The Washington Post: Vaccines Door-To-Door: Immunization Push Goes Granular As Delta Variant Looms
President Biden on Tuesday announced a summer-long effort to reach Americans still resistant to getting vaccinated, including going door-to-door and visiting places of worship, as he fights what growing evidence suggests is evermore entrenched resistance from vaccine holdouts. In remarks from the White House, the president pointed to increased concerns over the delta variant of the coronavirus, which is more transmissible and has forced some European countries back into lockdowns, as he reiterated his exhortation that Americans get the vaccine. (Wootson Jr. and Pager, 7/6)

CNN: Biden Predicts US To Reach 160 Million Fully Vaccinated Americans By The End Of This Week
President Joe Biden announced on Tuesday that the United States is projected to reach the mark of 160 million fully vaccinated Americans by the end of this week and that his administration will engage in targeted outreach to get more people vaccinated, after the nation fell short of his initial July Fourth goals. (Sullivan, 7/6)

The Hill: White House Signals New COVID-19 Strategy As Delta Variant Spreads
President Biden on Tuesday pleaded with Americans to get vaccinated against COVID-19 as the White House signaled a shift toward grassroots tactics to reach those who have yet to get a shot. Biden, who just days earlier hosted more than a thousand people at the White House for an outdoor Independence Day gathering, cautioned against getting overconfident in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic as the delta variant contributes to rising case counts in less vaccinated parts of the country. (Chalfant and Samuels, 7/6)

The New York Times: Biden Makes New Push For Vaccinations, But Experts Say More Is Needed 
Faced with a steep decline in vaccination rates, President Biden said on Tuesday that his administration would send people door to door, set up clinics at workplaces and urge employers to offer paid time off as part of a renewed push to reach tens of millions of unvaccinated Americans. But top health experts say that it is simply not enough, and that the president needs to take the potentially unpopular step of encouraging states, employers and colleges and universities to require vaccinations to slow the spread of the coronavirus. (Shear and Weiland, 7/6)

Politico: Biden's Covid Vaccine Push Crashes Into Reality
For all the celebrity plugs, offers of free beer, and cash lotteries, the national vaccination push is hitting a brick wall of reality. Conspiracies, lethargy and a sense that the pandemic is on the wane have intervened as the demand for the vaccine has dropped nationally from 2 million shots per day in early May to closer to 1 million per day by mid-June. (Korecki, 7/7)

The Hill: Risks Rise As Vaccination Gap With Trump Counties Grows Wider
A stark divide in the vaccination rates of blue and red states has grown more prominent in recent months, imperiling a full national recovery. While a partisan divide fueled in large part by former President Trump has been a defining characteristic of COVID-19 in the United States, the gap is becoming more worrisome once again with the deadly delta variant. (Weixel, 7/6)

The Washington Post: A Third Of White Conservatives Refuse To Get Vaccinated — A Refusal Shown In Polling And The Real World 
Two elected officials have weighed in over the past several days on the effort to vaccinate as many Americans as possible. The first was President Biden. During a July 4 speech at the White House, he again encouraged the country to be vaccinated against the coronavirus, referring to covid-19, the disease it causes. ... The second official to offer thoughts was Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who weighed in on Twitter. (Bump, 7/6)

The Hill: McConnell Pushes COVID-19 Vaccines Amid Delta Variant Worries
Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Tuesday pushed for more Americans to get vaccinated amid growing concerns about the delta coronavirus variant. "There's no good reason not to get vaccinated. We need to finish the job. And I know there's some skepticism out there, but let me put it his way: It may not guarantee you don't get it but it almost guarantees you don't die from it if you get it," McConnell said at an event in Kentucky. (Carney, 7/6)

Also —

KHN: As Covid Vaccinations Slow, Parts Of The US Remain Far Behind 70% Goal
July Fourth was not the celebration President Joe Biden had hoped for, as far as protecting more Americans with a coronavirus vaccine. The nation fell just short of the White House’s goal to give at least a first dose to 70% of adults by Independence Day. By that day, 67% of adult Americans had gotten either the first shot of the Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, or the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine. If children ages 12-17, who are now eligible for the Pfizer product, are included, the national percentage of those who have gotten at least one shot is 64%. (Bebinger and Farmer, 7/7)

CBS News: Denver Zoo Joins Oakland Zoo In Vaccinating Animals Against COVID
A donation of doses from the veterinary pharmaceutical company Zoetis will allow Denver Zoo to vaccinate some of its animals against COVID-19 within the next few weeks, CBS Denver reports. The zoo joins Oakland Zoo in aiming to vaccinate some of its residents. Denver Zoo VP of Animal Health Dr. Scott Larsen stressed that the doses are specifically made for animals. "We are not taking any vaccines away from humans," Dr. Larsen told the station. (Siese, 7/7)

ABC News: Oakland Zoo Begins Experimental COVID-19 Vaccine Program On Its Wildlife 
The Oakland Zoo has begun a vaccination program to inoculate its highest risk animals from COVID-19 with an experimental vaccine that has been authorized by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The Oakland Zoo received its first shipment of the experimental vaccine developed by veterinary pharmaceutical company Zoetis and began to give doses to its tigers, black bears, grizzly bears, mountain lions and ferrets, who were the first animals to receive the vaccine, according to a statement from the Oakland Zoo. The zoo next plans to give doses to primates, including chimpanzees, as well as fruit bats and pigs. (Haworth, 7/4)

In other news about the vaccine rollout —

Axios: America Is Hitting Its Vaccination Ceiling 
The U.S. appears to be reaching its ceiling on COVID-19 vaccinations, at least among adults. Why it matters: The more transmissible and dangerous variant Delta variant is spreading fast, and experts fear another wave of infections among the unvaccinated. "We’ve hit the wall in the number of vaccinations in recent weeks," Eric Topol, director and founder of the Scripps Research Translational Institute told Axios. (Reed, 7/6)

Houston Chronicle: Half Of Eligible Texans Now Fully Vaccinated For COVID-19
Texas has reached a new milestone in the effort to vaccinate people against COVID-19: As of Monday, more than 50 percent of Texans eligible for the shot — those ages 12 and older — have been fully vaccinated. The current vaccine rate of 50.1 percent, reported by the state on Tuesday, is a far cry from the original goal set by President Joe Biden’s administration, at 70 percent of eligible Americans fully vaccinated by the holiday weekend. In recent months, immunization rates have slowed considerably, forcing local officials to rely on incentives to bring people in for shots. (Wu, 7/6)

Los Angeles Times: O.C. Health Officials Boast 70% Vaccination Among Adults
Orange County has hit what both public health officials and experts describe as a significant milestone: 70% of residents 18 and older had received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine as of last week. The county has been working to get to some level of so-called herd immunity by the beginning of July. That’s gaining more urgency as the new, highly infectious Delta variant is spreading. Delta is now the dominant variant in California, and is blamed for a rise in new cases in L.A. County. (Cardine, 7/6)

NPR: Delta Is Now The Dominant Coronavirus Variant In The U.S.
The highly contagious delta variant now accounts for more than 51% of COVID-19 cases in the U.S., according to new estimates released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The variant, also known as B.1.617.2, was first detected in India and is spreading quickly across the globe. And in parts of the U.S., the delta strain accounts for more than 80% of new infections, including some Midwestern states like Missouri, Kansas and Iowa. The delta variant is already causing 74.3% of infections in Western states, including Utah and Colorado, and 58.8% of infections in Southern states like Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas and Oklahoma, according to CDC estimates. (Greenhalgh and Stein, 7/6)

CNN: Delta Variant Now Makes Up More Than Half Of Coronavirus Cases In US, CDC Says 
The Delta variant, a more transmissible and possibly more dangerous strain of coronavirus, now makes up more than half of all new Covid-19 infections in the US, according to estimates from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Delta accounts for 51.7% of new infections in the US, according to the CDC. The B.1.1.7, or Alpha variant, which has dominated for months, now accounts for 28.7% of cases, the CDC said. (Holcombe, Yan and Waldrop, 7/7)

In other news about the delta variant —

Louisville Courier Journal: Louisville Confirms 5 Cases Of COVID-19 Delta Variant, But Likely Has Many More
Louisville has confirmed five cases of the COVID-19 Delta variant, which is more contagious than other strains, local health leaders announced Tuesday. The actual number of Delta cases in the city is "likely much larger," though, since not all test samples are checked for the variant and because confirming results can take several weeks, according to Connie Mendel, the assistant director at the Louisville health department. "We do know that the variant spreads quickly and exponentially among people who are unvaccinated," she said. "So, if you're unvaccinated, you're at an increased risk of becoming severely ill, hospitalized and dying from this variant." (Ladd, 7/6)

Fox News: Fully Vaccinated Veteran Hospitalized After Being Diagnosed With Delta Variant
A 73-year-old veteran in Pennsylvania, who is fully vaccinated, is currently hospitalized after being diagnosed with the COVID-19 Delta variant, a report said. Joe Pucci started to exhibit symptoms last month and, as his condition worsened, visited the Pittsburgh VA Medical Center, according to WPXI. He told the station that he did not believe he would survive. His family said that he has some underlying health issues, like diabetes. His daughter said doctors indicated that Pucci would not be alive if not for early treatment. Pucci also credits being vaccinated. (DeMarche, 7/7)

Los Angeles Times: California Spread Of Coronavirus' Delta Variant Alarms Officials
The rise of the highly contagious Delta variant is causing increases in new coronavirus cases and hospitalizations in California and prompting concern about new spread of the illness in unvaccinated communities. While those who have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 are believed to have high levels of protection against the variant, more people who have not been vaccinated are getting sick, data show. (Lin II and Money, 7/6)

The Wall Street Journal: Delta Covid-19 Variant Gains Ground Among The Unvaccinated
At Cheyenne Regional Medical Center in Wyoming, health workers didn’t need genomic sequencing to tell them the highly contagious Delta variant had arrived. Younger patients started coming in about two months ago with symptoms of Covid-19. Many progressed from mild illness to respiratory distress more quickly than patients treated earlier in the pandemic, said Sodienye Tetenta, a critical-care physician at the hospital. Nearly all were unvaccinated. “We could see that this was not the Covid of last year,” Dr. Tetenta said. (Wernau, 7/6)

NBC News: Covid's Delta Variant Is Highly Contagious. Will Vaccines Work Against It?
The delta variant now accounts for half of the Covid-19 cases in many areas of the U.S., President Joe Biden said Tuesday, urging unvaccinated Americans to get the Covid-19 shots as the U.S. faces a dramatic rise in the "hypertransmissible" variant of the coronavirus. His plea included reassurances about the strength of the Covid-19 vaccines available in the U.S. (Edwards, 7/6)

The Wall Street Journal: What Parents With Unvaccinated Kids Need To Know About The Delta Variant This Summer 
Gloria Kennett is eager to take a long-awaited beach vacation, but she is keeping a watchful eye on new cases of the Covid-19 Delta variant. Ms. Kennett, a hotel executive in Chicago, is vaccinated, but her 9-month-old daughter isn’t yet eligible. For now they’re planning to go. But if they see a big surge in cases, they’ll hold off. They’re reassured that they can get a refund if they cancel. (Dizik, 7/5)

CIDRAP: States Report Increase In COVID-19 Cases Over Holiday 
Half of all US states reported significant increases in COVID-19 cases over the long Fourth of July weekend in a surge of virus activity caused by the highly transmissible Delta variant. The rise in cases comes as the country narrowly missed the mark of vaccinating 70% of residents ages 18 and up with at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine. Instead, 67.1% of American adults have had at least one dose of vaccine, and 47.4% are fully vaccinated. (Soucheray, 7/6)

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette: State's Covid-19 Hospitalizations Soar
The number of patients hospitalized with covid-19 in Arkansas jumped Tuesday by 55, to 416, the largest one-day increase since January. Gov. Asa Hutchinson attributed the uptick to the state's low vaccination rates. Fifteen more covid-19 patients were admitted into intensive care units, raising the total to 176, a week-to-week increase of 34 from the 142 reported the previous Tuesday. Those patients requiring ventilators to breathe increased by 10, to 76 -- up seven from 69 a week ago. The increases came the same day Hutchinson announced a statewide tour to talk directly with residents and address vaccine hesitancy. (Roberts, 7/7)

Oklahoman: Oklahoma Sees High Hospital Admission Rate For COVID-19 Patients
Oklahoma is seeing a high rate of hospital admissions for COVID-19 patients amid rising case numbers in the state, according to an expert. Across the state, nearly 28% of people who have had a positive COVID-19 test in the last two weeks were admitted to hospitals, said Dr. David Kendrick, founder and CEO of MyHealth Access Network, a statewide health information exchange. “That's a really high admission rate,” Kendrick said Tuesday at a Healthier Oklahoma Coalition news conference, adding that the number of hospital admissions statewide is still low despite the high rate. (Branham, 7/7)

Las Vegas Review-Journal: Nevada Adds 1,346 New COVID Cases, Sees Sharp Jump In Positivity Rate
Nevada on Tuesday reported 1,346 new coronavirus cases and five deaths over the preceding four days as well as a sharp increase in the state’s test positivity rate. Updated data covering Friday through Monday posted by the state Department of Health and Human Services on its coronavirus website showed the two-week moving average of new COVID-19 cases increasing to 352 per day and pushed the state’s case total to 336,109. The state’s death total increased to 5,702. The five deaths reported were below the two-week moving average of two per day, when spread over four days. (Dylan, 7/6)

CNN: US Coronavirus: US Sends Surge Team To Southwest Missouri After Delta Variant Fuels Rise In Cases And Hospitalizations 
The US government is deploying a Covid-19 surge team to provide public health support in southwest Missouri, where the spread of the virus is filling up hospital beds once again. The surge of Covid-19 cases is so high in the city of Springfield, Missouri, that the CoxHealth hospital system began transferring patients infected with the virus to other facilities to provide better staffing. At Cox South, a Springfield hospital, 12 Covid-19 patients were transferred to other facilities in the region between Friday and Monday morning. (Elamroussi, 7/7)

The Washington Post: All Marylanders Who Died Of Covid In June Were Unvaccinated, Data Show
Unvaccinated people made up all of Maryland’s reported coronavirus deaths last month, as well as the vast majority of new cases and hospitalizations, the state reported Tuesday — data that public health officials say demonstrates the effectiveness of vaccines. The numbers come as experts try to persuade the vaccine-hesitant to get shots and protect themselves against a virus that has killed more than 22,000 people in the region and nearly 4 million worldwide. (Portnoy and Wiggins, 7/6)

KHN: California’s Highest Covid Infection Rates Shift To Rural Counties
Most of us are familiar with the good news: In recent weeks, rates of covid-19 infection and death have plummeted in California, falling to levels not seen since the early days of the pandemic. The average number of new covid infections reported each day dropped by an astounding 98% from December to June, according to figures from the California Department of Public Health. And bolstering that trend, nearly 70% of Californians 12 and older are partially or fully vaccinated. (Reese, 7/7)

In news about mask-wearing —

AP: Anti-Mask Protesters Charged In School Board Meeting Uproar
Several anti-mask protesters who disrupted a school district board meeting in Utah earlier this year are now facing criminal charges, officials said. The 11 protesters were charged with disorderly conduct and disrupting a public meeting late last week. Granite School District spokesperson Ben Horsley says police are still searching for another person who was accused of being involved in the confrontation. (7/6)

AP: Missouri Mayor Who Required Masks Faces Recall Vote
As the coronavirus surges in Missouri, a mayor who imposed a mask requirement and other public safety measures is facing a recall vote, even though the requirements have long since expired. Nixa voters will have the option to recall Mayor Brian Steele at a special election set for Nov. 2, the Springfield News-Leader reports. (7/7)

Also —

The Washington Post: Appalachian Covid Deniers Anger Nurses In Virginia 
The hospital executives at the lectern called her a hero, and the struggle that had earned Emily Boucher that distinction showed on her face: in the pallor acquired over 12-hour shifts in the intensive care unit, the rings beneath eyes that watched almost every day as covid-19 patients gasped for their final breaths. The pandemic had hit late but hard in the Appalachian highlands — the mountainous region that includes Southwest Virginia and Northeast Tennessee — and over the winter many of its victims had ended up on ventilators tended by Boucher and her fellow nurses at Johnston Memorial Hospital. (Jamison, 7/6)

AP: Unending Grief Of COVID-19 Deaths Causing Problems For Some
Kelly Brown’s 74-year-old father got sick first with COVID-19, followed by her 71-year-old mom just two days later. John and Judy Trzebiatowski died of the illness just a week apart last August, sending Brown into a black tunnel of grief that doesn’t seem to have an end. Health restrictions stripped away the things that normally help people deal with death, such as bedside visits at the Wisconsin hospital where they were treated and a big funeral with hugs and tears, she said. That left Brown to deal with her sorrow on her own, and now she’s having a hard time seeing a way forward. (Reeves, 7/6)

CIDRAP: WHO Advises 2 Monoclonal Antibodies For Severe COVID 
The World Health Organization (WHO) today recommended the use of anti-inflammatory monoclonal antibodies—tocilizumab and sarilumab—alongside corticosteroids for treating patients who have severe or critical COVID-19 infections. ... They found that the interleukin-6 antagonists tocilizumab and sarilumab reduced the risk of death and the need for mechanical ventilation. The WHO coordinated the study, which included partners from the United Kingdom. (Schnirring, 7/6)

Bloomberg: Drug That Blocks Immune System Overload Reduces Covid-19 Deaths
Combining two inflammation-blocking drugs reduces hospitalization and death from Covid-19 compared with a standard therapy, according to the World Health Organization. Adding drugs that block an immune protein called interleukin-6 to an already widely used treatment, corticosteroids, reduces the risk of death and the need for breathing assistance, the health agency said Tuesday in a statement. The recommendation was based on 27 trials involving almost 11,000 people. (Shepherd, 7/6)

Stat: Roche Urged To Cut Price Of Drug Now Recommended For Covid-19
After the World Health Organization recommended a Roche (RHHBY) drug to treat severe Covid-19, Doctors Without Borders quickly urged the drug maker to “end its monopoly” by lowering the price of the medicine and sharing its technology in order to quickly widen access. Meta-analyses of more than 10,000 patients who were enrolled in 27 clinical trials founds that two medicines — Roche’s Actemra and Kevzara from Sanofi — lowered the risk of death by 13% compared to standard care, especially when given with corticosteroids. The WHO noted these were the first drugs to be found effective against Covid-19 since corticosteroids were recommended last September. (Silverman, 7/6)

In other covid research —

Los Angeles Times: Can COVID-19 Cause Lasting Erectile Dysfunction?
Can COVID-19 cause lasting erectile dysfunction? This is now the topic of some discussion among doctors and health experts as they try to better understand the effects of the coronavirus. The problem has been observed in some patients, but experts agree more study is needed to form any conclusions. Some men are coming into doctors’ offices saying erectile dysfunction has occurred following a COVID-19 infection, said Dr. Ryan Berglund, a urologist at the Cleveland Clinic. At the moment, there’s primarily anecdotal evidence, and “we don’t know the scale of the problem at this point.” (Lin II, 7/6)

San Francisco Chronicle: Can 'Sniff Training' Restore COVID Survivors' Sense Of Smell?
Cat Berner slid a chicken into the oven in November and turned to chopping vegetables. It didn’t take long for her roommate to come running into the kitchen of their San Francisco flat, crying, “What’s burning?” Berner whirled around. “What are you talking about?” Berner, 31, an executive assistant for a venture capital firm, remembers that day as a turning point in her continuing effort to regain the sense of smell stolen by the coronavirus. It happened a few days after she and her friends, who had pledged to socialize only with each other, had a Halloween party and gave each other COVID-19. (Asimov, 7/6)

The New York Times: Birthday Parties As Virus Vector 
At the height of the pandemic, it was easy to worry that strangers would give you the virus. But a new study of what happened after people’s birthdays suggests that people we trust were also a common source of viral spread. Private gatherings have been harder for researchers to measure than big public events — they’re private, after all. And there has been a fierce debate for months among epidemiologists about just how big a factor they have been in how coronavirus moved from person to person. (Sanger-Katz, 7/5)

Modern Healthcare: Health System Executive Named Medicare Chief
President Joe Biden's administration has selected a former not-for-profit health system executive as director of CMS' Center for Medicare, an office that oversees health benefits for tens of millions of seniors, people with disabilities and dialysis patients. Dr. Meena Seshamani, who most recently was vice president of clinical care transformation at MedStar Health, started her new position Tuesday. Seshamani is a medical doctor and holds a PhD in health economics. At MedStar Health, Seshamani "conceptualized, designed and implemented" public health and value-based care initiatives and oversaw efforts around community health, geriatrics and palliative care, according to a CMS news release. (Hellmann, 7/6)

Becker's Hospital Review: CMS Names New Center For Medicare Director
Dr. Meena Seshamani, MD, will step up as the new CMS deputy administrator and director of Center for Medicare, the agency said July 6.Prior to joining CMS, Dr. Seshamani served as vice president of clinical care transformation at MedStar Health where she designed and integrated a nationally recognized care model oversight department that was recognized by the CMS Hospital Improvement Innovation Network, among others. Dr. Seshamani also helped lead the Biden-Harris transition HHS agency review team and was previously director of the Office of Health Reform at HHS. While at HHS, she also helped implement the Affordable Care Act. (Moran, 7/6)

Forbes: How To Lead In A Crisis And Come Out Stronger: An Interview With Physician-Leader Dr. Meena Seshamani
For the nearly two-thirds of American adults who are at least partially vaccinated against Covid-19—just shy of President Joe Biden’s July Fourth 70% goal—this pandemic may already feel like it’s in the past.  But for many healthcare leaders, the crisis has given way to a new challenge: how to address the structural problems exposed by the pandemic into the future. Dr. Meena Seshamani, vice president of clinical care transformation at MedStar Health and former director of the Office of Health Reform at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, was leading population health efforts for the Maryland and Washington, D.C.-based health system when the pandemic hit. She had to quickly shift her mindset and her focus to respond to the crisis. (Gordon, 6/30)

In news about Biden's immigration policy and infrastructure plan —

NBC News: Whistleblowers Allege Poor Care For Migrant Kids By Contractor Specializing In Disaster Cleanup
Children housed in one of the Biden administration's largest shelters for unaccompanied migrant minors were being watched over by contractors with no Spanish-language skills or experience in child care who usually stood idly at the edge of crowded tents, according to two federal workers who have come forward to file a whistleblower complaint to Congress. The contractor for the Department of Health and Human Services, Servpro, specializes in cleanup after water, fire and storm disasters. It shows no record of having handled a contract related to child welfare before it took on the care of nearly 5,000 children who were housed at the facility at Fort Bliss, Texas, in May. (Ainsley, 7/7)

Modern Healthcare: Immigrant Children Face Healthcare Challenges Even After Gaining Citizenship
Children living in the U.S. without citizenship status are four times more likely to go uninsured and more than twice as likely to receive delayed care than a sibling who achieves citizenship, according to a new study. These kids are also more likely to have relatively worse health outcomes and lower wages later in life, the Health Affairs research published Tuesday shows. That's despite 69% of them becoming citizens by the age of 30 and over 80% of them achieving citizenship by age 50. More so than income, area, or race, citizenship is the greatest indicator of whether a child will go uninsured. (Gellman, 7/6)

Axios: Health Care Has Few Plans To Address The Aging Immigrant Population 
Health care systems in the U.S. are largely unprepared to deal with aging immigrants, according to a new report published in Health Affairs. Why it matters: The group skews older than U.S.-born adults, the study warns, and many of these aging immigrants aren't eligible for Medicare and Medicaid. Even aging documented immigrants may have difficulty qualifying for Medicare because they need to account for at least 10 years of Social Security earnings to be eligible, the authors write. (Fernandez, 7/7)

The Hill: McConnell Vows 'Hell Of A Fight' Over Biden Infrastructure Plan 
Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) vowed Tuesday that Republicans would wage a "hell of a fight" over attempts by Democrats to pass a sweeping multitrillion-dollar infrastructure plan along party lines. McConnell, speaking at an event in Kentucky, predicted that there would be a "big argument" about Democrats' plan to use reconciliation, which allows them to bypass Republicans in the Senate, to pass large swaths of President Biden's jobs and families plan. (Carney, 7/6)

The Wall Street Journal: Hospitals Often Charge Uninsured People The Highest Prices, New Data Show 
Raul Macias was rushed to an emergency room last November, with pain shooting from his back to his legs. His breathing was shallow. Doctors at Avera St. Luke’s Hospital in Aberdeen, S.D., discovered a potentially life-threatening tear in the lining of his largest artery. They moved him to Avera Health’s heart hospital, where he stayed for three days. Avera then billed Mr. Macias, who was uninsured, some of the highest prices the hospitals charge to any payer, the Wall Street Journal found in an analysis of Avera’s previously confidential hospital price data. (Evans, Mathews and McGinty, 7/6)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Study Links Language Barriers To Much Lower Access To Health Care
Language barriers significantly limit access to health care for U.S. residents with limited English proficiency — a population of over 25 million people nationwide, including more than 500,000 in Georgia. That’s the main takeaway from a new study published Tuesday in Health Affairs, a leading health policy research journal. According to the study’s authors, a group of researchers from Harvard Medical School and the City University of New York’s Hunter College, Spanish speakers receive approximately one-third less care than other Americans, even with differences in baseline health, age, income and health insurance taken into account. While there have been multiple policy initiatives at the federal level aimed at strengthening language services in hospitals and clinics, the study indicates these might have had limited effectiveness: Key language-based disparities in health care access have only grown over the past two decades. (Grinspan, 7/6)

NBC News: ‘This Will Shut Us Down’: HIV Prevention Clinics Brace For Gilead Reimbursement Cuts
Tony Christon-Walker was determined to set up an HIV prevention clinic in Birmingham, Alabama, that would succeed where others have long struggled to combat the scourge of the virus among his fellow queer Black men. The director of prevention and community partnerships at the nonprofit AIDS Alabama, he spent much of 2019 hiring a clinic staff composed of people of color. They were trained to provide the kind of affirming care that, he said, “reflects our culture,” and that would encourage local men at risk of HIV to keep coming back. (Ryan, 7/7)

In other health care industry developments —

Modern Healthcare: Sutter Workers Protest Understaffing At Hospitals
Sutter Health's service and tech employees plan to protest low staffing levels at eight hospitals, saying they lead to longer wait times and a lack of patient safety. The workers will set up "danger zones" at each hospital in July to illustrate the dangerous conditions they allege patients and employees face. The danger zones will include caution tape, orange cones, large signs and caregivers in uniform and PPE giving speeches to draw attention to care delays caused by understaffing, said Tom Parker, senior communications specialist at SEIU-UHW. (Devereaux, 7/6)

Modern Healthcare: Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals Post First-Quarter Financials
For the first quarter of 2021, Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals each posted operating incomes close to their projections as the health systems emerge from the financial challenges of COVID-19, per recently released financial disclosures. Cleveland Clinic's operating income for the first three months of the year was $61.7 million, compared with an operating loss of $39.9 million in the first quarter of 2020. This was slightly under what the Clinic expected from an operating performance perspective, but it's not material, said Steven Glass, the Clinic's chief financial officer. He also notes that the Clinic set its projections last fall prior to the winter surge. (Coutré, 7/6)

Fox News: Texas Hospital Delivers 100 Babies In 91-Hour Span
A Texas hospital set a new baby boom record recently when staff delivered over 100 newborns over two, two-day stretches. The first round of rapid deliveries began June 24 and saw 25 girls and 27 boys delivered over 47 hours at Andrews Women’s Hospital at Baylor Scott & White All Saints Medical Center in Forth Worth, WFAA.com reported. The second round, which began June 28, saw staff welcome 55 more babies, including a set of twins, a matter of 44 hours. (Hein, 7/6)

Billings Gazette: Montana Family Medicine Residency Announces 2021 Graduates
Eight family doctors graduated on June 30 from the Montana Family Medicine Residency, based at RiverStone Health. Five will stay in Montana and a sixth plans to return after a year. (7/4)

CBS News: Dangerously Low Blood Supply In U.S. Forces Some Hospitals To Postpone Surgeries
Blood centers in some U.S. cities are down to a one-day supply, forcing hospitals to postpone surgeries. The blood shortage is yet another fallout from the pandemic, experts say. OneBlood, the Southeast's largest blood center, is scrambling to manage the blood shortage crisis. "It's a 24/7 operation," said OneBlood's Susan Forbes. "The donors are not in the traditional locations anymore. We lost large corporations, religious organizations, movie theater drives, festivals that were taking place ended." (Lapook, 7/6)

Stat: Transplant System Scrambled Amid Covid To Keep Donations Almost Steady
This is not a pandemic “silver lining” story. This is a could-have-been-far-worse story about how the pandemic did not fuel a catastrophe in transplantation or worsen the persistent gap between people who need organs and the donations that supply them. But just as the pandemic is not over yet, neither is the potential danger of related ramifications for people whose organs may fail and need replacement. (Cooney, 7/7)

Lake Geneva News: Young Man Gets Rare Heart-Lung Transplant At UW After Breathing Problems Worsen
Doctors told Daniel Milburn’s family he had asthma. But when the 24-year-old’s breathing problems turned worse this spring, tests showed major blood clots in his lungs had put so much pressure on his heart that all of the organs were failing. On April 4, Easter Sunday, Milburn got a second chance for life with a rare heart-lung transplant at UW Hospital. “My breathing is 100% now,” he said this week, nearly three months later. “I don’t ever remember breathing like this before.” It was UW Hospital’s first heart-lung transplant since 2008, coming after Milburn clung to life on a heart-lung machine and was found to have had a life-threatening clotting condition likely for years.

In other pharmaceutical and biotech news —

Stat: The Failure Of A Cancer Drug Study Leaves Cel-Sci On The Brink Of Collapse
The failure of Cel-Sci’s immunotherapy treatment called Multikine to prolong the survival of patients with head and neck cancer has pushed the tiny biotech to the precipice of insolvency. The only remaining uncertainty is how long Cel-Sci’s management team can delay the inevitable shutdown. That might be years if biotech history — and the company’s penchant for misleading investors about Multikine — is any guide. The company’s already-plunging share price, however, isn’t likely to prove so durable. (Feuerstein, 7/6)

Stat: Accelerated Approval: A Promising Roadmap For Rare Diseases 
The FDA’s decision to grant accelerated approval to Biogen’s aducanumab (Aduhelm) for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease was a difficult and bold one that people with the disease, their families, and other drug developers should be applauding. When it comes to making new therapies for complex, difficult-to-treat diseases, history has shown that progress can’t be made without taking a first — often controversial — step. Without the FDA’s accelerated approval program and novel first treatments based on new and imperfect biomarker endpoints, HIV would not be a controllable disease today, and we might not have such a flourishing clinical research ecosystem in oncology. (Kakkis, 7/7)

Stat: The Most Intriguing Health Tech Deals Of The Year (So Far) 
In the world of digital health, money is flying around like never before. All that cash is driving dealmaking that will shape the future of the sector. Enthusiastic investors angling to get in on the virtual care boom brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic have propped up sky-high valuations. Companies hoping to capitalize on their first-mover advantages are scooping up complementary businesses in an effort to assemble category winners. The SPAC craze has found many willing targets among emerging companies that hope to one day turn a profit but are ready to go public now. (Aguilar, Brodwin Palmer and Ross, 7/6)

Stat: How Doximity Parlayed Its Popularity With Doctors Into A Blockbuster IPO
Doximity exploded onto the public markets last month with an IPO that saw share values of the physician social networking startup double in 24 hours. The company raised $500 million — and the eyebrows of many industry observers — with its stock market debut, its first public fundraise since 2014. More than 10,000 physicians participated in the IPO, making them the biggest collective Doximity shareholder, according to Nate Gross, the company’s co-founder and chief strategy officer. (Brodwin, 7/7)

Fox News: Sugary Drinks And Increased Colon Cancer Risk Linked In Study Involving Nurses
Young adults who drink sugary beverages may be at an increased risk of developing colon cancer, researchers claim. The study, which involved 116,500 female nurses from 1991 to 2015, found that compared with women who drank less than one 8-ounce serving per week of sugar-sweetened beverages, those who drank two or more per day had over twice the risk of developing early-onset colorectal cancer. (Hein, 7/6)

The New York Times: Colon Cancer Rising In Young Adults, Linked To Sugary Drinks 
Colon and rectal cancers are rising in younger adults, though researchers aren’t sure why. A new study of women and diet suggests that sugar-sweetened drinks may play a role. Rates of colorectal cancer in people under 50 have increased sharply in recent years. Compared with people born around 1950, those born around 1990 have twice the risk for colon cancer and four times the risk for rectal cancer. (Bakalar, 7/6)

In other news about colon cancer —

U.S. News & World Report: Too Little Sunlight, Vitamin D May Raise Colon Cancer Risk 
New research finds that countries with more cloudy days tend to have higher colon cancer rates. Lower levels of vitamin D, the "sunshine vitamin," may be to blame. Boosting your vitamin D levels through exposure to sunlight could help reduce your risk of colon cancer, according to researchers at the University of California, San Diego. (7/5)

Medscape: Antibiotic Linked To Rise In Early-Onset Colon Cancer?
Exposure to antibiotics appears to be associated with the development of colon cancer, particularly in younger people, and could be contributing to the increase in early onset colorectal cancer (CRC) that is being documented, say UK researchers. The team conducted a nested case-control study using data from primary care in Scotland, which involved almost 8000 cases of CRC and over 30,000 healthy controls. The analysis suggests that a history of antibiotic use among individuals younger than 50 appeared to increase the risk of developing colon cancer (but not rectal) by 49%. (Davenport, 7/5)

Stat: In Colorectal Cancer Hot Spots, Young Men Are Dying At Higher Rates 
Three months before “Black Panther” star Chadwick Boseman died from stage 4 colon cancer at age 43, another young Black idol succumbed to the same scourge. Omhar Carter was a beloved youth basketball coach who trained and mentored promising players for more than 20 years in his hometown of Jackson, Miss. He was to the basketball scene in Jackson what T’Challa was to Wakanda. “He was the guy that everybody came to to get better — there were so many lives that he touched,” said Shay Hodge, who was coached by Carter when he was 16. Hodge, now 33, credits Carter with steering him and many other troubled teenagers in the right direction, including some onto the rosters of college and pro teams. “We all looked at him like he was a superhero.” (St. Fleur, 6/22)

CBS News: Woman Hit With Nearly $2,000 Unexpected Bill For Colon Cancer Screening
A popular home test to screen for colon cancer has come with an unexpected bill for some people — leading to fears they may put off life-saving treatment. Americans may be used to seeing commercials for Cologuard, an at-home test advertised as a way to screen for colon cancer at home instead of the much-more involved process of colonoscopy. Experts say it is a good screening tool, but some users have said they were faced with a high bill. Missouri resident Lianne Bryant told CBS News' consumer investigative correspondent Anna Werner that she was intrigued after seeing the Cologuard commercials on television for a couple of years. (Werner, 6/29)

Stat: Smokers Of Menthol Cigarettes Have A Harder Time Quitting 
A new study published Tuesday finds that smoking menthol cigarettes versus unflavored cigarettes is associated with reduced success in quitting among people who smoke nearly every day. In recent years, the FDA has moved to ban almost all flavored cigarettes and cigars, but menthol has remained the lone holdout. Even so, the agency proposed such a ban in April, and researchers say the new findings support this ban. (Lloreda, 7/6)

Axios: Americans Drank More Alcohol During The Pandemic 
Americans responded to the stress of the pandemic by drinking more — a lot more for some — and there's a risk that those habits could stick. Why it matters: Excessive drinking is connected to a variety of health and social ills, but the growing ubiquity of alcohol in daily life can make cutting back harder than ever. By the numbers: Americans started drinking more as soon as the pandemic began in full last year — data from Nielsen showed a 54% increase in national alcohol sales year-on-year in the week ending on March 21, 2020. And as the pandemic wore on, so did Americans' drinking. (Walsh, 7/7)

In other public health news —

The Boston Globe: Recall Of Sleep Apnea Machines Leaves Many In The Lurch, And Worried
People with sleep apnea repeatedly stop breathing while they sleep, only to be partially or fully awakened when their brains don’t get enough oxygen. It deprives those who have it of restful sleep, and it is linked to a range of ailments, including high blood pressure, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and liver dysfunction. Using a machine known as a CPAP is the most widely used treatment for sleep apnea. Users wear a mask or nosepiece attached to the machine that provides a steady flow of pressurized air while they sleep. But Philips Respironics, the world’s largest manufacturer of CPAPs, last month issued an urgent recall of as many as 4 million of its machines, including Curran’s. (Murphy, 7/6)

The New York Times: Do We Really Need To Take 10,000 Steps A Day For Our Health?
Fitness tracking devices often recommend we take 10,000 steps a day. But the goal of taking 10,000 steps, which many of us believe is rooted in science, in fact rests on coincidence and sticky history rather than research. According to Dr. I-Min Lee, a professor of epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and an expert on step counts and health, the 10,000-steps target became popular in Japan in the 1960s. (Reynolds, 7/6)

Philadelphia Inquirer: Temple Research Finds That Tweaking CBD May Help It Curb Pain And Opioid Use In Mice
The next generation of cannabis-inspired medicine might be grown in test tubes instead of greenhouses. Researchers at Temple University have partnered with Doylestown-based pharmaceutical company Neuropathix to develop a synthetic molecule based on cannabidiol (CBD) that can provide more potent pain relief than CBD itself. They are currently studying it for a type of chronic pain caused by nerve damage due to chemotherapy. The CBD-based drug could offer an appealing alternative to addictive opioids and milder painkillers to treat chronic pain. (Nathan, 7/6)

Politico: A Hidden Abortion Crew Prepares To Confront A Post-Roe America 
The Supreme Court’s decision to review Mississippi’s stringent restrictions on abortion — putting Roe vs. Wade under its roughest stress test yet — is being seen as a call to action for the nation’s community of underground abortion activists. And they make it clear they’re prepared to defy any laws banning abortion. (Tahir, 7/6)

Stat: 36 Books And Podcasts On Health And Science To Check Out This Summer
In this time of transition, we’re back with our annual list of health, medicine, and science books to check out this summer — and this time we’ve thrown podcasts in the mix, too. Read on for recommendations from the likes of Anthony Fauci, Rochelle Walensky, and Chelsea Clinton. Plus, STAT readers from New York to Sweden share their picks, in addition to our staff. Enjoy! (Mupo, 7/6)

AP: California To Pay Victims Of Forced, Coerced Sterilizations
California is poised to approve reparations up to $25,000 to victims who were among the thousands of people — some as young as 13 — who decades ago were sterilized because state officials deemed them unfit to have children. The payments, part of the state’s new $262.6 billion operating budget that is awaiting Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signature, will make California at least the third state after Virginia and North Carolina to pay victims of the so-called eugenics movement that peaked in the 1930s. Proponents believed sterilizing people with mental illnesses, physical disabilities and other so-called undesirable traits would improve the human race. (Beam, 7/7)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee Gets $4 Million To Lower Racial Disparities Exposed By COVID
The City of Milwaukee’s Office of African American Affairs was awarded a $4 million grant to help reduce the racial disparities brought to the fore in the COVID-19 pandemic. The city aims to accomplish that goal by using the federal funding to increase health literacy — the ability to access and use information and services to make health care decisions — among racial and ethnic minorities and other vulnerable communities, according to Mayor Tom Barrett's office. The effort will also seek to boost COVID-19 testing, contact tracing and vaccination rates in communities that are the focus of the grant funding. (Dirr, 7/6)

Daily Montanan: Students In Limbo With Mental Health Support In Schools 
Funding and services for students are on the line, and school officials are worried. To keep counseling going, they worry they’ll be left with holes in their budgets that total hundreds of thousands of dollars. In the meantime, they’re concerned the mental and behavioral health services children receive are at risk even as students cope with the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. (Szpaller, 7/5)

And the heat wave presses on along the East and West coasts —

Bloomberg: New York Wilts Again As Heat Advisories Blanket U.S. Northeast
New York and the U.S. Northeast will get a blast of heat through Wednesday, adding another bout of unusually high temperature for the region and sending air-cooling demand surging anew. Temperatures in Manhattan’s Central Park are forecast to touch 95 degrees Fahrenheit (35 Celsius) on Tuesday, with downtown Boston reaching 91, Washington 97 and heat advisories stretching from West Virginia to Massachusetts. Humidity will make it feel even hotter. (Sullivan, 7/6)

CNN: Pacific Northwest Heat Wave Continues This Week With No End In Sight 
Unrelenting heat is expected to continue in the West after a late-June heat wave left hundreds dead in the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia. Records could topple again this weekend as temperatures climb well above normal. The number of Oregonians who died from heat-related illnesses during the historic late-June heat rose to 107, the state medical examiner said Tuesday in an updated statement. While the deaths were reported across the state, nearly two-thirds occurred in Multnomah County, home to the city of Portland. (Gard and Ward, 7/7)

Salt Lake Tribune: National Weather Services: Temperatures Will Be "Dangerously" High In Utah
It’s going to be hot across Utah on Tuesday, and then it’s going to be scorching — so hot the National Weather Service has issued a heat advisory. And there’s no rain in the forecast and no end in sight to the heat. After a high of 97 in the Salt Lake City area on Tuesday, temperatures will break the triple-digit barrier on Wednesday and Thursday. The heat advisory will be in effect from 10 a.m. Wednesday to 9 p.m. Thursday, with temperatures up to 104 expected. (Pierce, 7/6)

Hi-Line Today: Air Quality Awareness Is Important During Wildfire Season
Exposure to wildfire pollutants can irritate lungs, cause inflammation, alter immune function and increase susceptibility to respiratory infections, including covid-19. Wildfire smoke can affect Montana communities even where there are no wildfires in the immediate vicinity. (Margolis, 7/3)

Los Angeles Times: Britain's Plan To Scrap COVID Restrictions Stirs Fears
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s backers have enthusiastically dubbed it “Freedom Day” — July 19, when the government is expected to lift nearly all coronavirus-related restrictions in England. But not everyone is celebrating. Britain has had one of the world’s most successful vaccine rollouts, with nearly two-thirds of the adult population now fully vaccinated against COVID-19. The country, however, is confronting a huge wave of new cases, largely powered by the highly transmissible Delta variant. (King, 7/6)

Bloomberg: ‘Long Covid’ Will Surge Among Young, England’s Chief Medic Warns
So-called long Covid is set to soar among younger people in England when remaining coronavirus restrictions are lifted, England’s chief medical officer warned. Chris Whitty said that while he expected deaths to be “much lower” proportionally compared to previous waves, long Covid remains “a worry.” “Since there’s a lot of Covid at the moment and the rates are going up, I regret to say I think we will get a significant amount more long Covid -- particularly in the younger ages where the vaccination rates are currently much lower,” he said at the Local Government Association’s virtual conference Tuesday. (Ashton, 7/6)

CBS News: "Green Pass" COVID Travel App Smoothing Travel For Europeans 
The coronavirus pandemic has made travel more complicated for everyone, from airlines to security personnel and, of course, passengers. Europe has started cutting some of the red tape limiting international travel with its own version of a COVID-19 "passport." Now, for many Europeans looking to move around the continent, the "Green Pass" is as important an item to check off the travel preparation list as tickets and bags. (7/6)

In other global developments —

AP: 14 Of 32 Competitors At Miss Mexico Pageant Had Coronavirus
Contestants from 14 of Mexico’s 32 states at a Miss Mexico contest tested positive for the coronavirus, a health official in the northern Mexico border state of Chihuahua said Tuesday. State Health Secretary Eduardo Fernández Herrera told local media that all the contestants had all submitted negative tests before the pageant in the state capital. But authorities received an anonymous tip that one person was in fact infected with the virus. (7/6)

Bloomberg: Mexico Allows Vaccinations For All Residents Older Than 18
Mexico opened registrations for Covid-19 vaccines to the entire population over 18, an attempt to fulfill the government’s promise that all adults would have at least one dose by October. Currently, 37% of the adult population has a shot, according to government statistics, but a rise in the number of Covid cases in recent weeks has led the country to speed up vaccine distribution. The program, which has administered 47 million doses, has kept deaths from rising at the same rate as the infections, according to Deputy Health Minister Hugo Lopez-Gatell. (Averbuch, 7/6)

Bloomberg: Surging Death Toll Fails To Convince Vaccine-Wary South Africans
One of the world’s fastest pace of deaths from Covid-19 infections hasn’t been able to trounce widespread hesitancy over vaccines in South Africa. Deaths from the virus in the country rose 72% week-on-week as of Monday, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, the fifth-fastest worldwide and behind only Zimbabwe on the continent. Yet a lack of communication coupled with anti-vaccine propaganda may be responsible for daily doses languishing almost 50% below President Cyril Ramaphosa’s target, health experts have warned. (Vanek and Wilson, 7/7)

CNN: Costco Approach Could Have Saved Medicare $2.6 Billion In Drug Spending, Analysis Shows 
Medicare spent billions more money on generic drugs for its beneficiaries than warehouse chain Costco did for the same drugs, according to an analysis published Tuesday. This overspending hit $2.6 billion in 2018, Erin Trish, associate director of the University of Southern California's Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics, and colleagues wrote in a letter to the Journal of the American Medical Association's JAMA internal Medicine. (Fox and Luhby, 7/6)

Also —

News And Sentinel: West Virginia Group Launches Digital Ads To Promote Affordable Prescription Drug Prices 
A healthcare advocacy group launched digital ads this week seeking the attention of federal lawmakers for a bill that could reduce prescription drug prices. Protect our Care West Virginia held a press conference Thursday announcing a digital ad buy that started Tuesday to promote passage of H.R. 3, the Lower Drug Costs Now Act. The ads, which will run all summer, tell the story of Morgantown-native Mindy Salango, a type 1 diabetic who relies on insulin to manage her diabetes. (Adams, 7/3)

Axios: Drug-Pricing Ad Campaigns Target Moderate Democrats And Pharma Allies 
One Democratic defector in the Senate could sink the party's effort to lower prescription drug prices, and a series of new ad campaigns are giving strong hints about who advocates are most worried about. Driving the news: Two organizations advocating for Medicare to have the authority to negotiate drug prices announced new ad campaigns yesterday. (Owens, 7/2)

The Washington Post: How Prescription Discount Programs Can Help You Save Money
Erin Bonin, 40, was going through the already stressful process of in vitro fertilization when she learned that one of the medications she needed wasn’t covered by her health insurance. Her South Bend, Ind., pharmacy was charging $733.99 for a one-month supply of the medication, and she needed to take it for three months. A nurse suggested she check GoodRx, a prescription discount and cost-comparison app, for a better price. She scored a deal there. “Using GoodRx at a pharmacy about 20 minutes from my home would get me the same drug for $30.10,” Bonin says. “I was shocked, but it proves you can find a deal if you are willing to do a little research.” (Daily, 6/29)

MarketWatch: Rising Drug Prices Continue To Hit Seniors 
Temperatures aren’t the only thing rising as we head into the dog days of summer. Drug prices are too, and they come just six months after most pharmaceutical manufacturers rang in 2021 with a prior round of price hikes. Here we are just a few days into July and price hikes averaging 3.6% have already been announced for 32 brand drugs, says GoodRX, a medical and healthcare services provider. For all of 2020, says the firm’s director of research Tori Marsh, prices were hiked for 67 drugs. “Every year, it seems like more drugs increase in [July],” says Marsh. (Brandus, 7/6)

The New Republic: Walmart’s Exploitative Insulin Deal Is Bad For America 
The deal Walmart has inked with Novo Nordisk, which will allow it to sell the Danish drug manufacturer’s short-acting Novolog insulin for $75 a vial, is nothing short of revolutionary—that is, if you believe the press release the retail Goliath released at the end of June, announcing the arrangement. Several news outlets more or less echoed these sentiments, noting that the price amounted to a discount of up to 75 percent off the typical $300 list price of a life-sustaining drug whose skyrocketing costs have been explicitly tied to multiple deaths in recent years. As the Good News Network put it, “Walmart is seeking to bring ‘everyday low prices’ to medical care.” (Natalie Shure, 7/6)

Las Vegas Sun: Walmart’s Low-Priced Insulin Shows What A Rational Drug Market Should Look Like
For years, advocates of health care reform have been saying the market for prescription drugs is rigged, with powerful pharmaceutical companies setting prices at unreasonably high levels. Drug companies steadfastly have insisted they don’t do that. Thanks to Walmart, now we know for sure: They do. (David Lazarus, 7/4)

Also —

MarketWatch: FDA Made A Mistake In Approving A Questionable Alzheimer’s Drug, But Medicare Could Act To Reduce False Hopes And Unethical Profits 
At this writing three members of the FDA Advisory Committee have chosen to resign in protest over the Food and Drug Administration’s decision to approve aducanumab for the treatment of mild cognitive impairment. Their decision to resign is commendable for at least three ethical reasons. (Leonard Fleck, 7/2)

The Washington Post: It’s Time For Biden To Make The Case For Vaccine Requirements 
President Biden missed an important opportunity on the Fourth of July by holding an event at the White House that did not require its more than 1,000 attendees to be vaccinated. The celebration could have been a chance to show that vaccination isn’t just an individual decision, but one that affects the health of others — including those already vaccinated. (Leana S. Wen, 7/6)

Scientific American: A Tsunami Of Disability Is Coming As A Result Of 'Long COVID' 
Even as U.S. policy makers and business leaders seek to put the COVID pandemic in the rearview mirror with the help of highly effective vaccines, a fundamental policy and planning gap is looming. Many who survive the initial viral illness suffer debilitating long-term sequelae. Unlike the common cold or even influenza, this virus causes a bewildering array of symptoms that persist long after the acute illness is resolved and can render some affected unable to resume their usual activities. As scientists and clinicians continue to delineate the “long-haul” course of COVID, policy makers and planners must anticipate and prepare for the impact of this new cause of disability, including its implications for federal and private worker’s compensation and disability insurance programs and support services. (Claire Pomeroy, 7/6)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Normal May Be A Long Way Off For About 10 Million Immunocompromised Americans 
Forty-seven percent of Americans are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has announced fully vaccinated people can go maskless indoors. In response, states and businesses have lifted masking and other pandemic restrictions, signifying a return to normal. But normal may be a long way off for about 10 million immunocompromised Americans who face unprecedented health risk and uncertainty when it comes to COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness. Emerging studies suggest their bodies are not producing the levels of immunity that they should, leaving many of them vulnerable to infection. (Andrea N. Polonijo and Michaela Curran, 7/6)

The Washington Post: The Delta Variant Is Sending The World A Warning 
Don’t panic, but recent news makes it clear that the novel coronavirus isn’t done with us yet. It’s finding ways to become even more novel, and more deadly. New data from Israel suggest the effectiveness of Pfizer-BioNTech’s mRNA vaccine declines sharply when it’s pitted against the hyperinfectious delta variant. Last week, more than half of all covid-19 cases in Israel reportedly occurred in people who were vaccinated; the vaccine appears to prevent only about two-thirds of symptomatic cases, compared with preventing almost 100 percent among older variants. (Megan McArdle, 7/6)

San Diego Union-Tribune: The Reasons Why Some San Diegans Remain Unvaccinated Are Complex. Here's What We've Learned
With 78 percent of San Diegans 12 years and older having been vaccinated at least once for COVID-19 as of last week, our county is ahead of the national average of 64 percent. Uptake has been fantastic among those with the means for it. Yet we remain far short of what’s needed to end the pandemic and its devastation. Many point to “vaccine hesitancy.” This may do more harm than good because it blames the individual, homogenizes important differences and doesn’t take context into account. In addition, the inequities within our hardest-hit communities cannot themselves be vaccinated away. (E.J. Sobo, 7/6)

Modern Healthcare: If We Want Nurses To Care For Us, We Must Take Care Of Them
Stress, burnout and compassion fatigue are conditions now synonymous with nurses on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic. Nearly 75% of nurses in Pennsylvania said they feel more exhausted, overwhelmed, and anxious then they did last spring. But let us be clear. COVID did not create these conditions. Well before the pandemic, many of America’s 4 million nurses had physical and mental health burdens tied to their jobs while the institutions that employ them overlooked or failed to prioritize these problems. (Regina S. Cunningham and Marcus D. Henderson, 7/6)

The New York Times: A Mental Health Crisis Is Not A Crime 
Every 10 years, following a national census, the Constitution requires states to draw districts for each of the newly reapportioned 435 seats in the House of Representatives. Since districts were last drawn in 2011, law enforcement officers have killed a person in every one of them. Faced with a pervasive national problem like police violence, we instinctively look for national solutions. Yet a year after George Floyd’s murder sparked one of the largest protest movements in history, congressional action has been modest at best. Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer who murdered Mr. Floyd, has been sentenced to 22 and a half years behind bars. The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act — which would ban chokeholds, restrict the use of no-knock warrants and make some officers personally liable in civil court — remains stalled in the Senate. (Phillip Atiba Goff and Katie Porter, 7/6)

Dallas Morning News: Pastors Need Mental Health Care, Too
I thought about how the pandemic had begun to take more than workspaces, restaurant experiences and lives. It was also affecting how people grieve. This instance was just the beginning. As we were gathering at the funeral home to remember our first member who passed due to COVID-19, there was another death. The daughter-in-law of the deceased passed away just prior to the service. So, a wife was funeralizing her husband and grieving a daughter-in-law. A son was funeralizing his father while dealing with the shock of his wife’s death. (S. Michael Greene, 7/7)

Modern Healthcare: What About Drug Prices In America?
According to a 2021 RAND Corp. study, drug prices on average in the U.S. are 2.5 times those paid by 32 other nations in the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development. What’s the best approach to balancing incentives for pharma research and development with the drug affordability challenges we’ve had for decades? (7/6)