• “Health is becoming a target,” Michael Ryan, the executive director of WHO’s health emergencies program, said at a news briefing yesterday. “It is entirely, entirely unacceptable. It is against international humanitarian law.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky showed images of the destruction in the middle of his plea before Congress yesterday for more American military aid. The graphic two-minute video included footage of buildings being destroyed, people carried on stretchers and the wounded lying in hospital beds – scenes from the biggest land war in Europe since World War II.

Officials involved in relief efforts fear the attacks could further destabilize the country’s health system. They’re scrambling to deliver lifesaving medical supplies to hospitals, while grappling with the notion of sending emergency medical teams into facilities that could soon come under attack. 

• “People are scared to operate in hospitals, and people are also afraid of going to hospitals for the fear of getting targeted there,” said Rabih Torbay, president and CEO of Project Hope, a global health and humanitarian nonprofit.

Getting worse

The attacks on health-care structures are “increasing day by day,” per Ibrahima Socé Fall, WHO’s assistant director general for emergency response. They’re occurring in areas both inside and outside of Russian control. 

More than 316 health facilities are along conflict lines or areas where control has changed. Another 618 facilities are within 10 kilometers of the conflict line, WHO spokesperson Tarik Jašarević told The Health 202. 

• “It’s likely that by the end of today or by tomorrow, there will be more and larger ones,” Fall said at the news briefing.
• Torbay expressed concern about potential attacks on medical convoys delivering essential supplies.

This comes as pictures of the attacks on health facilities have caught the world’s attention, particularly when a Russian airstrike hit a maternity hospital last week. A photo of a pregnant woman on a stretcher taken out of the hospital circulated the Web — a vivid image of the ongoing devastation. The woman and her baby died in the aftermath of the attack.

•  “My sense is it was that picture that raised consciousness of these attacks around the world,” said Leonard Rubenstein, director of the program on Human Rights, Health and Conflict at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Ukraine’s health-care system is under significant stress as humanitarian groups rush to deliver essential medical supplies to the country. 

The WHO has delivered up to 100 metric tons of items, like transfusion kits, insulin and anesthetics. But there’s still an immense need for more supplies. 

These needs include everything from trauma kits to generators to clamps for umbilical cords, said Anil Soni, the CEO of the WHO Foundation, which is raising money for the global health group’s Ukrainian health emergency appeal. 

For Torbay, the initial requests for more supplies centered on trauma supplies. But now, the asks also include a wide swath of basic items, such as syringes, needles and antibiotics.

Meanwhile … Facing constraints in its ability to fund supplies, WHO launched an appeal for over $57 million to reach 6 million people with essential health services over the next three months. So far, just $8 million has been raised, Soni told The Health 202.

• “Huge amounts of money are being spent on weapons,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO’s director general, said yesterday. “We ask donors to invest in ensuring that civilians in Ukraine and refugees receive the care they need.”

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO’s director general: 

Coronavirus

Is another coronavirus surge on the horizon for the U.S.? Experts think so.

New coronavirus cases have continued their downward trend as states shed their pandemic-era precautions. But health experts watching the virus surge overseas are on high alert for another wave they predict could hit the United States in the coming weeks, our colleagues Lenny Bernstein and Joel Achenbach report. 

Remember BA.2? The transmissible cousin of the omicron variant is responsible for much of the outbreak in Western Europe.

• But … Biden health officials said the subvariant has spread more slowly across the country than it has overseas and hasn’t increased the severity of the disease.

What they’re saying: “We have got to get the United States protected better. We have an abundance of these [coronavirus vaccines]. We have to get them into people,” said Eric Topol, director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute.

• In the United States, 216.8 million people are fully vaccinated against the virus; and less than half of those people have received a booster dose, according to data tracked by The Post.

The White House has doubled down on its pleas to lawmakers to approve billions more pandemic funds so that it can bolster the country’s stockpile of coronavirus tests, vaccines and treatments before the next wave hits — but the prospects of securing additional economic aid from Congress in the short term are slim.

• On the Hill today: Xavier Becerra, the Health and Human Services Secretary. He’ll meet with the House Democratic caucus to urge lawmakers to pass $22.5 billion in coronavirus aid, per a person familiar with matter. This comes after $15.6 billion in new funds was stripped out of a long-term government funding package last week, leaving the aid without a clear path to passage.

Omicron sent more young children to the hospital than delta, CDC finds

More young children were hospitalized this winter during the omicron surge than previous variants, but few deaths were reported, according to newly released data by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

By the numbers:

• Children under 5 were hospitalized at about five times the rate documented during the delta wave, The Post’s Katie Shepherd reports.  
• Hospitalizations of infants under 6 months were about six times higher during the omicron surge.
• However, roughly 21 percent of hospitalized children under 5 required intensive care during omicron, down from 27 percent at the height of the delta wave.

The cause: Experts said the spike in hospitalizations could be due to omicron’s propensity for upper respiratory infections, which puts children with narrow airways that are easily blocked by inflammation at a higher risk for developing infections. 

• The other factor, experts speculate, is that infants and young children are the only demographic left in the country without access to vaccines.

Scott Krugman, a pediatrician from Baltimore:

Industry Rx

New progress in the fight for global vaccine access

Global leaders are nearing an agreement to waive patent rights for coronavirus vaccines after more than a year-long stalemate. The effort would allow developing countries to produce and distribute cheaper, generic versions of the shot, Reuters reports. 

The details: World Trade Organization member countries that exported less than 10 percent of coronavirus vaccine doses in 2021 would be able to produce vaccines without permission from the patent holder for three or five years.

• The WTO would also discuss extending the intellectual property waiver to coronavirus tests and treatments in the next six months.

The preliminary compromise reached by the United States, the European Union, India and South Africa now needs the support of WTO’s 164 members.

The pushback: Drugmakers argue the move to weaken patents while there are no longer supply constraints for the vaccine could impede pharmaceutical companies from responding to future pandemics.

Agency alert

States consider how to begin unwinding Medicaid

Medicaid enrollment during the pandemic skyrocketed, but as the country inches toward normalcy, millions of Americans are at risk of losing their coverage when the public health emergency is lifted. 

A new study from the Kaiser Family Foundation suggests that some states have yet to make key decisions about how they will take on the mission of combing through the Medicaid rolls when the continuous enrollment requirement is lifted. 

• Just 27 states said they have a plan for how they will prioritize assessing recipients eligibility, with 11 states indicating they will target enrollees who appear ineligible first.
• The vast majority of states plan to take up to a full year to complete the redetermination process.
• But seven states said they are aiming to finish the process more quickly, which officials warn could result in greater coverage loss because of staffing shortages and outdated information for enrollees.

In recent months, the Biden administration has worked to help prepare state offices to resume the process of determining which beneficiaries are no longer eligible for the public insurance program — a task that has been paused since the onset of the pandemic.

In other health news

• Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who previously worked on a bipartisan plan to lower the cost of medicines, admitted during a committee hearing that it’d be hard to pass drug pricing if his party gained control of Congress, Politico reports.
• Biogen announced Wednesday that patients involved in a late-stage trial of its drug Aduhelm exhibited significant decreases in two key indicators of Alzheimer’s disease after taking the drug for more than two years, per Reuters.
• Citigroup will begin covering travel costs, including airfare and lodging, for employees seeking an abortion over state lines as a growing number of Republican-led legislatures pass restrictions surrounding procedure, Bloomberg News reports.

Sugar rush

Thanks for reading! See y’all tomorrow.