AP: Justice Department Again Presses To Halt Texas Abortion Law
The Biden administration urged the courts again Monday night to step in and suspend a new Texas law that has banned most abortions since early September, as clinics hundreds of miles away remain busy with Texas patients making long journeys to get care. The latest attempt comes three days after the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated the nation’s most restrictive abortion law after a brief 48-hour window last week in which Texas abortion providers — following a blistering ruling by a lower court — had rushed to bring in patients again. (Weber, 10/12)

CBS News: Justice Department Asks Court To Stop Texas Abortion Law From Being Implemented
And one of the defining features of the Texas law is the fact that no state officials are involved in enforcing actions taken against violations of the ban. Instead, the law authorizes private citizens to file civil lawsuits in state courts against alleged violators of the law — clinics, providers or even people who help a woman get an abortion — and provides a monetary incentive for them to do so. ... In Monday's filing, the government argues that the lower court's injunction against the Texas law should be reinstated because the Texas abortion law is clearly unconstitutional in denying citizens access to a judicial remedy, and is therefore unlikely to stand. (Legare, 10/12)

Dallas Morning News: Reinstatement Of Texas Abortion Law May Hinge On State Argument Challenging Federal Overreach
Seeking to end to the federal government’s legal bid to block Texas’ new abortion law, state Republican leaders want a U.S. appeals court to rule that the Biden administration has no standing to sue the state over the restrictions considered the strongest in the nation. The decision late Friday to block an injunction against the new law was made by a panel of three “intervenors” for the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. The U.S. Department of Justice, which filed this lawsuit challenging Texas’ law, has until Tuesday at 5 p.m. to respond to Texas’ request for a longer-term reinstatement of enforcement. The decision could hinge heavily upon the state’s ability to support its argument that the federal government has no legal basis to intervene. (O'Hanlon, 10/11)

In related news about Texas' abortion law —

CNN: Advocates Fear Abortion Laws Will Worsen The Black Maternal Health Crisis
Briana McLennan was 19 years old and at least eight weeks pregnant when she had to make a tough decision: get an abortion and continue with her plans of moving to Atlanta for college, or stay home in Texas and figure out a way to raise a baby with no job and no money. McLennan decided to get the abortion with some funding help from the Texas Equal Access Fund. "I knew that I was not ready to go through with the pregnancy," McLennan said. "I was still a child myself." McLennan, now 31, still believes she made the right choice. She was able to finish college, pursue her career goals and now has a job as a social worker for the Texas Equal Access Fund. (Ellis, 10/11)

CNN: Texas Woman Died After An Unsafe Abortion Years Ago. Her Daughter Fears Same Thing May Happen Again
Outside the only abortion clinic in the border city of McAllen, Texas, a debate has played out for years. Some people pray and beg patients to not go inside as some volunteers escort patients to the entrance. But none of them were there when Rosie Jimenez died just across the street more than 40 years ago. As thousands of people marched to the Supreme Court in support of reproductive rights earlier this month, Rosie's photo was displayed in banners and her name was repeated by crowds at vigils and rallies across Texas, Arizona, California and Oregon. In McAllen, there was a defiant mood. Activists held a rally about eight blocks from the clinic that stands across the street from city hall. (Chavez, 10/11)

USA Today: Getting An Abortion While Trans Was Always Hard. In Texas, A New Law Puts Outsized Burdens On Them
The summer before Emmett Schelling's senior year of high school, he was sexually assaulted. Schelling, who was 17 years old at the time, found out in November of his senior year he was pregnant, around the time he was going to sign a letter of intent for college. Schelling, the executive director of the Transgender Education Network of Texas, is now a parent as a result. While he was not seeking an abortion at the time, the decision to become a parent was deeply personal, especially as a trans man in Texas, Schelling told USA TODAY. (Quarshie, 10/12)

The Atlantic: Plan C And The Secret Option For Mail-Order Abortion
So many states have restricted access to abortion so severely that people in large swaths of the country feel they have no options if they want to terminate a pregnancy. But technically, those who want an abortion still have options. It’s just that few have heard of them. Pregnant people in Texas, or in any other U.S. state, can visit an array of websites that will mail them two pills—mifepristone and misoprostol—that will induce a miscarriage when used in the first trimester of pregnancy and possibly even later. The so-called self-managed abortion is therefore an option at least six weeks further into a pregnancy than the controversial new Texas law’s six-week “heartbeat” cutoff for an abortion at a clinic. Though people in other states have several websites to choose from, Texans can visit Aid Access, a website that provides the pills for $105, or less based on income. Only 5 percent of Americans have heard of Aid Access, though, and only 13 percent have heard of Plan C, a website that provides information on different mail-order-abortion services by state, according to a new Atlantic/Leger poll. (Khazan, 10/12)

NBC News: Supreme Court Considers Whether Kentucky Attorney General Can Defend Abortion Law
The Supreme Court on Tuesday will consider whether Kentucky's attorney general can defend a state abortion law that bans a surgical procedure commonly used in the second trimester of pregnancy. Immediately after the law was signed by then-Gov. Matt Bevin, a Republican, in 2018, a Louisville women's surgical center challenged the measure in court. A federal judge found the law unconstitutional in 2019, concluding that it restricted a woman's right to an abortion before the fetus is considered viable. (Williams, 10/12)

Louisville Courier Journal: SCOTUS Abortion Ruling: Daniel Cameron To Defend Kentucky Abortion Law
Lawyers for Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron will appear before the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday, seeking the right to revive a defense of a 2018 state abortion law a federal appeals court struck down last year. The court will convene at 10 a.m. to hear arguments on whether Cameron can reopen a case involving an abortion procedure generally used after about the 14th week of pregnancy. The hearing focuses on a single procedural question of whether Cameron may challenge a decision last year by the appeals court striking down the Kentucky law or whether he intervened in the case too late. (Yetter, 10/12)

Bloomberg: What the Front Line of the U.S. Abortion Fight in Kentucky Looks Like Now
A woman seeking to end a pregnancy in Kentucky after 14 weeks has one choice: She enters a brick building on the edge of downtown Louisville after running a gantlet of abortion opponents determined to change her mind. Patients coming to the EMW Women’s Surgical Center on a recent Tuesday navigated as many as 10 protesters, including a preacher with a microphone, a man and boy holding "abortion is murder" signs and a woman who tried to redirect people to the anti-abortion pregnancy center next door. “These abortionists are serial killers!” one called out as a young woman opened the clinic’s glass front door. “They don’t care about you, baby!” (Stohr, 10/11)

Where do the Supreme Court justices stand on abortion? —

AP: Justices' Views On Abortion In Their Own Words And Votes
Abortion already is dominating the Supreme Court’s new term, months before the justices will decide whether to reverse decisions reaching back nearly 50 years. Not only is there Mississippi’s call to overrule Roe v. Wade, but the court also soon will be asked again to weigh in on the Texas law banning abortion at roughly six weeks. The justices won’t be writing on a blank state as they consider the future of abortion rights in the U.S. They have had a lot to say about abortion over the years — in opinions, votes, Senate confirmation testimony and elsewhere. Just one, Clarence Thomas, has openly called for overruling Roe and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the two cases that established and reaffirmed a woman’s right to an abortion. Here is a sampling of their comments. (Sherman and Gresko, 10/12)

And in abortion news from South Carolina —

AP: Appellate Court Sets Hearing In South Carolina Abortion Case
An appellate court is set to debate a lawsuit challenging South Carolina’s abortion law about a week after the U.S. Supreme Court considers a similar measure in Mississippi. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has tentatively calendared the South Carolina case for oral arguments the week of Dec. 6, according to an order from the court posted Friday. Planned Parenthood is suing South Carolina to over the measure, which was signed into law by Republican Gov. Henry McMaster earlier this year and requires doctors to perform ultrasounds to check for a so-called “fetal heartbeat.” If cardiac activity — which can typically be detected about six weeks into pregnancy — is detected, the abortion can only be performed if the pregnancy was caused by rape or incest, or if the mother’s life is in danger. (Kinnard, 10/11)

The Texas Tribune: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott Bans Any COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates 
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday issued another executive order cracking down on COVID-19 vaccine mandates — this time banning any entity in Texas, including private businesses, from requiring vaccinations for employees or customers. Abbott also called on the Legislature to pass a law with the same effect. The Legislature is in its third special legislative session, which ends Oct. 19. (Allen, 10/11)

Houston Chronicle: Abbott Flips, Aims To Bar Private Businesses From Requiring Vaccines
Under increasing pressure from his GOP primary opponents, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is changing his position on vaccine mandates and now trying to bar private businesses from requiring their workers to get them. It was just in August, Abbott declared in an executive order that he would bar governments from requiring them. But his office made clear he would not meddle in private business decisions. "Private businesses don't need government running their business,” Abbott’s spokeswoman Renae Eze said at the time. (Wallace, 10/11)

But the coronavirus is still ravaging Texas —

Texas Tribune: On Average, More Than 270 People In Texas Died From COVID-19 Every Day In The Last Month
As of Oct. 10, the state has reported around 4.1 million cases, with 3.4 million confirmed cases reported in 254 counties and 686,479 probable cases reported in 230 counties since the pandemic began. Confirmed cases are detected by molecular tests, such as PCR tests, which are taken with a nasal swab and are highly accurate according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Probable cases are detected through rapid-result antigen tests, which are faster and less accurate. These totals may differ from what county and city health departments report. The Tribune is measuring both the number of cases in each county and the rate of cases per 1,000 residents in the last two weeks. (10/11)

Newsweek: Teen Becomes Fourth Person To Die From COVID In Same Texas School District Since August
A16-year-old Texas student has died from COVID-19, becoming the fourth person from the same school district to lose their life after contracting the virus since August. George Moralez, a 10th-grader at Connally High School in Waco, passed away on October 6, having reportedly been ill for more than a month. ... Three district employees have also died from COVID-19 in recent weeks. Connally Junior High seventh-grade social studies teacher David McCormick, 59, passed away on August 24, and just four days later, a sixth-grade social studies teacher at the same school, 41-year-old Natalia Chansler, died. On September 14, Angela Thompson, an instructional aide at Connally Primary School, died from COVID-19, having contracted the virus before the school year began. (Sulleyman, 10/12)

The Texas Tribune: Waco ISD Vows To Keep Mask Mandate After Losing Staff Members To COVID-19
When Brittany Phillips Ramirez relocated her family back to her hometown of Waco over the summer, COVID-19 precautions at Mountainview Elementary School were foremost on her mind. And as the delta variant spiked, she even considered home-schooling her 6-year-old daughter because she worried that the school district might adopt a more relaxed approach when it came to students wearing masks at schools. But shortly after classes began, the Waco Independent School District made a bold choice that surprised residents like Ramirez. It became one of about 70 school districts in Texas at the time to adopt a mandate that students wear masks while in school. nd it did so in defiance of Gov. Greg Abbott’s executive order barring public schools from requiring students wear masks. (Reynolds, 10/11)

Weatherford Democrat: Texas Schools Have Reported More Coronavirus Cases In Two Months Than They Did In The Entire 2020-21 School Year
Students in Texas public schools are facing another year upturned by COVID-19 as the highly contagious delta variant spreads, mask mandates are inconsistent and children under 12 cannot yet be vaccinated against the virus. Two months into this school year, the number of reported coronavirus cases among students has surpassed the total from the entire 2020-21 school year. Schools are prohibited from taking precautions such as requiring masks, though some are fighting the governor’s order banning mask mandates. Far more students are on campus, since most districts do not have a remote learning option. (Huang, Cai and Lopez, 10/11)

Houston Chronicle: Houston Pediatric Hospitals See Record High In Rare COVID-Related Illness MIS-C
Houston’s major pediatric hospitals are experiencing a significant increase in patients with multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children — or MIS-C — a relatively new condition that triggers inflamed organs, most commonly seen in children who have been exposed to the virus that causes COVID-19. While pediatric COVID hospitalizations have dropped by as much as 50 percent in the Houston area, Texas Children’s Hospital reported an all-time high number of MIS-C admissions in the month of September with 30 patients. Children’s Memorial Hermann also saw a major uptick in the same time frame. (Gill, 10/11)

AP: Nearly All State Health Workers Vaccinated In North Carolina
North Carolina officials announced Monday that nearly all of the 10,000 employees working in 14 state-operated health care facilities are fully vaccinated against COVID-19. According to the state Department of Health and Human Services, 6% of workers got an approved medical or religious exemption or a special accommodation, while the remaining 94% are fully vaccinated. (Anderson, 10/11)

AP: Most State Workers, WA Hospital Staff Vaccinated For COVID
Nearly 90% of Washington’s hospital staff statewide are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to a recent survey released a week before a deadline for workers to either be vaccinated or receive an exemption in order to keep their jobs. Cassie Sauer, CEO of the Washington State Hospital Association, said Monday that with 94% of the state’s hospitals reporting, an overall rate of 88% fully vaccinated was reported as of last week’s cutoff date for vaccination in order to make the deadline. Under the mandate issued by Gov. Jay Inslee in August, full vaccination is considered two weeks after a final dose, meaning workers needed to receive a final dose of either Pfizer or Moderna, or the one-shot dose of Johnson & Johnson by Oct. 4. (La Corte, 10/11)

Some states are facing delays with their mandates —

Crain's Detroit Business: Michigan Medicine To Negotiate With Nurses Union Over Vaccine Mandate
As the Nov. 1 deadline for vaccination against COVID-19 nears for all Michigan Medicine staff, the university health system still hasn't figured out how to mandate the policy for its 6,150 nurses. Last December, the system ratified a one-year collective bargaining extension with the University of Michigan Professional Nurse Council Independent Union that exempted nurses from a vaccine mandate and instead required the system to negotiate with the union for required vaccination.The agreement states: " ... the Employer will provide the COVID-19 vaccination at no cost to the employees and on a voluntary basis." (Walsh, 10/11)

Los Angeles Times: Facing Disruption, LAUSD Extends Staff COVID Vaccine Deadline
The Los Angeles school district — confronted with widespread campus disruption and the firing of potentially thousands of unvaccinated teachers and other staff — has extended the looming deadline for all workers to be fully immunized for COVID-19. The prior deadline of Oct. 15 — this Friday — has been moved to Nov. 15, when employees must have received the second of two doses of either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine, according to a brief district statement. The district did not clearly state a timetable for the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine. (Blume, 10/11)

CNN: A Covid-19 Vaccine Mandate Won't Force Staff At This Rural Missouri Hospital To Get The Shot, CEO Says. It Will Make Them Quit 
Dr. Randy Tobler, CEO of Scotland County Hospital in Memphis, Missouri, has struggled to retain staff during the Covid-19 pandemic, losing 10 of his 57 nurses in the main hospital and three rural health clinics. So Tobler can't afford to alienate any more health care workers, but he believes a Covid-19 vaccine mandate could do just that. Such a requirement won't make his unvaccinated staff get the shot, he says. It will make them quit. (Reeve, Guff, Russell and Andone, 10/12)

AP: Thousands Protest Vaccine Mandates At Mississippi Rallies
Thousands recently rallied against COVID-19 vaccine mandates at protests held on Mississippi’s coast and in its capital. Upwards of 1,500 workers and their family members waved homemade signs and flags along U.S. 90 near the entrance to Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula on Friday, the Sun Herald reported. The company, which builds 70% of the U.S. Navy’s warships, is one of the largest federal contractors and state employers. (10/11)

In other news about covid mandates —

San Francisco Chronicle: Southwest Pilots Insist Disruptions Are Not Part Of Sickout
As Southwest Airlines canceled several hundred more flights Monday following a weekend of major disruptions that it blamed on bad weather and air traffic control issues, the company and the pilots union said the cancellations were not in response to a vaccination mandate, according to the Associated Press. The widespread disruptions began shortly after the union for Southwest’s 9,000 pilots asked a federal court on Friday to block the airline’s order that all employees get vaccinated against COVID-19. The union said it doesn’t oppose vaccination, but it argued in its filing that Southwest must negotiate before taking such a step. Pilots are not conducting a sickout or slowdown to protest the vaccine mandate, according to the union, which said it “has not authorized, and will not condone, any job action.” (Vaziri, Buchmann, Fracassa and Beamish, 10/11)

The Hill: NBA Superstar Won't Play Home Games All Season Because He Refuses To Be Vaccinated 
Brooklyn Nets point guard Kyrie Irving’s decision to not take a COVID-19 vaccine could lead to the superstar missing his team’s home games throughout the season. New York City vaccine mandates will require any person in attendance at games at the Barclays Center --home of the Nets -- and New York Knicks facility at Madison Square Garden to have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. Yet Irving will be able to practice with the team at the HSS Training Center, which is a private business. (Barnes, 10/11)

AP: New Mexico Professor Against Vax, Mask Mandates Fired
A New Mexico State University professor who publicly opposed campus vaccine and mask mandates will no longer be teaching there. The Las Cruces Sun-News reports David Clements, a business college professor, posted on his social media account on the Telegram platform that he had been “terminated.” The university confirmed Monday that Clements was “no longer employed by NMSU.” (10/11)

Philadelphia Inquirer: Philly Marathon 2021 Runners Must Have COVID Vaccine
The Philadelphia Marathon, which is scheduled for Nov. 20, is requiring runners to be vaccinated for COVID-19 two weeks prior to race day, organizers said Monday. Also, the number of registered in-person participants will be limited compared to pre-pandemic times, when the whole event would draw around 30,000 runners. There will be a preliminary cap of 10,000 in-person runners for the full 26.2-mile marathon, a 10,000 cap on the half-marathon, and around 3,500 for the 8K race, for a total of about 24,000 in-person participants. (Moran, 10/11)

CNN: Wisconsin Parents File Lawsuits Against School Districts Over Their Children's Covid-19 Infections 
Ongoing conflict between parents and schools over virus mitigation for children in the classroom has gone to court in Wisconsin, where two parents are suing their children's school districts over their Covid-19 infection. The parents accused the districts of failing to protect their children from becoming infected. Both lawsuits are funded by the Minocqua Brewing Company Super PAC, according to its Facebook page. (Holcombe and Razek, 10/12)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin COVID-19 Hospitalizations Continued To Climb Over Weekend
Wisconsin hospitalizations due to COVID-19 have continued to climb over the past weekend. On Friday, the Wisconsin Hospital Association reported that 1,162 people were hospitalized with COVID. Three hundred and seven of them were receiving intensive care. Monday's data showed that the total number of COVID-19 patients across the state had risen to 1,179, with 317 of them in the ICU. (Kirby, 10/11)

In other news about the spread of the coronavirus —

Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Mississippi COVID-19 State Of Emergency Designation Extended Again
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves on Monday again extended the state's COVID-19 emergency declaration, as the state continues to recover from the pandemic. The extension has become routine, having been extended every month since Reeves first issued it in March 2020. The declaration is meant to make it easier for the state to seek federal assistance for costs incurred as part of its COVID-19 response. (Sanderlin, 10/11)

Charleston Gazette Mail: Justice Continues To Send Mixed Message As WV COVID-19 Death Toll Nears 4,000
West Virginia is on pace to eclipse 4,000 COVID-19 deaths as early as Tuesday, with 72% of those deaths occurring after vaccines became readily available, data from the Department of Health and Human Resources show. At Monday’s state COVID-19 briefing, Gov. Jim Justice noted that a 4,000-death milestone was inconceivable early in the pandemic, when initial projections were that COVID-19 would kill fewer than 100 West Virginians. “In West Virginia, we may very well lose 5,000 West Virginians before all this is over,” said Justice, who opened the briefing Monday spending more than 10 minutes reading the 110 deaths recorded since the last briefing, on Thursday. (Kabler, 10/11)

San Francisco Chronicle: California Still Won't Make Coronavirus Workplace Outbreaks Public
Supporters of a push to require companies to report workplace coronavirus outbreaks publicly say they plan to keep fighting despite recent setbacks that they say allow big businesses to keep outbreaks secret. In February, Assembly Member Eloise Gómez Reyes, D-San Bernardino, proposed a law requiring the California Department of Public Health to report coronavirus outbreaks by workplace location, meaning outbreaks at specific businesses would be disclosed to the public. (Montalva, 10/11)

The Baltimore Sun: She Survived COVID At Hopkins. Now Maria Young Wants More Resources For Hospitals To Treat Critical Care Patients. 
As Maria Young came to, she had visions of being held captive on a cruise ship. Trapped against her will, she cried out for help. It was early February, more than three months since the health communications specialist from Rockville contracted COVID-19. She spent that time under a heavy blanket of sedation as a team of medical professionals at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore worked to save her life. Young, 42, has no memory of those months. But the physical and emotional scars she carries from the near-death experience, and its aftermath, may never heal. (Miller, 10/12)

Also —

The Wall Street Journal: New Clues Emerge About Whether Vaccines Can Help Fight Long Covid
Millions of people suffer from symptoms of long Covid, doctors estimate. Now, early research is offering some clues about whether vaccinations might help. When the vaccines first came out, some people who had suffered from debilitating symptoms for months after their initial Covid-19 infections told their doctors they felt better after getting vaccinated. The response intrigued scientists. Now, emerging research suggests that vaccines may help reduce symptoms in some people. (Reddy, 10/11)

CIDRAP: Mental Disabilities, Disorders Linked To Mortality Risk During Pandemic
People with mental disorders and intellectual disabilities had a greater mortality risk during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, according to a study published late last week in The Lancet Regional Health – Europe. The researchers looked at 167,122 people from the South London & Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust from 2019 to 2020. Across the cohort, 40.0% had at least one affective disorder, 34.7% neurotic/stress-related and somatoform disorders, 22.5% substance use disorder, and 15.8% schizophrenia-spectrum disorder. Overall, all-cause mortality from Jan 1, 2019, to Dec 31, 2020, was 4.0%, with 48.4% of those (3,227) occurring prior to Jan 30, 2020, when the World Health Organization declared a public health emergency of international concern. (10/11)

CIDRAP: COVID Infects All Ages In Family Equally, But Immunity Plays A Role 
Two new studies explore the risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission among household members, one finding that children and adults are at similar risk and one showing that COVID-19–naïve family members' risk was 45% to 97% lower, depending on the number of members immune through infection or full vaccination. (Van Beusekom, 10/11)

USA Today: New Treatments Offer Hope With Vaccines For 'Interlocking Benefits' Against COVID-19
Several new COVID-19 treatments are likely to become available within the next few months. Each drug fills a slightly different role, but together they could change the course of the illness, at least in the United States. Both an experimental antiviral from Merck and a monoclonal antibody from AstraZeneca, along with a handful of other drugs making their way through the development process, could make COVID-19 a much less fearsome disease. (Weintraub, 10/12)

CNBC: Dr. Scott Gottlieb Says Merck's Covid Pill ‘Can Make A Real Difference’
Dr. Scott Gottlieb explained why he’s optimistic about Merck’s Covid antiviral pill after the drugmaker asked the Food and Drug Administration Monday to authorize its pill to treat people with mild to moderate Covid symptoms. “The topline data from this Merck study was probably the best treatment effect we’ve seen from orally available antiviral drug in the treatment of any respiratory pathogen, so this can make a real difference,” said the former FDA chief in the Trump administration. (DeCiccio, 10/11)

And in updates on the vaccine rollout —

The New York Times: Boosters Are Complicating Efforts To Persuade The Unvaccinated To Get Shots 
Vaccinated people have been burning up the phone lines at the community health center in rural Franklin, La., clamoring for the newly authorized Covid booster shot. But only a trickle of people have been coming in for their initial doses, even though the rate of full vaccination in the area is still scarcely 39 percent. (Hoffman, 10/11)

The CT Mirror: Resident Vaccination Rates Fluctuating In Nursing Homes
In January, Gov. Ned Lamont announced that Connecticut was the first state in the nation to vaccinate all nursing home residents. By the end of that month, the state had even administered more doses than there were residents, in part because some facilities cater to residents discharged from hospitals who enter nursing homes for short periods to recover. But while the overall rate of vaccination among residents remains extremely high, it’s that kind of turnover that has some facilities now reporting rates as low as 66%. Just under a third of nursing homes reported rates under 90%. “Some facilities might have more recently admitted residents who were not vaccinated upon admission,” wrote Department of Public Health spokesperson Chris Boyle. (Pananjady and Altimari, 10/12)

CNBC: U.S. Moves Closer To Clearing Moderna And J&J Covid Booster Shots This Week
Millions of Americans will be one step closer to receiving a Covid-19 booster shot this week when a key Food and Drug Administration advisory panel meets Thursday and Friday to debate extra doses of the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines. The FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee meetings come less than a month after U.S. regulators authorized Covid booster shots of Pfizer and BioNTech’s vaccine to a wide array of Americans, including the elderly, adults with underlying medical conditions and those who work or live in high-risk settings like health and grocery workers. (Lovelace Jr., 10/11)

Stat: A Primer On What We Know About Mixing And Matching Covid Vaccines
Later this week an expert committee that advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will hear about the results of a clinical trial that could influence how Covid vaccines are used in this country at some point in the future. The trial, conducted by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is a so-called mix-and-match trial, testing the Covid vaccines authorized in the U.S. in combinations with each other. The goal of the trial was to see whether using a different vaccine as a booster shot improves protection. (Branswell, 10/12)

Modern Healthcare: Kaiser Permanente Workers Give Union OK To Strike
Members of two labor unions representing more than 24,400 Kaiser Permanente employees in southern California and Oregon have voted to allow their bargaining teams to call a strike, if needed. The United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals' and the Oregon Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals' votes comes after the unions' contracts with the integrated health system expired at the end of September. At both unions, 96% were in favor of authorizing strikes. The labor groups announced the voting results Monday. (Christ, 10/11)

Fierce Healthcare: Kaiser Permanente Union Members 'Overwhelmingly' Vote To Authorize Strike Over Contract Negotiations
Members of a union representing nearly 21,000 Kaiser Permanente nurses and other healthcare workers have 'overwhelmingly' voted to move forward with a strike nearly two weeks after the expiration of their union contract. The United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals (UNAC/UHCP) said Monday that 96% of its 18,209 participating members voted in favor of authorizing the strike across numerous hospitals, clinics and other Kaiser Permanente facilities in Southern California. (Muoio, 10/11)

In news from Massachusetts, Connecticut and elsewhere —

NBC News: 'This Is Not Where We Expected To Be': Massachusetts Nurses Strike Hits 7-Month Mark
The nursing strike at Saint Vincent Hospital in Worcester, Massachusetts, marked its seventh month Friday, as negotiations between the union and hospital officials continued to deteriorate with no end in sight. More than 700 nurses walked off the job March 8, citing chronic staffing issues made worse by the pandemic. Despite months of negotiations, the workers, represented by the Massachusetts Nurses Association, said the hospital owned by Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare would not meet their demands. The nurses now hold the record for the longest nurses strike in state history. (Kesslen, 10/10)

The CT Mirror: Workers To Launch Strike Against Major Group Home Operator
About 185 members of the state’s largest health care workers’ union were scheduled to hit the picket lines early Tuesday morning as negotiations stalled with a major chain serving the disabled. Employees at 28 group homes and day programs run by Sunrise Northeast, who’ve been working under a contract that expired in March, ordered the work stoppage after the union and management failed to make sufficient progress in negotiations on a new deal, said Rob Baril, president of SEIU District 1199 New England. (Phaneuf, 10/11)

Axios: Health Care Workers Strike As Pandemic Compounds Burnout 
The toll of the coronavirus pandemic has spurred nurses, front-line technicians and other hospital employees to walk out or authorize strikes. The pandemic has buckled a system that already faced worker shortages and burnout. Patients ultimately can't receive adequate care if workers leave from the stress and violence. Unions representing more than 24,000 nurses and other hospital workers yesterday authorized strikes at Kaiser Permanente facilities in California and Oregon. (Herman, 10/12)

Time: U.S. Workers Are Realizing It's the Perfect Time to Go on Strike
Thousands of workers have gone on strike across the country, showing their growing power in a tightening economy. The leverage U.S. employees have over the people signing their paychecks was amplified in Friday’s jobs report, which showed that employers added workers at a much slower-than-expected pace in September. The unemployment rate fell 0.4 percentage points during the month, to 4.8 percent, the government said Friday, and wages are continuing to tick up across industries as employers become more desperate to hire and retain workers. In the first five days of October alone, there were 10 strikes in the U.S., including workers at Kellogg plants in Nebraska, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee; school bus drivers in Annapolis, Md.; and janitors at the Denver airport. That doesn’t include the nearly 60,000 union members in film and television production who nearly unanimously voted to grant their union’s president the authority to call a strike. (Semuels, 10/8)

Modern Healthcare: Anesthesiologists Accuse UnitedHealth Of Anticompetitive Network Exclusions
The American Society of Anesthesiologists is calling on the Justice Department to investigate the "high rate" of provider contracts the nation's largest insurer is canceling early, a practice the lobbying group says leads to higher costs for patients and employers and threatens providers' financial viability. UnitedHealth Group's UnitedHealthcare arm has been removing a growing number of anesthesiologists from its provider networks, the organization wrote in a letter sent to acting Assistant Attorney General Richard Powers on Thursday. (Tepper, 10/11)

In other insurance industry news —

Modern Healthcare: Northwell Health Ditches Insurers For Direct Network Contracting
Northwell Health will provide health benefits to its 75,000 employees and dependents through a new direct contracting system at the start of the next year, the not-for-profit integrated health system announced Monday. The New Hyde Park, N.Y.-based company has expanded the partnership with Northwell Direct, a for-profit subsidiary it launched last year that eschews traditional insurers and instead uses a direct network contracting approach with providers. Northwell Health, the Empire State's largest healthcare employer, previously had a self-insured plan administered by UnitedHealth Group's UnitedHealthcare, and also used that insurer's provider networks. UnitedHealthcare did not respond to an interview request. (Tepper, 10/11)

NorthJersey.com: She's Fought Health Insurers For Years. Now A New Jersey Girl's Struggles Could Prompt Reform
When Pat and Dolph Geurds rushed their 7-year-old daughter to the hospital on Aug. 15, it was an all-too familiar experience. When the Geurds’ health insurer refused to pay for medication during her stay, that, too, was par for the course. Kinsley Geurds has spent a third of her young life in the hospital, her mother estimates, dealing with severe disabilities that affect multiple organs, most acutely her brain and gastrointestinal tract. Yet despite seven agonizing years of treatment and testing, the underlying cause of her illnesses remains a mystery, and that, the family said, has led to continual fights with their insurance carriers. Now, her struggles could lead to a change in state law, as legislators in Trenton, New Jersey, push to restrict insurers' ability to delay care for children with complex medical issues. (Myers, 10/11)

And more news about the health care industry —

Stat: Francis Collins’ Resignation Could Complicate Fight Over Funding For ARPA-H
Francis Collins’ announcement last week that he will soon step down as National Institutes of Health director could complicate the Biden administration’s plans to launch ARPA-H, arguably the largest initiative the agency has undertaken in decades. Collins, who has led NIH since 2009, is set to depart by the end of the year, leaving the White House just months to find a new leader for the $41 billion science agency. Beyond leaving the larger research office in flux, however, Collins’ retirement adds uncertainty to the process surrounding ARPA-H, a proposed $6.5 billion agency aimed at, in President Biden’s words, tackling major diseases like Alzheimer’s and diabetes and “ending cancer as we know it.” (Facher, 10/12)

The Boston Globe: Some Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Trustees Stood To Profit From Roles
The trustees of the world-renowned Dana-Farber Cancer Institute serve a vital role. They hire the chief executive, are stewards for its thousands of vulnerable patients, organize big-ticket fund-raisers, and in some cases, give millions of dollars themselves. While the volunteer board position carries complex demands, it also puts the trustees in direct contact with the institute’s doctors and scientists who are on the front lines of the race to cure cancer. And with that, it has also given some trustees a unique opportunity for personal enrichment. (Kowalczyk, Ryley and Wen, 10/11)

Crain's Cleveland Business: With $18.2M Grant, Cleveland And Detroit Researchers Tackle Health Disparities
With the support of an $18.2 million federal grant, researchers at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and University Hospitals Harrington Heart & Vascular Institute are leading a multi-organizational effort to address cardiovascular health disparities, according to a news release. The UH and CWRU researchers are also collaborating with colleagues at Wayne State University in Detroit on the initiative, called Addressing Cardiometabolic Health Inequities by Early PreVEntion in the Great LakEs Region (ACHIEVE GreatER). It aims to directly address social determinants of health in Black communities in the Cleveland and Detroit metropolitan areas. The grant comes from the National Institutes of Health's P50 program, according to the release. (Coutré, 10/11)

Fierce Healthcare: PopHealthCare Launches New National Medical Group, Emcara Health 
PopHealthCare, a subsidiary of GuideWell, is launching a new national medical group that aims to offer a slew of value-based care services to payers nationwide. The new group, Emcara Health, is backed by support from GuideWell, which is also the parent company of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida, or Florida Blue. The company is aiming to become a market leader in home care through its slate of services, including a 24/7 Home-Based Advanced Primary Care offering, aimed at seniors and adults. Emcara's goal is to reduce the total cost of care by 10% to 20% without compromising on quality and patient experience. (Minemyer, 10/11)

KHN: A Wrenching Farewell: Bidding Adieu To My Primary Care Doctor After Nearly 30 Years 
I hadn’t expected the tears. My primary care doctor and I were saying goodbye after nearly 30 years together. “You are a kind and a good person,” he told me after the physical exam, as we wished each other good luck and good health. “I trust you completely — and always have,” I told him, my eyes overflowing. “That means so much to me,” he responded, bowing his head. Will I ever have another relationship like the one with this physician, who took time to ask me how I was doing each time he saw me? Who knew me from my first months as a young mother, when my thyroid went haywire, and who since oversaw all my medical concerns, both large and small? (Graham, 10/12)

Also —

AP: California Senior Facility Fined Over Worker Abusing Woman
California regulators have fined a senior living center where a worker was secretly caught on video slapping a 90-year-old resident with dementia, roughly placing her into bed and throwing a blanket over the woman’s face. The California Department of Social Services said the treatment constituted physical abuse and fined the Brookdale Senior Living Facility in Folsom $500, saying in a report the resident sustained “a serious bodily injury while in care,” the Sacramento Bee reported Monday. (10/11)

North Carolina Health News: Feds Put ‘Special Focus’ On 10 NC Nursing Homes 
In September 2020, federal regulators determined that residents of the Lillington nursing home Universal Health Care were in “immediate jeopardy,” the most serious warning status issued by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, regulators announced recently. That designation became part of the reason that Universal Health Care, along with nine other North Carolina nursing homes, appears on the CMS list of the state’s worst-performing skilled nursing facilities. (Goldsmith, 10/12)

CNN: Phthalates: Synthetic Chemical In Consumer Products Linked To Early Death, Study Finds 
Synthetic chemicals called phthalates, found in hundreds of consumer products such as food storage containers, shampoo, makeup, perfume and children's toys, may contribute to some 91,000 to 107,000 premature deaths a year among people ages 55 to 64 in the United States, a new study found. People with the highest levels of phthalates had a greater risk of death from any cause, especially cardiovascular mortality, according to the study published Tuesday in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Pollution. (LaMotte, 10/12)

And a generic drug might help Alzheimer's —

Stat: Experiments With An Old Drug Suggest New Approach To Alzheimer’s 
A generic drug used widely to treat swelling associated with hypertension and heart failure showed hints in early research that it may also prevent the devastating brain damage of Alzheimer’s disease, a surprising twist that suggests scientists have a lot more to learn about the root cause of the neurodegenerative condition. The findings, reported Monday in Nature Aging, show how the drug, bumetanide, reversed signs of Alzheimer’s in mice, as well as in human brain cells in lab dishes. The new study also detailed real-world data mined from millions of patients’ electronic health records showing that people over the age of 65 who regularly took bumetanide were 35% to 75% less likely to be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. (Molteni, 10/11)

In other pharmaceutical industry news —

Bloomberg: Vectura’s Inhaler Sales May Suffer Over Philip Morris Backlash
Vectura Group Plc faces a growing backlash over its acquisition by a tobacco company, with some doctors and patients signaling they may switch to treatments made by rivals such as AstraZeneca Plc and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. Respiratory organizations plan to issue guidance within the coming weeks on how health-care providers should handle Philip Morris International Inc.’s purchase of the U.K. company that makes treatments for lung illnesses. Some are already voicing discomfort. “At my next hospital appointment I’ll be asking my consultant to switch,” said Edinburgh-based Olivia Fulton, 35, who suffers from severe asthma and has been using GlaxoSmithKline Plc’s Ellipta device that Vectura receives royalties for. “I do not want a tobacco company to profit from my ill health.” (Gretler, 10/11)

The Wall Street Journal: The 27-Year-Old Friends Behind Puff Bar—Teens’ Favorite E-Cigarette
Two 27-year-old vaping entrepreneurs are the mystery men behind Puff Bar, the most popular e-cigarette brand among teens, which regulators have tried and failed to force off the U.S. market. In interviews with The Wall Street Journal, the business partners discussed the brand’s popularity among young people and Puff Bar’s decision to reformulate its products with synthetic nicotine so they don’t fall under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. (Maloney, 10/11)

Stat: Relay Therapeutics Touts Data On Bile Cancer Drug 
Relay Therapeutics will present data at a medical meeting Friday that give investors and oncologists the first look at RLY-4008, its drug to treat a form of liver cancer. “So far in the clinic, 4008 has done everything we designed it to do from the outset,” Don Bergstrom, Relay’s chief medical officer, told STAT. Relay uses a supercomputer designed at the research firm run by hedge fund billionaire David E. Shaw to better understand proteins and design drugs that target them. The company has a market capitalization of $2.4 billion. (Herper, 10/8)

Stat: Here Are 5 Digital Chronic Pain Startups To Watch 
As the country grapples with both the Covid-19 pandemic and the ongoing opioid crisis, chronic pain management has become more challenging than ever. Traditional therapies for chronic pain often rely on opioid-based treatments that run an outsized risk of addiction. Other treatment options include physical therapy, implants, and steroid injections, but these require frequent visits to a doctor’s office. Particularly during the pandemic, it has been difficult for chronic pain patients to overcome backlogs when those with acute conditions have been prioritized by an overwhelmed health care system. (Bender, 10/11)

KHN: The Public Backs Medicare Rx Price Negotiation Even After Hearing Both Sides’ Views 
As Congress debates cutting prescription drug costs, a poll released Tuesday found the vast majority of adults — regardless of their political party or age — support letting the federal government negotiate drug prices for Medicare beneficiaries and those in private health insurance plans. The argument that pharmaceutical companies need to charge high prices to invest in research and develop new drugs does little to change that sentiment, according to the new KFF poll. Most respondents agreed the negotiation strategy is needed because Americans pay more than people in other countries and because companies’ profits are too high. (Gomez, 10/12)

The Washington Post: The Flu Proves More Deadly For Children Of Color Than For White Youths, Study Says 
People who are Black, Hispanic or American Indian/Alaska Native are more likely than White people to be hospitalized with a case of the flu in the United States, according to a recent study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other institutions. Young children in these groups, along with Asian and Pacific Islander children, are also more likely to die of flu than White children. (Robers, 10/11)

In mental health news —

American Homefront Project: A New Survey Found Isolation And Frequent Moves Are Harming Military Teens' Mental Health
Military teenagers and their families know that frequent moves across the country and around the world are difficult. The constant relocations can cause feelings of anxiety, isolation and depression especially among middle and high school-age military dependents. Two such teenagers collaborated with the National Military Family Association to survey more than 2,000 military dependents like themselves. They wanted to pin down just how distressing the lifestyle is. Elena Ashburn and Matthew Oh — who had earlier partnered to create Bloom, a website and social media channel for military teens — found that mental health issues are widespread. (Kniggendorf, 10/11)

Axios: Children And Teens Face Unequal Mental Health Realities 
In the weeks after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, at least 55% of children felt more "sad, depressed, or unhappy," compared to 25% of adults, according to a new report out Monday from the Child Mind Institute. The data offers a glimpse at the differences in children's early psychological responses as researchers work to tease out the pandemic's potential long-term effects on the incoming generation's mental health and developmental skills. (Fernandez, 10/12)

In other public health news —

CIDRAP: CDC Reports New Multistate Salmonella Outbreak Linked To Seafood
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) late last week issued a food safety alert concerning a Salmonella Thompson outbreak linked to raw and cooked seafood—a variety of fish species—distributed by Northeast Seafood Products. The outbreak has mainly affected Colorado residents or recent visitors. So far, there are 102 known illnesses in 14 states. Nineteen people have required hospitalization, but no deaths have been reported. Among 62 people interviewed, 51 (82%) reported eating seafood in the week prior to illness. Eighty-two sickened people live in Colorado. (10/11)

Los Angeles Times: Noxious Odors In Carson Declared A Public Nuisance
Foul odors emanating from the Dominguez Channel were declared a public health nuisance by the Carson City Council on Monday, with Los Angeles County health officials making a similar declaration. The odors, which have been likened to rotten eggs, vomit, unwashed body parts or a “fart bomb,” are probably caused by hydrogen sulfide from decomposing organic material and have prompted thousands of complaints from residents since they started about a week ago. To lessen health effects, people should leave the area, the health department said in a news release Monday declaring the odors “sufficiently pervasive to be considered a public nuisance.” (Campa, 10/11)

NPR: Poll: Financial Distress Worsens For Americans During Delta Surge
Americans have fallen way behind. The rent's overdue and evictions are looming. Two-thirds of parents say their kids have fallen behind in school. And one in five households say someone in the home has been unable to get medical care for a serious condition. These are some of the main takeaways from a new national poll by NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. (Simmons-Duffin and Neel, 10/12)

The New York Times: How Cutting Out A Little Salt Can Have Benefits For Health And Blood Pressure 
A new study conducted in 600 villages in rural China of 20,995 people known to face a high risk of stroke, demonstrated that substituting reduced-sodium salt for regular table salt significantly decreased the rate of cardiovascular events and associated deaths during an average follow-up of less than five years. (Brody, 10/11)

KHN: 6 Months To Live Or Die: How Long Should An Alcoholic Liver Disease Patient Wait For A Transplant? 
The night before Brian Gorzney planned to check into rehab for alcohol use, he began vomiting blood. First at 2 a.m. Then 5. And again at 11. When he arrived at the rehab facility in North Kansas City, Missouri, they sent him directly to the adjoining hospital. There, Gorzney, then 50, and his family learned he had severe alcoholic hepatitis, an inflammation of the liver typically associated with excessive alcohol use. Gorzney had been drinking heavily on and off for years and, by February 2020, was having as many as a dozen drinks a day. His only chance of survival was a liver transplant, doctors said. (Pattani, 10/12)

Politico: Parliamentary Report Says UK Mistakes Cost Thousands Of Lives During Pandemic
Delaying a lockdown in the U.K. and failing to prioritize social care caused thousands of avoidable deaths, according to a parliamentary report on lessons learned to date from the coronavirus pandemic. The joint investigation published Tuesday by the House of Commons' science and health committees is lawmakers' first stab at digging into why the U.K., which was initially praised for its pandemic preparedness planning, saw cases skyrocket and deaths far outnumber many comparable countries. To date, deaths associated with the coronavirus in the U.K. stand at more than 150,000, placing the country in the Top 10 worldwide for total fatalities, according to World Health Organization data. (Collis, 10/12)

Bloomberg: Vladimir Putin Says He Has A Cold, Tells Russian Officials It's Not Covid-19
President Vladimir Putin said he has a cold and he isn’t suffering from Covid-19, after he was heard repeatedly coughing at a televised meeting with officials. “Don’t worry, everything’s fine,” Putin told a videoconference Monday with his Security Council, also shown on state television. “They do tests practically on a daily basis not only for Covid-19 but for all other infections and everything is ok.” That unannounced broadcast followed an earlier one Putin held with officials to discuss agriculture, in which he was seen and heard coughing on numerous occasions. (Halpin, 10/11)

The Wall Street Journal: Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 Vaccine Is World’s Preferred Shot 
The Covid-19 vaccine from Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE has emerged as the world’s vaccine of choice. From Latin America to the Middle East, dozens of governments are turning to the shot. Australia is now offering the vaccine, after shifting away from competitors. Turkey, the U.K. and Chile are providing the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to people who took other shots. (Hopkins and Uribe, 10/11)

AP: Moderna Has No Plans To Share Its COVID-19 Vaccine Recipe
Moderna has no plans to share the recipe for its COVID-19 vaccine because executives have concluded that scaling up the company’s own production is the best way to increase the global supply, the company’s chairman said Monday. In an interview with The Associated Press, Noubar Afeyan also reiterated a pledge Moderna made a year ago not to enforce patent infringement on anyone else making a coronavirus vaccine during the pandemic. (D'Emilio, 10/11)

In updates on Ebola —

CIDRAP: DRC Confirms New Ebola Case In Earlier Outbreak Area
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) over the weekend reported a lab-confirmed Ebola case and three suspected infections, all fatal, in an area in North Kivu province that was one of the main epicenters in earlier outbreaks. The new case marks the country's first Ebola infection in 5 months and its 13th Ebola outbreak. It's not yet clear if the flare-up is linked to an earlier outbreak in the same area that was declared over in early May after 11 confirmed cases, 6 of them fatal, were reported. (Schnirring, 10/11)

The Washington Post: To Prevent The Next Pandemic, We Must Find The Source Of Covid-19. China’s Stonewalling Is Unacceptable
Two years ago, in September and October 2019, something invisible happened in the city of Wuhan, China. A virus that caused a pneumonia-like illness began spreading, at first among a few people. Within months it exploded into a global pandemic that by now has directly killed 4.8 million people and indirectly perhaps twice that or more. The pandemic strain, a coronavirus, carried a feature known as a furin cleavage site, located on the spike protein. When cleaved by furin, a human enzyme, this site enhances the ability of the attacking virus to enter human lung cells and produce disease. (10/11)

Scientific American: A Strategy For Rescheduling Psilocybin 
Public and scientific interest in psychedelics such as psilocybin and MDMA is expanding. Once off-limits because of federal prohibition, a trickle of research from the 1990s has grown into a stream. But despite increasing acceptance by the public, and commercial investment in psychedelic therapies, aging federal laws stem the flow of vital research. (Mason Marks, 10/12)

San Diego Union-Tribune: After A Cheerleading Injury, My Doctor Became My First Legal Drug Dealer 
I still remember the day my mother took me to a doctor at Kaiser Permanente for mild aches and pains I was getting from the strenuous routines and stunts I was performing during cheerleading. That year — 2000 — came with so much confusion and uncertainty. But nothing prepared us for the real danger that was just around the corner: the introduction of narcotic painkillers that hit the market and poured into the hands of children, creating an epidemic of destruction, disease and death, especially for young athletes who were aspiring to be something one day. My doctor was my first legal drug dealer to give me prescriptions for hydrocodone and muscle relaxers. There wasn’t any information, resources or knowledge yet about these new drugs that were considered “highly effective,” and we did not know that by consuming these pills every day, we were naturally building a tolerance that ultimately led us to becoming addicted. All we knew was that we trusted our health-care system, which failed us. (Lisandra Barrera-Rising, 10/8)

Newsweek: Is The Fight For $15 Going To Cost Low-Wage Workers Their Health Insurance? 
If you're a low-wage worker, of course you want the government to mandate a raise in your wage. Who doesn't want more money for putting in the same hours on the job? But there's a reason the minimum wage campaign "fight for $15" isn't a "fight for $50." Workers understand that if a raise is too big or sudden, there can be consequences: layoffs, reduced hours or finding your job replaced by a robot. Losing health insurance benefits is another potential fallout. In a new paper, we analyzed state and federal minimum wage changes occurring over more than a decade. We found that, for every $1 increase in the minimum wage, low-wage workers and their families became 1 percentage point less likely to have job-based insurance coverage. (Michael S. Dworsky, Christine Eibner and Jeffrey B. Wenger, 10/11)

Stat: New Alzheimer's Drug Could Balloon State Medicaid Budgets 
A new drug that was supposed to be a lifeline for thousands of individuals and families struggling with the tragic impacts of Alzheimer’s disease is evolving into a millstone around the neck of Medicaid, America’s largest safety net health insurer. The Medicaid program, which today connects one in every four Americans to the health care they need, is an essential part of the U.S.’s health care fabric. But a recent decision by the Food and Drug Administration to approve Aduhelm, an unproven and exceptionally costly new drug to treat the symptoms of early Alzheimer’s disease, could threaten Medicaid’s ability to continue to serve the millions of people who rely on the program. (Matt Salo, 10/12)

The New York Times: How The Young Lords Changed Public Health Care 
On July 14, 1970, members of the Young Lords occupied Lincoln Hospital in the South Bronx — known locally as the “Butcher Shop.” A group of activists, many of them in their late teens and 20s, barricaded themselves inside the facility, demanding safer and more accessible health care for the community. Originally a Chicago-based street gang, the Young Lords turned to community activism, inspired by the Black Panthers and by student movements in Puerto Rico. A Young Lords chapter in New York soon formed, agitating for community control of institutions and land, as well as self-determination for Puerto Rico. Their tactics included direct action and occupations that highlighted institutional failures. (Emma Francis-Snyder, 10/12)

The Tennessean: Breast Cancer Awareness Month: Gym Studios Unite For Great Cause Via 'Fitness Crawl'
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month—a month specially dedicated to bringing about awareness and raising funds to help fight breast cancer, which mostly impacts women. “We are facing a crisis where every year over a quarter million women are diagnosed with breast cancer and over 40 thousand die from it in the U.S. In fact, 1 in 8 women are expected to develop breast cancer in their lifetime,” said Lindsey Langley, Senior Executive Director for the American Cancer Society of TN. (Rashed Fakhruddin, 10/11)