Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Social Media Videos Are Exposing Teens To Inhalant Use, Study Shows
HealthDay: Social Media Videos, Easy Access Raise Risk Of Teen Inhalant Use
New research is raising alarms about inhalants, which are often portrayed online as harmless while putting teens at real risk. Two new studies point to a troubling pattern: Younger teens, especially girls, may be more vulnerable — and social media is a major source of exposure. In one study, recently published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, researchers reviewed 30 videos about nitrous oxide — often called "laughing gas" — posted in early 2025. Those videos averaged 23 million views. Some showed how to use it, with no age restrictions or health warnings. (5/4)
On the drug overdose crisis —
The New York Times: A Medical Examiner Chases Down An Elusive Killer
The chief medical examiner was not satisfied. The toxicology report on the dead man’s blood samples made no sense, given what her investigator had noted at the death scene: Oct. 26, 2025, 2:43 a.m. Apartment, South Knoxville, Tenn. Decedent: white man, 52, supine on bed, in T-shirt, pants, belt, socks. In the bathroom: thumbnail-size baggies, cut straws, dollar bill, hollow pen, white powder. But the only substances a lab found in his blood were nicotine and caffeine. (Hoffman, 5/4)
The New York Times: What To Know About Orphines, A New Class Of Deadly Opioids
Since last fall, new and deadly synthetic opioids called orphines have begun appearing in street drugs in the United States. They are far more potent than fentanyl but cannot be detected by standard toxicology tests. Orphines are still much less common than fentanyl, but they are proliferating quickly. As of last month, they have been found in 14 states, mostly in the South and the Midwest. Law enforcement officials and public health officials are trying to assess the gravity and endurance of the threat they pose. (Hoffman, 5/4)
In other health and wellness news —
The New York Times: Cruise Ship Struck By Hantavirus Remains At Sea
A cruise ship struck by a deadly outbreak of hantavirus, a rare pathogen carried by rodents, remained moored in the Atlantic Ocean on Tuesday as government and health authorities scrambled to find a way to evacuate sick people onboard. The three people who died were a Dutch couple and a German national, according to Oceanwide Expeditions, the vessel’s operator. (Kim, 5/5)
The New York Times: ‘You Just Can’t Get The Air In’: How Hantavirus Turns Deadly
Jordan Herbst was 14 years old when he came down with what he thought was the flu. After a few days of aches and chills, though, he started having trouble breathing. The doctors who first saw him in Bishop, Calif., suspected it was pneumonia. But his breathing quickly worsened and his lungs began to fail. He was rushed by air to a larger hospital, where he was put on a machine that took over for his heart and lungs. “I imagine it’s what drowning feels like,” said Mr. Herbst, who is now 26. “You’re trying to breathe, and you just can’t get the air in.” (Bajaj and Agrawal, 5/4)
The Washington Post: The Body’s Most Mysterious Organ May Play A Key Role In Longevity And Cancer
A raft of research is recasting the thymus from a bit player to a potent regulator of aging and immune health. (Johnson, 5/3)
MedPage Today: She Took A Supplement For Constipation. She Ended Up In The Cardiac ICU
When a 24-year-old woman took a dietary supplement called "raiz de tejocote," she encountered some dangerous and unpleasant side effects. On arrival to the emergency department, she was experiencing confusion, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, whole-body numbness, pain in her abdomen, and generalized malaise. She had taken four tejocote root pills 14 hours earlier to help trigger a bowel movement. She had never tried the pills before and had not eaten anything else with tejocote, reported Catherine Kiruthi, PharmD, of Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center in Baltimore, and co-authors in Annals of Internal Medicine Clinical Cases. (Firth, 5/4)
