First Edition: Sept. 7, 2023

KFF Health News: Most States Have Yet To Permanently Fund 988. Call Centers Want Certainty
Since the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline transitioned a year ago to the three-digit crisis phone number 988, there has been a 33% increase in the number of calls, chats, and texts to the hotline. But even with that early sign of success, the program’s financial future is shaky. (Saint Louis, 9/7)

KFF Health News: ‘Like A Russian Roulette’: US Military Firefighters Grapple With Unknowns Of PFAS Exposure 
A U.S. military firefighter for 32 years, Kurt Rhodes trained and performed his duties with aqueous film forming foam, or AFFF — a highly effective fire suppressant that he never knew contained PFAS chemicals, now known to be harmful to human health. New federal research links testicular cancer in U.S. service members to the “forever chemicals,” adding to a growing body of evidence of the dangers they pose. Rhodes lives in fear that he, like many of his colleagues, will get sick. “It’s kind of like a Russian roulette,” he said. “Are you going to get the cancers or are you going to be one of the lucky ones who doesn’t?” (Kime and Norman, 9/7)

KFF Health News and LAist: Hollywood's A-List Health Insurance Is Jeopardized By The Labor Strikes 
The issues dominating the dual Hollywood strikes by actors and writers are artificial intelligence, residual payments, and job protections. But one topic that’s often a contentious point in labor negotiations — health insurance — has slipped under the radar. A-list stars have been out in force snapping selfies on picket lines in the bright California sun, but it’s the people who may have never walked the red carpet who are forgoing a paycheck and potentially their health insurance as the negotiations drag on and work dries up. (Fortier, 9/7)

NBC News: FDA Could Greenlight New Covid Boosters As Early As Friday
The Food and Drug Administration plans to greenlight updated versions of the Covid boosters as early as Friday, according to four people familiar with the agency’s plans. The latest shots are designed to target the XBB.1.5 omicron subvariant. Though that strain is no longer dominant, the boosters should still protect against current circulating subvariants, which are closely related, the drugmakers and experts say. (Lovelace Jr. and Alba, 9/6)

Reuters: Pfizer Says Updated COVID Shot Generated Strong Reaction Vs New Variant In Mice
Pfizer on Wednesday said the updated Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine expected to be used this fall elicited a strong antibody response against the highly mutated BA.2.86 subvariant of the coronavirus in a preclinical study in mice. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has previously indicated that BA.2.86 may be more capable of causing infection in people who previously had COVID or were vaccinated with previous shots. (9/6)

Politico: Biden Appears To Be Over Covid Protocols 
For two days straight, the White House told anyone who would listen that President Joe Biden was taking his Covid exposure seriously by following a strict set of public health precautions. Then Biden strode into a room full of people on Wednesday and reduced those precautions to a punchline. “I’ve been tested again today, I’m clear across the board,” Biden said, smiling as he held up his face mask. “They keep telling me, because it has to be 10 days or something, I gotta keep wearing it. But don’t tell them I didn’t have it when I walked in.” (Cancryn, 9/6)

CIDRAP: WHO Airs Concerns About Global COVID Trends
At a briefing on global health issues today, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said there are concerning trends ahead of the Northern Hemisphere winter, including rising deaths in parts of the Middle East and Asia and increased hospitalizations in multiple regions. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, PhD, included the caveat that data are limited, with few countries reporting information. Regarding variants, he said there is currently no dominant one, though EG.5 is on the rise. He said the heavily mutated BA.2.86 variant has been detected in small numbers in only 11 countries, though the WHO continues to monitor developments, especially regarding transmissibility and potential impact. (Schnirring, 9/6)

The Washington Post: School Mask Mandates Are Back. So Are The Political Divisions They Deepened
School administrators say they are not eager to relive the bitter fights over masks and vaccination that dominated the first two years of the pandemic. Josh Tovar, a high school principal in Texas’s Garland Independent School District, said his campus is seeing a spike in student and staff infections that is depriving some classes of teachers. But, Tovar said, he would never consider requiring masks again, even if he had that power. (Natanson, Nirappil and Vazquez, 9/6)

The New York Times: Abortions Rose in Most States This Year, New Data Shows
Legal abortions most likely increased in the United States in the first six months of the year compared with 2020, an analysis of new estimates shows, as states with more permissive abortion laws absorbed patients traveling from those with bans and access to abortion pills via telemedicine continued to expand. ... The data suggests that thousands of women have crossed state lines to obtain an abortion, in the face of restrictions at home. It also indicates a rise in abortions among those living in states where the procedure is legal. (Walker and McCann, 9/6)

NPR: Where Are Abortions Happening? New Study Tracks Post-Roe Trends
People seeking an abortion are "highly motivated" to travel if they can't get abortions where they live. That's one conclusion from a study from the Guttmacher Institute, a research and policy group that supports reproductive rights. ... "If you're interested in where people are going, then I think the numbers tell a big part of that story because it represents a lot of people traveling," says Isaac Maddow-Zimet, a data scientist at the Guttmacher Institute. (Simmons-Duffin, 9/7)

The Washington Post: Mexican Court Expands Access To Abortion, Even As U.S. Restricts It
The Mexican Supreme Court on Wednesday widened access to abortion, decriminalizing the procedure in federal health facilities. The ruling means that more than 70 percent of women in Mexico — including everyone who uses the federal health system — will have access to legal abortion, said the Information Group on Reproductive Choice, or GIRE. The nonprofit organization, which took the case to the Supreme Court, called the decision a “historic milestone.” (Sheridan, 9/6)

Reuters: Planned Parenthood Seeks To Overturn US Whistleblower Fraud Law 
Planned Parenthood is challenging a decades-old law allowing whistleblowers to bring fraud lawsuits on behalf of the government, in a bid to defeat a $1.8 billion lawsuit by an anonymous anti-abortion activist and the state of Texas seeking to recover money they claim the organization illegally took from Medicaid. In a filing in Amarillo, Texas, federal court on Friday, Planned Parenthood argued that the so-called "qui tam" provision of the federal False Claims Act (FCA) lets private citizens take on the role of government officials enforcing the law, violating the U.S. Constitution's requirement that such officials be appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate. (Pierson, 9/6)

AP: Hundreds Of Military Promotions Are On Hold As Republican Senator Demands End To Abortion Policy
Top defense officials are accusing Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville of jeopardizing America’s national security with his hold on roughly 300 military promotions, raising the stakes in a clash over abortion policy that shows no signs of easing. Tuberville brushed off the criticism, vowing he will not give in. “We’re going to be in a holding pattern for a long time,” he said, if the Pentagon refuses to end its policy of paying for travel when a service member goes out of state to get an abortion or other reproductive care. (Freking and Copp, 9/7)

The Washington Post: Child Care Is About To Get More Expensive, As Federal Funds Dry Up
With her toddlers’ day care closing in weeks, Lexie Monigal is back in a familiar bind: desperately searching for child care while contemplating quitting her full-time job as a surgical nurse in Menasha, Wis. It’s the second time this year her twins’ day care has suddenly announced plans to shutter — both for financial difficulties — leaving her without someone to watch her 2-year-olds and exacerbating a long-standing shortage of child care in this stretch of Wisconsin. (Bhattarai,9/5)

Politico: Holes In Federal Aid Leave Millions Sweltering 
If nothing else, this summer’s record-smashing heat has demonstrated that air conditioning can be a life-saving necessity. Yet more than 30 million low-income households that are eligible for federal funding to help pay their cooling costs haven’t received a dime, writes Thomas Frank in an investigation published today. That’s largely because the federal program to protect poor families from dangerous temperatures was designed with frigid winters in mind. And almost every state spends the bulk of that program’s money on heating, even as summer death tolls rise. (Skibell, 9/6)

E&E News By POLITICO: States Withhold Cooling Aid For The Poor As Heat Gets Deadlier
More than 30 million low-income households that are eligible for federal funding to defray the cost of air conditioning have not received any money from a government program that was created to protect vulnerable people from dangerous temperatures, an E&E News analysis shows. The dearth of cooling assistance going to households nationwide reflects shortcomings in U.S. and state policies to address the dangers of extreme heat as it kills more Americans than other weather-related disasters, according to some experts. It comes during a summer of unmatched climate catastrophes, including the hottest month on record. (Frank, 9/6)

NPR: Climate Change Makes Air Quality Worse, And That's Bad For Health
Emergency room visits for asthma spike during and after smoke exposure. Heart attacks, strokes, and cognitive function problems also increase after smoke exposure. In 2022, people living in the Amazon basin, Alaska, and the western part of North America all breathed in more wildfire smoke than they have on average over the past 20 years. (Borunda, 9/6)

Reuters: UN Chief Heat Officer Says Warming Cities Pose Potential To Be Major Killers 
The United Nations' first global chief heat officer called on Wednesday for political leaders to make firm commitments at November's COP28 climate meeting to stem rapidly rising temperatures in cities, particularly in poorer countries. Eleni Myrivili, tasked with trying to ease the impact of hotter summers that threaten the health and livelihoods of billions of urban residents around the world, said finding the finance for nature-based solutions and adaptation plans for cities was a major roadblock to progress. (9/6)

Reuters: Pfizer, Valneva Say 'Positive' Result For Lyme Disease Vaccine Candidate Booster 
Pfizer and French pharmaceutical peer Valneva announced on Thursday that a phase 2 study for its VLA15 Lyme disease vaccine candidate showed a "strong immune response" in both children and adolescents a month after a booster shoot. "The Phase 2 booster results emphasize the vaccine candidate’s potential to provide immunity against Lyme disease in paediatric and adolescent populations," the two companies said in a statement. (9/7)

Modern Healthcare: OIG Report: Nursing Homes Unprepared For Disasters
The Health and Human Services Department Office of Inspector General surveyed 168 nursing homes last year to determine areas of concern regarding their readiness to respond to public health emergencies and natural disasters. Seventy-seven percent of facilities told the OIG that they face at least one “major” or “moderate” challenge that jeopardizes their ability to care for residents during crises. Staffing stood out as the most commonly cited problem. (Berryman, 9/6)

Axios: Nursing Home Inspector Shortage Could Undermine Staffing Proposal
State inspectors who likely will help enforce the Biden administration's new nursing home staffing requirements are facing their own workforce shortages. The Biden administration says its newly proposed staffing ratios could improve patient care, but the program's success may depend on a nursing home oversight apparatus that's already struggling to keep up with inspections. (Goldman, 9/7)

Roll Call: Medicare Pandemic Advances Deepen Debt For Some Hospitals
Congress poured money into the U.S. economy throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. But for a few hospitals, one of the lifelines that Medicare threw to the medical industry ultimately became another stone around their necks. (Clason, 9/6)

Stateline: Some States Back Hospital Mergers Despite Record Of Service Cuts, Price Hikes
Nearly half of Mississippi’s rural hospitals are at risk of closing, according to a report from the Center for Healthcare Quality & Payment Reform, a nonprofit policy research center. Mississippi leaders hope easing restrictions on hospital mergers could be a solution. A new law exempts all hospital acquisitions and mergers from state antitrust laws and classifies community hospitals as government entities, making them immune from antitrust enforcement. (Vollers, 9/7)

Modern Healthcare: 340B Remedy’s Clawbacks Face Opposition From Hospitals
Budget neutrality is the central sticking point across the 150-plus comments submitted to the federal government regarding the proposed rule. The American Hospital Association, among other provider associations and health systems, disagrees with government's assessment, arguing that the Health and Human Services Department has “the legal obligation and legal flexibility to not seek a clawback of funds that hospitals received as a result of HHS’ own mistakes.” (Kacik, 9/6)

Modern Healthcare: Why Companies Disrupting Healthcare Press On Despite Setbacks
Large retailers have poured billions of dollars into healthcare services, with executives promising big gains in market share and profitability—but some of those efforts are not going according to plan.On Friday, Rosalind Brewer stepped down as CEO of Walgreens Boots Alliance, and Ginger Graham, lead independent director, took on the role of interim CEO. Brewer, who joined Walgreens in March 2021, was an integral part of the company's shift beyond its stores and traditional pharmacy and oversaw multibillion-dollar investments into the strategy starting mere months after her arrival. (Hudson, 9/6)

Modern Healthcare: Gig Workers Move Into Nursing As Reliance On Travel Nurses Drops
Gig workers are making their way into hospitals in the form of nurses picking up shifts and working alongside staff clinicians caring for patients. Their arrival comes as health systems try to decrease their reliance on expensive travel nurses and other temporary workers needed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Some systems created internal staffing agencies and float pools, while others are embracing per-diem structures where clinician gig workers—much like Uber and DoorDash drivers—use apps to choose what shifts they work, and where. (Devereaux, 9/6)

Houston Chronicle: Prairie View A&M Starts School Of Public And Allied Health
Prairie View A&M University on Wednesday launched its School of Public and Allied Health, coming on the heels of a COVID-19 pandemic that laid bare health disparities in diverse communities and spiked student interest in the field at the HBCU. ... “I’m excited about what next,” said Angela Branch-Vital, the school’s executive director. “Being able to make an impact, that’s what’s key to me – being able to represent the underserved, being able to be a voice for those who do not have a voice.” (Ketterer, 9/6)

Reuters: Astellas Withdraws Lawsuit Challenging Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Plans
Japan-based Astellas Pharma on Wednesday withdrew a lawsuit filed against the U.S. government, days after its prostate cancer drug was spared from the first list of drugs that will be subject to Medicare price negotiations. The U.S. government, late last month, selected the first 10 drugs, including the top-selling blood thinner Eliquis from Bristol Myers Squibb and Pfizer, which will face price negotiations as part of President Joe Biden's Inflation Reduction Act. (9/6)

Stat: AstraZeneca Chief Proposes A Novel Edit To The Drug Pricing Bill
Among the pharmaceutical companies’ many objections to the Biden administration’s drug pricing program is a set of provisions the industry says will warp how cancer drugs are developed. On Wednesday, AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot proposed a new solution. (Mast, 9/6)

CNBC: Weight Loss Drugs Wegovy, Ozempic Tested To Treat Addiction, Dementia
Scientists have begun investigating whether so-called miracle obesity drugs could be used to treat conditions such as dementia and alcohol addiction after recent trials pointed to the drugs’ efficacy in treating serious health issues. (Gilchrist, 9/7)

Sacramento Bee: California Judge Puts School District’s Policy Of Outing Transgender Students To Parents On Hold
A San Bernardino County Superior Court judge has put a pause on Chino Valley Unified School District’s new policy requiring school employees to out transgender students to their parents. Wednesday’s temporary restraining order marks the first legal setback for an effort to implement forced outing policies in school districts across the state. The latest to consider such a policy is Rocklin Unified. Other school systems that have passed or considered such a policy include districts in Murrieta and Temecula. (Sheeler, 9/6)

The Wall Street Journal: Psychedelics Decriminalization Bill Approved By California Assembly
California’s assembly passed a bill that would make it the third state to decriminalize psychedelic drugs for personal use. The measure cleared the lower house of the Democratic-controlled state legislature Wednesday, with a final tally showing 44 members voting yes, 14 opposed and 22 not voting. Four of the Assembly’s 13 Republican members joined their Democratic colleagues to vote for the bill. (Mai-Duc and Elinson, 9/6)

NPR: Share Of U.S. Drug Overdose Deaths Caused By Fake Prescription Pills Is Growing
The share of overdose deaths involving counterfeit pills more than doubled between mid-2019 and late 2021, and the percentage more than tripled in western states, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. According to the CDC, overdose deaths that had evidence of fake pill use accounted for just 2% of fatalities between July and September of 2019. That figure jumped to 4.7% between October and December of 2021. (Hernandez, 9/6)

Stat: Ketamine Treatment For Depression: Why It Can Be Hard To Access
Every day, Marisa Russello was overwhelmed by suicidal thoughts. Even one negative thought might cause her to spiral. A writer working on her book manuscript, she’d be unable to change a word without questioning the entire project’s value altogether. Her depression made it hard to fall and stay asleep. She developed insomnia and took to sleeping during the day. She knew not to listen to intrusive feelings, but her brain kept telling her otherwise. A darkness took hold of her consciousness and wouldn’t let go. (Maloney, 9/7)

Stat: For Those In Heroin’s Grip, 'Housing Is Health Care' In This Program
Shaun Anderson hasn’t slept this late in the day in years. He still wakes up a few times throughout the night — a habit he’s developed trying to protect himself from being jumped while at his most vulnerable. This morning, however, he slept so deeply he didn’t hear his doorbell ring. He wasn’t used to even having a doorbell, or a regular place to sleep — housing is one of many things he’d lost to a decades-long battle with opioid use disorder. (Wisniewski, 9/7)

The New York Times: At Yale, A Surge Of Activism Forced Changes In Mental Health Policies
In the weeks after Rachael Shaw-Rosenbaum, a first-year student at Yale, died by suicide in 2021, a group of strangers began convening on Zoom. Some of them knew Ms. Shaw-Rosenbaum. But many only knew what she had been going through, as she struggled with suicidal thoughts and weighed the consequences of checking herself into the hospital. One, a physician in her early 40s, had been told years ago to withdraw from Yale while she was hospitalized after a suicide attempt, an experience she recalls as chillingly impersonal, “like you’re being processed through this big machine.” (Hartocollis and Barry, 9/6)

AP: NBA Owner Putting Millions Toward Stroke Care, Health Research In Detroit 
The family foundation of NBA team owner Dan Gilbert will give nearly $375 million for a 72-bed rehabilitation center for stroke patients in Detroit and a research institute that will focus on a genetic disease that afflicted his son, officials announced Wednesday. Gilbert, the billionaire owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers and founder of Detroit-based Rocket Companies, had a stroke in 2019 and received extensive care in Chicago. He said his foundation would create a $10 million fund to help low-income residents who get care at the new Detroit rehab center. (9/6)

The Washington Post: Traumatic Brain Injuries Linked To Cognitive Decline Later In Life
Traumatic brain injuries are associated with cognitive decline later in life, and a sharper drop in cognition as we age, a study of twins who served in World War II shows. (Amenabar, 9/6)

Axios New Orleans: Louisiana Has The Country's Worst Gun Death Rate For Children
Firearm deaths among children in the U.S. hit a new record high in 2021, with Louisiana sadly leading the way, according to a study published recently in the journal Pediatrics. The study, based on government data, points to the worsening of an already distressing trend, after guns became the leading cause of death for children for the first time in 2020. (Saric and Wells, 9/6)

The New York Times: Teenager’s Death Has Paqui Spicy ‘One Chip Challenge’ Under Scrutiny
One of the last things Harris Wolobah, 14, of Worcester, Mass., ate before he died was a single tortilla chip in a coffin-shaped box that bore an image of a skull with a snake coiled around it, his mother said. Lois Wolobah said her son’s school called last Friday to tell her he was sick and that she needed to come and get him. When she arrived, Harris was clutching his stomach in the nurse’s office, she said in an interview on Tuesday. He showed her a picture of what he had just consumed: a single Paqui chip, dusted with two of the hottest peppers in the world, the Carolina Reaper and the Naga Viper. (Carballo and Tumin, 9/6)

CIDRAP: High Level Of Resistant Staph Bacteria Found In Chinese Food Products
A new study by researchers in China highlights the threat of multidrug-resistant (MDR) and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in packaged food. In the study, which was published last week in the journal Zoonoses, researchers with the China National Center for Food Safety Risk Assessment analyzed 276 ready-to-eat (RTE) food-associated S aureus isolates collected from supermarkets, convenience stores, fast food restaurants, and farm-product markets in 25 provinces across China in 2018. The investigators assessed antimicrobial susceptibility, virulence factors, and molecular characteristics. (Dall, 9/6)