First Edition: Monday, Sept. 9, 2024

KFF Health News: With TV Drug Ads, What You See Is Not Necessarily What You Get
Triumphant music plays as cancer patients go camping, do some gardening, and watch fireworks in ads for Opdivo+Yervoy, a combination of immunotherapies to treat metastatic melanoma and lung cancer. Ads for Skyrizi, a medicine to treat plaque psoriasis and other illnesses, show patients snorkeling and riding bikes — flashing their rash-free elbows. People with Type 2 diabetes dance and sing around their office carrels, tipping their hats to Jardiance. Drugs now come with celebrity endorsements: Wouldn’t you want the migraine treatment endorsed by Lady Gaga, Nurtec ODT? (Rosenthal, 9/9)

KFF Health News: Health Secretary Becerra Touts Extreme Heat Protections. Farmworkers Want More
On a sunny August morning in this agricultural town, before temperatures soared to 103 degrees, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra stood outside the small public library. He came to talk about the Biden administration’s efforts to protect farmworkers from extreme heat and wildfire smoke, two emerging public health issues at the forefront of the climate crisis. (Sánchez, 9/9)

KFF Health News: Journalists Give Rundown On Bird Flu Risks, HIV Rates, And The Fate Of Shuttered Hospitals
KFF Health News and California Healthline staff made the rounds on state and local media in recent weeks to discuss topical stories. Here’s a collection of their appearances. (9/7)

Stat: White House Issues Rules To Push Insurers To Cover Mental Health Care
The Biden administration on Monday announced it would finalize a highly anticipated proposal meant to force health insurers to cover mental health care on the same basis as physical health conditions. It is the latest salvo in a long-running federal government effort to crack down on insurance plans skimping on treatment for conditions including anxiety, depression, and addiction. (Facher, 9/9)

Reuters: Judge Won't Block Maryland Law Mandating Discounts For Hospitals' Outside Pharmacies
The largest U.S. drug industry group and several drug companies have lost a bid to block a Maryland law requiring drugmakers to offer discounts on drugs dispensed by third-party pharmacies that contract with hospitals and clinics serving low-income populations. U.S. District Judge Matthew Maddox in Baltimore on Thursday refused to issue a preliminary order blocking the law while he hears a challenge to it by Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), Novartis, AbbVie, and AstraZeneca. (Pierson, 9/6)

The Hill: Schumer Cites Rail Safety, Lowering Insulin Costs As Top Priorities For Rest Of 2024
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) circulated a letter to Senate colleagues Sunday afternoon warning them of the looming government funding deadline of Sept. 30 and highlighting rail safety legislation and proposals to lower the cost of insulin and prescription drugs as top priorities remaining in 2024. Schumer also said he would make it a priority to continue confirming President Biden’s judicial and executive branch nominees over the next four months, as Democrats are in danger of losing their Senate majority. (Bolton, 9/8)

The Washington Post: Missouri Abortion Rights Measure Is Invalid, Judge Says Days Before Deadline
A Missouri judge ruled that an abortion ballot measure is invalid because it did not properly note which laws it would repeal, potentially restricting it from reaching a November vote. Cole County Circuit Judge Christopher Limbaugh said the measure’s proponents did not sufficiently inform voters who signed petitions for the proposed amendment of its ramifications, echoing arguments made in a legal challenge by antiabortion advocates. (Rosnzweig-Ziff, 9/9)

Tampa Bay Times: DeSantis’ Election Police Questioned People Who Signed Abortion Petitions
Isaac Menasche remembers being at the Cape Coral farmer’s market last year when someone asked him if he’d sign a petition to get Florida’s abortion amendment on the ballot. He said yes — and he told a law enforcement officer as much when one showed up at the door of his Lee County home earlier this week. Menasche said he was surprised when the plainclothes officer twice asked if it was really Menasche who had signed the petition. The officer said he was looking into potential petition fraud. (Ellenbogen, Garcia and Mower, 9/6)

USA Today: Missouri Resident Contracts Bird Flu With No Known Exposure
A Missouri resident has tested positive for bird flu even though there is no evidence the person came into contact with an animal infected with the virus, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a Friday evening news release. Acquiring the virus without animal contact raises safety concerns because it may be an indication that the potentially quite deadly virus could develop the ability to transmit from human-to-human, although the CDC still considers such a risk "low" at the moment. (Weintraub and Cuevas, 9/6)

Stat: 5 Burning Questions About Missouri’s Mysterious H5 Bird Flu Case 
News that a person in Missouri contracted H5 bird flu despite having no known contact with infected animals or birds — in other words, no evident route of infection — raises pressing questions public health officials are surely scurrying to answer. The rationale for that urgency is this: An unexplained H5 infection raises the possibility of person-to-person spread of a flu virus that has never before circulated in humans, and to which people would not have immunity. And this with a dangerous flu virus that scientists have long feared could someday trigger a pandemic. (Branswell, 9/8)

NBC News: U.S. Prepares For Possible Arrival Of More Severe Strain Of Mpox
Senior Biden administration officials said Friday that the United States is preparing for the possible arrival of a more severe version of mpox, which has taken off in the Democratic Republic of Congo and other countries in Africa resulting in more than 600 deaths there. As of Thursday, there have been more than 24,800 reported cases of this version of the virus, known as clade 1, so far this year, the World Health Organization said at a separate briefing Friday. The WHO declared the outbreak a global health emergency in August. (Lovelace Jr., 9/6)

Detroit Free Press: Michigan Mpox Infection Is Clade II Variant Of Virus: Why That Matters
The mpox infection that sickened a person from Wayne County in August was caused by the clade II variant of the virus, spokesperson Kimberly Harry told the Free Press on Thursday. It's the same, less severe strain of mpox virus that sparked international outbreaks in 2022 and has continued to trigger sporadic cases in Michigan and across the U.S. (Shamus, 9/6)

Reuters: India Reports Case Of Mpox In Traveler From Affected Country 
India had recorded a suspected case of mpox found in a man who recently travelled from a country suffering an outbreak of the virus, the health ministry said on Sunday. The ministry did not specify which strain of the mpox virus the patient might have, but tests were being conducted to confirm the infection. (9/8)

CIDRAP: US COVID Activity Remains Elevated As Some Indicators Decline
The nation's COVID activity remains high, but there are more signs of decline in many areas, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today in its latest updates. Wastewater SARS-CoV-2 detections are still high, especially in the West, but are dropping in all regions except for the Midwest, according to the CDC's latest tracking. (Schnirring, 9/6)

Los Angeles Times: California Health And Human Services Chief Dr. Mark Ghaly To Step Down
Dr. Mark Ghaly is stepping down as head of the California Health and Human Services Agency after an eventful tenure that included the eruption of the COVID-19 pandemic, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Friday. Newsom called Ghaly “a driving force for transformative changes to make healthcare more affordable and accessible,” whose leadership during the pandemic “saved countless lives and set the stage for our state’s strong recovery.” (Alpert Reyes, 9/6)

Stat: Mysteries Of Persistent Lyme Disease Run Into Enigmas Of Long Covid
Going to the doctor is already tricky enough for people with chronic symptoms of Lyme disease. Their concerns often dismissed by mainstream medicine, those patients now face an additional hurdle: ruling out long Covid. The two illnesses — one seeping in over the course of decades and another suddenly springing to life on a massive scale — share many qualities, including being widely misunderstood. But as efforts to demystify long Covid intensify, so does interest in studying neglected conditions, including persistent complications from Lyme disease. (Cueto and Sajani, 9/9)

CIDRAP: Saline Drops Reduce Duration Of Common Cold In Kids, Study Finds 
"We found that children using salt-water nose drops had cold symptoms for an average of six days, where those with usual care had symptoms for eight days. The children receiving salt water nose drops also needed fewer medicines during their illness," said study author Steve Cunningham, MBChB, PhD, from the University of Edinburgh. ... The authors also said using saline nasal drops can reduce forward transmission often virus to household members. (Soucheray, 9/6)

The Wall Street Journal: Georgia Shooting Suspect’s Mom Tried To Warn School, Family Says
The mother of the 14-year-old suspect in the Georgia high-school shooting that left four people dead called the school the morning of the attack to warn of a possible emergency, according to a family member. Marcee Gray called Apalachee High School in Winder, Ga., Wednesday around 9:50 a.m., her sister, Annie Brown, told The Wall Street Journal on Sunday. Gray urged a counselor to find her son, according to Brown. The shooting began about half an hour later. (Otis, 9/8)

AP: Georgia School Shooting Highlights Fears About Classroom Cellphone Bans 
Huddling for safety in classrooms as gunfire rang out, students at Apalachee High School texted or called their parents to let them know what was happening and send what they thought could be their final messages. One student texted her mother to say she loved her, adding, “I’m sorry I’m not the best daughter.” ... The moves to restrict phone use in schools have been driven by concerns about the impact screentime has on children’s mental health and complaints from teachers that cellphones have become a constant distraction in the classroom. But those opposed to the bans say they cut off a lifeline parents have to make sure their children are safe during school shootings or other emergencies.(DeMillo, 9/8)

AP: Manhunt For Kentucky I-75 Shooter Enters Third Day 
As a grueling manhunt stretched into a third day Monday for a suspect in an interstate shooting that struck 12 vehicles and wounded five people, authorities vowed to keep up a relentless search as the stress level remained high for a rural area where some schools canceled classes. Authorities have been searching a rugged, hilly area of southeastern Kentucky since Saturday evening, when a gunman began shooting at drivers on Interstate 75 near London, a small city of about 8,000 people located about 75 miles (120 kilometers) south of Lexington. The search was temporarily suspended once darkness fell Sunday night, but was set to resume Monday morning. (Schreiner, 9/9)

Crain's Chicago Business: Kaiser Permanente Grant Boosts Black Health Leadership Alliance
A Chicago-based alliance of Black board directors is taking aim at increasing Black leadership among public hospitals and community health centers, with a $1.5 million grant from Kaiser Permanente. The grant from Kaiser's fund at the East Bay Community Foundation will help Black Directors Health Equity Agenda, or BDHEA, develop a recruitment and engagement playbook to address health disparities through Black leadership, the organization said in a press release. (Asplund, 9/6)

Stateline: States Are Making It Easier For Physician Assistants To Work Across State Lines
Mercedes Dodge was raised by first-generation immigrant parents from Peru in a modest home in a rural part of southeastern Texas, where there weren’t many health care providers. Sometimes they had to travel to Houston, over an hour and a half away, to get basic health care. Partly because of that experience, Dodge became a physician assistant. Since 2008, she has provided psychiatric and primary care services to adults and children, many of whom come from communities like hers. (Chatlani, 9/6)

The Boston Globe: ‘The Early Evidence Is Flashing Red’: Elizabeth Warren Convenes Panel On Military Blast Injuries
Dennis Hernandez knew he was in trouble when he watched a video of himself stress-testing a security system for a client and realized he had no recollection of doing it. The video had been filmed that morning. Hernandez, a retired special forces veteran, suspected his short-term memory problems stemmed from repeated exposures to the pressure waves unleashed by low-level explosions. During his 22 years of service, he’d been exposed to breaching charges used to blow open doors countless times, along with multiple IEDs. But when he finally sought help from the Department of Veterans Affairs, he realized he was on his own. (Piore, 9/8)

Military.com: New Standards For The VA Caregivers Program Are Still In Limbo. Advocates Want Them Released. 
Advocates for family members and friends who support severely ill or injured veterans who need daily care are pushing the Biden administration for answers on the future of a Department of Veterans Affairs program that provides benefits to those caregivers. Twelve organizations, including the Elizabeth Dole Foundation, Veterans of Foreign Wars and Wounded Warrior Project, wrote President Joe Biden on Wednesday asking him to publish new program standards for the VA's Program of Comprehensive Assistance for Family Caregivers, which have been in the works for more than two years. (Kime, 9/6)

NPR: Recalled Eggs Linked To Multistate Salmonella Outbreak
A salmonella outbreak linked to recalled eggs has sickened 65 people in nine states, U.S. health officials said. As of Friday, 24 people had been hospitalized, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. No deaths were reported. The recalled eggs came from Milo’s Poultry Farms and were distributed to Wisconsin, Illinois and Michigan, the CDC said. (Bowman, 9/7)

Fox News: Three Deaths Reported After Legionnaires Disease Outbreak At Senior Living Facility 
Three senior citizens have died after contracting Legionnaires' disease — a form of pneumonia that can spread via water — at an assisted living facility in Albany, New York, according to reports. The Albany County Department of Health was first notified of a "cluster of cases" at Peregrine Senior Living on Aug. 30, according to a statement sent to Fox News Digital. "We began an immediate investigation and the assisted living facility was placed on water restrictions," a spokesperson said in the statement. (Rudy, 9/6)

San Francisco Chronicle: Discovery Of One Tiny Medfly In Bay Area Prompts Quarantine
A minuscule bug that caused an ecological nightmare across Northern California more than 40 years ago is back, scientists in Alameda County announced Friday. The county’s agricultural commissioner last week introduced measures to prevent the spread of Mediterranean fruit flies over a 70-square-mile area after officials discovered one mated female in Fremont, the California Department of Food and Agriculture said in a statement. (Mishanec, 9/8)

CNN: Valley Fever At Lightning In A Bottle Festival: Officials Warn
After nearly 20 cases of Valley fever were identified after a summer music festival in California, state health officials are warning that risk from the fungal infection rises in the late summer and early fall. (Hassan, 9/6)

NPR: Personal Care Products Are Linked To Higher Levels Of Hormone-Disrupting Chemicals In Kids
A new study links the recent use of personal care products like lotions, ointments and hair conditioners to higher levels of endocrine-disrupting chemicals called phthalates in young children. And children of different racial and ethnic groups seemed to have different levels of exposure to these chemicals. ... These chemicals are endocrine disruptors – which means they can mimic, block or interfere with the body’s own hormones. (Godoy, 9/9)

Reuters: US Judge Unlikely To Block NLRB Case Pending Challenge To Agency's Powers
A federal judge in Chicago on Friday seemed skeptical of a medical center's claim that National Labor Relations Board members and administrative judges are improperly insulated from removal by the president, an argument that has been raised in a series of cases filed this year claiming that the NLRB's structure is unconstitutional. U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Cummings held a two-hour-long hearing on a motion by Alivio Medical Center, a nonprofit that serves Chicago's Hispanic community, to block an NLRB administrative case against the company from proceeding pending the outcome of its lawsuit challenging the agency's structure. (Wiessner, 9/6)