First Edition: Nov. 3, 2021
Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
KHN:
Unvaccinated? Don’t Count On Leaving Your Family Death Benefits
These days, workers who refuse to get vaccinated against covid-19 may face financial repercussions, from higher health insurance premiums to loss of their jobs. Now, the financial fallout might follow workers beyond the grave. If they die of covid and weren’t vaccinated, their families may not get death benefits they would otherwise have received. New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority no longer pays a $500,000 death benefit to the families of subway, bus and commuter rail workers who die of covid if the workers were unvaccinated at the time of death. (Andrews, 11/3)
KHN:
Montana’s Governor Nixed A Kids’ Vaccine Campaign, So Health Officials Plan Their Own
Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte’s administration quashed plans for a public service campaign to promote covid-19 vaccinations for eligible teenagers over the summer, a former state health official said. That has caused public health and medical experts to plan their own ad campaigns in anticipation that the administration won’t publicly back shots for kids as young as 5 when doses for young children roll out. A state endorsement and ad campaign on television, radio and the internet could encourage and persuade undecided parents to get their kids vaccinated. The lack of one could contribute to Montana’s continuing lag in vaccination rates and high ranking in covid cases, hospitalizations and deaths. (Bolton, 11/3)
Politico:
CDC Endorses First Covid-19 Vaccine For Kids 5-11
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky signed off on allowing children ages 5 to 11 to receive Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine, paving the way for some 28 million kids to get access to the shots. The agency's decision came hours after its independent vaccine advisers unanimously recommended the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine for kids in that age group. (Gardner, 11/2)
The Washington Post:
CDC Signs Off On Children’s Coronavirus Vaccine, Allowing Providers To Begin Immunizing Kids Ages 5 To 11 Immediately
The go-ahead from CDC Director Rochelle Walensky is a watershed moment in the fight against the pandemic, which has killed 745,000 people in the United States and infected nearly 2 million kids. Millions of families have waited for a children’s vaccine since the first adult shot was authorized last December, hoping their kids could finally resume in-person schooling and extracurricular activities without interruption — and that their own work schedules could become more predictable. (Sun and Shepherd, 11/2)
AP:
What To Know About Vaccines For Kids Aged 5-11
Children ages 5 to 11 will receive a third of the dose given to teens and adults. That’s 10 micrograms per shot for youngsters, compared to 30 micrograms per shot for everyone 12 and older. Like everybody else, the younger kids will get two shots, three weeks apart. ... In a study, Pfizer’s pediatric vaccine proved nearly 91% effective at preventing symptomatic infection. Vaccinated youngsters developed levels of virus-fighting antibodies as strong as teens and young adults who’d received the full-strength dose. (Neergaard, 11/3)
The Atlantic:
Why Kids Get A Smaller COVID Vaccine Dose
In the months since Pfizer announced its plans to adapt its COVID-19 vaccine for kids, the nicknames have been rolling in. Lil Pfizer, Pfizer-Mini, Pfizer Jr. (sorry, BioNTech; everyone tends to forget you). Others offer a cheeky play on Comirnaty, the shot’s tongue-twisting official title: Comirnito, Baby Comirnaty, or my personal favorite, ComirNatty Light. These monikers not only nod to the smaller humans the shots are designed for, but the actual size of the doses themselves. If Pfizer earns the expected thumbs-up from CDC Director Rochelle Walensky this week, children 5 to 11 years old will be getting 10 micrograms of RNA in each Pfizer shot, a third of the 30-microgram recipe that’s given to people 12 and older. Further down the road, pending another set of votes, authorizations, and recommendations, kids 4 and younger will get a wee 3 micrograms, a tenth of what their parents get. (Wu, 11/2)
Politico:
‘A Massive Step Forward’: Democrats Clinch Drug Pricing Deal
Democrats on Tuesday announced an agreement on drug pricing reform, coming out in favor of allowing Medicare Part D to negotiate directly with pharmaceutical companies for the first time since its creation, a move the drug industry has fought for nearly two decades. While the latest proposal is far weaker than the version passed twice by the House, even staunch progressives in both chambers are preparing to accept that it’s likely the best they’re able to get in the narrowly divided Congress. (Ollstein, 11/2)
NPR:
Democrats' Deal On Prescription Drugs Would Lower Costs For Seniors
The agreement announced Tuesday would allow Medicare Parts B and D to negotiate prices directly with drug manufacturers on certain drugs and cap out-of-pocket spending for seniors at $2,000 per year, the first innovation of its kind in the program's history. "Fixing prescription drug pricing has consistently been a top issue for Americans year-after-year, including the vast majority of both Democrats and Republicans who want to see a change because they simply cannot afford their medications," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a statement. (Wise, 11/2)
The Wall Street Journal:
Democrats Reach Deal On Lowering Prescription Drug Prices
The deal to secure the backing of a few centrist holdouts brings Democrats another step closer to finishing the $1.85 trillion legislation, which party leaders hope to bring to the floor in the House this week. The party is still working through a few other issues in the bill, including immigration and measures curbing carbon emissions, and lawmakers also closed in on a plan for repealing the cap on the deduction for state and local taxes. The final negotiations on those issues will have to contend with the continued skepticism of Sen. Joe Manchin (D., W.Va.), who on Monday said he might vote to kill the legislation in the 50-50 Senate. (Duehren, Wise and Rubin, 11/2)
Stat:
Who Wins And Loses In Democrats’ Prescription Drug Pricing Deal
Congressional Democrats on Tuesday announced they had agreed to a broad plan to overhaul the way America pays for prescription medicines. Under the deal, Medicare would be allowed to negotiate drug prices for both drugs dispensed at the pharmacy counter and those administered in doctors’ offices for drugs older than 9 years or 12 years, depending on the type of drug. Drug makers would have to pay penalties if they hike prices faster than inflation, including for employer-sponsored insurance plans. Seniors’ out-of-pocket costs would be capped at $2,000 per year. Insulin prices per dose will also be capped. (Cohrs, 11/2)
Politico:
The End Of Manchema
Are they Sinemanch or Manchema? The debate can probably cease. The centrist Democratic senators from Arizona and West Virginia, once united on shaving down the cost of a party-line social spending bill that started at $3.5 trillion, are now going their own way in the final stretch of negotiations on a linchpin of President Joe Biden’s agenda. (Everett and Levine, 11/2)
Modern Healthcare:
Democrats Target Hospitals In Medicaid Expansion Holdout States With DSH Cuts
House Democrats are taking a new approach to convince recalcitrant conservative states to expand Medicaid to low-income adults: threatening funding cuts to hospitals. Under an updated version of the domestic policy package that the House may consider as soon as this week, hospitals in states that don't expand Medicaid could face a 12.5% cut in funding meant to help hospitals that serve large numbers of Medicaid patients. These so-called disproportionate share hospital payments are intended to keep safety net facilities financially stable by offsetting Medicaid's low payment rates and helping cover uncompensated care costs. (Hellmann, 11/2)
The Wall Street Journal:
Hospitals Face Steeper Fines For Shunning Federal Price-Disclosure Rules
The Biden administration on Tuesday finalized a regulation that will sharply increase the financial penalties for larger hospitals that don’t make their prices public. The new rule, which will take effect at the start of 2022, will also crack down on practices that made hospitals’ prices hard to find and access, including the use of special coding embedded in hospital webpages that prevents Alphabet Inc.’s GOOG 1.45% Google and other search engines from displaying price pages in search results. (Mathews and Evans, 11/2)
AP:
White House Rolls Out New Plan To Combat Gun Suicides In US
The Biden administration is rolling out a new initiative aimed at reducing suicides by gun and combating the significant increases in suicides by members of the military and veterans. The White House is announcing the new plan on Tuesday, which officials say is an unprecedented focus by the federal government on reducing the risk of suicide through awareness and training campaigns and new regulations to increase the availability of gun storage products. (Balsamo, 11/2)
NBC News:
Suicide Rates Declined Again In 2020, But Not For All Groups, CDC Report Shows
In the early days of the pandemic, there were fears that the anxiety, isolation and financial uncertainty would lead to a rise in suicide. Instead, after two decades of rising suicide rates in the U.S., the number of deaths by suicide declined in 2020 for the second year in a row, according to preliminary federal data published Wednesday. While suicide deaths dropped overall in the U.S., there were increases among young adults, as well as American Indians and Alaska Natives, Black Americans and Hispanic Americans, the report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found. (Sullivan, 11/3)
The Wall Street Journal:
Facebook To Shut Down Facial Recognition In Photos, Videos
Facebook said it is shutting down its facial-recognition system in the coming weeks, scrapping a feature that has developed into a key tool for sharing photos on social media but has raised concerns among privacy advocates and regulators. The move continues a dramatic reshaping of the tech giant in recent weeks, which includes pausing the development of an Instagram for children product and a rebranding of the entire company to Meta Platforms Inc. to focus on a future beyond social media. (Prang, 11/2)
The Hill:
Facebook To Shut Down Facial Recognition System
Facebook is shutting down its facial recognition system, and will delete more than a billion people’s individual facial recognition templates, the company said Tuesday. Meta, the new name of Facebook’s parent company, said the decision was made due to “growing concerns” about the use of facial recognition technology as a whole. (Klar, 11/2)
The New York Times:
Pfizer, Moderna Covid Shots Less Effective For Immunocompromised, Study Shows
Coronavirus vaccines were significantly less effective in protecting people with weakened immune systems than they were for other people, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Tuesday, buttressing the agency’s call for immunocompromised adults to receive third or fourth doses of vaccines. Two doses of either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines were 77 percent effective against Covid-related hospitalization for immunocompromised people. That was a significant degree of protection, the agency said, but far lower than the shots’ benefit to people without immune deficiencies: In those people, the agency said, the vaccines were 90 percent effective against Covid hospitalizations. (Mueller, 11/2)
CIDRAP:
Vaccine Plus Previous Infection May Offer Enhanced COVID-19 Protection
Two new studies in JAMA find that COVID-19 survivors who receive two doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna mRNA vaccines may have stronger protection against coronavirus infection, one detailing much lower breakthrough infection rates in previously infected Qataris and one describing higher spike antibody levels among recovered US healthcare workers (HCWs). (Van Beusekom, 11/2)
USA Today:
Pediatric Vaccines May Come To The Rescue Just As Infections In U.S. Start To Rise
The timing [of covid shots for children] couldn't be better, considering the pace of new virus cases in the U.S. has risen 5.4% in the last week, a worrying sign suggesting the delta variant-driven wave hasn't ended. There were 523,194 new cases nationwide in the week ending Monday, after dropping to a recent low point of 495,194 the previous week, a USA TODAY analysis of Johns Hopkins University data shows. At the current pace, 52 new infections are recorded every minute. (Miller, Ortiz and Schnell, 11/2)
NBC News:
The New Faces Of Covid Deaths
Younger, Southern, rural and white.Those are increasingly the kinds of people who are dying of Covid-19, as the demographics of those hit hardest by the coronavirus have shifted since the pandemic first hit the United States. The country’s most recent, devastating Covid wave, fueled by the highly contagious delta variant, showed the strength of the virus even in the face of mounting vaccinations, with more than 100,000 deaths reported in the past three months. Many of those deaths were reported in places — and in populations — that had been largely spared the worst effects of the disease until now. (Chow, Murphy, Wu and Dans, 11/2)
AP:
Idaho's COVID Numbers Drop Slightly, Crisis Standards Remain
The rate of COVID-19 hospitalizations and newly confirmed coronavirus cases has been dropping in Idaho, but the numbers are still high enough to leave hospitals overtaxed, Idaho Division of Public Health Administrator Elke Shaw-Tulloch said Tuesday. That means hospitals will remain under a “crisis standards of care” designation for now, giving them the ability to ration health care as needed to deal with high numbers of COVID-19 patients in intensive care units and hospital beds. (Boone, 11/2)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Entire Bay Area Is Back In CDC's Orange And Red Tiers For COVID Spread
The entire Bay Area has returned to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s orange “substantial” and red “high” categories of coronavirus transmission — a step backward for some counties, like Marin and San Francisco, where transmission was previously classified as yellow, or “moderate.” This comes after Marin County lifted its indoor mask mandate on Monday after reaching key COVID-19 benchmarks agreed upon by eight Bay Area counties. However, the mandate is unlikely to be immediately reinstated; the county’s health officer Matt Willis said last week that an increase in cases alone will not determine whether masks come back; rather he will watch hospitalization numbers, which as of Friday were at a four-month low. (Hwang, 11/2)
The New York Times:
Military Grants Few Coronavirus Vaccine Exemptions As Deadlines Loom
Two months after the Pentagon began requiring all troops to get the coronavirus vaccine or face dismissal, the vast majority have now had shots, in part because none received a religious exemption, military officials said. While vaccine exemptions are often broadly worded, requests based on religious beliefs are coming under close scrutiny in the military and at the Department of Veterans Affairs, the first federal agency to impose a mandate. They will likely be followed by the rest of the federal government, where most workers are required to be vaccinated by the end of this month. (Steinhauer, 11/2)
Fox News:
Air Force Kicked Out 23 Recruits From Boot Camp Who Refused To Get COVID Vaccine
The U.S. Air Force removed 23 recruits from boot camp last week after they refused to get the COVID-19 vaccine ahead of the Nov. 2 deadline, defense officials confirmed to Fox News. According to Pentagon officials, there is no military-wide punishment for those who refuse the vaccine, and each service must decide how to handle those situations. The deadline for active-duty members in the Navy to receive the vaccine is Nov. 28, with the Army's being set at Dec. 15. "The secretary's been very clear with the leaders of the military departments that he wants them to execute the mandate with a sense of compassion and understanding," John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary, said Monday. (Tomlinson and Morris, 11/2)
Oklahoman:
Oklahoma Governor Wants COVID-19 Vaccine Exemption For National Guard
Saying about 10% of Oklahoma National members have not received the COVID-19 vaccine or don't intend to get the shots, Gov. Kevin Stitt is asking the federal government to suspend a vaccine requirement for local guardsmen. In a letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Stitt said a federal requirement that military troops receive the COVID-19 vaccine "violates the personal freedoms of many Oklahomans." An estimated 800 Oklahoma guard members have not received the vaccine or don't plan to, Stitt wrote in the Monday letter. Citing recent severe weather events in Oklahoma, he wrote the state could be crippled in the face of an emergency without those guardsmen on call. (11/3)
Anchorage Daily News:
Alaska Gov. Dunleavy Forbids State Agencies From Following Federal Vaccination Mandates
Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy issued an administrative order Tuesday prohibiting state agencies from assisting with a proposed federal vaccination requirement for large employers. It also requires Alaska’s attorney general to review all federal vaccination mandates and determine whether the state can challenge them in court. Those measures are two of six points in the order, which the governor said is intended to “guard the Constitutional rights of individual Alaskans from federal overreach.” The restrictions on state agencies do not apply to the University of Alaska, which announced Tuesday that it will require some employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19 starting Dec. 8. (Brooks, 11/2)
San Francisco Chronicle:
SFPD Places Police Officers On Leave For Failing To Meet COVID-19 Vaccination Deadline
The San Francisco Police Department said Tuesday that it placed as many as 70 employees on leave who failed to meet the city’s vaccination deadline this week. In a news release Tuesday, SFPD said 97.5% of its employees — 2,747 out of 2,817 — were fully vaccinated by Monday’s deadline. The department did not explicitly say how many employees were placed on leave or how many may have received exemptions, but noted that those who were not fully vaccinated and those who did not provide vaccination records were placed on leave pending termination proceedings. (Picon, 11/2)
Las Vegas Review-Journal:
Sheriff Says Employees Who Died Of COVID Were Unvaccinated
Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo said Tuesday all of the department employees who died of COVID-19 were unvaccinated. Speaking at a Nevada Republican Club event in Las Vegas, Lombardo said he does not have plans to mandate vaccines for existing employees. “They’re all adults and they’re educated, and they can make that decision,” he said after his speech. Multiple Metropolitan Police Department employees have died from the coronavirus since July 2020. Police officers were among the first people to have access to vaccines after distribution began late last year. Metro previously declined to provide information on the vaccination status of the employees who have died since the vaccine was released, citing the federal law restricting release of medical information. (Apgar and Schnur, 11/2)
Charleston Gazette Mail:
Report: Inspection Of Three Jails Indicates Officials Using Practices That "Needlessly Expose" Inmates To COVID-19
Inmates in three West Virginia jails have reported that they aren’t being medically isolated and some have stopped reporting symptoms of COVID-19 to staff while being crowded into booking and suicide-watch pens, according to a report filed in a federal court case last month. Dr. Homer Venters said he witnessed people sleeping on cement floors “inches from each other” in booking pens, while nearby jail cells were unused in three jails he inspected in September, part of an attempt to get an injunction to compel corrections officials to update, and more strictly adhere to, COVID-19 policies. (Pierson, 11/2)
Houston Chronicle:
Texas Passes Limits On COVID Restrictions In Churches, Care Homes
The eight proposed constitutional amendments on the statewide ballot were headed toward ratification late Tuesday night, including two responses to COVID-19 restrictions: one banning any prohibitions on religious services for any reason and another allowing care home residents to designate an “essential caregiver” who can’t be denied visitation rights. With more than 80 percent of statewide voting locations reporting results, all of the measures were passing comfortably. To be placed on the ballot, each proposition passed both chambers of the Texas Legislature with more than two-thirds approval. Now they are set to become law. (McKinley, 11/3)
AP:
Arizona High Court Upholds Ruling Blocking School Mask Bans
The Arizona Supreme Court on Tuesday unanimously upheld a lower court judgment that found the Republican-controlled Legislature violated the state constitution by including new laws banning school mask mandates and a series of other measures in unrelated budget bills. The swift ruling from the state’s high court came less than two hours after the seven justices heard arguments in the state’s appeal of a trial court judge’s ruling. The justices had hammered Solicitor General Beau Roysden with questions about the Legislature’s inclusion of policy as different as dog racing and secure ballot paper in one of the budget bills. (Christie, 11/3)
The Wall Street Journal:
Pfizer Raises Covid-19 Vaccine Forecast As Sales More Than Double
Pfizer Inc. increased its forecast for sales of its Covid-19 vaccine this year to about $36 billion, a roughly 7% boost that comes as the U.S. prepares to distribute the shot to 28 million children ages 5 to 11 years old. The New York-based drugmaker said its sales projection for the vaccine it developed with partner BioNTech SE takes into account expected deliveries of about 2.3 billion vaccine doses this year. The companies have grown their capabilities for manufacturing doses, and are working with other firms overseas to produce doses. (Hopkins and Grossman, 11/2)
Modern Healthcare:
CMS To Boost Pay For Home Health, Hospital Outpatient Services
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is boosting payment for hospital outpatient services and home health and reducing reimbursement for physicians next year, according to a trio of final rules published Tuesday. Hospital-owned outpatient and ambulatory surgery center payment rates will each increase by 2%. Medicare home health reimbursement rates will increase by 2.6%, which the CMS expects to increase payments by $465 million. The agency will reduce the physician fee schedule conversation factor by $1.30 to $33.59 as the temporary reimbursement boost provided by the Consolidated Appropriations Act expires. But the CMS is expanding reimbursement for telehealth services that treat mental health issues. (Kacik, 11/2)
Modern Healthcare:
TeamHealth Fires Back At UnitedHealth
TeamHealth's claims that UnitedHealthcare shortchanged 11,500 claims worth $10.5 million went forward in Clark County, Nevada District Court on Tuesday, with the lawsuit's complaints mirroring those of nine other cases the private equity-backed provider has pending against the nation's largest insurer, all accusing UnitedHealthcare of underpaying its bills by tens of millions of dollars. UnitedHealthcare's most recent federal suit is simply an attempt to distract from the ongoing case in Las Vegas, TeamHealth wrote in an email. In the run-up to the trial, the insurer tried to raise upcoding as a defense, but the court dismissed the charge, the company said. (Tepper, 11/2)
Modern Healthcare:
Geisinger Settles Medicare False Claims For $18.5 Million
Geisinger will pay $18.5 million to settle false claims it filed to Medicare for hospice and home health services, the Justice Department announced Monday. Geisinger voluntarily reported the billing mistakes its Geisinger Community Health Services unit committed between 2012 and 2017. Claims regarding physician certifications of terminal illnesses, patients' elections to enter hospice and in-person physician interactions with home health patients violated Medicare law, according to the Justice Department. (Kacik, 11/2)
NPR:
Dole Recalls Bags Of Garden Salad Due To Possible Listeria Risk
Dole Fresh Vegetables is recalling bags of garden salad that were sold in 10 states due to a sample that tested positive for listeria monocytogenes, an organism that can cause serious and possible deadly infections, according to the Food and Drug Administration. The company recalled four different salad varities: the 24-ounce Dole Garden Salad, 24-ounce Marketside Classic Salad, 12-ounce Kroger Brand Garden Salad and the 12-ounce Salad Classics Garden Salad. FDA officials have reported no illnesses associated with the recalled salads, which were sold across Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Virginia. (Franklin, 11/2)
AP:
2 Ohio Lawmakers Introduce Texas-Style Abortion Restriction
Two Republican state lawmakers in Ohio introduced Texas-style legislation Tuesday that could effectively end all abortions in the state. Reps. Jena Powell and Thomas Hall unveiled their bill in the heavily Republican Ohio House a day after the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments on the Texas law on which it is modeled. A majority of justices signaled they would allow abortion providers to pursue a court challenge to the law. (Smyth, 11/3)
Detroit Free Press:
EPA Orders Benton Harbor To Take Steps To Fix Lead-Tainted System
The city of Benton Harbor must take immediate actions to improve the safety and reliability of its lead-tainted drinking water, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ordered Tuesday. The order comes as state and local officials continue to provide Benton Harbor residents with bottled water, and have embarked on a $30 million project intended to replace the city's thousands of lead service lines within 18 months. The city's municipal water system has tested for lead levels above the federal action limit of 15 parts per billion since 2018. But it was this September, when a group of 30 environmental and community organizations appealed to the EPA to intervene in Benton Harbor as the lead problems languished, that state and local response intensified. (Matheny, 12/2)
AP:
Tennessee To Hold Free Flu Vaccination Events
The Tennessee Department of Health is urging the public to get a flu shot if they have not already received one. According to a news release, the department will hold “Fight Flu TN” vaccine events that will offer free shots in every county on Nov. 9 to help boost the number of Tennesseans vaccinated against influenza. (11/3)
Bloomberg:
U.K. Parliament Tightens Its Covid Rules On Surge In Infections
The U.K. Parliament tightened coronavirus rules amid a surge in cases, with tours and banquets canceled for two weeks and MPs urged to wear masks. Face coverings were made compulsory for staff, contractors and journalists last week, but members of Parliament cannot be ordered to do so because they’re not employed by House of Commons authorities. They were told Tuesday, however, that they are now expected to wear them across the estate. While most opposition MPs have worn masks in the Commons chamber in recent weeks, many Conservatives have not. (Ashton, 11/2)
Reuters:
COVID Pandemic In Britain Is Not Over, Hard Months To Come, Deputy Medical Officer Says
The COVID-19 pandemic is not over in Britain and there are hard months to come as winter nears, England's deputy chief medical officer Jonathan Van-Tam said on Wednesday. "Too many people believe that this pandemic is now over. I personally feel there are some hard months to come in the winter and it is not over," Van-Tam told BBC TV. (11/3)
Bloomberg:
Greek Covid Restrictions Target Unvaccinated As Daily Cases Hit Record
Greece announced new Covid-19 measures targeting the unvaccinated as daily infections hit their highest level since the pandemic began. From Nov. 6, those who haven’t been jabbed but want to attend their place of work must undergo two rapid tests a week instead of one -- paid for themselves. To enter most stores, banks and restaurants, they’ll need to present a negative rapid or PCR test. Fines for businesses that don’t comply will double, starting at 5,000 euros ($5,791) and a 15-day suspension of operations. Tests won’t be needed for supermarkets and pharmacies. (Nikas, 11/2)
AP:
Brazil Weekly COVID-19 Death Toll At Lowest Since April 2020
Brazil’s seven-day total for deaths from COVID-19 has fallen to its lowest level since the start of the pandemic, according to online research website Our World in Data.In the seven days through Nov. 1 the nation recorded 2,188 deaths -- a level unseen since April 2020 -- amid increasingly widespread vaccination. (Biller and Jeantet, 11/2)
Stat:
How Puerto Rico's Vaccine Drive Turned Into A Success
The leader of the Puerto Rico National Guard was still dealing with the aftermath of a 6.4-magnitude earthquake that displaced thousands of residents in January 2020 when island officials began hearing reports of people falling ill from the new coronavirus. Once again, they turned to Guard Adjutant General José J. Reyes. Much of Reyes’ 37-year career has been in emergency response mode — from 9/11 to the devastation of Hurricane Maria in 2017 to the earthquake — but he sees all of those events as preparation for this one: helping to plan the island’s vaccination strategy and oversee its rollout. (Cueto, 11/3)
AP:
Pregnant Woman's Death Puts Spotlight On Polish Abortion Law
A Polish hospital said Tuesday that doctors and midwives did everything they could to save the lives of a pregnant woman and her fetus in a case that has put the spotlight on a new restriction on Poland’s abortion law. The 30-year-old woman died of septic shock in her 22nd week of pregnancy. Doctors did not perform an abortion, even though her fetus was lacking amniotic fluid, according to a lawyer for the family. (Gera, 11/2)