Stat: Citing Omicron BA.5 Risks, White House Recommends Covid-19 Boosters
The Biden administration on Tuesday urged the public to strengthen their protections against Covid-19, noting that the BA.5 subvariant of Omicron has become the dominant strain in the country. (Joseph, 7/12)

CIDRAP: White House Officials Push Boosters As BA.5 Surge Intensifies 
[Ashish Jha, MD, the White House committee's coordinator] acknowledged that some people may be holding off on getting boosted, anticipating a rise in COVID activity in the fall, while others might be waiting for an Omicron-specific booster. Jha said getting boosted now won't preclude people from getting another dose in the fall or winter when the Omicron-specific version is expected to be available. (Schnirring, 7/12)

Axios: White House: COVID Booster "Will Not Preclude" Shot For Later Variants
People who get boosted for COVID-19 now will still be eligible to get a variant-specific vaccine in the fall, the White House COVID-19 Response Team said Tuesday. (Gonzalez, 7/12)

More on the spread of covid —

CNBC: Covid: Hospitalizations Have Doubled Since May As Omicron BA.5 Sweeps U.S.
People hospitalized with Covid-19 have doubled since early May as the even more transmissible omicron BA.5 subvariant has caused another wave of infection across the country, U.S. health officials said Tuesday. But deaths from Covid still remain relatively low given the number of infections right now, the officials said. (Kimball, 7/12)

The Wall Street Journal: Hopes Of Covid-19 Reprieve Fade As BA.5 Subvariant Takes Over 
Covid-19 is circulating widely as the BA.5 Omicron subvariant elevates the risk of reinfections and rising case counts, spoiling chances for a summer reprieve from the pandemic across much of the U.S. Covid-19 levels are high in a fifth of U.S. counties, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s metric based on case and hospital data, a share that has been mostly rising since mid-April. BA.5 is estimated to represent nearly two in three recent U.S. cases that are averaging just more than 100,000 a day, CDC data show. (Kamp and Hopkins, 7/12)

San Francisco Chronicle: BA.2.75 COVID Variant Is Spreading In The Bay Area. Can It Evade Immunity?
Seven cases have been recorded in the U.S. - two in California and one each in Illinois, New York, North Carolina, Texas and Washington. Both California cases were detected in Bay Area wastewater sampling in mid-June - though since genetic sequencing is limited, experts say it is likely far more widespread. (Hwang, 7/12)

Reuters: U.S. Deaths From Antibiotic Resistant 'Superbugs' Rose 15% In 2020
U.S. deaths from bacteria resistant to antibiotics, also known as 'superbugs', jumped 15% in 2020 as the drugs were widely dispensed to treat COVID-19 and fight off bacterial infections during long hospitalizations, enabling the bugs to evolve, a U.S. government report said on Tuesday. Hospital-acquired bacterial infections also rose more than 15% in 2020 from 2019, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said. (Mishra, 7/12)

AP: Superbug Infections, Deaths Rose At Beginning Of Pandemic
Dr. Arjun Srinivasan, a CDC expert, called it “a startling reversal” that he hopes was a one-year blip. CDC officials think several factors may have caused the rise, including how COVID-19 was treated when it first hit the U.S. in early 2020. Antimicrobial resistance happens when germs like bacteria and fungi gain the power to fight off the drugs that were designed to kill them. The misuse of antibiotics was a big reason — unfinished or unnecessary prescriptions that didn’t kill the germs made them stronger. (Stobbe, 7/12)

In related news about hospital safety —

Modern Healthcare: Hospital Safety Was On The Right Track Before COVID-19, AHRQ Reports
Safety and quality initiatives by health systems reduced adverse events involving infections, medications or surgeries among patients admitted for acute myocardial infarction, heart failure, pneumonia and major surgical procedures between 2010 and 2019, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality reports. (Devereaux, 7/12)

USA Today: Patient Safety: Federal Reports Show Progress, Areas Of Improvement
Over the nine-year span, researchers found the rate of adverse events related to major medical procedures decreased from 204 to 130 occurrences per 1,000 discharges, acute myocardial infarction from 218 to 139, heart failure from 168 to 116, and pneumonia from 195 to 119. (Rodriguez, 7/12)

Politico: FDA To Authorize Novavax's Covid-19 Vaccine
The Food and Drug Administration is expected to authorize Novavax’s coronavirus vaccine for emergency use as early as Wednesday, two people with knowledge of the matter told POLITICO. The regulatory clearance would likely permit the two-dose vaccine to be given to adults as a primary immunization series, limiting its use in the U.S. since roughly two-thirds of people have already received their initial shots. (Cancryn and Foley, 7/12)

In news about the AstraZeneca shot —

Bloomberg: Astra’s Covid Vaccine Saved Over Six Million Lives In First Year
Covid vaccines from AstraZeneca Plc and Pfizer Inc. had the biggest impact in preventing deaths in the first year of the global rollout, saving an estimated 12 million lives. That’s the upshot of a new analysis from Airfinity Ltd., a London-based data firm. The AstraZeneca vaccine developed with the University of Oxford saved 6.3 million lives, Airfinity said Wednesday. The estimate for the Pfizer-BioNTech SE shot was 5.9 million. (Paton, 7/13)

Reuters: AstraZeneca Says COVID Vaccine As Effective As MRNA Shots In Review
AstraZeneca said on Wednesday a review of real-world data showed its COVID-19 vaccine provided equally effective protection against hospitalization and death after two doses as with current mRNA shots from Pfizer and Moderna. (7/13)

The Washington Post: Justice Dept. Announces Task Force To Fight Overreach On Abortion Bans 
The Justice Department is launching a “reproductive rights task force” to marshal federal legal resources aimed at preventing overreach from state and local governments seeking to impose new bans on abortion access after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, officials said Tuesday. Justice officials said the move should consolidate work that was underway in the months leading up to the high court’s June decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which struck down federal safeguards for abortion that had stood for five decades. (Nakamura and Roubein, 7/12)

The U.S. territory of Guam clarifies its stance on abortion —

AP: Telemedicine Abortion Continues On Guam After Roe Overturned
Guam’s attorney general said a 1990 law that prohibited virtually all abortion is invalid and won’t take effect even though the U.S. Supreme Court last month overturned the national right to abortion outlined in Roe v. Wade, the landmark case that legalized abortion nationwide. That means the status quo allowing women to obtain abortions via telemedicine may continue in the predominantly Catholic U.S. territory in the Pacific. (McAvoy, 7/13)

In abortion news from Capitol Hill —

Politico: Congress Tees Up Bills To Protect Travel For Abortion
Bills aimed at protecting a person’s ability to cross state lines to seek reproductive care could see action in the House and Senate later this week — though neither bill has a clear path to becoming law, especially in the Senate. The House plans to bring its bill to the floor on Friday; Senate Democratic leadership could attempt to call the bill up for a voice vote on the Senate floor later this week, though Republicans are expected to block it. (Snyder and Ollstein, 7/12)

Houston Chronicle: Rep. Lizzie Fletcher Leads Effort To Protect Travel For Abortions
Many groups that helped Texans travel out of state for abortions since the state’s six-week abortion ban went into effect in September 2021 have paused their operations to review the ruling and its impact. The Ensuring Access to Abortion Act, authored by U.S. Rep. Lizzie Fletcher, a Houston Democrat, would make it clear that the freedom to travel to other states is a constitutional right, and would prohibit states from restricting travel for those seeking to obtain a lawful abortion. (Wermund, 7/12)

Roll Call: Senate Judiciary Kicks Off Series Of Abortion Policy Hearings
The Judiciary hearing is the first of five congressional hearings on the aftermath of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision to be held over an eight-day period. The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, House Oversight and Reform, House Judiciary and House Energy and Commerce committees will also have hearings in the coming days. (Raman, 7/12)

AP: DNC Ads Warn Voters That GOP Wants Nationwide Abortion Ban
The Democratic National Committee is launching a digital ad campaign to energize its voters after last month’s Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, warning that Republicans’ ultimate goal is to outlaw abortion nationwide. The committee is sponsoring an at least $10,000 ad buy beginning Tuesday on the websites of more than 20 lifestyle publications, including Teen Vogue, Refinery29, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Essence, GQ, Men’s Health and Esquire. (Weissert, 7/12)

On insurance coverage —

KHN: Three Things To Know About Insurance Coverage For Abortion 
Will your health plan pay for an abortion now that the Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade? Even before the June 24 ruling, insurance coverage for abortion varied widely. Now the issue is even more complex as states set varying rules — about half are expected to limit or ban abortion in almost all circumstances. (Appleby, 7/13)

The New York Times: Louisiana Judge Allows Abortions To Become Legal Again
Abortions became legal again in Louisiana on Tuesday after a Baton Rouge judge granted a temporary restraining order blocking the state’s abortion bans from being enforced. The judge’s decision was the latest in a series of legal maneuvers that have jolted the legal status of abortions in the state, leaving women and providers scrambling to adapt. One of the few remaining abortion clinics in the state said it would resume providing the procedure. (Zernike, 7/12)

In abortion updates from Pennsylvania and Indiana —

AP: Pennsylvania Governor Says He'll Protect Abortion Seekers 
Gov. Tom Wolf is following in the footsteps of other Democratic governors following the U.S. Supreme Court’s abortion ruling and looking to protect patients who travel to Pennsylvania for the procedure from being prosecuted by their home states. Wolf on Tuesday said in a statement that he would refuse a request from any other state to arrest or detain any out-of-state resident who had traveled to Pennsylvania to seek an abortion, as well as anyone providing or assisting with it. (7/12)

AP: Indiana Governor Won't Specify Anti-Abortion Steps He Backs
Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb sidestepped taking a stance Tuesday on how far the Republican-dominated Legislature should go in restricting abortions when state lawmakers begin a special session in less than two weeks. Republican legislative leaders have provided no details on whether they will push for a full abortion ban or allow exceptions, such as in cases of rape, incest or to protect the woman’s life. (Davies, 7/12)

From Texas, Tennessee, and Virginia —

The Texas Tribune: Texas IVF Treatments Can Continue After Supreme Court Ruling
Abortion bans across the country have thrown into question the fate of in vitro fertilization, an expensive medical process that helps people become pregnant. But experts and anti-abortion groups say Texas’ laws shouldn’t apply to IVF treatment, and clinics across the state are proceeding with the procedures for now. (Mendez, 7/13)

AP: Memphis Council Resolution Addresses Abortion Prosecutions 
The Memphis City Council approved a resolution Tuesday urging that law enforcement and the district attorney in Tennessee’s most populous county refrain from investigating and prosecuting doctors who perform abortions. (Sainz and Kruesi, 7/12)

The Washington Post: Antiabortion Activists Sentenced For Trespassing At Alexandria Clinic
Two antiabortion activists who claimed earlier this year to have obtained dozens of fetuses from a D.C. facility that provides abortions were sent to jail Tuesday for trespassing at an Alexandria women’s clinic last year. Lauren Handy, who faces similar charges in multiple cases around the country, was sentenced in Alexandria District Court to 30 days in jail, starting immediately. Terrisa Bukovinac was sentenced to four days. (Boorstein, 7/12)

Clinics cope in Illinois, Arizona, and New Mexico —

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: In Senate Testimony, Illinois Abortion Provider Describes ‘Mass Chaos’ Since Roe Overturned
The number of out-of-state patients traveling to Illinois for an abortion has doubled in the more than two weeks that states have been allowed to ban abortion, and doctors in states like Missouri where abortion is restricted except in cases of medical emergencies are unsure how to care for pregnant patients when their health is threatened. (Munz, 7/12)

AP: Big Arizona Provider Won't Resume Abortions Despite Ruling
The leader of Arizona’s largest abortion provider said Tuesday her organization will not resume the procedures in one county even though a federal judge has blocked a fetal “personhood” law they feared could lead to criminal charges against doctors and others. Brittany Fonteno, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Arizona, blamed “vague and confusing” statements from Republican Attorney General Mark Brnovich about a near-total pre-statehood ban on abortions for the decision. (Christie, 7/12)

NPR: New Mexico Clinic Performing Later Abortions Braces For Surge
On a Friday afternoon outside Southwestern Women's Options in Albuquerque, N.M., a protester grips a cardboard box overflowing with small, plastic baby figurines. A man reclines in the driver's seat of a truck, a baseball cap over his eyes. Inside, there is not a single empty chair in the pale pink waiting room of the clinic. One woman covers her face, quietly sobbing. Another wearing a shirt that barely buttons over her belly calmly fills out paperwork. (Benninghoff, 7/13)

In related news on motherhood in Wyoming, Ohio, and California —

Wyoming Public Radio: Wyoming Prenatal And Postpartum Care Down In New Mothers
The most recent Wyoming Kids Count Data Book shows that one out of every five women in the state received less than adequate prenatal care in 2020. Plus, the number of women dying during pregnancy, delivery or up to one year after giving birth is increasing as well. This is part of a nationwide trend. (Kudelska, 7/12)

Columbus Dispatch: Ohio Abortion Law: Child Care, Paid Leave Limited For Pregnant People
Politicians, religious organizations and groups that oppose abortion called for financial resources to support people navigating unplanned pregnancies. They touted controversial pregnancy resource centers. They said they want to ensure pregnant people aren't backed into a corner, feeling forced to get an abortion. In Ohio, abortion-rights advocates say that's all talk. (BeMiller, 7/12)

Los Angeles Times: Pregnant And Homeless In Los Angeles: Meet McKenzie 
Mckenzie was 22, and 6½ months pregnant. Her boyfriend, Eddie, 26, was HIV-positive, although his viral load was undetectable and he could not transmit the virus through sex. ... She made an appointment for an abortion but couldn’t go through with it. Still, she remained “terrified” of having the baby. The odds were heavily stacked against her raising her child to adulthood. Mckenzie’s family came out of poverty in Louisiana‘s Cajun Country, and for three generations had been buffeted by domestic violence, mental illness and homelessness, and caught up in child welfare cases. Her mother, Cynthia “Mama Cat” Trahan, was taken from her mom at age 5 and placed in foster care. Mckenzie and Cat were homeless on and off during her childhood, and Mckenzie was also put in foster care. (Holland, 7/13)

Politico: Senate Confirms Biden's Pick To Lead Gun Regulation Agency 
The Senate approved Steven Dettelbach’s nomination Tuesday to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, making him only the second Senate-confirmed director in the gun regulatory agency’s history. In a 48-46 vote, Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Rob Portman of Ohio joined Democrats in supporting the former U.S. attorney. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) said before the vote that confirming a permanent director is “another important step in protecting Americans from violent gun crimes.” (Levine, 7/12)

CNN: California Gov. Newsom Signs Law Allowing Gun Violence Victims To Sue Firearm Manufacturers For Damages 
California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law Tuesday that clears the path for gun violence victims to file civil suits against the companies that manufacture the firearms used in crimes. The move effectively tightens gun laws in California, which has the strictest gun safety measures in the nation, according to the Giffords Law Center. (Mossburg, 7/13)

In updates from Texas —

Austin American-Statesman: Exclusive: Surveillance Video Of Uvalde School Shooting Shows Police Response
The gunman walks into Robb Elementary School unimpeded, moments after spraying bullets from his semi-automatic rifle outside the building and after desperate calls to 911 from inside and outside the Uvalde school. He slows down to peek around a corner in the hallway and flips back his hair before proceeding toward classrooms 111 and 112. (Plohetski, 7/12)

The Texas Tribune and ProPublica: Texas Fails To Report Juvenile Psychiatric Hospitalizations To Gun Background Check System
In the spring of 2009, Elliott Naishtat persuaded his colleagues in the Texas Legislature to pass a bill that he believed would require the state to report court-ordered mental health hospitalizations for Texans of all ages to the national firearms background check system. But 13 years after the legislation became law, following a string of mass shootings carried out by troubled young men, an investigation has uncovered a major gap in the law and its implementation. (Schwartz and Collier, 7/13)

Also —

WWMT: Kalamazoo Summer Camp Aims To Teach Kids About Gun Violence 
A Kalamazoo non-profit is working to educate kids in the community about gun violence through summer camps. Urban Alliance welcomed kids 11 to 16-years-old to the Tree of Life School on Monday for Life Camp. Organizers said with gun violence on the rise, they need to educate youth about the dangers of guns. (McCauley, 7/11)

USA Today: Latest Organ Transplant Milestone: Pig Hearts To Brain-Dead People
Doctors at NYU Langone Health have taken another step toward making pig organs available for transplant, by successfully implanting pig hearts into two newly deceased people. (Weintraub, 7/12)

AP: Pig Organ Transplants Inch Closer With Testing In The Dead
The experiments announced Tuesday come after a historic but failed attempt earlier this year to use a pig’s heart to save a dying Maryland man — sort of a rehearsal before scientists try again in the living. Among the lessons: Practice with the deceased is important. “We learned so much from the first one that the second one is much better,” said Dr. Nader Moazami, who led the operations at NYU Langone Health. “You stand there in awe” when the pig heart starts to beat in a human body. (Neergaard, 7/12)

In other organ transplant news —

The Washington Post: A Death Row Inmate Wants To Donate A Kidney. Texas Won’t Let Him.
Ramiro Gonzales has been on death row since 2006, when he was sentenced for the 2001 murder of an 18-year-old woman. He was 18 at the time of the shooting and a drug addict after an abusive childhood, his attorneys have said. Now, in an attempt to atone for his crime, he has petitioned for a temporary release to undergo organ donation surgery. The state of Texas, however, won’t allow it. Officials have objected to the procedure because of Gonzales’s approaching execution date. (Paul, 7/12)

More science and research developments —

Stat: Verve Begins Human Tests Of First ‘Base Editor,’ Aiming At Heart Disease
Somewhere in New Zealand, the first patient ever has been dosed with a kind of gene-editing treatment known as a base editor, a newer way of utilizing CRISPR for gene editing. The company studying the treatment, Verve Therapeutics, announced the news Tuesday. (Herper and Molteni, 7/12)

The Boston Globe: Boston Biotech Verve Tests ‘CRISPR 2.0′ In A Patient For The First Time
Scientists are rewriting the code of life with a new technology that promises to cure inherited diseases by precisely correcting genetic typos. Known as base editing, the technology empowers researchers to pick a single letter amongst the three billion that compose the human genome, erase it, and write a new letter in its place. (Cross, 7/12)

The Hill: Amazon, Research Center Partner On Cancer Vaccine
Amazon will collaborate with the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle on a Food and Drug Administration-approved clinical trial for a cancer vaccine. According to a filing with the National Institutes of Health, Fred Hutch is testing a “personalized” vaccine for patients with late-stage melanoma skin cancer and certain breast cancers that have spread throughout the body or are not responding to other treatment. (Mueller, 7/12)

Axios: Training Your Brain To Reduce Risk Of Dementia
What if we could train our brains to keep dementia at bay? A new U.S. research study is trying to find a viable way. (Pandey, 7/12)

Stat: Pioneers Of ‘Brain-Computer Interfaces’ Seek To Shape The Field's Future
Three years after he was paralyzed from the chest down, Ian Burkhart faced a dilemma. He received a phone call from the Ohio State University asking him, as one of the few patients with a spinal cord injury living near Columbus, Ohio, to join a brain-computer interface (BCI) study. (Welle, 7/13)

Modern Healthcare: Mid-Year 2022: 20M Patients' Data Exposed In Healthcare Breaches
As of Tuesday, the Health and Human Services Department's Office for Civil Rights lists 338 breach reports submitted to the agency by healthcare providers, insurers and their business associates through the end of June. The tally represents the second-highest number of breach reports filed in the first half of a year, following last year's 368 reports. (Kim Cohen, 7/12)

On health care worker shortages —

Los Angeles Times: Hospitals Launch Effort To Repeal L.A. Healthcare Wage Rule
A coalition of Los Angeles hospitals and other health facilities launched a campaign on Tuesday to repeal a newly enacted ordinance boosting the minimum wage for thousands of healthcare workers to $25 per hour, saying the law will have a harmful effect on medical care across the city. (Zahniser, 7/12)

The Boston Globe: Nursing Shortage At Hospitals Leads To Multimillion-Dollar Costs
A widespread shortage of nurses at Massachusetts hospitals is only getting more extreme, with an estimated 5,000 vacancies across the state and institutions hemorrhaging cash as they are forced to hire temporary staff at much higher rates. (Bartlett, 7/12)

AP: Health System Plans Initiative To Increase Nurses
The West Virginia University Health System plans to launch an initiative that will increase the number of nurses in the state, officials said. WVU Health President and CEO Albert Wright Jr. told the Charleston Gazette-Mail’s “Outside the Echo Chamber” that the system plans to start an associate’s degree nursing program. Wright said the aim is to alleviate a “particularly challenging” nursing shortage in the state. (7/12)

In other health care industry news —

Modern Healthcare: Supreme Court's EPA Ruling Jeopardizes Healthcare Regulations
Healthcare regulations could be thrown into question following a Supreme Court decision last month that curtails a different agency's authority to interpret laws. While the ruling may not have much of an immediate impact on healthcare, it creates a landscape of uncertainty that could hamper healthcare companies that need regulatory clarity to plan ahead. (Goldman, 7/12)

Health News Florida: Orlando Health Announces Plans To Build A 300-Bed Hospital In Pasco County
Orlando Health is adding to its footprint in the Tampa Bay area, this time announcing plans for a new hospital in the Wiregrass Ranch community of Pasco County. (Mayer, 7/12)

Politico: New Contractor To Manage NYC’s Monkeypox Vaccination 
The city has tapped a new contractor to administer New York’s monkeypox vaccines, after the last provider botched appointment scheduling. Medical services company Affiliated Physicians will take over from walk-in clinic chain MedRite when the city resumes taking appointments on Tuesday — and handle things moving forward, according to reps from City Hall and the health department. (Rosenberg, 7/12)

San Francisco Chronicle: Highly Vulnerable To Monkeypox, San Francisco Is ‘Literally Begging’ Feds For Vaccine
San Francisco’s LGBTQ community, led by a city supervisor, is calling on the federal government to greatly step up distribution of vaccines against monkeypox, a highly infectious virus now spreading mostly through male-to-male sex. (Asimov, 7/12)

In other public health news —

Stat: Apgar Scores Are Less Predictive Of Infant Mortality For Black Babies
A standard screening test given to newborns minutes after birth is a less accurate predictor of infant mortality for Black babies than other children, a new study shows, but the authors said the Apgar test should still be used. (Muthukumar, 7/12)

NBC News: Brain-Eating Amoeba That Infected Swimmer In Iowa Is Increasingly Found In Northern States
The brain-eating amoeba that sickened a Missouri resident who'd recently visited Iowa has been found in Northern states more often in recent years as air and water temperatures rise, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Fieldstadt, 7/12)

NBC News: Honey-Based Sexual Supplements May Contain Cialis And Viagra Ingredients, FDA Warns
The Food and Drug Administration has issued warning letters to four companies selling honey-based supplements that claim to provide sexual enhancement. The products, with names like "Royal Honey for Him" and "X Rated Honey for Men," may contain hidden pharmaceuticals, the FDA said: the active ingredients in Cialis and Viagra. (Lewis, 7/12)

The Washington Post: Sleep Joins The List Of Eight Key Factors For Heart Health
Routinely getting a good night’s sleep has been added to the American Heart Association’s list of key components of cardiovascular health, lengthening the list to eight factors the association believes can lead to a longer, higher-quality life without heart disease. (Searing, 7/12)

KHN: Patients With Epilepsy Navigate Murky Unregulated CBD Industry 
In 2013, Tonya Taylor was suicidal because her epileptic seizures persisted despite taking a long list of medications. Then a fellow patient at a Denver neurologist’s office mentioned something that gave Taylor hope: a CBD oil called Charlotte’s Web. The person told her the oil helped people with uncontrolled epilepsy. However, the doctor would discuss it only “off the record” because CBD was illegal under federal law, and he worried about his hospital losing funding, Taylor said. (Berger, 7/13)

The Washington Post: Buttigieg Announces A Bill Of Rights For Passengers With Disabilities
The Department of Transportation on Friday announced its first bill of rights for travelers with disabilities. The document does not establish any policy. It is a summary meant to help travelers “understand and assert their rights” under the Air Carrier Access Act (ACAA) and ensure the airlines and airports uphold them. The law, passed in 1986 under President Ronald Reagan, made it illegal for airlines to discriminate against passengers because of their disabilities. It applies to all flights to, from and within the United States. (Benveniste, 7/12)

San Francisco Chronicle: Opioid Manufacturers Agree To Pay San Francisco $54 Million In Groundbreaking Case
Opioid manufacturers Allergan and Teva have agreed to pay San Francisco $54 million in cash and curative products to settle claims that they were responsible for drug addictions and deaths, leaving Walgreens, which sells the opioids, as the only defendant in the city’s groundbreaking federal court trial. The trial was wrapping up with closing statements Tuesday. (Egelko, 7/12)

In other health news from across the U.S. —

AP: Doctors Urge Access To Psychedelic Therapies In New Mexico
Physicians and researchers are urging New Mexico legislators to allow the use of psychedelic mushrooms in mental health therapy aimed at overcoming depression, anxiety, psychological trauma and alcoholism. A legislative panel on Tuesday listened to advocates who hope to broaden the scope of medical treatment and research assisted by psilocybin, the psychedelic active ingredient in certain mushrooms. Oregon is so far the only state to legalize the therapeutic use of psilocybin. (Lee, 7/13)

AP: Judge: NC Voters With Disabilities Can Choose Who Help Them 
A federal judge has blocked North Carolina laws that greatly restrict who can help people with disabilities request absentee ballots, fill them out and return them. A disabled person needing help to vote by mail can now seek assistance from anyone they choose, not just from a close relative or legal guardian as state law has limited, the State Board of Elections told county election officials after the decision filed Monday by U.S. District Judge Terrence Boyle. (Robertson, 7/12)

Chicago Tribune: Gov. J.B. Pritzker Names New State Public Health Director
Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Tuesday appointed a professor from the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine to lead the state Department of Public Health as highly contagious coronavirus variants have emerged and made clear the pandemic is far from over. (Petrella, 7/12)

New Hampshire Public Radio: Shibinette To Resign As N.H. Health Commissioner
New Hampshire Health and Human Services Commissioner Lori Shibinette, who spent much of her two-and-a-half-year tenure responding to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, is planning to step down later this year. (Fam and Furukawa, 7/12)

AP: Ukraine Gets $1.7B In Fresh Aid To Pay Health Care Workers 
Ukraine is getting an additional $1.7 billion in assistance from the U.S. government and the World Bank to pay the salaries of its beleaguered health care workers and provide other essential services. The money coming Tuesday from the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Treasury Department and the World Bank is meant to alleviate the acute budget deficit caused by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “brutal war of aggression,” USAID said in a statement. (Hussein, 7/12)

USA Today: Hardware And Hardships: US Doctors Helping Ukraine Medical Teams Via Telehealth, But Needs Are Staggering
As a trauma specialist and orthopedic surgeon in the western Ukraine city of Uzhhorod, Dr. Andriy Buchok has grown used to the frequent 24-hour shifts that make him feel like he lives in the hospital where he works and to routinely skipping his supposed days off. Harder than that is lacking the medical equipment required to treat some war injuries, which at times represents the difference between a patient keeping a limb and having it amputated. (Ortiz, 7/12)

In other global developments —

The Washington Post: Move Faster In Aiding Global Food Crisis, Senators Urge 
U.S. food aid is taking months to reach needy nations despite an urgent global food crisis, a bipartisan group of senators said Tuesday, urging the Biden administration to accelerate delivery as the war in Ukraine pushes more countries closer to famine. In a letter to U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Samantha Power, one Democrat and 12 Republican lawmakers said that inadequate stewardship of funding and staffing shortages jeopardized the effectiveness of U.S. efforts against mounting global hunger. (Ryan, 7/12)

The Washington Post: Mexico’s Lopez Obrador Meets Biden Amid Tension Over Migration, Fentanyl 
The meeting between the two men came a month after Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador boycotted President Joe Biden’s Western Hemisphere summit, and was intended to reflect something of a detente amid rising concerns over migration, trade and the flow of fentanyl across the southwest U.S. border. (Sheridan and Parker, 7/12)

Nature: Guatemala’s COVID Vaccine Roll-Out Failed. Here’s What Researchers Know
Researchers have been studying vaccine hesitancy in Guatemala, interviewing people to understand their resistance to COVID-19 vaccines and to find solutions. ... Guatemala has one of the lowest COVID-19 vaccination rates in Latin America: only about 35% of people have been fully vaccinated (see ‘Vaccine progress’). The health ministry has recorded more than 900,000 SARS-CoV-2 infections and 18,500 deaths since the pandemic began. But this is probably an underestimate, because of a lack of testing, says Óscar Chávez, co-founder of the data-analysis think tank Laboratorio de Datos, based in Guatemala City. And that number will undoubtedly rise, he adds, because the vaccination rate is slowing. (7/7)

CIDRAP: WHO Report Highlights Progress, Challenges For Vaccines Against Resistant Bacteria
The World Health Organization (WHO) today released its first-ever report on the pipeline for vaccines to combat antimicrobial resistance (AMR). (Dall, 7/12)

CIDRAP: National Stewardship Program Tied To Reduced Antibiotics In Ambulatory Care
Antibiotic prescribing at hundreds of ambulatory care clinics across the country was nearly cut in half after implementation of an antibiotic stewardship and patient safety program, according to a study published last week in JAMA Network Open. (Dall, 7/12)

CIDRAP: Mixed Results For Nasal Theophylline To Treat COVID-Related Loss Of Smell 
Two new linked studies on the effectiveness and safe dosing of theophylline nasal irrigation to treat COVID-19–related altered sense of smell have generated inconclusive results. (Van Beusekom, 7/8)

The Lancet: Tixagevimab–Cilgavimab For Treatment Of Patients Hospitalised With COVID-19
Tixagevimab–cilgavimab is a neutralising monoclonal antibody combination hypothesised to improve outcomes for patients hospitalised with COVID-19. We aimed to compare tixagevimab–cilgavimab versus placebo, in patients receiving remdesivir and other standard care. (7/8)

Also —

Axios: Hepatitis-C Treatment Is Effective In Those Who Used Or Use Injection Drugs
Treating intravenous drug users with hepatitis drugs at the community level significantly drove down liver disease and deaths over more than a decade, researchers reported in the Annals of Internal Medicine. (Dreher, 7/12)

FiercePharma: BioNTech Could Owe CureVac $500M In Royalties If Suit Succeeds
If CureVac's patent infringement lawsuit against BioNTech is successful, the company could be lined up to receive serious royalties from its fellow German mRNA pioneer. That’s the analysis of Berenberg Capital Markets, which estimates that $20 billion of BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine revenue could be subject to the suit. The team figures there's $500 million in “potential upside” for CureVac based on a royalty rate of 2% to 3% in “an optimistic scenario,” analyst Zhiqiang Shu wrote in a note to clients. (Dunleavy, 7/12)

FiercePharma: Dr. Reddy's Chided By The FDA After Manufacturing Inspection
Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories has been dinged by the U.S. FDA once again for production shortfalls, the Indian drug giant revealed Thursday in a securities filing. ... Observations suggest FDA inspectors uncovered conditions or practices at the Dr. Reddy’s plant, located in Srikakulam, Andhra Pradesh, India, that might point to subpar manufacturing standards, the regulator says online. (Kansteiner, 7/11)

Los Angeles Times: Will Mark Cuban's Pharmacy Lower Drug Prices?
Mark Cuban, the billionaire “Shark Tank” celebrity and Dallas Mavericks owner, is getting attention again — this time for his Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Co., which seeks to reduce prescription drug prices for Americans. A new study finds that Medicare could have saved $3.6 billion in 2020 if it had paid Mark Cuban drug prices. (Peter Neumann, Joshua Cohen and Daniel Ollendorf, 7/11)

The Star Tribune: A Bold Venture To Cut Rx Costs
The brash billionaire and owner of the Dallas Mavericks has launched an online pharmacy with a mission: upending the business model that makes prescription drug manufacturing and distribution reliably profitable. It's a system that often leaves consumers struggling to pay for the drugs they need. (7/10)

Stat: FDA's Proposed Rule Would Facilitate Prescription-To-OTC Switches 
After a decade-long wait, the Food and Drug Administration finally issued a proposed rule in late June that would make it easier for pharmaceutical companies to switch products from prescription-only to over-the-counter status while still retaining a prescription version. (Martha Rumore, 7/12)

The Star Tribune: The Conflict Between Government Agencies Regarding PFAS
Drugs containing PFAS and conditions with treatments that introduce the presence of PFAS include, but are not limited to, tachyarrhythmias (flecainide), antidepressants (fluoxetine), nonsteroidal anti-inflammatories (celecoxib), antibiotics (levofloxacin), rheumatoid arthritis therapeutics (leflunomide), cholesterol-lowering agents (atorvastin) and even COVID-19 antivirals such as Paxlovid. (David Clement, 7/10)

American Academy Of Pediatrics: Opportunities For Antibiotic Stewardship For Community-Acquired Pneumonia
When you make the diagnosis of pneumonia, how do you decide if the patient should receive antibiotics? Do you use the clinical symptoms? Chest xray (CXR) results? Other criteria? (Rachel Y. Moon, MD, 7/5)

New England Journal of Medicine: Accelerated Approval — Taking The FDA’s Concerns Seriously
As the U.S. Congress debates a must-pass bill reauthorizing Food and Drug Administration (FDA) user fees for drug and device companies, the future of the FDA’s accelerated-approval program has become a focus of policy discussion. (Rachel E. Sachs, J.D., M.P.H., et al, 7/6)

Bloomberg: Crispr For The Masses Gets Closer To Reality In Fight Against Heart Disease
A patient in New Zealand last week became the first person to be injected with a drug that is designed to powerfully and permanently lower cholesterol, ushering in a critical test of Crispr gene-editing technology. (Lisa Jarvis, 7/12)

The Baltimore Sun: Protecting And Broadening Maryland’s Access To Abortion Care
The Supreme Court in Dobbs held there is no constitutional right to abortion. From now on, federal courts will apply a deferential level of review and uphold most state bans or restrictions. What does this mean for people in Maryland? While much has been said about Maryland’s abortion-protective laws, more needs to be done to ensure long-lasting protection. (Eva Cox, Margaret Johnson and Kathleen Hoke, 7/12)

NBC News: The Question We Have To Stop Asking Alzheimer’s Patients
The recent discovery of a gene that may explain why women are at higher risk for getting Alzheimer’s disease made me think of a question I asked myself while on a flight from Boston to Denver: How do we care for a loved one who has Alzheimer’s? (Linda Katherine Cutting, 7/11) 

Stat: Opioid-Pushing Executives Should Get Jail Time, Not Fines 
The first time I heard the word “Oxy” was President’s Day, 2001, as my 18-year-old son Eddie was lying in his bed — dead. “Tell me! Tell me!” I said frantically to one of Eddie’s high school friends. “What did he do? What did he do?” “An Oxy!” (Ed Bisch, 7/13)

Modern Healthcare: Intellectual Property Rights Need Stronger Global Protections
Top trade officials from countries all over the world, including the U.S., recently gathered in Geneva, Switzerland, and waived certain intellectual property protections on COVID-19 vaccines. Their decision undermines the very IP rights that enabled hundreds of collaborations to produce vaccines on a global scale. (Stephen Ubl, 7/12)

Miami Herald: Trans Youth In Florida Under Attack, Despite Public Support
A new poll finds that 54% of Floridians support access to gender-affirming healthcare for minors when it’s recommended by their doctors or supported by their parents. (Rachel L. Levine, 7/12)