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The Pentagon formally dropped its COVID-19 vaccination mandate Tuesday, but a new memo signed by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin also gives commanders some discretion in how or whether to deploy troops who are not vaccinated. Austin’s memo has been widely anticipated ever since legislation signed into law on Dec. 23 gave him 30 days to rescind the mandate. The Defense Department had already stopped all related personnel actions, such as discharging troops who refused the shot. (Baldor, 1/11)

The move comes weeks after President Joe Biden signed the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act, and with it a plan to rescind [Defense Secretary Lloyd] Austin’s August 2021 memo directing the services to create a vaccination policy. “The Department will continue to promote and encourage COVID-19 vaccination for all Service members,” Austin wrote. “The Department has made COVID-19 vaccination as easy and convenient as possible, resulting in vaccines administered to over two million Service members and 96 percent of the force ― Active and Reserve ― being fully vaccinated.” (Myers, 1/10)

U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders sent Moderna Inc (MRNA.O) a letter this week asking the drug company to halt planned U.S. price increases on its COVID-19 vaccine, saying price hikes could make the shot unaffordable for millions of Americans. (Erman, 1/10)

“As you know, the federal government, over the years, has supported Moderna every step of the way going back to 2013 when your company reportedly only had three employees. Now, in the midst of a continuing public health crisis and a growing federal deficit, is not the time for Moderna to be quadrupling the price of this vaccine,” he wrote. “Now is not the time for unacceptable corporate greed.” (Weixel, 1/10)

Countries should consider recommending that passengers wear masks on long-haul flights, given the rapid spread of the latest Omicron subvariant of COVID-19 in the United States, World Health Organization (WHO) officials said on Tuesday. In Europe, the XBB.1.5 subvariant was detected in small but growing numbers, WHO and Europe officials said at a press briefing. (Tétrault-Farber and Grover, 1/10)

In a statement today, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) European office said data from countries in the region with strong genomic surveillance show a small but growing presence of XBB.1.5, the Omicron SARS-CoV-2 subvariant that has grown rapidly in the northeastern United States. (Schnirring, 1/10)

Some of China’s most populous provinces have passed the peak in the current wave of Covid-19 infections sweeping across the country, officials said Monday. In central China’s Henan province, 89% of the 100 million residents had already been infected by the Omicron variants by Friday, said Kan Quancheng, director of the provincial health commission. (Fan, 1/10)

The director of the World Health Organization’s Europe office said Tuesday that the agency sees “no immediate threat” for the European region from a COVID-19 outbreak in China, but more information is needed. China is battling a nationwide outbreak of the coronavirus after abruptly easing restrictions. (1/10)

For months, drugmakers have been pleading with regulators to lower the bar for authorizing antibody drugs for Covid. The virus, they noted, had evolved fast enough to render every previous antibody obsolete. Any new antibody may only survive a few months or a year before variants evade it — too fast for a company to profit and potentially too fast to manufacture and test the drug in clinical trials before it goes extinct. (Mast, 1/10)

Gov. Kathy Hochul revealed Tuesday a $1 billion, multiple-year mental health investment plan, in advance of her State of the State address. (Neber, 1/10)

The governor’s plan would compel state-licensed hospitals to reopen more than 800 inpatient psychiatric beds that disappeared during the pandemic, create 3,500 units of housing with supportive services and expand mental health services in schools, which have seen steep increases in children with psychological problems. (Ferré-Sadurní and Newman, 1/10)

“We have underinvested in mental health care for so long and allowed the situation to become so dire, that it also has become a public safety crisis, as well,” Hochul said to enthusiastic applause. “New Yorkers are anxious on the subways and in our streets when they see individuals who need help.” (Khan and Hill, 1/10)

Anti-abortion advocates are organizing pickets outside CVS and Walgreens in early February in at least eight cities, including Washington, D.C., in response to the companies’ plans to take advantage of the Food and Drug Administration’s decision last week allowing retail pharmacies to stock and dispense abortion pills in states where they’re legal. (Miranda Ollstein and Gardner, 1/11)

Florida law requires patients to have an in-person visit with a physician at least 24 hours before an abortion procedure, including for medication abortion. The patient then needs to make another appointment to take the first dose in person. (Carter, 1/10)

A Tennessee-based health care provider announced plans in May — just one week after POLITICO published the draft Supreme Court opinion that foreshadowed the end of federal abortion protections — to open a clinic in Carbondale, Ill. The provider, Choices, is seeing a steady stream of abortion patients from Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi and Texas since it set up space in a shuttered dermatology office last fall, its only location outside Memphis. (Kapos, 1/11)

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost wants the Ohio Supreme Court to reinstate the state's ban on most abortions sooner rather than later. Yost's office appealed to the Ohio Supreme Court after the 1st District Court of Appeals sent a dispute over Ohio's abortion ban back to a Hamilton County judge. The court's decision allows abortions to continue in Ohio through 21 weeks and 6 days into pregnancy. (Balmert, 1/11)

Illinois lawmakers on Tuesday approved a measure protecting Illinois’ access to abortion from out-of-state meddling, making the state the latest to pursue such protections since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last June. (Savage, 1/11)

With Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) pushing to ban abortion in Virginia after 15 weeks, Rouse, a former football safety for the Green Bay Packers, made defending abortion access a key campaign issue. He focused two of his three TV ads on the topic. Although Adams did not make it a focus during his campaign, he had said he favors Youngkin’s proposal, which includes exceptions for rape, incest and to preserve the mother’s life. (Elwood, 1/10)

The Department of Health and Human Services will get to decide how to compensate hospitals for years of underpayments related to a federal drug discount program, a federal court decided Tuesday. The decision is the latest installment in a legal dispute between hospitals that get discounted drugs through the 340B program and the federal government over Medicare payment formulas. The repayments HHS owes hospitals total more than $1 billion, and hospitals had hoped the court would force the government to pay them back immediately. (Cohrs, 1/10)

In 2018, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services cut 340B reimbursement by nearly 30%, which generated $1.6 billion in savings. The agency redistributed the money to all hospitals, sparking frustration among hospitals that participate in 340B. (Berryman, 1/10)

Nearly 16 million Americans have so far signed up for health insurance through the Affordable Care Act's marketplace, a 13% jump from a year earlier, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Wednesday. Enrollment for 2023 healthcare plans under the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, is open between Nov. 1 and Jan. 15. About 3.1 million people who have signed up for the plans are new enrollees, HHS said. (1/11)

For years, state Sen. Phil Berger says, there was nobody in North Carolina who opposed Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act more vehemently than he did. Berger, a Republican, is president pro tempore of the North Carolina Senate, the most powerful position in the chamber, so his opposition virtually guaranteed that the legislature would not expand the joint federal/state program to include an additional 600,000 adults with low incomes. That’s why Berger’s recent conversion from opponent to proponent has shot North Carolina to the top of the list of the states that are most likely to break ranks with the other 10 that have refused to expand Medicaid. (Ollove, 1/11)

Expanding Medicaid coverage leads to fewer post-birth hospitalizations, according to a new study in Health Affairs. Health experts have long recommended that states expand postpartum coverage and take other steps to improve maternal and child health in the U.S., which has the highest maternal mortality rates among developed nations. (Gonzalez, 1/10)

The Biden administration is already building on a strategy it deployed during the midterm election season in which it highlighted talk from multiple GOP congressional lawmakers about how they plan to use their new House majority to consider cuts to entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare. (Gangitano and Samuels, 1/10)

The Food and Drug Administration’s approach to evaluating some new medical devices might actually increase the risk that those devices will later be recalled over safety concerns. For some medical devices, the FDA requires data from studies in people to show that the device, including things like implantable heart defibrillators or stents, is safe and effective. That process is roughly equivalent to how regulators review new medicines. But the FDA also approves devices including artificial joints, infusion pumps, and scalpels using a process known as the 510(k) pathway, which simply lets manufacturers show that the new devices are “substantially equivalent” to products already on the market. (Herper, 1/10)

Sun Pharmaceutical, one of the world’s largest generic drugmakers, was scolded by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for a host of serious manufacturing violations at a key plant in India, the latest instance in which the company was tagged by the regulator for quality-control problems. (Silverman, 1/10)

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Monday said it has issued warning letters to manufacturers of medical scopes used in surgical procedures, citing violations found during inspections of facilities in Japan. Warning letters pertain to a category of devices known as endoscopes, which allow doctors to see and access the urinary tract, gastrointestinal tract, and respiratory tract, during diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. (1/10)

“This is a great shot in the arm,” Regan told reporters Tuesday afternoon. "We all know communities know their problems better than the federal government does. … We know we are going to see different types of grants from all over the country." The agency will offer the grants in two categories. The first will provide $30 million directly to community-based nonprofits through its Environmental Justice Collaborative Problem-Solving Program. (Brugger, 1/10)

Big health insurers who spoke at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference are gearing up to battle the Biden administration once it finalizes its plan for auditing Medicare Advantage, which is expected to happen next month. (Bannow, 1/10)

Hundreds of nurses, wearing their bright red union hats and scarves, marched outside both hospitals Tuesday morning to call for improved wages and more nurses to care for patients, chanting, holding signs and blowing air horns. Inside the hospitals, a skeleton staff cared for reduced patient loads. The nurses said they worried that patient care was suffering inside, but that improving patient safety in the long term was one of the main reasons they went on strike. (Otterman, 1/10)

The health care union 1199 SEIU sent a cease-and-desist letter Tuesday to Montefiore Medical Center, alleging that management is involuntarily sending licensed practical nurses represented by that union to work at its Bronx hospital campuses where members of the New York State Nurses Association are on strike. (Kaufman, 1/10)

Lora Ribas hasn’t left her son’s bedside in four days. Her one-year-old baby, Logan, has been in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) since he was born. For the past three and a half months, he’s been under the care of Mount Sinai Hospital where thousands of nurses are currently striking. (Tebor, 1/10)

Rising labor costs have been the main financial concern for hospitals over the past year, but those costs have peaked and are now a lot lower, according to hospital system executives who presented during the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference. (Herman, 1/10)

CVS Health is exploring a takeover of Chicago-based Oak Street Health, a Medicare-focused operator of a network of value-based primary care centers, per Bloomberg. A deal could be valued north of $10 billion, including assumed debt. (Primack, 1/10)

AbbVie Inc on Tuesday raised its 2025 sales forecast of its newer immunology drugs Skyrizi and Rinvoq to more than $17.5 billion as it hopes to replace the loss of revenue from its blockbuster rheumatoid arthritis drug Humira. The company's previous sales outlook for Skyrizi and Rinvoq in 2025 was more than $15 billion. (1/10)

Health Catalyst has pivoted its strategy as its health system customers focus less on long-term return on investment. (1/10)

KHN: The Decision Of Where To Seek Care Is Complicated By The Multitude Of Options

One evening in February 2017, Sarah Dudley’s husband, Joseph, started to feel sick. He had a high fever, his head and body ached, and he seemed disoriented, she said. The Dudleys had a decision to make: go to the hospital emergency room or to an urgent care clinic near their home in Des Moines, Iowa. (Whitehead, 1/11)

KHN: Listen: Who Investigates Suspicious Deaths In Your Community — And Why It Matters

Each state has its own laws governing the investigation of violent and unexplained deaths, and the expertise and training of those in charge of such investigations vary widely across the nation. The job can be held by an elected coroner as young as 18 or a highly trained physician appointed as medical examiner. (1/11)

Genomic sequencing allowed the world to track new coronavirus variants throughout the pandemic. Now British researchers plan to use it to better understand a host of other respiratory pathogens, from influenza to respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). The work is aimed at shedding more light on known threats and, potentially, emerging ones, the team at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, working with the UK Health Security Agency, said. (Rigby, 1/10)

Building on the global boom in viral surveillance during the pandemic, U.K. scientists on Tuesday unveiled an initiative to expand sequencing of the common seasonal respiratory bugs that have received comparatively little attention. (Joseph, 1/10)

The study, which included data on more than 6 million Danish citizens ages 10 and older, found that antibiotic exposure was associated with an increased risk of IBD compared with no antibiotic exposure for all age-groups. The risk was highest among those aged 40 and older, increased with cumulative antibiotic exposure, and was highest following the use of antibiotics commonly used for gastrointestinal pathogens, the researchers found. (Dall, 1/10)

The air in Mexico City was once so toxic that people watched as dead birds fell out of the sky. In 1992, the United Nations declared the city the most polluted in the world, with its unregulated diesel engines, factory production, fossil-fuel powered energy plants, and widespread use of internal-combustion engines, all trapped in a high-altitude, mountain-lined valley. (Gravitz, 1/11)

A South Korean study involving children aged 5 to 11 years estimates the vaccine effectiveness (VE) of two doses of the monovalent (single-strain) Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine against Omicron variant infection to be 58%, 50%, and 41% at 15, 31, and 61 days, respectively, with 100% protection against critical illness for up to 90 days. (Van Beusekom, 1/10)

COVID-19 vaccine acceptance climbed from 75% in 2021 to 79% in 2022 in 23 countries representing nearly 60% of the global population, finds a survey published yesterday in Nature Medicine. (Van Beusekom, 1/10)

Fisher-Price announces of the recall of nearly 5 million of its Rock 'n Play Sleepers which have been linked to about 100 deaths. Fisher-Price announced another recall of its Rock 'n Play Sleeper that has linked a total of 100 deaths, federal safety officials said. The sleeper was first recalled in April 2019, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said in a Jan. 9 filing. The recall covers about 4.7 million products. (Lenihan, 1/10)

Fisher-Price is reminding consumers not to use the company's once-popular Rock 'n Play sleepers, which were recalled in 2019 but have continued to lead to infant deaths. On Monday, in conjunction with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, the child product giant re-announced the recall of 4.7 million of its Rock 'n Play sleepers. The Atlanta-based company Kids2 also re-announced the 2019 recall of 694,000 of its Rocking Sleepers. (Hernandez, 1/10)

The number of seniors visiting emergency rooms in California for cannabis-related issues is growing, according to new research. From 2005 to 2019, the state’s emergency departments saw a 1,808 percent relative increase in the rate of cannabis-related trips among those aged 65 and older. (Melillo, 1/10)

The U.S. health regulator said on Tuesday its advisory panel will meet on Feb. 15 to review Emergent Biosolutions Inc's (EBS.N) over-the-counter (OTC) nasal spray to treat suspected opioid overdoses. Emergent is seeking the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA)approval for the prescription-free sale of Narcan, its nasal spray form of the drug naloxone. Narcan is already cleared for the treatment of opioid overdose in the country. (1/10)

The worsening opioid epidemic is prompting more people to carry a nasal spray that reverses overdoses and become de facto first responders in life-or-death situations. Naloxone acts five times quicker than the approximately 10-minute average arrival time for EMS technicians, according to a federal overdose tracker launched last month. (Moreno, 1/11)

It's an open question whether more children will die of preventable diseases in the next few years because of COVID-19 related interruptions in health-care delivery and vaccine programs. During the years of the pandemic, vaccinations against measles, pertussis and other preventable diseases plummeted. (Brink, 1/10)

A new study bolstering evidence of the connection between childhood asthma and gas stovetops has added urgency to calls for federal housing authorities to remove gas stoves from public housing, where a majority of households are headed by women. (Kutz, 1/10)

If you're routinely waking up feeling sluggish, you're not alone. Fewer than 1 in 3 Americans are getting "restorative sleep," according to a recent study from researchers at Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital. (Pandey, 1/10)

Experts are increasingly warning of a connection between heavy social media use and mental health issues in children — a hot topic now driving major lawsuits against tech giants. Some scientists who study technology's effects on children say the negatives far outweigh any positives. (Kingson, 1/11)

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have been remarkably transparent about their psychological struggles. In a documentary about mental health that he filmed with Oprah Winfrey in 2021, Harry included a video of himself undergoing E.M.D.R., or eye movement desensitization and reprocessing therapy, which helps people with post-traumatic stress disorder cope with triggering memories. Ms. Markle has spoken candidly about experiencing depression and suicidal thoughts. (Smith, 1/10)

On the first full day of his second term, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker on Tuesday signed a bill banning the sale, distribution and manufacture of high-power assault weapons, .50 caliber rifles and ammunition, and large-capacity magazines while still allowing people who already own such weapons to keep them. (Hancock, 1/10)

Local researchers and scientists have been testing wastewater for COVID-19 since 2020, even recently turning to use tampons in order to swab human waste in sewers. Now, Illinois residents will be able to keep an eye on the levels of COVID-19 in their community as measured by 75 wastewater treatment plants in the state. (Perez, 1/10)

Carbon Health, a San Francisco company that provides urgent and primary care through clinics in California and elsewhere, will lay off more than 250 people, company CEO and co-founder Eren Bali tweeted. “We’re unwinding major initiatives like public health, (remote patient monitoring), hardware, chronic care programs to focus on our core primary care & urgent care service. And we’ve reduced our global work force by more than 200 people,’’ Bali wrote. He said he was still optimistic about the future, but that “the current market conditions force us to be more diligent.” (DiFeliciantonio, 1/9)

Grant Heinrich was working in the office on his family’s farm when he got a text message from one of his closest friends and farm hands. A suicide note. Heinrich jumped in his truck and sped to the barn. The West Texas roads seemed like a tunnel with blurred walls of crops curving around him. (Lozano, 1/11)

It was a dreary scene from the High Bridge in St. Paul late Tuesday morning, as what’s usually a stellar view of downtown, the State Capitol and the Cathedral of St. Paul was instead mostly obscured by the winter smog. What’s behind this sudden turn to poor air quality that has prompted an alert from state officials through Wednesday — and left many Minnesotans with coughs, irritated eyes and burning throats? (Krueger, 1/10)

The Crisis Center of Tampa Bay, along with much of the nation, is dealing with a shortage of emergency medical technicians. The organization recently launched an apprenticeship program that offers incentives to new recruits. (Colombini, 1/10)

The owner of a former vermiculite mine in northwestern Montana that spread harmful asbestos in and around the town of Libby has offered $18.5 million to settle the last of the state’s claims for environmental damages, Gov. Greg Gianforte announced Tuesday. (1/11)

A federal judge who previously concluded Arizona was providing inadequate medical and mental health care to prisoners said she will give the state three months to ensure it has enough health care professionals to meet constitutional standards. (Billeaud, 1/10)

An Indianapolis apartment fire left a 28-year-old man and four children ages 1, 3, 12 and 14 unconscious, in cardiac arrest and hospitalized in critical condition, authorities said Tuesday. Indianapolis firefighters performed CPR on the five victims and transported them to hospitals, Battalion Chief Rita Reith said. (1/10)

A US shortage of influenza treatment Tamiflu was caused in part by distributors failing to stock up before the flu season, according to the head of one of the largest generic manufacturers of the drug. (Swetlitz, 1/10)

An observational study conducted in Denmark suggests that frequent use of antibiotics may heighten the risk of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), researchers reported yesterday in the journal Gut. (Dall, 1/10)

Total hip and knee replacements are challenging enough for patients. When an infection occurs in the aftermath, the results are often disastrous, requiring potent antibiotics and revisionary surgery. (American Institute of Physics, 1/10)

Top US makers of Covid drugs appear to be pushing back on China’s efforts to get them to cut their prices, underscoring the challenges the country faces in giving its vast population easy access to antivirals. (1/10)

Spectrum Laboratory Products issued a voluntary recall of three lots of bulk compound epinephrine in the wake of customer complaints of discoloration. (Keenan, 1/10)

After a busy first day, the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference is rolling on in San Francisco. Roche, GSK, Bayer and many others are set to share their updates today. (Sagonowsky, Becker, Liu, Kansteiner and Dunleavy, 1/10)

Pfizer was among the drugmakers most elevated by the COVID-19 pandemic, and, going forward, the pharma giant has no plans to give up on its current momentum. (Sagonowsky, 1/10)

The prescription of antipsychotics to children and adolescents has been increasing worldwide. We described up-to-date trends in antipsychotic prescribing and identified likely indications in a contemporary English cohort. (Radojcic, PhD, et al, 1/10)

In another troubling finding on persistent racial disparities in medicine, a new study from researchers at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute found that elderly Black and Hispanic patients with advanced cancer are less likely than white patients to receive opioid medications for pain relief in the last weeks of their lives. (Mohammed, 1/10)

The pharmaceutical industry has been slow to adopt a business practice that is faster, safer, and more efficient than its current way of operating; that the FDA has been encouraging the industry to implement more widely for years; and that has been used effectively in other industries for decades. I’m talking about continuous manufacturing. (Patricia Hurter, 1/6)

Recent decisions by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the two biggest pharmacy chains are bringing the post-Roe v. Wade landscape more clearly into focus. America is becoming a country where abortion is a crime in some states but just a normal part of health care in others. (Sarah Green Carmichael, 1/10)

Attracting big-name activist shareholders comes easy to Bayer AG, the drugmaker known for its disastrous $66 billion acquisition of Monsanto in 2018. (Chris Hughes, 1/11)

In the past couple of years, I’ve dealt with a few — melanoma, chronic migraines, debilitating tendonitis, a whole mess of dental troubles caused by missing adult teeth. I’m usually adept at finding answers and giving advice, but, because I’ve been dealing with so many issues at once, I’ve often felt inadequate advocating for myself. (Tyra Damm, 1/11)

The Food and Drug Administration last year failed repeatedly to keep the nation’s babies safe from tainted formula. The baby formula fiasco was the latest in a long line of food crises that the agency was slow to catch and handle. (1/10)

Our sophisticated emergency treatment is unrivaled even as the comprehensive U.S. patient care system remains the world’s most expensive and possibly the most dysfunctional. (Cory Franklin, 1/10)

After the shocking and emotional accident on the field that sent Buffalo Bills player Damar Hamlin into cardiac arrest on Jan. 2, we have recently learned that he is making a remarkable neurological recovery. (Bernice Fokum, 1/10)

The last two decades have been a period of declining economic influence for practicing physicians. Independent medical practice has been steadily eroded by hospital employment, as well as by private equity and corporate acquisitions, to the point where less than half of physicians in the U.S. work in private practices. (Jeff Goldsmith, 1/11)

In China’s binary view of the pandemic, there can be only zeros and ones — that is, Covid Zero or Covid for Everyone. (Gearoid Reidy, 1/10)

Three years after news of the first cases of Covid-19 infections and deaths began to appear, the global response to pandemics remains in a sluggish, reactive mode, waiting until dire threats emerge before initiating action. Take the latest Ebola outbreak in central Uganda. (Jerome H. Kim, 1/11)