Roll Call: COVID Vaccine Program For Uninsured Could Be Late To Pharmacies
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's new program to get the next generation of COVID-19 vaccines to uninsured and underinsured Americans will likely not be ready in pharmacies by the time the new vaccines hit the market as early as this September, leaving millions of high-risk Americans in the lurch. (Cohen, 8/17)

Politico: Biden's Fall Covid Vaccine Rollout For The Uninsured Won't Include Pharmacies At First 
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed the delay in pharmacy availability, with spokesperson Kathleen Conley saying the government is still finalizing contracts with companies like CVS and Walgreens that will allow them to distribute the vaccines for free. ... The uninsured will instead need to go to federal health centers or individual providers for free vaccines during the first stage of the fall vaccination campaign. (Cancryn and Lim, 8/17)

Moderna and Pfizer say their new shots are effective against newest strains —

CNBC: Moderna Covid Vaccine Effective Against Eris, Fornax Variants
Moderna’s new Covid vaccine generated a robust immune response against the now-dominant Eris variant and another rapidly spreading strain of the virus in an early clinical trial, the biotech company said Thursday. (Constantino, 8/17)

Reuters: Pfizer's Updated COVID Shot Effective Against 'Eris' Variant In Mice Study 
Pfizer Inc said on Thursday its updated COVID-19 shot, which is being tested against emerging variants, showed neutralizing activity against the "Eris" subvariant in a study conducted on mice. (8/17)

More on the spread of covid —

WLRN: Parents Rush To Have Their Children Vaccinated Before School Starts
Some parents are rushing to have their children vaccinated as the school year begins. About 91.7% of kindergartners met the requirement for the previous school year. Similarly, about 94% of seventh-grade students received the mandatory vaccines, falling short of the state’s goal of vaccinating 95% of those students. That’s according to data from the Florida Department of Health. (8/17)

CIDRAP: Bivalent COVID Vaccine Boosts Protection Against Emergency, Urgent Care In Young Kids 
A dose of bivalent (two-strain) mRNA COVID-19 vaccine booster pushed effectiveness against emergency or urgent care (ED/UC) to 80% among preschool children, compared with 46% after two Moderna monovalent (single-strain) doses and 70% after three monovalent Pfizer/BioNTech doses. (Van Beusekom, 8/17)

CBS News: CDC Tracking New COVID Variant BA.2.86 After Highly-Mutated Strain Reported In Michigan
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Thursday it is tracking a recently discovered COVID-19 strain, BA.2.86, after experts discovered a case of the highly-mutated strain in Michigan. "Today we are more prepared than ever to detect and respond to changes in the COVID-19 virus. Scientists are working now to understand more about the newly identified lineage in these 4 cases and we will share more information as it becomes available," CDC spokesperson Kathleen Conley said in a statement to CBS News. (Tin, 8/17)

NBC News: In Florida, Hours Of Delays And Dropped Calls Are Keeping Many Hispanic Families Out Of Medicaid, Report Says
Research from UnidosUS, the nation's largest Hispanic civil rights advocacy organization, first shared with NBC News, shows that an average Spanish-language caller had to wait nearly four times longer than an English-language caller to be able to speak to a representative at Florida’s Medicaid call center. And that’s if their call wasn’t dropped. Almost one third (30%) of all Spanish-language calls were disconnected before the caller reached a representative, compared to 10% of English-language calls, according to the report published Thursday. (Acevedo, 8/17)

AP: Feds Raise Concerns About Long Call Center Wait Times As Millions Dropped From Medicaid 
As millions of Medicaid recipients face the potential loss of health coverage for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic, state call centers are getting inundated with questions from people needing help. In some cases, federal officials say, it’s taking too long to get answers. Nearly one-third of the states have received warnings from federal Medicaid officials that their lengthy call center wait times may be causing people to hang up — and give up — as they attempt to renew Medicaid coverage amid a massive nationwide effort to clean up the rolls of the government health insurance program for lower-income residents. (Lieb, 8/17)

In other Medicaid news —

AP: North Carolina's Governor Visits Rural Areas To Promote Medicaid Expansion Delayed By Budget Wait 
With a Medicaid expansion kickoff likely delayed further in North Carolina as General Assembly budget negotiations drag on, Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper wrapped up a week of rural travel Thursday to attempt to build pressure upon Republicans to hustle on an agreement. Cooper met with elected officials and physicians in Martin, Richmond and Yadkin counties to highlight local health care challenges, which include shuttered hospitals, rampant drug abuse and high-quality jobs. (8/17)

Modern Healthcare: Medicaid Coverage For Hospital-At-Home Sought By Providers
As the Centers for Medicare and Medicare Services weighs the future for hospital-at-home services under Medicare, providers are pressing more states to extend it to Medicaid beneficiaries. Eight states—Arizona, Arkansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, Oregon, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Texas—either have policies or have passed legislation allowing Medicaid beneficiaries to receive hospital-level care in their homes, and New York is considering such a move. (Eastabrook, 8/17)

In Medicare news —

WUSF Public Media: The Pricing Of Medicare Part D Prescription Drugs Is Outpacing Inflation
The rising cost of prescription drugs is squeezing Medicare enrollees. A new report by AARP found that the top 25 drugs — covered under Medicare Part D — have almost tripled in price since they first entered the market. The report also found that all but one drug listed saw price increases that exceeded the rate of inflation. (Paul, 8/17)

Modern Healthcare: Medicare Shared Savings Program Revised To Attract Providers
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has a plan to kickstart provider participation in one of its largest alternative payment models, but providers say they're leery that recent changes to the Medicare Shared Savings Program will prove sufficiently enticing to holdouts. CMS' goal is that all fee-for-service Medicare enrollees will be under accountable care organizations or other valued-based care arrangements by 2030, and the agency is relying on potential cost savings to shore up the Medicare trust fund, which is projected to run dry by 2031. (Tepper, 8/17)

KFF Health News: A New Medicare Proposal Would Cover Training For Family Caregivers 
Even with extensive caregiving experience, Patti LaFleur was unprepared for the crisis that hit in April 2021, when her mother, Linda LaTurner, fell out of a chair and broke her hip. LaTurner, 71, had been diagnosed with early-onset dementia seven years before. For two years, she’d been living with LaFleur, who managed insulin injections for her mother’s Type 1 diabetes, helped her shower and dress, dealt with her incontinence, and made sure she was eating well. (Graham, 8/18)

The Colorado Sun: Colorado Medical Board Finds That So-Called Abortion Reversal Is Outside “Generally Accepted Standard Of Practice”
Colorado doctors who prescribe the so-called abortion reversal pill will be operating outside the “generally accepted standard of practice” and subject to investigation by the state medical board, the board decided Thursday. (Brown, 8/17)

On the military's abortion policy —

Military.com: Six Months After New Abortion Leave Policy, Pentagon Doesn't Know How Many Troops Have Used It 
As an Alabama senator's ongoing protest over the Pentagon's abortion leave policy has left three service chief positions vacant, a key question remains: How many service members have actually used the policy to seek abortions? Nearly six months after it was implemented, the Pentagon can't answer that question. (Kime, 8/17)

NBC News: Sinema Calls For Biden Admin And Tuberville To Find 'Middle Ground' In Abortion Standoff
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, the Arizona independent who left the Democratic Party last year, is calling on both the Biden administration and Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., to soften their positions and find a “middle ground” to end the Republican’s monthslong blockade of hundreds of military promotions over a Defense Department policy involving abortion. (Smith and Kapur, 8/17)

More abortion news —

The New Republic: Florida Republicans’ New Plan Is To Fine Abortion Clinics Into Bankruptcy
Florida health regulators have fined an Orlando abortion clinic nearly $200,000, a move that is purportedly for violating a state abortion law and would likely bankrupt the health center into closing. Abortion is currently legal up to 15 weeks in Florida, but patients are required to wait 24 hours between the initial visit with their doctor and getting an abortion. The state legislature passed a law mandating the waiting period in 2015, but it did not go into effect until 2022. (Oten, 8/17)

The Hill: As Abortion Pills Near Supreme Court, Advocates Are Once Burned, Twice Shy
The battle over abortion pills is likely heading to the Supreme Court, whose ruling last year overturning Roe v. Wade has Democrats and abortion rights advocates nervous about another blow. (Weixel, 8/18)

KFF Health News: Abortion Pill’s Legal Limbo Continues 
A divided three-judge federal appeals court panel has ruled that a lower court was wrong to try to reverse entirely the FDA’s approval of the abortion drug mifepristone. The panel did find, however, that the agency violated regulatory rules in making the drug more easily available and that those rules should be rolled back. In practice, nothing changes immediately, because the Supreme Court has blocked the lower court’s order that the drug effectively be removed from the U.S. market — for now. (8/17)

Also —

Stat: New Definition Of A Human Embryo Proposed Amid Rapid Advances
Earlier this summer, when scientists revealed they’re now able to create blobs of stem cells in the lab that self-organize into the same sorts of structures embryos themselves build during those first few weeks, it blasted wide open whatever ideas of the embryo we used to have. Were these structures embryo models, as some scientists named them, or something approaching actual embryos? How would anyone know when that line had been crossed? (Molteni, 8/17)

Stat: Blue Shield Of California Overhauls Drug Pricing Operation
Blue Shield of California, a health insurance company that covers almost 5 million people, is restructuring how it will pay for prescription drugs by dividing the work up among five different vendors — two of which include Amazon and Mark Cuban’s pharmacy company. (Herman, 8/17)

San Francisco Chronicle: Insurer Blue Shield Eyes Lower Prescription Drug Prices By Dropping CVS As Middleman
The change, CEO Paul Markovich said, will eliminate fees and rebates to pharmacy benefits managers and other intermediaries like wholesalers and distributors that make up a third of prescription drug costs. “We’re starting from scratch with a group of like-minded partners and reinventing the pharmacy system so it’s simple, transparent, consumer-centered and dramatically less expensive,” Markovich said. (Ho, 8/17)

In other health industry news —

PBS NewsHour: The No Surprises Act Left Out Ground Ambulances. Here’s What’s Happening Now
In a study published this year in the journal Health Affairs, researchers looked at data of emergency trips via ground ambulance between 2014 and 2017 for people who were commercially insured. They found that 28 percent of those trips resulted in surprise bills. Following a single ambulance ride, people could be confronted with astronomical bills, debt or even medical bankruptcy. To sidestep the risk of racking up costs, some people avoid ambulances altogether, gambling with time, transportation and their own health. (Santhanam, 8/17)

Stat: ProMED Sees Offers Of Support, But Its Future Remains Unclear
With its future in doubt, ProMED, the financially strapped infectious diseases surveillance network, has seen waves of support pour in in recent weeks, with universities and other funders seeking to rescue it, according to the president of the committee that oversees it. (Branswell, 8/18)

The Colorado Sun: What Happened To Centura Health? Why The Name Is Disappearing
For 27 years, the name Centura Health has stood atop hospitals in Colorado, one of the largest systems in one of the nation’s most competitive health care markets. It’s been around longer than Empower Field at Mile High, longer than Ball Arena — and not just those names, but the actual buildings, too. It is older than Google, Facebook and the iPhone. The Centura brand name lifted off only a year after Denver International Airport did. And it will disappear in the coming months. (Ingold, 8/18)

The Hill: The US Pays More For Newer Weight Loss Drugs Than Its Peers: Report 
The prices charged for drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro are significantly higher in the U.S. when compared with other wealthy nations, with the list price being 10 times lower in some countries, according to a new analysis from KFF. As KFF’s analysis found, a one-month supply of Ozempic — which is indicated for diabetes but is sometimes prescribed for weight loss off-label — has a list price of $936 in the U.S. Among the nine other countries that KFF looked at, none paid more than $200 for a month’s supply of the same drug. (Choi, 8/17)

KFF Health News: A Peek At Big Pharma’s Playbook That Leaves Many Americans Unable To Afford Their Drugs 
America’s pharmaceutical giants are suing this summer to block the federal government’s first effort at drug price regulation. Last year’s Inflation Reduction Act included what on its face seems a modest proposal: The federal government would for the first time be empowered to negotiate prices Medicare pays for drugs — but only for 10 very expensive medicines beginning in 2026 (an additional 15 in 2027 and 2028, with more added in later years). Another provision would require manufacturers to pay rebates to Medicare for drug prices that increased faster than inflation. (Rosenthal, 8/18)

On HIV/AIDS —

Axios: Iowa Leads U.S. In HIV Suppression
Iowa leads the nation in suppressing HIV in patients who are diagnosed with the disease, according to the most recent 2021 analysis by the Centers for Disease Control. Medication can delay HIV-positive people from getting AIDS, as well as prevent sexual transmission of the disease. (Ta, 8/17)

Bay Area Reporter: Long-Term HIV Survivors Fighting For Their Lives All Over Again
The fight against the HIV epidemic has seen a number of good milestones lately — the World Health Organization reaffirmed July 22 that those who consistently take antiretroviral treatment and maintain undetectable viral loads don't transmit the virus during sex. But those who've acquired HIV infection tell the Bay Area Reporter that they're still fighting for their lives. "As HIV gets older, so are we getting older," Hulda Brown, a 79-year-old straight ally, said in a recent interview. "We need different housing, safer housing, and chairlifts. You may need to walk with a cane. As you get older, we've had to adjust. We need a place to go to find services to explain to us the changes happening in our body, and how we can adapt." (Ferrannini, 8/16)

Top Class Actions: Gilead Sciences Agrees To $246.8M Settlement In HIV Drug Antitrust Case 
Gilead Sciences reached a $246.8 million settlement with direct purchasers of its HIV medications over allegations it made a deal with Teva Pharmaceuticals to delay generic versions of the drugs, Law360 reports. (Bucher, 8/17)

Stat: ViiV Healthcare And Doctors Without Borders Tussle Over Contract Terms For An HIV Drug
A feud has erupted between ViiV Healthcare and Doctors Without Borders over a deal to allow the relief organization to purchase an injectable HIV prevention drug, the latest fracas involving the company and efforts to distribute its medication to mostly poor locations around the world. (Silverman, 8/17)

Modern Healthcare: Oregon Passes Nurse-Patient Ratio Law For Hospitals
Oregon has become the fourth state to enact a law requiring nurse-to-patient ratios at hospitals, a move praised by labor groups and panned by health systems. Hospitals in the state will have until Sept. 1 to comply with certified nursing assistant ratios set by the bill signed Tuesday by Gov. Tina Kotek (D). Beginning in June 2025, the Oregon Health Authority will start enforcing other minimum nurse staffing requirements that vary by type of unit and patient acuity and take effect next year. (Devereaux, 8/17)

In other health news from across the U.S. —

AP: Alabama Medical Marijuana Licenses Put On Temporary Hold Again
A judge said Thursday he will temporarily block Alabama from issuing licenses to grow and distribute medical marijuana as he reviews an allegation that the state commission illegally deliberated in secret before selecting winners. (8/17)

Politico: Newsom Makes Concessions On The Way To Mental Health Reform 
Gov. Gavin Newsom has spent four years trying to overhaul how counties pay for mental health care, betting his reputation on making a dent on homelessness, substance abuse and mental health problems. Now, he is making concessions amid concerns he’s going too far, POLITICO has learned. (Bluth, 8/16)

North Carolina Health News: Treasurer: Study Shows How Hospital Bills Become Medical Debt Nightmares For Thousands Of North Carolinians
Thousands of North Carolinians struggle under debt accumulated because they went to their local hospital for care and wound up with bills that were beyond their ability to pay. Even some people with insurance were overloaded with medical debt after seeking care. Those are the topline findings of a study released Wednesday morning that was conducted by researchers from North Carolina Treasurer Dale Folwell’s office and the Duke University School of Law. (Hoban, 8/18)

Politico: New Jersey Can Sue Gun Companies Under Public Nuisance Law, Federal Appeals Panel Rules 
New Jersey can sue the gun industry under a “public nuisance” law, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday, handing a major victory to the state after last year’s U.S. Supreme Court decision loosening public carrying restrictions. (Racioppi, 8/17)

Military.com: One Soldier Dead, Another Hospitalized Amid Outdoor Fitness Tests In Mississippi Heat Wave
The death of a soldier and the hospitalization of another last week at Camp Shelby, an Army base in Mississippi, may have been caused by a combination of hot weather and the service's fitness test, as record-breaking heat waves torch much of the U.S. (Beynon, 8/17)

The Texas Tribune: For Deaf Children In Texas Foster Care, Limited Accessibility Compounds Trauma
In early 2019, a small group of foster parents clustered in the governor’s office, hoping months of working with the state would improve things for children like theirs: deaf or hard of hearing and traumatized by a system that struggled to care for them. (Bohra, 8/18)

The Colorado Sun: Opioid Settlements From Big Pharma Are Giving Colorado Communities The Funds To Fight Fentanyl
Law officers, county commissioners and addiction specialists who gathered in southwestern Colorado this week to figure out how to pull the state out of the fentanyl crisis agreed on this: Big money from opioid settlements is making a dent in their ability to offer services. (Brown, 8/18)

On LGBTQ+ health care —

The Hill: Midwestern Cities Become Transgender Health Sanctuaries Amid GOP Legislative Threats
A growing number of Midwestern cities are declaring themselves safe havens for gender-affirming health care, often in direct defiance of laws passed by conservatives at the state level. While state legislatures across the Midwest are controlled overwhelmingly by Republicans, cities and metropolitan areas tend to lean more Democratic, driving some local leaders to introduce resolutions that distinguish the policy priorities of liberal communities from those of the conservative states in which they are located. (Migdon, 8/18)

Houston Landing: University Of Houston’s LGBTQ Resource Center To Close Due To DEI Ban 
Jamie Gonzales, a former program coordinator at the University of Houston’s LGBTQ Resource Center, hasn’t slept well ever since she heard that the center will be disbanded in accordance with Senate Bill 17, a law banning diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at public higher education institutions. Although she knew the closure was coming after the bill passed in April in the Texas Senate, she still found herself emotionally ill-prepared to grapple with the reality: an end of an era for a place that served as a beacon of acceptance, safety and support for thousands of queer “Coogs,” as UH students often call themselves. (Welch, 8/17)

The New York Times: Some Transgender Women May Be Barred From Women’s Chess Competitions
The future of transgender women’s participation in high-level women’s chess competitions seems uncertain, after the International Chess Federation introduced new regulations effectively barring many from women’s events for up to two years or more. ... The regulations state that if the gender of a player “was changed from a male to a female” on their FIDE identification, the “player has no right to participate in official FIDE events for women” until a further decision is made. (Moses and McCarthy, 8/17)

USA Today: Marijuana Usage And Binge Drinking Hit Historic Levels Among US Adults
Binge drinking, vaping, marijuana use, and hallucinogen consumption reached an all-time high among U.S. adults in 2022, showing a significant upward trajectory in substance use in recent years, according to a study released Thursday. New research from the University of Michigan's Monitoring the Future (MTF) panel revealed that middle-aged adults, between the ages of 35 and 50, in the United States are using marijuana and hallucinogens at record levels. Binge drinking had also spiked to the "highest prevalence... ever recorded for this age group," according to the panel study. (Nguyen, 8/18)

The Hill: Senior Citizens Are The Fastest-Growing Cannabis Clientele
Seniors, and not the high-school kind, are the fastest-growing population of cannabis users, a trend that illustrates what a long, strange trip the legalization movement has been. The share of over-65 Americans who have used marijuana nearly tripled in a decade, from 11 percent in 2009 to 32 percent in 2019, according to a respected federal survey on drug use. More than half of the 60-64 demographic reported cannabis use, another sharp increase.  (De Vise, 8/18)

Also —

Axios: Gen Z, Millennials Increasingly View Alcohol Use As Unhealthy, Poll Says
More than half of young adults in the U.S. see even moderate drinking — one or two drinks a day — as unhealthy, new Gallup polling found. Views on alcohol and drugs are shifting rapidly, especially among millennials and Gen Z. Americans overall now see booze as more harmful than marijuana. A record-high 39% of Americans believe moderate drinking is detrimental to health, up 11 points since 2018. (Rubin, 8/17)

Minnesota Public Radio: Hidden In Plain Sight: U Of M Pressured To Create Space For Sober Students
Drug and alcohol use is often considered synonymous with the college experience, especially at large party schools like the University of Minnesota. Some are watching with concern now that recreational marijuana use is legal. As U of M students begin classes this fall, a faculty group is pushing to decrease stigma and increase visibility of substance use disorder on campus. They say drug and alcohol abuse looks different for each of the up to 12 percent of students nationwide who struggle, according to a national epidemiological psychiatry study. (Stevens, 8/17)

Financial Times: Anti-Binge-Drinking App Shown To Help Students Cut Down On Alcohol
A smartphone app helped students reduce their heavy drinking habits, a study in Switzerland has shown, raising hopes that technology can help reduce harmful levels of alcohol consumption. Researchers from Lausanne University Hospital and University of Lausanne, working with colleagues in the UK, Canada and US, assessed the effectiveness of targeted intervention to encourage healthier drinking habits in students, with the results showing a 10 per cent decline in average consumption levels. The findings, which were published in the BMJ on Wednesday. (Scott, 8/16)

NBC News: Blue Light-Blocking Glasses Don't Protect Eyes Or Improve Sleep, Study Finds
Despite their popularity, blue light-blocking glasses probably don’t do much to reduce eyestrain, help keep people alert or improve sleep, according to a meta-analysis looking at 17 studies published Thursday. The glasses, which sellers claim protect the eyes from potentially harmful blue light coming from screens, first hit the scene in the early 2000s. Search interest skyrocketed in the first year of the pandemic. (Sullivan, 8/18)

In other health and wellness news —

ABC News: Norovirus Outbreak That Sickened More Than 300 People Linked To An Ill Food Handler At Restaurant
The source behind a norovirus outbreak that sickened a few hundred people last year has been identified, according to a report published Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. ... Investigators with the Tazewell Health Department and Illinois Department of Public Health concluded the outbreak was likely caused by a sick food handler at the restaurant who had ungloved contact with salad, toppings and dressings during food preparation. (Kekatos, 8/17)

The Washington Post: What We Know About Rare Flesh-Eating Bacteria That’s Killed 3 In NY Area 
Many of the people infected with Vibrio vulnificus require intensive care or limb amputations to survive, according to the CDC. Vibrio vulnificus is described as a flesh-eating bacteria because it can lead to what’s called necrotizing fasciitis, a severe infection in which the flesh around an open wound dies. The consequences can be deadly. (Bella, 8/17)

Stat: Lung Cancer Is America's Deadliest Cancer. Yet So Few Get Screened
It was Thanksgiving 2021, and Michael Young was at Target buying a turkey baster. “I’m in the parking lot, and my chest starts to feel like somebody’s sitting on me,” Young recounted. But he didn’t think too much of it and waited until February to tell the doctor about these on-and-off chest pains. “8:30 a.m. Monday morning, the cardiologist calls me and says, ‘We have a problem; we need to talk,’” Young said. The heart scans had found lung cancer. (Bajaj, 8/18)

The Washington Post: Negative Thoughts About Aging Can Be Harmful. Here’s How To Reduce Them
Age bias doesn’t show up only as blatant discrimination (“We want someone younger for that job.”) or snarky birthday cards. One of the most potent sources of ageism comes from older people themselves, and like other forms of ageism, the self-inflicted kind is associated with lower levels of emotional and physical health and can slash years off people’s lives. (Laber-Warren, 8/17)

Stat: Living With Hashimoto's And Celiac Disease, And Med School, Too
A third-year med school student, Brianna Celix doesn’t get a lot of free time. Even with the one afternoon off she gets each week at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, Celix is being challenged to take care of herself. Her cat, Frankie, dense as a log, offers plenty of cuddles. But managing two autoimmune conditions requires more than animal affection. Celix, 25, has to keep up with the demands of medical school while keeping Hashimoto’s thyroiditis and celiac disease in check. (Cueto, 8/18)

The Washington Post: How 10,000 Years Of Plagues Left Their Mark On Our DNA
Many deadly diseases have swept through the human population over the past 10,000 years, claiming some, leaving others behind. These tragic events left their mark on our DNA. When biologists compare modern genomes to DNA extracted from ancient bones, they can see how genetic variants that enabled people to fight off pathogens have increased in frequency over millennia. (Greenwood, 8/16)

Modern Healthcare: How AI, Tech Is Treating Dementia, Neurological Disorders
Treating the human brain has historically presented a challenge for researchers and clinicians. But digital health companies are increasingly using artificial intelligence, connected sensors and non-invasive devices to capture data on the brain and offer patient-specific treatments. “This is a very critical time, because we've seen enormous advancements and are starting to see the benefit that technology can have in reading brain activity,” said Dr. Alvaro Pascual-Leone, director of the Berenson-Allen Center for Noninvasive Brain Stimulation at Boston-based Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. (Perna, 8/8)

The New York Times: Scientists Recreate Pink Floyd Song By Reading Brain Signals Of Listeners 
The audio sounds like it’s being played underwater. Still, it’s a first step toward creating more expressive devices to assist people who can’t speak. (Kiros, 8/15)

The New York Times: 6 Months After The Ohio Train Derailment, Residents Are Still In Crisis 
National attention has long since shifted away from East Palestine, where the Ohio governor has declared the air and water safe, and the Environmental Protection Agency has cited “no evidence to suggest there is contamination of concern.” ... But 200 cleanup workers still arrive each day, working on the 1.4 million gallons of liquid wastewater and 3,293 tons of excavated soil that, according to the Ohio E.P.A., must still be removed. Earlier this summer, independent researchers warned of chemical contamination in buildings near the derailment site. Hundreds of people have reported symptoms associated with the derailment in recent months. And lawmakers have been flooded with calls and emails from residents and business owners who say they cannot enter their buildings for more than a few minutes without getting headaches. (Baumgaertner, 8/16)

The New York Times: U.S. Sunscreen Is Stuck in the ’90s. Is This a Job for Congress?
The last time the Food and Drug Administration approved new active ingredients for use in sunscreens was more than two decades ago, and at times it can feel as if the rest of the world has surpassed the United States in the development of new sunscreen formulations and protocols. Skin-care influencers on TikTok and Instagram are in a near-constant state of frenzy over exciting new products and innovations that are nowhere to be found on American shelves. Currently there are 14 sunscreen filters approved for use by the F.D.A. The European Union employs more than 30. (Garcia, 8/12)

The Washington Post takes a deep dive into the Smithsonian's 'brain collection' —

The Washington Post: Revealing The Smithsonian’s ‘Racial Brain Collection’ 
Most of the brains were removed upon death from Black and Indigenous people and other people of color. They are part of a collection of at least 30,700 human bones and other body parts still held by the Natural History Museum, the most-visited museum within the Smithsonian. The collection, one of the largest in the world, includes mummies, skulls, teeth and other body parts, representing an unknown number of people. The remains are the unreconciled legacy of a grisly practice in which bodies and organs were taken from graveyards, battlefields, morgues and hospitals in more than 80 countries. The decades-long effort was financed and encouraged by the taxpayer-subsidized institution. The collection, which was mostly amassed by the early 1940s, has long been hidden from view. The Washington Post has assembled the most extensive analysis and accounting of the holdings to date. (Dungca and Healy, 8/14)

The Washington Post: Smithsonian’s ‘Bone Doctor’ Scavenged Brains, Thousands Of Body Parts 
Ales Hrdlicka, a Smithsonian anthropologist, repeatedly traveled to this small community on Kodiak Island in the 1930s to exhume Indigenous graves. In what amounted to industrial-scale pillaging, he and a small team disinterred the remains of about 1,000 people and shipped them back to the Smithsonian’s U.S. National Museum, the precursor to the National Museum of Natural History. (Dungca, Healy and Tran, 8/15)

The Washington Post: When Maura Died, A Smithsonian Curator Likely Took Part Of Her Brain 
Maura, a Filipino woman, died after coming to the U.S. to be put on display at the 1904 World's Fair. A Smithsonian anthropologist likely took part of her brain. (Healy, Dungca and Galeno, 8/16)

The Washington Post: Key Findings From The Post's Smithsonian Brain Collection Investigation 
The Washington Post spent a year examining the Smithsonian’s collection of human remains, including 255 brains. Reporters reviewed thousands of documents, including studies, field notes and personal correspondence, and interviewed experts, Smithsonian officials, and descendants and members of communities whose remains were targeted for collection. The Post also obtained from the National Museum of Natural History an inventory of all human remains in its possession, which allowed reporters to publish the most extensive analysis of the collection to date. (Dungca, Healy and Tran, 8/14)

Miami Herald: Extreme Heat Will Not Let Up While We Wait For Negotiations 
CDC data indicate a tripling of heat-related work deaths in some Southwestern states, and annual work-related injuries because of heat may be undercounted by 20,000 people a year. While record-breaking temperatures sear much of the United States, the people who feed, transport and house us — and who have no choice but to work outside — increasingly are paying the ultimate price. (Susan L. Marquis, 8/17)

Chicago Tribune: We Need More Resources For Caregivers, Especially Those From Immigrant Families
I was only 28 when I joined an unexpectedly popular club. Together, with more than 53 million Americans (and 1.5 million Illinoisans), I became a family caregiver when my father was diagnosed with early onset dementia. A few years later, our situation escalated when my mother’s cancer reemerged, and her cardiac and lung conditions worsened. (Paurvi Bhatt, 8/17)

The Boston Globe: How Medicare Can Save $500 Billion 
In 2021, the United States settled a lawsuit against California health care provider Sutter Health for $90 million. According to the lawsuit, Sutter siphoned government money by falsely labeling temporary conditions as chronic, pressuring physicians to add unnecessary conditions to charts, and even revising patient records behind doctors’ backs. (Andrew Ryan and David Meyers, 8/18)

CNN: My Wife Died Of Cancer. Now I Ask Myself ‘What If’
My family’s world changed on July 6, 2020. My wife, Lori, had become increasingly tired, lethargic, weak and confused over the previous few days. If you didn’t know better, you’d think she had been taking some kind of illicit drug. She hadn’t. So, it was clear she needed to go to the emergency room. (Ric Ward, 8/17)

Stat: The Pain Doctors Face In Trying To Build Their Families 
The Retrievals,” a disturbing podcast from Serial and the New York Times released this summer, painstakingly tells the stories of women who sought fertility treatments at the Yale Fertility Center in 2020. Over the course of five months, women underwent egg retrievals without any pain medication. Although this procedure is typically done under heavy sedation, a nurse at the clinic had replaced fentanyl with saline. (Morgan S. Levy, Vineet Arora and Arghavan Salles, 8/18)

The Boston Globe: Address Both Health And Safety At Mass. And Cass 
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu has taken a compassionate, public health approach to Mass. and Cass, focusing on connecting people with housing and substance use treatment. This housing-first approach is valuable and needs to be expanded. But it is not sufficient. (8/17)