March 3 News: 70% of world's population could get coronavirus, HHS removed images of condoms from HIV/AIDS awareness fliers, young children going without health insurance

The New York Times – As coronavirus numbers rise, CDC testing comes under fire

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention botched its first attempt to mass produce a diagnostic test kit, a discovery made only after officials had shipped hundreds of kits to state laboratories.

The Washington Post — The death toll of the opioid epidemic is higher than originally thought

Opioid-related overdoses could be 28 percent higher than reported because of incomplete death records, researchers found in a study published Thursday. More than 400,000 people in the United States have died of opioid overdoses since the turn of the century, a quarter of them in just the past six years. But University of Rochester researchers found that between 1999 and 2016, about 100,000 more people died from opioids who were not accounted for.

Associated Press – New US guidelines urge a hepatitis C check for most adults>

Most American adults need to be checked for hepatitis C, say guidelines released Monday that urge millions more people to get screened for the liver-damaging virus that can fester for decades it’s spotted.

The Washington Post – Many young children are now going without health insurance

The most troubling aspect of a recent increase in the number of children without health insurance is a spike in the number of uninsured kids under 6. That figure has climbed above a million for the first time since most of the Affordable Care Act was implemented in 2014, according to a recent analysis of census data by researchers at Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families.

Kaiser Health News – HHS removed images of condoms from HIV/AIDS awareness fliers

The Department of Health and Human Services stripped from a government website HIV/AIDS educational material that featured condoms, calling the images “unapproved,” according to official correspondence obtained by Kaiser Health News.

NPR – Vaccine requirements are on the ballot in Maine, after a new law divided parents

Maine residents voting Tuesday in the presidential primary will also have a chance to cast ballots on another issue: vaccine requirements. A statewide referendum asks if voters want to overturn a new law that eliminates religious and philosophical exemptions for childhood vaccines.

The Hill – As much as 70 percent of world’s population could get coronavirus

A Harvard University epidemiologist says that as much as 70 percent of the world’s population could get the coronavirus.