First Edition: August 5, 2019

Kaiser Health News: Drugmakers Now ‘Masters’ At Rolling Out Their Own Generics To Stifle Competition
When PDL BioPharma’s $40 million blood-pressure medicine faced the threat of a generic rival this year, the company pulled out a little-known strategy that critics say helps keep drugs expensive and competition weak. It launched its own generic version of Tekturna, a pill taken daily by thousands. PDL’s “authorized” copycat hit the market in March, stealing momentum from the new rival and protecting sales even though Tekturna’s patent ran out last year. (Hancock and Lupkin, 7/5)

Kaiser Health News: Kathy Brandt, A Hospice Expert Who Invited The World Into Her Own Last Days With Cancer, Dies
Kathy Brandt, a hospice industry leader who turned her own terminal cancer diagnosis into a public conversation about choices at the end of life, died Aug. 4. She was 54. Brandt’s death was announced on social media by her wife of nine years, Kimberly Acquaviva, 47, a professor of nursing and author of a book about hospice care for LGBTQ patients and families. “I wanted all of you to know that Kathy had a peaceful death and your love and support is what made that possible,” Acquaviva wrote in comments posted to Facebook. “Our family has felt your love and we can’t begin to tell you how much it’s meant to us.” (Aleccia, 7/5)

Kaiser Health News: Superstar Athletes Popularize Unproven Stem Cell Procedures
Baseball superstar Max Scherzer — whose back injury has prevented him from pitching for the Washington Nationals since he last played  on July 25 — is the latest in a long list of professional athletes to embrace unproven stem cell injections in an attempt to accelerate their recovery. But many doctors and ethicists worry that pro athletes — who have played a key role in popularizing stem cells — are misleading the public into thinking that the costly, controversial shots are an accepted, approved treatment. (Szabo, 7/5)

Kaiser Health News: The Real-Life Conversion Of A Former Anti-Vaxxer
Amid the contentious dispute over immunization requirements for children, Kelley Watson Snyder stands out: She has been both a recalcitrant skeptic and an ardent proponent of childhood vaccines. Snyder, a Monterey, Calif., mother of two, was a so-called anti-vaxxer for many years, adding her voice to those that rejected mandatory vaccinations for school-age children. She later realized she was wrong and in 2014 founded a pro-vaccination Facebook group called “Crunchy Front Range Pro-Vaxxers,” which she administers. It is an invitation-only site on which approximately 1,100 members exchange views and information. (Glionna, 7/5)

The Associated Press: Hate Ruled Out, But Motive Still A Mystery In Dayton Attack
As authorities in Ohio try to pin down a motive for the weekend's second U.S. mass shooting and dig into the slain shooter's life, what they find might also help answer another big question looming over the tragedy: What, if anything, could have stopped it? Police say the gunman was wearing a mask and body armor when he shot and killed his younger sister and eight others after the pair had arrived together with a friend earlier Saturday evening at a popular entertainment district packed with people. (Seewer, Sewell and Minchillo, 8/5)

Los Angeles Times: In El Paso And Now Dayton, The Familiar Fallout Of A Mass Shooting Repeats Again
“Honestly, and I have to say unfortunately, because we have had so many of these incidences, there is a bevy of mayors who are able to give great advice and feedback,” Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley said during a Sunday afternoon briefing. “I think that’s quite frankly a little sad, if you think about it, that they’ve learned so much because all of their communities have gone through these terrible mass shootings.” She called the deaths in her city “completely preventable,” in an earlier phone interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “We’re city No. 250,” she said. “How many more cities have to go through mass shootings before somebody does something to change the law?” (La Ganga, Etehad, Monetero and Hennessy-Fiske, 8/4)

The New York Times: Gunman’s Own Sister Was Among Dayton Shooting Victims
Among the victims killed in the barrage of gunfire outside Ned Peppers, a popular spot in Dayton, Ohio, was the gunman’s sister, a 22-year-old college student described as “bubbly” and “outgoing.” Investigators had not determined on Sunday evening whether the gunman, armed with a military-style rifle and clad in protective armor, had specifically targeted his sister or anyone else in the crowd. (Stockman and Bogel-Burroughs, 8/4)

The Wall Street Journal: Mass Shootings In El Paso, Dayton Leave 29 Dead
In El Paso, Texas, a lone gunman walked into a crowded Walmart Saturday morning, shooting with an AK-style semiautomatic rifle. Authorities were investigating the shooting, which killed 20 and injured 26 more, as a possible case of domestic terrorism and a hate crime because officials believe the suspect, a white man, was targeting Hispanics. He has been charged with capital murder. (Hobbs, Maher and Bauerlein, 8/5)

The New York Times: Back-To-Back Outbreaks Of Gun Violence In El Paso And Dayton Stun Country
In a country that has become nearly numb to men with guns opening fire in schools, at concerts and in churches, the back-to-back bursts of gun violence in less than 24 hours were enough to leave the public stunned and shaken. The shootings ground the 2020 presidential campaign to a halt, reignited a debate on gun control and called into question the increasingly angry words directed at immigrants on the southern border in recent weeks by right-wing pundits and President Trump. “It’s outrageous,” said Terrion Foster, who works in accounting and lives in Kansas City, Mo., where he was out shopping at a farmer’s market near downtown on Sunday afternoon. “It’s really sad because I feel like you can’t go anywhere and be safe. I’m 50 years old and I didn’t think I’d be alive to see some of the things that are going on today.” (Robertson, Bosman and Smith, 8/4)

The Washington Post: A Weekend Of Mass Murder Reflects How American Violence Goes Viral
The weekend’s violence rekindled an array of other national arguments: over gun rights, over pop culture, over social media and over what constitutes terrorism. Amid the overwhelming tragedy of the shootings, the El Paso incident drew special attention to the problem of lone-wolf shooters and whether they should be viewed as isolated actors — “sick people,” in the words of White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney — or as part of a larger, ideologically driven movement. “These are not single shooters,” said Daniel Okrent, author of “The Guarded Gate,” a history of anti-immigrant bigotry in the United States. “They’re a mob with high-powered rifles, people who feel they’re part of something bigger. The technology has changed: A mob doesn’t have to get together in the street with torches anymore.” (Fisher, 8/4)

The Wall Street Journal: White Nationalists Pose Challenge To Investigators
The shootings in Texas and Ohio that killed at least 29 people over the weekend left authorities searching for how to confront the challenges posed by mass violence and domestic terrorism, especially attacks driven by white-nationalist ideologies. Violence committed by white men inspired by an extremist ideology makes up a growing number of domestic terrorism cases, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Of about 850 current domestic terrorism cases, 40% involve racially motivated violent extremism and a majority of those cases involve white supremacists, the FBI said. (Frosh, Elinson and Gurman, 8/4)

The Washington Post: Trump’s Anti-Immigrant Rhetoric Looms Over El Paso Massacre
President Trump has relentlessly used his bully pulpit to decry Latino migration as “an invasion of our country.” He has demonized undocumented immigrants as “thugs” and “animals.” He has defended the detention of migrant children, hundreds of whom have been held in squalor. And he has warned that without a wall to prevent people from crossing the border from Mexico, America would no longer be America. “How do you stop these people? You can’t,” Trump lamented at a May rally in Panama City Beach, Fla. Someone in the crowd yelled back one idea: “Shoot them.” The audience of thousands cheered and Trump smiled. Shrugging off the suggestion, he quipped, “Only in the Panhandle can you get away with that statement.” (Rucker, 8/4)

Politico: Trump Rhetoric Freshly Condemned After Mass Shootings
The president made no mention of white supremacism on Sunday and focused instead on mental illness. He also didn't say anything about the critics laying blame at his feet, but appeared to allude to it by noting that “this has been going on for years. For years and years in our country.” He demurred when asked what his administration planned to do about the shootings. He said he would be making a statement on Monday morning, though Trump has always struggled with the role of a president who consoles the nation during tragedies like these. (Oprysko, 8/4)

The Washington Post: El Paso Shooting Suspect Could Face Federal Hate Crime Charges
“We are treating [the El Paso shooting] as a domestic terrorism case and we’re going to do what we do to terrorists in this country, which is deliver swift and certain justice,” said John F. Bash, the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Texas, at a news briefing. He said the possible charges — including hate crimes and firearms charges — could carry a death sentence. (Gowen, Berman, Craig and Natanson, 8/4)

Reuters: Democrats Aim Their Outrage At Trump After Two Mass Shootings
The El Paso shooting sent shock waves onto the campaign trail for next year's presidential election, with most Democratic candidates repeating calls for tighter gun control measures and some drawing connections to a resurgence in white nationalism and xenophobic politics in the United States. Several 2020 candidates said Trump was indirectly to blame."Donald Trump is responsible for this. He is responsible because he is stoking fears and hatred and bigotry," U.S. Senator Cory Booker said on CNN's "State of the Union." (Chiacu and Schroeder, 8/4)

The Washington Post: 2020 Dems Back Gun Limits After El Paso Mass Shooting
Democratic presidential candidates expressed outrage Saturday that mass shootings have become chillingly common nationwide and blamed the National Rifle Association and its congressional allies after a gunman opened fire at a shopping area near the Texas-Mexico border. “It’s not just today, it has happened several times this week. It’s happened here in Las Vegas where some lunatic killed 50 some odd people,” Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders said as he and 18 other White House hopefuls were in Nevada to address the nation’s largest public employees union. “All over the world, people are looking at the United States and wondering what is going on? What is the mental health situation in America, where time after time, after time, after time, we’re seeing indescribable horror.” (Price and Ronanye, 8/4)

The Wall Street Journal: Gun Control Is Thrust Into 2020 Campaign, But New Laws Face Hurdles
The back-to-back mass shootings in Texas and Ohio—one of which authorities are investigating as a possible hate crime—thrust back into the national spotlight the debate over gun-control laws, which is likely to dominate the presidential campaign in coming days even as legislation faces steep odds of passing. Democrats on Sunday criticized Senate Republicans for opposing legislation they said would help prevent mass shootings and accused President Trump of using rhetoric that helped incite the violence. Republicans expressed outrage at the weekend shootings that killed 29 people but offered few signs of wavering on their opposition to new gun laws. (Ballhaus, Kiernan and Andrews, 8/4)

Politico: String Of Gun Deaths Reshapes Democratic Primary
The immediate aftershocks of the shootings were felt by the three candidates whose home states were affected: Tim Ryan in Ohio, and Beto O’Rourke and Julián Castro in Texas. Struggling in the polls and unable to command significant coverage, all found themselves over the weekend the subject of intense media interest as they abandoned the campaign trail, canceled events and headed home amid a crush of national and local interest. The shootings also heightened the stakes for an upcoming gun violence forum for the Democratic candidates, all of whom blanketed television, radio and social media over the weekend to highlight their gun control plans, to call on the Republican-led Senate to come back from summer break to pass gun safety legislation, and to attack President Trump’s rhetoric on immigration. (Caputo and Siders, 8/4)

The New York Times: How Gun Control Groups Are Catching Up To The N.R.A.
The political momentum in the gun control debate has shifted in the year leading up to this weekend’s mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton, Ohio, with gun control advocates taking a more empowered stance and the National Rifle Association consumed by internal power struggles. The major gun control organizations, propelled by funding from supporters like Michael R. Bloomberg, the former New York City mayor, and grass-roots networks across the country, have helped enact new laws — mostly in Democratic-controlled states — and, for the first time in 25 years, passed a significant gun control bill in the House. (Epstein, Astor and Hakim, 8/4)

The Washington Post: FBI Faces Skepticism Over Its Anti-Domestic Terror Efforts
The FBI insists it is fully engaged in combating the threat of violence from white supremacists, but some former federal officials charge that the government is still coming up short in the face of a strain of American terrorism that now seems resurgent. The weekend massacre at a Walmart and shopping center in El Paso has focused public debate once again on the issue, after federal prosecutors called it an act of domestic terrorism. (Barrett, 8/4)

Los Angeles Times: Recent US Mass Shootings: A Timeline
A tally of a mass shooting could be written in countless ways. The term is not a legal one — which means that definitions fluctuate. The Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit that tallies gun violence in the United States, defines a mass shooting as four or more victims shot or killed. Some media outlets use three fatalities as a baseline for a mass shooting; others four. The topic is widely debated. (Miranda, 8/4)

The Associated Press: America’s Deadliest Mass Shootings Over Last 2 Years
A list of some of the deadliest mass shootings in the United States in the last two years. (8/4)

The Associated Press: 2020 Dems' Health Care Battle Is Decades In The Making
Seventy years ago, before Medicare existed to inspire "Medicare for All," a Democratic president wrestled with a challenge strikingly similar to what the party's White House hopefuls face today. Harry Truman, then in his fourth year of pressing for a national health insurance system, parried criticism of his approach in terms that a single-payer health care advocate might use in 2019. The plainspoken Missourian wrote in a 1949 message to Congress that his proposal "will not require doctors to become employees of the government" and that "patients will remain free to choose their own doctors." (8/5)

The Associated Press: Democrats Tussle Over Health Care At Nevada Labor Forum
Democratic presidential candidates' tussle over health care reform continued Saturday as they pitched themselves to Nevada union members, with former Vice President Joe Biden declaring he's "against any Democrat who wants to get rid of Obamacare" and Sen. Kamala Harris saying no Democrat should be on the debate stage without a plan to cover everybody. They were among 19 candidates speaking at a forum held by the nation's largest public employees union in the state that will cast the first votes in the West in next year's primary. (Price and Ronayne, 8/3)

The Washington Post: 19 Democratic Hopefuls Pitch Their Platforms To Union Voters In Las Vegas
Another frequent topic was health care. The labor movement doesn’t have a unanimous view on the topic, an issue that has also divided the Democratic field. AFSCME supports a single-payer health-care system, and union leaders said they’re telling candidates they want to be part of any discussions about changing the current system. Warren, who supports Medicare-for-all, spoke directly to AFSCME’s desire to be part of the negotiations for a new system when she said: “As I see it, is the unions are at the table, nobody does anything without working people well represented.” (Linskey, 8/3)

The Wall Street Journal: White House Weighs September Rollout Of Health Plan
The Trump administration is considering releasing its long-promised health-care plan in the fall as part of a campaign strategy to offer an alternative to Democratic candidates who back Medicare for All, according to people familiar with the discussions. White House officials are discussing unveiling the proposal during a September speech in which President Trump would seek to draw a contrast with Democrats while reassuring voters the administration is prepared if the courts abolish the Affordable Care Act. The timing of the speech could shift, officials said. (Armour and Restuccia, 8/3)

Los Angeles Times: Charity Becomes A Lifeline Even For Americans With Health Insurance As Deductibles Soar
Medical charities and crowdfunding have long helped fill the gaps for Americans who lack health coverage. Now, Americans who have insurance are increasingly turning to charity as a lifeline, as a revolution in health insurance has driven up deductibles more than threefold over the last decade, forcing tens of millions of Americans to delay care and make difficult sacrifices to pay medical bills. (Levey, 8/4)

The New York Times: Top Kidney Charity Directed Aid To Patients At DaVita And Fresenius Clinics, Lawsuit Claims
One of the nation’s largest public charities steered financial aid to patients of its two biggest corporate donors — the dialysis chains DaVita and Fresenius — while denying help to people who used smaller, unrelated clinics, in violation of anti-kickback laws, according to a federal whistle-blower lawsuit unsealed this week in Boston. The charity, the American Kidney Fund, helps patients who need dialysis by paying their health insurance premiums and other costs for treatment. But under a longstanding federal agreement intended to prevent illegal kickbacks, the charity is supposed to provide help based solely on a patient’s financial need, and not favor companies that donate to it. (Abelson and Thomas, 8/2)

The Washington Post: Medicare Boosts Payment Rates For CAR T-Cell Therapy, A Pioneering Cancer Drug
Medicare officials on Friday said it would increase reimbursements to hospitals for expensive new medical technologies, including a high-priced therapy used as a last-resort treatment for patients with blood cancers. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued a final rule raising payments for new technologies from 50 percent to 65 percent of estimated costs. CMS Administrator Seema Verma said the step would promote access to potentially lifesaving treatments and reduce uncertainty about payments for a cancer immunotherapy known as CAR T-cell therapy, among other new therapies. (McGinley, 8/2)

NPR: Civil Rights Unit Of Homeland Security Says It Lacks Power To Protect Migrant Kids
The children's lawyer was incensed. Her two tiny clients — one of them blind — had been in a shelter for three months, separated from their mother. The family had traveled from Mexico to the United States, reaching Nogales, Arizona, on March 1, 2018. Officials at the border found that the mother, Nadia Pulido, had "credible" reasons for seeking asylum from an ex-partner who, she says, beat her and stalked her after their relationship ended. (Ferriss, Kodjak and Phillips, 8/2)

The Associated Press: HHS: Florida Migrant Child Detention Camp Emptying Out
A Florida detention camp that has housed thousands of undocumented migrant children is emptying out, federal officials said Saturday. Health and Human Services Department spokeswoman Evelyn Stauffer said in an email that all children who had been at the facility are now either with family members or at smaller state-licensed centers. The camp has housed about 14,300 undocumented children in total since March 2018, the largest such facility in the country. (8/3)

Stat: Purdue Pharma Seeks To Minimize Its Role In Opioid Crisis As It Urges Dismissal Of Massachusetts Suit
OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma on Friday sought to minimize its role both in the opioid addiction crisis and as a player in the painkiller industry as it asked a Massachusetts judge to dismiss a lawsuit from the state. The state alleges the company’s deceptive marketing of its drugs spawned the opioid epidemic in Massachusetts, but a lawyer for the company pushed back against that claim. (Joseph, 8/2)

The Washington Post: An Epic Legal Battle Brought ARCOS Opioid Data To Light
ARCOS was a secret database. The powerful interests who knew all about it — the drug industry and the federal government, specifically — wanted to maintain that secrecy. ARCOS, for Automation of Reports and Consolidated Orders System, was established by the Drug Enforcement Administration to track the manufacture and distribution of prescription drugs, including billions of opioid painkillers that have sparked a deadly epidemic. (Achenbach, 8/2)

The New York Times: A Brain Scan May Predict Alzheimer’s. Should You Get One?
Juli Engel was delighted when a neurologist recommended a PET scan to determine whether amyloid — the protein clumps associated with an increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease — was accumulating in her mother’s brain. “My internal response was, ‘Yay!’” said Ms. Engel, 65, a geriatric care manager in Austin, Tex., who has been making almost monthly trips to help her mother in Florida. “He’s using every tool to try to determine what’s going on.” (Span, 8/2)

The Washington Post: Racism Has Devastating Effects On Children’s Health, Pediatricians Warn
The nation’s largest group of pediatricians warned this week that racism can have devastating long-term effects on children’s health. A policy statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics is the first it has issued to its members on the dangers of racism. Doctors involved in the report said the current political and cultural atmosphere makes the work more urgent. (Wan, 8/2)

The Washington Post: Health Officials Try New Tactics Against Measles Outbreak
The most recent effort to crush the largest measles outbreak in nearly three decades took place at a Brooklyn soccer field. As Latino players and fans showed up for a weekend tournament, Spanish-speaking health teams offered free vaccines to players and spectators, explaining the outbreak in predominantly Orthodox Jewish communities had spread in recent weeks and had sickened some Latino adults. “We know there’s a lot of adults who are unvaccinated,” said Paulo Pina, a doctor from NYU Langone Health who was part of the team. “It’s important that we vaccinate them, too, because this is New York: Everybody interacts with everybody.” (Sun, 8/2)

The New York Times: One In 10 Older Adults Binge Drinks, Study Says
Excessive alcohol consumption is not safe for a person at any age, but it is particularly dangerous for older adults. And according to a study published this week, about one in 10 older adults is considered a binge drinker. “Binge drinking, even episodically or infrequently, may negatively affect other health conditions by exacerbating disease, interacting with prescribed medications and complicating disease management,” said Dr. Benjamin Han, the lead author of the study that was published on Wednesday in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. (Rueb, 8/2)

NPR: Public Trust Of Scientists Is On Par With The Military, Poll Finds
In a time of climate change denial and vaccine resistance, scientists worry they are losing public trust. But it's just the opposite, a survey released Friday finds. Public trust of scientists is growing. It's on a par with our trust of the military and far above trust of clergy, politicians and journalists. The survey by the Pew Research Center finds 86% of those surveyed say they have a fair amount or a great deal of faith that scientists act in our best interests. And that's been trending higher — it was 76% in 2016. (Harris, 8/2)

The Washington Post: For People With Disabilities, Finding Stylish Clothing That Works For Them Isn't Easy
After years of seeing her granddaughter in jeans that were too long and too loose, Karen Bowersox searched hard for brands that would work for the girl and others with Down syndrome. None existed. "There was nothing that fit them," said Bowersox, of suburban Cleveland. Convinced that "people with disabilities are a forgotten population in the world," Bowersox, an entrepreneur with "no clue" about the garment industry, spent four years creating Downs Designs pants, "shaped and sized" for children and adults with Down syndrome. (Groer, 8/3)

NPR: Chemical Or Mineral Sunscreen? What To Know About Current Sunscreen Research
When we smear on sunscreen, dermatologist Kanade Shinkai with the University of California San Francisco says, most of us don't think about it getting under our skin. "I think there was an assumption that these are things that we apply to our skin — they don't really get into our bloodstream," Shinkai says. (Neighmond and Neilson, 8/4)

NPR: Pain Relief For Very Sick Kids Is The Focus Of This Quick Response Team
The Benioff Children's Hospital at the University of California, San Francisco is a sleek new building with state-of-the-art facilities — a place where the sickest children go for leading-edge treatments. Which is why it might be surprising to find Robyn Adcock, who practices acupuncture and acupressure walking the halls. (Kodjak, 8/5)

The Washington Post: Today’s Hospitals Discover The Therapeutic Touch Of Art
If the word “hospital” elicits a mental image of sterile rooms and hallways and dreary decor, think again. Modern hospitals have hit on a simple but effective way to foster even more healing: art. It’s a creative approach to an age-old need — and one that’s transforming not just the walls of modern hospitals but the atmosphere in which patients heal. In an engaging feature for Artnet, journalist Menachem Wecker dives into the world of hospital art. (Blakemore, 8/3)

The New York Times: Sesame Allergy More Common Than Once Thought, Study Finds
At least one million children and adults in the United States are allergic to sesame, an ingredient used in everything from hummus to snack bars, researchers reported on Friday. The finding indicates that sesame allergy is more prevalent than previously known, although still far less common than peanut allergy. But sesame is not among the allergens that the Food and Drug Administration requires manufacturers to list on food labels. (Athas, 8/2)

The New York Times: Cancer Treatment At The End Of Life
As the elderly man with an incurable cancer lay dying, he told his son he had only one regret. Rather than enjoying his last weeks of life with the people and places he loved, he had squandered them on drug treatments that consumed his days and made him miserable. Perhaps others can benefit from this man’s end-of-life insight. Too often, people with incurable cancers pursue therapy beyond any hope of benefit except perhaps to the pockets of Big Pharma. (Brody, 8/5)

The Associated Press: California Hospitals Question 2030 Earthquake Standards
A Southern California hospital spent $72 million on a building designed to do two things after an earthquake: stay standing and stay open. But when a pair of strong earthquakes struck the region last month, the hospital couldn't use it. Structurally, the building was OK. But some broken pipes flooded a room of mechanical and electrical equipment, and water leaked into operating rooms and elevator shafts. The hospital in Ridgecrest, about 150 miles northeast of Los Angeles, had to evacuate the building as a precaution. (8/4)

The Associated Press: N. Carolina Governor Moves To Block Conversion Therapy Funds
North Carolina's state health department is barred from allowing public funds to pay for conversion therapy for minors, a controversial practice aimed at changing young LGBT people's sexual orientations, under an order signed Friday by Gov. Roy Cooper. Advocacy groups praised the Democratic governor's executive order as a pioneering step to restrict the therapy in the U.S. South. (8/2)

The Associated Press: Florida Latest Place To Declare Emergency Over Hepatitis A
Officials have declared a public health emergency over the rising number of hepatitis A cases in Florida, the latest part of the country dealing with outbreaks of the liver disease. Florida Surgeon General Scott Rivkees declared an emergency Thursday to allow the state to spend more on testing and treatment, saying Florida has had more than 2,000 cases since the beginning of the year compared with 548 all of last year. Most have been in central Florida, and health officials are still investigating the sources. (8/2)