First Edition: July 5, 2022

KHN: How Pfizer Won The Pandemic, Reaping Outsize Profit And Influence 
The grinding two-plus years of the pandemic have yielded outsize benefits for one company — Pfizer — making it both highly influential and hugely profitable as covid-19 continues to infect tens of thousands of people and kill hundreds each day. Its success in developing covid medicines has given the drugmaker unusual weight in determining U.S. health policy. Based on internal research, the company’s executives have frequently announced the next stage in the fight against the pandemic before government officials have had time to study the issue, annoying many experts in the medical field and leaving some patients unsure whom to trust. (Allen, 7/5)

KHN: Crowdsourced Data On Overdoses Pinpoints Where To Help
Men lined up outside the Corner of Hope, a homeless resource center, eyeing free supplies on plastic shelves inside a white van. Some wanted bags with toiletries or condoms, but others took kits that help them safely use drugs or naloxone, an opioid overdose reversal medicine. (Rayasam, 7/5)

KHN: Listen: Julie Rovner Rehashes The ‘Roe’ Decision 
KHN chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner discussed the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade on NPR/WAMU’s “1A” on June 24. She also discussed the impact of the ruling in the Carolinas on WFAE’s “Charlotte Talks With Mike Collins” on June 27, and joined WBUR/NPR’s “Here & Now” on June 29 to discuss the Biden administration’s response to the Supreme Court’s decision. (7/2)

The Hill: Illinois Governor On Mass Shooting: ‘A Celebration Of America Was Ripped Apart By Our Uniquely American Plague’
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) pointed to the “uniquely American” problem of gun violence in the wake of Monday’s deadly mass shooting at an Independence Day parade in his state, which left at least six people dead. “It is devastating that a celebration of America was ripped apart by our uniquely American plague,” Pritzker said in a speech Monday evening from Highland Park. (Gans, 7/4)

The New York Times: A Local Obstetrician Rushed To Help The Wounded
Along with a local emergency room doctor, a surgeon and a few nurses, Dr. David Baum, 64, began triaging to help the victims — putting pressure on wounds and, when paramedics arrived, hanging intravenous drips. “I don’t think I did anything heroic,” he said. “I just did what a person who’s a physician would do to try and help a little bit.” The six people who were killed, Dr. Baum said, were clearly identifiable by their catastrophic, “evisceration-type” injuries. (Fahy, 7/4)

The New York Times: Illinois Has Among The Strictest Gun-Safety Laws In The Country, But Neighboring States Do Not
The authorities in Highland Park, Ill., said they had recovered a high-powered rifle after the mass shooting during the community’s Fourth of July parade. It was the state’s third mass shooting since Friday. Illinois has the sixth strictest gun-safety laws in the country, and the ninth-lowest rate of gun ownership, according to Everytown for Gun Safety, a leading gun control advocacy group. The state has universal background checks, red flag warnings and safe storage requirements, though no assault weapons ban. (Hassan, 7/4)

Newsweek: Philadelphia July 4th Shooting Videos Go Viral: 'America Is A Horror Movie'
At the close of Independence Day celebrations in Philadelphia, masses of people gathered to watch fireworks. But the celebrations were marred when two police officers working security were shot near the Philadelphia Museum of Art at around 9:50 p.m. local time. The gunfire prompted a stampede on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, with videos on social media capturing the panic as people ran for blocks in all directions in an effort to flee the violence. (Rahman, 7/5)

Fox News: Philadelphia Shooting: Democrat Mayor Rips Second Amendment, Says Only The Police Should Have Guns
Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney suggested the Second Amendment and the United States Supreme Court were too lenient when it came to gun rights, following a shooting that injured two police officers near a Fourth of July event on Monday night. Standing outside the hospital where the two police officers were treated for gunshot injuries, Kenney told a group of reporters that only police officers should be allowed to own guns and that he is looking forward to retiring, so he no longer has to deal with gun violence. (Richard, 7/5)

The Washington Post: Trauma Physicians Have Become Depressingly Prepared For Mass Shootings
“As we have said repeatedly since declaring gun violence a public health crisis in 2016, gun violence is out of control in the United States, and, without real-world, common-sense federal actions, it will not abate,” American Medical Association president Gerald Harmon said in a recent statement alongside the group’s latest letter to members of Congress. (Anders, 7/4)

AP: US Judge Finds For 3 Drug Distributors In WVa Opioid Lawsuit
A federal judge on Monday ruled in favor of three major U.S. drug distributors in a landmark lawsuit that accused them of causing a health crisis by distributing 81 million pills over eight years in one West Virginia county ravaged by opioid addiction. The verdict came nearly a year after closing arguments in a bench trial in the lawsuit filed by Cabell County and the city of Huntington against AmerisourceBergen Drug Co., Cardinal Health Inc. and McKesson Corp. (Raby, 7/5)

The Hill: Federal Judge Rules In Favor Of Pharmaceutical Companies In West Virginia Opioid Case
Judge David Faber rejected arguments from the city of Huntington, W.Va., and the Cabel County Commission that AmerisourceBergen Drug Co., Cardinal Health Inc. and McKesson Corp.’s distribution of prescription opioids in Huntington and Cabel County caused an opioid epidemic and a “public nuisance” in those areas. The opioid crisis has taken a considerable toll on the citizens of Cabell County and the City of Huntington,” the ruling reads. “And while there is a natural tendency to assign blame in such cases, they must be decided not based on sympathy, but on the facts and the law. In view of the court’s findings and conclusions, the court finds that judgment should be entered in defendants’ favor.” (Gans, 7/4)

Politico: HHS Was Asked To Seek An ‘Aggressive Strategy’ On Abortion By Biden, Becerra Says
Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra told NBC’s Chuck Todd that although the country must “heed the word of the Supreme Court,” the Biden administration is still seeking avenues to make sure people “have access to the care that they need, including abortion care.” President Joe Biden "has asked us to seek as aggressive a strategy as we can. But unlike the previous administration, we do intend to respect the law,” he said.

The Texas Tribune: Texas Can Enforce 1925 Abortion Ban, State Supreme Court Says
Texas can enforce its abortion ban from 1925, the state Supreme Court ruled late Friday evening, a decision that exposes abortion providers to lawsuits and financial penalties if they continue to perform the procedure. The court overruled a district judge in Houston, who on Tuesday had temporarily blocked the state’s old abortion law from going into effect. (Despart, 7/2)

The Hill: Why Kansas Will Be A Bellwether In Abortion Fight 
Kansans will vote on a state constitutional amendment on abortion on Aug. 2, setting the state up as a key bellwether for how abortion rights resonate as a voting issue ahead of the midterm elections. The amendment would overturn a 2019 state Supreme Court ruling finding that the Kansas constitution protects abortion rights, and then leave it up to the GOP-controlled legislature to decide how far to go in adding restrictions or bans on abortion. (Sullivan, 7/4)

Politico: Mississippi's Governor: Full Speed Ahead With New Abortion Restrictions 
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said Sunday his state intends to press forward with its efforts to make abortion exceedingly rare in Mississippi, even as complex questions associated with its law — and others around the nation — continued to bubble up. “This entire court battle was never about winning a court case; it was always about creating a culture of life, and that’s exactly what we are doing here in Mississippi,” said Reeves, a Republican, on “Fox News Sunday.” (Cohen, 7/3)

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Illinois Abortion Clinics Say More Medical Providers Needed To Meet Out-Of-State Demand
With Roe v. Wade overturned, Illinois abortion providers are trying to shore up enough medical staff to handle the anticipated influx of patients traveling for the procedure from other states — without disrupting or delaying care for Illinois residents. (Lourgos, 7/3)

Columbus Dispatch: Ohioans Stock Up On Plan B, Consider Sterilization After Roe Ruling
The day after the draft decision from the U.S. Supreme Court in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization was leaked in May, 36-year-old Columbus resident Kristen Porter scheduled an appointment to have her fallopian tubes removed at the end of July. "If I have a health issue with a pregnancy, I don't feel confident anymore that I am going to have the ability to take the necessary medical steps to maintain my health or my life," she said. (Laird and Lagatta, 7/1)

The Washington Post: Post-Roe, Can States Ban Employer Abortion Aid? It’s Not That Simple.
Offering abortion employment benefits carries legal risks for employers that go far beyond the usual threat of consumer boycotts of companies that take a position on a polarizing issue. Thirteen states have trigger laws criminalizing abortion immediately or within 30 days of Roe being struck down, and other states are expected to enact abortion bans soon. That means companies that offer abortion-related benefits to employees in those states could be accused of aiding and abetting criminal activity. (Miller, 6/30)

The Washington Post: People Seeking Abortions Encounter Flood Of Online Misinformation
False and misleading information about abortion is spreading online, and researchers fear it will only get worse in the wake of the Supreme Court decision on Dobbs. On TikTok, videos suggesting that people use herbs to self-manage an abortion have racked up thousands of views. Antiabortion activists have shared false information on Twitter about the supposed dangers of abortion. And the New York attorney general sent a letter to Google last week urging the company to point abortion seekers on Google Maps to valid health-care offices that offer the treatment, rather than to “crisis pregnancy centers,” which try to dissuade people from getting abortions. (Lerman, 7/4)

Politifact: Fact Check: Does Plan B Cause Abortions?
Ever since the U.S. Supreme Court voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, a slew of claims about reproductive health and what constitutes as an abortion have flooded the internet. Even topics that seemed like settled science — such as emergency birth control — have been thrown into the mix. (Putterman, 7/4)

The Wall Street Journal: Little-Known Abortion Pill Maker Faces Scrutiny
The overturning of Roe v. Wade has put a spotlight on a small manufacturer of abortion pills, which are emerging as a flashpoint between advocates and opponents of the procedure. Abortion-rights advocates have for decades lobbied for more access to mifepristone, the abortion medication that Danco Laboratories LLC manufactures under the brand name Mifeprex and sells for about $50 a pill. They want the Food and Drug Administration to remove safety restrictions on the drug, make it available without a prescription or expand its label to approve it for miscarriage, for which it is also sometimes prescribed, off label. (Whyte, 7/4)

Houston Chronicle: Roe V. Wade Ruling Could Jeopardize The Quality Of OB-GYN Education In Texas, Experts Say
Dr. Paul Klotman, CEO and president of Baylor College of Medicine, acknowledged the potential disruptions in an email to faculty on Tuesday. Baylor is one of four major medical schools in the Houston area, including McGovern Medical School, the largest in Texas. (Gill, 7/3)

Stat: Fear Of Prosecution Forces Doctors To Protect Themselves Or Patients 
Last Wednesday, a patient walked into Julie Rhee’s fertility clinic in St. Louis with pelvic pain that was getting steadily worse. She had a history of ectopic pregnancies and, following months of IVF treatment, was showing all the signs of another one. A recently implanted embryo was growing inside the fragile walls of her fallopian tube, threatening to burst them open and cause internal bleeding at any moment. She needed surgery, and fast. For the first time, though, Rhee discovered her clinical judgment wasn’t enough. She would have to present her case to a hospital ethics committee. (Goldhill, 7/5)

AP: For Now, Wary US Treads Water With Transformed COVID-19 
COVID-19 is still killing hundreds of Americans each day, but is not nearly as dangerous as it was last fall and winter. “It’s going to be a good summer and we deserve this break,” said Ali Mokdad, a professor of health metrics sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle. With more Americans shielded from severe illness through vaccination and infection, COVID-19 has transformed — for now at least — into an unpleasant, inconvenient nuisance for many. (Johnson, 7/3)

AP: CDC Recommends 6 Washington Counties Should Wear Masks Again 
People in six Washington counties should begin wearing masks indoors in public and on public transportation again, according to recommendations from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The latest information from the CDC shows that Lewis County, Pacific County, Thurston County, Grays Harbor County, Garfield County and Spokane County all have COVID-19 community levels rated “high,” meaning they have had 200 or more new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people in the last seven days, or they’ve had more than 20 new COVID-19 hospital admissions per 100,000 people within a seven-day period. (7/2)

Los Angeles Times: Ultra-Contagious Coronavirus Subvariants Spread In California
In a sign of how the new coronavirus wave continues to spread across California, two-thirds of the state’s counties are now in the high COVID-19 community level, in which the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends universal masking in indoor public spaces. This comes as health officials are warning of concerning weeks ahead as two new ultra-contagious Omicron subvariants — BA.4 and BA.5 — spread. ... (Lin II and Money, 7/4)

San Francisco Chronicle: Why UCSF’s Bob Wachter Says COVID Variant BA.5 Is ‘A Different Beast’
The new BA.5 strain of the COVID-causing virus is “a different beast” from ones we’ve already seen — more infectious and better able to evade immune responses — and “we need to change our thinking” about how to defend against it, according to a data-packed Twitter thread posted today by Dr. Bob Wachter, UCSF’s chair of medicine. (Fagone, 7/4)

AP: Colorado's Drop In Life Expectancy Blamed On COVID, Drugs 
Life expectancy dropped in Colorado for the second straight year in 2021. It’s the kind of decline, driven by the pandemic, not seen in decades, data from the state health department show. The average life expectancy for Colorado residents fell to 78 years in 2021. ... Key drivers for the decline were COVID-19 and overdose deaths. (Daley, 7/2)

Modern Healthcare: Aetna Drops Prior Authorization For Most Cataract Surgeries
Aetna will no longer require prior authorization for most patients seeking cataract surgery. The insurer reversed the year-old policy for its 24.5 million members except Medicare Advantage enrollees in Georgia and Florida. The change took effect Friday, and came after the insurer reviewed a year's worth of data on the surgeries, an Aetna spokesperson wrote in an email. (Tepper, 7/1)

Modern Healthcare: CMS Taking Steps Toward Nursing Home Minimum Staffing Requirement
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' announcement last week that it plans to start using payroll data to ensure nursing homes comply with staffing requirements is a move toward stricter regulation, experts said. Beginning Oct. 24, surveyors will use the Payroll Based Journal staffing data for inspections to ensure staffing requirements are met, such as having a registered nurse on site for eight hours per day or having licensed nurses on staff 24 hours a day. (Christ, 7/1)

The Washington Post: At Last, Medical Guidelines Address Care For Adults With Down Syndrome
In the 1960s, the life span of a person with Down syndrome was just 10 years. Today, those life spans have stretched to 60 years. But until recently, no guidelines existed for treating the special health problems many adults with Down syndrome face. Now, a guide for families and caretakers breaks down a new set of advice on caring for the medical needs of adults with the chromosomal abnormality. (Blakemore, 7/4)

The New York Times: New Dementia Prevention Method May Be Behavioral, Not Prescribed
Dementia cases are climbing along with an aging world population, and yet another much-anticipated Alzheimer’s medication, crenezumab, has proved ineffective in clinical trials — the latest of many disappointments. Public health experts and researchers argue that it is past time to turn our attention to a different approach — focusing on eliminating a dozen or so already known risk factors, like untreated high blood pressure, hearing loss and smoking, rather than on an exorbitantly priced, whiz-bang new drug. (Span, 7/3)

The Boston Globe: Can Biogen’s Backup Plan For Alzheimer’s Succeed? 
Everyone needs a backup plan, including one of the biggest biotech companies in town. So when Biogen earlier this year gave up on turning a profit from its beleaguered Alzheimer’s drug, Aduhelm, the Cambridge company moved its chips to another experimental Alzheimer’s treatment. (Cross, 7/3)

ABC News: Listeria Outbreak Linked To Florida Ice Cream Brand
A listeria outbreak that caused one death in Illinois and sickened at least 23 other people has been linked to a Florida ice cream brand, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC advises consumers to discard Big Olaf Creamery brand ice cream they have at home. It also recommends cleaning any containers, utensils and areas that may have touched a Big Olaf ice cream product. (Alfonseca, 7/4)

CBS News: Salmonella Found In A Third Of Ground Chicken, Consumer Reports Says
The nation is making little to no headway in preventing bacteria-laden chicken from landing in U.S. grocery stores and sickening thousands of Americans annually, with Consumer Reports finding in a recent test that one-third of ground chicken samples contained salmonella. (Gibson, 7/1)

USA Today: Binge Drinking May Create Risks Among Moderate Drinkers, Study Says
A study published in June in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine found moderate drinkers were more likely to engage in binge-drinking behaviors, leading to an increased risk of alcohol-related problems. Researchers surveyed 1,229 drinkers ages 30 and older in 2004 to 2005, and again from 2015 to 2016. The participants were separated between moderate and heavy drinkers, with moderate drinking defined as having an average of one drink per day over the course of a week. (Fulton, 7/2)

NPR: New York City Officials Work To Increase The Number Of Public Restrooms
Though New York City has the largest population in the country, it has around 1,400 public restrooms, according to a city report from 2019. Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine said Tuesday at a rally and press conference on the New York City Hall steps advocating for more restrooms. "That number, weighed against a city of eight and a half million [people], is paltry," he said. (Cope, 7/3)