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The United States must do more to prepare for future pandemics and biological threats, top federal health officials told the Senate HELP Committee on Thursday. “The increased frequency of outbreaks mean that we should not be asking if we will face another serious public health threat, but when,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said. (Lim, 5/4)

The FDA has prevented about 350 device shortages thanks to authorities granted under Covid response laws that will expire next week, the agency’s head told a Senate panel. Robert M. Califf, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, indicated he’d like to see the agency’s powers to manage drug and device shortages extended beyond the Covid-19 public health emergency that’s set to end May 11.“ (Baumann, 5/4)

President Joe Biden has a vision for the next stage of his administration’s pandemic response — if only he can find someone to lead it. A week before Biden is set to declare an end to the nation’s public health emergency and dissolve his current Covid team, the White House still hasn't found a director to run the new office charged with keeping up the fight, four people with knowledge of the matter told POLITICO. (Cancryn, 5/4)

On the potential public safety risks of AI —

The Biden administration is confronting the rapidly expanding use of artificial intelligence, warning of the dangers the technology poses to public safety, privacy and democracy while having limited authority to regulate it. (Siddiqui and McKinnon, 5/4)

Vice President Kamala Harris said the White House would support new regulations or legislation to mitigate the potential harms from artificial intelligence technology after a meeting Thursday with the chief executive officers of Alphabet Inc., Microsoft Corp., OpenAI Inc., and Anthropic. (Sink, 5/4)

In more news from the Biden administration —

The FDA could decide on the application by the end of the summer. If it approves the OTC switch, it would mark the latest milestone in a reproductive health landscape shaken by seismic legal and political upheavals during the past year. This month marks the 63rd anniversary of the FDA’s approval of the first birth control pill — a move that transformed American society. Many consider the arrival of the pill, promoted for decades by activists determined to give women greater sexual and economic freedom, to be a landmark moment in the 20th century. (McGinley, Roubein and Johnson, 5/4)

More than half of the psychotherapy provided to Medicare patients, at a cost of $580 million during the pandemic’s first year, did not meet government billing standards, HHS’ inspector general said Thursday. The IG reached that conclusion after extrapolating from a review of 216 psychotherapy claims out of a total of 13.5 million, a "statistically valid random sample," according to spokesperson Morsal Mohamad. (Leonard, 5/4)

The National Institutes of Health may be the largest public funder of biomedical research in the U.S., but its contributions to drug development are not well understood or recognized by most Americans. And a new analysis finds a key reason may be most institutions and researchers that receive NIH support fail to fully or correctly disclose this information when applying for patents. (Silverman, 5/4)

Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra confirmed in a statement Thursday that an employee at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was one of the victims of a shooting in Atlanta on Wednesday. “Last night, we learned the tragic news that Amy St. Pierre, an HHS colleague at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was the victim of a senseless shooting in Atlanta, Georgia,” Becerra said in a statement. “Our hearts go out to her husband Julian St. Pierre, her children, and all her loved ones at this difficult time.” (5/4)