Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Three Years After Anthrax Scare, Defense Department Still Behind On Biosafety Upgrades, Report Finds
The New York Times: Biosafety Reforms Still Lagging At Military Labs
Three years after discovering that a military laboratory had shipped live anthrax to facilities around the world, the Department of Defense still has not developed a plan to evaluate its biological security practices, the federal Government Accountability Office reported on Thursday. The department has implemented about half of the procedural changes that had been recommended, the G.A.O. said. But the Pentagon still has not established a way to measure the effectiveness of these reforms, making it difficult for experts to determine whether safety has improved. (Baumgaertner, 9/20)
The New York Times: Mark Bertolini Of Aetna On Yoga, Meditation And Darth Vader
Not long after joining Aetna, the health insurance giant, Mark Bertolini almost died. A skiing accident in 2004 left his body broken and his prospects dimmed. He was in his late 40s and considered early retirement. When conventional Western medicine didn’t help him recover, Mr. Bertolini turned to Craniosacral therapy, yoga and meditation. Soon he was back at work, and was made chief executive of the company in 2010. (Gelles, 9/21)
The New York Times: Daytime Sleepiness Tied To Brain Changes Of Alzheimer’s
A new study links daytime sleepiness with the accumulation of the plaques in the brain that are a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease. The study, published in Sleep, included 124 mentally healthy men and women, average age 60, who reported on their own daytime sleepiness and napping habits. An average of 15 years later, researchers administered PET and M.R.I. scans to detect the presence of beta-amyloid, the protein that clumps together to form plaques. (Bakalar, 9/20)
San Jose Mercury News: Stanford Cooties Study: We're Enveloped By Germs And Microbes
You’ll never walk alone. Enveloping you is a vast menagerie of microbes and other minutia — counted and catalogued for the first time by scientists at the Stanford School of Medicine. The tally is startling: In just one week, the average person is exposed to about 800 different species of bacteria, viruses, chemicals, plant pollens, fungi and tiny microscopic animals, they report in the journal Cell. (Krieger, 9/20)
The Associated Press/Health News Florida: Judge Throws Out Lawsuit By Ex-Wrestlers Over Concussions
A federal judge in Connecticut has dismissed a lawsuit by 60 former professional wrestlers, many of them stars in the 1980s and 1990s, who claimed World Wrestling Entertainment failed to protect them from repeated head trauma including concussions that led to long-term brain damage. U.S. District Judge Vanessa Bryant in Hartford threw out the lawsuit Monday, saying many of the claims were frivolous or filed after the statute of limitations expired. Stamford-based WWE denied the lawsuit's allegations. (9/20)
KCUR: E. Coli Outbreak Prompts Recall Of Cargill Ground Beef
Cargill Meat Solutions is recalling hundreds of thousands of pounds ground beef products following because of an E.coli outbreak after one death and 17 illnesses. According to the USDA, Cargill is recalling over 132,00 pounds of ground beef products that may be infected with E.coli following an epidemiological investigation that found the affected people purchased the meat from grocery stores supplied by Ft. Morgan, Colorado’s Cargill Meat Solution. (Haflich, 9/20)
