First Edition: October 21, 2022

KHN: Labor Tries City-By-City Push In California For $25 Minimum Wage At Private Medical Facilities
A class of health care facility support staff, including nursing assistants, security guards, and janitors, has worked alongside doctors and nurses throughout the covid-19 pandemic keeping patients and medical buildings safe and clean. It’s an unassuming line of work that some people consider a calling. (Bluth, 10/21)

KHN: Awaiting Voters’ Decision On Abortion, When Medicine And Politics Collide
The fight over abortion is steaming toward a political resolution across the state as activists, policymakers, politicians, providers, and would-be-patients eye the Nov. 8 election. Voters will decide on Proposal 3, which, if approved, would install protections for a woman’s right to have an abortion in the Michigan Constitution. (King Collier, 10/21)

KHN: KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: Biden Hits The Road To Sell Democrats’ Record
With the midterm elections rapidly approaching, President Joe Biden has taken to the road to convince voters that he and congressional Democrats have delivered for them during two years in power. (10/20)

AP: Panel Votes To Add COVID Shots To Recommended Vaccinations
The expert panel’s decisions are almost always adopted by the CDC director and then sent to doctors as part of the government’s advice on how to prevent disease. State and local officials often look to the lists in making decisions about vaccination requirements for school attendance, but local officials don’t always adopt every recommendation. Flu and HPV shots, for example, aren’t required by many schools. (Stobbe, 10/20)

CIDRAP: ACIP Adds COVID Vaccine To Pediatric Immunization Schedule
The vote came a day after ACIP approved adding COVID vaccines to the Vaccines for Children (VFC) program, which provides free vaccines to children who don't have health insurance or who can't afford them. (10/20)

Politico: DeSantis Says Florida Won't Mandate Covid-19 Vaccines For Kids Following CDC Panel's Recommendation
"We will make sure that your freedom to make those decisions on behalf of your kids remains intact in the state of Florida, regardless of what the CDC does,” DeSantis said during a press conference in Fort Myers. “There are probably many, many more, who've watched how the CDC has performed since Covid and understand there's a lot of political ideology that has seeped into this.” (Sarkissian, 10/20)

San Francisco Chronicle: 90% Odds For A Winter Wave, Epidemiologist Says
Dr. Katelyn Jetelina, the founder and author of the Your Local Epidemiologist newsletter, says it is “90% likely” that the U.S. will see a winter COVID-19 wave. (Vaziri, 10/20)

The Hill: Children’s Hospitals, Overflowing With Respiratory Patients, Consider Calling National Guard
“We just don’t have as many critical care beds [for children] as we have adult critical care beds simply because we don’t usually need them,” said Dr. Juan Salazar, physician in chief of Connecticut Children’s Medical Center. Cases began spiking in early September and rose exponentially, he said, which is something he’s never seen before. (Masciadrelli and Martichoux, 10/20)

Politico: Pentagon Will Pay For Service Members To Travel For Abortions
“Our Service members and their families are often required to travel or move to meet our staffing, operational, and training requirements. Such moves should not limit their access to reproductive health care,” Austin wrote. The “practical effects of recent changes” will ultimately hurt military readiness, Austin wrote, referring to the Supreme Court’s June decision to strike down Roe v. Wade. (Seligman, 10/20)

The New York Times: Pentagon Seeks To Reassure Service Members On Access To Abortion
Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III issued a directive on Thursday meant to reassure military service members that the Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade would not leave troops without access to abortions in states where the procedure had been banned. (Cooper, 10/20)

Axios: First Look: Biden Backs Federal Fund For Abortion Support
President Biden would support a federal fund for people who need to take time off work and pay for childcare to obtain an abortion, he said in an interview forum with NowThis that will air Sunday on social media. (Fischer, 10/20)

The New York Times: Researchers Find Benzene And Other Dangers In Gas Piped To California Homes
The gas that is piped into millions of California homes contains hazardous air pollutants including benzene, a chemical linked to cancer, a new study found. The researchers estimated that each year California gas appliances and infrastructure leak the same amount of benzene as is emitted by nearly 60,000 cars, but these leaks are unaccounted for in the state’s records. (Shao, 10/20)

NBC News: Gas Stoves Can Leak Chemicals Linked To Cancer, Evidence Shows
A study published Thursday in the journal Environmental Science and Technology found at least 12 hazardous air pollutants emitted from gas stoves in California, including benzene — a chemical known to cause cancer in some people with long-term exposure. (Bendix, 10/20)

Politico: ‘No Quick Fixes’: Walensky’s Push For Change At CDC Meets Reality
The CDC’s new push to get information about health crises out faster to Americans is already running up against its limited authority, congressional inaction and the agency’s own entrenched culture. (Mahr and Banco, 10/21)

Politico: Republicans Look To Obamacare's 'Family Glitch' Fix For Post-Midterm Fight
House Republicans on Thursday asked the Treasury Department to preserve documents related to the administration’s fix of Obamacare's “family glitch,” preparing for an investigation of what they claim was an "illegal expansion" of health coverage should the GOP regain control of the chamber in the midterms. (Payne, 10/20)

Axios: ACA Is MIA From Campaign Fights For First Time In More Than A Decade
The Affordable Care Act, a trigger point in political campaigns for more than a decade, has been conspicuously absent from debates and campaign rhetoric this year. The question is how much that's depriving Democrats of a valuable talking point. (Knight and Solender, 10/21)

The Wall Street Journal: Drugmakers Look To Limit Medicare’s New Power To Negotiate Lower Drug Prices
Drugmakers are trying to blunt Medicare’s newfound power to negotiate medicine prices while coping with internal industry disputes and ebbing influence in Washington, D.C. Under the Inflation Reduction Act, Congress gave Medicare, the country’s biggest buyer of prescription drugs, the authority to negotiate how much it pays for certain high-price therapies, and to get rebates on treatments whose prices rise more than the rate of inflation. (Hopkins, 10/20)

Stat: Medicare Will Soon Cap Drug Spending. There’s No Limit For Hospital Bills
By 2025, people on Medicare who take expensive medications will feel significant financial relief: They will not have to pay more than $2,000 in a year for all of their drugs. But the 35 million people who are enrolled in the traditional Medicare program still won’t have that same relief anytime soon for their hospital, outpatient, home health, and nursing home care, leaving them exposed to potentially unlimited costs if they become seriously ill and don’t have supplemental coverage. (Herman, 10/21)

The New York Times: Herschel Walker Calls His Mental Illness Cured. Experts Say It’s Not So Simple
But experts say Mr. Walker’s assertion that he has “overcome” the disorder is simplistic at best: Like other mental illnesses, dissociative identity disorder cannot be cured in the classic sense. Psychiatrists say that while patients can learn to manage this disorder — and even live symptom-free for extended periods — the symptoms can recur, often triggered by stress. (Stolberg, 10/20)

AP: Concussion Lawsuit Against NCAA Could Be First To Reach Jury
Of the hundreds of wrongful death and personal injury lawsuits brought by college football players against the NCAA in the past decade, Gee’s is only the second to go trial alleging that hits to the head led to chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative brain disease, and could be the first to reach a jury. (Melley, 10/21)

AP: Military Suicides Drop As Leaders Push New Programs
Suicides across the active duty U.S. military decreased over the past 18 months, driven by sharp drops in the Air Force and Marine Corps last year and a similar decline among Army soldiers during the first six months of this year, according to a new Pentagon report and preliminary data for 2022. (Baldor, 10/20)

The Wall Street Journal: Toxic Workplaces Are Bad For Mental And Physical Health, Surgeon General Says
“Toxic workplaces are harmful to workers—to their mental health, and it turns out, to their physical health as well,” Dr. Murthy said. The surgeon general’s guidance on the role of the workplace in well-being comes as many workers report work stress and difficulty concentrating. Meanwhile, companies have stepped up spending on mental-health and well-being benefits in recent years. (Ellis, 10/20)

Stat: Surgeon General: Workplaces Take A Toll On Health
Your job can be hazardous to your health, according to a new report from the U.S. Surgeon General that highlights how the Covid-19 pandemic has revealed fractures in working Americans’ mental health and well-being. (Cooney, 10/20)

The Hill: Salmonella Outbreak Tied To Raw Salmon Sold In California, Arizona
So far 21 people in California, 11 in Arizona and one in Illinois are confirmed cases, according to the Food and Drug Administration, but the tainted product may have reached additional states. Thirteen of those who fell sick had to be hospitalized but all survived. (Tanner, 10/20)

NBC News: Sexual Assault-Related ER Visits Increased 1,500% Since 2006, Study Finds
Emergency department visits related to sexual assault increased more than tenfold over a span of 13 years, according to a new study that experts and advocates say reflects a growing cultural shift around confronting sexual assault. (McShane, 10/20)

Bloomberg: Public Health Conspiracy Theories On TikTok, Social Should Be Debunked Live
Misinformation spreads so quickly that public health officials should be monitoring social media platforms in real time to debunk bogus claims as fast as possible, a new study suggested. (Ighodaro, 10/20)

CIDRAP: Study: Moderna COVID Vaccine Safe, Comparably Effective In Preschoolers
Two doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine were safe in children aged 6 months to 5 years and triggered similar immune response and protection against infection as that seen in young adults, according to preliminary results from a phase 2/3 clinical trial published yesterday in the New England Journal of Medicine. (Van Beusekom, 10/20)

CIDRAP: Study: 7% Of Children Hospitalized With COVID-19 Had Neurologic Problems
A team led by Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt researchers assessed length of hospital stay, intensive care unit (ICU) admission, 30-day readmission, death, and medical costs of 15,137 COVID-19 patients aged 2 months to 18 years released from 52 children's hospitals from March 2020 to March 2022. A total of 37.1% of the patients had a pre-existing complex chronic condition, and 9.8% had one or more neurologic complex chronic conditions. (10/20)

NPR: Health Department Medical Detectives Find 84% Of U.S. Maternal Deaths Are Preventable
For several weeks a year, the work of nurse-midwife Karen Sheffield-Abdullah is really detective work. She and a team of other medical investigators with the North Carolina public health department scour the hospital records and coroner reports of new moms who died after giving birth. (Dembosky, 10/21)

AP: Health System Discloses Breach Tied To Online Data Tracker
Personal health information of up to 3 million patients in Illinois and Wisconsin may have been exposed to outside companies through tracking technology used on a large hospital system’s electronic health records website. (Foody, 10/20)

Reuters: U.S. Justice Dept Seeks More Details On $8 Bln CVS-Signify Health Deal
The U.S. Department of Justice has asked for more details on CVS Health Corp's proposed $8 billion deal to buy Signify Health, in a possible indication that the companies face a longer deal investigation rather than a quick approval. (10/20)

Reuters: Indivior Partner Dodges Monopoly Claims Over Opioid Treatment Drug
Specialty pharmaceutical company Aquestive Therapeutics Inc has escaped a lawsuit by a group of 42 states accusing it of helping Indivior Inc use illegal tactics to shield its opioid addiction treatment Suboxone from generic competition. (Pierson, 10/20)

Bloomberg: Novartis Allows Generic Leukemia Drug Production In Seven Nations
Novartis AG agreed to allow generic drugmakers in seven middle-income nations to produce a leukemia treatment, the first time a voluntary license has been granted for a patented cancer drug as part of a public health initiative. (Sguazzin, 10/20)

Stat: Major Investors Press Drugmakers To Widen Access To Medicines
Three dozen institutional investors are urging the boards at several of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies to establish concrete metrics for linking executive compensation with policies that widen access to medicines to low- and middle-income countries. (Silverman, 10/20)

AP: Kentucky Offers Expanded Medicaid Health Coverage For Adults
Gov. Andy Beshear on Thursday extended Medicaid coverage for dental, vision and hearing care to hundreds of thousands of Kentucky adults, saying the sweeping initiative will remove some of the health-related obstacles keeping people from getting jobs. (Schreiner, 10/20)

Columbus Dispatch: Ohio Rolls Out Single Pharmacy Benefit Manager
Advocates say having a single pharmacy benefit manager will prevent millions of taxpayer dollars from being overcharged. The launch is arguably the most-watched recent reform to Medicaid, which provides government-funded health care for nearly 3 million low-income people ‒ or nearly 1 in 4 Ohioans. (Wu, 10/20)

AP: Worker Who Lowered Vermont Town's Fluoride For Years Resigns
Richmond water superintendent Kendall Chamberlin disclosed in his five-page resignation letter, submitted Monday, that fluoride levels have not been in the state-recommended range for over a decade — instead of nearly four years, as the state had recently disclosed. (Rathke, 10/21)

The Boston Globe: Coalition Urges Federal Officials To Put New Research Agency In Mass.
A group of universities, hospitals, and life science companies is ramping up its efforts to persuade federal officials to locate a new federal health research agency in Massachusetts. The Coalition for Health Advances & Research in Massachusetts released a letter on Thursday with some 80 signatories stating that the state has the “density of resources” necessary for the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, aka ARPA-H. (10/20)

San Francisco Chronicle: Monkeypox: San Francisco To End State Of Emergency This Month
The change comes nearly three months after the emergency declaration was announced, at a time when case counts have slowed to fewer than one per day, officials said. The emergency declaration has allowed San Francisco to marshal resources and personnel to confront the virus. (Vainshtein, 10/20)

Las Vegas Review-Journal: Health District Reports 1st Death Of Clark County Resident With Monkeypox
The first death of a Clark County resident with monkeypox was reported Thursday by the Southern Nevada Health District. The patient, a man over the age of 50, had a compromised immune system, and his death was attributed to other causes, according to the district. (Hynes, 10/20)

The Washington Post: Why Seattle Air Quality Is The Worst In The World Two Days In A Row
It was the second day in a row that the city had the worst air quality on earth, beating out famously polluted cities such as Beijing and Delhi. Seattle’s air quality index, or AQI, reached over 240 on Wednesday and Thursday — a level defined as “very unhealthy” for all groups. It was hard to see the top of a building a block away, and people wore masks to protect themselves from particulates in the air and the acrid smell of smoke. (Osaka, 10/20)