Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
After Daughter's Death From Flu, Mother Leads Charge Against Anti-Vaccination Mentality
Los Angeles Times: In A Deadly Season, A Grieving Mother Who Lost A Child To The Flu Fights Back
Scarlet Anne died during one of the worst influenza seasons in the country in years, and Hendricks struggled to make sense of her daughter's death. ... So in 2015, the year after Scarlet Anne died, the Tacoma, Wash., mother founded the Fight the Flu Foundation, an organization dedicated to raising awareness about the seriousness of the flu, especially for families and children. The group since has gained official nonprofit status as The End-FLUenza Project. (Simmons, 2/27)
Bloomberg: Scientists Want To Completely Rethink How They Make The Flu Vaccine
The only thing worse than getting the flu is catching it after you’ve gotten a flu shot. It’s been a terrible year for outbreaks — the worst in almost a decade. Contributing to that is the high failure rate of this year’s vaccine. The current shot is just 25 percent effective against the H3N2 virus, this season’s most-often-identified strain by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The experts say, with enough time and money, they can do a lot better. “There has to be a wholesale change to how we make the flu vaccine,” said Amesh Adalja, senior scholar at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. “We’re always setting ourselves up for vaccine mismatch and failures and the like because of the lead time in how long it takes the vaccines to be made.” (Koons and Levingston, 2/28)
CNN: 7 Health Problems Predicted With A Look Into Your Eyes
More proof that the eyes reflect overall health just arrived in the form of a study adding a disease to the list of what can be predicted by examining "the windows to the soul." Small changes in the blood vessels within our eyes at age 60 can foretell a significant loss of memory over the next couple of decades, suggests a study published Wednesday in the medical journal Neurology. (Scutti, 2/28)
The New York Times: C-Sections And Gut Bacteria May Contribute To Overweight Kids
Overweight mothers are more likely to have overweight babies, and the gut bacteria the babies inherit may in part be to blame. Researchers report that overweight mothers are more likely to have a cesarean section, and that babies born by cesarean to those mothers have species of gut bacteria different from those in babies born to normal weight women. And that difference in the gut microbiome — specifically an abundance of bacteria of the family Lachnospiraceae in infants of overweight mothers — may contribute to an increased risk for obesity. (Bakalar, 2/28)
The New York Times: ‘Obesity Paradox’ Fails To Hold Up In Study
Some experts have suggested that there is an “obesity paradox,” the idea that obese people live longer than those of normal weight. But a new study found that obesity was associated with an increased risk for cardiovascular disease and a two- to three-year shorter life span. The study, in JAMA Cardiology, pooled data from 10 studies of 190,672 people followed from 1964 to 2015. Compared with those of normal weight, overweight men (body mass index of 25 to 29.9) had a 21 percent higher lifetime risk of cardiovascular disease and women a 32 percent higher risk. (Bakalar, 2/28)
Reuters: Coca-Cola Defeats U.S. Lawsuit Over Diet Coke Ads
A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit claiming that Coca-Cola Co's advertising for Diet Coke misleads people into thinking that consuming the soft drink assists in weight loss, and that it actually causes weight gain. The plaintiff, Shana Becerra, claimed that she and others would not have bought Diet Coke, which was launched in 1982, but for the word "diet" and ads such as one showing the soft drink being poured by a bare-chested man with a well-muscled torso. (Stempel, 2/28)
The Wall Street Journal: The Cosmetics Industry May Get A Regulatory Makeover
At a time when Washington is pushing to deregulate industry, a congressional effort is under way to intensify federal regulation over cosmetics and personal-care products for the first time in 80 years. Senate staffers from both parties have reached a tentative agreement to stiffen oversight of safety standards for beauty products including skin creams, deodorants, hair dyes, shampoo and mascara, which until now have only been lightly regulated by the Food and Drug Administration. (Burton, 3/1)
The New York Times: You Get Thirsty And Drink. How Does Your Brain Signal You’ve Had Enough?
If you think about being thirsty at all, it seems like a fairly simple thought process: Find water. Drink it. Move on. But in fact there is something rather profound going on as you take that long, refreshing drink after a run or a hot day in the garden. As you become dehydrated, there is less water in your blood, and neurons in your brain send out the word that it’s time to look for water. (Greenwood, 2/28)
Kaiser Health News: Never Too Late To Operate? Surgery Near End Of Life Is Common, Costly
At 87, Maxine Stanich cared more about improving the quality of her life than prolonging it. She suffered from a long list of health problems, including heart failure and chronic lung disease that could leave her gasping for breath.When her time came, she wanted to die a natural death, Stanich told her daughter, and signed a “do not resuscitate” directive, or DNR, ordering doctors not to revive her should her heart stop. (Szabo, 2/28)
