First Edition: April 25, 2023

KFF Health News: Depressed? Anxious? Air Pollution May Be A Factor
In the 1990s, residents of Mexico City noticed their dogs acting strangely — some didn’t recognize their owners, and the animals’ sleep patterns had changed. At the time, the sprawling, mountain-ringed city of more than 15 million people was known as the most polluted in the world, with a thick, constant haze of fossil fuel pollution trapped by thermal inversions. (Robbins, 4/25)

KFF Health News: A California Physician Training Program Adds Diversity, But Where Do Graduates End Up?
Marcus Cummins grew up dreaming of becoming a doctor, but the Central Valley, California, native didn’t have Black physicians to look up to. At times he doubted himself, but he credits the determination he developed as a receiver on the University of California-Davis football team to get him through his studies. “Being a collegiate athlete gave me confidence to apply myself and handle the rigorous schoolwork of medical school,” said the 25-year-old husband and father of three. “It was harder because I didn’t have any physician role models.” (Stephens, 4/25)

KFF Health News: Did A Military Lab Spill Anthrax Into Public Waterways? New Book Reveals Details Of A US Leak
Unsterilized laboratory wastewater from the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Maryland, spewed out the top of a rusty 50,000-gallon outdoor holding tank, the pressure catapulting it over the short concrete wall that was supposed to contain hazardous spills. It was May 25, 2018, the Friday morning before Memorial Day weekend, and the tank holding waste from labs working with Ebola, anthrax, and other lethal pathogens had become overpressurized, forcing the liquid out a vent pipe. (Young, 4/25)

KFF Health News: Listen: Mifepristone Remains Available For Now. What Happens Next?
The Supreme Court has ruled that the abortion pill mifepristone should remain widely available for now, a decision that maintains access to the drug while the lower courts consider the issue. Julie Rovner, KFF Health News’ chief Washington correspondent, appeared on NPR’s “Weekend All Things Considered” to explain the complicated, even contradictory court decisions surrounding mifepristone and what they mean for patients and providers. (4/24)

AP: Biden Launches 2024 Bid, Betting Record Will Top Age Worries 
President Joe Biden on Tuesday formally announced that he is running for reelection in 2024, asking voters to give him more time to “finish the job” he began when he was sworn in to office and to set aside their concerns about extending the run of America’s oldest president for another four years. Biden, who would be 86 at the end of a second term, is betting his first-term legislative achievements and more than 50 years of experience in Washington will count for more than concerns over his age. He faces a smooth path to winning his party’s nomination, with no serious Democratic rivals. But he’s still set for a hard-fought struggle to retain the presidency in a bitterly divided nation. (Miller, 4/25)

AP: North Dakota Governor Signs Law Banning Nearly All Abortions 
North Dakota on Monday adopted one of the strictest anti-abortion laws in the country as Republican Gov. Doug Burgum signed legislation banning the procedure throughout pregnancy, with slim exceptions up to six weeks’ gestation. In those early weeks, abortion would be allowed only in cases of rape, incest or medical emergency, such as ectopic pregnancy. “This bill clarifies and refines existing state law ... and reaffirms North Dakota as a pro-life state,” Burgum said in a statement. (Ahmed, 4/25)

AP: S. Carolina Senate Weighs Abortion Ban It Recently Rejected 
The Republican-controlled South Carolina Senate is set to rehash an ongoing disagreement with the GOP-dominated House over when the conservative state should ban abortion. Lawmakers have less than three weeks left to pass any new restrictions in a legislative session that began days after the state’s highest court overturned a 2021 law and followed last year’s contentious special session that resulted in a legislative impasse. (Pollard, 4/25)

Politico: Judge Mulls Injunction Against Prosecuting Idaho Doctors For Abortion Referrals 
A federal judge in Idaho signaled Monday he is leaning toward issuing an order aimed at blocking the use of that state’s strict abortion ban to prosecute doctors who refer patients to other states to terminate a pregnancy. During a hour-long hearing, U.S. District Court Judge B. Lynn Winmill did not rule on the request from two Idaho doctors and several Planned Parenthood organizations who said their First Amendment rights were in danger as a result of a letter Idaho Attorney General Raul Labrador issued last month indicating that out-of-state referrals would violate the law. (Gerstein, 4/24)

Colorado Sun: Colorado Hearing On “Abortion Reversal” Shows Nationwide Chaos
The judge looked over his bench Monday at the attorney before him and posed a question that has consumed the nation’s abortion policy debate in the exactly 10 months since the U.S. Supreme Court blew that policy to smithereens and unleashed a torrent of new laws and lawsuits seeking to reshape the landscape. “My question,” U.S. District Court Judge Daniel D. Domenico asked an attorney for a religious health clinic seeking to block a recently adopted Colorado law, “is what can I do now?” (Ingold, 4/25)

Politico: GOP-Led Florida House Panel Approves Subpoenas To Groups Supporting Gender-Affirming Care 
A GOP-led Florida House panel authorized subpoenas seeking records from two medical organizations that support gender-affirming treatment for minors, the latest move in an ongoing legal and political fight over transgender care in Florida. The House Committee on Health & Human Services on Monday approved subpoenas demanding records from the Florida chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Florida Psychiatric Society — two organizations that are party to a federal lawsuit seeking to overturn state regulations that ban Medicaid from covering ban gender-affirming care for minors. (Sarkissian, 4/24)

The Hill: Pence Says Ending Abortion ‘More Important Than Politics’ 
Former Vice President Mike Pence said Monday that ending abortion is “more important than politics,” which is his latest anti-abortion remarks made as the legal fight for abortion is ongoing. “Well, I think defending the unborn first and foremost is more important than politics. I really believe it’s the calling of our time,” Pence said on NewsNation’s debut episode of “The Hill” Monday. (Sforza, 4/24)

The Washington Post: Equal Rights Amendment To Get Senate Vote This Week, Schumer Says
The Senate will vote on the Equal Rights Amendment this week — 100 years after it was first introduced in Congress — Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer said Monday. Schumer, speaking at Hunter College in New York, argued that the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and efforts to limit access to the abortion pill mifepristone, as well as state-level actions to roll back women’s rights, have made the ERA and its protections more critical than ever. (Alfaro, 4/24)

Politico: Debt-Limit Plan Won't Be Changed, House GOP Leaders Tell Holdouts
House GOP leaders are waving off calls from rank-and-file Republicans for changes to their debt-limit proposal. Instead, they’re plowing ahead toward a floor vote this week, daring detractors to vote against it. At least, that’s what House Majority Whip Tom Emmer is asserting. Meanwhile, a handful of GOP members have told POLITICO they are still privately demanding changes to the bill and, without them, will lean toward voting “no” on the plan. And Republican leaders only have four votes to spare. (Beavers, Hill and Ferris, 4/24)

Politico: Florida Surgeon General Altered Key Findings In Study On Covid-19 Vaccine Safety
Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo personally altered a state-driven study about Covid-19 vaccines last year to suggest that some doses pose a significantly higher health risk for young men than had been established by the broader medical community, according to a newly obtained document. Ladapo’s changes, released as part of a public records request, presented the risks of cardiac death to be more severe than previous versions of the study. He later used the final document in October to bolster disputed claims that Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines were dangerous to young men. (Sarkissian, 4/24)

Axios: COVID Response Marked By National Incompetence, Report Shows
A group of crisis experts and federal advisers conclude in a report out today that a lack of disaster preparedness and coordination led to an unraveling of the nation's pandemic response, and that the crisis exposed a "collective national incompetence in governance." (Dreher, 4/25)

The New York Times: What’s Going On With Covid Right Now? 
Experts agree that the risk from Covid-19 right now is low, and spring 2023 feels different from previous years. “We’ve reached a stage of stability where people are making choices to return their lives to something closer to normal,” said Dr. Robert Wachter, the chair of the department of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. “And I think that makes sense. Cases are relatively low; deaths are relatively low.” (Smith, 4/24)

CIDRAP: Shielding The Vulnerable Did Little To Reduce COVID-19 Among The At-Risk, Study Finds 
Shielding, a public health strategy used across the United Kingdom in the early months of the pandemic, aimed to keep the most vulnerable citizens protected from the novel coronavirus at home and away from public-facing jobs and schools. But a new study of Welsh citizens published in the May issue of Public Health shows the strategy did little to prevent infection in this group. ... People who were shielded were more likely to be residents in long-term care facilities, women, and those ages 50 and older. Shielded people had a slightly higher known infection rate—5.9% versus 5.7%—compared with controls. All outcomes of infection were worse among shielded people. (Soucheray, 4/24)

CIDRAP: Scent-Trained Dogs Highly Accurate In Detecting COVID-19 In Schools 
Scent-trained dogs detected COVID-19 infection with 83% sensitivity and 90% specificity in nearly 3,900 screenings at California K-12 schools in spring 2022, according to a research letter published today in JAMA Pediatrics. (Van Beusekom, 4/24)

Modern Healthcare: AHIP Targets Drug Manufacturers Over Prices In Ad Campaign
"Health insurance companies are your bargaining power" begins the 30-second spot that AHIP is spending "seven figures" to air on television and social media through the end of the year, according to a news release and an association spokesperson. In the ad, AHIP urges viewers to "Reject Big Pharma's Rx Distractions." The industry group said it also has placed ads with Capitol Hill publications in Washington, D.C. (Nzanga, 4/24)

Crain's Chicago Business: Outcome Health Trial: Convicted Execs Look To Settle SEC Case
Top executives from Outcome Health who were convicted of criminal fraud are likely to settle a pending civil case with the Securities & Exchange Commission. An attorney for the SEC said today that “a settlement is a real possibility,” given the result of the 10-week criminal trial of Outcome co-founders Rishi Shah and Shradha Agarwal, and Brad Purdy, the company’s former chief financial officer. Each of them faces up to 30 years in prison after being convicted by a jury nearly two weeks ago on more than a dozen counts of fraud. (Pletz, 4/24)

Modern Healthcare: Clover Health Settles Lawsuit Amid Delisting Risk
Clover Health’s outlook continues to darken as the company settles the first of several shareholder class-action lawsuits and struggles to remain listed on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange. The health insurance startup agreed to pay $22 million to resolve shareholder allegations that it committed securities fraud by failing to disclose a Justice Department investigation and other important information about its operations prior to its initial public offering through a special purpose acquisition company in 2021, Clover Health announced Monday. (Tepper, 4/24)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: UW Health, Madison College Combine To Address Sprawling Nurse Shortage
A job working at Madison-based UW Health while attending nursing school at Madison College. Full-time benefits and salaries. Paid time-off to attend classes. Free college tuition, books and supplies. That's the offer on the table for those aspiring to earn a nursing degree through a recently announced, first-of-its-kind apprenticeship program in Wisconsin launching this fall. The program is designed specifically to address staffing shortages in Wisconsin that Rudy Jackson, UW Health's chief nurse executive, said have reached "crisis levels." (Van Egeren, 4/24)

Reuters: WHO, Gates Foundation Seek To Reverse Falling Childhood Vaccination Rates
The World Health Organization is working with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and other not-for profit organizations and agencies to reverse a pandemic-driven decline in routine childhood vaccinations. The initiative was launched on Monday by the WHO, UNICEF, the GAVI vaccine alliance and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation among others, and seeks to protect countries from vaccine-preventable disease outbreaks such as measles and yellow fever. (Srinivasan and Roy, 4/24)

Houston Chronicle: More Than A Million Texans Expected To Be Dropped From Medicaid Rolls
More than a million Texans are expected to lose Medicaid coverage over the next 12 months as the surge in federal health care spending during the COVID-19 pandemic continues to be pulled back. The moves are expected to further strain the state’s health care system at a time hospitals are already struggling financially. (Osborne, 4/24)

San Diego Union Tribune: Big Changes Proposed For State Board That Investigates Doctors
The Medical Board of California may soon get a significant boost to its enforcement powers, but some are already saying that proposed changes do not go far enough. On a unanimous vote Monday, the state Senate Committee on Business, Professions and Economic Development approved a “sunset review” bill that would allow the board to continue operating through 2028, simultaneously expanding its ability to pursue physician discipline statewide. (Sisson, 4/24)

San Francisco Chronicle: California Law To Keep Guns From Domestic Abusers Is Under Threat
A 1993 California gun-control law, banning firearms ownership by anyone who has been found by a judge to pose a threat of violence to a domestic partner, is in jeopardy — along with similar prohibitions in other states — unless the U.S. Supreme Court acts to preserve those laws, says state Attorney General Rob Bonta. (Egelko, 4/24)

Reuters: San Francisco Schools Take Altria To Trial Over 'Vaping Crisis'
A lawyer for San Francisco's public school system on Monday kicked off a long-awaited trial against Altria Group Inc, saying the tobacco giant helped e-cigarette company Juul Labs Inc create a "crisis" of vaping addiction among teenagers. (Pierson, 4/24)

AP: ACLU Sues To Block Missouri Rule On Transgender Health Care
The Missouri ACLU on Monday sued to block new state restrictions on both adults and children seeking gender-affirming health care, which are set to kick in Thursday. ACLU, Lambda Legal and Bryan Cave Leighton LLP attorneys representing transgender Missourians and health care providers asked a St. Louis County judge to stop the first-of-its-kind rule from taking effect. (Hollingsworth and Ballentine, 4/24)

Axios: New Washington Law Aims To Simplify Death With Dignity Access
A new Washington law aims to make it easier for patients to access aid-in-dying services under the state's Death with Dignity Act. A measure Gov. Jay Inslee signed into law earlier this month will cut down the wait time between when patients first ask for life-ending medication and when they can receive it. (Santos, 4/24)

Bangor Daily News: Maine Shrinks Scope Of ‘Do Not Eat’ Warning For PFAS-Infected Wildlife
Hunters in and around Fairfield should be able to consume wild game with fewer concerns this year after testing of animals in the area revealed that high PFAS levels were only present in a concentrated area. The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, in conjunction with the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, on Monday issued a revised PFAS wildlife consumption advisory for the Fairfield area that reduces the size of the original advisory area by 80 percent. (Warner, 4/24)

Axios: Lyme Disease Vaccine Could Be Coming Soon
More than two decades after a promising vaccine for Lyme disease was pulled from the market, more tools to protect against the tick-borne illness —including a new shot — are on the horizon. (Reed, 4/25)

AP: Comedian Richard Lewis Reveals He Has Parkinson’s Disease
Comedian Richard Lewis is retiring from stand-up following four surgeries and a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease. The 75-year-old “Curb Your Enthusiasm” star, who is known for wearing all-black and exploring his neuroses onstage, posted a video Monday to Twitter explaining his various health issues. (4/24)