Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: If You're Going To A Concert, Watch Out For Flu; What's The Real Reason Overdose Deaths Have Plummeted?
Bloomberg: Are Concerts Getting Hijacked By The Flu?
Performers and fans are falling ill right and left. The unusually early bout of H1N1 might be to blame. (Jessica Karl, 10/21)
Stat: Overdose Deaths Have Plunged — But Why?
It’s one of the biggest public health reversals in decades: Opioid overdose deaths are falling faster than at any point in the modern history of the epidemic. After persistently rising for more than 30 years, deaths peaked at 81,806 in 2022 and fell by almost half, to 44,564, in 2025. The decline helped push U.S. life expectancy to a record high in 2024. (J. Travis Donahoe, David T. Zhu and Michael L. Barnett, 10/23)
Stat: In Parts Of U.S., Medicare Will Put Some Pain Relief Out Of Reach For Patients
For years, one of my patients lived with chronic pelvic pain that felt like a hot poker in her vagina. After I performed a targeted nerve block with numbing medication, her pain disappeared. Through tears, she told me something I have heard from patients again and again: “I forgot what it’s like to not have pain. Thank you.” (Antje M. Barreveld, 10/23)
Stat: How A Targeted Drug Kept One Patient Alive 15 Years — But Failed To Save Her Friends
I hope someday every person living with this cancer will have access to a miracle. Alas, not all people have such good outcomes. Not all are offered biomarker testing or treated by doctors familiar with their subtype of lung cancer. Not all are informed about or have access to clinical trials. Not all respond to treatment or experience long responses. (Janet Freeman-Daily, 10/23)
