Wall Street Journal: “The budget proposals seek to address the nationwide scarcity of mental-health workers, the mental-health needs in schools and growing demand for emergency services. They represent a rare bipartisan point of agreement for more government action and underscore how dire many think the problem has become.”

Zeynep Tufekci: “Bird flu — known more formally as avian influenza — has long hovered on the horizons of scientists’ fears. This pathogen, especially the H5N1 strain, hasn’t often infected humans, but when it has, 56 percent of those known to have contracted it have died. Its inability to spread easily, if at all, from one person to another has kept it from causing a pandemic.”

“But things are changing. The virus, which has long caused outbreaks among poultry, is infecting more and more migratory birds, allowing it to spread more widely, even to various mammals, raising the risk that a new variant could spread to and among people.”

“Alarmingly, it was recently reported that a mutant H5N1 strain was not only infecting minks at a fur farm in Spain but also most likely spreading among them, unprecedented among mammals.”

“President Joe Biden informed Congress on Monday that he will end the twin national emergencies for addressing COVID-19 on May 11, as most of the world has returned closer to normalcy nearly three years after they were first declared,” the AP reports.

“The move to end the national emergency and public health emergency declarations would formally restructure the federal coronavirus response to treat the virus as an endemic threat to public health that can be managed through agencies’ normal authorities.”

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) “has long made no secret that he thinks drug companies and health insurers are ripping off Americans. But now he’s chairman of the Senate health committee,” Axios reports.

“Sanders has signaled an early focus of the committee’s work will be drug prices, and manufacturers are bracing for some contentious hearings.”

“The Food and Drug Administration unveiled new guidance Friday to relax blood donor restrictions for gay and bisexual men,” Axios reports.

“The FDA’s plan would ease restrictions that were set during the HIV/AIDS crisis in the 1980s, which several medical and LGBTQ organizations say are discriminatory.”

“Enrollments under the Affordable Care Act have reached an all-time high on the federal and state exchanges, helping drive the nation’s uninsured rate down to record lows despite steeper monthly premium costs,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“The Biden administration Wednesday provided the most comprehensive look so far at sign-up activity during the ACA’s most recent open-enrollment period, which marks the 10th for the Obama-era health law.”

A new Gallup poll finds a 57% majority of U.S. adults believe that the federal government should ensure all Americans have healthcare coverage.

Yet nearly as many, 53%, prefer that the U.S. healthcare system be based on private insurance rather than run by the government.

A Food and Drug Administration expert panel this week will consider a process for updating Covid shots that resembles the annual strain selection process for seasonal flu vaccines, Axios reports.

Katelyn Jetelina: “We have more evidence than for any other vaccine or disease in the history of humans that the benefits of Covid-19 vaccines greatly outweigh the risks.”

“Despite facing pushback from medical professionals and businesses, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced legislation Tuesday that would make permanent a law to penalize companies that require employees to wear masks or be vaccinated for Covid-19 and added a new ban on medical boards reprimanding doctors for spreading Covid misinformation,” the Miami Herald reports.

Said DeSantis: “This is just nuts that we’re still doing this. We need to be leading on this by making all of these protections permanent in Florida statute as we need to do in the upcoming legislative session.”

“Less than 40 percent of people over 65 have taken the updated booster shot that became available in the fall, according to the CDC, leaving millions with little protection against the latest strain sweeping the U.S.,” Politico reports.

Washington Post: “Three years after the novel coronavirus emerged, a new variant, XBB.1.5, is quickly becoming the dominant strain in parts of the United States because of a potent mix of mutations that makes it easier to spread broadly, including among those who have been previously infected or vaccinated.”

Wall Street Journal: “Public-health experts are sounding the alarm about a new Omicron variant dubbed XBB that is rapidly spreading across the Northeast U.S. Some studies suggest it is as different from the original Covid strain from Wuhan as the 2003 SARS virus. Should Americans be worried?”

“It isn’t clear that XBB is any more lethal than other variants, but its mutations enable it to evade antibodies from prior infection and vaccines as well as existing monoclonal antibody treatments. Growing evidence also suggests that repeated vaccinations may make people more susceptible to XBB and could be fueling the virus’s rapid evolution.”