First Edition: September 14, 2018

Kaiser Health News: 4 Takeaways On Puerto Rico’s Death Toll, In The Wake Of Trump’s Tweet Storm 
Prior to the GWU study, other researchers and one newspaper released estimates that also garnered media attention. One study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, put the number of excess deaths at 4,645 in the three months following the hurricane. A study by The New York Times used vital records from the government to calculate an excess of 1,052 deaths in the first 42 days after the disaster. (Heredia Rodriguez, 9/14)

Kaiser Health News: Discreetly Tracking Down Sex Partners To Stop A Surge In STDs
The U.S. is in the middle of a steep and sustained increase in sexually transmitted diseases.So how are public health officials responding? In northwest Oregon’s Clackamas County, health officials have decided to ask anyone who comes in with an STD who their sexual partners are — and then track those partners down. (Foden-Vencil, 9/14)

Kaiser Health News: Podcast: KHN’s ‘What The Health?’ A Detour On A Smoking Off-Ramp
The Food and Drug Administration declared Wednesday that vaping among teenagers has reached “an epidemic proportion.” The agency told five major e-cigarette manufacturers that they had 60 days to find ways to keep their products away from minors. “I use the word epidemic with great care,” FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said in a Wednesday news release. “E-cigs have become an almost ubiquitous — and dangerous — trend among teens.” Yet, as the panel discusses, health advocates warned that the actions may not be strong enough. (Tribble, 9/13)

The New York Times Fact Checker: Trump’s False Claims Rejecting Puerto Rico’s Death Toll From Hurricane Maria
In a pair of tweets casting doubt on the official estimate of nearly 3,000 deaths, the president clung to an outdated estimate, wrongly suggested that doubt over the figure emerged “a long time later” and inaccurately characterized the new figure as including all deaths on the island. (Qiu, 9/13)

The Associated Press: Trump Disputes Estimate Of Puerto Rico Storm Deaths
Public health experts have estimated that nearly 3,000 perished because of the effects of Maria. But Trump, whose efforts to help the island territory recover have been persistently criticized, was having none of that. He said just six to 18 people had been reported dead when he visited two weeks after the storm and suggested that many had been added later "if a person died for any reason, like old age." Trump's jarring comments, coming as the East Coast braced for a massive storm, offered fresh evidence of his resistance to criticism and his insistence on viewing large and small events through the prism of his own success or failure. (Lucey, Miller and LeMire, 9/14)

The Wall Street Journal: Trump Denies Heavy Death Toll In Puerto Rico From Hurricane Maria
The researchers estimated the number of excess deaths by analyzing death certificates and other mortality data, and comparing the number of deaths during the designated period with past mortality patterns. They calculated the total number of deaths in the period was 22% higher than the number of fatalities that would have been expected, the researchers said. In analyzing Puerto Rico’s death-certification process, the study found that listed causes of death included cardiac arrest, respiratory failure and septicemia. But researchers concluded that such causes were sometimes misassigned, with physicians failing to link the deaths to the hurricane. (Ballhaus, 9/13)

The New York Times: As A New Hurricane Roars In, Trump Quarrels Over The Last One
Ever since the storm, Mr. Trump has pushed back against criticism that his administration was slow to respond to Puerto Rico, where the distribution of supplies, gas and food lagged and power outages lasted for months, particularly compared with a swift and efficient response to an earlier hurricane that hit Texas. It was six days after Hurricane Maria hit the island before Mr. Trump pledged to go there, even as he traveled to Texas four days after Hurricane Harvey made landfall. Full power was restored to homes only in August, nearly a year after the storm. Former Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, a Republican ally of Mr. Trump’s who was praised for his own leadership during Hurricane Sandy in 2012, said that Puerto Rico was an “extraordinary challenge” in part because the island’s infrastructure was in poor shape to begin with and that Mr. Trump resented being blamed for factors beyond his control. (Baker, 9/13)

The Washington Post: Trump Creates Political Storm With False Claim On Puerto Rico Hurricane Death Toll
Trump’s charge about the Puerto Rico storm — a humanitarian crisis that continues to affect life on the island a year later — baffled his advisers as well as officials at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, who have been working to prepare the Carolinas for Hurricane Florence, the potentially deadly storm forecast to make landfall Friday. Trump’s aides said they have tried to focus the president’s attention on Florence, noting that he has been engaged in daily disaster briefings and called governors, senators and other officials representing North Carolina and South Carolina. Officials have brought large, colored charts and graphs into the Oval Office to illustrate Florence’s dangerous path for Trump, who is a visual learner. And the president made a rare trip outside, to visit the staff of the National Security Council’s resilience office housed across the street in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. (Rucker, Costa and Dawsey, 9/13)

Politico: 'Mr. President. SHUT UP': Florida Republicans Pan Trump's Puerto Rico Conspiracy
Florida Republicans are angered by President Donald Trump advancing a conspiracy theory casting doubt on Hurricane Maria’s estimated death toll in Puerto Rico. Even Trump’s two top Florida allies, Gov. Rick Scott and GOP gubernatorial candidate Ron DeSantis, disagreed with his insensitive comments. (Caputo, 9/13)

Politico: First Responder Emails Appear To Undermine Trump's Narrative On Hurricane Maria
Emails released Thursday by congressional Democrats show correspondence between first responders that appears to undermine the Trump administration’s public reporting of the human toll from Hurricane Maria last year. In one email, dated Sept. 29, 2017, a first responder — whose name has been redacted — describes “finding mass graves in mud slide areas,” and requests counseling support for federal first responders in the area. An unnamed Army National Guard general is included in the correspondence. (Wilhelm, 9/13)

The New York Times: When You’re Elderly And Ill And A Storm Is Coming
When mandatory evacuation orders are issued for natural disasters like hurricanes, it poses a special challenge for those who are frail and in poor health. Patients with disabilities or who are in hospice care may be too ill to sit in cars inching along evacuation routes for hours, and their families must face the wrenching decision of whether it is better to stay or go. For people with dementia, evacuations can be especially disorienting and overwhelming. (Rabin, 9/14)

The New York Times: Florence’s Path Is Strewn With Toxic Hazards
While people can move out of harm’s way as Hurricane Florence advances on North and South Carolina, their structures remain behind to face the storm’s full force. In the Carolinas this means not only homes, schools and towns but ponds of coal ash, Superfund sites, chemical plants — and thousands of industrial hog farms with lagoons filled with pig waste. Here is where the danger lies, and why. (Pierre-Louis, Popovich and Tabuchi, 9/13)

The Associated Press: How Hurricanes Unleash Lethal Storm Surges
Behold the awesome power of water. Already the ocean is swallowing beaches, roads and anything else in the way of Hurricane Florence's monstrous storm surge. Storm surges aren't walls of water, like a tsunami, as commonly thought. Caused by a hurricane's winds pushing relentlessly on the shore, they are more like domes of high water that form as the ocean spreads inland. The high water has destructive waves on top, and it comes in addition to normal tides. (Borenstein, 9/14)

The Associated Press: Maryland Suit Seeks To Protect US Health Law From 'Sabotage'
Maryland's attorney general on Thursday filed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump's administration for recurring efforts he says are intended to dismantle the national health care law and chase people away from coverage. The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court of Maryland comes as the latest push to scrap the Affordable Care Act has pressed ahead in Texas. (McFadden, 9/13)

Modern Healthcare: HHS' Work On Anthem's Emergency Coverage Policy Leaves Senators Dissatisfied
HHS Secretary Alex Azar sidestepped questions from two Democratic senators about whether his agency and the Labor Department have investigated and taken enforcement action against Anthem and other insurers that allegedly violated consumer rights by denying coverage for emergency care. In a letter to Sens. Ben Cardin (D-Md. and Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), Azar said states are generally responsible for insurance regulation and enforcement, citing one investigation where federal officials probed denied emergency care case. (Meyer, 9/13)

Stat: Trump Wants Drug Prices In TV Ads. The Latest Roadblock? Republicans 
President Trump’s splashiest idea for lowering the cost of prescription drug prices was to force pharmaceutical companies to include the prices of their products in TV and other advertisements. But when Capitol Hill had a chance Thursday to help him achieve that goal, lawmakers failed. And counterintuitively, it was House members in the president’s own party who ultimately nixed the provision. In fact, it was a Democrat, Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, pushing the measure hardest. (Florko, 9/13)

The Hill: House GOP Blocks Trump-Supported Drug Pricing Provision From Spending Bill 
Lawmakers and aides said that House Republicans objected to including the provision in the final version of the funding bill, which was finished by House and Senate negotiators on Thursday. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), one of the sponsors of the provision, blamed pharmaceutical companies for exercising their influence to block the measure. “When are we going to stand up to Big Pharma?” Durbin asked. (Sullivan, 9/13)

Stat: Colorado Inmates Reach A Deal For Access To Hepatitis C Drugs 
After more than a year of bickering, Colorado officials have settled a lawsuit with prisoners that accused the state of failing to provide sufficient access to hepatitis C treatments. And in doing so, Colorado may effectively become the first state in the U.S. to provide care to all chronically infected inmates. The deal is the second such settlement among several class-action lawsuits filed against state prison systems around the country over access to the pricey medicines. A lawsuit was settled earlier this year with Massachusetts officials, while others are pending in five other states — Indiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee. (Silverman, 9/13)

The Washington Post: Bitter Senate Fight To Confirm Kavanaugh Plunges Deeper Into Chaos Over Letter
The bitter Senate fight to confirm Brett M. Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court plunged into deeper chaos Thursday as a top Democrat disclosed she had referred “information” about President Trump’s nominee to the FBI. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) issued a brief, cryptic statement about the referral, but the absence of any details only raised questions. The information came in a letter that describes an alleged episode of sexual misconduct involving the 53-year-old Kavanaugh when he was in high school, according to a person familiar with the matter. (Kim and Viebeck, 9/13)

Politico: Feinstein Asks Feds To Investigate Kavanaugh Claims In Letter
The “individual strongly requested confidentiality, declined to come forward or press the matter further, and I have honored that decision. I have, however, referred the matter to federal investigative authorities,” Feinstein said in a statement. (Everett and Dovere, 9/13)

Los Angeles Times: Feinstein Asks FBI To Review Letter Involving Supreme Court Nominee Brett Kavanaugh
Several Democrats on the committee declined to talk about the contents of the letter on Thursday after a hearing in which a vote on Kavanaugh’s nomination was slated for Sept. 20. It was unclear whether they had seen it. Anyone can make a referral to the FBI and it does not mean Kavanaugh is under federal investigation. Kavanaugh’s nomination is under intense scrutiny by Democrats who argue he would be the fifth solid conservative justice on the Supreme Court, a lock for Republican priorities such as scaling back abortion rights. (Haberkorn, 9/13)

The Washington Post: Senate Committee Delays Vote On Kavanaugh Nomination Until Next Week
The Senate Judiciary Committee delayed its vote on Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh until next week, as the deeply bitter fight over his confirmation intensified and a handful of moderate senators continued to deliberate privately over whether to support him. (Kim, 9/13)

The New York Times: Cuban Experts Insist No Proof Exists Of Attack On Diplomats
Some of Cuba’s top scientists and medical specialists denounced on Thursday claims that two dozen American diplomats in Havana had been the targets of mysterious attacks over the last two years. The experts were careful not to offer a definitive explanation for the episodes, in which the diplomats reported hearing strange noises that led to symptoms similar to those after a minor traumatic brain injury or a concussion. (Harris, 9/13)

Reuters: U.S., Cuba Officials Discuss Mysterious Embassy Health Incidents
U.S. and Cuban officials met at the State Department on Thursday to discuss the mysterious health problems that have affected more than two dozen American Embassy personnel, a situation that led to a reduction in staffing at the Havana mission and a chill in ties between the countries. "There's a briefing taking place between some of our colleagues from our various bureaus. They are having meetings with the Cuban government to discuss some of the medical issues that our people have experienced," State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told a briefing. (Johnson, 9/13)

The New York Times/ProPublica: Top Sloan Kettering Cancer Doctor Resigns After Failing To Disclose Industry Ties
Dr. José Baselga, the chief medical officer of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, resigned on Thursday amid reports that he had failed to disclose millions of dollars in payments from health care companies in dozens of research articles. The revelations about Dr. Baselga’s disclosure lapses, reported by The New York Times and ProPublica last weekend, have rocked Memorial Sloan Kettering, one of the nation’s leading cancer centers, in recent days. Its top executives scrambled to contain the fallout, including urgent meetings of physician leaders and the executive committee of its board of directors. (Thomas and Ornstein, 9/13)

Stat: Why Do Medical Journals Keep Taking Authors At Their Word?
The recent revelation that a leading official at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center failed for years to disclose lucrative financial conflicts of interest might have been surprising in its scale. But it’s old news that many researchers aren’t fully transparent when it comes to their financial relationships with industry. So why should we keep up the charade? And why, given the clarity of the problem, do medical journals continue to take authors at their word — only to wind up looking like dupes? (Oransky and Marcus, 9/14)

Stat: H. Gilbert Welch Resigns From Dartmouth Over 'Idea Plagiarism' Dispute
Dr. H. Gilbert Welch, one of the country’s top health care policy scholars, has resigned from his faculty position at Dartmouth College, after an investigation by the school concluded that he had committed research misconduct. ...STAT and Retraction Watch reported last month that an internal Dartmouth investigation found that Welch plagiarized material from a Dartmouth colleague and a researcher at another institution for a 2016 paper published by the New England Journal of Medicine. The paper concerned how breast cancer screening led to the overdiagnosis of tumors and unnecessary treatments. (Joseph and Marcus, 9/13)

Reuters: Amazon's Jeff Bezos Commits $2 Billion To Help Homeless, Pre-Schools
Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com Inc's founder and the world's richest person, said on Thursday he will commit $2 billion (1.5 billion pounds) to helping homeless families and starting pre-schools for low-income communities. The announcement marks a deeper foray into philanthropy for Bezos, whose fortune has soared to more than $160 billion thanks to his stake in Amazon. Dominance in e-commerce and the nascent field of cloud computing has made Amazon the world's second-most valuable public company. (Vengattil and Dastin, 9/13)

The Wall Street Journal: Jeff Bezos To Create $2 Billion Fund For Homeless, Preschools
Mr. Bezos’ increase in charitable giving comes as Amazon has faced criticism over the wages it pays to warehouse workers and broader societal effects tied to the e-commerce giant, for example, driving up property prices in its hometown of Seattle. Seattle recently tried to enact a tax to force the company to help with the city’s growing homeless problem, though the decision was later reversed. And Sen. Bernie Sanders introduced a bill aimed at taxing big companies whose employees rely on federal benefits to make ends meet, specifically targeting Mr. Bezos by contrasting his vast personal wealth with the compensation of the companies’ lowest-paid workers. (Stevens, 9/13)

Stat: Those Controversial CDC Opioid Guidelines May Have Caused 'Better Prescribing' 
More than two years after the federal government released controversial guidelines for prescribing opioids, a new analysis suggests the effort is having an impact as the number of prescriptions for the addictive painkillers has declined. Here are some numbers: In January 2012, nearly 6,600 opioid prescriptions were dispensed per 100,000 people, but by December 2017, that fell to 4,240. And from the time the guidelines were issued in March 2016 until last December, there were an estimated 14.2 million fewer prescriptions filled than if previous trends continued. There were nearly 1.3 million fewer high-dose prescriptions written as well. (Silverman, 9/13)

Stat: Researcher Calls On NIH To Retract Statement About Alcohol And Cancer Risk 
A public health expert is calling on the National Institutes of Health to change information on one of its websites to more accurately reflect scientific findings about the risk of alcohol. In a letter sent to NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins on Thursday, alcohol researcher Dr. Michael Siegel of Boston University School of Public Health called on NIH to retract and apologize for a statement on the website of NIH’s National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism that says, “Drinking too much alcohol can increase your risk of developing certain cancers,” especially as it regards breast cancer. (Begley, 9/13)

Stat: Here’s The Data Behind The New Apple Watch EKG App 
When the new Apple Watch heart monitoring app can get a reading, it can accurately detect that a person has an irregular heart rhythm known as atrial fibrillation 99 percent of the time, according to a study of the new device that Apple submitted to the Food and Drug Administration. ...In one study, Apple tested the watch in more than 580 people, half of whom had atrial fibrillation. The app couldn’t read about 10 percent of the heart rhythm recordings in the study. When it looked at the rest, though, the app was very accurate: It caught more than 98 percent of people with atrial fibrillation, and correctly told people that they didn’t have the condition 99.6 percent of the time. (Sheridan, 9/13)

The Associated Press: Swedish Regulator Ends Investigation Of Birth Control App
Swedish regulators have closed their investigation of a birth control app after finding that the rate of unwanted pregnancies, which had gained media attention, was actually in line with clinical data. The Swedish Medical Products Agency said Thursday a review found about 7 percent of women using the Natural Cycles app got pregnant in the first half of the year, equal to the "typical use" failure rate in the clinical study submitted for its European certification. (9/13)

The Washington Post: More Than Half Of Transgender Male Adolescents Attempt Suicide, Study Says
She picked up the phone and repeated these words, which had grown familiar, like a refrain in a song she never wanted to sing: “We’re listening. We hear you. We’ve gone through similar things. ”The person on the other end of the line, she said, “had typically just come out to themselves and really wanted to talk to someone.” Isolation in that moment, said Greta Gustava Martela, can be dire. She would know. Martela, a transgender woman, has been hospitalized five times for “suicidality,” a term that encompasses suicidal ideation, planning, gestures, attempts and completed suicide. The first time was in 1995, said Martela, who is now 49. (Stanley-Becker, 9/14)

The Wall Street Journal: Are Eggs Bad For You? Two Scientists Square Off
For years, eggs were synonymous with a healthy breakfast. Then the tables turned. Doctors and nutritionists started saying not to eat eggs, particularly if you wanted to avoid heart disease. The problem: Eggs contain unwanted cholesterol, and diners ingest more saturated fat when they consume eggs prepared in typical ways. But eggs also are rich in protein and other important nutrients, leading some scientists to argue that the benefits of eating eggs outweigh the risks. (9/13)

NPR: CLARITY-BPA Study In Rats Finds No Harm At Typical Doses
Government scientists have presented new evidence that the plastic additive BPA isn't a health threat. Low doses of the chemical given to hundreds of rats, "did not elicit clear, biologically plausible adverse effects," said K. Barry Delclos, a research pharmacologist at the Food and Drug Administration's National Center for Toxicological Research. (Hamilton, 9/13)

NPR: Update: A Leukemia Patient And CAR-T Study At NIH
It's early in the morning and 20-year-old Aaron Reid looks like he's sleepwalking. His head nods forward and he shuffles a bit as he heads toward the pediatric clinic at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center. Reid, who has been fighting leukemia since he was 9-years old, is experiencing intense pain. (Davis and Stein, 9/14)