Overnight Health Care — Presented by Altria — Dip in COVID-19 cases offers possible sign of hope

View in your browser PRESENTED BY OVERNIGHT POLICY: Health Care Dip in COVID-19 cases offers possible sign of hope Welcome to Thursday's Overnight Health Care, where we’re following the latest moves on policy and news affecting your health. Subscribe here: thehill.com/newsletter-signup. Singer Shakira said she took on two wild boars in Barcelona recently after they “attacked” her and briefly stole her purse.  In some possibly good news on the pandemic, cases are starting to decline. But this is far from over and there’s plenty of uncertainty ahead.  For The Hill, we’re Peter Sullivan (psullivan@thehill.com), Nathaniel Weixel (nweixel@thehill.com) and Justine Coleman (jcoleman@thehill.com). Write to us with tips and feedback, and follow us on Twitter: @PeterSullivan4, @NateWeixel and @JustineColeman8. Let’s get started. Declining COVID-19 cases stir cautious optimism © istock Is the U.S. finally turning the corner on COVID-19? Experts say it's possible, while cautioning that the pandemic is far from over. The spike in coronavirus infections from the delta variant is slowing and cases are beginning to decline. Experts think the U.S. could be on the back end of the wave, even as deaths and hospitalizations remain high. But low vaccination rates in many areas of the country are giving them pause, with some arguing that another seasonal surge after holiday travel is likely, even if it isn’t as high as last winter. There could also be regional spikes, as some areas worsen while others rebound more quickly. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the seven-day average of U.S. cases has been declining for the past two weeks. On Sept. 14, the daily average of new cases was just under 150,000. As of Tuesday, it was down to about 107,000. Perspective: David Dowdy, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said it’s important to put the declining case numbers in perspective. Just because they are decreasing, he said, doesn’t mean the country is done with the pandemic. “Every time in the past that we’ve thought we were done and out of the woods, we’ve been wrong. So I would be very hesitant to say that,” Dowdy said. “I think it’s also important for people to realize that right now, even though cases are going down, the number of cases that we’re seeing is still quite high. I think that things are trending in the right direction, but it’s a little too early to declare victory.” Read more here. A MESSAGE FROM ALTRIA     Senate defeats GOP amendment to block Biden vaccine mandate © Greg Nash The Senate on Thursday defeated a Republican amendment seeking to block President Biden's vaccine-or-test mandate for businesses with 100 or more workers. Republicans and Democrats were split down the middle on the vote, 50-50 in the upper chamber, falling short of the 60 votes needed to pass the measure.   Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) offered the measure, which would block the use of federal funds for vaccine mandates. Biden announced earlier this month that his Department of Labor would put forward a regulation requiring that businesses with 100 or more employees mandate employees are vaccinated, or get tested once per week.  Marshall said that while the "vaccine has saved lives," taking it should be a "personal choice." "Simply put, we must not allow the Administration’s unconstitutional vaccine mandate on private companies to go forward," he added.  Big picture: Democrats have increasingly embraced vaccine mandates as a popular issue that is key to getting the pandemic under control.  An Axios-Ipsos poll this month found that 60 percent of the public supported the vaccine-or-test mandate for businesses. Read more here.  TYSON FOODS HITS 91 PERCENT VACCINATION RATE AFTER MANDATE And the evidence increasingly shows that mandates work. Nearly two months after announcing a vaccine mandate for its employees, 91 percent of Tyson Foods’ 120,000 U.S. employees are now fully vaccinated against COVID-19, Claudia Coplein, the chief medical officer for Tyson Foods, told The New York Times. Before the mandate was announced, less than half of Tyson’s workforce was vaccinated, according to the Times. While the company did not release specific information regarding inoculation rates by type of worker, Coplein told the Times “certainly the vaccination rate amongst our frontline workers was lower than our office-based workers at the beginning of this.” Tyson announced last month that it would be requiring all of its employees in the U.S. to get vaccinated against COVID-19 by the fall. The company said all employees in offices had to be inoculated by Oct. 1, and all other employees would have to receive their shot by Nov. 1. As part of the mandate, the company said it will give vaccinated front line workers up to 20 hours of paid sick leave. Read more here. ASTRAZENECA: VACCINE 74 PERCENT EFFECTIVE IN US TESTING © Getty Images British drugmaker AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine Vaxzevria has been found to have a 74 percent efficacy in preventing symptomatic disease, according to a report published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine.  The report, which studied more than 26,000 volunteers in the United States, Chile and Peru, also found the vaccine had an 83.5 percent efficacy rate in people ages 65 and older. The AstraZeneca vaccine has not been approved for use in the U.S., though it has been exported from the U.S. for use abroad. Vaxzevria is currently authorized in more than 170 countries, with the company seeking U.S. approval later this year.  In July, AstraZeneca looked to get U.S. approval from the Food and Drug Administration rather than receive emergency authorization, according to The Associated Press. Read more here. A MESSAGE FROM ALTRIA     'I was one of the lucky ones': Three Democrats recount their abortion stories to panel © NBC News Three lawmakers testified Thursday about their previous abortion procedures to the House Oversight and Reform Committee on Thursday as Democrats sound the alarm over anti-abortion state laws.  Reps. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), Cori Bush (D-Mo.) and Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) all detailed how they reached their decisions to get abortions years ago, saying they hoped their narratives would help destigmatize the procedure that has been immersed in controversy for decades.  In her testimony, Lee said she was sharing her experience for the first time publicly because “of the real risks of the clocks being turned back to those days before Roe v. Wade” when she had a “back-alley abortion in Mexico” at age 16. “I was one of the lucky ones,” she said. “A lot of girls and women in my generation didn't make it. They died from unsafe abortions.” Significance: Their testimonies come as debates on abortion rights have escalated after Texas implemented its ban on the practice after six weeks and as the Supreme Court prepares to hear arguments on Mississippi’s ban after 15 weeks. “With a hostile Supreme Court, extremist state governments are no longer chipping away at constitutional rights — they are bulldozing right through them,” Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) said in her opening statement as chairwoman of the committee.  But ranking member James Comer (R-Ky.) argued in his opening statement that the committee had “absolutely no jurisdiction” over state abortion laws, saying the issue “should be left to the states.” Read more here. WHAT WE'RE READING Why you’re not getting a delta-specific booster yet (Vox) Why NBA stars who have gotten the shot aren’t advocating for the vaccine (Washington Post) CDC director says U.S. Covid deaths among pregnant women peaked in August (CNBC) STATE BY STATE Vaccination deadline arrives for health care workers; Rady Children’s Hospital making no exceptions (San Diego Union Tribune) As masking In Oklahoma schools went up, COVID cases In children went down (KOSU)  Slammed by COVID, statewide system helps transfer rural Washington patients to available hospital beds (The Seattle Times) That’s it for today, thanks for reading. Check out The Hill’s healthcare page for the latest news and coverage. See you Friday. Sign Up for Health Care Forward Health Care Privacy Policy  |   Manage Subscriptions  |   Unsubscribe Email to a friend  |   Sign Up for Other Newsletters The Hill 1625 K Street, NW 9th Floor, Washington DC 20006 © 1998 - 2021 Nexstar Media Inc. | All Rights Reserved.

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Hillicon Valley — Presented by Ericsson — Facebook faces critics on kids’ safety

View in your browser PRESENTED BY OVERNIGHT POLICY: Hillicon Valley Facebook faces critics on kids’ safety © Getty Images Today is Thursday. Welcome to Hillicon Valley, detailing all you need to know about tech and cyber news from Capitol Hill to Silicon Valley. Subscribe here: thehill.com/newsletter-signup. Senators pressed a Facebook executive Thursday over the company’s impact on kids’ safety, kicking off a series of hearings set to continue next week when senators will hear from a company whistleblower. Questions were largely focused on concerns about teen mental health, and posts promoting self injury or eating disorders, but one interaction about the definition of “finsta” garnered the most viral attention.  Meanwhile, an aerospace company founded by Jeff Bezos is coming under fire due to claims of sexism and harassment, while the House passed a bill to secure K-12 institutions against cyberattacks in the midst of a busy legislative week.  Follow The Hill’s cyber reporter, Maggie Miller (@magmill95), and tech team, Chris Mills Rodrigo (@millsrodrigo) and Rebecca Klar (@rebeccaklar_), for more coverage. Let’s jump in. For the kids © Getty Images Facebook was in the hot seat Thursday at a Senate hearing about children's safety online, with the company’s head of global safety Antigone Davis appearing virtually as the sole witness.  The Senate Commerce consumer protection subcommittee hearing followed a series of reports from The Wall Street Journal citing internal Facebook research, in part about Instagram’s impact on teen mental health and the company's efforts to court young users.  The backlash: Senators across the aisle were mostly unified in their anger at Facebook — raising questions about content on Instagram that appear to promote self injury and eating disorders.  Subcommittee Chair Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said Facebook is using “big tobacco’s playbook.”  “It has hidden its own research on addiction, and the toxic effects of its products. It has attempted to deceive the public and us in Congress about what it knows and it has weaponized childhood vulnerabilities against children themselves,” Blumenthal said.  “As the chairman said, you've lost the trust and we do not trust you with influencing our children,” said Ranking Member Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.).  Facebook’s plans to create an Instagram for kids under 13 was a hot topic at the hearing, despite the company announcing earlier this week it would pause the plan.  Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) pressed Davis on who would make the ultimate decision on whether to proceed with the plan.  Davis responded that it would be part of a collaborative team decision.  As with many of her questions, Klobuchar said she would follow up in writing with the company to receive more direct answers.  Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) asked Davis a handful of targeted questions about a potential kids’ platform, including if Facebook would commit to not launch any kids’ platform that allows with influencer marketing or contains “like buttons” and “follower counts.”  Davis said the company will discuss those questions with experts to decide what is age appropriate. “It’s not acceptable that you don't have answers for these questions right now. These are the obvious problems that exist,” Markey said.  In addition to Davis’s testimony, on Wednesday night Facebook released some of the slides of research the Journal reported on with annotations added to the slides to provide context the company said was missing from the reports.  Looking ahead: Next week senators will hear from a Facebook whistleblower at a hearing on the same topic.  Blumenthal said there are also future hearings in the works to hear from other tech platforms regarding kids’ online safety. Advocates have raised concerns about YouTube, especially in terms of potentially manipulative marketing tactics targeting young children, as well as the increasingly popular video-sharing app TikTok.  It’s not yet clear if the additional spotlight on the issue will help push forward proposals aimed at adding further regulations for kids safety online, but during Thursday’s hearing Markey said he would reintroduce that day one such proposal, known as the KIDS Act. The proposal notably lacks GOP support.  A MESSAGE FROM ERICSSON BLUE ORIGIN BACKLASH: Blue Origin, the aerospace company founded by Jeff Bezos, has allegedly fostered a toxic and sexist workplace culture that subjected employees to harassment, according to an essay published Thursday by a group of current and former employees.  “Workforce gender gaps are common in the space industry, but at Blue Origin they also manifest in a particular brand of sexism,” they wrote. The public essay was published by Alexandra Abrams, the former head of Blue Origin employee communications, and 20 other unnamed employees and former employees.  The employees allege that “numerous senior leaders'' have been known to be “consistently inappropriate with women.” For example, one executive in CEO Bob Smith’s “loyal inner circle” was reported to human resources multiple times for sexual harassment, but Smith made the executive a member of the hiring committee to fill a senior human resources role in 2019, the employees wrote.   Read more here.  THE KIDS ARE SLIGHTLY ALRIGHT The House on Wednesday unanimously passed legislation intended to help strengthen K-12 institutions against cyber threats, which have ticked up as classes have moved online during the COVID-19 pandemic.  The K-12 Cybersecurity Act would require the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) to create cybersecurity recommendations and tools for schools to use to defend themselves against hackers, after conducting a study on the cyber risks facing K-12 institutions.  The Senate unanimously approved the bill last month. There, the legislation is sponsored by Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Gary Peters (D-Mich.) and Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), with Rep. Jim Langevin (D-R.I.) primarily sponsoring the bill in the House. It now goes to President Biden for approval.  “Ransomware and other cyber-attacks that can shut down our K-12 schools and compromise the personal information of our students and dedicated educators are unacceptable and must be stopped,” Peters said in a statement following the late afternoon vote. “We must provide faculty and staff with the resources and means that they often lack to defend themselves and their students against complicated cyber-attacks.” Read more here.  VOTING BILL (MIGHT) GET ITS DAY Sen. Angus King (I-Maine), a co-sponsor of the Freedom to Vote Act, the pared-down version of the For the People Act, said Thursday that the legislation could be brought to the floor for consideration next week, representing another legislative priority that Democrats have failed to achieve so far this session. Despite moderate Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) being one of several co-sponsors of the bill, the proposal has a good chance of being stonewalled by a Republican filibuster just like its predecessor. On a phone call with reporters, King explained that Manchin, who had problems with the scope of the For the People Act but has voiced his support for the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, committed to whipping up GOP support for the bill. “I don't know how that's going, my sense is not well,” King said. The bill includes language to shore up election security, including requiring states to use voting systems with paper ballots, providing around $3 billion in grants to states to buy voting machines and upgrade cybersecurity, and putting in place election vendor cybersecurity requirements. Read more here.  A MESSAGE FROM ERICSSON     BITS AND PIECES An op-ed to chew on: Leaving no one behind in our post-pandemic recovery: How can technology help? Lighter click: Let it snow :( Notable links from around the web: A hospital hit by hackers, a baby in distress: The case of the first alleged ransomware death (The Wall Street Journal / Kevin Poulsen, Robert McMillan and Melanie Evans)  How Congress's parade of tech hearings totally lost the plot (Protocol / Ben Brody and Kate Cox) How a Secret Google Geofence Warrant Helped Catch the Capitol Riot Mob (Wired / Mark Harris) One last thing: Amazon vs. Macy’s © Getty Images Famed U.S. department store Macy’s filed a lawsuit in a bid to prevent Amazon from placing a billboard atop its flagship store in midtown Manhattan. CNBC reports that the store chain is asking the real estate developer Kaufman Organization to stop Amazon from issuing a large advertisement on the Herald Square Macy’s location. The suit reportedly claims that placing a distracting ad from a rival business would cause “immeasurable” harm to Macy’s.  “The damages to Macy’s customer goodwill, image, reputation and brand should a prominent online retailer (especially Amazon) advertise on the billboard are impossible to calculate,” court filings reportedly read. The suit was first reported by Crain’s New York Business Journal. The billboard is currently host to Macy’s business advertisements. CNBC notes that it has used the billboard in question for over 50 years. Its original lease on the billboard space stated that other retailers would be indefinitely barred from using the sign for ad space. Read more here.  That’s it for today, thanks for reading. Check out The Hill’s technology and cybersecurity pages for the latest news and coverage. We’ll see you Friday. Sign Up for Hillicon Valley Forward Hillicon Valley Privacy Policy  |   Manage Subscriptions  |   Unsubscribe Email to a friend  |   Sign Up for Other Newsletters The Hill 1625 K Street, NW 9th Floor, Washington DC 20006 © 1998 - 2021 Nexstar Media Inc. | All Rights Reserved.

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