First Edition: Oct. 19, 2022

KHN: As Links To MS Deepen, Researchers Accelerate Efforts To Develop An Epstein-Barr Vaccine 
Maybe you’ve never heard of the Epstein-Barr virus. But it knows all about you. Chances are, it’s living inside you right now. About 95% of American adults are infected sometime in their lives. And once infected, the virus stays with you. Most viruses, such as influenza, just come and go. A healthy immune system attacks them, kills them, and prevents them from sickening you again. Epstein-Barr and its cousins, including the viruses that cause chickenpox and herpes, can hibernate inside your cells for decades. (Szabo, 10/19)

KHN: Kids’ Mental Health Care Leaves Parents In Debt And In The Shadows
Rachel and her husband adopted Marcus out of Guatemalan foster care as a 7-month-old infant and brought him home to Lansing, Michigan. With a round face framed by a full head of dark hair, Marcus was giggly and verbal — learning names of sea animals off flashcards, impressing other adults. But in preschool, Marcus began resisting school, throwing himself on the ground, or pretending to be sick — refusals that got more intense and difficult to deal with. His parents sought therapy for him. Rachel and her husband had some savings for retirement, college, and emergencies; at first, the cost of Marcus’ therapy was not an issue. “We didn’t realize where it was going,” Rachel said. (Noguchi, 10/19)

Reuters: Coronavirus Pandemic Prompts Biden To Focus On Biological Threats
Biden signed three documents on biodefense security aimed at establishing a strategy and an implementation plan to gird for the next time a virus spreads widely in the United States. The National Biodefense Strategy, released by the White House, said the United States must address the "accidental release of biological agents, and threats posed by terrorist groups or adversaries seeking to use biological weapons." (10/18)

Bloomberg: Biden’s Next Pandemic Plan Eyes Vaccine Supply Within 130 Days
President Joe Biden’s strategy for the next deadly pandemic calls for the US to produce a test for a new pathogen within 12 hours of its discovery and enough vaccine to protect the nation within 130 days. (Griffin, 10/18)

AP: S Carolina Senate Again Rejects Abortion Ban; Bill Not Dead 
South Carolina senators again Tuesday rejected a proposal to ban nearly all abortions in the state but left open a small chance that some compromise could be reached in the less than four weeks the General Assembly has left to meet this year. The stalemate in the Republican-dominated Legislature hasn’t changed over the past month. The Senate voted 26-17 to insist on its bill keeping South Carolina’s current ban on abortions after cardiac activity is present, which is usually around six weeks. (Collins, 10/18)

Crain's Chicago Business: Walgreens, CVS Investigated For Post-Roe Prescription Denials
Walgreens Boots Alliance, CVS and other pharmacy chains are being investigated by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services after the agency received complaints about pharmacists not filling prescriptions for medications that could harm a pregnancy. (Davis, 10/18)

Columbus Dispatch: In Columbus, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy Urges Mental Health Care
"How do we answer the question: Are we taking care of our kids?" said Murthy, a doctor and vice admiral who was the first surgeon general of Indian descent when he first served as U.S. surgeon general under President Obama. "... Right now, our kids are telling us very clearly that they are struggling and it's up to us to collectively respond." (Filby, 10/18)

The Wall Street Journal: Inmate Suicides Rose Sharply In U.S. Prisons, Jails During Pandemic 
Suicides in prisons and jails across the U.S. have risen sharply over the past two years, data collected by The Wall Street Journal show, a trend that officials and inmate advocates say is driven in part by the increased isolation of inmates during the pandemic, more abuse of drugs including fentanyl and staff shortages. (Maher and Frosch, 10/18)

The Hill: Marijuana Use Is Becoming A New Normal Among Young Adults 
More than two-fifths of young men and women nationwide now use cannabis at least on occasion, according to federal data, a quotient that has risen steadily in a decade of relentless legalization. Much of the trend is driven by young women, who have all but closed a decadeslong gender gap in marijuana use. (de Vise, 10/18)  

The Washington Post: XBB, BQ.1.1, BA.2.75.2 — A Variant Swarm Could Fuel A Winter Surge
Instead of a single ominous variant lurking on the horizon, experts are nervously eyeing a swarm of viruses — and a new evolutionary phase in the pandemic. This time, it’s unlikely we will be barraged with a new collection of Greek alphabet variants. Instead, one or more of the multiple versions of the omicron variant that keep popping up could drive the next wave. They are different flavors of omicron, but eerily alike — adorned with a similar combination of mutations. Each new subvariant seems to outdo the last in its ability to dodge immune defenses. (Johnson, 10/18)

San Francisco Chronicle: Is XBB Really A ‘Nightmare Variant’? Here’s What COVID Experts Say
Some more sensationalist reports have called XBB a “ nightmare variant ” due to its apparent ability to evade immunity and dampen some therapies. But infectious disease experts say it is too soon to jump to such broad conclusions. (Vaziri, 10/18)

The Boston Globe: BU Calls Report That It Created A More Dangerous COVID Strain ‘False And Inaccurate’
Boston University on Tuesday denied news reports that it had created what a British tabloid breathlessly described as a COVID strain “with an 80% kill rate,” a headline picked up by other media outlets that stirred fears that a dangerous new pathogen could be unleashed. (Saltzman, 10/18)

The Washington Post: You’re Probably Not Cleaning These 11 Very Germy Spots
While you know your toilet is germy and you’re probably aware that your phone and doorknobs can get gross, too, public health experts and epidemiologists see many more bacterial hot spots in a typical home. So wash your hands and read on for some of the sneakier places where germs and biofilms — the technical term for slimy layers of bacterial colonies — often lurk. (Herrada, 10/18)

Stat: Could Monkeypox Infections Have Long-Term Consequences?
Since the world began confronting a global outbreak of monkeypox in the spring, the scientific community has had plenty of reasons to rue the fact that for decades this virus has been understudied. Here’s another one: Because of that oversight, doctors treating people who have been infected with monkeypox can’t answer with certainty whether some of them will face any long-term health consequences, referred to as sequelae in the field of medicine. (Branswell, 10/19)

Modern Healthcare: Kaiser Permanente, Union Ink Contract For Mental Health Workers
Kaiser Permanente and the National Union of Healthcare Workers inked a proposed four-year contract Tuesday, ending the 10-week standoff between mental health workers and the Oakland-based integrated health system. (Kacik, 10/18)

Modern Healthcare: ‘Flawed’ Employer-Backed Insurance Skews CT, MRI Prices: Study
More than a 10-fold gap exists between the highest and lowest negotiated price for common imaging services provided at the same hospital, new research shows. (Kacik, 10/18)

AP: Race Gap Seen In US Infant Deaths After Fertility Treatment 
Black-white disparities exist in fertility medicine, reflected in life-and-death outcomes for babies, according to a large study of U.S. births. The study, published Wednesday in the journal Pediatrics, is the broadest look yet at racial gaps for women who use in vitro fertilization, fertility drugs or other fertility treatments. Researchers found higher death rates for infants born to Black women who used such treatments than white women who did the same — a gap that is much wider than in babies born without those treatments. (Johnson, 10/19)

Press Association: Sleeping Less Than Five Hours Linked To Multiple Diseases In Later Life - Study
Evidence from self-reported data indicates that compared to those who slept for up to seven hours a night, people who reported getting five hours or less shut eye were 30% more likely to be diagnosed with diseases - such as cancer, diabetes or heart disease - over the span of 25 years. (Marshall, 10/18)

The Atlantic: America’s Teeth Grinders Are Turning To Botox
Across the country, patients dealing with the meddlesome condition are now turning to Botox—yes, Botox.  “It’s a very popular treatment” for people who grind and clench their teeth, Lauren Goodman, a L.A.-based cosmetic nurse, told me. (Francis, 10/18)

Axios: Americans Are Drinking Less
Americans are drinking less than they used to. The average number of drinks Americans consume in a week has been falling over the last several years, from 4.8 in 2009 to 3.6 in 2021, Gallup found. (Pandey, 10/18)