First Edition: Aug. 3, 2023

KFF Health News: Doctors Sound Alarm About Child Nicotine Poisoning As Vapes Flood The US Market
Hospital toxicologist Ryan Marino has seen up close the violent reactions of children poisoned by liquid nicotine from electronic cigarettes. One young boy who came to his emergency room experienced intense nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting, and needed intravenous fluids to treat his dehydration. Kids can also become dizzy, lose consciousness, and suffer dangerous drops in blood pressure. In the most severe case he’s seen, doctors put another boy on a ventilator in the intensive care unit because he couldn’t breathe, said Marino, of Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. (Szabo, 8/3)

KFF Health News: ‘Conscience’ Bills Let Medical Providers Opt Out Of Providing A Wide Range Of Care 
A new Montana law will provide sweeping legal protections to health care practitioners who refuse to prescribe marijuana or participate in procedures and treatments such as abortion, medically assisted death, gender-affirming care, or others that run afoul of their ethical, moral, or religious beliefs or principles. The law, which goes into effect in October, will gut patients’ ability to take legal action if they believe they didn’t receive proper care due to a conscientious objection by a provider or an institution, such as a hospital. (Graf, 8/3)

The Washington Post: NIH Taps Jeanne Marrazzo To Succeed Fauci As Infectious-Disease Chief 
Jeanne M. Marrazzo, a University of Alabama at Birmingham infectious-disease expert, will succeed Anthony S. Fauci this fall as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, federal officials announced Wednesday. The $6.3 billion research institute is among the largest of the 27 institutes and centers that constitute the National Institutes of Health, America’s flagship biomedical agency. NIAID is also particularly prominent given its involvement in the response to the coronavirus pandemic and other diseases; it has also received attention because of Fauci’s own high profile and Republicans’ ongoing efforts to investigate the institute’s workings. (Diamond and Roubein, 8/2)

AP: Alabama Researcher Will Succeed Fauci In Infectious Disease Post
Marrazzo’s research has focused on sexually transmitted diseases and the prevention of HIV infection. At the university, she is director of the medical school’s division of infectious diseases. Her appointment was made by Lawrence Tabak, acting director for the National Institutes of Health. (8/2)

Science: University Of Alabama HIV Researcher Will Head NIH’s Infectious Disease Institute
Her selection is drawing praise from researchers and AIDS activists. The Infectious Diseases Society of America cited her “innumerable qualifications,” including her mentorship of new infectious disease specialists at UAB. Marrazzo will also be the first openly gay director of an NIH institute. “I couldn’t be happier. She’s somebody who gets the big picture,” says University of California, San Diego, epidemiologist Steffanie Strathdee, who got to know Marrazzo through the international HIV Prevention Trials Network. She added that Marrazzo “is superdedicated to patients” including those from vulnerable groups, such as lesbian and bisexual women. “Given NIH’s history, we need someone who really understands diversity and inclusion,” Strathdee says. (J. Kaiser, 8/2)

Stat: Uninsured Rate Hits ‘Record Low’ — Right Before Millions Start Losing Medicaid Coverage
Roughly 7.7% of Americans didn’t have any health insurance as of this past March — a “record low” uninsured rate, according to the latest health insurance survey from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, that uninsured rate — which still translated to more than 25 million Americans with no health coverage — is almost certainly higher now. That’s because the data don’t include the millions of low-income Americans who have lost the Medicaid coverage they gained during the pandemic. (Herman, 8/3)

Axios: Uninsured Rate Hit All-Time Low In Early 2023
Experts are concerned that those falling off Medicaid rolls won't find other coverage, especially in states without staffing or systems to help people who are eligible get Affordable Care Act coverage. "Members living in states that have not expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act could end up in the Medicaid coverage gap by having incomes that are too high to qualify for their state's Medicaid program but too low to qualify for marketplace insurance subsidies," said Leah Dewey, vice president at Cotiviti, an analytics company that works with payers. (Dreher, 8/3)

NPR: Medicaid Drops Nearly 4 Million People Since Pandemic Protections Expired
At least 3.7 million people have lost Medicaid, according to reports from 41 states and the District of Columbia, KFF reports. And 74% of people, on average, are losing coverage for "paperwork reasons," says Jennifer Tolbert, director of state health reform at KFF. She described some of those reasons. "They didn't get the renewal notice in time. They didn't understand what they needed to do," says Tolbert. "Or they submitted the documents, but the state was unable to process those documents before their coverage was ended." (Simmons-Duffin, 8/3)

The New York Times: New York Covid Cases Are Rising Slightly, Officials Warn 
Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations are rising in New York, prompting the state health commissioner on Wednesday to urge New Yorkers to get tested if they have a runny nose, headache or other symptoms. Despite the uptick, several epidemiologists expressed doubt that there would be a major wave of cases in the coming weeks, as the mix of Omicron subvariants circulating in New York has not changed dramatically this summer. (Goldstein, 8/2)

CBS News: COVID Comeback: Hospitalizations Increase In New Jersey
In New Jersey, there's been a 28% increase. While hospitalizations in Delaware are down 27%, there's been no change in Pennsylvania. (Stahl, 8/3)

The New York Times: Amid Signs Of A Covid Uptick, Researchers Brace For The ‘New Normal’ 
Echoing patterns in prior years, coronavirus infections are slowly ticking up in parts of the country, the harbinger of a possible fall and winter wave. But the numbers remain low for now, and are unlikely to reach the horrific highs seen in previous winters, experts said in interviews. Infections have been trending upward for about four weeks now, according to data gathered from wastewater monitoring, test positivity rates and hospitalizations and emergency room visits. Taken together, the figures offer researchers and public health officials the first glimpse of the coronavirus as a post-pandemic, seasonal threat, a permanent fixture of the infectious disease landscape. (Mandavilli, 8/2)

San Francisco Chronicle: COVID Boosters Set To Arrive Later Than Expected. Should You Wait?
The anticipated release of the next round of COVID-19 booster shots has been pushed back, with updated vaccines targeting the XBB.1.5 omicron variant now expected to arrive later than expected. Health officials initially had projected the doses would be delivered by September, aligning with this year’s flu shot rollout. But the new director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the timeline has shifted. (Vaziri, 8/2)

The Washington Post: Nose Picking Linked To Higher Risk Of Contracting Covid, Study Shows 
Habitual nose picking is associated with an increased risk of contracting the coronavirus, researchers in the Netherlands found. A new study, published Wednesday in PLOS ONE, showed that nearly 85 percent of 219 health-care workers surveyed reported picking their noses with varying frequencies — monthly, weekly or daily. Of those, about 17 percent contracted the coronavirus, compared with about 6 percent of those who said they did not engage in the activity. The risk was relatively the same for all nose pickers, the researchers said, regardless of how often they did it. (Bever, 8/2)

CIDRAP: New Breath Test Shows Promise For Rapid COVID-19 Detection
A new device created by researchers at Washington University in St. Louis can detect SARS-CoV-2 in just one or two breaths and provide results in less than 1 minute. Study results are published in ACS Sensors. The test could be more accurate than at-home tests and faster than polymerase chain reaction (PCR) or swab-based tests, which can take at least 15 minutes to produce results. The device, created by 3D printers, was tested using eight participants (two negative for COVID-19, six positive as indicated by PCR testing), who breathed two, four, and eight times into a flexible tube. The breath test provided no false results, with accurate results obtained after two breaths for each participant. (Soucheray, 8/2)

The 19th: COVID-19 PPP Loans Boosted Staffing Hours In Nursing Homes, Study Shows
Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic boosted staffing in the nursing homes that took them, according to a new study in the medical journal JAMA Open Access. Nursing home staffing shortages are a long-standing problem that was only worsened by COVID-19. While the study does not say if the PPP loans — the majority of which were required to go toward staff pay — solved that shortage in nursing homes that used them, it did increase staffing hours. (Luterman, 8/2)

Reuters: GSK Sues Pfizer In US For Patent Infringement Over RSV Vaccine 
British biopharmaceutical giant GSK sued Pfizer in a U.S. court on Wednesday, alleging that Pfizer's respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine Abrysvo violates GSK's patent rights in its rival RSV shot Arexvy. In the lawsuit brought in federal court in Delaware, GSK said New York-based Pfizer's vaccine infringes four of its patents related to the antigen its shots use to fight the respiratory disease. (Brittain, 8/2)

Fox News: Connecticut Researchers Uncover Regulator Compound With Potential To Treat Parkinson's Disease: Report
A University of Connecticut scientist has reportedly identified a key mechanism in Parkinson’s disease research. UConn Health, a branch of the university, said Tuesday that assistant professor of neuroscience Yulan Xiong and her team had discovered a regulator compound which holds the potential to treat the brain disorder. The work, identifying a regulator of a gene called LRRK2, was published in a recent study in The EMBO Journal. The gene, a section of DNA, is considered the basic unit of inheritance. (Musto, 8/2)

AP: Veterans Sue U.S. Defense And Veterans Affairs Departments To Get Access To Infertility Treatments 
The U.S. Defense Department and the Department of Veteran Affairs are making it difficult, and sometimes impossible for veterans to get infertility treatments, according to lawsuits filed Wednesday in federal courts in New York and Boston. The lawsuits seek to hold the United States accountable for creating obstacles to health care access for a population that advocates say has a higher rate of infertility than the population at large. (Neumeister, 8/2)

Fox News: New AI Ultrasound Tech Is First To Land FDA Approval To Enhance Prenatal Care: ‘Better Health Outcomes'
Artificial intelligence-powered ultrasounds are now one step closer to becoming part of routine prenatal care. Sonio Detect, an AI-powered ultrasound scanning technology, has become the first product of its kind to land FDA approval. Made by Sonio, a "femtech" company based in Paris, France, the AI product functions as a high-tech helper for maternity care professionals, scanning for warning signs that could indicate fetal health issues. (Rudy, 8/3)

Axios: Biden Aims To Diversify Research Ranks With Cancer Moonshot Awards
The Biden administration is committing $5.4 million to support a cohort of 11 "cancer moonshot scholars" in a new early career fellowship aimed at building a more diverse cancer research workforce, officials told Axios first. The researchers come from backgrounds that are underrepresented in the biomedical, clinical, behavioral and social sciences research workforces. They will pursue projects to improve prevention and early detection of cancer in "underrepresented populations" and improve cancer outcomes for all populations, Biden officials said. (Reed, 8/3)

NPR: Testing Your Genes For Cancer Risk Is Way Cheaper Now — And It Could Save Your Life
A simple, relatively inexpensive blood test can now check dozens of genes associated with different kinds of cancers — cancers of the breast, ovaries, colon, pancreas, stomach, prostate and more.But experts say that most people who should be offered this kind of genetic screening for inherited cancer risk never hear of it."It's an amazing scientific advance. And it's a shame that it's not being used as widely as it could be to realize its full impact," says Sapna Syngal of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. (Greenfieldboyce, 8/2)

Bay Area News Group: San Jose: Good Samaritan, Regional Medical Center Hospitals Part Of Cyber Attack
Two major San Jose hospitals may have been impacted by a wide-ranging cyber attack that exposed patient names, ZIP codes, phone numbers and other private information from one of America’s largest healthcare providers. (Greschler, 8/2)

CBS News: Stanford Health Care Residents Demanding Better Wages
Stanford Health Care residents are demanding better wages as they say many of them are struggling with debt and making ends meet. (Darrow, 8/2)

CNN: Black Parents And Their Children Are More Likely To Experience Unfair Treatment When Seeking Medical Care, Study Finds
Black parents and their children are more likely to experience unfair treatment when seeking medical care than others, a new study from the Urban Institute found. The study, released earlier this week, is based on data from the nonprofit's Health Reform Monitoring Survey, the latest round of which was conducted in June. Researchers found that about 22% of Black parents said they were judged unfairly or mistreated because of their race or ethnicity, language, health insurance type, weight, income, disability or other characteristics. (Gamble, 8/3)

The Wall Street Journal: Virtual Healthcare Has Green Benefits
Virtual doctor’s appointments are helping healthcare companies reduce carbon emissions, though sustainability is mostly seen as a side benefit of telehealth rather than its main driver. The use of telehealth picked up considerably during the Covid-19 pandemic, with virtual visits increasing 38 times from their prepandemic levels and then largely stabilizing, according to 2021 figures provided by McKinsey. At first the practice was seen mostly as a way to improve patient access and convenience while reducing costs, but as the trend stabilized, healthcare companies started viewing virtual consultations as an opportunity to improve their carbon footprint. (Butini, 8/2)

Modern Healthcare: CVS Health To Cut Up To $800 Million In Expenses
CVS Health seeks to reduce expenses by $800 million through restructuring and layoffs to compensate for rising expenses, soft retail performance and Oak Street Health expansion costs, executives told investors Wednesday. The healthcare conglomerate reported a 37% decline in net income to $1.9 billion, or $1.48 per share, on Wednesday. Revenue increased 10.3% to $88.9 billion. CVS shares opened on the New York Stock Exchange at $72.49 Wednesday, down 2% from the closing price on Tuesday. (Tepper, 8/2)

Stat: Humana, CVS Hope To Turn Members Into Patients At Clinics
Both Humana and CVS Health on Wednesday touted plans to aggressively scale their primary care clinics for seniors and funnel Medicare members into those clinics. It’s a formula that’s been mastered by UnitedHealth Group, which is both the country’s largest Medicare Advantage insurer and one of the biggest physician employers. Even so, investors signaled they think Humana and CVS can catch up, sending both companies’ stock prices higher after their respective second quarter earnings calls Wednesday morning. (Bannow, 8/2)

CBS News: Tydemy Birth Control Pills Recalled, May Be Ineffective, FDA Warns
Thousands of Tydemy brand birth control pills have been recalled, the Food and Drug Administration warned Tuesday, after testing by drugmaker Lupin Pharmaceuticals found that two lots they made of the tablets might have lower effectiveness. Recalled batches of the Tydemy pills — a combination prescription contraceptive of estrogen and progestin — are of two specific lot numbers listed on the FDA's website. (Tin, 8/2)

CIDRAP: Most Drugs Made At Tornado-Ravaged Pfizer Plant Available From Other Suppliers, Experts Say
While Pfizer has identified 65 injectable drugs that may be in short supply following extensive tornado damage at its Rocky Mount, North Carolina, plant on July 19, experts say most are available from other suppliers. In a July 21 letter to US hospitals, Pfizer listed the 65 at-risk drugs by name and formulation. The list includes forms of epinephrine, fentanyl, heparin, lidocaine, and sodium chloride. The company said it didn't have an estimated date for resumption of drug production at the plant, but that it would "continue to fill orders of products for which we have inventory in the distribution chain at 100 percent of historical levels." (Van Beusekom, 8/2)

Bloomberg: Black Widow Spider Bite Treatment In Short Supply
“People can’t describe it very well, but they’re writhing in agony on their bed in the emergency department,” says Richard Dart, a poison expert who runs Rocky Mountain Poison & Drug Safety, part of the Denver Health system. “And I mean writhing in agony.” There’s an antivenom that can drastically relieve the pain. But the medicine — like over 300 other drugs in the US — is in short supply. The reasons for the shortage — and the potential solutions — are illustrative of how drugmakers and hospitals might alleviate supply crunches of other medicines. (Swetlitz, 8/3)

NBC News: Makers Of Ozempic And Mounjaro Sued Over 'Stomach Paralysis' Claims
The drugmakers Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly failed to adequately warn patients about the possible risk of severe stomach problems associated with their blockbuster drugs Ozempic and Mounjaro, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday. The 26-page lawsuit, filed on behalf of a Louisiana woman who says she was “severely injured” after taking the two diabetes drugs, is the first to allege that they can cause gastrointestinal injuries. (Lovelace Jr., 8/2)

Stat: Alarmed By Ozempic And Wegovy's Popularity, Insurers Wage Battle
Patients are bracing for “D-Day,” the date their insurance companies will stop covering the drugs. Doctors are getting letters from insurance investigators discouraging new prescriptions. And pharmacies are being told by insurers to check for a specific diagnosis when filling prescriptions. It’s a charge on all fronts by insurance companies to contain the spiraling costs of a new class of weight loss-inducing drugs, the GLP-1s. (Chen, 8/3)

Axios: Medicare Could Save Billions Covering Obesity Meds: Study
Medicare coverage of obesity drugs could save taxpayers as much as $245 billion over a decade by reducing demand for hospital care and skilled nursing, according to new research from the USC Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics. The study attempts to put a price tag on the public health benefits from expanding coverage as a new class of obesity drugs hits the market. (Bettelheim, 8/2)

Axios: Allurion, Maker Of Weight Loss Balloons, Goes Public
Allurion Technologies, a Massachusetts-based maker of swallowable gastric balloons, today will go public on the New York Stock Exchange. Anti-obesity is health care's new big thing, thanks to the popularity of new drugs like Ozempic, after a long history of most prescribed treatments being behavioral. (Primack, 8/2)

The Wall Street Journal: Timing Of Medical-Device Recalls Linked To CEO’s Ownership Stake In The Company
CEO stock ownership might play a role in delays of medical-device recalls. A new study suggests that there is a correlation between the percentage of shares a company’s chief executive has and the speed at which the company initiates recalls of medical devices. In essence, the more shares, the slower the recall. (Bhattacharyya, 7/30)

Axios: Public Health Crises Collide In New Chemical Regulation
Medical device makers and health care providers want to move away from using a likely carcinogenic gas to sterilize devices — but they say it's not that simple. Because eliminating ethylene oxide is expected to take so long, federal regulators must weigh the risks and benefits of using the chemical, also known as EtO, at its current scale — and stakeholder groups are at odds over the right path forward. (Goldman, 8/2)

Stat: Pharma Showers House GOP Doctor With Campaign Cash
The pharmaceutical industry has been flooding the campaign coffers of Rep. Larry Bucshon, a cardiothoracic surgeon and Republican from Indiana, according to a STAT analysis of this quarter’s filings. CEOs of pharmaceutical giants, executives of the brand-drug lobby PhRMA, and companies’ political action committees all gave in higher-than-usual numbers to the rank-and-file House member last quarter. The total was nearly $56,000 between April 14 and June 30. (Cohrs, 8/3)

The Washington Post: Over $87 Million Spent On Cannabis In Maryland’s First Month Of Adult Sales
Marijuana users dropped $87.43 million on cannabis in Maryland during a strong first month of recreational sales, according to state officials, spending an average of about $2.8 million on the substance each day in July. (Shepherd, 8/2)

NBC News: Gay Louisiana Doctor Says He’s Leaving The State Over Its ‘Discriminatory’ Legislation
One of Louisiana’s few doctors specializing in pediatric heart conditions is leaving the state after the Legislature passed a variety of bills aimed at restricting rights for LGBTQ people. Dr. Jake Kleinmahon works at Ochsner Hospital for Children in New Orleans as the medical director of the hospital’s pediatric heart transplant, heart failure and ventricular assist device programs. He is just one of three doctors in the state with that specialization, he told WDSU, an NBC affiliate in New Orleans. (Yurcaba, 8/3)

AP: Patient Escapes Maryland Psychiatric Hospital Through Shot-Out Window 
A patient escaped from one of Maryland’s state-run psychiatric hospitals Tuesday evening by exiting through a shot-out window and fleeing in a waiting getaway car, according to local police. An unidentified person approached the Eastern Shore Hospital Center, fired several gunshots into a glass window and kicked in the broken window frame, Cambridge Police Chief Justin Todd said in a news release Wednesday morning. That allowed the patient to escape, and the two drove away in a black vehicle, police said. (8/2)

ABC News: Longer, Dangerous Heat Waves Raise Concerns Over Increased Seasonal Affective Disorder
As record-breaking heat has left the South and Southwest unbearable and unhealthy for any outdoor activity, millions of Americans have been forced to stay indoors and seek out air-conditioned places. Psychiatric experts warn that the limits placed on people's activities will result in a major mental health emergency: summer seasonal affective disorder or SAD, which is a type of depression related to the weather, according to the Mayo Clinic. (Pereira, 8/3)

CBS News: Add Grip Strength Tests To Weight And Blood Pressure Vital Signs, Researchers Say
The amount of force you can muster with your hand is a good representation of total body strength, which is a good measure of healthy aging, even in younger individuals. Grip strength in men declines rapidly in middle age. For women, it declines slowly after 50. Low grip strength has been associated with conditions like type 2 diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and depression. And researchers at the University of Michigan recently found that low grip strength is associated with faster aging in cells. (Marshall, 8/2)

NBC News: Toxic Bacteria Detected In Several Zion National Park Waterways
Three bodies of water in the park have cyanotoxins in them, according to the Park Service: the North Fork of the Virgin River, North Creek and La Verkin Creek. These toxins are produced by a type of bacteria called cyanobacteria, also known as blue-green algae. The algae is common in ponds and lakes and not always dangerous, but it can grow into large blooms that produce cyanotoxins. In people, symptoms of cyanotoxin exposure include irritation in the eyes, ears, nose, throat or skin, as well as headache, seizures, vomiting and diarrhea. In animals and pets, symptoms include drooling, low energy, lack of appetite, paralysis and vomiting. (Pandey, 8/2)