 Welcome to Wednesday's Overnight Health Care. Even the Teletubbies are getting vaccinated. The "Astratubbica" and "Noo-nson & Noo-nson" shots may soon be household names among parents with young kids. Be ready. If you have any tips, email us at nweixel@thehill.com, psullivan@thehill.com, and jcoleman@thehill.com Follow us on Twitter at @NateWeixel, @PeterSullivan4, and @JustineColeman8. Today: The delta variant now makes up the majority of all U.S. infections. The Biden administration is avoiding messy public opinion fights over coronavirus policy, and drugmakers are waging a lobbying battle against the paper industry. We'll start with the White House: Inside Biden's pragmatic approach to coronavirus rules President Biden has taken a decidedly cautious approach to COVID-19 passports and other rules governing the coronavirus, signaling a determination to not get in front of public opinion. Biden has avoided stepping into a messy fight over both passports and coronavirus vaccine mandates, choosing instead to let private sector companies, schools and other institutions make the call on whether to require vaccinations. The move has spurred frustration from some health experts who argue that the administration is missing a critical opportunity to get the virus under control by encouraging vaccine requirements. "There's no question that vaccines are critically important, everyone in America who is able to should get a vaccine and that is the only way we are going to achieve herd immunity," said Harold Pollack, co-director of the University of Chicago Health Lab. "I think there's a flipside which is, if you get way ahead of public acceptance, that you may on net undermine your public health objectives," he added. Case in point: Already, the White House's announcement that it would go "door-to-door" at the community level to boost vaccinations in the coming weeks spurred conservative blowback, a sign of how precarious the issue can be. Read more here. CDC says delta variant now makes up majority of US cases The delta variant made up the majority of U.S. COVID-19 cases for the first time for the two weeks ending July 3, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Rapid growth: Illustrating the quick rise in the prevalence of the variant, the proportion of U.S. COVID-19 cases that were the delta variant rose from 30.4 percent for the two weeks ending June 19 to 51.7 percent for the two weeks ending July 3. The delta variant is highly transmissible, and experts are warning that it could cause localized spikes in cases in areas of the country with low vaccination rates, such as the South. This is important: Experts say the vaccines are still highly effective against the variant. A British study in May found that the Pfizer vaccine was 88 percent effective after two doses. An Israeli study this week showed lower effectiveness, at 64 percent, but the study has drawn some skepticism from experts, who say it could be an outlier. The best way to be protected against the delta variant is still to get vaccinated, experts say. Read more here. A reminder that not all countries have the vaccine access of the US: WHO denounces vaccine nationalism as global death toll passes 4 million World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Wednesday denounced "morally indefensible" vaccine nationalism as the world passes 4 million COVID-19 deaths. "We have just passed the tragic milestone of 4 million recorded COVID-19 deaths, which likely underestimates the overall toll," he said at a press conference. Context: But while the death toll climbs, countries are not sharing the pain equally. Wealthier countries, including the United States, have much greater access to vaccines than many lower-income countries. Tedros said this disparity is not only morally wrong but also hinders the fight against the virus by potentially allowing new, more dangerous variants to form as the virus circulates. "Vaccine nationalism, where a handful of nations have taken the lion's share, is morally indefensible and an ineffective public health strategy against a respiratory virus that is mutating quickly and becoming increasingly effective at moving from human-to-human," Tedros said. "At this stage in the pandemic, the fact that millions of health and care workers have still not been vaccinated is abhorrent." Read more here. Maryland unveils college scholarship lottery to get teens vaccinated Maryland will offer full-ride college scholarships as an incentive to get teenagers vaccinated against COVID-19, Gov. Larry Hogan (R) announced Wednesday. The VaxU Scholarship Promotion will offer $50,000 scholarships, or the equivalent of full tuition and fees for a public four-year college or university, to 20 vaccinated students between the ages of 12 and 17. Beginning July 12 and running for eight weeks, two winners will be randomly selected each Monday. On Labor Day, four additional winners will be selected. Hogan said the winners will receive a Maryland 529 Prepaid College Trust contract, which locks in current tuition rates for the future, or a Maryland 529 College Investment Plan. If the students decide to attend private or out-of-state school, the scholarship can be transferred. Read more here. Paper industry, drugmakers spar over requirement to print prescribing information Drugmakers are resuming their annual lobbying battle with the paper industry over an obscure clause slipped into a key spending bill. The House Appropriations Committee's legislation to fund the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), advanced last week, includes a provision preventing the agency from digitizing prescribing information. The FDA first proposed a rule in 2014 that would have eliminated paper prescribing information. But Congress, spurred on by paper industry lobbyists, has passed a rider blocking the agency from implementing the rule in every appropriations bill since 2015. Team modernization: The Alliance to Modernize Prescribing Information, a group of pharmaceutical companies, is lobbying lawmakers to remove the provision when the bill goes to the House floor. A spokesperson for the Alliance called the measure "essentially an earmark for the multi-million dollar paper lobby," arguing that Congress's rule mandates paper waste and that paper labels provide pharmacists with outdated information. Team paper: The Pharmaceutical Printed Literature Association, which represents companies involved in the printed prescribing information (PI) supply chain, is the leading paper industry group backing Congress's rule. The association told The Hill that health care professionals prefer printed PI, and that rural communities lacking broadband internet cannot reliably access the information online. Read more here. What we're reading Delta Covid-19 variant gains ground among the unvaccinated (Wall Street Journal) 'This will shut us down': HIV prevention clinics brace for Gilead reimbursement cuts (NBC) Trump country rejects vaccines despite growing delta threat (Bloomberg) As Covid vaccinations slow, parts of the US remain far behind 70% goal (Kaiser Health News) State by state Protesters shut down a Utah school board meeting by yelling, 'No more masks!' Now 11 of them face charges. (Washington Post) Houston-area COVID-19 outbreak — including delta variant cases — should be a wake-up call for Texans, health expert warns (Texas Tribune) Meet Maryland's secret weapon in the battle to close the latino vaccination gap (NPR) The Hill op-eds Rethinking grocery stores for a healthier SNAP
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