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Two more bills restricting responses to the coronavirus pandemic are heading to [Arizona] Republican Gov. Doug Ducey’s desk, including one that would impact the ability of future state leaders to respond to another airborne-spreading disease and a second blocking the state from ever requiring schoolchildren to get a COVID-19 vaccine. Tuesday’s state Senate votes were the latest moves by GOP lawmakers to limit what they have called government overreach. (Christie, 5/17)

Iowa school districts will no longer be allowed to issue sweeping mask mandates, a federal appeals court panel ruled Monday. The 2-1 decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit has lifted an earlier court order that blocked a state law banning the mandates, ruling that the order is now moot due to lower coronavirus transmission and wider vaccine availability. (Richardson, 5/16)

A small California school district began requiring indoor masking again Tuesday due to rising cases of COVID-19. Pacific Grove Unified School District at the south end of Monterey Bay announced the requirement Monday after the Monterey County Health Department reported a seven-day average test positivity rate of 5.2% and a seven-day average of 12.4 cases per 100,000 residents. (5/17)

When workers arrive for the 6 a.m. shift at AlphaUSA on Tuesday, they will be required to don face masks for the first time in nearly three months to once again help combat the spread of COVID-19. The Livonia-based metal stamper and engineering company is joining a growing list of Michigan companies reinstating mask mandates as the latest variant of the coronavirus has reached critical levels, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Walsh, 5/16)

A group of truckers calling itself the “People’s Convoy,” which protested vaccine mandates and aired other right-wing grievances by driving around the Washington region in March, returned to the Hagerstown Speedway in Maryland on Tuesday. ... Organizers have not publicized their plans. A statement on the People’s Convoy’s official Telegram channel included calls for “civil disobedience” and apparent regret over how the demonstrations were handled in March, and an incendiary quote from participant David Riddell. (Silverman, 5/17)

Less than five months after firing more than 700 employees who failed to be vaccinated against COVID-19 by its self-imposed deadline, Mayo Clinic is facing a lawsuit from one former employee. In early January the Rochester-based health system confirmed it had fired more than 700 employees – roughly 1 percent of a total 73,000 across all of Mayo Clinic locations. (Longworth, 5/17)

A Tujunga doctor accused of issuing fake COVID-19 vaccination cards and injecting some of his patients with blood plasma that he received from donors faces multiple felony and misdemeanor charges. Dr. Donald Plance, 68, was accused of forging vaccination cards and giving them to his patients between August and November, Los Angeles County prosecutors said Tuesday. The cards appeared genuine and had the seals of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Health and Human Services. (Yee, 5/17)