NPR: Biden Gets A Clean Bill Of Health As He Mulls A 2024 Run — Where His Age Is A Concern
The president's personal physician Dr. Kevin O'Connor has issued Biden a clean bill of health Thursday and cleared him fit to continue fulfilling his duties as commander in chief. "The president remains fit for duty, and fully executes all of his responsibilities without any exemptions or accommodations," O'Connor wrote in his report. (Jones, 2/16)

The Washington Post: Biden Remains ‘Healthy, Vigorous,’ Doctor Says After Physical Exam
Kevin O’Connor — who has been Biden’s primary care doctor since 2009 — wrote that the most notable update from Biden’s last physical in November 2021 was his coronavirus infection over the summer, but said the president has not experienced any lingering symptoms that could be characterized as “long covid.” (Olorunnipa and Abutaleb, 2/16)

AP: Doctor Says Biden's 'Vigorous' As He Readies For 2024 Run
The president had a lesion removed from his chest that is undergoing a traditional biopsy. But Thursday’s results largely matched the findings after the president’s last exam in November 2021, which said his coughing was due to acid reflux and his stiffened gait was the result of spinal arthritis, a previously broken foot and neuropathy in his feet. (Boak and Megerian, 2/16)

Meanwhile, in news on the president's age —

The Hill: White House Brushes Off Haley’s Call For Mental Competency Test
White House aides are confident they can combat GOP attacks on President Biden’s age and mental acuity, saying he has proven time and again that he’s up to the job. The criticisms resurfaced this week as Republican Nikki Haley labeled herself a “next generation” candidate in making her opening pitch for her 2024 presidential bid. Haley also insisted that anyone over 75 years old should be subjected to a mental competency test. (Parnes and Gangitano, 2/16)

Axios: Kentucky Supreme Court Refuses To Block State Abortion Bans
The Kentucky Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a request from abortion providers to block the state's trigger law and six-week ban. The decision comes months after voters rejected a ballot measure that was considered a major win for abortion rights in the red state. (Gonzalez, 2/16)

AP: Kentucky High Court Lets Near-Total Abortion Ban Continue
Abortion access in Kentucky remained virtually shut off Thursday after the state’s highest court refused to halt a near-total ban that has largely been in place since Roe v. Wade was overturned. Kentucky’s Supreme Court, which was weighing challenges to the state’s near-total ban and a separate one that outlaws abortion after the sixth week of pregnancy, sent the case back to a lower court for further consideration of constitutional issues related to the more restrictive ban. (Schreiner, 2/16)

In other news related to abortion —

The Texas Tribune: Judge Dismisses Wendy Davis’ Challenge To Texas Abortion Ban
A federal judge has dismissed a narrow challenge to Texas’ ban on abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy. The lawsuit was brought by former State Sen. Wendy Davis, best known for her 13-hour filibuster of a 2013 abortion bill. The lawsuit, filed in April, challenges the 2021 Texas law known as Senate Bill 8, which allows private citizens to sue anyone who “aids or abets” in an abortion after fetal cardiac activity is detected, usually around six weeks of pregnancy. (Klibanoff, 2/16)

The Hill: Pentagon To Allow Up To 3 Weeks Of Leave To Service Members For Abortion Travel
The Pentagon will allow service members up to three weeks of leave to travel for abortions and other noncovered reproductive health care, according to a slate of new policies announced on Thursday. (Shapero, 2/16)

On abortion medication —

The Hill: Democratic AGs Urge CVS, Walgreens To Continue With Plans To Dispense Abortion Pills
Democratic attorneys general on Thursday urged CVS and Walgreens not to back down from their respective plans to offer mifepristone and misoprostol in retail pharmacies in the wake of threats from GOP-led states. In a letter, a coalition of 23 state attorneys general said the company’s executives should ignore the threats of legal retaliation from Republican states. (Weixel, 2/16)

Meanwhile —

Roll Call: Conservatives Use Abortion Strategies In Fight Over Trans Care 
Republicans hoping to elevate conservative messaging about health care and services for transgender individuals have followed the same playbook that they used to advance anti-abortion legislation: starting in the states, focusing initially on minors. But now, that fight is blooming into one that conservatives see as a potent campaign issue in 2024. (Raman, 2/16)

The Washington Post: Maryland Lawmakers Wants To Enshrine Teaching Gender Identity Into Law
The Maryland school district was supposed to stick to a state framework that guides educators on how and when to teach about sex and gender identity. Instead, Carroll County, a rural district that borders Pennsylvania, over the past several months designed an alternative health-education plan that struck references to gender identity and sexual orientation. (Wiggins, 2/16)

NBC News: Natural Immunity As Protective As Covid Vaccine Against Severe Illness
Immunity acquired from a Covid infection provides strong, lasting protection against the most severe outcomes of the illness, according to research published Thursday in The Lancet — protection, experts say, that’s on par with what’s provided through two doses of an mRNA vaccine. Infection-acquired immunity cut the risk of hospitalization and death from a Covid reinfection by 88% for at least 10 months, the study found. (Syal, 2/16)

CIDRAP: Omicron Hospital Illness 54% Deadlier Than Flu Hospital Cases, Study Finds
Adults hospitalized with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron infections in Switzerland died at 1.5 times the rate of those diagnosed as having influenza A or B, shows a multicenter study published yesterday in JAMA Network Open. (Van Beusekom, 2/16)

In news on covid in California —

San Francisco Chronicle: Growing Signs Of New Bay Area COVID Wave As Wastewater Counts Soar
If it feels like more people you know are getting COVID-19 lately, that may be true. Though the rise is relatively small, it marks a reversal of the downward trend the Bay Area had experienced since early December. California’s public health leaders are keeping their fingers crossed that the state will be ready to move past the pandemic as the state of emergency comes to an end later this month, despite the recent uptick in coronavirus cases attributed to the fast-moving omicron subvariant XBB.1.5. (Vaziri, 2/16)

San Francisco Chronicle: San Francisco Sets End Date For COVID State Of Emergency
San Francisco announced Thursday that it will end its public health emergency for COVID-19 on Feb. 28, just over three years after it was put into place, marking a new chapter in the city’s pandemic response. In an interview Thursday, San Francisco health officer Dr. Susan Philip said that the move is a positive one, signaling that COVID-19 is no longer the “really severe threat” that it was three years ago, but that it does not mean that COVID is over. (Echeverria, 2/16)

Meanwhile, the Navy is changing its stance on covid shots —

The Hill: US Navy Will No Longer Require COVID Vaccines For Deployment
The U.S. Navy is rolling back requirements for COVID-19 vaccines, axing the consideration of vaccination status when making decisions about the deployment of sailors. The decision by the Navy reverses a policy that was in place for more than a year, mandating that vaccination status be considered when determining deployment. (Neukam, 2/16)

Fierce Healthcare: Senate Panel Launches Effort To Shore Up Health Workforce
A key Senate panel is launching a major effort to shore up the healthcare workforce after lingering shortages have roiled the industry. The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee held a hearing Thursday on addressing the crisis. Some of the policy solutions include expanding the Graduate Medical Education program and growing teaching health centers. (King, 2/16)

The Hill: Sanders Calls For Expanded Access To Medical Education To Address Worker Shortage
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP), called to reduce barriers to medical education in a hearing on Thursday, bringing in medical school administrators from across the country to discuss their experiences and proposed solutions. (Choi, 2/16)

In other legal, political health news —

The New York Times: Burn Pit Program For Veterans Could Cost At Least $400 Billion, Agency Finds
A sweeping new entitlement program to provide medical care to millions of veterans who may have been exposed to trash burn pits on U.S. military bases around the world may increase federal spending on veterans by at least $400 billion and as much as $789 billion over a decade, according to the official budgetary scorekeepers in Congress. (Lai and Tankersley, 2/16)

Stat: Medicare Advantage Membership Grows 7% For 2023
Nearly 31.2 million seniors and people with disabilities are now enrolled in a private Medicare plan, known as Medicare Advantage, according to new federal government data analyzed by STAT. That total is 7.1% higher than the 29.1 million people who had a Medicare Advantage plan in 2022. Although that annual growth rate is the lowest since 2016, the private plans now catch roughly half of the entire Medicare population. (Herman, 2/17)

The Washington Post: Institutional Review Boards, Or IRBs, Backed By Private Equity Deserve More Scrutiny, GAO Says
A government watchdog called for greater federal oversight of ethics boards that sign off on scientific studies, finding that for-profit companies have taken an outsize role in approving certain research and questioning whether financial motivations could put human subjects at risk. (Gilbert and Johnson, 2/16)

On pharmacy benefit managers —

Fierce Healthcare: Lawmakers Question Why PBMs ‘Even Exist’ In Heated Hearing
Senators pilloried the lack of transparency from pharmacy benefit managers during a hearing Thursday, as lawmakers hope to pass reforms this session. The Senate Commerce Committee hosted the hearing amid concerns that PBMs steer patients toward pharmacies that they own. Lawmakers have introduced legislation to shed light on the issue, but some Republicans have balked over giving the federal government more authority. (King, 2/16)

Stat: GOP Uses FTC’s Khan As An Excuse For Opposing Drug Pricing Bills
Congress’ efforts to get more information on the business practices of pharmacy benefit managers are running into an unlikely roadblock: Republicans’ dislike of Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan and her approach to antitrust enforcement. (Wilkerson, 2/16)

Also —

Politico: EPA Moves To Cement Pesticide Protections For Farmworkers
The Biden administration is moving to solidify protections for the nation’s 2 million farmworkers. In a proposed rule, the EPA is reaffirming protections established in 2015 that required agricultural employers to keep workers and others out of areas while pesticides are being sprayed, known as the Application Exclusion Zone. The AEZ can range from 25 to 100 feet depending on the height of the sprayer and size of droplets. (Brown, 2/16)

KHN: After Staying Away During Pandemic, Doctors Return To Lobby Congress
Dr. Timothy McAvoy, an internist from Waukesha, Wisconsin, held his infant granddaughter Tuesday while standing in the Longworth House Office Building, waiting to talk to a congressional aide about increasing Medicare pay for doctors. Facing a highly partisan Congress where Republicans have vowed to cut federal spending, McAvoy hoped his Midwestern charm, along with a dose of supporting data, would sway members to remember physicians’ cause. (Galewitz, 2/17)

Roll Call: Fetterman Hospitalized For Treatment Of Depression
Sen. John Fetterman has checked himself into a hospital for inpatient treatment for clinical depression, the Pennsylvania Democrat’s office announced Thursday. “While John has experienced depression off and on throughout his life, it only became severe in recent weeks,” Fetterman Chief of Staff Adam Jentleson said in a statement. (Lesniewski and Raman, 2/16)

AP: Fetterman Draws Praise For Getting Help For Depression
When Patrick Kennedy was in Congress, he would sneak in his treatments for substance abuse over the holidays, in between congressional work periods. And he refused mental health treatment recommended by his doctors, worried he would be recognized in that wing of the hospital. (Clare Jalonick, 2/17)

In news about Bruce Willis —

Los Angeles Times: Bruce Willis Diagnosed With Frontotemporal Dementia
Bruce Willis, who left acting last year due to his struggles with aphasia, has been diagnosed more specifically with frontotemporal dementia, his family announced Thursday. “Since we announced Bruce’s diagnosis of aphasia in spring 2022, Bruce’s condition has progressed and we now have a more specific diagnosis: frontotemporal dementia (known as FTD),” said the statement signed by wife Emma Heming Willis, ex-wife Demi Moore and daughters Rumer, Scout, Tallulah, Mabel and Evelyn. (D'Zurilla, 2/16)

Los Angeles Times: What Is Frontotemporal Dementia? The Disease Afflicting Actor Bruce Willis Is Incurable
An estimated 50,000 people in the U.S. live with frontotemporal dementia, said Dr. William Seeley, a neurologist at UC San Francisco who in 2011 was awarded a MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant for his work on the condition he described as a “complex and heterogeneous disease that’s difficult to diagnose.” (Purtill, 2/16)

Also —

KHN: Amid Dire Suicide Rates In Montana, Governor Expands Student Mental Health Screening
Bella Nyman has struggled with her mental health since age 7, when she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and anxiety. Nyman said she was afraid to tell her parents she had thoughts of suicide. Looking back, a mental health screening might have helped her to stop hiding her struggles from adults and peers, she said. (Larson, 2/17)

KHN: 'What the Health?' Podcast: The Kids Are Not OK
A new survey from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finds that teenagers, particularly girls, are reporting all-time high rates of violence and profound mental distress. Meanwhile, both sides in the abortion debate are anxiously waiting for a district court decision in Texas that could effectively revoke the FDA’s 22-year-old approval of the abortion pill mifepristone. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Sandhya Raman of CQ Roll Call, and Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Politico join KHN’s chief Washington correspondent, Julie Rovner, to discuss these issues and more. (2/16)

Stat: Researchers Link Certain Genes To Obesity Complications In Women
With hundreds of genes thought to be linked to obesity, the challenge is sifting through them all to determine which ones increase the risk of downstream complications like heart disease and diabetes. In a study published Thursday in Nature Genetics, researchers took the first steps in finding a potential candidate specifically in women. (Chen, 2/16)

In other news on research and innovations —

CIDRAP: Long-COVID Patients Report Job, Money Issues In Addition To Lingering Symptoms
Long-COVID patients have higher rates of unemployment and underemployment than their recovered peers and are likely to have persistent or new-onset symptoms, disabilities, and financial problems in the 6 months after hospitalization, according to two US studies published in JAMA Network Open. (Van Beusekom, 2/16)

Reuters: Moderna Flu Vaccine Delivers Mixed Results In Trial, Shares Fall
Moderna Inc (MRNA.O) on Thursday said its closely watched experimental messenger RNA-based influenza vaccine generated a strong immune response against A strains of the flu but failed to show it was at least as effective as an approved vaccine versus less prevalent influenza B. (Wingrove and Erman, 2/17)

CIDRAP: Antibiotics Linked To Rare, Drug-Associated Skin Conditions
A systematic review and meta-analysis found that antibiotics may be associated with more than a quarter of cases of rare, serious drug reactions that affect the skin and mucous membranes, researchers reported yesterday in JAMA Dermatology. (Dall, 2/16)

CIDRAP: Adherence To Treatment Guidelines May Improve Candidemia Survival Rates
A study of patients with candidemia at hospitals in 20 European countries revealed that adherence to clinical guideline recommendations may improve survival rates, researchers reported yesterday in The Lancet Infectious Diseases. (Dall, 2/16)

The Wall Street Journal: GE HealthCare Makes Push Into Artificial Intelligence
In pursuing a software platform that can help hospitals do things like find open beds and identify patients at risk for sepsis, GE HealthCare is taking on tech powerhouses such as Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp., which are already selling such services and bring the big-data and artificial-intelligence expertise the technology requires. (Evans, 2/16)

FiercePharma: Doctors Are Still Hesitant To Trust Biosimilars, Survey Says
AbbVie’s mega-blockbuster Humira is finally subject to biosimilar competition in the United States. With the launch last month of Amgen’s Amjevita—to be followed later this year by other Humira biosimilars entering the market—patients finally have access to lower-cost alternatives to the immunology blockbuster. But there are key players who are not on board with biosimilars. And their reticence could hinder the uptake of these lower-cost knockoffs. (Dunleavy, 2/16)

Reuters: U.S. FDA Classifies Recall Of Philips' Respiratory Devices As Most Serious
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Thursday classified the recall of Dutch medical devices maker Philips' (PHG.AS) respiratory machines as most serious, saying their use could lead to injuries or death. (2/16)

CNBC: Eli Lilly Recruits Black Patients For Alzheimer's Trial, Drugmakers Seek Diversity
Sharon Kimbrough went to the Black Women’s Expo in Atlanta to sell her memoir. Getting tested for Alzheimer’s was the furthest thing from her mind, but when nurses from Eli Lilly approached her about the company’s new trial, she decided to let them draw her blood. “I had two family members that had Alzheimer’s,” said Kimbrough, a retired advertising executive. “Sometimes I have memory issues and some of it in older age happens. But it could be something else.” (Coombs, 2/16)

CBS News: Black Cardiologists Are Rare, But Vital For Black Patients
Heart patient Jerrilyn Young said it makes a big difference that her cardiologist is Black. "He talks to me," said Young. "A lot of Black people won't go to doctors because they don't have anybody that talks to them. They tell them what to do without asking them how they actually feel." (Diaz, 2/16)

The Baltimore Sun: Lawsuit Against Thermo Fisher By Henrietta Lacks’ Family Slowly Moves Forward 
The federal lawsuit that family members of Henrietta Lacks filed against Thermo Fisher Scientific in 2021 — accusing the U.S. biotech giant of “unjust enrichment” for making and selling products that relied on cells taken from her more than 70 years ago — is moving forward slowly. (Roberts, 2/16)

KHN: California Requires Hospitals To Turn To A Patient’s Next Of Kin, Closing A Longtime Loophole
About four years ago, Dr. Gene Dorio sat on the ethics committee of a Southern California hospital whose administrators insisted they could decide whether to disconnect a ventilator from an unconscious patient — even though the man’s wife and adult children wanted to continue life support. (Kreidler, 2/17)

Stat: Feng Zhang Launches New Genetic Delivery Startup Aera
Akin Akinc was scouring his email spam box last summer, looking for a missing message, when he stumbled across an unexpected email from a quite recognizable name: Feng Zhang. Zhang, one of the leading scientists in the groundbreaking field of genetic editing, had reached out two days prior to discuss a new company he was working on. Since helping to discover CRISPR-Cas9 — often referred to as molecular scissors that can cut into the genome and edit DNA — Zhang has founded at least six companies, worth around $4.6 billion combined. (DeAngelis, 2/16)

FiercePharma: VMLY&R, Gilead Use AI To Turn Patient Testimonies Into Paintings
VMLY&R’s bid to clean up again at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity is backed by a new collaborator: generative AI. Using the hyped technology, the marketing and comms agency has turned the testimonies of breast cancer patients into paintings for Gilead Sciences—and turned up the heat on Spanish legislators in the process. (Paul Taylor, 2/16)

Reuters: Allianz Swings To Q4 Net Profit, Bounces Back From U.S. Funds Debacle
Germany's Allianz (ALVG.DE) on Friday swung to a fourth-quarter net profit, marking a return to the black after taking big charges a year earlier for a U.S. funds scandal. The fourth quarter was helped by strength at its life and health insurance business due to a higher investment margin, Allianz said, while its asset management division saw lower revenues and fees. (2/17)

In other pharma news —

KHN: Mark Cuban Has Been Taking On The Drug Industry. But Which One?
When billionaire Mark Cuban announced his attack on the pharmaceutical industry and its high-priced drugs in January 2021, it was met with cheers. His new company — the Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Co., known as Cost Plus Drugs — has the “lowest prices on meds anywhere,” he said. (Tahir, 2/17)

KQED: Dangerous 'Tranq' Animal Tranquilizer Found In San Francisco Street Drug Supply
Low levels of a dangerous animal tranquilizer were found in the bodies of four people in San Francisco who died of drug overdoses in December and January, health officials announced on Thursday. It marks the first time that xylazine, commonly known as “Tranq,” has been detected in San Francisco’s street drug supply, further complicating efforts to tackle the Bay Area’s mounting opioid crisis. (Johnson, 2/16)

San Francisco Chronicle: Horrific New Street Drug 'tranq' Found In S.F. Overdose Victims
At least four drug overdose victims who died late last year had traces of a horrific new street drug mixed with fentanyl in their systems, according to city officials, evidence that the animal sedative colloquially known as “tranq” has begun to infiltrate the city’s drug supply. While San Francisco’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner only found low levels of the drug, xylazine, in four out of the 145 victims who were tested, officials in the Department of Public Health said the discovery is “concerning” and that they also expect to see an increase in its prevalence on the city’s streets. (Thadani and Fagan, 2/16)

Meanwhile, avian flu continues to be a problem —

San Francisco Chronicle: Deadly Avian Flu Strain Found In Wild Mammal In California
For the first time, the deadly new strain of avian influenza virus that has caused an unprecedented outbreak among birds in the Bay Area and statewide has been detected in a wild mammal in California, state wildlife officials announced. Federal veterinary officials in January detected the highly pathogenic avian influenza strain, H5N1, in a bobcat after its remains were collected in Butte County in December and submitted for testing, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife said in a news release Wednesday. (Flores, 2/16)

Reuters: Bird Flu Alarm Drives World Towards Once-Shunned Vaccines
Reuters spoke to senior officials in the world's largest poultry and egg producers, along with vaccine makers and poultry companies. They all said there had been a marked shift in the approach to vaccines globally due to the severity of this year's bird flu outbreak, though the biggest exporter of poultry meat, the United States, told Reuters it remains reluctant. (De La Hamaide, 2/17)

Also —

Axios: Half Of American Kids Don't Eat A Daily Vegetable, CDC Finds
Nearly half of young kids aren't eating a daily vegetable and one in three kids aren't getting at least one daily fruit in their diets, the CDC reported Thursday. While this data is only a snapshot in time, it offers a glimpse at the quality of kids' diets — which impacts their growth and development — at a time of increased interest in addressing childhood nutrition, as well as concerns about the pending loss of pandemic-era food benefits. (Reed, 2/16)

In obituaries —

The New York Times: Margaret Heagarty, Champion For Children’s Health In Harlem, Dies At 88
In her 22 years at Harlem Hospital, a public institution run by New York City’s Health and Hospitals Corporation and affiliated with Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons, Dr. Heagarty made a name for herself as an eloquent and effective champion for children’s health. She fought for causes like reducing teenage pregnancies and playground injuries. (Roberts, 2/16)

CNN: Ohio Train Derailment: Feds Are Sending Medical Experts To Ohio Toxic Train Wreck Site As Residents' Safety Concerns Simmer
The Biden administration said it has deployed federal medical experts to help assess what dangers remain at an Ohio village where a train carrying hazardous materials derailed this month, a ramp-up of federal support at the governor’s request as anxious residents point to signs of adverse effects. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine on Thursday asked the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the US Department of Health and Human Services to send teams to East Palestine, where the train derailed February 3 and sparked a dayslong blaze. (Elamroussi, 2/17)

Modern Healthcare: Norfolk Train Derailment In Ohio Raises Health-Monitoring Concerns
Early signs of the liver cancer caused by vinyl chloride are hard to detect, leaving thousands of East Ohio residents vulnerable to long-term health issues after a train accident in East Palestine earlier this month spewed the toxic chemical into the air. Patients and healthcare providers typically have to navigate these disasters on an ad-hoc basis, given the difficulty of building a comprehensive disaster planning and response plan. Recovery and mitigation efforts often depend on litigation that determines who will foot the bill. That has meant more questions than answers in the community. (Kacik, 2/16)

The New York Times: ‘Chernobyl 2.0’? Ohio Train Derailment Spurs Wild Speculation
On social media like Twitter and Telegram, commentators have called the situation the “largest environmental disaster in history” or simply “Chernobyl 2.0,” invoking the 1986 nuclear disaster. They warned, without evidence, that vital water reservoirs serving states downriver could be badly contaminated. And they suggested that the authorities, railroad companies and mainstream news media were purposefully obscuring the full toll of the crisis. (Thompson, 2/16)

On news from Florida —

WUSF Public Media: Why Some Florida Kids Could Lose Medicaid Coverage Even If They're Still Eligible
As many as 6.7 million children could lose health coverage as the COVID-19 public health emergency unwinds and states begin re-determining Medicaid eligibility, according to a new report from Georgetown University's Center for Children and Families. The report finds roughly three-quarters of those kids will still be eligible for Medicaid, but could instead lose coverage due to administrative issues, like a renewal letter going to the wrong address. (Colombini, 2/16)

WUSF Public Media: More Middle-Income Florida Households Are Facing Food Insecurity
More than a third of Floridians earning $50,000 to $100,000 reported experiencing food insecurity over the past year, according to a survey published by No Kid Hungry. (Paul, 2/16)

In other health news from across the states —

Modesto Bee: Virulent Stomach Virus Is Detected In Stanislaus County
Move over, COVID-19. The norovirus stomach illness is re-emerging as a public threat that people should try to avoid. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has charted a rise in norovirus outbreaks in the United States in February, eclipsing the level recorded in March 2022. (Carlson, 2/16)

New Hampshire Public Radio: NH Hospitals Ask Judge To Order End To ‘ER Boarding’
New Hampshire has long struggled with a shortage of inpatient mental health beds, leaving some people in crisis held in hospital emergency departments for days or weeks as they wait for treatment. On Wednesday, a lawyer for a group of New Hampshire hospitals asked a judge to set a deadline by which the state needs to end that practice. (Cuno-Booth, 2/16)

Dallas Morning News: Dallas Mayor Appoints New Group To Come Up With Solutions To Homelessness
Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson said Thursday he is appointing a group of local homeless service advocates to come up with new strategies to help the city more quickly aid people without stable shelter. Johnson said the new volunteer, independent group will assess current policies, research other plans to address homelessness and issue a report of recommendations to his office by June 15. The suggestions would later go to city and regional officials for consideration, and help them better collaborate on plans, he said. (Johnson, 2/16)

The Boston Globe: With Shelter System At Capacity, State Turns To Concord Hotel For Emergency Use
In late January, the town of Concord got a piece of news that quickly spread through the affluent community: The state had entered into an agreement with a local hotel, and would be setting up an emergency family shelter for homeless and migrant families in need of a place to stay. Some residents wanted to know how they could help, and what would happen to long-term residents who reside at the hotel. Some wondered if the shelter’s occupants would clog traffic, overwhelm their schools, or threaten their safety. Residents and town officials alike said they were thrown off by the short notice and questioned whether renting the Best Western hotel was a long-term shelter solution. (Gross, 2/16)

AP: Minnesota Moves Toward Paid Sick Leave Mandate For Everyone
Nearly all Minnesota workers would be entitled to paid sick leave under a plan moving through the Legislature that’s aimed at the roughly one-third whose employers don’t already give them time off when they’re ill. Employees would be guaranteed one hour of paid “earned sick and safe time” for every 30 hours worked, up to 48 hours per year. (Karnowski, 2/16)

AP: Wisconsin Nurse Pleads Not Guilty To Amputating Man's Foot
A western Wisconsin nurse accused of amputating a hospice patient’s frostbitten foot without his consent and without doctor’s orders pleaded not guilty Thursday. A lawyer for 38-year-old Mary K. Brown, of Durand, Wisconsin, entered pleas of not guilty for her to charges of mayhem, physical abuse of an elderly person and intentionally abusing a patient, causing great bodily harm, WEAU-TV and WQOW-TV reported. (2/17)

Politico: California Hospitals Warn Of Closures If State Doesn’t Provide Lifeline
California may be on the verge of losing many of its hospitals as it emerges from the pandemic. The California Hospital Association says treating people with Covid-19, combined with long-term financial issues, has put medical institutions on the edge of insolvency around the state — and they need an immediate lifeline of $1.5 billion to prevent more from having to close. (Castanos, 2/16)

Politico: Adams To Albany: Stop Taking City Sales Tax For Struggling Hospitals
Mayor Eric Adams wants state lawmakers to stop siphoning hundreds of millions of dollars from the city’s pool of sales tax revenue to fund financially distressed hospitals and nursing homes. Gov. Kathy Hochul’s proposed budget for the fiscal year that begins April 1 would continue a maneuver that withholds $150 million from the city’s annual sales tax collections and deposits it into a temporary fund established to help health facilities during the Covid pandemic. (Kaufman, 2/16)

The Washington Post: What To Know About The Deadly Marburg Virus As New Outbreak Emerges
Marburg virus disease is a highly infectious viral hemorrhagic fever, according to the CDC. It is spawned by the animal-borne RNA virus of the same Filoviridae family as the Ebola virus. Both diseases are rare but have the capacity to cause outbreaks with high fatality rates. Fatality rates for Marburg cases in past outbreaks ranged between 24 percent and 88 percent, according to the WHO, depending on the virus strain and quality of case management. (Suliman, Parker and Masih, 2/15)

The New York Times: She Helped Unlock the Science of the Covid Vaccine
Kizzmekia Corbett had gone home to North Carolina for the holidays in 2019 when the headlines began to trickle in: A strange, pneumonialike illness was making dozens of people sick in China. By the first week of January 2020, the number of infected people in China had climbed to the hundreds, and Dr. Corbett, a viral immunologist, was back at her desk at the National Institutes of Health, where she served as a senior research fellow at the Vaccine Research Center at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. And that’s when the news was confirmed: The mysterious illness was a novel coronavirus, exactly the category of infection that she had been probing for the past five years in a bid to develop a vaccine. (Kamin, 2/9)

The Washington Post: A Virus Crippled U.S. Cities 150 Years Ago. It Didn’t Infect Humans
Known as the Great Epizootic, the outbreak of what was later determined to be the equine flu hit the vast majority of the country’s horses between October 1872 and March 1873, temporarily paralyzing cities in a crisis “comparable to what would happen today if gas pumps ran dry or the electric grid went down,” University of Tennessee historian Ernest Freeberg wrote. (Tillman, 2/12)

Also —

The Washington Post: Want To Live A Longer Life? Try Eating Like A Centenarian
There’s no way to guarantee that you’ll live to be 100. But we can learn a lot from studying the eating habits of the world’s centenarians. Researchers have identified five places in the world where people have exceptionally long life expectancies — frequently living to 100 or beyond. These areas, called “Blue Zones,” include the Nicoyan Peninsula in Costa Rica, the town of Loma Linda in California, and the islands of Okinawa in Japan, Sardinia in Italy and Ikaria in Greece. At first glance, the diets, lifestyles and habits of people in these Blue Zones can seem quite different from one another. (O'Connor, 2/14)

The New York Times: Psychedelics Are A Promising Therapy, But They Can Be Dangerous For Some
When Dr. Charles Nemeroff first met his patient, the 32-year-old woman had already been to see several psychiatrists. Initially, the woman, whose identity has been concealed to protect her privacy, had experienced paranoid and racing thoughts, insisting there were listening devices in her phone and that people were watching her; she even sold her home in an attempt to get away from them. After being given antipsychotic drugs, her mania and psychosis abated, but they were replaced by debilitating depression. “By the time she came to me, she said, ‘I have no feelings whatsoever. I have no mood variation. I am completely empty,’” said Dr. Nemeroff, who is chair of the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of Texas at Austin Dell Medical School. (Smith, 2/11)

The Wall Street Journal: The Russian Double Strike That Killed A U.S. Medic In Ukraine. ‘They Had Us In Sight.’
Minutes after an explosion rang out near the bus station in this war-torn eastern city, a team of medics arrived to find a mangled car and an elderly woman lying wounded at the roadside. Seconds later, a missile slammed into the volunteers’ white van, unleashing a fireball that blew the medics off their feet. Simon Johnsen, a Norwegian, quickly came round, checked himself for injuries then ran for cover. Another Norwegian medic, his back burned and legs bloodied, screamed as he hobbled away. Four of the others also dashed for cover as Russian mortar rounds then began exploding around them. Sprawled alongside the burned-out rescue van lay Pete Reed, a 33-year-old trained paramedic, a former U.S. Marine, a one-time ski instructor, a jokester who had devoted his recent years to treating the wounded in wars in Iraq and, now, Ukraine. He was dead. (Marson and Sivorka, 2/15)

Bloomberg: CDC Report On Teen Mental Health, Sadness In Girls, Is A Red Alert 
Teens are struggling — and we’re not doing enough to help them. That’s the clear message from a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Lisa Jarvis, 2/16)

The Atlantic: The Tragic Mystery Of Teenage Anxiety
American teenagers—especially girls and kids who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or questioning—are “engulfed” in historic rates of anxiety and sadness. And everybody seems to think they know why. (Derek Thompson, 2/16)

Bloomberg: Teen Girls Fight Depression, Anxiety, Suicide In New CDC Report 
A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offers a heartbreaking illustration of just how many teens are being pushed to the brink under the mountain of pressure. (Jessica Karl, 2/16)

Los Angeles Times: How Can We Help Students Traumatized By The Michigan State Shooting?
Yet again this week we are grappling with the news of another mass shooting on school grounds, this time at Michigan State University. Some students who were present at the MSU shooting are also survivors of another Michigan school shooting almost 15 months ago at Oxford High School. (Sonali Rajan, Charles Branas, Mark S. Kaplan, 2/16)

The New York Times: He Was ‘Losing His Mind Slowly, And I Watched It’ 
Having watched her son lose more of himself every time he’s hospitalized, Kimberly has become convinced that he needs one of the last options available to their family: conservatorship. (Lulu Garcia-Navarro, 2/16)

Also —

Stat: Improving Patient Safety Shouldn't Be A Financial Calculation
A recent study of medical error published in The New England Journal of Medicine reached a shocking conclusion about patient safety: Nearly a quarter century after a highly publicized Institute of Medicine report on the prevalence of patient harm sparked vows to cut the rate by half in five years, “in-hospital adverse events” remain so common that they affect roughly one in four patients. At larger institutions, the rate can be 40% or higher. (Michael L. Millenson, 2/17)

Los Angeles Times: Who Will Suffer When Biden Ends The COVID 'Emergency'?
In the State of the Union, President Biden stated that “we have broken COVID’s grip on us.” Indeed, COVID-19 deaths are down about 75% since last year’s speech. Consistent with that progress, the Biden administration announced in January that it will end the public health emergency (and national emergency) declarations on May 11. Yet nearly 500 Americans are dying from COVID-19 per day. (Wendy Netter Epstein and Daniel Golderg, 2/16)