The Washington Post: Inflation Reduction Act: House To Vote On Final Passage Friday 
House Democrats on Friday are expected to approve a sweeping package to lower health-care costs, combat climate change, raise taxes on some large companies and reduce the deficit, sending the once-imperiled proposal to President Biden’s desk. With debate set to begin in the morning, and a vote on passage likely later in the afternoon, the chamber is on track to deliver for Democrats a major legislative victory — one that party lawmakers already have touted on the campaign trail in a bid to protect and expand their majorities in this year’s midterm elections. (Romm, 8/12)

CNN: House To Vote Friday To Pass Democrats' Sweeping Health Care And Climate Bill
The House of Representatives is on track to vote on Friday to pass Democrats' $750 billion health care, energy and climate bill, in a significant victory for President Joe Biden and his party. (Foran and Wilson, 8/12)

AP: House Dems Set To Overcome GOP For Climate, Health Care Win 
A flagship Democratic economic bill perched on the edge of House passage Friday, placing President Joe Biden on the brink of a back-from-the-dead triumph on his climate, health and tax goals that could energize his party ahead of November’s elections. Democrats were poised to muscle the measure through the narrowly divided House Friday over solid Republican opposition. They employed similar party unity and Vice President Kamala Harris’ tie-breaking vote Sunday to power the measure through the 50-50 Senate. (Fram, 8/12)

How the legislation will affect Americans —

AP: In Biden's Big Bill: Climate, Health Care, Deficit Reduction 
The biggest investment ever in the U.S. to fight climate change. A hard-fought cap on out-of-pocket prescription drug costs for seniors in the Medicare program. A new corporate minimum tax to ensure big businesses pay their share. And billions left over to pay down federal deficits. All told, the Democrats’ “Inflation Reduction Act” may not do much to immediately tame inflationary price hikes. But the package heading toward final passage in Congress and to the White House for President Joe Biden’s signature will touch countless American lives with longtime party proposals. (Mascaro, 8/12)

KHN: Democrats Didn’t Achieve All Their Goals, But Inflation Reduction Act Makes Historic Medicare Changes
The giant health care, climate, and tax bill expected to pass the House on Friday and be sent to the president for his signature won’t be as sweeping as the Democrats who wrote it had hoped, but it would help millions of Americans better afford their prescription drugs and health insurance. The Inflation Reduction Act is estimated to spend about $485 billion over 10 years on health and alternative energy programs while raising about $790 billion through tax revenue and savings. The difference would be used to help reduce the deficit. (McAuliff, 8/12)

The Guardian: Inflation Reduction Act Will Be ‘Life-Changing’ For Black And Latino Seniors 
Millions of older American could benefit from provisions in the new climate and healthcare spending package that lower prescription drug costs. For Black and Latino seniors, who disproportionately suffer from chronic diseases and struggle with high costs, the package, if passed and signed by Joe Biden, could be especially life-changing. (Rios, 8/12)

NPR: What The Inflation Reduction Act Incentives Mean For Your Wallet
Money in the Inflation Reduction Act would make it cheaper for Americans to curb their own climate-warming emissions. While most of the bill's climate benefits would come from incentivizing major shifts, such as building more wind and solar power, individual choices can add up when undertaken on a large scale. (Benshoff, 8/11)

Also —

KHN: Big Pharma Went All In To Kill Drug Pricing Negotiations 
For decades, the drug industry has yelled bloody murder each time Congress considered a regulatory measure that threatened its profits. But the hyperbole reached a new pitch in recent weeks as the Senate moved to adopt modest drug pricing negotiation measures in the Inflation Reduction Act. The bill “could propel us light-years back into the dark ages of biomedical research,” Dr. Michelle McMurry-Heath, president of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization, said last month. Venture capitalists and other opponents of the bill said that it “immediately will halt private funding of drug discovery and development.” (Allen, 8/12)

The Wall Street Journal: Inflation Reduction Act Draws Clear Battle Lines For Midterms
Democrats’ expected passage of their climate, healthcare and tax bill draws a clear line with Republicans headed into the midterms, with the parties now laying out competing economic visions for voters who will decide control of the House and Senate. Democrats say the Inflation Reduction Act provides much needed investment in cleaner energy and lowers healthcare costs, while the GOP says the bill will pinch small businesses while subsidizing electric cars for wealthy Americans and do nothing to cut households’ bills. The Senate passed the package Sunday along party lines, and House Democrats are expected to approve it Friday, sending it to President Biden’s desk. (Wise and Day, 8/11)

KHN: KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: A Big Week For Biden 
Health policy was front and center as Congress rushed to pass major legislation before leaving for its summer break. President Joe Biden signed a bill this week providing health benefits to military veterans who were sickened by exposure to toxic burn pits and will likely soon sign a measure allowing Medicare to negotiate the price of prescription drugs and extend enhanced subsidies for those who buy their insurance through the Affordable Care Act’s marketplaces. (8/11)

Stat: CDC Eases Covid-19 Quarantine And Testing Guidelines As It Marks A New Phase In Pandemic
People who are not up to date with their Covid-19 vaccines and who are exposed to someone infected with the coronavirus no longer need to quarantine, according to updated recommendations issued Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Instead, they should just wear a mask for 10 days in indoor settings and test on day 5,  according to the guidance. They were previously recommended to stay home. The new guidelines could also ease the testing burden on schools. (Joseph, 8/11)

The Washington Post: CDC Loosens Coronavirus Guidance, Signaling Strategic Shift 
The CDC is putting less emphasis on social distancing — and the new guidance has dropped the “six foot” standard. The quarantine rule for unvaccinated people is gone. The agency’s focus now is on highly vulnerable populations and how to protect them — not on the vast majority of people who at this point have some immunity against the virus and are unlikely to become severely ill. (Sun and Achenbach, 8/11)

CIDRAP: CDC Unveils Streamlined COVID-19 Guidance 
One of the biggest changes is quarantine guidance for people exposed to the virus. Instead of quarantining, the CDC recommends wearing a high-quality mask, watching for symptoms for 10 days, and getting tested on the fifth day. People who are mildly sick with COVID-19 should still isolate for at least 5 days while wearing a high-quality mask. After isolating, people who are recovering should avoid contact with vulnerable people for 11 days. The CDC recommends longer isolation periods for people with moderate and severe illness. Another major change is that the CDC no longer recommends screening asymptomatic people who don't have known exposures. (Schnirring, 8/11)

AP: CDC Drops Quarantine, Distancing Recommendations For COVID 
The changes, which come more than 2 1/2 years after the start of the pandemic, are driven by a recognition that an estimated 95% of Americans 16 and older have acquired some level of immunity, either from being vaccinated or infected, agency officials said. “The current conditions of this pandemic are very different from those of the last two years,” said the CDC’s Greta Massetti, an author of the guidelines. (Stobbe and Binkley, 8/11)

What it means for K-12 schools —

NPR: With New Guidance, CDC Ends Test-To-Stay For Schools And Relaxes COVID Rules
The changes could have some of the biggest impact in K-12 schools. The guidance eliminates the strategy known as "test-to-stay" – a schedule of testing for people that were exposed to the coronavirus but not up to date with their vaccinations – that allowed them to continue in-person learning, so long as they continued to test negative and showed no symptoms. The test-to-stay protocol has been an alternative to quarantine for school, so now "the practice of handling exposures would involve masking rather than a quarantine," CDC's Greta Massetti said. (Stone and Huang, 8/11)

Politico: New CDC Guidance For Schools Aims For Normalcy
The agency’s general masking guidance for schools remains unchanged, recommending a mask in medium-level community risk areas for only immunocompromised or high-risk individuals or those with high-risk close contacts, and recommending that everyone ages 2 and older should don one indoors in areas of high-level community risk. “We know that Covid-19 is here to stay,” said Greta Massetti, author of the CDC report that outlines the new guidelines, during a Thursday briefing. “Currently, high levels of population immunity due to vaccination and previous infection and the many tools that we have available to protect people from severe illness and death have put us in a different space.” (Mahr, 8/11)

AP: FDA: Take 3 Home Tests If Exposed To COVID To Boost Accuracy 
If you were exposed to COVID-19, take three home tests instead of two to make sure you’re not infected, according to new U.S. recommendations released Thursday. Previously, the Food and Drug Administration had advised taking two rapid antigen tests over two or three days to rule out infection. But the agency says new studies suggest that protocol can miss too many infections, and could result in people spreading the coronavirus to others, especially if they don’t develop symptoms. (Perrone, 8/11)

More on the spread of covid —

Becker's Hospital Review: Reinfection With BA.2.75 Unlikely After Bout With BA.5, Experts Say
Countries in the middle or just past the peak of a surge driven by the BA.5 omicron subvariant, such as the U.S., likely won't experience a subsequent wave from BA.2.75, another omicron relative, some experts predict. "We're coming to a point where these variants are sort of competing with each other and they're almost equivalent," Dr. Shahid Jameel, a virologist at the University of Oxford in the U.K., told Nature in an Aug. 10 report. (Carbajal, 8/11)

NBC Bay Area: Pharmacists Can Directly Prescribe Paxlovid, But There’s A Catch 
The antiviral drug that treats COVID-19, Paxlovid, must be taken within five days after symptoms begin. To expand quick access to the medication, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration revised the Emergency Use Authorization for Paxlovid in July to authorize state-licensed pharmacists to directly prescribe it. “We were seeing some really low uptake and even within the pharmacy we were seeing just the medication sit on shelves because prescriptions weren't coming in,” said Richard Dang, president of the California Pharmacists Association. (Nguyen and Carroll, 8/10)

WUSF Public Media: Florida Is Leading 23 States Against Mask Requirements On Planes, Other Transportation
State Attorney General Ashley Moody and other Republican politicians from across the country urged an appeals court this week to uphold a Florida federal judge’s ruling that blocked a mask requirement on airplanes and in other transportation during the COVID-19 pandemic. (Saunders, 8/11)

On the covid vaccine rollout —

The Baltimore Sun: Emergent Dumped More Than A Half Billion Doses Of COVID Vaccines, Congressional Panel Finds
The tally of wasted COVID-19 vaccine continues to climb at the troubled Emergent BioSolutions plant in East Baltimore and now exceeds a half-billion doses, according to findings a congressional panel released Thursday on the manufacturer once central to the U.S. coronavirus pandemic response. (Cohn, 8/11)

AP: J&J COVID Vaccine Factory Forced To Trash Even More Doses 
About 135 million more doses of Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine from a troubled Baltimore factory will have to be destroyed due to quality problems, Congressional panel leaders said Thursday. The announcement follows a report in May that detailed how more than 400 million vaccine doses made at an Emergent BioSolutions plant had to be trashed. The doses more recently slated for destruction were made between August 2021 and February, the House members said. (8/11)

ABC News: Only Half Of Eligible Americans Have Gotten Their First COVID Booster
Although over 61 million people, over the age of 50, are eligible to receive their second COVID-19 booster shot, just a third have actually done so, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Similarly, less than half of Americans, over the age of 5, who are eligible to receive their first booster have received their supplemental shot. (Mitropoulos, 8/12)

The Guardian: Biden Urged To Clarify That Abortion Aid Abroad Unaffected By Roe V Wade Ruling
A group of senators on Thursday sent a letter to Samantha Power, head of the US Agency for International Development, asking her to address “confusion” and make clear to aid recipients that the changing landscape of abortion rights in the United States does not affect USAID’s support for “the full range of family planning and reproductive health care services” permitted under the law. ... Reproductive rights advocates say that the 1973 Helms amendment – which restricts overseas aid for abortion – has led to many thousands of preventable maternal deaths since its passage, disproportionately affecting brown and Black women in poor countries and undermining healthcare systems that are reliant on US support. (Yachot, 8/12)

In the latest developments from Iowa, Florida, and Utah —

Iowa Public Radio: Reynolds Asks District Court To Reinstate Six-Week Abortion Ban
Gov. Kim Reynolds has filed a motion asking a district court to lift an injunction on a 2018 law that would ban abortions at around six weeks of pregnancy. (Krebs, 8/11)

Bloomberg: ACLU Asks Florida Supreme Court To Review 15-Week Abortion Ban
Health-care providers backed by the American Civil Liberties Union asked the Florida Supreme Court to review their challenge to the state’s new ban on abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy, which took effect July 1. (Larson, 8/11)

Salt Lake Tribune: AG’s Office Asks Permission From Utah Supreme Court To Appeal Hold On Abortion Trigger Law
One month after a district court judge granted a preliminary injunction on Utah’s abortion trigger law, the attorney general’s office is asking the Utah Supreme Court to allow it to appeal the hold on SB174. (Anderson Stern, 8/11)

In other abortion news from Nebraska, Illinois, Tennessee, Virginia, and tribal land —

The Washington Post: Facebook Had Little Choice But To Surrender Data In Nebraska Abortion Case 
Facebook faced political scrutiny this week after it was revealed the company had handed over private messages between a young woman and her mother to Nebraska authorities investigating the death and disposal of a fetus. The hashtag #DeleteFacebook trended on Twitter as activists decried the social media giant’s role in helping to prosecute what looked to many like a young woman’s efforts to end her pregnancy. In the face of the pushback, Facebook said the search warrant they received didn’t mention abortion but declined to say how the company would have responded if it had been clear the case was about an abortion. (Nix and Dwoskin, 8/12)

NPR: Clinics In Neighboring States Team Up To Provide Abortion Care
The Waukegan clinic is Planned Parenthood of Illinois' busiest for out-of-state abortion patients. After Roe fell, 60% of patients came to this clinic from outside the state – mostly from Wisconsin. In fact, the organization opened in Waukegan two years ago with Wisconsin in mind, knowing that if Roe v. Wade did fall, access to abortion in that state would greatly diminish. (Schorsch, 8/11)

KHN: Abortion Is Just The Latest Dividing Line Between The Twin Cities Of Bristol And Bristol 
The community of Bristol is proud to straddle the border between two states. Tennessee flags fly on the south side of State Street, Virginia flags on the north. A series of plaques down the middle of the main downtown thoroughfare mark the twin cities’ divide. A large sign at the end of town reminds everyone they’re right on the state line. (Whitehead, 8/12)

Mother Jones: Abortion Was Already Inaccessible On Reservation Land. Dobbs Made Things Worse
Native American tribes are sovereign nations that have a government-to-government relationship with the United States. Tribes have the right to make many laws on their land and for their citizens—and in theory, that right applies to making decisions about health care, including abortion. But in practice, decades of state and federal laws have limited tribal nations’ ability to provide reproductive health services, leaving Native people with disproportionate barriers to abortion access. In a post-Roe world, the obstacles to abortion access on tribal land have only gotten greater. (Hofstaedter, 8/12)

On the 2022 elections —

Stateline: Abortion Ballot Measures Seen As Critical — But Tricky — Strategy
Two more initiatives opposing abortion rights and three supporting it are slated for ballots in November — the most on record in a single year. And state lawmakers and advocates already are preparing ballot initiatives in a handful of states for the 2023 and 2024 elections. But legal and political experts on both sides of the issue remain circumspect about what the Kansas vote may mean for future elections in the rest of the country. (Vestal, 8/11)

Indy Star: Indiana Abortion Law: Here's How It Could Impact General Election 2024
Less than a day after the passage of Indiana's near-total abortion ban, Democrats called out an Indiana Republican candidate in one of the most competitive districts in the state for making a change to his website: Fred Glynn, who is running Carmel's House District 32, removed a line stating that he believed life begins at conception. (Lange, 8/12)

The New York Times: Progressives Push Democrats To Make Their Fight About Freedom, Too
Democrats at every level of the party and of varying ideological stripes — including President Biden, abortion rights activists in Kansas and, now, a constellation of left-leaning groups — are increasingly seeking to reclaim language about freedom and personal liberty from Republicans. It is a dynamic that grew out of the overturning of Roe v. Wade in June, and one that is intensifying as more states navigate abortion bans while Republicans nominate election deniers for high office. (Glueck, 8/12)

How abortion is portrayed in pop culture and different religions —

Vox: Abortion On Screen: Why Hollywood Keeps Getting It Wrong 
We’re a screen-soaked culture, and that means that what we see on TV and in movies often serves as a framework to look at the world around us. That’s certainly true for abortion. It’s still rare to see an abortion depicted, and even more rare to see it in a situation that matches the circumstances of most abortions in America; research has found that the most common abortion patient is a low-income, unmarried young mother, without a college degree, who is seeking her first abortion. The majority of abortion patients in America are non-white. Yet that’s not the average depiction. And this affects not just what people think about abortion, but how viewers treat people who seek abortions, as well as how they think about public policy. (Wilkinson, 8/9)

PBS NewsHour: Faith Leaders Discuss How Their Religions Approach The Divisive Issue Of Abortion
While many say the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade is the answer to decades of prayer, some faith leaders fear their religious rights will be infringed amid new abortion restrictions. Amna Nawaz spoke with three faith leaders about how their religions approach the issue of abortion. (Nawaz and Couzens, 8/11)

Stat: New Data From States Show Racial Disparities In Monkeypox Infections
New data emerging from some states and localities closely tracking monkeypox outbreaks show extreme racial disparities that are alarming experts. In Georgia, 82% of people with the disease are Black. In North Carolina, it’s 70%. But in other places that have released detailed demographic data, there are fewer and sometimes no apparent racial or ethnic disparities in monkeypox cases. (McFarling, Gilyard and Muthukumar, 8/11)

The Charlotte Observer: NC Monkeypox Spread Is Disproportionately Impacting Black Men 
Monkeypox surveillance data from the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services show the outbreak is disproportionately affecting Black men. There were 111 cases of monkeypox reported in North Carolina on Tuesday, with 78 of those cases identified in Black men, according to data from the NCDHHS. (Moore, 8/12)

The FDA defends its vaccine-dosing plan —

Reuters: FDA Chief Backs Alternate Method For Injecting Bavarian Nordic's Monkeypox Shot
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration chief on Thursday defended a plan to administer Bavarian Nordic's (BAVA.CO) monkeypox shot intradermally after the company raised doubts about the safety of the method, citing a lack of data. The company had on Tuesday said there was some evidence that a shot of Jynneos between the layers of the skin could result in increased reactions compared to the approved method of injecting it underneath the skin. (8/11)

In other news about the spread of monkeypox —

CBS News: U.S. Monkeypox Cases Surpass 10,000 As CDC Still Aims For "Containment"
Cases have been reported in every state but Wyoming while 15 states and the District of Columbia have reported more than a hundred cases. The largest numbers are in New York, California and Florida. No U.S. deaths have so far been reported, out of the 12 monkeypox fatalities the World Health Organization has tallied so far this year. (Tin, 8/11)

The Boston Globe: Members Of Congress Urge Baker To Declare A Monkeypox Emergency
In a letter initiated by Representatives Ayanna Pressley and Seth Moulton, and signed by the state’s two senators and nine representatives, the legislators argue that such a declaration would “unlock resources to ensure that residents receive the urgent and robust response the moment demands” and allow “greater flexibility and more tools to enact a whole-of-government response.” (Freyer, 8/11)

Wyoming Public Radio: State Starts Offering Monkeypox Vaccines As Preemptive Measure
The Monkeypox vaccine is available in Wyoming on a targeted and limited basis. Monkeypox is rare disease that is rarely fatal but can be unpleasant, painful and cause serious illness in some people. (Kudelska, 8/11)

Bloomberg: Monkeypox: Colleges Lacking Vaccines, Tests Rely On Education To Prevent Virus
Lack of access to monkeypox vaccines and tests threatens to hinder colleges and universities in the hardest-hit US states as they plan to beat back a feared campus surge later this year. Health administrators at schools nationwide are largely relying on educational measures as they prepare for the return of students for the fall semester. Some campuses have testing available at their medical centers, yet none reported requirements for students to get shots or undergo testing. (Taylor, 8/11)

People suffering with monkeypox share their stories —

The New York Times: Sharing Monkeypox Sores On Social Media
When Matt Ford, 30, an actor in Los Angeles, tested positive for monkeypox in June, he posted videos on Twitter and TikTok to show what it was like. Wearing a gray T-shirt and staring directly into the camera, he offered viewers close-ups of the “gross spots” all over his body, including his face, arms, belly. He also mentioned “some in my more sensitive areas, which also tend to be the most painful.” (Bernstei, 8/11)

ABC News: Think You Have Monkeypox? It Might Be Another Skin Condition 
Viruses such as molloscum, commonly seen in children, and varicella virus, known as chickenpox in children and shingles in adults, "can look like monkeypox due to vesicles -- which are fluid filled bumps, and cause discomfort such as itching or pain," said Dr. Michelle Henry, dermatologist and founder of Skin & Aesthetic Surgery of Manhattan. (Bowers, 8/11)

Modern Healthcare: Amazon Expanding Amazon Care With Behavioral Health
Amazon is adding behavioral health services to Amazon Care, a medical care service it sells to employer health plans. Care coordinators will refer patients to in-network behavioral health specialists for acute and moderate behavioral health concerns, according to an Amazon Care webpage that describes the program. (Kim Cohen, 8/11)

Bloomberg: Head Of Amazon Health Care Initiative Kristen Helton On Extended Break
Kristen Helton, who ran one of Amazon.com Inc.’s most important healthcare initiatives, is on a break that began earlier this summer. “After more than 5 years at Amazon, Kristen decided to take some well-deserved time off to spend the summer with her family,” an Amazon spokesperson said Thursday in a statement. It wasn’t clear when she would return. (Soper, 8/12)

In other news from the health care industry —

Stat: One Medical’s Offers From Amazon, CVS Signal Health Tech Bidding Wars
It’s health tech hunting season for some of America’s biggest brand names. Over the last year, companies like Amazon, CVS Health, and Walmart have made significant plays to beef up their health care infrastructure. (Herman and Palmer, 8/11)

Stat: Federal Judge Dismisses Doctor’s Case Against Surprise Billing Law
A federal judge has ruled that the federal law outlawing many types of surprise medical bills does not violate the constitutional rights of a New York surgeon. (Herman, 8/11)

Houston Chronicle: UnitedHealthcare Donates $2.5 Million In Grants To Texas Nonprofits
The funding will go to organizations that address social determinants, which are nonmedical issues, such as food, housing, transportation and the financial means to pay for basic daily needs. These factors influence about 80 percent of a person’s physical health, according to the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. (Carballo, 8/11)

In hospital updates —

New Hampshire Public Radio: Following A Long Line Of N.H. Hospitals, Frisbie Memorial Hospital In Rochester Announces Plans To Close Birth Center
Frisbie Memorial Hospital in Rochester recently announced plans to close its birth center, citing financial problems. The move is on hold pending a review from the New Hampshire Attorney General, which said the hospital promised to keep its birthing center open for at least five years after it was acquired by HCA Healthcare in 2020. (Bratton, 8/11)

AP: Seattle Hospital To Refuse Some Patients Due To Capacity
Harborview Medical Center in Seattle will temporarily stop accepting less acute patients and will divert them to other health care systems as capacity challenges worsen, according to the hospital’s CEO. “All hospital systems (are) very much over capacity with very high census numbers, particularly because of an inability to discharge patients into post-acute care settings,” Harborview CEO Sommer Kleweno Walley said in a media briefing Thursday. “This morning … Harborview reached an unprecedented census level.” (8/12)

Crain's Chicago Business: Northwestern Memorial Hit With Meta Pixel, Patient Data Lawsuit
The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern Division of the Northern District of Illinois, alleges that Northwestern Memorial allows Meta’s Pixel tracker to “unlawfully” collect private medical information from the hospital’s patient portal to use for its own profit. (Davis, 8/11)

And Johns Hopkins is offering a free course on infectious disease transmission —

Becker's Hospital Review: Johns Hopkins Debuts Free Course On Infectious Disease Transmission
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health has launched a free virtual course on infectious disease transmission models for public health officials and practitioners who make policy decisions. The three-hour course is available for free on Coursera, and those who pass the exam will receive a certificate. (Carbajal, 8/11)

Bloomberg: Johnson & Johnson Drops Talcum Powder Globally As Lawsuits Mount
J&J said Thursday that it had made the “commercial decision” to transition all its baby powder products to use cornstarch instead of talcum powder after conducting an assessment of its portfolio. The health conglomerate, which maintains the product is safe, has for almost a decade faced lawsuits accusing it of hiding cancer risks tied its talc-based baby powder. (Griffin and Feeley, 8/11)

In case you missed it —

Bloomberg: Director Of 9/11 Fund Picked To Estimate Cost Of J&J Talc Claims
The lawyer who oversaw payments to victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks will be appointed by a federal judge to estimate the total liability that Johnson & Johnson faces for claims that talc in its baby powder causes cancer. Kenneth R. Feinberg would oversee one of the most contentious parts of J&J’s effort to force a negotiated end to more than 38,000 lawsuits that accuse the health care giant of causing cancer. The high-profile mediator will be asked to estimate how many people have legitimate claims against J&J and how much money it may cost to compensate them. (Church, 7/28)

In other developments in the pharmaceutical industry —

Stat: Novartis Reports Two Children Died From Acute Liver Failure After Treatment With Zolgensma Gene Therapy
Two children have died from acute liver failure after being administered Zolgensma, a pricey gene therapy sold by Novartis to treat a rare disease. (Silverman, 8/11)

Stat: Wyden Wants Details On Amgen's U.S. Taxes As Part Of Expanding Probe Into Pharma Practices
The head of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee is seeking details from Amgen about the taxes paid during a recent four-year period as part of an ongoing investigation into tax practices by multinational pharmaceutical companies and efforts made to avoid paying U.S. taxes. (Silverman, 8/11)

MarketWatch: GSK Defends Zantac Ahead Of Trials That Have Cratered The Stock 
GSK on Friday put out a statement saying there’s no link between a withdrawn heartburn medication and cancer, helping to stem a slide in its stock that has wiped out billions of dollars in valuation from leading drugmakers. (Goldstein, 8/12)

Modern Healthcare: AMA Initiative To Increase HIV, STI Screenings
A select group of community health centers will follow best practices and quality-improvement strategies outlined by the American Medical Association as part of a nationwide effort to boost the number of visits and routine screenings for HIV, viral hepatitis, latent tuberculosis and sexually transmitted infections. (Devereaux, 8/11)

In other health and wellness news —

Axios: Baby Food Made At Home Has Toxic Metals Like Products Sold In Stores
Homemade baby food contains as many toxic metals as food bought in the store, a report released Thursday found. (Doherty, 8/11)

CNN: Langya Henipavirus: New Virus Found In China Could Be 'Tip Of The Iceberg' For Undiscovered Pathogens, Researchers Say 
More surveillance is needed of a new virus detected in dozens of people in eastern China that may not cause the next pandemic but suggests just how easily viruses can travel unnoticed from animals to humans, scientists say. (McCarthy, 8/12)

Fox News: Viral TikTok Trend Has People 'Mouth Taping' Themselves Before Bedtime As Doctors Express Caution
Medical professionals are raising eyebrows — and concerns — over a new viral TikTok trend known as "mouth taping." Some users on the video-sharing platform claim that mouth taping helps if people are searching for a better night's sleep. However, one doctor told Fox News Digital it is "the most dangerous trend I’ve heard of in some time," while others are also expressing caution and concern. (Reilly, 8/11)

Axios: Patient Appetite Is High For Some Health Tracker Tech
Nearly half of U.S. consumers are largely willing to don fitness trackers or punch meals into calorie-counting apps — though they're cooler to using digital tools for mental health or medication monitoring, the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society reports. (Reed, 8/11)

NBC News: Eye Implant Made From Pig Protein Restored Sight In 14 Blind People
The patients, in Iran and India, all suffered from keratoconus, a condition in which the protective outer layer of the eye progressively thins and bulges outward. Fourteen of the patients were blind before they received the implant, but two years after the procedure, they had regained some or all of their vision. Three had perfect vision after the surgery. (Bendix, 8/12)

The Wall Street Journal: Judge Declares Mistrial In Flint Water Crisis Civil Case 
A judge declared a mistrial Thursday after jurors were unable to reach a verdict in a case involving companies that had been hired to help Flint, Mich., fix its water system—but were alleged to have instead contributed to the city’s lead-tainted water crisis. Multiple Flint residents had sued Veolia North America and Texas-based Lockwood, Andrews & Newnam Inc., an engineering consulting firm also known as LAN, accusing them of being partially responsible for the water crisis that began in 2014. The civil case, which involved just a few plaintiffs, was seen as a bellwether for possible further litigation, according to legal experts.  (Ansari, 8/11)

Detroit Free Press: Flint Water Crisis: Jury Hung In Civil Trial, Mistrial Declared
Federal Magistrate Judge David Grand declared the mistrial after jurors presented a note saying “For the physical and emotional health of the jurors, we don’t believe we can continue with further deliberations … further deliberations will only result in stress and anxiety.” (Lobo, 8/11)

In other environmental health news —

Detroit Free Press: FBI, Wixom Police Question Company About Huron River Chemical Release
As state environmental regulators and public health officials investigate an unauthorized release of carcinogenic hexavalent chromium into the Huron River from a Wixom automotive supplier, the incident also has drawn the attention of law enforcement. (Matheny, 8/11)

Los Angeles Times: Water Board Approves Agreement With Boeing Over Toxic Site
The field lab grounds are laced with heavy metals and radioactive contaminants after industrial activities from Boeing, rocket manufacturer Rocketdyne, NASA and the U.S. Department of Energy, which used the site as a proving ground for rocket engines for space exploration and nuclear reactors for power after World War II. These contaminants — including brain-damaging lead and potent carcinogens — have migrated off site and have been observed in the local creeks that feed into the Los Angeles River. (Briscoe, 8/11)

AP: Landfill Odor: Health Problems, But No Elevated Cancer Risk
Missouri’s health department on Thursday announced findings of a lengthy examination of the troubled Bridgeton Landfill in suburban St. Louis, determining that the foul odor emitting from the landfill created health problems but did not increase the risk of cancer. The finding of the yearslong investigation by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services was validation for people who live near the landfill in northwestern St. Louis County, said Dawn Chapman, co-founder of the activist group Just Moms STL. (Salter, 8/12)

Dallas Morning News: UNT Anthropologist Explores How Heat Affects North Texans’ Physical, Mental Health
When Courtney Cecale moved into her North Texas house in the summer of 2020, she was in for a heat shock. The plants in her car wilted and died before she could move them into the house. Her two black Labradors, Carl and Tony, got sick. “There were just very small, minor things that, when you start to look at them all together, were a bit worrying,” Cecale recalled. (Ramakrishnan, 8/10)

The Washington Post: Florida To Bar Medicaid Coverage For Those Seeking Gender-Affirming Care 
Transgender Floridians of all ages will soon no longer be able to use Medicaid to help pay for gender-affirming care under a new state rule, a move that comes as Gov. Ron DeSantis’s administration pursues policies increasing restrictions on medical treatments like puberty blockers and hormone therapy. Florida joins at least 10 other states — including Arizona, Missouri and Texas — in barring residents from using Medicaid to pay for several often-prescribed medications and surgeries for those diagnosed with gender dysphoria. The rule was published Wednesday and is slated to go into effect August 21. (Branigin and Gowen, 8/11)

In other news from Florida —

WLRN 91.3 FM: Appeals Court Upholds Safety Rules For So-Called 'Brazilian Butt Lifts' 
An appeals court Wednesday rejected a challenge to an emergency rule approved by the Florida Board of Medicine to place additional restrictions on procedures known as “Brazilian butt lifts.” (8/11)

In mental health news from California, Nevada, Wyoming, and Kentucky —

The Wall Street Journal: California Bill Targeting Social-Media Giants For Harm To Children Dies In Legislature
California lawmakers killed a bill Thursday that would have allowed government lawyers to sue social-media companies for features that allegedly harm children by causing them to become addicted. The measure would have given the state attorney general, local district attorneys and city attorneys in the biggest California cities authority to try to hold social-media companies liable in court for features they knew or should have known could addict minors. Among those targeted could have been Facebook and Instagram parent Meta Platforms Inc., Snapchat parent Snap Inc., and TikTok, owned by Chinese company ByteDance Ltd. (Donaldson, 8/11)

Las Vegas Review-Journal: Teen Suicides On Rise In Nevada, Health Officials Say
As numbers show that teen suicide in Nevada is once again on the rise, state officials and community advocates gathered Thursday to announce a new partnership aimed at reducing suicide across the state. (Longhi, 8/11)

Wyoming Public Radio: Conference Hopes To Increase Awareness On Mental Health And Wellness Of First Responders
First responders will soon be gathering in Casper for the first-ever First Responder Health and Wellness Conference. The conference, which will run from August 22-24 in Casper will offer police officers, firefighters, EMS personnel and dispatchers, workshops and training on proper sleep, mental health, recognizing symptoms when people start to struggle and intervention methods. (Kudelska, 8/11)

AP: Kentucky Launches Judicial Commission On Mental Health
Kentucky’s Supreme Court has launched a commission aimed at improving the judicial system’s approach to cases involving mental health, substance use and intellectual disabilities. The new Kentucky Judicial Commission on Mental Health will work to improve the practice, quality and timeliness of the judicial response to cases involving those needs. (8/12)

In updates on West Virginia's opioid crisis —

AP: WVa AG Reaches Settlement With Rite Aid Over Opioid Supply 
West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey’s office has reached a settlement with Rite Aid that may total up to $30 million in a lawsuit alleging oversupply of opioids at pharmacies in the state, he said Thursday. “Money will not bring back the lives lost from this epidemic, but we are looking for accountability,” Morrisey said in a statement. (8/11)

The Washington Post: How To Ease The Transition To College When Mental Health Is A Concern 
The move from high school to college can be a trying one, particularly for students with mental health concerns. But today there are ways to make it easier. ... A 2021 survey by the American College Health Association of close to 100,000 college students found that 16 percent of college men and 33 percent of college women had been diagnosed with anxiety, and 14 percent of college men and 25 percent of college women had been diagnosed with depression. (Fritz, 8/6)

Undark: Locked-In Syndrome And The Misplaced Presumption Of Misery
In 1993, Julio Lopes was sipping a coffee at a bar when he had a stroke. He fell into a coma, and two months later, when he regained consciousness, his body was fully paralyzed. Doctors said the young man’s future was bleak. ... Yet almost 30 years later, Lopes now lives in a small Paris apartment near the Seine. In an interview at his home, Lopes communicated through the use of a specialized computer camera that tracks a sensor on the lens of his glasses. He made slight movements with his head, selecting letters on a virtual keyboard that appeared on the computer’s screen. “Even if it’s hard at the beginning, you acquire a kind of philosophy of life,” he said in French. (Moens, 8/8)

KVPR: How To Talk About Disability Sensitively And Avoid Ableist Tropes
Disability can be difficult to talk about sensitively because of how embedded ableism is in our language, biases and perceptions of disability. Conversations about disability are slowly increasing, especially when it comes to ableist language and how disabled people are represented in the media. Disability advocate Talila A. Lewis' working definition of ableism is a "system that places value on people's bodies and minds based on societally constructed ideas of normalcy, intelligence and excellence." (Rajkumar, 8/8)

USA Today: Families Lack Support After Stillbirths. They're Demanding Change
For the dozen parents of stillborn babies who talked to The Journal News/lohud, a part of the USA TODAY Network, seeking out other parents who had also experienced that kind of loss was a key step toward healing. They would soon learn they were far from alone in their experience: One in every 160 babies born in the U.S. are born still. And yet, few states have paid family leave, much less a program that covers stillbirth. (Dombrowski, 8/3)

The Washington Post: Police Accused Her Of Making Up Her Rape, Then Destroyed The Evidence
Gretchen Van Winkle was transfixed as the hit Netflix series “Unbelievable” played across her TV screen in 2019. The dramatized version of a true story of one woman’s rape and betrayal by police was so similar it could have been hers. Just like the protagonist, Van Winkle was sexually assaulted in her apartment by a knife-wielding intruder, who bound and gagged her. Van Winkle remembered the same kinds of searing questions lobbed at her, as detectives accused the woman on screen of making up her assault. (Jouvenal, 8/2)

The Atlantic: Another Way The Coronavirus Is Outsmarting Us
Coronaviruses in general are pros at interferon sabotage. Among the most powerful is MERS, which “just shuts down everything” in the interferon assembly line, says Susan Weiss, a coronavirologist at the University of Pennsylvania. That essentially ensures that almost no interferons are released, even when gobs of virus are roiling about, a dismantling of defenses that likely contributes to MERS’ substantial fatality rate. Weiss doesn’t think SARS-CoV-2 is likely to copy its cousin in that respect anytime soon. The virus does have some ability to gum up interferon production, but it would take a lot more, she told me, to silence the system as MERS has. (Wu, 8/4)

Scientific American: Restrictions On Psilocybin 'Magic Mushrooms' Are Easing As Research Ramps Up 
Magic mushrooms are undergoing a transformation from illicit recreational drug to promising mental health treatment. Numerous studies have reported positive findings using psilocybin—the mushrooms' main psychoactive compound—for treating depression as well as smoking and alcohol addiction, and for reducing anxiety in the terminally ill. Ongoing and planned studies are testing the drug for conditions that include opioid dependence, PTSD and anorexia nervosa. This scientific interest, plus growing social acceptance, is contributing to legal changes in cities across the U.S. In 2020 Oregon passed statewide legislation decriminalizing magic mushrooms, and the state is building a framework for regulating legal therapeutic use—becoming the first jurisdiction in the world to do so. For now psilocybin remains illegal and strictly controlled at the national level in most countries, slowing research. But an international push to get the drug reclassified aims to lower barriers everywhere. (Makin, 8/1)

In sports news —

The Boston Globe: New Research Suggests Intensity Of Hits In Sports, Not Years Played, May Be Better Predictor Of Devastating Brain Damage 
As football preseason gets underway, new research suggests that it’s the intensity of the hits players sustain, rather than the total number of blows to the head or their cumulative years of play, that better predicts who will develop a devastating brain disease. A team of Boston scientists found that players who developed chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, a condition that silently destroys the minds of athletes after years of repetitive hits, were more likely to have received the hardest collisions over time, rather than necessarily the most hits. (Lazar, 8/3)

AP: NFL Hopes To Reduce Head Injuries With Helmet Experiment
The mushroom-like contraptions NFL players are wearing on their helmets during training camp may look strange, but they’re a part of an ongoing safety experiment the league hopes will lead to a reduction in head injuries. They’re called Guardian Caps, and they’re now mandatory for all 32 NFL teams through the second preseason game — the time when the league says head injuries are most prevalent. (Reed, 8/4)

NPR: TB Is Good At Resisting Antibiotics. Here Are Some New Ideas To Outsmart The Bacteria
Tuberculosis, or TB, is a bacterial infection of the lungs that can be fatal. The World Health Organization estimates 1.5 million people died of the disease worldwide in 2020. It remains a persistent foe in large part because the bacteria can mutate and evolve to develop resistance to our antibiotics (often within a patient, which can lead to relapse). (Ari Daniel, 8/11)

Stat: ACAM2000 Needs Full Review Before Being Used Against Monkeypox 
The Food and Drug Administration licensed ACAM2000 in 2007 to immunize people at high risk of smallpox infection. There is moderate evidence the vaccine will also work against monkeypox, which is closely related to smallpox. (Caitlin Rivers and Tom Inglesby, 8/11)

The Washington Post: Gay Men Should Change Our Sexual Behavior To Fight Monkeypox 
In March 1983, writer-activist Larry Kramer published a legendary screed in the New York Native entitled “1,112 And Counting” — a chilling reference to the U.S. AIDS case count two years into the plague. (Benjamin Ryan, 8/11)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Monkeypox Is Not A Sexually Transmitted Infection, Nor Is It Specific To The LGBTQ Community
In June, I remember seeing my friends in Europe starting to post on social media about this illness I hadn’t heard of before, monkeypox. Without shame or stigma, these men posted about how they believed they were exposed, discussed their symptoms and sent out compassionate warnings to their friends and followers. (Fernando Zweifach Lopez, 8/10)

Los Angeles Daily News: Pass Senate Bill 519, Decriminalize Psychedelics
With pending FDA  trials almost certain to provide legal access to once-demonized drugs like MDMA (known as “ecstasy”) and psilocybin (the active compound in “magic mushrooms”) in the coming years, as well as the rise of microdosing, there is growing interest in psychedelic drugs and the laws around them. (8/10)

Stat: Psychedelics Research Should Focus On Delivering Therapy, Not Drugs
“How To Change Your Mind,” a new four-part documentary about psychedelics, has been hovering around Netflix’s Top 10 this summer. As someone who benefited immensely from therapeutic psychedelics, I am encouraged each time a documentary like this emerges into the mainstream, another sign that these important and beneficial medicines are gaining wider social acceptance. (Michael Pollack, 8/12)

The Boston Globe: Dying Of A Disease I Never Knew Existed 
By this time next year, if the medical forecasts are correct, I will probably be dead, another casualty of a fatal illness that most people have never heard of. Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), the condition from which I suffer, has been described by Michael J. Stephen in his 2021 book “Breath Taking” as the “most frustrating and disheartening of all the diseases in pulmonary medicine.” (Richard B. Woodward, 8/12)

Los Angeles Times: Better Sex Education In Schools Can Help Young People Affected By Abortion Bans
Only 29 states, and Washington, D.C., require that sex education be taught, according to the Guttmacher Institute. Only 16 states require that the information taught in sex education be medically accurate. (Keli Goff, 8/12)

Also —

Fresno Bee: I'm A 'Covid Virgin'. Does That Make Me A Sitting Duck? 
Now that most Americans have been infected with COVID — more than 70%, according to a recent estimate from the White House — the rest of us are the outliers. There’s been lots of speculation about what makes us different. (Stephanie Finucane, 8/10)

The Washington Post: The CDC’s Updated Covid School Guidance Is Ushering In A New Normal 
The newly released CDC guidance that eases covid-19 precautions in schools has it mostly right: At this point in the pandemic, the emphasis must shift from universal mandates to individual decisions to minimize the disruption of in-person learning. (Leana S. Wen, 8/11)

The Washington Post: Back To School: With Experience And Vaccines, It Can Be Back To Normal 
For a third year, schools are opening in the presence of covid-19. With experience, vaccines and mitigation — plus deeper knowledge of the coronavirus itself — it should be possible to give students a lot of in-person instruction this school year, but it is vital that the lessons of the pandemic be fully absorbed. (8/11)

San Francisco Chronicle: COVID Vaccines Help Stop One Of The Top Five Causes Of Child Death
Recently, my 1-year-old received her first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. Ellie was a trooper, crying for only about 30 seconds after the nurse delivered the dose. She was bouncing around the house as soon as we got home. I got my first dose while pregnant to protect Ellie and me, as the immunity I received transferred safely to her. I delivered a perfectly healthy baby, and Ellie had no reaction to the first dose she received. (Sonya Logman Harris, 8/6)

The New York Times: When Will The Pandemic End? And Other Pressing Questions, Answered
While the risks of deaths and hospitalizations from Covid-19 are substantially lower now, navigating this phase of the pandemic can be frustrating and confusing. (8/12)

Dallas Morning News: County-Level COVID Immunity Scores Can Help Us Get The Pandemic Under Control
At this stage in the pandemic, the decision to engage in pandemic precautions such as masking up, getting a booster or social distancing is largely up to the individual. Still, we need a lot of data to make informed decisions about risk to ourselves and those close to us. We may know the vaccination rate where we live, but what about waning immunity? What does that mean for current case counts? (8/12)