CNN: FDA Approves First Treatment To Delay Onset Of Type 1 Diabetes 
A biologic therapy that delays the onset of type 1 diabetes received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration on Thursday. It is the first therapy approved for prevention of type 1 diabetes. The monoclonal antibody teplizumab, which will be marketed under the brand name Tzield, from ProventionBio and Sanofi is given through intravenous infusion. (Christensen and Goodman, 11/17)

ABC News: FDA Approves 1st Drug To Delay Onset Of Type 1 Diabetes
Tzield was approved to delay the onset of stage 3 type 1 diabetes in adults and children ages 8 and up who currently have stage 2 type 1 diabetes. The medication is thought to slow down the body's attack on its own insulin-producing cells and thus give people more time before they become dependent on pharmaceutical insulin. Tzield is not suitable for people with insulin-dependent type 1 diabetes, people who are pre-type 2 diabetics or those with type 2 diabetes. (Strauss and Winsor, 11/18)

Reuters: U.S. FDA Greenlights Provention Bio's Diabetes Drug
"We expect to have drug in the channel by the end of the year," said Jason Hoitt, Provention's chief commercial officer, adding that preparations were underway with its partner Sanofi for a full launch in January 2023. (Satija, 11/17)

BBC: Game-Changing Type 1 Diabetes Drug Approved In US
Experts say teplizumab marks a "new era" in treatment, tackling the root cause of the condition for the first time, rather than just the symptoms. ... It is likely to pave the way for approval decisions in other countries. (Mundasad, 11/17)

In other news about diabetes —

CIDRAP: New-Onset Diabetes Risk Higher In Recovering COVID-19 Patients 
People recovering from COVID-19 are at higher risk of a new diabetes diagnosis, a research team from Beijing reported this week in BMC Medicine. ... They note that an increased risk of diabetes has also been found for other viruses, but their analysis shows a 20% higher risk of developing diabetes following COVID compared to patients with other upper respiratory viruses and an 82% increased risk compared to the general population. (11/17)

The Japan Times: Facing Stigma, People With Diabetes Seek Change Of Disease's Japanese Name 
Nine out of 10 people with diabetes in Japan feel troubled by the disease’s Japanese name, saying it creates a stigma that the condition is filthy or caused only by bad habits, according to a recent survey of over 1,000 people who have the disease. Diabetes, called tōnyōbyō in Japanese, is written using the kanji characters for sugar (tō), urine (nyō) and disease (byō). But the image that conjures up doesn’t reflect the actual condition of the disease — which is characterized by high levels of glucose, a type of sugar, in the blood, not in the urine — according to the Japan Association for Diabetes Education and Care, the group of diabetes patients and medical professionals that conducted the survey. (Otake, 11/17)

The Washington Post: Epilepsy Drugs As ‘Chemical Restraint’ On Rise In Nursing Homes
Government policies aimed at curbing excessive use of powerful psychiatric drugs for dementia patients in nursing homes are probably having an unintended side effect: greater use of anti-seizure medications, a government report said Thursday. The evidence released by the Office of Inspector General for the Department of Health and Human Services indicates physicians specializing in nursing home care may have traded one controversial practice for another in response to regulatory scrutiny, seeking to sedate dementia patients with anticonvulsant medications rather than antipsychotics. (Rowland, 11/17)

Modern Healthcare: Nursing Home Antipsychotic Drugs Use Is Safety Concern: HHS OIG
Eight out of 10 Medicare long-stay nursing home residents received psychotropic drugs from 2011-2019, the HHS OIG found in a review of Medicare data. Residents of facilities with low staff ratios and with high shares of low-income people are more likely to receive psychotropic medicines. (Berryman, 11/17)

Read the report —

Long-Term Trends of Psychotropic Drug Use in Nursing Homes

Arizona Republic: Arizona's Largest Health System Imposes Visitor Restrictions Because Of Flu, Other Viruses
The number of flu cases in Arizona is nearly 16 times higher than it was at this time last year, and some hospitals are taking action with earlier-than-usual visitor restrictions. Phoenix-based Banner Health, which is Arizona's largest health care system, announced this week that because of increased flu and other respiratory viruses in circulation, it would be implementing visitor restrictions at all its hospitals effective Monday. Scottsdale-based HonorHealth implemented visitor restrictions on Monday, and officials with Phoenix-based Valleywise Health are weighing taking similar action. (Innes, 11/17)

The Charlotte Observer: Flu Spike Force NC Hospitals To Limit Some Visitors 
As a result of a rapid increase in flu cases and other respiratory viruses throughout the state, several North Carolina healthcare systems have enforced strict visitation restrictions at hospitals. “Out of concern for the health and well-being of the community, and due to the widespread prevalence of respiratory viruses such as RSV and flu among young children, several North Carolina health systems ask that children 12 and under not visit patients who are hospitalized,” Atrium Health said Tuesday in a joint statement along with neighboring regional health care systems. (Santiago, 11/18)

KHOU: As RSV Cases Rise, 67 Pediatric ICU Beds Available In All Of Texas
Cases of respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, are continuing to strain hospitals across the county. Texas hospitals are also seeing an earlier-than-normal surge in cases. On Wednesday, Texas had just 67 open pediatric ICU beds across the entire state. (Talarico, 11/16)

KOMO: With Hospitals Overwhelmed By RSV, Health Officials Urge Caution For Holiday Gatherings 
Health officials with Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital said that patients are still waiting hours to get seen with one of the longest wait times earlier this week hitting 12 hours and on Wednesday they said they saw over 220 patients. “We’re making sure that we have capacity to treat those that come see us and make sure that we prioritize the sickest and the youngest," said Ben Whitworth, Chief Operating Officer with Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital. (Vargas, 11/17)

The Boston Globe: Harvard Doctors Warn Of Viral Triple Threat For The Holidays
As Americans gather for the holidays, Harvard doctors are warning that three dangerous respiratory viruses are circulating — and threaten to become unwelcome guests at the festivities. “We are in the midst of a true triple-demic,” said Dr. Jacob Lemieux, an infectious disease specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital. (Freyer, 11/17)

President Biden sidesteps a national emergency declaration —

NBC News: Biden Administration Sidesteps Calls To Declare RSV A Health Emergency
The Biden administration on Thursday sidestepped calls from pediatric groups that have been urging the government to declare a public health emergency in response to the surge in respiratory illnesses in children. (Alba, Egan and Bendix, 11/17)

More on RSV and flu —

The Hill: What To Know About RSV Vaccine Candidates And Monoclonal Antibodies
Pfizer has an RSV vaccine candidate called RSVpreF. It is going through clinical trials in pregnant patients and in older adults. Maternal immunization, or the administration of a vaccine during pregnancy, is one way to get antibodies to newborns. The parent’s body produces antibodies as an immune reaction to the vaccine and can pass those antibodies to the baby through the placenta. Most adults have been exposed to RSV and have antibodies present. The vaccine boosts antibody response, and doctors can time when it is given to pregnant people so their babies have the highest chance of getting the benefits passively before they are born. (Hou, 11/18)

Scientific American: Why Did Flu Season Start So Early This Year? 
“Typically, the population-level immunity is what counts in terms of how many infections we are going to see” in a given season, says Arnold S. Monto, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. “Now almost everybody is going around unmasked, so we have the situation where [flu] transmission can go back to what we have normally seen,” he says. The fact that fewer people currently have antibodies against the flu because they weren’t exposed to it during the pandemic may be facilitating the spread of the virus, he adds. That doesn’t mean that lack of exposure to a virus impairs an individual’s immune system, a misconception that is sometimes referred to as “immunity debt.” (Lenharo, 11/17)

USA Today: Speaker Nancy Pelosi's Legacy: Obamacare To Trump Impeachment
Nancy Pelosi made history in 2007 for getting the job, for becoming the first female speaker of the House and the highest-ranking woman in American history. As the California congresswoman steps back from her role as the leader of House Democrats through tumultuous times, she has also made history for what she has done in the job. (Page, 11/17)

The Washington Post: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Says She Has ‘Survivor’s Guilt’ From Husband’s Attack 
Dealing with trauma she likened to “survivor’s guilt,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says the aftermath of the October attack on her husband, Paul, by an assailant looking for her has left the California Democrat’s family shaken. “If he had fallen, slipped on the ice or was in an accident and hurt his head, it would be horrible, but to have it be an assault on him because they were looking for me is really — they call it ‘survivor’s guilt’ or something,” Pelosi said Thursday in her most detailed comments to date on the attack’s aftermath. “But the traumatic effect on him, this happened in our house.” (Alfaro and Kane, 11/17)

In other updates from Capitol Hill —

The Hill: Markey Introduces Legislation To Improve Tech Access For Americans With Disabilities
Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) on Thursday introduced new legislation that aims to improve access to communications technology for Americans with disabilities to ensure they have equal opportunities in an increasingly online world. The Communications, Video, and Technology Accessibility Act (CVTA) will update policies for television programming and online video streaming platforms. (Dress, 11/7)

Axios: Time Running Out On Insulin Cost Caps
An effort to lower the cost of insulin for privately insured patients faces long odds in the lame duck session, Axios' Peter Sullivan reports. (Sullivan, 11/18)

Axios: Study: Most Medicaid Enrollees Unprepared For Safety Net Redeterminations
Millions of Medicaid recipients are unaware that states will redetermine their eligibility for the program when the COVID-19 public health emergency ends — and fewer than one third know what other coverage options exist, according to an Urban Institute policy brief. (Moreno, 11/17)

KHN: KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: The Changing Of The Guard
The coming Congress will look different from the current one: While Democrats narrowly kept control of the U.S. Senate, Republicans gained a majority in the House. While their majority is small, it will likely be enough to block any further items on President Joe Biden’s agenda. Meanwhile, the current, lame-duck Congress still has a lot of items on its to-do list, including keeping the government open and averting a scheduled 4% cut in payments to health providers. (11/17)

And the Biden administration proposes changes to the WIC program —

AP: USDA Program Keeps Extra COVID-Era Money For Fruits, Veggies
U.S. agriculture officials proposed changes Thursday to the federal program that helps pay the grocery bills for low-income pregnant women, babies and young children, including extending a bump in payments for fresh fruits and vegetables allowed during the COVID-19 pandemic. The update also adds more whole grains, canned fish and non-dairy options to their shopping carts. The effort is aimed at expanding the number and type of healthy foods available to families who get assistance from the Agriculture Department’s program known as WIC, officials said. (Aleccia, 11/18)

AP: Mental Crises Excluded From Some State Abortion Exemptions
Mental health advocates say there’s a cruel quirk in abortion bans in several states: There are exemptions for life-threatening emergencies, but psychiatric crises don’t count. It makes no sense to an Arizona mother of three who became suicidal during her fourth pregnancy and says an abortion saved her life. Or to researcher Kara Zivin, who nearly died from a suicide attempt in pregnancy and whose work suggests these crises are not uncommon. (Tanner, 11/17)

Vox: Anti-Abortion Groups Say The Midterm Elections Weren’t So Bad 
When he was campaigning for governor of Minnesota, Scott Jensen first said he’d ban abortions with no exceptions for rape and incest. Later, he said the governor couldn’t do anything about abortion anyway, given Minnesota’s constitutional protections. Last weekend, in a 22-minute Facebook Live video reflecting on his bruising loss, he made a new argument. “This election was not about inflation, and crime and education...for so many Americans across the country this election was about an intrusion into a person’s autonomy,” he said, referring to abortion. “In the future I think the lesson is clear — at least it should be to Republicans. If you infringe on someone’s freedom, you may well lose. You’ll probably lose.” (Cohen, 11/17)

Dallas Morning News: Texas Bill Would Say A Fetus Can Legally Be A Second Passenger In HOV Lanes
State Rep. Briscoe Cain, R-Deer Park, is one of the Texas Legislature’s leading anti-abortionists. This week, he introduced House Bill 521 for the 2023 legislative session. The short bill states that a pregnant driver “is entitled to use any HOV lane in the state.” Although the language is unclear, I assume that means they won’t get a ticket. I tried to reach Cain but was unsuccessful. (Lieber, 11/17)

CNN: Texas Woman Almost Dies Because She Couldn't Get An Abortion
Another woman has come forward with the harrowing details of how the Supreme Court’s decision four months ago to overturn Roe v. Wade put her life in danger. CNN has told the stories of several women – including one from Houston, one from central Texas and one from Cleveland – and what they had to do to obtain medically necessary abortions. Now, a woman from Austin, Texas, has come forward because she nearly died when she couldn’t get a timely abortion. (Cohen and Bonifield, 11/16)

ProPublica: Inside An Anti-Abortion Meeting With Tennessee’s GOP Lawmakers
When state Sen. Richard Briggs voted “yes” on Tennessee’s total abortion ban, he never thought it would actually go into effect. It was 2019, and Roe v. Wade was the law of the land. His vote seemed like a political statement, not a decision that would soon impact people’s lives. But on Aug. 25, the ban, one of the strictest in the country, kicked in. It contains no explicit exceptions for circumstances under which the procedure would be allowed. Any doctor who performs an abortion in Tennessee faces a felony that carries penalties of up to 15 years in prison and fines of up to $10,000. (Surana, 11/15)

In global news about abortion —

ABC News: Malta Abortion Laws Eased After American Woman Almost Died
Malta announced Wednesday it is easing its abortion laws, becoming the last country in the European Union to end a total ban on the procedure. The Mediterranean nation, located off the coast of Sicily, does not allow women to receive an abortion, including in cases of rape or incest. ... The change was spurred after an American pregnant woman nearly died in the country because doctors refused to perform an abortion. (Kekatos, 11/17)

MedPage Today: Large U.S. Study Finds No Link Between COVID Vaccine And Shingles 
No association was detected between COVID-19 vaccination and herpes zoster infection in a database study involving more than 2 million individuals in the U.S. ... Shingles following COVID-19 vaccination became a worry after some previous studies reported an elevated risk. (Hein, 11/16)

NBC News: Vaccine Trials Should Monitor Menstrual Changes, Researchers Say
Although they made up around half the participants in Covid vaccine trials, women were not asked about any menstrual changes as part of that process. Since then, several studies have revealed that Covid vaccines can indeed induce short-term changes in menstrual cycles. (Bendix, 11/17)

CIDRAP: Study: Severe COVID Less Likely In Kids Of Vaccinated Parents 
"The association between parent vaccination and reduced risk of admission for SARS-CoV-2 in children younger than 5 years suggests that parents played a major role in transmitting SARS-CoV-2 to their young children during both waves, but the association between protection and vaccination seemed lower in the Omicron vs Delta period," the study authors wrote. "The Omicron variant has been shown to be more transmissible, and the vaccine effectiveness against infection seems lower." (11/17)

AP: Indian Health Service Steps Up COVID, Other Vaccine Push 
The Indian Health Service announced Thursday that all tribal members covered by the federal agency will be offered a vaccine at every appointment when appropriate, under a new vaccine strategy. Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, American Indians and Alaska Natives have had some of the highest COVID-19 vaccination rates across the country. (11/17)

In related news about mRNA technology —

Stat: MRNA Drugs With A ‘Copy Machine’ Could Lead To Safer Therapies
Remember that messenger-RNA-based Covid-19 vaccine you got? Just a few days later, the teeny molecular messengers contained in the shot were already gone. Despite scientists’ best attempts to bolster mRNA and improve its stability, these molecules are ephemeral. (Wosen, 11/18)

Los Angeles Times: L.A. County Returns To Strongly Recommending COVID Masking 
Amid a sustained rise in coronavirus transmission, Los Angeles County is once again strongly recommending wearing a mask in indoor public spaces. The daily number of newly reported cases has jumped almost 70% from a month ago, though case rates are still well shy of previous waves and officials continue to tout the benefits of available vaccines and therapeutics in warding off the worst COVID-19 has to offer. (Money and Lin II, 11/17)

San Francisco Chronicle: COVID In California: California COVID Cases Jump 36% Ahead Of Expected Surge
California’s COVID-19 trends have officially reversed ahead of an anticipated winter surge. The state is averaging about 9 new daily cases per 100,000 residents as of Thursday, marking a 36% increase compared to the 6.5 per 100,000 reported two weeks earlier, according to health department data. (Vaziri, 11/17)

Ways to avoid getting covid over the holidays —

CNN: Reduce Your Risk Of Getting Sick This Thanksgiving Season
What are steps people can take to protect themselves and their loved ones against Covid-19 during Thanksgiving dinners and other gatherings over the coming holidays? Is it still important to require vaccines for attendees at such events? Does a mini-quarantine period help to reduce risk? If people are testing before gathering together, when should they test, and with what tests? And what’s the best way to protect against other circulating viruses? (Hetter, 11/16)

San Francisco Chronicle: Indoor Humidity May Reduce Infection Risk, Study Finds
Maintaining an indoor relative humidity between 40-60% is associated with relatively lower rates of COVID-19 infections and deaths, according to a study by MIT researchers who found that indoor relative humidity may also influence the transmission of the coronavirus. (Vaziri, 11/17)

In other covid research —

CIDRAP: Post-COVID Epilepsy Rare But More Common Than After Flu
COVID-19 patients—especially children and those with nonsevere infections—are 55% more likely to develop epilepsy or seizures in the next 6 months than those who have influenza, but the overall risk remains very low, concludes a study published yesterday in Neurology. (Van Beusekom, 11/7)

NPR: Treating Long COVID Patients Still Requires Lots Of Trial And Error
Medical equipment is still strewn around the house of Rick Lucas, 62, who came home from the hospital nearly two years ago. He picks up a spirometer, a device that measures lung capacity, and takes a deep breath, though not as deep as he'd like. Still, he has come a long way for someone who spent more than three months on a ventilator because of COVID-19. (Farmer, 11/18)

St. Louis Public Radio: New Long COVID Findings Alarm St. Louis Scientist 
Little was known about COVID-19 when the virus started infecting millions of people. Misinformation and false correlations in the early days of the pandemic created further confusion. Researchers are still learning and discovering what happens after a COVID-19 infection and what recovery may look like. (Norfleet, 11/16)

Reuters: Cancer Diagnoses Lag After Screenings Fall During Pandemic, U.S. Study Finds 
Screenings for a variety of common cancers have not returned to pre-pandemic levels, potentially leading to diagnoses later in the course of the disease when it may be more difficult to treat successfully, U.S. data published on Thursday suggest. In 2020 - the first year of the pandemic - average rates of screening for breast cancer fell by 40%, for cervical cancer by 36%, and for colorectal cancer by 45%, compared to the three previous years, according to an analysis of medical claims data from 306 million adults. (Alleyne-Morris, 11/17)

In other health and wellness news —

CNN: More Adolescent E-Cigarette Users Report Vaping Within Five Minutes Of Waking Up, Study Finds
Although the prevalence of e-cigarette use among teens has declined in recent years, those who do vape are starting younger and they’re using e-cigarettes more intensely, a new study suggests. Among adolescents who only use e-cigarettes, the percentage who used the products within the first five minutes of waking up in a day was less than 1% between the years 2014 and 2017, but that shifted to 10.3% from 2017 through 2021, according to the study published Monday in the medical journal JAMA Network Open. (Howard, 11/17)

Reuters: Nearly Half Of World Population Suffers From Oral Diseases - WHO
Nearly half of the world's population, or 3.5 billion people, suffer from oral diseases, the majority of them in low- and middle-income countries, the World Health Organization said on Thursday. The most common oral illnesses are tooth decay, severe gum disease, tooth loss and oral cancers, with untreated tooth decay affecting nearly 2.5 billion people, the United Nations agency said. (11/17)

Dallas Morning News: Ground Beef Sold At H-E-B, Central Market Recalled Due To Contamination
Thousands of pounds of ground beef sold at H-E-B and Central Market were recalled because the meat may be contaminated with a hard, mirror-like material. Tyson Foods, an H-E-B supplier, recalled nearly 94,000 pounds of ground beef after receiving complaints from consumers who found reflective material in the meat, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection Service announced Wednesday. (Bahari, 11/17)

Dallas Morning News: Fentanyl Is In “Every Corner”; Families Grieve Losing Loved Ones To Illicit Synthetic Drug
“This is not a drug to experiment with,” said Eduardo Chávez, special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement and Administration (DEA) in Dallas. “Just two milligrams of fentanyl… can cause fatal poisoning.” (Garcia, 11/17)

Reuters: U.S. Justice Dept Launches Probe Of Oklahoma's Mental Health Services 
The U.S. Justice Department on Thursday launched a probe into whether Oklahoma, Oklahoma City and the city's police department discriminate against people who have mental health disabilities in the provision of behavioral care services. The investigation will examine if Oklahoma violates federal law, including the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), by relying on psychiatric institutions to serve adults with behavioral health issues rather than relying on community-based services offered to others, Assistant Attorney General Clarke said at a news conference. (11/17)

In other mental health news from Florida, Colorado, Connecticut, and Nevada —

News Service of Florida: Thousands Of Florida Students Were Committed Last Year Under The Baker Act
Florida had 5,077 incidents of students being involuntarily committed under a mental health law known as the Baker Act during the past school year, data presented Wednesday to a school safety commission showed. (Dailey, 11/17)

Colorado Sun: Colorado Ill-Equipped To Handle Adopted Kids With Severe Trauma
Colorado’s child welfare system has stepped up efforts in recent years to either keep kids with their relatives or more quickly get them adopted, policies motivated by research that children are better off in permanent homes. But where the system is failing, parents and child advocates say, is in getting kids the mental health help they need to heal — not just from the original abuse and trauma, but from the grief that comes with losing their biological parents. (Brown, Prentzel and Najmabadi, 11/17)

The Washington Post: Yale Defends Mental Health Policies Under Fire From Students, Alumni
Yale University President Peter Salovey wrote a letter to school alumni Wednesday defending the university’s mental health services and the way it treats suicidal students, while also detailing plans for more resources and possible changes to policy. His letter followed a Washington Post story in which current and former students described being pressured by university administrators to withdraw once the university learned about their mental health problems and being forced to reapply to get back into the university. (Wan, 11/17)

KHN: Mistrust And Polarization Steer Rural Governments To Reject Federal Public Health Funding
When Elko County commissioners rejected a $500,000 grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that could have helped the county create a health department or health district, Kayla Hopkins pleaded with them to reconsider. Hopkins, who has lived for nearly nine years in the sprawling rural county that forms the northeastern corner of Nevada, told the board how she struggled through postpartum depression and needed mental health resources. (Rodriguez, 11/18)

Also —

Axios: Rise In Mental Health Needs Persists
Nearly three years into the pandemic, demand for mental health services is swamping the psychology profession, according to a new report from the American Psychological Association. Nearly half of 2,300 psychologists surveyed said they were unable to meet demand for treatment, while 60% said they have no more openings for new patients. (Moreno, 11/17)

Axios: Water Insecurity And Climate Change Are Stressing Mental Health
Hundreds of millions of people around the world lack reliable access to safe water — an escalating crisis with a potentially profound impact on their mental health. (O'Reilly and Snyder, 11/17)

AP: 'West Wing' Cast Urges Struggling Americans To Seek Help
As more Americans struggle with depression and anxiety, the cast of “The West Wing” teamed up with the Biden administration on Thursday to share a simple message: you are not alone. The star-studded cast of the drama series that, even years after being off air maintains a strong fan base, participated in a roundtable discussion with the White House to share their own stories of childhood abuse, isolation during the COVID-19 and struggles to help their children navigate the anxiety-inducing world of social media. (Seitz, 11/17)

Reuters: Explainer: How The World Health Organization Might Fight Future Pandemics
Negotiations on new rules for dealing with pandemics are underway at the World Health Organization (WHO), with a target date of May 2024 for a legally binding agreement to be adopted by the U.N. health agency's 194 member countries. (Farge, 11/18)

Axios: How Virtual Reality Is Solving Some Real Health Care Problems
Virtual reality is becoming a real-world health tool for everything from chronic pain and behavioral health problems on Earth to medical training for astronauts in space. (Reed, 11/17)

Modern Healthcare: Sanford, Fairview Merger: State Regulation Looms Over Deal
Sanford Health and Fairview Health Services are trying to merge nearly a decade after a failed first attempt. But it's uncertain whether the nonprofit Midwestern health systems will be able sway Minnesota state agencies that derailed the earlier proposal. (Kacik and Hudson, 11/17)

Bloomberg: Gates Pledges $7 Billion To Boost Health, Agriculture In Africa
Bill Gates’ philanthropic foundation is pledging more than $7 billion to improve health, gender equality and boost farming productivity in Africa. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will spend the funds over the next four years, according to a statement from the organization. The grants are in addition to the financing the foundation has made to organizations fighting AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, it said. (Ombok, 11/17)

Also —

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: EMT Driving Ambulance Killed In Head-On Crash In North Metro Atlanta
An emergency medical technician responding to a call died after being struck head-on by a car Thursday morning in Forsyth County, according to the Georgia State Patrol. Shortly before 7 a.m., the Central EMS ambulance was traveling east on Ga. 20 in the center lane, according to investigators. The ambulance, which had its emergency equipment including lights and siren activated, was in the turn lane to avoid other vehicles, the GSP said. (Stevens, 11/17)

The Wall Street Journal: Elizabeth Holmes Sentenced to 11.25 Years in Prison
Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of Theranos Inc. convicted of fraud, was sentenced to 135 months, or 11.25 years, in prison, capping the extraordinary downfall of a one-time Silicon Valley wunderkind. U.S. District Judge Edward Davila, who oversaw the monthslong trial in which Ms. Holmes was convicted of running a yearslong fraud scheme at her blood-testing company, delivered the sentence Friday in federal court. (Somerville, 11/18)

In other pharmaceutical industry news —

Reuters: Big Pharma May Have To Reveal Government Deals In WHO's Draft Pandemic Rules 
Pharmaceutical companies could be made to disclose prices and deals agreed for any products they make to fight future global health emergencies, under new rules that would govern a World Health Organization-backed pandemic accord reviewed by Reuters. (Rigby and Farge, 11/18)

The Washington Post: Blood Tests For Alzheimer’s Are Here. Here’s What You Need To Know.
Some experts say much more research is needed before the new tests can be widely deployed, especially in primary-care settings. Others say there already is sufficient information on the accuracy of some tests. All agree that no single test is perfect and physicians still should perform a complete clinical assessment. Widespread use of the tests may be some time off in the future — after insurance coverage improves and even more accurate next-generation tests become available. For now, none is covered by Medicare, and private insurance coverage is patchy. (McGinley, 11/17)

KHN: As STDs Proliferate, Companies Rush To Market At-Home Test Kits. But Are They Reliable? 
Among the more remarkable legacies of the covid-19 pandemic is how quickly federal regulators, the health care industry, and consumers moved to make at-home testing a reliable tool for managing a public health crisis. But that fast-track focus is missing from another, less publicized epidemic: an explosion in sexually transmitted diseases that can cause chronic pain and infertility among infected adults and disable or kill infected newborns. The disparity has amplified calls from researchers, public health advocates, and health care companies urging the federal government to greenlight at-home testing kits that could vastly multiply the number of Americans testing for STDs. (Szabo, 11/18)

Stat: Editas Halts Development On First Clinical CRISPR Program
Editas Medicine, one of the small handful of original CRISPR companies, announced Thursday it is halting development on its first clinical program after data showed only a small subset of patients were responding. (Mast, 11/17)

NBC News: Oklahoma Proposes Landmark Rule To Keep Mailed Medications Safe From Extreme Temperatures
Patients who get their prescription medications by mail in Oklahoma may soon have better protections for the safety of those drugs than any other state. On Wednesday, Oklahoma regulators proposed the nation’s first detailed rule to control temperatures during shipping, according to pharmacy experts. (Kaplan, 11/17)

CNN: As Measles Outbreak Sickens Children In Ohio, Local Health Officials Seek Help From CDC
A growing measles outbreak in Columbus, Ohio, has sickened dozens of unvaccinated children and hospitalized nine of them, and local public health officials are seeking assistance from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “We asked the CDC for assistance and they will be sending two epidemiologists at the end of the month to assist with our local investigation,” Kelli Newman, a spokesperson for Columbus Public Health, told CNN in an email Thursday. (Howard, 11/17)

AP: Maine Backtracks On Guidance For Medical Marijuana Sales
Maine is backing down from some of its guidance for the medical marijuana industry by allowing the sale of pre-rolled products to resume. The Maine Office of Cannabis Policy last month banned medical marijuana caregivers without a storefront from providing pre-rolled products, and increased the age limit for pre-rolled products sold in stores from 18 to 21, the same as the age limit for recreational marijuana purchase. The guidance at the time suggested that a tobacco license was needed. (11/17)

The Boston Globe: $130 Million Made Available For Health Worker Loan Repayment
According to a release from the Baker administration, the Executive Office of Health and Human Services has contracted with the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers to distribute the funds. The money was allocated from American Rescue Plan Act funding and from the Opioid Recovery and Remediation Trust Fund, which was established with proceeds from settlements with drugmakers that helped fuel the opioid epidemic. (Bartlett, 11/17)

The Boston Globe: ‘Our Emergency Food System Shouldn’t Have To Serve 40 Percent Of Massachusetts Families’: Food Aid Programs Showing Few Signs Of Diminishing
Although COVID-19 has eased, the heightened need for food assistance that it spawned is showing few signs of abating, according to leaders of some local and regional food aid programs and area organizations. (Laidler, 11/17)

Detroit Free Press: Ex-Michigan Health Chief Asks Court To End Flint Water Saga
Lawyers for Michigan's former health director are urging an appeals court to quickly stop an effort to revive criminal charges related to the Flint water crisis of 2014-15. (White, 11/17)

The Washington Post: How The 1918 Flu Pandemic Changed America: Working Women, Germaphobia
In 1920, Sen. Warren G. Harding campaigned for president on one of the blandest platforms in U.S. history. He promised neither hope nor change, nor making America great again. Instead, his slogan — which would help him win an unprecedented 60 percent of the popular vote — was a “return to normalcy.” "America’s present need is not heroics but healing; not nostrums but normalcy; not revolution but restoration; not agitation but adjustment; not surgery but serenity,” he told Americans in a speech four months before his victory. (McHugh, 11/13)

Dallas Morning News: What Hispanic Publications Reveal About The 1917-18 Influenza Pandemic
The 1917-18 flu pandemic was one of the most deadly infections, killing approximately 50 million people at its peak. Despite its severity and impact, information surrounding the pandemic was limited because of the heavy censorship during World War I. However, Hispanic publications of the time allow us to have a better understanding of the impact of this disease. (Lopez-Herrera, 11/15)

Vogue: What Is It Like To Have A Medication Abortion? 5 People Share Their Stories 
Vogue recently spoke to five people who have had medication abortions—while making sure to protect their anonymity, given the increased criminalization of people seeking abortions in the U.S. over the last year—about why they opted for a medication versus surgical abortion, what their experiences were like, and what they wish they’d known beforehand. (Specter, 11/13)

The New York Times: Bringing Sexy Back — To Fight H.I.V. 
Efforts to make sex safer almost always focus on the bad stuff: what to do to avoid a terrible infection or potentially deadly virus. They rarely acknowledge the good stuff: usually the reason people have sex in the first place. And that’s why safe sex campaigns throughout the world aren’t as effective as they could be. Research shows that when safe sex campaigns acknowledge pleasure — by talking about sex as something that makes life good, or showing how condoms can be erotic — more people use a condom the next time they have sex. (Nolen, 11/15)

The Wall Street Journal: How Meth Worsened The Fentanyl Crisis. ‘We Are In A Different World.’ 
When Jeannette Martinez hugged her grandson on the last night of his life, she could feel his heart pounding. “Rio, are you doing meth?” she asked. The powerful stimulant methamphetamine can cause cardiac strain, and Rio Ryan had complained of chest pains. Also alarming that evening in March: pinholes Ms. Martinez saw between Mr. Ryan’s fingers, where she said the 21-year-old injected drugs. He giggled in response. He died the next morning in his basement bedroom at his grandmother’s house. (Kamp and Campo-Flores, 11/14)

Harvard Public Health: Redressing The Racial Health Gap: A Harvard Symposium Examines The Public Health Case For Reparations To Black Descendants Of Slavery
As reparations to Black Americans for harms from centuries of slavery and structural racism has gained currency, it has mostly been discussed as monetary compensation for descendants of the formerly enslaved. A Nov. 3 symposium co-hosted by Harvard’s FXB Center for Health & Human Rights and Harvard Public Health magazine considered the issue from a different perspective—health. (Blanding, 11/15)

Also —

The Wall Street Journal: Stressed Out? Grab A Shovel And Dig A Hole
People around the world have discovered the joy of digging holes. TikTok is peppered with people showing the holes they’ve dug, often five or more feet deep. The video clips they upload often involve men—sometimes students on spring break—stripping to their waists and putting their backs into one physical, real-world thing for an extended period. Artists and scientists praise the benefits of digging holes for the raw focus it provides in a world full of distractions. (Hookway, 11/7)

The New York Times: How To Save Your Knees Without Giving Up Your Workout
Researchers have lately begun to rethink long-held dogmas about the properties of cartilage, the smooth layer of tissue that cushions the bones of the knee and other joints and whose breakdown is the primary cause of osteoarthritis. “Since cartilage doesn’t have a blood or nerve supply, we used to think it couldn’t adapt or repair itself,” said Michaela Khan, a doctoral researcher at the University of British Columbia and the lead author of the new review on running and cartilage, which was published in the journal Sports Medicine. But that’s not the case. (Hutchinson, 11/19)

Fortune: 10 Innovators Shaping The Future Of Health 
Many of this year’s winners are finding creative solutions to systemic healthcare problems, from dramatically lowering the costs of prescription medication, and creating greater access to mental health services for communities of color, to building an easy-to-access opioid addiction recovery program with incredible retention rates. They’re business leaders, entrepreneurs, inventors, influencers, educators, and problem solvers. Each finalist has had a major accomplishment over the last year and is using their influence to increase health and wellness access and equity. (Brabaw, 11/16)

The Washington Post: Before FTX Collapse, Founder Poured Millions Into Pandemic Prevention 
When the coronavirus pandemic hit and the world shut down in the spring of 2020, many mourned the loss of life, jobs and normalcy. Sam Bankman-Fried, then a 28-year-old cryptocurrency entrepreneur, and his brother Gabe, a 25-year-old congressional staffer, said the pandemic provided them with something else: an opportunity to make a difference. Harnessing the enormous wealth created by FTX, the cryptocurrency exchange that Sam Bankman-Fried had founded, they undertook a project to spend potentially billions of dollars on pandemic prevention, a long-neglected priority on Capitol Hill even amid the coronavirus crisis. (Diamond, 11/16)

The Baltimore Sun: We Argue Over The Right To End Pregnancy, But Who’s Fighting For The Right To Begin Pregnancy? 
The right to end pregnancy, which should be a fundamental human right, is under attack. Far less discussed is the right to begin pregnancy and what to do about the multitudes of women who want to conceive but cannot, who cannot afford to pay for expensive fertility procedures that virtually no insurance covers. (Jeanette Quick, 11/17)

The Boston Globe: The Biden Administration’s Biomedical And Health Research Initiative Should Be Based In Massachusetts 
Earlier this year, the Biden administration created ARPA-H, the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, an organization with a mandate to push the limits of biomedical and health research centered around risk tolerance and a sense of urgency — and not just in the face of once-in-a-century global threats. (Marty Meehan and Julie Chen, 11/18)

The Washington Post: Wuhan’s Early Covid Cases Are A Mystery. What Is China Hiding? 
The story of how the pandemic got started — and turned into a global catastrophe — remains a black box. It should not be. (11/17)

Chicago Tribune: In A Triple Epidemic, Masks Could Save Kids’ Lives
In Boston, hospitals are overcrowded with sick children. In all of New England, only a handful of pediatric intensive care beds are available. Illinois is doing only slightly better, for the moment — 4% of these specialized beds are available, and Chicago is almost out of beds. (Craig Klugman, Seema Shah and Michelle Macy, 11/17)

The Washington Post: 5 Tips For Reducing Covid Risk Over Thanksgiving 
Next week is Thanksgiving, and while most Americans do not perceive covid-19 to be as dangerous as it was in 2020 or 2021, many readers have asked how to reduce their chances of contracting and spreading the coronavirus during holiday gatherings. (Leana S. Wen, 11/17)