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Texas Governor Greg Abbott defended his state's strict new abortion law, saying that it doesn't force victims of rape and incest to carry babies to term because it "provides at least 6 weeks for a person to be able to get an abortion." At the signing for a GOP-supported voting bill on Tuesday, a reporter asked Abbott why he would "force" a rape or incest victim to carry a pregnancy stemming from sexual assault to term. The new abortion bill, which went into effect last week, outlaws abortion when a fetal heartbeat is detected — as early as 6 weeks into pregnancy and well before many women even know they are pregnant. The governor responded that the bill "doesn't require that at all because, obviously, it provides at least 6 weeks for a person to be able to get an abortion." (9/7)

Medical experts lambasted a claim by Gov. Greg Abbott on Tuesday about the time a person has to receive an abortion under Texas’ new law that outlaws the procedure at six weeks. Asked by a reporter why the legislation forces victims of rape and incest to carry a pregnancy to term, Abbott replied that the question’s premise was false because the bill “provides at least six weeks for a person to be able to get an abortion.” Although the new law prohibits people from seeking an abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, they don’t have that whole time to make a decision and make arrangements for getting an abortion. Blood or urine tests can begin to detect a pregnancy between 6 and 10 days after fertilization. However, before women receive abortions, Texas law already requires them to have an ultrasound that confirms their pregnancy is located in the uterus. (O'Hanlon, 9/7)

Three out of the four abortion facilities in San Antonio have temporarily stopped offering the procedure in hopes of avoiding lawsuits from private citizens under Texas’ new restrictive abortion law. Two abortion clinics and one surgical center, operated by Planned Parenthood of South Texas, paused all abortions starting Sept. 1, when one of the country’s most stringent abortion laws went into effect. The law bans abortions whenever fetal cardiac activity is detected — as early as six weeks into pregnancy, when many don’t know they are pregnant. (Bohra, 9/7)

Democrats and reproductive rights activists pressed the Biden administration on Tuesday to take more aggressive action to stop a Texas law that prohibits abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, even as administration officials and legal experts acknowledged it would be difficult to curtail the law in the coming months. House Democrats, following similar calls over the weekend from a leading liberal legal scholar, pushed Attorney General Merrick B. Garland to use the Justice Department’s powers to prosecute Texas residents now empowered under the law to sue women seeking abortions. (Schmidt, 9/7)

Troubles are mounting for a Texas website used to report violators of the state’s extreme anti-abortion legislation after the site was forced offline by two different web hosting platforms. The site ProLifeWhistleblower.com was removed from its original web host by the provider GoDaddy on Friday before being suspended by its new host, an agency known for providing services to far-right groups. (Paul, 9/7)

Young people on social media have found a way to protest Texas’ new law banning most abortions by focusing on a website established by the state’s largest anti-abortion group that takes in tips on violations. They’ve shared short videos and guides on how to flood the Texas Right to Life site with fake information, memes and prank photos; it’s an online activism tactic that comes naturally to a generation that came of age in the internet era. (Stengle and Ortutay, 9/7)

Portland’s plan to boycott Texas goods and services over that state’s new abortion law could cost companies in the state millions of dollars a year, city officials said Tuesday. Heather Hafer, a spokeswoman with the Office of Management and Finance, said the city of Portland has inked nearly $35 million in contracts with Texas-based businesses over the last five years. (Kavanaugh, 9/7)

Advocates for sexual assault survivors in Texas have been keeping close tabs on the six-week abortion ban — and they’re worried. Senate Bill 8, which took effect on Wednesday, has no exceptions for rape or incest. If advocates offer an abortion referral to a survivor carrying a baby conceived in rape, they could be sued. The lack of rape or incest exception sets S.B. 8 apart from some of the abortion bans that have been passed — and subsequently struck down — in other states. If survivors of sexual violence are pregnant and want to get an abortion after six weeks gestation, they now have to go out of state. (Kitchener, 9/7)

Waco’s only crisis pregnancy center was built to intercept people en route to their abortions. Situated right across the street from Planned Parenthood, Care Net advertises free ultrasounds and prenatal care on a sign meant to steer people to the left, instead of the right. Once they’re inside, patients are offered white cheddar popcorn in a consultation room adorned with abstract paintings of flowers and trees, where advocates are waiting to persuade them to choose life. Now that S.B. 8 has outlawed abortions after six weeks in Texas, the interception will be easier. Across the state, crisis pregnancy centers are anticipating a surge in patients, as pregnant people, in desperate need of care, have nowhere else to go. (Kitchener, 9/4)

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem on Tuesday issued an executive order to restrict access to abortion medication and make it clear that medicine-induced abortions fall within state law requiring an in-person consultation with a physician. Amid a nationwide push among Republicans to outlaw most abortions, Noem directed the state Department of Health to create rules that abortion-inducing drugs can only be prescribed or dispensed by a state-licensed physician after an in-person examination. South Dakota law already places that requirement on doctors, but the Republican governor’s order was made in anticipation that the Food and Drug Administration later this year will allow abortion medications to be dispensed through the mail or virtual pharmacies. (Groves, 9/7)

A federal judge has refused to halt the creation of a buffer zone outside of the EMW women's clinic downtown to keep protesters away from patients. The judge, however, also refused to dismiss the lawsuit from Sisters for Life and its president, Angela Minter, ruling that the group's misinterpretation of the ordinance meant it deserved another chance to make its case. Sisters for Life "must be given a reasonable opportunity to present material detailing what the practical effects of the 10-foot buffer zone would be on their sidewalk counseling efforts," wrote District Judge Rebecca Grady Jennings. (Costello, 9/7)

In the decade before Roe v. Wade legalized abortion nationwide, Patricia Maginnis emerged as one of the country’s first abortion rights activists, campaigning on behalf of women’s freedom to safely end unwanted pregnancies. She distributed a list of reliable abortion providers in Mexico, Sweden and Japan; organized medical conferences in which doctors shared safe abortion techniques; and even taught women how to perform the procedure themselves, sometimes delivering lectures while using an intrauterine device as a pointer. (Smith, 9/7)

The Tuesday decision by Mexico's Supreme Court banning punishments for individuals seeking abortions could expand options available to women in Texas who face tightening abortion restrictions under a new state law that went into effect last week. (Roos, 9/7)

Mexico’s supreme court voted Tuesday to decriminalize abortion, a striking step in a country with one of the world’s largest Catholic populations and a decision that contrasts with tighter restrictions introduced across the border in Texas. Ten supreme court judges ruled unconstitutional a law in northern Coahuila state that imposed up to three years of prison for women who underwent illegal abortions, or people who aided them. The 11th judge was absent during the vote. The ruling is binding on other states. “Today is a watershed in the history of the rights of women and pregnant people, above all the most vulnerable,” Chief Justice Arturo Zaldívar said. (Sheridan and Chaoul, 9/7)

The decision does not automatically make abortion legal across Mexico, experts said, but it does set a binding precedent for judges across the country. Abortion rights advocates said they planned to use the ruling to challenge laws in the vast majority of Mexican states that mandate jail time or other criminal penalties for women who have the procedure. For now, analysts said, women arrested for having an abortion can sue state authorities to have the charges dropped. Activists also plan to push state authorities to free women now serving prison terms for having had abortions. (Kitroeff and Lopez, 9/7)

The decision was being celebrated as a major victory for the women's rights movement across Latin America that has gained momentum in recent years, prompted by record femicide rates and a major abortion rights victory in Argentina last year. Inspired by that hard-fought triumph, tens of thousands of women in Mexico have taken up green bandanas — a symbol of abortion-rights activists in Argentina — calling for the decriminalization of abortion beyond the four states where it is legal up to 12 weeks of pregnancy. (Romo, 9/7)

On the same day the U.S. reached 650,000 COVID-19 deaths -- the world's highest reported total -- the country also registered more cases in 2021 than the previous year. The U.S. had logged nearly 20,146,000 coronavirus cases this year by 7:30 p.m. ET Tuesday, surpassing the 2020 total of 20,100,249, according to Johns Hopkins University data. The latter figure comes with a couple of caveats: No major outbreaks were detected in the U.S. until March 2020, and testing for the virus was quite limited at that time and for the first several weeks of the pandemic. Therefore, the true number of infections in 2020 will never be known. (Ortiz, Bacon and Hayes, 9/7)

In 2 days President Joe Biden will announce a new six-point plan to battle the current surge of COVID-19 cases caused by the highly transmissible Delta (B1617.2) variant and an uneven vaccination campaign that has left only half of the nation fully protected from the novel coronavirus. The speech will come as America faces two milestones: Over the holiday weekend, the country topped 40 million cases of the virus, the largest tally in the world, and the number of hospitalized Americans is now double what it was last Labor Day. Yesterday, almost 100,000 (99,823) Americans were in hospitals because of COVID-19 infections. (Soucheray, 9/7)

The mu coronavirus variant has been detected in 49 states and 42 countries, according to estimates, as health officials keep an eye on the strain to see if it becomes dominant. The strain, also known as B.1.621, was first identified in Colombia in January and was added to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) "variants of interest" list, however 49 U.S. states and the District of Columbia have since detected the mu variant, with the exception of Nebraska, according to estimates compiled by Outbreak.info. States with a higher estimated prevalence of the variant include Alaska and Hawaii, though nationwide the variant has been detected in less than 1% of samples. (Rivas, 9/7)

Officials who monitor Missouri’s wastewater, which can give the first hints of emerging variants of the coronavirus, say they’ve detected the presence of the mu variant in only a handful of samples — and none recently. The World Health Organization last week named mu and classified it as a “variant of interest.” It’s the fifth coronavirus variant the organization is monitoring. Preliminary evidence suggests it has the potential to partially evade protection from vaccination. Since being discovered in Colombia in January, the mu variant has spread to nearly four dozen countries. In the U.S., nearly 5,300 cases have been reported in every state except Nebraska. (Munz, 9/7)

Last month the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a warning not to use the common livestock antiparasitic ivermectin to treat COVID-19. Now it appears people may be turning to a botanical alternative. Wormwood, which grows in Maine and is used to make absinthe, is classified as an unsafe herb by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration because it contains the chemical thujone. The chemical has the potential to harm brain, kidney and liver cells or cause convulsions if taken in too high a dose. (Bayly, 9/8)

A 74-year-old COVID-19 patient died Monday at Memorial Hermann Sugar Land, relatives said, after his family took legal action to force doctors to administer his prescribed dose of the controversial anti-parasite drug ivermectin, which is not proven to treat the virus. Pete Lopez, a Vietnam War combat veteran, was the “backbone” of his family, said his granddaughter Gabrielle Snider. He raised four children as a successful business owner and was energetic in his old age, she said. (Gill, 9/7)

Former NBA player Cedric Ceballos asked for prayers on his behalf Tuesday as he endures a case of covid-19 that he said has led to a lengthy stay in an intensive care unit. “My fight is not done,” Ceballos, 52, wrote on Twitter. He shared a photo that showed an oxygen mask strapped to his head, and he said he was spending a 10th day in the ICU as covid was “officially kicking” his rear. A 1995 NBA all-star, Ceballos spent most of his 11-year career with the Phoenix Suns, Los Angeles Lakers and Dallas Mavericks. (Bieler, 9/7)

Louisiana was already battling its fourth and worst surge of the coronavirus last week as Hurricane Ida tore roofs off homes and hospitals, caused widespread power outages and devastated entire communities in some corners of the state. But with limited testing as people return from shelters and shared evacuation accommodations, there is reason to worry there could be a storm-related COVID-19 bump in the near future -- and that the state will be flying blind when it hits. (Woodruff, 9/8)

As Florida appears to be turning the corner from a coronavirus rampage that fueled record new infections, hospitalizations and deaths, its residents and leaders are surveying the damage left from more than 7,000 deaths reported since July Fourth and the scars inflicted by feuds over masks and vaccines. New infections were averaging more than 22,000 a day in the last days of August but have fallen to about 19,000. Yet recovery could prove fleeting: Holiday weekends such as Labor Day have acted as a tinderbox for earlier outbreaks, and late summer marks the return of students to college campuses. (Amrhein, Nirappil, Leone and Dupree, 9/6)

As the delta variant of COVID-19 continues to wreak havoc on Oregon’s healthcare system, Oregon Health and Science University announced last week that it won’t sponsor the Portland Marathon this October. “Our mission is to improve the health and well-being of all Oregonians, but our ability to fulfill that mission is currently challenged by the unprecedented influx of patients severely ill with COVID-19,” the hospital said in a statement. “Our hospitals are at their fullest capacity, our members are exhausted, and we are doing everything we can to avoid adding to their burden.” (Acker, 9/7)

Idaho is allowing healthcare facilities to ration care due to the surge of COVID-19 cases that has more people needing care than institutions can handle. The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare quietly enacted the move Monday and publicly announced it in a statement Tuesday — warning residents that they may not get the care they would normally expect if they need to be hospitalized. The move came as the state’s confirmed coronavirus cases skyrocketed in recent weeks. Idaho has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the U.S. with 744,460 of its 1.78 million residents — or about 42% of its total population — fully vaccinated. (Hayes, 9/8)

Alaska’s COVID-19 hospitalizations hit a dramatic new high this week as health care facilities struggle with a surge of mostly unvaccinated patients who providers say are stretching the system to its limits. The state reported 186 people hospitalized with COVID-19 as of Monday as well as two deaths in people with the virus, according to the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services dashboard. The deaths were in a man in his 50s from the Fairbanks North Star Borough and a woman in her 60s from the Kusilvak Census Area in Western Alaska. (Hollander, 9/7)

The Wisconsin Hospital Association reported Tuesday more than 1,000 COVID-19 patients in hospitals for the first time since January 9. The state reported that 315 of those patients are receiving intensive care. Tuesday's COVID-19 case numbers were lower than recent trends, which was likely due to a data collection lag from the long holiday weekend. At the local level, Mayor Tom Barrett is still very concerned. "Unfortunately, the numbers continue to trend in the wrong direction," he said at a Tuesday press conference. "We don't want this to go any higher,” the mayor added. (Bentley and Swales, 9/7)

The number of Texas children hospitalized with COVID-19 hit an all-time high over the weekend, with 345 on Saturday and 307 on Sunday, the highest two-day stretch recorded during the pandemic, according to data from the Texas Department of State Health Services. The data follows a national trend of rising pediatric COVID hospitalization rates. A study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released Friday shows the highest rate of increase among teenagers and children 0-4 years old. The study also found unvaccinated adolescents were 10 times more likely to need hospitalization compared to their vaccinated peers. (Gill, 9/7)

After treating more than 45,500 COVID patients during the pandemic, most of them unvaccinated, Maryland’s hospital staffs are “tired” but fear more cases are on the way. Officials from 60 hospitals and health systems in and around the state penned an open letter urging Marylanders to help by getting vaccinated. (Cohn, 9/8)

KHN: Delta Cutting ‘Like A Buzzsaw’ Through Oregon-California Border Counties 

If you live in one of the rural communities tucked into the forested hillsides along the Oregon-California border and need serious medical care, you’ll probably wind up at Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center. It serves about nine counties on either side of the border. It is one of three hospitals Asante owns in the region. All three ICUs are 100% full of covid patients, according to staff members. “We’ve had two deaths today. So, it’s a very grim, difficult time,” Dr. Michael Blumhardt, medical director of the hospital’s intensive care unit, said on a recent Tuesday in August. “The delta virus is passing through the region like a buzzsaw.” Unlike earlier covid waves, he said, patients are in their 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s. (Neumann, 8/31)

Humana has recorded more COVID-19 hospitalizations among its Medicare Advantage members in the past few weeks due to rising coronavirus cases. But non-COVID inpatient and outpatient care also appears to be declining as a result, the health insurance company said late Tuesday. Health insurers profited heavily last year when hospitals and doctors delayed routine medical care, and that dynamic appears to be happening again. (Herman, 9/8)

Many hospitals and health systems now have special programs for people with long COVID. Penn is among a smaller number, including Yale University, that have specialized clinics just for people with neurological symptoms, doctors said. Matthew Schindler, another neurologist with the Penn program, said that no matter which of the clinic’s four neurologists patients see, they are asked the same questions and receive a standardized exam that includes cognitive testing and a full neurological work-up. This helps doctors detect patterns and conduct research. (Burling, 9/7)

Three-quarters of U.S. adults have received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine as of Tuesday, according to the White House, setting a new milestone in the country’s fight against the pandemic. But with a continued surge of cases, hospitalizations and deaths due to the delta variant of the coronavirus, President Joe Biden plans a speech Thursday to outline a “six-pronged strategy” to “get the pandemic under control,” Press Secretary Jen Psaki said. (Wingrove, 9/7)

AstraZeneca Plc Chief Executive Pascal Soriot said booster COVID vaccine doses may not be needed for everyone in Britain and rushing into a nationwide rollout of third doses risks piling extra pressure on the National Health Service (NHS), the Telegraph reported on Tuesday. "We need the weight of the clinical evidence gathered from real world use before we can make an informed decision on a third dose," Soriot wrote in the newspaper. (9/7)

Kavita Patel, a primary care physician at Mary’s Center in the Washington area, routinely throws away perfectly good doses of coronavirus vaccine. When she opens a new multidose vial, any shots that don’t go into arms that day have to be discarded. In recent days, she was tempted to do something different: use one of those soon-to-be wasted doses to boost her own immunity. It might seem a no-brainer, but nothing is simple when it comes to coronavirus vaccine boosters. The Biden administration’s coronavirus task force wants to roll out boosters the week of Sept. 20. Too soon, some experts have declared. Not soon enough, others say. (Achenbach, 9/7)

Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine cuts the risk of getting infected with the disease by about half, according to the latest results of a trial involving almost half a million health workers in South Africa.  The vast majority of the breakthrough infections were mild, Glenda Gray, co-leader of the study known as Sisonke, said in an interview, citing unpublished data from the trial, which had earlier shown the shot’s effectiveness against severe illness. (Kew and Sguazzin, 9/7)

The National Institutes of Health has awarded $1.67 million to researchers at five institutions to study potential links between coronavirus vaccinations and menstruation, the agency announced Aug. 30. ... The year-long studies will exclusively incorporate participants who have not yet been vaccinated — both those who intend to be as well as those who don’t — to be able to study possible changes to their menstrual cycle before and after vaccination, Bianchi said. (McShane, 9/7)

Over the past several months, a series of studies has found that some people mount an extraordinarily powerful immune response against SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes the disease COVID-19. Their bodies produce very high levels of antibodies, but they also make antibodies with great flexibility — likely capable of fighting off the coronavirus variants circulating in the world but also likely effective against variants that may emerge in the future. "One could reasonably predict that these people will be quite well protected against most — and perhaps all of — the SARS-CoV-2 variants that we are likely to see in the foreseeable future," says Paul Bieniasz, a virologist at Rockefeller University who helped lead several of the studies. (Doucleff, 9/7)

The world still needs more — and better — Covid-19 vaccines. But a major hurdle stands in the way of the development of new vaccines, as well as the critical studies needed to determine the best way to use these important tools, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) warned in a letter published Tuesday in the journal Nature. (Branswell, 9/7)

Nearly all the Afghans at Fort McCoy are accepting COVID-19 vaccines and the first refugees will likely leave the military base this weekend, according to Democrats in Wisconsin's congressional delegation who toured the facility Tuesday. Rep. Mark Pocan of Dane County said just one person at Fort McCoy had refused the coronavirus vaccine. "I wish we had anything like that in our country right now," Pocan said, alluding to the large numbers of Americans who have declined to get vaccinated. (Marley, 9/7)

Fort McCoy Army Base in Wisconsin identified a case of the measles this week as it brings in thousands of Afghan refugees as part of the mass evacuation effort in the wake of the Taliban takeover of Kabul. An internal government email, viewed by Fox News, said that the base confirmed a case of the measles on Sunday. "All those who had been in contact with the infected person at base have been isolated, and post-exposure prophylaxis and inoculations are in process," the notice said. Separately, a senior U.S. government official confirmed to Fox News that officials identified a single measles case as part of what they called a robust health screening process. (Shaw and Griffin, 9/7)

The mass arrival of Afghan evacuees last month, many in need of medical care, wreaked havoc on Northern Virginia’s hospital system — prompting a regional emergency response group to assume oversight after one hospital became overwhelmed with patients and federal officials lost track of where some Afghans were hospitalized, officials said. Area leaders have been asking the Biden administration to pay for the mounting cost of keeping track of the hospitalized evacuees and for giving them rides back to the Dulles Expo Center — where they have been temporarily housed — after a federal contractor took hours to retrieve some of the evacuees who were ready to be discharged. (Olivo, 9/7)

President Biden is asking Congress for billions in additional funding to help with natural disasters and aid for Afghan evacuees. Biden administration officials are asking for $6.4 billion to help with resettling vulnerable Afghans in the United States. ... Shalanda Young, acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, said in a blog post that aid would be used for security screenings as well as humanitarian assistance to Afghans through the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development. It would also include funding for public health screenings and vaccinations. (Ordonez, 9/7)

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is "completely incorrect" to suggest vaccines are a personal choice with no broad implications, says Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country's top infectious disease authority. "If [DeSantis] feels that vaccines are not important for people, that they're just important for some people, that's completely incorrect," Fauci said after being asked about DeSantis' views during an interview Tuesday with CNN. Vaccines have been the solution to public health crises such as smallpox, polio and measles, Fauci said — but they rely on wide adoption to work, he added. (Chappell, 9/7)

Thirteen school employees from Miami-Dade County Public Schools have died from Covid-19 since August 16, the school district and local teacher union told CNN on Tuesday. Among the 13 were four teachers, one security monitor, one cafeteria worker and seven school bus drivers, United Teachers of Dade President Karla Hernandez-Mats said. All were unvaccinated. "These were extraordinary educators and people, and their loss is being felt throughout the community," Hernandez-Mats said. (Stuart, 9/7)

St. Johns County public schools had recorded 881 COVID cases as of Thursday — more than 25 times the number of cases in the district after the first 14 school days of the 2020 school year. By the end of the third week of 2020-21, 35 students and staff had tested positive. District officials released COVID case counts going back to the start of the 2020-21 school year in response to a public records request from WJCT News. The St. Johns County School District shares daily COVID case counts to its website, and has posted historical COVID data going back to November 2020. (Heddles, 9/7)

American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten crouched to sit at a first-graders’ table in a Florida school, chatting with masked 6-year-olds about books and their former kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Smith. Lillian Smith, a local union steward who taught at William A. Chapman Elementary in Miami-Dade County for more than 30 years, died last month of COVID-19. At least four Miami-Dade County teachers or staff have died from COVID so far this school year, as cases and hospitalizations in Florida have soared. (Borter, 9/7)

Another Georgia school district is switching to virtual learning, after two school bus drivers and a bus monitor died from COVID-19 in recent weeks. The 9,700-student Griffin-Spalding County school system made the announcement late Monday, citing a disruption in student transportation. Districts across Georgia are struggling to line up enough drivers and monitors to keep buses running. In Savannah, some bus drivers staged a sickout for the second day on Tuesday after a similar protest on Friday. (Amy, 9/7)

Savannah-Chatham public school bus driver Joyce Mallory sat in the blistering heat on Tuesday with a poster featuring four of her colleagues. The two drivers and two monitors were dedicated and loved their job. All four died from COVID-19 and two others are currently in the hospital batting the virus, Mallory said. (Nussbaum, 9/7)

Metro Atlanta school districts recorded more than 24,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases since the start of the school year, according to the latest data reports. As of Saturday, the cumulative case count for 14 area districts was 24,270. The number will grow because the Clayton County School District has not yet posted last week’s numbers. The overall total for last week alone was nearly 6,000. Some districts saw their case counts drop due to a shortened week of classes timed to the Labor Day holiday. (Hogan and Peebles, 9/8)

The Bibb County School District starts two weeks of remote learning today, a measure prompted by the spread COVID-19 cases in the community and the Labor Day holiday, school officials said. The district plans to return to in-person classes Sept. 20. The pandemic continues to worsen in Middle Georgia because of the highly contagious delta variant and vaccination rates that continue to hover below 50%. The state health department most recently reported more than 9,000 new cases, and Georgia has more people hospitalized for COVID-19 than ever before. (Slinkard and Perrineau, 9/7)

A statewide mask mandate for Pennsylvania schools went into effect Tuesday with some school districts in open defiance of the Wolf administration, while GOP leaders in the state House planned to come back to Harrisburg early to mount a legislative response. The state health secretary’s order that students, staff and visitors at K-12 schools and child care facilities are required to wear masks while indoors, regardless of vaccination status, has provoked outrage from some parents, students and school board members who say the decision should remain local. (Rubinkam, 9/8)

As childhood coronavirus cases escalate throughout Utah, parents say they are encountering a chaotic process of testing delays, conflicting instructions on masks and quarantine, and frustration that their kids’ school year is getting off to such a rocky start. “If we are not going to do mask mandates, I’m frustrated we didn’t amp up other ways to keep COVID in check,” said Emily Clifford, the mother of a Holladay first grader who tested positive last week for the coronavirus. “It’s been 18 months. We knew this was going to happen. But we keep making decisions when things are at traumatic levels, versus making any preparations.” (Alberty, 9/7)

Indiana schools continue to reach new heights in COVID-19 cases reported among the state's K-12 students — driven, in part, by an increase in the number of schools participating in the state-mandated reporting this week. This week's update of the state's dashboard tracking COVID-19 cases in students, teachers and other school staff members reported nearly 7,200 new cases. Most of those cases did occur in the last week, although more than 1,000 of those cases dated back to the previous week. Of the newly reported cases this week, 6,322 occurred in students, 338 were in teachers and 488 occurred among staff members. (Herron, 9/7)

As more than 600,000 K-12 students head back to school in Oregon -- the vast majority for in-person and full-time instruction inside classrooms -- the state’s top schools chief pleaded with families Tuesday to try to “limit” gatherings with other families “to the extent that they can” in order to reduce the spread of COVID-19. (Green, 9/7)

Certainly, some professors are happy to go maskless. A smattering have resigned in protest over optional mask policies. Most are soldiering on. But the level of fear is so high that even at universities that do require vaccination and masks, like Cornell and the University of Michigan, professors have signed petitions asking for the choice to return to online teaching. (Hartocollis, 9/7)

Climbing Covid-19 cases -- and particularly the increasing proportion reported in children -- are causing many health experts to worry about the outlook as the school year gets underway across the entire country. But Dr. Anthony Fauci said there shouldn't be a big uptick "if we do it right." There are certain simple things that are essential, he told CNN on Tuesday. "We've gotta get the school system masked in addition to surrounding the children with vaccinated people," the director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Disease said. "That's the solution." (Holcombe, 9/8)

KHN: To Quarantine Or Not: The Hard Choices Schools Are Leaving To Parents And Staff 

On the second day of high school in Texas, Natosha Daniels’ 14-year-old daughter went all day without eating because she did not want to remove her mask. The teen’s school has a couple of thousand students, and the cafeteria was crowded. Plus Round Rock Independent School District outside Austin didn’t require masks, so some students weren’t wearing them. Even her honors biology teacher was maskless. Daniels said her daughter, who like her is fully vaccinated, is terrified of bringing home the virus because it could infect her 7-year-old sibling, who is too young for a shot. (Gomez and Pradhan, 9/1)

KHN: Listen: Many Schools Are Buying High-Tech Air Purifiers. What Should Parents Know? 

As students return to school, parents are getting a lot of mail about what schools are doing to better protect kids in the classroom — including details on mask policies and how kids will sit at lunch. One item on many administrators’ lists of protective measures is improving ventilation in the classroom. Many studies have shown that better ventilation and air circulation can greatly reduce covid-19 transmission. But rather than stocking up on HEPA filters, some school districts are turning to high-tech air purification strategies, including the use of untested electronic methods and airborne chemicals. (9/8)

A House committee adopted a ban on statewide mask orders in a 15-5 vote Tuesday, the first day of a special legislative session dealing with emergency measures during the COVID-19 pandemic. The measure was added to a lengthy draft of a bill dealing with COVID-19 testing, treatment, vaccines and other measures Republican lawmakers who control the legislature are proposing during an ongoing surge in coronavirus cases and hospitalizations. Rep. Kimberly Poore Moser, a Taylor Mill Republican, said the bill, if adopted, would bar Gov. Andy Beshear from issuing any "blanket mask mandate" as he had previously done during the pandemic. (Yetter, 9/7)

A Veterans Affairs supply manager in south Mississippi made more than $50,000 stealing and selling medical masks during the coronavirus pandemic, federal prosecutors say. Court records show Chad Paul Jacob, 54, of Saucier, Mississippi, pleaded guilty Tuesday to theft of government property. Sentencing is set for Dec. 7, and he faces up to 10 years in prison. (9/8)

About 50 Detroit health care workers have filed a lawsuit against a hospital system, claiming its upcoming COVID-19 vaccine mandate violates the Fourteenth Amendment's protection of "personal autonomy and bodily integrity." This is the second major legal test concerning vaccine mandates in the health care sector, after an unsuccessful lawsuit claiming a Texas hospital's policy requiring all staff be vaccinated against the virus was unlawful. (Falconer, 9/8)

Tucson cannot force its employees to get a COVID-19 vaccine and the city puts millions of dollars of state revenue at risk if it continues to enforce a mandate handed down by the City Council last month, Attorney General Mark Brnovich said Tuesday. “Tucson’s vaccine mandate is illegal and the city could be held liable for attempting to force government employees to take it against their beliefs,” Brnovich said in a released statement. ... If the city does not rescind or amend the policy within 30 days, it could lose state revenue dollars, Brnovich's office said. (Stern and Barchenger, 9/7)

A coalition formed to oppose Maine’s vaccine requirement for health care workers has filed a lawsuit against the state’s top health officials to stop the policy before it takes effect next month. The lawsuit from the Alliance Against Health Care Mandates, which announced its formation in late August, is the second legal challenge to the mandate to be filed in as many weeks. The group filed the lawsuit in Kennebec County Superior Court in Augusta on Thursday, arguing that the rule violated state and federal law as well as the U.S. Constitution. The suit names Maine Department of Health and Human Services Commissioner Jeanne Lambrew and Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention Director Nirav Shah as defendants. (Marino Jr., 9/7)

Portland city officials because of new guidance may need to exempt the police bureau from an order that all employees be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or risk losing their jobs. The city attorney’s office said Tuesday the order requiring police to be vaccinated is now legally dubious because of new guidance from the Oregon Health Authority, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported. (9/8)

Three Vermont State Troopers have resigned following an investigation into an alleged fraudulent COVID-19 vaccination card scheme, the Vermont State Police said in a statement on Tuesday. The former troopers are suspected of creating fake COVID-19 vaccination cards, per the statement. The case has been referred to the U.S. Attorney Office in Vermont and the FBI, which has opened an investigation into the matter. (Garfinkel, 9/7)

Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. will require all its employees working in the United States and Puerto Rico to be fully vaccinated against the coronavirus effective Nov. 1, the drugmaker said on Tuesday. In the face of a resurgence in COVID-19 cases, spurred by the highly contagious Delta coronavirus variant, many U.S. companies have come out with mask mandates and changed their vaccination policies. (9/7)

A clear majority of Los Angeles Board of Education members either favor or lean toward requiring eligible students to be vaccinated against COVID-19, as education officials across the state grapple with a measure that could help prevent school infections and keep classrooms open, but would probably ignite pushback. School board President Kelly Gonez said that such a mandate would be a wise step to take “within a reasonable timeline.” Although the board could make a student vaccine mandate decision relatively soon, its effective date would depend on many factors, including allowing time for education efforts and outreach to families, she said. (Blume and Newberry, 9/8)

At a time when the delta variant’s summer surge has renewed the nation’s divisions over coronavirus vaccines, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) on Monday said mandates enforcing vaccination do not reflect what it means to be American. “Vaccine mandates are un-American,” Jordan tweeted. But critics panned Jordan’s Labor Day message as being off — way off — by nearly 2½ centuries. George Washington, the commander in chief of the Continental Army in the Revolutionary War, made the bold decision in 1777 to require that his troops be immunized after a smallpox outbreak devastated the nation. (Bella, 9/7)

Why is a historically libertarian organization backing strict public-health measures? (Berman, 9/8)

The federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will announce Tuesday it plans to send $452 million to more than a dozen states' reinsurance programs. The Biden administration has previously signaled support for these programs, which directly compensate insurance companies for some of their most expensive claims, preventing an increase in premiums. (Fernandez, 9/7)

Gov. Kevin Stitt is coming under fire for removing two members of the Oklahoma Health Care Authority board shortly after a majority of its members voted against his interests on Medicaid managed care. A former president of the Oklahoma State Medical Association criticized Stitt for removing the only physicians from the nine-member board for the Health Care Authority, the state agency that oversees Medicaid. Dr. George Monks, the immediate past president of the medical group, accused Stitt of playing politics and attempting to stifle dissent within his administration. (Forman, 9/7)

Congress faces a lengthy to-do list when it returns from recess later this month, with action needed on major issues affecting healthcare providers. From dealing with the threat of Medicare payment cuts to trying to pass a $3.5 trillion "human infrastructure" bill that seeks to extend healthcare coverage to millions of Americans, there will be a mad scramble to get it all done by the year-end. (Hellmann, 9/7)

The booming Medicare Advantage market has become a strategic focus for major insurers and retailers to band together and grow their businesses. Insurers partnerships are reflective on the growing population of enrollees. Over the past few years, the number of Medicare Advantage enrollees has exploded, thanks to an increasingly diverse, cost-conscious and aging population that prefers the extra benefits not offered in traditional Medicare. (Tepper, 9/7)

KHN: Telehealth’s Limits: Battle Over State Lines And Licensing Threatens Patients’ Options 

If you live in one state, does it matter that the doctor treating you online is in another? Surprisingly, the answer is yes, and the ability to conduct certain virtual appointments may be nearing an end. Televisits for medical care took off during the worst days of the pandemic, quickly becoming commonplace. Most states and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services temporarily waived rules requiring licensed clinicians to hold a valid license in the state where their patient is located. Those restrictions don’t keep patients from visiting doctors’ offices in other states, but problems could arise if those same patients used telemedicine. Now states are rolling back many of those pandemic workarounds. (Appleby, 8/31)

The blockbuster trial of Elizabeth Holmes, Theranos’ founder and former CEO, begins Wednesday in a tale that has spawned a book, a documentary, a miniseries and a coming movie — and put Silicon Valley itself on trial. The elements of captivation for, of all things, a high-tech blood-testing startup are clear. It is rare for a CEO — let alone a former billionaire female CEO — to face trial and 20 years in jail. The case has already been marked by head-turning, last-minute revelations and allegations. And Holmes’ meteoric rise to black-turtlenecked cover girl and media darling is matched only by her catastrophic fall from grace. (Popken, 9/7)

Theranos Inc. founder Elizabeth Holmes is facing a criminal trial in federal court in San Jose, Calif., on charges that she defrauded investors and patients by lying about the accuracy of her company’s finger-prick blood-testing technology. She has pleaded not guilty to charges of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Here are some of the major players in the trial and the events leading up to it. Most of the people declined to comment or couldn’t be reached. (9/7)

Just six years ago, Elizabeth Holmes seemed destined to fulfill her dream of becoming Silicon Valley’s next superstar. She was the subject of business magazine cover stories describing her as the youngest self-made female billionaire in history, former President Bill Clinton was reverently quizzing her about her thoughts on technology, and then Vice President Joe Biden was hailing her ideas as an inspiration. Now Holmes is about to head into a San Jose, California, courtroom to defend herself against criminal allegations depicting her as the devious mastermind of a fraud that duped wealthy investors, former U.S. government officials and patients whose lives were endangered by a blood-testing technology that never came close to fulfilling her bold promises. (Liedtke, 9/8)

KHN: Florida Spine Surgeon And Device Company Owner Charged In Kickback Scheme 

A Florida orthopedic surgeon and designer of costly spinal surgery implants was arrested Tuesday and charged with paying millions of dollars in kickbacks and bribes to surgeons who agreed to use his company’s devices. Dr. Kingsley R. Chin, 57, of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, is the founder, chief executive officer and owner of SpineFrontier, a device company based in Malden, Massachusetts. He and the company’s chief financial officer, Aditya Humad, 36, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, were each indicted on one count of conspiring to violate federal anti-kickback laws, six counts of violating the kickback statute and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, officials said. (Schulte, 9/8)

A Malden spinal device manufacturer and two of its top executives were charged Tuesday with bribery and money laundering for their roles in an alleged kickback scheme where surgeons were paid sham consulting fees to use the company’s products, generating millions in revenues, the US Attorney’s office for Massachusetts said in a statement. SpineFrontier Inc. chief executive Kingsley R. Chin, 57, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla, and chief financial officer Aditya Humad, 36, of Cambridge were each charged with one count of conspiracy to violate an anti-kickback statute, six violations of that statute, and one count of conspiracy to violate the statute, prosecutors said. (McKenna, 9/7)

States could receive $1.6 billion in new funding from the federal government to help recruit and retain long-term care workers under a proposal released Tuesday by a key congressional committee. The U.S. House of Representatives' Ways and Means Committee on Tuesday released the first of several bills it hopes to include in the $3.5 trillion healthcare, education and climate change package Democrats are working on. (Hellmann, 9/7)

Providers and insurers want the federal government to take it easy on them as they try to put the surprise billing ban into practice, according to comments on the first regulation stemming from the No Surprises Act. Both industries say they want to protect consumers against balance billing but remain worried they don't have essential details about how the ban will work in the real world nor enough time to carry out needed changes. They're especially concerned about the non-consumer-facing aspects of the ban, including the finer points of setting qualifying payment amounts and how arbitrators will use that in the independent dispute resolution process. (Brady, 9/7)

Increased commercialization within healthcare should be tempered with "guardrails" to ensure the industry continues to focus on patients' care quality first, according to a new policy paper from the American College of Physicians. The paper, published Tuesday in the Annals of Internal Medicine, warns the increased prevalence of more profit-motivated entities within the medical field runs the risk of creating "a bloated, complex and fragmented healthcare system," which pits the desire of caretakers to provide quality patient care against the corporate need to generate better margins. (Ross Johnson, 9/7)

The Food and Drug Administration is warning Lexington, Mass.-based Kaleido Biosciences that it shouldn’t have tested one of its microbiome therapeutics in humans without filing the paperwork the agency requires to begin clinical trials. The FDA’s warning letter, published in late August and reported first by Endpoints, focuses only on a microbiome therapeutic that Kaleido was testing as a Covid-19 treatment. (Sheridan, 9/7)

Researchers have grown miniature brains in laboratory dishes to mirror Parkinson’s disease, learn how it progresses and study new treatments, Duke-NUS Medical School announced Tuesday, in what was reported as a first-time feat. Parkinson’s disease is a neurodegenerative disorder without a cure, and which gradually causes movement-related issues, like tremors and rigidity, per the Parkinson’s Foundation. (Rivas, 9/7)

Choppy, windswept waves slap at the hull as our boat nears the last known location of the Lucerne, a schooner that sank to the bottom of Lake Superior in 1886. The wreck, just off a narrow sand peninsula jutting from the northern tip of Wisconsin, doubles as a suspected habitat for an elusive freshwater sponge called Eunapius fragilis. Finding these tiny aquatic organisms is the reason a trio of young scientists have set off with a local divemaster. The hunch is these sponges could be a source for new chemical molecules, which, in turn, could be the basis for new antibiotics. (Smith, 9/8)

It’s a make or break moment for Verily, as the sprawling Google offshoot rapidly accelerates its strategy to take its most promising products and turn them into tools that not only transform medicine, but also drive profit. In recent months, the company has assembled an all-star team of executives to bring its software and data tools to the market. They include Amy Abernethy, formerly a top data and informatics leader at the Food and Drug Administration, and Stephen Gillett, previously an executive at Best Buy and Starbucks who is now Verily’s chief operating officer. (Brodwin and Ross, 9/8)

The rapidly warming climate is the "greatest threat" to global public health, more than 200 medical journals are warning in an unprecedented joint statement that urges world leaders to cut heat-trapping emissions to avoid "catastrophic harm to health that will be impossible to reverse." The editorial, which was published in leading journals such as The Lancet, The New England Journal of Medicine and the British Medical Journal, says the world can't wait for the COVID-19 pandemic to pass before addressing climate change. (Sommer, 9/7)

When wildfire smoke descends over a city or town, as it does increasingly often for tens of millions of people in the American West, public health officials have a simple message: Go inside, shut doors and windows. Limit outdoor activities. New research shows that may not be enough to protect a person's health. A series of studies looking at crowdsourced indoor air quality during wildfire smoke events has found that the most insidious part of wildfire smoke — microscopic particles so small they can infiltrate a person's bloodstream, exacerbating respiratory and cardiac problems — can seep through closed doors and shuttered windows, making air hazardous in homes and businesses. (Rott, 9/7)

Kevin Perry had just begun his morning routine, stepping outside to get the newspaper, when he noticed something was wrong with the sky. “Within 30 seconds, I was coughing and my throat hurt,” Dr. Perry, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Utah, said of that morning in August. “It was the absolute worst air quality I’ve ever experienced in my life.” Shrouded in smoke drifting from California’s colossal wildfires 500 miles away, Salt Lake City had on that morning edged past smog-choked megacities like New Delhi and Jakarta to register the most polluted air of any major city in the world. (Romero, 9/7)

Marianne Ashworth fights to hold back tears. She has just learned that the well water at her Cumberland County home contains a high level of a forever chemical called PMPA. Ashworth bought the little ranch-style house in the Bayfield subdivision seven years ago and has since paid it off. Her 17-year-old daughter grew up here, in this house near the outskirts of Fayetteville, which is now the cause of Ashworth’s tears. She wonders whether her daughter’s persistent skin rashes could have been caused by the PMPA, one of thousands of synthetic per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances collectively known as PFAS. (Barnes, 9/8)

The Department of Agriculture announced Tuesday that it will invest $700 million in grant funding to help farmworkers, meatpacking workers and front-line grocery workers cover health and safety costs incurred due to COVID-19. The program expands pandemic agriculture aid, which has until now largely benefited farm owners, to include the primarily immigrant, low-income workforce, Bloomberg reports. (Saric, 9/7)

Children aged 6 months and older should receive a flu vaccine this fall, the American Academy of Pediatrics advised Tuesday, however kids with moderate-to-severe COVID-19 should delay flu shots until they have recovered. Experts are concerned about an uptick in flu activity this winter amid the return to in-person learning, the group noted. "During the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s important to remember that influenza is also a highly contagious respiratory virus that can cause severe illness and even death in children," Dr. Flor Munoz, lead author of the policy statement and technical report, developed by the AAP Committee on Infectious Diseases, said in a statement issued Tuesday. "The flu vaccine is safe, effective, and can be given alongside other routine immunizations and the COVID-19 vaccine." (Rivas, 9/7)

Nearly 16,000 children and adolescents went to the emergency room or hospital due to police encounters between 2005 and 2017, with rates four to seven times higher for Black kids compared to white kids, according to a statewide analysis in California. While youth are less likely to be injured by policing compared to adults, the analysis published in JAMA Pediatrics shows kids aren't spared the racial disparities seen in law enforcement of adults. (Fernandez, 9/8)

Americans say it’s increasingly unlikely that they’ll work deep into their 60s, according to new data from the New York Federal Reserve. The share of respondents expecting to work past the age of 62 dropped to 50.1% in the New York Fed’s July labor-market survey, from 51.9% a year earlier -- the lowest on record in a study that’s been conducted since 2014. The numbers saying they’re likely to be employed when they’re older than 67 also dropped, to 32.4% from 34.1%. (Tanzi, 9/7)

As Amtrak embarks on a six-year push to ensure more than 300 stations meet requirements of the Americans With Disabilities Act, it must have adequate staffing and a system in place that ensures projects aren’t delayed by disputes, according to a report Tuesday by the rail service’s inspector general. Amtrak is well beyond a July 2010 deadline for ensuring that intercity rail stations meet requirements under the ADA — a timetable that also has proved costly. In December, Amtrak agreed to pay $2.25 million to settle civil claims that it discriminated against disabled passengers by failing to accommodate people in wheelchairs or those with limited mobility at its stations. (Aratani, 9/7)

KHN: Minister For Seniors At Famed Church Confronts Ageism And The Shame It Brings

Later life is a time of reassessment and reflection. What sense do we make of the lives we have lived? How do we come to terms with illness and death? What do we want to give to others as we grow older? Lynn Casteel Harper, 41, has thought deeply about these and other spiritual questions. She’s the author of an acclaimed book on dementia and serves as the minister of older adults at Riverside Church in New York City, an interdenominational faith community known for its commitment to social justice. Most of the church’s 1,600 members are 65 and older. (Graham, 9/2)

The NFL Players Association wants daily COVID-19 testing for fully vaccinated players. The league and the union agreed last week to update protocols so vaccinated players would be tested weekly instead of every 14 days as they were during training camp. That’s not enough, according to NFLPA president and Cleveland Browns center JC Tretter. “Since the beginning of training camp, we have been testing our vaccinated players once every 14 days. It has been ineffective as we’ve had significantly more incidents of transmission inside the building this year than last year,” Tretter wrote in a column on the union’s website. (Maaddi, 9/8)

Two-time Pro Bowl running back Clinton Portis and two other former NFL players have pleaded guilty for their roles in a nationwide health care benefit fraud scheme to submit false claims for payouts totaling about $3 million, the Justice Department said Tuesday. Portis, Tamarick Vanover and Robert McCune admitted to participating in a scheme to scam the league's retiree health care benefits plan, which provides tax-free reimbursement to former players and their families for out-of-pocket medical expenses that are not covered by insurance, the department said. (Almasy and Carrega, 9/8)

Louisiana health officials announced Tuesday that they are revoking Bob Dean's seven nursing-home licenses after he evacuated more than 800 nursing residents to a Tangipahoa Parish warehouse for Hurricane Ida, where four people died as conditions grew increasingly hellish over a period of days after the storm's passage. The action by the Louisiana Department of Health comes just three days after the department had ordered the immediate but temporary closure of Dean's nursing homes, which are currently empty of residents. The LDH also announced Tuesday that it will be terminating Medicaid provider agreements with Dean's nursing homes. (Gallo and Russell, 9/7)

California lawmakers moved to make the state the first to outlaw “stealthing,” which is removing a condom without permission during intercourse. Legislators sent Gov. Gavin Newsom a bill on Tuesday adding the act to the state’s civil definition of sexual battery. It makes it illegal to remove the condom without obtaining verbal consent. But it doesn’t change the criminal code. Instead, it would amend the civil code so that a victim could sue the perpetrator for damages, including punitive damages. (Thompson, 9/8)

California’s special COVID-19 sick-leave policy, which has sustained many low-income workers during the pandemic, is set to expire Sept. 30, a change that is raising fears of new disruptions for communities of color and others disproportionately affected by the coronavirus. The looming cutoff — which would erase the requirement for an extra two weeks of paid sick days — comes just as the highly transmissible and potent delta variant is sending more people to hospitals, even amid higher rates of vaccination. Low-income workers, many in jobs requiring them to interact with the public, face financial loss if they don’t get paid while staying home when infected with the coronavirus. But they risk the public health as well as their own well-being if they do report to work out of financial necessity, proponents of the policy say. (Narayan, 9/7)

KHN: California Set To Spend Billions On Curing Homelessness And Caring For ‘Whole Body’ Politic

Living unmedicated with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, Eugenia Hunter has a hard time recalling how long she’s been staying in the tent she calls home at the bustling intersection of San Pablo Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Way in Oakland’s hip Uptown neighborhood. Craft coffee shops and weed dispensaries are plentiful here and one-bedroom apartments push $3,000 per month. “At least the rats aren’t all over me in here,” the 59-year-old Oakland native said on a bright August afternoon, stretching her arm to grab the zipper to her front door. It was hot inside and the stench of wildfire smoke hung in the air. Still, after sleeping on a nearby bench for the better part of a year, she felt safer here, Hunter explained as she rolled a joint she’d use to ease the pain from also living with what she said is untreated pancreatic cancer. (Hart, 9/8)

A new report suggests people are buying dramatically more alcohol as the COVID-19 pandemic drags on. Revenue from state excise taxes on alcohol during the fiscal year that ended June 30 totaled $73.8 million, up almost 17% from $63.3 million the previous year, according to preliminary data from the state Department of Revenue cited in the report from the nonpartisan Wisconsin Policy Forum. (9/8)

A class action lawsuit is aiming to overturn a state law prohibiting disabled Wisconsinites from accessing unemployment benefits after losing their job. The lawsuit was filed Tuesday by a group of nine residents who have been denied unemployment benefits since 2015 because they receive Social Security Disability Insurance payments as well. Some of the residents have also been forced to repay benefits given to them by the Department of Workforce Development, which contended the payments were made in error. (Schulte, 9/7)

From the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, New York City has been pummeled economically unlike any other large American city, as a sustained recovery has failed to take root and hundreds of thousands of workers have yet to find full-time jobs.On Sunday, the city, like other communities nationwide, was hit with another blow: The package of pandemic-related federal unemployment benefits, which has kept families afloat for 17 months, expired. ... About 10 percent of the city’s population, or about 800,000 people, will have federal aid eliminated, though many will continue receiving state benefits. (Haag and Hong, 9/7)

Mississippi has 120 days to come up with proposed long-term plan for how it will work to prevent unnecessary institutionalizations of people with mental illness in state hospitals, a federal judge ruled Tuesday. U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves ordered that the state’s initial plan be submitted to the U.S. Justice Department and an independent monitor, Michael Hogan, for feedback. The final plan must be completed in 180 days. (Willingham, 9/8)

KHN: Colorado Clinic’s Prescription For Healthier Patients? Lawyers

In her 19 years of living with cerebral palsy, scoliosis and other ailments, Cynthia Enriquez De Santiago has endured about 60 surgeries and her heart has flatlined at least four times. But the most unusual doctor’s referral of her life came last year: Go see an attorney. Enriquez De Santiago sought help at a Colorado health clinic that takes a novel approach to improving the health of its patients: It incorporates legal assistance into its medical practice for patients facing eviction or deportation proceedings, among other legal woes. And the state’s Medicaid program helps fund the initiative. (Rodgers, 9/8)

The Covid-19 pandemic has severely set back the fight against other global scourges like H.I.V., tuberculosis and malaria, according to a sobering new report released on Tuesday. Before the pandemic, the world had been making strides against these illnesses. Overall, deaths from those diseases have dropped by about half since 2004. (Mandavilli, 9/7)

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday warned against travel to Sri Lanka, Jamaica and Brunei because of the rising number of COVID-19 cases. The CDC raised its travel advisory to "Level 4: Very High" for those countries, telling Americans they should avoid travel there. (Shephardson, 9/7)

French doctors and scientists on Tuesday called on authorities to take action against the insults and threats— including death threats — that they have frequently received during the coronavirus pandemic. The doctors said they fear that someone from the world of conspiracy theories will take action, not just against them but against other medical professionals, and condemned the silence of authorities. “It’s months that some of us are receiving, regularly, death threats. Be it via social networks … Twitter, email, by telephone, or by the post. We are targets,” said Jerome Marty, a physician who heads a union for doctors in private practice, UFMLS. (Ganley, 9/7)

Standing outside the rundown public hospital in Bulgaria’s northern town of Veliko Tarnovo, the vaccination unit’s chief nurse voices a sad reality about her fellow citizens: “They don’t believe in vaccines.” Bulgaria has one of the highest coronavirus death rates in the 27-nation European Union and is facing a new, rapid surge of infections due to the more infectious delta variant. Despite that, people in this Balkan nation are the most hesitant in the bloc to get vaccinated against COVID-19. (McGrath, 9/8)

Venezuela has received its first batch of coronavirus vaccines through the COVAX mechanism intended for poor countries, the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) said on Tuesday, after months of delays the government attributed to U.S. sanctions. The South American country has received 693,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine manufactured by China's Sinovac Biotech, the first of a total of 11 million it will receive through COVAX, overseen by the GAVI alliance and the World Health Organization. (9/7)

The country that was once predicted to be the first to vaccinate its entire population had the highest per-capita caseload of anywhere in the week through Sept. 4, according to figures compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Its world-beating inoculation rate, meanwhile, has tumbled down the league table. The nation of 9 million became the test case for reopening society and the economy in April when much of Europe and the U.S. were still in some form of lockdown. Yet Israel now shows how the calculus is changing in places where progress was fastest. It’s no longer just about whether people get coronavirus, but also how badly they get it and ensuring that vaccines are still working as the highly infectious delta variant threatens to undermine immunity. (Avis, 9/7)

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Tuesday announced tax increases to support the country’s state-funded National Health Service as it struggles to manage a backlog of millions of patients in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. With the announcement, Mr. Johnson is renouncing an election pledge not to raise payroll taxes, a move that sparked criticism from within his own Conservative Party and underscored the pressure the pandemic has put on governments to find funding for social services stretched by Covid-19 and aging populations. (Colchester, 9/7)

Health authorities in Spain are blaming human error for the switching of two baby girls in a maternity ward almost 20 years ago, after one of them discovered by chance through a DNA test as a teenager that she wasn’t the daughter of her presumed parents. “It was a human error and we haven’t been able to find out who was to blame,” Sara Alba, health chief of Spain’s northern La Rioja region, told a news conference Tuesday. “The systems back then were different and weren’t as computerized as they are now,” Alba said, offering assurances it couldn’t happen again. The newborns were mixed up in 2002 after being born five hours apart at a hospital in La Rioja. They were both in incubators because they were born underweight. (9/7)

Officials in India are racing to contain a virus outbreak that has claimed the life of a 12-year-old boy and is deadlier than COVID-19 — the Nipah virus. CBS News reports the boy was taken to the hospital last week in the southern Kerala state with a high-grade fever and suspected brain inflammation. After blood tests, he was diagnosed with the Nipah virus and died Sunday. Officials are using contact tracing, quarantine and hospitalization on the 188 people who have came into contact with the preteen to prevent a wide-spread outbreak, CBS reported. (Gilbert, 9/7)

In July and August Pfizer voluntarily recalled a total of 16 lots of its smoking-cessation drug, Chantix (varenicline), due to unacceptably high levels of the carcinogen N-nitroso-varenicline, and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has taken steps to address the shortage. The company still hasn't publicly announced any resolution timeline for its shortage, and a company representative was not available for interviews on the matter. However, in the interim, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has relaxed regulations and turned to drug companies Apotex and Par Pharmaceuticals to help fill the gap. (McLernon, 8/27)

Subscription-based payment models (SBPM), a novel approach in which states contract exclusively with a single manufacturer to supply prescriptions at a reduced price, could increase access to these life-saving treatments, according to a new study. In a SBPM, states pay reduced per prescription prices for medications until a certain utilization threshold. After this threshold, the cost of additional prescriptions is essentially zero. (Boston University School of Medicine, 9/3)

As Democrats design a way to use the government’s leverage to lower drug prices for seniors, they are facing the possibility that drug makers could try to make up their profits by hiking prices for private insurers instead. Lawmakers in both the House and Senate are eyeing drug pricing reforms as part of a major legislative push to deliver on President Biden’s agenda this fall. A key pillar of that platform is allowing Medicare to negotiate prices with drug makers — but exactly how meaningful that policy will be is still being hammered out, according to House and Senate aides and lobbyists working on the policy. (Cohrs, 9/3)

The success of Democrats' attempt to allow Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices hinges on whether the drug industry can persuade voters — particularly seniors — that the policy would result in fewer new drugs, an endeavor that experts say is an uphill battle. Why it matters: Seniors are both directly impacted by the policy and disproportionately likely to vote in midterm elections, meaning what they think is incredibly influential. (Owens, 9/8)

It’s no secret that per capita healthcare costs are very high in the U.S. This wouldn’t be as much of a problem if the system produced correspondingly excellent health outcomes. But, overall, it doesn’t. The U.S. ranks at or near the bottom among peer nations. To address healthcare costs, politicians on both sides of the aisle have been crafting legislation that mostly targets prescription drugs, while generally ignoring other healthcare sectors. Whether it’s the Elijah E. Cummings Lower Drug Costs Now Act, H.R. 3, the Biden Administration’s July executive order, or the prescription drug expenditure component contained in the budget reconciliation blueprint, the almost exclusive focus is on reducing drug spending. (Cohen, 9/1)

Americans are having a tough time paying for medications despite bipartisan efforts to drive down prescription drug prices. Nearly 1 in 4 Americans say it’s difficult to afford their medications, according to a March 2019 poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation. This comes as pharmacies raked in a record $465 billion from prescriptions. Lawmakers from both parties support lowering drug prices, but they haven’t had much success regulating the industry. In September 2019, U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., introduced the Elijah E. Cummings Lower Drug Costs Now Act. The House passed the bill in December 2019, but it died in the Senate. (Morabito, 8/26)

As Democrats prepare a massive overhaul of prescription drug policy, major pharmaceutical companies are mounting a lobbying campaign against it, arguing that the effort could undermine a Covid fight likely to last far longer than originally expected. In meetings with lawmakers, lobbyists for the pharmaceutical industry have issued warnings about the reconciliation package now moving through both chambers of Congress that is set to include language allowing Medicare to negotiate the price of some drugs, which could generate billions of dollars in savings. (Fuchs, Ollstein and Wilson, 9/2)

Importing opioids for the purpose of drug abuse is not the same thing as importing lifesaving medication, and it is critical that regulators treat them differently — and the law strongly encourages them to do so. Since 2018, taxpayer funding for Food and Drug Administration activities has increased substantially for the purpose of stopping illegal opioids from coming into the country through international mail facilities. With that convenient window dressing, those taxpayer dollars and new federal laws are now being used to take away prescription drug orders at those same international mail facilities, which are often placed by patients who cannot afford them domestically.  (Gabriel Levitt, 8/31)

It’s been nearly two years since our dear friend Elijah Cummings died. In that time, we have mourned his loss, lived through a pandemic, faced a reckoning on racial injustice and experienced a monumental election, in which the American people put their faith in Democrats to build our country back and enact change to better the lives of working families. In this time of building back better, we know Elijah would have pushed us to think of those who are struggling the most. With rising health care costs for COVID long-haulers, we need to focus on lowering prescription drug prices for Americans. Throughout his many years of service to Maryland and our nation, Elijah was a staunch advocate for lowering the price of prescription drugs because of the toll such costs took on families, often Black and brown families, who are less likely to have coverage or resources but more likely to need treatments for chronic diseases including asthma and diabetes. (Anthony Brown and Kweisi Mfume, 9/7)

In what could be a turning point in the prescription drug debate, President Biden has made clear that the health crisis of unaffordable medications must end. In a speech he gave in the East Room of the White House in August, the president shared how he and his siblings had to chip in to cover the cost of their mother’s prescription drugs as she got older, spending thousands of dollars per month. The Bidens’ experience is shared by millions of other American seniors and families. Everyday Americans are making impossible choices between affording food and rent or their prescriptions. In many cases, people skip doses or forego treatment altogether. The effects of these choices are grim. An estimated 1 million or more Medicare patients will die prematurely between now and 2030 because they cannot afford their prescription drugs. (Sean Dickson, 9/7)

People of all ages are skipping pills because they can’t afford their medication. That’s because Americans are paying three times what people in other countries pay for the same medicine. People are sick and tired of being price-gouged for the medicine they need. So they are calling on the president and Congress to take action toward negotiated pricing. (Alex Juarez, 8/31)

When GoodRx founder Doug Hirsch realized that Americans lacked a one-stop destination for prescription discounts and prices, he decided to build an app where consumers could get the cheapest prescriptions available. With its unique customer-centric business, GoodRx holds a key competitive advantage in the industry, and its growing popularity could enable the company to become a product that every American uses.  (Jamie Louko, 9/1)

Two weeks ago, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the eviction moratorium imposed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as an anti-COVID measure. The reasoning of the court’s opinion, however, would support the CDC if it imposed a vaccine mandate. So also would settled law regarding the states’ authority over public health. There are many vaccine mandates already in force in America. (Tom Campbell, 9/5)

People who don’t want to get vaccinated will grasp at any new piece of information to justify their reluctance — the latest being some pretty good data suggesting that the natural immunity left after recovering from Covid-19 is stronger over the long run than immunity generated by the Pfizer vaccine. It’s a finding that’s worth taking seriously — several scientists sent the study to me or mentioned it, and a number of others noted its importance in a news story in Science Magazine. (Faye Flam, 9/7)

Bobby and Billy Ford hung out together even before they were born one after the other Jan. 21, 1962. The identical twins were inseparable as youngsters growing up in Williamsburg, Virginia, where their father started an auto repair shop after fixing helicopters for 20-plus years in the Army. They worked in the shop, but also were together in the outdoors, playing football and enjoying all the perks associated with Colonial Williamsburg and a mom who worked at nearby Busch Gardens. (Laurence Reisman, 9/6)

When I walked into my first class of the fall semester at the end of last month, my eyes welled up with tears. “Oh, my. Hi, everyone!” I said, as my voice broke, overcome by emotion to see my students in-person together, ready to learn, for the first time in a year and a half. But my joy was tempered by an extra variable: fear laced with uncertainty. As I return to in-person classes, there are no mask or vaccine requirements at my university nor in the city or state where I live. I now carry a grave responsibility for not only my students’ learning and professional development, but also for their safety and, potentially, their lives. (Emily Contois, 9/7)

COVID-19 vaccines were supposed to be a golden diplomatic opportunity for great powers and aspiring rivals to woo friends — and even enemies — in need. It isn’t going to plan. Russia was the first to approve a vaccine and the most enthusiastic marketer, but has fallen far short of its hyperbolic delivery promises. China has done a better job of stepping up, but is plagued by questions over the relatively lower efficacy of its shots — even if they appear to hold up against more troublesome variants. Western countries, meanwhile, were providing far too little even before the current scramble to secure booster doses began. And neither scattered bilateral efforts nor unimpressive global ones are translating into real geopolitical influence. (Clara Ferreira Marques, 9/7)

Ask any teenager if they would like to talk about mindfulness and mood thermometers with their peers a dozen times in one school year, and most would decline the opportunity. But ask them instead if they would like a vaccine to ward off the worst mental health impacts of the past year and a half, and most would raise their hands without thinking. (Tamar Mendelson and Laura Clary, 9/7)

Cyberattacks continue to rise in healthcare, with the number of data breaches on pace to set a new record this year. What are some priorities in partnership with the federal government to address cybersecurity issues in healthcare? (Chuck Christian and Claudia Williams, 9/7)

In a stunning move, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed a sweeping law to take effect in Texas last week that eradicates nearly all abortion care in the second-largest state in the country. Senate Bill 8, signed into law by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott in May, bars abortion once an ultrasound picks up cardiac activity, which is typically around six weeks. This amounts to a near-total ban: Many women are not aware they are pregnant that early. (Mary Tuma, 9/7)