Politico: Troubling CDC Vaccine Data Convinced Biden Team To Back Booster Shots
Top Biden administration health officials concluded that most Americans will soon need coronavirus booster shots after reviewing a raft of new data from the Centers for Disease Control that showed a worrying drop in vaccine efficacy over time, four administration officials told POLITICO. The evidence, compiled by federal scientists over the past several months, showed a decline in the initial round of protection against Covid-19 infection that's coincided with a resurgence in cases driven by the more contagious Delta variant. The data looked at vaccine effectiveness in individuals across age groups, with varying medical conditions and who received the shot at different times. It was presented to White House Covid-19 task force officials at a meeting Sunday. (Cancryn, Banco and Owermohle, 8/17)

CNBC: Covid Vaccine Booster Shots: NIH Director Says New Israel Data Is Building Case In The U.S.
New data from Israel on the effectiveness of Covid-19 vaccines over time is causing U.S. health leaders to rethink their position on vaccine booster shots in the U.S., National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Francis Collins said Tuesday. “The people who got immunized in January are the ones that are now having more breakthrough cases,” Collins said during an interview on “The Hugh Hewitt Show,” referring to Covid infections in fully vaccinated individuals. Israel released new data Monday showing a reduction in the effectiveness of Pfizer’s Covid vaccine against severe illness among people 65 and older who were fully vaccinated in January or February. (Lovelace Jr., 8/17)

NBC News: Why Eight Months? What's Behind The Timing Of The Covid Booster Shot
Federal health officials are expected Wednesday to present evidence for why people are likely to need Covid-19 boosters eight months after their second doses of a vaccine, according to sources with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The eight-month time frame is most likely based on findings from both the U.S. and abroad looking at how the vaccines have held up over time — and whether they can stand up to the hypertransmissible delta variant of the coronavirus that has overtaken the country. (Edwards and Chuck, 8/17)

KHN: Rush To Boosters Sparks Confusion, Differing Recommendations
When the Food and Drug Administration announced last week that a third dose of Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech covid-19 vaccine may boost the immunity of some people who are immunocompromised, officials repeated their stance that fully vaccinated, healthy people do not need another dose. With this caveat: “The FDA is actively engaged in a science-based, rigorous process with our federal partners to consider whether an additional dose may be needed in the future,” said acting FDA Commissioner Dr. Janet Woodcock. (Tribble, 8/18)

Major cities begin administering booster shots —

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Immunocompromised People Now Eligible For Boosters In Milwaukee
Individuals who are immunocompromised are now eligible to receive a third dose of the COVID-19 vaccine from the City of Milwaukee Health Department, Mayor Tom Barrett announced at an afternoon press conference. This would allow individuals who may not have had as robust an initial response to the vaccine series to receive a third shot of either the Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. (Bentley, Swales and Dirr, 8/17)

Detroit Free Press: Immunocompromised In Metro Detroit Getting 3rd COVID-19 Vaccine
Two county health departments in metro Detroit began offering third-dose COVID-19 vaccines Tuesday to people with compromised immune systems, a third will start making appointments next week and a fourth is working out the details on how to get the shots to eligible residents. The Oakland and Washtenaw county health departments began administering the third dose of mRNA vaccines, either Pfizer or Moderna, to immunocompromised people Tuesday, officials in those counties said. (Hall, 8/17)

Philadelphia Inquirer: Immunocompromised Receive Additional Vaccine Doses, As Feds Mull COVID Boosters For All
An hour before Gloucester County opened its vaccination clinic offering third COVID-19 shots Tuesday, two masked men standing at a distance from each other in an empty parking lot marveled at people who don’t want to get vaccinated. “We don’t know what’s in a shot?” George Perry said, “We don’t know what’s in a hot dog either.” The Mullica Hill 72-year-old is so sold on vaccines, he turned up long before the clinic opened to get a third Pfizer shot, just authorized for people with severely suppressed immune systems. He arrived armed with the box that holds his leukemia medication, in case anybody questioned his eligibility. (Laughlin, 8/18)

San Francisco Chronicle: How Bay Area Counties Are Preparing To Roll Out COVID Booster Shots
The Bay Area could soon see the return of mass COVID-19 vaccination sites and high demand for additional doses with the expected recommendation that most fully vaccinated people get booster shots. Local officials call it a prudent next step in the evolving course of the pandemic. Bay Area health officials said Tuesday that they are ready to scale up to administer boosters, once the anticipated recommendation comes down from the Biden administration, as they scramble to protect people against the wildly infectious delta variant that is driving the fourth coronavirus surge. An announcement from Washington was expected as soon as this week. (Vaziri, 8/17)

USA Today: Delta Variant Accounts For More Than 98% Of US COVID Cases, CDC Says
The delta variant accounts for more than 98.8% of American cases, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Tuesday. The report, which compiles data up to Aug. 14, was released as the United States hit 37 million cases since the start of the pandemic, according to Johns Hopkins University data. August has been the third-worst month for coronavirus cases in 2021. Only January and February reported more cases throughout the entire month. (Aspegren, 8/18)

Reuters: U.S. Reports More Than 1,000 COVID Deaths In Single Day
The United States reported more than 1,000 COVID-19 deaths on Tuesday, equating to around 42 fatalities an hour, according to a Reuters tally, as the Delta variant continues to ravage parts of the country with low vaccination rates. Coronavirus-related deaths have spiked in the United States over the past month and are averaging 769 per day, the highest since mid-April, according to the Reuters tally. (Maan and B, 8/18)

And breakthrough cases are growing —

The New York Times: Early Data Hints At A Rise In Breakthrough Infections
Since Americans first began rolling up their sleeves for coronavirus vaccines, health officials have said that those who are immunized are very unlikely to become infected, or to suffer serious illness or death. But preliminary data from seven states hint that the arrival of the Delta variant in July may have altered the calculus. Breakthrough infections in vaccinated people accounted for at least one in five newly diagnosed cases in six of these states and higher percentages of total hospitalizations and deaths than had been previously observed in all of them, according to figures gathered by The New York Times. (Mandavilli, 8/17)

The Washington Post: Rise Of Delta Variant And Waning Immunity Are Fueling Breakthrough Infections, Experts Say 
Officials in the Biden administration responsible for communicating with the public have repeatedly said this has become a “pandemic of the unvaccinated.” Such words may not ring true to people who got their coronavirus shots and still became sick. A growing number of studies suggest that coronavirus vaccines continue to provide strong protection against severe disease and hospitalization, but their ability to prevent mild illness is less robust today than the original clinical trial studies demonstrated a year ago. (Achenbach and Guarino, 8/17)

The Wall Street Journal: As Delta Surges, Covid-19 Breakthrough Cases Remain Uncommon 
The Delta variant of the Covid-19 virus appears to be breaking through the protection vaccines provide at a higher rate than previous strains, a Wall Street Journal analysis found, though infections among the fully inoculated remain a tiny fraction of overall cases, and symptoms tend to be milder. U.S. states counted at least 193,204 so-called breakthrough cases among vaccinated people between Jan. 1 and early August, according to data that health departments in 44 states and Washington, D.C., provided to the Journal. The figure represents 0.1% of the more than 136 million fully vaccinated people in those states and the capital. (Whelan and Hopkins, 8/17)

The Washington Post: Alabama Has ‘Negative’ ICU Beds Free As U.S. Hospitals Struggle With Surge Of Cases
There are more intensive care patients in Alabama than there are ICU beds in the state to treat them. The state’s hospital system has a “negative” number of ICU beds available as it enters “uncharted territory,” Alabama Hospital Association President Don Williamson told local television station WSFA. Hospitals in the South have for weeks been overrun by covid-19 patients as cases surged across the Sun Belt. But now, health-care workers across the country are also struggling to manage the waves of cases brought on by the delta variant. (Pietsch, 8/18)

Anchorage Daily News: Anchorage ICUs At Capacity As A Surge Of COVID-19 Patients Has Hospitals Under Stress And Scrambling
The people caring for Alaska’s most vulnerable patients say a new flood of COVID-19 cases is stressing the state’s already compromised intensive-care system at levels they’ve never seen before. Alaska’s ICU system is maxed out — too many patients and not enough staffed beds, medical professionals from the state’s top doctor to floor nurses said this week. Summer is normally a busy time for hospitals, as tourists, vehicle wrecks and outdoor recreation crank up patient numbers, or rural residents put off medical care to pull in salmon for the winter at fish camp. (Hollander, 8/17)

AP: Idaho Warns Of COVID Patient Surge, Hospitals 'Overwhelmed'
Hospitals are reporting record numbers of COVID-19 patients on ventilators, public health officials have reactivated a “crisis standards of care” task force and epidemiologists are warning that based on the current rate of spread, Idaho could see as many as 30,000 new cases a week by mid-October. Idaho Department of Health and Welfare officials made the announcements during an online news conference Tuesday afternoon. Public health administrator Elke Shaw-Tulloch said they were “extremely alarmed” by the surge. (Boone, 8/18)

Oklahoman: Oklahoma Health Systems Beg More People To Get COVID Vaccine And Mask Up
Four Oklahoma health systems came together Tuesday to beg Oklahomans to get vaccinated and wear masks as hospitals are being crushed under the strain of the latest COVID-19 surge. Representatives from OU Health, SSM Health, Integris Health and Mercy painted a grim picture of what’s going on inside Oklahoma hospitals’ walls: People diagnosed with COVID-19 now are being admitted to hospitals at higher rates than other points during the pandemic, bed space is scarce and there’s fewer staff now to care for patients than last winter. Patients are younger and often sicker than they were before, they said. (Branham, 8/17)

Billings Gazette: Billings Hospitals Struggling With Capacity As COVID Cases Climb
Hospitals are having to manage high volumes of COVID-19 patients as bed capacity moves into the red zone in 13 of Montana’s 56 counties. Both St. Vincent Healthcare and Billings Clinic entered "bed divert" status on Monday, according to St. Vincent Healthcare’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Michael Bush. Bed divert is a temporary status for health care facilities that informs ambulances the hospital is at capacity and cannot take any more patients. St. V’s was able to move off bed divert early Tuesday, but is holding several patients in the emergency department until space opens in the hospital, Bush said. This practice has been in place in the last several weeks as COVID cases and hospitalizations surge. (Schabacker, 8/17)

Bangor Daily News: COVID-19 Hospitalizations In Maine Reach Highest Level In 2 Months
The number of Mainers currently hospitalized with COVID-19 in Maine reached the highest level in more than two months on Tuesday as the virus continues to spread mostly among unvaccinated people. As of Tuesday, 84 Mainers were hospitalized with COVID-19, up from 42 two weeks ago and 27 a month ago. It marks the highest single-day hospitalization number since June 2. (Piper, 8/17)

Philadelphia Inquirer: Coronavirus Spread Is High And Hospitalizations Are Rising Across The Philadelphia Region
The Philadelphia region — except for Delaware County — was seeing high coronavirus transmission rates as of Tuesday, according to the CDC, and local health officials said they are continuing to watch rising hospitalizations, particularly among the unvaccinated. Throughout the pandemic, rising case counts have precipitated an increase in hospitalizations. This summer, the spread of the highly transmissible delta variant has not deviated from the sobering trend, with most patients being unvaccinated. (McCarthy, 8/18)

Stat: Unvaccinated Deaths Overwhelm Health Workers In Covid Hot Zones
Bren Ingle watched through a set of twin glass doors as her patient drew his final, halting breaths, a terrifyingly long pause separating each one. She could hear every haunted exhalation he made, a sound halfway between a snore and a scream of pain. It was not her first such vigil. But the knowledge that the patient was unvaccinated made it, somehow, bleaker than the rest. (Facher, 8/18)

Houston Chronicle: Gov. Greg Abbott Tests Positive For COVID After Jam-Packed, Maskless GOP Event
Gov. Greg Abbott has tested positive for COVID-19 but is not experiencing any symptoms, his office announced in a statement to the media. “The governor will isolate in the Governor’s Mansion and continue to test daily,” said Mark Miner, communications director for the governor. “Gov. Abbott is receiving Regeneron’s monoclonal antibody treatment. Gov. Abbott is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, in good health, and currently experiencing no symptoms. Everyone that the governor has been in close contact with today has been notified. Texas first lady Cecilia Abbott tested negative.” (Wallace and Goldenstein, 8/17)

The Hill: Abbott Says He's Feeling Well After Positive COVID-19 Test
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) said he is feeling well in a video posted on Twitter after it was disclosed that he had tested positive for COVID-19 despite being fully vaccinated. "I test myself every day and today is the first day that I tested positive," Abbott said. "I also want you to know that I have received the COVID-19 vaccine and that may be one reason why I'm really not feeling any symptoms right now. I have no fever, no aches and pains, no other types of symptoms." (Choi, 8/17)

In related news about the spread of covid in Texas —

Houston Chronicle: Gov. Abbott's Mask Mandate Ban Is 'Discriminatory', Alleges Lawsuit By Texas Disability Protection Agency
The federally mandated protection and advocacy agency for people with disabilities in Texas on Tuesday evening sued to challenge the ban on mask mandates imposed by Governor Greg Abbott, according to a news release from the agency. The lawsuit, filed by Disability Rights Texas on behalf of 14 students against Abbott and Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath, alleges that banning schools from requiring masks is “discriminatory” and violates the federal Americans with Disabilities Act because it presents a barrier to children with disabilities accessing in-person schooling safely. (Zong, 8/17)

NBC News: Texas School District Makes Masks Part Of Dress Code To Get Around Gov. Abbott's Order
A small Texas school district has made facial coverings part of its dress code, in a bid to get around Gov. Greg Abbott's executive order banning mask mandates. The board of the Paris Independent School District, which has about 4,000 students, said in a statement Tuesday that the governor's order does not usurp its ability to manage schools. (Helsel, 8/18)

AP: Virus Outbreaks Temporarily Close 4 Texas School Districts
As the new school year begins for Texas students and mask mandates are debated in various state courts, at least four school districts have already closed campuses due to COVID-19 outbreaks. ...The school district in Gorman, located about 70 miles east of Abilene, had been set to begin the new school year on Wednesday but is now delaying that by a week “due to positive COVID cases within the school community of both faculty and students,” Superintendent Mike Winter said in a statement. ... In East Texas, the Bloomburg school district announced it was shut down this week “due to the number of staff members out with COVID.” Classes had started on Aug. 9. (Lozano, 8/17)

Fox News: Dozens Of Kids Hospitalized With COVID-19 And RSV, Texas Pediatrician Says
A top doctor at a Texas children’s hospital said they are treating dozens of kids who were admitted for both respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and COVID-19, and that many others have tested positive for both viruses but did not require hospitalization. "The combination, we don’t have enough data to find out if it’s much worse than having one or the other, but you’ve got two potentially fatal diseases attacking the same child so we take that very, very seriously," Dr. Lara Shekerdemian, chief of critical care at Texas Children’s Hospital, told KHOU.com. (Hein, 8/17)

CNN: TSA To Extend Transportation Mask Mandate Into January
The Transportation Security Administration will extend its US federal transportation mask mandate through January 18, the agency confirmed late Tuesday afternoon. The mandate was set to expire on September 13. TSA said the purpose of the mask directive is “to minimize the spread of Covid-19 on public transportation,” and the extension comes as Covid-19 cases have skyrocketed in the United States in recent weeks because of the spread of the Delta variant. (Wallace, 8/17)

CNBC: Vaccine Mandate: Airlines Split On Whether To Require Employees To Get Covid Shots
U.S. airlines are increasingly divided over whether to require their flight attendants, pilots and other employees to be vaccinated against Covid-19. United Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines this month said their U.S. employees, a total of some 73,000 people, must get vaccinated against the coronavirus. Alaska Airlines said it’s considering a similar mandate for its some 20,000 employees if the Food and Drug Administration gives one of the vaccines full approval, a step that’s expected next month. (Josephs, 8/17)

In other updates on mask and vaccine mandates —

Los Angeles Times: L.A. County To Require COVID Masks At Large Outdoor Events
In the latest move aimed at impeding the spread of the coronavirus, Los Angeles County will require face coverings for anyone attending large outdoor events — such as concerts, festivals and sports games — regardless of whether they’ve been vaccinated for COVID-19. The order, which goes into effect at 11:59 p.m. Thursday, applies to outdoor events that attract crowds of more than 10,000 people. In those cases, attendees must “wear face masks at all times, except when actively eating or drinking,” the order states. That’s further defined as “the limited time during which the mask can be removed briefly to eat or drink, after which it must be immediately put back on.” (Money and Lin II, 8/17)

The Boston Globe: R.I. Toughens Vaccine Mandate For Health Care Workers
If health care workers at state-licensed facilities in Rhode Island aren’t fully vaccinated against COVID-19 as of Oct. 1, and they don’t have an approved exemption, they won’t be allowed in the building, according to regulations the Department of Health put out Tuesday. The formal regulations are more stringent than Governor Dan McKee’s administration had originally explained when they were unveiled a week ago. (Amaral, 8/17)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Dragon Con Now Requiring Proof Of COVID Vaccination Or Recent Negative Test
Dragon Con, the largest sci-fi convention in Atlanta, today is joining a raft of other events and music venues by requiring COVID-19 vaccinations or a recent negative test to take part. “From the start, we have committed to hosting a convention that would help protect our fans from the spread of COVID while staying true to the traditions that make Dragon Con fun and memorable,” said convention co-chair Rachel Reeves. “As the number of COVID related cases continues to climb, it becomes clear that we need to update our health and safety protocols in order to keep that commitment.” (Ho, 8/17)

AP: Arizona Governor Blocks Cash From Schools Mandating Masks
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey on Tuesday upped the pressure on the growing number of public school districts defying a state ban on mask mandates as they try to slow the spread of the coronavirus. The Republican created a $163 million school grant program using federal virus relief funds he controls, but schools that have mask mandates or have to close because of COVID-19 outbreaks won’t be eligible for the additional $1,800 per student. (Christie, 8/18)

AP: GOP Lawmakers Repudiate Statewide School Mask Mandate
Republican lawmakers repudiated a statewide school mask mandate Tuesday as the Democratic governor warned that the delta variant is sparking Kentucky’s worst COVID-19 outbreak, with more children getting infected and hospitals filling up with unvaccinated virus patients. A GOP-led legislative panel found the school mask regulation — approved recently by the state school board — to be deficient. Lengthy testimony before the party-line vote reflected deep divisions among Kentuckians over mask mandates to try to curb the spread of the coronavirus. (Schreiner, 8/17)

Fox News: Charleston City Council Meeting On School Mask Mandates Gets Heated
A City Council meeting in South Carolina on Tuesday night that focused on a proposed emergency mask mandate at schools and a report by the city's racial conciliation commission grew heated and resulted in the council failing to pass the mask ordinance and voting not to receive the commission's report. The Charleston Post and Courier reported that the mask ordinance called for all children over the age of 2 to wear masks at all public facilities, "including public schools, private schools and daycares." The report pointed out that the order would have expired in 60 days. (DeMarche, 8/17)

The Baltimore Sun: Harford School Board Dismisses Unruly Audience From Meeting As Parents Rally Against Mask Mandate 
The Harford County Board of Education temporarily suspended its meeting and threw out attendees Monday night in Bel Air after people who came to criticize the school system for mandating universal masking in its buildings became unruly, shouting and speaking over board members. A group of parents, children and elected officials showed up prior to the board meeting to protest with signs and megaphones the school system’s recent decision to mandate masks for the upcoming school year. Some were there to stay outside and rally and some showed up hoping to get one of the 60 seats inside the meeting room for the in-person meeting. (Griffith, 8/17)

More schools require masks and/or vaccinations for employees or students —

AP: New Mexico Governor Sets Mask Mandate, Requires Vaccination
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said Tuesday she will be reinstating a mask mandate for all public indoor spaces in New Mexico as vaccination rates remain stagnant and infections increase. Her latest public order also will require that more people get vaccinated, such as workers at hospitals, nursing homes, juvenile justice facilities, residential treatment centers and other places that the state deems as high-risk. (Bryan, 8/17)

The Baltimore Sun: Baltimore County Public Schools Mandate COVID Vaccines Or Weekly Testing For All Employees 
Baltimore County Public Schools announced Tuesday that all employees must provide proof of COVID-19 vaccination before the start of the fall semester or submit to weekly testing. “We are creating this requirement to protect the health, safety, and well-being of our students and staff during this continuing pandemic,” said Superintendent Darryl L. Williams in a news release. “The move is aligned with our commitment to provide in-person instruction throughout the 2021-2022 school year. Vaccination remains the most effective means of preventing COVID-19 transmission. I encourage everyone eligible to get vaccinated.” (Reed, 8/17)

AP/Report for America: COVID In Mississippi Schools: About 20,000 Students In Quarantine
A top Mississippi health official said Tuesday that about 20,000 students are currently quarantined for COVID-19 exposure in the state — 4.5% of the public school population, according to the state's latest enrollment figures. The data comes from reports made by 800 schools to the Mississippi State Department of Health last week, Mississippi State Epidemiologist Dr. Paul Byers said during a call with state pediatricians. (Willingham, 8/17)

CNN: Mississippi Girl Dies A Day After Positive Coronavirus Test 
A 13-year-old Mississippi girl has died just one day after testing positive for coronavirus, according to Smith County School District Superintendent Nick Hillman. The girl wasn't feeling well last Thursday and her mother kept her home, Hillman said. The teenager tested positive Friday and was taken to a hospital. According to Hillman, she died early Saturday while being airlifted to a Jackson-area hospital. "It was just sort of a shocker to everyone," Hillman told CNN. "She was one of the best kids we ever had." (Lemos and Almasy, 8/17)

New Orleans Times-Picayune: Hundreds Test Positive For COVID, Thousands Quarantine In Schools Across Metro New Orleans
Within days of returning to school in person for the 2021-2022 school year, thousands of area students were sent back home as the coronavirus infected hundreds and forced widespread quarantines of students and staff. In New Orleans public schools, 3,004 students and staff were forced to quarantine after 299 students and staffers tested positive. In Jefferson, 1,267 students and staff were sent back home after 345 people, including 295 students, tested positive. (Fazio and Roberts III, 8/17)

Also —

AP: Ford Donates 1 Million More Masks For Kentucky Children
Ford Motor Co. has donated another 1 million masks to Kentucky to help ensure schoolchildren have access to face coverings, first lady Britainy Beshear announced. The automaker’s donation comes as the delta variant increases COVID-19 infections among youngsters. A mask mandate is in effect in Kentucky’s K-12 schools. (8/18)

KHN: Science Shows Mask-Wearing Is Largely Safe For Children 
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is one of a handful of Republican governors trying to block school districts from requiring masks in the classroom. Under DeSantis’ direction, the state health department adopted a rule that lets families opt out of locally ordered school mask mandates. The State Board of Education approved another rule that allows parents to secure vouchers for their children to attend a different school if they encounter pushback on their refusal to use masks. The DeSantis administration threatened to penalize school officials financially if they bucked the rules. (Jacobson, 8/18)

In higher-education news —

AP: Court: U Of S Carolina Allowed To Mandate Masks On Campus
The South Carolina Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that a mask mandate instituted by the University of South Carolina last month does not violate a state budget proviso banning discriminatory face covering requirements. University officials withdrew the mask rule earlier this month after state Attorney General Alan Wilson opined that the mandate was “likely not consistent with the intent of the Legislature.” (Liu, 8/17)

CNN: Florida State School Board Takes Steps Against Two Districts Over Mask Mandates
Florida's State Board of Education voted unanimously Tuesday at an emergency meeting to recommend investigations into two school districts whose mask mandates defy Gov. Ron DeSantis. The board authorized the state education commissioner "to take all legal steps" against Alachua and Broward counties for requiring people in their school districts to wear masks. (Santiago and Simon, 8/17)

The Washington Post: Schools In Florida’s Broward And Alachua Counties May Be Punished Because Of Mask Mandates 
Florida education officials determined Tuesday that the Broward and Alachua county school districts violated state law by requiring students without medical exemptions to wear masks and voted unanimously to consider penalties. Penalties that could be imposed on the districts by the Florida Board of Education, appointed by the governor, would be the first since Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) threatened to withhold money from districts that require face coverings, saying parents should decide whether their children wear masks at school. Advancing the fight between DeSantis and school districts, the board decided that the school officials should be investigated and possibly punished, after Florida Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran argued that the districts were not complying with the law. (Kornfield, 8/18)

Bloomberg: Florida School Board Moves To Force DeSantis Mask Mandate Order
Florida’s State Board of Education said it would force defiant school districts to comply with Republican Governor Ron DeSantis’s executive order forbidding them from mandating students wear masks as a way to slow a surge in Covid-19 cases. The board ordered the state’s education commissioner -- a DeSantis appointee -- to “take all legal steps” necessary to compel districts to drop their mandates. That could include withholding state funding and removing local officers from their posts. The highly-contagious Delta variant has turned Florida into the epicenter of the Covid-19 pandemic in the U.S. Even so, DeSantis, a rising star in the Republican Party, has dug in his heels in opposition to mandates, telling schools that they must allow parents a chance to opt-out of any campus mask rule at their discretion. (Querolo, Moran and Levin, 8/17)

ABC News: Education Secretary Says He's Spoken With Schools Defying Mask Mandate Bans 
Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said he's in touch with superintendents who are actively defying Florida and Texas governors' orders not to mandate masks in schools and will have their back should they lose state funding. "I have had conversations with superintendents and they have asked if this goes in that direction, how do we get support? My message is, open the schools safely. We got your back," Cardona told ABC News in an exclusive interview Tuesday after touring P.S. 5 Port Morris, a public school in the Bronx. (Haslett, 8/17)

More Florida schools argue over masks —

AP: Task Force Recommends Face Masks For Miami-Dade Students
Florida’s largest school district will likely require students to wear face masks when classrooms open next week, following the recommendation of a task force of medical experts and defying Gov. Ron DeSantis’ attempt to block mandatory mask rules. The Miami-Dade County School Board is expected to approve the measure Wednesday. “My mind is pretty made up on the way to move forward,” Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said. (Frisaro, 8/18)

WMFE: Marion County School Board OKs Student Mask Mandate With Opt-Out 
The Marion County School Board voted Monday to require students to wear face coverings unless a parent or guardian opts out. This temporary mandate — for up to 90 days — comes after 139 staff and students were positive for COVID-19 last week and more than 500 were in quarantine. The School Board held the emergency meeting as cases and quarantines threatened school operations and staffing for bus routes. (Byrnes, 8/17)

Bloomberg: Fight Over Florida School Masks Grows As Student Cases Surge
More Florida schools are considering defying Governor Ron DeSantis’s ban on mask mandates as virulent strains of Covid-19 forced officials to isolate thousands of students just days into the new school year. Districts who buck the governor’s order should be prepared to face punishment after the state’s education board voted Tuesday to force school districts to comply. The board ordered the state’s education commissioner to “take all legal steps” necessary to compel districts to drop their mask mandates, which could include withholding state funding and removing local officers from their posts. (Levin and Smith, 8/17)

WLRN 91.3 FM: Infectious Disease Expert To Miami-Dade School Board: 'Backbone' Needed On Masks 
Miami-Dade schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho wants the district’s panel of medical experts to decide the criteria for “opting out” of wearing face coverings in school. During a Zoom meeting last week, the doctors and public health experts assembled said masking should be universal. Some even pushed against the argument that there are students with disabilities, including those with autism, who cannot wear masks for medical reasons. (Bakeman, 8/17)

Covid cases and quarantines grow —

The Washington Post: More Than 8,000 Florida Students Isolate Or Quarantine For Covid-19 In Hillsborough County
A Florida school board is set to hold an emergency meeting this week to consider a mask mandate as more than 8,000 students and hundreds of employees in its district are in isolation or quarantine because of a surge in coronavirus cases and possible exposure. Hillsborough County Public Schools, which includes Tampa, has 8,400 students and 307 staff members either in isolation because of a positive test or in quarantine after coming into close contact with someone who tested positive, district spokesperson Tanya Arja told The Washington Post on Tuesday. The number of students who are either in isolation or quarantine jumped by nearly 3,000 from the total given by the school district on Monday. (Pietsch and Bella, 8/17)

Fox News: 'Concerning' Levels Of COVID-19 Detected In Florida County Wastewater, Officials Say
Health officials in Florida’s Orange County said there has been a 600% increase in the levels of COVID-19 RNA concentration detected in the area’s wastewater since sampling began in mid-May. Speaking at a press conference held Monday, the county’s utility director called the numbers "very high" and "very concerning." "Again, the results of the virus RNA that we measure in wastewater indicate that we will see continued clinical cases and hospitalizations this week, even beyond what was reported this weekend," Ed Torres, director of Orange County Utilities, said. "Please, we urge you to get vaccinated and continue to take the proper precautions." (Hein, 8/17)

Health News Florida: Monoclonal Antibody Treatment Site Opens At Orlando's Camping World Stadium 
Gov Ron DeSantis on Monday announced the opening of a state-supported site at Camping World Stadium in Orlando where up to 320 people a day can receive monoclonal antibody treatment to help fight COVID-19 infections. DeSantis, who promised that additional sites would open in the coming days, said he wanted to promote the availability of the treatment and to expand access to it. (8/17)

In related news —

AP: DeSantis Top Donor Invests In COVID Drug Governor Promotes
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — who has been criticized for opposing mask mandates and vaccine passports — is now touting a COVID-19 antibody treatment in which a top donor’s company has invested millions of dollars. DeSantis has been flying around the state promoting Regeneron, a monoclonal antibody treatment that was used on then-President Donald Trump after he tested positive for COVID-19. The governor first began talking about it as a treatment last year. Citadel, a Chicago-based hedge fund, has $15.9 million in shares of Regeneron Pharmaceutical, according to filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Citadel CEO Ken Griffin has donated $10.75 million to a political committee that supports DeSantis — $5.75 million in 2018 and $5 million last April. (Farrington, 8/18)

Health News Florida: Florida's Sharp Teacher Vacancy Increase Tied To Pandemic, Pay
Schools across Florida are facing a spike in staff shortages as K-12 students return to the classroom amid a recent surge in coronavirus infections. At the start of August, thousands of teaching positions across the state were unfilled. And local school districts were in need of bus drivers, food service staff, guidance counselors, school nurses and classroom aides. (Crowder, 8/16)

CIDRAP: Football With Few Fans Not Tied To County COVID Spread
A new study finds that 528 National Football League (NFL) and National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) football games with limited in-person attendance during the 2020-21 season weren't linked to increased community COVID-19 cases, and another shows that 74% of NCAA men's basketball spectators correctly wore face coverings. (Van Beusekom, 8/17)

In other news about the spread of the coronavirus —

The Boston Globe: Holyoke Soldiers’ Home Worker Files Federal Suit Alleging ‘Inhumane Conditions’ During COVID Outbreak
A certified nursing assistant at the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home, where at least 77 veterans died of COVID-19 amid tragic missteps by management, has filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of dozens of fellow workers, alleging they faced “inhumane conditions” last year as the virus swept through the state-run facility. The civil suit, filed Friday in US District Court in Springfield, named five former officials at the elder care facility as defendants, including former superintendent Bennett Walsh and medical director Dr. David Clinton. Walsh and Clinton already face state charges of criminal neglect in what is believed to be the first US prosecution of nursing home caregivers over their handling of the pandemic. They have pleaded not guilty. (MacQuarrie, Andersen and Krueger, 8/17)

Mississippi Center For Investigative Reporting: Diabetes And COVID In Mississippi Forge Deadly ‘Perfect Storm’
Amid the worst pandemic in a century, Mississippi is leading the nation in increased diabetes deaths per capita, according to a just-released Diabetes Care study. “It’s a perfect storm,” said Tim Moore, president and CEO of the Mississippi Hospital Association. “We already have an unhealthy population in Mississippi because of poverty and lower access to health care, and now we have a population that’s getting very sick.” Mississippi has seen more than 7,880 deaths from COVID-19, as of Tuesday. According to the state Department of Health, diabetes was an underlying condition in 1,347 of those deaths. (Mitchell, 8/17)

AP: State Sen. André Jacque, Critic Of Mask And Vaccine Mandates, Hospitalized With COVID-19
Sen. André Jacque, R-De Pere, one of the Legislature’s most conservative lawmakers and a vocal opponent of mask and vaccine mandates, tested positive for COVID-19 last week and was at the hospital on Monday with pneumonia. The positive test and hospital care came after Jacque testified on Wednesday in a packed Capitol hearing room without wearing a mask. (Bauer, 8/18)

Indianapolis Star: Cyber Attack Against Indiana COVID Tracing Survey Affects 750,000
A cyber attack company improperly obtained personal information that nearly 750,000 Indiana residents shared with the Indiana State Department of Health when they responded to the state’s online contact tracing survey, state health officials announced Tuesday. The personal information included names, addresses, email, gender, ethnicity and race, and birth dates but no medical or Social Security information, state health officials said. (Rudavsky, 8/17)

In updates on the vaccine rollout —

KHN: Federal Vaccine Program Hasn’t Helped Those Whose Lives Were Altered By Covid Shot
Angela Marie Wulbrecht jumped at the first chance to get a covid-19 vaccine, driving three hours from her Santa Rosa, California, home to a mass-vaccination site on Jan. 19. Twelve minutes after her Moderna shot, she stumbled into the paramedic tent with soaring blood pressure and a racing heartbeat. And so began a calvary of severe fatigue, brain fog, imbalance and other symptoms that are still with her eight months later. Wulbrecht, 46, had been a nurse for 23 years before the shot. She was healthy, ate a vegan diet and was an accomplished salsa dancer. Since January she’s had to leave her job and missed out on many activities with her husband and 12-year-old daughter, Gabriella. She has spent about $35,000 on out-of-pocket medical bills, despite having insurance. (Allen, 8/18)

The Washington Post: Chicago Pharmacist Charged With Selling Vaccine Cards On EBay
The Justice Department on Tuesday charged a Chicago pharmacist with selling vaccine cards online — something that law enforcement and health authorities worry will become more widespread as more institutions demand proof of vaccination. Tangtang Zhao, 34, was charged with stealing authentic cards and listing them on eBay for around $10 a card. He had 11 different buyers, the Justice Department alleged, and sold a total of 125 cards. Most of the buyers purchased between eight and 10 cards each, spending nearly $100 or more. (Zapotosky and Diamond, 8/17)

The New York Times: Sacklers Threaten To Pull Out Of Opioid Settlement Without Broad Legal Immunity
A scion of the Sackler family, the billionaire owners of Purdue Pharma, vowed in court on Tuesday that the family would walk away from a $4.5 billion pledge to help communities nationwide that have been devastated by the opioid epidemic, unless a judge grants it immunity from all current and future civil claims associated with the company. Absent that broad release from liability, said David Sackler, 41, a former board member and grandson of one of the founders, the family would no longer support the deal that the parties have painstakingly negotiated over two years to settle thousands of opioids lawsuits brought by states, cities, tribes and other plaintiffs. (Hoffman, 8/17)

AP: Heir: Sacklers Won't Settle Unless Freed From Opioid Suits
Members of the family that owns OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma won’t contribute billions of dollars to a legal settlement unless they get off the hook for all current and future lawsuits over the company’s activities, one of them told a court Tuesday in a rare public appearance. David Sackler, grandson of one of the brothers who nearly 70 years ago bought the company that later became Purdue, testified at a hearing in federal bankruptcy court in White Plains, New York, that unless the settlement is approved with those protections included, as they currently are, “I believe we would litigate the claims to their final outcomes.” (Mulvihill, 8/17)

In other news about drug use —

Stat: As Use Of Some Stimulants Increases, Experts See Parallels To Opioid Crisis
A new study found that the number of adults who used two widely prescribed stimulants nearly doubled in recent years, raising concerns about a potential wave of abuse since both medicines can be highly addictive. Specifically, an estimated 4.1 million adults reported using amphetamines and methylphenidate in 2018, an increase of nearly 80% from 2013. Measured by total prescriptions, the use of amphetamines rose 119% during that time, while the use of methylphenidate grew about 39%, according to the study, which was published in BMJ Open. (Silverman, 8/17)

The Aegis: Upper Chesapeake Health And Klein Family Harford Crisis Center Awarded More Than $125K To Combat Substance Use 
The Klein Family Harford Crisis Center announced it will be receiving more than $125,000 in state grant funds for three peer recovery coaches to help combat Harford County’s overdose problems. The Harford Crisis Center operates as a public/private partnership with the University of Maryland Upper Chesapeake Health and other key community partners to provide three levels of care to those struggling with addiction or mental health issues: urgent care walk-in, residential crisis beds and an outpatient mental health center. (8/18)

In other pharmaceutical industry news —

FiercePharma: Pfizer's Tick-Borne Encephalitis Vaccine TicoVac Passes FDA Muster, Allowing Travelers And The Military Easier Access
The FDA has approved Pfizer's tick-borne encephalitis vaccine TicoVac. The shot has been available for decades in endemic areas, but the new approval will allow travelers and members of the U.S. military living abroad to get easier access to the Pfizer shot. The CDC is expected to review data and make its own recommendations about TicoVac use among Americans. ... Seven years ago, Pfizer paid Baxter $635 million for the vaccine, along with a meningitis C shot. Previously, the shot was available to Americans in TBE endemic countries but it was often difficult to obtain. ... More than 170 doses of TicoVac have been administered since 1976, Pfizer said, but this approval won’t have a major effect on revenue. (Dunleavy, 8/16)

Axios: Tampa's Morphogenesis Wants To Cure Cancer With An Affordable Shot 
A group of scientists in Tampa is working to make treating cancer as easy as getting a shot. While most of today's cancer treatments tend to be toxic and expensive, Morphogenesis is working to develop immunotherapies that are safe and affordable. "Affordability is key," co-founder Patricia Lawman told Axios. "If people can’t pay for it, what good is it?" (San Felice, 8/17)

CNBC: Marlboro Maker Philip Morris Buys Stake In British Asthma Inhaler Firm
Tobacco group Philip Morris International on Wednesday said it had bought 22.61% of U.K.-based respiratory drug developer Vectura in a market purchase. The maker of Marlboro cigarettes said it plans to make further market purchases of Vectura at 165 pence ($2.27) per share. Philip Morris International said Monday that it had entered a tender period with Vectura shareholders following the unanimous recommendation of the asthma inhaler firm’s board. (Meredith, 8/18)

Stat: Sesen Bio Drug Trial Marked By Misconduct, Other Issues, Documents Show
The clinical trial of a cancer drug rejected by the Food and Drug Administration last week was marked by thousands of violations of study rules, damning investigator misconduct, and worrying signs of toxicity the company did not publicly disclose, according to hundreds of pages of internal documents obtained by STAT and confirmed by three people familiar with the matter. Sesen Bio, a small biotech company that developed the bladder cancer drug, spent all of this year telling investors that its treatment was on its way to approval. After the FDA rejected it, CEO Thomas Cannell, fielding analyst questions on a Monday morning conference call, deemed it “a very surprising turn of events.” (Garde, 8/18)

Stat: Former Medivation Exec Charged With Insider Trading After Buying Stock 'Within Minutes' Of Learning Of A Deal 
Just days before Pfizer (PFE) announced plans to acquire Medivation six years ago, the former head of business development at Medivation bought stock in yet another company that Wall Street bankers deemed equally desirable. Now, he has been charged with insider trading by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. (Silverman, 8/17)

The Washington Post: Risk Of Children Swallowing Small Magnets Leads To Rare Mandatory Recall
Federal safety regulators announced Tuesday a recall for two brands of high-powered magnet sets — a surprise ending to a nearly decade-long court battle that pitted business interests against the pleas of doctors alarmed by the number of children injured after ingesting the tiny magnetic pieces. The Consumer Product Safety Commission said it was pulling from the market Zen Magnets and Neoballs, which are made up of numerous rare-earth magnetic balls usually sold as desk toys. (Frankel, 8/17)

In other public health news —

Los Angeles Times: Twitter Will Begin Letting Users Report Misinformation
Twitter Inc. is adding an option for users to report misinformation to the company, but says the expanded ability to flag tweets won’t necessarily lead to more fact-checking or labels on problematic posts. The test, available in only a few markets, will let users notify the company about alleged misinformation in the same way they can alert Twitter to spam or abuse. But the social media company, which doesn’t have a robust fact-checking operation, won’t review the legitimacy of each identified tweet or respond to users with updates as it does with other types of reports. (Wagner, 8/17)

Axios: U.S. Disparities Emerge In Health Spending Figures 
The amount of per-person health care spending is highest among white individuals compared to patients of other races, even after adjusting for age and health conditions, according to a study led by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation in Seattle. The study, published Tuesday in JAMA, provides evidence of inequities by race and ethnicity "from how physicians respond to patients to bias that exists in the algorithms that assess health needs and determine the appropriate intervention," the researchers write. (Reed, 8/18)

North Carolina Health News: An Alternative To The Psych Hospital, Run By People In Mental Health Recovery 
On a patio tucked behind an old brick two-story house, Susan Hart sat on a glider surrounded by lush green plants under the glow of string lights. She wondered aloud what it would have been like to check herself into a space like this instead of a psychiatric hospital 20 years ago. The space “like this” opened in early August when Promise Resource Network opened “Retreat @ the Plaza” in Charlotte, a place for people experiencing mental health distress that’s an alternative to hospitalization. It’s the first peer-run respite house in North Carolina, meaning it’s completely staffed by people who have experienced mental illness, psychiatric hospitalizations, homelessness, incarceration, substance use or a combination of these. (Knopf, 8/18)

The Washington Post: What Your Heart Rate Can — And Can’t — Tell You About Your Health
Before the rise in popularity of fitness trackers and smartwatches, cardiologist Sadiya Khan said patients rarely came in with questions about why their heart rates seemed high or low. But the growing interest in wearable devices, which some early research suggests can even detect coronavirus symptoms, means many people have a trove of real-time health information at their fingertips. “I see a lot more people asking about heart rate because you can track it, you can monitor it, you can make pretty graphs on your Apple Watch,” said Khan, an assistant professor of medicine at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. (Chiu, 8/17)

Politico: BlackBerry Resisted Announcing Major Flaw In Software Powering Cars, Hospital Equipment 
A flaw in software made by BlackBerry has left two hundred million cars, along with critical hospital and factory equipment, vulnerable to hackers — and the company opted to keep it secret for months. On Tuesday, BlackBerry announced that old but still widely used versions of one of its flagship products, an operating system called QNX, contain a vulnerability that could let hackers cripple devices that use it. But other companies affected by the same flaw, dubbed BadAlloc, went public with that news in May. (Swan and Geller, 8/17)

In other health care industry news —

Modern Healthcare: Dignity Health, Anthem Blue Cross Ink New California Contract
Dignity Health and Anthem Blue Cross of California signed a new contract that will keep more than two dozen Dignity facilities across the Golden State in the insurer's network, the companies announced Monday. Negotiations had stalled between Dignity, which is part of Chicago-based CommonSpirit Health and is the largest hospital provider in California, and Anthem Blue Cross. The dispute affected more than 1 million Anthem commercial PPO, EPO, HMO and POS members, as well as some Medicaid and Medicare Advantage policyholders when the contract expired July 15. The new agreement is retroactive to July 15 and extends to April 30, 2025. (Kacik, 8/17)

Louisville Courier Journal: Massive Construction Contract Awarded To Build New Louisville VA Hospital
A massive contract has been awarded to construct Louisville's new Department of Veterans Affairs hospital. An $840 million contract to Walsh-Turner Joint Venture II has been approved to build the medical center, according to a release from the Robley Rex VA Medical Center, the veterans' hospital that the new facility will replace. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Louisville District will work with the Department of Veterans Affairs on the project, slated to be built at 4906 Brownsboro Road. (Aulbach, 8/17)

Modern Healthcare: Molina Wins Four-Year Nevada Medicaid Contract
Nevada awarded Molina Healthcare a Medicaid managed care contract, the company announced Tuesday. The four-year contract starts in January and Nevada can opt to renew it for another two years. The insurer will also offer health coverage through Nevada Health Link, the states insurance exchange. "We are honored that Nevada has awarded Molina the opportunity to serve the state's most vulnerable citizens," Molina Healthcare CEO Joe Zubretsky said in a news release. "Molina looks forward to advancing the state's goals of improving care management, member access, and overall health equity for its Medicaid members." (Brady, 8/17)

Stat: Verily Makes Its First Major Acquisition As It Looks To Transform Clinical Trials 
On the heels of a series of prominent recent hires, Verily announced plans on Tuesday to make its first major acquisition by buying SignalPath, a North Carolina company which developed a clinical trial management platform. Verily, an Alphabet spinout founded in 2015, plans to use the acquisition to increase its appeal to clinical trial sites and to speed its efforts on decentralized research, Amy Abernethy, whom Verily hired in June to serve as president of its clinical research business, told STAT. (Brodwin, 8/17)

Stat: Maternal Health Startup Maven Hits $1 Billion Valuation
On Tuesday, maternal and family virtual care platform Maven Clinic raised $110 million in late-stage financing that vaults the company’s estimated value to more than $1 billion, a first for the field of women’s and family health. The financing was co-led by Dragoneer Investment Group and Lux Capital, with participation from BOND and existing investors including Sequoia, Oak HC/FT, and Icon Ventures. It brings Maven’s total funding to more than $200 million. (Brodwin, 8/17)

Modern Healthcare: Report: No Rebound In Healthcare Utilization In Spring 2021
Patient volumes are still stubbornly low in 2021, all but dashing providers' hopes for a full rebound after last year's pandemic-related shutdowns. A new Kaiser Family Foundation analysis released Tuesday shows hospital admissions were 85.5% of expected levels based on historic patterns in the week beginning April 3. Admissions were even lower—80.7%—when COVID-19 admissions were excluded. KFF's "expected levels" are weekly predicted admissions based on actual weekly admissions from Jan. 1, 2017, to Jan. 25, 2020. (Bannow, 8/17)

Bay Area News Group: Newsom Says Mandatory Statewide Water Restrictions For California May Be On The Way
Gov. Gavin Newsom said Tuesday that he may put mandatory water restrictions in place in as soon as six weeks from now as the state’s historic drought continues to worsen. The declaration came as the governor and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan inspected recovery efforts at Big Basin Redwoods State Park in the Santa Cruz Mountains one year after a massive wildfire burned through the park’s ancient redwoods. Asked if he was going to require cities to meet mandatory water conservation targets, as former Gov. Jerry Brown did statewide during the last drought from 2012 to 2016, Newsom noted that he already called for 15% voluntary conservation, but that could change soon. (Rogers, 8/17)

Axios: Extreme Heat Exposes New Vulnerabilities For Pacific Northwest Hospitals 
The extreme heatwaves that blasted the Pacific Northwest this summer exposed a new reality for hospitals that were overwhelmed by patients with heat-related illnesses. State and local health departments in Washington and Oregon report those who succumbed to heat-related illness were often older, with pre-ex­ist­ing con­di­tions and had no air con­di­tion­ing. Many were also so­cially iso­lated. Officials say they expect this summer's heat is only a preview of what to expect in the future. (Fernandez, 8/18)

WUSF Public Media: 'Too Hot To Work' Study Paints Dire Consequences For Florida Outdoor Workers 
In 2019, the nonpartisan Union of Concerned Scientists came out with studies showing "killer heat" could have dangerous consequences for the country. On Tuesday, they're following that up with a look at how outdoor workers would be affected. They say if nothing is done to reduce emissions by the end of the century, extreme heat will cost Florida more than $8 billion in lost work. (Newborn, 8/17)

In other news from Arizona and California —

AP: Lawsuit Seeks To Block Arizona Ban On Down Syndrome Abortion
Abortion-rights advocates filed a lawsuit Tuesday seeking to overturn a new Arizona law that would ban abortions because of Down syndrome or other genetic abnormalities, the latest legal fight over reproductive rights under a judiciary that moved to the right during Donald Trump’s presidency. The lawsuit also challenges a “personhood” provision that confers all the rights of people on fertilized eggs, embryos and fetuses. The law is set to take effect Sept. 29 if it’s not blocked by a judge. (Cooper, 8/17)

Politico: Former Rep. Doug Ose Drops Out Of California Recall After Heart Attack
Former Rep. Doug Ose has ended his California gubernatorial campaign after suffering a heart attack just weeks ahead of the election. "While I’m told I should expect a full recovery, additional procedures and potentially surgery are required, and it has become clear that I must now focus my attention on rehabilitation and healing," Ose said in a statement. "Sometimes you have to do things that you don’t want to do. It is what is: my campaign for governor is over." (White, 8/17)

Axios: New Zealand's Growing COVID Cluster Linked To Sydney Delta Outbreak 
New Zealand scientists linked the country's growing COVID-19 cluster to the Delta outbreak that began in Sydney, Australia, as police arrested eight pandemic protesters on NZ's first day of its snap lockdown Wednesday. Since the country entered its highest pandemic restrictions just before midnight Tuesday over one positive local test result, scientists have linked nine community infections to the first one and directly connected a 10th case to the border — though this woman has no known connection to the others. (Falconer, 8/18)

Bloomberg: U.K. Authorizes Moderna Covid-19 Vaccine For Use In Adolescents
Britain’s drug regulator authorized Moderna Inc.’s Covid-19 shot for children as young as 12, though few are likely to receive it in the near term as the country remains an outlier in its policy on vaccinating kids. The U.K. Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency extended the existing conditional marketing authorization for the Spikevax shot to 12- to 17-year-olds, the regulator said in a statement Tuesday. It is up to the government’s advisory committee -- the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation -- to decide if and when the vaccine will be offered to this age group. (Ring, 8/17)

The New York Times: Pope Francis Encourages Covid Vaccines In Media Campaign
Getting vaccinated against Covid-19 is “an act of love,” Pope Francis says in a public service ad that will start circulating online and on television on Wednesday. Working with the Ad Council, a nonprofit group, in its first campaign to extend beyond the United States, the pope encourages people around the world to get inoculated. The ad shows the pope, speaking in Spanish with English subtitles, with church officials from the United States, Mexico, Brazil and other countries describing vaccination as a moral responsibility. (Hsu, 8/17)

In other global news about Haiti and Afghanistan —

AP: Injured In Haiti's Quake Continue To Show Up At Hospitals
The problems in Haiti may be summed up by the public hospital in L’Asile, deep in a remote stretch of countryside in the nation’s southwest area. Here, a full four days after a powerful earthquake hit this region the hardest, people are still showing up from isolated villages with broken arms and legs. Hospital director Sonel Fevry said five such patients showed up Tuesday, the same day officials raised the disaster’s death toll by more than 500. Grinding poverty, poor roads and faith in natural medicine all conspire to make the problems worse. “We do what we can, remove the necrotized tissue and give them antibiotics and try to get them a splint,” Fevry said, adding that road access to the facility in the department of Nippes is difficult and not everyone can make it. (Stevenson and Sanon, 8/18)

Fox News: WHO 'Extremely Concerned' About Afghanistan Crisis
The World Health Organization (WHO) said it is "extremely concerned" over the "evolving security and humanitarian situation" in Afghanistan and called for health workers to be "respected and supported." "@WHOEMRO [World Health Organization Eastern Mediterranean Office] is extremely concerned over the evolving security and humanitarian situation in Afghanistan," the agency tweeted Monday. "Our sincere condolences go to the families of innocent civilians who have lost their lives." The agency noted the "situation is deteriorating rapidly." (Hein, 8/17)

Yahoo Finance: HHS Ready To Battle Drug Companies For Lower Prices In Court: Sec. Becerra
Drug prices are once again in focus on Capitol Hill as lawmakers renew their push for pricing reform. And U.S. Health and Human Services Department Sec. Xavier Becerra has joined in on the effort. "We just have to all agree that this isn't working. Countries around the world are providing medicine to their people for far less than we do," Becerra told Yahoo Finance in an exclusive interview Monday, adding that often those same drugs are made in the U.S. Becerra made an appearance alongside U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ-06) and U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) in New Jersey Monday at a multi-city event to discuss lower drug costs. (Khemlani, 8/17)

FiercePharma: Buckle Up, Pharma. Your Industry Faces A 'Pivotal' 45 Days In D.C., Analyst Warns 
If there was any doubt about the sincerity President Joe Biden wanted to convey with his appeal to Congress on drug pricing reform, he removed it by bringing his departed mom into the discussion. Speaking in the East Room of the White House on Thursday, Biden recalled that Catherine Biden’s “prescription drugs were so expensive” that it took money from himself, his two brothers and a sister to cover the cost so she wouldn’t have to “exhaust the little savings she had.” With that, Biden set the scene for what promises to be a contentious several weeks in Washington as Congress weighs potential measures to combat high drug costs. (Dunleavy, 8/16)

KVOA: AARP Launches Campaign To Lower Prescription Drug Prices
On Monday, AARP launched a three-week television, and radio advertising campaign urging U.S. Senators to support allowing Medicare to use its power to negotiate drug prices with drug manufacturers. The seven-figure investment highlights negotiation as a critical step toward lowering prescription drug costs for all Americans, especially seniors who on average take between four and five medications each month and have a median income of just over $26,000 a year, AARP said. (Nylander, 8/16)

WREX: New Laws Aim To Lower Prescription Drug Prices In Illinois
Governor JB Pritzker Monday signed a package of legislation that aims to address financial obstacles in accessing health care, while increasing transparency when purchasing prescription medications. HB 119 formalizes the legal process for donating unused prescription drugs to certified pharmacies or health departments. By establishing a prescription drug repository program, prescription and over-the-counter medication that remain unexpired and unopened can be returned to pharmacies and reused for eligible populations. (8/17)

Barron's: Drug Companies Are Putting Profits First While the Delta Variant Spreads. That Needs to Change.
While most of the world grapples with the continued effects of the pandemic, from poorer countries whose populations may wait years to be vaccinated to wealthier ones concerned over booster shots in the face of the Delta variant’s rise, there’s one group that’s thriving amid the chaos: the pharmaceutical industry. These past few weeks have been an embarrassment of riches for pharmaceutical companies and their executives. Pfizer (ticker: PFE) reported that it expects its revenue for its Covid-19 vaccine to reach $33.5 billion in 2021. Put in perspective, that handily beats the annual revenue of $19 billion for the world’s best-selling drug ever, Humira, which treats an array of everyday chronic conditions. (Tahir Amin, 8/11)

The Desert Sun: Prescription Prices (And Drug Company Profits) Kept Rising In Pandemic
Pharmaceutical firms are unveiling their Q2 earnings right now, and America’s largest drug manufacturers are flexing their muscles. Drug giants Bristol Myers Squibb, Merck, Novartis, and Johnson & Johnson all boasted Q2 earnings in the billions. Those companies posted $1.1, $1.2, $2.9, and a whopping $6.3 billion in net earnings, respectively. While the average financial observer might assume those enormous profits are a result of innovation and shrewd business maneuvering, the real driving force behind the success is the ballooning cost of prescription drugs. (Savannah Shoemake, 8/16)

Stat: Post Covid-19, Patient Input May Play A Greater Role In Drug Development
A lasting memorial may be emerging for the millions of people who will have tragically died of Covid-19 by the time the pandemic ends: the demonstration that breakthroughs can happen fast when drug companies and regulators listen to and communicate openly with patients. The concept of patient engagement across the health care ecosystem emerged more than a decade ago. Its core idea — incorporating patients’ actual experiences, perspectives, needs, and priorities into treatment efforts and drug-development decisions rather than taking them for granted — started a fundamental change of thinking in the drug development world. (Anthony Yanni, 8/17)

The Philadelphia Inquirer: Pain Patients Are The Casualties Of The War On Drugs 
“There are almost no chronic conditions I can think of where you look at medical maintenance and say, ‘When are you going to get off it?’ We don’t ask diabetic patients when they’re going to get off their insulin. We reevaluate the need for those medicines at regular intervals and employ every tool we have to treat the underlying causes.” So said Alicia Agnoli, University of California, Davis researcher and lead author of a recent study in JAMA, to Aubrey Whelan, whose report on the study for The Inquirer challenged the dogma of opioid denial as a means to control overdoses and deaths and examined the consequences of this denial on pain patients whose medications have been tapered, often forcibly. (Jeffrey A. Singer and Josh Bloom, 8/16)

The Washington Post: J&J Vaccine Recipients Deserve Clear Guidance On Booster Shots 
Federal health officials made an important decision last week to recommend that immunocompromised Americans receive an additional dose of the covid-19 vaccine. Unfortunately, they neglected to include a group that is increasingly left behind when it comes to coronavirus guidance: recipients of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. The Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention used two arguments to explain why their recommendation did not apply to J&J recipients. First, they cited lack of data. Second, they said the impact was limited because few of the immunocompromised got the J&J. (Leana S. Wen, 8/17)

USA Today: COVID And Religion: Why Appeals To Faith Can Increase Vaccinations
Here we go again. Mask mandates. Tracking case counts. Wondering about whether schools will be open. Worrying about whether a stray sniffle is COVID-19 or a cold. It was supposed to be over by now. And yet here we are. But there is a ray of light in the doomsday sky. Our recent PRRI/IFYC Religion and the Vaccine Survey found clear progress in vaccine uptake, even among many hesitant groups, between the first wave of the survey in March and the second wave in June. Vaccine acceptance is up (from 58% to 71%), and vaccine hesitancy has been cut in half (from 28% to 15%). Today, only 13% are vaccine refusers. (Robert P. Jones and Eboo Patel, 8/18)

The Boston Globe: The Vaccine Could Save Us, If We Let It 
Over the last 18 miserable months, Americans have experienced great loss and hardship — and also, a miracle. With unprecedented speed, scientists invented not one but multiple safe and effective vaccines against COVID-19, the tools we desperately need to end this scourge that has killed more than 600,000 people, a toll that continues to mount by hundreds every day. It can sometimes be hard to recognize the magnitude of events as they’re happening. But in all of human history, no infection that kills so many has been conquered so quickly. It’s a staggering achievement. We have, not even two years after the disease first emerged, the kind of preventive measure that those who suffered through thousands of years of plagues and pandemics wished for in vain. (8/17)

Stat: Waiving Intellectual Property Rights Would Harm Global Vaccination 
The resurgence of Covid-19 cases in the United States and around the world, in large part due to the highly transmissible Delta variant, makes it even more crucial to step up the pace of the global vaccination campaign. To do that, some countries have sought to suspend intellectual property (IP) protections on Covid-19 vaccines and therapies. India and South Africa sponsored a proposal to that effect at the World Trade Organization (WTO). The proposal has since been endorsed by other countries, including the United States. They argue that eliminating IP protections would allow any willing company to produce lifesaving Covid-19 vaccines, making them cheaper and more widely accessible in low-income nations. (Michelle McMurry-Heath, 8/18)

The Atlantic: Vaccinate Kids Under 12 To Protect Us All From COVID-19 
It’s easy to argue for vaccinating adults and teenagers against COVID-19. Some think it’s harder to make the case for kids under 12 years of age, and for understandable reasons. Much of the world remains unvaccinated, kids have generally been much less affected by the coronavirus, and we don’t yet have a thorough understanding of the risks versus the benefits. Still, if we weigh all the pros and cons, the argument for immunizing young children is much stronger than the argument against. (Aaron E. Carroll, 8/17)

The Boston Globe: Suffer The Little Children 
A day before Mkayla Robinson took her last breath, Governor Tate Reeves of Mississippi minimized COVID-19′s risk to children. “If you look at those individuals under the age of 12, what you find is that it is very rare that kids under the age of 12 have anything other than the sniffles,” he said. “Does it happen from time to time? Sure it does. I believe we have had one fatality of an individual, maybe it could’ve been two — I think there’s three under the age of 18 at this time? Two?” (Renee Graham, 8/17)

Modern Healthcare: Three Priorities To Create A Stronger System Of Health Amid And After COVID-19 
More than a year into a pandemic that has devastated millions, it is understandable to want to race toward the day when this dark chapter of history is behind us and simply move on. But failing to examine this ongoing crisis would be a missed opportunity to better position our healthcare system to tackle future health challenges and work better for everyone. While the pandemic hasn’t created new rifts in our system, it clearly exposed them. We need to acknowledge that the healthcare industry and those of us who work within it, have not adequately responded to some of our most pressing health concerns with the urgency they demanded, especially when it comes to serving communities of color. We must seize this moment to realign our healthcare priorities. (Dr. Shantanu Agrawal and Bryony Winn, 8/17)

Modern Healthcare: Leaders Can Help Us Get To Zero Preventable Deaths By 2030
From a financial outcomes standpoint, the healthcare industry has historically been metrics driven—tracking the number of procedures, bed utilization, profit and loss, etc. Financial outcomes are audited and reported each year. However, one outcome that receives far less focus is preventable medical harm. Yet patient deaths from preventable medical harm are estimated at over 250,000 and cost the U.S. healthcare system at least $19.8 billion annually due to additional medical care and lost productivity. (Dr. David Mayer, 8/17)

Los Angeles Times: As A Doctor, I'm Out Of Compassion For Unvaccinated People 
My patient sat at the edge of his bed gasping for air while he tried to tell me his story, pausing to catch his breath after each word. The plastic tubes delivering oxygen through his nose hardly seemed adequate to stop his chest from heaving. He looked exhausted. He had tested positive for the coronavirus 10 days ago. He was under 50, mildly hypertensive but otherwise in good health. Eight days earlier he started coughing and having severe fatigue. His doctor started him on antibiotics. It did not work. (Anita Sircar, 8/17)

The New York Times: Actually, Wearing A Mask Can Help Your Child Learn
Opponents of mask mandates for preschool and elementary school children have expressed concern that wearing masks will impair children’s ability to learn language and socialize — or worse, that (in the words of one anxious parent in Utah) it will “rewire their brains.” Even parents who support mask mandates often worry about how a school year without smiles and frowns might negatively affect their children. These concerns are understandable but unwarranted. Although scientists don’t have much data yet on how wearing masks during a pandemic affects children’s development, there is plenty of reason to believe that it won’t cause any harm. Children in cultures where caregivers and educators wear head-coverings that obscure their mouths and noses develop skills just as children in other cultures do. Even congenitally blind children — who cannot see faces at all — still learn to speak, read and get along with other people. (Judith Danovitch, 8/19)

Stat: ARPA-H Mandate Should Include Rare Disorders 
The response to Covid-19 by the biomedical research community in the U.S. and around the globe has been spectacular in both speed and impact. It is time to respond with the same sense of urgency to every disease. Toward that end, President Biden has proposed creating a new agency, the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), modeled on the defense-focused DARPA. He cited cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, and diabetes as motivating challenges. (Matthew Might, 8/18)