AP: US Deaths In 2020 Top 3 Million, By Far Most Ever Counted
This is the deadliest year in U.S. history, with deaths expected to top 3 million for the first time — due mainly to the coronavirus pandemic. Final mortality data for this year will not be available for months. But preliminary numbers suggest that the United States is on track to see more than 3.2 million deaths this year, or at least 400,000 more than in 2019. U.S. deaths increase most years, so some annual rise in fatalities is expected. But the 2020 numbers amount to a jump of about 15%, and could go higher once all the deaths from this month are counted. (Stobbe, 12/22)

The Hill: 2020 On Track To Be Deadliest Year In US History 
This year is on track to be the deadliest in U.S. history with a total of more than 3 million deaths expected by the end of December, due in large part to the coronavirus pandemic, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The Associated Press reported Tuesday that preliminary numbers suggest the U.S. will have at least 3.2 million deaths by the end of 2020, about 400,000 more than in 2019. (Castronuovo, 12/22)

The Hill: US Tops 18M Coronavirus Cases 
The U.S. topped 18 million confirmed COVID-19 cases since the beginning of the pandemic on Tuesday, clocking a grim milestone during a holiday week and growing concerns about a more contagious coronavirus strain discovered in the U.K. The U.S. surpassed 18 million cases midday Tuesday, according to Johns Hopkins University’s data, with the last 1 million cases being recorded within six days. (Coleman, 12/22)

CNN: New Coronavirus Cases In US May Be Leveling Off -- But More And More Are Being Hospitalized And Dying
An average of more than 200,000 people have tested positive for coronavirus every day for two straight weeks in the United States, a toll that has led to record numbers of people hospitalized and dying of the virus. The US reported over 195,000 new cases of Covid-19 on Tuesday, putting the seven-day average of daily new cases at just over 215,000, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. (Levenson, 12/23)

Houston Chronicle: Millions Likely To Ignore COVID Holiday Travel Warnings
The American Automobile Association predicts that 81.1 million U.S. residents will travel beginning Wednesday and ending Sunday, Jan. 3, 25 percent less than during the comparable period last year and the biggest drop since AAA began gathering statistics in 2001. In Texas, AAA predicts, 6.8 million people will travel during the holiday season, almost 30 percent fewer than in 2019. “Year-end holidays are typically when people venture out for longer, more elaborate vacations,” said Joshua Zuber, a spokesman with AAA Texas. “That’s not going to be the case this year.” (Takahashi, 12/22)

Forbes: Covid-19 Alert: The 10 Riskiest States To Visit Over Christmas, Ranked
‘Tis the season to be extremely careful if you’re planning to travel for Christmas. Public health experts had warned that Thanksgiving would be a superspreader event, yet millions of Americans traveled for the holiday weekend. Now, a week before Christmas, only one state in the continental U.S. remains out of the “high risk” category. Still, roughly 84.5 million Americans are expected to travel from December 23 to January 3, according to a report from AAA. While that’s down by about 34 million travelers from last year, public health experts are recommending against travel at this time. (Kelleher, 12/18)

WPDE (South Carolina): Traveling For Christmas? Here Are The COVID-19 Quarantine, Testing Rules For Each State 
Even after COVID-19 cases spiked after people traveled for Thanksgiving, many are still considering travel for Christmas and New Years. However, a national survey by the American Hotel & Lodging Association shows that 69%, nearly two-thirds, of Americans will not travel for Christmas this year. If you are traveling, some states have quarantine or testing rules for visitors and residents. (Gale, 12/21)

CNN: Dr. Anthony Fauci Says He Doesn't Want To Cancel Christmas -- He Just Wants People To 'Be More Careful' 
The high number of holiday travelers during the pandemic has the nation's top infectious disease expert worried. "I know everyone wants to get back to the time when Christmas was a situation where you could have many, many guests indoors, congregating, having fun together," Dr. Anthony Fauci, the long-time director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Tuesday. But, "the situation is different now," he said. (Almasy and McLaughlin, 12/23)

Los Angeles Times: A Negative COVID-19 Test Doesn't ‘Clear’ Christmas Parties
Amid growing signs that many people are not heeding warnings to avoid Christmas gatherings and travel, some people are getting COVID-19 tests in hopes of being “cleared” to enjoy the holidays in groups. This happened before Thanksgiving with disastrous results: Many attended holiday events and got sick, causing the coronavirus to spread uncontrolled, filling hospitals and contributing to a worsening surge. Los Angeles County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer urged people not to believe that a negative test result means it’s safe to attend or host a holiday gathering with people from more than one household. (Smith, Lin II)

In related news —

Burlington Free Press: COVID-19 In Vermont: Gathering Rules Slightly Loosened For Christmas
Vermonters can gather with one other trusted household during the time surrounding Christmas and New Year's Day, Vermont Gov. Phil Scott announced on Tuesday. This tweak to the rules will take effect Dec. 23 and last until Jan. 2. The change is a slight loosening to rules put in place before Thanksgiving, which prohibited any gatherings among different households. The improvement in case numbers and the potential boost to Vermonters' mental health are good reasons to make the modification, Scott and his administration believe. (Murray, 12/22)

NBC Boston: COVID In Massachusetts: New Restrictions For Gatherings, Businesses, Hospitals
A new slate of restrictions for Massachusetts gatherings, businesses and elective surgeries was announced Tuesday, the latest to come amid a spike in coronavirus cases and hospitalizations, with fears of another one arriving after the holidays. The restrictions go into effect Saturday and last for at least two weeks, Gov. Charlie Baker announced at a news conference at the State House. He said they are aimed at keeping people from spreading the virus in what is a usually very busy, social time. (12/22)

Philadelphia Inquirer: Philly To Extend Ban On High-Risk Indoor Activities As Officials Anticipate Holiday Case Surge
Philadelphia’s restrictions were scheduled to be lifted Jan. 1, but Health Commissioner Thomas Farley said higher-risk indoor activities, such as dining, organized sports, gatherings, theaters, casinos and college classes will remain banned until Jan. 15. Some activities, however, are expected to be able to resume Jan. 4, including museums, outdoor sports, gyms, outdoor catered events, and in-person high school classes. City officials say the extension is critical in the weeks after Christmas and New Year’s, when residents may still travel and see friends and family and spread the virus, despite pleas from public health leaders to avoid holiday gatherings. (Silverman, McCrystal and Orso, 12/22)

CNN: Researchers Think 'Hundreds' Of People In US Could Have UK Coronavirus Strain 
Researchers studying the new UK strain of the coronavirus think it likely arrived in the US in mid-November, and that many people in the United States could already be infected. "If I had to guess, I would say it's probably in hundreds of people by now," said Michael Worobey, head of the department of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Arizona. "It's very possible it's arrived multiple times in multiple places." (Cohen, 12/22)

The Hill: CDC Says New UK Strain Of Coronavirus Could 'Already Be In The United States' 
A new strain of the coronavirus spreading widely in the United Kingdom may already be circulating in the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Tuesday. The agency in a scientific brief said scientists are working to better understand how easily it might be transmitted, and they do not yet know why it has emerged in the U.K. (Weixel, 12/22)

The Hill: Fauci: Assume New COVID-19 Strain Is In US 
Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious diseases expert, said early Tuesday that Americans should assume a new, more contagious strain of the coronavirus detected in the U.K. is already in the U.S. It’s “certainly possible” that the strain is already present within the U.S., Fauci said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” (Budryk, 12/22)

The Hill: New COVID-19 Strain Spreads To Italy, Denmark, Netherlands 
Health officials in a handful of countries on Tuesday reported new coronavirus cases involving people infected with a mutated strain of the virus that is believed to be more infectious. Sky News reported that the new strain has now been detected in Italy, Denmark, the Netherlands and Gibraltar. (Bowden, 12/22)

In updates on the U.K. travel ban —

Reuters: As Mutated Variant Spreads, PM Johnson Mulls Stricter Lockdown
The British government will review whether it needs to impose its strictest COVID-19 restrictions on more of the country on Wednesday as a highly infectious variant continues to spread but will not change Christmas rules, a minister said. Britain reported a record number of new infections on Tuesday as a mutated strain of the coronavirus, which could be up to 70% more transmissible than the original, causes the number of cases and hospital admissions to soar. (12/23)

The Washington Post: France To Allow Limited Reopening Of Borders Amid Coronavirus Mutation Fears 
France agreed Tuesday to reopen its borders to travelers from Britain and get trade flowing again, but it may take days to clear out the thousands of cargo trucks snarled while a travel ban was in place, prompted by fears of a fast-spreading coronavirus mutation in England. More than 50 countries have enacted restrictions on arrivals from Britain, disrupting passenger air service between the United Kingdom and the rest of the world. But France’s ban was particularly disruptive, halting transit along one of the most crucial trade routes in Europe. (Booth, Noack and Aries, 12/22)

The New York Times: Why Experts Think Travel Bans Won't Stop Coronavirus Variant Spread 
It is not known how widely the variant is already circulating, experts say, and the bans threaten to cause more economic and emotional hardship as the toll wrought by the virus continues to grow. “It is idiotic” was the blunt assessment of Dr. Peter Kremsner, the director of Tübingen University Hospital in Germany. “If this mutant was only on the island, only then does it make sense to close the borders to England, Scotland and Wales. But if it has spread, then we have to combat the new mutant everywhere.” (Santora, 12/22)

And the CEO of BioNTech again expresses confidence in their vaccine —

NPR: BioNTech CEO: 'Highly Likely' Vaccine Is Effective Against U.K. Variant
The head of the German pharmaceutical company BioNTech expressed confidence that his company's vaccine would be effective against a coronavirus variant rapidly infecting people across London and southern England. U.K. officials have warned the new variant is likely to be more contagious than the various strains already circulating, though there is no evidence suggesting it is more deadly. BioNTech CEO Ugur Sahin underscored that experiments would have to be conducted to reach a definitive conclusion about their vaccine, which it developed with Pfizer. And data from those tests will not be available for a few weeks. (Booker, 12/22)

CNN: New Coronavirus Strain: What Does It Mean For You? 
A new strain of coronavirus first detected in the UK has prompted dozens of travel bans and widespread concern about what this means for the world. While scientists dig deeper, here's what this new strain means for you. (Yan, 12/22)

Bloomberg: Hospitals Deluged As Vaccine Still Months Away For Most In U.S.
Covid-19 has hospitalized almost twice as many Americans as at any point in the pandemic, leaving medical providers on the brink of crisis with vaccine doses months away for most people. The U.S. health-care system and those who serve it are enduring more strain than ever. And the virus’s grip on hospitals has shifted toward more rural communities, where treatment alternatives are scarce.In the near term, sustained patient loads threaten to accelerate deaths, as access to critical care declines in intensive-care units. Longer term, the risks are more systemic: fatigue, attrition and mental-health damage to the doctors and nurses working to care for the sick. (Querolo and Tozzi, 12/22)

In California —

Los Angeles Times: COVID Wave Pushes California To Brink Of 2 Million Cases
It took almost 10 months for California to record its millionth confirmed coronavirus case. Now, just six weeks after crossing that milestone, the state is on the cusp of surpassing 2 million. The staggering rate of growth demonstrates how widely the coronavirus is circulating statewide and underscores the reality that activities and behaviors thought to be relatively safe just weeks ago now carry a higher risk of infection than ever before. (Money and Lin II, 12/22)

Fox News: Amid California’s Coronavirus Hospitalization Surge, ‘Don’t Share Your Air,’ Plead Health Officials
With many hospitals in California at or on the brink of capacity and Gov. Gavin Newsom recently warning that COVID-19 hospitalizations in the state could reach 100,000 by January, "don’t share your air with others," pleaded various doctors and health officials in the state on Tuesday. In a joint press conference, officials with some of the state’s larger hospital systems, including Kaiser Permanente, Sutter Health and Dignity Health, as well as officials with California Health and Human Services Agency, and others, pleaded with Californians to continue to take precautions against COVID-19. (Farber, 12/22)

San Francisco Chronicle: 65 Patients, Staff Infected At Napa Psychiatric Hospital
Sixty-five patients and staff at California’s oldest psychiatric hospital have been diagnosed with coronavirus infections — the facility’s largest spike in patient cases since the start of the pandemic, according to data reported Friday on the state website. Since March, more than 150 patients and staff have tested positive for the virus at Napa State Hospital, a psychiatric facility located alongside the Napa Vallejo Highway, as the virus continues ravaging long-term mental health care facilities. (Arredondo, 12/21)

In Texas —

Houston Chronicle: Latest COVID-19 Projections Suggest Houston Could Be Nation's Next Hot Spot
The spread of COVID-19, steadily increasing in Houston and Texas since the beginning of November, is expected to accelerate in coming weeks, according to the latest modeling, a trajectory that could make the city and state one of the nation’s next hot spots. The models project COVID-19 numbers — cases, hospitalizations, deaths — to continue rising in Houston and many other parts of Texas before likely peaking sometime in January. Parts of the state at crisis levels the past month have peaked. (Ackerman, 12/22)

CNN: This Houston Hospital Is A Perfect Microcosm Of How Coronavirus Is Escalating 
In June, Houston's United Memorial Medical Center was so overwhelmed by the pandemic that two of its wings had been transformed into Covid-19 wards. Now, there are three. Dr. Joseph Varon, chief medical officer, hadn't had a day off since the virus hit months earlier. He still hasn't. (Marquez, Croft and Sung, 12/22)

In Massachusetts, Tennessee and Pennsylvania —

Boston Globe: How Nurses And Doctors At UMass Memorial Are Battling A Second Surge Of COVID-19
Nurses and doctors on the front lines are more confident in their ability to help these patients now, after enduring the surge in the spring, and are armed with more knowledge and treatments to combat the disease. But that doesn’t diminish the enormity of the challenge at hand. They are weary from the work, frustrated that it’s happening again, and worried about how bad it will get this time. (Dayal McCluskey, 12/22)

NPR: As Covid Cases Surge, Tennessee Hospitals Near Breaking Point
COVID-19 is hitting a handful states harder than anywhere else — California, Oklahoma, Texas and Tennessee. And in Tennessee, hospitals are having to improvise, as nearly 3,000 people are hospitalized for COVID-19 and treatment is underway for far more COVID patients than ever thought possible. Clinicians say they are trying to bend but not break as they wait for vaccines. (Farmer, 12/22)

The Philadelphia Inquirer: In Rural Pa., Largely Untouched By COVID-19 In The Spring, Deaths Are Now Surging: ‘It’s Just Scary’
In April, as coronavirus gripped portions of southeastern Pennsylvania, western and central counties like Mifflin remained largely unaffected. But within the first weeks of December, it’s been the tiny central Pennsylvania county — with nearly three dozen COVID-19 deaths this month — that has seen the highest coronavirus death rate per capita in the commonwealth. As the first wave of coronavirus cases ravaged urban hubs like Philadelphia and New York City in the spring, rural Pennsylvania hospitals planned and waited. But many residents bristled at COVID-19 restrictions, not yet seeing the devastation firsthand. Mask wearing was often seen as political, and the mitigation efforts frivolous in towns largely untouched by the virus. (Goodin-Smith, Nark, Purcell and Tai, 12/23)

The New York Times: Trump Calls Covid Relief Bill A 'Disgrace,' Demands Changes 
President Trump on Tuesday evening threatened to derail months of bipartisan work in Congress to deliver $900 billion in coronavirus relief to a country battered by the pandemic, demanding checks to Americans that are more than three times as much as those in the bill, which he called a “disgrace.” The president, who has been preoccupied with the baseless claim that the election was stolen from him, seized on congressional leaders’ decision to pass the relief bill by combining it with a broader spending plan to fund government operations and the military. That spending plan includes routine provisions like foreign aid and support for Washington institutions like the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the Smithsonian. (Broadwater and Rappeport, 12/22)

Politico: Trump Takes Aim At Covid Stimulus Bill, Raising Specter Of Veto
In a video tweeted by the president Tuesday evening, Trump delivered a four-minute speech listing his many grievances with the bill — which would send much-needed aid to Americans struggling amid the pandemic. Trump specifically criticized the relief package for including “wasteful spending” on issues unrelated to Covid-19, only providing $600 to individuals and families, and not giving enough emergency aid to small businesses. (Hooper, 12/22)

The Washington Post: Trump Calls On Congress To Approve $2,000 Stimulus Checks, Hinting He Might Not Sign Relief Bill Without Changes 
The video landed like a sonic boom in Washington. His own aides were stunned. Congressional aides were stunned. Stock market futures quickly slumped on the prospect that the economic aid could be in doubt. And the implications for what happens next could be severe. If he refuses to sign the bill, the government will shut down on Dec. 29. The $900 billion in emergency economic aid will be frozen, and the race for the two Senate seats in Georgia could also be upended. (Siegel, Dawsey and DeBonis, 12/22)

AP: Trump Threatens To Torpedo COVID Relief With New Demands
Trump did not specifically vow to veto the bill, and there may be enough support for the legislation in Congress to override him if he does. But if Trump were to upend the sprawling legislation, the consequences would be severe, including no federal aid to struggling Americans and small businesses, and no additional resources to help with vaccine distribution. In addition, because lawmakers linked the pandemic relief bill to an overarching funding measure, the government would shut down on Dec. 29. (Freking, Taylor and Mascaro, 12/23)

In related news about COVID relief —

CNN: Stimulus Bill Is Too Little, Too Late, Struggling Americans Say
Mallory Ware feels that Congress has abandoned her, her family and all struggling Americans amid the recession and worsening pandemic. The North Bergen, New Jersey, resident has had to take responsibility for most of her mother's $1,600 monthly mortgage to keep a roof over their heads, preventing her from paying back her student loans and saving for her future. (Luhby, 12/23)

Modern Healthcare: New White House Guidance Grants Audit Extension For COVID Relief Funds
Some healthcare providers—along with states, universities and other organizations—are getting an extra three months to audit their COVID-19 relief aid. The White House's Office of Management and Budget on Tuesday released guidance with instructions on how to audit money received under its COVID-19 relief distributions, including the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, or CARES Act. The rules extend the audit deadline, as many had anticipated. Health systems that received Provider Relief Fund grants had held off on auditing that money while they waited for specific rules. (Bannow, 12/22)

CBS News: Third Stimulus Check Included In Biden's Plan For New Round Of COVID Relief 
President-elect Joe Biden on Tuesday outlined the basics of what he plans to request from Congress in a new round of COVID-19 relief once he takes office, including a new round of stimulus checks, calling the just-passed aid bill a "down payment" in addressing the pandemic. Speaking to reporters at a news conference in Delaware, Mr. Biden also warned Americans that the "darkest days in the battle against COVID-19 are ahead of us," even as health care workers across the country begin to receive the first vaccines. (Watson, 12/23)

WFLA and AP: Stimulus Checks: Biden Says He Will Push For More Direct Payments In Next COVID Relief Bill 
President-elect Joe Biden on Tuesday expressed empathy with struggling families and applauded Congress for a passing the coronavirus relief bill as the nation deals with a COVID-19 surge that’s casting a shadow over the Christmas holiday. President Donald Trump later suggested he may not sign the legislation, and called on lawmakers to increase direct payments for most Americans from $600 to $2,000. At an event in Wilmington, Delaware Tuesday, Biden called out to frontline workers, scientists, researchers, clinical trial participants and those with deployed family members during the holiday season. (12/23)

Newsweek: What Joe Biden Has Said About A Third Stimulus Check Once He Becomes President
Appearing at a press conference on Tuesday night, Biden praised lawmakers on Capitol Hill for passing another round of relief before the Christmas holidays, but said another round of bailout funds for American families and key workers is needed. He also hinted that a further extension of unemployment benefits would be needed to help the millions thrown out of work amid the pandemic and nationwide economic shutdowns earlier in 2020. (Walker, 12/23)

AP: Biden Hopes Virus Deal Is Glimpse Of Deal-Making To Come
For President-elect Joe Biden, Washington’s year-end burst of deal-making brought renewed hope for a productive, successful first 100 days in office. The city’s fever broke, at least momentarily, as longtime combatants finally forged a COVID-19 relief deal that carried with it dozens of smaller bills, offering proof that Capitol Hill’s damaged systems and norms can still produce meaningful legislation — at least when backed up against the wall. (Taylor, 12/23)

Also —

The Hill: Biden: Pandemic Will Get Worse Despite Vaccine 
President-elect Joe Biden said Tuesday that the coronavirus pandemic will likely get worse despite the arrival of vaccines, and urged Americans to be vigilant in the coming months. "Experts say things will get worse notwithstanding the vaccine," Biden told reporters in Wilmington, Del. "We’re averaging a death rate of close to 3,000 a day. That means we will lose tens of thousands of more lives in the months to come, and the vaccine won’t be able to stop that." (Manchester, 12/22)

NPR: The 'Darkest Days' Are Ahead Of Us, Biden Warns About COVID-19 Pandemic
President-elect Joe Biden warned Tuesday that the coronavirus pandemic will get worse before it gets better. "Our darkest days in the battle against COVID are ahead of us, not behind us," Biden told reporters during a year-end news conference in Wilmington, Del. He said that Americans, when united, could overcome the crisis, and he called the first vaccines being administered a good thing. But he noted that distribution of the vaccines is one of the biggest operational challenges the country has ever faced. (Montanaro and Wise, 12/22)

CNN: Entire Joe Biden Speech: Year-End Remarks And Covid-19 Plan 
Watch the speech: President-elect Joe Biden addressed the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and the recent cyberattack during a press conference in Wilmington, Delaware. (12/22)

Fox News: Fauci Says Operation Warp Speed 'Will Go Down Historically' As 'Highly Successful'
White House coronavirus task force member Dr. Anthony Fauci told "Bill Hemmer Reports" Tuesday that he was "doing great" after receiving the first of two doses of Moderna's coronavirus vaccine. "I don't have any discomfort in any part of my body, not even in my arms ..." Fauci, 79, told substitute host John Roberts. "I mean, I'm right now feeling great, but might change a little bit later. I wouldn't be surprised if I got a little ache and felt a little down. But right now, I actually feel perfect." Even as more Americans receive the vaccine in the coming days and weeks, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases told Roberts that "nothing should really change right now with regard to the public health measures that hopefully we have all already been doing." (Chamberlain, 12/22)

Reuters: Production And Delivery Challenges Set Up Turbulent Year Of The Vaccine
As 2020 closes, regulatory approval of COVID-19 vaccines has raised hopes the world can defeat the pandemic next year. But production and delivery challenges suggest beating the disease will be a marathon whose finish line is still far away. Europe on Monday followed Britain and the United States in giving a green light to a COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer and its partner BioNTech which, like a similar shot from Moderna that has U.S. emergency approval, demonstrated 95% efficacy in large trials. Miller, 12/23)

USA Today: COVID Vaccine Distribution Plan Creates Winners, Losers Among States
As health care workers and nursing home residents await the first scarce syringes of COVID-19 vaccine, few realize that when they will get a dose depends a lot on what state they live in. Though they’re first in line for the vaccine, some people in those groups may end up getting vaccinated after people in other states who are deemed lower priority. The vaccine is allocated according to the number of adults in each state, which doesn’t correlate to the number of high-risk people there. As long as supplies are limited, some states won’t get doses proportionate to their needs. (Wagner, Slack and Bajak, 12/22)

More people line up for shots or decide to pass for now —

Bloomberg: First-In-Line Health Workers Show Off Shots To Push Safety
Nurses sporting stickers and dancing doctors are the face of the Covid-19 vaccine rollout in the U.S. Health-care workers across the country are taking to social media to show they received the Pfizer Inc.-BioNTech SE vaccine, with many using the hashtag #IGotTheShot. They are among the first to receive the vaccine outside of clinical trials after it was authorized for emergency use by regulators. Another shot from Moderna Inc. began rolling out this week. (LaVito, 12/22)

The Hill: Growing Number Of Lawmakers Decline Early Access To COVID-19 Vaccine 
A small but growing number of lawmakers are declining early access to a COVID-19 vaccine that’s being offered to them under continuity of government policies. A handful of lawmakers in both parties, including Reps. Brian Mast (R-Fla.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii), Jefferson Van Drew (R-N.J.), Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and incoming Rep.-elect Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), all made a point of announcing they would refuse a vaccine before all front-line health care workers and seniors get inoculated. (Marcos, 12/22)

AP: Governor Gets Vaccine, Texas Hospitalizations Still Soaring
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Tuesday joined the ranks of governors receiving the COVID-19 vaccine on live television in hopes of assuring the public that the inoculations are safe. Abbott, a Republican, said after getting the vaccine at a hospital in the state capital that federal health officials have urged governors to set an example. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey also received the first dose this week, while other governors have said they’ll wait. (12/23)

Also —

CNN: Every Country Has Vaccine Skeptics. In Russia, Doctors Are In Their Ranks 
News of the first takers of the desperately awaited Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine spurred some hope and excitement amid new lockdowns and spiraling infections in much of the US and the UK. But in Russia, one of the few countries already offering vaccines to a wider segment of the general public, the turnout in the first two weeks of "large-scale" vaccination has been less than enthusiastic. (Ilyushina, 12/23)

Reuters: Pfizer To Supply U.S. With 100 Million More Covid Shots By July
Pfizer will supply the United States with 100 million additional doses of its Covid-19 vaccine by July next year, the U.S. drugmaker said on Wednesday. The agreement brings the total number of doses to be delivered to the United States to 200 million, allowing for 100 million people to be vaccinated. Pfizer and German partner BioNTech will deliver at least 70 million doses by June 30, with the balance of the 100 million doses to be delivered no later than July 31, the company said. (12/23)

AP: Pfizer To Supply US With Additional 100M Vaccines Doses
Under the nearly $2 billion deal announced Wednesday, the companies will deliver at least 70 million additional doses by June 30, with the remaining 30 million to be delivered no later than July 31. The government also has the option to acquire up to an additional 400 million doses. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said in a statement that the latest deal can give people confidence “that we will have enough supply to vaccinate every American who wants it by June 2021.” (LeMire and Alonso-Zaldivar, 12/23)

In other vaccine news —

The Columbus Dispatch: For Pregnant, Nursing Women, Risks Of COVID-19 Outweigh Risk Of Vaccine, Experts Say
Although there's very little data on how pregnant and nursing mothers will respond to a COVID-19 vaccine, professional organizations and individual doctors say the benefits are very likely to outweigh the risks. Pregnant women appear to have the same chance of catching COVID-19 as everyone else. But they might fare worse if they do. According to a November study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, pregnant women are significantly more likely to be admitted to an intensive care unit, to end up on a ventilator, and to die from COVID-19 than women of the same age and health status who aren't pregnant. (Henry and Weintraub, 12/23)

KHN: COVID Vaccines Appear Safe And Effective, But Key Questions Remain
The recent rollout of two newly authorized COVID-19 vaccines is a bright ray of hope at the pandemic’s darkest hour. We now have a path that can lead us to happier times — even as we watch and suffer from the horrible onslaught of new infections, hospitalizations and deaths that mark the end of this regrettable year. (Wolfson, 12/23)

KHN: At Risk Of Extinction, Black-Footed Ferrets Get Experimental COVID Vaccine
In late summer, as researchers accelerated the first clinical trials of COVID-19 vaccines for humans, a group of scientists in Colorado worked to inoculate a far more fragile species. About 120 black-footed ferrets, among the most endangered mammals in North America, were injected with an experimental COVID vaccine aimed at protecting the small, weasel-like creatures rescued from the brink of extinction four decades ago. (Aleccia, 12/23)

AP: Feds Sue Walmart Over Role In Opioid Crisis
The Justice Department sued Walmart on Tuesday, accusing it of fueling the nation’s opioid crisis by pressuring its pharmacies to fill even potentially suspicious prescriptions for the powerful painkillers. The civil complaint filed points to the role Walmart’s pharmacies may have played in the crisis by filling opioid prescriptions and Walmart’s own responsibility for the allegedly illegal distribution of controlled substances to the pharmacies at the height of the opioid crisis. Walmart operates more than 5,000 pharmacies in its stores around the country. (Balsamo and D'Innocenzio, 12/22)

Modern Healthcare: Walmart Ignored Red Flags In Illegitimate Opioid Prescription Orders, Feds Allege
Managers across Walmart's 5,000 U.S pharmacies denied its pharmacists the authority to refuse to fill prescriptions from known "pill mills" and withheld related compliance data from their workers, federal regulators alleged in the complaint filed in federal court. While Walmart stopped distributing controlled substances in 2018, it had received hundreds of thousands of suspicious orders that it failed to report to the Drug Enforcement Agency, according to the lawsuit, which is seeking what could be billions of dollars in damages and limitations on its prescribing privileges. (Kacik, 12/22)

The New York Times: Justice Department Sues Walmart, Saying It Fueled Opioid Crisis 
The 160-page civil complaint alleges that Walmart knew its system for detecting questionable prescriptions was inadequate and details numerous instances when employees warned federal authorities and company managers about suspicious prescriptions. “As one of the largest pharmacy chains and wholesale drug distributors in the country, Walmart had the responsibility and the means to help prevent the diversion of prescription opioids,” Jeffrey Bossert Clark, acting assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s civil division, said in a statement. “Instead, for years, it did the opposite — filling thousands of invalid prescriptions at its pharmacies and failing to report suspicious orders of opioids and other drugs placed by those pharmacies.” (Benner and Corkery, 12/22)

NPR: Walmart Sued Over Its Alleged Role In The Opioid Crisis
If the retailer is found liable in the case, it could face civil penalties of up to $67,627 for each unlawful prescription filled and $15,691 for each suspicious order not reported. The case, which the department says was the result of a multi-year investigation, was filed in federal court in Delaware. The complaint alleges that Walmart violated the Controlled Substances Act in multiple ways, as the operator of both pharmacies and wholesale drug distribution centers. (Wamsley, 12/22)

In related news from West Virginia —

AP: WVa, Others To Get $1.85M In Federal Opioid Misuse Funding
West Virginia’s U.S. senators announced $1.85 million in federal funding for opioid misuse research and treatment programs in the state. The bulk of the money, $1.53 million, will go to the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources. West Virginia University will also get $222,500 for drug abuse and addiction research. (12/23)

AP: WH Virus Coordinator Deborah Birx Says She Will Retire
Dr. Deborah Birx, coordinator of the White House coronavirus response, said Tuesday she plans to retire, but is willing to first help President-elect Joe Biden’s team with its coronavirus response as needed. Birx, in an interview with the news site Newsy, did not give a specific timetable on her plans. “I will be helpful in any role that people think I can be helpful in, and then I will retire,” Birx told the news outlet. (Madhani and Slodysko, 12/23)

Politico: Deborah Birx Eyeing Retirement After Biden Transition 
In a longer response, Birx added: “I will be helpful through a period of time. And then I will have to say that this experience has been a bit overwhelming. It’s been very difficult on my family.” Birx confirmed her plans to retire from government in a text message to POLITICO. But she stressed that there is no set date for her departure, and that she would stay on for as long as the Biden team requires. “I want to ensure the transition goes well,” Birx wrote, “meaning I will stay as long as needed and then retire.” (Forgey, 12/22)

The Hill: White House Wishes Birx Well After She Announces Retirement 
The White House wished coronavirus task force coordinator Deborah Birx well after she announced her plans to retire on Tuesday. “President @realDonaldTrump has great respect for Dr. Birx and likes her very much. “We wish her well,” White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany tweeted on Tuesday. (Williams, 12/22)

Also —

Yahoo News: The Disappointing Downfall Of Dr. Deborah Birx
In the aftermath of President Trump’s astounding suggestion in April that people may want to inject disinfectants to flush the coronavirus from their bodies, much of the public reaction focused on Dr. Deborah Birx. The respected AIDS doctor, who had joined the White House coronavirus task force earlier in the spring, was sitting to the president’s right in the Brady Briefing Room as he mused on alternative cures; cameras captured — and social media memes promulgated — her astonished reaction, which reflected perfectly the growing exasperation of Americans with a president who consistently subverted and maligned science, sowing confusion every time he took to the podium.“Dr. Birx is all of us right now,” read one tweet from a prominent Trump critic that was shared thousands of times. The accompanying video was viewed by 21 million people. (Nazaryan, 12/22)

Modern Healthcare: Senate Passes Bill To Repeal Insurers' Federal Antitrust Enforcement Immunity
The Senate voted in the wee hours of Tuesday morning to repeal insurers' federal antitrust enforcement immunity, sending the bill to the president's desk. The Competitive Health Insurance Reform Act would amend the 1945 McCarran-Ferguson Act, which gave insurers federal immunity from antitrust enforcement and delegated primary authority to regulate consolidation in the insurance industry. The bill allows the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission to regulate health insurance markets. (Cohrs, 12/22)

Los Angeles Times: Congress Approves Hospice Care Reforms To Improve Oversight
Hefty fines, the suspension of Medicare payments and other new measures to increase oversight and transparency in the fast-growing hospice industry are set to become law as part of the omnibus spending bill approved by Congress this week. The reforms had been included in the bipartisan HOSPICE Act co-sponsored by U.S. Reps. Jimmy Panetta (D-Carmel Valley) and Tom Reed (R-N.Y.). That bill was passed by the House earlier this month and then folded into the $1.4-trillion spending package sent to President Trump for his signature. (Christensen and Poston, 12/23)

Roll Call: Congress Ditches State Department Bill After Fight With Ivanka Trump
With an unusual burst of bipartisan end-of-the-year goodwill, Congress nearly passed, after a 20-year hiatus, a State Department authorization bill this month. But then something happened to torpedo the effort in the final days. The torpedo was Ivanka Trump. ... However, a push by anti-abortion groups, with Trump’s support, to include language that Democrats said would undermine the role of reproductive health in the work already underway by the Global Women’s office ultimately caused Pelosi and Shaheen to withdraw their support for codifying the W-GDP initiative. (Oswald, 12/23)

And on upcoming confirmation battles —

Politico: ‘I Will Put Them On The Floor’: McConnell Promises Votes For Biden’s Cabinet Picks
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell vowed in a new interview to bring all of President-elect Joe Biden’s Cabinet nominees to the Senate floor for votes by the full chamber — a pledge that comes ahead of what both Democrats and Republicans are expecting to be a series of bitter confirmation fights early next year. “They (Biden’s nominees) aren’t all going to pass on a voice vote, and they aren’t all going to make it, but I will put them on the floor,” McConnell told Republican strategist Scott Jennings for a column in the Louisville Courier-Journal published Monday. (Forgey, 12/22)

Politico: How The Georgia Runoffs Could Delay Biden's Cabinet
The next Congress will begin in a haze of uncertainty — and that has consequences for President-elect Joe Biden. With the Senate majority unknown until the Jan. 5 Georgia runoffs, much of the chamber’s business remains up in the air — potentially for days or weeks after if the elections are tight and certification is postponed. And that could mean more delay for staffing Biden’s cabinet and implementing his agenda. Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), who could chair the Senate HELP Committee in the next Congress, said that the current state of limbo renders the confirmation process “moot” until control of the Senate is clear. (Levin and Everett, 12/22)

AP: US Hospitals Facing Worrisome Shortage Of Nurses, Doctors
With so many states seeing a flood of coronavirus patients, U.S. hospitals are again worried about finding enough medical workers to meet demand just as infections from the holiday season threaten to add to the burden on American health care. California, which is enduring by far its worst spike in cases and hospitalizations, is reaching out to places like Australia and Taiwan to fill the need for 3,000 temporary medical workers, particularly nurses trained in critical care. (Nguyen, 12/22)

KHN and The Guardian: As The Terror Of COVID Struck, Health Care Workers Struggled To Survive. Thousands Lost The Fight.
Ten months into the pandemic, it has become far clearer why tens of thousands of health care workers have been infected by the virus and why so many have died: dire PPE shortages. Limited COVID tests. Sparse tracking of viral spread. Layers of flawed policies handed down by health care executives and politicians, and lax enforcement by government regulators. All of those breakdowns, across cities and states, have contributed to the deaths of more than 2,900 health care workers, a nine-month investigation by over 70 reporters at KHN and The Guardian has found. This number is far higher than that reported by the U.S. government, which does not have a comprehensive national count of health care workers who’ve died of COVID-19. (Jewett and Lewis, 12/23)

KHN and The Guardian: More Than 2,900 Health Care Workers Died This Year — And The Government Barely Kept Track
More than 2,900 U.S. health care workers have died in the COVID-19 pandemic since March, a far higher number than that reported by the government, according to a new analysis by KHN and The Guardian. Fatalities from the coronavirus have skewed young, with the majority of victims under age 60 in the cases for which there is age data. People of color have been disproportionately affected, accounting for about 65% of deaths in cases in which there is race and ethnicity data. After conducting interviews with relatives and friends of around 300 victims, KHN and The Guardian learned that one-third of the fatalities involved concerns over inadequate personal protective equipment. (Jewett, Lewis and Bailey, 12/23)

KHN and The Guardian: Lost On The Frontline: Explore The Database
Journalists from KHN and The Guardian have identified 2,921 workers who reportedly died of complications from COVID-19 after they contracted it on the job. Reporters are working to confirm the cause of death and workplace conditions in each case. They are also writing about the people behind the statistics — their personalities, passions and quirks — and telling the story of every life lost. Explore the new interactive tool tracking those health worker deaths. (12/23)

Good News Network: People Are 'Adopting' Health Care Workers As A Way To Thank Them For Their Service
Thanks to an initiative sparked off by makeup artist Christine Danderand, health care workers have been ‘adopted’ by the public. (Cole, 12/22)

Stat: ‘Every Day Is An Emergency’: The Pandemic Is Worsening Psychiatric Bed Shortages Nationwide
The Covid-19 pandemic has dramatically cut the availability of inpatient psychiatric beds, with facilities across the country forced to reduce their capacity to meet social distancing requirements, stem outbreaks of the virus, or repurpose psychiatric beds to care for the surge of Covid-19 patients. The crisis — combined with years of mental health care budget cuts, rising demand for mental health care, and an existing shortage of both psychiatric beds and providers — appears to have put health care systems on a wartime footing. (Rapoport, 12/23)

Center For Public Integrity: South Dakota's Coronavirus Surge Is Turning Nursing Homes Into A ‘Battle Zone’
At Jenkin’s Living Center in Watertown, 24 residents have died from COVID-19 since the last week of October — about a fifth of the residents there — data submitted to the federal government show. Thirteen patients at Weskota Manor in Wessington Springs  — more than a third of its patients — died from COVID-19 this autumn, most of them in one week. Walworth County Care Center in Selby, a 50-bed facility, saw COVID-19 kill 12 patients this autumn, an administrator said. Overall, more than 40 percent of South Dakota nursing homes have lost a tenth or more of their patients to the coronavirus, according to a Center for Public Integrity analysis of data from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. (Essley Whyte, 12/22)

In other health care industry news —

Philadelphia Inquirer: New Jersey May Be The First State To Impose Per-Bed Fees On Nonprofit Hospitals For Municipal Services
New Jersey lawmakers approved an unusual measure last week that requires many nonprofit hospitals to pay per-bed fees to their local governments, while preserving their increasingly contested property-tax exemptions. The legislation, which requires hospitals to pay a fee of $3 a day for each licensed bed, is in response to a landmark 2015 New Jersey Tax Court ruling involving Morristown Medical Center that “the operation and function of nonprofit hospitals do not meet the criteria for property tax exemption” under state law. A 300-bed hospital subject to the fee would pay $328,500 a year. (Brubaker, 12/23)

Indianapolis Star: Indiana Sued Over Fetus Disposal Laws
A series of Indiana laws from 2016 that dictate how fetal tissues are disposed after an abortion are facing scrutiny again after three women and an Indianapolis abortion clinic on Monday brought a federal lawsuit against the state. The lawsuit claims that Indiana's abortion laws, which require that medical facilities bury or cremate fetal remains, are unconstitutional because they force the state's definition of a person onto women who might not share the same beliefs. Attorney General Curtis Hill told IndyStar in a prepared statement that he believes the lawsuit will fail. (Magaleno, 12/22)

The New York Times: Sloan Kettering Paid $1.5 Million Severance To A Cancer Doctor Forced Out Over Conflicts 
In 2018, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center’s chief medical officer, Dr. José Baselga, resigned under fire over his failure to disclose payments from health care companies in dozens of research articles he wrote. Now, recent Internal Revenue Service filings show the nonprofit hospital paid more than $1.5 million in severance to Dr. Baselga in 2018 and 2019. (Thomas and Ornstein, 12/22)

Crain's New York Business: Maimonides, One Brooklyn And CUNY Launch Enterprise Hub To Help Hospitals Find Vendors, Workers
Brooklyn Communities Collaborative, a not-for-profit comprising major health and education institutions, launched an enterprise initiative dedicated to addressing weaknesses in the healthcare supply system and workforce, it announced last week. The not-for-profit, registered in Borough Park, has created the Health Enterprise Hub with two key goals: helping hospitals identify local vendor opportunities and training the healthcare workforce. The initiative involves the not-for-profit’s key members—Maimonides Medical Center in Borough Park, One Brooklyn Health System in Crown Heights and CUNY—as well as labor unions and community-based organizations. (Sim, 12/22)

Stat: How 2020 Became The Year Of The Biotech SPAC
Over the past year, the humble blank-check IPO has risen from a disreputable relic of the 1980s into a bona fide financial trend. And biotech has been among the most ardent practitioners. (Garde, 12/23)

The Hill: Suicides Decline For First Time In Two Decades 
The national rate of suicide fell for the first time in two decades in 2019, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The CDC's final report on mortality in the U.S. in 2019 showed that suicide deaths dropped by 2.1 percent in 2019 compared with 2018. Suicides were still the 10th leading cause of death in the nation. (Williams, 12/22)

Stat: For People With Terminal Illnesses, Time Lost To Covid-19 Can't Be Made Up
After Aaron Hoover found out he had glioblastoma in 2019, a new imperative imbued each day. There were trips to take, family to embrace, friends to spend time with. What he didn’t envision, however, was a bucket-list-shredding pandemic. (Joseph, 12/23)

CIDRAP: Parents Say Social Media, Screen Time Top Pandemic Concerns For Kids
A University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children's Hospital national poll released yesterday spotlights social media and screen time as parents' top concerns for children during the pandemic, with key racial and ethnic differences. The poll surveyed a nationally representative sample of 2,027 parents with at least one child in the household. Eight of parents' top 10 concerns may be related to efforts to control the COVID-19 pandemic, including overuse of social media and screen time, internet safety, unhealthy eating, depression and suicide, and lack of physical activity. Overall, 72% of parents ranked overuse of social media and screen time as their top concern, followed by bullying/cyberbullying (62%) and internet safety (62%). Almost half of parents (48%) described COVID-19 disease as a "big problem," ranked tenth overall in parents' top health concerns. (12/22)

In travel news —

CNN: United Passenger Died Of Covid-19 And Acute Respiratory Failure, Coroner Says
United Airlines is working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to contact anyone who was on board a diverted flight from Orlando to Los Angeles after the death of a passenger who had Covid-19. On Monday, a man on board United Airlines Flight 591 had a medical emergency, and the flight was diverted to New Orleans, according to a United Airlines statement. (Alonso, Murray and Silverman, 12/22)

CNN: Skylar Mack: Georgia College Student Who Broke Cayman Islands' Quarantine Receives Reduced Sentence 
The Georgia college student who broke Covid-19 quarantine rules in the Cayman Islands to visit her boyfriend has received reduced jail time after initially being sentenced to four months in prison. The Cayman Islands Court of Appeal reduced the prison sentence of Skylar Mack, 18, and her boyfriend, Vanjae Ramgeet, 24, to two months on Tuesday, after the court agreed the original term of four months was not appropriate in the circumstances of this case. (Asmelash and Deaton, 12/22)

In other public health news —

Center For Public Integrity: Hidden Hardship: Guest Farmworkers With Visas Died Of COVID-19 In Obscurity While Trump Planned Wage Freezes
In just five years, the number of H-2A jobs in America has jumped by 155% to more than 275,400 this year. Foreign workers, mostly from Mexico, benefit from the ability to work legally, albeit temporarily. But advocates have long warned that the workers can be cheated out of wages and treated as expendable because they fear complaining will cost them their visas. Coronavirus outbreaks this year infected many H-2A workers in multiple states. After investigating the COVID-19 deaths of two H-2A workers, Washington state labor officials fined a large agribusiness company more than $2 million on Dec. 21, accusing it of failing to provide safe conditions. Public Integrity has found three H-2A worker deaths in North Carolina alone that haven’t been publicly disclosed but are under investigation. (Ferriss, 12/23)

The Washington Post: Health And Wellness Coaches: What You Should Know
Desiree Udell, an artist, screen printer and mother from Lilburn, Ga., found herself frequently ordering in meals during the pandemic. “With the challenges of self-quarantining taking over my family’s life, I barely went out for groceries anymore,” she said. “We weren’t eating healthy at all. And I was stressed.” So Udell, 38, hired a health coach. The primary goal of this new form of lifestyle coaching is to encourage positive behavior changes in areas such as nutrition, physical fitness, smoking cessation and stress management. Although dietitians, personal trainers and psychotherapists provide similar services, what makes the United States’ 4,100 board-certified health and wellness coaches different is not so much what topics they address, but how they address them. (Opler, 12/22)

KHN: Retiree Living The RV Dream Fights $12,387 Nightmare Lab Fee
Lorraine Rogge and her husband, Michael Rogge, travel the country in a recreational vehicle, a well-earned adventure in retirement. This spring found them parked in Artesia, New Mexico, for several months. In May, Rogge, 60, began to feel pelvic pain and cramping. But she had had a total hysterectomy in 2006, so the pain seemed unusual, especially because it lasted for days. She looked for a local gynecologist and found one who took her insurance at the Carlsbad Medical Center in Carlsbad, New Mexico, about a 20-mile drive from the RV lot. (Knight, 12/23)

The Washington Post: Keyontae Johnson Released From Hospital On Tuesday
Florida forward Keyontae Johnson was released from the hospital 10 days after he collapsed on the court against Florida State, his family said in a statement released through the school. “Today is a great day! Keyontae is being released from the hospital. We continue to be amazed at the pace of his recovery and look forward to spending Christmas together as a family,” they said. ... Johnson, 21, had been hospitalized since Dec. 12. The Gainesville Sun reported Tuesday, citing an unidentified person, that he was diagnosed with acute myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart. (Hill, 12/22)

KHN: KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: 2020 In Review — It Wasn’t All COVID 
COVID-19 was the dominant — but not the only — health policy story of 2020. In this special year-in-review episode of KHN’s “What the Health?” podcast, panelists look back at some of the biggest non-coronavirus stories. Those included Supreme Court cases on the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid work requirements and abortion, as well as a year-end surprise ending to the “surprise bill” saga. This week’s panelists are Julie Rovner of KHN, Joanne Kenen of Politico, Anna Edney of Bloomberg News and Sarah Karlin-Smith of Pink Sheet. (12/23)

New Orleans Times-Picayune: You Can Now Video Chat 911 In New Orleans When Having An Emergency, City Officials Say
Oftentimes during 911 calls, operators and dispatchers ask specifics that callers don't always know, such as exactly where they are, or in the case of health emergencies, the seriousness of their condition. But using location sharing or allowing video and pictures, the operators will be able to gather a lot of that information even if the caller doesn't know it. "We are one of the few organizations now that are inviting pictures and video to 911 so we can better inform our first responders what is happening on the ground," OPCD Director Tyrell Morris said. (Williams, 12/22)

In news from Arkansas, South Carolina and Massachusetts —

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette: Again, Laws On Abortion Put On Hold In Arkansas
A federal judge Tuesday again blocked the state from enforcing a package of abortion laws. The laws, which place new regulations on abortion practices, took effect Tuesday morning after a yearslong legal fight, but, for now, those statutes are on hold after U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker issued a two-week restraining order. The ruling comes after the American Civil Liberties Union, representing abortion providers in Arkansas, asked Baker to block the restrictions. It is the latest order in the legal fight over abortion laws that the state Legislature passed in 2017. (Earley, 12/23)

CNN: Henry McMaster, South Carolina Governor, Tests Positive For Covid-19 
South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster tested positive for Covid-19 Monday evening. The Republican governor, 73, is "experiencing mild symptoms with a cough and slight fatigue," his office said in a statement Tuesday. (Sayers and Stracqualursi, 12/22)

Boston Globe: Lawmakers Reach Agreement For Telehealth Coverage
Massachusetts House and Senate leaders said Tuesday they’ve reached a deal on legislation that would mandate insurance carriers cover telehealth services in any case where in-person services would be covered, extending emergency requirements the state had put in place amid the pandemic. The 70-page compromise bill released by legislative leaders would also require insurers to cover a range of COVID-19-related care, including emergency and inpatient services, as well as lab work, lawmakers said. (Stout, 12/22)

In news from Iowa, Michigan, New Mexico and Alaska —

AP: Feds Probe Iowa Care Home: Disabled 'Not Human Guinea Pigs'
The U.S. Justice Department has found a state-run care center for people with intellectual disabilities has likely violated the constitutional rights of residents by subjecting them to human experiments, some of which were deemed dangerous by federal investigators. A report released Tuesday identified broad failures at the Glenwood Resource Center, including poor treatment of residents and failure of the Iowa Department of Human Services to respond. The report said breakdowns in the quality of physical health care exposed residents to harm and serious risk of harm. (Pitt, 12/23)

Politico: Flint Has Clean Water Now. Why Won’t People Drink It?
In a city synonymous for half a decade with disaster, something remarkable happened in February 2019. A team of researchers reported that Flint’s homes—even the ones at the highest risk for undrinkable, lead-poisoned tap water—finally had clean water running through their pipes. After years of painstaking cleanup and rebuilding, the study’s results were a sparkling capstone. Earlier tests already hinted at good news, and this one confirmed it: In the vast majority of such homes, lead levels were 5 parts per billion or better—far below even the strictest regulations in the country. Local news outlet MLive trumpeted the news, and Michigan’s Department of Environmental Quality tacked it to their ongoing list of promising signs that indicated the city’s potable present and future. (Robertson, 12/23)

Albuquerque Journal: NM Launches Free At-Home COVID Testing
New Mexico state health officials launched a new counteroffensive against the COVID-19 pandemic Tuesday, announcing state residents will be able to get free virus tests at home, as well as at the drive-thru testing sites around the state. A top health official in Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s administration said the option could allow the state to boost its testing capacity to more than 20,000 tests per day – up from the current average of about 14,000 tests daily. (Boyd, 12/22)

Anchorage Daily News: Gov. Mike Dunleavy Proposes Splitting The Alaska Department Of Health And Social Services Into Two Agencies
Seeking efficiency, Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy is preparing an executive order to split the state’s largest agency in half, he said Tuesday. The order, which will be introduced at the start of the legislative session, will separate the Department of Health and Social Services into a Department of Health and a Department of Family and Community Services. The health department will be in charge of Medicaid, public health and public assistance. The other agency will be in charge of children’s services, juvenile justice, Pioneer Homes and the Alaska Psychiatric Institute. In a written statement, Dunleavy said the “reorganization will not reduce programs or services to Alaskans who are currently served.” (Brooks, 12/22)

USA Today: COVID-19 Reaches Antarctica, Meaning All Continents Are Now Infected
For months, the hundreds of scientists and researchers who live in Antarctica have inhabited the only continent in the world without a reported case of COVID-19. But now the virus has reached even there. Three dozen people at a Chilean base have tested positive, the country's army announced Monday. On Tuesday, a regional health minister in Chile said there are 21 infections involving people aboard the Chilean navy's Sargento Aldea supply vessel. (Shannon, 12/22)

AP: Peru Reaches 1 Million Confirmed Coronavirus Infections
Peru passed 1 million confirmed cases of coronavirus infection Tuesday, becoming the fifth nation in Latin America to report that number as the region struggles with the pandemic’s economic and health effects. Peru, which has a population of 32 million, was quick to declare lockdown measures in March as the pandemic spread in Europe. But in spite of closing its airports for almost six months and ordering most of its residents to stay at home it has struggled to contain the virus. Officials said they had recorded 1,000,153 cases as of Tuesday evening. (Munoz and Rueda, 12/23)

Reuters: Keep Calm, Taiwan Says After First Local COVID-19 Case In 8 Months 
Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen called on people on Wednesday to keep calm after the island confirmed its first locally transmitted case of COVID-19 since April 12, as the government announced negative tests so far for the person’s contacts. Taiwan has kept the pandemic well under control thanks to early and effective prevention methods and widespread use of masks, with all new cases for more than the last 250 days being among travellers arriving on the island. (12/23)

Bloomberg: In Asia, Taiwan, Thailand, Korea Tamed Covid. Now Virus Creeps Back
The sudden re-emergence of Covid-19 in places with the world’s best records for handling the pandemic is sending a discouraging message to health officials: Strategies to fully snuff out the virus don’t work as a long-term solution, and even the most successful places can never let down their guard. After more than 250 days without a single locally-transmitted coronavirus infection, Taiwan reported its first case since April on Tuesday, ending what was the world’s longest virus-free streak. On the same day, Thailand saw 427 new cases, a staggering jump for a country that as recently as September had gone 100 days without a domestic infection. (Hong, 12/23)

AP: Global Virus Rules For Christmas: Tough, Mild Or None At All
In Peru, you can’t drive your car on Christmas. In Lebanon, you can go to a nightclub, but you can’t dance. In South Africa, roadblocks instead of beach parties will mark this year’s festive season. How many people can you share a Christmas meal with? France recommends no more than six, in Chile it’s 15, and in Brazil it’s as many as you want. Meanwhile, Italy’s mind-boggling, color-coded holiday virus rules change almost every day for the next two weeks. (12/23)

The New York Times: How Midwives Have Stepped In In Mexico As Covid-19 Overshadows Childbirth
Rafaela López Juárez was determined that if she ever had another child, she would try to give birth at home with a trusted midwife, surrounded by family. Her first birth at a hospital had been a traumatic ordeal, and her perspective changed drastically afterward, when she trained to become a professional midwife. “What women want is a birth experience centered on respect and dignity,” she said. She believes that low-risk births should occur outside hospitals, in homes or in dedicated birth centers, where women can choose how they want to give birth. (Janet Jarman, 12/22)

Indy Star: Santa Claus, IN, Post Office Gets Thousands Of Letters Each Christmas
"Dear Santa Claus," the letter begins. "I'm writing you this letter because I won't be able to see you because of Covid-19. This year I learned a lot about the meaning of family. This year I lost my baby cousin." The letter, written by an 8-year-old girl from Tucson, is one of thousands addressed to Kris Kringle that arrive at the post office in Santa Claus, Indiana. (Hays, 12/22)

The New York Times: Dear Santa: It’s Been A Hard Year 
“Dear Santa,” began a letter written by Alani, age 9, addressed to 123 Elf Road, North Pole, 88888. “This year has been rough because of crona,” she wrote. “I was hoping I could get some Lego sets because my mom said she can’t get anything for me for Christmas because she is not getting paid as much.” Alani’s letter was one of more than 23,000 letters sent to Santa Claus this year through a 108-year-old United States Postal Service program. (Gross, 12/17)

AP: How COVID-19 Took Over The World In 2020
Almost no place has been spared — and no one. The virus that first emerged a year ago in Wuhan, China, swept across the world in 2020, leaving havoc in its wake. More than any event in memory, the pandemic has been a global event. On every continent, households have felt its devastation — joblessness and lockdowns, infirmity and death. And an abiding, relentless fear. But each nation has its own story of how it coped. (12/16)

The New York Times: Christmas Without Music? Churches Are Finding A Way 
If the normal year presents the challenge of deciding between “Joy to the World” and the Hallelujah chorus, this season the question is how to celebrate the birth of Christ without creating a potential superspreader event. (Bahr, 12/20)

The Washington Post: Now Playing: A Very Covid Christmas
Hollywood is turning this season into a very covid Christmas. But the content’s radical timeliness also raises questions: Are Americans ready for stories about a virus that has taken the lives of more than 300,000 Americans, kept many of us at home and created economic havoc for millions? Should Hollywood be moving so quickly to capitalize on the tragedy in the first place? (Zeitchik, 12/18)

Scientific American: You Can Get Through This Dark Pandemic Winter, Using Tips From Disaster Psychology
We can now glimpse, with the advent of vaccines, that there will be an end to this pandemic. But to get there, we have to somehow keep going through months of trauma and strain. How do we do that? How do we endure more and more of the isolation, the deaths, the flare-ups, the economic wreckage, the fear and the uncertainty? There are ways—not perfect solutions but methods that can help. (Moyer, 12/21)

PBS NewsHour: How To Care For Your Mental Health In A Difficult Holiday Season, According To Therapists
More than a million people in the U.S. are estimated to be facing their first holiday season without a loved one who has died from COVID-19. (Isaacs-Thomas, 12/23)

The Washington Post: Covid Vaccine Delivery Videos Are Making People Burst Into Tears
On Sunday morning, Alex Leyton, 50, awoke in her San Francisco home, scrolled through some news on her phone and landed on a short video clip of trucks loaded with the coronavirus vaccine leaving a Pfizer facility in Michigan. “I started bawling,” she says. “You know how they say ‘ugly crying’? I physically could not stop.” She’d kept it together for nine months. Now, “all that I’ve been holding in and trying to control just flooded out.” (Judkis, 12/15)

AP: One Company's Quest For An Antibody Drug To Fight COVID-19
On a Saturday afternoon in March as COVID-19 was bearing down on New York City, a dozen scientists anxiously crowded around a computer in a suburban drug company’s lab. They had spent weeks frantically getting blood from early survivors across the globe and from mice with human-like immune systems — all to test thousands of potential treatments. Now it was time for results. (Marchione, 12/21)

The Washington Post: The Words To Describe 2020 
A global pandemic. A racial reckoning. A presidential impeachment. A monumental election. We all know 2020 was a year like no other. But is it possible to sum it up in one word or phrase? The Washington Post asked readers to do just that. (Goren, Kulkarni and Vongkiatkajorn, 12/18)

Albuquerque Journal: Efficacy Vs. Effectiveness: The Difference Is Important
In the vernacular of epidemiologists, the words “efficacy” and “effectiveness” are used quite often. Generally, the lay public doesn’t understand the nuanced difference, but the difference is quite important. (Barbiero, 12/18)

CNN: In The Congo Rainforest, The Doctor Who Discovered Ebola Warns Of Deadly Viruses Yet To Come 
Humanity faces an unknown number of new and potentially fatal viruses emerging from Africa's tropical rainforests, according to Professor Jean-Jacques Muyembe Tamfum, who helped discover the Ebola virus in 1976 and has been on the frontline of the hunt for new pathogens ever since.(Kiley, 12/22)

Also —

Scientific American: Profit & Loss: America On Dialysis 
A multi-part series from Scientific American: Kidney disease affects millions of Americans, but corporate capture of dialysis, along with disparities in treatment and transplant access, mean that not everyone's journey is the same. (12/14, 12/15, 12/16, 12/17, 12/18)

Politico: When Elvis Helped To Conquer Polio
On Oct. 28, 1956, backstage at “The Ed Sullivan Show,” the 21-year-old Elvis Presley—the smooth-faced, pouting, swivel-hipped hero of American youth—extended his left arm. In went the needle. Off went the flashbulbs. A polio star was born. And then he went on stage to wiggle, wink and wail. “Hound Dog.” “Love Me Tender.” “Don’t Be Cruel.” (Kenen, 12/18)

Today: Post-It ‘Picasso,’ A Stroke Survivor, Draws Pet Portraits To Help Shelters
Ed Attanasio never trained as an artist. In fact, he had worked as a journalist, ad copywriter and stand-up comedian until suffering a “mini-stroke” in 2009 at age 50. Due to the stroke, he lost his ability to retrieve words. Everything changed for him when he got busted for doodling during a speech therapy session. Luckily, his therapist was impressed and suggested he continue creating art every day to engage his brain. In his new life as an artist, Attanasio frequently donates artwork to charity auctions to raise money for pet rescue groups. (Reeder, 12/11)

The New York Times: F.D.A. Wants To Stop Regulating French Dressing 
In the grand pantheon of salad dressings, French dressing can be easily forgotten — a sticky, sweet, carrot-colored blend overshadowed by America’s undisputed heavyweight champion of dressings, ranch. But the federal government has shown great interest in the humble dressing, painstakingly regulating since 1950 the ingredients that it must contain and revising the rules at least five times since then. Now, the government wants to get out of the French dressing business. (Levenson, 12/20)

The New York Times: The U.K.'s New Coronavirus Strain And How To Stop It 
A new and potentially more contagious variant of the coronavirus has been detected in Britain and elsewhere. With the Trump administration continuing to do little to address the pandemic, state and local leaders have, again, been left to deal with this problem on their own. To that end, on Monday Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York persuaded major airlines to require people traveling from Britain to New York to first clear a coronavirus test. Mr. Cuomo’s willingness to act quickly and decisively here is commendable — refreshing in a year rife with failures to do exactly that — and the move seems reasonable in the face of federal inaction and many unknowns. (12/22)

The Washington Post: Half-Measures Won’t Protect Us From The New Covid-19 Variant
As bad as covid-19 has been, you can imagine it being worse. What if each sick person had infected an average of 15 others, as measles does, rather than two or three? What if it had killed more young people than old people, like the 1918 influenza? Or simply killed a much higher percentage of its victims — 10 percent, like SARS, or 34 percent, like MERS? If we ever run into such a bug, covid-19 may prove to have been our training exercise, preparing us for the next round just as SARS prepared the Pacific Rim to weather covid-19 with relative aplomb. Maybe next time, the rest of us will also be ready to take decisive action before the new pathogen can get a foothold. (Megan McArdle, 12/22)

Stat: Let's Put The Straw Man Of Pandemic Denial Out Of His Misery 
Listen to the chorus and you’d come to think that our biggest problem in responding to the pandemic comes from Americans who think Covid-19 is a hoax — the so-called Covid denialists. But the claim is a straw man: there is no epidemic of pandemic denial. Polls since March have shown that Americans overwhelmingly aren’t in denial: They believe the threat of Covid-19 is real, they are reasonably good at identifying medical misinformation, and they are largely complying with public health recommendations. (Jacob Hale Russell and Dennis Patterson, 12/23)

The Wall Street Journal: A Sincere Government Apology
'‘I failed, nobody else failed.” You don’t hear that often, or ever, from a government official. But that’s what Operation Warp Speed logistics chief Gen. Gustave Perna said Saturday by way of apologizing to states for shipping fewer Pfizer Covid vaccine doses than expected. Kudos to Gen. Perna—and all the more so since overall the vaccine rollout is a historic success. Close collaboration between government and private industry has made a vaccine available in record time and now is proving essential to distribution logistics. The military has been charged with coordinating distribution with states and private companies across a long supply chain including drug makers, airlines, freight companies, pharmacies, hospitals and nursing homes. (12/22)

The Hill: Capitalism Will Take Over COVID-19 Testing If The Government Allows 
Last month, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced the authorization of the first at-home COVID-19 test. While the test guarantees a result in 30 minutes, it is likely not available until the spring. This test will be available to those who can afford it — the latest example of disease-driven dividends. (Dallas Ducar, 12/22)

Boston Globe: Privacy, Equity, And Efficiency In Vaccine Distribution
COVID-19 has killed more than 319,000 Americans and hurt millions more economically. Now we are embarking on the single largest public health initiative ever undertaken in this country: the vaccination of more than 328 million people. The speed of the development of effective vaccines has been remarkable. The next challenge is to make sure that the vaccines get out safely and broadly. Large-scale adoption of vaccines will depend on everyone’s confidence and participation. However, the nation is at risk of losing many people’s trust by asking them to give up too much of their personal information to get a vaccination. Every American has the right to get vaccinated without any cost and without giving up their privacy. (Ramesh Raskar, 12/23)

The Hill: Congress's 5,593-Page Porky 'Relief' Bill Is Essence Of The Swamp 
The $900 billion stimulus package COVID-19 "relief" bill is exactly what one would expect from a dysfunctional, tone-deaf Congress: a pork-filled cluster filled with anything and everything that has nothing to do with the coronavirus pandemic or relief.  And in the swampiest thing ever, the bill, which is combined with a $1.4 trillion omnibus spending bill, is 5,593 pages long, or 5,583 pages too many, was given to lawmakers six hours before a vote to review what exactly is in it (hint: more pork than a Tyson Foods plant). (Joe Concha, 12/22)

The New York Times: Shopping For A Nursing Home In A Pandemic
I never imagined my sister, who has long had trouble with her mobility, would move to a nursing home in a global pandemic. At 37, she is relatively young. But this fall, she developed a serious infection that worsened her health problems. So I found myself shopping for a facility that can provide her with the care she needs to recover. Like many Americans, I had long been under the optimistic delusion that I was years away from needing to consider nursing home care. I always thought, I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it.Well, I’m here. In a pandemic. (Stacy Torres, 12/23)

Los Angeles Times: Dreams Of Rescuing My Father, Who Has COVID And Is Captive
For much of the fall, I’ve had nightly dreams about rescuing my father. Here’s why: COVID-19 had spread like wildfire through his nursing home in Wisconsin. A dozen patients died from it; he contracted it too. He was locked in his tiny room, alone except when nurses delivered meals and fed him. A television kept him company, tuned to CNN until his blood pressure spiked during the election and the nurses switched it to the Hallmark Channel. His room’s only window looks out on a courtyard set in the middle of the large care facility. “Why did we go with a courtyard view?” I asked my mother over the phone.“ Because we thought it was better for your dad than looking out on a parking lot,” she said. She couldn’t have known it would come to this, that her only chance of seeing him would be through windows from the parking lot. (Carrie Friedman, 12/23)

The New York Times: Have Yourself A Lonely Little Christmas
Because of Covid-19, many people around the world are planning imperfect, turkey-less Christmases. According to one British survey, one in four adults in the United Kingdom worry that they may be spending the holidays alone this year. For many, this will be their first year celebrating without family. I don’t envy anyone’s first time — it can be excruciating. But with the right mind-set and a little creativity, a lonely Christmas can be about more than survival. It can be an opportunity to learn to thrive in your aloneness. Of course, this is a challenge many encountered this year — learning to nurture and entertain ourselves, to break the boredom and monotony. But Christmas is an extravagant holiday, full of dramatic acts of celebration — so why not take the chance to lavish them on ourselves? (Stephanie Foo, 12/23)