First Edition: April 15, 2022
Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
KHN:
How The Test-To-Treat Pillar Of The US Covid Strategy Is Failing Patients
The federal “test-to-treat” program, announced in March, is meant to reduce covid hospitalizations and deaths by quickly getting antiviral pills to people who test positive. But even as cases rise again, many Americans don’t have access to the program. Pfizer’s Paxlovid and Merck’s Lagevrio are both designed to be started within five days of someone’s first symptoms. They’re for people who are at high risk of developing severe illness but are not currently hospitalized because of covid-19. Millions of chronically ill, disabled, and older Americans are eligible for the treatments, and Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health said April 11 that more people may qualify soon. (Recht, 4/15)
KHN:
It’s Not Just Doctors And Nurses. Veterinarians Are Burning Out, Too
At the park near Duboce Triangle in San Francisco, 5 p.m. is canine happy hour. About 40 dogs run around, chasing balls and wrestling, as their owners coo and ’90s hip-hop bumps out of a portable speaker. One recent afternoon, a Chihuahua mix named Honey lounged on a bench wearing a blue tutu and a string of pearls. Her owner, Diana McAllister, fed her homemade treats from a zip-close bag, then popped one into her own mouth. (Dembosky, 4/15)
KHN:
Readers And Tweeters Sound Alarm Over Nurse’s Homicide Trial
KHN gives readers a chance to comment on a recent batch of stories. (4/15)
KHN:
KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: News You Might Have Missed
It’s been extra busy on the health policy beat lately, so a congressional recess provides a chance to explore some of the important stories that people might have missed, like Medicare’s decision to dramatically limit coverage of Aduhelm, the controversial new drug to treat Alzheimer’s disease. And even with Congress out, states are rushing to either restrict or expand access to abortion, ahead of a key Supreme Court ruling expected later this spring or summer. (4/14)
Bloomberg:
Covid-19 Breathalyzer Test Gets FDA Approval
A Covid-19 breathalyzer test with the ability to provide diagnostic results in three minutes has won emergency-use authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the agency announced Thursday. The test, made by Frisco, Texas-based InspectIR Systems, is authorized for those 18 and older and in settings where samples are both collected and analyzed, such as doctor’s offices, hospitals or mobile testing sites. The device is about the size of a piece of carry-on luggage, the FDA said, and works by detecting chemical compounds in breath samples associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection. (Muller, 4/14)
CBS News:
FDA Authorizes Breath Test That Can Detect COVID-19 In Three Minutes
The test, designed for use in hospitals, doctors offices or mobile testing sites, requires a piece of equipment around the size of a piece of carry-on luggage. The FDA says the company will be able to produce around 100 instruments per week. Each test can evaluate around 160 samples every day. In a study of 2,409 people with and without symptoms, the FDA says the device was able to spot 91.2% of cases — and yielded false positives in only 0.7% of results. The company announced kicking off clinical trials back in 2020, though the FDA says a follow-up study also found the tests had similar accuracy at detecting the Omicron variant. (Tin, 4/14)
The New York Times:
F.D.A. Authorizes First Coronavirus Breath Test
The Breathalyzer test uses a technique called gas chromatography gas mass-spectrometry, which separates and identifies chemical mixtures to detect five compounds associated with the coronavirus in exhaled breath. If a test comes back positive on the Breathalyzer, it should be confirmed with a molecular test, such as a P.C.R. lab test. (Paz, 4/15)
ABC News:
Pfizer May Have COVID-19 Booster That Addresses Omicron, Other Variants By Fall
By this fall, pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and its partner BioNTech could potentially have a COVID-19 booster that specifically addresses the omicron variant as well as its subvariants and other known strains of the virus, CEO Albert Bourla said during a panel Wednesday. "It is a possibility that we have it by then; it's not certainty," Bourla said. "We are collecting data right now, and as far as I know, Moderna, as well as us, we are working on omicron or different enhanced vaccines." (Mitropoulos, 4/14)
CIDRAP:
Fourth COVID Vaccine Dose Gives 76% Added Protection Against Death
Compared with a third vaccine dose, a fourth dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine lowered the risk of infection, symptomatic infection, hospitalization, severe illness, and death 52% to 76%—depending on the measure—amid the Omicron surge among older adults, finds a new Israeli study. Protection against infection waned, however, after 5 weeks, but not protection against severe COVID-19. The findings were published yesterday in the New England Journal of Medicine. (Van Beusekom, 4/14)
USA Today:
COVID Vaccine: CDC Study Shows Why You Still Need It After Infection
Immunity from a bout of COVID-19 may provide some protection against the virus, but a new study suggests it may not be enough to keep you out of the hospital. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention partnered with Epic Research, which shares data to advance medicine and public health, to determine how effective vaccines and boosters are against hospitalization from reinfection. Researchers looked at electronic health records from over 50,000 patients during both the delta and omicron waves who tested positive for COVID-19 more than three months after a previous infection. (Rodriguez, 4/14)
Miami Herald:
DeSantis Signs Florida Bill Banning Abortion After 15 Weeks
In a historic moment for the anti-abortion movement, Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday signed a measure banning most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. The measure, House Bill 5, contains the strictest prohibition passed in Florida during the Roe v. Wade era. It does not come with exceptions for pregnancies that are the result of rape, incest or human trafficking. Under the law, women can still obtain an abortion if their health is threatened or if their baby has a “fatal fetal abnormality.” Although DeSantis’ signature came more than a month after the Legislature passed the bill in early March, there was never any doubt he would approve the measure. (Wilson, 4/14)
Politico:
DeSantis Approves 15-Week Abortion Ban
DeSantis signed the bill on the last day of Lent, which ends 40 days of prayer and fasting that Christians go through ahead of Easter. One Planned Parenthood official said the fight over preserving access to abortion is not over. Stephanie Fraim, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida, wrote a statement that stopped short of threatening all-out legal action.“If these politicians think the fight against this abortion ban is over they are sadly mistaken,” Fraim wrote. (Sarkissian, 4/14)
The Washington Post:
Tracking Major Abortion Restrictions And Protections Across The U.S.
As Republican-led states move to restrict abortion, The Post is tracking legislation across the country on 15-week bans, Texas-style bans, trigger laws and abortion pill bans, as well as Democratic-dominated states that are moving to protect abortion rights enshrined in Roe v. Wade. (Kitchener, Schaul and Santamarina, 4/14)
The Hill:
Timeline For Marijuana Legalization Bill Slips In Senate
Democratic senators leading a push to legalize marijuana say they are now on track to introduce legislation before recess in August, after initially announcing plans to file a comprehensive reform bill later this month. Senate Majority Leader Charles Scumer (D-N.Y.) — who is heading the effort along with Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) — said in a statement on Thursday that he’s proud of the progress senators have made in “bringing this vital bill closer to its official introduction” before the recess in early August. (Folley, 4/14)
Politico:
Bidenworld Projects Calm About Covid But Bite Their Nails In Private
The White House is publicly arguing that the country has finally arrived at a promising new stage in the pandemic fight — one that a recent spike in Covid cases won’t spoil. Infections may be rising across the Northeast, but top Biden officials note that vaccines and tests are widely available and new therapeutics are capable of staving off severe illness. After a year consumed by the public health crisis, the administration says this time it actually is okay to stay calm and carry on. (Cancryn, 4/14)
Politico:
White House On The Lookout For BA.4 And BA.5
The Biden administration, along with other nations and health organizations, is monitoring two emerging Omicron subvariants: BA.4 and BA.5. The two newest subvariants worry some scientists because of a single mutation that could make vaccines less effective against infection. The WHO said it hasn’t seen epidemiological changes in the little data available. (Payne and Banco, 4/14)
Tribune Content Agency:
COVID-19 Cases Jump 52 Percent In Massachusetts
State health officials on Wednesday reported nearly 2,000 new coronavirus cases, yet another increase from last week as COVID-19 hospitalizations ticked up across the region.
The state Department of Public Health’s report of 1,969 cases was a 52 percent jump from last Wednesday’s total of 1,296 infections. The omicron BA.2 “stealth” variant is now the dominant strain in the U.S., according to the CDC. The subvariant has sparked a rise in virus cases, as more people gather indoors without masks. The Boston-area COVID wastewater data are going up. (4/14)
Salt Lake Tribune:
Utah COVID-19 Case Counts Remain Low As Sewage Shows One Site Of ‘Potential Concern’
Utah reported 740 new coronavirus cases in the past seven days and six more deaths, the Department of Health reported Thursday. The number of new cases increased by 40, compared to the weekly total released last Thursday. The state reported a 9% increase in the seven-day average of new cases, moving from 100 to 109. The weekly rate of positive tests rose slightly as well, to 3.16%. However, state officials are focusing less on new cases to track COVID-19 spread, since fewer people are being tested. The seven-day average for the number of tests has fallen from 3,492 as of April 7, to 2,288 on Wednesday. (Harkins and Pierce, 4/14)
Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
Georgia Scales Back On Reporting Of COVID-19 Data
Georgia is joining a growing number of states scaling back on the daily public reports of COVID-19 cases. The move comes just as widely used home test kits have made it harder to follow rising cases and questions have been raised about the best way to track the spread of new variants. Some public health officials say moving away from the regular reporting of new cases could leave Georgia in the dark about emerging outbreaks. A new subvariant of omicron, BA.2, is picking up steam in many states. (Oliviero, 4/15)
The New York Times:
Are There Better Ways To Track Covid Cases?
When the highly transmissible Omicron variant of the coronavirus arrived in the United States last fall, it pushed new case numbers to previously unseen peaks. Even then, the record wave of recorded infections was a significant undercount of reality. In New York City, for example, officials logged more than 538,000 new cases between January and mid-March, representing roughly 6 percent of the city’s population. But a recent survey of New York adults suggests that there could have been more than 1.3 million additional cases that were either never detected or never reported — and that 27 percent of the city’s adults may have been infected during those months. (Anthes, 4/14)
The Washington Post:
To Find Out Where The Covid Pandemic Is Headed, Look Here: The Sewer
The first clues appear in sewer water. And those clues are piling up. As the United States enters year three of the coronavirus pandemic, disease trackers are trying to stay one step ahead of the constantly evolving virus — by hunting for it in feces. In Maine, hospitals are on alert for a potential surge of patients, tipped off by consistently rising levels of the coronavirus in wastewater. In Ohio, which has used sewage surveillance to identify new variants, authorities are tracking substantial increases at a dozen of the state’s 71 monitoring sites, including south of Columbus. In Houston, steady increases have not been accompanied by a rise in hospitalizations, the first time in almost two years, suggesting that vaccinations and previous infection may be keeping people out of hospitals. (Sun and Keating, 4/14)
CIDRAP:
Most COVID-Infected Healthcare Workers Were Exposed At Work Early In Pandemic
In its first evaluation of COVID-19 exposures among US healthcare professionals (HCPs) over the first year of the pandemic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that most HCPs were likely infected at work rather than in the community. The study, published yesterday in the American Journal of Infection Control, used national surveillance data on 83,775 HCPs with information on where they were likely infected with COVID-19 from Mar 1, 2020, to Mar 31, 2021. (4/14)
CIDRAP:
Patients At Risk For Cardiovascular Disease Suffer More Severe COVID-19
New research to be presented at the end of the month at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) meeting suggests that people with elevated risk of developing a stroke or heart attack over the next 10 years are nearly three times as likely to be hospitalized and require intensive care unit (ICU) treatment, and six times as likely to die from COVID-19 compared with those at low cardiovascular risk. (4/14)
Los Angeles Times:
Plan Stalls For California COVID-19 School Children Vaccinations
California will not require schoolchildren to be immunized for COVID-19 after Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Thursday that he is pausing a state mandate set to go into effect before the upcoming academic year while an influential Democratic lawmaker said he will drop his bill pushing even stricter inoculation rules. Newsom made headlines in October when he announced California would be the first state to mandate the vaccine in schools once shots were fully approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for children ages 12 and older, with the requirement going into effect by July 1. On Thursday, the California Department of Public Health announced that the timeline will be pushed back to at least July 1, 2023, since the FDA has not yet fully approved the vaccine for children and the state will need time afterward to initiate its rule-making process. (Gutierrez and Gomez, 4/14)
Modern Healthcare:
Arbiters To Expand Surprise Billing Dispute Resolution Reviews, CMS Says
CMS still has not opened the portal providers will use to file dispute resolution claims, even though the surprise billing rule has been in effect since Jan. 1. The agency previously said the utility would open the week of April 11, which ends Friday. The updated guidance comes in response to a federal judge vacating part of the dispute resolution process laid out in the interim final rule implementing the surprise billing ban. That regulation required independent dispute arbiters to begin with the assumption that the median contracted rate is the appropriate out-of-network amount to pay the items or services in question. (Goldman, 4/14)
San Francisco Chronicle:
S.F.’s Laguna Honda Hospital Has 30 Days To Avoid A Shutdown After Feds Freeze Funding
Federal officials severed critical funding from San Francisco’s Laguna Honda Hospital and Rehabilitation Center on Thursday, a move that threatens to shut down one of the largest skilled nursing facilities in the country and displace more than 700 patients with complicated medical or psychiatric needs. The hospital does not have to immediately close. But after a round of inspections this week, state officials found new deficiencies on the Laguna Honda campus “primarily having to do with hand hygiene, documentation and infection prevention and control,” according to a statement by the San Francisco Department of Public Health, which runs the hospital. (Swan and Whiting, 4/14)
Bloomberg:
ADHD Startup Ahead Is Shutting Down
Ahead, an online provider of ADHD treatment, is shutting down, its top investor said Thursday. The company will immediately stop taking new patients and will continue to provide current patients with care through June 24, said Sid Viswanathan, the chief executive officer of Ahead backer Truepill. As Truepill has shifted its focus to serving corporate and business customers, “we made the difficult decision to no longer invest in Ahead,” Viswanathan wrote in an email to Bloomberg. (Davalos and Melby, 4/14)
The Boston Globe:
State Issues Draft Regulations On Telehealth Visits
More than a year after the passage of a state law that broadened access to telehealth and mandated higher insurance reimbursements for several types of telephonic and virtual visits, the Division of Insurance has issued draft regulations that give insurers and providers more clarity on how to put the law into practice. The regulations, issued Tuesday, came after the state’s largest insurer, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, put into effect its own state-approved policy interpreting the law. On Monday, the Boston Globe reported that the absence of regulations had created uncertainty among providers and threatened to undo gains the health care industry had made in adopting telehealth over the course of the pandemic. (Bartlett, 4/14)
Modern Healthcare:
Healthcare Workers Warn Of The Harms Of Consolidation
The Federal Trade Commission and Justice Department asked for input as they rework their horizontal and vertical merger guidelines. Most speakers claimed that mergers and acquisitions involving hospitals, physicians, pharmacy benefit managers and insurers have increased prices, stifled wages and reduced care quality. "One thing that we often hear from hospital executives that are trying to get their deal through is that the merger will be efficient, it will lower costs and let them improve quality," FTC Chair Lina Kahn said after hearing commentary from nurses, physicians, pharmacists and patients. "As we've heard from several of you, sometimes that cost cutting can come at the expense of quality of care." (Kacik, 4/14)
Modern Healthcare:
Kaiser Permanente Doubles Its Affordable Housing Fund
Kaiser Permanente plans to double the size of its efforts to address housing instability with another $200 million, the integrated health system said Thursday. Since the Thriving Communities Fund's inception in 2018, the initiative has preserved or produced more than 7,000 affordable housing units across the U.S. and is on track to hit 15,000 by 2025. Kaiser also worked with SDS Capital Group to create 1,800 supportive housing units in California using $50 million from its initial investment, the health system said in a news release. (Abrams, 4/14)
CNBC:
Here’s Why Health Savings Accounts May Contribute To Inequality
A popular way to save for out-of-pocket medical expenses might be contributing to health-care inequality, new research suggests. Health savings accounts are tax-advantaged accounts available to Americans with high-deductible health insurance policies. Federal law established them in 2003. Since then, HSAs have grown quickly as employers have adopted high-deductible plans for their workforces to save money. HSAs offer a three-tiered break on income taxes: contributions are tax-free, as are investment earnings and withdrawals for eligible medical expenses. (Iacurci, 4/14)
Stat:
Bristol Myers Agrees To Settle Lawsuit Alleging Anti-Competitive Deals Involving HIV Drugs
After three years of squabbling, Bristol Myers Squibb has agreed to pay up to $11 million to settle a lawsuit that accused several drugmakers of conspiring to block generic competition to HIV medicines. The lawsuit described an unusual scheme concerning fixed-dose combinations of different HIV medicines, which have been widely used for several years to combat the virus. The complaint also cited Gilead Sciences and Johnson & Johnson, whose medicines are useful components in these combinations, which are sometimes referred to as cocktail treatments. (Silverman, 4/14)
The New York Times:
Legal Marijuana Sales Will Start Next Thursday In New Jersey
The first sales of recreational, adult-use cannabis in New Jersey will start next Thursday, marking the culmination of a yearslong effort to legalize marijuana and to curtail the racially unbalanced penalties for possessing the drug.At least a half-dozen medical-marijuana dispensaries are planning to open their doors to all adults on April 21 after winning final approval this week from New Jersey’s Cannabis Regulatory Commission. (Tully, 4/14)
The Boston Globe:
Four Parents Sue Ludlow Public Schools For Policy That Affirms Transgender Children
Four parents have filed a lawsuit against the Ludlow School Committee and several school officials claiming they have violated their rights by choosing not to tell parents when children seek to establish a new gender identity at school, court records show. Stephen Foote and Marissa Silvestri, parents of two children in Ludlow schools, and Jonathan Feliciano and Sandra Salmeron, who also have two children in the district, claim the district’s policy affirming transgender students’ identities violates the US and Massachusetts constitutions, according to the lawsuit filed Tuesday in US District Court in Springfield. The lawsuit does not identify the policy. (Fox, 4/14)
Houston Chronicle:
Air Force: We’ll Protect Personnel From Anti-LGBTQ States
The Air Force has issued a reminder to service members that it can help protect them from anti-LGBTQ state initiatives, such as the one in Texas that raised the possibility of child welfare investigations against parents with transgender children. The guidance, issued by Air Force Undersecretary Gina Ortiz Jones, said the service would use medical, legal and other resources to support its personnel who run into such problems. “We are closely tracking state laws and legislation to ensure we prepare for and mitigate effects to our airmen, guardians and their families,” Jones said, using “guardians” as the official shorthand for members of the U.S. Space Force. “Medical, legal resources, and various assistance are available for those who need them.” (Christenson, 4/14)
Louisville Courier Journal:
Longtime Gay Rights Activist And HIV/AIDS Activist, Jack Kersey, Dies
Jack Kersey, a gay activist who was instrumental in opening a hospice facility for homeless HIV/AIDS patients in the Louisville area during the height of the epidemic, died Wednesday at age 90, according to his husband. Kersey, originally from Washington, D.C., spent the majority of his life in Louisville and was one of the city’s most prominent HIV and AIDS advocates in the 1980s and 1990s. In 1986, he helped establish Glade House, the first group home in the area for patients who were diagnosed with the virus. The facility started with six rooms where patients went to die, but it now comprises two housing programs — an emergency shelter and short-term housing — and the virus is no longer a death sentence. (Johnson, 4/15)
Health News Florida:
Orange County Health Care Providers Order More Meningitis Vaccine Amid Outbreak
Orange County clinics that cater to the LGBTQ community are stocking up on meningitis vaccines due to an outbreak that’s only been detected so far in men who have sex with men. The CDC says the best prevention against meningitis is getting vaccinated. Hope & Help’s Medical Director Dr. Trey Vanderburg says that’s why his Winter Park clinic, which usually provides HIV, STI and hepatitis C testing, has ordered the meningitis vaccine. “We are currently out of the vaccine right now. And we have contacted the health department and we are in the process of getting more vaccines delivered to our facility.” (Prieur, 4/14)
CIDRAP:
Studies Highlight Meningitis Vaccine's Potential Against Gonorrhea
A trio of papers published this week in The Lancet Infectious Diseases make the case that meningitis vaccines could play a role in preventing gonorrhea infections. ... While no gonorrhea-specific vaccines are currently available, two of the studies published in The Lancet found that the four-component serogroup B meningococcal (4CMenB) vaccine, designed against Neisseria meningitidis, showed some cross-protection against N gonorrhoeae. And a third study suggests that the use of the 4CMenB vaccine in those at greatest risk of infection could be the most impactful and cost-effective method of averting gonorrhea. (Dall, 4/14)
Axios:
MS Has An Economic Cost Of $85.4B, Study Says
The economic cost of multiple sclerosis, or MS, was about $85.4 billion in the U.S. in 2019, according to research published Wednesday in the online issue of Neurology. According to the report, MS has a direct medical cost of $63.3 billion and indirect and non-medical costs of $22.1 billion. Retail prescription medication (54%), clinic administered drugs (12%), medication and administration and outpatient care (9%) were the three largest components of the direct costs. (Reed, 4/14)
The Washington Post:
When Will Male Birth Control Be Available?
Adrian Gallo’s interest in better birth control methods for men began about 10 years ago, when he was an undergraduate student with a female roommate. “She told me about the many trials and tribulations of being a woman,” including taking birth control pills, Gallo recalled. “I remember thinking, ‘Oh my God, hormonal pills sound awful, like, truly awful,’” which made him wonder why contraceptive responsibilities weren’t distributed more equitably and why there weren’t broader choices for men other than condoms or vasectomies. (Chiu, 4/14)
Houston Chronicle:
America Faces A Serious Shortage Of Home Healthcare Workers. A New Houston Co-Op Says They Have A Fix
A group of Houstonians has created one of Texas’ only cooperatives for home care workers aimed at creating a self-sustaining community care network and providing higher wages amid a growing national shortage of at-home care providers. The new collaborative gives its care providers a $15 minimum hourly wage, a share in annual profits and a say in business and budgetary decisions. Many graduates of the co-op’s five-week training sessions are single mothers who live in Houston’s Third and Fifth wards, where they say there is a desperate need for access to higher-wage jobs and affordable, long-term elderly care. (Downen, 4/15)
Houston Chronicle:
Scared, Exhausted Texas CPS Workers Get More Shifts Watching Foster Kids In Unlicensed Facilities
For more than a year, Texas CPS employees have been sounding alarm bells over the state’s practice of lodging dozens of foster children with acute needs in hotels and other temporary housing, overseen by caseworkers who are not trained to care for them and cannot discipline them. The problem hit a high point last summer, with 416 foster children lacking a permanent place to stay. Since then, the number has dropped dramatically — 184 kids didn’t have a placement in all of March, and 69 were awaiting placements early this week. (Harris and McKinley, 4/15)
Bloomberg:
Drug And Alcohol Abuse Is Slowing Labor Force Recovery, Fed Finds
Federal Reserve policy makers and researchers who have been puzzled by the slow return of U.S. workers to the labor force during the Covid-19 pandemic may have found a new explanation: alcohol and drug abuse. Increased substance abuse accounts for between 9% and 26% of the decline in prime-age labor-force participation between February 2020 and June 2021, according to a new study by Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta researcher Karen Kopecky, Jeremy Greenwood of the University of Pennsylvania and Nezih Guner of the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona. (Matthews, 4/14)
NPR:
Researchers Explore An Unlikely Treatment For Cognitive Disorders: Video Games
The neurologist said Pam Stevens' cognitive impairment couldn't be treated. After suffering a stroke in 2014, the 85-year-old wasn't responding to medication. She and her husband, Pete Stevens, were told to give up hope. "On two separate occasions, over a two-year period, the neurologist said there was nothing we could do," said Pete Stevens. "He said 'just take her home and be prepared that she's gonna die.'" But he refused to accept that grim prognosis. He was willing to try anything — including an experimental video game therapy — to restore Pam's brain. (Gordon, 4/15)
CNN:
It Doesn't Take A Lot Of Exercise To Fight Depression, Study Says
Get up and move -- even small doses of physical activity, such as brisk walking, may substantially lower the risk of depression, according to a new data analysis. "Most benefits are realized when moving from no activity to at least some," the study authors wrote. Recommended levels of exercise in the United States, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, include aerobic activity at moderate levels (such as a brisk walk) for 2.5 hours a week, along with a workout of all major muscle groups twice a week. Alternatively, a person can choose a vigorous aerobic exercise, such as running, for 1.25 hours each week, along with the same amount of strength training. (LaMotte, 4/14)
The Wall Street Journal:
Peloton To Cut Price Of Bikes, Raise Subscription Fees
Peloton Interactive will cut prices of its stationary bikes and treadmills and raise monthly subscriptions for online workout classes. The changes are part of an effort by Peloton’s new chief executive to create a company more focused on its digital business and less reliant on sales of connected exercise equipment. (Terlep, 4/14)
Stat:
Anteater's Zoo Transfer Leads To Rabies Treatment For 13 People
The transport of an anteater from one zoo to another may have exposed more than a dozen people to rabies, researchers said Thursday, serving as a warning that such transfers can expand what are considered “rabies zones.” Thirteen people had to undergo rabies treatment for possible exposure, and no human cases were ultimately reported, according to the report, published Thursday in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Rabies, which is almost universally fatal if untreated, is sometimes underestimated as a threat, recent research suggests. A CDC report from earlier this year described the cases of three people who died from rabies contracted from bats, all whom could have survived had they sought or accepted post-exposure care. (Joseph, 4/14)
Bloomberg:
Taiwan Reports Record Cases As Covid-Free Status Crumbles
Taiwan reported a record number of Covid cases as multiple outbreaks across several cities overwhelmed health authorities’ efforts to contain the virus. Local infections rose to an all-time high of 1,209, health minister Chen Shih-chung said at a briefing in Taipei on Friday. It was the first time since the global pandemic began that Taiwan has reported more than 1,000 cases in a day. Chen also warned that the daily case figures are likely to get much worse. (Ellis and Hou, 4/15)
Stat:
U.S., U.K. Investigating Unusual Cases Of Hepatitis In Young Children
Public health officials in the United States and the United Kingdom are investigating a number of unusual cases of serious hepatitis in young children, the cause or causes of which are currently unknown. Evidence from the U.K. and from Alabama — where nine cases have been recorded since last fall — points to the possible involvement of an adenovirus. Adenoviruses generally attack the respiratory tract, causing cold-like illnesses. But they have been linked to bladder inflammation and infection, and occasionally to hepatitis, though rarely in children who are not immunocompromised. (Branswell, 4/14)