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Seventy-eight-year-old Joe Biden and 79-year-old Mitch McConnell got their booster shots Monday, the Democratic president and the Republican Senate leader urging Americans across the political spectrum to get vaccinated or plus up with boosters when eligible for the extra dose of protection. The shots, administered just hours apart on either end of Pennsylvania Avenue, came on the first workday after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration recommended a third dose of the Pfizer vaccine for Americans 65 and older and approved them for others with preexisting medical conditions and high-risk work environments. (Miller, 9/27)

Biden received his first dose of the Pfizer vaccine on Dec. 21, 2020, and his second dose on Jan. 11, both on live television. The president's booster dose was administered as the White House press pool observed and asked questions, creating an impromptu press conference as Biden rolled up his sleeve. Individuals who want to receive a booster must have had their second shot at least six months ago. Only those who received the Pfizer vaccine are currently eligible for boosters, but Moderna has asked the FDA to approve its booster shot and Johnson & Johnson has begun submitting data on a booster as well. (Rafford, 9/27)

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said he received the COVID-19 booster shot on Monday, calling his choice to get the third dose “an easy decision.” ... “I’m glad to share that a few minutes ago, I received a booster vaccination for COVID-19,” McConnell said. “All throughout the pandemic, I have followed the best advice from experts and especially from my own health care providers. It was an easy decision to receive a booster.” (Coleman, 9/27)

The divide in attitudes on Covid-19 vaccines between people who’ve gotten or not gotten the shots hasn’t changed with the introduction of booster shots. In fact, vaccinated people say the third dose approved by U.S. regulators last week shows that scientists are trying to make the shots more effective while 71% of unvaccinated Americans say it’s proof the vaccines don’t work, according to a survey released today by the Kaiser Family Foundation. (Rattner, 9/28)

A rush of patients — and their questions — followed last week's news that the CDC and FDA would greenlight Pfizer-BioNTech COVID boosters, the Washington Post reported. The recommendation that those older than 65, the immunocompromised and those in high-risk jobs includes a lot of people — but it left out most who received the Moderna shot and all who received Johnson & Johnson. The wait for boosters news is making some non-Pfizer vaccine recipients a bit salty. (Owens, 9/27)

Over the past month, the United States public has received a booster dose of confusion. Follow this whiplash-inducing chain of events. (Herper, 9/27)

The veteran official leading the pandemic response at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is stepping aside, according to three people with knowledge of the matter. Henry Walke, who has overseen the CDC’s Covid-19 response for more than a year, will be replaced by Barbara Mahon, the deputy chief of the agency’s enteric-disease branch, those sources said. Walke will remain at the agency as director of the CDC’s Division of Preparedness and Emerging Infections. (Banco and Owermohle, 9/27)

Peter Marks, a high-ranking official at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), took on responsibilities to lead the agency’s vaccine office on Monday, as the office prepares for the retirement of two others who had publicly cast doubt on the need for COVID-19 boosters. An FDA spokesperson said the agency elevated Marks to acting director of the Office of Vaccines Research and Review “to prepare for the upcoming retirement of two senior members of the team” in the fall. (Coleman, 9/27)

Business groups are growing increasingly frustrated as Labor Department officials move forward with President Biden’s vaccine requirement without seeking their input. While lobbying groups that represent some of the country’s biggest corporations don’t oppose the rule, which will require employers with more than 100 workers to mandate COVID-19 vaccinations or weekly testing, those same organizations have presented Biden officials with lengthy lists of questions about the rule that have so far gone unanswered. (Evers-Hillstrom, 9/27)

Unions representing pilots at Southwest Airlines and American Airlines, both based in Texas, are asking for exemptions to President Joe Biden's pending vaccine mandate, with one of those unions warning that holiday travel could be disrupted if they have to comply. In a Sept. 24 letter distributed to 15 officials across the FAA, Congress, DOT and others, the Allied Pilots Association, which represents 14,000 pilots at American, suggested mandatory vaccinations could cause disruptions across the aviation industry as airlines will be forced to “offer unpaid leaves of absence or, worse, implement mass terminations of unvaccinated pilots.” (Pawlyk, 9/27)

The United States announced last week that it would soon open its doors to foreign travelers vaccinated against the coronavirus, loosening restrictions for broad swaths of global visitors for the first time since the pandemic began. But the new rules, set to take effect in November, appear to also shut out many people who consider themselves to be fully immunized — including millions who have received two doses of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine. (Taylor, 9/27)

When President Joe Biden directed the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) on Sept. 9 to impose strict COVID-19 vaccination and testing protocols on large businesses, the OSHA employees were ready. It marked the first time in nearly five years that the small agency had the opportunity to fulfill its mission to protect workers across industries from “recognized serious hazards.” But it also highlighted tensions between OSHA and the White House, exposing simmering resentments over how the White House has approached working with the Department of Labor during the pandemic, according to three former top OSHA officials. (Zorthian, 9/27)

The daily pace of new Covid-19 vaccinations in the United States is the lowest it has been since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention started tracking it in mid-January, data shows. The seven-day average rate of people getting their first shot is 231,695, 31% less than last week, almost half -- 47% -- less than a month earlier -- and a far cry from the millions a day the country saw in April. (Holcombe, 9/27)

Corporate leaders are far less bullish about the economic recovery than they were back in the spring — and they fear that vaccination holdouts could stall or even reverse the progress that has been made. A new survey by the National Association for Business Economics, or NABE, found a marked pullback in expectations for economic growth and output, especially in the near term. Survey respondents expect real growth in gross domestic product for this year to come in at 5.6 percent at the median — a significant drop from the median 6.7 percent growth expected in May, when the survey was last conducted. (White, 9/27)

Demographics alone would suggest Bradley County, Arkansas, should be struggling fiercely with local resistance against vaccines, just as many other counties are all across the southern U.S. (Brown, 9/28)

Before heading out the door on the morning of Sept. 18, Victoria and Martin Olivier and their 4-year-old daughter struck a deal. In exchange for good behavior during the family’s pharmacy visit for seasonal flu shots, Colette could expect a sugary treat in her future. So when the Walgreens pharmacist asked “Who wants to go first?” and Colette bravely sprang up to volunteer, her parents felt a wave of relief wash over them. But relief soon gave way to panic when the pharmacist realized she injected Colette with a dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, which is not yet authorized for children younger than 12. (Miller, 9/28)

Job seekers are considering a new addition to their résumés: Covid-19 vaccination status. As employers make vaccine rules for workers and some limit hiring to the vaccinated, people are starting to volunteer their vaccination status on job applications, in résumés and on their LinkedIn profiles. David Morgan, chief executive of Snorkel-Mart, an online snorkeling gear wholesaler and retailer, started requiring full vaccination for the company’s 20-plus employees in the spring. He says he favors candidates who are candid about their vaccine status on their résumés because it prevents surprises late in the hiring process. (Thomas, 9/27)

More than 90 percent of N.B.A. players have been vaccinated against Covid-19, according to the league, and all referees and key team personnel without exemptions will be, too, by the season’s start in three weeks. But a few high-profile players, including the Nets star guard Kyrie Irving, have expressed skepticism about vaccines or been evasive about their vaccination status. Because the Nets are projected to be a top championship contender, and the team is one of just three whose players must be vaccinated to play in their home arenas, Irving’s vaccination status could be as much of a factor in the N.B.A. rankings as his team’s play. (Deb, 9/27)

Media day for the Brooklyn Nets was billed as a potentially explosive spectacle in which leading scorer Kyrie Irving might set out his reasons for not being vaccinated against Covid-19 and signal whether he was willing to miss every Nets practice, home game and potential playoffs this season in order to maintain that position. In the end, Irving spoke from an undisclosed location on Zoom because the 29-year-old guard wasn’t allowed to enter the Barclays Center. Then he declined to address how or whether he would comply with New York City’s requirement to prove vaccination in order to be in an indoor sports arena. (Radnofsky and Bachman, 9/27)

Golden State Warriors forward Andrew Wiggins is sticking to his beliefs when it comes to staying unvaccinated for COVID-19, even though that decision could soon cost him playing in home games. Wiggins faces the possibility of not being allowed into Golden State’s home building at Chase Center for games come Oct. 13 when the San Francisco Department of Public Health begins requiring proof of vaccination for large indoor events. (McCauley, 9/27)

If NBA players are not vaccinated, they shouldn't be on the team, basketball Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar told Rolling Stone. "The NBA should insist that all players and staff are vaccinated or remove them from the team," said Abdul-Jabbar. "There is no room for players who are willing to risk the health and lives of their teammates, the staff and the fans simply because they are unable to grasp the seriousness of the situation or do the necessary research." (Zdanowicz, 9/28)

Sanofi won’t proceed with the development of one of its experimental Covid-19 vaccines, saying it didn’t make sense to go forward in an already-crowded market. The decision comes despite promising early results for the shot. The French healthcare giant said Tuesday that the vaccine—a so-called mRNA shot that uses the same technology as shots developed by Pfizer Inc. and Moderna Inc. —produced neutralizing antibodies against the virus in early-stage clinical trials. But it said it had decided not to proceed with larger studies, called Phase 3 trials, which would be required to win regulatory approval. (Roland, 9/28)

French vaccine giant Sanofi announced positive results of a Phase 1/2 clinical trial of its first mRNA vaccine on Tuesday, saying the early findings with a Covid-19 vaccine give the company confidence to shift gears on its mRNA program to pursue vaccines for other pathogens. The first in its sights is an influenza vaccine Sanofi hopes to begin testing in clinical trials next year. (Branswell, 9/28)

Pfizer said Monday that it is now testing a pill that could help people ward off COVID-19 if a close contact, such as family member, gets the virus. The drugmaker said it is looking at the efficacy of the pill as used in combination with a low dose of the HIV drug ritonavir in people who are at least 18 years old and live in the same household with someone who has COVID-19. Pfizer plans to enroll 2,660 people in the late-stage study. Those participating will get either the treatment combination or a fake drug orally twice a day for five to 10 days. (9/27)

Taking anticoagulants before contracting COVID-19 is associated with a 43% lower risk for hospital admission, and receiving anticoagulants while in the hospital is tied to a lower death rate, according to a study published late last week in EClinicalMedicine. The researchers created a retrospective cohort of 6,195 adults with COVID-19 across M Health Fairview hospitals and clinics in the midwestern United States from Mar 4 to Aug 27, 2020. Of these, 598 were immediately hospitalized and the remainder were initially treated as outpatients. Overall, case fatality was 2.8%, with hospitalized patients having a 13% mortality rate, and the researchers note that 5.9% of outpatients eventually needed hospitalization. (9/27)

With just days or even hours to spare, thousands of health care workers got inoculated, according to health officials across the state. And while thousands more workers remained unvaccinated, and thus in danger of being suspended or fired, the rush of last-minute vaccinations appeared to blunt the worst-case scenarios for staffing shortages that some institutions had feared.(Otterman and Goldstein, 9/28)

Tens of thousands of health-care workers in New York are likely to have refused a coronavirus vaccine before a state requirement went into effect on Monday, serving as a preview of resistance that the Biden administration’s vaccine requirements will face on a bigger scale in coming weeks.Resistance to the coronavirus vaccines means large numbers of health-care workers could face dismissals or unpaid leaves of absence in the state, exacerbating an already existing labor shortage in the critical world of medical care during the pandemic.

It’s D-Day for mandates. New York’s largest hospital system, Northwell Health, began sacking staff who refused to get their coronavirus vaccine shots as Gov. Kathy Hochul refused to yield on her Monday deadline for health worker inoculations. Hochul stuck to her guns as many of the state’s major hospital and government employee unions continued their court battle to get the mandates tossed. “I’ve made it loud and clear that I’m not going to change my position,” Hochul said during a Monday morning press conference. “I’m charged with protecting the health of all New Yorkers.” Northwell — which operates Lennox Hospital in Manhattan and Long Island Jewish Medical Center in Queens — confirmed it had fired roughly two dozen managers Monday after they repeatedly failed to get their shots. (Hicks, Hogan and Campanile, 9/27)

New York City health officials said that upwards of 5,000 employees in the city's public hospital system were not vaccinated as a statewide vaccine mandate took effect on Monday for health care workers, leaving them unable to report to work and get paid. Meanwhile, in another sign of tangible repercussions, representatives from the state’s largest private medical provider, Northwell Health, said it had fired about two dozen unvaccinated workers for missing the deadline and is looking into possibly terminating more people who may not have gotten the shot in time. (Kim and Nessen, 9/27)

Healthcare workers who are fired for refusal to comply with the state's COVID-19 vaccination mandate likely won't be eligible for unemployment insurance, according to state officials.  In a statement released Sept. 25, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul's office said the New York Department of Labor has issued guidance to clarify that terminated workers won't be eligible for the benefits unless they have a valid physician-approved request for medical accommodation. The governor's office made the announcement at the same time it unveiled a plan to address staffing shortages  should a large number of healthcare workers leave hospitals and other facilities because of the state mandate. (Gooch, 9/27)

The nation’s largest school district can immediately impose a vaccine mandate on its teachers and other workers, after all, a federal appeals panel decided Monday, leading lawyers for teachers to say they’ll ask the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene. The city’s Department of Education said the mandate would now go into effect at the end of Friday, so that all teachers and staff would be vaccinated by Oct. 4, the following Monday. (Neumeister, 9/28)

An Arizona judge ruled that a ban on public school mask mandates, as well as a variety of other laws shoehorned into the state budget by Republican lawmakers, is unconstitutional. The ruling frees public school leaders across Arizona to require students, staff and visitors to wear masks on campus. The law banning that authority was scheduled to take effect on Wednesday. (Giles, 9/27)

Maryland’s top health official said Monday that the state is not considering requiring coronavirus vaccines for public school students and teachers, leaving the decision instead up to each school district. “We’re being very careful not to be intentionally overbearing, and allowing school systems to take the lead in their individual jurisdictions,” Dennis Schrader, the state health secretary said. “We’re being very deferential to them. We’re giving them our guidance and our best advice, but we don’t want to be interventionists in terms of school policy.” (Wood, 9/27)

A federal judge on Monday extended a restraining order for 14 days that prohibits Iowa officials from enforcing a law that bans school districts from enacting mask mandates. The order issued by Judge Robert Pratt extends his initial order from Sept. 13 until Oct. 11 which means school districts may impose mask mandates and the state cannot stop them. (Pitt, 9/27)

New COVID-19 cases among Metro Nashville Public Schools students and staff continued to drop last week, as new infections also slow statewide. ... Though district officials declined to attribute the continuing drops to the district's consistent universal masking policy alone, Metro Schools is one of a handful of districts that have required masks the entire school year despite Gov. Bill Lee's opt-out executive order issued on Aug. 16. (Mangrum, 9/27)

School officials in a Missouri city have been making twice-weekly runs to Sam’s Club to stock up on frozen pizzas and hot dogs. A Kansas school district ran out of vegetables for two days last month. And a district in St. Paul, Minn. has an emergency supply of frozen grilled cheese sandwiches in case it runs out of all other food. Schools across the country are facing shortages of cafeteria staples like chicken, bread, apple juice and even plastic cutlery, as supply chain woes and a lack of truck drivers complicate the most basic task of feeding students. (Ngo, 9/27)

Harvard Business School says it is reverting to remote learning after beginning the semester with in-person classes, citing a rise in breakthrough COVID-19 cases among its students. All first-year and some second-year MBA students will take classes online beginning this week. Classes will take place remotely at least until October 3, the school said in a statement. (Cerullo, 9/27)

A judge has refused to block Creighton University’s requirement that all students get vaccinated against COVID-19 despite the objections of a handful of students who said getting the shots would violate their religious beliefs against abortion. Douglas County District Judge Marlon Polk said last week that he wouldn’t issue a temporary order blocking the vaccine mandate, and he doesn’t believe the students will ultimately prevail with their challenge to the rule because they had signed a form promising to get vaccinated as soon as a vaccine was fully approved by regulators. (Funk, 9/27)

Faculty at Iowa public universities are demanding the right to require masks in their classrooms regardless of state law or policies against them. Biology professor Steve O’Kane Jr. has pushed a resolution among colleagues at the University of Northern Iowa saying faculty should be allowed to manage their classrooms. O’Kane told The Cedar Rapids Gazette that he’s already imposed a mask mandates for his students and lowers their lab grades if they refuse to comply. (9/27)

An internal University of Texas document obtained by Axios details professors' concerns over COVID-19 classroom logistics as the fall semester approached. The document, circulated to professors via email in late July, outlines pressing faculty questions on masks, COVID-19 testing and more, with responses from a member of the university's coronavirus task force. (Price, 9/27)

Today marks the deadline for employees of United Airlines to prove they've received their first COVID-19 shot or lose their job. ... As of last week, the company said that more than 97 percent of its U.S. employees had taken the shot. However, this figure leaves some 2,000 plus people as holdouts—and it appears these individuals will be putting up a fight. (Rouhandeh, 9/27)

A North Carolina-based hospital system announced Monday that more than 175 of its workers have been fired for failing to comply with its COVID-19 vaccination requirement. Last week, Novant Health announced 375 employees had been suspended and given five days to comply with the mandate. The deadline was Friday. (9/27)

Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings has announced a cap on disciplinary actions that can be taken against county employees who aren’t fully vaccinated for COVID-19 by Oct. 31. Demings put a policy in place requiring county employees to get a first dose of a COVID shot by Sept. 30 and to be fully vaccinated by Oct. 31. Demings says 94 percent of nonunion employees and 69 percent of union employees are in compliance, so far. (Prieur, 9/27)

A federal judge on Monday ordered that all employees entering California prisons be vaccinated or have a religious or medical exemption, as he tries to head off another coronavirus outbreak like the one that killed 28 inmates and a correctional officer at San Quentin State Prison last year. Inmates who want in-person visits or who work outside prisons, including inmate firefighters, must also be fully vaccinated or have a religious or medical exemption. The prison guard’s union said it may appeal the mandate. (Thompson, 9/27)

Some city and state workers around the country have already begun to resist workplace vaccination rules on religious grounds. Soon those rules will be the norm in the private sector too, with the Biden administration's announcement this month that businesses with 100 or more employees must require those employees to be vaccinated or undergo weekly testing. NPR correspondents Andrea Hsu and Shannon Bond explain what the law says about religious exemptions to vaccine rules in the workplace. (9/27)

The summer surge of COVID-19 cases caused by the Delta (B1617.2) variant may be tapering off after causing the fourth wave of heightened pandemic activity in the United States. The 7-day average of new daily COVID-19 cases is 118,015, with 1,996 deaths, according to the Washington Post tracker. In the past week, new daily cases fell 20%, deaths fell 0.8%, and hospitalizations fell 8.9%. (Soucheray, 9/27)

U.S. COVID cases have been declining for several days, suggesting the country as a whole might have seen the peak of the summer Delta wave. But the winter remains uncertain, experts have told Newsweek. According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the country's seven-day moving average of cases has been declining since September 14, when the daily average of new cases was just under 150,000. ... The country's surge in infections over the summer came as the Delta variant of COVID became dominant, accounting for the vast majority—nearly 100 percent—of sequenced samples. (Browne, 9/27)

As weather grows colder and children spend more time in school, a surge of Covid-19 cases like the one in the South could be in store for the Northeast -- but it is not too late to get ahead of it, Dr. Anthony Fauci said. "It is within our power, and within our grasp, to prevent that from occurring," Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN's Wolf Blitzer Monday. The way to do it, he said, is by utilizing mitigation measures like wearing masks indoors and in schools, as well as increasing vaccination rates. (Holcombe, 9/28)

COVID-19's Delta variant is sending more young people into Ohio hospitals than ever before. The recent spike is putting a major strain on healthcare systems. It's also threatening Ohio's ability to keep children in classrooms. Nationwide Children's Hospital chief medical officer Dr. Rustin Morse told Axios that COVID hospitalizations were a "non-issue" in the spring and summer — then came the Delta variant. (Neese and Buchanan, 9/27)

More Oregonians died with COVID-19 in September than in all but two other months of the pandemic, according to new state data released Monday. September’s death toll now stands at 423 people, surpassing August for the third-most fatalities of the pandemic. And the carnage from the delta surge could push this month’s final tally past January, when 476 people died. The monthly record, set in December, is 603 COVID-related fatalities. (Schmidt, 9/27)

Health officials in Umatilla County, Oregon, say they are starting to see COVID-19 cases linked to the Pendleton Round-Up. Umatilla County Public Health Director Joseph Fiumara told county commissioners Monday the county’s case count last week was 550 cases of COVID-19, and Fiumara said he had 151 pending cases from the weekend. (9/28)

All the top indicators of the coronavirus improved over the seven days ending Sept. 23 as weekly state data released Friday showed cases, positivity, rate and deaths on the decline. This follows a months-long surge driven by the highly contagious delta variant. The 56,325 new cases of coronavirus in Florida in the week ending Thursday were almost three times less than a month ago. They also marked the lowest weekly number since mid-July, according to data released by the Florida Department of Health. (Sheridan, 9/27)

The Florida Department of Health is trying to scuttle a public records lawsuit seeking information about COVID-19, arguing that requested reports don’t exist and that the underlying data is confidential. Attorneys for the department filed two motions Friday in Leon County circuit court arguing that a judge should reject the lawsuit, filed last month by the non-profit Florida Center for Government Accountability and state Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith, D-Orlando. Several state and national news organizations have intervened in the case to back the plaintiffs. (Saunders, 9/27)

Connecticut lawmakers moved closer Monday toward extending Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont’s emergency powers during the coronavirus pandemic for the sixth time, an issue that has become more contentious with each extension. The House of Representatives voted 80-60 in favor of extending Lamont’s renewed declaration of public health and civil preparedness emergencies. Ten Democrats joined all of the Republicans in opposition. The Senate is scheduled to vote on Tuesday. (Haigh, 9/27)

Demand for airplane-seat coverings that repel viruses and bacteria has soared during the Covid-19 pandemic, as carriers look to cut the time and cost of cleaning cabins. “The stakes are high for airlines,” said Quentin Munier, head of strategy and innovation at the seat division of aircraft-parts giant Safran SA. Tenders for new orders increasingly call for fabrics with virus-killing properties, he said. (Patel, 9/28)

Senate Republicans on Monday blocked a bill that would fund the government, provide billions of dollars in hurricane relief and stave off a default in U.S. debts, part of the party’s renewed campaign to undermine President Biden’s broader economic agenda. The GOP’s opposition dealt a death blow to the measure, which had passed the House last week, and now adds to the pressure on Democrats to devise their own path forward ahead of urgent fiscal deadlines. A failure to address the issues could cause severe financial calamity, the White House has warned, potentially plunging the United States into another recession. (Romm, 9/27)

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told Democrats on Monday that passage of the $550 billion infrastructure bill must not wait for President Joe Biden's multitrillion-dollar safety net bill, saying the larger package is not yet ready for a vote. In a private caucus meeting, Pelosi, D-Calif., said the party must "make difficult choices," because the dynamics have changed and Democrats have not yet agreed to a spending level, according to a source familiar with the meeting. (Kapur, 9/27)

Speaker Nancy Pelosi is reversing a months-long vow to push through the two major planks of Democrats’ domestic agenda in tandem, a huge shift just days before a critical infrastructure vote. Pelosi explained her thinking in a rare Monday night caucus session, saying she and President Joe Biden are continuing to push the Senate on negotiations related to the social spending package, but the House must move ahead on infrastructure this week before surface transportation funding expires Thursday. (Caygle and Ferris, 9/27)

Top House Democrats are voicing a new willingness to pare down their ambitious health care proposals within the sweeping $3.5 trillion social spending bill as they scramble to build consensus ahead of a potential vote this week. President Joe Biden’s call for $400 billion to boost long-term care services is expected to be sharply trimmed, lawmakers and advocates told POLITICO. And plans to expand Medicaid to more than 2 million people in states that have for a decade refused to do so may also have to be curtailed, said Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), one of Congress’ most enthusiastic supporters of that effort. (Ollstein, 9/27)

Democrats are hinting they’re willing to drop the debt ceiling from their government funding package this week in order to avoid a government shutdown, a sign that their slim majorities are eager to avoid a shuttered federal government on their watch. Senate Republicans sank Democrats’ plans to fund the government and raise the debt ceiling together on Monday evening, sending Democratic leaders scrambling to avoid a government shutdown that would kick in Friday morning. They have several options, Democrats said in the aftermath, but a government shutdown is not one. (Everett, Levine and Scholtes, 9/27)

House Democrats are scrambling to make changes to their $3.5 trillion spending package in order to satisfy disparate groups of members in time for a floor vote as soon as possible. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said over the weekend that the House needs to pass the bill this week, along with a bipartisan infrastructure bill, a prospect that remains daunting. (Jagoda and Folley, 9/27)

Immigration, voting rights, policing, gun control: Congress is filled with liberal hopes crushed by the reality of slim Democratic majorities. So progressives are digging in on what could be their last chance at success in years. As Democrats race to pull together a multitrillion-dollar party-line social spending package, Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s left flank is pushing as hard as it can to see progressive priorities reflected. They’ve repeatedly vowed to tank a bipartisan infrastructure bill on the floor as soon as this week if they don’t see more movement — a strategic flex that reflects how many of their other goals have withered. (Levine, Wu and Ferris, 9/27)

Senate Democrats trying to pass a sweeping education, healthcare and climate package must first crack an enigma: What does centrist Sen. Kyrsten Sinema want? Ms. Sinema, a key vote in the evenly divided Senate, has made clear she won’t support the package’s current $3.5 trillion price tag, announcing her opposition in July and reiterating it since then. The first-term senator from a swing state has held meetings with party leaders to discuss the legislation, but she hasn’t publicly suggested specific changes. Many Democrats remain uncertain over her policy stance and her political calculations. (Collins and Peterson, 9/26)

Groups representing companies like Apple, Tesla, and Boeing are clashing with Washington’s wealthiest business lobby over Democrats’ efforts to bring down drug prices. The biggest-spending lobbying organization in the country, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, adamantly opposes Democrats’ ideas for drug pricing reform, saying they are unwelcome government price controls. But other groups representing the largest businesses in the country, including Walmart, Tesla, Apple, Microsoft, IBM, Boeing, and The Walt Disney Company, have demanded wide-reaching reforms to help lower the cost of insuring their employees. (Cohrs, 9/28)

KHN: An Ad’s Charge That Price Haggling Would ‘Swipe $500 Billion From Medicare’ Is Incorrect

The advertisement opens with a doctor sitting across from his patient and holding a prescription drug pill bottle. “You want to continue with this medication?” the doctor asks while an older patient nods. The doctor then explains that he can no longer provide the medicine to her because insurance companies and Washington bureaucrats “are working together to swipe $500 billion from Medicare to pay for [House Speaker Nancy] Pelosi and [Senate Majority Leader Chuck] Schumer’s out-of-control spending spree.” (Knight, 9/28)

In its first public safety alert in six years, the Drug Enforcement Administration is warning about a dramatic increase in fake prescription drugs being sold on the black market containing a potentially lethal dose of fentanyl. The DEA said the counterfeit pills — made to look like real opioid medications such as oxycodone, Percocet or Adderall — are sold on the street by dealers or online, including through social media platforms. (Mann and Neuman, 9/27)

The Drug Enforcement Administration issued a public warning Monday that a growing number of fake pills bought online are laced with potentially lethal amounts of the synthetic opioid fentanyl, and blamed social media sites for not doing more to protect their users. “We decided to do this because the amounts are staggering,” DEA Administrator Anne Milgram said in an interview with The Washington Post. “We are in the midst, in my view, of an overdose crisis, and the counterfeit pills are driving so much of it.” (Barrett and Dwoskin, 9/27)

The eggs sat on the counter and the potatoes waited in the pan for a late-night brunch as Ashley Romero died. She took half a pill that appeared to be a prescription painkiller offered to her by her boyfriend. Romero had chronic pain her entire life from pancreatitis. When she was really hurting, she would sometimes take half a pill prescribed to her by her doctor. This pill wasn’t prescribed, though. The fentanyl in the counterfeit tablet killed her in minutes. When the paramedics arrived at her Grand Junction home, both she and her boyfriend were unresponsive in her car. They revived her boyfriend with naloxone, but Romero died in the front seat on June 11, 2018. (Schmelzer, 9/267)

Local entities have reported seeing more fentanyl in the River Valley in recent years, as well as the consequences that can result from using it. Cody Elliott, coordinator for the 12th and 21st District Drug Task Force, said his office is buying more fentanyl during its operations now than it did about a year-and-a-half ago. This includes fentanyl powder, heroin with fentanyl mixed in and pill-form fentanyl made to look like other medications. (Saccente, 9/27)

Two Southern California residents were charged in a massive drug bust that resulted in authorities seizing more than 46 pounds of an extremely lethal synthetic opioid. Andres Jesus Morales, 30, and Christine Ponce, 27, were charged with four felony counts each of possession of a controlled substance for sale, the Riverside District Attorney's Office announced on Thursday. (Mendoza, 9/26)

The actor Michael K. Williams died of an accidental overdose that included the synthetic opioids fentanyl and p-fluorofentanyl, the New York City medical examiner's office said Friday. Williams, whose work on HBO's "The Wire" and "Boardwalk Empire" was widely praised, died Sept. 6 at age 54. He had been open about his struggles with drug use. (Romero, 9/24)

Recreational pot has become legal for more Americans, but despite that ease of access, marijuana use hasn't ignited, a study released Monday found. An article published in The Journal of the American Medical Association found there was no increase in cannabis use among the general population or among previous users after their states legalized marijuana. (Pereira, 9/27)

Prosecutors in Los Angeles will move to dismiss nearly 60,000 marijuana-related convictions about five years after California voters approved recreational cannabis, the district attorney's office said Monday. Officials identified about 58,000 cases that are eligible for dismissal, Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón said. The cases go back three decades. Last year, Jackie Lacey, then the district attorney, dismissed 66,000 convictions related to pot. (Helsel, 9/27)

Murders rose nearly 30% nationwide last year, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Uniform Crime Report data released Monday, which revealed the greatest percentage of  homicides involving guns on record, amid the pandemic's onset. Homicides and manslaughter jumped 29.4% from 2019 to 2020, the largest year-to-year spike since the federal government began tracking violent crime in the 1960s. Though well below the peak of U.S. killings in the 1980s and early 1990s, 4,901 additional killings were carried out in 2020, compared to 2019. (Sganga, 9/27)

There is no simple explanation for the steep rise. A number of key factors are driving the violence, including the economic and social toll taken by the pandemic and a sharp increase in gun purchases. “It is a perfect storm,” said Chief Harold Medina of the Albuquerque Police Department. He cited Covid-19, the fallout from social justice protests and other contributors. “There is not just one factor that we can point at to say why we are where we are,” he said. (MacFarquhar, 9/27)

A packaging mix-up and undeclared allergens have led to the recall of a batch of more than 27,000 pounds of DiGiorno pepperoni pizzas by owner Nestlé USA. Nestlé USA recalled a batch of 26-ounce boxes labeled DiGiorno Crispy Pan Crust Pepperoni Pizzas because instead they contained Three Meat Crispy Pan Crust Pizzas, which have soy protein in them. The protein is in the sausage crumbles and beef toppings, and can be dangerous to people with soy allergies. (Dutton, 9/28)

More than one hundred students, faculty and staff on Georgetown University’s campus have reported nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and stomach cramps — all symptoms that could be consistent with norovirus, officials said Monday. University leaders first reported the gastrointestinal illness Sept. 21, after about 12 students on the main campus in Northwest Washington reported severe stomach pains, vomiting and diarrhea. Days later, that number grew to 90 and “fewer than 15” people had been transported to emergency rooms, officials said. As of Monday, 130 students and employees had reported some combination of symptoms. (Lumpkin, 9/27)

The federal government’s six-month health insurance subsidy for jobless workers through the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, or COBRA, will end this week. If your coverage has come from this support, you’ll need to get new health insurance as soon as possible, experts say. The American Rescue Plan, the $1.9 trillion stimulus bill passed in March, included a provision that offered unemployed people free health insurance coverage through COBRA from April 1 to Sept. 30. (Nova, 9/27)

With the onset of autumn and COVID-19 waning across Georgia and South Carolina, some now turn their thoughts to flu. Hospitals that are now seeing levels finally go down are hoping it bottoms out before it collides with what is likely to be a reinvigorated flu season, causing what some call a 'twindemic." Vaccination could also help stave off both diseases, health leaders said. University Hospital has seen a slow decrease of COVID-19 inpatients from 141 to 112 this week, Doctors Hospital of Augusta has dropped from 80 the week before to 52 on Friday, and AU Health bounced around just under 110 all week to reach 110 on Friday. (Corwin, 9/27)

KHN: The ‘Burn Scars’ Of Wildfires Threaten The West’s Drinking Water

Colorado saw its worst fire season last year, with the three largest fires in state history and more than 600,000 acres burned. But some of the effects didn’t appear until this July, when heavy rain pushed sediment from damaged forests down mountainsides, causing mudslides that shut down sections of Interstate 70 for almost two weeks. Immense quantities of sediment choked the rivers that supply most of the state’s water. In western Colorado’s Glenwood Springs, the water became so murky that the town twice had to shut off the valves that pump water from nearby rivers to avoid overwhelming its filtration system. City managers sent alerts to the town’s 10,000 residents, telling them to minimize water use until the sediment moved downstream. (Reardon, 9/28)

KHN: Wildfire Smoke Is Here To Stay. Here’s How To Clean The Air Inside Your Home. 

The fierce wildfires that broke out across much of the western United States this summer, spreading smoke across hundreds of miles, continue to pose a serious health hazard to millions. More are expected this fall. That’s a major health concern because microscopic particles in wildfire smoke, carried by the wind, can penetrate deep into your lungs and travel into your bloodstream. One study linked wildfire smoke exposure to a twofold increase in the rate of asthma and a 40% rise in strokes and heart attacks. Other research tied smoke to hospital admissions, ER visits and premature deaths. (Wolfson, 9/28)

A federal judge on Monday has said John Hinckley Jr., who shot President Ronald Reagan in 1981, can be released from court-appointed restrictions next year. Mr. Hinckley spent 34 years at St. Elizabeths Hospital before being allowed to live with his mother in Williamsburg, Va., under certain conditions. His mother died this year. Some of the restrictions include limits on travel, the need to find volunteer or paid work, check-ins and psychiatric visits. ... Mr. Hinckley’s lawyer, Barry Levine, said his client’s mental health has been stable and his diagnosis has been in complete remission for more than three decades. Mr. Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity in 1982 and was sent to a psychiatric facility. (Ansari, 9/27)

The American Dental Association is mobilizing its 162,000 members to fight a proposal to include dental coverage for all Medicare recipients, opposition that could prove pivotal as Democrats look to make cuts in their $3.5 trillion domestic policy agenda. Giving dental, vision and hearing benefits to the 60 million older and disabled Americans covered by Medicare will provide needed care to people who otherwise might not afford it, supporters say. (Bykowicz, 9/27)

Moda Health, one of Portland’s largest health insurers, has come back from the financial brink and regained its independence. Thanks in part to the proceeds of Moda’s $250 million Supreme Court victory over the federal government, the company closed a deal Monday to buy back the equity stake it had sold to a California dental insurance company back when it was cash-poor to the point of insolvency. (Manning, 9/27)

Intermountain Healthcare plans to launch a new subsidiary, Tellica Imaging, to offer MRIs and CT scans outside its hospitals, the company announced Monday. The new entity will kick off operations in Utah, with plans to open three standalone imaging sites in the Beehive State later this year, before adding at least five more locations starting next year, the Salt Lake City-based health system said in a news release. (Christ, 9/27)

The AARP has named Oak Street Health its primary care provider of choice in a deal that reflects an evolving senior care market increasingly dominated by tech-enabled clinics operating under value-based care contracts. Come Jan. 1, all Oak Street Health members will automatically receive free AARP memberships, said Dr. Griffin Myers, chief medical officer at the Chicago-based primary care network for adults on Medicare. The two organizations will also partner to create jointly branded events, as well as on patient quality and experience efforts. (Tepper, 9/27)

When Mamadou Kasse drives for Uber or Lyft around Winston-Salem, he sometimes gets requests to pick up patients discharged from a hospital emergency department. Those pick up requests come from the hospital, which pays for the rides, he said. With Uber or Lyft, each ride request includes an address for the passenger’s destination. When Kasse picks up the patients, they often say they don’t live at or don’t feel comfortable going to the address provided. (Knopf, 9/28)

The outcome of Elizabeth Holmes’s trial partly hinges on how jurors answer the question of whether investors in Theranos Inc. were savvy speculators who made an unwise but informed bet or were hoodwinked by a lying founder. Theranos’s investors, who bet almost $1 billion on the company and lost nearly all of it, are a disparate group: a professional football team owner, a media magnate, a Mexican tycoon, a four-star military general, a Greek shipping heir and the family office of a billionaire Republican Party donor, who all invested alongside the hedge funds and venture-capital firms that more traditionally back startups. (Somerville, 9/27)

For years, federal prosecutors have gone after drug companies for allegedly using charity contributions as a way to boost sales. Biogen was among the pharma players to ink a federal settlement, but now insurance giant Humana is targeting the company’s charity giving with a new lawsuit. In a suit filed in Massachusetts Friday, Humana says Biogen sought to boost sales for multiple sclerosis drugs Tysabri, Avonex and Tecfidera by “seeding” patients with free sample drugs then “sweeping” them onto Medicare and other government insurance programs through its charity giving. (Sagonowsky, 9/27)

Merck & Co. is in advanced talks to acquire Acceleron Pharma Inc., XLRN 6.69% according to people familiar with the matter, in a move that would bolster the pharmaceutical giant’s rare-disease business. The deal for Acceleron, which has a market value of around $11 billion, could be announced this week, assuming talks don’t fall apart, the people said. (Lombardo and Dummett, 9/27)

Adherence to most recommended care practices to slow the progression of chronic kidney disease was consistently higher among people of color compared to white patients yet those groups still have poorer outcomes from the disease, according to new research. The analysis, published Monday in JAMA Network Open, examined de-identified medical and pharmacy claims, electronic health records, and laboratory results from more than 450,000 commercially insured and Medicare Advantage enrollees from 2012 through 2019. (Johnson, 9/27)

French vaccine company Valneva and U.S. drugmaker Pfizer announced on Tuesday more positive Phase 2 results, including on the booster response, for their Lyme disease vaccine candidate VLA15."We are excited by these additional Phase 2 results, which we believe take us a step closer to making a major contribution against this severe disease, subject to regulatory approval," said Valneva's chief medical officer Juan Carlos Jaramillo. (9/28)

The U.S. Energy Department wants to switch to less stringent testing for detecting cancer-causing chemicals at and around one of its premier nuclear weapons laboratories despite concerns from environmentalists and New Mexico regulators. The federal agency is using New Mexico’s three-year review of surface water rules to push for a test at Los Alamos National Laboratory that’s more limited in detecting polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, the Santa Fe New Mexican reported. Medical research has shown the chemicals can cause cancer, impair children’s brain development, hurt reproductive systems and increase the chance of heart and liver diseases. (9/27)

A federal appeals court said Monday that it will wait until the U.S. Supreme Court rules on a case that seeks to overturn its landmark decision guaranteeing a woman’s right to an abortion before weighing in on a restrictive Georgia abortion law that a lower court blocked. Mississippi has argued in court filings that the U.S. Supreme Court should overturn its decision in Roe v. Wade, which affirmed the right to an abortion. The high court is set to hear arguments in that case in December. Mississippi’s law would ban abortions later than 15 weeks into a pregnancy. (Brumback, 9/28)

The state Senate was set to vote Tuesday on a bill that would make health care providers who let a child that survives an abortion guilty of a felony. The Republican-authored measure would require any health care provider present at the time of an abortion that results in a child born alive to provide the same level of care that any reasonable provider would give to any other child born alive. (9/28)

The Women’s March returns to Washington this Saturday for its fifth annual event. Though recent marches have been smaller than the first, which drew millions of participants, organizers say women have plenty to protest. The pandemic revealed striking wage and employment gaps for women, and a national child care crisis has left many overwhelmed and tapped out financially. Most of the previous marches have occurred in January, but organizers decided to host this year’s event in October to fight imminent threats to abortion access. (Parks, 9/27)

A child has died after being infected with a rare brain-eating amoeba that was found at a Texas splash pad he had visited, and a review discovered lapses in water-quality testing at several parks, officials said Monday. Officials in Arlington, located between Dallas and Fort Worth, said the city and Tarrant County Public Health were notified on Sept. 5 that a child had been hospitalized with primary amebic meningoencephalitis, a rare and often fatal infection caused by the naegleria fowleri ameba. The boy, who was not identified by officials, died at the hospital on Sept. 11. (9/27)

Southern California Gas Company and its parent company announced Monday they've agreed to pay up to $1.8 billion in settlement claims over the 2015 Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility blowout. Some 100,000 tons of methane, ethane and toxic chemicals poured into the air for 112 days, forcing over 8,000 families to evacuate from their Los Angeles-area homes and sickening many with headaches, nausea and nosebleeds, per the L.A. Times. (Falconer, 9/28)

The Wisconsin Assembly is scheduled to vote on a Republican-authored bill that would require Democratic Gov. Tony Evers to spend $100 million on COVID-19 relief funding on mental health programs in schools. The measure up for approval Tuesday faces a nearly certain veto from Evers. He has already vetoed two similar bills that would direct how he spends COVID-19 funding from the federal government that is currently left to the discretion of the governor to hand out. (9/28)

The state of Mississippi intends to appeal a federal judge’s ruling that it come up with a plan detailing how it will work to prevent unnecessary institutionalization of people with mental illness. Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves told the state it had 120 days to submit a plan to the U.S. Justice Department and a mental health expert. He ordered that the final plan, incorporating their feedback, be completed in 180 days. (Willingham, 9/27)

President Joe Biden said Monday that he intends to nominate Dr. John N. Nkengasong to coordinate the U.S. response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic worldwide. Nkengasong, a U.S. citizen born in Cameroon, would be the first person of African descent to hold the position. The Senate must approve his eventual nomination. (9/27)

Cuba has begun commercial exports of its homegrown COVID-19 vaccines, sending shipments of the three-dose Abdala vaccine to Vietnam and Venezuela. President Miguel Díaz-Canel announced the arrival in Vietnam on his Twitter feed Sunday. The official Cubadebate news website said the shipment included 900,000 doses purchased by Hanoi and 150,000 more donated by Cuba. (Rodriguez, 9/27)

ImmunityBio Inc., the U.S. company controlled by biotech billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong, is planning to conduct a trial for a second Covid-19 shot in South Africa. (Sguazzin, 9/28)

Delta (B1617.2) variant transmission is complicating plans for easing COVID-19 restrictions in some Asian nations, including Singapore and South Korea, countries that have won praise for their containment efforts over the past pandemic months. (Schnirring, 9/27)

Japan’s government says the coronavirus state of emergency will end Thursday so the economy can be reactivated as infections slow. Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga announced Tuesday that virus restrictions will be eased gradually. With the lifting, Japan will be entirely free of emergency requirements for the first time in more than six months. (Yamaguchi, 9/28)

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday raised its travel advisories for Singapore and Hong Kong by one level each. Singapore was raised from Level 2 to Level 3, indicating a “high” level of Covid-19 in the country. The CDC said unvaccinated travelers should avoid nonessential travel to the Southeast Asian country. (Ng, 9/28)

The Catholic state of San Marino legalized abortion procedures on Sunday with 77 percent of the vote, despite Pope Francis' disapproval. As the Catholic Church strongly opposes the procedure, Pope Francis made a public statement Monday with an audience of the Vatican's bioethics academy that abortion is murder, the Associated Press reported. (Messmer, 9/27)

Animal rights groups on Tuesday welcomed the South Korean president's offer to look into banning consumption of dog meat. Dog meat is neither legal nor explicitly banned in South Korea. Restaurants that serve it are a dwindling business here as younger people find dog meat a less appetizing dining option. But some people oppose a ban as a surrender to Western pressure. (9/28)

San Francisco Mayor London Breed sent an important but unintentional message recently when she was caught violating her own mask mandates while partying away, maskless, in a jam-packed jazz club. Her excuse was incoherent; she said she was "feeling the spirit," enjoying the music and so not thinking about a mask. (Faye Flam, 9/27)

As the summer began, a wide swath of states from the Northwest to the Southeast confronted the arrival of Covid-19’s Delta wave with, by my rough estimate, 35% or more of their residents fully vulnerable to the disease — that is, neither previously infected with nor vaccinated against it. (Justin Fox, 9/27)

It’s hard for me to describe the utter rage that filled me when I opened my local newspaper last Tuesday and saw The Tennessean’s lead article: “Vaccinated Lose Access to Treatment,” the headline read. What new through-the-looking-glass madness was afoot in this Covid-beleaguered leadership vacuum?“ The Tennessee state government now recommends nearly all vaccinated residents be denied access to monoclonal antibody treatment in a new effort to preserve a limited supply of antibody drugs for those who remain most vulnerable to the virus, largely by their own choice,” wrote the reporter, Brett Kelman. (Margaret Renkl, 9/27)

As infectious diseases physicians with a child in the Boston Public Schools, we have been heartened by the enormous efforts BPS is taking to avert COVID-19 outbreaks in classrooms — including mandated vaccination or routine testing of staff and universal masking of students and staff. While these actions are laudable, we have found the COVID-19 testing policies of the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to be puzzling and concerning. Testing has the potential to prevent COVID-19 outbreaks in schools, but to be effective it has to be done right. (Lakshmi Ganapathi and Ramnath Subbaraman, 9/28)

A year ago, I wrote about covertigo — a word I proposed to describe the constellation of symptoms associated with the pandemic lockdown, personal tumult and political malfeasance from a president who refused to provide the leadership we needed when covid swept across the country. As we entered the summer of 2021, it looked as though we were rounding a corner: steady leadership in the White House, effective vaccines, reunions with friends and loved ones and a general return to our routines. And then … Blam! … the covid cloud began to block what felt like a beautiful sunrise. (Michele L. Norris, 9/26)

As President Biden bared his arm Monday for his federally approved booster COVID-19 shot in front of reporters and cameras, he made a point that many corners of the nation should heed. The booster shots are important, he said, “but the most important thing we need to do is get more people vaccinated. ”That’s exactly right. At this point, only two-thirds of eligible Americans are fully vaccinated, and when you add in all the children younger than 12 who aren’t yet approved for their shots, that’s a lot of unvaccinated people. (9/28)

The United States’ quick return to normalcy following the dissemination of COVID-19 vaccines underscores the importance of making health care innovations accessible to all. The Biden administration has helped us bounce back quickly by making sure that no one would miss the chance to get vaccinated based on their income or insurance coverage. As we continue to keep COVID-19 vaccinations easily accessible to everyone, we should similarly prioritize accessibility in the fight against another dangerous virus. (Celine Graae, 9/24)

In the mid-1960s, I was a young National Health Service houseman in London specializing in obstetrics. One day I was called to the accident and emergency (A&E) department to see a young woman who was bleeding vaginally. Before examining her, I asked her some basic questions. She told me that she had recently arrived from Australia and that she had had her last period around eight weeks prior. On examination I found a small amount of blood and I extracted a tiny fetus, compatible with an eight week pregnancy. (Milton Simanowitz, 9/27)

America now faces the very real possibility that in just a few months’ time, the Supreme Court will interpret the U.S. Constitution to no longer protect the right to abortion. On September 1, S.B. 8—the most stringent abortion ban since before Roe v. Wade—took effect in Texas. Completely ignoring the protections of Roe, the Supreme Court refused to intervene. Though the Court’s decision was procedural in nature, it speaks volumes about the justices’ view on the importance of abortion rights and the future of Roe. That will matter greatly when, later this term, the Court decides a different abortion case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, addressing a Mississippi law that, like S.B. 8 and the copycat laws coming down the pike, challenges the fundamental holding of Roe by banning abortion before fetal viability. If the Court does overturn Roe, much of the American legal landscape—and with it, the lived experiences of millions—could change overnight, and the result will be a giant, legal mess. (Greer Donley, David S. Cohen and Rachel Rebouche, 9/27)

Children ages 5 to 11 will soon be getting vaccinated against COVID-19. As we celebrate that milestone, we must also acknowledge our collective blindness to the problem of needle pain. Our health care system does not prioritize simple accommodations that research shows are effective in reducing needle pain and fear. This produces needle phobic adults, some of whom avoid important medical care throughout their lifespan as a consequence. An estimated quarter of the adult population has needle fear, and while there are many reasons for current vaccine hesitancy, needle phobia is an important, misunderstood factor. (Jocelyn A. Sze, 9/27)

In the 1970s, when there was still a concrete correlation between one’s academic average and admission to graduate school, a student like me had to proceed carefully. Many a grade point average had taken a torpedo amidships, launched from courses with the innocent titles such as “An Introduction to Atmospheric Science” or “The Geology of National Parks.” The law school-bound undergraduate therefore enrolled in the occasional easy-to-pass “gut” course that could help buoy the GPA while he or she struggled through philosophy or European history. (Hugh Hewitt, 9/27)

It’s notoriously difficult to recruit people to participate in clinical trials. It’s even harder to ensure that trials are ethnically, racially, and socioeconomically diverse. The idea of paying people to participate has been floated as an option to improve recruitment, but I believe fundamental problems in the clinical trial mechanism need to be addressed before moving in that direction. (C.K. Wang, 9/28)

Health is wealth. The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the truth of these words, devastating the physical well-being of millions of Americans and crippling our economy. As individuals, good health allows us to live, work and contribute to our communities. As a nation, our people’s health is critical to maintaining a dynamic and stable economy. That is why we must invest in health care for our national survival and success. (Rep. Nanette Barragan and Louise McCarthy, 9/27)