The Wall Street Journal: FDA Eyes Second Covid-19 Booster Shot
U.S. health regulators are looking at potentially authorizing a fourth dose of a Covid-19 vaccine in the fall, according to people familiar with the matter. The planning is still in early stages, and authorization would depend on ongoing studies establishing that a fourth dose would shore up people’s molecular defenses that waned after their first booster and reduce their risk of symptomatic and severe disease, the people said. The Food and Drug Administration, however, has begun reviewing data so it can make a decision, the people said. (Armour and Hopkins, 2/19)

The Hill: FDA Considering Second COVID-19 Booster In Coming Months
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) officials are "very carefully" considering second booster doses of the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, according to The Wall Street Journal. FDA spokesperson Alison Hunt confirmed to CNN that the FDA "is indeed continually looking at the emerging data on the pandemic and variants in the United States and overseas in order to evaluate the potential utility and composition of booster doses." (Breslin, 2/19)

The New York Times: Got A Covid Booster? You Probably Won’t Need Another For A Long Time
As people across the world grapple with the prospect of living with the coronavirus for the foreseeable future, one question looms large: How soon before they need yet another shot? Not for many months, and perhaps not for years, according to a flurry of new studies. Three doses of a Covid vaccine — or even just two — are enough to protect most people from serious illness and death for a long time, the studies suggest. “We’re starting to see now diminishing returns on the number of additional doses,” said John Wherry, director of the Institute for immunology at the University of Pennsylvania. Although people over 65 or at high risk of illness may benefit from a fourth vaccine dose, it may be unnecessary for most people, he added. (Mandavilli, 2/21)

But as more boosters are considered, some countries still lag in early doses —

Stat: The WHO's Chief Scientist On Speeding Access To Covid Vaccines In Africa
In response to growing concerns over vaccine inequity, the World Health Organization last June announced plans to create a technology transfer and manufacturing hub for vaccines using mRNA technology, starting with Covid-19 shots. The move reflected the difficulty in convincing vaccine makers to share their know-how, an issue that has deadlocked talks at the World Trade Organization over whether to waive intellectual property rights. Now, one of the companies involved in the hub, which is based in South Africa, is moving forward with its own vaccine candidate and the WHO has begun announcing other countries where “spokes” will be located for additional production. (Silverman, 2/22)

AP: US Virus Cases, Hospitalizations Continue Steady Decline
Average daily COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are continuing to fall in the U.S., an indicator that the omicron variant’s hold is weakening across the country. Total confirmed cases reported Saturday barely exceeded 100,000, a sharp downturn from around 800,850 five weeks ago on Jan. 16, according to Johns Hopkins University data. In New York, the number of cases went down by more than 50% over the last two weeks. “I think what’s influencing the decline, of course, is that omicron is starting to run out of people to infect,” said Dr. Thomas Russo, professor and infectious disease chief at the University of Buffalo’s Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. (Willingham and Mattise, 2/20)

AP: Nebraska Virus Cases And Hospitalizations Continue Falling
The number of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations continues falling across Nebraska in the wake of last month’s spike in cases. The state said 387 people were hospitalized with the virus Sunday, which is up slightly over the past couple days, but generally that number has been falling since peaking at 767 on Jan. 28. The seven-day rolling average of daily new cases in Nebraska fell over the past two weeks from 1,490.71 new cases per day on Feb. 5 to 277.14 new cases per day on Saturday. From mid January until Jan. 26, that number was regularly above 4,000 during the peak of the surge of the omicron variant of the virus. (2/21)

Milkwaukee Journal Sentinel: Patients Hospitalized With COVID-19 In Wisconsin Drop Below 700
It's been 40 days since the Wisconsin Hospital Association reported a record high 2,278 patients were hospitalized with COVID-19 in the state. Since then, hospitalization totals have been falling fast as the pandemic recedes. On Monday, the WHA reported that for the first time since last summer, the number of patients hospitalized with the virus in the state dropped below 700 patients. In addition, the WHA reported another decline in intensive care patients. (2/21)

The Augusta Chronicle: Augusta Hospitals Seeking Normal But CDC Wary Of Changing Mask Stance
Doctors Hospital of Augusta hit a welcome milestone last week – there was a day when no new COVID-19 patients were admitted, the first time in nearly two months. As COVID-19 patients slowly leave Augusta hospitals and fewer show up with new infections, hospitals are getting back to more normal operations. Doctors had not seen a day with no new COVID-19 patients since Dec. 22, spokesman Kaden Jacobs said. University Hospital had 66 COVID inpatients, a level it had not reached since Dec. 29, according to spokeswoman Rebecca Sylvester. AU Medical Center had 66 on Thursday morning but even that is deceiving because 37 would be considered "cleared" or no longer infectious, and many are simply waiting to go to another facility, said Chief Medical Officer Phillip Coule. (Corwin, 2/21)

On covid in hospitals —

Politico: Nowhere Is Safe: Record Number Of Patients Contracted Covid In The Hospital In January
More than 3,000 hospitalized patients each week in January had caught Covid sometime during their stay, more than any point of the pandemic, according to U.S. government data analyzed by POLITICO. The record surge demonstrates the virulence of the Omicron variant and how even hospitals, where infection control is paramount, provided little refuge. “Any level of hospital transmission is concerning,” said Aaron Milstone, a professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health who focuses on the prevention of hospital-acquired infections. “The data suggests that hospitals should review their practices and make sure they are doing everything they can to protect patients.” (Levy and James Vestal, 2/19)

The ongoing threat to people who are immunocompromised —

KHN: Covid Still Threatens Millions Of Americans. Why Are We So Eager To Move On?
Iesha White is so fed up with the U.S. response to covid-19 that she’s seriously considering moving to Europe. “I’m that disgusted. The lack of care for each other, to me, it’s too much,” said White, 30, of Los Angeles. She has multiple sclerosis and takes a medicine that suppresses her immune system. “As a Black disabled person, I feel like nobody gives a [expletive] about me or my safety.” (Knight, 2/22)

The Hill: Fox's Neil Cavuto Returns To Air, Says He Was In ICU With COVID-19
Fox News and Fox Business Network host Neil Cavuto returned to the air on Monday and revealed he had been in an intensive care unit while battling pneumonia and the coronavirus. "I did get COVID again but a far, far more serious strand, what doctors call COVID pneumonia," Cavuto said. "It landed me in intensive care for quite a while and it really was touch-and-go. Some of you who’ve wanted to put me out of my misery darn near got what you wished for! So, sorry to disappoint you!" The host said his "very compromised immune system" caused him to contract the coronavirus more than once. (Mastrangelo, 2/22)

Even as cases fall, access to covid pills is a concern —

The Wall Street Journal: Covid-19 Pill Access At Risk As Pharmacies Push For Bigger Payments
The rollout of new Covid-19 pills has exposed a potentially costly hole in how the government and healthcare companies are managing the pandemic drug response. Pharmacies that dispense the pills are pushing back and some are threatening to halt supplies if they don’t get more funds to cover the gap. The government paid billions of dollars for the pills, Paxlovid from Pfizer Inc. and molnupiravir from Merck & Co. and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics LP. Yet it left the details of how much pharmacists should be paid for filling prescriptions to health insurers and prescription-processing middlemen known as pharmacy-benefit managers. (Hopkins, 2/20)

The Hill: New York Won't Enforce COVID-19 Vaccine Booster Mandate For Health Care Workers
New York on Friday announced it would not enforce the state’s COVID-19 vaccine booster mandate for health care workers amid concerns over possible staffing issues. Last month, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) announced that the state would require all health care workers to get a COVID-19 booster as the state faced a surge of infections. That mandate was set to go into effect on Monday. (Vakil, 2/18)

The Wall Street Journal: New York Joins States Delaying Booster Mandate For Healthcare Workers
New York officials said they would try to increase booster uptake among healthcare workers over the next three months and then assess if additional steps, such as requiring the additional shot as a condition of employment, are still needed. “The reality is that not enough healthcare workers will be boosted by next week’s requirement in order to avoid substantial staffing issues in our already overstressed healthcare system,” Dr. Bassett said in a statement. (Vielkind, 2/19)

In other news on masking mandates and other covid protections —

AP: S Carolina Senate Panel Revives COVID-19 Vaccine Ban Bill
The Republican leader in the South Carolina Senate is reviving a bill to prevent public employers from requiring the COVID-19 vaccine and adding a proposal to fine private companies requiring the shot $7,500 for each person fired because of that mandate. Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey presented his proposal Thursday to a Senate Finance subcommittee considering an anti-mandate bill passed by the House in December. One big change proposed by Massey is to add a fine to the unemployment insurance taxes paid by a private company requiring the vaccine. (2/21)

Stat: State Legislatures Renew The Push To Roll Back Covid Public Health Measures
State legislators are mobilizing anew to roll back public health measures meant to contain the spread of Covid-19. They are introducing bills in both liberal and conservative states that target measures like vaccine and mask requirements, which have become political lightning rods throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. Several state lawmakers are also pushing legislation that would prevent hospitals and nursing homes from restricting visitors during outbreaks. (Florko, 2/22)

The New York Times: As Mask Mandates Across The U.S. Ease, Hawaii And Puerto Rico Remain Holdouts
Indoor mask mandates in every state but Hawaii have expired, or are scheduled to be lifted, as the United States nears its third year of the pandemic. Puerto Rico, the largest U.S. territory, also has no plans to lift its mask mandate. Several states announced in quick succession this month they would end their mask mandates as the Omicron wave recedes; many expire before the end of the month. Hawaii, which has had among the country’s fewest cases per capita over the course of the pandemic, has seen its daily average of new cases plummet about 70 percent over the past two weeks, according to a New York Times database. Hospitalizations are down about 50 percent over the same time period, and deaths have decreased around 10 percent. (Hassan, 2/21)

The Dallas Morning News: Flight Attendants Unions Want To Extend Mask Mandate On Airplanes
The Transportation Security Administration mandate requiring masks to be worn in airplanes, on interstate bus travel and in transportation terminals such as airports expires March 18. (Arnold, 02/21)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Schools Say They're Caught 'Between A Rock And A Hard Place' As Anti-Mask Protests Grow
Some San Diego County school district leaders are pleading for help as they bear the brunt of families’ discontent over the state’s indoor school mask mandate, which at this point has no expiration date. Scores of San Diego County students, many who are not yet teenagers, are protesting the mandate by refusing to wear masks in class. The protests have garnered more attention in the past few days, ever since state officials announced at a press conference last Monday that they are not lifting the state’s indoor school mask mandate yet. (Taketa, 2/21)

New Orleans Times-Picayune: New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell's Maskless Photos At Indoor Mardi Gras Ball Stir Debate
It was a swank Carnival ball inside one of the city’s most elegant buildings. Yet despite the indoor mask mandate that Mayor LaToya Cantrell reimposed last month, images circulating online appear to show that politicians including Cantrell herself failed to follow all the rules during the Mayor’s Mardi Gras Ball at Gallier Hall on Friday night. (Sledge, 02/21)

Politico: Dems, GOP At Odds Over Biden's Proposed Science Agency
Biden recently announced that former National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins would serve as a temporary science adviser, filling one of Lander’s key roles to help shepherd some of the White House’s most ambitious health priorities. But installing Collins may actually complicate efforts to create the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health because he, like Lander, is a strong proponent of housing the agency in NIH — and an increasing number of lawmakers are against that idea. “Every American agrees we must lead the world in scientific research,” a Republican leadership aide, who is close to ARPA-H discussions, said. “But based on member conversations I’ve witnessed, the majority of Republicans in the House worry ARPA-H will become another slush fund for Fauci-minded scientists — unchecked scientists who will use more government money just to curate their public image rather than get results.” (Owermohle, 2/22)

The New York Times: Uproar Over ‘Crack Pipes’ Puts Biden Drug Strategy At Risk
Lawmakers of both parties introduced legislation last week to bar federal funding for “drug paraphernalia” in response to a story in The Washington Free Beacon, a conservative website, asserting that federally funded addiction treatment programs would distribute pipes for smoking crack cocaine as part of “safe smoking kits.” In response, White House officials said tax dollars would not be spent on pipes. But with the Beacon story ricocheting around the conservative ecosystem — amplified by Republican including Senators Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Ted Cruz of Texas — Congress is pursuing plans not only to bar federal funding for “crack pipes,” but to impose restrictions on a new program that would have, for the first time, allowed federal funds to be spent on sterile needles for “syringe services” programs. (Gay Stolberg, 2/21)

CNN: Bill To Help Veterans Suffering From Toxic Burn Pit Exposure Takes Key Step Forward In Congress
The Senate took a significant step in recent days to help former military service members suffering from toxic burn pit exposure by passing a bill to expand access to health care for post-9/11 combat veterans. It's not yet clear though when burn pit legislation might get to the President's desk to be signed into law, and advocates say more still needs to be done for veterans to address the issue of toxic exposure. (Foran and Zaslav, 2/20)

Other politically-linked health matters —

The New York Times: A Key To Returning To Normal Is Paid Sick Leave, Democrats Say
The Omicron wave hammered the American work force, sending more people home sick than at any other point in the pandemic. Yet unlike in 2020, there is no federally required paid sick leave for workers — and none at all for the one-fifth of workers who don’t receive it from their employers. Now, as Omicron recedes and many restrictions are being lifted, and as more of the country begins to treat Covid as an unavoidable part of life, some Democratic lawmakers and others are trying to revive paid leave for Covid-related reasons. (Cain Miller, 2/21)

Bloomberg: Dr. Oz, David McCormick Spend Millions To Woo Trump Voters For PA Senate Primary
Former Bridgewater Associates CEO David McCormick and celebrity physician Mehmet Oz have already shattered spending records in their Republican primary battle for a U.S. Senate seat in Pennsylvania that is pivotal to party efforts to retake control of Congress. McCormick and Oz have flooded Keystone State airwaves with television and radio ads at a clip typically reserved for the closing stretch of an election, especially courting supporters of former President Donald Trump whose votes could spell the difference in the May 17 primary. (Niquette, 2/21)

The Washington Post: ‘Stand Your Ground’ Laws Linked To 11 Percent Rise In U.S. Firearm Homicides, Study Says
“Stand your ground” laws may have led to hundreds of additional homicides every year in the United States, according to a new study that could boost criticisms that they encourage unnecessary violence. Fiercely debated and increasingly common in the United States, stand-your-ground laws remove the duty to retreat from an attacker when possible before responding with potentially deadly force. They became a flash point in national disputes over gun violence, self-defense and racial profiling, particularly after the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin, a Black teenager, in 2012. (Knowles, 2/21)

The Hill: Sackler Family Offers Up More Money For Purdue Pharma Opioid Settlement
The Sackler family is offering more money to settle the Purdue Pharma bankruptcy case, the mediator of the settlement reported on Friday. The mediator filed a third interim report on Friday in which the Sackler families proposed paying between $5.5 million and $6 million for the settlement. The original bankruptcy settlement was listed at $4.3 million. The mediator, former Bankruptcy Judge Shelley Chapman, asked that the parties of the settlement receive more time to work on the settlement proposal. (Vakil, 2/18)

In covid news —

The Wall Street Journal: Covid-19 Vaccines Were Deadly In Rare Cases. Governments Are Now Weighing Compensation
Faced with the gravest health crisis in memory, governments deployed newly developed vaccines in record time. Many countries indemnified pharmaceutical companies that made the shots, with some governments promising to consider compensation for suspected Covid-19 vaccine-related injuries. Now governments, including the U.S. and U.K., are trying to live up to that pledge. They are in the very early stages of applying existing vaccine-injury programs to hundreds of claims of injury alleged from Covid-19 shots. (Strasburg, 2/19)

The Hill: Study Shows Political Affiliation Drove Use Of Ivermectin, Hydroxychloroquine
The use of two unproven COVID-19 treatments was higher in counties with a larger share of Republican voters in late 2020, according to a study released Friday, suggesting stark political differences in medical decisionmaking. Hydroxychloroquine prescribing volume from June through December 2020 was roughly double what it had been the previous year, and prescriptions were 150 percent higher in the most Republican counties than in the least, according to the study published Friday in the JAMA Internal Medicine journal. (Weixel, 2/18)

Politico: Bill Gates Says There's A Better Way To Fight Covid, Future Pandemics
To health leaders across the globe, reaching the World Health Organization’s goal of vaccinating 70 percent of the planet’s population by mid-2022 is crucial to stave off future Covid-19 surges. To Bill Gates, the target represents a top-down approach to fighting the coronavirus that overlooks the reality on the ground — a way of thinking he says must change before the next pandemic. “We’ll never get to 70 percent. Who is kidding who? We live in a world where you have countries that spend $12,000 per person per year on medicine and countries that spend $200 per person per year,” Gates, whose foundation has carried out successful polio vaccination campaigns for years, said. “If you’re playing the $200-per-person game, you can only do things that have huge impact.” (Banco, 2/19)

The Hill: Gates Says Risk Of Severe COVID-19 Has Reduced, Warns Of Another Pandemic
Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates said that the risk of severe COVID-19 infection has reduced dramatically but warned that another pandemic caused by a different pathogen could be around the corner. In an interview with CNBC's Hadley Gamble at Germany’s annual Munich Security Conference, the billionaire said the novel coronavirus has spread to enough of the population that the "risks are dramatically reduced because of that exposure." (Dress, 2/19)

Bloomberg: AstraZeneca Reports Positive Data On Breast Cancer Drug Enhertu
AstraZeneca Plc reported data from a late-stage trial showing its drug Enhertu helps patients with a type of breast cancer live longer, potentially expanding treatment options for the disease. Enhertu boosted survival rates in patients with HER2-low unresectable and metastatic breast cancer, the U.K. drugmaker said Monday. It’s the first time such a therapy has shown a benefit in patients with that form of breast cancer, AstraZeneca said. (Mulier and Paton, 2/21)

Reuters: AstraZeneca Boosts Oncology Credentials With Breast Cancer Trial Success
AstraZeneca (AZN.L) said its Enhertu cancer drug has been shown to significantly help women suffering from a type of breast cancer that leaves them with poor treatment options, opening the door to a much larger potential patient group. AstraZeneca, which is working on the drug with Japan's Daiichi Sankyo (4568.T), said on Monday that Enhertu prolonged survival and slowed the progression of metastatic breast cancer with low levels of a protein known as HER2. The improvement was "clinically meaningful" when compared with standard chemotherapy, it said, adding that detailed results of the late-stage trial would be presented at an as-yet undisclosed medical conference. (Burger, 2/21)

The Washington Post: AI Outdoes Radiologists When It Comes To Identifying Hip Fractures, Study Shows
When it comes to hip fractures, time is of the essence. Delays in surgery are associated with the risk of death and pressure sores, and patients with broken hips should ideally get surgery within 48 hours. But radiologists are in short supply, and the national shortage is exacerbated by a spiking demand for radiology services. And rushed radiologists and human error can lead to the improper identification and classification of hip fractures. Artificial Intelligence could help, suggests a recent study. When researchers pitted machine learning against human radiologists, the computer won, classifying hip fractures 19 percent more accurately than human experts. (Blakemore, 2/20)

In news about heart health —

Press Association: Eating Vegetables May Not Protect Against Heart Disease, Study Suggests
Packing your diet full of vegetables does not protect against heart disease, a new study suggests. The findings challenge previous research that suggests eating more vegetables is linked to a lower risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) – which can lead to stroke, heart attacks, and death. Researchers say past studies may not have taken into account lifestyle factors such as smoking, drinking alcohol, and meat intake – and socioeconomic factors such as a person’s education, income and wealth. They add that evidence from previous studies has been inconsistent. (2/21)

The Washington Post: Loneliness Can Increase Risk Of Heart Disease By 27 Percent For Older Women
For older women, being lonely and socially isolated can increase the chance of developing heart disease by as much as 27 percent, according to research published in the journal JAMA Network Open. The finding adds heart disease to a list of potential health effects of loneliness and isolation that include dementia and mental health issues such as anxiety and depression. (Searing, 2/20)

CNN: Sexual Harassment And Assault Linked To High Blood Pressure In Women, Study Says 
Women who experience sexual violence, workplace sexual harassment or both have a higher long-term risk of developing high blood pressure than women with no such trauma, according to new research. Hypertension is a key risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Cardiovascular disease is the top killer of women, causing 1 in 3 deaths each year, the American Heart Association reports. (LaMotte, 2/22)

CNN: Infertility Treatments Raise Risk Of Heart And Pregnancy Complications, Study Says 
If you are one of the millions of women who plan to use infertility treatments to have a baby, be aware that new research found women may be at increased risk for vascular and pregnancy-related complications, especially if they are 35 or older. "Advancing maternal age -- specifically being age 35 and older -- increases the risk of having or developing conditions, such as chronic high blood pressure, that increase the risk of pregnancy complications," said study author Dr. Pensée Wu, senior lecturer and honorary consultant obstetrician and subspecialist in maternal fetal medicine at Keele University School of Medicine in Staffordshire, UK, in a statement. (LaMotte, 2/22)

A suggestion for delaying autism diagnoses —

WUFT: FAU Researchers Suggest Delays In Autism Diagnosis For Black Kids May Reflect Providers’ Racial Biases 
Yvonne Westerman’s grandson had been doing well at 15 months. He ate everything. He responded to his name, Chance. He said words. Until the day he didn’t. She took him to the doctor, who she said told her nothing was wrong; Chance was just developmentally delayed. But Westerman thought it was something more. She did her own research. She learned that with the label “developmentally delayed” instead of an autism diagnosis, it would be harder to get services like behavior therapy. No one had told her that, she said. (Hyson, 2/18)

The Wall Street Journal: The Science Behind Why Children Fare Better With Covid-19
Children’s seeming imperviousness to Covid-19’s worst effects has been one of the biggest mysteries—and reliefs—of the pandemic. Now the reasons are coming into focus, scientists say: Children mobilize a first line of defense known as the innate immune system more effectively than adults. Although some children do fall seriously ill after coming down with Covid-19, the most have mild symptoms or no symptoms at all. Unlike other respiratory viruses such as the flu or respiratory syncytial virus, SARS-CoV-2 doesn’t hit children nearly as hard as it does adults or the elderly. (Toy, 2/21)

CIDRAP: Fewer Kids' ED Visits Amid COVID, But More Mental Healthcare In Teen Girls
Lower percentages of US children visited an emergency department (ED) for any indication amid the COVID-19 pandemic, while adolescent girls accounted for the largest hikes in visits for mental illness, according to two Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) studies published late last week in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR). For both studies, the researchers mined pediatric ED visit data in the National Syndromic Surveillance Program for three periods: Mar 15, 2020, to Jan 2, 2021; Jan 3, 2021, to Jan 1, 2022; and Jan 2 to 29, 2022, compared with the same periods in 2019. (2/21)

In other covid news, including studies on how omicron hit the U.S. —

CIDRAP: Convention Studies Detail Omicron's Early Moves In US
The pre-Thanksgiving spread of the Omicron COVID-19 variant among fully vaccinated attendees of a New York City Anime convention was an early sign the variant was able to evade vaccines, according to a study today in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR). But despite a high attack rate among close contacts, the convention itself was likely not a super-spreading event, according to another study published today in MMWR, and it had limited impact on the variant's introduction to the United States, researchers said. (Soucheray, 2/18)

CIDRAP: Family Members Suffer PTSD After COVID-19 ICU Stay, Study Reveals
A new study from French researchers shows that family members of patients hospitalized in the intensive care unit (ICU) with COVID-19 acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), as compared with other causes of ARDS, were at a significantly increased risk of symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) at 90 days after ICU discharge. The study was published in JAMA late last week. The prospective study included patients seen in 23 ICUs in France from January of 2020 to June of 2020, with final follow-up ending in October of that year. (2/21)

CIDRAP: Ivermectin Futile For Mild To Moderate COVID-19, Study Finds
Early treatment with the antiparasitic drug ivermectin does not lower the risk of severe disease when given to patients with mild to moderate COVID-19, according to a study today in JAMA Internal Medicine. And a related study in the same journal finds connections between prescribing patterns for ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine by political-party vote share in 2020. Doctors at 20 Malaysian government hospitals and a COVID-19 quarantine center conducted an open-label, randomized clinical trial on the use of ivermectin in the first week of COVID-19 symptom onset in hospitalized adults 50 years and older with mild or moderate illness and underlying medical conditions. The study took place from May 31 to Oct 25, 2021. (Van Beusekom, 2/18)

WUSF Public Media: Hospital Leaders Are Criticizing State Proposals To Cut Medicaid Funds
Hospital leaders are voicing concerns about budget proposals in the state House and Senate that would cut funding for hospitals that treat the most vulnerable patients. Both chambers’ budgets would eliminate about $300 million for what is known as the “critical care fund." This money is used to give automatic rate enhancements to a group of safety net hospitals in the state that treat large numbers of Medicaid patients, who include Florida’s elderly, children, low-income families and people with disabilities. The House also recommended cutting $100 million in state Medicaid reimbursement money to all hospitals, which is matched by federal funds, and would divert that money instead to higher education to train future nurses. (Colombini, 2/18)

Axios: Ambulance Rides Are Getting A Lot More Expensive
The cost of an ambulance ride has soared over the past five years, according to a report from FAIR Health, shared first with Axios. Patients typically have little ability to choose their ambulance provider, and often find themselves on the hook for hundreds, if not thousands of dollars. Most ambulance trips billed insurers for "advanced life support," according to FAIR Health's analysis. Private insurers' average payment for those rides jumped by 56% between 2017 and 2020 — from $486 to $758. (Reed, 2/22)

Billings Gazette: Jury Awards $36.5 Million Verdict Against Insurance Company In Bellwether Libby Asbestos Case
For more than two decades, the asbestos victims of Libby have waited. During that time, they watched The W.R. Grace Co., longtime owners of the mine that poisoned many workers and their families and spewed so much toxic dust into the air that the entire town of Libby was endangered, declare bankruptcy. (Cumber, 2/21)

Also —

WFSU: A Federal Court Says Requiring A License To Give Dietary Advice Doesn't Violate Free Speech Rights 
A federal appeals court has upheld the constitutionality of a Florida law that restricts unlicensed people from giving dietary advice, rejecting arguments that it violates First Amendment rights. A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the challenge filed by Heather Kokesch Del Castillo, who was cited by the Florida Department of Health in 2017 for getting paid to provide dietary advice without being a state-licensed dietitian or nutritionist. Del Castillo ran what the ruling described as a “health-coaching business,” which included offering dietary advice to clients. After receiving a complaint from a licensed dietitian and investigating, the Department of Health alleged Del Castillo violated a law known as the Dietetics and Nutrition Practice Act. (2/21)

Bloomberg: Karex Sees Rising Demand For Condoms As Covid Restrictions Ease
The world’s largest producer of condoms said it expects the demand for its products to increase as the widening vaccine coverage prompt governments to ease social-distancing rules. “As vaccination rates ramp up around the world, more economies continue to relax restrictions and societies begin to adapt to post-pandemic life,” Malaysia’s Karex Bhd. said in a note accompanying its earnings on Monday. (Ngui, 2/21)

In health care staffing news —

11alive.com: Travel Nurses Becoming More Costly For Hospitals During Pandemic 
Travel nurses were a lifeline for hospitals during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic for overwhelmed hospitals around the country, but two years into it, the rising cost is having a ripple effect. “I often wonder where have all the nurses gone?” Jody Leonard, a nurse with nearly 25 years of experience, said. “Most hospitals are doing what they have to do to get staff in place. Because without nurses, the hospital can't function.” (Lucas, 2/21)

AP: UNMC Receives $2.2M Grant To Address Nursing Burnout
The University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Nursing has received a $2.2 million federal grant to address burnout among the state’s nurses as the coronavirus pandemic stretches into a third year. The three-year grant is funded through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Services, the Omaha World-Herald reported. It’s part of an estimated $103 million in coronavirus relief funding to reduce burnout and promote mental health among the nation’s health care workforce. (2/21)

Anchorage Daily News: Plan To Add Alaska Spots To WWAMI Medical School Wins Support, But Administrators Say There’s No Fast Way To Get There
As part of the state budget, Gov. Mike Dunleavy has proposed opening up the regional medical school program that serves Alaskans to 10 additional Alaska students each year — from 20 students to 30 instead — beginning with this year’s incoming class. University partners say they’re glad to see funding earmarked for the state’s WWAMI program and that expanding the class size could be a good thing: The pandemic has highlighted Alaska’s need for more doctors, and the program has a track record of training and retaining a significant proportion of the state’s physicians. (Berman, 02/21)

Albuquerque Journal: Nursing 911: Shortage Of Workers Requires Expanded Training Capacity
Intensive care units throughout New Mexico are operating beyond capacity. Hundred-day hospital stays are almost commonplace now but were unheard of before 2020. Nurses, aging along with our U.S. population, are retiring. As demand for health care services mounts, the shortage of registered nurses worsens. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the nursing shortage by increasing the number of patients entering the health care system and skewing the patient-to-nurse ratio toward dicey territory. (Lee, 2/21)

Politico: Rural Hospitals Stave Off Mass Exodus Of Workers To Vaccine Mandate
Rural hospital officials who expected Covid vaccine mandates to cause a staffing crisis are facing a pleasant surprise: Religious exemptions and education efforts for the hesitant are keeping almost all health care workers on the job. Nearly two dozen rural hospital officials and state hospital association leaders told POLITICO they have lost just a fraction of their staff to the federal immunization requirement, which mandated that health care workers in every state except Texas received at least one shot of the vaccine by last week. (Messerly, 2/22)

C-HIT.ORG: Surging Behavioral Health Care Needs For Children Put Strain On School Social Workers
On paper, the social worker’s role at public K-12 schools is straightforward: to support a caseload of students with special needs to thrive in often-challenging academic setting. But ask a social worker employed in a public school these days, and they’re likely to tell a much different story. For social worker Jara Rijs, who works at Windham Center School, where more than half of its pre-K through fifth-grade students qualify for subsidized lunch, the job responsibilities bleed well beyond the job description, particularly since the pandemic hit. (Heubeck, 2/19)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Will COVID-19 Long-Haulers Push Outpatient Medical System To Breaking Point?
Carolina Nieto of Escondido and Julio Lara of Valley Center became the newest patients at the Sharp HealthCare COVID-19 Recovery Program Friday, meeting with rehabilitation specialists about lingering symptoms that they have suffered since 2021. Nieto, 63, arrived still pulling an oxygen tank more than one year after the virus put her in the hospital for 15 days. She continues to struggle with multiple COVID-19 symptoms, including short-term memory and exhaustion when she tries to walk more than a few steps at a time. (Sisson, 2/21)

Also —

KHN: ‘Injections, Injections, Injections’: Troubling Questions Follow Closure Of Sprawling Pain Clinic Chain
On May 13 of last year, the cellphones of thousands of California residents undergoing treatment for chronic pain lit up with a terse text message: “Due to unforeseen circumstances, Lags Medical Centers will be closing effective May 19, 2021.” In a matter of days, Lags Medical, a sprawling network of privately owned pain clinics serving more than 20,000 patients throughout the state’s Central Valley and Central Coast, would shut its doors. Its patients, most of them working-class people reliant on government-funded insurance, were left without ready access to their medical records or handoffs to other physicians. Many patients were dependent on opioids to manage the pain caused by a debilitating disease or injury, according to alerts about the closures that state health officials emailed to area physicians. They were sent off with one final 30-day prescription, and no clear path for how to handle the agony — whether from their underlying conditions or the physical dependency that accompanies long-term use of painkillers — once that prescription ran out. (Maria Barry-Jester and Gold, 2/22)

KHN: Journalists Review Hospital Penalties And Problems Riddling Medicaid Rx Program
Samantha Young, a political correspondent for California Healthline, on Feb. 15 discussed how Medi-Cal patients struggle to get their prescription drugs on KCRW’s “Press Play.” Interim Southern bureau editor Andy Miller discussed Medicare penalties for hospitals in Georgia on Georgia Public Broadcasting’s “Lawmakers” on Feb. 10. (2/19)

AP: Avian Influenza Discovered For 1st Time In Maine
A highly pathogenic avian influenza has been detected for the first time in Maine, federal officials said Sunday. State officials quarantined the property in Knox County and the backyard flock will be eliminated to prevent the spread of the disease, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. The virus is often spread to domestic poultry by infected wild birds. U.S. surveillance efforts have identified the virus in wild birds in a number of states including New Hampshire, where it was detected this month in 20 wild ducks. (2/20)

AP: A Mild US Flu Season Is Waning, But Is It Really Over?
This winter’s mild flu season has faded to a trickle of cases in much of the U.S., but health officials aren’t ready to call it over. Since the beginning of the year, positive flu test results and doctor’s office visits for flu-like illness are down. But second waves of influenza are not unusual, and some experts said it’s possible a late winter or spring surge could be coming. “The question we’re asking ourselves now is: ‘Is this it, or is there more to come?’” said Lynnette Brammer of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Stobbe, 2/18)

CIDRAP: California Reports H1N2v Flu Case
California has reported a variant H1N2 (H1N2v) flu case in an adult who had direct contact with pigs, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today in its weekly FluView report. The patient wasn't hospitalized and has recovered. Some respiratory illnesses were reported in some of the patient's contacts, but the CDC said the events occurred during a period of high respiratory illness activity, and no specimens were collected for testing. No ongoing human-to-human transmission of H1N2v has been linked to the case. So far, three novel influenza A cases have been reported to the CDC this flu season. Earlier reports involved an H3N2v case in Ohio and an H1v (neuraminidase not determined) case in Oklahoma. (2/18)

In other news —

The New York Times: More Teenage Girls With Eating Disorders Wound Up In The E.R. During The Pandemic
During the pandemic, emergency rooms across the country reported an increase in visits from teenage girls dealing with eating and other disorders, including anxiety, depression and stress, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The report provides new detail about the kinds of mental health issues affecting a generation of adolescents. Mental health experts hypothesize that the pandemic prompted some youth to feel isolated, lonely and out-of-control. Some coped by seeking to have control over their own behavior, said Emily Pluhar, a pediatric psychologist at Boston Children’s Hospital and instructor at Harvard Medical School. (Richtel, 2/18)

Cincinnati Enquirer: Poison Centers in U.S., Ohio Sound Alarm on Chemical in Some COVID-19 At-Home Tests
Be aware: That COVID-19 test kit in your home could contain a toxic substance that may be harmful to your children and you. The substance is sodium azide, and Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center's Drug and Poison Information Center has seen a surge in calls about exposures to the chemical since more people started self-testing for COVID-19 at home. (Demio, 2/21)

Axios: Pedestrian Deaths Are Surging
Pedestrian deaths from cars soared to record levels during the pandemic, according to data from the Governor's Highway Safety Association. An uptick in dangerous driving behavior during the pandemic contributed to the dramatic increase in pedestrian deaths in 2020, despite less drivers being on the road. Crashes killed more than 6,700 pedestrians in 2020, up about 5% from the estimated 6,412 in 2019, according to the association. (Doherty, 2/21)

AP: ‘Irreversible’: No Easy Fix For Water Fouled By Gas Driller
One of the best-known pollution cases ever to emerge from the U.S. drilling and fracking boom has entered a difficult new phase as prosecutors pursue criminal charges against Pennsylvania’s most prolific gas driller — and push for a settlement they say could yield more significant benefits for affected homeowners than a conviction. But the option prosecutors recently discussed has put them at odds with some residents who reject individual water treatment systems as inadequate and unworkable. These residents want to be hooked up to public water — itself a controversial idea in their rural community, one that state environmental officials talked up more than a decade ago but ultimately abandoned. (Rubinkam, 2/18)

Obituaries —

CNN: Dr. Paul Farmer, Global Health Giant, Dies At 62 
Dr. Paul Farmer, a physician who championed global health and sought to bring modern medical science to those most in need around the world, died unexpectedly in his sleep in Rwanda on Monday, according to Partners in Health, the nonprofit organization he founded. He was 62. Farmer, who was also an infectious disease specialist and a medical anthropologist, is survived by his wife, Didi Bertrand Farmer, and three children. Partners in Health CEO Dr. Sheila Davis said in a statement, "Paul Farmer's loss is devastating, but his vision for the world will live on through Partners in Health. Paul taught all those around him the power of accompaniment, love for one another, and solidarity. Our deepest sympathies are with his wife and three children." (Goodman, 2/21)

The New York Times: Paul Farmer, Pioneer Of Global Health, Dies At 62
Dr. Farmer attracted public renown with “Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World,” a 2003 book by Tracy Kidder that described the extraordinary efforts he would make to care for patients, sometimes walking hours to their homes to ensure they were taking their medication. He was a practitioner of “social medicine,” arguing there was no point in treating patients for diseases only to send them back into the desperate circumstances that contributed to them in the first place. Illness, he said, has social roots and must be addressed through social structures.(Barry and Traub, 2/21)

Albuquerque Journal: NYC Mayor Pushes To Remove Homeless People In Subway System
New York City Mayor Eric Adams is making an aggressive push to try to remove homeless people from the city’s sprawling subway system, announcing a plan to start barring people from sleeping on trains or riding the same lines all night. The new mayor, at one point likening homelessness to a “cancerous sore,” said Friday that the city next week would deploy more teams of police officers and mental health workers to the transit network and start enforcing rules more strictly. (02/19)

Bloomberg: New York City To Send Clinicians To Subways, Ban Sleeping In Stations
New York City Mayor Eric Adams on Friday announced a plan to remove New Yorkers without homes and those suffering from mental illness from transit stations, sending response teams into the subways to help them. The teams will connect people in need with housing and other support and take them to drop-in centers. The city will add NYPD officers, who Adams said “will enforce transit rules” prohibiting smoking, open drug use, fare evasion and sleeping on trains. Officials will also launch a marketing campaign that directs everyday riders to text or Whatsapp the MTA to report people in need. (Nahmias, 2/18)

Los Angeles Times: Greater L.A. Homeless Count Resumes After Pandemic Hiatus
After a yearlong hiatus during the pandemic, thousands of volunteers will fan out across Los Angeles County this week to conduct the annual count of the region’s homeless population. The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority canceled the event last year and then delayed it last month because of COVID-19 surges spawned by the Delta and Omicron variants of the coronavirus. (Vives, 2/21)

Sacramento Bee: Sacramento Has 37 Portable Toilets For 10,000 Homeless People — And They Could Be Removed
Currently, Sacramento County has 37 portable toilets available for an estimated 10,000 homeless people. That’s about 270 people per port-a-potty. They could be removed in June when funding for their upkeep runs out, said county spokeswoman Kim Nava. The county’s portable toilet program is fairly new. It dates to the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, when officials put out 50 port-a-potties near homeless camps. Thirteen have been removed since then. The county also put out 50 water stations, but has so far removed 21. Some of the toilets and water stations were damaged or went missing, and the county did not replace them. (Clift, 2/21)

The Press Times: 'You Cannot Ignore It Anymore.' Pandemic Spotlights Homelessness In Brown County, Fueling Push For Solutions
Wisconsin in 2020 had an estimated 4,515 people experiencing homelessness, according to the most recent available data. In 2021, the Brown County Health and Human Services Department served 175 people who identified as homeless. For the housed, homelessness may seem foreign — something that could never happen to them. But all people experiencing homelessness have one thing in common. (Graves, 2/19)

Detroit Free Press: From Stumbling In Snow, Homeless Now Have Refuge Saving Lives, Dollars
It was after several winters of sheltering the homeless men at night and learning they were increasingly stumbling around in the snow by day — sometimes sleeping out in it — that the plight of Jim and Gary came dramatically to Elizabeth Kelly’s attention. As their conditions deteriorated, Jim and Gary had been in and out of Pontiac’s main hospital, at that time called POH Medical Center. They first had their frozen toes thawed, next amputated one by one, followed by amputations of entire feet, and then ultimately came their pitiful deaths. (Laitner, 2/21)

Politico: Colorado Governor: Anti-LGBTQ Laws Are 'Un-American'
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, the first openly gay man to be elected governor, criticized the push for anti-LGBTQ laws in Republican-led states. “Look, words matter. Laws matter. When a group of people, LGBTQ youth, feel targeted by the words and laws that some politicians espouse, of course, it can increase anxiety, depression,” he said during an interview with CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday. Just six weeks into 2022, more than 150 anti-LGBTQ bills have been introduced across the country, according to USA Today. States such as Florida are going as far as prohibiting classroom discussions on sexual orientation and gender identity and requiring teachers to inform parents of their child’s sexuality if they identify as LGBTQ. (Kim, 2/20)

The Hill: Amendment To 'Don't Say Gay' Bill In Florida Requires Schools To Out Students To Their Parents Within Six Weeks
A new amendment to Florida’s “Don't Say Gay” bill would require schools to inform parents of their children’s sexual orientation within six weeks of learning the student isn't straight, NBC affiliate WFLA reported on Monday. The amendment was filed Friday by the bill’s co-sponsor, state Rep. Joe Harding (R). The bill, which has gained national attention and pushback, bars educators in Florida from talking about sexual orientation or gender identity in primary schools. Parents would be able to take legal action against school districts they believe have violated the measure. (Oshin, 2/21)

Billings Gazette: Pair Of Bills Targeting Pregnant Drug Users Advance In Wyoming Legislature
In 2005, a Fremont County prosecutor charged a woman with felony child endangerment after finding her newborn baby tested positive for methamphetamine. She was the first person in Wyoming to be charged for endangering an unborn child with drugs. The woman also tested positive for meth at the hospital after giving birth. The next day, she said, police took her child. (Gerst Casper, 2/21)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Two UWM Students Died in their Dorm Rooms Because of Fentanyl. Now, Their Mothers Are Turning Agony Into Action.
In a poem Logan Rachwal wrote as a high school junior, he thought back to simpler times, with late nights on the baseball diamond, building forts with his brother, the warmth of his family home and "easier days ... peaceful days." The poem — and the childhood memories it describes — are among the things his family cherishes today, not the years when their relationship was more strained than peaceful. (Shastri, 2/17)

Los Angeles Times: Another Sewage Spill Closes Beach Swimming In Orange County
Orange County officials have closed a portion of the ocean near the west end of Newport Bay from 8th Street following yet another sewage spill. The Orange County Health Care Agency said Monday that a blocked sewer line at a restaurant in Newport Bay leaked about 35,000 to 50,000 gallons of untreated sewage into nearby waters. This spill comes less than two months after a 48-inch sewage main in Carson failed, spewing millions of gallons of waste into the Los Angeles Harbor and fouling beaches in Long Beach and elsewhere in L.A. and Orange counties. (Ramsey, 2/21)

AP: Project To Assess Needs Of Long-Isolated Arizona Community
A small, remote northern Arizona town where a polygamist group used to be dominant makes few headlines these days. But that doesn’t mean it’s been entirely forgotten. Mohave County officials have decided to support a project to assess and address the long-isolated community’s health needs, Today’s News-Herald reported. (2/21)

Burlington Free Press: New Program To Boost Food Access While Supporting Vermont Farm Stands
"Farm Stand Together," a new Vermont-wide food aid program, is providing gift cards to farm stands for low-income people. The goal of the program is to boost food access while supporting local agriculture. Anyone experiencing food insecurity can apply online for a gift card that provides a minimum of $50 at eligible farm stands. (Fisher, 02/22)

North Carolina Health News: Is This The Year NC Gets Medicaid Expansion? 
The state Legislative Building designed by architect Edward Durell Stone almost 60 years ago has a maze of hallways where lawmakers often buttonhole each other for private discussions about contentious public issues. Rep. Donny Lambeth (R-Winston-Salem) is one of those lawmakers who has been taken aside recently to discuss the pros and cons of expanding Medicaid in North Carolina. “One of the hallway conversations always comes around to, ‘Well so and so state has had all kinds of financial problems because they expanded Medicaid’ … so I really want to understand what has been the experience in other states as far as balancing their budgets, the impact on their operating funds and pressure it puts on their operating funds because they expanded,” Lambeth said Friday at the first meeting of the Joint Legislative Committee on Access to Healthcare and Medicaid Expansion. (Blythe, 2/21)

North Carolina Health News: Reproductive Rights For People With Disabilities In NC 
As the reproductive rights of people under guardianship came into the national spotlight with the #FreeBritney movement, disability advocates in North Carolina say people with disabilities in this state could easily face similar threats to their rights. In the case of pop star Britney Spears, she was not allowed to remove her IUD so she could have a third child, despite being rich, white and in the public eye. Spears was legally unable to make decisions because she was under a conservatorship, a legal process in which the court declares a person “incompetent” and someone else is appointed to make their decisions for them. (Thompson, 2/22)

AP: Bill To Consider Churches Essential In Emergencies Advances
A bill that would assure churches can meet in person in South Carolina during a pandemic or other emergency as long as other essential businesses can stay open is advancing in the state Senate. A Senate subcommittee unanimously approved the bill last week, sending it to the Senate Judiciary Committee. The bill passed the House last March. Supporters of the bill said they know the state never closed any churches when other businesses were closed in spring 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic started. (2/20)

Noticias Telemundo for Axios: Colombia's Constitutional Court Decriminalizes Abortion 
Colombia's Constitutional Court on Monday voted 5-4 to decriminalize abortions in the first 24 weeks of pregnancy in what proponents called a historic decision for women's rights. It's the latest sign that views about the procedure are shifting in Catholic-majority Latin American countries, especially as the right to an abortion in the U.S., which served as a cultural example, is at risk. (Franco, 2/21)

AP: Colombia's Highest Court Legalizes Abortion Up To 24 Weeks
Colombia became the latest country in Latin America to expand access to abortion Monday as the nation’s Constitutional Court voted to legalize the procedure until the 24th week of pregnancy. The decision by the tribunal of nine judges fell short of the expectations of pro-choice groups that had been pushing for abortion to be completely decriminalized in Colombia. But it was nevertheless described as a historic event by women’s rights groups, which estimate 400,000 women get clandestine abortions in the country each year. Before the ruling, Colombia allowed abortions only when a woman’s life was in danger, a fetus had malformations or a pregnancy resulted from rape. (Rueda, 2/22)

In news from the U.K. —

The New York Times: England Lifts Rules As Queen Elizabeth Battles Infection
After almost two years of restrictions, Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain on Monday said it was time to live with the coronavirus, announcing an end to England’s remaining legal curbs and most free testing, and making his country an outlier in its handling of the pandemic. Although careful not to declare the country’s health crisis officially over, Mr. Johnson sought to put the country firmly on the path to normalcy, albeit just a day after an announcement that Queen Elizabeth II had tested positive for the virus. (Castle, 2/22)

AP: UK: People With COVID In England Won't Need To Self-Isolate
People with COVID-19 won’t be legally required to self-isolate in England starting in the coming week, the U.K. government has announced, as part of a plan for “living with COVID” that is also likely to see testing for the coronavirus scaled back. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said ending all of the legal restrictions brought in to curb the spread of the virus will let people in the U.K. “protect ourselves without restricting our freedoms.” He is expected to lay out details of the plan in Parliament on Monday. “I’m not saying that we should throw caution to the winds, but now is the moment for everybody to get their confidence back,” Johnson told the BBC in an interview broadcast Sunday. (Lawless, 2/20)

Reuters: Top English Medic Warns New COVID Variants Could Be More Resistant To Vaccines
England's chief medical officer Chris Whitty warned on Monday there will be new COVID-19 variants and said some of them could be more resistant to vaccines. Earlier, Britain said it would end all coronavirus restrictions in England including mandatory self-isolation for people with COVID-19 and free testing, drawing scepticism from some scientists and political opponents. "We all expect... there to be new variants. And some of those new variants will just disappear," Whitty told a press conference. "But some of them will cause significant problems." (2/21)

Meanwhile, covid's impact is still felt around the world —

Reuters: S.Korea Says Omicron COVID Variant 75% Less Likely To Kill Than Delta Strain
People infected with the Omicron coronavirus variant are nearly 75% less likely to develop serious illness or die than those who contract the Delta variant, real world data released on Monday by South Korea's health authorities showed. A study by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) of some 67,200 infections confirmed since December showed the Omicron variant's severity and death rates averaged 0.38% and 0.18%, respectively, compared with 1.4% and 0.7% for the Delta cases. (Shin, 2/22)

AP: Iran Returns Donated Vaccines Because They Were Made In US
Iran has returned 820,000 doses of coronavirus vaccines donated by Poland because they were manufactured in the United States, state TV reported Monday. TV quoted Mohammad Hashemi, an official in the country’s Health Ministry, as saying that Poland donated about a million doses of the British-Swedish AstraZeneca vaccine to Iran. “But when the vaccines arrived in Iran, we found out that 820,000 doses of them which were imported from Poland were from the United States,” he said. (2/21)

Reuters: Hong Kong Finds COVID In Samples From Packaging Of Pork, Beef Imports
Hong Kong authorities said they found COVID-19 in samples taken from the packaging of imports of frozen beef from Brazil and frozen pork skin from Poland, vowing to step up inspections of imported food. The global financial hub deploys a "dynamic zero COVID" strategy similar to mainland China's, aiming to eradicate any outbreaks at all costs. Authorities have been on high alert as a new wave of infections is proving harder to control. Daily infections numbers have risen sharply this year, reaching a record 7,533 cases on Monday, overwhelming the government's testing, hospital and quarantine capacities. (2/22)

Reuters: More Patients, Fewer Nurses: Hong Kong's Medical Frontline Struggles With COVID Surge
Yee, a nurse on the frontline of Hong Kong's fight against COVID-19, recently became one of the patients her hospital had to turn away, after isolation wards, and later corridors, became overpacked with people on gurneys. At home, the 25-year-old spread the virus to her father, and fears her mother and brother might also get it. Rules say she should be sent to a quarantine facility, but nobody got in touch for the past seven days to make arrangements. (Pang and Cheng, 2/22)

Also —

Stat: Malawi Polio Case Raises Concerns The Virus Could Reemerge In Region
A newly discovered case of wild polio in Malawi has raised the possibility that a virus that had been driven out of the African continent could again find a toehold there. Teams of international disease investigators arrived in the East African nation over the weekend to probe how it came to have its first wild polio case in three decades and the continent’s first in five years. “The reported case in Malawi comes as a big disappointment, but sadly not as a surprise,” said Kim Thompson, president of Kid Risk, a nonprofit organization that does disease modeling for the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. “It’s definitely showing us that the quality of immunization has not been high enough. But it also raises questions about the quality of surveillance.” (Branswell, 2/22)

Los Angeles Times: The First Alzheimer's Treatment Taught Us Hard Lessons 
The Food and Drug Administration’s surprise approval of Aduhelm for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease last year was a mess on practically every level. Three agency advisors resigned, and skeptical doctors such as myself were left to advise patients — all desperate for hope — that, yes, it is a treatment option but, no, we have no idea whether it will work. And by the way, it is extraordinarily expensive. (Keith Vossel, 2/19)

Miami Herald: Florida’s 15-Week Abortion Ban Is A GOP Assault On Women 
“Democracy starts with our skin,” actress Ashley Judd affirmed at the 2019 Women in the World Summit after sharing that she was impregnated by a rapist and chose to have a safe, legal abortion. “We’re not supposed to regulate what we choose to do with our insides.” So says U.S. constitutional law as well, but when it comes to women’s reproductive health, the degree of governmental intrusion after conception is the stuff that wins or loses elections. (Fabiola Santiago, 2/19)

The CT Mirror: State Needs To Ensure That Incarcerated Receive Adequate Medical Care
At the end of January, when a 37-year-old man incarcerated in Connecticut died from complications related to COVID-19, he became the 28th individual in the custody of the Department of Corrections to have died from the illness since the start of the pandemic. The infectious and deadly virus continues to expose something far too many have learned the hard way, currently and before the pandemic’s start: health care in Connecticut prison systems is failing the men and women who are legally required to receive care from the state. (Saud Anwar MD, 2/22)

The Tennessean: Why Telehealth Is Vital To Americans Seeking Substance Abuse Treatment
As overdose deaths continue to climb, it is more important than ever that Tennesseans have access to treatment for opioid use disorder. COVID-19 era executive orders and special session legislation expanded permissions for telehealth, but these permissions expire this April.  I spoke with Dr. Stephen Loyd, Chief Medical Officer of Cedar Recovery, and he agrees that these permissions must be extended, if not made permanent. (Jeremy C. Kourvelas, 2/22)

Modern Healthcare: Social Determinants Of Health Driving Transformation In Medicare Coverage 
Hospital, health system and community leaders know that Medicare is the single largest payer and the single largest cash flow in American healthcare. What many leaders may not know is that as a growing number of people are enrolling in Medicare Advantage plans—channeling a significant portion of that money away from purely fee-based purchases of care and into capitation to buy care by the package, not by the piece—the people most likely to enroll in that program are our low-income Medicare beneficiaries. (George Halvorson, 2/22)

The CT Mirror: Connecticut Public Option Could Hurt Small Business And Taxpayers
As a small business owner, nothing is more important to me than ensuring our employees have access to affordable, high-quality health care. For more than 60 years, my company, Northeast Express Transportation, Inc., has provided support to companies in Connecticut with innovative logistics solutions. Our employees are the backbone of our company —and the ability to offer health coverage people can afford is one way that we’re able to stay competitive in the job market. (Kevin Maloney, 2/18)

The Atlantic: Why Police Are Still Handling Mental-Health Crises 
When the murder of George Floyd in 2020 sparked widespread demand for police reforms, some cities moved to announce major overhauls of law enforcement. One of the most promising—and popular—proposals was to develop mental-health response units, staffed by social workers or crisis counselors, who could respond to mental-health incidents in lieu of armed police. (David A. Graham, 2/22)

The Washington Post: D.C. Schools Should Step Up Amid A Perfect Storm Of Mental Health Challenges 
The pandemic has compounded mental health challenges in young children. A recent report from U.S. Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy noted massive increases in self-harm hospitalizations as well as incidents of depression and anxiety because of the pandemic, telling The Post children are now enduring a “perfect storm of a stressor.” Fortunately, D.C. has made investing in school-based mental health a major priority. (Kisha Clark, 2/18)

Stat: Medical Misinformation Often Isn’t Outright Lies. It’s More Subtle Than That
The most powerful forms of deception rely more on emotional manipulation and misdirection than outright lies. That’s what I’ve observed in nearly a year of research into the murky world of medical misinformation. Take the episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast that prompted music legends like Joni Mitchell and Neil Young to remove their music from Spotify, where Rogan is the platform’s most popular podcaster. The guest on that episode, medical researcher Robert Malone, created a distorted picture of alleged vaccination dangers with a combination of anecdote, cherry-picking, innuendo, and wildly improbable speculation — not deliberate lies. (Faye Flam, 2/22)

Chicago Tribune: Africa Needs New Thinking To Deliver Crucial Vaccines 
Amid hopeful signs that maybe — just maybe — the pandemic has peaked here with the help of vaccines, a depressing number of people, mainly in poorer countries, still has yet to receive a single shot. With an unpredictable virus and its variants that show little respect for international borders, that shortfall could come back to haunt more fortunate countries like the United States. Fortunately, a historic mobilization of public and private sector actors and actions has led to 4.9 billion people around the world having received at least one shot, according to the World Health Organization. (2/22)

Bloomberg: Living With Covid Does Not Mean Ignoring It
Boris Johnson followed Denmark on Monday in scrapping most Covid restrictions for England. His “living with Covid” plan shifts the emphasis from government intervention to personal responsibility. The prime minister announced that from Thursday, the government will no longer require people to self-isolate if they’ve had a positive Covid test. The colossally expensive contact-tracing program will be scrapped, and the unvaccinated will not have to self-isolate on coming into contact with someone who has Covid. (Therese Raphael, 2/22)

The Atlantic: There’s No Justifying Our Children-Last COVID Policy
Local governments are relaxing pandemic restrictions at a dizzying pace, removing mask requirements and vaccine entry rules for businesses. Politicians are generally pushing for a return to normalcy. But for one group, change is not forthcoming: children. The removal of mask mandates in schools is likely weeks, if not months, away in some parts of the country. Quarantine and testing requirements remain in many child-care and school settings, even as they disappear from adult life. My burning question is simply: Why? I can imagine three arguments in favor of a kids-last approach, none of which I find convincing. (Emily Oster, 2/21)

CNN: Why I'm Scared About Mask Mandate Rollbacks
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is expected to announce more relaxed guidance on indoor masking as soon as this week, on the heels of decisions by Democratic leaders in states from New York to California to loosen mask restrictions. These policies ignore the reality that 18 million Americans under age 5 are ineligible for coronavirus vaccines -- including my own two daughters. Until vaccines are available to every American, ending mask mandates in public places is irresponsible and immoral. Doing so will endanger the health of young children and further drive parents to make impossible choices -- like whether to go to work or the grocery store and risk bringing home a virus that might harm their children. Giving privileged Americans license to act without regard for the health and well-being of the vulnerable will also take us far from our country's original ethos, creating the kind of society that can no longer solve our collective problems. (Kara Alaimo, 2/21)

Los Angeles Times: Omicron Won't Be The Last Coronavirus Variant To Haunt Us 
Think back to late June 2021, when there was containment of the American COVID-19 pandemic with fewer than 12,000 new cases a day and a total of 15,000 patients in the hospital. There was a declaration of independence from the virus on July 4, just as the Delta variant was starting its exponential growth. A major surge ensued, which was followed by yet another one with the Omicron variant, peaking with nearly 160,000 people hospitalized and almost 2,700 deaths per day — the most deaths since vaccinations became widely available. (Eric J. Topol, 2/21)

Stat: U.S. Hospitals Are Not Ready For The New Normal 
Pandemic prediction is hard to do. That’s one of the lessons to be taken from Covid-19. Unlike the weather, which depends largely on physical factors (I’ll leave climate change out of this for now), the surge and ebb of Covid-19 depends on biological and human factors. There are three main axes of pandemic prediction: the virus, immunity, and human adaptation. These axes map out a large potential space, the contours of which will vary from community to community — geographically, demographically, and socially. Yet there is one prediction I feel confident in making now: U.S. hospitals are not ready for the new normal. (Céline Gounder, 2/21)