�������ýҕ�l

The White House announced Thursday that it is investing $7.4 billion to hire more public health workers to deal with the coronavirus pandemic and future health crises. The money will come from the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package, which Congress passed in March. The funds could give a much-needed boost to America’s crumbling public health infrastructure. After decades of chronic underfunding, U.S. public health departments last year showed how ill-equipped they are to carry out basic functions, let alone serve as the last line of defense against the most acute threat to the nation’s health in generations. (Wan, 5/13)

U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said the world is in a race to stop Covid-19 variants like the one spreading through India, saying that a temporary waiver of intellectual property rights for vaccines was one step toward increasing supply and that booster shots might also be needed. Dr. Murthy said during The Wall Street Journal’s Future of Everything Festival that the three vaccines used in the U.S. have so far proven to be effective against severe infection and death when it comes to variants like the more transmissible B.1.1.7 variant first identified in the U.K. But he said more research was needed to determine the level of protection those vaccines offer against B.1.617, which originated in India and was classified this week by the World Health Organization as a global “variant of concern.” (Parti, 5/13)

Waiving intellectual property protections for coronavirus vaccines won't do much to help with global access issues, and could actually cause setbacks to the world's vaccination effort, Pfizer wrote to a group of Democratic senators in a letter obtained by Axios. Pfizer — and the drug industry writ large — is on the defensive after the Biden administration announced it would support waiving vaccine patent rights. Pfizer alone likely has billions of dollars at stake. (Owens, 5/13)

KHN: Listen: Pandemics, Patents And Profits 

President Joe Biden has thrown his support to an international effort to waive drugmakers’ patent rights on the covid vaccines, but the pharmaceutical industry vows to fight back. Julie Rovner, KHN’s chief Washington correspondent, joins The Atlantic’s “Social Distance” podcast, hosted by Dr. James Hamblin and Maeve Higgins, to talk about the current patent controversy and how the drug industry has protected itself over the years with vibrant campaigns about the needs for high profits to support drug development. (5/14)

LSU has placed a whistleblower at its Shreveport medical school on administrative leave in what her attorney charges is retaliation for filing a formal complaint with the Biden administration over alleged sexual harassment and discrimination by the school’s now suspended chancellor and two former employees. “She is being unfairly targeted in a malicious and retaliatory move that we believe was orchestrated by [Chancellor Dr. Ghali E. Ghali] because of her brave involvement in the protected activity of whistleblowing and opposing discrimination both for herself and for protected learners,” attorney Allison Jones said in a press release released Thursday morning. (Poche, 5/13)

KHN: KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: Drug Price Effort Hits A Snag 

The high cost of prescription drugs is a top health issue for the public and politicians, but concerns raised by a group of moderate Democrats threaten to derail a bill being pushed by House Democratic leaders. Meanwhile, the Food and Drug Administration has authorized the use of the Pfizer covid-19 vaccine for everyone age 12 and up, and Pfizer is applying for full licensure of that vaccine. It is currently being distributed under emergency authorization. Full approval could open the door to vaccine requirements in some workplaces, schools or other gathering spots, which will likely touch off more controversy. (5/14)