First Edition: Sept. 21, 2023

KFF Health News: As Younger Children Increasingly Die By Suicide, Better Tracking And Prevention Is Sought
Jason Lance thought Jan. 21, 2010, was a day like any other until the call came. He had dropped off his 9-year-old son, Montana, at Stewart’s Creek Elementary School in The Colony, Texas, that morning. “There were no problems at home. He was smart. He wore his heart on his sleeve and he talked and talked and talked,” said Lance. It was “the same old, same old normal day. There were kisses and goodbyes and he said, ‘I love you, Daddy.’” (Platzman Weinstock, 9/21)

KFF Health News: California Officials Seek ‘CARE’ Without Coercion As New Mental Health Courts Launch This Fall
The first time Heidi Sweeney began hallucinating, the voices in her head told her Orange County’s Huntington Beach was where she would be safe. There, behind the bikini-clad crowds playing volleyball and riding beach cruisers, she slept in homeless encampments, then beside a bush outside a liquor store, drinking vodka to drown out the din only she could hear. For years, she refused help, insisting to all who offered, “I’m not sick,” until police arrested her for petty theft and public drunkenness. A judge gave her an ultimatum: jail or treatment. She chose treatment. (Dembosky, 9/21)

AP: Biden Administration Announces $600M To Produce COVID Tests And Will Reopen Website To Order Them
The Biden administration announced Wednesday that it is providing $600 million in funding to produce new at-home COVID-19 tests and is restarting a website allowing Americans to again order up to four free tests per household — aiming to prevent possible shortages during a rise in coronavirus cases that has typically come during colder months. The Department of Health and Human Services says orders can be placed at COVIDTests.gov starting Sept. 25, and that no-cost tests will be delivered for free by the United States Postal Service. (Weissert, 9/20)

NBC News: Free At-Home Covid Tests Return Next Week, Biden Administration Says
The restarting of the free Covid test program was announced alongside a $600 million investment in 12 domestic manufacturers of Covid tests. “Manufacturing Covid-19 tests in the United States strengthens our preparedness for the upcoming fall and winter seasons, reduces our reliance on other countries, and provides good jobs to hardworking Americans,” Dawn O’Connell, assistant secretary for preparedness and response, said in a statement. (Lovelace Jr., 9/20)

Politico: Feds To Restart Mail-Order Covid Test Program
“The president wanted to make sure that no one can go without tests. We will once again up our program to make sure Americans have access to a test,” HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra told reporters at a Washington pharmacy. The secretary was there to receive his Covid and flu shots and to promote the updated Covid shots, which were endorsed by the CDC last week. (Cirruzzo, 9/20)

Reuters: Musk's Neuralink To Start Human Trial Of Brain Implant For Paralysis Patients
Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk's brain-chip startup Neuralink said on Tuesday it has received approval from an independent review board to begin recruitment for the first human trial of its brain implant for paralysis patients. Those with paralysis due to cervical spinal cord injury or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis may qualify for the study, it said, but did not reveal how many participants would be enrolled in the trial, which will take about six years to complete. (9/20)

The Hill: Elon Musk’s Brain Implant Startup Neuralink To Begin Human Trials
Musk, who also owns X and Tesla, wrote that the first patient “will soon receive a Neuralink device.” “This ultimately has the potential to restore full body movement,” Musk wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. “In the long term, Neuralink hopes to play a role in AI risk civilizational risk reduction by improving human to AI (and human to human) bandwidth by several orders of magnitude. Imagine if Stephen Hawking had had this.” (Sforza, 9/20)

The Washington Post: Trump, Who Paved Way For Roe Repeal, Faces Abortion Blowback From Right
The former president returned to Iowa on Wednesday, the first GOP nominating state — and one where abortion is a potent issue for many social conservatives expected to participate in January’s caucuses. During remarks in Dubuque, he touted his role in overturning Roe. “And last year I was able to do something that nobody thought was possible,” Trump said. “And you have to really think about this, study this, because its very important, we ended Roe v. Wade. I did something that for 52 years people talked, they spent vast amounts of money in fighting it, but they couldn’t get the job done. Fifty-two years they fought and they fought hard. … They couldn’t get the job done. I got the job done. I got it done.” (Itkowitz, Roubein, Dawsey and Knowles, 9/20)

AP: Abortion-Rights Group Rebrands To Reproductive Freedom For All In Post-Roe World
NARAL Pro-Choice America, an influential abortion-rights group, announced Wednesday that it is changing its name to Reproductive Freedom for All. The rebrand was needed to better reflect how people think about abortion access little more than a year after the U.S. Supreme Court revoked the constitutional right to the procedure, according to the advocacy organization. (Kruesi, 9/20)

AP: Ahead Of Abortion Vote, Ohio Supreme Court Has Ordered A Rewrite Of Some Misleading Ballot Language
A wildly divided Ohio Supreme Court ruled late Tuesday that only one element of the disputed ballot language for describing a closely watched fall abortion rights question is misleading and must be rewritten. The decision lets stand most of the word choices targeted in a lawsuit by Ohioans United for Reproductive Rights, the pro-abortion rights ballot campaign, as well as the substitution of “unborn child” for “fetus,” which it chose not to dispute. (Carr Smyth, 9/20)

The Hill: Ohio Supreme Court Allows ‘Unborn Child’ Language To Stay In Abortion Ballot Measure
Ohio’s Supreme Court ruled late Tuesday that much of the GOP-controlled state ballot board’s language to describe a November question about abortion is accurate, dealing a blow to the abortion rights groups that challenged the board’s description. (Weixel, 9/20)

AP: Virginia Is The Next Big Battleground For Abortion Rights And May Send A Signal For 2024
Democrat Russet Perry has knocked on thousands of doors in a swing district outside the nation’s capital as she campaigns for a seat that could decide control of the Virginia state Senate in November. The issue that comes up the most — particularly among women and even from some Republicans and independents, she says — is protecting abortion rights. (Rankin and Burnett, 9/20)

AP: Illinois Man Pleads Guilty To Trying To Burn Down Planned Abortion Clinic
A 73-year-old man has pleaded guilty to driving a car into a planned abortion clinic in eastern Illinois and trying to set the building on fire earlier this year, prosecutors said Wednesday. Philip J. Buyno of Prophetstown, Illinois, entered the plea Tuesday to a federal charge of attempting to use fire to damage a building used in interstate commerce. (9/21)

CIDRAP: UN Delegates Approve Political Declaration On Pandemic Readiness
Following the first-ever head-of-state summit on pandemic preparedness at the United Nations (UN) General Assembly today, leaders approved a political declaration that spells out steps to better prepare the world for the next pandemic. The negotiations were led by Ambassadors Gilad Erdan of Israel and Omar Hilale of Morocco and approved by Dennis Francis, a diplomat from Trinidad and Tobago, who is serving as president of the UN General Assembly. (Schnirring, 9/20)

Politico: UN Pandemic Prevention Declaration Passes First Hurdle
World leaders gave preliminary approval at a U.N. meeting Wednesday to a political declaration on pandemic preparedness, prevention and response, which calls for increased international cooperation. But opposition from Russia and its allies threatens adoption by the General Assembly. The bloc wants language in the declaration opposing sanctions not endorsed by the U.N., such as those NATO allies imposed on Russia after its invasion of Ukraine. (Peng, 9/20)

The New York Times: Republicans Inch Closer To Spending Deal, Spoiling For A Shutdown Showdown
House Republicans inched closer on Wednesday to overcoming deep internal divisions and reaching an agreement that would allow them to advance stalled spending legislation, as Speaker Kevin McCarthy bowed to the demands of far-right lawmakers for steep spending cuts that stood little chance of surviving in the Senate. The emerging deal was unlikely to bring Congress closer to averting a shutdown in 10 days, and it remained unclear whether Republicans could even reach agreement among themselves on a purely symbolic measure that underscored Mr. McCarthy’s precarious hold on his job. (Hulse and Karni, 9/20)

Politico: How A Government Shutdown Would Impact Health Programs
With less than two weeks to go, the White House is urging Congress to pass a continuing resolution — a short-term funding fix — that would keep the government open at current spending levels and punt decisions on program cuts or increases to later this year. Even if lawmakers could agree on that, it could have an effect on health programs that, according to the Biden administration, need an immediate infusion of funds. Biden, for example, wants any continuing resolution to include $3.7 billion more for CMS to assist states with their post-pandemic review of Medicaid eligibility. States have cut millions of people from their rolls, some for failing to fill out paperwork. (Hooper, 9/21)

Stat: Hearing On Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Gets Unusually Heated
Republicans and Democrats fought it out over Medicare drug price negotiation Wednesday at a House hearing, with the former accusing the latter of setting up “mafia-style” theft of property. Typically, intense hearings like the one before the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee take place when lawmakers are debating legislation, not well after a law passes. (Wilkerson, 9/20)

Politico: House Republicans Slam Drug Price Negotiations As Unconstitutional
Top Republicans on a key House panel on Wednesday backed pharmaceutical industry arguments that Medicare drug price negotiations are unconstitutional and unfair. The latest salvo between Democrats and Republicans over the landmark Medicare negotiations came during a hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee. At least eight lawsuits by trade groups and drugmakers challenging the Inflation Reduction Act program were the hearing's backdrop. (Lim, 9/20)

The Washington Post: Senate Confirms Joint Chiefs Chair In Respite From Tuberville Blockade
The 83-11 vote avoids what had been the embarrassing prospect of a temporary administrator filling the Pentagon’s most prestigious post. Yet it leaves about 300 other senior officers ensnared in Tuberville’s months-long hold on military promotions with no clear path to advancement, as the underlying political standoff over the Defense Department’s abortion policy exhibits no signs of abating. (Alfaro, Lamothe and Hauslohner, 9/20)

Modern Healthcare: FTC, DOJ Draft Merger Guidelines Divide Healthcare Groups
Healthcare groups are pointing fingers at whose deals warrant heavier levels of scrutiny by antitrust agencies. Trade associations representing hospitals, physicians and insurance companies, along with unions and consumer advocacy groups, submitted public comments this week on the Federal Trade Commission and Justice Department’s draft merger guidelines. The proposed guidelines, released in July, could limit consolidation in all industries, including healthcare. (Berryman, 9/20)

The New York Times: Federal Judge, 96, Is Suspended Amid Concerns About Her Mental Fitness
Judge Pauline Newman’s colleagues on a federal appeals court in Washington have called her “the heroine of the patent system” and “the most beloved colleague on our court.” But on Wednesday, they also told Judge Newman, 96, that she had been suspended amid growing concerns about her mental fitness. The order suspending Judge Newman for one year followed an unusually bitter and public dispute over her cognitive state and her ability to continue to serve on the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, a specialized court that hears patent cases. (Levenson, 9/20)

The New York Times: Bay Area Air Quality Hits Unhealthy Levels After Wildfires
Bay Area and Northern California residents woke up to air quality rated as “unhealthy for some” on Wednesday. Winds are bringing smoke from wildfires in northwestern California and southwestern Oregon to the Bay Area, according to the National Weather Service. Smoky air from the fires could linger across the Bay Area until Thursday, it said in a post on X. Wind directions are likely to shift late Thursday and Friday, it said, bringing relief from the smoke. (Carballo, 9/20)

The New York Times: Warming Oceans May Raise Risk Of Bacterial Infections
On a warm day in early July, Ed Houlihan guided kayakers on a four-mile trip on Cape Cod from Popponesset Bay up the Mashpee River to a freshwater pond. It was three hours of paddling round trip, but afterward Mr. Houlihan, 83, felt no worse for wear — at first. Five days later, his left shin was red and sore, his body was aching, and he had fever and chills. Doctors diagnosed him with a Shewanella algae infection, a bacterium that thrives in brackish water. (Caryn Rabin, 9/20)

NBC News: Suppressing Negative Thoughts Might Improve Mental Health: Study
In a study published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances, Anderson and his co-author found that training the brain to block out negative thoughts appeared to improve mental health outcomes. Their research involved 120 adults from 16 countries, who were each asked to list 20 fears about things that might happen in the future, 20 hopes and 36 neutral events, such a visit to the eye doctor. (Bendix, 9/21)

NBC News: Ultraprocessed Foods Linked To Depression, Study Finds
Consuming large amounts of ultraprocessed foods may be linked to depression, research published Wednesday found. ...The study, published in the journal JAMA Open Network, looked at the eating habits and mental health status of more than 31,000 women between the ages of 42 and 62. The participants came from the Nurses’ Health Study II, a long-running observational study group, and were almost entirely white. (Sullivan, 9/20)

Fox News: Aspartame Could Cause Memory And Learning Deficits In Future Generations, A New Study Suggests
The non-sugar, low-calorie sweetener aspartame — which is found in many sugar-free or "diet" foods and drinks — has been linked to potential problems with memory and learning, according to a study from the Florida State University (FSU) College of Medicine. In the study, which was published in the journal Scientific Reports, male mice that consumed aspartame — even at levels deemed safe by the FDA — had offspring that "demonstrated spatial learning and memory deficits," a press release from FSU stated. (Rudy, 9/20)

CIDRAP: Rehab, Breathing Exercises Aid In Long-COVID Recovery, Review Shows
A new systematic review and meta-analysis published in JAMA Network Open suggests that rehabilitation interventions involving breathing exercises and physical training are associated with improvements in functional exercise capacity, difficulty breathing, and quality of life for patients with long COVID, or post-COVID condition (PCC). (Soucheray, 9/20)

CIDRAP: Convalescent Plasma May Lessen The Odds Of Long COVID, Study Suggests
COVID-19 patients may be less likely to develop severe illness and persistent symptoms if they are treated early with convalescent plasma, according to a nationwide, multicenter follow-up study published yesterday in mBio. Johns Hopkins University researchers led the study, which involved 882 COVID-19 patients participating in a 2021 randomized trial on the effect of SARS-CoV-2 antibody–rich convalescent plasma on hospitalization. The 2021 trial, which included 1,181 symptomatic adults, concluded that convalescent plasma was safe and effective for the early treatment of COVID-19. It was published on the preprint server medRxiv. (Van Beusekom, 9/20)

CIDRAP: Only A Fourth Of Recommended Sepsis Screening Tools Can Reasonably Predict Sepsis, Researchers Say 
Just one of four internationally recommended sepsis screening tools that emergency medical services (EMS) use can identify the life-threatening condition with any accuracy, according to research presented today at the European Emergency Medicine Congress in Barcelona, Spain. (Van Beusekom, 9/20)

Stat: How AI Helped Researchers Track Recovery From Depression
Researchers say they’ve been able to measure recovery from treatment-resistant depression through brain scans — a crucial step toward quantifying the impact of therapies on a condition whose progress is notoriously difficult to measure objectively. And that’s thanks to generative AI, they say. (Ravindranath, 9/20)

CBS News: AI Is Helping Doctors Measure Cardiovascular Risks
Artificial intelligence is being used to help doctors better diagnose a number of health conditions. Now, it's showing views of the heart like nothing they've seen before, providing doctors with the ability to predict if someone is going to have a heart attack or develop cardiovascular disease. ... "The artificial intelligence program that we're utilizing looks at plaque and it breaks it down into the types of plaque, because some types of plaque are more dangerous than others," said cardiologist, Dr. Richard Chazal. (Stahl, 9/20)

Bloomberg: Google DeepMind's AI Tool Could Pinpoint Our Genetic Faults
It’s becoming increasingly clear that scientists are only scratching the surface of what artificial intelligence can teach us about human biology and disease. Case in point: new work by Alphabet's AI subsidiary, Google DeepMind, that promises to help winnow down the genetic causes of disease. (Jarvis, 9/20)

Reuters: US Employers To See Biggest Healthcare Cost Jump In A Decade In 2024
U.S. employers are bracing for the largest increase in health insurance costs in a decade next year, according forecasts from healthcare consultants, but workers may be somewhat spared this time around in a tight labor market. Benefit consultants from Mercer, Aon (AON.N) and Willis Towers Watson (WTW.O) see employer healthcare costs jumping 5.4% to 8.5% in 2024 due to medical inflation, soaring demand for costly weight-loss drugs and wider availability of high-priced gene therapies. (Leo and Mandowara, 9/20)

Stat: FDA Panel To Weigh Approval Of NurOwn, Controversial ALS Drug
Years of polarizing scientific discourse and bruising online debate will come to a head next week when advisers to the Food and Drug Administration weigh in on NurOwn, a potential treatment to slow the progression of ALS that has bitterly divided physicians and patient advocates. (Garde, 9/21)

Reuters: U.S. FDA Found Lapses At Novo's Main U.S. Factory In May 2022 -Report 
U.S. drug regulators issued a report detailing quality control lapses at Novo Nordisk's (NOVOb.CO) main factory in North America as early as May last year, according to the report obtained by Reuters via a Freedom of Information Act request. The inspection by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was at Novo's facility in Clayton, North Carolina, which the company says produces the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API), semaglutide. (Fick, 9/21)

Stat: Eli Lilly Sues Compounding Pharmacies Over Mounjaro Versions
As the gold rush over weight-loss drugs accelerates, Eli Lilly filed lawsuits against several compounding pharmacies, spas and wellness centers around the U.S. for selling unapproved versions of its Mounjaro diabetes drug, which is frequently used for combating obesity. (Silverman, 9/20)

Bloomberg: AI Startup Corti Raises $60 Million To Take On Microsoft In Health Care
Corti ApS, a medical software startup, has raised $60 million to sell an AI “co-pilot” to more hospitals and compete with Microsoft, Amazon and other tech giants racing into health care. Corti’s system is designed to transcribe calls made to emergency medics or doctor’s offices and then automate the paperwork process. That can include preparing the documents needed for patient care and insurance — and even offering guidance to medical professionals. Corti said it currently provides services to 60 hospitals and health networks across Europe, the UK and US. (Bergen, 9/20)

Reuters: Ypsomed Signs Autoinjector Supply Deal With Novo Nordisk 
Swiss medical technology company Ypsomed (YPSN.S) announced on Wednesday a long-term supply deal with Novo Nordisk (NOVOb.CO) for autoinjectors, the latest sign of how the Danish drugmaker's weight-loss drug business is a boon for pharmaceutical services companies. Ypsomed said it would expand its manufacturing capacities over the coming years, with Novo Nordisk contributing a significant part of the investment for the additional production infrastructure. (Fick, 9/21)

USA Today: Extreme Heat Is Killing New Yorkers With Diabetes, Heart Problems
Jewel Floyd doesn’t sleep in her bedroom. The small room facing south is a few degrees warmer than the rest of the older woman's 13th-floor apartment in a concrete senior public housing building in the Bronx. Sunlight seeps through the window most of the day. Floyd, 77, estimated the room stays above 80 degrees most of the time during the summer. Instead, she’s confined to her living room, where her couch faces her bed. (Cuevas, 9/21)

Politico: DeSantis: Humans Are ‘Safer Than Ever’ From Effects Of Climate Change
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Wednesday that humans are “safer than ever” from the effects of climate change, less than a month after a hurricane pounded Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas. The use of the phrase “climate change” increased between 2018 and 2020, DeSantis said during a campaign speech rolling out his energy policy in Midland, Texas. Despite reports from the World Meteorological Organization showing that climate change impacts continued to worsen during that time, DeSantis attributed the term’s jump in use to “ideology.” (Garrity, 9/20)

The Hill: Garcia Looks To Protect Legal ‘Magic Mushroom’ Use Against Federal Intervention 
Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) introduced a bill Wednesday to prohibit the use of federal funds to prosecute the use of legal psilocybin, commonly known as “magic mushrooms.” The Validating Independence for State Initiatives on Organic Natural Substances (VISIONS) Act would protect legal mushroom use from federal law enforcement intervention in places where psilocybin is legal. (Irwin, 9/20)