First Edition: Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024

KFF Health News' 'Silence in Sikeston' Podcast: Racism Can Make You Sick
The "Silence in Sikeston" podcast explores what it means to live with racism and violence, then charts the toll on health — from hives and high blood pressure to struggles with mental health. The deaths of two Black men killed nearly 80 years apart in the same Missouri community anchor a conversation about the public health consequences of systemic bias. (Anthony, 9/10)

KFF Health News: ACA Enrollment Platforms Suspended Over Alleged Foreign Access To Consumer Data
Suspicions that U.S. consumers’ personal information could be accessed from India led regulators to abruptly bar two large private sector enrollment websites from accessing the Affordable Care Act marketplace in August. New details about the suspensions come in legal filings made late Friday stemming from an effort by the two to regain access to the Obamacare marketplace before the upcoming ACA open enrollment period, which starts Nov. 1. (Appleby, 9/10)

KFF Health News: Live From Austin, Examining Health Equity
The term “health equity” means different things to different people. ... In a live taping at the Texas Tribune Festival, special guests Carol Alvarado, the Texas state Senate’s Democratic leader, and Ann Barnes, president and CEO of the Episcopal Health Foundation, along with KFF Health News’ Sabriya Rice and Cara Anthony, join KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss addressing health inequities. (Rovner, 9/9)

Reuters: More Than 49 Million In US Covered By ACA Over The Past Decade 
One in seven Americans have signed up for health insurance coverage through Affordable Care Act marketplaces since their 2014 launch, according to data released on Tuesday by the U.S. Department of the Treasury. A total of 49.4 million Americans have signed up for the plans, often referred to as Obamacare, with enrollment reaching a high of 20.8 million people in 2024, the agency said. (Niasse, 9/10)

Modern Healthcare: Mental Health Parity Rule Finalized By Biden Administration
Health insurance companies will have to upgrade their mental health benefits to match the coverage they offer for other care under a final rule three federal departments issued Monday. The latest mental health parity regulation from the Health and Human Services, Labor and Treasury departments, first proposed in July 2023, builds on decades of policymaking designed to promote access to behavioral health and substance use disorder treatment. (Early, 9/9)

Modern Healthcare: Congressional Fighting Could Derail Healthcare Agenda —Again
Congress returns this week with little time to pass annual spending bills that fund agencies including the Health and Human Services Department — but a new fight over migrant voting threatens to derail those efforts. Lawmakers are supposed to pass 12 appropriations bills before the start of each new fiscal year Oct. 1. When lawmakers left town at the end of the July, the House had passed just five, despite Speaker Mike Johnson's (R-La.) pledge to pass them all. The Senate had passed none. (McAuliff, 9/9)

Stat: House Passes Bill That Targets China Biotechs
The House Monday passed a bill by 306 to 81 votes to make drug companies stop doing business with some Chinese biotechs within eight years if they want to remain in good standing with the federal government. (Wilkerson, 9/9)

Military.com: $12 Billion More For VA Medical Budget Urgently Needed, Department Says 
If Congress does not include extra funding for Department of Veterans Affairs medical services in an upcoming stopgap spending bill, the department will struggle to keep up with demand for care, administration officials are warning. On a conference call with reporters Monday, VA officials confirmed they are asking Congress to include an extra $12 billion for the department's medical budget in the upcoming stopgap spending measure — which must be passed into law by the end of the month — to ensure outreach to veterans and growth of the system can continue apace without compromising wait times and staffing levels. (Kheel, 9/9)

AP: Courts In Nebraska And Missouri Weigh Arguments To Keep Abortion Measures Off The Ballot 
With ballot deadlines approaching, courts in Nebraska and Missouri are weighing legal arguments that could take measures seeking to expand abortion rights out of the hands of voters. In Missouri, a day before the state’s Supreme Court plans to hear arguments over whether a proposed abortion-rights amendment will go before voters, Republican Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft decertified the measure, removing it from the ballot himself. ... In Nebraska, the Supreme Court heard arguments Monday in three lawsuits that seek to keep one or both of the state’s competing abortion initiatives off the ballot. (Beck and Ballentine, 9/9)

News Service of Florida: Abortions In Florida Are Down 13% In 2024 Compared With The Previous Two Years
The number of abortions reported in Florida during the first eight months of this year was nearly 13 percent lower than during the same period in 2022 and 2023, as a law preventing abortions after six weeks of pregnancy has led to fewer procedures. (Saunders, 9/9)

Reuters: US Supreme Court's Kagan Says Emergency Docket Does Not Lead To Court's Best Work 
Justice Elena Kagan said the U.S. Supreme Court would be better off spending less time hurrying through cases on its emergency docket. "It's a very hard problem," Kagan said on Monday in an hour-long interview with a professor at New York University's law school. "I don't think we do our best work in this way." (Stempel, 9/9)

AP: Trump Signals Support For Reclassifying Pot As A Less Dangerous Drug, In Line With Harris' Position
Donald Trump has signaled support for a potentially historic federal policy shift to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug, putting his position in line with that of his Democratic opponent, Kamala Harris. The commonality reflects a major shift toward broad public support for legalization in recent years and marks the first time that both major-party presidential candidates support broad cannabis reform, according to the U.S. Cannabis Council. (Whitehurst and Matat, 9/9)

NPR: Harris Campaign Launches 'Reproductive Freedom' Bus Tour In Key States
As former President Trump struggles with messaging on the issue of abortion, Vice President Harris’ campaign is making a major push focused on the issue. The Harris campaign is running ads focused on reproductive rights in several key states, and recently launched a bus tour that will make about 50 stops focusing on battleground states between now and Election Day, Nov. 5. (McCammon, 9/10)

The New York Times: Teen Girls’ Brains Aged Rapidly During Pandemic, Study Finds
A study of adolescent brain development that tested children before and after coronavirus pandemic lockdowns in the United States found that girls’ brains aged far faster than expected, something the researchers attributed to social isolation. The study from the University of Washington, published on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, measured cortical thinning, a process that starts in either late childhood or early adolescence, as the brain begins to prune redundant synapses and shrink its outer layer. (Barry, 9/9)

Axios: Hospitals With COVID Surges Had Higher Death Rates
About one in five U.S. COVID deaths during the Delta wave were because of overwhelmed hospital capacity, an analysis of data from 620 facilities showed. The findings in Annals of Internal Medicine reinforce the need to minimize surges of patients during future health emergencies or staffing crises. (Goldman, 9/9)

CIDRAP: Cancer Diagnoses Lagged Into Year 2 Of Pandemic 
Cancer diagnoses in the United States dropped almost 10% below expected rates in 2020 as people missed annual screenings, and medical clinics closed in the early months of the pandemic. (Soucheray, 9/9)

Politico: Covid Made Cuomo A Star. Now He’s Facing Heat From House Lawmakers. 
Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who rose to national prominence and popularity during the height of Covid, is about to face the most high-profile scrutiny yet for his handling of the pandemic — and he plans to mount an aggressive defense. Cuomo will be publicly questioned Tuesday by the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, a panel reviewing governmental responses to the public health crisis. (Reisman, 9/10)

Kansas City Star: How Did Missouri Resident Get Bird Flu Without Livestock?
A mysterious human case of the H5N1 bird flu was recently discovered in Missouri — and experts are still working to determine how the patient was infected. The avian flu has been circulating among poultry and wild birds since 2022, but made the interspecies jump to dairy cows earlier in 2024. Just over a dozen humans have been infected in the U.S. so far that health officials know about, most of them livestock workers who have made direct contact with sick animals. (Wallington, 9/9)

The New York Times: Bird Flu Has Already Appeared In These New York Markets. What’s Next? 
Hundreds of chickens are squeezed into rows of tiny stacked wire cages, urine and feces dribbling onto the ducks, the geese and the rabbits confined below. The stench spreads even outside, to the sidewalk, where a mixture of feathers and blood sticks to the shoes of children walking to school. This is a live animal market in Queens. There are about 70 such establishments in New York City’s bustling neighborhoods, some disturbingly close to schools and residential buildings. Most markets butcher and sell chickens, ducks and quail. About one in four also slaughters larger animals, like sheep, goats, cows and pigs. (Mandavilli, 9/9)

Reuters: India Says Mpox Case Involving Traveler Is Not From Current Outbreak 
India said on Monday a case of mpox it reported in a traveler a day earlier was from the older strain of the virus, not from the new, fast-spreading strain that had led the outbreak to be classified as a global health emergency. (9/9)

Modern Healthcare: UVA Investigating Health System CEO K. Craig Kent 
The University of Virginia is investigating allegations made against its health system CEO and school of medicine dean in an anonymous letter from UVA Health faculty. Faculty employed by the University of Virginia Physicians Group, part of UVA Health, sent a no-confidence letter Thursday to the university's board of visitors, calling for the removal of health system CEO Dr. K. Craig Kent and Dr. Melina Kibbe, dean of the school of medicine. The letter was signed by 128 employees whose names that were kept anonymous to prevent retaliation, according to the letter. (DeSilva, 9/9)

CBS News: Allegheny Valley Hospital Nurses And Healthcare Workers Approve New Union Contract
Nurses and other hospital workers at Allegheny Valley Hospital have approved a new union contract that was agreed to over the weekend. SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania says the new deal is for three years and includes investments and improvements in numerous areas, including benefits and safety. Under the new contract, union workers at Allegheny Valley Hospital will see an average bump in pay of 16% with some workers seeing pay increases of nearly 40%. (Darnay, 9/10)

AP: Women Settle Lawsuits After Yale Fertility Nurse Switched Painkiller For Saline
Dozens of women who say they suffered excruciating pain at a Yale University fertility clinic because a nurse stole fentanyl for her own use and replaced it with saline have settled their lawsuits against the Ivy League school. Patients and their lawyers announced the settlements Monday in New Haven, Connecticut, where Yale is based. Details of the agreements were not released, but lawyers said they included significant financial settlements. (Collins, 9/9)

CBS News: Mammogram Patients Will Soon Have To Be Told About Their Breast Density. Here's What To Know
Mammography facilities will soon have to notify patients about the density of their breasts, a step aimed at improving early detection of breast cancer. The new rule, which goes into effect Tuesday, was part of updated mammography regulations outlined by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration last year. While similar laws have already been enacted in many states, including Colorado and Minnesota, this is the first nationwide regulation. (Moniuszko, 9/9)

CBS News: Bay Area Surgeon Says AI Is Advancing Rapidly Into Hospitals And Operating Rooms
The healthcare industry is on the brink of a technological revolution, with AI poised to reshape decision making before, after, and even during surgical procedures. Dr. Curt Langlotz, the director of the Center for AI in Medicine and Imaging at Stanford University said this new technology holds a lot of promise, as long as it's used responsibly. (Hod, 9/9)

Stat: Former Verily Executives To Invest Millions In High-Tech Medical Data
Two former Verily executives say that they are starting a new initiative, Highlander Health, to push forward an effort decades in the making: making it so that the records collected in hospitals can be used in real-time to advance science, decreasing the cost of conducting clinical trials and speeding medical progress while helping patients get the right drug for them. (Herper, 9/10)

Stat: New Algorithm Just A First Small Step Against Wave Of Kidney Disease
One Brooklyn Health, a safety net hospital system that serves some of this city’s poorest and sickest patients, would seem to be exactly the place to benefit most from the effort to remove race from calculations that assess kidney disease. The patients — mostly Black and insured by Medicaid or Medicare — are a case study in the disparities that run through American kidney care: A large number have advanced disease and require dialysis, but just a handful get timely specialty care or transplants. (McFarling, 9/10)

Reuters: AbbVie Sues Rival BeiGene Over Alleged Theft Of Cancer Therapy Secrets 
Pharmaceutical giant AbbVie has sued cancer treatment maker BeiGene in Chicago federal court, accusing it of stealing trade secrets to develop a competing cancer-fighting therapy after hiring away a former longtime senior AbbVie scientist. (Scarcella, 9/9)

Stat: Merck Exec Plays Down Impact Of New Lung Cancer Drug Data On Keytruda
With strong data released over the weekend, an experimental Chinese drug showed it could one day become an important therapy for lung cancer patients. But that doesn’t necessarily threaten the market dominance of Keytruda, a top Merck executive said — and some analysts agree. (Feuerstein, 9/9)

Stat: Atsena's Gene Therapy For Rare Congenital Blindness Improved Vision
Seven years after the FDA approved Luxterna, scientists have yet to bring another congenital blindness treatment to the market. A team of researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania aims to change this. The group recently published a study in The Lancet documenting their success using gene therapy to treat an inherited retinal blindness that affects as many as 100,000 people globally. (Broderick, 9/10)

The Atlantic: A Food-Allergy Fix Hiding In Plain Sight
Tami McGraw used to be so allergic to red meat that even fumes from cooking might send her into anaphylactic shock. She couldn’t fry sausages for her family. She couldn’t go to cookouts with friends. Once, she passed out driving home with her son after accidentally inhaling fumes while volunteering at the school cafeteria. “That’s the closest I came to dying,” she told me. ... The episode in the school cafeteria rattled McGraw so much that she brought up with her allergist a then-unorthodox therapy called Xolair. (Zhang, 9/9)

NBC News: Apple Will Start Selling AirPods With Built-In Hearing Aids
Apple said Monday that a version of its latest AirPods earbuds will come with built-in hearing aids, which it says would help more than 1 billion people globally. The feature on the AirPods Pro, which Apple describes as equivalent to an over-the-counter hearing aid, is designed for users with mild to moderate hearing loss. After users take hearing tests on iPhones or iPads running iOS 18, their AirPods will make "personalized dynamic adjustments" to allow them to properly hear their immediate listening environments, with sounds boosted to prescribed levels in real time. (Wile and Yang, 9/9)

CBS News: Baltimore City To Receive $80 Million In Teva Pharmaceuticals Opioid Settlement
The City of Baltimore has reached an $80 million settlement with Teva Pharmaceuticals over the company's role in the city's opioid crisis, officials announced Monday. Teva will pay an initial $35 million by the end of the year, with the remainder due by July 1, 2025. (Olaniran, 9/9)

The New York Times: How A Rural Maine County Jail Helped Prisoners Blunt Opioid Cravings 
A sheriff fought to give prisoners addicted to opioids a shot that suppresses cravings for a month. Upon release, they were more likely to continue treatment. (Hoffman, 9/9)

The Washington Post: D.C. Bill Seeks More Oversight Of Beleaguered 911 Call Center
D.C.’s troubled 911 agency would be required to release audio and other documents related to calls with suspected dispatching errors under legislation announced Monday by D.C. Council member Brooke Pinto (D-Ward 2). (Gathright, 9/9)

AP: A Former NYC School Food Chief Is Sentenced To 2 Years In A Tainted Chicken Bribery Case 
The former head of food services for New York City public schools was sentenced to two years in prison on Monday for a bribery scandal that resulted in children being served chicken tenders contaminated with metal and bone. Eric Goldstein, the former school food chief, was sentenced in Brooklyn federal court along with three men who ran a vendor that had contracted with the city to provide school food — Blaine Iler, Michael Turley and Brian Twomey. Iler was sentenced to one year and a $10,000 fine, Turley to 15 months and Twomey to 15 months and a $10,000 fine. (Matthews, 9/9)

The CT Mirror: Youth Suicides Are Up In CT, And Officials Are Broadening Response
A few years ago, Dr. Steven Rogers, a physician in the emergency department at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center, started a new initiative. He wanted to screen every child age 10 and up who passed through the department for suicide risk. That’s around 15,000 kids a year. (Tillman, 9/10)

NPR: Alaska Native Communities’ Suicide Prevention Focuses On Strengths
Alaska’s Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta is one of the nation’s most remote regions, stretching across 75,000 square miles of mountains, tundra and coastal wetlands along the Bering Sea. The U.S. Census counts the population at roughly 27,000 – the majority of whom are Alaska Natives of Yup’ik and Athabascan descent – placing the region among the most sparsely populated areas in the United States. There are no roads connecting the Delta’s 50 villages to the national system. It’s also home to the nation’s highest rates of suicide. (Kapelow, 9/10)

Reuters: Trojan Condoms Contain 'Forever Chemicals,' Lawsuit Claims 
A new lawsuit on Monday claims that Trojan condoms are not safe because they contain toxic "forever chemicals," which have been linked to cancer. In a proposed class action filed in Manhattan federal court, the plaintiff Matthew Goodman said Church & Dwight's (CHD.N), opens new tab products, advertised as "America's #1 Condom," are unfit for their intended purpose because they contain per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. (Stempel, 9/9)

Reuters: Baby Bottle Maker Says Microplastics Inescapable, Health Risks Unproven, In Bid To Toss Lawsuit 
Handi-Craft Co on Friday pushed back against claims that the company failed to warn parents that their plastic baby bottles leach microplastics when heated, arguing in part that microplastics are ubiquitous and their health effects are unproven. Handi-Craft and another baby bottle maker, Philips North America, are each facing proposed class actions claiming they failed to warn parents that the polypropylene bottles and cups sold under the brands Philips Avent and Handi-Craft’s Dr. Brown's, when heated as part of regular use, could expose infants to tiny flecks of plastic that can interfere with their digestive, reproductive and immune systems. Both companies have moved to dismiss the claims against them. (Jones, 9/9)

Los Angeles Times: Baby's Risk For SIDS Could One Day Be Predicted By Blood Screening
Researchers at UC San Francisco have found that newborns with an unusual pattern of metabolites in their blood — the byproducts created when the body processes energy — were far more likely to die from sudden infant death syndrome, adding to a growing body of research suggesting that babies who die from SIDS may have underlying conditions that can be detected early in life. ... They found that babies with unusual metabolites in their blood were 14 times more likely to die from SIDS as those with the lowest-risk pattern, according to the study published Monday in the journal JAMA Pediatrics. (Gold, 9/9)

CNN: Exercise May Help You Store Fat Better, New Research Suggests 
Exercise doesn’t just help you lose fat. It could also promote healthier fat, according to a new study. “Living a physically active lifestyle, exercising regularly over time, makes our fat tissue a more accommodating place for extra energy under conditions when we do gain weight,” said senior study author Dr. Jeffrey Horowitz, professor of movement studies in the school of kinesiology at the University of Michigan. (Holcombe, 9/10)

CBS News: Ultra Processed: How Food Tech Consumed The American Diet 
Americans are among the world's biggest consumers of ultra-processed foods, which comprise more than half of an average adult’s diet and two-thirds of a child’s. As technology continues to accelerate innovations in additives, chemicals and food products, U.S. regulators are struggling to keep up. In this video, CBS Reports examines why ultra-processed foods have become so pervasive in the American diet, and what filling the gaps in federal regulation can do to ensure Americans are fed and healthy. (9/7)

The New York Times: 10,000 Feet Up, Scientists Found Hundreds Of Airborne Germs 
The sky may not seem like a promising place to find life. But in the 1920s, scientists flew planes across the United States and caught floating spores. A century later, the living atmosphere remains a fairly mysterious place. On Monday, researchers reported that on flights over Japan, at altitudes as high as 10,000 feet, they had caught hundreds of different types of bacteria and fungi. The team estimated that the microbes had flown over 1,200 miles when they were captured. Most intriguing of all, some of the species might be able to cause diseases in people. (Zimmer, 9/9)

The Washington Post: Australia Plans Social Media Minimum Age, Citing Mental Health Concerns
The Australian government plans to set a minimum age limit for teens to use social media, citing mental health concerns, a move that has broad political support but that has some experts warning of harmful unintended consequences. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced Tuesday that his government would introduce the legislation in Parliament this year — ahead of an expected May election — but that the precise age limit was yet to be decided. (Miller, 9/10)