Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Analysis Debunks Idea That Women Aren't Good Clinical Test Subjects
The Washington Post: Women’s Body Temperatures Are No More Variable Than Men’s, Study Finds
Women’s body temperatures are no more variable than men’s, despite menstrual cycles and hormonal variability, a recent monitoring study suggests. The analysis, published in the journal Biology of Sex Differences, casts doubt on an idea that has long colored biomedical research — that ovarian cycles make females unsuited for drug trials and other clinical experiments. (Blakemore, 11/18)
Fox News: Kids’ Sleep Problems Could Be Inherited, New Research Suggests
For the 30% of children who have problems falling or staying asleep — their genes may be to blame. That’s according to a 15-year study recently published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, which found that certain genetic variants can have an impact on children’s sleep quality and quantity. Researchers from the Department of Sleep and Cognition at the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience in Amsterdam analyzed the sleep patterns of 2,458 children, as reported by their mothers. (Rudy, 11/17)
The Mercury News: Cat-Borne Parasite May Cause People To Become More Frail, CU Boulder Research Finds
A cat-borne parasite that infects about 40 million people in the United States may cause adults to be more frail as they age, according to a new University of Colorado Boulder study. The parasite is already associated with risk-taking behavior and mental illness, according to a release, and the CU Boulder study found it may also contribute to signs of frailty including exhaustion and loss of muscle mass. The parasite, called Toxoplasma gondii, affects about 11% of people in the United States. (Doak, 11/17)
NBC News: New Study Reveals Racism May Increase The Risk Of Stroke In Black Women
Black women who reported experiencing racism may be at an increased risk of having a stroke, a new study finds. Participants who said they experienced racism in employment, housing and interactions with police had an estimated 38% higher chance of experiencing all types of strokes compared to Black women who didn’t perceive experiencing racism, the study found. (Bellamy, 11/17)
NBC News: A Type Of Belly Fat Is Linked To Alzheimer's Risk, Research Finds
People who have large amounts of fat stored around their organs as they age may be at higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, a new study suggests. This type of fat isn’t necessarily reflected in a high body-mass index. Visceral fat, which can accumulate around the organs of even people at healthy BMIs, is associated with changes in the brain potentially decades before any symptoms of cognitive decline are seen, according to the study presented at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America on Monday. (Carroll, 11/20)
Stat: CRISPR Pioneers React To Casgevy, First Gene-Editing Treatment
The revolution started in silence. Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier, now Nobelists, published their first paper announcing a new enzyme for editing DNA in Science in June 2012. It was called CRISPR-Cas9. It wasn’t until January 2013 that the first paper showing the enzyme would work in cells, from Feng Zhang, was published, also in Science. A similar paper from George Church came out at the same time. (Herper, 11/19)
CIDRAP: Study Shows Modest Flu Vaccine Protection Against Serious Disease In Kids Last Season
An analysis of US national data finds a flu vaccine effectiveness (VE) against severe outcomes of 48% overall in kids in 2022-23, 53% among preschoolers, and 38% among children aged 9 to 17 years. The study was published yesterday in Clinical Infectious Diseases. The 2022-23 flu season saw the highest influenza-associated pediatric hospitalization rate in the United States since 2010-11. Most of the illness was caused by the H3N2 strain. (Soucheray, 11/17)
On research into covid —
NBC News: Neck Injection Could Improve Smell Issues In Some Long Covid Patients
New research from Jefferson Health in Philadelphia suggests that a procedure called stellate ganglion block is somewhat effective at reducing parosmia in patients who suffered from the condition for at least six months after their Covid illness and didn’t respond to pharmaceutical or topical therapies. (Bendix, 11/20)
CIDRAP: High-Dose Fluvoxamine Did Not Shorten COVID Recovery Times
Results from a randomized clinical trial today of 1,208 participants show that high-dose (100-milligram [mg]) fluvoxamine did not improve time to sustained recovery in people with mild to moderate COVID-19 infections. Fluvoxamine, known as Luvox, is a selective-serotonin reuptake inhibitor. Its potential use for COVID-19 was considered as part of the Accelerating Coronavirus Disease 2019 Therapeutic Interventions and Vaccines (ACTIV-6) platform, which aims to investigate repurposed medications in the outpatient setting for mild to moderate COVID-19. (Soucheray, 11/17)
CIDRAP: Organized Efforts To Debunk COVID Untruths Helped, But More Work Needed
A systematic review by Brown University researchers of studies on countering COVID-19 misinformation finds that only 18% included public health measures such as vaccination, and some seemed to give credence to conspiracy theories and other unproven claims. The review also revealed challenges in studying health misinformation, including a need for more study of measures aimed at stemming video-based misinformation. The team also said inconsistent definitions of misinformation make it hard to evaluate intervention studies. (Van Beusekom, 11/17)
Also —
Stat: A Digital Pill Could Help People With Opioid Addiction Avoid Overdose
Gathering health data remotely is a pain. Forgetting to slip on a wearable is easy, and hooking yourself up to a large monitor is intrusive. Celero Systems has another idea: What if your remote patient monitor was small enough to swallow? (Lawrence, 11/17)
The New York Times: A Simple Way To Save Premature Babies
Shortly after a baby is born, doctors clamp the umbilical cord linking the infant to the placenta, which is still inside the mother’s uterus, and then cut it. New research shows that if doctors wait at least two minutes after the birth to clamp the cord, they significantly improve in-hospital survival rates for premature infants. Delayed cord clamping — an intervention that can be introduced at relatively little cost — is believed to help because it allows umbilical cord blood, which is rich in iron, stem cells and antibodies, to flow back to the baby. Some experts say that it’s not entirely clear why the strategy seems to help, but that the data is convincing. (Caryn Rabin, 11/17)
