First Edition: May 26, 2023

KFF Health News: A Catch-22 For Clinics: State Bans Limit Abortion Counseling. Federal Title X Rules Require It. 
State abortion bans in Tennessee and beyond, which constrain women’s health care, have put family planning clinics at risk of losing their federal funding. The conflict involves the Title X family planning program, which provides services to low-income people, including minors. As of 2021, more than 3,200 clinics used federal grants to supply free or low-cost contraception, testing for sexually transmitted infections, screening for breast and cervical cancer, and pregnancy-related counseling. (Pradhan, 5/26)

KFF Health News: Denials Of Health Insurance Claims Are Rising — And Getting Weirder 
Millions of Americans in the past few years have run into this experience: filing a health care insurance claim that once might have been paid immediately but instead is just as quickly denied. If the experience and the insurer’s explanation often seem arbitrary and absurd, that might be because companies appear increasingly likely to employ computer algorithms or people with little relevant experience to issue rapid-fire denials of claims — sometimes bundles at a time — without reviewing the patient’s medical chart. A job title at one company was “denial nurse.” (Rosenthal, 5/26)

KFF Health News: KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': When An Anti-Vaccine Activist Runs For President 
How should journalists cover political candidates who make false claims about the safety and effectiveness of vaccines? That question will need to be answered now that noted anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has officially entered the 2024 presidential race. (5/25)

USA Today: Long COVID Symptoms Finally Identified: What This Means For Treatment
Although the process seems slow − this study was started more than a year ago − it is essential to precisely define long COVID before researchers can pursue treatments, said Andrea Foulkes, the study's other lead author. If they don't have a way to distinguish people with long COVID from those without, they won't be able to tell if a treatment is making a difference. (Weintraub, 5/25)

AP: US Study Finds 1 In 10 Get Long COVID After Omicron, Starts Identifying Key Symptoms 
About 10% of people appear to suffer long COVID after an omicron infection, a lower estimate than earlier in the pandemic, according to a study of nearly 10,000 Americans that aims to help unravel the mysterious condition. Early findings from the National Institutes of Health’s study highlight a dozen symptoms that most distinguish long COVID, the catchall term for the sometimes debilitating health problems that can last for months or years after even a mild case of COVID-19. (Neergaard, 5/26)

AP: COVID Pill Paxlovid Gets Full FDA Approval After More Than A Year Of Emergency Use 
Pfizer received full approval on Thursday for its COVID-19 pill Paxlovid that’s been the go-to treatment against the coronavirus. More than 11 million prescriptions for Paxlovid have been dispensed since the Food and Drug Administration allowed emergency use in late 2021. The emergency status was based on early studies and was intended to be temporary pending follow-up research. The FDA granted full approval for adults with COVID-19 who face high risks of severe disease, which can lead to hospitalization or death. That group typically includes older adults and those with common medical conditions like diabetes, asthma and obesity. (Perrone, 5/25)

CBS News: Pfizer's Paxlovid Still Free, For Now, After FDA Grants Full Approval To COVID Drug 
The Biden administration will continue to manage the distribution of free courses of Pfizer's Paxlovid treatment for COVID-19 for at least another few months, the drugmaker said, even after the Food and Drug Administration granted Pfizer full approval Thursday to market the pills. "At this time, the U.S. government will continue to oversee the distribution of PAXLOVID, and U.S. residents eligible for PAXLOVID will continue to receive the medicine at no charge," Pfizer said in a release. (Tin, 5/25)

Reuters: BioNTech Is Proceeding With COVID-Shot In Line With WHO Guidance
Germany's BioNTech said it was on track to introduce a COVID-19 shot by the early fall in the northern hemisphere that is adapted to currently dominant virus variants in line with recommendations by the World Health Organization. BioNTech was targeting regulatory approval by the end of the summer to allow for a seasonal vaccination campaign to start in early autumn, CEO and co-founder Ugur Sahin told shareholders at the biotech firm's annual general meeting on Thursday. (5/25)

The Washington Post: Debt Ceiling Deal 'Closer' As White House, GOP Negotiate 
White House aides and House Republican leaders were moving closer to a deal Thursday evening aimed at resolving the debt ceiling standoff just days before the U.S. government could run out of money, as key compromises on both sides seemed likely to pave the way for a bipartisan agreement. (Siegel, Stein, Kane and Caldwell, 5/25)

The Hill: GOP Negotiator Says White House ‘Refusing To Negotiate’ On Work Requirements 
A top Republican negotiating a debt ceiling hike blasted the White House on Thursday over work requirements for social benefits programs, indicating that the thorny issue remains a sticking point as the country inches closer to a government default. Rep. Garret Graves (R-La.) argued the Democrats’ staunch opposition to tougher work requirements will threaten the recipients of other federal benefit programs. He characterized overall progress as “slow.” (Schnell and Lillis, 5/25)

The Hill: House Leaves Town With No Debt Ceiling Deal
House lawmakers are leaving Washington for the long holiday weekend Thursday afternoon — just one week before the Treasury Department says the U.S. is at risk of a debt default — without a deal to raise the debt ceiling. (Folley, 5/25)

Politico: House Conservatives Blanch At Leaked Details Of McCarthy-Biden Debt Talks 
As details leak about an emerging bipartisan debt deal just days before a possible default, House conservatives are growing increasingly unhappy. With House GOP leadership revealing few policy specifics as talks continue, their lawmakers have sought information elsewhere. In this case, some GOP members are consulting a list — said to detail exactly where the negotiators have found common ground — that Rep. Tim Burchett shared with colleagues on the floor Thursday. The Tennessean, one of four Republicans to oppose the House GOP’s debt ceiling plan, declined to tell reporters where the list originated, but a Republican familiar with the matter said it came from leadership. (Beavers and Ferris, 5/25)

The Washington Post: Judges Rebuke Social Security For Errors As Disability Denials Stack Up
Hurled from a road-paving machine, Michael Sheldon tumbled 50 feet down a Colorado slope and struck a mound of boulders headfirst on a summer day in 2006. After eight surgeries to his head, neck and spinal cord, his debilitating headaches, chronic pain and post-traumatic stress have made it impossible to return to his work preparing roads for new subdivisions. Yet for more than a decade, the Social Security Administration repeatedly denied Sheldon’s full claim for disability benefits that would pay him $1,415 a month. (Rein, 5/25)

NPR: Indiana Reprimands Doctor Who Spoke Publicly About 10-Year-Old's Abortion
A state medical board is reprimanding an Indiana doctor who drew national attention after speaking publicly about providing an abortion for a 10-year-old rape victim from Ohio. Dr. Caitlin Bernard was called before Indiana's Medical Licensing Board after the state's Republican attorney general filed a complaint. A majority of board members found that she had violated privacy laws by speaking about the case, and voted to fine her $3,000 in addition to the reprimand. (McCammon, 5/26)

San Francisco Chronicle: California Police Share License Plate Data With Anti-Abortion States
Civil liberties groups told police in 71 California communities Thursday they must stop sharing automated license plate information with law enforcement agencies in other states that could use the data to track people seeking or providing abortions. (Egelko, 5/25)

The Washington Post: Elon Musk's Neuralink Gets FDA Approval For Human Trials: What To Know 
Neuralink, Elon Musk’s brain-implant company, said Thursday evening that it has regulatory approval to conduct the first clinical trial of its experimental device in humans. Approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration would mark a milestone for the company, which has been developing a device surgically inserted into the brain by a robot and capable of decoding brain activity and linking it to computers. Up until now, the company has conducted research only in animals. (Gilbert and Siddiqui, 5/25)

The Wall Street Journal: Icahn Nominee Elected To Illumina’s Board
Illumina shareholders voted to elect one of activist investor Carl Icahn’s three nominees to the company’s board of directors, giving him a partial victory in a bruising proxy battle he launched over the biotechnology company’s handling of a risky acquisition. (Loftus, 5/25)

CIDRAP: Federal Officials Open National Bio And Agro-Defense Facility
Yesterday federal officials and leaders from Kansas formally opened the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF) in Manhattan, Kansas, marking the culmination of plans that have been in the works since 2006 to replace the 68-year-old Plum Island Animal Disease Facility, a biosafety level 3 (BSL-3) facility in New York. The NBAF is the nation's only large-animal BSL-4 facility that is designed to handle pathogens that don't have any treatments or countermeasures. (Schnirring, 5/25)

Stat: Gilead And Teva Defend Antitrust Claims That Prices For HIV Medicines Were Unfairly Kept High 
Amid concern that HIV prevention pills are not being widely taken by those at highest risk of infection, AIDS activists hope that a trial getting underway in a federal courtroom this week will help explain why the medicine has struggled to see uptake. (Silverman, 5/25)

Axios: FDA Weighs When Software Becomes A Medical Device
An effort to get the FDA to pull a widely used prescription drug monitoring software package off the market is stoking a broader debate over how much technology is influencing opioid prescribing. The Center for U.S. Policy says Bamboo Health's NarxCare should be classified a medical device and subject to regulation, because of the way it helps doctors and other providers decide if a patient should get painkillers. (Gonzalez and Moreno, 5/26)

Columbus Dispatch: OSHA Cites Nationwide Children's For Not Protecting Employees
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued citations this week to Nationwide Children's Hospital after an investigation into accusations that it failed to protect employees from patient assaults. The U.S. Department of Labor agency opened the investigation in November at the Columbus hospital's Big Lots Behavioral Health Pavilion after a complaint alleging unsafe working conditions, the Labor Department announced Thursday. It inspected the facility multiple times from Nov. 25 to May 19, before issuing the two citations Monday. (Shuda, 5/25)

Health News Florida: DeSantis Signs Bill To Increase Penalties For Attacks On Health Care Workers
Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday signed into law a measure that increases the penalties for assault or battery of hospital personnel. The measure (HB 825) passed through the Senate on May 2 and the House a month earlier. Sponsors were Sen. Ana Maria Rodriguez, R-Doral, and House sponsor Rep. Kimberly Berfield, R-Clearwater. The legislation has been praised by health workers. Data show physical attacks on hospital personnel by patients, family members and others are on the rise, and that nurses are most likely to be the victims. (5/25)

AP: Colorado Embraces Broad Law Requiring Patient Consent For Pelvic Exams While Sedated 
Colorado medical providers will need to get patients’ prior consent before medical students can perform pelvic exams on them while they are unconscious for a procedure under a bill signed into law Thursday. In signing off on the law in her capacity as acting governor, Lt. Gov. Dianne Primavera put Colorado with at least 20 other states that have consent laws on the books. But Colorado’s goes far beyond other states’ because it requires that the medical students be named ahead of time and meet the patient — a step one bioethicist is concerned might impede students’ chances to learn. (Bedayn, 5/25)

Stat: Doctors Oppose Trans Health Bans That Aim To Wean Youth Off Meds
In a wave of anti-LGBTQ legislation, 19 U.S. states thus far have banned at least some gender-affirming health care for minors — care that is evidence-based and supported by the major medical and professional organizations. The state of Texas may soon add to that count, with legislators passing a bill last week that Governor Greg Abbott has promised to sign when it comes across his desk. (Gaffney, 5/26)

WUSF Public Media: Limits On Transgender Care Force Some Florida Health Centers To Pause Treatment For Adults
The shot of testosterone Noah Lovell takes each week has become a form of resistance for him since Florida officials started limited transgender rights. “No matter what, I’m not going to let them take my joy,” Lovell said. For the last year or so, the Lakeland resident has received hormone therapy (HRT), through Planned Parenthood and says it’s critical to helping his body align with his identity. (Colombini, 5/25)

The Washington Post: CDC Reports Second Death Linked To Surgery In Mexico 
A second person has died after seeking medical treatment at a clinic in Matamoros, Mexico, linked to suspected cases of fungal meningitis, according to an updated advisory from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The advisory, issued Wednesday, also warned that more than 200 people across the United States are potentially at risk. (Malhi, 5/25)

AP: Mpox Is Down, But US Cities Could Be At Risk For Summertime Outbreaks 
Mpox infections exploded early in the summer of 2022 in the wake of Pride gatherings. More than 30,000 U.S. cases were reported last year, most of them spread during sexual contact between gay and bisexual men. About 40 people died. With Pride events planned across the country in the coming weeks, health officials and event organizers say they are optimistic that this year infections will be fewer and less severe. A bigger supply of vaccine, more people with immunity and readier access to a drug to treat mpox are among the reasons. But they also worry that people may think of mpox as last year’s problem. (Stobbe, 5/25)

Axios: New Bacterial Clues About Why Young People Are Getting Colorectal Cancer
The type of gut bacteria in colorectal cancer tumors varies significantly between younger and older patients, offering a clue toward understanding why cases are rising in people under 45, according to a study due to be presented at next week's American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting. (Reed, 5/26)

The Wall Street Journal: CBD And Pot Products Say They’ll Help You Sleep. The Science Isn’t So Sure. 
Trying to get a better night’s rest is one of the most common reasons people use marijuana, pot gummies or CBD products—but it’s not clear that they actually improve your sleep. Cannabis probably can help you fall asleep, doctors and researchers say, but there’s little conclusive evidence that healthy adults get a better night’s rest overall. You may feel groggy the next day, or risk developing a dependence over time, doctors and researchers say. (Reddy, 5/25)

The Washington Post: People Keep Eating Cookie Dough Despite Salmonella Outbreak, CDC Warning
Raw cookie dough seems to be an irresistible temptation for many people. Whether they pick a piece from the mixing bowl, lick the spoon used to scoop it, or even bite straight into a store-bought roll — they can’t help but ignore health authorities’ warnings to not eat it. A salmonella outbreak linked to raw cookie dough has sickened at least 18 people in six states, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Two people were hospitalized. (Bever, 5/25)