Youngkin urges Defense secretary to ‘indefinitely postpone’ Army Guard vaccine mandate

 Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) urged Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to “indefinitely postpone” the implementation of the department’s coronavirus vaccine mandate for Army National Guard Troops in a new letter obtained by The Hill on Tuesday.

The letter, which was also signed by Republican Virginia Reps. Bob Good, Rob Whittman, Ben Cline and Morgan Griffith, argues that the mandate will drive members of Virginia’s national guard away.

“This directive will unnecessarily impact troop readiness, at a time when the VirginiaNational Guard has substantial deployments and as our nation enters hurricane season. These guardsmen deserve the opportunity to continue to serve, and we need them,” the letter reads.

Additionally, the letter cites recently dropped mask and vaccine mandate in other jurisdictions, natural immunity to the virus, and the use of therapeutics as reasons for dropping the mandate.

“We know you share our great appreciation and respect for the brave men and women of our National Guard. Their service and sacrifice reflect their commitment to our country and the principles embodied in our nation,” the letter concludes. “A select number of them have made a decision not to get vaccinated and whether that decision is based on sincerely held religious beliefs, their own medical choices, or another matter of conscience, our nation should respect and accommodate it.”

Other Republican governors, including Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) and Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) have also voiced objections to the vaccine mandate for the National Guard.

Austin has argued that as Defense secretary, he has the authority to set medical requirements.

The letter is the latest effort from Republicans to urge Austin to do away with the mandate. Soldiers in the Army Reserve and Army National Guard have until Thursday to receive the vaccine or get an exemption. If they do neither, they could face punishment or removal from service.

Roughly 60,000 Army Reserve and National Guard soldiers are still unvaccinated against COVID-19. According to the Military Times, 3,400 troops have been involuntarily separated from service for refusing to get the shot.

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/3540250-youngkin-urges-defense-secretary-to-indefinitely-postpone-army-guard-vaccine-mandate/

California will offer health insurance to all undocumented immigrants

 California will become the first state to offer all undocumented immigrants, regardless of age, state-subsidized health insurance. It’s expected to take effect in 2024 and it will make California the first state to achieve universal access to health coverage.  

The historic move was part of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D) 2022-2023 state budget allocation, which includes expanding the state’s Medi-Cal program. That provides state-funded health insurance to eligible residents and will now cover an additional 700,000 undocumented residents ages 26-49 beginning no later than Jan. 1, 2024.  

Medi-Cal already offers coverage to undocumented immigrants if they are younger than 26, over the age of 50 or a recipient of the federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.  

The expansion of Medi-Cal is expected to lead to the largest drop in the rate of uninsured Californians in a decade. Undocumented Californians make up the largest group of the state’s uninsured, with the University of California Berkley’s Labor Center projecting nearly 1.3 million individuals under the age of 65 are uninsured in 2022 alone.  

State Sen. María Elena Durazo hailed the expansion of Medi-Cal as a budget victory and said the state is, “one step closer to ending the outdated and discriminatory policy that prevents undocumented Californians from accessing affordable health care,” Durazo said in a statement posted to her Twitter account. 

“This is a victory for the millions of undocumented Californians who contribute $3.7 billion in state and local taxes and over $40 billion in spending power to our economy ever year.”  

According to an estimate by California’s Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO), expanding Medi-Cal to eligible undocumented immigrants will cost $2.1 billion on an ongoing basis. 

Though California will become the first state to offer health insurance coverage to nearly all undocumented immigrants residing in the state, other states have also made similar moves. 

In 2020, Illinois extended its state-funded health care to low-income individuals 65 years old and older who are undocumented. The state has also proposed legislation that would provide state-subsidized health insurance to undocumented immigrants who are 19 to 54-years-old and living at or below 133 percent of the federal poverty line.  

Oregon has also proposed the Cover All People Act that would expand its state-sponsored health insurance to all adults who would qualify for Medicaid but for their immigration status. 

The Kaiser Family Foundation (KKF) found that noncitizen immigrants are as likely as citizens to work but are significantly more likely to be uninsured due to limited access in both public and private coverage.  

https://thehill.com/changing-america/well-being/prevention-cures/3541196-california-will-offer-health-insurance-to-all-undocumented-immigrants/

Democratic governors urge Congress to avert ‘disastrous’ ObamaCare premium hike

 A group of Democratic governors is calling on Congress to avert what they call “disastrous” ObamaCare premium increases for next year as lawmakers search for a solution in their economic package.  

The letter from 14 Democratic governors to congressional leaders calls for extending enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies enacted last year as part of President Biden’s American Rescue Plan (ARP) but which are currently set to expire at the end of this year.

“We urge you to take action immediately to make the ARP expanded subsidies permanent to prevent a disastrous erosion of health insurance coverage,” write the state leaders, including Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy.  

In the letter, first reported by Punchbowl News, they also linked the issue to struggles with inflation.

“At a time when governments at all levels are struggling to find ways to reduce costs for the American people, we cannot allow the looming specter of rising health costs to cause more uncertainty and stress for American families,” they wrote.  

Democrats in Congress have also been calling for extending the enhanced subsidies, but their fate largely depends on Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), the key vote on Biden’s party-line economic package.  

Manchin has not given a clear answer on whether he supports extending the enhanced subsidies. In one interview with Insider this month, he suggested he could support an extension if the financial assistance was further “means-tested,” meaning help was reduced for people with higher incomes.  

“We should be helping the people who really need it the most and are really having the hardest time,” he said.  

The premium increase also poses a political risk for Democrats, already facing a tough midterm landscape, as notices of the premium increases would go out ahead of the elections.  

If the enhanced subsidies expire, it would return the Affordable Care Act to its pre-2021 levels of financial assistance. But the premium increases would be substantial, with an average increase of about 53 percent affecting roughly 13 million people, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.  

https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/3541259-democratic-governors-urge-congress-to-avert-disastrous-obamacare-premium-hike/

You can test negative for COVID and still have the virus

 You feel a tickle in your throat or a pounding in your head. Or perhaps you’re trying to be cautious before a large family gathering. Maybe a friend you saw yesterday says they’ve tested positive for COVID-19. In any case, you take a COVID-19 test.

If your results are negative, does that mean you’re in the clear? Or is it possible you can test negative and still have the virus?

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a negative COVID-19 test result does not necessarily mean you’re free of infection.

Both at-home and lab tests are looking for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. When used properly, they’ll show a positive result if SARS-CoV-2 is detected, and a negative result if it’s not. But even if the virus is not detected, it could still be there in small amounts.

If you have symptoms of the virus and still are testing negative, the CDC says, “You may have COVID-19, but tested before the virus was detectable, or you may have another illness, such as the flu.”

If you continue to have symptoms, you may want to test again 24 to 48 hours later, when your viral load may be higher. You may also consider getting a PCR test at a testing site, which is more sensitive and may detect the virus earlier in the infection cycle.

If you do not have symptoms, but you tested because you had a close contact with someone who was sick with the virus, the CDC says a negative result is likely accurate. “You are likely not infected, but an infection cannot be completely ruled out,” the agency advises.

The CDC emphasizes COVID-19 tests are good at detecting whether you currently are infected with the coronavirus. They do not indicate, however, whether you will have the virus and/or be contagious at any point in the future. That means you could test negative one day and test positive the next. That’s why the CDC recommends testing five days after an exposure, and then again one to two days later if you test negative.

https://thehill.com/homenews/nexstar_media_wire/3539854-can-you-test-negative-for-covid-and-still-have-the-virus/

Fauci experiencing ‘rebound’ of COVID symptoms after Paxlovid treatment

 Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious diseases doctor, said he is experiencing a rebound of COVID-19 symptoms after taking Pfizer’s antiviral drug Paxlovid.

Fauci, 81, contracted COVID-19 earlier this month, and while his symptoms were initially “minimal,” he was prescribed a five-day course of Paxlovid when they worsened because of his age.

Paxlovid is the leading treatment for COVID-19, and is used to prevent the risk for severe disease in high-risk people who test positive, including the unvaccinated and the elderly. The drug was made available under an emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration in December 2021.

Speaking during a Foreign Policy global health summit on Tuesday, Fauci said he tested negative for three days in a row after he finished taking Paxlovid. 

But then on the fourth day, Fauci said he tested positive again, a phenomenon that’s referred to as a “Paxlovid rebound.” 

Scores of patients have reported a similar experience, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last month warned health providers to be on the lookout for a “rebound” in Paxlovid patients between two and eight days after an initial recovery.

However, a rebound doesn’t mean a person is re-infected. Officials and experts have said they think it’s part of the “natural history” of the virus, and can occur regardless of a person’s vaccination status.

Fauci said that he felt “really poorly,” and his symptoms felt much worse in the day or two following the rebound, and he started a second course of Paxlovid. 

According to the CDC, there is currently no evidence that additional Paxlovid treatment is needed when there’s a suspected rebound.

The Food and Drug Administration similarly stated that “there is no evidence of benefit at this time for a longer course of treatment … or repeating a treatment course of Paxlovid in patients with recurrent COVID-19 symptoms following completion of a treatment course.”

Both the recurrence of illness and positive test results improved or resolved within about three days without additional anti-COVID-19 treatment.

Fauci has been the face of the government’s response to COVID-19 for more than two years and has previously avoided testing positive for the virus. But his positive test was the latest in a long string of high-profile cases among lawmakers and government officials in Washington, D.C.  

The White House has maintained that tools like vaccines, boosters and Paxlovid mean the country is in a new era of the virus where cases have been defanged to some degree. 

https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/3541329-fauci-says-he-is-experiencing-rebound-of-covid-symptoms-after-paxlovid-treatment/

BioNTech, Pfizer test 'universal' coronavirus vaccine

 Germany's BioNTech, Pfizer's partner in Covid-19 vaccines, said the two companies would start tests on humans later this year of next-generation shots that protect against a wide variety of coronaviruses, Reuters reported. The shots are designed to primarily protect against severe disease if variants of the virus become more dangerous, and pan-coronavirus shots that protect against the broader family of viruses and its mutations.

https://euobserver.com/tickers/155381

Sanofi caps out-of-pocket insulin cost at $35 for uninsured U.S. patients

 French drugmaker Sanofi said on Wednesday uninsured diabetes patients in the United States will pay no more than $35 for 30-day supply of insulin, in the wake of heightened public scrutiny over soaring prices of the life-saving drug.

Sanofi said the new price, down from the prior out-of-pocket cost of $99, will be effective from July 1.

U.S. lawmakers have pulled up healthcare companies over rising costs of insulin and the U.S. House of Representatives in March passed a bill capping monthly out-of-pocket insulin costs for those with health insurance at $35.

According to a 2020 Commonwealth Fund study, about two thirds of uninsured insulin users aged 18 to 64 paid the full price - an average of $900 a month - for the life-sustaining medicine.

Sanofi with Eli Lilly and Co and Novo Nordisk make up 90% of the U.S. market for insulin. In 2020, Lilly announced a new co-pay scheme that covers most of its insulin products, capping the out-of-pocket cost for insulin to $35 per month.

Around 37.3 million Americans, or 11.3% of the population, have diabetes, according to the American Diabetes Association.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/sanofi-caps-pocket-insulin-cost-125625024.html