Longer Looks: Interesting Reads You Might Have Missed

The New York Times: It’s Boom Times for Obamacare. Will They Last?
Carley Calvi came to the second floor of a public library in suburban Milwaukee one morning this month without health insurance to cover the vertigo medication she needed. Worse, she said, was not having a doctor she trusted. “I want somebody to value me as the person I am,” said Ms. Calvi, a 35-year-old woodworker. With roughly 110 options and the help of a health insurance navigator, she selected a plan with a steeply discounted $221 monthly premium, placing her among the 21.3 million people who have signed up for coverage on the Affordable Care Act’s marketplaces for 2024. The sign-up total, announced by the Biden administration on Wednesday, set a record for the third year in a row and amounted to almost double the number of sign-ups from 2020. (Weiland, 1/25)

The Washington Post: Daughter Saves Her Mother’s Life With Organ Donations — Twice
When Julia Harlin found out her liver was failing, she sat her five children down and told them not to donate their own organs to her. She didn’t want them to go through the stress of testing and surgery. But daughter Eileen Harlin went behind her back and got tested anyway. She found out she was a match, and she broke the news to her mother on Mother’s Day 2022. “She told me, ‘Mom, you’re going to be mad at me, but for the last four months, I’ve been having all the tests done, and I’m going to be your donor,” recalled Julia, 71, of Frederick, Md. Julia tried to say no, but her children all told her it was her best shot at staying alive. They overruled her. (Free, 1/23)

The Atlantic: Gummy Vitamins Are Just Candy 
These days, the options for dietary supplements are virtually limitless. And whatever substance you want to ingest, you can find it in gummy form. Omega-3? You bet. Vitamin C? Absolutely. Iron? Calcium? Zinc? Yes, yes, and yes. There are peach collagen rings and strawberry-watermelon fiber rings. There are brambleberry probiotic gummies and “tropical zing” gummy worms that promise to put you in “an upbeat mood.” There are libido gummies and menopause gummies. There are gummies that claim to boost your metabolism, to reinforce your immune system, to strengthen your hair, your skin, your nails. For kids, there are Transformers multivitamin gummies and My Little Pony multivitamin gummies. (Stern, 1/22)

The New York Times: The Link Between Birth Control Pills And Sex Drive 
A decade ago, researchers analyzed 36 studies on the side effects of the combined hormonal birth control pill (containing both estrogen and progestin). They found that 15 percent of the 13,700 women studied reported that their libido had decreased during the time they were on the pill. In the years since, only a few studies have examined why this might be, and they haven’t resulted in a clear consensus — particularly when it comes to different versions of the pill, which contain varying doses of hormones. (Gupta, 1/23)

MPR News: Soul Doctors: How Minnesota Chaplains’ Roles Are Changing 
Chaplains often show up on the worst days of people’s lives. They arrive in a hospital room after a distressing diagnosis. They accompany police to help inform someone of a loved one’s death. One in four Americans have been visited by a chaplain, usually at a hospital or hospice, though chaplains also work in prisons, on college campuses and with the military and police and fire departments. (Davis and Beckstrom, 1/23)

The New York Times: San Francisco Tried To Build A $1.7 Million Toilet. It’s Still Not Done
An expensive public bathroom project has come to symbolize the city’s bureaucratic inefficiencies. (Knight, 1/24)

The Washington Post: In Tents, Motels And Wooded Areas, D.C. Region Counts Its Homeless
Homeless outreach advocate Corae Young ventured Wednesday into a stand of trees behind a bustling shopping center. A path littered with bottles, cans and takeout containers led to an encampment with about a dozen shelters — store-bought tents or improvised structures fashioned from tarps and plastic — at the edge of a pond. At an elaborate tent equipped with a propane heater and a clothesline, Young approached a man she said had cycled from his tent to an emergency shelter and back again for years. On a relatively warm evening amid recent brutal weather, he said he didn’t want to go into shelter but did want help with permanent housing. He also accepted a Wawa gift card. (He declined an interview.) (Moyer and Lang, 1/26)

NPR: Why Diphtheria Is Making A Comeback
It had been over 30 years since the last case of diphtheria was seen in Guinea. So when patients began showing up six months ago with what looked like flu symptoms — fever, cough and sore throat – doctors weren't alarmed. Until the children started dying. That's when they realized that this longtime scourge, long quashed by vaccination, was back. As of December 2023, there have been around 25,000 cases of diphtheria in West Africa and 800 deaths. In Guinea, the cases were clustered in Siguiri, a rural prefecture in the country's northeast, and early data showed that 90% occurred in children under the age of 5. (Bajaj, 1/23)

NBC News: Do Stanley Cups Contain Lead Or Pose A Risk Of Lead Poisoning? Experts Weigh In
Stanley is responding to claims that its products contain lead, clarifying that, yes, lead is used in the manufacturing process, but the product needs to become damaged to expose the lead, a Stanley spokesperson told TODAY.com in a statement. ... “Our engineering and supply chain teams are making progress on innovative, alternative materials for use in the sealing process,” the spokesperson added. In a separate statement to NBC affiliate WCNC of Charlotte, North Carolina, the company said all of its products follow all U.S. regulatory requirements. (Austin, 1/25)