ByHeart Formula Botulism Lawsuit Adds Target, Walmart, Whole Foods
The lawsuit has been brought against the infant formula maker on behalf of families whose babies were hospitalized with botulism. The plan to add the grocery store chains where the formula was sold to the lawsuits was announced on Sunday.
Bloomberg:
Target, Walmart, Whole Foods Added To ByHeart Botulism Lawsuits Over Formula Sales
Target Corp., Whole Foods Market and Walmart Inc. will be added as defendants in lawsuits against baby formula maker ByHeart for selling a product potentially contaminated with spores that cause infant botulism. Bill Marler, a prominent foodborne-illness attorney who is suing ByHeart on behalf of families whose babies were hospitalized with botulism, said Sunday he plans to add the grocery store chains to the lawsuits this week. (Edney, 12/22)
Flu, measles, and covid developments —
CBS News:
Flu Season Is Ramping Up, And Some Experts Are "Pretty Worried"
Doctors and scientists say this year's influenza season could be tougher than usual. A new version of the flu virus, called H3N2, is spreading quickly. At the same time, fewer people are getting flu shots. "This flu season is no joke. We are seeing more cases than we would expect for this time of year," Dr. Amanda Kravitz, a pediatrician at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York, said on "CBS Mornings." Specifically, she explained, "we are seeing influenza A, and within influenza A we are seeing a subtype or variant called H3N2." (Gounder, 12/22)
Wyoming Public Radio:
Measles Identified In Park County Adult
The state health department has identified another case of measles, this time in Park County. The vaccinated adult had “extensive exposure" to the virus while abroad and developed a mild case that didn’t require hospitalization, per the health department. (Ouellet, 12/22)
CIDRAP:
USDA Says H5 Avian Flu Detection In Wisconsin Dairy Herd Is New Spillover Event
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) confirmed last week that the recent detection of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in a Wisconsin dairy herd represents a new spillover event from wildlife. (Dall, 12/22)
CIDRAP:
Study Finds That Despite Broad COVID Vaccine Availability, COVID Still Deadlier Than Flu In Hospitalized Patients
While the mortality gap between COVID-19 and influenza has narrowed since the onset of the pandemic, COVID continues to carry a substantially higher short-term risk of death than seasonal flu despite the availability of a COVID vaccine, according to a large population-based cohort study from South Korea. (Bergeson, 12/22)
CIDRAP:
Poll Shows Small Yet Significant Drop In Americans’ Willingness To Recommend MMR Vaccines
At the end of a year of escalating measles outbreaks and on the verge of the United States losing its measles elimination status, the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) published a new poll showing that compared to last year, fewer Americans are willing recommend their family member receive the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine. (Soucheray, 12/22)
Mental health notes —
MedPage Today:
Half Of Transgender, Gender Diverse Youth Report Suicidal Thoughts
Nearly one in two transgender and gender diverse (TGD) youth reported suicidal ideation or self-injury, and one in four attempted suicide, a global meta-analysis showed. (Monaco, 12/22)
New Hampshire Public Radio:
Research Shows That Finding New Activities In Darker Months Can Help With Seasonal Depression
Though the exact causes of seasonal affective disorder, also known as seasonal depression, are not completely understood, Dr. Robert Brady, associate professor of psychology at Dartmouth's Geisel School of Medicine, said it is the recurrence of depressive symptoms with a seasonal pattern. (Richardson, 12/22)
MedPage Today:
Air Pollution Linked To Depression
Long-term exposure to pollution from fine particulate matter and its major components -- soil dust, sulfate, and elemental carbon -- correlated with a greater risk of depression among older adults, a U.S. study showed. (Phend, 12/22)
Verite News New Orleans:
Immigration Sweeps Take A Mental Toll On Area Students
High school senior Talia Joseph was taking a test at St. Mary’s Academy when she got a call saying that her family members had seen immigration enforcement officers in their neighborhood in Gretna. Joseph is an American citizen but ever since the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s immigration crackdown has begun in greater New Orleans, she said she has been worried about her family members who are not. Joseph said she has undocumented relatives on both sides of her family. Her father’s family is from Grenada and her mother’s is from Honduras. (Syed, 12/22)
Trailblazers —
Stat:
The Doctor Who Overturned Medicine’s Fear Of Testosterone
The first thing Abraham Morgentaler learned about testosterone is that it’s a brain hormone. It was in a lab at Harvard, while an undergraduate in the late 1970s, where he had this realization: A castrated male lizard put in a cage with a female would not perform its mating ritual and would be uninterested in the female; but the same lizard, dosed with testosterone in the areas of the brain sensitive to testosterone, would — its dewlap coming out, head bobbing. (Merelli, 12/23)
Stat:
Advocate Who Offered Window On Living With Brain Cancer Dies At 43
In 2018, I wrote a profile of a patient advocate named Adam Hayden. A few years earlier, at the age of 34, soon after he and his wife had had their third child, Adam was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. I saw the story as a way to write about how people with fatal diagnoses navigate decisions on how to spend their remaining time. (Joseph, 12/22)
