Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Longer Looks: Interesting Reads You Might Have Missed
The Washington Post: Restoring Sight Is Possible Now With Optogenetics
Several companies are experimenting with optogenetics to create a “bionic eye” that can restore sight in visually impaired people. (Zaleski, 4/23)
North Carolina Health News: The Rise Of Mega-Hospitals
When it comes to growth, it seems like hospitals can’t get enough of it. Across the country, a tidal wave of hospital mergers and acquisitions in recent years has created multi-billion-dollar hospital giants that serve large swaths of the population. (Crouch, 4/22)
The Washington Post: Dentist Finds Ancient Human Jawbone Embedded In His Parents’ Tile Floor
A dentist was visiting his parents’ newly renovated home in Europe when he noticed something odd: One of the floor tiles in a corridor leading to a terrace held what looked like a human mandible, sliced through at an angle, including a cross section of a few teeth. Not knowing exactly what steps to take, the dentist posted a photo of the discovery on Reddit. The internet exploded with enthusiasm, interest and ick. (Johnson, 4/23)
The New York Times: For Postpartum And Pregnancy Care, One Brand Turns To A Porn Star
The mother and baby care brand Frida is working with Asa Akira, a well-known porn actress, to create educational videos about its products. (Gupta, 4/16)
The Wall Street Journal: The Father Of Nutrition Labels Doesn’t Count Calories And Loves Ice Cream
Peter Barton Hutt doesn’t care what food you buy, as long as you know what’s in it. He introduced America to the nutrition label, the fine print on food and drink that reveals, say, the number of calories in that pint of vanilla ice cream or how much fruit juice is really in that “juice drink.” He also decreed the label’s type size: no smaller than 1/16th of an inch. From a historical standpoint, Hutt has left a mark matched by few mortals. The labels have appeared on hundreds of millions—billions, maybe—of consumer products in the five decades since he wrote the rules for the Food and Drug Administration. (Whyte, 4/25)
The New York Times: Losing A Foot Never Held Her Back, Until She Tried To Join The Military
Hanna Cvancara’s dream is to become a nurse in the military, and she has been trying to achieve that dream for more than a decade. But every time she applies, she gets rejected. It’s not that the 28-year-old couldn’t handle the job. She is working now as an emergency department nurse at a civilian Level II trauma hospital in Spokane, Wash., tending to bleeding car accident victims, drug users in fits from withdrawal, children in the throes of seizures and whatever else comes through the doors. (Philipps, 4/25)
The New York Times: Belgian Man’s Drunken Driving Defense: His Body Made The Alcohol
One man was charged with drunken driving after crashing his truck and spilling 11,000 salmon onto a highway in Oregon. Another was secretly recorded by his wife, who was convinced he was a closet alcoholic. And in Belgium, a brewery worker was recently pulled over and given a breathalyzer test, which said that his blood alcohol level was more than four times the legal limit for drivers. The problem? None of those men had been drinking. Instead, they all were diagnosed with a rare condition known as auto-brewery syndrome, in which a person’s gut ferments carbohydrates into ethanol, effectively brewing alcohol inside the body. (Watkins, 4/23)
Stat: Next-Generation Mosquito Nets Saved 25,000 Lives In Pilot Studies
The fight against malaria is a test of human intelligence against mosquitoes — and so far, our minuscule winged enemy is winning. But new results shared this week show substantial improvements in one of the most important tools we have to prevent the life-threatening disease: bed nets. (Merelli, 4/17)
The New York Times: It Introduced Ozempic to the World. Now It Must Remake Itself
Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen has a problem: Too many people want what he’s selling. Mr. Jorgensen is the chief executive of Novo Nordisk, the Danish drugmaker. Even if the company isn’t quite a household name, the TV jingle for its best-selling drug — “Oh-oh-ohhh, Ozempic!” — might ring in your ears. Across the United States, Novo Nordisk’s diabetes and weight-loss drugs, Ozempic and Wegovy, have soared to celebrity status and helped make the company Europe’s most valuable public firm. It can’t make enough of the drugs. (Nelson, 4/20)
