First Edition: Sept. 18, 2023

KFF Health News: Health Workers Warn Loosening Mask Advice In Hospitals Would Harm Patients And Providers
Nurses, researchers, and workplace safety officers worry new guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention might reduce protection against the coronavirus and other airborne pathogens in hospitals. A CDC advisory committee has been updating its 2007 standards for infection control in hospitals this year. Many health care professionals and scientists expressed outrage after the group released a draft of its proposals in June. (Maxmen, 9/18)

KFF Health News: Watch: Thinking Big In Public Health, Inspired By The End Of Smallpox
One of humanity’s greatest triumphs is the eradication of smallpox. Many doctors and scientists thought it was impossible to eliminate a disease that had been around for millennia and killed nearly 1 in 3 people infected. Smallpox is the first and only human disease to be wiped out globally.  KFF Health News held a web event Thursday that discussed how the lessons from the victory over smallpox could be applied to public health challenges today. The online conversation was led by Céline Gounder, physician-epidemiologist and host of “Eradicating Smallpox,” Season 2 of the Epidemic podcast. (9/18)

Politico: Joe Biden’s Taking On Insurers To Address America’s Mental Health Crisis 
The Biden administration is going after health insurers for flouting a federal law requiring them to provide mental health care on the same terms as other care. The administration has proposed new rules it says will make the insurers comply and it’s threatening big fines if they don’t. Insurers are pleading innocent and, backed by some of America’s biggest companies, claiming the Biden administration plan could make an intractable problem worse. The battle comes as Americans’ mental health care needs are at modern highs, following a pandemic-driven spike that refuses to abate. (Leonard, 9/17)

Reuters: US Chamber Of Commerce Urges Judge To Block Medicare Drug Pricing Program 
A lawyer for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Friday urged a federal judge to block President Joe Biden's administration from implementing a new program that would let Medicare negotiate prices with pharmaceutical companies for selected costly drugs. Jeffrey Bucholtz, the business group's attorney, told U.S. District Judge Michael Newman in Dayton, Ohio, that the program violated drugmakers' due process rights by giving the government the power to effectively dictate prices for their medicines. (Raymond, 9/15)

Axios: Fight Over Medicare Pay Hinges On Primary Care
A Medicare effort to boost payments to primary care doctors and better coordinate care for patients with complex medical needs has set off a lobbying frenzy to forestall steep cuts specialists would face as a result. The fight over physician payments underscores how Medicare's strict budgeting rules can create unintended consequences, like pitting medical specialties against each other. (Goldman, 9/18)

Axios: Sanders' Primary Care Plan Draws Fire
A Bernie Sanders-led plan to fortify primary care and the health care workforce is drawing swift opposition from hospitals — and stirring dissent on the Senate HELP Committee he chairs. (Sullivan, 9/15)

Axios: Health Programs Could Be Stranded By Government Shutdown
The threat of a government shutdown is hanging over Capitol Hill. But so is the realization that gridlock could claim an array of health programs that are due to sunset at the end of the month without congressional action. (Knight and Sullivan, 9/18)

The Washington Post: Trump, Who Nominated Antiabortion Judges, Calls Six-Week Bans ‘Terrible’
In an interview that aired Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” former president Donald Trump, the front-runner in the GOP presidential primary, said a state abortion law signed by his top challenger, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), which bans the procedure after six weeks, is “terrible.” ... “I think what he did is a terrible thing and a terrible mistake,” said Trump, who appointed three Supreme Court justices who helped overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark ruling guaranteeing abortion access nationally. (Alfaro and Knowles, 9/17)

The 19th: Total Abortion Bans Are Not At All Popular Among Americans, Poll Finds
Only 9 percent of Americans believe that abortion should be illegal in all circumstances even as 14 states are enforcing near-total bans on the procedure, the 19th News/SurveyMonkey poll has found. Past polling has frequently found that people hold sometimes confusing and conflicting opinions about abortion, and this poll is no different: Some of those who say they support completely outlawing the procedure still believe abortion should be allowed in at least some circumstances. (Luthra, 9/18)

AP: Indiana Attorney General Sues Hospital System Over Privacy Of Ohio Girl Who Traveled For Abortion
Indiana’s attorney general has sued the state’s largest hospital system, claiming it violated patient privacy laws when a doctor publicly shared the story of an Ohio girl who traveled to Indiana for an abortion. The lawsuit, filed Friday in Indianapolis federal court, marked Attorney General Todd Rokita’s latest attempt to seek disciplinary legal action against Dr. Caitlin Bernard. The doctor’s account of a 10-year-old rape victim traveling to Indiana to receive abortion drugs became a flashpoint in the abortion debate days after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last summer. (9/17)

Stat: Midwives Could Help Bridge Maternal Health Disparities In The U.S.
In the wake of growing alarm over the disproportionately high rates of maternal mortality in the U.S., maternal health experts have been pushing for changes — including expanding the midwife workforce. Studies have shown that deliveries attended by midwives tend to have fewer complications and better outcomes, partially because midwife training relies less on medical intervention, leading to fewer C-sections. (Merelli, 9/18)

AP: Kansas Will No Longer Change Trans People's Birth Certificates To Reflect Their Gender Identities 
Kansas will no longer change transgender people’s birth certificates to reflect their gender identities, the state health department said Friday, citing a new law that prevents the state from legally recognizing those identities. The decision from the state Department of Health and Environment makes Kansas one of a handful of states that won’t change transgender people’s birth certificates. It already was among the few states that don’t change the gender marker on transgender people’s driver’s licenses. (Hanna and Hollingsworth, 9/15)

The 19th: Views On Gender-Affirming Care Are Influenced By Personal Relationships, Poll Finds
The majority of Americans believe adults, but not minors, should be able to access gender-affirming care — and opinions are significantly influenced by whether they personally know someone who is transgender, a new 19th News/SurveyMonkey poll finds. (Rummler, 9/18)

NBC News: Covid Symptoms Are Now More Mild And Follow A Pattern, Doctors Say
Doctors say they're finding it increasingly difficult to distinguish Covid from allergies or the common cold, even as hospitalizations tick up. The illness' past hallmarks, such as a dry cough or the loss of sense of taste or smell, have become less common. Instead, doctors are observing milder disease, mostly concentrated in the upper respiratory tract. (Bendix, 9/16)

CBS News: New COVID Vaccine Shots Aren't Being Called "Boosters." Here's Why
"Bye bye, booster. We are no longer giving boosters, and it's going to be very difficult to stop using that word because that word has become pervasive," Dr. Keipp Talbot, a member of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's committee of vaccine advisers, said. Talbot was speaking Thursday at a webinar hosted by the Infectious Diseases Society of America titled, in part, "COVID-19 New Booster Vaccine & Variants Update." "We are beginning to think of COVID like influenza. Influenza changes each year, and we give a new vaccine for each year. We don't 'boost' each year," said Talbot. (Tin, 9/15)

USA Today: No, Pfizer's COVID-19 Vaccine Doesn't Cause 'VAIDS'
A Sept. 12 Instagram post shows a post on X, formerly Twitter, that discusses a supposed side effect of the COVID-19 vaccine called “vaccine-induced AIDS.” It includes a photo of a child whose face is covered with sores. ... The study proves no such thing. VAIDS is not a real condition, and there is no evidence linking COVID-19 vaccines to immunodeficiency, medical experts say. The study looked at the immune responses of vaccinated children, and its authors say their research was misrepresented. (McCreary, 9/16)

CIDRAP: Facebook's Policy On Anti-COVID Vaccine Content Didn't Stop Users From Finding It, Study Suggests 
Facebook's removal of some COVID-19 vaccine misinformation didn't drive down user engagement with the content—likely because the social media platform's architecture allowed users to view and interact with it and let groups boost each other's content or repost deleted posts, suggests an analysis led by George Washington University researchers. (Van Beusekom, 9/15)

The Wall Street Journal: Neanderthal Genes Are Linked To Severe Covid Risk
The northern Italian city of Bergamo suffered one of the world’s highest Covid-19 death rates, with army trucks deployed to carry the dead out of the overwhelmed town in the early days of the pandemic. A new study carried out in Bergamo now suggests that genes inherited from Neanderthals, extinct cousins of modern humans, could help explain why some people developed life-threatening forms of the disease while others didn’t. (Stancati, 9/16)

The Washington Post: Fatigue Patient’s Case Prompts Discovery That May Help With Long Covid
Her dogged efforts lead to a new scientific discovery that may help many others with chronically fatiguing illnesses, including long covid. (Vastag, 9/17)

CIDRAP: $4.5 Million USDA Grant Funds SARS-CoV-2 Wildlife Sampling
Penn State researchers will use a $4.5 million grant from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) to test for SARS-CoV-2 in 58 wildlife species, with the goal of tracking potential human spillback. In a news release yesterday, Penn State said the researchers will collect more than 20,000 samples from wildlife such as eastern chipmunks, gray squirrels, raccoons, coyotes, white-footed mice, moose, wolverines, three species of deer, and several bat species. SARS-CoV-2 has already been found in 29 species, such as white-tailed deer, but most species haven't been tested. (Van Beusekom, 9/15)

Reuters: WHO Chief Pushes China For ‘Full Access’ To Determine COVID’s Origins, Financial Times Reports
The chief of the World Health Organization urged Beijing to offer more information on the origins of COVID-19 and is ready to send a second team to probe the matter, the Financial Times reported on Sunday. "We're pressing China to give full access, and we are asking countries to raise it during their bilateral meetings — to urge Beijing to co-operate," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the newspaper. (9/17)

Reuters: Climate Change Impeding Fight Against AIDS, TB And Malaria 
Climate change and conflict are hitting efforts to tackle three of the world's deadliest infectious diseases, the head of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has warned. International initiatives to fight the diseases have largely recovered after being badly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Fund’s 2023 results report released on Monday. (Rigby, 9/18)

The Boston Globe: Nurses Threaten Strike At Dana-Farber Merrimack Valley
Registered nurses at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Merrimack Valley plan to hold a one-day strike later this month as they attempt to negotiate their first contract since organizing as a union last year. The nurses at the institute located in Methuen are represented by the Massachusetts Nurses Association. In a letter on Friday, the union informed Dana-Farber’s chief nursing officer that the nurses will picket Sept. 27 at the facility, beginning at 6:30 a.m., unless a deal is reached. (Stoico, 9/16)

AP: Rural Hospitals Are Closing Maternity Wards. People Are Seeking Options To Give Birth Closer To Home 
Fewer than half of rural hospitals have labor and delivery units and the number keeps dropping. It’s forcing pregnant women to travel longer distances for care or face giving birth in an emergency room. (Rush and Ungar, 9/17)

Stat: Medicare To Pay More For Cardiac Rehab In Hospital Outpatient Clinics
Medicare plans to pay more for a type of cardiac rehabilitation that takes place in certain outpatient clinics owned by hospitals. Medicare has admitted it is doing so due to an error in reading federal law, but it also goes against the grain of the current environment, where support for site-neutral payments has never been higher. Some members of Congress and health care experts are pushing for a system that would not pay hospital outpatient departments more for identical services that are provided in lower-priced physician offices. (Herman, 9/18)

Stat: Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Shows Cancer Centers Are In Vogue
Boston isn’t the only city slated for a new cancer center. Far from it. There’s little appetite to build general acute-care hospitals, especially as their financial outlook dims and more services move outpatient. So on its face, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute’s plan to build a new cancer hospital with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center seems peculiar. (Bannow, 9/15)

AP: University Of Kentucky Cancer Center Achieves Highest Designation From National Cancer Institute
The University of Kentucky’s Markey Cancer Center has achieved the highest level of recognition from the National Cancer Institute — a status that will further bolster research and patient care in a state plagued by some of the nation’s highest cancer rates, campus officials said Friday. State and university leaders gathered on UK’s Lexington campus to celebrate the Markey Center’s designation by the NCI as a “comprehensive” cancer center — putting it among several dozen cancer centers nationally to attain the status and the only one in Kentucky. (Schreiner, 9/15)

The New York Times: Windows Installed In Skulls Help Doctors Study Damaged Brains 
Some neurosurgeons are testing an acrylic prosthesis that lets them peer into patients’ heads with ultrasound. (Kolata, 9/16)

The Washington Post: New Mexico Governor Narrows Firearm Carry Ban After Controversy 
Less than a month after New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) issued a temporary public health order suspending open and concealed carry of firearms in the Albuquerque metro area, a federal judge blocked the effort, and Lujan Grisham issued a new order that largely curtails the ambitious and controversial move. Following fierce backlash, the revised order will limit the firearm ban to parks and playgrounds in Albuquerque and its surrounding county. (Kaur, 9/17)

Axios: U.S. Tops 500 Mass Shootings In 2023
There have now been 501 mass shootings in the U.S. this year. A shooting that wounded four people in Denver, Colorado, on Saturday night marked the country's 500th mass shooting in 2023, according to the Gun Violence Archive. Hours later, that increased to 501 mass shootings after one person died and five others were wounded in El Paso, Texas, early Sunday. (Rubin, 9/17)

Modern Healthcare: Oregon Basic Health Program Planned
Oregon aims to take advantage of a little-used provision of the Affordable Care Act that enables states to establish Basic Health Programs to cover residents who earn too much to qualify for Medicaid. The Oregon Health Authority voted Tuesday to seek approval from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to join the Basic Health Program. Only Minnesota and New York have such benefits in place—and those predated the Affordable Care Act of 2010—and Kentucky intends to join them in November. (Tepper, 9/15)

The New York Times: How A Lawsuit In N.J. Could Bring Aid In Dying To Millions 
The plaintiffs want the state to drop its residency requirement. Oregon and Vermont have already done so. (Span, 9/16)

NBC News: Two Suspects Charged With Murder In Death Of 1-Year-Old Following Alleged Fentanyl Exposure At NYC Day Care
A man and a woman have been arrested on murder charges after a 1-year-old died and three other children were hospitalized following suspected exposure to opioids at a Bronx day care center Friday, police said. (McShane, 9/17)

CBS News: Oakland County Health Officials Investigate Suspected Hepatitis A Case At Pine Knob Music Theatre
The Oakland County Health Division says it is investigating a suspected case of hepatitis A reported at the Ivy Lounge at the Pine Knob Music Theatre. Health officials say all season members, guests, and staff who consumed food at the lounge between Aug. 26 and Sept. 8 should monitor their symptoms. Anyone unvaccinated, who was possibly exposed from Sept. 1-8, is urged to receive the vaccine by the 14-day deadline. (Booth-Singleton, 9/15)

Houston Chronicle: RÁPIDO, Developed In Houston, Helps Spanish Speakers Recognize Strokes
RÁPIDO, a mnemonic developed in Houston to help Spanish speakers recognize the symptoms of a stroke, was officially adopted for use by the American Stroke Association, the organization announced last week. ... Just 58% of Hispanic adults in the U.S. can recognize stroke signs, compared to 64% of Black adults and 71% of white adults, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report. Stroke is the third-leading cause of death for Hispanic women, and No. 4 for Hispanic men.