�������ýҕ�l

In the days and weeks leading up to March 11, 2020, Americans could be excused for underestimating the coronavirus. The U.S. had faced a variety of infectious diseases in recent decades — SARS, MERS, avian flu, Zika, Ebola and others — and it was unclear how this new coronavirus would be notably different. Some parts of the U.S. had taken action as the initial outbreak in Italy offered a window into just how bad things could get. But any doubt that the Covid-19 pandemic was about to shatter daily life ended on March 11. What had been a steadily building crisis exploded in a handful of hours. (Ingram, Pettypiece and Garcia-Hodges, 3/11)

The World Health Organization officially declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic on March 11, 2020. More than 500,000 American deaths and trillions of taxpayer dollars later, the virus has reshaped the health care landscape for years to come. That system’s shortcomings became painfully obvious as the virus spread, exposing glaring gaps in care for rural and low-income communities, as well as people of color. The lack of domestic manufacturing capacity for critical supplies like protective equipment forced nurses to reuse masks and dress in garbage bags. Patient care unrelated to COVD-19 suffered. (Clason and McIntire, 3/10)

When the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus a pandemic one year ago Thursday, it did so only after weeks of resisting the term and maintaining that the highly infectious virus could still be stopped. A year later, the U.N. agency is still struggling to keep on top of the evolving science of COVID-19, to persuade countries to abandon their nationalistic tendencies and help get vaccines where they’re needed most. (Cheng and Keaten, 3/11)

KHN: One Year In: How Covid’s Toll Compares With Other Causes Of Death

Now that the coronavirus has been in the United States for roughly a year, new numbers are revealing the scale of covid-19’s impact on American health: Covid has become the country’s third-leading cause of death, and could be on its way to outpacing cancer. As of Wednesday afternoon, 528,603 Americans had died of the coronavirus, according to Johns Hopkins University data. And a closely watched model from researchers at the University of Washington projects that this number will rise past 575,000 by June 1. (Jacobson, 3/11)

Sports games in packed arenas. Weekend getaways and world travels. Birthday parties with family and friends. Just as striking about what is in our photos from one year ago is what is not: No masks. No 6-foot gaps between people. No bottles of hand sanitizer. NBC News asked readers to send in the last photo they took before the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus a pandemic on March 11, 2020. (Chuck, 3/10)

While photos of happy events normally bring us joy, in our pictures from one year ago, many of us instead see painful reminders of all we have been forced to give up. These images — snapshots from a way of life that has since been rendered inaccessible by the pandemic — may bring grief, experts say. (Chuck, 3/10)

KHN: In A Year Of Zoom Memorials, Art Exhibit Makes Space For Grief

Tami Roncskevitz has attended two Zoom memorials for her daughter, Sarah, a 32-year-old emergency room social worker who died of covid on May 30. But she longs to gather Sarah’s friends and family together in one place so they can embrace and mourn together. “It just isn’t the same,” said Roncskevitz. “You feel like your grieving is not complete.” (Almendrala, 3/11)

The world will likely have a better idea about the origins of Covid-19 in a few years as scientists continue to analyze the data, according to a member of the international team of experts that traveled to China to trace the pandemic’s emergence. Despite the shortage of clues to the virus’s roots and the political tensions around the search, the scientific process will eventually prevail, Peter Daszak, a New York-based zoologist assisting the mission, said at a webinar organized by U.K. think tank Chatham House on Wednesday. “I’m convinced we’re going to find out fairly soon,” he said. “Within the next few years we’ll have real significant data on where this came from and how it emerged. That’s consistent with other outbreaks in the past.” (Gretler, 3/10)

Scientists will likely discover the origin of the Covid-19 pandemic within the next few years, after they pursue and zero in on an animal source for the new coronavirus, a member of an international team of investigators led by the World Health Organization said Wednesday. “I’m convinced we’re going to find out fairly soon,” said Peter Daszak, a member of the WHO-led team and a zoologist who specializes in hunting for viral origins in animals. “Within the next few years we’ll have real significant data on where this came from and how it emerged.” (McKay, 3/10)

Congress approved a sweeping $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package on Wednesday, authorizing a flurry of new federal spending and a temporary yet dramatic increase in anti-poverty programs to help millions of families still struggling amid the pandemic. The 220-to-211 vote in the House of Representatives almost entirely along party lines sends to President Biden’s desk one of the largest economic rescue packages in U.S. history, which Democrats had promised to pass as one of their first acts of governance after securing narrow but potent majorities in Washington during the 2020 presidential election. (Romm, 3/10)

Private health insurance through the nation’s public exchanges is set to become more affordable — at least for a couple of years. The $1.9 trillion Covid relief package, which received final congressional approval Wednesday and will soon head to President Joe Biden for his signature, includes provisions that will reduce the cost of health insurance amid the ongoing pandemic and elevated unemployment. (O'Brien, 3/10)

Just 49 days into his presidency, Mr. Biden has secured what could prove to be the defining domestic policy accomplishment of his presidency, injecting hundreds of billions of dollars into the economy and bolstering his administration's efforts to accelerate vaccinations, reopen schools and get jobless Americans back to work. The president, Vice President Kamala Harris and first lady Dr. Jill Biden plan to travel to promote the package once it clears Congress and is signed into law Friday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said. (Segers and Quinn, 3/10)

Under the bill, people with incomes over 400% of the federal poverty line qualifying for premium assistance for the first time. Low-income Americans will also receive more generous subsidies. Both provisions, which are supported by hospitals and insurers, will be in effect for 2021 and 2022 but Democrats have signaled they would like to make the changes permanent. The Congressional Budget Office estimated the ACA provisions could extend coverage to 2.5 million uninsured consumers at a cost of $34 billion, undoubtedly a win for insurers looking to entice younger, healthier customers and hospitals facing increasing amounts of uncompensated care. (Hellmann, 3/10)

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has said robust financial aid is needed because of what she calls a “K-shaped” economic recovery in which the wealthy get richer and the poor fall further behind. The legislation marks the sixth aid package Congress has passed since last March. But it’s the first to pass without bipartisan support. (Shutt, 3/10)

Democrats hope the $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill that received final approval on Wednesday won’t just boost the economy and help Americans cope with the pandemic, but also will serve as the key to defending their congressional majorities in next year’s midterm elections. That’s because not a single Republican voted for the legislation, which includes $1,400 stimulus checks for most households along with aid for businesses and local governments, despite the bill’s overwhelming popularity with the public. (Goodwin, 3/10)

“This is the most consequential legislation that many of us will ever be a party to,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California said at a news conference after the bill’s passage. “On this day, we celebrate because we are honoring a promise made by our president, and we join with him in promising that help is on the way.” Earlier, she had dismissed the lack of Republican support and said opponents would not hesitate to claim credit for the popular elements of the plan, saying, “It’s typical that they vote no and take the dough.” (Cochrane, 3/10)

Senator Roger Wicker, Republican of Mississippi, tweeted approvingly just hours after the bill passed about the $28.6 billion included for “targeted relief” for restaurants. His post did not mention that he had voted no. (Cochrane and Kaplan, 3/10)

President Biden tweeted moments after the House of Representatives passed the bill that “Help is here — and brighter days lie ahead.” He later told reporters that “This bill represents a historic victory for the American people,” while the White House also released a slickly produced video touting the passage, and Democrats on Capitol Hill staged an elaborate signing ceremony. (Lemire, 3/10)

Biden, who is expected to sign the bill Friday, will travel Tuesday to Delaware County, a suburb of Philadelphia that was key to his victory in Pennsylvania, and Vice President Kamala Harris will travel Monday to Las Vegas; Nevada is another key swing state. The stops are expected to be the first in a string of trips for Biden and Harris in the coming weeks. The road trip will follow Biden's first prime-time address to the American people, scheduled for Thursday night. (Pettypiece, Welker and Gardenswartz, 3/10)

Over half the money — 54 percent — in the bill goes toward households. In addition to the popular $1,400 checks, there is also funding for extra unemployment insurance through Labor Day, expanded tax credits, and various programs to make rent, food and health insurance more affordable. Economists say low- and moderate-income Americans will benefit the most from this aid, especially individuals earning $75,000 or less and couples earning $150,000 or less. The number of Americans living in poverty is predicted to drop in 2021 by as much as a third because of this legislation. (Fowers, Long and Schaul, 3/10)

President Joe Biden laid out an ambitious agenda for his first 100 days in office, promising swift action on everything from climate change to immigration reform to the coronavirus pandemic. On his 50th day in office, on Wednesday, his administration celebrated a milestone: congressional passage of his massive $1.9 trillion coronavirus aid package. The bill includes direct payments to millions of Americans and money to help the White House deliver on a number of Biden’s biggest campaign promises, like reopening schools and getting more Americans vaccinated. (Jaffe, 3/10)

With President Biden on the verge of signing his coronavirus relief bill into law, the administration now faces a race against the clock in trying to get relief out the door as quickly as possible. White House officials expect the $1,400 direct payments designated for most Americans will be sent out by the end of March. But other forms of assistance in the $1.9 trillion package could take longer to allocate. (Chalfant and Jagoda, 3/10)

The American Rescue Plan Act is expected to be signed by President Biden on Friday, and stimulus payments could start being sent out within days of him signing. That means Americans could start seeing the money as early as next week. The first people to receive the checks are likely those who have direct deposit set up with the IRS. That’s because the government already has their account information on file and doesn’t need to go through the process of printing, sorting and mailing physical checks or pre-paid debit cards. Americans who don’t have direct deposit will have to wait for the payments to be produced and sent, a process that can be time consuming. (Vega, 3/10)

“We are doing everything in our power to expedite the payments and not delay them, which is why the president's name will not appear on the memo line of this round of checks," White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters Tuesday. Instead, the checks will be signed by an official from the Bureau of Fiscal Service, Psaki said, adding that Biden does not believe including his signature on the payments is a “priority” or a “necessary step.” (Hansen, 3/9)

For the third time this year, President Joe Biden will mark a landmark moment in the COVID-19 pandemic, delivering his first primetime address Thursday night to recognize one year since widespread shutdowns began across the United States and to ask Americans to help with "what comes next." "I'm gonna launch the next phase of the COVID response and explain what we will do as a government and what we will ask of the American people," Biden said on Wednesday, previewing his remarks. "There is light at the end of this dark tunnel of the past year. But we cannot let our guard down now or assume the victory is inevitable. Together, we're gonna get through this pandemic and usher in a healthier and more hopeful future." (Gomez, 3/11)

President Biden, in his first prime-time address since taking office, is planning on Thursday night to speak to a nation still reeling from the deadly coronavirus pandemic, offering a look back on the devastating year as well as previewing what he will characterize as a coming return to some sense of normalcy, according to White House officials. Biden views the speech as a key marker to reflect on his first 50 days in office, one that comes almost exactly a year after the nation began to shut down as a result of the pandemic and at an inflection point in his own presidency, officials said. It was last March 11 that then-President Donald Trump gave his own widely criticized Oval Office address, suspending travel from Europe while also telling Americans of the virus: “The risk is very, very low.” (Viser and Parker, 3/10)

President Joe Biden can report in his first prime-time address Thursday that a vaccination drive now reaching 2 million people daily has brought America far closer to exiting the pandemic than when he took office 50 days ago. With new infections and deaths way down from their peaks of a horrific winter, Biden can afford to conjure hope that better days may be imminent and will speak to the nation from a position of political strength. He is also armed with a newly passed $1.9 trillion Covid-19 rescue package -- his first major legacy achievement -- which represents an ambitious attempt to rebuild the US economy to favor the less well off. (Collinson, 3/11)

President Joe Biden said he will announce the “next phase” of the U.S. Covid-19 response during his prime-time address to Americans on Thursday. “Tomorrow night, I’m going on prime time to address the American people and talk about what we went through as a nation this past year. But more importantly, I’m going to talk about what comes next,” Biden said Wednesday from the White House after a meeting with executives from Johnson & Johnson and Merck. (Lovelace Jr., 3/10)

Marking a year of loss and disruption, President Joe Biden will use his first prime-time address since taking office to steer the nation toward a hungered-for sentiment — hope — in the “next phase” of the fight against the pandemic that has killed more than 529,000 Americans. Previewing his remarks, Biden said he would “talk about what we’ve been through as a nation this past year, but more importantly, I’m going to talk about what comes next.” (Miller, 3/11)

President Joe Biden announced plans Wednesday to purchase an additional 100 million doses of the single-dose Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine, giving the U.S. more than enough supply to vaccinate the entire U.S. population. "I am doing this because, in this wartime effort, we need maximum flexibility. There's always a chance that we'll encounter unexpected challenges or there will be a new need for vaccine effort," Biden said during a meeting with executives from pharmaceutical companies J&J and Merck. "A lot can happen, a lot can change, and we need to be prepared." (Bennett and Pettypiece, 3/10)

The new order, which Johnson & Johnson indicated has not been finalized, will bring total U.S. orders of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to 200 million doses. Because it’s a one-dose vaccine, the supply will represent enough for 200 million people. It is not expected to be fulfilled until the second half of the year, administration officials said. (Rowland and Stanley-Becker, 3/10)

If an agreement with J&J is completed, the additional supply would double the company’s previous commitment to provide 100 million doses to the U.S. Taking into account commitments by Pfizer Inc. and Moderna Inc. to provide 600 million doses of their two-shot vaccines, the U.S. is expected to have more than enough supply by the end of May to vaccinate the eligible U.S. population, Mr. Biden said. (Siddiqui and Restuccia, 3/10)

Almost two weeks after being cleared by regulators, Johnson & Johnson’s single-shot coronavirus vaccine is not yet providing a visible jolt to the U.S. immunization campaign. Roughly 3.6 million doses of the J&J vaccine have been distributed since the shot received emergency authorization on Feb. 27. But only 440,000 have been put in people’s arms. In California, which received 440,000 doses across all providers in the state, only 2,200 shots have been administered, according to federal data. (LaVito and Shah, 3/10)

In the coming weeks, Los Angeles County’s supply of COVID-19 vaccine will tighten because of an expected shortage of shots manufactured by Johnson & Johnson — just as people with underlying health conditions become eligible for inoculations. “The next two weeks, we’re not going to get any Johnson & Johnson [vaccine doses]. That’s a manufacturing production issue,” L.A. County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said Tuesday, warning that the vaccine supply in March will be tight. (Lin II, Money and Cosgrove, 3/10)

The exclusive club of former presidents — minus its most recently inducted member — is featured in two national ad campaigns released Thursday that are aimed at building confidence among Americans in the coronavirus vaccines, according to copies of the videos provided to NBC News. One of the spots, which runs a minute long, shows images of former presidents Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama, as well as former first ladies Rosalynn Carter, Hillary Clinton, Laura Bush and Michelle Obama, being vaccinated. (Lee and Alba, 3/11)

Former Presidents Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and their respective former first ladies are part of a newly released ad campaign urging Americans to get the coronavirus vaccine when it is their turn, a push that is aimed squarely at combating vaccine skepticism. There are two ads in the campaign: a minute-long, more personal spot that shows the four former presidents and former first ladies receiving their vaccines, and another that features Clinton, Bush and Obama standing together to urge Americans to step up and get vaccinated. (Merica, 3/11)

Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday said that if not for him Americans would likely never receive the COVID-19 vaccine. “I hope everyone remembers when they’re getting the COVID-19 (often referred to as the China Virus) Vaccine, that if I wasn’t President, you wouldn’t be getting that beautiful ‘shot’ for 5 years, at best, and probably wouldn’t be getting it at all,” Trump said in a statement. “I hope everyone remembers!” he continued. (Garger, 3/10)

Former president Donald Trump recently requested a mail-in ballot for a municipal election in South Florida, according to Palm Beach County records, voting again by mail despite months of repeatedly promoting false claims of election fraud without evidence. Records from the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections, first reported by the Palm Beach Post, show that a mail-in ballot for the town’s local election this week was requested on Friday for the former president’s residence at Mar-a-Lago, his private club on Palm Beach. (Bella, 3/10)

The COVID-19 vaccine is now available in more than 600 CVS in-store pharmacies at Target stores across 17 states. Target announced the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines Wednesday, saying it would also make its fitting rooms at select stores available to CVS for appointments, which are booked through the drug store chain. The retailer closed fitting rooms in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic. (Tyko, 3/10)

Governor Charlie Baker on Wednesday unveiled a new online preregistration tool to make it easier to book an appointment at seven mass vaccination sites, a bid to ease the mounting frustration over the frenzied competition to secure a COVID-19 shot. The new system, which will go into effect Friday, could solve what has become the most glaring problem in the state’s vaccine rollout: a vexing online user experience that has forced thousands to compete for a limited number of appointments. Going forward, users will be able to go online and enter their information, and later be alerted when it is their turn to book a vaccination. (Vaccaro and Andersen, 3/10)

Maryland health officials have signed at least two emergency contracts to improve the state’s rollout of COVID-19 vaccine, committing taxpayers to spending tens of millions of dollars while providing few public details of how the money would be spent. (Cohn and Miller, 3/10)

In Birmingham, Ala., Alabama Regional Medical Services — a health clinic that primarily serves a lower-income, Black neighborhood — has not received a single dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, and news reports say it will have to wait until March 13 for its first shipment. Meanwhile, the first doses in the state went to nearby Mountain Brook, an affluent white suburb of Birmingham, says Sheila Tyson, a local official, and the community continues to have ample supply of vaccines. What's happening in Alabama's vaccine rollout is playing out across the country and is another way racial disparities have surfaced during a pandemic that has been killing people of color at disproportionately high rates. (Shapiro, 3/10)

The battle over who distributes California’s coronavirus vaccine grew even more tense Wednesday when the state insisted health insurer Blue Shield will play a significant role in determining how vaccines would be allocated in communities around the state, regardless of local objections. A spokesperson for the California Department of Public Health said Wednesday that counties would not retain control over how vaccines are distributed within their borders under the state’s new, centralized vaccination system. Instead, the spokesman said, the state would determine which hospitals, clinics and other groups get vaccine supply, relying on recommendations from Blue Shield. That declaration infuriated Santa Clara County officials, who have balked at Blue Shield’s new role in distributing vaccines and earlier in the day believed the state was backing away from forcing counties to sign vaccine contracts with Blue Shield. (Kelliher and DeRuy, 3/10)

California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s latest attempt to change the conversation around classroom reopenings, a bill passed by the state Legislature last week, is a classic carrot-and-stick approach to the state’s 1,037 school districts. It dangles the prospect of state cash before those districts that can manage to get schools opened by April 1 — but for those that cannot, the financial incentive is reduced by 1% a day, every day, through mid-May. It’s an approach that essentially penalizes some districts for needing more time to be sure they reopen safely. Beyond that, though, the bill, which passed with bipartisan support, appears to place the emphasis on the money. In so doing, it distracts from a far more important announcement that came from Newsom’s office last week — more important, that is, if it’s fully realized. (Kreidler, 3/10)

Native American tribes are pulling off many of the most successful coronavirus vaccination campaigns in the U.S., bucking stereotypes about tribal governments. Despite severe technological barriers, some tribes are vaccinating their members so efficiently, and at such high rates, that they've been able to branch out and offer coronavirus vaccines to people outside of their tribes. (Chen and Contreras, 3/11)

Georgians as young as 55 and others with high-risk medical conditions will be eligible to receive the coronavirus vaccine under plans outlined Wednesday by Gov. Brian Kemp, setting up a potential bottleneck for doses. State officials say the change will mean that an additional 3.3 million Georgians will be eligible for the vaccines starting Monday. However, the list of high-risk conditions will likely make the vast majority of Georgia adults qualified to get the shots. The lengthy list covers a spectrum of health conditions all too common in Georgians, ranging from cancer, heart conditions and diabetes to high blood pressure, pregnancy and asthma. Also newly eligible are those who are overweight or obese. About two-thirds of Georgians would fit the definition, according to one federal study. (Stirgus, Bluestein and Scott-Trubey, 3/10)

All Texans 50 and older will be eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine starting Monday, expanding the pool of possible recipients to nearly half of the state’s population. Now the question is how to find a shot. So far, 4.7 million Texans have received at least one dose of the vaccine, a 15.8 percent vaccination rate that is one of the worst in the nation. State officials say they are going as fast as they can. They have complained the federal government is not sending enough vaccine because it is using old population data to calculate the Texas share. (Harris, Garcia and Wu, 3/10)

Florida will open coronavirus vaccinations to people as young as 55 “relatively soon,” then make shots available to everyone, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Wednesday during an appearance in Sumter County. The state’s age-based eligibility for vaccination is 65 and up, and it will move to 60 and up starting Monday, DeSantis said. (Reeves, 3/10)

Nevada health officials on Wednesday would not say whether they are considering Clark County’s plea to lower the vaccine eligibility age to 55 years. Instead, they urged the public to ensure people in the 65-to-69 age group knew they were eligible for immunization and how they could schedule an appointment. “We need your help in getting the word out to Nevadans who are currently eligible for the COVID-19 vaccination,” state COVID-19 response director Caleb Cage said. “Please help a friend and neighbor or parents or a loved one get connected to vaccine in their area.” (Scott Davidson and Hynes, 3/10)

Most states are making people with underlying conditions eligible for coronavirus vaccines, but which conditions differ by state and sometimes even by county, the New York Times reports. With health care workers and the oldest Americans increasingly vaccinated, public health officials are grappling with who should be next in line — a decision that could have life-or-death consequences. (Owens, 3/10)

Officials with the California Health Department were scrambling to allay residents’ fears this week after too many people received a letter telling them they may have received a too-weak dosage of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine. The letters were supposed to go to people who visited the Oakland Coliseum vaccination site but by mistake the letters also were delivered to people who used the Eastmont Mall site, FOX 2 of the Bay Area reported. Either way, there was no cause for alarm regardless of which site people visited, health officials told the station. (Calicchio, 3/11)

U.S. employees who are working from the confines — and safety — of their homes during the pandemic appear to be satisfied to stay put, and fear that returning to the office is too risky unless their employers require all co-workers to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, according to a survey published Wednesday by the employment website Glassdoor. A fulll 70% of employees said their companies should institute a vaccine mandate before calling workers back to the office, according to the Glassdoor survey. (Cerullo, 3/10)

As more North Carolinians become eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine, they could be rolling up their sleeves at a dentist’s office for that jab. The North Carolina State Board of Dental Examiners issued rules on March 3 for dentists who want to help administer vaccines. In early February, Gov. Roy Cooper issued an executive order that opened the door for more types of health care providers to help get people vaccinated in North Carolina, including licensed dentists. (Blythe, 3/11)

KHN: Meet The Retired Nurse Who Could Give Covid Shots But Couldn’t Get One 

Martha Gallagher, a 75-year-old retired school nurse, wanted to volunteer for the Delaware Medical Reserve Corps to administer covid-19 vaccines. She knew Delaware might need more vaccinators and thought, “Why not do something to help get the vaccine out?” Plus, Gallagher figured, it would be a good way for her to get vaccinated, too. (Knight, 3/11)

KHN: Vaccine Altruists Find Appointments For Those Who Can’t

Ana Guevara was determined to get a covid vaccine for her mother, 85-year-old Adelina Coto, but she needed help. Guevara, a full-time nanny in Los Angeles, didn’t have the time or knowledge to search for appointments online. Guevara’s son, a school district employee, lacked the time to park himself in front of a computer waiting for new appointments to drop. Then Guevara’s boss connected her with a group that volunteers to help people like her mother get vaccinated. (Almendrala, 3/11)

A highly infectious variant of COVID-19 that has spread around the world since it was first discovered in Britain late last year is between 30% and 100% more deadly than previous dominant variants, researchers said on Wednesday. In a study that compared death rates among people in Britain infected with the new SARS-CoV-2 variant - known as B.1.1.7 - against those infected with other variants of the COVID-19-causing virus, scientists said the new variant’s mortality rate was “significantly higher”. (Kelland, 3/10)

The 28-day risk of death for the B117 COVID-19 variant was 64% higher than for previously circulating strains in people older than 30 years, a UK study finds. The study, led by University of Exeter researchers and published today in BMJ, involved community-based testing and death data from 54,906 matched pairs of participants who tested positive for COVID-19 from Oct 1, 2020, to Jan 29, 2021. (Van Beausekom, 3/10)

Moderna announced Wednesday that it has administered the first doses of a modified vaccine designed to fight coronavirus variants to study participants. The company said it is observing the efficacy of two different modified vaccines in a small study involving 60 people who already received the original vaccine. (Sullivan, 3/10)

The Cambridge, Mass., company, which has one of the Covid-19 vaccines widely in use, plans to enroll 60 people to test the new shot. The subjects had previously received the standard two doses of Moderna’s original shot as part of a mid-stage study that began last year. In the new portion of the study, these adult volunteers will receive a booster shot containing Moderna’s modified vaccine, code-named mRNA-1273.351. (Loftus, 3/10)

Two variants of the coronavirus that are possibly more infectious currently make up 51% of New York City's new coronavirus cases, health officials said Wednesday. Jay Varma, a senior adviser to Mayor Bill de Blasio, said preliminary analysis suggests that the strain first discovered in the United Kingdom, B.1.1.7, and a new strain found in New York City, B.1.526, may spread more easily than other strains of the virus but are not more deadly. (Knutson, 3/10)

A second wave of Covid-19 is ripping through Brazil, pushing hospitals and ICUs toward collapse and claiming record numbers of daily deaths. While a new variant of the coronavirus spreads throughout the country, many Brazilians continue to defy mask mandates mobility restrictions following the example of President Jair Bolsonaro, who recently said people need to "stop being sissies" and "whining" about the virus. (Charner and Reverdosa, 3/11)

In the beginning, there was one. The first genome for the virus causing a mysterious illness we had not yet named COVID-19 was shared by scientists on January 10, 2020. That single genome alerted the world to the danger of a novel coronavirus. It was the basis of new tests as countries scrambled to find the virus within their own borders. And it became the template for vaccines, the same ones now making their way to millions of people every day. That first coronavirus genome may have been the most important 30,000 letters published in all of 2020. Since then, the number of sequenced genomes has simply exploded, to 700,000. In just over a year, the virus that causes COVID-19 has become the most sequenced virus of all time—soaring past such longtime contenders as HIV and influenza. Thousands of coronavirus genomes are sequenced around the world every day; several were generated in just the minute it’s taken for you to read these three paragraphs. “It’s been a revolution,” says Judith Breuer, a virologist at University College London. (Zhang, 3/9)

The U.S. death rate increased by 15 percent last year as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, making it the deadliest year in recorded U.S. history, the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention will announce, according to two senior administration officials with direct knowledge of the matter. The agency will summarize its findings in an upcoming issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Its analysis will detail the rates at which U.S. residents of various races and ethnicities died as a result of the virus as well as the total number of deaths in each demographic group, those sources said. (Banco, 3/10)

If you’re born in the South, chances are you’ll have a shorter life expectancy compared with the rest of the United States, according to newly released data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday. The findings, published by the National Vital Statistics Reports, examined state-level mortality and population estimates from 2018, as well as state-specific death and population figures for older Medicare beneficiaries that year. (Higgins-Dunn, 3/11)

Newly reported Covid-19 cases and deaths in the U.S. edged higher, as the country continued to ramp up its vaccination effort and more states expanded eligibility for shots. Texans aged 50 and older will be able to get vaccinated starting March 15, the state health department said Wednesday, noting that age group accounted for more than 93% of Covid-19 deaths in the state. In Alaska, eligibility has been extended to those aged 16 and older. (3/10)

More than 29 million cases have been reported in the US since the World Health Organization declared the novel coronavirus a pandemic one year ago. The virus plunged America into grief and crisis. Several rounds of violent surges in infections prompted local and state leaders from coast to coast to order safety restrictions -- in some cases, curfews -- hoping to curb this invisible enemy's spread. Waves of Covid-19 patients crippled healthcare systems. Spikes in deaths drove some communities to call in mobile units to support their morgues. (Maxouris, 3/11)

The U.S. is averaging fewer than 50,000 new coronavirus cases per day for the first time in over five months. The downward trend comes after reaching a high in January and amid the U.S. vaccination campaign, but health officials warn people to remain vigilant about social distancing and masking. (Chen, 3/10)

Just a couple of months ago, hospitals across California were overwhelmed with coronavirus patients. But the situation has changed dramatically: Hospitalizations have plummeted throughout California and the Bay Area since the height of the winter surge. Statewide, 3,625 confirmed COVID patients were in hospitals on Tuesday, including 992 in the ICU. That’s an 83% decrease from the peak of 21,597 hospitalizations on Jan. 4, and a 80% decrease from 4,868 ICU patients on Jan. 10. (Hwang, 3/10)

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated their guidance on Wednesday to expand in-person visitation for nursing home residents. Millions have been forced to remain separated from their loved ones in long-term care throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Now that nursing home residents are getting vaccinated against the coronavirus at high rates, the risk of transmission has dropped, according to the CMS. (Chen, 3/10)

CMS on Wednesday relaxed guidance on nursing home visitation, allowing unrestricted indoor visits for the first time in a year. While the guidance permits indoor visitation for both vaccinated and unvaccinated residents, CMS still recommends outdoor visitation to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission. "Given the ongoing risk of COVID-19 transmission, CMS continues to recommend facilities, residents, and families adhere to the core principles of COVID-19 infection control, including maintaining physical distancing and conducting visits outdoors whenever possible," the guidance reads. (Christ, 3/10)

In a statement of the reasoning behind the updated recommendations, Dr. Lee Fleisher, the chief medical officer at C.M.S., cited the millions of vaccines administered to nursing home residents and staff and a decline in infections in nursing homes. “C.M.S. recognizes the psychological, emotional and physical toll that prolonged isolation and separation from family have taken on nursing home residents, and their families,” Dr. Fleisher said. (3/11)

“There is no substitute for physical contact, such as the warm embrace between a resident and their loved one,” CMS said in its new guidance, “Therefore, if the resident is fully vaccinated, they can choose to have close contact (including touch) with their visitor while wearing a well-fitting face mask and performing hand-hygiene before and after.” So while hugs are OK again for residents who have completed their vaccination, precautions such as wearing masks and using hand sanitizer remain in place as a counterbalance to risk. CMS also underscored that maintaining 6 feet of separation is still the safest policy, and outdoor visits are preferable even when residents and visitors have been vaccinated. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 3/11)

New research suggests that long-term symptoms of Covid-19 may emerge in a distinct pattern over weeks and months. Natalie Lambert, an associate research professor at Indiana University School of Medicine, surveyed thousands of "long-hauler" Covid-19 patients, finding that specific symptoms tend to emerge at regular intervals — usually a week or 10 days — resulting in what she calls "waves of symptoms." (Edwards, 3/10)

A new study out of the United Kingdom found people who developed "long COVID-19," meaning they experienced symptoms for more than 28 days after initial infection, were more likely to report more than five symptoms in the early days of their illnesses, and long COVID-19 was also tied to certain early symptoms. The study was published today in Nature Medicine. The findings were based on user data from a mobile app called COVID Symptom Study. A total of 4,182 incident cases of COVID-19, in which individuals self-reported their symptoms, showed that 558 (13.3%) participants reported symptoms lasting more than 28 days, 189 (4.5%) for more than 8 weeks and 95 (2.3%) for more than 12 weeks. (3/10)

Out of the patients who reported symptoms for more than four weeks, "a third of those will have symptoms at 8 weeks and then a third of those at 12 weeks," said study co-author Dr. Christina Astley, physician scientist at Boston Children's Hospital. "If you think about it, 1 in 20 people who have COVID-19 will have symptoms lasting 8 weeks or more."  (Rodriguez, 3/11)

March 26 marks the one-year anniversary of Lauren Thomas Mandel's Covid-19 infection -- and she and her family are still feeling the effects of the illness. The worst part of a year of symptoms, she told CNN's Chris Cuomo, is the amount of hair she has lost. In August, she said it was like she had shed a small bird's nest of her hair. Now, she has to play a mental game to bring herself to wash her hair and potentially lose more, she said. (Holcombe and Waldrop, 3/10)

The Food and Drug Administration has issued an emergency use authorization for a new coronavirus testing method using the body’s T-cells — which could help better diagnose COVID long-haulers. The T-Detect COVID-19 test — developed by Seattle-based Adaptive Biotechnologies Corp. in collaboration with Microsoft — is billed as a “next generation” screening method that analyzes DNA from T-cells in blood samples instead of current testing methods that screen for immune proteins. “The T-Detect COVID test will be a useful tool to help determine if a person previously had COVID-19,” the FDA announced Friday. “This is especially important for people who may have exhibited symptoms previously or believe they have been exposed but have not tested positive.” (Miller, 3/9)

Hundreds of thousands of people around the world are experiencing what is being called “long COVID” — a pattern of prolonged symptoms following an acute bout of the disease. Many have managed to continue working through accommodations like telecommuting, cutting down on hours and delegating responsibilities. Others have found it impossible to fulfill their professional obligations and are making the tough decision to stop working and seek disability benefits. But as they pursue the application process, they are discovering a particular set of challenges. Given the lack of testing in the first months, many “long haulers" ... have no laboratory proof of infection. (Tuller, 3/10)

A monoclonal-antibody drug reduced hospitalizations or death from Covid-19 by 85% compared with a placebo in a clinical trial, said Vir Biotechnology Inc. and GlaxoSmithKline PLC, the drug’s developers. Based on the positive results, the companies said Wednesday they will immediately ask health regulators in the U.S. and other countries to authorize the therapy, which would add to the arsenal of Covid-19 treatments that help keep infected people out of hospitals. (Walker, 3/10)

A combination of two Eli Lilly antibody drugs cut the risk of COVID-19-related hospitalizations and deaths by 87%, the company announced Wednesday, further upholding dosing already authorized by the Food and Drug Administration. The findings draw from a BLAZE-1 Phase 3 cohort with 769 mild-to-moderate coronavirus patients aged 12 and up at high-risk of progressing to severe disease. There were 15 "events" like hospitalizations or deaths in the placebo group, and four "events" in a group of patients taking 700 mg of bamlanivimab and 1400 mg of etesevimab together, "representing an 87 percent risk reduction," Lilly announced. (Rivas, 3/10)

More than 4,000 people testing positive for COVID-19 in Michigan have been treated with one of the two approved monoclonal antibody infusion treatments at more than 100 hospitals, pharmacies and urgent care centers that are administering the Eli Lilly and Regeneron cocktail therapies. Early results show hospitalization rates at about 5% compared to 10% to 15% rates in similar high-risk populations, according to the state Department of Health and Human Services. (Greene, 3/10)

People 65 and older who received the 13-valent (13-strain) pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV13) had lower COVID-19 diagnoses, hospitalizations, and deaths, reports a study published yesterday in The Journal of Infectious Diseases. If patients received antibiotics within the past 90 days, though, the relationship weakened. The researchers looked at 541,033 elderly adults in the Kaiser Permanente Southern California healthcare system from Mar 1 to Jul 22, 2020. The vast majority (83.4%) received PCV13, and recipients were more likely to be older, have more comorbidities, and partake in healthcare services more often. Overall, 3,677 COVID-19 cases in the study cohort (0.7%) led to 1,075 hospitalizations (0.2%) and 334 deaths (0.06%). (3/10)

More than half a million Americans have received an experimental treatment for COVID-19 called convalescent plasma. But a year into the pandemic, it's not clear who, if anyone, benefits from it. That uncertainty highlights the challenges scientists have faced in their attempts to evaluate COVID-19 drugs. On paper, treatment with convalescent plasma makes good sense. The idea is to take blood plasma from people who have recovered from COVID-19 and infuse it into patients with active infections. The antibodies in the donated plasma, in theory, would help fight the virus. (Harris, 3/10)

Amid rising worries over antibiotic resistance, a new study suggests the drugs were overprescribed to patients during the first six months of the Covid-19 pandemic. In 96% of the cases, antibiotics were given to patients before a bacterial infection was confirmed. To wit, a first antibiotic was prescribed at the time of admission or within the first 48 hours of hospitalization. Yet such prescribing implies a degree of guesswork, since it can typically take 48 hours or more to confirm a bacterial infection, according to The Pew Charitable Trusts, which conducted the analysis. (Silverman, 3/10)

Staggering numbers of health care workers -- more than one in five -- have experienced anxiety, depression or post-traumatic stress disorder during the pandemic, new research has revealed. Health care workers have been working for long hours under strenuous conditions. Because of this, Nathaniel Scherer, co-lead author of the systematic review and meta-analysis published Wednesday in PLOS One, said he was not surprised by the numbers. (Marples, 3/11)

Quest Diagnostics has entered an agreement to acquire the outreach laboratory services business of healthcare system Mercy, the companies announced this week. With the acquisition, Quest will pick up the business from 29 Mercy hospital labs and two independent clinic labs servicing patients and providers throughout Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma. Testing formerly done by Mercy's outreach business will be done at Quest's laboratory in Lenexa, Kansas and a network of rapid response labs throughout the region. (3/10)

You can file this under, “What opioid crisis?” In one of the more startling examples of tin-ear syndrome, AmerisourceBergen wants its shareholders to bless a $14.3 million pay package for chief executive officer Steven Collis. Not only is this a hefty amount of money, but it represents a 26% boost over the previous year. (Silverman, 3/11)

The demise of IBM’s Watson Health would be easy to file away as another ill-fated attempt to tackle health care without understanding its complexities. But its downfall offers specific lessons on the implementation of artificial intelligence in an industry still clamoring for new ways to mine mountains of data. (Ross, 3/10)

Providers and insurers will continue their fight over surprise billing as federal officials figure out how to put the No Surprises Act into practice, according to experts. The new law protects consumers from receiving unexpected medical bills resulting from out-of-network emergency care delivered by an out-of-network facility or out-of-network providers at an in-network facility. It also blocks out-of-network providers at in-network facilities from balance billing patients for non-emergency care unless they get patient consent. But patients will still be responsible for paying the in-network cost-sharing amount. (Brady, 3/10)

Teens and young adults have a higher chance of getting infected with the coronavirus than older adults, according to a new study that uses data from Utah and five other states, and contradicts past research and conventional wisdom. “It was a surprise that the effect was so high, because at the time people were saying, ‘Oh, children are not susceptible; you hardly see it in kids,’” said Dr. Barbara Rumain, lead author on the study that was published Wednesday in the open-access medical journal PLOS ONE. Rumain said she and her co-authors — Mosche Schneiderman at SUNY Downstate Medical Center, and Allan Geliebter at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai — didn’t expect to see results showing children would catch the virus more frequently than older adults. (Means, 3/10)

The University of California, Davis is offering students $75 to be used for “staycations” to encourage them to avoid nonessential travel during spring break. Students who choose to stay home during the March 22-26 break will get the money in gift cards. Student response has been “awesome,” the university said in statement. (3/10)

YouTube has taken down more than 30,000 videos that made misleading or false claims about COVID-19 vaccines over the last six months, YouTube spokesperson Elena Hernandez said, offering the company's first release of numbers for such content. Multiple polls show that roughly 30% of Americans remain hesitant or suspicious of the vaccines, and many of those doubts have been stoked by online falsehoods and conspiracy theories. (Gold, 3/11)

Cotton face masks are proving more effective against the spread of the coronavirus than previously thought, a new study found. Even under humid conditions — which is typically the case, as the mask covers the mouth and nose — 100% cotton performed significantly better than synthetic fibers, including nylon, polyester and rayon. In fact, the humidity provided by one’s breath was shown to actually improve filtration in cotton masks. Across the nine types of cotton flannel masks researchers tested, humidity increased efficacy on average from 12% to 45%. (Sparks, 3/10)

Citigroup Inc. has joined a study to evaluate whether frequent and rapid at-home COVID-19 tests for about 6,000 employees can help the banking conglomerate reduce virus transmission among workers. The study could provide evidence on whether at-home rapid testing helps large workplaces safely reopen, one year after the pandemic shut down large employers and sent workers home to work remotely. The Citigroup study, led by Harvard epidemiologist and rapid testing advocate Dr. Michael Mina, will monitor employees who use Innova's rapid test at home every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. (Alltucker, 3/10)

AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. has reopened many of its theaters in recent weeks after a winter surge of coronavirus cases prompted the company to re-close several cinemas at the end of 2020 when sales fell 89%.The world’s largest movie theater chain said roughly 527 out of its 589 domestic theaters were open as of Friday, including those in New York City. Cinemas in Los Angeles are expected to open shortly, Chief Executive Adam Aron said Wednesday. Internationally, only around 78 out of its 356 theaters were open, according to the company. (Maidenberg, 3/10)

More than 2 million women have left their jobs in the past year, bringing women's participation in the labor force to the lowest level in more than 30 years. For many, child care was a major factor. Nicole Johnson worked as a full-time teaching assistant in Scarsdale, New York, until the coronavirus pandemic shuttered her school. She was out of a job, surviving on unemployment. (Battiste, 3/10)

[Paul] Russell once thought the coronavirus wasn’t a real threat. He didn’t believe in masks. All that has changed. “Before I came down with the virus, I was one of those jackasses who thought the virus would disappear the day after the election. I was one of those conspiracy theorists,” he said. Instead, he was in the hospital with COVID-19 a week after the election. “All these people that are saying that it’s fake, blah blah blah, they’re lying to themselves,” he said. (Dutton, 3/9)

All a team needs to play in this year’s NCAA Tournament is five healthy players. How about a coach? The NCAA will get back to you on that. The fluid nature of a March Madness played amid the coronavirus pandemic was spelled out Wednesday, hours before the NCAA selection committee began meeting to hash out a 68-team bracket that could remain in flux up until the games tip off next week. (Pells, 3/10)

Texas can remove Planned Parenthood from its Medicaid program, a state district judge ruled Wednesday. The move would stop thousands of people from accessing non-abortion services from the health provider. Texas has long tried to remove from Medicaid Planned Parenthood, which provides abortions in the state. (Falconer, 3/10)

A state judge ruled on Wednesday that Texas can remove Planned Parenthood from its Medicaid program, preventing those enrolled from using the program to get nonabortion services from the organization. Judge Lora Livingston decided that Texas officials had given appropriate notice to Planned Parenthood of the upcoming removal that is required under state law, after the advocacy organization contested in an emergency lawsuit that the state had not. (Coleman, 3/10)

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton threatened Wednesday to sue the city of Austin and surrounding Travis County after officials there, citing the continued threat of Covid-19, said they would continue to require residents to wear masks even “when outside of their residence.” Paxton’s threat came on the same day the state’s mask mandate, which Texas Gov. Greg Abbott did away with last week, officially expired. “City/county leaders must not be thinking clearly,” Paxton said in a Tweet. “Maybe it’s oxygen deprivation from quintuple-masking. Whatever the case, they’ve tried this before. They lost. Travis County and Austin have a few hours to comply with state law or I’ll sue them.” (Siemaszko, 3/10)

As he ended Texas’ coronavirus restrictions Wednesday over the objections of public health officials, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has tried shifting concern about the virus’ spread to migrants with COVID-19 crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, though without evidence they are a significant factor. The focus by Abbott and other Republicans on migrant families has drawn criticism about invoking a long history in the U.S. of wrongly suggesting migrants spread diseases. (Weber and Marchant, 3/10)

The Texas Rangers on Wednesday announced that they will allow 100% capacity at Globe Life Field for their home opener in Arlington. The announcement comes a week after Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced he was rescinding the state's mask mandate and opening Texas "100%." "The Rangers are encouraged that the Governor's Office has given clearance for us to fully open Globe Life Field at the start of the 2021 Major League Baseball season," President of Business Operations and Chief Operating Officer Neil Leibman said in a press release Wednesday, according to CBS Sports. Liebman said all attendees will be required to wear a mask or face covering. (Freiman, 3/10)

Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and John Hoeven (R-N.D) have reintroduced legislation that would increase oversight of carbon monoxide prevention efforts, citing recent carbon monoxide poisoning deaths in Texas following extreme winter weather. The legislation, named after two young Minnesotan brothers who died of carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning, would require the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to ensure the safety and reliability of CO detectors and encourage states to require them in residential homes. (Budryk, 3/11)

In-person learning in New York City’s public schools was not associated with increased Covid-19 infections compared with the general community, according to a peer-reviewed study released Wednesday. The study, led by senior health adviser Jay Varma and published in the Pediatrics medical journal, provides data to back up claims by city officials that school buildings are among the safest places in New York. (Banjo, 3/10)

Officials in Baltimore and several Maryland counties spent much of Wednesday scrambling to rework potential new local coronavirus rules following Gov. Larry Hogan’s announcement that most statewide restrictions will loosen significantly at the end of the week. (Stole and Opilo, 3/10)

Another "dial turn" announcement in the state's return to pre-pandemic life is coming as soon as this week. An update on capacity restrictions at Twins games at Target Field and other large events could come within "days," Gov. Tim Walz said Tuesday. The governor is also expected to address rules for restaurants and other businesses. (Van Oot, 3/10)

KHN: High Obesity Rates In Southern States Magnify Covid Threat

In January, as Mississippi health officials planned for their incoming shipments of covid-19 vaccine, they assessed the state’s most vulnerable: health care workers, of course, and elderly people in nursing homes. But among those who needed urgent protection from the virus ripping across the Magnolia State were 1 million Mississippians with obesity. Obesity and weight-related illnesses have been deadly liabilities in the covid era. A report released this month by the World Obesity Federation found that increased body weight is the second-greatest predictor of covid-related hospitalization and death across the globe, trailing only old age as a risk factor. (Varney, 3/11)

Community groups and health care providers in southwest Georgia will get help addressing problems with medical billing and debt thanks to a $190,000 grant, Atlanta-based consumer advocacy group Georgia Watch announced Wednesday. The grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation will let Georgia Watch work with two other nonprofits — Georgians for a Healthy Future and SOWEGA Rising — to help hospitals in the region improve their billing and collections practices. (Williams, 3/10)

Japan has decided to bar foreign spectators from this summer's Tokyo Olympics, the Kyodo news agency said on Tuesday, citing government officials. The decision, which hadn't been publicly confirmed by Japanese officials, comes after weeks of mounting pressure from a public worried about visitors who could carry the coronavirus into the country, including some highly-contagious new variants.  There was no immediate word on how many Japanese fans would be permitted to enjoy the Summer Games in person, but Kyodo, which often gets news directly from government officials before it is formally announced, said no spectators would be admitted from abroad. (Reals, 3/9)

The Olympic torch relay is yet another hurdle for the postponed Tokyo Games. It kicks off in two weeks from northeastern Japan, and any stumble could sow more doubts about the risk of holding the Olympics in a pandemic. A year ago, the Olympics were postponed just as the relay began. The start will again be from Fukushima prefecture, the center 10 years ago of the devastating earthquake, tsunami and meltdown of three nuclear reactors. At least 18,000 people died. (Wade, 3/10)

The postponed Tokyo Olympics scheduled to start July 23 are slated to involve about 80,000 volunteers, a spokesperson for the organizing committee confirmed. Organizers have said almost nothing, however, about how they will safely incorporate those volunteers into Olympic functions during the pandemic. ... Tokyo Games organizers have released detailed “playbooks” on how they plan to mitigate Covid-19 spread among athletes, sports officials and broadcasters—but have issued no playbook for volunteers, who traditionally interact with all of those groups. There are no plans to publish a Covid playbook for Games volunteers, a Tokyo Olympics spokesperson said. (Bachman, 3/4)

China will not reach herd immunity until mid-2022, months after Beijing plans to host the 2022 Winter Olympics, China’s top health official said Saturday. George Gao, the director of China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention, estimated to Chinese media on Saturday that 70% to 80% of China’s 1.6 billion citizens would need to get vaccinated for the country to reach herd immunity. He said that China’s COVID-19 vaccine coverage is low and that the country is likely to reach herd immunity in the middle of 2022 at the earliest. (McGregor, 3/8)

Lawmakers in Mexico approved a bill Wednesday night to legalize recreational marijuana, a milestone for the country, which is in the throes of a drug war and could become the world’s largest cannabis market, leaving the United States between two pot-selling neighbors. The 316-to-129 vote in Mexico’s lower house, the Chamber of Deputies, came more than two years after the Mexican Supreme Court ruled that the country’s ban on recreational marijuana was unconstitutional and more than three years after the country legalized medicinal cannabis. (Lopez, 3/10)

Mexico’s lower house of Congress on Wednesday approved a bill that would decriminalize cannabis for recreational, medical and scientific uses, bringing it a step closer to creating one of the world’s largest markets for the plant. Backed by the administration of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the bill marks a major shift in a country bedeviled for years by violence between feuding drug cartels. Lawmakers approved the bill in general with 316 votes in favor and 127 against. Now, the Senate needs to review and approve the bill. (Oré, 3/10)

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Monday the government is studying what to do about growers of opium poppies who have been hit by competition from synthetic opioids, suggesting that some sort of legalization scheme might be possible. Asked about legalizing marijuana production — a bill for which is now before Congress — López Obrador said the question also involves opium poppies grown illegally in some parts of Mexico to make heroin. “As far as commercializing marijuana and opium poppies, the decision has been made to undertake a thorough study of these crops,” López Obrador said. (3/8)

The European Medicines Agency said Thursday that Johnson & Johnson’s single-shot coronavirus vaccine is safe and effective to use in everyone over the age of 18. That paves the way for the European Commission to grant the American vaccine a conditional marketing authorization later Thursday. It will be the fourth vaccine approved in the EU after BioNTech/Pfizer, Moderna and Oxford/AstraZeneca. (Deutsch, 3/11)

Denmark has announced that it will temporarily suspend the use of the coronavirus vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford. The Danish Health Authority said Thursday that it would temporarily stop using the shot in its vaccination program as a precaution “after reports of severe cases of blood clots in people who have been vaccinated with the COVID-19 vaccine from AstraZeneca.” (Ellyatt, 3/11)

While the world is understandably focused on countering the coronavirus pandemic, a secondary global public health crisis has been brewing: a drop-off in vaccination rates against a range of other dangerous infectious diseases. A year ago, when much of the world’s population began to socially distance to reduce the spread of COVID-19, an unfortunate consequence of that countermeasure was a steep decline in the number of children receiving their routine vaccinations for diseases such as measles, rubella and polio. (Oswald, 3/10)

US in-hospital mortality for COVID-19 was almost 14% overall but decreased 15 percentage points from March to August 2020, with higher rates in older patients, according to a research letter published in JAMA Network Open late last week. The researchers used data from 555 US medical centers via the Vizient clinical database on 192,550 adults hospitalized with COVID-19 across the 6 months. In-hospital mortality was 13.6%, which rose to 16.6% when the researchers included those discharged to hospice. In-hospital mortality (not including hospice), however, declined dramatically over the study period, from 22.1% in March to 6.5% in August. The biggest 1-month drop was from April to May, going from 18.1% to 12.0%. (3/8)

Aspergillosis, a fungal infection that commonly affects the lungs, is associated with worse COVID-19 outcomes, including longer hospital stay and oxygen therapy, according to a study yesterday in Clinical Infectious Diseases. The researchers looked at a retrospective cohort of COVID-19 patients who needed mechanical ventilation in five Johns Hopkins hospitals from March to August 2020. Of the 396 patients, 9.8% people had probable (20) and possible (19) COVID-19–associated pulmonary aspergillosis (CAPA). CAPA patients were more likely to have health conditions such as pulmonary vascular disease (41.0% vs 26.1%), coagulopathy (51.3% vs 33.1%), solid tumors (35.6% vs 10.9%), and corticosteroid treatment during initial admission (66.7% vs 42.6%). (3/10)

Treatment with azithromycin had little effect on reducing the time to recovery or risk of hospitalization in patients with suspected COVID-19, according to a randomized clinical trial published yesterday in The Lancet. In the UK-based PRINCIPLE trial, which is investigating interventions against COVID-19 in those at risk of adverse outcomes, investigators randomly assigned people 65 years and older, or 50 and older with at least one comorbidity, who had been feeling unwell with suspected COVID-19 for 14 days to receive usual care plus azithromycin for 3 days, usual care plus other interventions, or usual care alone. (3/5)

More than a year into the pandemic, research from groups around the world has shown that pregnant women with COVID-19 are at higher risk of hospitalization and severe disease than are women of the same age who are not pregnant. The rates of severe illness and death are also higher in pregnant women from certain minority racial and ethnic groups than in those in non-minority groups, mirroring the situation in the wider population. The good news is that babies are mostly spared a severe respiratory infection, and do not often get sick. Samples from the placenta, the umbilical cord and blood from mothers and infants indicate that the virus rarely crosses from mother to fetus. However, some preliminary data suggest that infection with the virus can damage the placenta, possibly causing injury to the baby. (Subbaraman, 3/9)

Racial and ethnic disparities in COVID-19 infection rates were significant among Americans younger than 25 years early in the pandemic, particularly for Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, American Indian/Alaska Native, and Hispanic people, according to a study today in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR).Researchers from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and state health departments analyzed data from 689,672 young COVID-19 patients in 15 states and Washington, DC, by age and sex during three pandemic periods. (3/10)

Is there a difference in the association of fish consumption with risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) or of mortality between individuals with and individuals without vascular disease? Findings  In this analysis of 4 international cohort studies of 191 558 people from 58 countries on 6 continents, a lower risk of major CVD and total mortality was associated with higher fish intake of at least 175 g (2 servings) weekly among high-risk individuals or patients with vascular disease, but not in general populations without vascular disease; a similar pattern of results was observed for sudden cardiac death. Oily fish but not other types of fish were associated with greater benefits. (Mohan, 3/7)

CARB-X today awarded up to $3.5 million to biotechnology company Affinivax, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, for preclinical development of a vaccine against Staphylococcus aureus infections. The vaccine being developed by Affinivax, using its Multiple Antigen Presenting System (MAPS) technology, will include multiple staphylococcal protein antigens designed to elicit B cell antibody and Th17 and Th1 cell-mediated immune responses. It offers the potential for protection against mucosal colonization and invasive staphylococcal infections. Company leaders believe this approach could help them overcome hurdles that have thwarted other attempts at developing an S aureus vaccine. (3/9)

The one-year anniversary of the suspension of normal life because of the coronavirus pandemic offers a reminder of how naive we were in mid-March 2020. When baseball spring training and Broadway theaters shut down on March 12, there were only about 1,300 reported cases of COVID-19 in the United States. That’s why the closures were envisioned as temporary, with the start of the major league season delayed by two weeks and Broadway slated to go dark for a month. How little we knew then — and how little at the time we were able to emotionally accept. (Walter Shapiro, 3/9)

An invitation is coming, maybe sooner than you expect: a party, inside, with people you don’t even know. Will you react with delight at the impending return of the easygoing closeness COVID-19 has taken away? Trepidation over whether to stretch your late-pandemic boundaries? Disgust at the prospect of a superspreader event, where partygoers spritz one another with pathogens as they belt out “Happy Birthday”? Any of these responses would be normal, given what we’ve been through — and what we’ve missed — in the year since COVID-19 took over our lives. But it won’t be long before social events return to the realm of responsible behavior, challenging everyone to weigh the lingering dangers against other things we cherish. (Andy Rosen 3/11)

One of my most vivid memories from last April is the sound. I was working as an emergency medical technician in New York City. Day and night for weeks, sirens drowned out every other sound within earshot. A doctor told me, “The sound of sirens will be how we all remember this for the rest of our lives. ”But will it? What is our capacity as a nation to remember? To hold and bear and suffer this much continuous loss? In those fatal spring months in New York, the sound inside ambulances conveyed, at least to me, a desperateness even more dire than the wailing sirens ricocheting across the city. The radio spat out emergencies nonstop as 911 calls surged beyond the volume on the day of the Sept. 11 attacks. Dispatchers sent E.M.T.s and medics on back-to-back runs for “sick fever cough,” the new designation being used for patients with Covid-19 symptoms. (Jennifer Murphy, 3/11)

If you visit Wednesday's Google search box page, you might notice that the "doodle" -- the cartoon image that the tech giant wraps around its familiar multicolored logo -- honors an Asian man in a white coat who appears to be making and distributing face masks. The man, as my friend Ling Woo Liu emailed me late last night when the doodle first went live around the world, is her great-grandfather: Chinese-Malaysian epidemiologist Dr. Wu Lien-teh, being honored by Google on the 142nd anniversary of his birth. (Jeff Yang, 3/10)

Cancer patients face life-threatening complications from all manner of infections, and covid-19 might increase their risk of death 15-fold. Yet most cancer patients remain ineligible for the covid-19 vaccine. And the reasons appear torn from a dark comedy. Our family discovered this the hard way. A few days before the new year, my wife, Rachel, was diagnosed with cancer in both breasts. Further tests revealed a genetic condition, BRCA2, which seriously elevates her risk of more cancers. She’ll be spending the first half of 2021 in and out of surgery. Doctors will remove her ovaries, uterus, fallopian tubes and both breasts. She’ll be weak and vulnerable until at least the summer. (Kenneth Osgood, 3/10)

“Delay, deny, wait until we die. ”That “little saying,” a Gulf War veteran recently told an interviewer for the National Public Radio program “Here and Now,” is what you’re likely to encounter when you walk into a Veterans Administration hospital complaining of debilitating symptoms from your combat experience 30 years ago. The symptoms almost surely result from your exposure to pesticides used in Kuwait or air-borne toxins from massive open-air pits, some larger than a football field, where trash and human waste were burning. Anti-nerve agents you and your comrades were ordered to take also might be culprits. (3/11)

The shelves are bare at Carter Blood Center. It’s time for us all to donate. Veronica Moore, Carter’s vice president of organizational relations, told us the double whammy of an ongoing pandemic and a winter storm has depleted stores. In normal, pre-pandemic operations, Carter likes to operate with three-days supply of blood, Moore said. That’s about 1,000 units. The center hasn’t been close to that in the past year, operating with somewhere between 20 and 40 units most days. And since the winter storm shut things down last month, Carter hasn’t been able to catch up. “There were days when we had nothing on the shelves,” Moore said. (3/11)

The news Jennifer G. and her husband got from her medical team was devastating. If you had come to us a month sooner, they said, we would have used chemotherapy to treat your cancer. But because of the delay, we have to amputate your leg, your hip, and your pelvis. The delay they referred to wasn’t due to any negligence on the part of the 46-year-old mother or the doctor treating her. Instead, the 38-day delay was caused by her insurance company, which had denied her orthopedist’s request for an MRI of Jennifer’s hip, deeming it “not medically necessary.” (Steve Cohen, 3/11)

When I think about March and Women's History Month, I remember the pioneers who challenged the status quo to defeat societal norms. These heroic individuals not only paved new roads for opportunity but changed our thinking altogether. There are so many female forerunners who have reshaped politics and almost every industry, including medicine. There's—of course—Vice President Kamala Harris, who is now inspiring young women that they could one day become president of the United States. Ruth Bader Ginsburg fought for justice at the highest levels. Florence Nightingale was the founder of modern nursing. And there was Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, who was the first female physician in the U.S. (Michael Dowling, 3/10)

You may have heard that things are quite different in the operations of this year’s Maryland General Assembly. Yes, there is virtual participation and livestreaming of sessions not experienced before. However, our organization watches all bills that come through session, carefully considering the impact of legislation and reforms affecting gender justice. And from what we’ve seen thus far, our legislators are still subject to distractions by those who do not want to acknowledge the basic rights and realities of our youth. The COVID-19 pandemic has shed light on many disparities we face in our state. For example, period poverty is the notion that not all people who menstruate can afford pads and tampons, preventing active participation in work or school. Food banks and community action centers report that donations of these products are constantly in demand. House Bill 205 and Senate Bill 427 requires Maryland public schools to provide free, size appropriate maxi-pads and tampons in at least one restroom in each primary school and two restrooms in each secondary school by Oct. 1 and most restrooms by August 2025. The legislation seeks to increase school attendance and extracurricular participation among menstruating students, who lack access to such products, and to decrease peer harassment that contributes to poor school climate. (Diana Philip, 3/10)