First Edition: Nov. 28, 2023
Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
KFF Health News:
‘Everybody In This Community Has A Gun’: How Oakland Lost Its Grip On Gun Violence
The red-tipped bullet pierces skin and melts into it, Javier Velasquez Lopez explains. The green-tipped bullet penetrates armored vests. And the hollow-tipped bullet expands as it tears through bodies. At 19, Velasquez Lopez knows a lot about ammunition because many of his friends own guns, he said. They carry to defend themselves in East Oakland, where metal bars protect shop windows and churches stand behind tall, chain-link fences. Some people even hide AR-15-style assault weapons down their pants legs, he said. (Young, 11/28)
KFF Health News:
She Once Advised The President On Aging Issues. Now, She’s Battling Serious Disability And Depression.
The GoFundMe request jumped out at me as I was scrolling through posts on LinkedIn. Nora Super, executive director of the 2015 White House Conference on Aging and former director of the Milken Institute’s Center for the Future of Aging, was seeking contributions after suffering a severe spinal cord injury. “Right now, I have no feeling below the waist. I need lots of equipment to go home from the hospital and live safely and independently,” she wrote in her appeal. (Graham, 11/28)
KFF Health News:
Back Pain? Bum Knee? Be Prepared To Wait For A Physical Therapist
At no point along his three-year path to earning a degree in physical therapy has Matthew Lee worried about getting a job. Being able to make a living off that degree? That’s a different question — and the answer is affecting the supply of physical therapists across the nation: The cost of getting trained is out of proportion to the pay. (Kreidler, 11/28)
Reuters:
Biden Invokes Cold War-Era Measure To Boost Medical Supplies
President Joe Biden on Monday invoked a Cold War-era measure to boost investment in U.S. manufacturing of medicines and medical supplies that he has deemed important for national defense. Biden used the first meeting of his supply chain resilience council to boast about his administration efforts to improve supply chains upended by the COVID pandemic and help bring inflation under control, but acknowledged more work needs to be done. “We know that prices are still too high for too many things, that times are still too tough for too many families,” Biden said. “But we’ve made progress." (Holland and Lange, 11/27)
Axios:
Biden Looks To Boost Domestic Drug Manufacturing Amid Shortages
The Korean War-era law, invoked by Biden and former President Trump during the pandemic, allows the president to direct private companies to produce materials and goods needed for national defense.
Biden will give the Health and Human Services Department authority to invest in medical products unrelated to the pandemic, including insulin, morphine, vaccines and ventilators, a White House official told Axios. (Goldman, 11/28)
The New York Times:
Biden Campaign Aims To Weaponize Trump’s Threat To Obamacare
The president’s aides quickly jumped on a statement by Donald Trump that he was “seriously looking at alternatives” to the health law. (Epstein, 11/27)
The Washington Post:
Trump Aims To ‘Terminate’ Obamacare Again, Despite Its Popularity
What’s clear is that an effort to “terminate” Obamacare is not something Americans are pining for. Not only were the GOP’s efforts to repeal and replace Obamacare during Trump’s term historically unpopular, but the law also appears to have gotten more popular since then. Perhaps most strikingly, this doesn’t even appear to be a major emphasis for the GOP base. (Blake, 11/27)
Axios:
Why Trump's Vow To Repeal Obamacare Is A Gift To Democrats
Christmas has come early for Democratic campaign staffers, courtesy of former President Trump's vow over the holiday weekend to "never give up" on repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Democrats are eager to revive their health care playbook from 2018, when the party rode a "blue wave" to the House majority by aggressively campaigning on Republican attempts to gut Obamacare. (Basu, 11/27)
Politico:
Senate Republicans Shrug Off Trump's Latest Bid To Scrap Obamacare
Yes, Republicans still say they dislike Obamacare and want to bring health care costs down. But as far as scrapping the law? “I don't see that as being the rallying cry. I really don’t,” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) said. “Boy, I haven’t thought about that one in a while,” Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.) said. “I just don't know what [Trump's] thinking or how we would go about doing that. That fight, as you know, was six years ago now. And so, if he’s got some ideas, we’re open to them.” (Everett, 11/27)
Bloomberg:
UK Finds First Human Infection With Swine Flu Virus Variant
UK health officials have reported a person with a flu strain typically found in pigs, marking the first time this variant has been detected in a human in the country. The UK Health Security Agency is working to determine any risks the pathogen might pose to human health, it said in a statement Monday. The person experienced only a mild illness and has fully recovered, according to the agency. (Fourcade, 11/27)
Fortune:
The UK Has Detected Its First Human Case Of A New Type Of Swine Flu. What You Need To Know
Authorities are unsure of how the UK patient became infected, leaving open the possibility that the virus is spreading in the community. And mild symptoms in one patient isn’t a guarantee of mild symptoms in others, if they become infected, experts tell Fortune. ... The infection marks the first time the exact type of H1N2 virus has been detected in humans, though an incredibly similar strain has been detected in area pigs. There have been a total of 50 human cases of H1N2 reported globally since 2005. But none are genetically related to the clade, or subgroup, just detected in the U.K.: 1b.1.1. (Prater, 11/27)
CBS News:
COVID Variant BA.2.86 Triples In New CDC Estimates, Now 8.8% Of Cases
Nearly 1 in 10 new COVID-19 cases in the U.S. are from the BA.2.86 variant, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated Monday, nearly triple what the agency estimated the highly mutated variant's prevalence was two weeks ago. Among the handful of regions with enough specimens reported from testing laboratories, BA.2.86's prevalence is largest in the Northeast: 13.1% of cases in the New York and New Jersey region are blamed on the strain. (Tin, 11/27)
CIDRAP:
WHO Upgrades BA.2.86 To COVID-19 Variant Of Interest As US Proportions Grow
The World Health Organization (WHO) last week reclassified the Omicron BA.2.86 variant—and its offshoots, including JN.1—as a variant of interest as global proportions grow, including in the United States, where it now makes up about 9% of circulating viruses, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today. (Schnirring, 11/27)
CIDRAP:
US Flu Cases, Hospitalizations Keep Climbing
Seasonal influenza cases continued to edge upward in most parts of the United States last week, with notable upticks in the south central, southeast, Mountain, and West Coast regions, according to the latest report today from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). FluView data for the week ending November 18 show an overall 4.9% hike in flu positivity, up 0.5 percentage points from last week. The highest positivity rates were in the Mountain (11.2%), south central (7.6%), southeast (7.6%), and West Coast (7.2%) regions. (Van Beusekom, 11/27)
CIDRAP:
CDC Reports Unique Ocular Syphilis Cluster Caused By An Unknown Strain
US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) researchers report the first known cluster of ocular syphilis cases linked to a common heterosexual partner, which they say suggests the presence of an unidentified causative bacterial strain with increased risk for systemic complications. (Van Beusekom, 11/27)
Reuters:
Idaho Asks US Supreme Court To Allow Near-Total Abortion Ban
Idaho officials on Monday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to temporarily halt a federal judge's ruling that blocked the Republican-governed state from enforcing its near-total abortion ban in medical-emergency situations following a legal challenge by Democratic President Joe Biden's administration. Republican state officials urged the justices to pause U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill's August 2022 preliminary injunction issued after he concluded that the state's abortion restrictions conflicted with a federal law that ensures that patients can receive emergency "stabilizing care." (Kruzel, 11/27)
NPR:
Abortion Case Goes Before Texas Supreme Court, As More Women Sue State
On Tuesday, the Texas Supreme Court will consider this question: Are the state's abortion laws harming women when they face pregnancy complications? The case, brought by the Center for Reproductive Rights, has grown to include 22 plaintiffs, including 20 patients and two physicians. They are suing Texas, arguing that the medical exceptions in the state's abortion bans are too narrow to protect patients with complicated pregnancies. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is fiercely defending the state's current abortion laws and arguing that the case should be dismissed. (Simmons-Duffin, 11/28)
Missouri Independent:
Explained: Missouri Abortion-Rights Petition Rape Reporting Clause
When Trish Mitchell got an abortion three decades ago in Missouri, she didn’t tell the doctor her pregnancy was a result of sexual assault. She couldn’t bring herself to. It would be years before she told anyone that she had been raped. “Speaking for myself, it was literally almost impossible,” said Mitchell, who was 21 at the time of the assault. “I wasn’t able to talk about what happened to me for many, many years.” (Spoerre, 11/27)
ABC News:
'Nobody Cared': Women Who Have Reported Mistreatment While Giving Birth Say CDC Report Validates Their Trauma
"If the CDC has to tell you to respect patients' rights and to respect the medical ethics of autonomy, I think we've really gone off the rails," said Julie Cantor, a women's rights advocate and attorney who is representing Doe. The CDC analysis of a recent survey of 2,400 new mothers includes reported cases of ignored requests for help; being shouted at or scolded; violations of physical privacy; and threats to withhold treatment, or made to accept unwanted treatment. (Dwyer and See, 11/28)
CBS News:
Law Bans No-Consent Pelvic And Rectal Exams In Pennsylvania
A new Pennsylvania law will require doctors to get a patient's verbal and written consent before medical students can perform pelvic or rectal exams on someone who receives anesthesia. At a press conference Monday, supporters touted the recently enacted legislation, which goes into effect in January. Tracking how often medical students are asked to perform pelvic, rectal or prostate exams on anesthetized patients is difficult, but concern about the procedures has led to a broad national effort to require informed consent for the procedures. (11/27)
Reuters:
Lilly's Mounjaro Leads To More And Faster Weight Loss Than Novo Obesity Drug, Data Analysis Finds
Overweight or obese adults lost more weight and shed pounds faster using Eli Lilly's Mounjaro than those taking Novo Nordisk's popular rival weight loss drug, according to an analysis of health records and other data. Within one year of starting treatment, 42.3% of those taking tirzepatide - the active ingredient in Mounjaro and Zepbound - had lost at least 15% of their weight, compared with 19.3% among patients taking semaglutide - the main ingredient in Wegovy and Ozempic, the study published on medRxiv in advance of peer review found. (Lapid, 11/27)
The New York Times:
A New Match For Menopausal Weight Gain: Ozempic
Kymberly Smith had had enough. It was February 2020, and she was grieving the sudden death of her husband when Covid lockdowns began. She was alone, without any access to her support network, and she was “in the throes of menopause.” Eventually, Ms. Smith, 57, started using antidepressants for her grief. She was also on hormone therapy to ease her constant hot flashes and disruptive night sweats. But when it came to the 20 pounds she had gained, around her belly, she “just couldn’t shake it away.” (Gupta and Blum, 11/27)
Stat:
Estrogen Hormone Treatment Research Proposal Gets FDA Feedback
Hormone replacement therapies have long been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use by cisgender patients, such as women who take estrogen when going through menopause. Now, for the first time, a nonprofit group is pursuing research with the goal of FDA approval for the use of estrogen as a gender-affirming treatment for trans and gender-diverse patients. (Gaffney, 11/28)
Stat:
Springworks Wins FDA Approval For Drug To Treat Desmoid Tumors
The Food and Drug Administration on Monday approved the first treatment for people with desmoid tumors, a localized cancer that invades soft tissue and muscle. The new drug, called Ogsiveo, is made by Springworks Therapeutics. It’s the company’s first approved medicine. (Feuerstein, 11/27)
CBS News:
2 N.J. Emergency Rooms Diverting Patients After Hackensack Meridian Health Hit With Potential Cyber Attack
A ransomware attack on a health system in New Jersey is forcing two hospitals in the state to divert patients coming to their emergency rooms to other facilities. ... EMS personnel and patients coming to Mountainside Medical Center's emergency room in Montclair had to be diverted to other facilities Monday, according to a hospital spokesperson. Ardent Health Services, which runs the hospital, blamed the move on a ransomware attack. (Sloan, 11/27)
Modern Healthcare:
Nonprofit Hospital Relative Charity Care Down From 2020-2022
As nonprofit hospitals’ expenses rose during the COVID-19 pandemic, they provided proportionally less free or discounted care, also known as charity care. But the trend may shift as Medicaid beneficiaries lose coverage and as lawmakers ramp up pressure on providers. Nonprofit hospitals’ median operating costs jumped roughly 20% from 2020 to 2022 ... The increase may explain, in part, why health systems’ median charity care as a percentage of operating expenses declined from 1.21% to 0.99% over that time period. (Kacik, 11/27)
CBS News:
Gov. Kathy Hochul Reviewing Biomarker Testing Bill That Doctors Say Is Game Changer In Treating Cancer
A bill on Gov. Kathy Hochul's desk would make insurance companies cover what doctors call life-saving cancer genetic testing. Biomarker testing helps create more targeted treatment plans. However, one-third of health plans don't currently cover it. ... "If a doctor determines that a biomarker test would help them figure out the best course of medicine, it should be covered as standard of care," said Michael Davoli of the American Cancer Society. (Gusoff, 11/27)
The Boston Globe:
Wheelchair Repair Logjam: MassHealth Pilot Programs Are Delayed
Two pilot programs intended to address chronically delayed wheelchair repairs are themselves taking months longer than planned to launch. MassHealth, which is responsible for the pilot programs, was supposed to have two vendors in place to run the programs by this fall. The state’s Medicaid administrator now anticipates both contractors won’t be in place until August 2024. (Laughlin, 11/27)
Stat:
U.S. States, Cities, And Counties Are Suing Insulin Makers And PBMs
In response to strained budgets, a growing number of state and local governments across the U.S. are suing insulin makers and pharmacy benefit managers over claims the companies conspired to illegally drive up prices. In recent weeks, state officials in Utah and Arizona, and municipalities in New York, Virginia, Maryland, and Ohio have filed lawsuits alleging that the companies artificially drove up the cost of insulin, making the medication unaffordable for countless residents who have diabetes and causing the governments to overpay for the medication. (Silverman and Wilkerson, 11/28)
WUSF:
What Role Did A Netflix Documentary Play In A Jury Siding With Maya Kowalski?
After an eight-week trial in Venice, a jury this month held Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital liable for mistreatment of Maya Kowalski. The St. Petersburg hospital now must pay over $260 million in damages. In June, a Netflix documentary called “Take Care of Maya" was released. It shares the Kowalski family's emotional story about the care Maya received when she visited the hospital in 2016. (Bowman, 11/27)
Roll Call:
Momentum Builds For Psychedelic Therapies For Troops, Vets
In 2004, Mike Gemignani enlisted in the Army after graduating from high school. A forward observer, he directed artillery units and Apache attack helicopters to their targets during his two tours in Iraq with the 101st Airborne Division. He eventually left the military, went to college and settled into a job. But a slow trickle of anxiety and depression soon followed. (Satter, 11/28)
CBS News:
Study: Fatty Acid Found In Some Red Meat Can Help Fight Cancer
Researchers at the University of Chicago Biological Sciences Division found that trans-vaccenic acid (TVA) – a long-chain fatty acid in meat and dairy products from grazing animals like cows and sheep – improves the ability of CD8+ T cells in the immune system infiltrate tumors and kill cancer cells. The research was published last week in the journal Nature. It shows in addition that people with higher levels of TVA circulating in their blood responded better to immunotherapy. (Harrington, 11/27)
Stat:
Antibiotic Sales For Food-Producing Animals Dropped By 53% In Europe In Last Decade
Amid concerns over the use of medically important antibiotics given to food-producing livestock, sales of veterinary medicines across Europe dropped by 53% between 2011 and 2022, which regulators reported is the biggest drop ever recorded and a sign that campaigns to reduce usage are working. (Silverman, 11/27)
Stat:
With Clinical Trial Data Readouts, Here's How To Spot Spin
Investors, analysts, doctors, and even patients face an avalanche of news from biotech companies about their human trials of experimental drugs, and wading through all that data to draw reasonable conclusions is a challenging task. This week, STAT has published a 2023 update of its Guide to Interpreting Clinical Trial Results, which can help consumers of company readouts navigate the process. (11/28)
Stat:
Most Clinical Trials In Canada Failed To Take Basic Transparency Steps
Just 3% of more than 3,700 studies run exclusively in Canada over a recent 10-year period were registered prospectively, reported results, and published the findings, underscoring ongoing concerns about clinical trial transparency, according to a new analysis. (Silverman, 11/27)
The New York Times:
New Zealand’s New Government Says It Will Scrap Smoking Ban
New Zealand’s new right-wing government has said it will repeal a law that would have gradually banned all cigarette sales in the country over the course of several decades. The law, passed by a previous government led by Jacinda Ardern, a prime minister who became an international liberal icon, took effect this year and was celebrated as a potential model that other countries might someday follow. It would have gradually introduced changes in retail cigarette sales and licensing over several years until tobacco could eventually no longer be legally sold in New Zealand. (Ives and Frost, 11/28)