First Edition: May 1, 2023

KFF Health News: Millions Are Stuck In Dental Deserts, With No Access To Oral Health Care 
Every day, Adrienne Grimmett and her colleagues at Evara Health in the Tampa Bay area see stories of inequity in their patients’ teeth, gums, and palates. Marked in painful abscesses, dangerous infections, and missing molars are tales of unequal access to care. All of these ailments — which keep patients out of work because of pain or social stigma, and children out of school because they can’t concentrate with rotting roots — are preventable. (Peace, 5/1)

KFF Health News: For California Teen, Coverage Of Early Psychosis Treatment Proved A Lifesaver 
Summer Oriyavong first heard the ringing bells and tapping sounds in her head when she was in middle school. Whispering voices and shadowy visions, ones that made her feel superior and special, soon followed. It wasn’t until Oriyavong ran out of her classroom in terror one day that her teachers and parents realized she needed help they couldn’t provide. The shadow people were telling Oriyavong that her classmates were going to hurt her. (Young, 5/1)

KFF Health News: Journalists Discuss Enduring Effects Of Long Covid And Handling Of Opioid Settlement Funds 
KFF Health News former senior editor Andy Miller discussed long covid, telehealth, and health care worker shortages on WUGA’s “The Georgia Health Report” on April 21. He also discussed cancer treatment for the uninsured on WUGA’s “The Georgia Health Report” on April 14. (4/29)

The Hill: GOP Furious At VA Claiming Debt Bill Cuts Veteran Benefits: ‘Shamelessly Lying’ 
House Republicans are fuming over the Department of Veterans’ Affairs claiming that the GOP’s debt limit and spending cut bill would endanger services and benefits for veterans. “In my nine years as a member of Congress, I have never seen the use of an agency that is so vitally important to so many people be used as a political hammer, to deliver a message that is false, so that it would stir people up to cause our veterans to be used as pawns in a political game,” House Veterans Affairs’ Committee Chairman Mike Bost (R-Ill.) said in a press call on Sunday afternoon. (Brooks, 4/30)

CIDRAP: US Lawmakers Hold Hearing On Antimicrobial Resistance 
Experts in infectious diseases and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) were on Capitol Hill [Friday] to discuss the rising threat of drug-resistant pathogens to the US healthcare system and federal efforts to address the issue. At a hearing held by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, the experts focused on the need for new antibiotics and antibiotic stewardship, more and better diagnostic tests, more infectious disease (ID) professionals, and better data on the prevalence of AMR in US healthcare facilities. (Dall, 4/28)

The New York Times: Researchers Identify Possible New Risk For Breast Cancer
Scientists have long known that dense breast tissue is linked to an increased risk of breast cancer in women. A study published on Thursday in JAMA Oncology adds a new twist, finding that while breast density declines with age, a slower rate of decline in one breast often precedes a cancer diagnosis in that breast. (Rabin, 4/28)

The New York Times: Bilingualism May Stave Off Dementia, Study Suggests
Speaking two languages provides the enviable ability to make friends in unusual places. A new study suggests that bilingualism may also come with another benefit: improved memory in later life. Studying hundreds of older patients, researchers in Germany found that those who reported using two languages daily from a young age scored higher on tests of learning, memory, language and self-control than patients who spoke only one language. (Padmanabhan, 4/28)

The Washington Post: On Abortion And Gun Control, Democratic AGs Are Using Courts To Win
For Bob Ferguson, the Democratic attorney general of Washington state, the seventh time proved to be the charm. For six years, Ferguson pushed a ban on assault-style weapons in Washington’s legislature. Each year, the proposal failed to make it out of committee — until this one. In April, the legislature passed the bill and Gov. Jay Inslee (D) signed it into law. ... Ferguson is one of several Democratic attorneys general moving aggressively on key social policy issues to blunt Republican initiatives across the country designed to loosen gun restrictions, outlaw abortion and curtail the rights of transgender residents. (Wilson, 4/30)

Axios: RNC Chair On Abortion: Republicans Must Address Issue "Head On" In 2024
Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel said Sunday GOP 2024 presidential election candidates must directly address the issue of abortion. Driving the news: Abortion emerged as a key issue at the Midterm Elections following the conservative-dominated Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade last year, as Democrats won key seats on abortion rights platforms and voters in three states approved protections for the procedure. (Falconer, 5/1)

CBS News: Louisiana Doctors Detail Unintended Consequences Of State's Abortion Ban
"I am more likely to die than my mother was in childbirth. So as a country, our outcomes are getting worse," Dr. Rebekah Gee, an OB-GYN and a former secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health, told 60 Minutes. (Zubrow, 4/30)

Houston Chronicle: Mifepristone Ban: Potential Impacts On Texas Miscarriage Treatment
The first two miscarriages were difficult enough for Ellen, a Houston woman in her 40s. The next two, late last year, were harder. In both instances, the excitement of hearing a faint heartbeat during an early checkup turned to dread two weeks later when the pulse had stopped.  She turned to Planned Parenthood for access to the two-drug combination of mifepristone and misoprostol, which are commonly used for abortions, to empty her uterus. (Gill, 4/29)

The New York Times: Dr. LeRoy Carhart, Fierce Defender Of Abortion Rights, Dies At 81 
LeRoy Carhart, a Midwestern doctor who became an archnemesis of abortion opponents and a leading defender of late-term abortions, died on Friday at a hospice in Bellevue, Neb., a suburb of Omaha. He was 81.The cause was liver cancer, his daughter, Janine Weatherby, said. Dr. Carhart came to national prominence in the 1990s as an improbable progressive crusader in one of the nation’s most bitter moral debates. (Traub, 4/30)

The New York Times: ‘Zero Leads’: Dragnet Continues For Man Sought In Fatal Shooting Of 5 In Texas 
The suspect, Francisco Oropesa, who is accused of killing five people, had been shooting his gun in his yard in Cleveland, Texas, on Friday evening when his neighbor Wilson Garcia approached him and asked him to stop so that his baby could sleep. Instead, the authorities said, Mr. Oropesa, 38, retrieved an AR-15 rifle from his house and walked over to Mr. Garcia’s home, where he killed his 8-year-old son, wife and three other people. (Moya, Albeck-Ripka andMedina, 4/30)

The Washington Post: Why Are Americans Shooting Strangers And Neighbors? ‘It All Goes Back To Fear.’
Experts blame a cocktail of factors: the easy availability of guns, misconceptions around stand-your-ground laws, the marketing of firearms for self-defense — and a growing sense among Americans, particularly Republicans, that safety in their backyard is deteriorating. Since 2020, the share of Republicans who said that crime is rising in their community has jumped from 38 percent to 73 percent, according to the latest Gallup numbers from last fall. Among Democrats, that same concern climbed only 5 percentage points to 42 percent, marking the widest partisan perception gap since the polling firm first asked the question a half-century ago. (Paquette, Harden and Clement, 4/30)

The New York Times: A Year Of Pain: Victims Struggle After Brooklyn Subway Shooting
More than a year ago, a mass shooting on the subway in Brooklyn miraculously killed no one. But as the victims live on, so do their physical and psychological wounds. ... The experiences of victims in the Brooklyn attack illustrate the long-term consequences: the damage not just to bodies, but also to a sense of safety and the ability to earn a living. (Zraick, 4/30)

NBC News: Troubled Teen Relationships Can Have Lasting Health Problems, Research Finds
Teenagers engaged in toxic, controlling dating relationships may be at risk for a variety of problems as they enter adulthood, including drug use, as well as mental and physical health struggles, new research finds. The study, published Monday in the journal Pediatrics, also showed that such teens are likely to repeat patterns of unhealthy — potentially dangerous — intimate relationships. (Edwards, 5/1)

The New York Times: After Student’s Suicide, An Elite School Says It Fell ‘Tragically Short’ 
Last April, Jack Reid, a 17-year-old junior at one of the nation’s elite boarding schools, tucked a Bible into his gym shorts and a note into his pocket directing his parents to a Google document explaining his feelings of despair. Then, inside his dorm room, he took his own life. On Sunday, the anniversary of Jack’s death, the Lawrenceville School in New Jersey offered an extraordinary admission of failure, publicly acknowledging that it had been aware that Jack was being bullied by other students, but that it had fallen “tragically short” of its obligation to protect him. (Weiser and Tully, 4/30)

NBC News: Eating Disorders Like Anorexia, Bulimia Are More Severe Than Ever
Teen eating disorders have never been this rampant — or this severe. Hospitalizations for eating disorders spiked during the pandemic, doubling among adolescent girls, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While most teens have returned to a normal life of in-person school, sports and social activities, eating disorders, especially anorexia, remain at an all-time high, experts warn. (Hopkins, 4/29)

The New York Times: National Academies Members Demand Answers About Sacklers’ Donations
More than 75 members of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine demanded on Thursday that the organization explain why it has for years failed to return or repurpose millions of dollars donated by the Sackler family, including some who led Purdue Pharma. The company’s drug, OxyContin, helped set in motion a prescription opioid crisis that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives. The New York Times reported this month that even as the Academies advised the government on opioid policy, the organization accepted $19 million from the Sackler family and appointed influential members to its committees who had financial ties to Purdue Pharma. (Jewett, 4/28)

AP: Frustration Grows Over Wait On OxyContin Maker's Settlement
More than a year after OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma reached a tentative settlement over the toll of opioids that was accepted nearly universally by the groups suing the company — including thousands of people injured by the drug — money is still not rolling out. Parties waiting to finalize the deal are waiting for a court to rule on the legality of a key detail: whether members of the Sackler family who own the company can be protected from lawsuits over OxyContin in exchange for handing over up to $6 billion in cash over time plus the company itself. (Mulvihill, 4/29)

The New York Times: Needing Younger Workers, Federal Officials Relax Rules On Past Drug Use 
Not long ago, urinating in a cup for a drug test was a widely accepted, if annoying, requirement to start a new job. The legalization of marijuana in more and more states in recent years upended that, prompting many employers to shelve hiring rules from the “Just Say No” era. There was a major holdout: the federal government, by far the nation’s largest employer. But now, it too is significantly relaxing drug screening rules as agencies struggle to replenish the ranks of a rapidly aging work force in a tight job market. (Londono, 4/30)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Capitol Recap: Georgia Approves First Stores For Sales Of Medical Marijuana
The long wait is over for patients and caregivers on Georgia’s medical marijuana registry who received the state’s permission to possess the drug eight years ago but have had no way to legally obtain it. The Georgia Access to Medical Cannabis Commission this past week approved licenses for dispensing the drug for five stores in Macon, Marietta and the Savannah area. (Denery, 4/28)

MPR News: If Minnesota Legalizes Weed, Will Marijuana-Related Criminal Records Be Cleared?
Minnesota may soon become the 23rd state to legalize recreational marijuana. The state House and Senate both approved the bill last week, and it heads next to Gov. Tim Walz, who has already shared his support. A key part of this legislation is how it would affect people with marijuana records whose crimes would no longer be considered crimes. Like in other states that have already fully legalized weed, Minnesota lawmakers are proposing ways for people to get marijuana offenses cleared. (Birnstengel, 5/1)

CIDRAP: XBB.1.16, XBB.1.9.1 Gain More Ground In The United States
Proportions of two new Omicron subvariants, XBB.1.16 and XBB.1.9.1, continued to rise this week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today in its latest estimates. XBB.1.16, which is thought to have a growth advantage and immune escape properties, now makes up 11.7% of viruses, up from 7.4% the week before. Levels are greatest in the South Central, Middle Atlantic, and Northwestern parts of the country. (Schnirring, 4/28)

NBC News: CDC To Stop Tracking Covid Levels In Communities
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is planning to stop tracking the spread of Covid in communities across the U.S., the agency said Friday. (Edwards, 4/28)

The Washington Post: Moderna’s Billionaire CEO Reaped Nearly $400 Million Last Year. He Also Got A Raise
Stéphane Bancel, chief executive of Moderna, had a good year in 2022, exercising stock options that netted him nearly $393 million. The company decided his pay wasn’t good enough. The Cambridge, Mass.-based biotech, known for its lifesaving coronavirus vaccine, raised his salary last year by 50 percent to $1.5 million and increased his target cash bonus, according to a March securities filing. Bancel, 50, says he is donating the proceeds of stock sales to charity. He owns stock worth at least $2.8 billion and, as of the end of last year, had additional stock-based compensation valued at $1.7 billion. (Gilbert, 4/29)

Reuters: Pfizer Pledge For More Equal Access To RSV Shot Faces Hurdles 
Pfizer Inc (PFE.N) has pledged to deliver critical new medicines more quickly in low-income nations, but its first such vaccine effort faces hurdles likely to delay distribution in poorer countries by several years, global health officials told Reuters. Pfizer made a commitment on more equitable access last year, following criticism that it prioritized wealthy nations for doses of its COVID-19 shot early in the pandemic. The company says it wants to shorten a timeline in which poorer countries often get vaccines many years after they are available elsewhere. (Rigby and Fick, 4/29)

The Boston Globe: Boston Children’s Hospital Pays $15 Million After Child Dies During Sleep Study
As her 6-month-old lay dying in her arms, Becky Kekula struggled to make sense of how this could be. They were in the intensive care unit of Boston Children’s Hospital, a place known for saving lives. Yet for all its medical might, the institution could offer no more hope for her baby boy. (Bartlett, 4/29)

Houston Chronicle: Houston Nurses Sentenced To Federal Prison Over Medicare Scheme
Two nurses who owned a Houston home healthcare business were ordered this week to begin serving prison sentences after pleading guilty to a Medicare kickback scheme. (Wayne Ferguson, 4/28)

The Washington Post: Gene-Edited Cells Move Science Closer To Repairing Damaged Hearts 
Scientists seeking to combat the nation’s No. 1 killer have discovered why experiments using cell transplants to repair damage from a heart attack wind up backfiring and causing life-threatening arrhythmias. A new study in the journal Cell Stem Cell points the way toward a possible solution, advancing medicine a step further toward the goal of regenerating the human heart. (Johnson, 4/28)

USA Today: Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy Treatments, Gene Therapy Spark Hope
When Conner Curran was first diagnosed with Duchenne muscular dystrophy at age 4, his parents were told there was nothing they could do to change his life's course. Jessica and Chris should enjoy their son as much as they could, the doctor said. In a few years, Conner would lose the ability to walk, then to move his arms and eventually, in his teens or 20s, to breathe. No other future was possible, they were told. (Weintraub, 4/30)

The Washington Post: Gene Therapy For Sickle Cell Disease Treatment Brings Hope To Patients
After decades of neglect, stigma and underfunding, sickle cell is getting the equivalent of the red carpet treatment in science. It’s the target of a competitive biotech race, with scientists and companies using a crop of cutting-edge tools to try to cure the debilitating illness. ... It’s a dramatic about-face for sickle cell patients, who have often felt abandoned by the medical system. The rare disease afflicts about 100,000 people in the United States, most of them Black. Racism at both the institutional and interpersonal level has stymied funding and alienated patients, who are often treated as drug-seekers when they show up in emergency rooms in acute pain. (Johnson, 4/28)

Stat: Biotechs Aim To Leapfrog Ozempic In Red-Hot Weight Loss Market
For nearly a decade, Novartis aggressively pursued a drug candidate for muscle disorders, testing it on people with chronic inflammation, elderly people with frailty, hip surgery patients, and other groups. Time and again, the trials failed to show that the drug, bimagrumab, led to a significant enough improvement in patients’ physical function. But researchers noticed something else: The patients lost body fat. (Chen and DeAngelis, 5/1)

Las Vegas Review-Journal: Nevada Closes Never Give Up Youth Psychiatric Facility
The Nevada Department of Health and Human Services announced Friday that it is revoking the license of a youth psychiatric facility in Nye County that has been plagued with allegations of child abuse and sexual assault. (Newberg and Schnur, 4/28)

AP: Missouri Judge To Rule On Strict Trans Health Care Limits
A Missouri judge is expected to rule Monday on whether a strict, first-of-its-kind rule in the U.S. on gender-affirming health care can take effect, or if the new rules will remain unenforced as a legal challenge seeking to overthrow them plays out in court. The rule, which requires documented gender dysphoria for three years and more than a year of therapy, was scheduled to kick in last Thursday. (Ballentin, 5/1)

AP: When States Limit Care, Some Trans People Do It Themselves
With her insurance about to run out and Republicans in her home state of Missouri ramping up rhetoric against gender-affirming health care, Erin Stille nervously visited a foreign pharmaceutical site as a “last resort” to ensure she could continue getting the hormones she needs. Stille, 26, sent a $300 bank transfer to a Taiwan-based supplier for a 6-month supply of estrogen patches and androgen-blocking pills. For three weeks she feared she’d been scammed but breathed a sigh of relief when a large package arrived at her home in St. Peters. (Schoenbaum and Ballentine, 4/30)

The Washington Post: Many Nursing Homes And Hospitals Are Near Fire Zones In California 
Wildfires regularly sweep through California, destroying forests and threatening homes. But a recent study shows an unexpected danger of the fires: They can shut down, or prevent access to, hospitals and other inpatient facilities. Researchers recently found that half of California’s entire inpatient capacity is less than a mile from a high fire threat zone. (Blakemore, 4/30)

AP: Deadly Heat Waves Threaten Older People As Summer Nears 
Paramedics summoned to an Arizona retirement community last summer found an 80-year-old woman slumped inside her mobile home, enveloped in the suffocating 99-degree (37 C) heat she suffered for days after her air conditioner broke down. Efforts to revive her failed, and her death was ruled environmental heat exposure aggravated by heart disease and diabetes. In America’s hottest big metro, older people like the Sun Lakes mobile home resident accounted for most of the 77 people who died last summer in broiling heat inside their homes, almost all without air conditioning. Now, the heat dangers long known in greater Phoenix are becoming familiar nationwide as global warming creates new challenges to protect the aged. (Snow, 4/30)

AP: General Mills Issues Flour Recall After Salmonella Discovery 
General Mills has issued a nationwide recall of its bleached and unbleached flour after discovering salmonella during a sampling of a 5-pound (2.3-kilogram) bag. The company is recalling 2-, 5- and 10-pound (0.9-, 2.3- and 4.5-kilogram) bags of its Gold Medal Unbleached and Bleached All Purpose Flour with a “better if used by” date of March 27, 2024, and March 28, 2024, according to a notice posted Friday on its website. (4/29)

The Washington Post: Michael J. Fox Talks Mortality, Parkinson’s: ‘I’m Not Gonna Be 80.’
In a revealing interview, the actor Michael J. Fox spoke about his own mortality and the challenges of living with Parkinson’s disease for more than 30 years, including his experiences with falling and breaking bones. The interview, with Jane Pauley of “CBS Sunday Morning,” was to promote his new documentary “Still,” to be released May 12. (Parker-Pope, 4/30)