First Edition: Feb. 2, 2023

KHN: As Pandemic-Era Medicaid Provisions Lapse, Millions Approach A Coverage Cliff 
States are preparing to remove millions of people from Medicaid as protections put in place early in the covid-19 pandemic expire. The upheaval, which begins in April, will put millions of low-income Americans at risk of losing health coverage, threatening their access to care and potentially exposing them to large medical bills. It will also put pressure on the finances of hospitals, doctors, and others relying on payments from Medicaid, a state-federal program that covers lower-income people and people with disabilities. (Galewitz, 2/2)

Bloomberg: Merck Covid Drug Linked To New Virus Mutations, Study Says
Merck & Co.’s Covid-19 pill is giving rise to new mutations of the virus in some patients, according to a study that underscores the risk of trying to intentionally alter the pathogen’s genetic code. Some researchers worry the drug may create more contagious or health-threatening variations of Covid, which has killed more than 6.8 million people globally over the past three years. (Lauerman, 2/1)

Reuters: U.S. FDA Removes COVID Test Requirements For Pfizer, Merck Pills 
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Wednesday removed the need for a positive test for COVID-19 treatments from Pfizer Inc. and Merck & Co Inc. Pfizer's Paxlovid and Merck's Lagevrio pills were given emergency use authorizations in Dec. 2021 for patients with mild-to-moderate COVID who tested positive for the virus, and who were at risk of progressing to severe COVID. Still, the FDA said the patients should have a current diagnosis of mild-to-moderate COVID infection. (2/1)

San Francisco Chronicle: Bay Area’s Largest County Shutting Down Its Mass COVID-19 Vaccination, Testing Sites
Nearly three years after it became the first county in the nation to declare COVID-19 a public health emergency, Santa Clara County announced Wednesday a plan to transition out of the emergency phase of the pandemic by the end of February. That includes the closure of all the county-run mass vaccination and testing sites. Residents of the Bay Area’s most populous county will be directed instead to private health care providers, pharmacies or local clinics. (Vaziri, 2/1)

San Francisco Chronicle: State To Drop Plan For Schoolchildren Vaccine Mandate
California will drop its plan to require schoolchildren to get vaccinated against COVID-19 once the state’s pandemic state of emergency order ends on Feb. 28. “We continue to strongly recommend COVID-19 immunization for students and staff to keep everyone safer in the classroom,” the California Department of Public Health said in an email to EdSource, confirming the change. (Vaziri, 2/1)

Axios: The Funding Cliff For Student Mental Health
Public school districts that received a windfall of COVID relief funds for mental health services are confronting a new dilemma: How to sustain counseling, screenings, teletherapy and other programs when the money runs out. (Moreno, 2/2)

Reuters: Draft WHO Pandemic Deal Pushes For Equity To Avoid COVID 'Failure' Repeat
Governments may have to reserve drugs and vaccines for the World Health Organization to distribute in poorer countries to avoid a repeat of the "catastrophic failure" during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to an early draft of a global pandemic agreement. One of the most concrete proposals in the draft accord reviewed by Reuters on Wednesday includes a measure to reserve 20% of any tests, vaccines or treatments developed for use in poorer countries. (Rigby and Tetrault-Farber, 2/2)

Politico: Harris At Tyre Nichols’ Funeral: This Isn't Public Safety
The funeral of Tyre Nichols, a Black man who died after being beaten by police officers in Memphis, Tenn., was marked by emotion, music and a renewed call for justice on Wednesday, including by Vice President Kamala Harris. “This is a family that lost their son and their brother through an act of violence, at the hands and the feet of people who had been charged with keeping them safe,” Harris said at the service in Memphis. (Olander, 2/1)

The Washington Post: Metro Employee Killed While Trying To Stop Man Shooting At D.C. Commuters
A Metro employee who tried to stop a gunman targeting commuters Wednesday was fatally shot on a D.C. train station platform in a shooting rampage that injured three others, halted rail service for hours and again left residents unsettled as the city continues to confront gun violence. Police said the gunman appeared to select his victims randomly near the end of the morning rush hour. The attack started on a Metrobus traveling from Maryland and ended underground on the platform of the Potomac Avenue Metro station in Southeast Washington. (Mettler and George, 2/1)

CNN: 'Run, Hide, Fight' Tactic In Active Shootings May Be Outdated, Security Experts Say
You’ve probably heard these three words – run, hide, fight. The tactics from the FBI, echoed to law enforcement agencies across the country, have been used for decades to teach civilians their options if confronted by an active shooter: evacuate the area, find a place to hide, or – as a last resort – take action against the shooter. More and more, though, engaging the gunman may prove more effective than the other choices, CNN National Security Analyst Juliette Kayyem said, with at least one US community shifting away from the “hide” piece in lieu of more active defensive steps. (Gingras, Kapp and Ly, 1/31)

The Hill: Judge Blocks NJ Law Allowing State To Sue Gun Industry
A federal judge has temporarily blocked a New Jersey law that allowed the state to sue gun manufacturers for creating a “public nuisance” with their sale and marketing of firearms. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) signed the law in June to create a path for suing companies engaged in the sale, manufacture, distribution, importing or marketing of gun-related products for a public nuisance, defined as conduct that interferes with the public’s rights. (Gans, 2/1)

Harvard Public Health: New Gun Deaths Data In U.S. Show Continued Rise In Suicides
Gun homicides, including mass shootings, are a pervasive and horrific issue, and we have rightly focused attention on reducing them. But a majority of gun deaths, 54 percent, in the U.S. aren’t homicides, they’re suicides. Indeed, as the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence puts it, suicide is “the untold story of gun violence in America.” Both suicides and gun deaths have increased over the last two decades, and there is a strong link between firearms and suicide deaths. Suicide-by-gun makes up most of both gun deaths and overall suicide deaths (over half of each). (Kelly, 2/1)

NPR: A Trump-Appointed Texas Judge Could Force A Major Abortion Pill Off The Market
A case before a federal judge in Texas could dramatically alter abortion access in the United States – at least as much, some experts say, as the U.S. Supreme Court's Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision last year, which overturned decades of abortion-rights precedent. (McCammon, 2/1)

Reuters: West Virginia Clinic, Doctor Sue Over State's New Abortion Ban 
West Virginia's only abortion clinic and the clinic's primary doctor on Wednesday filed a lawsuit challenging the near-total abortion ban passed by the state last year, saying it violates patients' constitutional rights. In their complaint in the Charleston, West Virginia federal court, Women's Health Center of West Virginia and the doctor, identified as John Doe, are asking the court for an immediate order blocking enforcement of the law while the case goes forward. (Pierson, 2/1)

AP: Nebraska Lawmakers Put Off Vote On 'Heartbeat' Abortion Ban 
The Nebraska Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee took nearly eight hours of testimony Wednesday before adjourning without a vote on whether to advance a bill that would outlaw abortion at a point before many women know they’re pregnant. Hundreds of people crowded the halls of the state Capitol for a committee hearing on a so-called heartbeat bill. The bill would ban abortions once cardiac activity can be detected in an embryo, which is generally around the sixth week of pregnancy. (Beck, 2/2)

Stat: Biden Administration Floats Major 2024 Pay Cut For Medicare Advantage Plans
Medicare Advantage insurers could face an average 2.3% cut to baseline payments in 2024, the Biden administration said Wednesday. If the proposal stands, it would be a net cut of more than $3 billion to the industry. The major reason behind the proposed pay cut: Medicare officials want to update data and coding systems that are used to explain the health conditions of an insurance company’s enrollees. Under that new system, insurers would not get paid as much for members with certain diagnoses. (Herman, 2/1)

Stat: FTC: GoodRx Leaked Sensitive Health Data To Facebook, Google
The Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday accused GoodRx, the prescription drug discount platform, of sharing sensitive personal information about its users’ prescriptions and health conditions with big tech companies. (Ravindranath, 2/1)

ABC News: FDA Issues Warning Letters To Companies Selling Unproven Mpox Treatments
A new warning from the Food and Drug Administration urges consumers to beware of marketers attempting to sell illegal and unproven mpox "medication" and "cures" in order to swindle scared, vulnerable people and bilk them out of their money. The agency also shared a series of pictures of the alleged illegal products for sale. (Pezenik, 2/2)

NBC News: Supply Of Weight Loss Drug Wegovy Expected To Improve In Next Few Months, Company Says
The maker of the popular weight loss drug Wegovy said Wednesday that it is ramping up production of the drug, which has been in short supply in pharmacies across the United States. The drug faced widespread shortages last year due to its increasing popularity, executives for drugmaker Novo Nordisk, said on a call with investors Wednesday. (Lovelace Jr., 2/1)

Stat: Blood-Clot Catching Devices Are Still In Use, Despite Complications
Inferior vena cava filters are supposed to save lives. The spider-like devices catch blood clots before they can travel up to the lung and cause deadly pulmonary embolisms. But for over a decade, these devices have been dogged by questions about how well they work and the serious complications they can cause for patients. (Lawrence, 2/2)

Philadelphia Inquirer: Penn Researchers Are Studying Proton Therapy For Breast Cancer
Heather Klebon was weeding in her garden at her Delaware beach house when she felt a painful lump in her left breast on a summer afternoon in 2019.She would soon learn she had breast cancer. “My whole world stopped,” Klebon recalled. (Ruderman, 2/1)

AP: NY Judge Jails Ex-Gynecologist Who Abused 100s Of Women
An ex-gynecologist convicted of sexually abusing hundreds of patients was ordered to spend the next two months in jail as he awaits sentencing, a federal judge in New York City ruled Wednesday. After hearing statements from some of the victims during the bail hearing, U.S. District Court Judge Richard Berman tersely shot down defense attorneys seeking to allow the doctor, Robert Hadden, to remain free while awaiting an April sentencing hearing. ... Hadden had worked at two prestigious Manhattan hospitals — Columbia University Irving Medical Center and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital — until complaints about his attacks shut down his career a decade ago. (2/2)

AP: NY Governor Vetoes Changes To Wrongful Death Law 
New York’s governor has vetoed a bill that would have allowed wrongful death lawsuits to include claims for emotional damage, a change that could have led to much bigger payouts for fatal accidents and deadly medical errors. The bill, which had strong bipartisan support when it passed the Legislature last year, would have brought New York into line with a majority of other states that allow courts to consider emotional pain when calculating how much a lost life was worth. (Khan, 1/31)

Stat: New York’s Hospitals Are Poised For Political Power This Congress
The new Democratic leadership team in Congress is pretty much the New York hospital lobby’s dream team. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has long been an ally of the Greater New York Hospital Association, often pushing for more funding for teaching slots at hospitals. He goes back decades with the lobby’s CEO, Kenneth Raske. And new House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) is another New Yorker representing a Brooklyn district, though he has a less robust record on health care. (Cohrs, 2/2)

San Francisco Chronicle: Feds Grant S.F.’s Laguna Honda Reprieve On Patient Transfers Until May 19
Federal regulators gave San Francisco’s Laguna Honda nursing home a last-minute reprieve on Wednesday from a potential demand to resume transferring its frail residents from the facility as soon as Thursday. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services informed Laguna Honda on Wednesday that it had granted the hospital’s request for a delay until May 19. The notice came one day before the deadline patient advocates had dreaded, believing it would be a live or die moment in time — literally. (Asimov, 2/1)

Los Angeles Times: L.A. Students Will Be Able To Carry Narcan In Schools
Students will be able to carry Narcan, a nasal spray that can reverse an opioid overdose, in Los Angeles Unified schools under a soon-to-be-updated policy. The move, announced to school board members in a message from Supt. Alberto M. Carvalho, comes amid continued alarm about the dangers of illicit fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid that has been consumed unknowingly by teens in counterfeit pills that look like Xanax or OxyContin. (Alpert Reyes, 2/1)

CalMatters: Mpox Reimbursements To Clinics Lagging
Seven months ago, California battled its second widespread infectious disease outbreak in as many years — mpox, formerly referred to as monkeypox. Cases spread exponentially, primarily among the state’s male LGBTQ population, and officials struggled to roll out limited vaccine supplies from the federal government. Community clinics and LGBTQ health centers opened mass mpox vaccination sites as quickly as possible and clamored for assistance from local and legislative leaders, but oftentimes red tape at both the federal and state level hampered a speedy response. (Hwang, 1/31)

AP: TennCare: Nearly 300k Tennesseans Likely To Lose Coverage
Nearly 300,000 Tennesseans who enrolled in Medicaid during the COVID-19 pandemic are expected to lose their coverage this year now that state officials are once again allowed to bump people from the government-funded health insurance program. A spokesperson for TennCare, the state’s Medicaid program, said this week that no removals will occur until April 1, though she said in an email that the “redetermination process” will begin in March. (Kruesi, 2/1)

AP: Tenn. GOP Lawmakers Block Questions On Cuts To HIV Funding 
Republican lawmakers in Tennessee on Wednesday continued to block Democratic lawmakers from questioning the newly appointed health czar’s contentious decision to forgo nearly $9 million in federal funding designed to prevent and treat HIV. Earlier this month, news broke that Tennessee would walk away from the funding at the end of May after state officials initially attempted to oust Planned Parenthood from the program in November amid Republican furor over the group’s long promotion of abortion access and transgender health care. Abortion is currently banned in Tennessee while Republicans are pushing to prohibit gender-affirming care to minors. (Kruesi, 2/1)

The Washington Post: In Custody Dispute, Va. Judge Orders Breastfeeding Mom To Use Bottle
When Arleta Ramirez’s daughter was born in July, there was no question what the girl’s diet would be. Breastmilk is endorsed by the World Health Organization and the American Academy of Pediatrics, which cites “unequivocal evidence” it protects newborns from disease. Ramirez was also a breastfeeding veteran — she’d breastfed her son for two years. However, Ramirez’s plan — and her daughter’s food supply — soon ran into an unforeseen obstacle: a custody dispute. (Moyer, 2/1)

The Colorado Sun: People With Disabilities Stranded By Unplowed Streets In Denver
For nearly two weeks after a late December snowstorm that left 7 inches of snow on the ground in Denver, when Julie Reiskin needed to leave her home in the Clayton neighborhood, she had to roll her wheelchair down the middle of busy streets and then station herself in the street to flag down a public bus. That experience, she said, was “terrifying.” And it was due to Denver’s snow plowing protocol. (McCoy, 1/30)

The Washington Post: New Concussion Protocol For Kids: Get Them Back To School Sooner 
For years, the treatment protocol for children with concussions involved keeping them out of school to rest in a quiet, dark room with reduced access to screens until they felt better. In the past decade, however, doctors have been moving toward encouraging kids to return to school and light activity after only a couple of days of rest, even if symptoms persist. A recently released study involving more than 1,500 children backs the new approach. It found that an early return to school — which researchers defined as missing less than three days — benefited children ages 8 to 18, who had less severe symptoms two weeks after their concussion compared with kids who stayed home longer. In fact, a longer stay at home seemed to delay recovery. (Chang, 2/1)

CBS News: Conagra Brands Recalls Nearly 2.6 Million Pounds Of Canned Meat And Poultry
Conagra Brands has recalled almost 2.6 million pounds of canned meat and poultry products because of a packaging defect that may have caused the food to get contaminated, the U.S. Department of Agriculture says. (Singh, 2/1)

The Wall Street Journal: Dangerous Fungi Are Spreading Across U.S. as Temperatures Rise
Dangerous fungal infections are on the rise, and a growing body of research suggests warmer temperatures might be a culprit. The human body’s average temperature of 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit has long been too hot for most fungi to thrive, infectious-disease specialists say. But as temperatures have risen globally, some fungi might be adapting to endure more heat stress, including conditions within the human body, research suggests. Climate change might also be creating conditions for some disease-causing fungi to expand their geographical range, research shows. (Mosbergen, 2/1)

Reuters: Case Of Mad Cow Disease In Netherlands Is Old Age Variant 
A case of mad cow disease discovered on a farm in the Netherlands is the old age variant that is not dangerous to public health, the agriculture ministry said on Wednesday. The infection was found in a dead cow on Jan. 30 in the South Holland province of the Netherlands. (2/1)