Public Health Officials Mull Mask Mandates, CDC Renews Palantir Contract
Several officials across the country are encouraging mask-wearing and considering a new mandate as COVID-19 cases rise, and the CDC renewed its Palantir public health analytics contract worth $443 million.
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By - State health officials are publicly considering the benefits of another mask mandate as hospitals and health infrastructure struggle to bear the pressure of rising RSV, influenza, and COVID-19 cases. Meanwhile, the CDC has renewed its massive Palantir contract worth $443 million to build on inter-agency collaboration and help manage public health incidents.
Public Health Officials Consider Return to Mask Mandates
Across the country, public health officials and politicians are urging people to wear masks indoors as cases of the flu, RSV, and COVID-19 are on the rise. Officials in Washington State, Oregon, Los Angeles, and New York City have encouraged residents to wear face coverings when in crowded indoor settings to avoid transmission of viruses and help health systems that are struggling to manage increased hospitalizations. In Los Angeles County, public health director Barbara Ferrer, MD, suggested that the county may mandate indoor mask-wearing if hospitalizations and case counts continue to rise. READ MORE.
CDC Renews Public Health Analytics Partnership
The CDC will renew its partnership with Palantir Technologies after signing a five-year $443 million contract to deal with disease outbreaks and other public health incidents. The partnership will also streamline existing federal programs and support the CDC’s inter-agency collaboration effort.
"Palantir is extremely proud to continue its partnership with the CDC, ASPR, and HHS to strengthen America's public health infrastructure through leading-edge preparedness technology," said Hirsh Jain, head of public health, federal at Palantir, in the press release. "This contract solidifies the important digital advancements in public health made during the pandemic and expands the CDC's capacity to create a sustainable and long-term approach beyond COVID-19." READ MORE.
Wastewater Monitoring Tracks Public Health Threats
Arizona State University researchers and government personnel from Tempe teamed up to test a wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) tool in a study published in The Lancet. Using WBE, officials identified location-specific spikes in coronavirus infections during the pandemic and established an early warning system that was cheaper than using traditional medical tests. Researchers were confident that WBE could predict future clinical caseloads, morbidity, and mortality in the locality where it was utilized. They also noted that WBE would be particularly useful in areas with limited healthcare resources. READ MORE.
HHS Delays No Surprises Act Enforcement
HHS decided Friday that it will not begin enforcing part of the No Surprises Act until future rulemaking can be completed. According to HHS guidance, healthcare providers won’t yet need to deliver good faith estimates (GFEs). The decision comes after industry group protests that claimed the requirements would increase administrative burden. Providers also argued that the ruling outpaced their data exchange abilities and would be challenging, if not very difficult, to implement. READ MORE.
HC3 Identifies Royal Ransomware Threat
The Health Sector Cybersecurity Coordination Center (HC3) released an analyst note detailing the Royal ransomware variant that has extracted steep ransoms and targeted healthcare infrastructure. Royal ransomware is known for harvesting credentials and executing phishing attacks by embedding links in forums and blog comments.
“While most of the known ransomware operators have performed Ransomware-as-a-Service, Royal appears to be a private group without any affiliates while maintaining financial motivation as their goal,” the analyst note stated. “The group does claim to steal data for double-extortion attacks, where they will also exfiltrate sensitive data.” READ MORE.
