First Edition: September 7, 2016

The Wall Street Journal: Percentage Of Uninsured Historically Low
The number of uninsured people in the U.S. remained at a historic low in early 2016, according to a federal survey that found 8.6% of respondents without health coverage at the time of the interview. That translates to about 27.3 million people who lacked medical insurance when they were asked about it between January and March as part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Health Interview Survey. The previous survey, covering the whole of 2015, had put the figure at 9.1%, or about 1.3 million more people. CDC officials said the latest reduction wasn’t statistically significant. (Radnofsky, 9/7)

The Associated Press: Government Survey Shows Health Insurance Gains Slowing
The nation's progress in getting more people covered by health insurance slowed significantly this year, the government confirmed Wednesday in a report that tempers a historic achievement of the Obama administration. About 1.3 million fewer people were uninsured the first three months of this year, driving the uninsured rate to a record low of 8.6 percent, according to the National Health Interview Survey, an ongoing project of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 9/7)

Los Angeles Times: The States With The Biggest Obamacare Struggles Spent Years Undermining The Law
As insurers exit Obamacare marketplaces across the country, critics of the Affordable Care Act have redoubled claims that the health law isn’t working. Yet these same critics, many of them Republican politicians in red states, took steps over the last several years to undermine the 2010 law and fuel the current turmoil in their insurance markets. Among other things, they blocked expansion of Medicaid coverage for the poor, erected barriers to enrollment and refused to move health plans into the Obamacare marketplaces, a key step to bringing in healthier consumers. (Levey, 9/7)

The New York Times: Senate Democrats Block Zika Bill Over Planned Parenthood Provisions
As Congress returned from a seven-week recess on Tuesday, Senate Democrats again stymied a $1.1 billion plan to fight the Zika virus, demanding that Republicans drop an effort to block Planned Parenthood from receiving money to combat the mosquito-borne disease. Democrats, who had essentially blocked the same legislation in late June, had enough votes Tuesday to prevent Congress from moving emergency funding public health experts say is desperately needed as they prepare for the possibility that Zika will spread to other states along the gulf coast. The vote was 52 to 46, and Republicans needed 60 votes to advance the bill. (Hutteman and Tavernise, 9/6)

Politico: Zika Funding Bill Fails — Again
The next opportunity to attach Zika funding to must-pass legislation, perhaps the only chance in the near future, will be the legislative package to fund government beyond Sept. 30. “It’s probably … likely this will be in the end of the fiscal year wrap up,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) told reporters in the Capitol. “That would be my guess.” Republicans in both the House and Senate are considering options to approve Zika funding, according to aides. (Haberkorn, 9/6)

The New York Times: Five Things To Know About Congress’s Fight Over Zika
Congress has had difficulty accomplishing much in this session, even where a potential health crisis like the Zika virus is concerned. Here are five questions that help explain the debate. (Hutteman, 9/6)

The Washington Post: Zika’s Persistence In The Eye May Play A Role In Spreading The Virus, Study Finds
Researchers have found that the Zika virus can live in eyes, and research in mice may help explain why some Zika patients develop eye disease, including a condition that can lead to permanent vision loss. In a study published Tuesday in Cell Reports, researchers from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis describe the effect of Zika virus infections in the eyes of mouse fetuses, newborns and adults. The study suggests that the eye could be a reservoir for the virus. (Sun, 9/6)

The New York Times: W.H.O. Clarifies Advice On Sex And Pregnancy In Zika Regions
The World Health Organization on Tuesday clarified — once again — its advice on sexual transmission of the Zika virus, saying that couples living in areas where it is circulating should be offered contraception and counseling to help decide whether to become pregnant. A spokeswoman said the agency made the announcement to clear up earlier confusion over whether it was advising women to avoid pregnancy during the epidemic. The W.H.O. is not offering such advice, although, she conceded, officials did appear to have said as much in June. (McNeil, 9/6)

The Wall Street Journal: Zika Fears Expected To Lift Condom Demand
The world’s largest condom maker by volume says it views the spreading concern about the Zika virus as a long-term boost for demand. Malaysia-based Karex Bhd.’s share price has jumped 9.5% since early September. On Aug. 29, Singapore authorities announced they had identified 41 cases of Zika virus infection that were transmitted locally. The total number of cases of Zika transmissions reported in Singapore has reached 258 as of Monday, and new cases have been reported recent days in Malaysia and the Philippines. On Wednesday, Malaysia confirmed its first case of the Zika virus in a pregnant 27-year-old woman. (Ngui, 9/7)

Reuters: Allergan Vows Limited Price Hikes, Says 'Outliers' Deter Research
The chief executive officer of Allergan Plc said his company would limit annual price increases on its prescription drugs, and that "outlier" drugmakers that have imposed huge price increases on their products were scaring off venture capital investors. Allergan, the maker of such products as Botox, plans to raise prices no more than once a year and keep price hikes to no more than low-to-mid-single-digit percentages, slightly above the current annual rate of inflation, CEO Brent Saunders said on Tuesday. (Pierson, 9/6)

The Associated Press: New York’s Attorney General Investigates EpiPen Manufacturer
“If Mylan engaged in anti-competitive business practices, or violated antitrust laws with the intent and effect of limiting lower cost competition, we will hold them accountable,” Schneiderman said. “Allergy sufferers have enough concerns to worry about. The availability of life-saving medical treatment should not be one of them.” (Virtanen, 9/6)

The Wall Street Journal: New York Investigating Mylan Over EpiPen School Contracts
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said Tuesday that his office was investigating Mylan NV over potentially anticompetitive EpiPen emergency allergy treatment contracts with schools. The move comes amid public outrage over Mylan’s EpiPen price increases in recent years. Mr. Schneiderman said he had launched an antitrust investigation into Mylan and a preliminary review suggests that Mylan “may have inserted potentially anticompetitive terms into its EpiPen sales contracts with numerous local school systems.” (Hufford, 9/6)

Los Angeles Times: MannKind Developing Inhalable Epinephrine To Challenge Mylan's EpiPen
A Valencia drugmaker that has tried to convince diabetics to inhale rather than inject their insulin is working on a product that will make a similar pitch to a new group of patients: severe allergy sufferers who rely on Mylan Pharmaceuticals’ pricey EpiPen. Even as it struggles to ramp up sales of its Afrezza inhalable insulin, MannKind Corp. is now in the early stages of developing an inhalable form of epinephrine that aims to take market share from the injectable version at the center of a storm over drug pricing. (Koren, 9/6)

The New York Times: Why Your Toothpaste Still Has Triclosan
Last week, the Food and Drug Administration effectively banned the antibacterial chemical triclosan from soaps. But you can you still find it in your toothpaste. That’s because the best-selling toothpaste brand, Colgate Total, convinced the F.D.A. that the benefit of triclosan in toothpaste outweighs any risks. (Saint Louis, 9/7)

The Associated Press: Sorry Kids: Docs Urge Flu Shots, Not Nasal Spray, This Year
"We're saying, 'Shoot, now we've got to do the poke again,'" said Dr. Wendy Sue Swanson of Seattle Children's Hospital and the AAP. But, "we know the flu vaccine is the best shot at prevention and protecting those who are vulnerable from serious and even life-threatening infections from influenza." (Neergaard, 9/7)

Los Angeles Times: Sorry, Kids, Your Pediatrician Wants You To Get A Flu Shot This Year
Sorry, little one, this news is going to pinch for a couple of seconds: This year’s flu vaccine will probably have to come in the form of a shot, not those two little puffs up the nose. Because when it comes to preventing the misery of the flu, that nasal spray vaccine has proved to be a bit of a flop. No, the adults don’t really know why. But when they went back over the past three flu seasons and did the math, they found that kids between 2 and 17 who got the vaccine made with live attenuated virus — the puff up the nose — were two-and-a half times more likely than children who got the shot (which uses an inactivated virus to teach the immune system) to get sick with the flu. (Healy, 9/6)

NPR: FluMist Gets Thumbs Down From Pediatricians
The CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices found that FluMist was only 3 percent effective in children aged 2 through 17 during the previous flu season. "This 3 percent estimate means no protective benefit could be measured," the committee reported. In comparison, injected flu vaccines protected about two-thirds of the children in this age group. The CDC officially accepted that committee's recommendation on August 26, but didn't go out of its way to announce the policy. It posted its recommendation on a website. (Harris, 9/6)

The Washington Post: This Doctor Breaks Down Language And Cultural Barriers To Health Care
It was the early 1960s, and 9-year-old Eliseo Pérez-Stable was at home in Miami with the chickenpox, dreading his return to the third grade. ... The boy panicked. Scabs were forming over his blisters, but if they didn’t heal, he rationalized, perhaps he could stay home. One by one, he began to pick at them. It was a month before he was forced to return to class. His experiences as a young immigrant proved pivotal for Pérez-Stable, who grew up to become a physician and scientist, whose research has documented the impact of language barriers and other issues on the health of Latinos. At 64, he leads the National Institutes of Health’s division for funding and guiding minority health research. (Kelly, 9/6)

Los Angeles Times: With A Caesarean Section, The Path To Obesity May Begin At Birth
Your very first moments of life can influence your risk of obesity for years, a new study shows. Babies delivered via caesarean section were 15% more likely to be obese as kids, teens and young adults than were babies who made the trip through the birth canal, according to the report Wednesday in JAMA Pediatrics. The risk associated with a C-section was even greater for babies whose mothers had no apparent medical need for the procedure. Compared with babies born vaginally, these babies were 30% more likely to be obese between the ages of 9 and 28, the study found. (Kaplan, 9/6)

NPR: Saline Reduces Severity Of Severe Nosebleeds
Saline nose spray is becoming increasingly popular as a treatment for allergies and sinus problems. And a study suggests the cheap, simple solution helps with severe nosebleeds, too. Two studies published Tuesday in JAMA, the journal of the American Medical Association, used saline nose spray as a control when testing medications to treat severe nosebleeds caused by a rare genetic condition. (Shute, 9/6)

The Washington Post: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome May Be A Human Version Of ‘Hibernation’
One of the most spectacular feats of such creatures as bats, bees and snakes is hibernation. For months at a time, these animals essentially go into power-save mode. Their temperature drops, metabolism slows down and oxygen consumption is limited to minimal levels. This basic adaptation helps them survive the harshest of environmental conditions. A new study raises the extraordinary possibility that humans may be able to put themselves into a kind of hibernation state as well — but in a way that hurts us rather than helps us. (Cha, 9/6)

The Associated Press: New York Requiring Schools To Test Drinking Water For Lead
Schools in New York state will be required to test their drinking water for lead contamination under a new measure signed into law Tuesday by Gov. Andrew Cuomo. School districts will report the results to parents as well as local and state officials. Buildings found to have high levels of lead will have to develop and implement plans to fix the problem. (9/6)