First Edition: February 26, 2018

Kaiser Health News: Trump’s Perfect Score On Brain Test Spawns DIY Cognitive Exam
When Donald Trump aced a cognitive test in January, scores of people tried to take it, too, based mostly on media reports that invited them to match wits with the president. Casual users puzzled over line drawings of animals, while others wondered what it meant if they were bad at subtracting by sevens. (Aleccia, 2/26)

California Healthline: Ding Dong! The Obamacare Tax Penalty Is(n’t) Dead
Rick, Patrick and Michael recently commented on Covered California’s Facebook page, urging others to ditch health insurance because: “No more fines or penalties!!! Trump took care of that!! Saved me 700 bucks this year!!!” “Trump removed the penalty for not having insurance.” “I’m pretty sure Trump abolished the illegal penalty.” They’re right — and wrong. (Bazar, 2/23)

The Associated Press: Governors Push Bipartisan National Health Care Compromise
A bipartisan group of governors working to strike compromise on hot-button policy issues took on the question of health care on Friday. Republican Ohio Gov. John Kasich, in presenting the group's blueprint for policy changes at the National Press Club, lamented that one of the country's largest challenges seems to have been set aside by policymakers."It's like health care doesn't even matter anymore down here," he said. (2/23)

The Washington Post: More Governors Willing To Consider Gun Law Changes After Florida Shooting
A growing bipartisan number of state governors have joined calls for a reconsideration of gun laws and school safety measures after the mass shooting in Parkland, Fla., a sign that resulting legislative changes could extend far beyond Florida in the coming months. The impact of the shooting rippled through the winter meeting of the National Governors Association in Washington this weekend, as state leaders expressed willingness to consider new limits on gun ownership and stepped up efforts to address mental-health factors. But most said they were opposed to President Trump’s proposal to allow more teachers to be armed. (Scherer and Balz, 2/25)

Boston Globe: ‘We Need To Do Something’ About Mass Shootings, Say Governors, Who Agree On Little Else
Governors of states with strong gun cultures and more lax firearm restrictions focused on defensive measures, such as limiting access to schools. Meanwhile, Governor Charlie Baker and other leaders of states with strict gun laws conveyed confidence in their own statutes and expressed hope that other states, and perhaps even the federal government, might mirror them. (Miller, 2/25)

The New York Times: Trump Blames Video Games For Mass Shootings. Researchers Disagree.
President Trump said Thursday that violent video games and movies may play a role in school shootings, a claim that has been made — and rejected — many times since the increase in such attacks in the past two decades. Movies are “so violent,” Mr. Trump said at a meeting on school safety one day after he gathered with survivors of school shootings, including some from last week’s massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where, the authorities say, a former student, Nikolas Cruz, killed 17 people with a semiautomatic rifle. (Salam and Stack, 2/23)

The New York Times: Is This The Moment For Gun Control? A Gridlocked Congress Is Under Pressure
Lawmakers will return to Washington on Monday facing intense public pressure to break their decades-long gridlock on gun control, a demand fortified by a bipartisan group of governors calling for Congress to take action to protect against mass shootings. But even as members of both parties said it might be difficult for Congress to remain on the sidelines after the school massacre this month in Parkland, Fla., lawmakers have no clear consensus on even incremental changes to gun restrictions, let alone more sweeping legislation. (Gay Stolberg, Martin and Kaplan, 2/25)

The Wall Street Journal: Congress Returns To Washington Under Pressure To Act On Guns
Congress is most likely to consider a measure from Sens. John Cornyn (R., Texas) and Chris Murphy (D., Conn.) that would encourage states and federal agencies, including the military, to submit criminal-conviction records to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, or NICS. Mr. Cornyn introduced the bill after the background-check system failed to prevent the gunman in a Texas shooting last November from purchasing weapons, despite his history of domestic abuse. Those records are required by law to be uploaded, but they can slip through the cracks. (Peterson and Andrews, 2/25)

The Wall Street Journal: Blumenthal Law Would Take Guns From Those Judged To Be Threats
Connecticut U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal called for a federal law Sunday allowing law-enforcement officials to take away people’s guns if a judge rules they are a threat to themselves or others. Connecticut passed such a law in 1999 following a shooting at the Connecticut Lottery Corp. in which a gunman killed four people. (de Avila, 2/25)

The Hill: Trump: ObamaCare Being Wiped Out 'Piece By Piece' 
President Trump argued Friday that ObamaCare is being “wiped out” in a “piece-by-piece” way despite the failure of the GOP Congress to repeal the law. Trump, speaking to the Conservative Political Action Conference Friday, pointed to a number of actions that Republicans have taken against the law, including repealing the individual mandate to buy health insurance as part of the tax-cut bill. (Sullivan, 2/23)

Bloomberg: Trump’s Obamacare Changes To Push Up Premiums, Report Projects
The Trump administration’s efforts to loosen health insurance rules will increase premiums for Obamacare plans by double-digit percentages in most states next year, according to a new analysis by the Urban Institute. Monthly payments for a traditional health insurance plan sold through Obamacare will go up by 18 percent, on average, in 43 states where there aren’t limits on less-comprehensive but less-expensive coverage the administration is calling for, according to the Washington-based policy group. (Tozzi, 2/26)

The Hill: Trump Calls Out McCain For ObamaCare Vote
President Trump on Friday called out Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), though not by name, for his vote against ObamaCare repeal. "Except for one senator, who came into a room at 3 o’clock in the morning and went like that, we would have had health care too, we would have had health care too, think of that," Trump told the Conservative Political Action Conference, imitating the thumbs down motion that McCain made during a late-night vote to pass a repeal measure.  (Sullivan, 2/23)

The Hill: Health Chief To Meet With Idaho Governor On Controversial ObamaCare Plan
Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar will meet with Idaho Gov. Butch Otter (R) this weekend amid a controversial effort by Idaho's government to get around ObamaCare rules. The meeting, one of many one-on-one meetings with governors that Azar will have at the National Governors Association meeting in Washington, will be a chance for Azar to speak with Idaho officials for the first time about the state's proposal. (Sullivan, 2/23)

The Hill: Democrats March Toward Single-Payer Health Care 
Single-payer health care is gaining ground among Democrats. In a sign of the party’s move to the left on the issue, the Center for American Progress (CAP), a bastion of the Democratic establishment, this week released a plan that comes very close to a single-payer system.T hat’s a dramatic change from just two years ago, when Hillary Clinton — tied closely to CAP — dismissed Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-Vt.) push of “Medicare for all” as politically unrealistic. (Sullivan, 2/25)

The Wall Street Journal: Trump’s Family-Planning Program To Prioritize Faith-Based Clinics
The Trump administration said it would prioritize grant applications to the Title X family-planning program that come from organizations with a religious background and counsel abstinence or “natural” methods, a move abortion providers said will make it harder for them to get federal funding. Health officials outlined the new rules Friday in announcing a fresh round of funding for Title X, which pays for services like contraception and infertility treatment. (Hackman, 2/23)

The Hill: Planned Parenthood Won't Be Barred From Applying For Family Planning Funds 
Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers will not be barred from applying for funding under a federal family planning grant program, an official at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said Friday. The HHS Office of Population Affairs released a long-awaited funding announcement Friday for $260 million in funding for Title X grants. (Hellmann, 2/23)

Politico: Anti-Abortion Democrat Snubbed By Party For Reelection
Dan Lipinski is the kind of candidate Democrats need more of for the party to win the House in November. But the national Democratic Party is refusing to endorse him. The seven-term congressman from Chicago, who opposes abortion and voted against Obamacare, marriage equality and immigration reform, is one of the most conservative members of the House Democratic Caucus. (Caygle, 2/25)

The New York Times: F.D.A. To Expand Medication-Assisted Therapy For Opioid Addicts
In an effort to encourage new treatments for opioid addiction, the Food and Drug Administration plans to begin permitting pharmaceutical companies to sell medications that help temper cravings, even if they don’t fully stop addiction. The change is part of a wider effort to expand access to so-called medication-assisted treatment, or MAT. The agency will issue draft guidelines in the next few weeks. A senior agency official provided details of the proposal to The New York Times. (Kaplan, 2/25)

The New York Times: For Executives, Addiction Recovery In The Lap Of Luxury
Trey Laird knew his life looked good. After graduating from an elite prep school in Manhattan and then Dartmouth College, he began working in finance and climbed a well-worn path to professional success and financial comfort. He lived with his wife and two children in Darien, Conn., one of the wealthiest communities in the United States. He always liked to party: “I was the guy playing beer pong in the basement at the fraternity,” he said. But after having his appendix removed, he got hooked on prescription pain pills. (Sullivan, 2/23)

The Wall Street Journal: Flu Epidemic Appears To Have Peaked
The worst U.S. flu epidemic in years appears to have peaked, according to federal data released Friday, but transmission is still intense, and cases from a strain that often surges late in the season are rising. “The amount of activity is still very high,” Daniel Jernigan, director of the flu division at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which released the data, said in an interview. “There are still many weeks left of this flu season—probably through mid-April.” (McKay, 2/23)

The Washington Post: Flu Cases Fall For The First Time This Awful Influenza Season
Flu activity is on the decrease for the first time in this fierce flu season, suggesting that the worst may be over, according to a federal health report released Friday. But the intensity of illness caused by the respiratory virus, the worst  since the swine flu pandemic of 2009-2010, continues to take its toll. Another 13 child deaths were reported for the week ending last Saturday, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That brings the total to at least 97 pediatric deaths since October. (Sun, 2/23)

The Wall Street Journal: At The Doctor’s Office, Expect Better, More Reliable Flu Tests
Determining if you have the flu isn’t always easy—even with a trip to the ER. Doctors often skip the type of diagnostic tests that can deliver results within minutes of a nasal swab, believing they’re unreliable. More accurate tests take longer to return results, and doctors sometimes prefer to prescribe antiviral drugs or other treatment based on symptoms rather than wait. (Loftus, 2/24)

The Washington Post: CDC Seeks New Labs For Bioterror Pathogens To Replace Aging Facility
Inside a complex of special government labs, scientists in full-body protective suits work with some of the world’s deadliest pathogens: Ebola, smallpox and certain strains of bird flu. Many of the organisms have no treatment or vaccine, so the labs housed in this facility on the sprawling campus of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are equipped with extensive safety features. There is special air pressurization to prevent any accidental release, and hoses attached to the bulky protective outfits pump in breathing air for the scientists wearing them. (Sun, 2/23)

Stat: CDC Requests Funds To Build New Maximum-Security Laboratory
“The concerns are that the facility we’ve been in now is beginning to show signs of age,” said Dr. Inger Damon, head of the division of high consequence pathogens and pathology. That division works on viruses like smallpox and Ebola, which can only be studied in laboratories of the highest biosafety and biosecurity ratings, BSL4. The request, which is currently in the proposed budget for fiscal year 2018, is for $350 million. But more will be needed later; the new high containment continuity laboratory, as it is called, would be built on the site of one of only a few parking facilities on the CDC’s main campus. (Branswell, 2/23)

Stat: A New App Tries To Use DNA To Match Genetically Compatible Couples
A new online dating app is pitching DNA analysis as a cure for catfishing, endless left swiping, and the myriad other ailments of 21st-century courtship. Pheramor, which launches this week in Houston with several thousand singles already signed up, operates like a cross between 23andMe and OkCupid. Users swab their cheeks, mail in their samples for sequencing, and then browse profiles of potential dates with whom they’re assigned a compatibility score between 0 and 100 percent. (Robbins, 2/26)

The Wall Street Journal: What The Hospitals Of The Future Look Like
The days of the hospital as we know it may be numbered. In a shift away from their traditional inpatient facilities, health-care providers are investing in outpatient clinics, same-day surgery centers, free-standing emergency rooms and microhospitals, which offer as few as eight beds for overnight stays. They are setting up programs that monitor people 24/7 in their own homes. And they are turning to digital technology to treat and keep tabs on patients remotely from a high-tech hub. (Landro, 2/25)

The Wall Street Journal: A Cough Syrup Goes A Different Kind Of Viral. Its Stock Soars.
Has Chinese alternative medicine come in from the cold? Shares of Hong Kong-listed pharmaceutical distributor Kingworld Medicines Group Ltd. soared as much as 55% Monday after a Wall Street Journal article about growing use of its signature product in the U.S. was widely shared among social media users in Asia and picked up by some local media outlets. The company describes its dark syrupy cough remedy, Nin Jiom Pei Pa Koa, as an “herbal dietary supplement with honey and loquat.” (Erheriene, 2/26)

The Wall Street Journal: Medical Researchers Look To Enlist Patients As Partners
Joel Nowak, a 66-year-old Brooklyn, N.Y., resident with metastatic prostate cancer, knows a lot about cancer research. Over the years, he has contributed blood, saliva and medical information to studies in hopes of helping investigators battle the disease. But something has nagged at him. Almost always, Mr. Nowak says, investigators want data, “but you never hear from them again.” (Dockser Marcus, 2/25)

The Washington Post: Once Scary, Heart Bypass Surgery Has Become Common And Safer
Frank Vignuli couldn’t be having a heart attack, could he? He wasn’t short of breath. His chest didn’t feel tight. But on the morning of Aug. 4, 2004, the 47-year-old from Wilmington, Del., didn’t feel normal. His jaw was burning, his shoulder was in pain. But he didn’t want to wake up his family. The port operations manager wasn’t in the habit of going to the doctor or asking for help about his health. (Blakemore, 2/25)

The Wall Street Journal: Less-Invasive Liver-Donor Surgery May Shorten Transplant Waiting List
The patient in the operating room was Stanley Kareta, a 29-year-old Army captain who had agreed to donate half of his liver to his wife’s father. The older man had a liver disease so advanced that his only hope of survival was a transplant. But with about 14,000 people on the nation’s waiting list for donor livers, most of which come from deceased donors, there was little chance he would be approved for one in time. (Linden, 2/25)

The Washington Post: Googling Your Own Cancer Symptoms: Does It Work?
It was a headline that captured her attention: “Boy, 13, died just A WEEK after being diagnosed with leukemia despite having NO symptoms beforehand.” Laura Handley, a mother of five, had been scrolling through Facebook when she was sucked into a story about a seemingly healthy 13-year-old boy who had died suddenly from an aggressive form of cancer called acute myeloid leukemia. Curious about the disease, she decided to search for the symptoms on Google. The results came back with “fatigue, fever, or loss of appetite.” (Bever, 2/24)

NPR: Kids Still Plagued By Obesity In U.S., Report Finds
Hopes were dashed this week that the United States was finally making progress in the fight against childhood obesity. Contrary to previous reports, the epidemic of fat has not abated. In fact, there's been a big jump in obesity among the nation's youngest children, according to the latest analysis of federal data, published Monday in the journal Pediatrics. (Stein, 2/26)

NPR: Back Pain May Be The Result Of Bending Over At The Waist Instead Of The Hips
To see if you're bending correctly, try a simple experiment. "Stand up and put your hands on your waist," says Jean Couch, who has been helping people get out of back pain for 25 years at her studio in Palo Alto, Calif. "Now imagine I've dropped a feather in front of your feet and asked to pick it up," Couch says. "Usually everybody immediately moves their heads and looks down." (Doucleff, 2/26)

The Wall Street Journal: When A Child’s Grumpiness Is A Problem
Every child is crabby sometimes. But for some children, the problem is a lot greater than occasional crabbiness. For these children, the irritability is so constant and severe that it causes serious problems at home and school. What’s more, a high level of irritability in childhood often is a predictor of other mental-health problems later: These children have a greater risk of developing depression and anxiety disorders and are more likely to later have suicidal thoughts, research has found. (Petersen, 2/25)

The Washington Post: Bad Genes Don't Doom You To Heart Attack If You Fight Back
John Fixx works out every day. Most days he runs, either outside or on a treadmill. Sometimes he uses an elliptical machine. He also lifts weights and follows a low-fat diet. He has never smoked. At 56, mindful of his family history, he already has lived longer than his father and grandfather, who both died young of heart attacks. His three siblings also practice healthy habits. “We can’t control the DNA we are given,” says Fixx, who heads the Country School in Madison, Conn. “But we can control what we put into our bodies, and whether we exercise, get enough sleep and manage stress. A predisposition to cardiovascular disease doesn’t mean we can’t lead healthy lives extended by many years.” (Cimons, 2/24)

The Wall Street Journal: Food Tailored To Our Genes May Be On The Menu Soon
What if you could take a blood test to determine the best diet for you? Right now most dietary guidelines are developed by looking at an average population. But not everyone responds to a given diet the same way. Some ethnic groups, for instance, are more prone than others to high blood pressure, abnormal cholesterol levels and excess body fat on certain diets. (Ward, 2/25)

NPR: Screen All Teens For Depression, Pediatricians Urge
Only about 50 percent of adolescents with depression get diagnosed before reaching adulthood. And as many as 2 in 3 depressed teens don't get the care that could help them. "It's a huge problem," says Dr. Rachel Zuckerbrot, a board-certified child and adolescent psychiatrist and associate professor at Columbia University. (Aubrey, 2/26)

The Washington Post: Rare Diseases Get Their Day With Emphasis On Research
Rare diseases — ailments that affect fewer than 200,000 individuals in the United States — may go unnoticed by most people. But advocates say they’re worth noticing. People with Adams-Oliver syndrome, for example, are born with hairless, scarred patches on their scalps and may be missing lower legs or hands. People with granuloma annulare experience rings of bumps on their skin that can spontaneously appear or resolve. People with watermelon stomach get stripes on the inside of the stomach from internal bleeding. (Blakemore, 2/24)

The New York Times: C.D.C. Employee Is Missing Nearly Two Weeks After Leaving Work Sick
The authorities in Atlanta announced a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and indictment in the case of a missing Centers for Disease Control and Prevention employee who disappeared about two weeks ago. The employee, Timothy J. Cunningham, 35, was promoted to commander in the United States Public Health Service in July, his family said. According to the police, he was last seen on Feb. 12. (Caron, 2/24)

The Washington Post: CDC Researcher Timothy J. Cunningham Left Work Sick Two Weeks Ago — Then Vanished
The Harvard-educated epidemiologist was promoted in July at the U.S. Public Health Service in Atlanta and contributed to responses following outbreaks of Zika, Ebola and health emergencies caused by Hurricane Sandy. He also was a prominent fixture in the Atlanta community, earning a spot in Atlanta Business Chronicle's 40 Under 40 Awards last year. But the researcher, who studies disease patterns, was not feeling well Feb. 12 and left work around midday. (Horton, 2/25)

The Washington Post: New York Measles Warning: Officials Say Australian Tourist May Have Exposed People At Metropolitan Museum Of Art, Hotels
The New York State Department of Health wants people in the New York City area to know that an Australian tourist confirmed to have measles visited numerous hotels and the Metropolitan Museum of Art from Feb. 16 to 21. Measles is notoriously contagious for people without immunity to the disease, with a 90 percent infection rate for nonimmunized people who venture near an active spreader, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The virus latches onto the nose and throat mucus and proliferates through coughing and sneezing, with a life span of up to two hours in the open air. (Horton, 2/25)

The Associated Press: Arizona Could Face Fines In Lawsuit Over Prison Health Care
A judge overseeing a class-action lawsuit over the quality of health care in Arizona's prisons will hold hearings this week to determine whether to fine the state for falling short in improving care for inmates. U.S. Magistrate David Duncan also will examine an allegation that the inmate-care provider skirted a promise Arizona made when it settled the lawsuit by denying care to an inmate to avoid paying a fine. (2/25)