Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: Is Veozah The Miracle Fix For Menopause Hot Flashes?; Vaccine Distrust Is Spreading
The Baltimore Sun: Heating Up The Hot Flash Market With Unnecessary, And Potentially Harmful, Drugs
The Food and Drug Administration just approved fezolinetant (Veozah) for moderate to severe hot flashes associated with menopause. Physicians call hot flashes and night sweats vasomotor symptoms, a term that has been shortened to VMS and was rebranded by Astellas Pharma as part of a pre-launch marketing campaign aimed at consumers and health care providers to “educate” them about VMS and resurrect 20th century myths about menopause. (Patricia Bencivenga and Adriane Fugh-Berman, 5/17)
The Washington Post: Vaccine Hesitancy Is Growing Among Republicans. Here's What To Do.
Measles was declared eliminated in the United States in 2000, and the credit goes to parents who, year after year, brought their children to get measles, mumps and rubella vaccinations. When enough children are vaccinated, say 90 percent or more in a school or community, they reach herd immunity, and the highly contagious measles virus has nowhere to go. (5/17)
The Atlantic: Has North Carolina Found An Abortion Compromise?
North Carolina’s Republican lawmakers overrode a veto by Democratic Governor Roy Cooper last night, enacting a ban on most abortions after 12 weeks of gestation. The ban will take effect in July. (David A. Graham, 5/17)
Chicago Tribune: Not Funding Alzheimer's Research Hurts Seniors
Millions of patients and their caregivers breathed a collective sigh of relief when drugmaker Eli Lilly recently announced its new experimental Alzheimer’s medication appears to slow cognitive decline by 35%. The Food and Drug Administration could approve the new treatment, donanemab, as soon as this year. (Tomas Philipson, 5/18)
The Washington Post: Denials Of Health-Insurance Claims Are Rising With Weirder Reasons
Millions of Americans in the past few years have run into this experience: filing a health-care insurance claim that once might have been paid immediately but instead is just as quickly denied. (Rosenthal, 5/17)
The Washington Post: Here’s A Solution To DeSantis’s Social Security And Medicare Conundrum
Former president Donald Trump has been hammering Ron DeSantis over his past votes to significantly change Social Security and Medicare. The Florida governor and former congressman has attempted to wave away the attacks, but there’s a better way to counter Trump’s charges: Appeal to both GOP conservatives and populists by targeting entitlement benefits to those in need. (Henry Olsen, 5/17)
