Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
For Those Who Have Had Dramatic Overdose Videos And Photos Aired To Public, Life Will Never Be The Same
The New York Times: How Do You Recover After Millions Have Watched You Overdose?
The first time Kelmae Hemphill watched herself overdose, she sobbed. There she was in a shaky video filmed by her own heroin dealer, sprawled out on a New Jersey road while a stranger pounded on her chest. “Come on, girl,” someone pleaded. Ms. Hemphill’s 11-year drug addiction, her criminal record, her struggles as a mother — they were now everybody’s business, splashed across the news and social media with a new genre of American horror film: the overdose video. As opioid deaths have soared in recent years, police departments and strangers with cameras have started posting raw, uncensored images of drug users passed out with needles in their arms and babies in the back seats of their cars. The videos rack up millions of views and unleash avalanches of outrage. Then some other viral moment comes along, and the country clicks away. (Seelye, Turkewitz, Healy and Blinder, 12/11)
Bloomberg: Killer Opioid Fentanyl Could Be A Weapon Of Mass Destruction
Fentanyl has emerged as the most dangerous of a group of drugs blamed for creating a U.S. public health crisis. American deaths linked to fentanyl grew more than 50 percent to 29,406 last year, from 19,413 in 2016, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). Relatively easy to manufacture, the drug is turning up more on the streets as dealers strive to meet still-enormous demand for opioids in the U.S.Fentanyl is ever-evolving as suppliers try to avoid detection and still boost the potency of the drug using what are called analogues — essentially chemical cousins. (Edney, 12/12)
Stat: Kaleo, Maker Of $4,100 Overdose Antidote, To Offer Generic For $178
A month after the drug maker Kaleo came under fire from lawmakers and public-health advocates for charging $4,100 for a device that reverses overdoses, the company has announced it will introduce a generic version for a small fraction of the price. The company announced Wednesday it has authorized its subsidiary IJ Therapeutics to produce a largely identical version of its automated naloxone injector for a retail price of $178 for a kit, which, like the $4,100 brand-name version, contains two doses. First responder groups and health departments will be offered the brand-name product Evzio at the same price. (Facher, 12/12)
And in other news on the opioid epidemic —
The Associated Press: Meth Playing Bigger Role In US Drug Overdose Crisis
A bigger share of U.S. drug overdose deaths are being caused by methamphetamine, government health officials reported. The number of fatal overdoses involving meth more than tripled between 2011 and 2016, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Wednesday. The percentage of overdose deaths involving meth grew from less than 5 percent to nearly 11 percent. (Stobbe, 12/12)
The Washington Post: Cocaine Deaths Increase Amid Ongoing National Opioid Crisis
Deaths from cocaine sharply increased from 2011 to 2016 across the United States, adding another dimension to a crisis of fatal overdoses that has primarily been driven by opioids, according to new data from the National Center for Health Statistics. Overdose deaths from cocaine increased by about 18 percent each year during the five-year period. The data also showed a staggering rise in the number of deaths from fentanyl, with deaths from the powerful synthetic opioid increasing about 113 percent each year from 2013 to 2016. (Zezima, 12/12)
Boston Globe: Doctor Charged With Manslaughter In Opioid Overdose Death
A Dracut physician has been charged with involuntary manslaughter in the 2016 death of a woman who overdosed on opioids that he had prescribed, the first such indictment in the state, authorities announced Tuesday. Dr. Richard Miron is accused of continuing to authorize large doses of opioids and other drugs even though he knew the victim had overdosed in February 2016 on opioids he had prescribed. (Freyer, 12/11)
