The biggest supermoon of this year will be rising tonight — the “Buck Supermoon” — so not only will the night sky be shinier, but the moon will also be ever so slightly closer to us.
In health news, the Biden administration is reminding pharmacists they can’t refuse to fill prescriptions for contraception or abortion medications.
Welcome to Overnight Health Care, where we’re following the latest moves on policy and news affecting your health. For The Hill, we’re Peter Sullivan, Nathaniel Weixel and Joseph Choi. Someone forward you this newsletter? Subscribe here.
Feds tell pharmacists to provide prescribed meds
The Biden administration on Wednesday said retail pharmacies and pharmacists must provide patients with the medication they were legally prescribed even if it could be used in an abortion.
The guidance to about 60,000 retail pharmacies from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) comes amid reports of pharmacists turning away women seeking abortion medication, or even medication used primarily to treat other ailments but that can cause abortions.
“The Department is committed to improving maternal health—including for individuals who experience miscarriages—and vigorous enforcement of our civil rights laws is one way in which we plan to do so,” the guidance stated.
- This can include mifepristone, used in combination with misoprostol, to assist with a first-trimester miscarriage. Those drugs are also used in medication abortion, which is now illegal in some states.
- Pharmacists must dispense methotrexate, a common drug used to treat rheumatoid arthritis or other autoimmune conditions. The drug is also used
off-label to end ectopic pregnancies, causing it to be restricted in some states.
Guidance only: HHS is reminding pharmacists of existing law; they’re not making any new policy, only interpreting what’s already on the books. But as states move to outlaw and restrict abortion, federal and state laws will diverge, and the result will likely be determined on a case-by-case basis.
BA.5 ups concerns about spread, hospitalizations
Concerns are rising over a new omicron subvariant that is even more highly transmissible, called BA.5. The new subvariant has risen to be a majority of COVID-19 cases in the United States and is sparking concern about an increase in hospitalizations.
The White House held a press briefing with its top health experts on Tuesday to address the rise of the subvariant and urged people to get booster shots if they have not yet.
What’s new about it? BA.5 causes concern because of its increased contagiousness and because of its greater ability to evade the protection from vaccines and prior infection.
Importantly, though, the vaccines still provide crucial protection against severe disease and death, especially for people who have received their booster shots.
The trends so far:
- Hospitalizations are already increasing amid the rise of BA.5, to around 37,000, according to a New York Times tracker, though are still relatively low compared to other points in the pandemic.
- Deaths and intensive care unit stays have stayed largely flat so far despite high levels of cases, which experts attribute to the protection of vaccines and treatments.
WHO: DON’T ACT LIKE THE PANDEMIC IS ENDING
The World Health Organization’s (WHO) director-general this week issued a word of caution to countries and people who have ceased practicing COVID-19 safety measures, saying the pandemic is far from over.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Tuesday expressed his concerns that the international response to the coronavirus pandemic was now lagging, pointing to an observed reduction in virus surveillance and the mismanaged deployment of vaccines and treatments.
“The virus is running freely and countries are not effectively managing the disease burden based on their capacity, in terms of both hospitalization for acute cases and the expanding number of people with post COVID-19 condition — often referred to as long COVID,” Tedros said.
The WHO leader noted how the BA.4 and BA.5 omicron subvariants — now dominant in many countries, including the U.S. — have recently driven waves of hospitalizations and deaths globally.
“New waves of the virus demonstrate again that the COVID-19 is nowhere near over,” Tedros said.
MONKEYPOX VACCINE APPOINTMENT WEBSITE CRASHES IN NYC
New York City’s monkeypox vaccine appointment website crashed on Tuesday “due to overwhelming traffic,” the city announced as the nation sees an uptick in cases.
- “All available monkeypox vaccine appointment slots have been booked. Due to overwhelming traffic, as soon as appointments went online this afternoon, the site delivered error messages for many people who were unable to make appointments,” the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene tweeted on Tuesday afternoon.
- The city said that it would alert residents when more appointments could be scheduled and noted that the technical difficulties experienced on their website “is just further proof that demand is very high.”
Earlier this week, New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) wrote a letter to
President Biden asking that the interval between vaccine doses for monkeypox be lengthened so more people could immediately receive their first dose.
CDC data as of Tuesday afternoon shows that there are 929 monkeypox cases nationwide.
FDA authorizes COVID vaccine from Novavax
The Food and Drug Administration authorized Novavax’s COVID-19 shot for emergency use on Wednesday, adding a fourth vaccine to the U.S. arsenal.
The agency cleared the vaccine for adults aged 18 and older. The shot will be administered as a two-dose primary series, three weeks apart.
- Novavax’s vaccine could appeal to people who have been reluctant to receive one of the mRNA vaccines, as the protein-based shot was manufactured using a fundamentally different process.
- But about 77 percent of adults have already received two doses of an mRNA shot, so the potential market is small.
Novavax’s shot “provides another alternative for adults and adds another vaccine to the COVID-19 vaccine supply for the United States. The American public can trust that this vaccine, like all vaccines that are used in the United States, has undergone the FDA’s rigorous and comprehensive scientific and regulatory review,” said Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s vaccine division.
Once the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention signs off, vaccination can begin. The agency’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices is scheduled to meet on July 19.
WHAT WE’RE READING
- In a post-Roe world, the future of digital privacy looks even grimmer (The New York Times)
- COVID-19 reinfections may be common—but they’re not harmless (Time)
- Officials urge Americans over 50 to get Covid-19 booster right away, but younger adults have to wait (CNN)
STATE BY STATE
- A New Mexico clinic that offers abortions later in pregnancy braces for more patients (NPR)
- Why Planned Parenthood wants ‘medical emergency’ defined in Missouri’s abortion ban (KTVI)
- Georgia lawmakers demand UGA end support for pregnancy crisis center map (The Current)
OP-EDS IN THE HILL
- The domino effect of overturning Roe goes well beyond abortion
- Opioids and the Supreme Court’s understated opinions
- With abortion access limited, protecting Title X is critical
That’s it for today, thanks for reading. Check out The Hill’s Health Care page for the latest news and coverage. See you tomorrow.
