NPR: The Justice Department Wants A Judge To Temporarily Block Texas' Abortion Ban
The Justice Department asked a federal judge in Texas to temporarily block enforcement of the state's new law that bans abortions after about six weeks. This step, a major move by the Biden administration against the highly controversial law, follows a lawsuit filed by the Justice Department last week. The Biden administration asked the court late Tuesday to implement the preliminary injunction while the lawsuit plays out in federal court. Texas's abortion ban essentially stops the procedure in the country's second-largest state. Most people don't know they are pregnant before six weeks. (Diaz, 9/15)

The Wall Street Journal: Justice Department Asks Federal Judge To Quickly Block Texas Abortion Law 
The Justice Department asked a federal judge to block a restrictive Texas abortion law temporarily while its lawsuit challenging the state’s near-ban on the procedure moves forward. “This relief is necessary to protect the constitutional rights of women in Texas and the sovereign interest of the United States in ensuring that its states respect the terms of the national compact,” the department said in an emergency motion late Tuesday that seeks a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction against the Texas law. (Kendall and Bravin, 9/15)

In related news about the Texas abortion case —

ABC News: SCOTUS Allowing Texas To Mostly Ban Abortions 'Very Bad' But Not Political: Justice Breyer 
Justice Stephen Breyer said Tuesday the Supreme Court’s recent 5-4 decision allowing Texas to effectively ban abortion across the state was “very bad” but not politically motivated. “We don’t trade votes, and members of the court have different judicial philosophies,” Breyer, the court’s most senior liberal justice, told George Stephanopoulos on ABC's "Good Morning America." (Dwyer, 9/14)

The Hill: Senators Denounce Protest Staged Outside Home Of Justice Kavanaugh 
The top Democratic and Republican members of a powerful Senate panel condemned a protest held Monday night outside the home of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, stating that public officials’ residences and families should be off limits. The protest, organized by the liberal group ShutDownDC, came in response to the Supreme Court’s 5-4 vote earlier this month to leave intact Texas’s new six-week abortion ban, which many legal experts see as a possible precursor to the further erosion of abortion rights.  (Kruzel, 9/14)

San Antonio Express-News: PR Firm Offers Employees $10K To Leave Texas Over Abortion Ban
A California-based public relations firm is offering its Texas-based employees $10,000 to help them move out of the state in response to a new Texas law that cuts off abortions once a fetal heartbeat is detected. Bospar, a tech public relations agency out of San Francisco, made the announcement last week. “Companies and businesses with employees in Texas have a choice right now: offer employees control of their own reproductive health or risk them leaving,” Sarah Freeman, a Bospar senior account executive based in Austin, said in a news release. (Pettaway, 9/14)

In other news about abortion —

Louisville Courier Journal: EMW Women's Clinic In Downtown Louisville Gets Painted Buffer Zone
Yellow lines have been painted outside the EMW women's clinic in downtown Louisville as part of the creation of a "buffer zone" outside the facility, advocates for the plan said Tuesday afternoon. Louisville Metro Council approved an ordinance to create a 10-foot-wide buffer zone around the clinic, a frequent site of protests over abortion access, by a 14-11 vote in May. The announcement of the lines being painted comes a week after a federal judge declined to halt the implementation of the buffer zone amid a lawsuit filed by the anti-abortion group Sisters for Life. (Ramsey, 9/14)

Axios: Pandemic Didn't Lead To Spike In Uninsured 
Roughly 8.6% of Americans didn't have health insurance in 2020, a figure that has stayed consistent since 2018, according to the latest U.S. Census Bureau data. Government assistance, in the form of beefed-up Medicaid eligibility and heavily subsidized plans in the Affordable Care Act markets, kept people insured despite the pandemic-fueled recession. (Herman, 9/15)

KHN: Census: Insured Population Holds Steady, With A Slight Shift From Private To Public Coverage
Despite a pandemic-fueled recession, the number of uninsured Americans has increased only slightly since 2018, according to Census Bureau health insurance data released Tuesday. Twenty-eight million people, or 8.6% of Americans, were uninsured for all of 2020. In 2019, 8% of people were uninsured during the full year; in 2018, it was 8.5%. (Knight and Appleby, 9/14)

In Medicaid news —

Modern Healthcare: Aetna Lied About Provider Network To Win Medicaid Contracts, Suit Alleges
Aetna illegally secured contracts with Pennsylvania's Medicaid program by misrepresenting the number of pediatric providers in its network, according to a federal whistleblower lawsuit unsealed Tuesday. The insurer benefited from this alleged fraud because the lack of providers limited access to care, saving Aetna money. Aetna Better Health of Pennsylvania CEO Jason Rottman and Alice Jefferson, director of the company's quality management division, are named as defendants along with the company in the lawsuit, which was filed in the Western District of Pennsylvania. (Tepper, 9/14)

In Medicare news —

Modern Healthcare: DOJ Intervenes In False Claims Act Suit Against Medicare Advantage Insurer
The federal government is suing a New York Medicare Advantage insurer under the False Claims Act, accusing it of bilking the government for millions of dollars by making its members appear sicker than they were. The Justice Department is intervening in a whistleblower lawsuit against Buffalo-based Independent Health, its now-defunct risk adjustment subsidiary, DxID, and DxID's former CEO. The government won a $6.4 million settlement against Seattle-based Group Health Cooperative, another defendant in the original case, last year. Kaiser Permanente acquired the company in 2017, five years after prosecutors began their case against Group Health Cooperative. (Bannow, 9/14)

KHN: Justice Department Targets Data Mining In Medicare Advantage Fraud Case
The Justice Department has accused an upstate New York health insurance plan for seniors and its medical analytics company of cheating the government out of tens of millions of dollars. The civil complaint of fraud, filed late Monday, is the first by the federal government to target a data mining company for allegedly helping a Medicare Advantage program game federal billing regulations to overcharge for patient treatment. (Schulte, 9/14 )

Modern Healthcare: Providers Push For Medicare Pay Boost
Doctors oppose looming Medicare cuts as they continue to grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2022 Medicare physician fee schedule would level an across-the-board 3.75% pay raise implemented in the 2021 fiscal year. Typically, increases for certain provider groups would come at the expense of other specialties to balance the budget. But Congress temporarily recalibrated the budget-neutral framework considering the pandemic. CMS should reconsider budget neutrality and the associated pay cuts, the American Medical Association recommended. (Kacik, 9/14)

Houston Chronicle: Stimulus Checks Saved Many From Poverty, Despite Pandemic Unemployment, Data Shows
Data released Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau shows that federal stimulus payments kept more than 11 million people from falling into poverty despite massive job losses amid the COVID-19 pandemic last year. The Supplemental Poverty Measure, which takes into account government assistance programs not included in the official poverty measure, fell from 11.8 percent in 2019 to 9.1 percent in 2020, despite an 11.5 percent drop in the number of full-time, year-round workers. (González Kelly, 9/14)

The Washington Post: Poverty Fell In 2020 Amid Massive Stimulus Checks And Unemployment Aid, Census Bureau Says 
U.S. poverty fell overall in 2020, a surprising decline largely due to the swift and substantial federal relief that Congress enacted at the start of the pandemic to try to prevent widespread financial hardship as the nation experienced the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. The U.S. Census Bureau reported poverty fell to 9.1 percent in 2020 after accounting for all the government aid — the lowest rate on record and a significant decline from 11.8 percent in 2019. (Long and Goldstein, 9/14)

Also —

Politico: Treasury To Release More Rental Aid To Avert Evictions 
The Treasury Department said Tuesday it plans to award the remaining $13 billion in federal rental aid to states and localities that have been the most effective at delivering the assistance, in a new bid to speed up the housing rescue. Houston, Philadelphia and New Orleans are among the cities expected to receive additional aid. State and local programs that have “substantially expended” their first round of funding and obligated at least 75 percent of their second round will be eligible for more money, Treasury said. (O'Donnell, 9/14)

USA Today: Social Security Could Get Biggest Cost-Of-Living Increase In 40 Years Amid COVID-19-Related Inflation Surge
After years of puny increases in their Social Security checks, older Americans will likely get the equivalent of a big raise next year. The 68 million people -- including retirees, disabled people and others – who rely on the benefits are likely to receive a 6% to 6.1% cost-of-living adjustment next year because of a COVID-19-related spike in inflation, according to the Senior Citizen League. Such a rise would far outpace 1.4% average bumps in Social Security payments since 2010 and amount to the largest increase since 1982, according to the Senior Citizen League. (Davidson, 9/14)

CNBC: Social Security Cost-Of-Living Adjustment Could Be At Least 6% In 2022
The Social Security cost-of-living adjustment for 2022 could be 6% to 6.1%, according to the latest estimate from The Senior Citizens League, a no-partisan senior group, based on new consumer price index data released Tuesday. The Social Security Administration typically announces the cost-of-living adjustment for the following year in late October. One more month of CPI data will be released and factored into the final calculation. (Konish, 9/14)

WSET: 'Not About Our Grandchildren Anymore:' Experts Warn About Future Of Social Security 
COVID -19 has touched just about every aspect of life in this country, so it may come as no surprise that with millions of people losing their jobs as a result, it’s led to a dramatic decrease in the amount of payroll taxes being collected by the Social Security Administration. Experts now say the projection of when full benefits may have to be cut back has been moved up a full year, from 2034 to 2033, as outlined in a report by the Social Security and Medicare Boards of Trustees. (Frazao, 9/13)

Stat: House Moderates Rebel Against Pelosi Drug Pricing Plan
Three moderate House Democrats are making good on their threat to oppose Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s aggressive Medicare drug price negotiation, leaving its fate uncertain. Reps. Scott Peters (Calif.), Kurt Schrader (Ore.) and Kathleen Rice (N.Y.) have publicly stated their intentions to vote down Pelosi’s drug pricing plan as part of the House Energy & Commerce Committee’s markup on a sprawling safety-net package Democrats are advancing this week. (Cohrs, 9/14)

Politico: Centrists Throw Wrench In House Democrats’ Drug Pricing Plans
An intraparty fight over drug price controls is threatening to derail Democrats' dreams of sweeping changes to Medicare, Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act as part of their mammoth social spending package. House Energy and Commerce Chair Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) and his senior aides are racing to shore up support for leadership-backed language that would allow direct government negotiations over the prices of hundreds of drugs, penalize manufacturers that raise prices faster than inflation and apply both policies to private insurance plans as well as Medicare. (Ollstein, Caygle and Ferris, 9/14)

The Washington Post: Three Democrats Say They’ll Oppose Party’s Drug-Price Plan, Creating Roadblock For Larger Package 
A trio of key Democrats announced Tuesday they will oppose the party’s plan to lower drug prices, creating a significant roadblock for Democrats’ desired $3.5 trillion tax and spending package. Reps. Scott Peters (D-Calif.), Kathleen Rice (D-N.Y.) and Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.) said they will oppose drug-pricing changes that would allow Medicare to negotiate lower prices and that have become the framework to pay for many of Democrats’ sought-after measures this year. The three lawmakers are members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, one of several panels debating the budget reconciliation package, and say they have concerns about a plan to empower Medicare to negotiate directly with drug companies. (Diamond, Roubein and Goldstein, 9/14)

The New York Times: Democratic Divisions Flare Over Tax Increases And Drug Pricing
The day before Democrats’ self-imposed deadline for completing committee work on their vast social policy bill, tensions were rising in their ranks on Tuesday over how to structure and finance it. Disagreements over whether to tax the vast fortunes of tycoons like Jeff Bezos and how to control prescription drug prices have emerged as flash points as Democrats try to coalesce around what could be the most significant expansion of the social safety net in a half century. (Weisman and Cochrane, 9/14)

Stat: Key Senator Opposes Democrats’ Target For Drug Pricing Savings
An influential Senate Democrat is pushing back against his party’s efforts to cut $600 billion out of the drug industry as part of a massive yet-to-be-unveiled spending package. Since July, it’s been widely reported that Democrats are seeking around $600 billion in savings from the pharmaceutical industry to help pay for a number of policy priorities. But Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) told STAT in an interview Tuesday that he believed the goal of cutting $600 billion out of the drug industry was too ambitious. (Florko and Cohrs, 9/14)

The Wall Street Journal: Facebook Knows Instagram Is Toxic For Teen Girls, Company Documents Show 
About a year ago, teenager Anastasia Vlasova started seeing a therapist. She had developed an eating disorder, and had a clear idea of what led to it: her time on Instagram. She joined the platform at 13, and eventually was spending three hours a day entranced by the seemingly perfect lives and bodies of the fitness influencers who posted on the app. “When I went on Instagram, all I saw were images of chiseled bodies, perfect abs and women doing 100 burpees in 10 minutes,” said Ms. Vlasova, now 18, who lives in Reston, Va. (Wells, Horwitz and Seetharaman, 9/14)

The Wall Street Journal: Senators Seek Answers From Facebook After WSJ Report On Instagram’s Impact On Young Users
Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Marsha Blackburn said they would launch a probe into Facebook Inc.’s internal research on the way its Instagram photo- and video-sharing service affects young users, prompted by a Wall Street Journal investigation that showed the company knew the app was harmful to some in that group. The Democratic chairman and ranking Republican on the Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Data Security Subcommittee on Tuesday also said that they were in touch with someone they identified as “a Facebook whistleblower” and “will use every resource at our disposal to investigate what Facebook knew and when they knew it—including seeking further documents and pursuing witness testimony.” In the statement, the senators said, “The Wall Street Journal’s blockbuster reporting may only be the tip of the iceberg.” (Seetharaman, 9/14)

Bloomberg: Facebook’s Risks For Young People Add To Bipartisan Backlash
Facebook Inc. is facing renewed fury from Washington after reports suggested the company knew, but didn’t disclose, that its Instagram platform could pose risks to teenagers. The report from the Wall Street Journal citing Facebook’s own internal research gives fuel to politicians who have pledged to hold social media companies accountable for their impact on mental health, civil discourse and democracy. While previous rounds of outrage over issues such as the Cambridge Analytica privacy scandal haven’t dented Facebook’s business model or profitability, this backlash could bring Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg and other company executives back to testify before Congress about the shortcomings. (Edgerton, 9/14)

In related news about social media and how it affects mental health —

Bloomberg: TikTok Unveils Tools In App To Tackle Mental-Health Issues
TikTok, the video-sharing app owned by China’s ByteDance Ltd., said it’s stepping up tools to support users facing mental health issues, including redirecting potentially distressed users to suicide-prevention or eating-disorder resources. When users search the app for terms like “suicide,” TikTok will point them to local support organizations such as the Crisis Text Line to find treatment, the company said Tuesday in a blog post. TikTok also plans to promote videos of content creators talking about their mental health challenges and will offer advice on how to talk to loved ones about these issues. (Nix, 9/14)

Los Angeles Times: Newsom Soundly Defeats California Recall Attempt 
California Gov. Gavin Newsom survived a historic recall election Tuesday, winning a major vote of confidence during a COVID-19 pandemic that has shattered families and livelihoods and tested his ability to lead the state through the largest worldwide health crisis in modern times. The recall offered Republicans their best chance in more than a decade to take the helm of the largest state in the union. But the effort was undercut when Newsom and the nation’s leading Democrats, aided by visits to California by President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, portrayed the campaign to oust the governor as a “life and death” battle against “Trumpism” and far-right anti-vaccine activists. (Willon, Luna and Wick, 9/14)

Sacramento Bee: ‘We Said Yes To Ending This Pandemic.’ Gavin Newsom Makes Victory Speech In Sacramento
Gov. Gavin Newsom made an appearance in Sacramento on Tuesday less than an hour after polls closed to declare victory over the Republican-led recall effort to oust him from office. ... “I want to focus on what we said yes to as a state,” he said. “We said yes to science. We said yes to vaccines. We said yes to ending this pandemic. We said yes to all those things that we hold dear as Californians and I would argue as Americans. Economic justice, social justice, racial justice, environmental justice are the values where California has made so much progress — all of those things were on the ballot this evening.” During his brief victory speech, Newsom also denounced Trumpism. (Bojorquez, 9/14)

San Francisco Chronicle: Voters Resoundingly Defeat Recall Of California Gov. Gavin Newsom
Over the summer, some public polling found that likely voters were nearly evenly split on the recall, a consequence of Republican voters being far more engaged in the election. Newsom’s messaging did not appear to be resonating with his Democratic base. But that dynamic shifted during the past two months, as the delta variant caused another surge of the coronavirus in California and conservative talk radio host Larry Elder emerged as a convenient foil for Newsom. (Koseff, 9/14)

AP: 5 Takeaways After Newsom Survives California Recall Attempt
Republicans intended the recall to be a referendum on Democrats’ rule of California, and the homelessness, crime, high housing costs and energy problems that accompanied it. But in a bit of political ju-jitsu — and with the help of the spreading delta variant — Newsom turned it into a referendum on Republicans’ opposition to precautions against the coronavirus. The Republicans running to replace Newsom opposed mask and vaccine mandates, and the California governor was happy to highlight that. Newsom aired an ad calling the recall “a matter of life and death” and accusing the top Republican candidate, talk radio host Larry Elder, of “peddling deadly conspiracy theories.” (Riccardi, 9/15)

AP: COVID-19 Cases Climbing, Wiping Out Months Of Progress
COVID-19 deaths and cases in the U.S. have climbed back to levels not seen since last winter, erasing months of progress and potentially bolstering President Joe Biden’s argument for his sweeping new vaccination requirements. The cases — driven by the delta variant combined with resistance among some Americans to getting the vaccine — are concentrated mostly in the South. (Hollingsworth, Bussewitz and Long, 9/14)

The New York Times: Covid Hospitalizations Hit Crisis Levels in Southern I.C.U.s
Hospitals in the southern United States are running dangerously low on space in intensive care units, as the Delta variant has led to spikes in coronavirus cases not seen since last year’s deadly winter wave. One in four hospitals now reports more than 95 percent of I.C.U. beds occupied — up from one in five last month. Experts say it can become difficult to maintain standards of care for the sickest patients in hospitals where all or nearly all I.C.U. beds are occupied. (Smart, 9/14)

CNN: US Coronavirus: 1 In 500 US Residents Has Died Of Covid-19 
The United States has reached another grim milestone in its fight against the devastating Covid-19 pandemic: 1 in 500 Americans have died from coronavirus since the nation's first reported infection. As of Tuesday night, 663,913 people in the US have died of Covid-19, according to Johns Hopkins University data. According to the US Census Bureau, the US population as of April 2020 was 331.4 million. (Holcombe, 9/15)

In updates on the spread of covid at school —

Mississippi Clarion Ledger: In Six Weeks, Over 20,000 Mississippi Students Got COVID-19
Six weeks since the Mississippi State Department of Health began reporting COVID-19 cases in public schools, over 20,000 pre-K through 12th grade students have tested positive for the virus. Over 1,800 Mississippi students were infected by the coronavirus last week and nearly 10,500 students, teachers and staff were quarantined after possible exposure to COVID-19. Of 799 schools reporting from 75 of Mississippi's 82 counties, there were 74 COVID-19 outbreaks in schools statewide between Sept. 6 to 10, according to the health department's Tuesday report. The 10,209 students in quarantine make up over 2.3% of the public school population. (Haselhorst, 9/14)

AP: COVID-19 Shuts In-Person Classes In 2 West Virginia Counties
The new school year had barely started in West Virginia when two counties were forced to move courses online temporarily due to a surge in coronavirus cases. Preston County Schools announced it was shutting down in-person learning effective Tuesday. Students will return to school Sept. 27. In Calhoun County, schools were closed last week because of a high number of absences and students are set to go back Thursday. (Raby, 9/14)

Georgia Health News: School-Aged Children At Center Of Latest Covid Surge In State 
About 60 percent of current Covid outbreaks in Georgia are occurring in K-12 schools across the state, public health officials said Tuesday. That’s seven times more than the child outbreaks in previous virus surges, Cherie Drenzek, the state epidemiologist, told the board of the Department of Public Health. Cases, hospitalizations and deaths among children have reached their highest levels during the current surge of the pandemic, she added. And many of the infections are hitting 12- to 18-year-olds, who are eligible for vaccinations. (Miller, 9/14)

Salt Lake Tribune: Utah Parents Are Refusing To Talk To Health Officials, So COVID-19 Cases In Schools Are Undercounted, The State Says
A new color-coded dashboard from the state now lets parents see when a Utah school is at or nearing the designated level for a COVID-19 outbreak — but experts warn the numbers are likely undercounts because many parents are refusing to talk to health officials when their kids test positive. Not knowing the actual number of cases has made it a serious challenge to respond quickly with efforts to limit spread in the classroom, the Utah Department of Health said Tuesday. “School-associated cases are identified through interviews with cases by the local health departments, and only school-associated cases that have been linked to a school are displayed” on the dashboard, the department says on the site. (Tanner, 9/14)

The New York Times: Alaska E.R. Patients Are Waiting Hours In Vehicles As A Major Hospital Rations Care.
Alaska’s largest hospital announced Tuesday that a relentless coronavirus outbreak driven by the highly contagious Delta virus variant has left emergency room patients waiting hours in their vehicles and forced medical teams to ration care. At Providence Alaska Medical Center in Anchorage, the hospital said it was now operating under “crisis standards of care” — procedures put in place to prioritize resources in a way that may leave some patients with substandard care. (Baker, 9/15)

AP: Alaska's Biggest Hospital Begins Rationing Treatment
Alaska’s largest hospital has begun rationing care, saying it has been overwhelmed by COVID-19 patients. Providence Alaska Medical Center said Tuesday it will prioritize resources and treatment to those patients who have the potential to benefit the most. Dr. Kristen Solana Walkinshaw is chief of staff at the hospital and says that “we are no longer able to provide the standard of care to each and every patient who needs our help.” (9/15)

California shows signs of improvement —

Los Angeles Times: California Coronavirus Cases Dropping, CDC Says
California’s coronavirus transmission rates are dropping, a hopeful sign amid a summer surge fueled by the Delta variant, according to new data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The state’s coronavirus transmission level has fallen from “high” to “substantial,” the second-highest tier as defined by the CDC. As of Tuesday night, California is the only state that has fallen into this category, as has Puerto Rico. The CDC’s scale evaluating coronavirus transmission levels categorizes states as being in one of four tiers: the worst — high — is color-coded as red; followed by substantial (orange), moderate (yellow) and low (blue). (Lin II and Money, 9/14)

San Francisco Chronicle: California Now The Only State That's Advanced Out Of CDC's 'High' COVID Transmission Category
California no longer has “high” community levels of coronavirus transmission, according to data published Tuesday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an achievement a top state health official credited to broad vaccination uptake and public compliance with restrictions such as mask-wearing. The state is now the only one in the country to reach the “substantial” tier of the agency’s risk chart, for the first time since the rapid spread of the delta coronavirus variant brought the summer COVID-19 surge, state epidemiologist Dr. Erica Pan said Tuesday. (Vaziri, 9/14)

In other news about the spread of the coronavirus —

Philadelphia Inquirer: Unvaccinated People Account For 94% Of The New Coronavirus Cases In Pennsylvania This Year, State Health Officials Say
The vast majority of Pennsylvanians who have contracted the coronavirus in 2021 were not vaccinated, state officials said Tuesday, releasing new data on infections they said should persuade all eligible residents to get their shots. Through early September, there have been nearly 640,000 positive cases of COVID-19 across the state, close to 35,000 hospitalizations, and almost 6,500 deaths. But 97% of the deaths were in people who were unvaccinated or partially vaccinated, according to state data, as were 95% of hospitalizations and 94% of confirmed cases. (McCarthy and McDaniel, 9/14)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Health Experts Remind Public That COVID Numbers Are At January Levels
The state Department of Health Services Tuesday reported more than 2,000 new COVID-19 cases and 11 deaths, similar to the numbers reported over the last week or so. At the local level, health experts continue to stress that we are not in the clear. “While we're talking about slight decreases or plateaus in case data, we need to remember that where we’re plateauing is still very, very high in relation to COVID overall,” said Darren Rausch, director of the Greenfield Health Department. (Bentley and Swales, 9/14)

Augusta Chronicle: COVID Virus Mutating Rapidly As Is Spreads Across Augusta
In a month, the number of offshoots from the Delta variant that causes COVID-19 have sprung up rapidly among the largely unvaccinated population in Augusta. It's creating concerns that a different disease than the original infection will arise and could lead to adaptations that evade vaccines and treatments, the director of sequencing laboratory at Augusta University said. The Mu variant, still relatively rare in the U.S. but coursing across South America, is also now present in Augusta. (Corwin, 9/14)

Also —

The Washington Post: Conservative Radio Host Bob Enyart Dies Of Covid After Boycotting Vaccine Over Abortion Claim 
For years, Bob Enyart used his conservative media platform in Denver to mock those who died of AIDS by name or call for women who receive abortions to face the death penalty. Recently, the radio talk-show host — who had successfully sued the state over mask mandates and capacity limits in Colorado churches last year — joined a chorus of conservative voices who have bashed the coronavirus vaccine and vowed to stay unvaccinated. In Enyart’s case, he pushed for boycotting vaccination because of the debunked claim that the vaccines were developed using aborted fetal cells. (Bella, 9/14)

Palm Beach Post: COVID Kills 6 Unvaccinated Members Of Palm Beach County Family In 3 Weeks
For months, Lisa Wilson went door to door in Belle Glade, Florida, trying to convince people to get the coronavirus vaccine. Wilson, a longtime aide to Palm Beach County Commissioner Melissa McKinlay, persuaded pastors to preach about the need to get shots. Her husband, Belle Glade Mayor Steve Wilson, was one of the first in the western farming community to roll up his sleeve, hoping others would follow his example. But despite Wilson’s insistence that the shots would save lives, some members of her own family ignored her. In the last three weeks, six of them died from complications of COVID-19. (Musgrave, 9/14)

CNN: In Their Mother's Obituary, A Family Says Her Covid-19 Death Could Have Been Prevented If People Were Vaccinated 
The day Candace and Terry Ayers received their second Covid-19 vaccination in early March was a day of hope and excitement for the entire family. "I took my parents to get that second jab, and we were all so excited," said their son Marc. "We are a family that believes in science. We believe in masks, and we believe in vaccines. We were ready to get back to normal." But his mother, Candace Ayers, died nearly six months later following a July trip with her husband to Mississippi. Her death certificate says she died of Covid-19. (Simonson, 9/15)

Bloomberg: U.S. To Supply Covid Drugs Based On Cases Amid Delta Surge
The U.S. government plans to more directly control where Covid-19 antibody treatments are sent amid a surge in infections and hospitalizations in states with large pockets of unvaccinated people. Hospitals and other care providers will no longer be able to directly order monoclonal antibody therapies from distributors, according to a Sept. 13 update posted on the Department of Health and Human Services website. Instead, the U.S. government will determine what quantity of the drugs to ship to each state and territory based on Covid-19 case numbers and use of the treatments locally. State health departments will then determine how to distribute the antibody therapies to hospitals and other sites, according to the HHS update. (Griffin and Court, 9/14)

Politico: Biden's Team Tightens Grip On State Use Of Covid Antibody Treatments 
The Biden administration is imposing new limits on states’ ability to access to Covid-19 antibody treatments amid rising demand from GOP governors who have relied on the drug as a primary weapon against the virus. Federal health officials plan to allocate specific amounts to each state under the new approach, in an effort to more evenly distribute the 150,000 doses that the government makes available each week. (Cancryn, 9/14)

In updates on the treatment of long covid —

Fox News: ‘Long COVID’ Affects 1 In 10 Kids, Israel Survey Finds
Approximately 1 in 10 Israeli children experienced lasting COVID-19 symptoms after recovering from their illnesses, according to the country’s Health Ministry. Findings from a phone survey conducted from late May-June 2021 drew from 13,834 parents of kids aged 3-18 who recovered from COVID-19. Results indicated 11.2% of the kids experienced "some symptoms after recovery," however the figure dropped to 1.8% to 4.6% six months following acute illness, depending on the child’s age. (Rivas, 9/14)

USA Today: Long COVID In Kids: Lasting Illnesses Are Puzzling, Can Be Crippling
Thirteen-year-old Rose Lehane Tureen’s debilitating headache has lasted a year and a half. At 5 months old, Madelynn Birchmeier stopped reaching developmental milestones. She couldn’t hold a bottle and didn’t have the strength to crawl or sit up on her own. Now a year old, she’s undergoing therapy with hopes she’ll catch up. For 7-year-old Waylon Wehrle, complications from COVID-19 stole his memory along with his ability to walk and talk. After months in hospitals and rehab, he has slowly improved but will have diabetes the rest of his life. The virus heightened 14-year-old Nicaja Taylor’s anxiety and asthma and also may have triggered diabetes. (Jordan Shamus and Weintraub, 9/14)

USA Today: New Clinics Help Patients Navigate Litany Of Long-Term COVID Symptoms
WHILE THE LIST of symptoms associated with long-haul COVID-19 may be long, the list of medications to treat it is short. But doctors – and their patients – don’t have the luxury of waiting for the science to catch up with the virus. As more people survive COVID-19 infections yet continue to suffer, health care has begun to respond with multidisciplinary clinics that connect patients with a range of experts. They work together to devise a plan, operating without a playbook because treatment guidelines have yet to be written. Demand already exceeds supply at many clinics, an ongoing challenge, said Dr. Peter Staats, who serves on the medical advisory board for Survivor Corps, a grassroots group of COVID-19 survivors. (Innes and Rudavsky, 9/15)

In other covid research —

CIDRAP: 83% Of Stem Cell Recipients Produce Antibodies After 2 COVID-19 Vaccine Doses
Stem cell transplant recipients with cancers like leukemia had an antibody response rate of 83% to the second dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech mRNA COVID-19 vaccine, with almost two-thirds having very strong responses, an observational, single-center study today in JAMA Network Open finds. Researchers from Nantes University Hospital in France studied 117 coronavirus-naïve adults who received a donor stem cell transplant for the treatment of hematologic cancer and were given two doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine from Jan 20 to Apr 17. The median interval between the two doses was 22 days. (Van Beusekom, 9/14)

CIDRAP: Severe COVID Linked To More Self-Attacking Antibodies, Study Says
Hospitalized COVID-19 patients were more likely to have autoantibodies, or self-attacking antibodies, than those without COVID-19, according to a study today in Nature Communications. The researchers looked at March and April 2020 blood samples from 147 COVID-19 patients at Stanford-affiliated hospitals, as well as 48 patients from Kaiser Permanente in California, although most of the study's assessments didn't involve the whole cohort. (9/14)

Politico: Biden Covid Team Sees Vaccine Efficacy Waning In Unpublished Data From Israel 
The Biden administration’s push to roll out coronavirus vaccine booster shots this month has largely been shaped by unpublished data from Israel’s vaccination campaign, according to two individuals familiar with the matter. The Israel data, which is set to be made public as soon as this week, shows that the Pfizer vaccine’s ability to prevent severe disease and hospitalization is waning over time — as is the shot’s protection against mild and moderate disease, the two sources said. The country began administering boosters to people over 60 in July and has now expanded it to people over 30, but it has released relatively little information so far about the effect of the booster campaign. (Banco, 9/14)

Axios: Pfizer And Moderna's COVID Vaccines May Not Work The Same Over Time 
Recent data suggests that Moderna's coronavirus vaccine may maintain a higher effectiveness over time than Pfizer's. The effectiveness gap could always disappear with more data, and both vaccines remain very effective against severe disease. But if the gap does hold up, it raises questions about whether the two vaccines should be treated the same way policy-wise. (Owens, 9/15)

Some zoo animals have tested positive for the delta variant —

USA Today: Atlanta Zoo Gorillas Test COVID Positive For Delta, Will Get Vaccine
A group of gorillas at Zoo Atlanta are in line to be vaccinated after they tested positive for the coronavirus, according to a public statement from zoo officials released Sunday. The western lowland gorillas were seen coughing with running noses and a decreased appetite, prompting the initial testing. Nasal, oral and fecal samples were tested before the zoo received the initial results that the gorillas had been infected by SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The delta variant was identified in at least one of the gorillas upon further testing. Twenty gorillas live in the zoo in four different groups. All are being tested – 18  are showing symptoms – and results are expected this week. Several of the gorillas are being treated with monoclonal antibodies, but the next step will be a vaccination specifically developed for animals, according to the zoo. (Gleeson, 9/13)

The Baltimore Sun: The Maryland Zoo In Baltimore Is Preparing To Vaccinate Otters, Chimps, Lions And More Against COVID-19 
The big cats at the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore will be among the first in line. They’ll saunter over to the edge of their enclosure, likely lured by a piece of ground meat, and present their hip to a waiting zookeeper, who will inject them with a specially made COVID-19 vaccine. (Condon, 9/14)

CBS Detroit: Although COVID-19 Rare In Cats & Dogs, Pharmaceutical Company Says, They’re Ready With A Vaccine If Needed 
According to the CDC a very small number of cats and dogs have been infected with COVID-19 worldwide and the risk of spreading the virus from animals to people is low. However; people can spread the virus to animals. “At this time the US Department of Agriculture and the CDC and other global regulatory bodies have determined that there’s not a need for a vaccine, a COVID vaccine for cats and dogs,” said Christina Lood, Sr. Director, Sustainability & Innovation Communications for Zoetis. Zoetis, the animal pharmaceutical company that donated COVID vaccines for use in zoo animals says, they started working on a vaccine for cats and dogs, as soon as the virus was detected in a dog in Hong, Kong in February 20-20. And when and if the time comes they are prepared to vaccines to cats and dogs. (Morton, 9/1)

In other news on the vaccine rollout —

The Oregonian: One In Five Oregonians Not Planning To Get Vaccinated Against COVID-19, According To New Survey 
One in five Oregon adults say they are not planning to get vaccinated against COVID-19, according to a new survey of Oregonians by the Oregon Values and Beliefs Center. This population tends to be under the age of 55, socially and ideologically conservative, with no college degree and living in rural or rural-to-suburban parts of the state. (Skores, 9/14)

The Hill: McAuliffe Releases 'Virginia Is For Vaccine Lovers' Plan To Increase Vaccination Rates 
Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe released a proposal on Tuesday to increase coronavirus vaccination rates in the commonwealth, dubbed "Virginia is for Vaccine Lovers." The campaign, which is a play on Virginia's travel and tourism slogan, marks the former governor's twentieth policy proposal of the campaign. (Manchester, 9/14)

CNBC: When Young, Healthy People Will Need Covid Vaccine Booster Shots
You’ve probably heard a lot about booster shots in recent weeks. But nobody can agree on when you’ll actually need to get one. On Friday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s vaccine advisory committee will meet to discuss booster shots, additional doses of the Covid vaccines designed to provide continued protection against the virus. The committee is expected to review data from Pfizer’s application for a third-dose booster and decide who needs boosters, at what dosage and when. (Stieg, 9/14)

Military.com: Soldiers Have 3 Months To Get COVID Vaccine Or Face Discharge, With Few Waiver Options
Active-duty soldiers have three months to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or face a possible discharge from the force, the Army announced Tuesday. The 485,900 soldiers on active duty must be vaccinated by Dec. 15. But the 336,500 National Guard and 189,800 Reserve troops have until June 30, 2022, to be fully inoculated. As of Tuesday, about 80% of active-duty soldiers had received at least one vaccine dose, according to an Army spokesperson. However, the National Guard and Reserve don’t have accurate numbers for how much of their forces are vaccinated, given many of those troops receive vaccines outside of the military. (Beynon and Kime, 9/14)

Reuters: U.S. Army Says Soldiers Who Refuse COVID-19 Vaccine Could Be Dismissed 
American army officers who refuse to be vaccinated against the coronavirus could be suspended from their duties and possibly discharged, the U.S. Army said on Tuesday. ... However, commanders, command sergeants major, first sergeants and officers in Command Select List positions who refuse to be vaccinated and are not pending an exemption request would face suspension and relief if they refuse to comply, the Army said in a statement. (9/15)

CNN: US Military Branches Set Deadline For Members To Be Vaccinated Against Covid-19
The US Army will require all active-duty military members to he vaccinated by December 15, 2021, and all National Guard soldiers will be required to be vaccinated by June 30, 2022, the Army said in a statement released Tuesday. ... The US Air Force has also set deadlines for when their personnel will need to be vaccinated. The Air Force will require active-duty military members to be fully vaccinated by November 2, 2021. Air Force National Guard and Air Force Reserve personnel will need to be vaccinated by December 2, 2021, a release from the Air Force said on September 3. ... The US Navy will require all active-duty service members to be fully vaccinated by November 28, 2021 and all Navy Reserve service members to be vaccinated by December 28, 2021, the Navy said in a release on August 21. The US Marine Corps active-duty members also must be vaccinated by November 28 and reservists must be vaccinated by December 28, a release from the US Marine Corps said. (Kaufman and Liebermann, 9/14)

CBS News: Judge Blocks New York From Imposing Vaccine Mandate On Medical Workers 
A federal judge temporarily blocked the state of New York on Tuesday from forcing medical workers to be vaccinated after a group of health care workers sued, saying their Constitutional rights were violated because the state's mandate disallowed religious exemptions. Judge David Hurd in Utica issued the order after 17 health professionals, including doctors and nurses, claimed in a lawsuit Monday that their rights were violated with a vaccine mandate that disallowed the exemptions. (9/14)

In updates on President Biden's vaccine mandate —

The Hill: Arizona Attorney General Sues Biden Over Vaccine Mandates
Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration on Tuesday in response to its new policy that will require private employers with 100 or more employees to mandate vaccines or weekly testing. “The federal government cannot force people to get the COVID-19 vaccine. The Biden Administration is once again flouting our laws and precedents to push their radical agenda,” Brnovich, who is currently waging a bid for the U.S. Senate, said in a statement. (Schnell, 9/14)

Bloomberg: Federal Vaccine Mandate May Overwhelm US Covid Testing Capacity
The U.S. may not have enough tests to keep pace with the Biden administration’s tightened workplace Covid-19 mitigation measures. Under regulation expected in the coming weeks, companies with 100 or more employees will need to require that workers get vaccinated or undergo weekly testing. That could represent nearly double the volume of tests currently being processed, and may make already hard-to-find rapid tests more scarce and lengthen wait times in lines and for results. “We’re going to get logjammed,” said Michael Mina, an epidemiologist with the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “We’re going to have major problems. We’re not going to have the production capacity.” (Court, 9/14)

NPR: An Epidemiologist Says At-Home Testing Is Key To Stopping COVID
The COVID-19 response plan that President Biden unveiled last week aims to dramatically increase the accessibility of rapid tests for the coronavirus. The Biden administration announced it was spending $2 billion on 280 million quick-turnaround tests to be distributed to community health centers, food banks, testing sites, shelters, prisons and other congregate settings. It's also leaning on Walmart, Amazon and Kroger to sell rapid tests at wholesale cost for the next three months. Such quick-turnaround tests can be taken at home or at a point of care and deliver results often in under an hour — as opposed to the more sensitive but more time-consuming PCR tests, which require laboratory processing. (Louise Kelly, 9/14)

KHN: Biden Releases A New Plan To Combat Covid, But Experts Say There’s Still A Ways To Go
On the campaign trail last year, Joe Biden promised that, if elected president, he would get covid-19 under control. Since assuming office in January, Biden has continued to pledge that his administration would do its best to get Americans vaccinated against covid and allow life to return to some semblance of normal. Both signs of progress and setbacks have cropped up along the way. (Knight and Appleby, 9/15)

In news from Florida —

AP: Florida Gov Defends The Right To Choose Whether To Vaccinate
Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Tuesday that people who decide not to get a COVID-19 vaccine might be making the wrong choice, but defended their right to make that choice. Speaking a day after holding a news conference to condemn vaccine mandates, DeSantis agreed that vaccines save lives. “There are some of those folks who may make a decision that’s not ultimately the right decision for them,” DeSantis said at a news conference Tuesday in Miami-Dade county. “There’s obviously probably people that have been hospitalized who probably wouldn’t have been if they had done that.” (Farrington, 9/14)

The Washington Post: Ron DeSantis Stands By As Florida City Officials Falsely Say Covid Vaccine ’Changes Your RNA’ 
After Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said Monday that cities and counties in the state could face millions of dollars in fines for requiring their employees to get vaccinated against the coronavirus, he stood silently next to a Gainesville city employee who spread misinformation about the vaccines. “The vaccine changes your RNA, so for me that’s a problem,” said Darris Friend, a 22-year city employee who is the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit against the Gainesville government over its vaccine requirements for all municipal employees. “We don’t want to have the vaccine. It’s about our freedom and liberty.” (Bella, 9/14)

WLRN 91.3 FM: Parents Want To Speed Mask Case To Florida Supreme Court 
Parents locked in a legal battle with Gov. Ron DeSantis about school mask requirements want to fast-track the case to the Florida Supreme Court. Attorneys for the group of parents filed a request late Friday to effectively bypass the 1st District Court of Appeal and go to the Supreme Court. The request, filed at the 1st District Court of Appeal, focuses heavily on a July 30 executive order issued by DeSantis that sought to prevent schools from requiring students to wear masks. (Saunders, 9/14)

In other news about vaccine and mask mandates —

Las Vegas Review-Journal: Sisolak Orders Mandatory Vaccination For Some State Workers
Acting on a unanimous recommendation from the state Board of Health, Gov. Steve Sisolak on Tuesday ordered mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations for all Department of Corrections employees and those working with at-risk populations in state-operated detention and health care facilities. The emergency regulation is effective Nov. 1 and will remain in effect for 120 days. The governor, in a statement, said he was “grateful to the Board of Health” for passing the regulation and also thanked his health department and the team of medical advisers he appointed to guide the state’s pandemic response who authored it. (Dentzer, 9/14)

The Baltimore Sun: Mask Requirement In Maryland Public Schools Gets Final Approval; Carroll Says It Will Comply With Decision 
Students, employees and visitors to Maryland’s public schools now must mask up, after state lawmakers signed off on a statewide mandate Tuesday. The approval came following a lengthy public video hearing that veered between accusations that a mask mandate represents government overreach to pleas from parents that their students be protected against the coronavirus. (Wood, 9/14)

AP: Ohio Governor Would Issue Mask Mandate If Law Allowed
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine on Tuesday said he would have issued a statewide mask mandate to slow spiking cases of the coronavirus if the Legislature hadn’t tied his hands through a strict restriction on public health orders. DeWine, a Republican, said he fears a fight with fellow GOP lawmakers, including one that might end up in court, could cause confusion at the worst time. (Welsh-Huggins, 9/14)

KHN: Over Half Of States Have Rolled Back Public Health Powers In Pandemic 
Republican legislators in more than half of U.S. states, spurred on by voters angry about lockdowns and mask mandates, are taking away the powers state and local officials use to protect the public against infectious diseases. A KHN review of hundreds of pieces of legislation found that, in all 50 states, legislators have proposed bills to curb such public health powers since the covid-19 pandemic began. While some governors vetoed bills that passed, at least 26 states pushed through laws that permanently weaken government authority to protect public health. In three additional states, an executive order, ballot initiative or state Supreme Court ruling limited long-held public health powers. More bills are pending in a handful of states whose legislatures are still in session. (Weber and Barry-Jester, 9/15)

CNN: White House Praises Fox For Its New Covid Policy, Encourages Network To 'Convey To Their Audience' Why It's Effective 
Fox is earning some rare praise from the White House after essentially admitting on Tuesday that it will follow the protocols pushed by the Biden administration to limit the spread of the coronavirus. In a memo I obtained, Fox Corp. human resources chief Kevin Lord effectively communicated to employees that they all face a choice: Get vaccinated or face a daily Covid-19 test. (Darcy, 9/14)

The Washington Post: Nicki Minaj Met Gala Vaccine Tweets Highlight Struggle Against Covid-19 Misinformation 
Nicki Minaj sparked a social media storm on Monday night after she tweeted about her cousin’s hesitancy to get vaccinated against the coronavirus, setting off a slew of critiques that she was spreading coronavirus misinformation. Minaj tweeted that her cousin in Trinidad, where the singer and rapper is from, “won’t get the vaccine cuz his friend got it & became impotent. His testicles became swollen.” Medical experts have said that claims about infertility linked to vaccinations are unsubstantiated. (Pietsch and Suliman, 9/14)

The Washington Post: NBA Won’t Require Players To Be Vaccinated This Season
The NBA will not require its players to be vaccinated against the coronavirus this season, a person familiar with the situation confirmed Tuesday. As reported earlier in the day by ESPN, the players’ union is opposing a vaccine mandate, the person confirmed. Approximately 85 percent of NBA players are already vaccinated, a spokesman for the league reportedly stated Tuesday. (Bieler, 9/14)

The New York Times: Why N.B.A. Referees Agreed To A Covid-19 Vaccine Mandate 
Late last month, the N.B.A. sent out a short news release announcing an agreement with the union representing the league’s referees to mandate Covid-19 vaccines. It stipulated that all referees must to be fully vaccinated to work games, including “recommended boosters.” Otherwise, the statement said, referees couldn’t work. ... The agreement was notable at a time when labor unions across various industries have been split on whether to agree to vaccine mandates for their members. (Deb, 9/13)

In football news —

AP: Buffalo Bills To Require Proof Of Vaccination From Fans
The Buffalo Bills joined the Las Vegas Raiders on Tuesday as the only NFL teams to require proof of vaccination against COVID-19 for all fans over the age of 12. The rules will be the same for Buffalo Sabres games at the KeyBank Center when the NHL season gets under way next month. The change comes after reports from fans about lax mask enforcement during the Bills’ opening game at Highmark Stadium Sept. 12. (9/14)

AP: AP Source: 6 Saints Coaches Have Positive COVID-19 Tests
Six unidentified members of the New Orleans Saints coaching staff, a player and a nutritionist have tested positive for COVID-19, two people familiar with the situation said. The people spoke with The Associated Press on Tuesday on condition of anonymity because the team and NFL had not made a public statement about the matter. The people said the entire Saints coaching staff had been vaccinated. (Martel, 9/15)

The Wall Street Journal: New Orleans Saints Covid-19 Cases Will Test NFL’s Pandemic Strategy 
Eight members of the New Orleans Saints have tested positive for Covid-19, according to two people familiar with the matter, in a developing situation that represents the first major test of the revamped protocols for the NFL’s second pandemic season. The positives include six coaches, a nutritionist and one player, the people said. NFL rules call for all coaches to be vaccinated, implying that at least four of the positive tests represent so-called breakthrough cases. The player who tested positive is on injured reserve and did not travel with the team to its opening game, one of the people said.  (Beaton, 9/14)

USA Today: COVID-19 Vaccine Expert Not As Concerned About Full Stadiums As People Not Getting Shots
If you're someone who looks at full NFL stadiums and worry they are potentially superspreading events, you are far from alone. If you see people in close quarters watching baseball inside a full stadium and believe COVID-19 gives that a huge thumbs up, well, one of the best immunologists in the world says don't panic. "If you have a stadium full of people and many of them are vaccinated, they will be protected, and others will be protected, from serious illness," said Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett, one of the creators of the Moderna vaccine, in an interview with USA TODAY Sports. (Freeman, 9/15)

NBC News: Feds Announce New Limits On Chokeholds And 'No-Knock' Warrants, But Don't Ban Them
The Justice Department on Tuesday announced new limits on chokeholds and no-knock warrants, but stopped short of banning the controversial law enforcement tactics that critics say have led to unnecessary deaths. Under the new policy, the department's law enforcement components, including the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the U.S. Marshals Service, are prohibited from using the tactics except when they believe doing so would save them from death or serious injury. (Dilanian, 9/14)

CNN: Justice Department Limits Use Of Chokeholds And 'No-Knock' Warrants
While the memo is directed at federal law enforcement agencies and does not mention high-profile deaths of civilians who died by the hands of local police officers, the Justice Department acknowledged that "the use of certain physical restraint techniques -- namely chokeholds and carotid restraints -- by some law enforcement agencies to incapacitate a resisting suspect has too often led to tragedy." The policy change affects federal agents, and local and state officers serving on federal task forces. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco in a memo released Tuesday cited "the inherent dangerousness of chokeholds and carotid restraints," and said the DOJ relied on "feedback from our law enforcement components on these techniques." (Carrega and Nickeas, 9/14)

And the federal government is investigating the treatment of prisoners in Georgia —

The Washington Post: Justice Department Launches Probe Into Violence In Georgia’s Prisons 
The Justice Department is launching an investigation into civil rights violations in Georgia prisons, focusing on prisoner-on-prisoner violence and the targeting of LGBT inmates by prisoners and staff, federal officials said Tuesday. The announcement comes after advocacy groups said deplorable conditions of confinement and escalating violence — including homicides and suicides — have only worsened during the coronavirus pandemic. It is part of civil rights initiatives by the Justice Department under the Biden administration to reform the nation’s law enforcement agencies and prisons. (Villegas, 9/14)

In other news about law and order —

NBC News: Miami Nurse Pleads Guilty To Threatening To Kill Vice President Kamala Harris
A Miami-area nurse pleaded guilty to threatening to kill Vice President Kamala Harris in videos sent to her imprisoned husband earlier this year, officials said. Niviane Petit Phelps, 39, who pleaded guilty Friday to six counts, faces up to five years in prison, prosecutors said. Sentencing is set for Nov. 19. (Helsel, 9/14)

Los Angeles Times: Riverside County Sheriff Won't Enforce COVID Vaccine Mandate
As President Biden escalates his administration’s efforts to require Americans to get vaccinated, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco says he will not enforce any vaccine mandates for Sheriff’s Department employees. Describing himself as “the last line of defense from tyrannical government overreach,” Bianco on Monday doubled down on statements he made during a Thursday episode of the department’s podcast, “RSO Roundup,” in which he said he believes vaccines are a personal choice. (Smith, 9/14)

Newsweek: N.J. Police Unions Still Oppose Vaccine Mandates As 22 Officers Die From COVID Last Week
Twenty-two police officers in New Jersey died from COVID-19 last week as police unions across the state continue their opposition of vaccine mandates. New Jersey State Police Superintendent Pat Callahan said during a virus briefing Monday that last week saw the most officer deaths in a single week years. In total, 23 officers died—22 of the deaths were related to the virus. (Stanton, 9/24)

Bay Area News Group: Elizabeth Holmes Trial: Theranos Used Workers' Blood
Theranos whistleblower Erika Cheung’s first inkling that the company’s technology fell short of founder Elizabeth Holmes’ claims arose because the startup used its workers’ blood to check how well tests performed, the former laboratory assistant testified Tuesday. “Employees would essentially donate their blood to Theranos for cash,” Cheung told jurors on the second day of Holmes criminal trial, without saying how much was paid. When Cheung’s blood was used to “validate” Vitamin D testing on Theranos machines, “it would always come up that I was deficient,” she testified. But her results didn’t show the same problem when her bloodwork was done on another company’s machines that Theranos kept upstairs to conduct tests its own machines couldn’t perform. (Baron, 9/14)

The Wall Street Journal: Elizabeth Holmes Trial: Theranos Gave Investors Rosy Picture Of Revenue, Witness Says 
Theranos Inc. gave investors far rosier revenue projections than what the company’s finance staff expected, jurors heard Tuesday during the second day of witness testimony in Elizabeth Holmes’s criminal fraud trial. The testimony supported one of prosecutors’ key contentions: That Ms. Holmes deliberately lied to investors, business partners and patients to keep afloat a startup she said would change the world by testing for illnesses with just a few drops of blood. (Randazzo, Somerville and Weaver, 9/14)

In other health industry news —

Modern Healthcare: Cost Of "Preventable" COVID-19 Hospitalizations More Than $5B
About 287,000 unvaccinated Americans were hospitalized from June through August, costing the healthcare system $5.7 billion, according to a new study. Of that total cost, $3.7 billion came in August, when cases across the country started surging, the Kaiser Family Foundation said in a research brief Tuesday. "This ballpark figure is likely an understatement of the cost burden from preventable treatment of COVID-19 among unvaccinated adults," the authors wrote. More than 98% of those who have been hospitalized in the U.S. since June, after vaccines were made widely available to adults, have been unvaccinated, KFF predicted. making them "preventable hospitalizations," KFF predicted. To calculate costs, KFF estimated that 84% of hospitalizations for COVID-19 were preventable with vaccination. (Christ, 9/14)

The Boston Globe: Boston Children’s Gets $20 Million Donation To Research, Treat Pediatric Heart Disease
Boston Children’s Hospital on Tuesday said it has received a $20 million donation from the Benderson Family Foundation to research and treat pediatric heart disease. The donation will create two endowed chairs at the heart center and fund research programs, hospital officials said in a news release. “Ten years from now, we will look back and remember that a decade of progress began today with this generous gift,” said Dr. Pedro del Nido, chairman of the department of cardiovascular surgery. The hospital’s cardiovascular programs, renamed as the Benderson Family Heart Center, will move into a new clinical tower on the Boston Children’s Longwood campus, which is expected to open next summer. The heart center will span more than five floors at the new Hale Family Building. (9/14)

Modern Healthcare: Bay Area Healthcare Workers Vote To Strike Alleging Widespread Understaffing
More than 500 healthcare workers at two facilities in the San Francisco Bay Area voted to strike, saying they've endured understaffing, challenging working conditions, and unfair labor practices. Set to take place in October, the strikes will include a variety of employees from Sutter Delta Medical Center in Antioch and John Muir Behavioral Health Center in Concord, including emergency room technicians, mental health counselors, respiratory therapists, transporters and licensed vocational nurses, among other positions. Workers at each location allege that the facilities' dire conditions stem from management ignoring concerns about severe understaffing. (Devereaux, 9/14)

Bangor Daily News: Ex-OB Nurse Alleges Calais Hospital Kept Her In The Dark About Her Firing For 2 Years
A former obstetrics nurse has sued the hospital in Calais, alleging that she was kept on administrative leave for nearly two years after the decision was made to fire her due to concerns she’d raised about dangerously low staffing and a stillborn birth. Donna Webb, 62, of Calais claims in her lawsuit that management delayed informing her of the termination because she had raised concerns beginning in 2013 that having just four obstetric nurses to cover all shifts endangered patients, especially those whose pregnancies were considered high risk. (Harrison, 9/15)

Fox News: Vaping Linked To Increased Eating Disorder Risk Among US College Students
Recent vaping or e-cigarette use was associated with an increased risk of an eating disorder and a higher likelihood of a self-reported eating disorder diagnosis, according to a recent study. While vaping is common among young adults and eating disorder onset typically occurs before age 25, the association was unknown among a national sample of college students, researchers wrote. An estimated 22% of college kids reported recent nicotine vaping in 2019, authors noted, while up to "29% of female, 16% of male and 14% of transgender/gender non-conforming college students report symptoms of eating disorders," the study notes in part. (Rivas, 9/14)

In other public health news —

Anchorage Daily News: 3rd And 4th Known Cases Of ‘Alaskapox’ — Both Mild — Were Recently Diagnosed In The Fairbanks Area
In July, a young child in the Fairbanks area showed up at an urgent care clinic with a “pox-like” mark on the inside of her left elbow, along with other symptoms including a mild fever and pain. Three weeks later, the mark — which at first resembled an insect bite — had gone away, as had her other symptoms. In August, an unrelated Fairbanks-area woman sought medical care for a similar lesion on her right thigh accompanied by joint pain. After three weeks, she had mostly recovered too. According to a report recently issued by the Alaska Division of Public Health, both patients were later diagnosed with the third and fourth known cases of a recently discovered species of double-stranded-DNA virus called “Alaskapox,” which comes from the same genus as smallpox, monkeypox and cowpox. (Berman, 9/14)

The Boston Globe: Two New Human Cases Of West Nile Virus Detected In Massachusetts
Two new human cases of West Nile virus have been detected in Essex and Middlesex counties bringing the state’s total this year to six human cases and one animal case, Massachusetts public health officials said Tuesday. The virus was found in a woman in her 70′s who was exposed in Essex County, and a man in his 60′s who was exposed in Middlesex County, according to a statement from the state Department of Public Health. The cases bring the state total for this year up to six, one more than last year, the state said. (Redefer, 9/14)

CBS News: Broadway Reopens At Full Capacity With Shows Including "Hamilton" 
Four big shows are returning to Broadway, and at full capacity. Audience members are required to show proof of vaccination against COVID-19. ... After a year and a half in the dark, not only have Broadway's lights, performers and workers returned, but so have the audiences. One pair of friends came from Illinois and Colorado. Marie Jarrell told CBS News that seeing a Broadway show again was "gonna make me cry." (Wax, 9/14)

Dallas Morning News: Sam’s Club Sets $15 As Its Minimum Wage, Raises Pay For Some Hourly Workers
Sam’s Club is officially setting $15 an hour as its minimum wage, even though 95% of its warehouse club workers are already making that. The division of Walmart said it also is raising department leader position pay from $18 to $19 an hour and increasing pay for tire and battery center technicians, personal shoppers who fill online orders, and forklift drivers. About a third (34%) of Sam’s Club hourly employees will see their pay rise on Sept. 25. Starting pay for Sam’s Club now ranges from $15 to $20 an hour, depending on the market and store location. (Halkias, 9/14)

In obituaries —

The New York Times: Norm Macdonald, ‘Saturday Night Live’ Comedian, Dies At 61
Norm Macdonald, the acerbic, sometimes controversial comedian familiar to millions as the “Weekend Update” anchor on “Saturday Night Live” from 1994 to 1998, died on Tuesday in Los Angeles. He was 61. His manager, Marc Gurvitz, confirmed the death. Lori Jo Hoekstra, his longtime producing partner, told the entertainment news outlet Deadline that the cause was cancer, something he had been dealing with for some time but had kept largely private. (Genzlinger, 9/14)

The Washington Post: Virginia Senators Push DHS To Do More To Keep Hospitals From Being Overwhelmed By Afghan Patients
Virginia’s two senators are pressing the Biden administration to do more to make sure that Afghan evacuees in need of medical attention don’t overwhelm local hospitals after officials in D.C.’s suburbs complained that a lack of federal planning wreaked havoc on facilities already stretched thin by the coronavirus pandemic. In a letter sent Monday evening to the Department of Homeland Security secretary and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Sens. Mark R. Warner (D) and Tim Kaine (D) said they are concerned about a lack of coordination between federal and local officials around the hospitalizations of Afghan evacuees so far. (Olivo, 9/15)

AP: Virginia And Wisconsin Report Measles Cases Among Refugees
Six people who recently traveled to the United States after fleeing the Taliban in Afghanistan have been diagnosed with measles, officials said Tuesday. The cases in Virginia and Wisconsin are being reported four days after the U.S. halted in-bound flights of Afghan evacuees following the discovery of a few cases of measles among new arrivals. (Finley, 9/14)

In updates from Florida —

The Washington Post: How One Of The Largest Nursing Home Chains In Florida Could Avoid Nearly All Of $256 Million Fraud Judgment
The Justice Department and a medical whistleblower have tentatively agreed to settle a $256 million civil fraud judgment against a large nursing home chain for $4.5 million, according to court documents filed Monday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware. Entities operating under Consulate Health Care, a chain based in Florida tied to private equity company Formation Capital, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in March. The sixth-largest nursing home chain in the country with 140 facilities from the Mid-Atlantic to the Gulf Coast, it said it did not have the resources to pay the large False Claims Act judgment against it. (Rowland, 9/14)

Dallas Morning News: Florida Gov. DeSantis Open To New Abortion Law, But Doesn’t Want To Turn Citizens Against Each Other
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis initially said he would consider legislation in his state with abortion restrictions similar to those enacted under a new Texas law. But now he appears to have concerns about a key provision in the law that allows private citizens to sue abortion providers or anyone else who knowingly aids or abets a procedure. “Gov. DeSantis doesn’t want to turn private citizens against each other,” Christina Pushaw, a DeSantis spokeswoman, told Buzzfeed News in an article published Saturday. Pushaw told The Hill on Tuesday that “the governor has not indicated that the same legislation recently enacted in Texas will be on the table in Florida.” (Caldwell, 9/14)

Health News Florida: Florida Board Of Medicine To Call For Increased Safety At Meetings 
Members of the Florida Board of Medicine asked the state to provide a law enforcement officer at its future meetings after an enraged Brandon woman, screaming obscenities, tried to accost her former physician during a hearing in Tampa on Friday. The woman was blocked by a security guard, and Dr. Stephen D. Watson and his attorney were able to leave the Tampa Westshore Marriott before the woman could catch up with them. After a few more minutes of yelling in the parking lot, she got into a white Jeep and sped away. (Gentry, 9/14)

In updates from Michigan and North Carolina —

AP: Whitmer: Use $1.4B To Expand Health Access, Build Facilities
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Tuesday proposed spending $1.4 billion in federal pandemic funding to expand health care and infrastructure, including to bolster access to mental health services, replace state psychiatric hospitals and build a new public health lab. The proposal, if approved by the Republican-led Legislature, would account for more than a fifth of Michigan’s $6.5 billion in discretionary rescue funding approved by Congress and President Joe Biden six months ago. Lawmakers could consider it — and other spending plans previously outlined by the Democratic governor — this fall after finalizing the state budget this month. (Eggert, 9/14)

North Carolina Health News: New Anti-Trans Bills In NC Post HB2 And Could Be Deadly 
North Carolina was one of many state legislatures across the country that filed bills targeting transgender people. Even though the two proposed North Carolina bills failed to become law this year, advocates say the damage has been done in the Tar Heel state and across the country. Since the beginning of 2021, at least 35 transgender or gender non-conforming people have been fatally shot or killed across the U.S., according to the Human Rights Campaign (HRC). Three of those people were killed in North Carolina — Jaida Peterson, a 29-year-old Black trans woman, and Remy Fennell, a 28-year-old Black trans woman, both killed in Charlotte, and Jenna Franks, a 34-year-old white trans woman who was killed in Jacksonville. (Thompson, 9/15)

Bloomberg: Thousands Of Covid-Like Cases Raise Risk Of Future Pandemics
Hundreds of thousands of people may be infected annually by animals carrying coronaviruses related to the one that causes Covid-19 in China and Southeast Asia, according to a study emphasizing the ongoing pandemic threat from spillover events. An average of 400,000 such infections occur each year, most going unrecognized because they cause mild or no symptoms and aren’t easily transmitted between people, researchers with the EcoHealth Alliance and Singapore’s Duke-NUS Medical School said in a study released Thursday before peer review and publication. Still, each spillover represents an opportunity for viral adaptation that could lead to a Covid-like outbreak. (Gale, 9/14)

CNBC: UK Sets Out Covid Plan For Fall And Winter; Booster Shots To Begin Next Week
U.K. lawmakers on Tuesday outlined the government’s fall-winter plan to tackle the coronavirus crisis, detailing a series of policies aimed at averting the need for more lockdowns. It comes shortly after British officials gave the green light to offer Covid-19 vaccine boosters to vulnerable people and everyone aged over 50 years old six months after their second dose. (Meredith, 9/14)

AP: Mexico Finishes 3-Month Push To Vaccinate Border Residents
The Mexican government said Tuesday it has successfully completed a three-month push to provide coronavirus vaccines to all adult residents of communities along its border with the United States. Mexico said that when it began the effort in June, it hoped the mass vaccinations would aid in lifting pandemic restrictions on non-essential travel across the border, something that has not yet occurred. (9/15)

In news about the Olympics —

The Hill: Olympic Marijuana Ban To Be Re-Examined After Sha'Carri Richardson's Disqualification
The World Anti-Doping Agency announced Tuesday it would review the status of cannabis on its prohibited substances list, according to a press release from the agency. While cannabis will remain prohibited in 2022, any changes that stem from the agency's review would not take effect until the following year. This comes after the agency received "requests from a number of stakeholders," the release said. (Beals, 9/14)

FiercePharma: To Lower Drug Prices, Senate Leaders, FDA Urge U.S. Patent And Trademark Office To Alter Patent Processes 
The Senate and the FDA are appealing to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to examine how it can limit the ability of pharmaceutical companies to leverage patent strategies to extend their drug monopolies. In separate letters last week to the USPTO, FDA acting Commissioner Janet Woodcock, M.D., and Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, and Thom Tillis, R-North Carolina, of the Senate Judiciary Intellectual Property Subcommittee provided (PDF) suggestions on how the organization can better screen patent applications. (Dunleavy, 9/14)

Stat: FDA Commissioner, Two Senators Raise Concerns About Patent Abuse
In a bid to address the high cost of medicines, Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Janet Woodcock wrote the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to express concern about moves that companies use to extend their monopolies as well as suggestions for curtailing some of these practices. The Sept. 10 letter was sent in response to an executive order issued last June by President Biden to lower prescription drug prices, notably by promoting more competition through greater access to generics and biosimilar medicines. The Biden administration has targeted the rising cost of medicines as a key initiative and various proposals are winding their way through Congress. (Silverman, 9/13)

In related news about drug-pricing reform —

FiercePharma: As Congress Considers Drug Price Reforms, Merck, Lilly And Takeda Execs Warn Of Dire Consequences 
As Congress reconvenes this month to resolve a $3.5 trillion budget package, Democrats are focused on enacting sweeping legislation that would allow the government to negotiate prices for prescription drugs. On Wednesday, Merck’s executive chairman and former CEO Ken Frazier warned of dire consequences from such a move. “The proposals that we’re seeing from Congress will devastate this industry,” Frazier said during a virtual press conference hosted by lobbying organization PhRMA. “While large companies like Merck will survive, we will do significantly less research. ”Under the proposal, Merck would cut its R&D efforts by nearly 50%, Frazier said. (Dunleavy, 9/8)

FiercePharma: Novo Nordisk, Roche See Outsized Threats From U.S. Drug Pricing Talks: Analysts 
While Congress and the U.S. government have sought to lower drug prices for years, the issue appears to be coming to a head once again in Washington, D.C. The proposals that officials are eyeing aren’t new, but they could have outsized effects on some of the industry's largest players. Analyzing the potential effects of drug pricing reform for European big pharma companies including AstraZeneca, Novartis and Sanofi, the team of analysts at ODDO BHF thinks Roche and Novo Nordisk stand to lose the most under the pricing proposals being discussed. (Sagonowsky, 9/13)

Axios: What Hospitals Don't Like About Democrats' Drug Pricing Bill 
Hospitals are worried that the Democrats' plans to curb prescription drug costs could be the beginning of a slippery slope that ultimately cuts into their bottom lines, too. Why it matters: Hospitals and drug companies aren't always allies, and hospitals aren't likely to lobby very hard solely on pharma's behalf. But the industry could become another powerful opponent for Democrats if its own profits are on the line. (Owens, 9/14)

Forbes: Biden Administration’s Prescription Drug Pricing Plan Promotes Incremental Change, Not Overhaul Of System
On Thursday, September 9th, the White House released a long-awaited plan to reduce prescription drug prices and out-of-pocket costs for patients. The plan is more conspicuous for what it doesn’t tackle, or leaves unsaid, than what it addresses (mostly) indirectly and incrementally. The report asserts that prescription drug prices in the U.S. are “too high,” putatively due to lack of competition. The plan identifies myriad “market failures” that prevent competitive pricing of drugs from occurring. According to the report, the prescription drug market exhibits “monopolistic or oligopolistic behavior.” As illustrations, the report cites stakeholders erecting barriers to entry, such as patent thickets and pay-for-delay schemes. Without elaborating, the report points to the market operating suboptimally by incentivizing list price inflation, and encouraging a disproportionate amount of research and development spending to go towards “me-too drugs rather than new treatments and cures.” (Cohen, 9/12)

And in other pharmaceutical news —

Insider: Cancer-Drug Prices Increase In The US, While European Countries Prices Fall Over Time
As the federal government considers a plan to lower the price of some costly drugs, researchers have found that while US cancer-drug prices consistently rise faster than inflation, our European counterparts have seen prices fall. The US spends more than double what other industrialized countries do per capita on prescription drugs, and 79% of Americans agree that the cost of prescription drugs is too high. (Khatib, 9/10)

FiercePharma: Bausch Pays Whopping $300M To Settle Glumetza Pay-For-Delay Lawsuit After 800% Price Hike 
Bausch Health, which industry watchers may remember by its former name Valeant, has been riddled in controversy for years over its defense of diabetes med Glumetza. Now, the company will pay millions to put those charges to rest. Bausch has agreed to dish out $300 million to settle a 2019 lawsuit that claimed the Canadian drugmaker paid off its generic rivals nearly a decade ago, allowing the company to jack up prices for the type 2 diabetes heavyweight by 800% shortly thereafter, according to a Wednesday court filing. (Higgins-Dunn, 9/10)  

FiercePharma: Hims & Hers Drafts Super Bowl Star Rob Gronkowski To Drive Men's Health Awareness 
Notoriously laid-back NFL star Rob Gronkowski is looking to score for the telehealth and medication delivery service Hims & Hers Health with messages on social media, digital, TV and streaming audio. Gronkowski—nicknamed “Gronk” and well-known as a favorite passing target for star quarterback and friend Tom Brady—hits Hims & Hers’ millennial target right in the numbers. Chief Medical Officer Patrick Carroll, M.D., said his own millennial son, who’s a fan of Gronk’s former team, the New England Patriots, excitedly texted him about the news. (Bulik, 9/10)

Stat: Online Pharmacies Could Save Medicare Billions On Generic Drugs 
Public outcry about the shockingly high cost of brand-name drugs and a demand for new laws to rein in the cost of these medicines has persisted for years. But more than 90% of all prescriptions — almost 4 billion a year — are filled with generic drugs. Little attention has been paid to how much insurance companies, pharmacy benefit managers, and pharmacies charge to fill these generic prescriptions. Yet the difference between the highest and lowest price being charged for the same generic drug is so large that many billions of dollars could be saved each year by having prescriptions filled at the lowest-cost pharmacies. (Alfred Engelberg, 9/10)

The Hill: Washington Must Help Patients Choose, Not Dictate Their Care
Over a decade ago, I founded the Partnership to Improve Patient Care with a basic principle: Patients are best served when they are informed and empowered to decide which care options are best for them; they are poorly served when policymakers in Washington dictate which options are best. In 2010, I noted that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) “recognizes not only the importance of strong clinical evidence to support decision-making but also the need to use the research to support doctors’ and patients’ decisions, not to dictate what those decisions should be.” That principle is again under debate — and under threat — as Congress considers new government standards to regulate drug prices. I’m all for improving drug affordability, but it is vital to pursue solutions that reinforce this core principle of empowering patient choice, not undermining it. (Tony Coelho, 9/14)

NJ Star-Ledger: Medication And Health Care Are Expensive. But It Doesn’t Have To Be
Americans are struggling to afford the high cost of healthcare in this country. As many as 24% of New Jersey residents reported that they did not fill a prescription due to cost, and polling shows that 59% of New Jerseyans are concerned about the cost of prescription drugs. It doesn’t have to be like this. President Biden’s American Rescue Plan included the most significant expansion of healthcare in more than a decade, saving American families thousands in health care costs. As a result, 100,000 uninsured New Jerseyans are newly eligible for health coverage tax credits and 13,800 individuals have access to coverage with zero-dollar premiums. (Troy Singleton, 9/10)

Also —

The Hill: The Next Health Threat Is Here — Action Is Needed On Anti-Microbial Resistance 
As an infectious diseases physician caring for patients hospitalized with COVID-19, I have seen how secondary infections that are resistant to antibiotics are impacting those patients and complicating our response to an already extremely complex pandemic. ... The antibiotic pipeline is not delivering the novel antibiotics patients need for highly resistant infections. In fact, most large pharmaceutical companies have turned away from antibiotic research and development, and the smaller firms attempting to innovate are struggling to remain in business. Antibiotics, which must be used judiciously to preserve their effectiveness and are typically prescribed for a short duration, are not a good return on investment, in strictly financial terms. In fact, antimicrobials are the only class of drug for which use in one person can contribute to drug resistance and decrease the drug’s efficacy in the rest of the population. (John B. Lynch, 9/10)

Chicago Tribune: Why We Need To Study Long COVID-19 
William Faulkner once wrote, “The past is never dead. It’s not even the past.” He meant that events from the past can still affect us now or in the future. He might have been referring to COVID-19 infections, for there is growing concern that the pandemic could have its own set of health consequences years or even decades from now, so-called long COVID-19, and this may ultimately exact a huge economic and social toll on the world. (Cory Franklin and Robert A. Weinstein, 9/14)

The Washington Post: The Biden Administration Must Clear Up The Confusion Over Booster Shots 
When the Biden administration first announced plans for booster shots, the rollout was to begin the week of Sept. 20. Now it appears that not all the scientific research and regulatory reviews are in place, and delay is likely. The public is confused about the reasons and the timetable for boosters. An administration that champions science-based decision-making needs to mount a strong new effort to communicate clearly with the American people. (9/13)

CNN: The Covid Virus Is Sneaky. Booster Shots Can Protect Us From It 
The United States and many other countries around the world are still debating the rollout of an additional dose, or "booster" shot, of the Covid-19 vaccine. On Friday the US Food and Drug Administration's Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee will meet to discuss Pfizer's application to administer a third dose of its Covid-19 vaccine to people ages 16 and older. Though a recent Lancet article advises caution in administering boosters before we have the evidence to fully support that the immunological benefits outweigh any risks, to me, the science seems clear: for those in the US who received mRNA vaccines, a third dose is the minimum we should pursue for Covid-19 protection, and people should prepare themselves for the possibility that they will need additional doses or annual shots in the months and years to come. (William Haseltine, 9/14)

Newsweek: Is Biden's Vaccination Mandate Constitutional?
President Joe Biden has issued a series of executive orders—without express legislative authority—mandating vaccination or weekly testing for a significant percentage of American workers. Since the announcement, I have been besieged with calls, emails and media requests all asking the same question: is it constitutional? Fortunately, I've just completed writing a book on precisely that subject, entitled The Case for Vaccine Mandates, in which I analyze the legal issues surrounding vaccination, masking and related mandates. (Alan Dershowitz, 9/14)

NBC News: Biden's Covid Vaccine Mandate Plan Is Constitutional, Whatever His GOP Critics Say
President Joe Biden had not even finished announcing the details of his new plan to reduce the spread of Covid-19 Thursday when the criticism started pouring in. Using executive orders and agency directives, he mandated the full vaccination of all federal employees, federal contractors and Medicaid- and Medicare-funded health care facility workers. He also directed the Labor Department to draft an emergency rule requiring private companies with 100 or more employees to ensure their workers are either fully vaccinated or take weekly Covid tests. (Jennifer D. Oliva, 9/14)

The Star Tribune: Considering Ivermectin? Enroll In Clinical Trial 
Nearly every major medical organization has warned against self-medicating with ivermectin, a deworming drug with both veterinary and human medical uses, to treat COVID-19. Nevertheless, there remains a persistent belief, particularly on social media, in this drug's curative properties. Credible medical research does not currently support a benefit. But if you're still thinking about giving it a try, please consider a far safer alternative: enrolling in a clinical trial evaluating the effectiveness of ivermectin against the coronavirus. (9/14)

The New York Times: How To End The Covid Pandemic
On Monday night, The Washington Post reported that President Biden next week will host a virtual summit at which he plans to call on world leaders to recommit to ending the coronavirus pandemic, chiefly by vaccinating 70 percent of the global population by next September. Those leaders have their work cut out for them: Nine months after the first Covid vaccine was approved for use, most of the world’s 7.8 billion people have yet to receive even a single shot. (Spencer Bokat-Lindell, 9/14)

USA Today: COVID Vaccines: Tell The Truth About Why You Still Aren't Vaccinated
When it comes to the COVID-19 vaccine, I wish people would say “I don’t want it” and leave it at that. The two reasons anti-vaxxers give most often for not taking the vaccines are nonsense. The vaccines, they say, are too new and they don’t know what they’re putting in their body; and they don’t want their employers telling them they have to get a vaccine because it violates their personal freedom. (Ray Marcano, 9/14)

Scientific American: How The Pandemic Is Changing Mental Health 
Necessity is the mother of invention, and 2020 pushed the world like never before to find creative solutions to a litany of challenges, first and foremost in the medical field. From drug discovery to vaccine manufacturing to care delivery, COVID has animated clinicians, researchers, entrepreneurs and policy makers to radically rethink every facet of the health care ecosystem. (P. Murali Doraiswamy, Cameron Fox and Joshua Gordon, 9/14)

Scientific American: Novel Drug Therapies Could Tackle Treatment-Resistant Depression 
Depression affects more than 264 million people of all ages globally. The World Health Organization ranks depression as one of the most debilitating diseases to society. It is the leading cause of disability worldwide and the psychiatric diagnosis most commonly associated with suicide, which accounts for nearly 800,000 deaths globally each year. Individuals suffering from depression may face an inability to manage life’s demands and maintain social connections, affecting all aspects of their experiences, from school and employment to relationships and overall quality of life. (Husseini Manji and Joseph Hayes, 9/14)

Stat: NIH Needs To Create A National Institute Of Surgery 
I recently received the 42nd grant rejection of my academic career, bringing my overall success rate down to 10%. I was disappointed, of course, but rejection is a well-entrenched part of the academic game. It prompted me, though, to look at this game from the perspective of a surgeon who works in global health and writes grants to fund surgery research. (Mark G. Shrime, 9/15)

The Boston Globe: Democrats Need A New Social Security — Paid Family And Medical Leave Is It 
Since Joe Biden’s election, Democrats have compared their challenge with the one Franklin D. Roosevelt and his party faced during the New Deal: enact policies that simultaneously address pressing problems and broaden Democrats’ coalition of allied voters and supportive groups. The lodestar is Social Security — a breakthrough that transformed retirement for the better and forged enduring bonds between working Americans and the Democratic party. Famously, FDR told an adviser that the design of Social Security wasn’t about economics but “politics all the way through.” The goal, the president quipped, was to ensure “no damn politician can ever scrap my social security program.” (Vicki Shabo and Jacob S. Hacker, 9/14)

Los Angeles Times: A Diary Of Black Vaccination Hesitancy 
Tuesday, Aug. 3: After going weeks without speaking to each other because I yelled at my mom about not getting vaccinated, she finally calls me from her home in Texas. The news: She has just tested positive for COVID-19. Thursday, Aug. 5: I call my mom and we fight until I have persuaded her to call her doctor. I advise her to outline all of her symptoms in detail and to take his advice, even the antibody infusion, the COVID treatment given emergency-use authorization by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in November. The fact that the treatment is so new makes her nervous. (Espie Randolph III, 9/15)

The Washington Post: Maurice Hilleman Was A Vaccine Miracle Worker. Imagine What Anti-Vaxxers Would Have Made Of Him
Long before there was Operation Warp Speed, there was Maurice Hilleman. Before the magnificent multibillion-dollar project to find a vaccine for covid-19, there was a guy from Montana with the brilliance of a great scientist and the swagger of a cowboy. Hilleman created more than 40 vaccines. In the 1950s, he and his team stopped a rampaging pandemic. Across his career, he saved millions of lives. A person who saves one life is a hero. What do we call the person who saves too many to count? (David Von Drehle, 9/14)