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A state plan to expand subsidized health insurance for kids has remained in limbo for almost two years despite rising demand for coverage as more Florida children lose health insurance. About 8.5% of Florida children — roughly 403,000 kids — had no health coverage last year, according to an analysis of census data from Georgetown. (O'Donnell, 9/16)

When Marisa Jackson dropped her son Maxwell off at elementary school in St. Albans, West Virginia, in years past, she had the comfort of knowing that most, if not all, of the kids around him were vaccinated. West Virginia was one of just five states in the country that allowed only medical exemptions to school vaccine requirements. (Bendix, Kopf and Castro, 9/16)

Contra Costa County supervisors on Tuesday unanimously passed an ordinance that requires grocery stores to stock only healthy foods and drinks in checkout areas — which will effectively ban the sale of candy, chips, soda and other items high in sugar and salt near the registers, where shoppers often make impulse purchases. The ordinance, slated to take effect in November, will apply to the 42 retail food stores of at least 2,000 square feet in unincorporated Contra Costa County. It does not apply to incorporated cities, including Concord, Antioch and Richmond. (Ho, 9/16)

On the spread of covid, bird flu, and measles —

There are some encouraging signs that California’s summer COVID wave might be leveling off. That’s not to say the seasonal spike is in the rearview mirror just yet, however. Coronavirus levels in California’s wastewater remain “very high,” according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as they are in much of the country. (Lin II, 9/16)

Mid-September signals the soon-to-arrive familiar fall rhythms: leaves preparing to turn from green to gold and crimson, pumpkin spice flavors reappearing on menus and migratory birds filling the skies. Along with these seasonal markers comes a more troubling one — the likely spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza, or bird flu. (Atwater, 9/17)

More measles infections have been reported this year in the United States than in any year in more than three decades, with 1,356 confirmed cases from 42 counties by mid-August, notes a report featuring a daily county-level case map and state-level epidemic curves published yesterday in JAMA. Before the measles vaccine became available in 1963, over 90% of US residents were infected by the virus before they were 15 years old, with the 3 million to 4 million annual infections leading to about 48,000 hospital admissions. (Van Beusekom, 9/16)