Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
How Did A Powerful Pro-Vaccine Bill Fail In New Jersey? Vocal Parents Used Social Media To Convince GOP Leaders To Oppose It, Report Says
The New York Times: How Anti-Vaccine Activists Defeated A Bill To End Religious Exemptions
As a measles outbreak raged last year, New York lawmakers passed a bill ending all nonmedical exemptions to immunization, handing supporters of such efforts across the nation a major victory. Then the focus shifted to New Jersey, where an even more sweeping bill had been making its way through the State Legislature that would have barred nearly all exemptions to vaccines for students at any public or private school, including colleges, which were not covered by the New York law. (Tully, Otterman and Hoffman, 1/16)
Stat: New Heart Transplant Method Being Tested For The First Time In The U.S.
More than 250,000 people in the U.S. are currently at the end stages of heart failure, up to 15% of whom are in desperate need of a transplant. A new method of “reanimating” donor hearts from those who have died from cardiac failure is currently being tested in the U.S., and may soon ease that burden. As part of the new procedure, known as “donation after cardiac death,” or DCD, transplants, organs are retrieved from those who have died because their heart stopped — either naturally or because physicians discontinued life support. (Chakradhar, 1/16)
Stat: Study: Mutations In Stem Cells Of Young Donors Can Be Passed To Recipients
Doctors use stem cell transplants to treat patients with certain cancers or blood disorders. And donors, whose blood or bone marrow is used for the procedures, are typically young, for a variety of reasons. But a pilot study released Wednesday raised the possibility that such donors are also passing along mutations in stem cells that could lead to health problems for some recipients. (Joseph, 1/15)
NPR: Embryo Research In Mexico Raises Ethical Concerns
Researchers have conducted a controversial study that involved paying dozens of young women at a hospital near Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, to get artificially inseminated so their embryos could be flushed out of their bodies and analyzed for research purposes. The study showed that embryos created that way appear to be as healthy genetically as embryos created through standard in vitro fertilization. Physically, the embryos appear to, possibly, even be healthier, the study found. (Stein, 1/15)
Modern Healthcare: Solutions To Loneliness Elusive For Hospitals
Do you have someone who loves you and cares for you? Do you have a source of joy in your life? Do you have a sense of peace today? Since mid-2018, staff at AdventHealth have asked patients in outpatient settings those three questions in an attempt to identify health needs beyond the physical realm. In response, patients often say that they don’t have anyone who cares for them, or they feel isolated from their community. In other words, they’re lonely.“ A top trend (among our patients) is loneliness,” said Angela Augusto, director of mission integration at the Altamonte Springs, Fla.-based health system. “And we are not seeing it in any particular age demographic. It’s as prevalent with our young patients as our older generation of patients.” (Castellucci, 1/11)
The New York Times: Rich People Don’t Just Live Longer: They Also Get More Healthy Years
Yes, indeed, it’s good to be rich in old age. According to a new study, wealthy men and women don’t only live longer, they also get seven to nine more healthy years after 50 than the poorest individuals in the United States and in England. “It was surprising to find that the inequalities are exactly the same,” said Paola Zaninotto, a professor of epidemiology and public health at University College London and a lead author of the study. (Murphy, 1/16)
The New York Times: This Strange Microbe May Mark One Of Life’s Great Leaps
A bizarre tentacled microbe discovered on the floor of the Pacific Ocean may help explain the origins of complex life on this planet and solve one of the deepest mysteries in biology, scientists reported on Wednesday. Two billion years ago, simple cells gave rise to far more complex cells. Biologists have struggled for decades to learn how it happened. (Zimmer, 1/15)
Los Angeles Times: CTE Rears Its Ugly Head Again With New Aaron Hernandez Documentary
A new Netflix documentary promises a look inside the mind of Aaron Hernandez. Any look inside the mind of the onetime New England Patriots tight end who was convicted of murder and later killed himself will certainly delve into the topic of chronic traumatic encephalopathy. Following his death at age 27, Hernandez was diagnosed with Stage 3 CTE by doctors at Boston University’s CTE Center, which studies repetitive head trauma in athletes and military personnel. (Schilken, 1/15)
Bloomberg: Health Scares Slow The Rollout Of 5G Cell Towers In Europe
In the small Alpine town of Wohlen, a fierce backlash against the latest generation of mobile phone technology is under way. The Swiss municipality won’t allow Sunrise Communications AG or other phone companies to build masts to broadcast 5G, citing concerns about health risks from the towers’ electromagnetic radiation. Activist group Frequencia, which calls for limits on 5G’s rollout in part because of fears about cancer risks, attracted hundreds of people to a mass protest outside the parliament in Bern in September. (Seal and Torsoli, 1/15)
NPR: Mighty Mice In Space May Help Disabled People On Earth
In early December at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, two anxious scientists were about to send 20 years of research into orbit. "I feel like our heart and soul is going up in that thing," Dr. Emily Germain-Lee told her husband, Dr. Se-Jin Lee, as they waited arm-in-arm for a SpaceX rocket to launch. A few seconds later the spacecraft took off, transporting some very unusual mice to the International Space Station, where they would spend more than a month in near zero gravity. (Hamilton, 1/16)
NPR: In The Lead Up To Menopause, Depression And Anxiety Can Spike
Hines knew she was likely going through perimenopause, that is the years leading up to menopause, when women's monthly hormonal cycles become erratic as their bodies prepare to stop menstruating. What she didn't realize — and many women don't know — is that the hormonal changes of perimenopause can bring with it changes in mood, and for some of us, a heightened risk of anxiety and depression. (Chatterjee, 1/16)
Kaiser Health News: What The 2020s Have In Store For Aging Boomers
Within 10 years, all of the nation’s 74 million baby boomers will be 65 or older. The most senior among them will be on the cusp of 85. Even sooner, by 2025, the number of seniors (65 million) is expected to surpass that of children age 13 and under (58 million) for the first time, according to Census Bureau projections. “In the history of the human species, there’s never been a time like [this],” said Dr. Richard Hodes, director of the National Institute on Aging, referring to the changing balance between young people and old. (Graham, 1/16)
