The Hill: A Record Of Over 16 Million People Signed Up For Insurance Through Obamacare 
More than 16.3 million people enrolled in a health plan through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) during the most recent open enrollment period, marking the highest number of enrollees since the program was signed into law 10 years ago. This record amount of enrollments occurred between Nov. 1 and Jan. 15 and represented nearly 2 million more people than the number that enrolled the previous year. According to the White House, 3.6 million people, or 22 percent of those who signed up in this enrollment period, were new to the Marketplace. (Choi, 1/25)

CNN: ACA Sign-Ups Soar To Record 16.3 Million For 2023
Sign-ups on the federal exchange, healthcare.gov, have skyrocketed nearly 50% since the Biden administration took office in 2021, thanks in large part to enhanced federal premium subsidies and increased outreach efforts. Plan selections are up 13% from this time last year. ... The spike in coverage helped drive the nation’s uninsured rate to an all-time low of 8% in the first quarter of 2022. (Luhby, 1/25)

The New York Times: Obamacare Sign-Ups Top 16 Million For 2023, Setting Another Record 
President Biden cheered the development in a statement, saying, “Today, we received further proof that our efforts are delivering record-breaking results.” The Biden administration has taken other steps to encourage enrollment in the plans, including increasing advertising and enrollment assistance and providing a longer window for sign-ups than during President Donald J. Trump’s administration. But it appears the money is mattering more than anything else. (Sanger-Katz, 1/25)

AP: Record 16.3 Million Seek Health Coverage Through 'Obamacare' 
The government worked with nonprofit groups and invested in program specialists who helped to sign people up in low-income, immigrant, Black and Latino communities to enroll more people, said Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. “We made unprecedented investments to expand our enrollment organization footprint into nearly every county in the country and targeted the hardest to reach communities,” she said. (Seitz, 1/25)

Florida had the most sign-ups —

Miami Herald: Florida Sees Record Obamacare Enrollment, Leads The Country 
Florida led the way with the highest number of people in the country who signed up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, with more than 3.2 million people enrolling, or 20 percent of the country’s totals. ... In Florida, enrollment ballooned to 3.2 million, a 19% jump over last year’s open enrollment period under the health law, commonly known as Obamacare. The 3.2 million represents 20 percent of all enrollees nationwide, even though Florida, the third most populous state in the country with 22 million people, accounts for only about 7 percent of the U.S. population. (Marchante, 1/26)

The Washington Post: In Wake Of Baby Formula Crisis, Top FDA Food Safety Official Frank Yiannas Resigns 
Less than two months after an outside group offered a scathing indictment of the Food and Drug Administration’s structure and culture and recommended major restructuring, the agency’s top food safety official resigned, citing shortcomings in the FDA’s ability to handle foodborne illness crises, including the recent baby formula shortage. Frank Yiannas, the deputy commissioner for the office of food policy and response, will leave his post next month, he wrote to FDA Commissioner Robert M. Califf on Wednesday. “The decentralized structure of the foods program that you and I both inherited significantly impaired FDA’s ability to operate as an integrated food team and protect the public,” Yiannas wrote in the letter obtained by The Washington Post. (Reiley and Bogage, 1/25)

AP: FDA Food Safety Official Resigns, Cites Structural Issues 
Frank Yiannas’ notice comes less than a week before FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf is expected to release a response to a scathing report calling for an overhaul of the way the agency regulates human and animal foods. Currently, no single official has full oversight of FDA’s sprawling food operations. Yiannas called for the appointment of a “fully empowered and experienced” deputy commissioner for foods, with direct oversight of those issues. Advocacy groups and several former FDA officials have also called for such a position. (Aleccia, 1/26)

CNBC: FDA Official Overseeing Food Policy And Response To Resign In Wake Of Baby Formula Shortage
Since December of 2018, Yiannas has been involved in the development and rollout of policies related to food safety, including response to outbreaks, tracing foodborne illness investigations, product recalls and supply chain innovation. ... In a statement, the FDA lauded Yiannas for his service on the agency’s leadership team, saying his efforts to tackle key initiatives helped “create a safer and more digital, traceable food system for our country.” (Richards, 1/25)

Parents are still struggling to find formula —

The Press Register: Baby Formula Shortage Is Back In Mississippi 
A national research firm has compiled data from health professionals, benefits experts and federal and state resources that indicates the baby formula shortage remains in Mississippi. Over 68% of households in Mississippi with an infant under the age of one reported difficulty obtaining baby formula in December of 2022, according to a study from HelpAdvisor.com. (1/24)

Fox 29 West Palm Beach: Parents Struggling To Find Formula As Shortage Continues Nearly A Year Later
David Brown, a father of four and owner of Kid to Kid in Palm Beach Gardens, is doing his part to help with his store serving as a free formula exchange site of sorts for the better part of the year. “The formula, it comes and it goes,” he said. “We don’t post what we have online, it is more word of mouth.” People drop off formula they aren’t using. (1/25)

Politico: Pair Of Lawsuits Kick Off State-Federal Battle Over Abortion Pills
A widely anticipated legal battle over whether federal policies supersede state laws began Wednesday with a pair of lawsuits seeking to stop restrictions on abortion pills in two states. The challenges — targeting laws in North Carolina and West Virginia that block patients from receiving abortion pills by mail or from retail pharmacies or ban the use of the pills entirely — will likely have national implications, as more than a dozen states have imposed laws limiting how, when and where patients can obtain abortion pills. (Ollstein and Gardner, 1/25)

AP: New Lawsuits Target State Restrictions On Abortion Pills 
The cases were brought by a North Carolina physician who prescribes the pill, mifepristone, and GenBioPro, which makes a generic version of the drug and sued in West Virginia. While the federal court lawsuits target specific state laws, they represent key legal tests that could eventually determine access to abortion for millions of women. Medication recently overtook in-clinic procedures as the most common form of abortion in the U.S. (Perrone, 1/25)

Roll Call: Lawsuits Show Focus Of Abortion Battle Shifting To Medication 
Of the three cases, the third — Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. U.S. Food and Drug Administration — could have the broadest impact. In November, conservative legal advocacy group Alliance Defending Freedom challenged the FDA’s approval of mifepristone, citing concerns about its safety. ADF is seeking an emergency ruling to pull approval of the drug nationwide. “If the FDA were forced to withdraw its approval that would mean that mifepristone would be taken off the shelves nationwide and would therefore decimate access to abortion to people across the country regardless of where they live or the laws of their state,” said Jennifer Dalven, director of the reproductive freedom project at the American Civil Liberties Union, speaking in a press call last week. (Raman, 1/25)

More abortion news from Washington, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, and California —

AP: Washington Lawmakers Hear Testimony On 7 Abortion Bills 
Abortion rights proposals have been front and center in Olympia, Washington, this week as state lawmakers heard hours of public testimony on seven proposals that would reinforce abortion access. The emphasis on four legislative committees hearing testimony on abortion bills Tuesday was intended to demonstrate majority Democrats’ support for abortion rights following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, The Seattle Times reported. (1/26)

The Brown Daily Herald: R.I. Abortion Access Bill Advocates Hope For New Success After Roe 
For the fourth consecutive year, the Rhode Island General Assembly’s legislative session saw the proposal of the Equality in Abortion Coverage Act, which would ensure that individuals on Medicaid or state employee health insurance plans receive coverage for abortion procedures. State Sen. Bridget Valverde, D-East Greenwich, has introduced the bill in the state Senate annually since 2020, failing to get the bill to the governor’s desk each time. (Sarig, 1/26)

The New York Times: 2023’s Biggest, Most Unusual Race Centers On Abortion And Democracy
In 10 weeks, Wisconsin will hold an election that carries bigger policy stakes than any other contest in America in 2023. The April race, for a seat on the state’s evenly divided Supreme Court, will determine the fate of abortion rights, gerrymandered legislative maps and the Wisconsin governor’s appointment powers — and perhaps even influence the state’s 2024 presidential election. (Epstein, 1/25)

Politico: California Enacts New Abortion Laws, Expecting Copycats 
Nurses at the low-slung maze-like student health complex at the University of California, Santa Barbara work year-round to make sure the shelves of their in-house pharmacy remain stocked with antivirals, painkillers and antibiotics for the tens of thousands of students they serve. This month, they were required to have two more drugs on hand: mifepristone and misoprostol — the regimen that induces an abortion. (Ollstein, 1/25)

Also —

Axios: House Dems Set To Introduce Bill To Allow Federal Funding To Cover Abortion
House Democrats today are set to introduce a largely symbolic bill that would lift longstanding government restrictions on the use of federal funds to cover abortions. ... If enacted, "low income people, who are primarily Black and brown, would have the same access to the full range of reproductive health care, including abortion care," Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), co-chair of the House Pro-Choice Caucus and and lead lawmaker introducing the bill, told Axios. (Gonzalez, 1/26)

The New York Times: Suspect In Arson At Planned Parenthood Clinic Cited Ex-Girlfriend’s Abortion, U.S. Says
A man accused of firebombing a Planned Parenthood clinic in Peoria, Ill., earlier this month told investigators that he had done so after recalling an abortion a former girlfriend once had against his wishes, adding that he hoped the fire would delay others in having abortions, according to federal authorities. (Ripka, 1/25)

NPR: Do You Know These Abortion And Pregnancy Facts? 
Despite all the headlines about the procedure, many Americans do not know basic facts about abortions or who gets them, according to a new NPR/Ipsos poll. Take the quiz below — it has the same questions as the poll — and test your own knowledge. Then, read on to understand more about how the facts connect to the abortion debate. (Benshoff and Hurt, 1/26)

NBC News: Updated Covid Boosters Cut The Infection Risk From XBB.1.5 Subvariant By Half, CDC Finds
The updated Covid boosters reduce the risk of Covid infection from the predominant omicron subvariant by nearly half, according to early data published Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In adults up to age 49, the latest boosters from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna were 48% effective against symptomatic infection from the XBB.1.5 subvariant, the new report said. As of Jan. 21, that subvariant accounted for about 1 in 2 new cases in the U.S. (Lovelace Jr., 1/25)

USA Today: COVID Vaccines Protect Against Omicron Subvariant XBB, CDC Finds
Officials had argued that a "bivalent" booster — addressing two forms of the virus instead of one — would be more protective than the original "monovalent" vaccine as the virus continues to evolve. The new study found that, despite the mismatch in variants, the booster remains protective against XBB. "There is incremental or additional protection from getting the bivalent on top of those past monovalent doses," said Ruth Link-Gelles, the paper's first author, on Wednesday in a CDC call with media. (Weintraub, 1/25)

Reuters: Updated COVID Vaccines Prevented Illness From Latest Variants -CDC
"Today we have additional evidence to show that these updated vaccines are protecting people against the latest COVID-19 variants," Dr. Brendan Jackson, head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's COVID-19 response, told reporters in a briefing. (Steenhuysen and Mahobe, 1/25)

Also —

San Francisco Chronicle: COVID In California: Study Finds Vaccines Safe And Effective For Kids
In a meta-analysis of 17 studies of nearly 11 million vaccinated children, a global team of researchers found that COVID-19 vaccination in children aged 5 to 11 years was associated with lower risks of SARS-CoV-2 infection, COVID-related illnesses and hospitalizations due to COVID illnesses. (Vaziri, 1/25)

KHN and PolitiFact: Florida Gov. DeSantis Falsely Claims Bivalent Booster Boosts Chances Of Covid Infection 
As he proposed to extend the state’s ban on mandates for covid vaccines and face masks, Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis lobbed a flurry of criticism at President Joe Biden and “the medical establishment.”  “They were not following the science,” DeSantis said at a Jan. 17 press conference in Panama City Beach. “Almost every study now has said with these new boosters, you’re more likely to get infected with the bivalent booster.” (Reyes, 1/26)

A new PCR test detects the XBB.1.5 variant —

Reuters: Roche Launches New Test To Detect Fast Spreading Omicron Sub-Variant
Roche has launched a new PCR test to detect a fast-spreading sub-variant of the Omicron variant of Coronavirus, the Swiss drugmaker said on Thursday. The new test specifically targets the XBB.1.5 Omicron variant and will help researchers closely track the virus’s lineage and provide insights into the epidemiology and impact it has on public health, the company added. (1/26)

Covid's effect on your heart and cholesterol —

CBS News: Heart-Related Deaths Rose Sharply During First Year Of COVID-19 Pandemic, Report Shows
The annual pace of Americans dying from cardiovascular-related causes accelerated during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic to the worst it has been since 2015, according to final figures gathered this month by the American Heart Association. (Tin, 1/25)

NBC News: Could Getting Covid Raise Cholesterol?
Covid may increase the risk for high cholesterol for up to a year after infection, two recent studies suggest, prompting some doctors to take a closer look at the apparent trend. "It's something that we need to pay more attention to," said Dr. Ashish Sarraju, a cardiologist with the Preventive Cardiology and Rehabilitation section at the Cleveland Clinic, adding that the latest research is "provocative." (Edwards, 1/25)

The New York Times: N.I.H. Did Not Properly Track A Group Studying Coronaviruses, Report Finds 
The National Institutes of Health made significant errors in its oversight of grants to a nonprofit group that has come under fire from congressional Republicans for its research collaborations in China, an internal federal watchdog agency said on Wednesday. The findings, outlined in a 64-page report describing missed deadlines, confusing protocols and misspent funds, reinforced concerns about the federal government’s system for monitoring research with potentially risky pathogens. (Mueller and Stolberg, 1/25)

More about several investigations —

San Francisco Chronicle: COVID Provocateur Greene Selected To Investigate Pandemic Response
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has appointed controversial Georgia Republican and COVID conspiracy theorist Marjorie Taylor Greene to a panel that will lead an investigation into how the government handled the coronavirus pandemic, according to McCarthy’s office. (Vaziri, 1/25)

Roll Call: Broad Focus Planned For Revamped COVID Panel Under GOP Majority
The new chair of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic is planning a wide focus on future pandemic preparedness and the impacts of the pandemic on the economy, education and the national supply chain. Rep. Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio, who serves on the Ways and Means Committee and the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, categorized the panel’s mission as an “after-action review” and “lessons learned.” He also plans to continue work on the origins of COVID-19 he started through the intelligence committee. (Clason, 1/25)

CIDRAP: Delays, Snags Hampered HHS Pandemic Relief Efforts To Vulnerable Groups 
A new US Government Accountability Office (GAO) report shows that the Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS's) distribution of federal pandemic relief funds to support communities disproportionately affected by COVID-19 was hampered by delayed state acceptance of the funds and resource problems. Released yesterday, the report details how HHS allocated $29 billion of a total of $75 billion (over 35%) to four agencies to direct these funds to Hispanic, Black, American Indian/Alaska Native communities and to populations older than 65 years, rural residents, nursing home residents and staff, unvaccinated people, and other vulnerable groups. (Van Beusekom, 1/25)

California court pauses law that penalizes doctors for spreading misinformation —

San Francisco Chronicle: California Law That Targets COVID Misinformation Halted By Court
Judge William B. Schubb of the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of California granted the motion filed by a group of doctors for a preliminary injunction. Schubb said that, because the “scientific consensus” (on COVID, in this case) is ill-defined and vague, the physician plaintiffs in the lawsuit are “unable to determine if their intended conduct contradicts the scientific consensus, and accordingly ‘what is prohibited by the law.” (Parker, 1/25)

KHN: More Californians Are Dying At Home. Another Covid ‘New Normal’?
The covid-19 pandemic has spurred a surge in the proportion of Californians who are dying at home rather than in a hospital or nursing home, accelerating a slow but steady rise that dates back at least two decades. The recent upsurge in at-home deaths started in 2020, the first year of the pandemic, and the rate has continued to climb, outlasting the rigid lockdowns at hospitals and nursing homes that might help explain the initial shift. Nearly 40% of deaths in California during the first 10 months of 2022 took place at home, up from about 36% for all of 2019, according to death certificate data from the California Department of Public Health. By comparison, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data shows that about 26% of Californians died at home in 1999, the earliest year for which data on at-home deaths is accessible in the agency’s public database. (Reese, 1/26)

Reuters: Half Of U.S. Mass Attacks Sparked By Personal, Workplace Disputes, Report Finds
Half of the mass attacks in the United States from 2016-2020 were sparked by personal, domestic or workplace disputes, according to a new U.S. Secret Service report that aims to prevent violence by identifying warning signs. The attackers were overwhelmingly men, often with histories of mental health symptoms, financial insecurity or engaging in domestic violence. Guns were typically the weapon of choice. (1/25)

The Washington Post: Many Mass Attackers Motivated By Personal And Work Grievances, Report Says
The report, released by the Secret Service National Threat Assessment Center on Wednesday, examined 173 targeted attacks carried out by 180 perpetrators between 2016 and 2020 in public or semipublic locations. It defines a mass attack as an act of violence in which three or more people, excluding the perpetrator, were killed or injured. The researchers found that three-quarters of the perpetrators had displayed behaviors or communicated in a way that concerned others before the attack. About 29 percent of attackers were described either by themselves or others as “withdrawn, loners or anti-social,” the report said, and more than half had experienced mental health symptoms before the attack. (Cho, 1/26)

ABC News: As US Reels From Multiple Mass Shootings, Can Loneliness Be A Trigger For Violence? 
There is a loneliness epidemic in the United States -- and it experts told ABC News it may be triggering violence. In California, there have been three shootings in as many days, tied to a perpetrator who may have exhibited signs of social isolation and/or violent behavior, according to authorities. In Monterey Park, police documents revealed the 72-year-old suspect had been divorced from his wife since 2006, lived alone in Hemet -- about 30 miles Southeast of Riverside -- and was angry and resentful. (Kekatos, 1/26)

More on the mass shootings in California —

The New York Times: California Gun Laws Can’t Keep Out The Violence From Mass Shootings 
Gun policy experts said that a national culture that accepts routine violence, combined with an inability to enforce gun controls in one state that is surrounded by others where rules are more lax, means that California will continue to grapple with public mass violence. “We are part of a culture that celebrates violence as a means of problem-solving in a country that has made firearms more available than any industrialized country ever,” said Dr. Garen J. Wintemute, an emergency room doctor who directs the Violence Prevention Research Program at the University of California, Davis, Medical Center. “We have no right to be surprised when these things happen.” (Cowan, 1/24)

ABC News: Experts Explain Why California Is Still Rife With Gun Violence Despite Some Of The Most Stringent Gun Laws In The Country 
Even the state with some of the strictest gun laws can't keep gun violence away from its borders. California has some of the most stringent gun laws in the country -- many of which were enacted in response to several of the violent mass shootings in recent years. But that hasn't stopped a wave of mass shootings from plaguing the state in the first few weeks of 2023. (Jacobo, 1/26)

San Francisco Chronicle: California Mass Shootings Add To Bay Area Asian Americans’ Years Of Pandemic Trauma
On Lunar New Year’s Eve, Stop AAPI Hate co-founder Cynthia Choi went to bed hopeful. Before going to sleep, she sent out a tweet: “I am all in for a year of calm, kindness and peace.” The next morning, Choi woke up to the news of the Monterey Park (Los Angeles County) mass shooting, where 11 Asian Americans were killed at a dance studio. (Li, Hao and Cano, 1/25)

BBC News: Why Number Of US Mass Shootings Has Risen Sharply 
Data shows that all types of gun violence - from homicide to suicide to mass shootings - are on a mostly upwards trajectory in the US. In 2019, the total number of gun-related deaths in the US was 33,599. In 2022, the number of deaths rose to 44,290 - a 31% increase. Most of these deaths are suicides by a firearm, followed by homicides. While mass shootings often draw alarm, they make up a small fraction of gun-related deaths - in 2020, mass shooting victims made up 1.1% of overall firearm deaths. (1/25)

Fox News: Dire Shortage Of Infectious Disease Specialists In US, For 'Complex' Reasons
The United States is experiencing a dire shortage of infectious disease specialists, according to the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), a medical association based in Arlington, Virginia. "Infectious disease (ID) physicians have repeatedly demonstrated their importance during critical worldwide crises, such as with HIV/AIDS, the COVID-19 pandemic and Mpox (previously Monkeypox)," Dr. Cindy Whitener told Fox News Digital. (Sudhakar, 1/25)

In other news about health care workers —

CBS News: Texas Doctors Separate Conjoined Twins After 11-Hour "Historic Surgery"
The infants, AmieLynn Rose and JamieLynn Rae Finley, "are recovering well," officials at the hospital, Cook Children's Medical Center, wrote in a news release describing what they called a "historic surgery." AmieLynn and JamieLynn were born prematurely to parents and Fort Worth residents Amanda Arciniega and James Finley, at the nearby Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital on Oct. 3. (Mae Czachor, 1/25)

Modern Healthcare: Kaiser Permanente Executive Julie Miller-Phipps To Retire
Julie Miller-Phipps will retire as president of Kaiser Permanente's southern California and Hawaii operations in July, marking an end to her 45-year career with the integrated health system, the company announced Tuesday. (Berryman, 1/25)

The Hill: Google Lays Off In-House Massage Therapists In Latest Round Of Job Cuts: Report 
More than two dozen in-house massage therapists were part of the latest round of layoffs that happened at Google last week. According to filings reported by CNBC on Tuesday, 27 in-house massage therapists were among the 1,845 employees to lose their jobs with the company in the state of California. (Oshin, 1/25)

NPR: Pediatricians Swallow Lego Heads, Document Their Poops To Reassure Parents
When Dr. Andy Tagg was a toddler, he swallowed a Lego piece. Actually, two, stuck together. "I thought, well, just put it in your mouth and try and get your teeth between the little pieces," he says. The next thing he knew, it went down the hatch. (Barber, Cirino and Spitzer, 1/26)

More from the health care industry —

San Francisco Chronicle: Hearst Foundations Announce Major Grants To Bay Area Nonprofits
Together, the foundations “act as a unified national philanthropic resource for nonprofit organizations and institutions working in the fields of education, health, culture and social service,” they stated in a press release. “Their work helps to ensure that people of all backgrounds have the opportunity to build healthy, productive and inspiring lives.” (Whiting, 1/25)

Modern Healthcare: Changing Employer Market Leaves Digital Health Companies Rethinking Strategy
Since the mid-2010s and until recently, digital health companies selling to employers had found an enthusiastic audience eager to stand out in a tight labor market by offering a variety of digital health solutions. But with health insurance premiums rising, employee benefits managers are paring digital health options, forcing digital health companies to adapt and focus primarily on integration and cost savings. (Perna, 1/25)

The Wall Street Journal: Juul In Deal Talks With Three Tobacco Giants 
Juul Labs Inc. is in early-stage talks with three tobacco giants as the e-cigarette maker seeks a potential sale, investment or partnership, according to people familiar with the matter. In recent weeks, Juul executives have had separate discussions with Philip Morris International Inc., Japan Tobacco Group and Altria Group Inc., the people said. A deal isn’t imminent, the people said, and the discussions might not result in a sale or partnership. Altria owns a 35% stake in Juul. ... Big tobacco companies are jockeying for position to grab up pieces of the U.S. e-cigarette market as federal regulators reshape the industry, deciding which competitors can stay and which must go.(Maloney and Cooper, 1/25)

Daily Mail: Another Study Finds Popular Brand Of E-Cigarettes Cause DNA Damage In Lungs 
Vaping for just one month leads to DNA damage that is comparable to smoking tobacco, another damning study of e-cigarettes suggests. Researchers at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, exposed mice to the equivalent of 60 puffs of a mango-flavored Juul device per day for four weeks. The rodents suffered cellular and molecular changes that have been linked to the formation of cancer in traditional cigarette smokers. (Andrews, 1/25)

In other pharmaceutical industry updates —

Reuters: U.S. FDA Joins Global Regulators Probing Tainted Overseas Cough Syrup 
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Wednesday it is working with the World Health Organization and foreign regulatory authorities to support an investigation into the source of contaminated cough syrups that have killed more than 300 children in Africa and Asia. In a statement, the FDA said it had no indication that contaminated syrups had entered the U.S. drug supply chain, but it is "investigating the potential impact and scope of this hazard on FDA-regulated products." The agency recommended consumers only take medicines which were made to be sold in the United States, especially for children. (Wingrove, 1/25)

CIDRAP: FDA Panel Recommends Rezafungin As New Candida Treatment 
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) antimicrobial drugs advisory committee yesterday recommended the approval of rezafungin for the treatment of candidemia and invasive candidiasis in adults, the first new drug to treat the conditions in over a decade. (Schnirring, 1/25)

Reuters: FDA Classifies Recall Of Getinge's Heart Devices As Most Serious
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday classified the recall of Swedish medical equipment maker Getinge's heart devices as its most serious type since their use could lead to death. Datascope, a unit of Getinge, had recalled 4,454 therapeutic devices in December following a death and four serious injuries from their use. The devices are designed to help the heart pump more blood. (1/26)

Modern Healthcare: Kroger Health Launches Clinical Trials In Pharmacy, Little Clinic Locations
The Kroger Co. is the latest retailer looking to leverage its relationship with consumers to gain share n the clinical trial space. Its healthcare division, Kroger Health, is recruiting participants for the Persephone Biosciences-sponsored Argonaut clinical study, which identifies biomarkers indicating colorectal cancer and other types of solid tumors to help guide treatment options. (Hudson, 1/25)

AP: Oregon Primate Research Facility Under Scrutiny After Deaths
A state lawmaker in Oregon is using thousands of pages of redacted documents he sought for more than a year to launch legislation demanding more accountability and oversight of a primate research facility with a long history of complaints. Incidents at the Oregon National Primate Research Center, associated with Oregon’s largest hospital, include one in which two monkeys died after being placed into a scalding cage-washing system. Other animals perished from neglect. Workers have low morale, some have been drinking on the job, and dozens have complained about dysfunctional leadership, the documents show. (Selsky, 1/25)

On weight loss drugs —

Stat: The Unexpected Alliance Lobbying For Medicare To Pay For New Obesity Drugs
It’s not every day that the pharmaceutical industry, the NAACP, a cancer center, and a nonpartisan think tank are all lobbying to achieve the same policy goal. But an effort to expand Medicare coverage for obesity drugs has managed to unite them all, and many more groups across the health care industry, too. (Cohrs, 1/26)

Los Angeles Times: Chelsea Handler Accidentally Tried Ozempic. What Is It?
Chelsea Handler said she unknowingly sampled the injectable diabetes medication Ozempic, which has reportedly become Hollywood’s new favorite weight-loss drug. In Wednesday’s episode of Alex Cooper’s “Call Her Daddy” podcast, the “Chelsea Lately” comedian explained how she ended up using the medication, which is also known as semaglutide. (Del Rosario, 1/25)

Stat: Watch: How Do The New Obesity Drugs Work? 
Drugs like Wegovy and Ozempic are rapidly growing in popularity as weight-loss treatments. These medications contain semaglutide, a drug originally formulated to help people with diabetes control their blood sugar but also has shown to have a significant effect on appetite and is now also used for obesity. This video explains exactly how these drugs work in the body. (Hogan and Brangan, 1/26)

USA Today: What Causes SIDS? Genetics Study Suggests It's More Than Unsafe Sleep
The cause of sudden infant death syndrome, or SIDS, continues to be a medical mystery but a new study suggests genetics may play a role. Over the course of 39 years, researchers found siblings of infants who died of SIDS had a four-fold higher risk of dying suddenly compared to the general population, according to the report published in JAMA Network Open. (Rodriguez, 1/25)

In other health and wellness news —

NBC News: Autism Rates Have Tripled. Is It More Common Or Are We Better At Diagnosis?
Autism rates tripled among children in the New York and New Jersey metropolitan area from 2000 to 2016, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Pediatrics. The authors, a team from Rutgers University, calculated the trend by analyzing Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates of the number of children who've been identified as having autism spectrum disorder by age 8. (Bendix, 1/26)

The Boston Globe: Dude, Where’s My Car? Brigham Researchers Find We’re Good At Recalling Approximate Location Of Objects
Researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital sought to capture the brain’s capacity to store such details, suggesting in a new study that people automatically encode vast amounts of data on not only where, but when, they saw something. “It’s showing a memory capacity that is larger than we would have guessed,” said Jeremy Wolfe, an experimental psychologist with Brigham and Women’s Hospital who coauthored the study. The findings will be published this week in Current Biology. (Bartlett, 1/25)

The Boston Globe: How Could A Mother Allegedly Kill Her Children? Experts Say Mental Health Can Distort Thinking
It seems beyond comprehension: A Duxbury woman has been charged with murdering two of her children, ages 3 and 5, and her third, a 7-month-old, has been hospitalized with traumatic injuries. Neighbors said they never noticed anything unusual about the home with weathered shingles and a swing set in the backyard. And indeed little is known about what preceded the horrible occurrences of Tuesday evening. (Freyer, 1/25)

The Washington Post: Only 4 Percent Of Men Who Want To Give Sperm Actually Do
Just 4 percent of men who indicate interest in becoming sperm donors typically complete the application process and have sperm samples approved for use in medically assisted reproduction, according to research published in the journal Human Reproduction. The finding came from an analysis of the donor application process for 11,712 men from the United States and Denmark who had applied to a large international sperm bank. (Searing, 1/24)

The Washington Post: Humans Still Have The Genes For A Full Coat Of Body Hair
Roughly a million years ago human beings lost most of their body hair, a key moment in evolution that involved major changes to the same set of genes that determined whether many of our fellow mammals kept or lost their coatings of fur, according to new research. ... The work also identified new genes and gene regulators linked to body hair, a discovery that may someday be used to treat millions of balding Americans. (Johnson, 1/24)

On xylazine and tranquilizer use —

AP: Mexico Issues Alert Over Social Media Tranquilizer Craze 
Health authorities in Mexico issued an alert Wednesday over an internet “challenge” in which groups of students at three schools in Mexico have taken tranquilizers vying to see who can stay awake longer. The Health Department called on the public to report any store selling clonazepam, a tranquilizer, without a prescription. The alert came one week after eight students at a Mexico City middle school were treated after taking a “controlled medication.” Some were hospitalized. (1/25)

USA Today: What Is Xylazine? Animal Tranquillizer Shows Up In US Drug Supply
While most jurisdictions don't routinely test for xylazine in postmortem toxicology, the Drug Enforcement Administration estimates xylazine was involved in at least 1,281 overdose deaths in the Northeast and 1,423 in the South in 2021. Last week, ONDC director Dr. Rahul Gupta hosted a listening session with local public health and safety leaders to discuss trends related to xylazine and efforts to address it, including plans for tracking, substance use treatment, and harm reduction. (Rodriguez, 1/24)

Reuters: U.S. Court Split Over N.C. Health Plan Exclusion For Transgender Workers 
A U.S. appeals court panel was sharply divided on Wednesday over whether North Carolina's health insurance plan for state workers can exclude coverage for gender reassignment surgery, hormone therapy and other treatments commonly sought by transgender people. (1/25)

AP: Lawyer Defends North Carolina's Transgender Care Exclusions 
A lawyer representing the leaders of North Carolina’s state employee health plan defended its exclusion of gender-affirming treatments on Wednesday before a federal appeals court, facing a barrage of criticisms from its chief judge. State Treasurer Dale Folwell and the State Health Plan’s executive administrator are seeking to overturn a trial court order demanding that the plan pay for “medically necessary services,” including hormone therapy and some surgeries, for transgender employees and their children. The judge had ruled in favor of the employees and their dependents, who said in a 2019 lawsuit that they were denied coverage for gender-affirming care under the plan. (Schoenbaum, 1/25)

The New York Times: G.O.P. State Lawmakers Push A Growing Wave Of Anti-Transgender Bills 
Over the past three years, Republican state lawmakers have put forward a barrage of bills to regulate the lives of transgender youths, restricting the sports teams they can play on, bathrooms they can use and medical care they can receive. But even by those standards, the start of the 2023 legislative season stands out for the aggressiveness with which lawmakers are pushing into new territory. (Astor, 1/25)

In other health news from Colorado, Pennsylvania, and California —

The Washington Post: Family Sues Colo. Nursing Home After Woman Walked Out And Froze To Death
Mary Jo Staub screamed last February as she pounded her hands on the glass outside the Colorado assisted-living center where she lived, according to surveillance footage cited in a lawsuit. Standing in freezing temperatures, the 97-year-old banged on the doors, waiting for someone to unlock them. Staub had been in the cold for an hour when she collapsed to the concrete, according to the lawsuit filed last week. By the time an employee at the center spotted her and called police, more than five hours had passed since Staub wandered outside after midnight, the lawsuit says. She was dead. (Somasundaram, 1/26)

AP: Pennsylvania Passes 'Forever Chemicals' Drinking Water Limit 
Pennsylvania has enacted a statewide drinking water limit on two forms of highly toxic chemicals, nicknamed “forever chemicals.” The rule, published earlier this month in the official register of state government agency actions, sets a limit of 14 parts per trillion for perfluorooctanoic acid and 18 parts per trillion for perfluorooctane sulfonic acid. (1/25)

Los Angeles Times: Untreated Sewage Closes Three Beaches In Los Angeles County
The release of 64,000 gallons of untreated sewage prompted the closures of several Los Angeles County beaches Wednesday, public health officials said. A blocked main line led to the sewage entering the storm drain system near Admiralty and Palawan ways in Marina del Rey, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health said in a news release. (Martinez, 1/25)

CIDRAP: Resistant H Pylori Infections Linked To Use Of Antibiotics For COVID-19 
Antibiotic treatments for Heliobacter pylori infections showed lower-than-accepted eradication rates in patients previously treated for COVID-19, according to the results of a randomized trial published last week in BMC Infectious Diseases. (Dall, 1/23)

CIDRAP: The COVID Vaccine Success Story As A Springboard For Future Research 
The harmonized approach and broad database created by the COVID-19 Prevention Network (CoVPN), or Operation Warp Speed (OWS), to rapidly develop life-saving SARS-CoV-2 vaccines can be harnessed for future research on other public health threats that require a speedy response, according to a special communication published yesterday in JAMA Network Open. (Van Beusekom, 1/24)

ScienceDaily: Neuronal Molecule Makes Prostate Cancer More Aggressive
Researchers discover a potential therapeutic avenue via neuronal endocrine receptors that could be helpful in battling an aggressive form of prostate cancer. (Thomas Jefferson University, 1/23)

New England Journal of Medicine: Early Extracorporeal CPR For Refractory Out-Of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest
In patients with refractory out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, extracorporeal CPR and conventional CPR had similar effects on survival with a favorable neurologic outcome. (Suverein et al, 1/26)

San Francisco Chronicle: I Got COVID But Threw My Paxlovid Pills In The Garbage. Here’s Why
It’s been a month since I threw my Paxlovid pills in the garbage. I only took the three-pill, twice-daily dosage for one day instead of the prescribed five. But no matter how many cough drops I sucked on or sticks of gum I chewed, I could not shake the rancid, metallic-tasting dumpster fire that has seemingly taken up permanent residence in my mouth. (Debbie Cohen, 1/25)

The New York Times: Why The New Obesity Guidelines For Kids Terrify Me 
The academy’s guidelines are the latest sally in the war on obesity that health care providers, public health officials and the general public have waged to shrink our bodies for over 40 years. The approach hasn’t worked; Americans, including kids, are not getting thinner. (Virginia Sole-Smith, 1/26)

The Tennessean: Too Many Rural Americans Lack Health Insurance And They Deserve Better
In rural Tennessee, 16% of Tennesseans 18-64 are uninsured, having no healthcare coverage. (Jack Bernard, 1/25)

The Boston Globe: Massachusetts Can Finally Measure The Health Of Primary Care 
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, a nationally renowned institution of science, recently asserted that “primary care is a common good” and went on to depict what the United States would look like if people no longer had access to high-quality primary care. (Barbra G. Rabson and Katherine Gergen Barnett, 1/25)

Newsweek: The Downsides Of Financial Incentives To Diagnose COVID 
What likely began as a good-faith effort by Congress to comfort grieving families has turned into a runaway train of data obfuscation. (Jay Bhattacharya and Kyle Lamb, 1/26)