. Add in a variety of other medical facilities and doctors offices, and these seven systems occupy nearly 1,100 locations across the state, many of them offering multiple types of medical services, a Dispatch analysis found. Leaders of these systems say health-care consolidation means better, more cost-effective care and improved access to specialists for patients of once-independent hospitals. (Rowland, 3/16)

KHN: Missouri Tried To Fix Its Doctor Shortage. Now The Fix May Need Fixing. 
Missouri state Rep. Tricia Derges is pushing a bill to give assistant physicians like herself a pathway to becoming fully licensed doctors in the state. Not that Derges — among the highest-profile holders of the assistant physician license created in 2014 to ease a doctor shortage — is the most persuasive advocate right now. Derges was indicted last year on charges accusing her of selling fake stem-cell treatments, illegally prescribing drugs, and fraudulently receiving covid relief funds. (Sable-Smith, 3/17)

Also —

The Washington Post: A Dentist Broke His Patients’ Teeth On Purpose So He Could Fix Them. Prosecutors Say He Made Millions.
Scott Charmoli’s patients’ teeth were just fine, but fine wasn’t making him enough money. So the dentist in Jackson, Wis., drilled into and broke his patients’ teeth in order to charge them for fixing the damage he’d caused, according to federal prosecutors. By doing so, Charmoli went from pulling in $1.4 million and affixing 434 crowns in 2014 to raking in $2.5 million and performing more than 1,000 crown procedures a year later. (Edwards, 3/16)

Modern Healthcare: Blues Plans Accuse Walgreens Of Drug Fraud
Blues plans across the country on Tuesday accused Walgreen Co. of fraudulently inflating prescription drug prices by submitting false statements and omitting facts about its payment ceilings. For more than a decade, Blues plans in Maryland, South Carolina and Louisiana claim Walgreens overcharged them by hundreds of millions, according to a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. A spokesperson for Walgreens declined to comment on the litigation. (Abrams, 3/16)

And more on drug pricing —

Stat: A Battle Is Brewing Between A Senator And A Nonprofit Over Pharma Patenting Practices
As the pharmaceutical industry faces pointed criticism over its patent practices, an effort appears to be under way to push back and challenge one of its leading critics in hopes of changing the narrative about patents and their role in prescription drug pricing. The focus is on a nonprofit called the Initiative for Medicines, Access & Knowledge, or I-MAK, which has published several papers over the last few years criticizing drug makers for pursuing patents that may profitably extend the marketability of their medicines, but without necessarily adding any new, substantive value. (Silverman, 3/16)

Stat: Lawmakers, PhRMA Swap Accusations Of 'Misleading' Drug Pricing Intel
A group of congressional lawmakers is accusing the pharmaceutical industry’s leading trade group of providing “misleading information” or simply failing to answer questions they posed this month about prescription drug pricing, the latest flare-up over the divisive pocketbook issue. The lawmakers — including  Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), and others — had asked PhRMA to explain why prices rose an average of 5% in January for many top-selling medicines. They cited analyses conducted by academics at the University of Minnesota and Johns Hopkins University, and also sought information about various costs incurred by drug companies that boosted their prices. (Silverman, 3/16)

In other pharmaceutical and biotech industry news —

Stat: Biogen Publishes Data On Its Alzheimer’s Drug In A Little-Known Journal
When it comes to Biogen’s controversial Alzheimer’s drug Aduhelm, even publishing the data is steeped in drama. The key data that led to Aduhelm’s approval by the Food and Drug Administration were finally published Wednesday, more than two years after they were first described in a press release. But in a highly irregular step for an important clinical trial, the data were published not in a major journal but in the little-known Journal of the Prevention of Alzheimer’s Disease. That has critics worried that Biogen has found a low-stakes forum for a study that deserves scrutiny and debate. (Herper, 3/16)

AP: Elizabeth Holmes' Ex-Lover, Business Partner Faces Own Trial 
Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, the jilted lover and business partner of former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes, finally has his chance to defend himself against charges that he was Holmes’ accomplice in a Silicon Valley scam involving a ballyhooed blood-testing technology that flopped. Opening statements in Balwani’s trial are scheduled Wednesday in the same San Jose, California, courtroom where a jury found Holmes guilty of investor fraud and conspiracy in January. She was acquitted on other counts accusing her of duping patients who relied on Theranos’ flawed blood tests. (Liedtke, 3/16)

In obituaries —

The Washington Post: Donald Pinkel, Medical Researcher Who Found A Treatment For Childhood Leukemia, Dies At 95
Donald Pinkel, who began his career as a pediatrician and a cancer researcher in Boston and his native Buffalo, packed up his Volkswagen in 1961 and drove to Memphis to start a new job. He was the first employee, and the founding director, of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. During his 12 years at St. Jude, Dr. Pinkel helped shape the now renowned hospital’s medical and research programs and, during the 1960s, made a major breakthrough by developing the first effective treatment for childhood leukemia. (Schudel, 3/16)

The Hill: House Democrats Press Becerra On Access To Abortion Medication 
House Democrats are pressing Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra to protect and expand access to abortion medication and are asking to meet with members of a key HHS task force after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) increased access to the abortion pill mifepristone last year. The 12 Democratic congresswomen on the House Oversight and Reform Committee penned a letter to Becerra on Tuesday to urge the Reproductive Health Care Access Task Force, announced in January, to “take immediate action to protect and expand access to medication abortion care in accordance with the recent elimination of the medically unnecessary in-person dispensing requirement for the medication abortion drug mifepristone.” (Schnell, 3/16)

Stateline: As Abortion Pills Take Off, Some States Move To Curb Them
In June, the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to weaken or topple its nearly 50-year-old abortion rights decision, Roe v. Wade, giving states wide latitude to restrict the procedure.  But most legislatures will be adjourned by then, and anti-abortion lawmakers aren’t waiting to address what they expect will be one result of widespread limits on clinical abortions: spiraling demand for medication abortions. Since January, legislators in at least 20 states have proposed bills that would restrict or ban access to abortion pills approved more than two decades ago by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. This year’s flurry of bills was spurred in part by an FDA ruling during the coronavirus pandemic that eliminated a long-standing requirement that patients consult with prescribers and pick up the pills in person. (Vestal, 3/16)

Kentucky takes a step closer to an abortion ban —

AP: Kentucky Senate Passes Bill Banning Abortions After 15 Weeks 
Kentucky lawmakers took another step Wednesday toward banning abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy with an eye toward a looming U.S. Supreme Court decision on abortion rights. The bill, which won Senate passage 31-6, is modeled after a Mississippi law under review by the nation’s high court in a case that could dramatically limit abortion rights in the United States. The Kentucky measure next advances to the House. Republicans hold supermajorities in both chambers. (Schreiner, 3/16)

Citigroup says it will pay for its employees to leave Texas to get an abortion —

CNN: Citi's Response To Abortion Bans: We'll Pay For Workers To Travel 
After a number of US states passed laws severely restricting access to abortions, Citigroup this week said it is providing employees with travel benefits to facilitate access to abortion clinics. "In response to changes in reproductive healthcare laws in certain states in the U.S., beginning in 2022 we provide travel benefits to facilitate access to adequate resources," Citi (C) said in a letter to shareholders Wednesday as part of its annual proxy statement. (Goldman, 3/16)

Bloomberg: Citi Draws Ire Of Texas Republicans Over Its New Abortion Policy
Citigroup Inc. may have found a way of doing business in Texas while addressing one of the state’s hottest cultural divides. Buried in a filing released Tuesday night, the bank disclosed it will now cover travel costs for employees seeking an abortion after several states including Texas implemented or proposed a near-total ban on the procedure. The New York-based bank will pay expenses, such as airfare and lodging, that employees may incur if forced to leave a state for an abortion. (Miller and Hagan, 3/16)

More on abortion accessibility in Idaho, Missouri, Kansas, and elsewhere —

Vanity Fair: Idaho’s Uniquely Evil Abortion Bill Gives Rapists’ Families A Say 
On Monday, the Idaho House passed Senate Bill 1309, which, like in Texas, would prevent pregnant people from obtaining abortions after six weeks. Idaho’s spin? Rather than empowering any old private citizens to sue to enforce the law, it specifically allows family members of the fetus—including family members of a rapists— to sue abortion providers for up to four years after the procedure, for a minimum of $20,000 in damages. While Idaho has so humanely said that the rapists themselves could not sue, under the proposed legislation, they could get their parents and siblings to do so, as well as the would-be brothers and sisters of the fetus in question. Oh, and apparently nothing in the bill would prevent a rapist with, say, 10 siblings from having every single one of them sue individually and then collecting their cash. (Levin, 3/15)

Kansas City Star: Abortion At Home Is A Reality In Missouri And Kansas
Nearly one quarter of women in the U.S. will have an abortion by the age of 45. Many of these abortions will be performed using medication. And in an era of telemedicine, experts say it has never been easier to access abortion at home—with or without the support of a medical professional. But new bills in the Missouri statehouse are taking aim at those who help pregnant people self-administer a medication abortion by providing pills, prescriptions and even information about the procedure. We consulted experts on abortion law and care access in Missouri and Kansas to bring you this no-nonsense guide to so-called “abortion by mail.” (Wallington, 3/17)

Kansas City Star: Can You Get An ‘Abortion By Mail’ In Missouri Or Kansas? Here’s What To Know
New bills in the Missouri statehouse are taking aim at those who help pregnant people self-administer a medication abortion by providing pills, prescriptions and even information about the procedure. We consulted experts on abortion law and care access in Missouri and Kansas to bring you this no-nonsense guide to so-called “abortion by mail.” (Wallington, 3/17)

Intelligencer: The Anti-Abortion Movement’s Deadly Pseudoscience
Here is a scientific fact: Ectopic pregnancies are not viable. They occur when a fertilized egg implants outside the uterus, which dooms the pregnancy and, without treatment, can doom a woman, too. Ectopic pregnancies can lead to hemorrhage and are the leading cause of death for women in the first trimester of pregnancy. Here’s another fact: There is one way to save a woman from an ectopic pregnancy, and that is through termination — an abortion. A proposed Missouri bill ignores these facts outright. H.B. 2810 would make it a felony, punishable by ten-years-to-life in prison, to perform an abortion after ten weeks of pregnancy, including in cases of ectopic pregnancy, the Springfield News-Leader reports. (Jones, 3/15)

Los Angeles Times: California Bill Would Let Parents Sue Social Media Companies
California parents whose children become addicted to social media apps would be able to sue for damages under a bill advanced Tuesday in the state Assembly by a bipartisan pair of lawmakers. Assembly Bill 2408, or the Social Media Platform Duty to Children Act, was introduced by Republican Jordan Cunningham of Paso Robles and Democrat Buffy Wicks of Oakland with support from the University of San Diego School of Law Children’s Advocacy Institute. It’s the latest in a string of legislative and political efforts to crack down on social media platforms’ exploitation of their youngest users. (Contreras, 3/16)

Politico: Instagram, TikTok Could Get Sued For Addicting Kids Under California Proposal
Big Tech companies could face a slew of lawsuits for harming children under a new California proposal that takes the toughest industry-accountability stance yet on the mental health toll of intense social media use. The bipartisan measure from Assemblymembers Jordan Cunningham (R-Templeton) and Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland), which rolls out on Tuesday, would hold social media companies legally liable for deploying features and apps that addict children to their detriment. Significantly, the legislation is retroactive, which would put the companies at legal risk for any past damage their products caused for teens and younger children. (Luthi, 3/15)

In other mental health news —

Modern Healthcare: Mental Health-Related ED Visits Increase After COVID-19 Surges, Study Finds
Hospitals are seeing more emergency department visits for mental health issues after COVID-19 surges, particularly among young adults and racial minority groups, a recent study found. Compared with before and during peaks in COVID-19 cases, mental health-related ED visits following the pandemic's surges composed a larger proportion of all ED visits, according to a JAMA Psychiatry report released Wednesday. Using National Syndromic Surveillance Program data, the study looked at a sample of U.S. adults between the ages of 18 and 64 with several million ED visits across 3,600 emergency facilities nationwide between Jan. 1, 2019 and Aug. 14, 2021 that were related to a set of 10 mental health disorders. (Devereaux, 3/16)

Crain's New York Business: A New Report Shows Lower Rates Of Suicidal Thoughts Among Physicians, But New York Hospitals Maintain Vigilance
Even as COVID-related hospitalizations decrease in the city, the mental health challenges accumulated by providers during the past two years are not likely to dissipate easily. A recent survey from Medscape, a West Village–based medical news source, found that suicide remains a pertinent risk for physicians experiencing stress. In its Physician Suicide Report released this month, surveying more than 13,000 doctors across 50 states, it found that 9% of respondents had thought of suicide but did not act on it; 1% of survey takers said they'd attempted to take their own life. (Sim, 3/16)

North Carolina Health News: Advocates Worry Pandemic’s Impact On Vulnerable Youth 
In March 2020, schools shut down for two weeks to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus. Nearly a year later, when schools started to head back to consistent, in-person instruction, more than 11,000 North Carolinians had died of COVID-19. Students’ lives changed. They were faced with death and disease in the news and in their families. They didn’t have the same access to their social networks at school. They lived in fear of a constant, invisible enemy, said Marcus Pollard, Justice Systems Reform Council for the Southern Coalition for Social Justice. (Thompson, 3/17)

San Francisco Chronicle: How To Cope With Perpetual Pandemic Fatigue
You’re getting up later and later; after work or school you collapse onto the couch, unlikely to move for a few hours. The naps are getting more frequent, and the dishes are piling up in the sink. Your brain can’t take it anymore. This is pandemic fatigue — which not only hasn’t faded, but has been compounded by a parade of new concerns, experts say. As the Bay Area marks the two-year anniversary of shelter-in-place orders, an increasing number of people across the U.S. are reporting heightened levels of anxiety and stress, according to the American Psychological Association. Even though some parts of life are returning to “normal” — offices asking workers to come back in (for real this time) and schools removing their mask mandates — there is still something decidedly not normal about life right now. (Wu, 3/16)

Also —

San Francisco Chronicle: California Supreme Court Will Decide If Job-Screening Companies Can Ask Applicants Intimate Medical Questions
California bars employers from asking job applicants about their physical or mental health, at least until they've been offered a job. But an occupational health company requires job-seekers with thousands of California businesses to disclose, for example, whether they’ve had venereal disease, diarrhea, constipation or menstrual problems. On Wednesday, a federal appeals court asked the state Supreme Court whether the ban on intrusive medical questioning applies to an employer’s agent, such as a job-screening company like U.S. Healthworks. The order was issued in a proposed class-action suit on behalf of about 500,000 job applicants in the last four years, according to their lawyers. (Egleko, 3/16)

Roll Call: With Eating Disorders On The Rise, Lawmakers Seek Legislative Answer 
When Robin Nelson sought treatment for her daughter’s serious eating disorder in 2019, she hit a number of walls. Her adult daughter had left a 72-hour psychiatric hold but couldn’t get into a treatment program near her San Francisco home. The first available appointment was 32 days ahead. Nelson instead found her daughter a program at an Eating Recovery Center in Colorado — but her daughter’s insurance provider said it would be out of network. She ended up taking it, using her retirement and pension money to pay for it. (Raman, 3/16)

The Boston Globe: Baker Unveils New Bill To Expand Primary Care And Mental Health Treatment
Two years after the pandemic derailed his health care agenda, Governor Charlie Baker on Tuesday unveiled a sweeping new plan to boost primary care and mental health, control drug prices, and better coordinate care. Baker’s proposal is focused on two unglamorous but essential cornerstones of the health care system. It calls on health care providers and insurers to increase spending on primary care and mental and behavioral health by 30 percent over three years — an investment of $1.4 billion. To keep total costs in check, providers and insurers would be required to cut spending growth in other areas, such as pricey hospital services. (Dayal McCluskey, 3/15)

Detroit Free Press: Oxford Shooting Leads Senators To Propose Mental Health Legislation
Three months after the deadly shooting at Oxford High School, Michigan's U.S. senators proposed legislation Wednesday that could expand mental health resources to help students and educators in the aftermath of such events. The bill proposed by U.S. Sens. Gary Peters and Debbie Stabenow, both Democrats, would authorize schools where shootings occurred to receive federal grants to hire additional counselors, psychologists and social workers to help students recover. (Spangler, 3/16)

KHN: Long Waits For Montana State Hospital Leave Psychiatric Patients In Jail
A woman experiencing delusions sat in Montana’s Cascade County jail for 125 days while waiting for a bed at the state psychiatric hospital. A man with schizophrenia spent 100 days last year in the Flathead County jail on the hospital’s waitlist, at times refusing food and water. A man complaining of voices in his head was jailed for 19 months awaiting a mental health evaluation. Montana State Hospital’s forensic facility, which evaluates and treats patients in the criminal justice system, has always had a waitlist, court records show, but the pandemic has lengthened it. As a result, people have been behind bars for months on pending charges without adequate mental health treatment. (Houghton, 3/17)

The Washington Post: Permanent Standard Time Is Better Than Daylight Saving, Sleep Experts Say 
Sleep experts widely agree with the Senate that the country should abandon its twice-yearly seasonal time changes. But they disagree on one key point: which time system should be permanent. Unlike the Senate, many sleep experts believe the country should adopt year-round standard time. After the Senate voted unanimously and with little discussion Tuesday to make daylight saving time permanent, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine issued a statement cautioning that the move overlooks potential health risks associated with that time system. (The legislation, which would take effect next year, must get through the House and be signed by President Biden to become law.) (Chiu, 3/16)

The Boston Globe: Health Experts Say Making Daylight Saving Time Permanent Is A Terrible Idea. Permanent Standard Time, On The Other Hand ... 
War is raging in Ukraine. The coronavirus looks like it’s making a comeback overseas. Yet the Senate this week gave winter-weary Americans something different to fight about: the prospect of making daylight saving time permanent. The Senate’s unanimous passage of legislation Wednesday to do just that sparked intense reactions, from sun-starved Northeasterners thrilled over a potential reprieve from 4:30 p.m. winter sunsets to exasperated voters wondering why Congress can’t manage to work on more pressing matters. “It’s about time. No pun intended,” Ari Silverman responded in a survey of Globe readers.“There is some kind of prejudice against us morning people,” quipped Lillian Reynolds. (Tziperman Lotan and Fatima, 3/16)

WFTS Tampa Bay: Sleep Experts Say Permanent Daylight Saving Has Health Risks
The American Academy of Sleep Medicine believes permanent standard time, rather than year-round daylight saving time is the better option. “When you have standard time, you’re exposing your body to its natural rhythm, which means light is predominantly exposed during the day and then towards the evening that’s when you want to decrease your light exposure. So, that your body starts going back into that rhythm,” said Dr. Jocelyn Cheng with the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. (Petit, 3/16)

Salon: Would Permanent Daylight Saving Time Actually Improve Our Sleep? Here's What Experts Say
What difference does moving the time one hour forward or back really make? Apparently, a lot, as legislators are once again trying to put a permanent end to biannual clock-changing by making daylight saving time permanent. The issue of daylight saving time has been at the forefront of public discussion in the past few years, with the possibility of change on the horizon in 2020 and 2021. Previously, there was even a trial period of year-round daylight saving between January 1974 to April 1975 to conserve energy (though the change didn't last). (Karlis, 3/16)

The New York Times: Why Scientists Don’t Want To Make Daylight Saving Time Permanent 
The claim that darker mornings and brighter evenings would be a boon for public health has not been well studied, in part because it’s near impossible to conduct national experiments on the topic. And in fact, many related studies are limited and sometimes contradictory. ... In one 2017 study from Denmark, scientists analyzed a psychiatric database of more than 185,000 people from 1995 to 2012. They found that the fall transition to standard time was associated with an 11 percent increase in depressive episodes, an effect that took 10 weeks to dissipate. The spring switch, by contrast, had no similar effect. (Nierenberg, 3/15)

And here's what happened when the U.S. tried it in 1974 —

Washingtonian: The US Tried Permanent Daylight Saving Time In The '70s. People Hated It 
The sun rose at 8:27 AM on January 7, 1974. Children in the Washington area had left for school in the dark that morning, thanks to a new national experiment during a wrenching energy crisis: most of the US went to year-round daylight saving time beginning on January 6. “It was jet black” outside when her daughter was supposed to leave for school, Florence Bauer of Springfield told the Washington Post. “Some of the children took flashlights with them.” (Beaujon, 3/15)

AP: Study: SUVs, Pickups More Likely To Hit Walkers Than Cars 
Drivers of bigger vehicles such as pickup trucks and SUVs are more likely to hit pedestrians while making turns than drivers of cars, according to a new study. The research released Thursday by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety points to the increasing popularity of larger vehicles as a possible factor in rising pedestrian deaths on U.S. roads. The authors also questioned whether wider pillars holding up roofs of the larger vehicles make it harder for drivers to spot people walking near the corners of vehicles. (Krisher, 3/17)

The CT Mirror: As Pedestrian Deaths Rise In CT, State Looks For Ways To Curb The Drivers
Jesse Robert Pincince “looked down for a second” to check his phone while driving along North Road in East Windsor on the afternoon of March 6 when he heard a loud “thump” against his truck, he told police. Jaylene Gonzalez, a 14-year-old freshman at Enfield High School, had been walking with a friend along the east side of North Road or Route 140, which doesn’t have sidewalks, when “this truck” came out of nowhere and hit her, according to the East Windsor police report. The teenage soccer player became yet another pedestrian killed by a vehicle this year, and the circumstances — a larger vehicle, potentially a distracted driver — are becoming more common, experts say. (Altimari and Golvala, 3/17)

In other public health news —

Fox News: Alzheimer's Disease Impacting 6.5M Older Americans
An estimated 6.5 million Americans ages 65 and older are living with Alzheimer's disease, according to a new report. In an annual update released by the Alzheimer's Association, the group wrote that 73% of those individuals are age 75 or older and about one in nine of those age 65 and older has Alzheimer's. Almost two-thirds of Americans with Alzheimer's are women, and older Black Americans are about twice as likely to have Alzheimer's or other types of dementia than older White Americans. (Musto, 3/16)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee To Give Newly Legal Fentanyl Testing Strips To Community
In 2021, nearly 80% of all drug overdose deaths in Milwaukee County were related to fentanyl. To help prevent future opioid-related deaths, Milwaukee County Behavioral Health Services is planning to distribute 1,600 newly legal fentanyl testing strips in the community, according to a Wednesday news release from Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley's office. How do the testing strips work? They detect the presence of fentanyl in powders or injectables and can help prevent accidental overdoses. (Kirby, 3/16)

Bloomberg: Baby Bonds Eyed As Way To Close U.S. Racial Wealth Gap
Darrick Hamilton grew up shuttling between two worlds. Each morning during the 1970s and ’80s he and his sister would travel three miles to Brooklyn Friends, the elite private Quaker school that their parents had scrimped, saved, and sacrificed to afford. Then the kids would return from downtown Brooklyn to Bedford-Stuyvesant, which was overwhelmingly Black, largely poor, and one of New York’s most dangerous neighborhoods. At the time, pundits and politicians frequently talked of a “culture of poverty” or a “pathology” in Black “ghettos.” That didn’t compute for Hamilton. “I could see the vivid inequality,” he says, but “I could see fundamentally people were not different.” The neighbor he played football with who was later incarcerated for robbing an armored car didn’t seem essentially different from the classmate who might be an investment banker today. (Steverman, 3/17)

On environmental health —

Georgia Health News: Research Shows New Reasons To Watch For Ticks In Georgia 
A virus unknown until a little more than a decade ago is circulating among lone star ticks in Georgia, Emory University scientists say. Heartland virus was first identified in Missouri in 2009 in two severely ill individuals. “We don’t know how many people are infected’’ with Heartland, said Gonzalo Vazquez-Prokopec, associate professor in Emory’s Department of Environmental Sciences. (Miller, 3/16)

Salt Lake Tribune: Utah Uranium Mill Has Accepted 700,000 Pounds Of Radioactive Waste, According To A New Report
Energy Fuels Resources’ plant outside Blanding is often touted as the nation’s only operating uranium mill. But for decades, the larger purpose of the mill has been to dispose of the waste from contaminated military and industrial sites for a fee, which has generated millions in profits for Energy Fuels at the expense of the environment and the Ute Mountain Ute tribal members who live nearby, according to the report titled “The Business of Radioactive Waste” released Tuesday by the Grand Canyon Trust. According to the new report, the Utah facility is a poorly regulated radioactive-waste disposal site where 700 million pounds of material has been interred over the years just a few miles from the Native American community in San Juan County known as White Mesa. (Maffly, 3/16)

Bangor Daily News: Maine Wants To Know How Widespread PFAS Are In Food Packaging
State environmental officials should know more by the summer about how widespread food packaging laced with forever chemicals is in Maine and what alternatives are out there to replace them. The Maine Department of Environmental Protection is seeking a firm to analyze the market for food packaging that does not include forever chemicals, or PFAS, that historically have been added to a wide range of products that also include waterproof clothing and non-stick cookware. The goal is to determine how widely available PFAS-free alternatives are and if they’re available at a comparable cost to traditional products as Maine implements a ban on most products with PFAS that takes effect in 2030. (Loftus, 3/17)

Health News Florida: A Federal Appeals Courts Has Been Asked To Revisit A Florida Law On Dietitian Licensing 
Arguing that her First Amendment rights were violated, a woman who was blocked by the Florida Department of Health from providing dietary advice is asking a full federal appeals court to take up a challenge to a state dietitian law. Attorneys for Heather Kokesch Del Castillo filed a 30-page motion last week asking the full 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to hear the case, after a panel of the court upheld the law in February. Del Castillo, a Northwest Florida resident, was cited by the Department of Health in 2017 for getting paid to provide dietary advice without being a state-licensed dietitian or nutritionist. Del Castillo, who operated what is described in court documents as a health and nutrition coaching business, paid a $754 fine after the state was tipped off by a licensed dietitian. (Saunders, 3/16)

In other news from Florida —

Miami Herald: Florida Lawmakers OK Payments To Parents Of Children Who Died Of Brain Injuries
In a legislative session highlighted by culture war battles and redistricting, Florida lawmakers made time to give a measure of mercy to a group of parents whose children died of catastrophic birth-related brain injuries. ... The reforms were implemented after a series of stories by the Miami Herald and the nonprofit newsroom ProPublica, called Birth & Betrayal, documented how parents in NICA had to beg for help from the program, which was supposed to provide “medically necessary” care to certain children left severely disabled by oxygen deprivation or spinal injury at birth. Parents complained that they had to plead, often in vain, for medication, specially equipped vans, in-home nursing care and home modifications, to which they were entitled under the NICA statute. (Miller and Chang, 3/15)

In updates from Ohio, Texas, and Georgia —

The Columbus Dispatch: Deaf Community Protest Over Director's Firing At Ohio Services Agency
The sign in front of a Worthington-based deaf services agency boasts "Where Communication Happens." Yet more than 50 people served by Deaf Services Center say the agency has failed to include them in decisions or inform them about changes in leadership. The group hoisted banners, waived at passing cars and listened to speakers during a protest Tuesday night in front of the organization's Ohio headquarters. ... Having a leader who is not hard of hearing or deaf is offensive and wrong, they say. "We need someone who is part of our population, someone who understands our struggles," said Vince Sabino, a social worker from Hilliard, who is deaf and an advocate for the deaf. "We're a very small population, but we're very marginalized." (Narciso, 3/16)

Dallas Morning News: Doctor Who Treats Transgender Children Takes UT Southwestern To Court Over Change In Care
The court filing, known as a 202 petition, allows attorneys and their clients to investigate claims before filing a lawsuit. It marks the first time one of the program’s leaders has pushed back in such a public way against the university’s decision to close Genecis to new patients. Lopez’s lawyer provided a copy of the petition exclusively to The Dallas Morning News. Lopez is asking the university and Children’s Health to turn over documents, including communications that might show pressure from elected officials triggered the changes at Genecis, and wants top officials to sit for depositions. The petition notes the information sought will allow Lopez to decide if and against whom she files a lawsuit seeking to overturn the university’s decision to cut off care to new transgender patients. (Wolf and McGaughy, 3/16)

AP: Ex-Nurse Pleads Guilty In Nursing Home Death Of War Veteran 
A former nurse has pleaded guilty to her role in the death of a World War II veteran whose pleas for help were ignored at a nursing home, prosecutors said. Loyce Pickquet Agyeman of Snellville pleaded guilty Tuesday to involuntary manslaughter, neglect of an elder person and concealing the death of another, The DeKalb County District Attorney said. A judge sentenced Agyeman to serve eight years in prison. (3/16)

In updates from Missouri, Mississippi, and Indiana —

Kansas City Star: Missouri Child Welfare Worker Shortage Putting Lives At Risk 
Like others inside Missouri’s troubled child welfare agency, Dayna Eckhardt feared that a critical shortage of abuse and neglect investigators was putting children’s lives at risk. She tried to get the attention of her bosses — and even their bosses — by writing detailed emails about what she saw as the growing dangers inside the Missouri Department of Social Services. When that didn’t work, and DSS leaders failed to acknowledge the problem, she again sat down to write about the troubles, desperate to have someone, anyone, listen. In that email, obtained by The Star, Eckhardt told Rep. Mary Elizabeth Coleman, a Republican from eastern Missouri, that there were so few investigators in her circuit that investigative reports were drastically overdue. And because of that, the child abuse investigator said, some allegations that otherwise would be substantiated had been concluded as “unsubstantiated.” (Bauer and Thomas, 3/16)

Mississippi Clarion Ledger: As Mississippi Medical Marijuana Takes Shape, Patients Are Hopeful
The trajectory of Mississippi’s medical marijuana program is often described as a rollercoaster ride. It’s been a year and a half since 74% of voters first approved the framework for a robust medical marijuana program via a ballot initiative process in November 2020. Since then, the future of the program was mired in legal and legislative debate until Feb. 2, when Gov. Tate Reeves ultimately signed the program into law. It still could take months for products to become available. The Mississippi State Department of Health said in a notice that it could take until at least the end of the year to allow for testing and quality control. (Clark, 3/16)

Indianapolis Star: Indiana Lawmakers Reduce Vaping Tax During 2022 Legislative Session
Indiana lawmakers had second thoughts on a tax on vaping products before it was even implemented, a move critics worry could impact the health of teens who are more prone to use e-cigarettes than other nicotine products. Under Senate Bill 382, which Gov. Eric Holcomb signed Tuesday, the tax on prefilled e-cigarette cartridges, or vape pods, would be reduced from 25% to 15% of the wholesale price. Public health advocates roundly criticized the tax cut, saying that it will likely wind up encouraging tobacco use in Indiana, which has the 10th highest smoking rate in the country, according to the American Cancer Society. Not only will it discourage adults from shaking the habit, it could encourage more youth to start vaping, they said. (Lange and Rudavsky, 3/17)

Wired: The War In Ukraine Is A Reproductive Health Crisis For Millions 
The war in Ukraine is becoming a crisis of reproductive health. Over the next three months, more than 80,000 Ukrainian people are expected to give birth, according to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). That’s about 1,000 deliveries per week. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 15 percent of pregnancies—in a war zone or not—will require skilled medical care for a potentially life-threatening complication. Women have already given birth in underground shelters and in subway stations. UNFPA posted a woman’s firsthand account of delivering a baby in Kyiv on the first day of the conflict. “I was lucky,” she wrote, “it did not happen in the basement.” (Levy, 3/16)

The New York Times: In A Kyiv Basement, 19 Surrogate Babies Are Trapped By War But Kept Alive By Nannies 
Down a dusty stairwell, hidden from the shelling that has become the grim background noise of Ukraine’s capital, Ludmila Yashenko fusses with the babies. There are 19 of them, sleeping or cooing in neatly arranged cribs, fed regularly from tubs of baby formula. The kitchen has a sterilizer for bottles, while the nursery has a changing station stocked with diapers. Ms. Yashenko and other nannies bounce the babies on their laps and straighten their bibs, even as they watch television, wide-eyed, to learn the latest news from the war. Death and destruction are rampant in Ukraine, but in this basement there is new life, if also new problems. (Kramer and Varenikova, 3/12)

NPR: Russia's Bombing Of Ukraine Hospital Reflects A Terrible Wartime Pattern
The immediate toll of the Russian airstrike that devastated a maternity hospital in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol last week was three people dead and 17 injured, but the impact did not stop there. In the AP photo that has come to symbolize the attack, a wounded pregnant woman lies on a stretcher, holding her lower belly and splattered with blood, being rushed out of the hospital by emergency workers seeking care for her elsewhere. Neither she nor her baby survived. (Cole, 3/16)

Fox News: WHO: Ukraine Health Facilities Struggling To Provide Care
The World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations (U.N.) are warning that medical facilities in Ukraine have been stretched to a breaking point. The WHO's regional office for Europe said it is working "day and night" to keep medical supply chains open and preserve Ukraine’s health system. According to the U.N., Russian missile attacks on health care facilities, workers and patients had killed 12 people and injured 34 as of Tuesday. More attacks are being verified. (Musto, 3/16)

The Boston Globe: Boston Doctor, Addressing Russians, Warns Against Nuclear War And ‘End Of Civilization’
A doctor from Boston appealed directly to leading Russian scientists Wednesday, warning that a nuclear war triggered by the “massive bloodshed” in Ukraine could bring the “end of human civilization.” Addressing the prestigious Russian Academy of Science, Dr. James Muller, a cardiologist and Nobel laureate, cautioned that the ongoing destruction in Ukraine could escalate and is preventing collaboration between Americans and Russians on a range of medical and scientific issues. “There is no possibility of raising money in the US for cooperation with Russian physicians until the violence has ceased,” he said. His impassioned remarks prompted some top Russian scientists — who’d spoken earlier about being ostracized by international colleagues behind a “new Iron Curtain” — to say they’d consider joining US counterparts in a public call to oppose nuclear conflict and resume collaboration. (Weisman, 3/16)

Also —

AP: WHO: Evaluation Of Russia's COVID Shot Has Been Postponed
The World Health Organization said Wednesday its evaluation of Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine has been postponed for the time being, due to the “uneven situation.” WHO vaccines expert Dr. Mariangela Simao said at a press briefing that the U.N. health agency’s officials had originally been scheduled to visit Russia on March 7 to assess the facilities where Sputnik V is produced — just weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine. (3/16)

Axios: Biden Officials Fear "Mass Migration Event" If COVID Border Policies End
U.S. intelligence officials are privately bracing for a massive influx of more than 170,000 migrants at the Mexico border if COVID-era policies that allow instant expulsions during the public health emergency are ended, sources with direct knowledge of the discussions tell Axios. The response under way includes a newly created — and previously unreported — "Southwest Border Coordination Center (SBCC)," essentially a war room to coordinate an interagency response. (Swan and Kight, 3/17)

The Washington Post: Unvaccinated Americans Can Travel To France Under Eased Travel Restrictions
France has moved the United States to a lower-risk category in its international travel restrictions, making entry significantly easier for Americans who are not fully vaccinated against the coronavirus. The European country added the United States to its “green” list, which indicates “negligible or moderate circulation of the virus, in the absence of emerging variants of concern,” according to the Ministry of Interior. (Diller, 3/16)

AP: Canada To Drop COVID Tests For Vaccinated Visitors: Official 
Canada will no longer require a pre-arrival COVID-19 test for vaccinated travelers as of April 1. A senior government official confirmed the change Wednesday, speaking on condition of anonymity due to lack of authorization to speak publicly ahead of the announcement this week. (Gillies, 3/16)

Covid cases are rising around the world —

Reuters: WHO Says Global Rise In COVID Cases Is 'Tip Of The Iceberg'
Figures showing a global rise in COVID-19 cases could herald a much bigger problem as some countries also report a drop in testing rates, the WHO said on Tuesday, warning nations to remain vigilant against the virus. After more than a month of decline, COVID cases started to increase around the world last week, the WHO said, with lockdowns in Asia and China's Jilin province battling to contain an outbreak. (Rigby and Mishra, 3/17)

Bloomberg: Germany’s Covid Cases Hit Record With Curbs Poised To Expire
Germany registered a record number of new Covid-19 cases on Thursday, propelling the infection rate to a new high for the sixth straight day and raising alarm ahead of plans to lift almost all remaining curbs this weekend. Chancellor Olaf Scholz is due to hold talks with regional leaders on pandemic strategy later on Thursday, with Russia’s war on Ukraine also on the agenda. While there is little appetite to reimpose nationwide restrictions as long as hospitalization rates remain in check, some of the 16 state premiers are unhappy with the rapid pace of unwinding. The lower house of parliament is due to approve the legislation loosening measures on Friday. (Rogers, 3/17)

Bloomberg: How South Korea Is Beating Covid Despite 600,000 New Cases A Day
South Korea has reached two seemingly contradictory pandemic milestones: It recorded more than 600,000 new Covid-19 infections on Thursday, the most of anywhere in the world. At the same time, the country has one of the lowest virus death rates globally. While anywhere else an infection surge of this size would signal an out-of-control outbreak soon to be followed by a spike in fatalities, in South Korea -- which is about the size of Indiana -- the picture is more complex. (Cha, 3/17)

The Wall Street Journal: New Covid Wave In China Hits Sellers Of ‘Quarantine Insurance’ 
In a country where one person inadvertently crossing paths with a Covid-19 patient can instantly put an entire apartment complex under lockdown for 14 days or more, Chinese insurers last year began offering what they called “quarantine insurance”—get locked down, receive a payout. Now, as the Omicron variant of the coronavirus spreads rapidly across the country, overwhelmed insurers are pulling the plug on the products. (Cheng, 3/16)

In other global developments —

Reuters: Britain Approves AstraZeneca's Antibody-Based COVID Therapy
Britain's medicines regulator has approved AstraZeneca's (AZN.L) antibody-based COVID-19 treatment for adults with poor immune response, marking a major step in the fight against the pandemic as infections surge globally amid spread of the Omicron variant. The decision to grant approval for the treatment was endorsed by the government's independent scientific advisory body after reviewing the evidence, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said on Thursday. (3/17)

Bloomberg: Medicago Covid Shot Faces WHO Rejection Over Company’s Tobacco Links
Medicago Inc.’s Covid-19 vaccine is poised to become the first western shot to be rejected by the World Health Organization, because of the company’s links to cigarette maker Philip Morris International Inc. The Canadian biopharma company’s request for pre-qualification of its Covifenz shot was not accepted, according to the WHO’s guidance document dated March 2. That means the WHO is unlikely to approve the vaccine for emergency use, which would also keep it out of the Covax global vaccine-sharing facility. (Gretler, 3/16)

Axios: WHO Chief: Ethiopia's Tigray Facing "Catastrophic" Health Crisis
The head of the World Health Organization on Wednesday warned of the increasingly dire and "catastrophic" humanitarian crisis in Ethiopia's Tigray region, saying, "There is nowhere on Earth where the health of millions of people is more under threat." As world leaders focus on Russia's war in Ukraine and the growing refugee crisis in Europe, UN bodies and humanitarian groups are urging nations to not forget other crises around the globe. Fighting broke out in Ethiopia's Tigray region in November 2020. Since then, the war between the Tigray People's Liberation Front and Ethiopian forces and their Eritrean allies has escalated, leading to what the UN has described as a de facto aid blockade on Tigray. The conflict has also spilled over into neighboring regions. (Gottbrath, 3/16)

ScienceDaily: Fruit Fly Study Uncovers Functional Significance Of Gene Mutations Associated With Autism 
About 1 in 44 children in the U.S. are diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) by the age of 8, according to the 2018 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention surveillance. How a child's DNA contributes to the development of ASD has been more of a mystery. Recently, clinicians and scientists have looked more closely at new, or de novo, DNA changes, meaning they only are present in affected individuals but not in the parents. Researchers have seen that these changes could be responsible for about 30% of ASD. However, which de novo variants play a role in causing ASD remains unknown. (Baylor College of Medicine, 3/15)

ScienceDaily: Molecular Networks Could Explain Racial Disparity In Triple Negative Breast Cancer Deaths
Different activity in two molecular networks could help explain why triple negative breast cancers tend to be more aggressive in African American (AA) women compared with white American (WA) women, a new study suggests. (Johns Hopkins Medicine, 3/15)

ScienceDaily: Weight Loss Doesn't Help Pregnancy Chances, Study Finds 
Women who are obese and struggling to become pregnant are often advised to lose weight, but a new study finds no fertility benefits from weight loss. (University of Virginia Health System, 3/14)

ScienceDaily: The Immune System Is Very Complicated, But Now, It's On A Chip
Scientists have a new tool to help them tease out the immune system's mysteries. Researchers cultured human B and T cells inside a microfluidic Organ Chip and coaxed them to form functional lymphoid follicles (LFs) -- structures that reside in lymph nodes and other parts of the human body and mediate immune responses. (Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard, 3/15)

ScienceDaily: 'Healthspan' Increasing Even For People With Common Chronic Conditions
The number of healthy years a person lives is, on average, increasing even for people with common chronic conditions, according to a new study publishing March 15th in PLOS Medicine by Holly Bennett of Newcastle University, UK, and colleagues. (PLOS, 3/15)

ScienceDaily: Close The Blinds During Sleep To Protect Your Health
Exposure to even moderate ambient lighting during nighttime sleep, compared to sleeping in a dimly lit room, harms your cardiovascular function during sleep and increases your insulin resistance the following morning, reports a new study. Just a single night of exposure to moderate room lighting during sleep can impair glucose and cardiovascular regulation, which are risk factors for heart disease, diabetes and metabolic syndrome. (Northwestern University, 3/14)

ScienceDaily: Ready, Set ... GO! Scientists Discover A Brain Circuit That Triggers The Execution Of Planned Movement 
Planned movement is essential to our daily lives, and it often requires delayed execution. As children, we stood crouched and ready but waited for the shout of 'GO!' before sprinting from the starting line. As adults, we wait until the traffic light turns green before making a turn. New research explores how cues in our environment can trigger planned movement. (Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience, 3/14)

The Washington Post: Veterans Exposed To Hazardous Burn Pits May Finally Get The Help They Deserve 
When they left their homes to serve in Iraq and Afghanistan, they were perfectly healthy young people. Now, they are struggling with debilitating and sometimes life-threatening lung diseases. That’s the reality for thousands of U.S. servicemen and women who were exposed to hazardous pollutants from burn pits the military used to dispose of its waste in the post-9/11 wars. As is often the case with veterans’ issues, their plight has long been dismissed or ignored. (3/16)

The Washington Post: Proposed Abortion Measures In Missouri Would Turn A Parent Like Me Into A Criminal 
Imagine being legally forbidden to save your child’s life. That could be the upshot of recent measures in Missouri and Idaho that aim to restrict abortion access and criminalize medical care for transgender kids. State attempts to control the bodies of certain segments of their population are now common, but these measures would add a sinister twist: extending that control beyond state borders. (Kate Cohen, 3/16)

Bloomberg: Congress Needs To Fix The FDA’s ‘Accelerated’ Drug-Approval Process 
Congress is targeting a strategy that drug companies have increasingly used to speed up the approval of their medicines. Legislation in the House of Representatives would put more guardrails on the Food and Drug Administration’s so-called accelerated approval pathway. The bill, from Representative Frank Pallone, a New Jersey Democrat, offers needed fixes for a system that can allow questionably effective — and often breathtakingly expensive — drugs to linger on the market for years. (Lisa Jarvis, 3/16)

Scientific American: Gun Violence Is An Epidemic; Health Systems Must Step Up 
The rate of gun violence continues to rise across America. There was nearly a 30 percent increase in homicides between 2019 and 2020, making it the largest one-year increase in six decades. The number of gun deaths in 2021 climbed even higher and is approaching the previous peaks in gun death rates in the early 1970s and early 1990s. Although the severe disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic has clearly played a role, we may not fully understand for years what has caused this increase. In the meantime, health systems must play a larger role in preventing gun violence. (Michael Dowling and Chethan Sathya, 3/16)

Stat: Health-Related AI Needs Rigorous Evaluation And Guardrails 
Algorithms can augment human decision-making by integrating and analyzing more data, and more kinds of data, than a human can comprehend. But to realize the full potential of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) for patients, researchers must foster greater confidence in the accuracy, fairness, and usefulness of clinical AI algorithms. Getting there will require guardrails — along with a commitment from AI developers to use them — that ensure consistency and adherence to the highest standards when creating and using clinical AI tools. Such guardrails would not only improve the quality of clinical AI but would also instill confidence among patients and clinicians that all tools deployed are reliable and trustworthy. (John D. Halamka, Suchi Saria and Nigam H. Shah, 3/17)

Columbus Dispatch: People With Disabilities Need Access To Community, Quality Health Care
After reading the Feb. 6 article, “The pandemic has not been good to me. People with disabilities feel forgotten,” I wanted to reach out and let Cara Pritchett know that she has not been forgotten. Nor have the other 2 million Ohioans with disabilities, their families, educators, healthcare providers, and countless others who support her. I see you. We see all of you. (Shawn Henry, 3/16)

The Tennessean: Organ Donation: How Funeral Directors Have Helped Grieving Families
I have learned many things over a lifetime of helping grieving people mourn and heal. One of them is that the families of organ and tissue donors are forever comforted by their loved ones’ heroic contributions. They should be. Organ donors are literally the gift of life to other people. Tissue donors make possible skin and bone grafts for all kinds of life-altering surgeries, including those that help burn victims, bone and breast cancer patients, and people needing replacement heart valves. (Bob Arrington, 3/16)

Stat: Emergency Responses Mustn't Overlook Those With Substance Use Disorders
When the storm unofficially known as Winter Storm Uri barreled across much of North America last year, unprecedented cold and record-breaking snowfall overwhelmed emergency response systems as well as regional and municipal infrastructure, leaving households and critical public safety services without electricity, heat, or potable water. Health care delivery was substantially disrupted, with devastating consequences for vulnerable groups such as young children, the elderly, and people with chronic diseases reliant on medications, medical devices, or life-sustaining procedures. Lost in the emergency response effort were people with opioid and other substance use disorders, many of whom found themselves cut off from crucial treatment and harm reduction services as the systems in place to support them faltered. (Emma Biegacki, 3/16)

Bloomberg: Long Covid Could Reveal Clues To Alzheimer's, Lyme Disease 
Last week, the U.S. Congress failed to approve $15 billion needed to continue Covid-19 precautions, even though today’s low case counts are likely to rise, as they are in Europe, with the sub-variant called BA.2. We’ve learned that some expensive mitigation measures, such as deep cleaning, are a waste of money, and could be scrapped, but funding for studying Covid should increase — not just for prevention measures and vaccines, but for research into the long-term consequences of infection. (Faye Flam, 3/16)

Bloomberg: Hong Kong Omicron Surge: People Are Still Terrified Of Covid In China
China has been practically Covid-free for two years. Most people there do not know of any family and friends who got the disease. So when I caught the contagious omicron variant two weeks ago, I immediately broadcast the development to my friends there — if nothing else, it was an exciting break from the monotony of lockdown in Hong Kong. (Shuli Ren, 3/16)

The Washington Post: Two Years Into Covid-19, Has Congress Learned Nothing? 
Two years into the pandemic, Congress is poised to repeat what will almost certainly be a deadly mistake: waiting until it’s too late before investing in prevention. The United States is experiencing a relative lull in covid-19 infections. This is the ideal time to prepare for the next surge, which is what the Biden administration is trying to do. It has asked Congress for a reasonable $22.5 billion to purchase treatments, secure boosters and ensure that there is sufficient testing in case of new variants. This is a tiny fraction of the nearly $6 trillion allocated thus far on pandemic relief and will surely pay for itself many times over. (Leana S. Wen, 3/16)

USA Today: Blame The Virus, Not Nursing Homes For Residents' Deaths In A Pandemic
The USA TODAY series “Dying for Care” does not help potential residents and their family members identify appropriate long-term care settings as intended. The series focuses on a narrow time period of the pandemic during the U.S. COVID surge in the fall of 2020 – a time when cases were rampant throughout the general population, deaths were at their height, and widespread availability of vaccines and treatments did not yet exist. Perhaps most important in regard to nursing homes during this time, providers were pleading with public health officials for resources to help protect their residents and staff, such as testing, personal protective equipment and staffing support, but little aid was provided. (Dr. David Gifford, 3/16)

Also —

Newsweek: A 'New Normal' Can't Mean The Same Old Health Insurance 
President Joe Biden, in his first State of the Union, laid out a sweeping plan for the 'new normal' under the pandemic, with health care affordability as one of its centerpieces. As health care providers, we know the president's plan to close the Medicaid coverage gap and make health care premium subsidies more available would make a huge difference for our patients, especially amid an unpredictable pandemic and rising inflation. (Marisa K. Dowling, Jesper Ke and David Velasquz, 3/16)

The CT Mirror: A Doc's Advice On Navigating Your Health Insurance
I am a medical doctor, chairman of a medical school department and faculty in a family medicine residency. I have a blood disorder that requires periodic visits to a specialist in New York City and I recently experienced a kidney stone attack, a surgical procedure and a brief hospitalization locally in Connecticut. I am employed in Connecticut and I receive my employer-based health insurance from an Insurance carrier located in California. The insurance company partners with a “third party administrator” (TPA) -a business that processes insurance claims for the Insurance company. The insurance company is part of a much larger Insurance organization with separate branches located in many states. Enough said. (Howard A. Selinger M.D., 3/17)

The Baltimore Sun: Helping Small Businesses Help Their Employees: A Maryland Bill Aims To Subsidize Health Insurance Costs; Will It Survive?
A problem with having a big influx of funds, in this case hundreds of millions of dollars from the American Rescue Plan Act, is that it’s often accompanied by a long line of organizations with their hands out, advocating for one worthy cause after the other. The needs are almost always greater than the windfall, no matter how large, and many will leave empty-handed, despite the meaningful benefit their projects could offer individuals. (3/16)