Senators working to keep the bipartisan infrastructure deal alive are zeroing in on Medicare prescription drug rebate formulas to offset up to $60 billion of the $1.2 trillion package, people familiar with the matter tell Axios.
Why it matters: Targeting those funds puts the bipartisan infrastructure plan in competition with the $3.5 trillion, Democrat-only plan proposed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I.-Vt.). It also assumes new money from altering complicated prescription drug formulas.
Americans who are not fully vaccinated or not vaccinated at all are much less concerned about the Delta variant than fully vaccinated Americans are, a new CBS poll indicates.
Why it matters: COVID-19 cases are once again rising across the U.S. as health officials become increasingly concerned about the Delta variant, which is significantly more infectious than the original strain and poses an acute threat to the unvaccinated.
Olympic Games organizers confirmed Sunday three athletes have tested positive for COVID-19 in Tokyo — five days before the event is due to begin, per Reuters.
Driving the news: Two of the athletes, all of whom were listed as "non-Japanese," were staying in the Olympic Village, AP notes. The other was outside the village.
President Biden's chief medical adviser, Anthony Fauci, told CNN Saturday he's "certain" smallpox and polio would still be in the U.S. if vaccine misinformation spread like it has over COVID-19.
Why it matters: Facebook doubled down in its defense Saturday against Biden's comments that social media platforms were "killing people" by allowing coronavirus vaccine misinformation on their sites.
Three unnamed, but fully vaccinated, Democratic members of the Texas House have tested positive for the coronavirus, the state's House Democratic Caucus said Saturday.
The big picture: The three lawmakers are among dozens of state House members who fled to Washington, D.C., earlier this week who said they would stay away from Texas until they achieved their goal of blocking Republicans from passing new voting restrictions.
Child cancer patients and HIV-positive Mexicans have increasingly had to put life-saving treatments on hold as public hospitals run out of the medications they need.
The big picture: Activists say around 1,600 children with cancer have died from the lack of oncological meds.
The head of the World Health Organization said Thursday that it was too early to rule out a potential connection between the coronavirus pandemic and a laboratory leak, AP reports.
Driving the news: WHO is “asking actually China to be transparent, open and cooperate, especially on the information, raw data that we asked for at the early days of the pandemic," Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, per AP.
The pandemic mantra has been to "trust the science" — but many people of color don't and won't. The reasons range from the abuses of eugenics to historic hurdles to getting care.
Why it matters: Science that supports medical breakthroughs has long taken advantage of people of color. Overcoming the resulting suspicion could take generations.
The Greek government issued special measures for the island of Mykonos in response to the latest coronavirus outbreak, including a 24-hour "[p]rohibition of music," Deputy Minister of Civil Protection and Crisis Management Nikos Hardalia announced Saturday.
Details: The music ban will kick off at 6 p.m. local time Saturday. A traffic ban will also go into effect between 1 a.m. and 6 a.m. on Sunday, "with the exception of work reasons and serious health reasons," per a release from the country's general secretariat for civil protection.
