| Good morning — and happy anniversary (plus a day) to this video of a lawyer who logged onto Zoom as a cat. Today: Biden's FDA nominee gets a critical endorsement and an appeals court declined to lift a block on Biden's vaccine mandate for federal workers. But first: | Now the blue states are skirting CDC masking guidance |  Democratic governors moved to lift mask mandates in droves this week, including plans to drop the requirement in schools in the coming weeks. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill) | | | This much is clear from the emerging fractures among Democrats on mask mandates: they have no unified metric for lifting pandemic restrictions. Multiple pandemic-cautious governors announced plans to drop mask mandates in schools and indoors this week, as omicron begins to wane and the political landscape shifts. Yet the Biden administration hasn't done the same. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is urging Americans to wear masks in areas of substantial or high transmission — the vast majority of the country — while the agency works on new guidance. What that means: Public health experts are divided on whether now is the moment to lift mandates, and some worry the conflicting guidance could flummox a weary public. And the issue has sparked debate over the metrics states and the federal government should use to make critical decisions. | - "This is super confusing times in American guidance," said Monica Gandhi, an infectious-disease specialist and professor of medicine at the University of California at San Francisco. "This is even more confusing than the boosters because different places are doing different things. And interestingly, it's the same political party."
| | Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.), head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee: |  | | | | | Many Democratic governors are now expressing a desire for a return to normalcy. The new mantra comes as polls show Americans are "tired" and "frustrated" by the current state of the pandemic. | | This week saw a wave of examples. On Monday, five states — California, Oregon, Delaware, Connecticut and New Jersey — announced plans to lift some mask mandates. Yesterday, Rhode Island and Massachusetts said they'd end school mask mandates, while New York and Illinois focused on lifting restrictions for businesses. | - "Several of these Democratic governors have stressed that their constituents need to live with the virus, echoing rhetoric that their Republican counterparts adopted earlier in the pandemic when they declined to take statewide measures to curb the delta and omicron surges," our colleagues Fenit Nirappil and Tyler Pager write.
| | Why now? Some governors point to high vaccination rates and declining cases and hospitalizations. The metrics range from precise markers to benchmarks less clearly defined. | - In Connecticut, there "isn't one metric we use," citing hospitalizations, case numbers and a confidence residents can access vaccines and tests, a spokesperson for Gov. Ned Lamont (D) said.
- In Oregon, the state picked no later than March 31 to end its indoor and school mask mandates because hospitalizations are projected to drop below 400 per day.
| | Some states' plans to drop mandates won't go into effect for weeks, particularly in schools. But still, the governors are ahead of CDC guidance, which has repeatedly been criticized throughout the pandemic for being too slow. One official told Fenit and Tyler that the CDC should have been better prepared to avoid confusing Americans who may be receiving conflicting guidance from their governors, the White House and potentially local leaders. | - "We're, of course, taking a close look at this in real-time, and we're evaluating rates of transmission as well as rates of severe outcomes as we look at updating and reviewing our guidance," CDC Director Rochelle Walensky told reporters yesterday.
| | The White House maintains it sees no rift with blue state governors dropping their guidance, with press secretary Jen Psaki saying "there is a distinct difference between standing in the way, which [Florida Gov.] Ron DeSantis did" and the Democratic states ceding control to local areas. | | Kaitlan Collins, CNN: |  | | | | | The question of when to drop mask mandates — and when they should be reinstated — came up time and time again in conversations with health experts this week. | - Metrics governors are using are "all over the map," said Michael Osterholm, who leads the University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy and advised President Biden's transition team on the coronavirus response.
| | For some, like Gandhi, they believe they've crafted a winning formula. Her metrics for a state to lift most indoor mask mandates — which she said the states doing so meet — include a vaccination rate of at least 70 percent and other data points related to ICUs. Then, mask mandates for schools could be lifted one month later. Complicating matters: others say there may not be a magic number — a perennial problem over the past two years of crafting pandemic policy. | - "I don't know that there's one right answer," said Julie Morita, an executive vice president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, who was also a Biden transition adviser. "What's the trajectory of the diseases? Is it going up or is it going down? What's the health-care capacity within the region? How high are the vaccine coverage levels?"
| | |  | On the Hill | | | 🚨Califf whip count alert: Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) plans to vote in favor of Biden's embattled pick to lead the Food and Drug Administration. Last week, Wyden sent Robert Califf a letter asking how, if confirmed, he would hold drug companies accountable for delivering follow-up data under the FDA's accelerated approval pathway for drugs. In a reply Tuesday, Califf said ensuring drug companies conduct confirmatory studies on the drug in a timely manner "will be a high priority." In a statement released this morning, Wyden said he appreciated Califf's response and that he would support the nominee. This comes as the nomination — once seen as assured — has become imperiled by hot-button issues like abortion, the opioid epidemic and the nominee's work with the pharmaceutical industry. Also supportive of Califf: Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.). That's according to a spokesperson who confirmed his vote yesterday. But that doesn't mean Califf has locked up all the necessary votes. Four Democrats, along with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), have publicly voiced opposition to the nominee, meaning Califf needs to pick up five GOP votes — or potentially six if Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) isn't back after suffering a stroke. Much Republican support has evaporated as antiabortion groups registered their opposition to the nominee. | | |  | In the courts | | Court upholds block on vaccine mandate for federal workers |  The White House reports that roughly 93 percent of staff have been vaccinated to date. (Rogelio V. Solis/AP) | | | A block on the Biden administration's vaccine mandate for federal workers will stay in place after a U.S. appeals court upheld a lower court's ruling Wednesday, Reuters reports. The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, by a 2-to-1 vote, declined to lift the injunction preventing the president from requiring about 3.5 million government workers to get vaccinated — or face potentially being fired barring a religious or medical exemption. Earlier in the day, 45 Republican lawmakers filed a brief in support of the plaintiffs in the case, a Nevada group called Feds for Medical Freedom. Looking ahead: The White House can appeal the decision to the Supreme Court, but for now, the mandate's chances of surviving if it reaches the justices is unclear. In mid-January, members of the high court blocked the Biden's vaccination-or-testing requirement for large companies in the United States, but upheld a separate vaccine requirement for health-care workers. | | |  | At the White House | | White House racing to address Latino allies' frustration over Becerra criticism |  Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra shakes hands with President Biden. (Alex Brandon/AP) | | | The White House is working to smooth over tensions with the Latino community after The Post reported on internal complaints about Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra's handling of the pandemic, NBC News reported. Prominent Latino leaders urged Biden last week to voice his support for Becerra, the first Latino HHS secretary, after our colleagues wrote that White House officials had openly mused about who might be better in the job. The effort to boost Becerra, who has maintained a low profile since becoming one of the nation's top health leaders, follows a recent dip in Biden's approval ratings across the board, including among Hispanic voters. | | |  | In other health news | | | The government says it's not spending $30M on "crack pipes": Pipes will not be included in safe smoking kits approved by the Department of Health and Human Services as a part of a $30 million federal grant program aimed at minimizing the risk of drug use, HHS and the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy confirmed yesterday. | - Reports about the initiative claiming that taxpayer dollars would fund pipes for smoking crack cocaine began circulating on conservative news outlets earlier this week and were quickly spread among some Republican lawmakers, our colleagues Meryl Kornfield and Mariana Alfaro report. Psaki dismissed the report as "inaccurate."
- The grant program being run by HHS will provide funding for harm reduction resources such as referrals to treatment, infectious-disease testing kits, vaccinations and sterile paraphernalia like rubber mouthpieces designed to prevent cuts and burns.
| | White House press secretary Jen Psaki dispelled the claims during a press briefing Wednesday: |  | | | | | Here's what else you need to know: | - On tap today: Biden will deliver remarks in Culpeper, Va., about the federal effort to lower prescription drug costs as his sweeping economic package languishes in Congress. Becerra will also speak at the event.
- On the move: Ramona Sequeira — the president of Takeda's U.S. business unit and global portfolio commercialization — will serve as chair of the major drug lobby, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.
| | |  | Sugar rush | | | Thanks for reading! See y'all tomorrow. | |
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