Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Much-Hyped Easy-To-Take Flu Drug Could Be Approved By FDA Before Next Season's Peak
Stat: Flu Drug, Taken In Single Dose, Could Upend Treatment If Approved In U.S.
Next winter, there may be a new drug for people who contract influenza — one that appears to be able to shut down infection quickly and, unlike anything else on the market, can be taken as a single pill. The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday said that it would give the drug, baloxavir morboxil, a priority review, and approval has the potential to upend the way influenza is treated. (Branswell, 6/27)
The Washington Post: Why Are We Being So Rude To Each Other? Research Shows Incivility Often Spreads Like A Contagious Cold
These are rude times we live in. And many people find themselves struggling with how to respond. Do they fight fire with fire or try somehow to take the moral high ground? Scientific research has surprisingly quite a lot to say about it all. (Wan, 6/26)
The Philadelphia Inquirer: Updated Osteoporosis Screening Guidelines Cover Only Women. That Could Hurt Men
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommended, as it has for years, that women 65 and older and younger women with risk factors such as smoking be screened for osteoporosis with bone density scans, called DEXA. But not men. Even though the task force found “convincing evidence” that the scans detect osteoporosis and predict fractures in both men and women, it said there is “inadequate” evidence that treatment reduces fracture rates in men. (McCullough, 6/26)
The New York Times: High-Resolution Snapshot Of Zika Virus Reveals Clues To Fighting It
Scientists have captured the clearest and most detailed image yet of Zika, the virus that set off a global health crisis in 2015 and 2016 and left thousands of babies with serious birth defects. The work could contribute to the development of more effective vaccines and treatments to combat the virus. The research, published Tuesday in the journal Structure, combined tens of thousands of two-dimensional images to construct a three-dimensional model of the virus’s structure. (Baumgaertner, 6/26)
Los Angeles Times: Fewer Americans Are Spending Their Final Days In The Hospital And More Are Dying At Home
The American way of dying seems to have become less frantic, desperate and expensive. That’s the upshot of a new study that finds that seniors insured by Medicare who died in 2015 were less likely to do so in a hospital and more likely to pass away in a home or other community setting than those who died in 2000. The new research also showed that the proportion of American seniors who were admitted to the intensive care unit during their final month of life has stabilized after rising between 2000 and 2009. By 2015, 29% of dying patients insured by Medicare spent part of their final month of life in the ICU. (Healy, 6/27)
The New York Times: Walk Briskly For Your Health. About 100 Steps A Minute.
Most of us know that we should walk briskly for the sake of our health. But how fast is brisk? A helpful new study of walking speed and health concludes that the answer seems to be about 100 steps per minute, a number that is probably lower than many of us might expect. Current exercise guidelines almost always state that we should walk at a brisk pace rather than stroll leisurely. But the recommendations do not always define what brisk walking means and, when they do, can deploy daunting terminology or technicalities. (Reynolds, 6/27)
