Archives: Morning Breakouts

A new poll indicates that the public is evenly split about the health law. Meanwhile, members of Congress appeared on Sunday talk shows to discuss this week's House vote on repeal.

"This week's independence referendum in southern Sudan marks an apparent victory for U.S. foreign policy in east Africa

A new report from the Worldwatch Institute, a research organization, recommends focusing on new approaches to address world hunger, Nature's blog "The Great Beyond" reports. According to the report, "previous approaches to feeding the world's population have 'not really worked' since around 925 million people globally still go hungry everyday," the blog reports (Gilbert, 1/13). The State of the World 2011 report said, "[a]griculture as we know it today is in trouble," Agence France-Presse writes, adding that it "said there had to be a revolution in investment in food and water to reverse a 'frightening' long-term depletion of stocks."

"Scientists have developed genetically modified [GM] chickens that don't transmit bird flu [H5N1] to other chickens," HealthDay News/Bloomberg Businessweek reports. "This achievement could stop bird flu outbreaks from spreading within poultry flocks and possibly reduce the risk of bird flu epidemics that could lead to flu virus epidemics in humans, according to the researchers at the Universities of Cambridge and Edinburgh in the United Kingdom," whose findings appear in the Jan. 14 issue of the journal Science, according to the news service (Preidt, 1/13).

A Phase II trial published Friday in Lancet Infectious Diseases has shown that RTS,S, the "experimental malaria vaccine from GlaxoSmithKline provides African children with long-lasting protection" against malaria, Reuters reports. "Scientists conducting the mid-stage trial at the Kenya Medical Research Institute said results showing the shot offered 46 percent protection for 15 months meant it had 'promise as a potential public health intervention against childhood malaria in malaria endemic countries'," the news service notes (Kelland, 1/14).

Republican leaders in the House have scheduled debate to begin on Tuesday. And, although the vote - which will follow a day later - is largely considered symbolic, it will kick off the GOP push to defund the bill and undo some of its more unpopular provisions.

Politico reports that nearly identical percentages of respondents say the health law is either the best or the worst thing President Barack Obama has done since taking office. Meanwhile, in a separate story, a Blue Cross Exec defends the health law's individual mandate, saying that dropping it would "create a dangerous set of conditions."

Reuters reports on the findings from a study done in the Netherlands.

The researchers noted that since these lobbying organizations often urge greater access to new drugs and treatments, these contributions should be made public.