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Throughout the pandemic, masks have ranked among the most contentious public health measures in the United States, symbolizing a bitter partisan divide over the role of government and individual liberties. Now, with a new variant of the coronavirus rapidly spreading across the globe, masks are again the focus of conflicting views, and fears, about the course of pandemic and the restrictions required to manage it. (Rabin, Mandavilli and Hubler, 6/29)

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said he is encouraging all residents regardless of vaccination status to leave home with a mask citing concern over the rapid spread of the Delta variant. Pritzker, who was on hand to mark the opening of a business center, wore his mask indoors until it was his turn to speak at the podium. Pritzker said that he was wearing his mask out of an abundance of caution but that "we’re all making judgment calls." (Hein, 6/29)

There are more and more mixed messages on masks, even for those vaccinated against Covid-19.The World Health Organization is encouraging even the vaccinated to keep the masks on, particularly indoors, as the Delta variant of Covid-19 ricochets around the world. Compare that with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which a month ago told vaccinated Americans they could largely take the masks off, indoors and out. These are different organizations with different missions. The WHO is targeting an international audience, which includes many countries with low vaccination rates. The CDC is targeting the US, which has a relatively high vaccination rate, particularly in certain states. It framed the new guidance that the science shows masks aren't necessary for the vaccinated as a nudge for people to get vaccinated. (Wolf, 6/29)

California health officials are not ready to ask people to wear masks indoors again, despite the fast-spreading threat of the delta variant that now accounts for nearly a quarter of new coronavirus infections in the state. The delta variant has many across the world concerned, and on Monday, Los Angeles County health officials strongly recommended that all residents again wear a mask in indoor public spaces, regardless of vaccination status. However, they did not reimpose the indoor-mask mandate for vaccinated people that was dropped statewide on June 15. (Vaziri and Hwang, 6/29)

A UF Health Jacksonville official does not recommend fully vaccinated people in Florida wear masks to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Chad Nielsen, director of Accreditation and Infection Prevention for UF Health Jacksonville, said local residents should follow Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, which do not recommend vaccinated people mask up. That contradicts the World Health Organization’s Friday recommendation that people continue to wear masks even if they are vaccinated for COVID-19. (Wood, 6/30)

Amid chaos at the White House as the coronavirus pandemic worsened, Donald Trump took to referring derisively to the Covid taskforce chaired by his vice-president as “that [expletive] council that Mike has." The revelation about the president’s contempt for his key advisory body is one among many in a new book, Nightmare Scenario: Inside the Trump Administration’s Response to the Pandemic That Changed History, which is published in the US on Tuesday. The Guardian obtained a copy. (Pengelly, 6/29)

More than 80 teens and adult staffers from a Central Illinois summer camp tested positive for Covid-19 in an outbreak that has impacted people across three states, officials said. The Crossing Camp in Schuyler County held in mid-June did not check vaccination status for campers or staffers, and masks were not required indoors at the camp, the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) said in a news release. The Crossing Camp has not responded to calls, email or Facebook messages left by CNN on Monday and Tuesday. (Holcombe and Broaddus, 6/30)

Families and camps are navigating an unusually complicated summer-camp season. Many camps shut down last year, or laid down strict rules as Covid raged. Now safety guidelines have relaxed, but quick changes in the weeks before camps start set off a scramble to figure out new protocols. Camps’ mix of vaccinated and unvaccinated campers makes setting consistent rules difficult. (Dizik, 6/29)

A coronavirus pandemic emergency order was slated to end on Wednesday for one of the most vaccinated states in the country. Maine has been under a “state of civil emergency” since the early days of the pandemic. Democratic Gov. Janet Mills has used the order to use state resources to try to slow the spread of the virus. (6/30)

Most of the COVID-19 restrictions that have been in place and modified several times since last spring will be lifted in Washington state Wednesday, meaning restaurants and bars and other businesses can resume full indoor occupancy levels and physical distancing requirements will be lifted. Since May, all of the state’s 39 counties have been in the third phase of a four-stage reopening plan, with indoor capacity limited at 50%. Now, businesses across the state can resume normal operations. (La Corte, 6/29)

Gov. Kate Brown will lift Oregon’s mask mandate, capacity limits on businesses and social distancing requirements no later than June 30, the governor said Friday, scaling back earlier plans to reopen the state only when 70% of the population is vaccinated against the coronavirus. “It means, effectively, Oregon is 100% open for business,” Brown said. “This is a pivotal moment for Oregon.” (Zarkhin, 6/25)

Amid an uptick in new coronavirus cases in Arkansas, Gov. Asa Hutchinson on Tuesday urged Arkansans who haven't been vaccinated to take precautions over the Fourth of July weekend such as wearing a mask and practicing social distancing. "My caution to all Arkansans is yes, you’re going to travel. Yes, you’re going to the lake. Yes, you’re having your backyard cookouts and celebrations. I'll be joining in that as well, but at the same time, if you are not vaccinated and you’re going to be participating in those activities, then please take the responsibility to care of yourself," Hutchinson said. (Davis, 6/29)

The Mississippi State Department of Health first recorded Delta variant cases May 27 in Claiborne, Smith and Hinds counties. As of Tuesday, Delta variant cases made up 78 of the over 800 variant cases and are mostly concentrated in the Jackson metro area, according to state health department records. State Health Officer Thomas Dobbs and State Epidemiologist Paul Byers agreed Tuesday that the Delta variant is likely now the dominant strain in Mississippi. "It feels very reminiscent of where we were in an early part of the pandemic," Byers said. "It feels like we're in the same situation now with the Delta variant." (Haselhorst, 6/29)

The “Delta” COVID-19 variant has touched down into Santa Cruz County. Deputy Health Officer Dr. David Ghilarducci told the Sentinel Monday that the county had received word of its first Delta variant case detected through genomic sequence testing done by the state. Previously, only the B.1.1.7 or “Alpha” variant, the P.1 or “Gamma” variant and California variants B1427 and B1429 have been detected. The Delta variant, which originated in India, is proving to be one of the most easily transferrable COVID-19 variants. “It was somebody who was tested on June 10,” Ghilarducci said. “We tried to get a sample to sequence locally at UC Santa Cruz but we weren’t able to. Fortunately, the state had run it.” (Hartman, 6/29)

Since the coronavirus came to Iowa, COVID-19 struck nearly every nursing home in the state and thousands of elderly residents, a review of federal data shows. Fewer than 10% of nursing homes, 33 of Iowa’s 431 such facilities, have reported no confirmed cases of COVID-19 among their residents, and only three reported zero confirmed cases among either residents and staff. Where the disease did strike, it often devastated the fragile population. (Coltrain, 6/29)

Those infected with the delta variant of COVID-19 may experience different symptoms from the ones we’ve come to expect from the coronavirus. Some of the most commonly reported symptoms with the more-contagious delta variant — which was first identified in India and is now spreading in the U.S. — include headache, sore throat, runny nose and fever, said Dr. Dale Bratzler, the University of Oklahoma’s chief COVID-19 officer. Anyone who notices those symptoms, “I strongly encourage you to be tested, because you could be infected with the delta variant,” Bratzler said at Tuesday’s Healthier Oklahoma Coalition news conference. (Branham, 6/30)

Magaly "Maggie" Ramsey said she didn't get to hold her father or say her final goodbyes before he died from Covid-19 in August. Now, she fears she may have also lost the chance to say goodbye to her mother, who is one of the dozens missing in the wake of the deadly South Florida condominium collapse. "We're all praying, primarily for the same things," Ramsey told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Tuesday. "My faith is that, whether she's here or she's not, she's in God's grace and so that keeps me going." (Maxouris, 6/29)

Tiny, disposable sensors to diagnose SARS-CoV-2 infection can be fitted into face masks and integrated into clothing like lab coats, according to a study yesterday in Nature Biotechnology. Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University built off previous research that created paper-based diagnostics for viruses like Ebola and Zika based on freeze-dried cellular machinery. Upon activation with water, the first freeze-dried biological reaction cuts open the virus membrane to expose RNA, the second amplifies the spike-coding gene, and the third detects, cuts, and reports any spike gene fragments via technology based on clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR), according to a Harvard news release. (6/29)

The face mask that you wear in the future could alert you of a coronavirus diagnosis, thanks to researchers at Harvard University and MIT. Researchers have created wearable biosensors that can detect the presence of the virus in a person’s breath. These button-activated masks give COVID results within 90 minutes in a simple-to-read format similar to an at-home pregnancy test. The mask can diagnose COVID at accuracy levels comparable to standard diagnostic tests, according to the researchers from the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University and MIT. (Sobey, 6/29)

The quality of face masks healthcare workers wear makes a huge difference to their risk of coronavirus infection, Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust research has found. Wearing a high grade mask known as an FFP3 can provide up to 100% protection. By contrast, there is a far greater chance of staff wearing standard issue surgical masks catching the virus. (Shukman, 6/29)

Doctors in the UAE have called for mass production of a three-layer face mask that gives more protection against the highly infectious Delta variant of Covid-19. It is known as the FFP3 (filtering facepiece) and provides four times the protection of the commonly used two-layer N95 mask, medics say. (Nasir, 6/29)

Filtering Face Piece 3 (FFP3) masks are respirator masks which commonly feature a filter or valve to help wearers breathe through the slightly thicker, tighter fabric and protect them from exposure to airborne particles. (McMahon, 6/30)

University of North Florida COVID-19 researchers have been awarded a $39,160 grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The grant is part of the Foundation’s push to help researchers use the COVID-19 Research Database, a de-identified medical database with 85 billion records from 250 million people. UNF’s team is one of 15 groups to receive a grant. (Wood, 6/29)

In the fall of 2016, Ashanti Daniel, a nurse in Beverly Hills, California, went to an infectious disease physician looking for answers about a weird illness she couldn’t shake. After falling sick with a virus four months earlier, she still felt too tired to stand up in the shower. The appointment lasted five minutes, she said. The doctor didn’t do a physical exam or check her vitals. His assessment: her illness was psychogenic, resulting from something psychological. (Frangou, 6/30)

Moderna Inc’s COVID-19 vaccine showed promise against the Delta variant first identified in India in a lab study, with a modest decrease in response compared to the original strain, the drugmaker said on Tuesday. The study was conducted on blood serum from eight participants obtained one week after they received the second dose of the vaccine, mRNA-1273. The vaccine provoked an antibody response against all the variants tested, according to Moderna, but one that remained inferior in all cases to the vaccine’s neutralizing activity against the original coronavirus strain first found in China. (6/29)

Moderna said that blood samples from fully vaccinated individuals produced antibodies against multiple variants and that researchers measured only a “modest reduction in neutralizing titers” against the particularly virulent delta, which was first identified in India. “As we seek to defeat the pandemic, it is imperative that we are proactive as the virus evolves,” Moderna chief executive Stéphane Bancel said in a statement. “These new data are encouraging and reinforce our belief that the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine should remain protective against newly detected variants.” (Cunningham, 6/30)

A Pittsburgh man who died weeks after receiving his second dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine had apparently showed symptoms that met the criteria for a rare, serious blood clot disorder previously only reported in recipients of the Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca jabs. An outside group of experts from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in an accompanying editorial has noted that "extra caution is needed" before attributing the patient's case to the mRNA-1273 vaccine. Moderna did not immediately respond to a Fox News request for comment. (Hein, 6/29)

Members of the U.S. military who were vaccinated against COVID-19 showed higher-than-expected rates of heart inflammation, although the condition was still extremely rare, according to a study released on Tuesday. The study found that 23 previously healthy males with an average age of 25 complained of chest pain within four days of receiving a COVID-19 shot. The incident rate was higher than some previous estimates would have anticipated, it said. (O'Donnell, 6/29)

President Biden this month announced plans to ship a half a billion doses of the Pfizer vaccine to the 100 lowest income countries in the world. That would include Sierra Leone and many other sub-Saharan African nations. But there's a looming problem. The Pfizer vaccine needs to be stored at minus 100 degrees Fahrenheit. In all of Sierra Leone, population 7.8 million, only one functioning freezer can offer storage at that temperature. It's housed in a complex at the Ministry of Health's medical warehouse compound in the capital Freetown. It's only slightly larger than a residential fridge, and it's already being used to store an Ebola vaccine which requires similar temperatures. (Beaubien, 6/29)

With the Delta variant accounting for more than a quarter of Covid-19 cases, Dr. Anthony Fauci warns there could soon be "two Americas" -- one where most people are vaccinated and another where low vaccination rates could lead to spikes in cases. The stark disparity between low and high vaccination areas is something Fauci is "very concerned about," he told CNN's Don Lemon on Tuesday night. (Elamroussi, 6/30)

Jill Biden played offense Tuesday in the fight against COVID-19, teaming up with NFL Hall of Fame running back Emmitt Smith and America’s second gentleman to encourage Texans to get vaccinated against the disease. The first lady and Doug Emhoff, husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, met in Houston at a vaccination event sponsored by the Astros as part of a monthlong effort by Major League Baseball, featuring incentives that included tickets to future games and a replica World Series ring. (Superville, 6/30)

First lady Jill Biden and Doug Emhoff, the husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, are scheduled to be in Phoenix on Wednesday to tour of a middle school vaccination clinic. The two were in Utah and Texas earlier this week as part of a Biden administration nationwide tour to celebrate the country’s progress against COVID-19 although many U.S. states continue to experience lagging vaccination rates. (6/29)

The number of people in Louisiana who received their initial COVID-19 vaccine increased by 14% in the week after the state opened registration for its $2.3 million lottery incentive, though even with the modest bump, vaccination rates remain at historic lows. Over the seven-day period ending Monday, 26,086 people received either the one-dose Johnson and Johnson vaccine or the first part of the two-dose Pfizer or Moderna vaccination, according to Louisiana Department of Health data. (Paterson and Adelson, 6/29)

Hospitals think it's too soon for CMS to require them to report COVID-19 vaccination information about their workforce, according to comments on the inpatient prospective payment system proposed rule. CMS wants hospitals to report the percentage of their healthcare personnel immunized against COVID-19, including independent practitioners affiliated but not directly employed by inpatient facilities. But hospitals said it's too early to require the jabs, given that coronavirus vaccines have only been available for six months and that there are outstanding questions about how long people will remain protected after vaccination. (Brady, 6/29)

Henry Ford Health System is the first in Michigan to announce it is requiring all 33,000 of its employees, as well as students, volunteers and contractors, to get a COVID-19 vaccine. “We acknowledge the magnitude of this decision and we did not make it lightly,” said president and CEO Wright Lassiter III in a statement issued Tuesday. “As a leader and trusted voice in our communities, our patients and members depend on us to create a safe, healthy environment. We owe that same promise to our team members. Safety and infection prevention are everyone’s responsibility.” (Jordan Shamus, 6/29)

With COVID-19 cases dropping and the demand for vaccines slowing, Hillsborough County shuttered its last vaccination site on Friday and will close its last testing site Wednesday. The county also shut down its 24-hour COVID-19 testing and information hotline on Monday. The county’s emergency operations center and the Department of Health in Hillsborough County based the decisions on the significant drop in positive cases and that fewer people were requesting the COVID-19 vaccination. (Astrel, 6/29)

A star NBA player, the U.S. Open golf champion and a Ugandan Olympic coach have something in common that is creating a new headache for sports organizers: they tested positive for the novel coronavirus after being vaccinated. Throughout the pandemic, athletes have been the most tested population on the planet, sometimes providing vivid examples of emerging theories—and sometimes helping prove them. (Radnofsky and Bachman, 6/25)

Tuskegee is the one-word answer some people give as a reason they’re avoiding COVID-19 vaccines. A new ad campaign launched Wednesday with relatives of men who unwittingly became part of the infamous experiment wants to change minds. Omar Neal, 63, a former mayor of the Alabama town, said he was hesitant at first about the shots. Neal is a nephew of Freddie Lee Tyson, a family man who was among several hundred Black men who decades ago became involved without their consent in the federally backed syphilis study. (Tanner, 6/30)

Ohio GOP Gov. Mike DeWine announced in May that COVID-19 vaccine uptake among Medicaid enrollees was 22 percent, compared with 45 percent of Ohioans overall — despite recent headlines about new incentives to get a shot, including a statewide $1 million lottery. “Obviously, that’s not a number we’re happy with,” said DeWine. “We must get these numbers up. It’s simply unacceptable.” Health inequities were brought to the forefront during the COVID-19 pandemic, amplified by socioeconomic barriers. Now, as the supply of COVID-19 vaccines in the United States remains stable and eligibility has been extended to almost all Americans, local data shows that Medicaid beneficiaries are getting vaccinated at lower rates than the general population. (Raman, 6/30)

The country's healthiest communities also tend to be less hesitant to get vaccinated for COVID-19, according to a new study. U.S. News and the Aetna Foundation released their annual list of the healthiest communities in the nation and found that four of the top 10 communities had a vaccination rate higher than the national rate as of June 4, which was 41.4%. (Minemyer, 6/29)

In the least vaccinated group of counties, many of which are in the South and Central regions of the U.S., less than half as many people have gotten at least one Covid vaccine dose as in the most vaccinated counties in the cities and on the coasts. Those less vaccinated places are not catching up, either. The gap between more- and less-vaccinated counties is expanding, and the trailing counties are far below levels needed to halt future waves of infection. In the bottom fifth of counties — which tend to be more rural, more poor, less educated and more likely to lean politically to the right — only 28% of people have received a first dose of a vaccine, on average, and 24% are fully vaccinated. The slowing rate of new vaccinations shows that despite the Biden administration’s “month of action” to hit its vaccine target of 70% of adults with at least one dose by July 4, some areas are proving hard to reach. (Tartar, Brown and Randall, 6/29)

Public health officials were already struggling with how to persuade coronavirus vaccination holdouts to get the shot. But declining case rates and a highly contagious variant have made their work at once more difficult — and more urgent. In month 16 of the pandemic, local governments have closed most large-scale clinics and are homing in on the hardest-to-reach individuals, with modest goals of vaccinating a handful of people at a time. (Portnoy, 6/29)

Hengchen Dai, an assistant professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, tested the text messages at UCLA's Health system, finding that the message reminders boosted vaccination rates by as much as 3.4 percentage points. Oklahoma launched a statewide texting campaign earlier this month to reach people across the state with details about how to find an appointment near them. The federal government also launched one in May. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment used a different approach: Monday, it called residents who hadn't received the vaccine to remind them to get inoculated and to provide them with information on where to get vaccinated. (Aspegren, 6,30)

Unemployed Americans will be able to sign up for hefty subsidies for 2021 coverage on the federal Affordable Care Act exchange starting July 1, the Biden administration announced Tuesday. The benefit, part of the Democrats' $1.9 trillion rescue package enacted in March, allows anyone who receives or is approved to receive unemployment compensation during the year to select policies for as little as $0 a month in premiums and with little cost-sharing requirements, after federal assistance. (Luhby, 6/29)

The Biden administration's proposal to give consumers more time to enroll in the Affordable Care Act's health insurance exchanges will lead to more low-income people gaining coverage, but analysts are uncertain whether that would encourage more insurers to offer policies on the marketplaces. On Monday, CMS unveiled a plan to give exchange customers an additional 30 days to enroll, extending the enrollment period from Nov. 1 to Jan. 15; currently, signups end on Dec. 15 each year. The agency also plans to establish a monthly special enrollment period to allow people with low incomes more opportunities to enroll in a premium-free silver plan. (Tepper, 6/29)

Supplies of critical medical products in the Strategic National Stockpile are still well below federal targets more than 18 months after the coronavirus first emerged in the United States, according to internal data obtained by POLITICO. The federal government has built up the stockpile significantly over the last year. There are more than 35 times more N95 respirators and 10 times more ventilators available now than at the start of the pandemic. But the nation is still short hundreds of millions — or more — surgical masks, gloves and gowns. Data from the Department of Health and Human Services show the stockpile targets include 265 million gowns, 400 million surgical face masks and 4.5 billion gloves. But the current inventory includes only 17.5 million gowns, 273 million surgical masks and 525 million gloves, according to an HHS spokesperson. That’s anywhere from 6.6 to 68 percent of the recommended stock, depending on the item. (Banco, 6/30)

Secretary of State Antony Blinken is set to announce Wednesday a major passport policy change: U.S. passport applicants will be able to select their gender without supplying the government any forms of certifying medical documents. Biden promised the passport gender changes on the 2020 campaign trail, and the Washington Examiner reviewed the advisory alerting congressional offices of the new policy on Tuesday evening. The announcement specifically notes that citizens and qualifying U.S. nationals "will now be able to select the gender they would like printed on their U.S. passports, even if the gender they select does not match the gender on their supporting documentation such as a birth certificate, previous passport, or state ID." (Datoc, 6/29)

Health attorneys and compliance officers will have an easier, faster time navigating critical documents from the HHS inspector general under an overhaul of the watchdog agency’s communications and data arms.“ The pandemic and a compulsory switch to working remotely for many required us to think differently,” Christi Grimm, principal deputy inspector general of the Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, said Tuesday. (Baumann, 6/29)

The Department of Health and Human Services doesn’t routinely share cyber threat information with private sector partners because the two centers responsible haven’t formalized coordination, according to the Government Accountability Office. GAO found the Healthcare Threat Operations Center, an interagency program providing actionable cyber data, didn’t regularly provide threat information to the Health Sector Cybersecurity Coordination Center (HC3) for sharing with industry. (Nyczepir, 6/29)

The majority of federal leaders met the challenges posed by the Covid pandemic this past year by fulfilling their workers’ needs during the uncertain time, according to new data. Federal agencies scored 86.1 out of 100 in the federal government category that examined workers’ views on how employers supported them during the pandemic, as well as their agency’s ability to deliver on its mission, according to the annual "Best Places to Work" report from the nonpartisan, nonprofit Partnership for Public Service and global management consulting firm Boston Consulting Group. (Ward, 6/29)

President Joe Biden won't be denied Communion, a church he frequents in Washington, D.C., announced Tuesday. After controversy surrounding Biden's support for access to abortion, which some say puts him at odds with the teachings of the Catholic Church, the Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Washington’s Georgetown neighborhood released a statement saying it "will not deny the Eucharist to persons presenting themselves to receive it." (Roman, 6/29)

Not only did hospitals not get the money they sought in President Joe Biden's bipartisan infrastructure package, they could actually see Medicare payment cuts under the proposal. Under the framework Biden announced alongside Democratic and Republican senators at the WHite House last week, Medicare reimbursement reductions would help cover the legislation's $1.2 trillion cost. The plan would reduce Medicare payments to hospitals and other providers by 2% through at least 2031. (Hellmann, 6/29)

President Biden opened a combination road show and apology tour centered on his bipartisan infrastructure deal on Tuesday in La Crosse, Wis., as he sought to reassure Republicans that he was committed to the agreement he struck last week and convince liberal and centrist Democrats that the compromise had not dimmed his economic ambitions. Mr. Biden praised the $579 billion bipartisan pact, promising it would bring faster internet, less traffic and safer drinking water to Americans in Wisconsin and across the country. In many cases, he promised the same or at least similar benefits that he predicted when rolling out his more ambitious $4 trillion plan earlier this year. (Tankersley, 6/29)

President Biden hailed his infrastructure deal as a job-creating economic boon, while progressive Democrats signaled they would give the president wiggle room on selling the plan, which they want paired with a wide-ranging antipoverty proposal. Mr. Biden visited a transit station in La Crosse, Wis., offering a detailed rundown of the roughly $1 trillion agreement reached with a bipartisan group of lawmakers to modernize aging roads, bridges and broadband networks, eliminate lead from water pipes and build new charging stations for electric vehicles. (Thomas and Peterson, 6/29)

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg argued on Tuesday that the recently brokered bipartisan infrastructure package is “linked” in the lives of Americans with a potentially party-line reconciliation bill being advanced by congressional Democrats. ... “We want to get both [bills] through,” Buttigieg said in an interview on MSNBC. “Because we view them as — in people’s lives, these things are linked, right? You don’t think about your cost of transportation one month, and then the next month, you think about the cost of child care. People are living these things all at the same time, and Congress is dealing with these things all at the same time.” (Forgey, 6/29)

A divided Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to lift a national moratorium on the eviction of tenants who have fallen behind on their rent during the Covid-19 pandemic. The court rejected an emergency request by landlords and real-estate companies to clear the way for evictions after a federal judge in Washington ruled last month that the moratorium was legally unsupportable. The judge who issued that ruling stayed the effect of the decision, while litigation continues. (Kendall and Ackerman, 6/29)

U.S. Judge Dabney Friedrich in Washington had struck down the moratorium as exceeding the CDC’s authority, but put her ruling on hold. The high court voted 5-4 to keep the ban in place until the end of July. In a brief opinion, Justice Brett Kavanaugh said he agreed with Friedrich’s ruling, but voted to leave the ban on evictions in place because it’s due to end in a month and “because those few weeks will allow for additional and more orderly distribution of the congressionally appropriated rental assistance funds.” (6/29)

The extra federal unemployment aid offered amid the COVID-19 pandemic will end in Tennessee on Saturday, including the end of $300 weekly additional payments. Tennessee is among dozens of states that have stopped accepting the $300 benefit. Republican leaders say it’s necessary because job openings are going unfilled, and are pointing people to job-finding resources offered throughout the state. (6/30)

An Indiana judge said the state must continue paying enhanced unemployment benefits until a lawsuit on the issue is decided, ruling that ending the payments could cause "irreparable harm" if out-of-work residents can't pay for housing or food. The preliminary injunction comes as 26 states — with all but one, Louisiana, run by a Republican governor — are in the process of ending pandemic-related unemployment benefits for millions of people. On June 19, Indiana ended the supplementary federal unemployment aid, which included an extra $300 a week in payments, rather than allowing them to expire in early September. (Picchi, 6/29)

Gov. Laura Kelly and her top welfare official moved Tuesday to keep thousands of families from losing extra food aid because Kansas is no longer under a state of emergency for the coronavirus pandemic. The announcement that Kelly plans to continue the extra $14.5 million a month in aid came two weeks after top Republicans in the GOP-controlled Legislature ended the state of emergency. (6/29)

While life has returned to normal for many people as 70% of King County’s population has been vaccinated against COVID-19, food insecurity — defined as limited or uncertain access to adequate food — was exacerbated by the pandemic and remains a reality for low-income residents. Hunger before and during the pandemic was most prevalent in South Seattle and South King County, where the greatest concentration of low-income, Black, Indigenous and people of color reside, according to a recent Washington state food survey by the University of Washington and Washington State University. The data shows a spike in the need for food assistance. (Hellmann, 6/27)

One of Utah’s largest hospitals nearly ran out of donated blood this weekend, and on Monday delayed at least one surgery to avoid running out again. Now health experts are pleading for donors in coming weeks as blood shortages sweep the nation. “This weekend we had a point where we didn’t have a single O-positive unit on our shelf. That was the scariest time in my 30 years of transfusion medicine,” said Dr. Sarah Illstrup, who oversees clinical pathology at Intermountain Medical Center. (Alberty, 6/29)

Call volumes at the JMS Burn Center double on the Fourth of July from accidents related to fireworks and grilling. “We commonly see these injuries associated with alcohol,” chief clinical officer at Burn and Reconstructive Centers of America, Beretta Craft-Coffman said. “Whether that be fireworks or grilling. So be sure that you have a sober shooter.” Craft-Coffman says burns from Fourth July weekend are most common on the face and hands. ... But unfortunately for those burned badly and are in need of a blood transfusion, we are experiencing a nation wide blood shortage. “We do need products to meet that need,” director of community resources for Shepeard Blood, Ashley Whitaker said. “Plasma and blood donations are really important for anybody who has suffered burns.” (Calkins, 6/28)

In the time it takes you to read this sentence, at least two people in the U.S. will require a blood transfusion. The need arises every two seconds, according to the FDA.As the COVID-19 pandemic stretches into its 17th month on the Treasure Coast, local blood banks are more than ever in need of donations. “It’s probably the most challenging situation we have faced,” said Susan Forbes, spokesperson for nonprofit OneBlood, which supplies blood to over 200 hospitals across the South. (Leake, 6/30)

When mass casualty incidents like the June 12 shooting that killed one and injured 13 others in Austin, Texas, occur, local blood needs can often be supplemented by neighboring regional organizations. A national blood shortage has left most regional providers unable to spare much, however. The American Red Cross and Oklahoma Blood Institute are each facing emergency low levels of blood products and urging Oklahomans to donate before the shortage becomes a crisis. (Douglas, 6/30)

Healthcare workers know firsthand that the blood shortage is at a critical level. “The supply has been so low, blood centers have had to be really judicious about giving out product,” said Shawna Langworth a nurse at Riley Hospital for Children. Over the past week, blood units have been especially low across Indiana hospitals. Donations are down 40% over the past year due to the coronavirus pandemic. (Carter, 6/29)

Demand for blood is up and supply is down, causing the Northeast Ohio Red Cross and area hospitals to encourage blood donations this summer. “It’s always a difficult time for the American Red Cross to collect blood in the summer, but this summer even more so because we’re coming out of the (COVID-19) pandemic and things are getting back to normal… and that means they’re not thinking about things like donating blood,” said Christy Peters, a spokesperson for the American Red Cross Northern Ohio Region. (Ryan, 6/28)

The Dayton region and the state of Ohio are experiencing a blood shortage, prompting calls for donations and medical staff to conserve supplies ahead of the holiday weekend. “There is great concern that some patients may not be able to receive life saving infusions of blood and blood products despite current efforts to conserve these resources,” Ohio Division of EMS Executive Director Rob Wagoner said in a news release. (Conroy, 6/29)

University Medical Center acknowledged Tuesday that it had experienced a criminal data breach after a notorious hacker group began posting personal information purportedly obtained in the cyberattack. Images of Nevada driver’s licenses, passports and Social Security cards of around half a dozen alleged victims were posted late Monday on the hacker group’s website and were reviewed by the Review-Journal. After receiving an inquiry from the newspaper, the hospital issued a statement confirming that cybercriminals accessed a server used to store data in mid-June. Law enforcement is now investigating the incident, it said. (Appleton, 6/29)

As the coronavirus pandemic began sending waves of COVID-19 patients to hospitals early last year, the federal government ordered states to inspect the facilities with an eye to measures that would curtail spread of infection. Georgia didn’t do the inspections, one of 13 states that simply did not comply, according to a report this week by the U.S. Health and Human Services Department’s office of the inspector general. (Hart, 6/29)

Florida health care providers are going back in time. The growing emergence of telehealth, or telemedicine, as a way to deliver health care has been a silver lining during the COVID-19 pandemic. But after Gov. Ron DeSantis let an executive order declaring a public health emergency expire Saturday, many regulatory flexibilities that health care providers received during the pandemic, including flexibilities related to telehealth, also expired. (Sexton, 6/29)

KHN: Desperate For Home Care, Seniors Often Wait Months With Workers In Short Supply

For years, Louise Shackett has had trouble walking or standing for long periods, making it difficult for her to clean her house in southeastern Maine or do laundry. Shackett, 80, no longer drives, which makes it hard to get to the grocery store or doctor. Her low income, though, qualifies her for a state program that pays for a personal aide 10 hours a week to help with chores and errands. “It helps to keep me independent,” she said. (Galewitz, 6/30)

The University of Oklahoma and University Hospitals Authority and Trust signed an agreement Tuesday to merge their clinics and hospitals into Oklahoma's first comprehensive academic health system – OU Health, the systems announced. The system will work under one leader and merge its operations and finances. OU Health said that it will invest clinical earnings into research to offer the latest treatments found nowhere else in the state. (6/29)

After about a quarter century apart and a $750 million hospital buyout, the University of Oklahoma Medical Center and the physicians who staff it have merged into the same entity, a move officials say will improve patient experiences and dedicate more money to research. OU and its College of Medicine consolidated on Tuesday with OU Medical Center to create the state's first fully integrated academic health system, called OU Health. The OU Health system will better serve Oklahoma’s health outcomes, education and economic opportunities as a unified front, OU President Joseph Harroz Jr. said Tuesday before signing documents to finalize the merger. (Martinez-Keel, 6/29)

ProMedica will open a dual emergency and urgent care clinic in Toledo, Ohio through a partnership with Intuitive Health, the health system said Tuesday. The 11,000-square-foot-facility will be the first of its kind in northwest Ohio and will eliminate the need for patients to self-diagnose themselves before trying to decide to go to urgent care or the emergency department, ProMedica said. The hope is that the new model will simplify access to care and lower out-of-pocket costs for patients. (Christ, 6/29)

Standardizing and simplifying payer-provider contracts could significantly reduce healthcare administrative costs and potentially improve care, a new study found. The U.S. healthcare system wastes an estimated $2,500 per person each year on administrative costs, which is higher than nearly every other developed country with a multi-payer system. Using templated contract structures, digitizing records and limiting prior authorization could help reduce billing and insurance related costs by between 27% and 63%, according to a new analysis published in Health Services Research. (Kacik, 6/29)

Walmart will launch its own brand of insulin, which the retailing giant says will "revolutionize the access and affordability" of diabetes treatments. In a statement Tuesday, Walmart said it will offer analog insulin vials and FlexPens for administering doses through its ReliOn brand. The retailer claims its insulin options will save customers between 58% to 75% compared to branded products. "We know many people with diabetes struggle to manage the financial burden of this condition, and we are focused on helping by providing affordable solutions," said Dr. Cheryl Pegus, executive vice president, Walmart Health & Wellness, in a statement. (Molina, 6/29)

Walmart on Tuesday said it will start selling its own private brand of analog insulin with prices that are up to 75% below the cost of competing products. Insulin prices have escalated for years, making them unaffordable for some people with diabetes. Walmart said the private-brand insulin will cost $72.88 per vial and $85.88 per FlexPen, which the retailer said reflects prices that are between 58% to 75% lower than other insulin products on the market. That will save patients $101 per branded vial and $251 per package of branded FlexPens, according to Walmart. (Picchi, 6/29)

Amid a national outcry over the cost of insulin, Walmart (WMT) plans to sell a private-label version up to 75% off the cash price of brand-name analog insulins in a bid to “improve access and lower the cost of care.” But the move was met with a mix of derision and skepticism. (Silverman, 6/29)

Walmart's launch of its own brand of analog insulin could have big pricing implications for a market that has been under fire in recent years by critics for the rising costs of their drugs. (Johnson, 6/29)

Eli Lilly CEO David Ricks said he welcomes new competition from Walmart, even as the retailer undercuts the drugmaker’s prices on fast-acting insulin. Walmart announced Tuesday that it will sell a lower-price version of the notoriously expensive diabetes drug, starting this week. “Any efforts to smash through that and deliver better value to patients, I’m for,” Ricks said in an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” on Tuesday. (Repko, 6/29)

The Food and Drug Administration’s decision to grant wide-ranging approval to the controversial, pricey new Alzheimer’s drug Aduhelm will have an eye-popping impact on Medicare finances. The question is exactly how big the impact will be. Estimates of how many seniors on Medicare will actually take Aduhelm, which has a list price of $56,000, vary wildly. Some experts have guessed at relatively low patient interest, around 500,000 people. Biogen, the company behind the drug, has put its target population far higher, around 1 million to 2 million people. (Cohrs and Parker, 6/28)

Biogen’s Alzheimer’s disease drug Aduhelm could end up costing Medicare more than all other Part B drugs combined, some estimates figure. Now, influential senators are joining the growing chorus of congressional critics asking Washington to evaluate its options. In a letter to the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday, Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, and Bill Cassidy, R-Louisiana, called for a hearing to “examine the vexing new questions and challenges” the newly FDA-approved Aduhelm poses to the Medicare program. (Higgins-Dunn, 6/25)

A majority of U.S. physicians disagree with the decision by the Food and Drug Administration to approve the Alzheimer’s drug from Biogen and believe the medicine should not be routinely used for patients, according to a new survey from STAT and Medscape. In addition, nearly two-thirds of the 200 primary care physicians and neurologists polled said they find the trial data unclear when it comes to the benefits and risks of the drug, which is called Aduhelm. Consequently, only a small minority of these doctors think the medicine should be given to patients with early-onset Alzheimer’s, the patient population that was studied by the drug maker. (Silverman, 6/30)

It was perhaps the most contentious drug approval in decades, shocking drug company executives, insurance companies, and politicians alike: The Food and Drug Administration, over the objections of its scientific advisers, backed the first new Alzheimer’s medication since 2003, one that could finally give millions of dementia patients a reason for optimism — and reap billions of dollars for its manufacturer, Biogen. After the FDA’s approval of the medicine called Aduhelm three weeks ago, the company’s CEO, Michel Vounatsos, proclaimed on Biogen’s website, “I have hoped for years that we would reach a moment like this.” But Biogen executives were hardly passive players hoping for FDA approval. In spring 2019, when Aduhelm’s prospects appeared dead, the Cambridge, Mass.-based behemoth mounted a secret campaign, code-named “Project Onyx,” to resurrect the drug and convince the FDA to give it the green light. (Feuerstein, Herper and Garde, 6/29)

Gilead Sciences released top-line trial data for its Yescarta medication that may allow the company to leapfrog over a rival in the marketing battle over CAR-T therapies. The preliminary results of a randomized Phase 3 trial showed the treatment — which involves extracting white blood cells and genetically modifying them to attack cancer — prevented the return of large B-cell lymphoma better than the standard of care, which includes chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant. The study examined patients whose initial treatment had failed and given Yescarta as a so-called second-line treatment. (Silverman, 6/28)

In the last year, Jai Smith has cycled through 13 primary care doctors. Ever since being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in 1995, she’s tried her best to manage a disease that has devastated her family: Her grandmother and four uncles died from its complications. But she’s struggled to find a doctor in her hometown of Little Rock, Ark., that will give her what she wants to manage the condition: a continuous glucose monitor. (Palmer, 6/30)

KHN: States Step Up Push To Regulate Pharmacy Drug Brokers

Under pressure to rein in skyrocketing prescription drug costs, states are targeting companies that serve as conduits for drug manufacturers, health insurers and pharmacies. More than 100 separate bills regulating those companies, known as pharmacy benefit managers, have been introduced in 42 states this year, according to the National Academy for State Health Policy, which crafts model legislation on the topic. The flood of bills comes after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling late last year backed Arkansas’ right to enforce rules on the companies. At least 12 of the states have adopted new oversight laws. But it’s not yet clear how much money consumers will save immediately, if at all. (Houghton, 6/30)

Hundreds of people have visited emergency departments or urgent-care clinics in the Pacific Northwest since Friday -- and as many as 60 deaths have been reported -- as an excruciating heat wave smashed all-time temperature records in Oregon, Washington and Canada. Portland set record-high temperatures three days in a row, topping out at 116 degrees on Monday. Seattle hit 108 degrees, a new record. At least two locations in Washington reached 118 degrees, which, if confirmed, would tie the state temperature record that dates back to 1928. (Fritz, Hassan and Colon, 6/29)

An Oregon farmworker died at a worksite in St. Paul on Saturday as the state entered an unprecedented heat wave. Aaron Corvin, a spokesperson for the Oregon Occupational Safety and Health division, said that the agency has opened investigations into Ernst Nursery and Farms and Brother Farm Labor Contractor in connection with the death. The state workplace safety agency, known as Oregon OSHA, reported the death in its online database, listing the preliminary incident description as “heat.” (Goldberg, 6/29)

A study published Monday suggests a link between screen time and weight gain in American preteens. Researchers, who published their findings in Pediatric Obesity, found that each additional hour spent on screen time was associated with a higher body mass index in 9-10-year-olds one year later. What’s more, researchers said, is that the weight gain may not just be the result of sedentary behavior, but also that exposure to social media and "unattainable body ideals," could lead to subsequent overeating. (Hein, 6/29)

After two suicidal crises during pandemic isolation, 16-year-old Zach Sampson feels stronger but worries his social skills have gone stale. Amara Bhatia has overcome her pandemic depression but the teen feels worn down, in a state of “neutralness.″ Virginia Shipp is adjusting but says returning to normal “is kind of unnormal for me.” After relentless months of social distancing, online schooling and other restrictions, many kids are feeling the pandemic’s toll or facing new challenges navigating reentry. (Tanner, 6/29)

A new device developed for use in the fight against the “global obesity epidemic” prevents its user from opening their mouth wide enough to eat solid foods. According to a Fox News report, the new weight-loss tool uses “magnetic devices with unique custom-manufactured locking bolts that can be fitted to the upper and lower back teeth.” The tool, developed by researchers from the United Kingdom and the University of Otago in New Zealand, stops a person’s jaw from opening wide enough to eat solid foods. (Hasco, 6/29)

Nearly a third of women of child-bearing age in U.S. did not always use contraceptives during sexual encounters, a new CDC analysis shows, and it was often due to gaps in access to effective birth control. About half of the pregnancies in the U.S. are unintended, which is linked to adverse maternal and infant health outcomes, per the agency. (Fernandez, 6/30)

COVID-19 may have been the leading concern for older adults’ health in 2020, but a long-time silent killer lurked in its shadow: falls. According to provisional data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this month, the rate of fall-related deaths among Pennsylvanians over age 65 reached near-highs in 2020: an estimated 76.3 fatalities per 100,000 people between July and September, a 9% jump from the previous year. (Nathan, 6/28)

Solutions for people who want to be around cats despite allergies are labor-intensive, of questionable value, and sometimes defy common sense. How many emergency department trips would ensue if we all tried to give our cats frequent baths? This predicament has triggered the imagination of researchers, who see a lucrative market for better solutions in a country that has more than 50 million cats in more than 20 million homes. Some scientists are now taking a different approach to human pet allergies. Rather than trying to change allergic humans or their environment, they’re trying to change cats. (Burling, 6/29)

To minimize the risk of food poisoning, you really do need to wash produce before eating it, though no special produce washes are required. Wash your hands before handling any produce, then rinse the foods under cold, running tap water. Five to 10 seconds is typically sufficient, so long as you’re covering the full surface of the produce item. Rinsing removes debris and dirt and any microbial contaminants they may contain. Washing also helps remove some of the surface pesticides that may be present, though guidelines are generally the same for organic produce as for conventional produce. (Egan, 6/29)

It’s legal for people in New Mexico to possess recreational marijuana and grow those plants at home as of Tuesday, the same day regulators opened discussions on rules for the launch of pot sales next year. The milestone was celebrated by cannabis consumers and advocates for criminal justice reform who say poor and minority communities have been prosecuted disproportionately for using marijuana. Now, the scent of marijuana no longer is an adequate cause for searching vehicles and property in New Mexico. (Lee and Attanasio, 6/30)

With marijuana legalization in the Commonwealth right around the corner, there may be some confusion on what’s legal and what’s not. We’ll break down the hot button questions we’ve received since April 7 when Gov. Ralph Northam signed the bill, making Virginia the first Southern state to legalize marijuana. Here’s what you can expect with these new laws taking effect in Virginia on July 1. (Del Rosario, 6/29)

For years, Connecticut police chiefs and officers have fought strongly against legalizing recreational marijuana, saying they have no reliable test to prove that a motorist has been driving under the influence of the drug. Now, police are scrambling to review the complicated legislation and enforce the new law that takes effect Thursday with the start of the new fiscal year. (Keating, 6/29)

Earlier this year, New Jersey legalized and decriminalized marijuana, ending decades of prohibition. And now, with summer in full swing, you may be wondering: Can I finally smoke a joint down the shore legally? Well, not so fast. While Gov. Phil Murphy said that the state’s “broken and indefensible marijuana laws are no more” back in February, there’s still a ways to go before New Jersey residents and shore-goers alike can light up completely carefree. (Vadala, 6/29)

The first marijuana dispensary in South Dakota history will open next week in Moody County. Members of the Flandreau Santiee Sioux Tribe announced Friday they have opened it's medical marijuana program, they're accepting applications for medical marijuana ID cards and they will open their first retail location and begin selling cannabis Thursday, the day medical marijuana becomes legal in South Dakota. (Sneve, 6/29)

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas on Monday said that federal laws against the sale and cultivation of marijuana are inconsistent, making a national prohibition unnecessary. “A prohibition on interstate use or cultivation of marijuana may no longer be necessary or proper to support the federal government’s piecemeal approach,” Thomas, one of the court’s most conservative justices, wrote in a statement. (Constantino, 6/28)

Mexico’s president said he’s against the legal sale of marijuana, calling it “immoral,” the day after the Supreme Court removed a ban against its recreational use. It’s the first time President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador made his views so clearly known, contradicting some members of his cabinet and his own legislators in Congress, who’ve been working on a bill for months to create a cannabis industry. (Averbuch, 6/29)

California on Tuesday moved another step closer to decriminalizing psychedelics — amid a debate over whether their prohibition is an outdated remnant of the War on Drugs — after the author removed a substance from the bill that opponents said can be used as a date-rape drug. The bill would allow those 21 and older to possess for personal use and “social sharing” psilocybin, the hallucinogenic component of so-called magic mushrooms. It also covers psilocyn, dimethyltryptamine (DMT), ibogaine, mescaline excluding peyote, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, often called ecstasy). (Thompson, 6/30)

Federal agents in this section of the southern border say they’ve seen a staggering 4,000 percent increase in fentanyl seizures over the last three years. Those busts are not at ports of entry, where most smuggled drugs are typically found. The Border Patrol says the rising amount of fentanyl is being found in the desert – transported by increasingly brazen smugglers who are exploiting stretched federal resources. (Gutierrez and Henkel, 6/29)

Nearly a quarter of a million undocumented adults and seniors in California – many of whom are or have been essential workers – will gain access to low-cost or free medical services as early as next year under a groundbreaking budget deal approved Monday by the Legislature. California is now positioned to officially become the first state in the nation to offer public health insurance to low-income, undocumented residents ages 50 and older, a highly vulnerable population which has been made even more vulnerable by the deadly COVID-19 pandemic. (Jhabvala Romero, 6/29)

A pilot program to divert 911 calls from people experiencing suicidal thoughts to certified mental health providers instead of Los Angeles police officers is being expanded into a 24-hour operation. The amended contract, approved by the civilian Police Commission on Tuesday, increases the LAPD’s one-year pilot with Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services from an eight-hour per day operation to an around-the-clock service. The expansion increases the cost of the program from $378,522 to $838,522. (Rector, 6/29)

Caught in the middle of a debate over policing, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and Mayor London Breed agreed late Tuesday to a budget that increases police spending to maintain staffing levels and boosts investments in alternative responses to homelessness, mental health crises and drug overdoses. The plan will also dramatically reduce the number of sheriff’s deputies guarding the city’s health facilities. The final plan doesn’t increase the police budget as significantly as Breed originally proposed and will aim to hire 135 instead of 200 officers requested by the Police Chief over the next two years. (Moench, 6/29)

The Los Angeles City Council voted Tuesday to draft new rules barring homeless people from camping near schools, parks, libraries and other “sensitive” facilities, a sudden change in direction for a city struggling to address a humanitarian crisis while also restoring access to its public spaces. On a 12 to 3 vote, council members asked the city’s lawyers to quickly draw up a law prohibiting sleeping, lying and storing possessions near a variety of public facilities, including public schools and homeless shelters. It also would bar tents and encampments from blocking sidewalks in ways that prevent wheelchairs users from traveling on them, in violation of the federal Americans with Disabilities Act. (Zahniser and Oreskes, 6/29)

Republican Kevin Faulconer said Tuesday that if he’s elected governor in a recall contest this fall he would help solve California’s homelessness crisis by requiring cities to forcibly clean up all tent encampments. Under Faulconer’s plan, the state would create a “right to shelter” law requiring it to provide enough shelter beds for tens of thousands of unhoused people. He said the law would enable California to require local governments to clear people out of encampments that have filled sidewalks, parks, freeway medians, beaches and other public spaces. (Gardiner, 6/29)

Vermont ranks second best for caregiver pay, according to a new study, but wages are still considerably below average worker compensation. Caregivers — like home health aides, long-term care facility staff and personal care aides — gained increased visibility during the COVID-19 pandemic as essential workers who helped slow the spread of the virus to vulnerable people in their care. While they bear a lot of responsibility, the three million U.S. caregivers are paid, on average, 50% less than the mean wage, according to Business.org, which is evaluating how much Americans are paid according to profession. (Barton, 6/29)

Accused sex offender Miguel Lopez will be returned to Connecticut to face charges here in a case that focused attention on a loophole in the state’s sex offender laws. Lopez, a registered sex offender from Massachusetts, was placed in an East Windsor nursing home in April, but local law enforcement didn’t know he was in Connecticut until after he allegedly assaulted a nursing home employee about a month later. (Altimari, 6/29)

New Jersey has adopted a policy that requires state prisons to house transgender people according to their gender identity rather than their sex assigned at birth. The policy change is part of a settlement the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey announced Tuesday, and it puts the state among the handful of others with similar policies. (Yurcaba, 6/30)

Dan Leonard was struggling in the spring of 1966. He had recently come out as gay, and he was in the midst of a difficult academic program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine. Eventually, he was dismissed from the medical school. The sting of the dismissal was only heightened by an exit interview he had with the school psychiatrist — a precaution the university took after a student committed suicide one year previously. (Thompson, 6/30)

Missouri anti-abortion advocates on Tuesday continued to push Republican lawmakers to use a special legislative session on a Medicaid funding tax to also block Planned Parenthood funding. But with only days left before GOP Gov. Mike Parson’s Thursday deadline for lawmakers to renew the Medicaid tax, it seems unlikely that the Republican-led Legislature will succeed on the Planned Parenthood front. (Ballentine, 6/29)

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said a “grave” situation stemming from quarantine negligence has created a crisis, hinting at a possible Covid-19 outbreak that could affect his regime after it long denied having any infections. There were no details of the nature of the incident in the report from the state’s official Korean Central News Agency on Wednesday. Kim said missteps created “a great crisis in ensuring the security of the state and safety of the people,” KCNA reported, and he accused some cadres of “chronic irresponsibility and incompetence” that had done “tremendous harm,” according to the report. (Kang and Herskovitz, 6/30)

China-based Sinovac's CoronaVac COVID-19 vaccine appears to be safe and produces a good immune response in Chinese children as young as 3, according to phase 1 and 2 results published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases yesterday. The researchers gave two low (1.5 micrograms), two high (3.0 micrograms), or two placebo doses to 72 children in phase one and 480 children in phase two. All were from Hebei province, ranged in age from 3 to 17 years, were healthy, and had no history of SARS-CoV-2 infection. (6/29)

The Queensland and Western Australia state governments on Wednesday advised people under age 40 not to take the AstraZeneca vaccine because of the risk of a rare blood clotting disorder, despite the Australian government making those shots available to all adults. The state governments’ advice to those under 40 is based on British government guidelines, while the new federal government’s position acknowledges the scarcity of the Pfizer vaccine and an urgent need to accelerate a slow national rollout. (McGuirk, 6/30)

When the United Kingdom emerged from one of the world's longest and most stringent coronavirus lockdowns in April, it did so believing that the worst of the pandemic was over. Prime Minister Boris Johnson touted the successes of the country's vaccination rollout, and promised a "cautious but also irreversible" roadmap that would culminate on June 21, when the country would lift virtually all restrictions and return mostly back to normal. But that date was delayed, and normal still feels some way off in the UK. (Picheta, 6/30)

If you ask the Kremlin whether Covid-19 vaccination in Russia is voluntary, its officials will tell you it is. Yet authorities in Moscow have put together a policy that essentially gives people in public-facing roles little choice but to get their shots. Faced with stubbornly low vaccination rates, Moscow authorities announced just over a week ago that at least 60% of staff in service industries -- spanning everything from catering to housing and transport -- must get vaccinated with at least one shot by July 15. (Ullah and Chernova, 6/29)

As countries around the Asia-Pacific region tighten restrictions once again to curb potential breakouts of the Delta coronavirus variant, Singapore has laid out a new vision for life to return to normal. The roadmap, proposed by three members of Singapore's Covid-19 task force, would scrap lockdowns and mass contact tracing and allow for a return to quarantine-free travel and the resumption of large gatherings. It would even stop counting the daily Covid cases. (Regan, 6/30)

Even as millions of Americans enjoy a post-pandemic boom, fresh covid-19 outbreaks in the developing world are undermining economic recovery and fueling political unrest. Sluggish vaccination campaigns stand between the world’s poorest nations and the resumption of normal life, casting a shadow over a global rebound that is otherwise shaping up as the most impressive in 80 years, according to the World Bank. (Lynch, 6/29)

Earlier this month, the Food and Drug Administration approved aducanumab (under the brand name Aduhelm), the first new drug for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease in nearly 20 years. Patients with Alzheimer’s have shared stories of the disease’s devastating effects, including knowing that it will alter their sense of who they are and rob them of the ability to care for themselves. We understand that an approval of this magnitude is of intense interest, so we want to explain what we have done and why we have done it. The decision to approve this drug was based on rigorous science, with thorough evaluation of data from clinical studies. The FDA conducted an extensive review of current and relevant scientific literature and carefully considered feedback from the advisory committee. The evidence was complicated and, in some instances, contradictory. After reviewing the data, we concluded evidence from the trials did not, on its own, convincingly demonstrate a clinical benefit and did not meet the standard for “regular” approval. That’s what we heard from the advisory committee, and we agreed. (Patrizia Cavazzoni, Billy Dunn and Peter Stein, 6/23)

In his first budget, President Biden set aggressive health goals. “Let’s end cancer as we know it,” he said to rousing applause in a speech to Congress. “It’s within our power. It’s within our power to do it.” Cancer is not all Biden wants to end. His budget also increases funding by two-thirds to meet the goal of “ending the HIV epidemic” in the U.S. by 2030. Then there’s Alzheimer’s, which the budget listed, along with cancer and diabetes, as targets of a large new research and development unit within the National Institutes of Health. Alzheimer’s costs the U.S. $277 billion a year. And, of course, the president wants to end the Covid-19 pandemic, which is still killing hundreds of Americans every day. (James K. Glassman, 6/28)

Imagine if California passed a law telling Maine lobstermen how much to charge for their lobsters – in Maine.  The idea isn’t just ridiculous, it would be unconstitutional. That’s why it’s so disappointing that the Maine Legislature passed a bill, LD 1117, that proposes to regulate prices outside the state. Governor Mills must veto it. (Jeffrey Francer, 6/29)

As the mother of a 13-year-old son with type 1 diabetes, and the wife of a husband with a disability, I truly believe there is the right medicine for the right patient at the right time. Unfortunately, my belief is this strong because I’ve seen what can occur when the right therapy for a patient is disrupted. My son has endured multiple negative health events because of the dangerous practice of step therapy, also known as “fail first,” which is sorely in need of reform in New Jersey. (Lis Parlett Butcher, 6/20)

Burnout is usually reserved to describe work-related phenomena: exhaustion, feelings of negativism, and reduced professional efficacy. In 2019, the World Health Organization officially recognized burnout in its International Classification of Diseases but clearly stated that the term “should not be applied to describe experiences in other [nonoccupational] areas of life.” Burnout “is not classified as a medical condition,” the agency declared, using boldface for emphasis. Similarly, the Mayo Clinic calls burnout “a special type of work-related stress—a state of physical or emotional exhaustion that also involves a sense of reduced accomplishment and loss of personal identity,” and specifies that it “isn’t a medical diagnosis.” (Lucy McBride, 6/30)

Britney Spears’s testimony last week about her conservatorship — over the past 13 years, she said, she had been financially exploited, forced to take lithium and prevented from removing her birth control device — was to many a shocking revelation, made all the more so by her celebrity status. For others, though, the reaction was one of recognition. “As troubling and extreme as Britney’s circumstances may seem,” Erica Schwiegershausen wrote in The Cut, “much of what she recounted — such as being medicated without consent and subjected to involuntary psychiatric evaluations and institutionalizations — likely feels familiar to anyone with experience of mental illness.” (Spencer Bokat-Lindell, 6/29)

Among the devastating consequences of our nation's history of racial injustice is the pervasive inequity in health along racial and ethnic lines. If the most important measure of society is the well‐being of its populace, then dismantling the direct linkage between one's health and race should be our most urgent priority. Black communities have higher rates of chronic disease and premature death. COVID‐19 has worsened the problem. We must do better. (Michael Ugwueke, 6/29)

The Biden administration has made health equity a priority and it has been a constant theme of conversation on Capitol Hill. But where do we go from here? One place is stopping health insurance companies and pharmacy benefit managers from pulling the rug out from underneath people who need help affording their medications through copay assistance. (Kollet Koulianos and Keri Norris, 6/30)

The U.S. Supreme Court has created the federal health care rules in force today. It has usurped the role of Congress and done so disingenuously. Earlier this month, the court turned aside a challenge brought by 18 states to the Affordable Care Act (“ACA” or “Obamacare”). Their constitutional claim turned on whether Congress could compel individuals to buy health insurance. Under the constitution’s interstate commerce clause, Congress can regulate the insurance market; but the court’s 5-to-4 decision upholding the ACA in 2012, held that requiring individuals to buy insurance went beyond mere regulation. (Tom Campbell, 6/29)

While the causes of building collapses are as diverse as the distance between the World Trade Center and Champlain Towers, the imperative for those trying to minimize human loss and suffering is the same: intensive pre-planning that ensures a rapid, coordinated response adequate for the scale of the disaster. With America’s local-state-federal divide, however, the country simply cannot guarantee a quick and efficient response to mass-casualty disasters as things now stand. When every minute is crucial to saving lives, our inability to mandate an instant call-up of resources across city and state lines is literally killing people. (Rebecca Shimoni-Stoil, 6/29)

Connecticut’s governor and majority-party legislative leaders were proud and self-congratulatory on Tuesday, June 22, 2021, at the signing of SB1201, the recreational marijuana bill. The governor boasted that “… all of us here… place a premium on public health… and public safety… this is a bill that prioritizes that….” Majority Leader Rep. Jason Rojas (D-East Hartford) stated, “I think it’ll be the most comprehensive and best cannabis legalization bill in the country … I feel confident in saying yes, right now, this is the best bill in the country and it’s going to move us in a direction of ensuring that we provide a well-regulated marketplace for adult-use cannabis….” To the governor and those legislative leaders: this bill is a disaster. (William Butka, 6/30)

The dilemma is almost as old as vaccines: Can the state coerce citizens to get jabbed in the interests of public health? What about other institutions, such as schools, universities or employers? And if they can mandate shots, should they? Even with the more familiar vaccines against smallpox, measles, whooping cough and the like, these questions have never been answered definitively in most countries. That haunts us now that we’re fighting a coronavirus pandemic and need to make urgent decisions. (Andreas Kluth, 6/30)

In May and June, as vaccine eligibility and access expanded in the United States, the fever pitch of Covid-19 worry in the United States started to ebb. Just like with motorcycle helmets or guns, it seemed like some people would take safety seriously, some wouldn’t care at all, and many others would fall somewhere in between. The country was reopening, and something akin to normalcy seemed to be within our grasp. But then the delta variant, and its close cousin, delta plus, were identified. As this variant has begun to dominate both the news and the genomic sequencing of new Covid-19 infections, Americans’ anxiety has proportionally increased. (Dr. Megan Ranney, 6/29)

The delta variant is raining on our parade. Just when many people want to celebrate a return to normalcy, confident of vaccine protection, the delta variant is bringing back the dark clouds of last year. In the United States, face masks and social distancing are being recommended anew, while around the world, lockdowns and travel bans are back in the fight against this highly-transmissible variant, a particular threat to the unvaccinated and a reminder that covid-19 will indeed be a long haul. The good news is that vaccines, the most important measure to fight the virus, are holding the line for those who have received them. Research so far suggests delta is between 40 and 60 percent more transmissible than the alpha variant first identified in the United Kingdom, which was 50 percent more transmissible than the original virus. Those without vaccines are in serious jeopardy. Hospital admissions for covid-19 around the country are largely made up of the unvaccinated. “This is a pandemic of unvaccinated people,” Los Angeles County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said last week. (6/29)

There are more and more mixed messages on masks, even for those vaccinated against Covid-19. The World Health Organization is encouraging even the vaccinated to keep the masks on, particularly indoors, as the Delta variant of Covid-19 ricochets around the world. Compare that with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which a month ago told vaccinated Americans they could largely take the masks off, indoors and out. (Zachary B. Wolf, 6/29)

The remarkable development and rollout of Covid-19 vaccines will be hailed as a triumph of science. The rapidity of the process, though, opens the door to questions about side effects that could not have been detected in their clinical trials. So far, unusual blood clots have been associated with administration of the AstraZeneca/Oxford and Johnson & Johnson vaccines, predominantly in younger women. More recently, reports have emerged that pericarditis (inflammation of the lining around the heart) and myocarditis (inflammation of the heart itself) have occurred, mainly in young men receiving mRNA-based vaccines. In this essay, we focus on myocarditis because, typically, it is a more serious condition than pericarditis (though severe cases of pericarditis can also be devastating). (Venkatesh L. Murthy, Vinay Prasad and Brahmajee K. Nallamothu, 6/29)

When the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention signed off on the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for teenagers, I scrambled to get some into the arm of my 14-year-old son. He had recently been diagnosed with asthma. And the quarantine had been a reminder of an earlier time of isolation – one that many families endured before this pandemic, and which still must be enforced on nearly 1 in 10 babies born in America. I’ve watched, and worried, about my son's lungs since he was rushed to intensive care shortly after his birth. He had arrived with a condition known as transient tachypnea of the newborn, or TTN: rapid, shallow breathing caused by amniotic fluid in his lungs. The lungs – unlike the heart – don’t "turn on" until the first breath. In some cases, the fluid lingers after birth and clogs the alveoli, air sacks in the lungs. (David McGlynn, 6/30)

Last May marked the 200th anniversary of the birth of Florence Nightingale. That her bicentennial fell during a worldwide pandemic is both illuminating and ironic. Nightingale’s experience as a nurse during the Crimean War in the mid-1850s led her to three insights that came to define her professional life, insights as revolutionary as they were unpopular: Medical care has the potential to do harm. Nurses require stringent and scientific training. Medical care does not exist in a vacuum from the world around it. (Danielle Ofri, 6/29)