Hello,
Welcome to Insider Healthcare. I'm Lydia Ramsey Pflanzer, and today in healthcare news:
- We found the 10 top psychedelic VCs;
- Delta is hitting heavily Republican states hardest;
- The US is lagging other countries in sequencing COVID-19 tests.
If you're new to this newsletter, sign up here. Comments, tips? Email me at [email protected] or tweet @lydiaramsey125. Let's get to it…

Psilocybin mushrooms
Anitram/Shutterstock

Anitram/Shutterstock
Meet the top 10 VCs who've bet the most cash on turning MDMA and magic mushrooms into medicines
- Insider tracked down the top 10 VCs in the psychedelics space.
- We asked each firm how many deals they've made and how much they've deployed into the industry.
- The 10 firms on this list have invested about $79 million altogether.

A protester holds an anti-vaccination sign as supporters of President Donald Trump rally in Woodland Hills, California on May 16, 2020.
David McNew/Getty Images

David McNew/Getty Images
The Delta variant is hitting red states hardest as the US's vaccine divide widens
- The Delta variant is sickening people most in unvaccinated, heavily Republican states.
- Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri, and Wyoming have seen upticks in cases and hospitalizations.
- But the variant has had little effect in blue states such as Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont.

A female doctor holds a swab in one of the central fairgrounds in the outpatient corona test facility.
Britta Pedersen/picture alliance via Getty Images

Britta Pedersen/picture alliance via Getty Images
The US doesn't really know how widespread the Delta variant is because its virus sequencing is lagging far behind many other rich nations
- The US doesn't really know how widespread Delta is because of inadequate sequencing of tests.
- In the past six months, just 4% of all positive COVID-19 were sequenced and reported to a central database.
- The UK is at 18.6%, Singapore 46.5%, Australia 58.7%, and New Zealand 41.5%.
More stories we're reading:
- Data from Fitbit suggests people with COVID-19 had lingering impacts to their overall health (MobiHealth News)
- Olivia Rodrigo will visit the White House to record pro-vaccination videos with Fauci (Insider)
- Tennessee is stopping all adolescent vaccine outreach (The Tennessean)
- A health startup founder who raised $40 million plans to improve healthcare access in the US (Business Insider Spain)
- Lydia
Read the original article on Business Insider