The 10 VCs betting the most on turning MDMA and magic mushrooms into medicines

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 lramsey@insider.com or tweet @lydiaramsey125. Let's get to it...

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.

Get the full list>>

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.

Find out more>>

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%.

Read the full analysis>>

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