First Edition: April 16, 2019

Kaiser Health News: ‘Heartbeat Bills’ Give State Lawmakers Pause On Anti-Abortion Tactics
In anticipation of a new anti-abortion tilt on the Supreme Court bench, some states are moving to further restrict the procedure during the first trimester of pregnancy or to outlaw abortion entirely if Roe v. Wade ever falls. But the rush to regulate has exposed division among groups and lawmakers who consider themselves staunch abortion opponents. On Thursday, Ohio became the latest state to ban abortions after a fetal heartbeat can be detected. (Farmer, 4/16)

Kaiser Health News: Mulvaney: Trump Brought Down Drug Prices For The First Time In 50 Years 
President Donald Trump announced last month that the GOP will become “the party of health care,” and news reports suggest he intends to make it a top issue in his reelection campaign.This fact check was produced in partnership with Politifact. So when Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff, touted the administration’s work on prescription drug prices — a hot-button issue that has drawn scrutiny from across the political spectrum, and one that voters say should be a top priority — we were intrigued. (Luthra, 4/15)

The Hill: Sanders Town Hall Audience Cheers After Fox News Host Asks If They'd Support 'Medicare For All' 
The audience at a Fox News town hall erupted in cheers and applause when asked by moderator Bret Baier if they would support Sen. Bernie Sanders's (I-Vt.) "Medicare for All" proposal. "I want to ask the audience a question here. ... How many are willing to transition to what the senator says, a government-run system?" Baier asked before the crowd burst into cheers.  (Seipel, 4/15)

The New York Times: 90 New Cases Of Measles Reported In U.S. As Outbreak Continues Record Pace
The number of new measles cases in the United States rose again this month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Monday, bringing the total number to 555 in 2019. This year’s outbreak is on course to be the worst since the country eliminated measles as an endemic disease in 2000. Health authorities reported 90 additional cases as of April 11, with outbreaks in New York, Washington, California, New Jersey and Michigan, up from 78 the week before. (Malkin, 4/15)

The Associated Press: US Measles Count Up To 555, With Most New Cases In New York
The 2019 tally is already the most since 2014, when 667 were reported. The most before that was 963 cases in 1994. (4/15)

The Washington Post: CDC Reports 90 New Measles Cases As Outbreak Approaches Record
New York City has had the most cases. As of Monday, 329 cases, virtually all of them in Brooklyn, have been reported since the outbreak began in October. Of those, 273 were reported this year, including 44 cases since last week, when New York City officials declared a public health emergency and ordered mandatory measles vaccinations to halt the outbreak concentrated among ultra-Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn. That was the broadest vaccination order in the United States in nearly three decades. (Sun, 4/15)

The Wall Street Journal: Measles Cases Continue To Soar, Stirring Concern Over Long-Term Effects
Researchers who study the virus say concern about these outbreaks extends beyond the effect of the initial infection to longer-term implications for the health of the victims. The virus may leave the immune system in a temporary state of amnesia, leaving the body’s defenses unable to remember and effectively attack some invaders it has seen before, according to emerging research. Immune-system memory loss could leave the body prone to more severe infections for two to three years, until it relearns from hard-won experience how to fend off attackers, researchers have said. (Evans and McKay, 4/15)

NPR: Measles Cases Spike Driven By Outbreaks In N.Y. And 4 Other Regions
More American families are bringing measles home with them after traveling abroad, Cohn says. And once the disease lands stateside, it has a better chance of gaining a foothold because vaccination rates in some places have dropped below 93 to 95 percent, the threshold required to protect the entire community. "When you make the decision not to vaccinate your child, please understand you're also making that decision for the people around your child," New York City's deputy mayor of health and human services, Herminia Palacio, told NPR on Wednesday. (Doucleff and Neighmond, 4/15)

Reuters: U.S. Measles Cases Surge Nearly 20 Percent In Early April, CDC Says
The U.S. outbreak is part of a worldwide rise. The World Health Organization reported on Monday that global cases had risen nearly four-fold in the first quarter of 2019 to 112,163 compared with the same period last year. (4/15)

Reuters: Measles Cases Rose Nearly Four-Fold In First Quarter 2019-WHO
The number of measles cases worldwide nearly quadrupled in the first quarter of 2019 to 112,163 against the same period last year, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday, citing provisional data. Higher rates of the preventable but contagious disease - which can kill a child or leave it blind, deaf or brain-damaged - have been recorded in all regions, the United Nations agency said in a statement, appealing for better vaccination coverage. (4/15)

The Washington Post: Unaware He Had Measles, A Man Traveled From N.Y. To Michigan, Infecting 39 People
Last month, a traveler raising money for charity in Brooklyn’s ultra-Orthodox Jewish community drove through the night to Detroit — his next fundraising stop. He felt sick en route and saw a doctor when he got there. But the doctor, who had never seen measles, misdiagnosed the man’s fever and cough as bronchitis. Over the next two weeks, the traveler would become Michigan’s Patient Zero, spreading the highly contagious respiratory virus to 39 people as he stayed in private homes, attended synagogue daily and shopped in kosher markets. His case offers a cautionary tale about how easily one of the most infectious pathogens on the planet spreads within close-knit communities — especially those whose members live, work and socialize outside the mainstream. (Sun, 4/15)

Politico: Measles Outbreak Tests Limits Of Religious Freedom In New York City
A quick fix to New York City’s measles outbreak is proving elusive, and the reasons are as much political as they are medical. A powerful voting bloc, the ultra-Orthodox community has managed to carve out what is arguably a separate system of city services with their own ambulances, school buses and police. They run their own private schools for which they receive city, state and federal funds. (Nahmias, Goldberg and Eisenberg, 4/15)

The New York Times: Measles Outbreak: Yeshiva’s Preschool Program Is Closed By New York City Health Officials
New York City closed a preschool program at a yeshiva in Brooklyn on Monday for violating a Health Department order that required it to provide medical and attendance records amid a measles outbreak. The preschool at United Talmudical Academy, which serves 250 students between the ages of 3 and 5 in the Williamsburg area, is the first program to be closed by the city, as it escalates efforts to stem the country’s largest measles outbreak in decades. (Pager, 4/15)

Bloomberg: NYC Measles Outbreak: Parents Seek To Block Shot Requirement 
A group of parents asked a judge to block New York City’s order requiring people in three Brooklyn zip codes to be vaccinated against measles. An outbreak in the Orthodox Jewish community in Williamsburg prompted the city to declare a public health emergency April 9, imposing fines as high as $1,000 for residents who fail to be vaccinated with the measles-mumps-rubella shot. As of April 8, there were 285 confirmed cases of the highly contagious and sometimes deadly illness since October, in Brooklyn and the neighboring borough of Queens, according to the city health department. (Van Voris, 4/15)

CNN: Anti-Vaxers Are Winning The War On Social Media. What's The CDC Going To Do About It?
Concerned that anti-vaccination activists are winning the war on social media, advisers to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say public health authorities need to figure out how to fight back. "Have we done enough? I think the answer to that is no," said Patricia Stinchfield, a pediatric nurse practitioner and a liaison representative to the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. (Cohen, 4/12)

Stat: The Policy Experts Shaping Democrats’ Drug-Pricing Approach 
There’s a cadre of health policy experts — two professors, a lobbyist, all former policy advisers to Democratic administrations — advising Nancy Pelosi on how best to lower prescription drug prices, a chief party priority. The group, which includes the likes of Harvard professor Richard Frank, has been working closely with Wendell Primus, a Capitol Hill veteran and the senior adviser on budget and health policy issues to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. Primus and the rest of his group are widely seen as taking a left-of-center but pragmatic approach to the policy issue, and are even working with the Trump administration in hopes of brokering a bipartisan deal. (Facher, 4/15)

Stat: Supreme Court Rejects Allergan Bid To Use Mohawk Tribe To Shield Patents
In a blow to Allergan (AGN), the U.S. Supreme Court rebuffed its effort to shield patents on a best-selling drug from a review board by transferring them to a Native American tribe. The court left intact a ruling last July by a federal appeals court that upheld the ability of the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board to decide whether a half-dozen patents for the Restasis eye treatment were valid. Allergan had argued that, under federal law, the sovereign status of the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe meant that the patents were immune from review by the patent board. (Silverman, 4/15)

Politico: Rick Scott And Chuck Schumer Feud Over Puerto Rico
Rick Scott campaigned on standing up for Puerto Rico. But with President Donald Trump warning senators not to provide more aid to the island, the Florida Republican is caught between his party and his promises. And Democrats are eager to exploit that tension — blasting Scott for sticking with the president on a critical disaster relief bill and throwing the freshman senator into the middle of a broader fight over stalled assistance for millions of Americans devastated by wildfires, flooding and hurricanes. (Levine, 4/16)

The Associated Press: North Dakota Governor 'Read Every Letter' On Abortion Bill
Republican North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum said Monday that he carefully considered all arguments before signing legislation that makes it a crime for a doctor performing a second-trimester abortion to use instruments such as clamps, scissors and forceps to remove the fetus from the womb. "I read every letter that came in," the first-term governor told The Associated Press when pressed to expand on his approval. He had made no comment last week when he signed the bill into law. (MacPherson, 4/15)

The Associated Press: North Carolina 'Born-Alive' Abortion Bill Clears Senate
A bill requiring doctors and nurses to protect and care for children born alive during a failed late-term abortion cleared the North Carolina Senate on Monday, handing social conservatives a victory that could ultimately be undone by the Democratic governor. The Republican-drafted legislation specifies that health care practitioners should grant those children born alive the same protections as any other newborn patient. Those who don't do so could face a felony and active prison time, along with potential $250,000 fines and other monetary damages. (4/15)

The Associated Press: Bill To Outlaw Most Abortions In Alabama To Get Hearing
Alabama lawmakers are set to hold a public hearing Wednesday on legislation before a House committee that seeks to outlaw almost all abortions in the state, what critics call one of the most extremely anti-abortion proposals in the country. The bill would make performing an abortion a felony, punishable between 10 and 99 years in prison, although a woman would not be charged for having the procedure under the proposal. (4/15)

The Associated Press: Columbine Survivors Raise Children In World Shaped By Attack
Dropping her kids off at school used to be the hardest part of Kacey Ruegsegger Johnson’s day. She would cry most mornings as they left the car, and relied on texted photos from their teachers to make it through the day. Now, the mother of four — and Columbine shooting survivor — sees mornings as an opportunity. She wakes early, makes breakfast and strives to send a clear message before her kids leave home: I adore you. Twenty years after teenage gunmen attacked Columbine High School, Ruegsegger Johnson and other alumni of the Littleton, Colorado, school have become parents. (Foody, Breed and Banda, 4/16)

Stat: It's Just In Mice! This Scientist Is Calling Out Hype In Science Reporting 
Mice form the basis of all biomedical research. As the quintessential model organism, they are perfect specimens in which to study all sorts of human conditions. But just because a drug performs well in mice, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’ll have the same result in humans. Science journalists and press releases — as translators of these findings — often fail to clearly demarcate that line. A new Twitter account hopes to make that line much clearer. Last Friday, tweets from @justsaysinmice started making the rounds on Twitter and they quickly went viral. Every tweet — all 11 of them so far — follows the same pattern: A news story or press release with a sensational headline is tweeted out, with two simple words tacked on top: “IN MICE.” (Chakradhar, 4/15)

The New York Times: Melinda Gates On Tech Innovation, Global Health And Her Own Privilege
You would perhaps be demonstrating an excess of sympathy to feel sorry for of ultrawealthy philanthropists. But it’s fair to say that many members of that cohort have found themselves in a challenging moment, faced as they are with increasing anti-elitism and skepticism about just how much altruism, as opposed to ideological self-interest, motivates their work. “There are absolutely different points of view about philanthropy,” says Melinda Gates, who, along with her husband Bill, heads the charitable foundation that bears their name, aimed at increasing global health and reducing poverty. Its endowment, at $50.7 billion, is the largest in the world. “But we’re lucky to live in a democracy, where we can all envision what we want things to look like.” In that regard, Gates’s focus, both here and abroad, is on broadening women’s rights, a subject she explores in her new book, “The Moment of Lift.” “I have rage,” she said, about the injustices she has seen. “It’s up to me to metabolize that and use it to fuel my work.” (Marchese, 4/15)

Stat: Proponents Start Push To Lift U.S. Ban On 'Three-Parent IVF'
Last week, a Greek woman with a history of multiple in-vitro fertilization failures gave birth to a healthy baby with DNA from three biological parents. It was the first successful birth in a clinical trial of a controversial fertility treatment known as mitochondrial replacement therapy, which combines genetic material from the intended mother and father plus a female donor. In the U.S., the procedure is effectively banned because of a congressional amendment passed in 2015 that’s been renewed every year since. But now, a group of scientists, patient advocates, and bioethicists want to see the prohibition lifted. The technique, they say, could help certain women who are carriers of serious genetic diseases have healthy, biologically related children. (Mullin, 4/16)

CNN: 3D-Printed Heart Made Using A Human Patient's Cells
Researchers have 3D-printed a heart using a patient's cells, providing hope that the technique could be used to heal hearts or engineer new ones for transplants. "This is the first time anyone anywhere has successfully engineered and printed an entire heart replete with cells, blood vessels, ventricles and chambers," Professor Tal Dvir of Tel Aviv University's School of Molecular Cell Biology and Biotechnology said in a statement. Dvir is senior author of the research, published Monday in the journal Advanced Science. (Bracho-Sanchez, 4/16)

NPR: When Teen Dating Leads To Homicide, Girls Are Most Likely Victims
Domestic violence is common among adults, and women are most frequently the victims. In fact, nearly half of women killed by homicide in the United States are killed by their former or current intimate partners. Now a new study finds that this kind of violence also poses a risk to the lives of adolescent girls. The study found that of the more than 2,000 adolescents killed between 2003 and 2016, nearly 7 percent — 150 teens — were killed by their current or former intimate partners. (Chatterjee, 4/15)

CNN: The 'Indelible Mark' That Exposure To Hunger Leaves On Children
Kerry Wright didn't feel hungry. Not in the way you might expect. Her tummy grumbled, yes, she could hear it. She just couldn't feel it. She called it "starvation mode". Wright, a mother of three living in Aberdeen, had hit a low point. But she needed to provide for her children, who then were just entering their teens. Because there was always so little to go round, it didn't take long before she started skipping meals. She was tired all the time -- and yet she couldn't sleep. She was hungry, but she didn't want to eat, and, if she did, she would sometimes be sick. Her head was frazzled. It was hard to keep a string of thoughts together. (Baraniuk, 4/15)

The Wall Street Journal: When A Family Faces Dementia, Tracking Devices Can Help—To A Point
Kim Rice tracks her husband’s every move, including his arrival home each night from adult day care. She’s among the millions of Americans caring for a loved one with dementia at home. And like many, she turned to tracking and monitoring devices to help her manage the daily juggle of working, ensuring her husband’s safety and maintaining her own sanity. Most days, Mr. Rice’s bus driver walks him to the door of his home and sees him inside. But there’s sometimes a 15-minute lag before Ms. Rice receives the notification her husband made it home, courtesy of a GPS tracker she slips in his pocket. (Jargon, 4/16)

The Associated Press: Senior's Weakness For Scams May Be Warning Sign Of Dementia
Does an older friend or relative have a hard time hanging up on telemarketers? Or get excited about a "You've won a prize" voicemail? New research suggests seniors who aren't on guard against scams also might be at risk for eventually developing Alzheimer's disease. Elder fraud is a huge problem, and Monday's study doesn't mean that people who fall prey to a con artist have some sort of dementia brewing. (4/15)

ProPublica: Mentally Ill New Yorkers Seeking Independence Find Safety Net Has Holes, Report Finds
New York state officials are behind in investigating incidents where mentally ill New Yorkers may have come to harm, according to an independent report filed in Brooklyn federal court this month. At issue is the welfare of hundreds of vulnerable people who have moved out of troubled adult group homes and into their own apartments under a federal court order issued by U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis. (Sapien, 4/16)