The New York Times: Surgeon General Warns Pregnant Women And Teenagers Not To Smoke Or Vape Marijuana
The United States surgeon general on Thursday issued a public warning that smoking or vaping marijuana is dangerous for pregnant women and their developing babies. At a news conference with other top Trump administration health officials, the surgeon general, Dr. Jerome Adams, said he was concerned that pregnant women, teenagers and others were unaware of the health hazards posed by new, professionally grown marijuana crops. (Kaplan, 8/29)

The Washington Post: Surgeon General Calls Marijuana A ‘Dangerous’ Drug, Warns Against Use By Youth, Pregnant Women
Citing greater access and increased potency of what’s available on the market, Jerome M. Adams and Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said the drug “carries more risk than ever” and announced that they would be starting a public awareness campaign on social media about the effect it can have on the developing brain. The initiative, they said, is funded by President Trump, who donated his full second-quarter presidential salary of $100,000 to the effort. It’s a drop in the bucket compared to his personal fortune but underscores how much of a priority addiction and substance abuse is for the administration, they said. (Cha, 8/29)

USA Today: Surgeon General: Weed Way Too Risky For Pregnant Women And Teens
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar noted the amount of THC — the chemical that leads to psychological effects in marijuana — now is about three times higher than a few decades ago. A third of teens who vape use their e-cigarette devices for marijuana oil, said Adams, and edibles, oils or waxes lead to another tripling of the effect of the THC. "As I like to say, this ain't your mother's marijuana," he added. The "rapid normalization" of marijuana use by young people is of particular concern, Adams said. It's now the third most common illegal substance used by high school students after alcohol and electronic cigarettes, he said, and one in five of teens who try it will become addicted. Teens are also more likely to miss or drop out of school, and significant drops in cognition have been reported in adults who started using as young teens. (O'Donnell, 8/29)

Politico: Surgeon General Advises Pregnant People, Youth Against Marijuana Use
"We need to be clear: Some states' laws on marijuana may have changed, but the science has not and federal law has not," HHS Secretary Alex Azar said. In 2017, about 9.2 million people ages 12 to 25 reported that they used marijuana in the last month, according to HHS. High school students' perception of marijuana as harmful has been declining over the past decade, the department has found. (Roubein, 8/29)

NPR: Surgeon General: Marijuana Use During Adolescence And Pregnancy Is Risky
Young people who regularly use marijuana are "more likely to show a decline in IQ and school performance [and] are more apt to miss classes," Adams said. And frequent use of the drug can also impair a child's attention, memory and decision-making.In addition, it can be habit-forming. "Nearly 1 in 5 people who begin marijuana use during adolescence become addicted," Adams said. "That's scary to me as the dad of a 15-, a 13- and a 9-year-old." (Aubrey, 8/29)

Stat: Surgeon General: Marijuana During Pregnancy And Adolescence Is Dangerous
While the medical community is largely uniform in its view that marijuana use by pregnant women or adolescents carries associated risks, the announcement comes amid a murkier landscape on marijuana and its components. The Food and Drug Administration this year has worked to better regulate supplements containing CBD, a non-psychoactive compound within marijuana. The agency also approved a CBD-based drug last year as a treatment for seizures. (Facher, 8/29)

Modern Healthcare: U.S. Surgeon General Advises No Marijuana For Pregnant Women, Adolescents
"Once upon a time people thought tobacco was safe for you," until a surgeon general's report was published highlighting the health risks, he added. And he called on policymakers to consider the downsides of pot use while developing their laws and regulations. (Luthi, 8/29)

CNN: Marijuana: Surgeon General Warns Of Risks For Youth And Pregnant Women
This is Adams' first advisory this year and his third since being named surgeon general in 2017. Last year, he issued an advisory on using the medication naloxone to reverse an opioid overdose, and an advisory on e-cigarette use among youth, calling it an "epidemic." (Howard, 8/29)

In related news —

The Associated Press: Anti-Smoking Advocates Bemoan 'Faltering' Pace Of FDA Action
It seemed like a new era in the half-century battle against the deadly toll of tobacco: U.S. health officials for the first time would begin regulating cigarettes, chew and other products responsible for a half-million American deaths annually. "The decades-long effort to protect our children from the harmful effects of smoking has finally emerged victorious," then President Barack Obama said in a speech before signing the 2009 measure into law. (Perrone, 8/29)

The Associated Press: Report: US Native American Health Agency At Crossroads
Emergency rooms shut down for months. Hospitals put patients at risk for opioid abuse and overdoses. A longtime pediatrician was charged with sexually abusing children. The federal agency that administers health care for more than 2.5 million Native Americans has long been plagued with problems that have kept it from improving health care delivery. Money, staffing, infrastructure, health disparities and a general lack of accountability all have played a part. (Fonseca, 8/29)

Reuters: Trump Administration Barring Tours Of Migrant Detention Centers, Democrats Say
Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday said the Trump administration is blocking investigators from touring immigrant detention facilities nationwide after recent visits revealed what they called “serious ongoing problems” concerning how detainees are being treated. Representative Elijah Cummings, chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, said committee staff were barred from visiting 11 U.S. Customs and Border Protection facilities days after previous inspections found conditions that threatened the health and safety of the adult and child migrants being held, writing in a letter to Kevin McAleenan, the acting secretary for the Department of Homeland Security. (Oliphant, 8/29)

The Associated Press: House Dems Say Trump Admin Blocking Visits To Border Sites
The department's inspector general has warned that some sites pose "an immediate risk to the health and safety of DHS agents and officers, and to those detained." Cummings says in a letter to McAleenan that it appears the administration "expects Congress to be satisfied with receiving agency tours of facilities" without questioning the department's policies or decisions. He says "that is not the way effective oversight works." (8/29)

The New York Times: Poor Conditions Persist For Migrant Children Detained At The Border, Democrats Say
Migrant children detained at the border continue to sleep in cold cells without proper clothing or adequate food, a top Democratic lawmaker said on Thursday, accusing the Department of Homeland Security of blocking members of Congress from visiting the facilities. Parents were not provided enough diapers for their children, toddlers were fed “burritos rather than age-appropriate foods” and one child was told by an immigration agent to eat food off the floor, according to interviews that House Democrats conducted with detainees during earlier visits. (Kanno-Youngs, 8/29)

The Associated Press: Mumps Sickens Hundreds Of Detained Migrants In 19 States
Mumps has swept through 57 immigration detention facilities in 19 states since September, according to the first U.S. government report on the outbreaks in the overloaded immigration system. The virus sickened 898 adult migrants and 33 detention center staffers, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in its report Thursday. New cases continue as migrants are taken into custody or transferred between facilities, the report said. As of last week, outbreaks were happening in 15 facilities in seven states. (8/29)

The Hill: CDC Reports 900 Mumps Cases In Migrant Detention Facilities Over Past Year
Most of the facilities that saw mumps outbreaks were run by private companies, while 19 were county jails and four were operated by ICE. Almost 400 of the cases were reported from facilities that house ICE detainees in Texas. The CDC said most detainees caught the virus while in the custody of ICE or another U.S. agency. (Hellmann, 8/29)

BuzzFeed: Mumps Outbreaks In Detention Centers Included Over 900 Cases
Those numbers are “striking” and “noteworthy,” said Marc Stern, an affiliate assistant professor in public health at the University of Washington. Based on the CDC’s data, an ICE detainee had roughly at least a 4,000-fold greater risk of getting mumps than a nondetainee in the United States at large, Stern told BuzzFeed News. “That’s an incredibly huge risk,” he said by email. (Lee, 8/29)

The Associated Press: US: 6-Month-Old Migrant Girl Recovering In Hospital
Authorities say a 6-month-old migrant girl who was hospitalized after being taken across the U.S.-Mexico border illegally has improved to stable condition. The baby was airlifted Saturday to a hospital in Corpus Christi, Texas, and listed in critical condition. U.S. Customs and Border Protection said Thursday that the infant had been upgraded and transferred to a hospital in Houston. (8/29)

Boston Globe: ‘Deportation . . . With This Type Of Medical Condition Is A Death Sentence’: Outrage Grows Over Federal Policy Change
A new Trump administration policy to deport families of seriously ill children receiving treatment in the United States provoked fresh outrage this week, as health care providers feared for their patients, elected officials demanded oversight, and advocates planned lawsuits to stop the action. Senators Edward J. Markey and Elizabeth Warren and Representative Ayanna Pressley said Thursday that they will send a letter to the administration demanding internal documents on its decision to suddenly end what’s known as “deferred action” — a policy that allows some immigrants to remain in the United States legally while they receive medical care for complex conditions. (Dayal McCluskey, 8/29)

The New York Times: Sick Migrants Undergoing Lifesaving Care Can Now Be Deported
Maria Isabel Bueso was 7 years old when she came to the United States from Guatemala at the invitation of doctors who were conducting a clinical trial for the treatment of her rare, disfiguring genetic disease. The trial was short on participants, and thanks to her enrollment, it eventually led the Food and Drug Administration to approve a medication for the condition that has increased survival by more than a decade. Now 24, Ms. Bueso, who had been told she likely would not live past adolescence, has participated in several medical studies. (Jordan and Dickerson, 8/29)

CNN: Kamala Harris Disability Plan Focuses On Education And Employment Opportunities
Presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris unveiled her plan for Americans with disabilities on Thursday, with a focus on employment through access to education and social programs. "As President, Harris will expand access to health care, fight for integrated employment opportunities and fair wages, ensure our emergency preparedness and disaster programs are fully inclusive, fight to adequately fund classrooms to ensure equal access, build a diverse federal workforce that includes people with disabilities and fight for the civil rights of people with disabilities across the country," Harris campaign wrote in a press release. (Kelly, 8/29)

The Atlantic: Most 2020 Democrats Want A Public Option. L.A. Already Has One.
The dozen elementary- and middle-school students who were practicing calisthenics, before they began a class on healthy eating, surely had no idea they were at the forefront of the debate over the future of health care in America. But the young people who gathered here last week for the “Healthy Cooking for Kids” session at the Lynwood Family Resource Center are part of what may be the country’s most thorough test in establishing a public competitor to private health insurance. (Brownstein, 8/30)

And in other news —

Politico Pro: Trumka Criticizes 'Medicare For All'
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka today warned “Medicare for All” may hurt unions who negotiated rich health care coverage, the latest sign the longtime labor leader remains skeptical of the health care overhaul favored by progressives. ... Trumka’s remarks come amid intense debate among Democrats over whether to provide government coverage to everyone and virtually abolish private insurance. (Kullgren and Ollstein, 8/29)

The Associated Press: THC Found In Wisconsin Vaping Cases That Led To Illnesses
Nearly nine out of 10 cases where vaping led to people developing a severe lung disease in Wisconsin involved the use of THC products, such as waxes or oils, Wisconsin's Department of Health Services said Thursday. Health officials said that 89% of the 27 people they interviewed who became sick reported using e-cigarettes or other vaping devices to inhale THC, the psychoactive compound in marijuana. (8/29)

The Washington Post: As Vaping-Related Lung Illnesses Spike, Investigators Eye Contaminants
Officials are narrowing the possible culprits to adulterants in vaping products purported to have THC, the component in marijuana that makes users high, as well as adulterants in nicotine vaping products. The sudden onset of these mysterious illnesses and the patients’ severe and distinctive symptoms have led investigators to focus on contaminants, rather than standard vaping products that have been in wide use for many years. (Sun and McGinley, 8/29)

NBC News: Vaping-Related Lung Disease Cases Surge To Nearly 300 Nationwide
At least 298 people have been hospitalized nationwide with severe lung disease apparently related to vaping. The new number — a more than 50 percent jump from what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced last Friday — is the result of data collected from state health departments by NBC News. (Edwards, 8/29)

CNN: City Of Milwaukee Urges Everyone Who Lives There To Stop Vaping Immediately
The city of Milwaukee issued a stern warning to residents: Stop vaping immediately. The advisory came after 16 people were hospitalized with chemical pneumonia, a severe illness that causes lung inflammation, the Milwaukee health department said. All of them reported vaping or "dabbing" -- inhaling potent marijuana products -- before they were hospitalized, the department said. The link between vaping and respiratory illness isn't fully understood, officials said, but in the meantime, they're advising residents to stop using vapes, e-cigarettes and liquid THC products. Tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, is the main psychoactive component of marijuana. (Andrew, 8/29)

The Associated Press: Probes Of E-Cigarette Giant Juul Underway In Illinois, DC
E-cigarette giant Juul Labs is facing mounting scrutiny from state law enforcement officials, with the attorneys general in Illinois and the District of Columbia investigating how the company's blockbuster vaping device became so popular with underage teens, The Associated Press has learned. The company's rapid rise to the top of the multi-billion dollar U.S. e-cigarette market has been accompanied by accusations from parents, politicians and public health advocates that Juul fueled a vaping craze among high schoolers. (Lardner and Perrone, 8/30)

Ventura County Star: Two Suspected Vaping Injury Cases Reported In County; THC Involved
Two Ventura County residents were hospitalized and later released for acute lung disease in illnesses suspected to be linked to vaping, local public health officials reported Thursday. Both people vaped tetrahydrocannabinol or a related ingredient, said Ventura County Public Health Officer Dr. Robert Levin. THC is the active ingredient in marijuana. (Kisken, 8/29)

The Denver Channel: Inhaling A 'Chemistry Experiment': Colorado Confirms Second Case Of Vaping-Related Lung Illness
Colorado state health officials have confirmed a second case of a vaping-related lung illness. Dr. Tony Cappello with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) confirmed the case on Thursday morning in a press conference with Rep. Diana DeGette. He said they determined the illness was related to vaping on Wednesday evening. (Butzer, 8/29)

The New York Times: Many Genes Influence Same-Sex Sexuality, Not A Single ‘Gay Gene’
How do genes influence our sexuality? The question has long been fraught with controversy. An ambitious new study — the largest ever to analyze the genetics of same-sex sexual behavior — found that genetics does play a role, responsible for perhaps a third of the influence on whether someone has same-sex sex. The influence comes not from one gene but many, each with a tiny effect — and the rest of the explanation includes social or environmental factors — making it impossible to use genes to predict someone’s sexuality. (Belluck, 8/29)

The Associated Press: New Genetic Links To Same-Sex Sexuality Found In Huge Study
The genome-wide research on DNA from nearly half a million U.S. and U.K. adults identified five genetic variants not previously linked with gay or lesbian sexuality. The variants were more common in people who reported ever having had a same-sex sexual partner. That includes people whose partners were exclusively of the same sex and those who mostly reported heterosexual behavior. The researchers said thousands more genetic variants likely are involved and interact with factors that aren't inherited, but that none of them cause the behavior nor can predict whether someone will be gay. (8/29)

Scientific American: Massive Study Finds No Single Genetic Cause Of Same-Sex Sexual Behavior
The researchers found five single points in the genome that seemed to be common among people who had had at least one same-sex experience. Two of these genetic markers sit close to genes linked to sex hormones and to smell—both factors that may play a role in sexual attraction. But taken together, these five markers explained less than 1 percent of the differences in sexual activity among people in the study. When the researchers looked at the overall genetic similarity of individuals who had had a same-sex experience, genetics seemed to account for between 8 and 25 percent of the behavior. The rest was presumably a result of environmental or other biological influences. The findings were published Thursday in Science. (Reardon, 8/29)

The Washington Post: There’s No ‘Gay Gene,’ But Genetics Are Linked To Same-Sex Behavior, New Study Says
Andrea Ganna, lead author and European Molecular Biology Laboratory group leader at the Institute of Molecular Medicine in Finland, said the research reinforces the understanding that same-sex sexual behavior is simply “a natural part of our diversity as a species. ”The new study, published Thursday in the journal Science, is not the first to explore the link between genetics and same-sex behavior, but it is the largest of its kind, and experts say it provides one of the clearest pictures of genes and sexuality. (Bever, 8/29)

The Wall Street Journal: Research Finds Genetic Links To Same-Sex Behavior
“Behavior versus identity are different components and different pieces of how people think about their sexual behavior,” said Benjamin Neale, a geneticist and member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard University who is one of the study’s senior authors. “That is a really critical aspect to sort of appreciating and understanding how we think about these kind of issues.” (Abbott, 8/29)

NPR: Search For 'Gay Genes' Comes Up Short In Large New Study
Using another technique to analyze the data, the authors say genes could still influence 8% to 25% of the behavior they studied. But the effect of any individual genetic variant is so faint that, even in a sample of half a million people, it's impossible to tease out anything about them. One obvious conclusion from these results is that nobody is going to come up with a blood test to predict these sexual behaviors. (Harris, 8/29)

Los Angeles Times: Is There A 'Gay Gene'? DNA Analysis On Behavioral Link Says No
Though estimates of same-sex experiences vary, a 2016 CDC study of U.S. adults found that 6.2% of men and 17.4% of women between the ages of 18 and 44 reported at least one same-sex experience in their lifetimes. A smaller portion, 1.3% of women and 1.9% of men, described themselves as lesbian or gay, and 5.5% of women and 2.0% of men said they were bisexual — underscoring the difference between sexual behavior and sexual identity. Scientists have long probed the nature of same-sex behavior, finding some evidence in twin studies that genetics plays a role. But such research has typically involved small numbers of people and hasn’t used modern methods of genomic analysis, scientists said. (Khan, 8/29)

CBS News: Is There A "Gay Gene"? Major New Study Says No
GLAAD, the world's largest LGBTQ advocacy group, said the results show that sexual orientation is just another normal piece of the human experience. "This new study provides even more evidence that that being gay or lesbian is a natural part of human life, a conclusion that has been drawn by researchers and scientists time and again," said GLAAD Chief Programs Officer Zeke Stokes. "The identities of LGBTQ people are not up for debate. This new research also reconfirms the long-established understanding that there is no conclusive degree to which nature or nurture influence how a gay or lesbian person behaves." (Thompson, 8/29)

Stat: Cerebral Organoids Produce Brain Waves Similar To Newborns' 
The Lilliputian versions of human brains that scientists have grown in lab dishes have developed distinct structures such as the hippocampus, grown glia and other cells like those in actual brains, and produced a diverse menagerie of neurons that connect with each other and carry electrical signals. Now scientists have grown hundreds of cerebral organoids with the most complex, human-like activity yet: Though only one-fifth of an inch across, or about the size of a pea, the organoids have developed functional neural networks that generate brain waves resembling those of newborns. (Begley, 8/29)

The New York Times: Organoids Are Not Brains. How Are They Making Brain Waves?
Two hundred and fifty miles over Alysson Muotri’s head, a thousand tiny spheres of brain cells were sailing through space. The clusters, called brain organoids, had been grown a few weeks earlier in the biologist’s lab here at the University of California, San Diego. He and his colleagues altered human skin cells into stem cells, then coaxed them to develop as brain cells do in an embryo. (Zimmer, 8/29)

The New York Times: Hospitals Should Replace Infection-Prone Scopes With Safer Models, F.D.A. Says
Companies that make reusable, snakelike cameras to examine patients internally should begin making disposable versions, because the current models cannot be properly sterilized and have spread infections from one patient to another, the Food and Drug Administration said on Thursday. In the meantime, hospitals that use the instruments, called duodenoscopes, should start to transition to models with disposable components to reduce the risk of infection to patients, the agency said. (Rabin, 8/29)

The Advocate: Family Questions How Woman Died From Ketamine Use At Baton Rouge Psychiatric Hospital 
Joy Waguespack was receiving treatment at a Baton Rouge psychiatric hospital when she was found unresponsive in her room and later died from the effects of ketamine — a sedative most often used in medical settings for administering anesthesia. Officials don't know how she obtained and ingested the drug that killed her. ...Waguespack had been admitted to Seaside just three days before she was found unresponsive. Relatives said she was sent to the facility immediately upon her release from jail and involuntarily committed for mental health treatment — a familiar experience for the woman, who had spent decades bouncing from one treatment center or group home to another, struggling to find some stability within Louisiana's notoriously underfunded mental health system. (Skene, 8/29)

Stat: Study: Hormone Therapy For Menopause Raises Breast Cancer Risk For Years
A sweeping new analysis adds to the evidence that many women who take hormone therapy during menopause are more likely to develop breast cancer — and remain at higher risk of cancer for more than a decade after they stop taking the drugs. The study, published Thursday in the Lancet, looked at data from dozens of studies, including long-term data on more than 100,000 women who developed breast cancer after menopause. Half of those women had used what’s known as menopausal hormone therapy, or MHT. (Thielking, 8/29)

North Carolina Health News: Rural Hospital Closures Lead To Higher Mortality Rates 
When a hospital closes in an urban area, mortality rates don’t change. But when a rural hospital shuts its doors, according to a new study, mortality rates increase nearly six percent. The new study helps clear up a question about the impact of hospital closures on health. Earlier studies at times have shown that a closed hospital didn’t seem to have much impact on health. (Bishop, 8/30)

The New York Times: Babies Display ‘Werewolf Syndrome’ After Getting Anti-Baldness Drug By Mistake
At least 17 children in Spain developed a form of “werewolf syndrome” after they were given medication intended to treat heartburn that was actually used to stop hair loss. The children who took the mislabeled medicine, some of them babies, began growing hair all over their bodies, a rare condition known as hypertrichosis, Spain’s health minister said on Wednesday. The minister, María Luisa Carcedo, said that a Spanish laboratory, Farmaquimica Sur, had erroneously distributed to pharmacists minoxidil, a drug that helps fight baldness, that was labeled omeprazole, a drug that treats acid reflux. (Minder, 8/29)

Politico Pro: Maine Planning To Run Its Obamacare Exchange
Maine plans to take control of its Obamacare marketplace starting next year, Gov. Janet Mills told CMS today. For the 2021 plan year, the state wants to run a hybrid exchange in which it has greater control over outreach and marketing while still relying on HealthCare.gov for enrollment. Maine is considering moving to a fully state-run marketplace, including its own enrollment platform, in 2022. (Goldberg, 8/29)

Modern Healthcare: Maine Will Shift To State-Based ACA Exchange
Mills, a Democrat, submitted a letter of intent indicating Maine wants to take over the marketplace's outreach, marketing and consumer assistance functions starting in 2021, while continuing to use the federal government's ACA enrollment platform. It will explore shifting to a fully state-run exchange in the future, she said. She plans to introduce legislation in January to authorize the new state-based exchange. (Meyer, 8/29)

In other insurance and health industry news —

Modern Healthcare: Health Insurers Slam CMS Proposal To Alter Medicare Advantage Audits
Health insurers and their industry trade groups this week urged the federal government to scrap proposed changes to the way it audits Medicare Advantage plans, warning the changes could result in higher costs and reduced benefits for seniors. In comment letters submitted to the CMS, insurers and lobbyists railed against the CMS proposal to revise its risk-adjustment data validation, or RADV, audit methodology, which is used to ensure the government is making accurate payments to health plans and insurers aren't exaggerating their plan members' medical conditions to get higher payments. (Livingston, 8/29)

Modern Healthcare: Calif. Blues Wants To Give Independent Docs Tools For Value-Based Care
Blue Shield of California unveiled new details on Thursday about the technology and services company it is launching to help physician practices remain independent while giving them tools needed to succeed in value-based care arrangements. A week after Blue Shield christened the new company Altais — named after a giant star — it announced Altais is partnering with the California Medical Association and Aledade, a Bethesda, Md.-based company that helps physicians launch accountable care organizations; the company and its partners will offer independent doctors and practices tools to improve patient health outcomes while making it easier for them to focus on care instead of administrative tasks. (Livingston, 8/29)

Kaiser Health News: ‘Locally Grown’ Insurance Companies Help Fortify Washington State Market
Although few states have finalized their 2020 health insurance rates yet, preliminary reports suggest that increases in premiums for plans sold on the Affordable Care Act’s marketplaces will be moderate again this year. One analysis of those early state filings, which noted some states appear poised to have lower premiums next year, found that Washington had a lower rate increase than almost half the other states. (Blankinship, 8/30)

Stat: Academics, Advocates Protest FDA Plan To Summarize Review Data 
A Food and Drug Administration proposal to substitute detailed reviews of new drugs written by specific agency teams with an abbreviated summary is prompting strong protests from academic researchers and public advocates who claim the move is “ill conceived” and will harm public health. Last June, the FDA issued a notice describing plans to do away with a longstanding practice of posting on its website separate reviews concerning pharmacology, medical chemistry, risk assessment, and biostatistics issues, among other things. (Silverman, 8/29)

Reuters: Novartis Takes Aim At Roche's Star MS Drug
Swiss drugmaker Novartis on Friday stepped up its challenge to Roche's multiple sclerosis franchise, highlighting study results for its MS hopeful ofatumumab that could compete with its cross-town rival's drug Ocrevus. Novartis said ofatumumab, already approved as Arzerra to treat leukaemia, reduced annual relapses better than Sanofi's Aubagio in two head-to-head late-stage studies against relapsing forms of MS (RMS). Detailed study results are due at an MS conference in Sweden next month. (8/30)

The Associated Press: Where Did The Sacklers Move Cash From Their Opioid Maker?
Ninety minutes outside London, a turn down a narrow lane leads past fields of grazing cattle to a sign warning “Private Keep Off.” Around an elbow bend, a great stone manor, its formal gardens and tennis court hidden behind thick hedges, commands a 5,000-acre estate. The estate is a pastoral prize — proof of the great wealth belonging to the family accused of playing a key role in triggering the U.S. opioid epidemic. But there’s little evidence of that connection. On paper, the land is owned by a handful of companies, most based in distant Bermuda, all controlled by an offshore trust. (Geller, 8/30)

The Wall Street Journal: Proposed Opioid Deal With Purdue Drawing Pushback From States
A proposed deal for Purdue Pharma LP to resolve more than 2,000 lawsuits over its role in the opioid crisis is facing pushback from a vocal group of state attorneys general who say it doesn’t bring in enough cash to satisfy their demands, according to people familiar with the matter. Virtually every state, in addition to thousands of cities and counties across the U.S., sued Purdue, claiming the company’s aggressive promotion of its painkiller OxyContin helped trigger an addiction epidemic. (Hopkins and Randazzo, 8/29)

The Associated Press: Opioid Settlement Would Divide Money Based On Local Impact
The multibillion-dollar settlement that the maker of OxyContin is negotiating to settle a crush of lawsuits over the nation's opioid crisis contains formulas for dividing up the money among state and local governments across the country, The Associated Press has learned. The formulas would take into account several factors, including opioid distribution in a given jurisdiction, the number of people who misuse opioids and the number of overdose deaths. (8/29)

The Washington Post: Feds: Drug Ring Had Enough Cheap Fentanyl To Kill 14 Million
Law enforcement officials in Virginia said Thursday that they’ve taken down a multi-state drug ring and seized enough cheap fentanyl from China to kill 14 million people. The bust was announced in the wake of growing efforts to stem the flow of fentanyl from Chinese labs to the United States. The synthetic opioid often comes through the mail or across the Mexico border. It can be stronger and more lethal than heroin and is responsible for tens of thousands of American drug deaths each year. (Finley, 8/29)

The Hill: Dozens Charged In Opioid Network Accused Of Distributing 23 Million Pills 
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has charged 41 people in nine indictments for their alleged involvement in “pill mill” clinics and pharmacies that have distributed more than 23 million oxycodone, hydrocodone and carisoprodol pills across the country, according to a statement from the DOJ. The alleged trafficking network was composed of medical providers, clinic owners, pharmacists, drug dealers and traffickers, who have been apprehended and shut down by the government, and who allegedly knew "the prescriptions had no legitimate medical purpose and were outside the usual course of professional practice." (Pitofsky, 8/29)

The Associated Press: Trump Eyes Mental Institutions As Answer To Gun Violence
When shots rang out last year at a high school in Parkland, Florida, leaving 17 people dead, President Donald Trump quickly turned his thoughts to creating more mental institutions. When back-to-back mass shootings in Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso, Texas, jolted the nation earlier this month, Trump again spoke of "building new facilities" for the mentally ill as a way to reduce mass shootings. (Freking, 8/30)

The CT Mirror: Mental Illness Is A Distraction In Conversations On Gun Violence, Advocates Say
Two days after gunmen killed more than 30 people in Dayton, Ohio and El Paso, Tex., Julie Learson rallied with 250 Connecticut residents on the steps of the state Capitol. But unlike the scores of adults and children who held signs demanding legislative action to stop mass shootings, Learson clutched a piece of cardboard that read, “White supremacy and toxic masculinity are terrorist ideologies, not mental illnesses.” (Lyons, 8/29)

The Hill: Murphy Sees 'Path' To White House Deal On Background Checks
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said on Thursday that he sees a path to a deal with the White House on background checks legislation but cautioned it was too soon to say if they would be able to clinch an agreement. Murphy, in a statement and in a separate interview with MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell, said the White House remains at the table about legislation to expand the number of gun sales that would be subjected to a background check. The gun debate will be at the top of Congress's agenda once it returns next week. (Carney, 8/29)

The Advocate: Louisiana Moves To Issue Emergency Medicaid Contracts As Dispute Continues 
Louisiana’s health department is moving to install emergency contracts in an effort to ensure health coverage for 1.5 million people is not disrupted in the looming open enrollment period, a day after the state procurement office blocked a new round of multi-billion dollar contracts from moving forward. The agency said it will contract with the five existing Medicaid managed care organizations, or MCOs, for the emergency contracts. The contracts will likely stay in place until the protests are resolved, said LDH spokesman Bob Johannessen. (Karlin, 8/29)

The Associated Press: Virginia Medicaid Boss Stepping Down
The head of Virginia’s Medicaid agency is stepping down. Gov. Ralph Northam announced Thursday that Dr. Jennifer Lee is resigning as director of the Virginia Department of Medical Assistance. She led DMAS through a massive expansion of Medicaid in Virginia that saw about 300,000 newly eligible Virginians sign up. Lawmakers voted in 2018 to expand Medicaid to low-income adults, a key part of former President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul. (8/30)

The Idaho Statesman: Idaho’s Medicaid Waiver Plan Hits A Roadblock, As Feds Reject The First Part
One major piece of Idaho lawmakers’ plan to alter Medicaid expansion was rejected by the federal government Thursday. Idaho’s Republican governor and legislative leaders said they were “disappointed and surprised” by the decision and accused the Trump administration of “pulling the rug out from under us.” (Dutton, 8/29)

The Washington Post: Diana Sanchez Gave Birth In Denver Jail Cell Alone, Lawsuit Says
Diana Sanchez screamed as she writhed on the small bed inside her cell at the Denver County Jail. Gripping the thin mattress with one hand, she tried to use the other to take off her white cloth pants, only managing to free her left leg. Her face glistened with sweat. She had been in labor for hours, and now her baby was coming. At 10:44 a.m. on July 31, 2018, in a moment captured on surveillance video, Sanchez gave birth to her son alone in her cell without medical supervision or treatment, despite repeatedly telling the jail’s staff that she was having contractions, according to a federal lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court in Colorado on Wednesday. (Chiu, 8/29)

Tampa Bay Times: Getting Ready For Dorian: Now Would Be A Good Time To Refill Prescription Medications
Florida residents who are considering evacuating before Hurricane Dorian are advised to check in with their local pharmacies as soon as possible to receive medication refills that can last through the duration of the Category 4 storm and its aftermath. The state Office of Insurance Regulation allows people to obtain 30-day refills on prescription medication if they reside in a county that is under a hurricane warning issued by the National Weather Service, or a county that is under a state of emergency declared by the governor, or if the state has activated its emergency operations center. (Griffin, 8/29)

Los Angeles Times: Many UC Berkeley Buildings Pose Deadly Risk In A Major Earthquake, Report Says
Dozens of buildings at UCLA and UC Berkeley pose a serious risk to life in a strong earthquake, with at least 68 seismically deficient structures at UC Berkeley and 18 at UCLA, according to new university studies. Although no campus buildings were deemed to be in the worst category, “dangerous,” six at UC Berkeley and three at UCLA were found to have a “severe” risk to life. The remaining 62 at UC Berkeley and 15 at UCLA were said to have a “serious” risk to life, according to the first reports released this week in response to a UC Board of Regents 2017 directive calling on every campus to undertake a seismic risk assessment. (Lin and Reyes-Velarde, 8/29)

The Wall Street Journal: Connecticut’s Measles Vaccination Rates Keep Falling
The percentage of unvaccinated children in Connecticut continues to grow, according to figures released by the state’s public-health agency. Connecticut’s statewide immunization rate for measles, mumps and rubella vaccinations of kindergartners fell to 95.9% for the 2018-19 school year, compared with 96.5% for the prior year, according to data released Thursday by the state Department of Public Health. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that at least 95% of kindergarten students in schools should be vaccinated. (De Avila, 8/29)

The Star Tribune: Panelists At University Of Minnesota Call Racial Disparities In Maternal Deaths 'Staggering' 
Black mothers are three to four times more likely to die of pregnancy complications than white women, and saving them will require addressing structural racism in American society and racial biases in the nation’s health care system, according to a panel of congresswomen and public health experts who spoke Thursday at the University of Minnesota. Nationally, nearly 700 women die each year of pregnancy complications, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Evans, 8/29)

The Hill: Health Officials Warn New Jersey, Michigan, Massachusetts Residents Over Mosquito-Borne Virus 
Health officials in New Jersey, Michigan and Massachusetts are warning residents of mosquitos carrying a potentially deadly virus. Cases of Eastern equine encephalitis (EEE), a rare virus that causes brain inflammation, have been recorded in each of the three states. The New Jersey Department of Health confirmed a case earlier this month where a man was hospitalized. The department is urging residents to take extra precautions to avoid being bitten. (Rodrigo, 8/29)

Des Moines Register: MercyOne Des Moines To Close Transplant Program After 3 Decades
After suspending its transplant program, a Des Moines medical center is ceasing its transplant operations altogether. MercyOne Des Moines Medical Center is voluntarily closing its kidney and pancreas transplant program after three decades effective Oct. 1, according to a news release from the organization. MercyOne will work with Iowa Methodist Medical Center's transplant center to help those in need. The staff at Methodist will evaluate MercyOne's list of patients and provide care options, the release states. MercyOne also has staff ready to help those on the wait list figure out their next steps. (Davis, 8/29)

ProPublica: In A Disputed Custody Case, The Children Of A Spanish-Speaking Father Will Remain With Their Slovak-Speaking Foster Parents
A Cook County Juvenile Court judge on Thursday took a step toward awarding guardianship of two young children to their foster parents in a case that has raised concerns about how Illinois child welfare officials serve Spanish-speaking, Latino families. Judge Peter Vilkelis determined that the foster parents should become the permanent guardians of the two older children of Jorge Matias, who was deported last fall to his native Guatemala. (Sanchez and Eldeib, 8/29)

Nashville Tennessean: Tennessee Health Care CEO Sentenced To 3.5 Years In Bribery Scheme
A Middle Tennessee health care CEO who admitted to paying bribes to attract customers and defraud the government out of millions has been sentenced to three and a half years in federal prison. CCC Medical Inc. owner Brenda Montgomery, 71, must also forfeit close to $600,000, according to a news release from the U.S. Department of Justice. Montgomery, of Camden, pleaded guilty earlier this year to violating federal anti-kickback laws, which are designed to preserve fair competition between health care companies. Montgomery paid about $770,000 in bribes so another company would refer her patients in need of durable medical equipment, like knee and back braces. Montgomery then used these patients to bill Medicare for about $4.6 million, according to federal court documents. (Kelman, 8/29)

Modern Healthcare: DOJ Investigates Providence St. Joseph Health's Swedish Health Services
The U.S. Department of Justice is probing Providence St. Joseph Health's Swedish Health Services in a civil investigation, the not-for-profit integrated health system revealed in its recent quarterly earnings report. The DOJ requested documents from Seattle-based Swedish related to certain arrangements, joint ventures and physician organizations, according to the report. Providence St. Joseph said that the investigation will not have a "material adverse effect" on its financials. (Kacik, 8/29)

KQED: California's Section 8 Renters Face A Severe Housing Shortage. Can Lawmakers Help?
As California struggles with a crisis in affordable housing, state lawmakers are trying to improve a severe shortage of housing available to renters who have federal Section 8 vouchers. The vouchers allow tenants to pay only 30% of their income toward rent with federal assistance to pay the rest. But most landlords do not accept tenants who pay with vouchers, saying they are too burdensome. (Tobias and Botts, 8/30)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Child Abuse Reports Up In Georgia, With Fewer Cases Substantiated
Reports of child abuse in Georgia have nearly doubled since 2012 while, during that same time, the number of cases that are considered to be “substantiated” have fallen. That’s generally a good thing, child advocates said. But they say the numbers don’t tell the full story. (Prabhu, 8/29)

Kaiser Health News: California Requires Suicide Prevention Phone Number On Student IDs
Denise Herrmann was only a few months into her new job as principal of a Palo Alto, Calif., high school in fall 2014 when a student took his own life. By the next day, Herrmann said, she and some of her colleagues at Henry M. Gunn High School were in conversations with experts from nearby Stanford University about how to cope with student suicides and their aftermath. She knew her school was not alone. “This was a community issue,” she said. (Kreidler, 8/30)

Los Angeles Times: California Housing Crisis Traps Seniors With High Rents, Evictions
Mario Canel met his wife inside the apartment where he’s lived for the last 33 years. Canel, a house painter, was at the Silver Lake complex off of Sunset Boulevard on a job, but he and his customer quickly connected over their shared Guatemalan roots. It wasn’t long before Mario and Sabina married, and her home became his. For years, they basked in such comforts as plucking chayote from a vine outside their front window. (Khouri and Shalby, 8/29)

The New York Times: How ‘Medicare For All’ Went Mainstream
On June 17, 2016, 15 prominent Democratic Party activists and elected officials gathered in a hotel conference room in downtown Phoenix. Their job was to formulate language for the party platform, which would be adopted at the following month’s national convention in Philadelphia. But the platform-drafting committee also had an unspoken mission: to defuse the lingering intraparty tension in the wake of Bernie Sanders’s spirited but unsuccessful primary battle against Hillary Clinton. (Draper, 8/27)

Politico: The Little Known Legal Doctrine Making Big Pharma Pay For The Opioid Crisis
On Monday, a state court judge in Oklahoma ruled that Johnson & Johnson must pay $572,102,028 to compensate the state for expenses related to combating the opioid epidemic. The decision was based on an expansive but reasonable reading of the state’s public nuisance law—an interpretation that demonstrates the explosive potential of this little-understood legal theory. Judge Thad Balkman’s decision does two things. First, it provides a road map for other courts to use in upcoming litigation against other pharmaceutical companies involved in the manufacture, sale and distribution of these addictive drugs. The reckoning is overdue. States should continue to be aggressive about deploying public nuisance law in the future. Second, it puts the scare into other Big Pharma companies that had a hand in creating and then fueling the crisis. (Culhane, 8/28)

The Atlantic: What Happens If You Don’t Pay A Hospital Bill?
On March 8, 2011, Joclyn Krevat, an occupational therapist in New York, was sitting at her computer when she received a most unusual LinkedIn request. The wording was the familiar: “I’d like to add you to my professional network.” The sender was familiar, too, but not for the reason Krevat expected. It was from a debt collector. (Khazan, 8/28)

Wired: Flint, Newark, And The Persistent Crisis Of Lead In Water
Tell me if you’ve heard this one before: A US city is facing a public health crisis, after years of denying that it had a problem with lead in its drinking water supply. In 2016, that would have been a reference to Flint, Michigan. This month, it’s Newark, New Jersey, where city officials on Sunday resorted to handing out bottled water to affected residents. Lead has long been recognized as a potent neurotoxin. The health effects of lead exposure in children include lowered IQ and increased risk of behavioral disorders. Exposed adults are more likely to develop a slew of health problems including nerve, kidney, and cardiovascular issues. Pregnant women and babies are especially vulnerable, as even low levels are associated with serious, irreversible damage to developing brains and nervous systems. (Enking, 8/28)

The New York Times: How To Manage Your Mental Illness At Work
I dropped my freshly cooked lunch all over the carpet. It wasn’t the reason I broke down just outside my office, but it was all the excuse I needed. I fell to my knees, screamed at the carpet, and cried as I shakily cleaned up my food. Then I sat down to write this paragraph. The rest of my breakdown would have to wait until work was done for the day. Like 46 million Americans (according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness), I regularly deal with a mental illness that has the potential to disrupt my daily life. Some days it comes in the form of an emotional breakdown that stops everything I’m doing dead in its tracks. Most of the time, though, it is quieter. It can be a haze that makes work slow, or it can stifle ideas when I need them most. (Ravenscraft, 8/29)

The Washington Post: What We Can Learn From Video Game Violence
In the aftermath of mass shootings in Ohio and Texas, President Trump blamed violence in video games for the “glorification of violence in our society.” It’s an old refrain, and gamers and their allies typically respond by pointing to the facts. We lack evidence that supports a causal relationship between video games and violence, and though some studies have found links between violent video games and aggression, which is distinct from criminal violence, the effect is small.But while research matters, this line of argument misses an important point. Though some video games are casually, thoughtlessly violent, many others explore violence with nuance, placing it in social context and giving players a hands-on opportunity to explore moral conundrums they would never face in real life. (Anna Goshua, 8/29)

New England Journal of Medicine: Insight Medicine Lacks — The Continuing Relevance Of Henrietta Lacks
The story of Henrietta Lacks’s treatment by the medical system remains relevant today. Black American patients still express greater concern than white ones about the likelihood of experiencing harm from participating in clinical trials, and they are right to worry. (Shakkaura Kemet, 8/29)

Stat: Animal Research May Yield An AIDS Vaccine. Don't Jeopardize It 
AIDS could soon be history. Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) recently announced plans to test an experimental HIV vaccine in the United States, South America, and Europe. It’s already conducting a clinical trial of the vaccine in Africa, with results expected in 2021. If successful, this research could yield a workable vaccine within 10 years. AIDS was once a death sentence. A quarter-century ago, HIV/AIDS was the leading cause of death among Americans aged 25 to 44. But over the last four decades, scientists have made significant progress against the disease and the virus that causes it. Today, someone diagnosed with HIV can expect to live approximately as long as someone without it, thanks to the latest antiretroviral treatments. (Matthew R. Bailey, 8/30)

The New York Times: How Not To Grow Old In America 
Assisted living seems like the solution to everyone’s worries about old age. It’s built on the dream that we can grow old while being self-reliant and live that way until we die. That all you need is a tiny bit of help. That you would never want to be warehoused in a nursing home with round-the-clock caregivers. This is a powerful concept in a country built on independence and self-reliance.The problem is that for most of us, it’s a lie. And we are all complicit in keeping this dream alive. (Geeta Anand, 8/29)

Stat: Recovery Coaches In The ER Aid People With Substance Use Issues
Families of loved ones treated in our emergency department for overdoses or other substance use problems once begged us to get these patients into treatment programs. All they wanted was to help them get treatment — and stay alive. For years there wasn’t much our emergency medicine team could do. Now there is: We’ve added recovery coaches. (James Baird, 8/30)

New England Journal of Medicine: Practicing What We Preach — Ending Physician Health Program Bans On Opioid-Agonist Therapy
Clinicians and their professional organizations have been at the vanguard of advancing the expansion of opioid-agonist therapy for opioid use disorder. It is therefore ironic that physician health programs often mandate abstinence-based models of treatment for OUD. (Leo Beletsky, Sarah E. Wakeman, and Kevin Fiscella, 8/29)

JAMA: Using Telemedicine To Treat Opioid Use Disorder In Rural Areas 
Opioid use disorder (OUD) used to be mainly an urban problem involving heroin. But in the past 3 decades, a deluge of prescription pain medications in rural counties has helped spread the phenomenon far beyond major metropolitan centers. The overdose death rate—driven mainly by prescription opioids, and, more recently, heroin and illicit fentanyl—has been trending higher in rural areas than in urban since 2004, the CDC reported in 2017. However, the treatment of OUD, which involves medication as well as counseling and behavioral therapies, has not kept pace. Rural counties are far less likely than urban counties to have health care professionals who can treat OUD, despite the growing need. (Rita Rubin, 8/28)

New England Journal of Medicine: Losing Hahnemann — Real-Life Lessons In 'Value-Based' Medicine
The announcement that Hahnemann Hospital would soon close came as a shock to many people. Is the hospital a casualty of the push to optimize the distribution of limited resources — or a cautionary tale about the greed and corruption underlying our health care ills? (Lisa Rosenbaum, M.D., 8/28)

The Wall Street Journal: AARP’s Interests Diverge From Its Members’
Ten thousand American baby boomers will turn 65 each day for the next 10 years. This is one of the biggest demographic transitions in U.S. history, and the resulting shifts in health-care spending will require intelligent policy. But a significant conflict of interest has led AARP, senior citizens’ strongest lobby, to put their well-being aside. AARP portrays itself as a classic membership organization, funded by dues in return for representation on a variety of issues. Yet its public financial statements reveal that the group receives the bulk of its revenue from health insurers. In 2017 the group received $627 million from UnitedHealth , the nation’s largest insurer, compared with $301 million in membership fees. (Gerard Gianoli, 8/29)

The Hill: Creating Organs For Transplants Is Necessary, But It Shouldn't Have Ethical Costs 
There is a big health crisis in the U.S. that receives too little attention — the shortage of organs for transplant. As of January 2019, there were more than 113,000 people waiting on the organ transplant list, yet only 36,528 transplants were performed in 2018.  Moreover, 20 people die in this country every day while awaiting an organ. (Marc Siegel, 8/29)

Boston Globe: Fewer Prisoners, Lower Crime
The Brennan Center for Justice found that 34 states, across all regions of the country, reduced both their prison populations and their crime rates over the decade between 2007 and 2017. The data “show clearly that reducing mass incarceration does not come at the cost of public safety,” the report concludes. (Renée Loth, 8/30)

The New York Times: What Genetics Is Teaching Us About Sexuality
As researchers in biology and sociology who are also gay men, we have long wondered (and debated) whether sexual orientation has any biological basis. We followed the ascent in the 1990s of the “gay gene” finding — which claimed that male sexual orientation was linked to specific DNA markers — and then watched as that result was called into question. We have wondered whether the two of us, who differ in so many ways, could really trace our common identity to a shared biology. New data are finally giving us answers. (Steven M. Phelps and Robbee Wedow, 8/29)