Latest KFF Health News Stories
Media outlets report on news from Rhode Island, Colorado, Minnesota, Missouri, Georgia, Connecticut, Nevada, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania and California.
U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria in San Francisco said Monday the higher award was “constitutionally impermissible” because it was nearly 15 times the compensatory damages award. He denied Bayer’s request for a new trial. Edwin Hardeman used Roundup for many years starting in the 1980s to treat poison oak and weeds on his property. He was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2014. The company is fighting thousands of lawsuits.
Doctors want a test that they can order during a routine exam to help catch Alzheimer’s early. “In the past year we’ve seen a dramatic acceleration in progress” on these tests, said Dr. Richard Hodes, director of the National Institute on Aging.
Scientists at the University of Arizona examined a tissue sample that dates back to the 1960s, the oldest sample of HIV to date, and concluded the virus jumped from primates earlier than expected. The researchers tested 1,652 pathology samples and found the HIV sequence in one. Public health news also looks at: CRISPR baby editing guidelines, gun violence, paramedics’ mental health, shootings in health care clinics, diagnostic errors, global immunizations gaps, benefits of cutting calories, and heat-related illnesses.
Uptick In Wildfires, Flooding Contributing To A ‘Toxic Gumbo’ Of Chemicals In Survivors’ Daily Lives
The toxic substances displaced during disasters “are much more long-lasting and ubiquitous than I think people realize,” said Gina McCarthy, who ran the EPA during the Obama administration. “And we clearly haven’t caught up in terms of our laws and regulations, and the process of disaster response.”
How The Department Of Homeland Security Found Itself At The Heart Of Deep Moral Dilemmas
The New York Times takes a look inside the agency that so often is the face of President Donald Trump’s immigration strategy that has led to national outrage over how it is being implemented. Meanwhile, Border Patrol is investigating those involved with a secret Facebook group that included posts joking about migrant deaths. Other news from the border crisis focuses on the companies running the shelters, pediatricians’ concerns over the health of children, and the conditions at the facilities.
There are concerns from experts who say patients may not fully understand the privacy implications of new records apps and end up signing a lot of their information away without realizing it. Other news at the intersection of technology and health care: artificial intelligence and dental bills, telemedicine in rural areas, wireless health hazards and more.
‘Dope Refugees’ Flock To New York City’s Transit Hubs In Search Of A Better Life
Experts say the swelling number of users around the transit hubs is in part because they can find more tolerance and support in New York City than in their hometowns, as well as greater access to services such as syringe exchanges. Meanwhile, the country’s foster system is being strained beneath the weight of the drug epidemic. Other news on the opioid crisis comes out of Maryland and California.
The six-week trial was the first of many lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies over what role they played in the opioid epidemic, and the outcome is expected to set the bar for the ones that follow. The judge says he anticipates taking about a month to reach a decision in the case.
The Department of Veterans Affairs sent out one rejection letter to each of the 208,272 applicants in 2016 before purging them from the backlog, despite requests that the agency send an additional letter.
A new analysis looks at the reasons FDA officials disregard advice from the expert panel — and much of the time there was a disagreement, the FDA took the more cautious route. Interestingly, the authors also found that disagreement was not more common when panel members had conflicts of interest or when there was more media coverage over the drug.
Medicare To Potentially Cover Acupuncture For Chronic-Lower Back Pain As Alternative To Opioids
Some medical experts see any success from the procedure as nothing more than a placebo effect. But as doctors seek different ways to address pain in the midst of an opioid crisis, HHS Secretary Alex Azar says acupuncture is worth exploring.
Trump Administration To Immediately Enforce Family Planning Funding Changes After Court’s Go-Ahead
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals last week rejected emergency petitions filed by Planned Parenthood and states seeking to block the rules while it rehears arguments over the case.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a 2020 Democratic candidate, helped bring national attention to a Philadelphia hospital that’s trying to close its doors. Sanders said he will be introducing a bill in the Senate to provide a $20 billion “emergency fund” that will allow states and communities to purchase financially struggling hospitals in order to keep them open. Meanwhile, planning for the potential closure of Hahnemann University Hospital shows how deeply intertwined a health institution can become with a city.
Reporting raised questions last month as to whether the Biden Cancer Initiative’s connections with for-profit health care companies would pose ethical issues for a possible Biden administration. Greg Simon, the organization’s president, promised that “we remain personally committed to the cause” while announcing the decision.
Former Vice President Joe Biden made a similar vow to voters at an AARP/Des Moines Register forum that then-President Barack Obama made as he was touting the health law. The echo from years past highlights Biden’s strategy of building upon the system already in place that has only grown in popularity in recent years. But it could put him out of step with the mood of the party. “Politically, Biden is trapped by his old job,” said Scott Jennings, an appointee in former President George W. Bush’s administration.
All four of the participants at the first of five presidential candidate forums that AARP and the Des Moines Register are sponsoring in Iowa favored a more moderate expansion of health care coverage over progressive “Medicare for All” proposals. Monday’s forum in Des Moines featured former Vice President Joe Biden, Sens. Cory Booker (N.J.) and Amy Klobuchar (Minn.) and former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper.
2020 Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) also says she would work to close a tax loophole for pharmaceutical companies’ direct-to-consumer advertising expenses, and allow the importation of drugs from Canada.
Netflix Edits Out Graphic Suicide Scene From ’13 Reasons Why’ Over Two Years After First Aired
Before and after the controversial episode aired in 2017, health experts warned Netflix about the graphic scene. A later study found that there was a sharp uptick in teen suicides in the month after the show launched.
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations.