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The move to label the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, the highest level of alert the WHO can issue, is expected to marshal new funding to fight the outbreak and to pressure governments into action. More than 16,500 cases of monkeypox have been reported in 74 countries. “In short, we have an outbreak that has spread around the world rapidly through new modes of transmission about which we understand too little,” WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters Saturday. (Nirappil, 7/23)

The W.H.O.’s declaration signals a public health risk requiring a coordinated international response. The designation can lead member countries to invest significant resources in controlling an outbreak, draw more funding to the response, and encourage nations to share vaccines, treatments and other key resources for containing the outbreak. It is the seventh public health emergency since 2007; the Covid pandemic, of course, was the most recent. Some global health experts have criticized the W.H.O.’s criteria for declaring such emergencies as opaque and inconsistent. (Mandavilli, 7/23)

CDC and public health authorities are still investigating how the children became infected. The two cases are unrelated and in different jurisdictions, the agency said in a statement. The toddler is in California; the infant’s case was confirmed while the family was traveling in Washington, D.C., but they are not residents of this country. (Sun and Nirappil, 7/22)

“Today’s decision by the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare the current monkeypox outbreak as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern is a call to action for the world community to stop the spread of this virus. A coordinated, international response is essential to stop the spread of monkeypox, protect communities at greatest risk of contracting the disease, and combat the current outbreak,” Raj Panjabi said in a statement on Saturday. (Vakil, 7/23)

White House COVID-19 Adviser Dr. Ashish Jha has assured Americans that monkeypox poses a "pretty small" threat to the general population even as the World Health Organization (WHO) declares an emergency. "No Americans have died of monkeypox in this outbreak," Jha said during an appearance on "Fox News Sunday." "I don't know globally – I think it's a very small number –  but zero Americans have died of monkeypox, so the risk to the broader population is pretty small." (Aitken, 7/24)

Top-ranking members in the House and Senate, on both sides of the aisle, have asked Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra for answers on what his department is doing to handle the monkeypox outbreak, with several lawmakers questioning what they perceive to be a failed response. (Choi, 7/24)

"I don’t know why there aren’t more vaccines available. I’m hearing from health care providers in my district that there are people lining up to get vaccinated and they don’t have the vaccines for them, and that is a real problem,” Schiff told Margaret Brennan on CBS’s “Face The Nation.” (Oshin, 7/24)

Dallas County is out of monkeypox vaccines as cases continue to rise amid a national vaccine shortage. (Wolf, 7/21)

"This truly global case series has enabled doctors from 16 countries to share their extensive clinical experience and many clinical photographs to help other doctors in places with fewer cases. We have shown that the current international case definitions need to be expanded to add symptoms that are not currently included, such as sores in the mouth, on the anal mucosa and single ulcers," said Chloe Orkin, PhD, of the Queen Mary University of London, in a university press release. (7/22)

Of all the states, New Mexico has been most affected by interstate abortion travel in making appointments, according to a nationwide survey of clinics by a research team led by Caitlin Myers, a professor of economics at Middlebury College who studies the effects of reproductive policy. But the data suggests that as more bans go into effect, women who need to travel to another state for an abortion may have more difficulty getting appointments. It may even become hard for those living in some states where it remains legal. (Sanger-Katz, Cain Miller and Katz, 7/23)

Even as numerous Republican-governed states push for sweeping bans on abortion, there is a coinciding surge of concern in some Democratic-led states that options for reproductive health care are dwindling due to expansion of Catholic hospital networks. These are states such as Oregon, Washington, California, New York and Connecticut, where abortion will remain legal despite the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling overturning Roe v. Wade. (Haigh and Crary, 7/24)

Before the Supreme Court decision, a pregnant woman with cancer was already “entering a world with tremendous unknowns,” said Dr. Clifford Hudis, the chief executive officer at the American Society of Clinical Oncology. Now, patients as well as the doctors and hospitals that treat them, are caught up in the added complications of abortion bans. “If a doctor can’t give a drug without fear of damaging a fetus, is that going to compromise outcomes?” Dr. Hudis asked. “It’s a whole new world.” (Kolata, 7/23)

KHN: Post-‘Roe,’ People Are Seeking Permanent Sterilizations, And Some Are Being Turned Away

A handful of people recently gathered in the shade of a large pine tree for a going-away party of sorts. Their friend, Dani Marietti, was going to have her fallopian tubes removed, a decision she made after a leaked draft of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the constitutional right to abortion was published in May. The small group kicked off the “sterilization shower” for the 25-year-old by laying out chalk-written signs that said “See Ya Later Ovulater” and “I got 99 problems but tubes ain’t one.” And they munched on cookies that had abortion-rights slogans, such as “My Body, My Choice,” written on them in frosting. (Bolton and Juhlin, 7/25)

On Aug. 2, Kansas voters will decide whether to amend the state’s constitution to explicitly say that it doesn’t protect abortion. The referendum, planned for months, comes after the high court’s June 24 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ended the federal constitutional right to the procedure. (Kusisto, Barrett and Calfas, 7/23)

A Kentucky judge granted an injunction on Friday that prevents the state’s near-total ban on abortions from taking effect, meaning the state’s two clinics can continue providing abortions, for now. Jefferson Circuit Judge Mitch Perry’s ruling says there is “a substantial likelihood” that Kentucky’s new abortion law violates “the rights to privacy and self-determination” protected by Kentucky’s constitution. (Lovan, 7/22)

St. Louis has joined the growing list of Democrat-led cities seeking to help women gain abortion access, even in red states that have largely banned the procedure. Not long after Democratic Mayor Tishaura Jones on Thursday signed a measure providing $1 million for travel to abortion clinics in other states, Republican Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt sued to stop what he called a “blatantly illegal move to spend Missourians’ hard-earned tax dollars on out-of-state abortions.” (Salter, 7/22)

In the waiting room at WE Health Clinic in Duluth, patients from Wisconsin and Texas sit among Minnesotans — the leading edge of an expected uptick in out-of-state patients following the Supreme Court’s removal of the federal right to abortion. (Ahmed, 7/23)

Indiana Republican lawmakers are pairing a proposal to ban nearly all abortions in the state with promises to boost spending toward helping pregnant women, young children and adoptions. Republicans say the proposals show dedication to mothers and babies. Democrats say Republicans have underfunded such programs for years and rejected earlier efforts to help pregnant women. (Rodgers and Davies, 7/22)

Most abortions will become illegal in Wyoming on Wednesday after Gov. Mark Gordon gave the go-ahead Friday under a new state law. The law bans abortions except in cases of rape or incest or to protect the mother’s life or health, not including psychological conditions. (Gruver, 7/22)

State legislators have turned their attention to their neighbor to the south for guidance and direction about how to navigate a newly restrictive legal landscape in the U.S. regarding abortion. Mexico's Supreme Court decriminalized abortion last year, loosening decades of restrictive laws in the predominately Catholic nation, leading to more permissive laws in several of its states. (Edelman, 7/24)

The Biden administration is preparing a sweeping initiative to develop a next generation of Covid-19 immunizations that would thwart future coronavirus variants and dramatically reduce rates of coronavirus infection or transmission, building on current shots whose impact has been mainly to prevent serious illness and death, the White House told STAT. To kick off the effort, the White House is gathering key federal officials, top scientists, and pharmaceutical executives including representatives of Pfizer and Moderna for a Tuesday “summit” to discuss the new technologies and lay out a road map for developing them. (Herper and Facher, 7/25)

President Biden, who tested positive for the coronavirus on Thursday, probably has the BA.5 variant and continues to experience mild symptoms that are improving, the White House said Sunday. His physician, Kevin O’Connor, wrote in a letter that the president’s pulse, blood pressure, respiratory rate and temperature all remain normal, and he doesn’t have any shortness of breath. (Reiley and Bhattarai, 7/24)

Speaking remotely at the meeting to discuss White House efforts to lower gas prices, Biden appeared vigorous and in good spirits but with a noticeably deeper voice, hours after his doctor released a statement saying his symptoms had improved. (Heavey and Hunnicut, 7/22)

“The president is responding to therapy as expected,” wrote Dr. Kevin O’Connor in his latest note. Biden has been taking Paxlovid, an antiviral drug that helps reduce the chance of severe illness. O’Connor wrote that Biden still has a sore throat, though other symptoms, including a cough, runny nose and body aches, “have diminished considerably.” (Megerian, 7/24)

Second booster shots of the coronavirus vaccine for people younger than 50 are on hold as the Biden administration tries to accelerate a fall vaccination campaign using reformulated shots that target the now-dominant omicron subvariants, according to federal health officials. (McGinley, Diamond and Sun, 7/22)

More than two years into the COVID-19 pandemic — and amid another nationwide surge — nursing home residents are still disproportionately at risk for severe illness and death, according to new numbers from AARP. One in 35 nursing home residents tested positive for COVID-19 in June, a 27 percent increase from the previous month. The death rate from COVID between May and June of this year nearly doubled, from 0.04 deaths per hundred residents to 0.07 deaths per hundred residents. (Luterman, 7/22)

Using examples of so-called breakthrough infections, in which people get infected with COVID despite vaccination, is a tactic that vaccine skeptics have used to question the effectiveness of vaccines or mandates. "Today he [Biden] should end his destructive vaccine mandate on our military," tweeted Republican Congressman Darrell Issa of California, referring to Biden's 2021 comment. (Browne, 7/22)

Vice President Kamala Harris and her team plan to hit the campaign and fundraising circuit in an aggressive bid to elevate Democratic state legislators and governors on the abortion rights frontlines. The events reflect the vice president’s expanding work on abortion policy since the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down Roe v. Wade. And, if executed, they would mark an aggressive push by the second highest Democrat in the land to get involved in races often overlooked by the national party. (Daniels, 7/25)

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg called out Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) on Sunday for his comments that a vote on a bill protecting same-sex marriage would be a “stupid waste of time.” “If he’s got time to fight against Disney, I don’t know why he wouldn’t have time to help safeguard marriages like mine,” Buttigieg told CNN “State of the Union” host Jake Tapper. (Mueller, 7/24)

Congressional Republicans are eagerly floating investigations into Anthony Fauci and the Biden administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic if they win back control of the House or Senate in the midterm elections. (Weixel, 7/25)

More than four months after the Senate unanimously passed a bill to make daylight saving time permanent in the U.S., the measure has hit a brick wall in the House. The main impediments dimming the legislation’s chances of passing appear to be fundamental disagreements over its language and a general consensus that other matter take precedence as the House grapples with high inflation, gun massacres and fending off judicial threats on issues such as abortion and marriage equality. (Schnell, 7/25)

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced the release of voluntary quality measures for state Medicaid home and community-based service programs to assess patient health outcomes. While reporting on the measures is currently voluntary, CMS said it encourages states to incorporate the quality assessments into existing home and community-based service reporting requirements, evaluating their performance biannually, setting targets and developing a quality improvement plan. (Devereaux, 7/22)

KHN: Ad Targeting Manchin And AARP Mischaracterizes Medicare Drug-Price Negotiations

A snappy political advertisement from the conservative advocacy group American Commitment bluntly charges Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) with supporting a legislative plan that would drain “billions in funds” from Medicare. Specifically, the ad claims that Manchin and AARP, the well-known advocacy group for people 50 and older, “support government price-setting schemes that’ll give liberal politicians billions in funds meant for Medicare to spend on unrelated government programs or pad big insurers’ profits.” Here, “price-setting” is a reference to a policy proposal that its backers say would give Medicare the ability to rein in the prices it pays for some prescription drugs so they are more in line with prices in other industrialized countries. (Knight and DeGuzman, 7/25)

How a patient identifies across racial and ethnic lines can be a greater indicator of their health than their insurance status, a new study suggests. Health inequities and access issues exist among individuals who receive health insurance through their employer, despite arguments that access to commercial insurance acts as a great equalizer among patients, according to a study published Monday by NORC at the University of Chicago. (Tepper, 7/25)

Family Dollar is recalling more than 430 products, such as toothpaste, over-the-counter drugs and hemorrhoid ointment, that had been stored at the wrong temperature before being inadvertently shipped to stores across the U.S. (Gibson, 7/22)

A coalition of public interest, animal welfare, and environmental groups is criticizing McDonald's for backing away from a commitment to reduce the use of medically important antibiotics in its beef supply chain. (7/22)

KHN: ‘True Cost Of Aging’ Index Shows Many Seniors Can’t Afford Basic Necessities

Fran Seeley, 81, doesn’t see herself as living on the edge of a financial crisis. But she’s uncomfortably close. Each month, Seeley, a retired teacher, gets $925 from Social Security and a $287 disbursement from an individual retirement account. To make ends meet, she’s taken out a reverse mortgage on her Portland, Maine, home that yields $400 monthly. (Graham, 7/25)

KHN: Journalists Reexamine Mental Health Barriers, Gun Control Laws, And Homelessness

KHN and California Healthline staff made the rounds on national and local media this week to discuss their stories. Here’s a collection of their appearances. (7/23)

Nearly 6% of children who visited emergency departments (EDs) for COVID-19 testing, including nearly 10% of those hospitalized and 5% of those released from the hospital, reported symptoms of long COVID 90 days later, finds an international study led by researchers from the University of Calgary in Canada and UC Davis Health. (Van Beusekom, 7/22)

Disease experts are homing in on a few predictive factors beyond individual behavior, including genetics, T cell immunity and the effects of inflammatory conditions like allergies and asthma. But even as experts learn more about the reasons people may be better equipped to avoid Covid, they caution that some of these defenses may not hold up against the latest version of omicron, BA.5, which is remarkably good at spreading and evading vaccine protection. (Bendix, 7/23)

A randomized clinical trial found that a rapid phenotypic antimicrobial susceptibility test for patients with gram-negative bloodstream infections decreased the time to oral antibiotics and the length of hospitalization, researchers reported today in Open Forum Infectious Diseases. (7/22)

A new study in Science Immunology gives clues as to why more than 45 million people have acne, a disease that has been shown to be psychologically and socially devastating for young people. Led by Robert Modlin, the Klein Professor of Dermatology at UCLA, a team of researchers found overzealous and underperforming immune cells. (Cueto, 7/22)

The term “brain-computer interface,” or BCI, has been buzzing around Silicon Valley and the mainstream media for years, thanks in part to Elon Musk’s secretive, yet flashy company Neuralink, which launched in 2017 with the promise of brain enhancement, telepathy, and similar sci-fi dreams of brain control. Neuralink, though, is one of the youngest players in the BCI field. Outside the limelight, a handful of other companies have been gaining momentum — and money. (Welle, 7/25)

Hospitals across the country are grappling with widespread staffing shortages, complicating preparations for a potential Covid-19 surge as the BA.5 subvariant drives up cases, hospital admissions and deaths. Long-standing problems, worker burnout and staff turnover have grown worse as Covid-19 waves have hit health care workers again and again — and as more employees fall sick with Covid-19 themselves. (Mahr, 7/25)

Over 40% of the US public health workforce plans to leave their jobs within the next 5 years, and 51% said more staff were needed to respond to COVID-19, according to findings from a 2021 survey published today in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR). (7/22)

The rollout of Cerner’s electronic health record in Veterans Affairs hospitals has been a high-profile struggle: outages, training troubles, and now, an alarming report showing it directly harmed scores of patients. (Palmer, 7/25)

HCA Healthcare (HCA.N) beat Wall Street estimates for second-quarter profit and reiterated its full-year outlook for earnings on Friday, easing concerns that an acute nursing shortage would crimp the largest for-profit U.S. hospital operator. (Khandekar, 7/22)

Yuvo Health, a startup that offers value-based contracting services, and Centene Corp. subsidiary Fidelis Care are partnering to expand resources for federally qualified health centers in New York. The centers provide services such as preventative care, specialty services and behavioral health resources for underserved populations, while also addressing socioeconomic barriers. They qualify for federal funding and enhanced reimbursements from Medicare and Medicaid. Charges are based on a patient's income. (Hudson, 7/22)

U.S. laboratories currently have the capacity to process the results of about 62 million PCR tests for Covid-19 a month, which is half of what it was in March, researchers at the consulting firm Health Catalysts Group estimate, after demand dropped and government funding diminished. Some laboratories and diagnostic companies have laid off employees or reassigned them to other tasks. (Abbott, 7/24)

Officials up and down the Interstate 95 corridor urged residents to hydrate and watch for signs of heat-related illness as people flocked to pools and cooling centers for relief in cities stretching from Boston to D.C. (Venkataramanan, Iati and Shammas, 7/23)

Bryon Backenson, the director of the Bureau of Communicable Disease Control at the state Health Department, said that there was no indication yet of additional cases, though he noted that the state was trying to acquire as many samples as possible to test and was checking wastewater for signs of the virus. (McKinley and Schweber, 7/22)

TennCare, Tennessee’s Medicaid program, said it will abandon a proposal to impose limits on some prescription drugs following pressure from the federal government. The state last year received approval from former President Donald Trump’s administration for a TennCare overhaul that included the change. Officials argued the overhaul could produce flexibility and savings that would then fuel additional health coverage offerings, including prescription drug limits aimed at rising costs. (Matisse, 7/22)

Kentucky’s largest school district will require universal masking on school property as Jefferson County moves into the highest level of COVID-19 community spread. The change begins Monday and lasts until Jefferson County comes out of the red, media outlets reported. It comes a little more than two weeks before classes resume in Jefferson County Public Schools. (7/24)

With more than 6,800 new coronavirus cases reported in the last week, Utah has officially surpassed 1 million cases since the start of the pandemic — but it’s likely that the state met this milestone “months ago” because of a “dramatic undercount” of positive tests amid a surge of the virus’s most transmissible strain yet. (Harkins and Hufham, 7/21)

San Diego’s latest wastewater numbers show that the region is experiencing a massive increase in coronavirus transmission driven by BA.5, the subvariant now causing concern worldwide. (Sisson, 7/23)

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick tested positive for COVID-19 for the second time in the last seven months, his campaign said Sunday. Patrick, 72, tested positive on Saturday and was experiencing mild symptoms, according to a campaign statement. (7/24)

The northeast Houston area in question has suffered for years from the dumping of dead bodies, animals, medical waste, mattresses and other trash that pose health and quality of life risks into Houston’s “Super Neighborhood 48,” known as Trinity/Houston Gardens, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Kristen Clarke said in a call with reporters. (Colman, 7/22)

The news that President Joe Biden has tested positive for COVID should serve as a wake-up call for the rest of us: Almost three years on, the pandemic is still not going very well. (Tyler Cowen, 7/22)

Now that monkeypox has officially been declared a "global emergency" by the World Health Organization, perhaps government officials will muster more resources and public attention to ward off this public health threat. (Austin Bogues and Steven Porter, 7/23)

Everyone is familiar with 911. But another three-digit code could soon enter Americans’ normal lexicon: 988. As of July 16, that is the new number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. (7/23)

Drought and extreme heat, both exacerbated by climate change, have paved the way for prime fire conditions across the Western United States. As wildfire season ramps up and smoke re-emerges as a serious health threat, experts are encouraging people to get smoke ready. This includes stocking up on air purifiers and filters and, for those with lung disease at highest risk, refilling medical devices like inhalers. (Alexander S. Rabin and Gregg L. Furie, 7/23)

As a freelance writer and content producer, I tell patient stories for Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. Now I’ve got a story of my own to tell. My family is about to lose our health insurance coverage at Children’s because the hospital cannot strike a deal with Dayton-based health insurer CareSource Ohio. We’ve been buying CareSource Marketplace insurance for the past seven years from the Ohio marketplace. Each year, I have chosen CareSource specifically because we have two young children. (Judi Ketteler, 7/23)

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) took charge of the national response to the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization in a way no one in the White House, Senate or even pro-choice groups has been able to do. She understood that not only the court’s right-wing majority but also the Republican Party who put them on the bench were wildly out of step with the public. (Jennifer Rubin, 7/24)

Women experiencing a miscarriage, no matter where they live, should have access to basic medical care without seeing their lives placed in greater danger because doctors fear prosecution or lawsuits for treating them. (7/25)

In the wake of Roe v. Wade’s reversal, state legislators (mostly men, needless to say) have been busy trying to make life as unbearable as possible, not just banning abortion but also making it illegal for women (and little girls) to terminate a pregnancy even in cases of rape or incest. (Kathleen Parker, 7/23)

I’m one of the few OB/GYNs in the entire state of Indiana who provide abortion services. For 12 years, I have provided safe and legal, albeit closely regulated, abortion care to patients. It’s very fulfilling to serve people who need urgent medical help and to answer calls by saying, “Yes, of course we’ll take care of her.” (Caitlin Bernard, 7/22)

A lawsuit in Florida brought by the Jewish Congregation L’Dor Va-Dor challenges the state’s 15-week abortion ban by arguing that it is vague and violates equal protection and due process protections. But it also makes an interesting argument that raises some important legal and moral questions: that the law tramples First Amendment rights and the state constitution’s free-exercise clause. (Jennifer Rubin, 7/24)