First Edition: June 6, 2024
Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
KFF Health News:
Wins At The Ballot Box For Abortion Rights Still Mean Court Battles For Access
Before Ohio voters amended their constitution last year to protect abortion rights, the state’s attorney general, an anti-abortion Republican, said that doing so would upend at least 10 state laws limiting abortions. But those laws remain a hurdle and straightforward access to abortions has yet to resume, said Bethany Lewis, executive director of the Preterm abortion clinic in Cleveland. “Legally, what actually happened in practice was not much,” she said. (Sable-Smith, 6/6)
CIDRAP:
FDA Panel Supports Switch To JN.1 For Fall COVID Vaccines
Vaccine advisers to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today recommended switching the SARS-CoV-2 strain from the XBB.1.5 variant to JN.1 for fall vaccine formulations. The recommendation marks the third remake for the COVID vaccine since 2022. The measure unanimously passed, 16 to 0. FDA officials, concerned about further evolution of JN.1, also asked the group to discuss the possibility of recommending an offshoot of JN.1, such as KP.2, that may more closely match currently circulating strains. (Schnirring, 6/5)
CIDRAP:
Report: More Than 200 Symptoms Tied To Long COVID
Today a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine presents a number of conclusions about long-COVID diagnosis, symptoms, and impact on daily function, including that the condition can cause more than 200 symptoms, and that a positive COVID-19 test is not necessary to make a long-COVID diagnosis. (Soucheray, 6/5)
Los Angeles Times:
Report: Positive COVID Test Not Needed For Long COVID Diagnosis
People do not need to have tested positive for the coronavirus to be considered for a diagnosis of long COVID, a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine concludes. ... Among its conclusions: Because testing has not always been available to people with COVID-19 — and because some who tested themselves at home never reported the results to healthcare systems — many who were infected never received formal documentation of their illness. (Alpert Reyes, 6/5)
The Washington Post:
‘Unusual’ Cancers Emerged After Pandemic. Doctors Ask If Covid Is To Blame.
Kashyap Patel looked forward to his team’s Friday lunches. All the doctors from his oncology practice would gather in the open-air courtyard under the shadow of a tall magnolia tree and catch up. The atmosphere tended to the lighthearted and optimistic. But that week, he was distressed. It was 2021, a year into the coronavirus pandemic, and as he slid into a chair, Patel shared that he’d just seen a patient in his 40s with cholangiocarcinoma, a rare and lethal cancer of the bile ducts that typically strikes people in their 70s and 80s. Initially, there was silence, and then one colleague after another said they’d recently treated patients who had similar diagnoses. Within a year of that meeting, the office had recorded seven such cases. (Cha, 6/6)
The Washington Post:
Man In Mexico Dies In First Known Human Case Of H5N2 Bird Flu Variant
A 59-year-old male resident of Mexico died after being infected with a bird flu subtype never before confirmed to have spread to humans, the World Health Organization said Wednesday. The man, who suffered from other underlying health conditions, had no known exposure to poultry or other animals before being formally diagnosed by a laboratory with the H5N2 subtype of avian flu. The case marks the first time a human has been confirmed to be infected with this subtype, and the first time an avian H5 virus was confirmed in a person in Mexico. (Cho, 6/6)
Reuters:
No Evidence Of Person-To-Person Transmission In Fatal Bird Flu Case, Mexico Says
There has so far been no evidence of person-to-person transmission of bird flu in the case of a man who died from the disease in Mexico, the nation's health ministry said on Wednesday. The man had several prior health conditions, the ministry said in a statement, and all people who had contact with him have tested negative. (6/5)
Reuters:
Bird Flu Reported In Iowa Dairy Herd, Expanding US Outbreak In Cows
A U.S. outbreak of bird flu in dairy cows expanded to a tenth state as Iowa reported its first infection in a herd on Wednesday. The United States has confirmed cases in more than 80 herds nationwide since late March and three dairy workers have tested positive. (Polansek, 6/5)
The New York Times:
The Bird Flu Virus Adapted To Sea Mammals. It May Not Be Done Yet.
Elephant seals in South America died in massive numbers because the bird flu virus acquired mutations that allowed it to spread among mammals, according to a new study. The research offers the first genetic and epidemiological evidence of bird flu virus transmission among mammals. And the findings hold a warning: The virus, called H5N1, may similarly transform to cause large-scale infections in other mammalian species, including people. (Mandavilli, 6/5)
Politico:
‘Calling Their Bluff’: Contraception Bill Fails In Senate
Senate Republicans blocked passage Wednesday of a bill to protect Americans’ access to birth control, one of several legislative actions Democrats have pledged on reproductive rights in the leadup to the November election. Only Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) broke with the GOP to vote in favor of the legislation, which failed 51 to 39 — short of the 60 votes needed to advance. (Ollstein, 6/5)
The Hill:
Biden Urges Congress To Restore Roe V. Wade Protections After Senate GOP Blocks Contraception Bill
President Biden doubled down on his push for Congress to codify the protections of Roe v. Wade into federal law, after Senate Republicans blocked a bill from consideration Wednesday that would have established a federal right to birth control. “@VP and I believe that women in every state must have the freedom to make deeply personal health care decisions,” Biden wrote in a post on the social platform X, referring to Vice President Kamala Harris. (Fortinsky, 6/5)
CBS News:
California Gov. Newsom On Right To Contraception Bill Failing: "Republicans Are At It Again"
California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a fierce response Wednesday in the wake of U.S. Senate Republicans blocking legislation protecting access to contraception nationwide. The Right to Contraception bill needed 60 votes to advance but failed with 51 votes in favor to 39 against. Only two Republicans voted in favor. (Ramos, 6/5)
Modern Healthcare:
CMS’ Nursing Home Staffing Mandate Divides Lawmakers
The fight over a federal nursing home staffing mandate intensified Wednesday as a bipartisan group of U.S. senators launched an effort to kill the mandate, while two House Democrats and consumer advocates urged the Biden administration to stand behind it. (Eastabrook, 6/5)
Modern Healthcare:
Sen. Ron Wyden: HHS Must Enforce Healthcare Cybersecurity Rules
Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) issued a withering critique of the Health and Human Services Department's handling of cybersecurity Wednesday, blaming a lax regulatory stance for creating the environment that allowed the massive Change Healthcare hack to happen. HHS must take a firmer hand and insist that healthcare entities are better protected against cyberattacks, ... Wyden wrote in a letter to Secretary Xavier Becerra. (McAuliff, 6/5)
Reuters:
Community Health Centers Still Bogged Down By Red Tape After UnitedHealth Hack
More than three months after a cyberattack on UnitedHealth Group's technology unit, some community health centers, which serve 30 million low-income and uninsured patients, are still wading through red tape to receive back payments and struggling with operations issues. Change Healthcare, a unit of the largest U.S. health insurer, processes about 50% of all medical claims in the U.S., for around 900,000 doctors, 33,000 pharmacies, 5,500 hospitals and 600 labs. It also runs other support services like call centers. (Niasse, 6/5)
The Charlotte Observer:
Judge Denies Request To Stop Novant Buying Charlotte Hospitals
federal judge on Wednesday denied the Federal Trade Commission’s request for a preliminary injunction to stop Novant Health from buying two Lake Norman Hospitals for $320 million. The agency said Novant Health would control a large share of the market with the deal and that could hurt consumers by wiping out competition, leave fewer options for patients and increase insurance rates. (Jordan, 6/5)
Modern Healthcare:
Cigna’s Preliminary Injunction In CVS Noncompete Case Upheld
A former Cigna executive may not begin a new position at rival CVS Health until a legal case over her noncompete clause is resolved, a federal appellate panel ruled Wednesday. The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the preliminary injunction the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri issued in June 2023. Cigna seeks to prevent Amy Bricker, former president of its Express Scripts division and a Cigna employee for 13 years, from accepting a senior role with CVS Health. (Berryman, 6/5)
Reuters:
Alphabet Names Lilly Executive Anat Ashkenazi As CFO
Alphabet named Anat Ashkenazi as its chief financial officer on Wednesday, turning to a top executive from drugmaker Eli Lilly to help steer the Google parent in the generative artificial intelligence era. Ashkenazi's departure from Lilly was announced earlier in the day. At Alphabet, she will succeed Ruth Porat, the company's longtime CFO whose transition to the role of investment chief was unveiled in July 2023 after years of strong growth. (Malik and Satija, 6/5)
Modern Healthcare:
What The Medicare Advantage Star Ratings Lawsuit Means
A legal technicality could shake up the Medicare Advantage Star Ratings program, force the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to redo scores across the insurance industry and complicate the contracting process for next year. A federal judge ruled Monday that CMS violated the Administrative Procedure Act of 1946 when it modified how star ratings are calculated in 2022. (Tepper, 6/5)
Modern Healthcare:
American Jewish Medical Association Aims To Combat Antisemitism
A group of healthcare workers have banded together to launch the American Jewish Medical Association and fight antisemitism in the healthcare profession. The nonprofit association was founded in November by Dr. Yael Halaas, a New York City-based plastic surgeon, after the start of the Israel-Hamas war. The group is nonpolitical, bipartisan and focused on domestic issues, although members are encouraged to take sides in political issues as they see fit, Halaas said. (DeSilva, 6/5)
San Francisco Chronicle:
One In Six US Adults Use Cannabis — Most Therapeutically, Study Finds
One in six U.S. adults use cannabis, and more than a third who do are using at levels considered moderate to high risk for cannabis use disorder, according to a new study by UCLA researchers. The study, published in JAMA Network Open on Wednesday, found that 17% of adults who saw their primary care doctor for an annual wellness visit between 2021 and 2023 reported using cannabis in the last three months. Most, more than three-quarters of the patients, said they used cannabis to manage symptoms such as stress, sleep and pain. (Ho, 6/5)
Stat:
Psychedelics Companies See FDA Panel Vote As An Opportunity For Growth
A day after a panel of advisers to the Food and Drug Administration expressed deep concerns about the use of MDMA to help treat post-traumatic stress disorder, companies working to develop other psychedelics said their optimism had not been dimmed — and that the concerns provided a clearer blueprint for what it might take to get such a drug approved. The advisory committee overwhelmingly voted that Lykos Therapeutics, which is seeking FDA approval for MDMA and therapist oversight, rather than just the drug itself, had failed to demonstrate that the therapy would be effective in treating PTSD. (Keshavan, 6/6)
Military.com:
Veterans Crisis Line Experiences Brief Outage Due To Phone Carrier Technical Issues
Some callers to the Veterans Crisis Line faced difficulties Tuesday reaching the Department of Veterans Affairs directly through the service's "Press 1" option, an issue VA officials said was resolved within hours. The VA placed alerts across its websites and social media early Tuesday evening after learning of problems with the service, which officials said were the result of an "external issue" outside the crisis line's control and were specific to a technical glitch at a phone carrier's facility in Indiana. (Kime, 6/5)
Los Angeles Times:
California Refunding $52 Million To U.S. Government For Migrant Care
California needs to repay more than $52 million to the federal government after improperly claiming reimbursement from the Medicaid program for some immigrant patients, according to a recently released report from federal inspectors. The findings, released by the Office of the Inspector General at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, come as California has been staring down a $44.9-billion deficit. (Alpert Reyes, 6/5)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Ghost Gun Sales Banned In California Under Settlement
Three manufacturers of “ghost guns,” the self-built, largely untraceable firearms used in an increasing number of deadly shootings, have agreed to stop making or selling those guns in California and will pay the state $675,000 in civil penalties, officials announced Wednesday. ... Ghost guns, which have no serial numbers and are sold in parts that can be quickly assembled, have accounted for 25% to 50% of the firearms found at California crime scenes in recent years. (Egelko, 6/5)
The Washington Post:
Children Shooting Themselves Maryland Raises Worries Over Ghost Guns
A 4-year-old and 7-year-old were playing an innocent game of hide-and-seek Sunday evening in Maryland, when the younger child found not someone, but something: a loaded 9mm handgun. She pulled the weapon, a ghost gun, out from beneath the bed she was hiding under and shot herself in the arm, authorities said. The incident was one of two in recent days in which police say a child in the D.C. region came upon such a weapon and shot themselves. The cases highlight two alarming public safety trends nationwide that worry gun safety experts and police: the soaring pervasiveness of homemade, untraceable weapons known as ghost guns and the increase in unintentional shootings by children. (Morse and Hilton, 6/5)
Reuters:
Ohio Can't Enforce Law Barring Chiropractors From Contacting Crash Victims, Court Rules
Ohio cannot enforce a law barring chiropractors and some other healthcare practitioners from soliciting business from victims of car crashes and other crimes within 30 days of their injury, a state appeals court has ruled. The May 23 ruling from the Cleveland-based 8th District Court of Appeals, published Wednesday by the Ohio court system's public information office, held that the 2019 law was improperly tucked into a budget bill after failing to pass on its own. (Pierson, 6/5)
CBS News:
Swimming Safety Urged As Dozens Of Florida Children Drown In 2024
State officials Wednesday urged Floridians to emphasize safety while swimming this summer, as dozens of children have drowned in 2024. "So far this year, 46 children have tragically lost their lives due to drowning," Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nunez said during a press event. "Drowning is preventable, and it is also the No. 1 cause of unintentional death of children ages 1 to 4," she added. (6/5)
NBC News:
First Case Of A Rare, Sexually Transmitted Fungal Infection Reported In The U.S.
A sexually transmitted ringworm caused by a rare fungus has been reported for the first time in the United States. The case report, published Wednesday in JAMA Dermatology by doctors at NYU Langone Health in New York City, comes as clinicians worldwide increasingly say they’re having trouble treating fungal infections. (Edwards, 6/5)
CIDRAP:
Previous Zika Infection Tied To Increased Risk Of Infection With Some Dengue Virus Subtypes
Primary Zika virus (ZIKV) infection raised the risk of disease caused by the dengue virus (DENV) 3 serotype and DENV4—but not DENV1—in a cohort of Nicaraguan children, a finding that held true for those infected with DENV before ZIKV but not for those infected with ZIKV before DENV, according to a new study in Science Translational Medicine. (Van Beusekom, 6/5)
CIDRAP:
CDC: US TB Programs Are Making Progress In Preventing Spread
A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suggests US tuberculosis (TB) programs have made strides in identifying patients with TB and latent TB infection (LTBI) and in ensuring they complete treatment in a timely manner. The report, published today in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, examined the most recent 5 years of data from the National TB Indicators Project, a web-based performance monitoring tool that tracks the performance of state- and city-level TB programs. (Dall, 6/5)
NPR:
More Than 150 Across U.S. Sick Due To Possible Salmonella Outbreak In Cucumbers
More than 150 people have fallen ill after being exposed to cucumbers that were possibly contaminated with salmonella, the CDC said Wednesday. As of Tuesday, 162 reported illnesses have been linked to cucumbers distributed across 25 states and Washington, D.C. Fifty-four people have been hospitalized and no deaths have been reported, according to the CDC. Many of the people infected were concentrated in Pennsylvania, Florida, Virginia and New York. (Archie, 6/6)
CBS News:
Researchers Say Getting More Sleep At Night Can Lead To Improved Overall Happiness
A study from researchers at Baylor University show that happiness may be correlated with the amount of sleep one gets. According to experts, in recent years happiness has declined in the U.S. while sleep problems have grown. ... Added sleep was associated with improvements in sleepiness and mood disturbances and greater feelings of flourishing, resilience, and gratitude. (Marshall, 6/5)
CBS News:
Drowsy Driving By Teens Poses Public Safety Risk, National Sleep Foundation Study Says
A new study finds that drowsy driving by teens poses a serious and common public safety risk. Motor vehicle crashes are a leading cause of death in U.S. adolescents and the National Sleep Foundation found that approximately one in six teen drivers reported having driven while drowsy, amounting to approximately 1.7 million drowsy teen drivers on U.S. roadways. (Marshall, 6/5)
AP:
A Realistic Way To Protect Kids From Social Media? Find A Middle Ground
Ahmed Othman isn’t on TikTok and doesn’t want to be. He and his younger sister got iPhones when they were in eighth and seventh grade respectively, but with no social media, just iMessage. Their parents, who are both computer scientists, spent the next year teaching them about social media, bombarding them with studies about its effects on teen mental health. “They really tried to emphasize social media is a tool, but can also be like your worst enemy if you so make it,” Othman said. Now 17, Othman credits his parents’ deep involvement for what he calls a “healthy relationship” with his phone. That includes staying away from TikTok. (Ortutay, 6/6)
Axios:
Americans See Climate Change As Health Threat Heading Into Summer
Two-thirds of Americans see climate change as a threat to human health, and most are bracing for a summer of extreme weather they expect will be as bad as or worse than last year, according to the latest Axios-Ipsos American Health Index. The big picture: There's a perception that the record heat, wildfires, floods and other extreme weather events that played out vividly across screens last summer is a new baseline, though sentiment varies by age and political affiliation. (Millman, 6/6)
CBS News:
World Hits 12 Straight Months Of Record-High Temperatures — But As Warming Continues, It'll Be "Remembered As Comparatively Cold"
The world has now marked one full year of back-to-back monthly heat records, the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service announced on Wednesday. It said last month was the hottest May in recorded history — the 12th consecutive month in which the monthly high temperature record was broken.It was also the 11th consecutive month where the global average temperature was at least 1.5 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial average. If that trend continues, it would mean the world is passing a major climate change milestone. (Cohen, 6/5)
CBS News:
Alameda Nixes Climate Geoengineering Experiment To Test Technology That Could Mitigate Global Warming
An experiment in Alameda involving spraying sea salt particles into the air to determine the feasibility of mitigating global warming, and subsequently halted over safety concerns, will not be resumed after a vote by the City Council. Researchers from the University of Washington were performing the climate experiment on the flight deck of the USS Hornet Sea, Air & Space Museum in Alameda to determine if salt particles can increase the sun reflectivity of clouds, as part of its Marine Cloud Brightening Program. (Castañeda, 6/5)