Axios

People in the U.S. can now order up to four additional free, at-home rapid COVID-19 tests from the government.

Driving the news: The Biden administration announced the program to provide people in the U.S. with free COVID-19 tests in December amid the Omicron surge, and the first batch of tests started going out to people in January.

The Biden administration on Monday asked the Supreme Court to allow the Department of Defense to enforce its COVID-19 vaccination requirement for a group of unvaccinated Navy Seals.

Catch up fast: A federal judge in January upheld a lawsuit from 35 Navy Seals and filed the preliminary injunction on religious freedom grounds, saying the service members had a right to refuse the vaccine because of their beliefs.

The risk of deaths due to extreme temperatures could rise significantly under a warming scenario of more than 2°C, according to a study published Monday in the journal Environmental Research Letters.

Why it matters: As Axios' Andrew Freedman reported recently, peer-reviewed research the world is already on course for at least 3°C (5.4°F) of warming above preindustrial levels — and running out of time to do something about it.

The COVID antibody drug Evusheld, which the FDA authorized in December to help protect immunocompromised people before they're exposed to the virus, is often going unused because of confusion among health care providers, the New York Times reports.

Why it matters: The drug, made by AstraZeneca, is seen as a critical tool for some of the most vulnerable Americans or those who can't be vaccinated — but only if they can access it.

The global death toll from the coronavirus pandemic surpassed 6 million on Monday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

The big picture: As the pandemic enters its third year, deaths from the virus are now largely seen among mostly unvaccinated people, AP reports.

More than half of all Americans say they've directly felt the effects of health care worker shortages, from canceled appointments to delayed surgeries, according to results from a CVS Health-Harris Poll National Health project provided to Axios.

Why it matters: Americans are starting to feel the impacts of the medical workforce crunch as they rearrange their care in the wake of the pandemic, leading to an even bigger supply-demand mismatch and the access issues that come with it.

American truckers and other drivers, calling themselves the "People's Convoy," are slowing traffic on Sunday as they drive around the Capital Beltway, a highway that encircles Washington, D.C.

What's happening: The group is emulating the "Freedom Convoy," which saw truckers in Canada blocking the streets of Ottawa for weeks and jamming several U.S.-Canada border crossings, in protest of COVID-19 health restrictions.

The confrontation over gender-affirming care for transgender youth hit a boil this week as Texas Gov. Greg Abbott doubled down on his call for state officials to investigate "transition care" for minors as "child abuse."

Driving the news: Even as Abbott's team called the issue a political "winner," major medical groups including the American Academy of Pediatrics condemned the stance, saying it trampled on the doctor-patient relationship and injected politics into medical care.