Good morning. Lest we forget, there's a parallel pandemic that preceded Covid: overdose deaths.

Racial gaps widened with soaring overdose deaths

The horrifyingly high overdose deaths aren’t new, but the stark and widening disparities by race and ethnicity are newly reported. Yesterday’s CDC analysis shows overdose death rates soared more among Black people and American Indians and Alaska Natives than among white people. Overall, overdose deaths jumped by 30% from 2019 to 2020 — meaning 92,000 lives lost — but those rates spiked by 44% among Black individuals and 39% among American Indian and Alaska Native people, based on data from 25 states and Washington. Overdose death rates among people who are white, Asian or Pacific Islander, or Hispanic all increased by about 22%, the report found.

CDC’s Debra Houry said during a briefing the disparities “may partly be due to health inequities like unequal access to substance use treatment and treatment biases.” STAT’s Andrew Joseph has more on the disproportionate toll.

At last, Novavax’s Covid vaccine wins CDC advisory panel vote

An expert panel that advises the CDC on vaccine policy voted unanimously yesterday to recommend Novavax’s Covid-19 vaccine — an achievement a long time in the making for the first product brought to market by the Maryland company. Several members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices expressed hope that the vaccine’s makeup may persuade some people reluctant to get vaccinated against Covid to finally roll up a sleeve. CDC Director Rochelle Walensky accepted ACIP’s recommendation within hours of the vote.

The vaccine is a recombinant protein product, developed with the same kind of approach used for a brand of flu vaccine. Some people who have refused Covid vaccines have expressed hesitancy over the messenger RNA vaccines produced by Moderna and the Pfizer and BioNTech partnership. STAT’s Helen Branswell has more on the fourth Covid vaccine authorized in the U.S., following vaccines from Pfizer, Moderna, and J&J.

Diabetes developed during pregnancy is growing

Gestational diabetes is on the rise, climbing 30% between 2016 and 2020, a new CDC study out yesterday says, confirming previous research that suggests gestational diabetes has become increasingly prevalent. It’s more than a short-term problem. Up to 70% of mothers with gestational diabetes develop type 2 diabetes within 20 years, and their children are more likely to have type 2 diabetes. Diabetes, in turn, doubles or triples the risk of developing heart disease and stroke, as well as of death due to cardiovascular diseases.

“There is a growing maternal health crisis in the United States, and gestational diabetes is an important and common complication that requires new focus,” Sadiya Khan of the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, who was not involved in the new study, told STAT’s Edward Chen. Read more.

Closer look: At a 988 call center, a new number and familiar hope

(KAYANA SZYMCZAK FOR STAT)

Earlier this week, STAT’s Theresa Gaffney gave us a hint of how the new national 988 number to handle crisis calls rolled out Saturday. Now she brings us more of the story at that Framingham, Mass., call center, where volunteers and staffers continue to field calls, some from people who just want to talk and others from people in crisis whom they connect to trained mental health counselors. It’s work that crisis call centers have been doing for years, Theresa points out. But the easier-to-dial number — and the flood of attention it has brought to the lifeline — will, experts hope, encourage more people who need support to seek it.

And taking those calls are people like Jane (pictured above). “We’re not here on earth rent-free,” she said. “I’m making my contribution to the rent.” Read more about the program’s ambitions and challenges.

Rural hospitals are balking at Medicare's big idea

Rural hospitals struggling to make ends meet will soon have a new option, thanks to Medicare, but so far, they’re not sold on the idea, STAT’s Tara Bannow tells us. Right now the federal government is hashing out the details on what they call Rural Emergency Hospitals, which will run emergency rooms but won’t offer inpatient care. To sweeten the deal, on top of bumped-up Medicare reimbursement, these new hospitals will get facility payments north of $3 million annually, a significant bump for small hospitals. The new details were part of the government’s proposed Medicare payment rates for hospital outpatient services in 2023, released Friday.

The premise is based on how expensive it is to maintain inpatient units where there might not be enough patients to offset those costs. Still, hospitals aren’t yet sold on the idea of converting. Tara explains why they’re balking.

Risk of cardiometabolic problems rises for three months after Covid infection

We know Covid-19 infection can leave damage in its wake, and not just in long Covid. A large new study in PLOS Medicine focuses on cardiovascular diseases and diabetes that some Covid patients develop for the first time in the three months after infection. Analyzing patient records from U.K. family practices, the researchers compared more than 428,000 patients who had Covid to a matched number that didn’t. Covid patients had 81% more diabetes diagnoses in the first four weeks after contracting the virus and 27% more up to 12 weeks after infection before declining.

Covid patients had six times as many cardiovascular diagnoses, mainly blood clots in the lungs and irregular heartbeat. The risk of a new heart disease diagnosis began to decline five weeks after infection and returned to baseline levels or lower within 12 weeks to one year. “People without preexisting cardiovascular disease or diabetes mellitus who suffer from Covid-19 do not appear to have a long-term increase in incidence of these conditions,“ the authors write.

If you or someone you know may be considering suicide, contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org. For TTY users: Use your preferred relay service or dial 711 then 988.

What to read around the web today

FDA weighs oversight changes after Juul, formula troubles, Associated Press
The hunt for drugs for mild Covid: scientists seek to treat those at lower risk, Nature
Do cancer centers push too many tests? New York Times
Editorial: Confronting 21st-century monkeypox, Science
Pharma and advocacy groups offer competing visions for achieving vaccine equity during pandemics, STAT