First Edition: Aug. 4, 2022

KHN: When Mental Illness Leads To Dropped Charges, Patients Often Go Without Stabilizing Care 
For seven years, Timothy Jay Fowler rotated between jail, forced psychiatric hospitalization, and freedom. In 2014, the Great Falls, Montana, man was charged with assaulting two detention officers while he was in jail, accused of theft. A mental health evaluation concluded that Fowler, who has been diagnosed with schizophrenia, was unfit to stand trial, according to court documents. After Fowler received psychiatric treatment for several months, a judge ruled that he was unlikely to become competent anytime soon. His case was dismissed, and after a stay in the state-run psychiatric hospital, he was released. (Houghton, 8/4)

KHN: ‘Children Are Not Little Adults’ And Need Special Protection During Heat Waves 
After more than a week of record-breaking temperatures across much of the country, public health experts are cautioning that children are more susceptible to heat illness than adults are — even more so when they’re on the athletic field, living without air conditioning, or waiting in a parked car. Cases of heat-related illness are rising with average air temperatures, and experts say almost half of those getting sick are children. The reason is twofold: Children’s bodies have more trouble regulating temperature than those of adults, and they rely on adults to help protect them from overheating. (Huetteman, 8/4)

KHN: A California Man’s ‘Painful And Terrifying’ Road To A Monkeypox Diagnosis
Two days after Kevin Kwong flew home to California from New York, his hands itched so badly, the pain jolted him from sleep. He thought the problem was eczema. “Everything started rapidly getting worse,” the Emeryville, California, resident said. “I started to get more spots, on my face, more redness and they started leaking fluid. The rash expanded to my elbows and my hands and my ankles.” It took Kwong, 33, six virtual appointments with doctors and nurses, one call to a nurse hotline, a trip to an urgent care clinic, two emergency room visits, and two incorrect diagnoses before an infectious disease specialist diagnosed him with monkeypox in early July. (Fortier, 8/4)

AP: Biden Signs Executive Order To Protect Travel For Abortion 
President Joe Biden on Wednesday signed an executive order that lays the groundwork for Medicaid to help women seeking abortions to travel between states to obtain access to the procedure. The details are still being worked out, and the administration faces a challenging legal landscape because it’s illegal to use federal funding to pay for abortions unless the woman’s life is in danger or the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest. (Kim and Megerian, 8/3)

The Hill: Biden Signs Executive Order To Support Patients Traveling For Abortions 
Biden’s executive order also directs HHS to consider actions like providing technical assistance and issuing new guidance to make sure health care providers comply with nondiscrimination laws in the wake of the ruling. And the order instructs HHS to improve federal research and data collection at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in order to evaluate the impact of the Supreme Court’s ruling on maternal health and reproductive healthcare.  (Chalfant, 8/3)

Bloomberg: Democrats Aren’t Forgiving Biden for His Slow Response to the Roe Reversal
“It will take a long time to get a shift in our Constitution,” says Fatima Goss Graves, president and chief executive officer of the National Women’s Law Center. “That does not absolve anyone at any level.” One former administration official puts it more pointedly: “What the hell? They had plenty of time to figure this out.” (Cook, 8/4)

Politico: Kansas Landslide Fuels Abortion Rights Movement’s Next Fights
On Wednesday, while the dust was settling from the Kansas vote, progressives were already urging members of like-minded Facebook groups to help collect signatures to put an abortion rights amendment before Missouri voters in 2023. “Some of these places you may think are so deeply red that no measure to protect abortion could ever succeed,” said Fairness Project Executive Director Kelly Hall. “But don’t write off these states. No matter where you live, there is hope on the horizon.” (Ollstein, 8/3)

AP: Abortion Vote In Kansas Sparks New Hope For Dems In Midterms
The Kansas vote suggests that threats to abortion rights may energize Democrats in a way few political leaders can. And it comes at a moment when the party is gaining momentum on other fronts, including a legislative package to reduce prescription drug prices, combat climate change and raise taxes on corporations. The challenge for Democrats will be to maintain the energy for several more months and defy trends that typically trip up the party in power. (Peoples, 8/4)

The New York Times: How Democrats See Abortion Politics After Kansas Vote 
A decisive vote to defend abortion rights in deeply conservative Kansas reverberated across the midterm campaign landscape on Wednesday, galvanizing Democrats and underscoring for Republicans the risks of overreaching on one of the most emotionally charged matters in American politics. (Glueck and Goldmacher, 8/3)

CNN: What The Kansas Abortion Surprise Does (And Does Not) Mean For November
Given the chance to support abortion rights, even in a reliably Republican state in the middle of the country, voters will support abortion rights. That's the unexpected and consequential lesson from the Kansas primary on Tuesday. (Wolf, 8/3)

Columbus Dispatch: What Does Kansas' Abortion Vote Mean For A Future Ohio Amendment?
Voters in red-state Kansas easily rejected an effort to strip abortion protections from the state's Constitution in the nation's first test of how Americans would respond to the overturning of Roe v. Wade. That's caught the attention of Ohioans who want to enshrine abortion access in the state Constitution, sidestepping the GOP-controlled Legislature and its restrictions on the procedure. (Balmert, 8/4)

Des Moines Register: Iowa Abortions Dropped For Most Of Decade Before Roe V. Wade Overturn
There were fewer Iowa abortions in 2021 than in 2020, marking the first time in three years that the annual number of abortions has decreased in the state. Iowa Department of Public Health spokesperson Sarah Ekstrand said there were 3,761 abortions in Iowa in 2021, according to preliminary data. That's down about 7% compared to 2020, when 4,058 abortions were performed in the state. (Akin, 8/3)

Houston Chronicle: Texas Health Programs Report 21% Drop In Longterm Birth Control
The number of low-income people accessing highly effective forms of contraception in Texas health programs dropped for the second straight year, according to new data covering the fiscal period that ended last August, just as the state’s new six-week abortion ban took effect. Use of intrauterine devices and contraceptive implants fell by 21 percent from the previous fiscal year in Healthy Texas Women and Family Planning, the two state-administered programs for reproductive health services. It was down about 30 percent overall from fiscal year 2019. (Blackman, 8/4)

Indianapolis Star: Indiana Abortion Law: Schools Are Not Required To Teach Sex Ed
For two weeks, Indiana lawmakers have been locked in debate about how to reduce the number of abortions performed in the state. The current proposal would ban all abortions, except in cases of rape, incest, fatal fetal anomalies or when the life of the pregnant person is at risk. So far, though, lawmakers haven’t considered a strategy that research shows can be effective in reducing the number of unintended pregnancies and, thus, the number of abortions – teaching young people how to prevent pregnancy. (Herron, 8/4)

CIDRAP: WHO: US Has Biggest Jump In Monkeypox Cases
In the last week of July, the United States saw the largest spike in cases, the WHO said. All told, 83 countries have reported 23,351 laboratory-confirmed cases. Together 10 countries account for 89% of the world's cases, including the United States (5,175 cases), Spain (4,298), Germany (2,677), the United Kingdom (2,546), France (1,955), Brazil (1,369), the Netherlands (879), Canada (803), Portugal (633), and Italy (479). (Soucheray, 8/3)

Fox News: Fifth Child Tests Positive For Monkeypox In US
At least five children have tested positive for monkeypox in the U.S. since July. Four of the children who have been confirmed to have the disease are U.S. citizens, with two in California and two in Indiana. The final case was an infant who was tested while traveling through Washington, D.C. but is not a U.S. resident, according to ABC 7. (Hagstrom, 8/3)

Stat: Red Cross Beginning To Screen Blood Donors For Monkeypox
As monkeypox continues its relentless spread around the globe, organizations in the U.S. are taking steps to safeguard the nation’s blood supply. In addition to temperature checks that are part of standard health screens for prospective donors, the American Red Cross is now checking for the distinctive lesions that are a hallmark of the disease as part of routine arm examinations. And beginning in October, the Red Cross will require individuals who have been diagnosed with monkeypox or exposed to someone with a monkeypox infection to wait at least 21 days before giving blood. (Molteni, 8/3)

The New York Times: U.S. Could Have Had Many More Doses Of Monkeypox Vaccine This Year 
The shortage of vaccines to combat a fast-growing monkeypox outbreak was caused in part because the Department of Health and Human Services failed early on to ask that bulk stocks of the vaccine it already owned be bottled for distribution, according to multiple administration officials familiar with the matter. By the time the federal government placed its orders, the vaccine’s Denmark-based manufacturer, Bavarian Nordic, had booked other clients and was unable to do the work for months, officials said — even though the federal government had invested well over $1 billion in the vaccine’s development. (LaFraniere, Weiland and Goldstein, 8/3)

Stat: With Monkeypox Vaccine In Demand, NIH To Test Ways To Stretch Supplies
As the monkeypox outbreak continues to grow, one thing seems abundantly clear. The global need for monkeypox vaccine outstrips the supply, and will likely continue to do so for quite some time. Scientists at the National Institutes of Health are getting ready to explore a possible work-around. They are putting the finishing touches on the design of a clinical trial to assess two methods of stretching available doses of Jynneos, the only vaccine in the United States approved for vaccination against monkeypox. (Branswell, 8/4)

ABC News: Moderna Considering Creating An MRNA Monkeypox Vaccine Amid Growing Demand For Shots
Amid growing concerns over the potential threat of monkeypox, executives from Moderna said Wednesday they have initiated a research program to consider whether the company could create a monkeypox vaccine with mRNA technology. "We're obviously very aware of the monkeypox concern and obviously very sensitive to recent announcements," Moderna President Stephen Hoge said during an investor call. (Mitropoulos, 8/3)

Axios: Alternate Monkeypox Treatment Caught In Regulatory Delays
Fears about shortages of monkeypox vaccine are focusing attention on the more than 1 million doses of a smallpox treatment in the Strategic National Stockpile that experts say could be an effective backup but that's hard to access. (Dreher, 8/4)

Politico: DeSantis Claims Concern Over Monkeypox Is Overblown 
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday attempted to downplay anxiety over monkeypox, saying that politicians and the media have overblown the severity of the disease and equated it to fears surrounding Covid-19. Florida had 525 monkeypox infections as of Tuesday, according to a state database, which is an increase from the roughly 350 infections from late last week. Florida had the fifth highest number of cases in the nation as of Monday, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Sarkissian, 8/3)

CNN: CDC Expected To Ease Covid-19 Recommendations, Including For Schools, As Soon As This Week
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expected to update its guidance for Covid-19 control in the community, including in schools, in the coming days, according to sources familiar with the plan. (Goodman and Cohen, 8/3)

AP: COVID Cases Drop 9% Globally Last Week, Deaths Stable
New coronavirus cases fell 9% globally last week while deaths remained stable, according to the latest weekly assessment of the pandemic released Wednesday by the World Health Organization. (8/2)

CIDRAP: Studies: 3 Or 4 COVID Vaccine Doses Protective Against Omicron
Three new studies show that recipients of three or four mRNA COVID-19 vaccine doses received substantially better protection against infection with the Omicron variant than those who received only two. ... The rate of breakthrough infection was 7% in workers who received four vaccine doses, compared with 20% in the 4,802 of 24,280 participants who received only three. (Van Beusekom, 8/3)

The Wall Street Journal: Eli Lilly’s Covid-19 Antibody Treatment To Be Sold Commercially
Eli Lilly & Co. said it plans to begin commercial sales of its Covid-19 monoclonal antibody treatment to states, hospitals and other healthcare providers this month, as the federal government’s supply of the drug is nearly depleted. The move marks a shift away from the way Lilly’s drug and most other Covid-19 treatments and vaccines have been distributed in the U.S. It will likely be the first test of whether the vaccines and treatments would remain accessible if shifted to a commercial market. (Armour and Loftus, 8/3)

NBC News: Australia’s Bad Flu Season Is A Warning For The U.S. This Year
The U.S. may be in for a severe flu season this year if trends in the Southern Hemisphere — historically a seasonal harbinger for the U.S. — hold true. It isn't the first time since the Covid pandemic began that experts have warned of a bad flu season or even a "twindemic": a bad flu season on top of a winter surge of Covid. But so far, that hasn't materialized. (Edwards, 8/4)

Modern Healthcare: HCSC Doubles Down On Medicare Advantage As Market Share Declines
Health Care Service Corp. plans to expand its Medicare Advantage business into another 150 counties next year as the insurer seeks to gain a foothold in an increasingly competitive market for private Medicare plans. (Tepper, 8/3)

Modern Healthcare: No Surprises Act Influencing Insurers' Rate-Setting Plans
When Cigna wanted to cut reimbursements for a physician group, the health insurance company came armed with a new negotiating tool: the No Surprises Act. The insurer notified a clinical practice last week that its contracted rate was no longer competitive because of the federal ban on surprise billing, according to an email provided to Modern Healthcare. Indeed, Cigna wrote, it was requesting rate reductions for all providers with the same specialty. (Tepper, 8/3)

Modern Healthcare: Hospitals Serving Black Patients Get Less Financial Help, Study Shows
Hospitals serving a higher proportion of Black patients receive less financial support for providing care compared with those serving a lower proportion, according to a recent study from physician-researchers at the University of California Los Angeles and Princeton, Johns Hopkins and Harvard universities. (Hudson, 8/3)

The Boston Globe: CVS Earnings Helped By COVID Test Kits, Longer Flu Season
CVS Health thumped second-quarter expectations and hiked its full-year forecast as growing prescription claims and COVID-19 test kits sales countered a drop in vaccinations. A longer cough cold and flu season also brought in more business, as claims in CVS Health’s biggest segment, pharmacy benefits management, rose about 4 percent. ... (8/3)

Stat: Patients Seeking New Weight Loss Drugs Find ‘Wild West’ Of Online Prescribers
Briana Lawson was ready to knock her diabetes into remission. For years, the 47-year-old health care consultant had treated her high blood sugar with metformin. But to avoid a lifetime of medication, she knew she’d need to lose weight. (Palmer, 8/4)

Stat: Lilly Ordered To Pay $61M For Shortchanging Medicaid Drug Rebate Program
After nearly a decade of legal squabbling, Eli Lilly was ordered by a federal court jury to pay $61 million for shortchanging the Medicaid drug rebate program, the latest instance in which a drug company was accused of skimping on payments. (Silverman, 8/3)

Stat: Monoclonal Antibody Treatment For Malaria Shows Encouraging Results
An experimental antibody treatment prevented malaria in the majority of participants in a small but important new study, providing a measure of hope in the effort to lower the burden of the disease worldwide. (Welle, 8/3)

Los Angeles Times: Outbreak Of Legionnaires’ Disease In Napa County Sickens 12, Killing 1
Testing found high levels of the bacteria in a sample taken from a cooling tower at the Embassy Suites Napa Valley hotel in the city of Napa, public health officials said Wednesday, though other sources of Legionella in the area are possible. “The cooling tower has since been taken offline, which mitigates any ongoing risk to public health,” officials said. (Yee, 8/3)

AP: Swine Flu Investigated After People Sickened At WVa Fair
Health officials said they are investigating after several people developed a flu-like illness after working closely with pigs that exhibited respiratory symptoms and fever at a county fair. The state Department of Health and Human Resources said the H3N2v strain of influenza A was confirmed on at least one human test Tuesday. The sample has been forwarded to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for Confirmation. (8/4)

Axios: Judge: West Virginia Medicaid Must Cover Gender-Affirming Surgeries
A federal judge has ruled that West Virginia's Medicaid program cannot exclude coverage for gender-affirming surgeries. District Judge Robert C. Chambers wrote in a 30-page ruling that the exclusion "discriminates on the basis of sex and transgender status," and certified the lawsuit, filed by Lambda Legal, as a class action covering all trans people who rely on West Virginia's Medicaid. (Chen, 8/3)

Health News Florida: AdventHealth Centra Care Reports An Uptick In Patients Seeking Treatment For Heat-Related Illness
Feel sick from the heat? You’re not alone. Doctors at AdventHealth in the Orlando region say they’re treating a record number of patients for heat-related illnesses. (Prieur, 8/3)

AP: EPA: Chemical In Medical-Device Cleanser Poses Cancer Risk
The Environmental Protection Agency is warning residents who live near medical sterilizing plants in 13 states and Puerto Rico about potential health risks from emissions of ethylene oxide, a chemical widely used in their operations. Laredo, Texas; Ardmore, Oklahoma; and Lakewood, Colorado, are among the communities facing the highest risk from ethylene oxide emissions, EPA said. (Daly, 8/3)

Stateline: Looser Liquor Laws, A Boon To Bars And Restaurants, May Have Increased Problem Drinking
Most states that allowed curbside pickup or home delivery of alcohol to help restaurants, bars and liquor stores survive pandemic closures have extended the looser liquor laws. But in their desire to boost the hospitality industry, states might be fueling binge drinking and higher overall alcohol consumption, some research shows. (Povich, 8/4)