Health Officials Urge Americans To Get Flu Vaccines ‘Right Now’ After Australia Experiences Early, Serious Outbreak

The New York Times: Australia Just Had A Bad Flu Season. That May Be A Warning For The U.S.
Australia had an unusually early and fairly severe flu season this year. Since that may foretell a serious outbreak on its way in the United States, public health experts now are urging Americans to get their flu shots as soon as possible. “It’s too early to tell for sure, because sometimes Australia is predictive and sometimes it’s not,” said Dr. Daniel B. Jernigan, director of the influenza division of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “But the best move is to get the vaccine right now.” (McNeil, 10/4)

The New York Times: Brain Stimulation Shows Promise In Treating Severe Depression
For more than a decade, doctors have been using brain-stimulating implants to treat severe depression in people who do not benefit from medication, talk therapy or electroshock sessions. The treatment is controversial — any psychosurgery is, given its checkered history — and the results have been mixed. Two major trials testing stimulating implant for depression were halted because of disappointing results, and the approach is not approved by federal health regulators. (Carey, 10/4)

The New York Times: Scientist Who Discredited Meat Guidelines Didn’t Report Past Food Industry Ties
A surprising new study challenged decades of nutrition advice and gave consumers the green light to eat more red and processed meat. But what the study didn’t say is that its lead author has past research ties to the meat and food industry. The new report, published this week in the Annals of Internal Medicine, stunned scientists and public health officials because it contradicted longstanding nutrition guidelines about limiting consumption of red and processed meats. (Parker-Pope and O'Connor, 10/4)

The Washington Post: The Climate Is Changing, But Our Disaster-Response System Isn’t Keeping Up, Experts Say
After a fire killed 34 people in a dive boat off the coast of California last month, the National Transportation Safety Board began an immediate investigation. Within 10 days, the NTSB published a key finding — that all six crew members were asleep with nobody on watch when the fire broke out — and promised an in-depth inquiry and safety recommendations. Eleven months after fire obliterated Paradise, Calif., and left 85 people dead, there has been no such independent investigation. The Federal Emergency Management Agency, tasked with managing the government’s response, has not completed its after-action report. FEMA’s reports, designed to assess its own performance rather than make safety recommendations, are rarely made public. (Sellers, 10/5)

The New York Times: Is Your Child Struggling In School? Talk To Your Pediatrician
The American Academy of Pediatrics has just issued a report on what pediatricians can — and should — do to help “school-aged children who are not progressing academically.” Dr. Arthur Lavin, one of the lead authors of the report and the chairman of the A.A.P. committee on the psychosocial aspects of child and family health, said that pediatricians can play an important role in working with children who are struggling in school. He does so in his own practice in the Cleveland area and said it has emerged as a high priority among his patients because it is so common. (Klass, 10/7)

The Washington Post: On YouTube, People With Disabilities Create Content To Show And Normalize Their Experiences
Ruby Ardolf, 14, has her own YouTube channel, featuring familiar aspects of a teen’s daily life and merchandise with messages of kindness and inclusion. But Ruby is not a typical teen vlogger. She is disabled — one of 12 people worldwide with a genetic condition called Stromme syndrome, which results in microcephaly (small brain), and impaired vision and motor functioning. (Chiu, 10/6)

Iowa Public Radio: When Efforts To Eat 'Clean' Become An Unhealthy Obsession
Whether its gluten-free, dairy-free, raw food, or all-organic, many people these days are committed to so-called "clean eating" — the idea that choosing only whole foods in their natural state and avoiding processed ones can improve health. It's not necessarily a bad thing to eat this way, but sometimes, these kinds of food preferences can begin take over people's lives, making them fear social events where they won't be able to find the "right" foods. When a healthful eating pattern goes too far, it may turn into an eating disorder that scientists are just beginning to study. (Fulton, 10/7)

The New York Times: Relief For Children’s Migraine Headaches
My grandson Stefan was about 8 years old when he began to get migraine headaches. As soon as he could after getting home from school, he would lie down and go to sleep, awakening an hour or two later, usually with the headache gone. But before the pain abated, he sometimes vomited, prompting him and his relatives to keep barf bags handy at all times. Then as Stefan approached puberty, these debilitating headaches stopped as mysteriously as they had begun. (Brody, 10/7)

The New York Times: Addicted To Screens? That’s Really A You Problem
Nir Eyal does not for a second regret writing Silicon Valley’s tech engagement how-to, “Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products,” even as he now has a new book out on how to free ourselves of that same addiction. In his original manual for building enthralling smartphone apps, Mr. Eyal laid out the tricks “to subtly encourage customer behavior” and “bring users back again and again.” He toured tech companies speaking about the Hook Model, his four-step plan to grab and keep people with enticements like variable rewards, or pleasures that come at unpredictable intervals. (Bowles, 10/6)

The Associated Press: Verbal Autopsies Used In Push To Better Track Global Deaths
One afternoon last month, a young woman with a tablet computer sat next to Alphonsine Umurerwa on the living room couch, asking questions, listening carefully. She learned that the woman’s 23-year-old daughter, Sandrine Umwungeri, had been very sick for about a year, gradually becoming so weak she stopped leaving their tin-roofed home in a hilly section of Rwanda’s capital city. The family thought she had malaria. Medicines from a local pharmacy didn’t help. In March, she died. (Larson and Stobbe, 10/6)

The Washington Post: Worried You Ingested Something Deadly? This Virtual Poison Control Website Can Be A Lifesaving Tool.
You swallowed. You were splashed. You got stung. But was it harmful? If you aren’t sure, head to Webpoisoncontrol.org. That’s the online home of a project supported by 18 accredited poison control centers nationwide and operated under the auspices of the National Capital Poison Center in Washington. (Blakemore, 10/5)