Axios

Oscar Health, the health insurance company co-founded by Jared Kushner's brother, Joshua, has filed for an IPO and announced that Barack Obama's former campaign manager, David Plouffe, will join its board of directors.

Why it matters: Oscar Health is one of the highest-profile attempts at disrupting the health insurance sector.

On the eve of Super Bowl weekend, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell wrote President Biden to tell him that each of the league's 32 teams "will make its stadium available for mass vaccinations of the general public."

Driving the news: Goodell wrote in the letter, dated Thursday, that this can be done swiftly "because many of our clubs have offered their facilities previously as COVID testing centers as well as election sites over the past several months."

The Defense Department will send more than 1,000 active-duty military personnel to support mass coronavirus vaccination sites in states across the country, the White House COVID-19 response team announced on Friday.

Why it matters: The Pentagon approved a request from FEMA to provide military assistance for five vaccination centers as part of an effort to meet President Biden's goal of vaccinating 100 million people (with at least one dose) within his first 100 days in office.

Gilead Sciences collected $2.8 billion of revenue in 2020 from its IV coronavirus treatment Veklury, also known as remdesivir.

The big picture: The pandemic has created a massive business that Gilead simply did not have before.

A team of researchers at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health has some warnings about the pandemic causing drug shortages — and some ideas on what to do about it.

Driving the news: COVID is increasing the demand for drugs that are needed to treat patients with the virus — like sedatives and vasopressors, which help patients with low blood pressure, per the report.

Seniors are supposed to be among the first Americans to get COVID-19 vaccines, but they're running into a major problem: Signing up for the appointments online.

The big picture: Millions of older Americans aren't online at all, and many who do have internet access are struggling to find and use the sign-up portals that local health officials have scrambled to set up.

Daily cases of COVID-19 are currently falling across most of the world, and deaths — which had been climbing globally until late January — are also beginning to decrease.

The big picture: We can only learn so much from this 30,000-foot view, and there's plenty to fear from the emerging variants. Plus, cases and deaths had been so high that even after climbing down from the peak, we're still pretty close to the summit.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that the coronavirus pandemic disproportionately affects LGBTQ Americans compared to their straight peers, per an analysis released Thursday.

Why it matters: The report is one of the agency's first public examinations of how the coronavirus is affecting LGBTQ people, and comes amid an information drought as advocates take the reins on gathering data.

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers (D) on Thursday issued a new statewide mask mandate almost immediately after the state Legislature voted to repeal his previous order.

Why it matters: Evers' attempts to combat COVID-19 have faced pushback from Republicans since early in the pandemic. Even with a new order, the Legislature could again vote to repeal the mask requirement.

Gene-editing may lead the next generation of diagnostics that could help to quickly stop disease outbreaks and pandemics.

The big picture: New mRNA vaccine platforms, up-and-coming CRISPR diagnostics and other genomics-based tools may be the key to halting future pandemics. Their "plug and play" characteristics should allow a short turnaround to diagnose a pathogen, contact-trace suspected carriers, and develop a protective vaccine, experts tell Axios.

The global COVAX vaccine initiative has rolled out detailed plans to distribute vaccines to 145 participants in the first half of 2021.

Zoom in: Canada, which has purchased more doses per capita than any other country, has nonetheless elected to take 1.9 million doses from COVAX.

Significant amounts of arsenic, lead, mercury, and other toxic heavy metals are in baby food made by the largest such companies in the U.S., according to a report published Thursday by a House Oversight subcommittee.

Why it matters: Babies and children are more vulnerable to severe and neurotoxic damage by toxic heavy metals than adults. The report alleges that the FDA under the Trump administration failed to take action after learning about the increased risk of heavy metals in baby food.

Sana Biotechnology, a Seattle gene regulation startup led by several co-founders of Juno Therapeutics, raised $588 million in its IPO. The company priced 23.5 million shares at $25, for a fully diluted market value of around $4.9 billion.

Why it matters: It's the largest-ever IPO for a preclinical biotech company.

A third of U.S. adults say they don't plan to get their children vaccinated against the coronavirus, and only about 4 in 10 say they do, according to recent polling by Verywell Health.

Why it matters: There isn't currently a vaccine available for children, but kids will eventually be an important component of reaching widespread immunity throughout the population.

The number of emergency-room visits for mental health conditions, suicide attempts, drug overdoses, intimate partner violence and child abuse and neglect were higher during the pandemic than the same period in 2019, a JAMA report out Wednesday shows.

The big picture: Early studies have indicated that isolation and economic stress fueled these serious outcomes.

New coronavirus infections slowed by nearly 16% over the past week, continuing a trend of rapid improvement.

The big picture: The U.S. still has a ton of coronavirus, and there’s still the potential for dark days ahead. But this is progress, and the improvement is significant. If this trend keeps going, the country will be in a far better and safer position as vaccines continue to roll out.

One COVID-19 case contracted at a Melbourne quarantine hotel has caused 507 tennis players and staff to go into isolation until they return a negative test result, four days out from the Australian Open beginning.

Why it matters: The first community case in the state of Victoria for 28 days has resulted in new restrictions implemented and the cancelation of all of Thursday's scheduled warm-up games.

The United Kingdom on Thursday launched a new clinical study to test the effects of mixing COVID-19 vaccines.

Why it matters: Per a statement from Oxford University virologist Matthew Snape, chief investigator of the world-first study: "If we do show that these vaccines can be used interchangeably in the same schedule this will greatly increase the flexibility of vaccine delivery."

Moderna's CEO Stéphane Bancel tells Axios the company's coronavirus vaccine made it to market in near-record time thanks in part to a unique digital foundation.

The big picture: Moderna is far smaller than many of its pharma competitors, but it made one of the first authorized COVID-19 vaccines. But the company still needs to adapt to a mutating virus — and come up with its next blockbuster product.