Good morning. Two exclusives: one on Covid treatments in prison that didn't make it to incarcerated people, and another on what documents in one of those White House binders tell us about paying for Covid vaccine boosters.

When prisons got Paxlovid or other Covid-19 treatments, they didn’t prescribe much

Federal prisons used just a fraction of the antiviral drugs they were allocated to keep incarcerated people from getting seriously ill or dying of Covid-19, according to new internal records from the Bureau of Prisons, STAT’s Nicholas Florko reports in an exclusive story. Prison officials have prescribed only 363 doses of antivirals since the first such drug proven to work, Gilead’s remdesivir, was authorized in May 2020. At least 55,000 of the roughly 137,000 people held in federal prisons have contracted Covid-19; roughly 300 have died. Experts have lamented the insufficient therapies allocated to federal prisons to blunt the Covid-19 surge in those facilities. But the new documents reveal that the number of incarcerated people actually receiving antiviral drugs is even smaller than the allocation numbers suggest.

FDA sets limits on J&J Covid vaccine to reduce risk of rare clotting syndrome

The FDA yesterday set limits on Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine because of the risk of a clotting disorder discovered weeks after the vaccine was first put into use in spring 2021. The agency said its review of the available data on the risk of thrombosis with thrombocytopenia — or TTS — suggested limiting access to the vaccine is warranted. The condition, though rare, can be fatal. The single-dose vaccine will now be available only to adults 18 and older who would not otherwise agree to be vaccinated or who cannot take one of the other available vaccines for medical reasons. “Our action reflects our updated analysis of the risk of TTS following administration of this vaccine and limits the use of the vaccine to certain individuals,” Peter Marks of the FDA said in a statement. STAT’s Helen Branswell has more.

White House documents detail a looming squeeze on Covid-19 boosters

The White House will run out of Covid-19 vaccine if it encourages all adults to get a second booster dose by roughly Sept. 1, according to budget documents sent to Congress not previously been made public. Although FDA officials have hinted that all American adults may be encouraged to get second boosters this fall, right now they’re available now only to people over 50. The budget documents make it clear that if the administration wants to push second boosters, it will need more money for at least 87 million more vaccines for adult boosters, and another 5 million more for first boosters for kids. The plan is part of documents obtained by STAT, most from a binder recently brandished by press secretary Jen Psaki to showcase transparency on Covid-related appropriations. STAT’s Rachel Cohrs has more in this exclusive report.

Closer look: Surgeons navigating their pregnancies see a bleak picture getting a bit brighter

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When a surgeon asked Sharona Ben-Haim during a 2008 interview for a neurosurgery residency program whether she planned to have children, she responded the only way she felt she could: a resounding no. Ben-Haim, who now directs the surgical epilepsy program at the University of California, San Diego, and other researchers studying the experiences of surgeons and surgical residents have found a bleak picture. One survey of neurosurgeons and neurosurgery residents found only 35% worked at institutions with formal maternity leave policies. That survey and others suggest women in surgery are more likely to delay pregnancy during their training, face a pregnancy loss due to miscarriage or stillbirth, suffer major complications like preeclampsia tied to long and strenuous work hours, and often experience harassment and discrimination from colleagues. But there are signs of progress. STAT contributor Miriam Shuchman has more.

WHO says Covid caused nearly 15 million deaths in pandemic’s first two year

Almost 15 million people died as a result of Covid-19 in the first two years of the pandemic, the WHO estimates in a report released yesterday, a figure 2.7 times higher than what governments around the world reported. The WHO’s analysis used mathematical modeling to calculate “excess mortality” for 2020 and 2021 — ascribing to the pandemic deaths higher than in pre-Covid years. The 14.9 million deaths include those caused by Covid and those recorded when Covid hobbled health systems. The global health agency suggested that by the end of 2021, the U.S. had 932,458 Covid-related deaths — closer to the 1 million threshold domestic reports say the country is only now approaching. STAT’s Helen Branswell has more on the analysis, already a source of controversy, with the Indian government reportedly having delayed its release.

An aggressive form of uterine cancer is driving up deaths, especially among Black women

A rare but aggressive form of uterine cancer is driving an increase in U.S. deaths from the disease, particularly among Black women, a new study in JAMA Oncology reports. Compared to other groups, Black women had more than twice the rate of deaths from uterine cancer overall and from the more aggressive type 2 endometrial cancer. Over eight years, deaths from type 2 endometrial cancer rose 2.7% per year, while deaths stayed stable for the less aggressive kind. Type 2 endometrial cancer accounted for about 20% of cases and 45% of deaths during the study period. “For most cancers, there have been improvements over the last 20 years. It’s alarming that we haven’t had the same success with uterine cancer,” MD Anderson Cancer Center's Pamela Soliman, who was not involved in the study, told the Associated Press.

What to read around the web today

Cerebral, under intense scrutiny, is ‘actively adjusting’ strategy on ADHD ads. STAT+
'Better than Omicron’ is still pretty bad. The Atlantic
HBCU medical schools to tackle organ transplant disparities. Associated Press
As climate change worsens hurricane season in Louisiana, doulas are ensuring parents can safely feed their babies. The 19th
Illumina, maker of a key tool for drug discovery, to try making new drugs itself. STAT+