Mass General Brigham must submit a plan to lower rising costs that stem from the hospital system's expensive care, the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission said today.
Why it matters: This commission is viewed as a potential template for other states to regulate rising hospital and physician spending. This is the first time the agency has taken action on a hospital system to temper costs.
Pregnant Hispanic women in the U.S. are 2.4 times more likely to get COVID-19 than other women, according to a study from Sutter Health. The nonprofit health care network is urging medical professionals to encourage more vaccinations for Latinas.
Why it matters: Pregnant people with COVID-19 face higher risks of maternal death and of premature births and stillbirths, research shows.
Some of the nation’s most prominent civil rights organizations are urging President Biden to do more for Latinos.
Why it matters: Even though Latinos supported Biden over Donald Trump in 2020, Republicans made significant inroads, putting Democrats on notice. Latinos will be about 1 in 8 eligible voters in 2024 and are an increasingly growing voting demographic that Democrats will have to fight harder for.
Musician Neil Young demanded that Spotify pull his music from its service, accusing the company of spreading vaccine misinformation in a since-deleted letter that was briefly posted to his website Monday night, Rolling Stone first reported.
Why it matters: The letter added to mounting pressure on Spotify to better regulate vaccine COVID-19 vaccine misinformation on its streaming platform.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced Tuesday that it is withdrawing the Biden administration's temporary COVID-19 vaccine-or-test requirement for large employers.
The big picture: OSHA said it made the decision to withdraw the mandate following the Supreme Court's decision blocking the rule.
A Connecticut student's death has renewed calls for schools to stock and administer naloxone, a drug that can quickly reverse the effects of an opioid overdose.
Why it matters: U.S. drug overdose fatalities reached six figures in a 12-month period for the first time in November, and synthetic or natural opioids were the cause of a majority of the overdoses.
Pfizer and BioNTech announced Tuesday that they have started clinical trials for a reformulated vaccine to protect against the Omicron coronavirus variant.
Why it matters: The rise of the Omicron variant has forced vaccine makers to reassess the effectiveness of their vaccines.
Two new Biden administration initiatives — mailing at-home COVID-19 tests to those who ask and making free N95 masks available — are hugely popular, each backed by 84% of Americans in the latest installment of the Axios/Ipsos Coronavirus Index.
Yes, but: Those who may need these most — the unvaccinated — are less likely to take advantage of the offerings, the survey found. And neither has boosted President Biden's numbers so far, meaning it's too little too late, or too soon to see a change.
Omicron infections are trending down nationally, but the number of deaths is as high now as it was during the summer's Delta wave.
Why it matters: Preventing death is the ultimate goal, and thousands of Americans continue to die from this coronavirus every day even though vaccines have been available to the public for roughly a year.
The FDA said Monday it's limiting the use of two monoclonal antibody therapies as COVID-19 treatments because data indicates they're "highly unlikely" to be effective against the dominant Omicron variant.
Driving the news: The FDA revised the authorizations for Regeneron and Eli Lilly "to limit their use to only when the patient is likely to have been infected with or exposed to a variant that is susceptible to these treatments," per a statement from the agency.
The New York State Department of Education (NYSED) issued a statement Monday telling schools to continue following Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul's mask mandate after a state Supreme Court judge struck down the rule.
Why it matters: The agency pointed to a case in Albany County where a state Supreme Court judge denied a challenge from two school districts, ruling that Hochul and the state's health commissioner have the authority to enact a mask mandate in schools.
