The Washington Post: Republicans Delay More Than $1 Billion In PEPFAR Funding 
Republicans have delayed more than $1 billion in funding for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, better known as PEPFAR, the latest complication facing a lifesaving HIV program that has been ensnared in a broader political fight around abortion. (Diamond, 10/26)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Planned Parenthood Offering Two Drugs To Limit Spread Of HIV
Planned Parenthood clinics across Wisconsin now are offering two drugs, commonly known as PrEP and PEP, to those at risk of HIV exposure. ... “Planned Parenthood is focused on meeting the needs of our patients across Wisconsin, and providing essential medications to prevent HIV infection is an essential piece of providing the care our communities need,” said Amy Doczy, vice president of Patient Services at Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin. “Confidential, high-quality, affordable health care is our top priority, and we look forward to welcoming all individuals who need care regardless of their insurance or immigration status, gender and sexual identity.” (Egeren, 10/26)

Axios Detroit: Getting More Detroiters On HIV Prevention Medication
Though the revolutionary HIV prevention medicine is covered by most insurers, there still are huge barriers to access in Detroit and across the United States. There's no cure for HIV, but it's preventable and treatable thanks partly to pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP. (Frank, 10/26)

The New York Times: 10 Charged In $20 Million Scheme To Sell Black-Market H.I.V. Drugs 
Federal prosecutors have accused 10 people of orchestrating a $20 million scheme to “get rich” by buying and selling black-market H.I.V. medications that in some cases had been purchased from low-income patients who risked their lives by selling it. Some of those accused in the case then used the proceeds to buy luxury cars, waterfront real estate in New York City, designer clothes, jewelry and gold, according to a statement released Friday by Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. (Nolan, 10/20)

Fox News: ACLU Sues Tennessee For ‘Criminalizing HIV’ With Strict Prostitution Laws
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit against the state of Tennessee over a law that it claims violates the rights of HIV-positive people engaged in prostitution. (Kornick, 10/25)

In HIV/AIDS research —

Healio: Obesity Leads To Suboptimal Antiretroviral Drug Responses In People With HIV
Researchers determined that obesity can lead to reduced exposure and response to antiretroviral drugs. (Stulpin, 10/26)

MedPage Today: Clinical Challenges: How The COVID Pandemic Changed And Didn't Change HIV Care 
The COVID pandemic forced clinicians to come up with innovative workarounds to disruptions in care for people with HIV, but ultimately proved that there's no substitute for in-person visits for this population. The first year of the pandemic was plagued with numerous interruptions to HIV care, including healthcare providers canceling visits and patients missing visits, having difficulty accessing medical care, and overall lower confidence that they actually could manage their HIV care, according to a systematic review in AIDS and Behavior. (Walker, 10/24)

Axios: Democratic Lawmakers Push Paid Leave For Pregnancy Loss
Democratic lawmakers on Thursday introduced legislation that would require employers to provide at least seven days of paid time off following a pregnancy loss. Miscarriages are common, occurring in an estimated 10% to 20% of known pregnancies. While more employers are offering paid leave following a pregnancy loss, there's no national paid leave program. (Goldman, 10/26)

In abortion news —

AP: Abortion Rights Supporters Far Outraise Opponents And Rake In Out-Of-State Money In Ohio Election 
Supporters of a ballot measure that would enshrine abortion rights in the Ohio Constitution far outraised their anti-abortion opponents in the months leading up to the November election, bringing in nearly $29 million from donors since Sept. 8, the campaign’s latest filings show. The effort against Issue 1, which would amend the constitution to protect abortion rights, raised just under $10 million in the same period, according to Thursday’s filings. (Swenson, 10/26)

St. Louis Public Radio: Lawsuit Calls Wording And Fiscal Notes For Abortion-Rights Ballot Initiatives Unfair
A group seeking to scale back Missouri’s ban on most abortions is suing over how Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft described the measures and how much state Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick estimated they could cost. The Missouri Women and Family Research Fund filed six initiatives earlier this year that would allow for abortions in the case of rape, incest, fatal fetal abnormalities or risks to health or safety of a mother. Several also would allow abortions up to 12 weeks of pregnancy. (Rosenbaum, 10/26)

Axios: Republicans, Democrats Seek New Abortion Labels Ahead Of 2024 Race
"Pro-life" and "pro-choice" — decades-old labels around abortion in the U.S. — are rapidly losing favor among lawmakers and advocates. Abortion rights are set to remain a major issue in the 2024 election and helped Democrats avoid sizeable losses in last year's midterms. (Daher, 10/27)

Related abortion news from Capitol Hill —

Politico: Newly United House GOP Faces Abortion Policy Divide 
Newly elected speaker Mike Johnson will swiftly face a test of his ability to resolve an intense intra-GOP fight. A majority of the House Republican conference backs a provision in the food and agriculture funding bill that would ban mail delivery of abortion pills nationwide, with some hard-liners even pledging to oppose any version without it. But a handful of Republican centrists who face tough reelection bids next year say federal curbs on mifepristone, a widely used abortion pill, are “a non-starter.” (Ollstein and Hill, 10/26)

Stat: Breaking Down House Speaker Mike Johnson's Health Care Plan 
At long last, Republicans have ended a grueling three-week odyssey and chosen a new leader: newly elected House Speaker Mike Johnson. Johnson led the Republican Study Committee, which is responsible for putting out policy ideas, from 2019 to 2021. During that time, the panel released a health care plan. There’s no reason to believe that Johnson would push to implement this outline anytime soon (he’s got a full plate with simply keeping the government open), but it may be a helpful barometer for where he stands. (Cohrs, 10/26)

KFF Health News: The New Speaker’s (Limited) Record On Health
After nearly a month of bickering, House Republicans finally elected a new speaker: Louisiana Republican Rep. Mike Johnson, a relative unknown to many. And while Johnson has a long history of opposition to abortion and LGBTQ+ rights, his positions on other health issues are still a bit of a question mark. Meanwhile, a new study found that in the year following the overturn of Roe v. Wade, the number of abortions actually rose, particularly in states adjacent to those that now have bans or severe restrictions. (10/26)

AP: Maine Passed Law To Try To Prevent Mass Shootings. Some Say More Is Needed
Barely four years before a gunman’s deadly rampage in Maine, a state that is staunchly protective of gun rights, the governor signed a law aimed at preventing a mass shooting like the one Wednesday night that claimed at least 18 lives. It was called a “yellow flag” law, different from the “red flag” laws cropping up in other states to seize weapons from gun owners viewed as a threat. In a sign of the pro-Second Amendment mindset in Maine, a gun-rights group helped write the law, and critics said that, while it was a first step toward stronger gun safety measures, the state could save more lives by doing more — like passing a red flag law. (Whittle, Whitehurst and Levy, 10/26)

The New York Times: Maine’s Gun Laws Impose Few Limits On Firearms
In New England, Maine is something of an outlier on gun regulation. The state broadly allows people to carry an open or concealed gun without a permit, according to Everytown for Gun Safety, an advocacy group for tighter gun restrictions, funded partly by former New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. Maine does not bar the purchase of military-style assault rifles or limit the purchase of certain high-capacity magazines. (Corkery and Dewan, 10/26)

The Hill: Maine Democrat Calls For Assault Weapons Ban After Past Opposition
Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine) said he would pursue an assault weapons ban after a mass shooting killed at least 18 people in his hometown of Lewiston, Maine, on Wednesday. ... “To the people of Lewiston, my constituents throughout the 2nd District, to those who lost loved ones and to those who have been harmed, I ask for forgiveness and support as I seek to put an end to these terrible shootings,” he said. (Robertson, 10/26)

New Hampshire Public Radio: New Hampshire Lawmakers React To Lewiston Shootings 
State leaders in New Hampshire reacted to Wednesday's mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine with shock and horror. But while Democrats reiterated calls for stricter gun policies in the wake of the violence, Republicans largely said the status quo was sufficient. Details about the shooting are still emerging, and the suspect remained at large as of Thursday evening. (Hoplamazian, 10/26)

Reuters: Biden Denounces "Senseless And Tragic Mass Shooting," Urges Gun Laws 
U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday said the nation is mourning after "another senseless and tragic mass shooting" in which 18 people were shot to death in Lewiston, Maine, and urged Republicans in Congress to help enact stronger gun laws. (10/26)

More on the mass shooting —

The Washington Post: Suspected Maine Gunman Was Hospitalized After Alarming Statements, Official Says
The man police suspect killed 18 people in shootings in Lewiston, Maine, on Wednesday night had so alarmed people around him that he was hospitalized and received mental health treatment this summer, according to a person familiar with the investigation. ... Investigators have also been told by people who knew suspect Robert R. Card of Bowdoin, Maine, that in recent months he described hearing disturbing voices, and had increasingly become fixated on the bowling alley and the restaurant where he allegedly opened fire, according to two people familiar with the investigation. (Barrett, Stein and Berman, 10/26)

Maine Public: American Red Cross Blood Donation Appointments Fill Up Quickly In Southern Maine
Many Mainers across the state are seeking to donate blood to help victims in the mass shooting at multiple locations in Lewiston on Wednesday night. The Red Cross Blood Center in Auburn, Maine was closed on Thursday, Oct. 26 due to the incident. (Pratt-Kielley, 10/26)

Also —

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Gun Industry Insider Talks To Gun Owners About Mental Health, Suicide
At the gun shows, Sodini saw a lot of tough guys, some who he would discover were quietly living with depression and other mental health challenges. Sometimes, one would just disappear and Sodini would later learn the man had ended his life with a gun. Suicide was surprisingly common among gun owners, but no one was talking about it, he said, out of fear it would be used to advance gun restrictions. The issue hit home when someone who worked with Sodini ended his life. ... Sodini sold his share in the family gun business and founded the nonprofit Walk the Talk America, with the goal of closing the gap between gun owners and the mental health world. (Diedrich, 10/26)

AP: Maine Shooting Is 36th Mass Killing This Year: Here's A List
So far this year, the nation has witnessed the second-highest number on record of mass killings and deaths to this point in a single year. Only 2019 had more mass killings. According to the database, there have been more than 560 mass killings since 2006, in which at least 2,900 people died and at least 2,000 were injured. (10/26)

Modern Healthcare: 340B Drug Pricing Program Offsite Clinic Policy Reversed By HRSA
Some hospital outpatient clinics are likely to lose 340B drug discount program eligibility under a policy the Health Resources and Services Administration issued Thursday. Hospitals participating in the drug pricing program now must register offsite clinics with HRSA and list them on Medicare cost reports to qualify for 340B, the agency announced in a Federal Register notice. This reverses a 2020 HRSA policy that aimed to streamline 340B certifications during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. (Kacik, 10/26)

Stat: Hospitals Warn Medicare's Drug Payment Fix Is ‘Unlawful’
Hospitals are telling government officials it would be illegal to claw back $7.8 billion as part of a remedy that is making hospitals whole over underpaid drug discounts — and they may sue if that plan goes into effect. (Herman, 10/26)

Modern Healthcare: Medicare Should Reform Primary Care Physician Pay: AMA
Medical societies and allied healthcare organizations are lobbying policymakers to focus on primary care amid a worsening physician shortage. The American Medical Association and the Primary Care Collaborative are among those urging Congress to pass legislation to increase Medicare reimbursement for physicians and boost graduate medical education funding for primary care providers. (Kacik, 10/26)

Reuters: Former HealthSun Exec Accused Of Medicare Fraud Resulting In $53 Mln Overpayment 
A former executive of Florida health insurance company HealthSun Health Plans Inc, which offers privately managed but publicly funded Medicare Advantage plans, has been charged with orchestrating a scheme that resulted in the federal government being overbilled by $53 million, prosecutors announced Thursday. According to an indictment filed in Miami federal court, Kenia Valle Boza, who served as Director of Medicare Risk Adjustment Analytics at HealthSun from 2017 to 2020, fraudulently told the federal government that beneficiaries of HealthSun Medicare Advantage plans had chronic conditions that they did not really have. (Pierson, 10/26)

San Diego Union-Tribune: Out-Of-Network Access Should Be Allowed In Scripps Medicare Advantage Split, Expert Says
The recent decision by Scripps Health to stop its clinic and coastal medical groups from participating in Medicare Advantage plans created uncertainty for thousands of seniors. But there might be one bit of good news. Research performed by San Diego’s widely-respected Health Insurance Counseling & Advocacy Program indicates that patients with preferred provider organization Medicare Advantage plans will retain their ability to visit affected Scripps Health doctors after their groups no longer accept such coverage starting in 2024. (Sisson, 10/26)

The Motley Fool: The Little-Known Downsides Of Medicare Advantage Plans 
Medicare Advantage plans are more popular than ever -- for very good reasons. Fully 51% of the eligible Medicare population is enrolled in one this year, per the folks at health information organization KFF. They also report that "The average Medicare beneficiary in 2023 has access to 43 Medicare Advantage plans, the largest number of options ever." Still, Medicare Advantage plans are not perfect. Here's a look at why you might consider them and why you might not. (Maranjian, 10/27)

Stat: How To End Health Care Worker Burnout
Long hours and high-pressure situations have long characterized the health care profession —  but in the wake of the pandemic, many workers are facing new challenges with regards to their mental health. (Nayak, 10/26)

The Hill: Bipartisan Lawmaker Duo Introduces Legislation To Support More Funding For Community College Nursing Programs 
Reps. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-Fla.) and Juan Ciscomani (R-Ariz.) introduced a bipartisan piece of legislation to support additional funding for nursing programs in community colleges. Grants for Resources in Occupational and Workforce Training for Healthcare Act of 2023 — or the Growth Act of 2023 — expands eligibility to the Nurse Education, Practice, Quality, and Retention (NEPQR) — Pathway to Registered Nurse Program (PRNP). (Irwin, 10/26)

Modern Healthcare: What California Minimum Wage Law Means For Non-Union Jobs
California's new law mandating a higher minimum wage for frontline healthcare workers takes effect in June and will have wide-ranging effects on employers and labor markets in and outside of the state. The bill, signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Oct. 13, raises the state’s hourly minimum wage for healthcare workers from $15.50 to $25 over the next 10 years. Larger health systems, hospitals and dialysis clinics have until 2026 to implement the new rate. Rural independent hospitals and those with a high mix of Medi-Cal and Medicare patients have until 2033. (Devereaux, 10/26)

Modern Healthcare: Envision Bankruptcy Forces Hospitals To Rethink Physician Costs
Health systems are eyeing high physician staffing fees as an area for improvement as they continue to battle inflated labor costs. Much of the wage inflation centers on such hospital roles as emergency physicians and anesthesiologists, positions often filled by staffing companies. But the failure of staffing companies such as Envision Healthcare and American Physician Partners has forced hospitals to rethink their business model and consider more cost-effective employment options. (Hudson, 10/26)

In other health care industry news —

WLRN: Ransomware Attack Shuts Down Imaging Center With Dozens Of Florida Locations
A cyberattack has shut down a diagnostic imaging firm based in South Florida, leaving patients unable to get scans and doctors unable to see images for diagnosis. The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports that the company, Akumin, has been hit with a ransomware attack that's compromised the health information of hundreds of thousands of patients. (DiMattei, 10/26)

Modern Healthcare: Blue Cross Antitrust Settlement Upheld By Appeals Court
A federal appeals court has rejected an effort by Home Depot and other employers to revise a $2.67 billion antitrust settlement with Blue Cross and Blue Shield. The plaintiffs argued that the deal, which a district court approved last year, favors fully insured Blue Cross and Blue Shield customers over self-insured employers. In a decision handed down Wednesday, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit rejected their plea and ordered the agreement to proceed as the lower court instructed. (Tepper, 10/26)

KFF Health News: Smaller Employers Weigh A Big-Company Fix For Scarce Primary Care: Their Own Clinics 
With his company’s health costs soaring and his workers struggling with high blood pressure and other medical conditions, Winston Griffin, CEO of Laurel Grocery Co., knew his company had to do something. So the London, Kentucky, wholesaler opened a health clinic. “Our margins are tiny, so every expense is important,” Griffin said. The clinic, he said, has helped lower the company’s health costs and reduce employee sick leave. (Galewitz, 10/27)

Stat: The Health Care Issue Democrats Can’t Solve: Hospital Reform
Democrats unilaterally drove major reforms to the health insurance and the pharmaceutical industries without a single Republican vote in recent years. But hospitals may be a health care giant they’re unable to confront alone. (Cohrs, 10/26)

Modern Healthcare: Medical Debt Forgiveness: How Federal Funds Are Used To Erase Debt
Efforts to erase medical debt are gaining momentum as more healthcare systems and municipalities seek to relieve patients from billions of dollars in bills. Local governments from Los Angeles to Columbus, Ohio, are partnering with providers and others to establish debt relief plans, with some municipalities taking advantage of one-time federal assistance from the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. In addition to short-term solutions, they also are looking for ways to prevent future debt and assessing how the programs can maintain momentum once federal dollars run out. (Hudson, 10/26)

Also —

Axios: Affordable Care Act Open Enrollment 2024: What To Know
People buying their own health insurance may see fewer plan choices when HealthCare.gov enrollment in 2024 coverage opens on Nov. 1 — but that's by design. Federal officials overseeing the Affordable Care Act marketplaces say they limited the number of plans health insurers can offer to reduce "choice overload." (Goldman, 10/27)

The Boston Globe: ARPA-H Director Renee Wegrzyn Visits Cambridge Hub
As the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health opened its hub in Kendall Square on Thursday, the head of the new federal agency said she was confident it will spawn transformative “moon shots” to cure diseases and improve health — even if it’s too soon to say exactly what they might be. ... “If we show that something is possible, it’s ready to leave ARPA-H,” said Wegrzyn. “We’re looking for creative ways to find follow-on investors that can participate in ARPA-H projects once they leave the agency.” (Weisman, 10/26)

AP: FDA Warns About Giving Probiotics To Preterm Babies After Infant Death, Other Injuries
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning health care providers and the public about injuries and at least one death in premature infants who were given probiotic products in the hospital. The products, which supplement regular feeding and contain live organisms such as bacteria or yeast, can lead to invasive, potentially fatal infections or disease, the FDA said Thursday. (Aleccia, 10/26)

In other pharmaceutical news —

Reuters: Santhera's Drug Gets US FDA Nod For Rare Muscular Dystrophy
Catalyst Pharmaceuticals said on Thursday that U.S. health regulators have approved its partner Santhera Pharmaceuticals' drug to treat Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) in patients aged two years and older. (10/26)

Stat: FDA Approves Eli Lilly Ulcerative Colitis Treatment Omvoh
The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday approved an Eli Lilly drug that takes a new approach to treating ulcerative colitis, a chronic inflammatory disease that can cause intense gastrointestinal pain and distress. (Wosen, 10/26)

Stat: ALS Patients Lend Support To Rare Diseases Bill
A month after advisers to the Food and Drug Administration overwhelmingly voted against the experimental ALS drug NurOwn, a Senate committee is considering a bill that would allow provisional approvals of the drug and other investigational treatments for rare, incurable diseases. (Wilkerson, 10/26)

Reuters: Bristol Myers Says It Needs Another Year To Hit Target For New Drugs
Bristol Myers Squibb on Thursday pushed back by a year the time frame for its new-product portfolio to hit $10 billion in revenue as the sales ramp-up of medicines such as psoriasis treatment Sotyktu and multiple sclerosis drug Zeposia takes longer than initially projected. (Erman and Roy, 10/26)

The Wall Street Journal: Sanofi Plans To Spin Off Consumer-Healthcare, Pharma Businesses 
Sanofi said it plans to spin off its consumer-healthcare business, making it the latest major drugmaker to sharpen its focus on prescription medicines. The French pharmaceutical company outlined the plan on Friday as part of a strategic update that also detailed plans to increase investment in its drug-development pipeline and cut costs. (Calatayud and Hopkins, 10/27)

Stat: Can Americans Learn From Europe’s Plan To Stem Drug Shortages? 
European drug regulators are updating regulations to stem drug shortages. Are there lessons for Americans? Drug shortages are not solely an American problem. Last winter, European supplies of common antibiotics were critically low, especially for children, due to the surge of respiratory infections that followed two years of laying low to avoid Covid-19. There were also shortages of heart drugs. (Wilkerson, 10/25)

Politico: Detecting Covid Surges Is Getting Harder, Thanks To A Contract Dispute 
A quarter of the nation’s wastewater testing sites — one of the most dependable ways of tracking Covid surges — are shut down indefinitely over a contract dispute. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention wants to replace the firm it has worked with since 2020 to test wastewater for Covid in order to better direct public health resources. But that firm, Massachusetts-based Biobot, has filed a protest, stymieing the transition. (Leonard, 10/26)

Also —

AP: 2% Of Kids And 7% Of Adults Have Gotten The New COVID Shots, US Data Show 
A month after federal officials recommended new versions of COVID-19 vaccines, 7% of U.S. adults and 2% of children have gotten a shot. One expert called the rates “abysmal.” The numbers, presented Thursday at a meeting held by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, come from a national survey of thousands of Americans, conducted two weeks ago. (Stobbe, 10/26)

CIDRAP: Study Highlights Potential Role Of Statin Drug In Critical COVID-19 Cases 
Simvastatin, the widely available statin drug used to treat high cholesterol and triglyceride levels, has a 96% probability of improving outcomes for critically ill COVID-19 patients and a 92% chance of improving survival at 3 months, according to new results from the ongoing Randomized Embedded Multifactorial Adaptive Platform for Community Acquired Pneumonia (REMAP-CAP) trial. (Soucheray, 10/26)

CIDRAP: Study Finds No Signs Of Ongoing Infection, Brain Damage In Long-COVID Patients
Two new studies spotlight long COVID, with one finding no evidence of ongoing infection or brain damage among patients with persistent symptoms, and the other finding that COVID-19 patients had more than double the risk of shortness of breath and memory loss than uninfected participants more than 3 months after infection. (Van Beusekom, 10/26)

KFF Health News: A New Era Of Vaccines Leaves Old Questions About Prices Unanswered 
The world is entering a new era of vaccines. Following the success of covid-19 mRNA shots, scientists have a far greater capacity to tailor shots to a virus’s structure, putting a host of new vaccines on the horizon. The most recent arrivals — as anyone on the airwaves or social media knows — are several new immunizations against respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV. (Rosenthal, 10/27)

Updates on the combination flu-covid vaccine —

Reuters: Pfizer, BioNtech Say Flu-COVID Shot Generates Strong Immune Response In Trial
Pfizer and German partner BioNTech said on Thursday that their vaccine to prevent flu and COVID-19 generated a strong immune response against strains of the viruses in an early- to mid-stage trial. The companies said they plan to start a late-stage trial in the coming months. "This vaccine has the potential to lessen the impact of two respiratory diseases with a single injection and may simplify immunization practices," Annaliesa Anderson, Pfizer's head of vaccine research and development, said in a statement. (10/26)

AP: The Number Of Military Suicides Dipped In 2022 As The Pentagon Works On New Prevention Programs 
The number of suicides among U.S. military members and their families dipped slightly in 2022, compared with the previous year, as the Defense Department tries to build prevention and treatment programs to address what has been a steadily growing problem over the past decade, The Associated Press has learned. While the total number of deaths decreased overall, suicides among active-duty troops went up slightly, fueled by significant spikes in the Marine Corps and the Air Force. And because the active-duty force is smaller now, the rate of suicides per 100,000 service members inched up, according to U.S. officials. (Baldor, 10/26)

In other health and wellness news —

CIDRAP: ECDC: Chicken Source Suspected In Multicountry Salmonella Outbreak
A multicountry Salmonella enteritidis ST11 outbreak linked to chicken and chicken kebab products since January has sickened at least 335 people from 14 European Union countries, the United Kingdom, and the United States, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) announced today. (Schnirring, 10/26)

Fox News: Alzheimer’s Risk Is Reduced Among Women Who Follow The DASH Diet In Their 40s, Study Finds
Women over age 40 who adopt the DASH diet could have a lower risk of cognitive decline as they age, according to a study published this week in Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association. Researchers from the NYU Grossman School of Medicine found that women who followed the DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet during middle age were about 17% less likely to experience memory loss and other signs of cognitive decline later in life, according to a press release from the university. (Rudy, 10/26)

ABC News: 'Small Swaps' To Climate-Friendly Diet Can Significantly Reduce Carbon Footprint, Improve Health: Study
Realistic, simple dietary swaps can help Americans make a difference in the country's carbon footprint, a new study found. ... The authors of the study, which was published Thursday in Nature Food, simulated the environmental and health impacts of simple dietary substitutions in more than 7,700 Americans. They identified commonly eaten foods with the highest carbon footprints in the diets of those people and modeled what would happen if they replaced them with nutritionally similar, lower-emission options. (Ghandakly, 10/26)

Bloomberg: 23andMe Is Bringing DNA Sequencing For Health Risks To Consumers
23andMe Holding Co., the genetic-testing company best known for helping people discover their ancestral roots and inherited food aversions, is rolling out a new product to help customers better understand and manage health risks hidden in their DNA. (Brown, 10/25)

Stat: ITC Recommends Partial Ban Of Apple Watches In Masimo Patent Case
The United States International Trade Commission issued a partial import ban of Apple watches on Thursday, declaring that Apple infringed on patient-monitoring company Masimo’s patents. President Biden will review the commission’s decision over the next 60 days, and will have the opportunity to veto it. Presidential vetoes of import bans are uncommon, though former President Obama vetoed a ban of iPhones in 2013 after Apple lost its case to Samsung. (Lawrence, 10/26)

Stat: Chimpanzees, Like Humans And Whales, Get Menopause: Study
Chimpanzees — they’re just like us. Female chimps, it turns out, go through menopause, and go on to live long (and, one hopes, fulfilling) lives afterward. A new paper published today in Science describes the discovery of the onset of menopause in a community of wild chimpanzees around the age of 50, with an overall decline in fertility starting at age 30. (Merelli, 10/26)

The New York Times: Corporal Punishment In Private Schools Is Outlawed In New York
New York has banned the use of corporal punishment in all private schools, making it one of just a handful of states in the nation to bar teachers in all types of schools from hitting students. The law, which was signed by Gov. Kathy Hochul on Wednesday after being unanimously approved by the State Legislature in June, was proposed in response to a New York Times investigation that revealed the use of corporal punishment in many schools in the Hasidic Jewish community. The ban will apply to all private schools. (Rosenthal and Shapiro, 10/26)

CBS News: Florida Drug Importation Decision Faces Delay
Florida likely will have to wait a little longer to find out if it will be able to import cheaper prescription drugs from Canada. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration had been expected to issue a decision by the end of October about the proposed program, which the state has been pursuing since 2019 and has spawned two lawsuits. But a court document filed this week said a back-and-forth between state and federal officials about details of the proposal will prevent a decision this month. (10/26)

Politico: Massachusetts Cannabis Businesses Challenge Constitutionality Of Federal Drug Laws 
A group of Massachusetts weed businesses have filed a lawsuit seeking to bar the government from enforcing federal drug laws against state-regulated cannabis companies. They’re represented by the powerhouse law firm of David Boies, best known for high-profile litigation seeking the breakup of Microsoft, representing former Vice President Al Gore in the contested 2000 presidential election and defending disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein. (Zhang, 10/26)

Roll Call: Answering The Call: Montana Volunteers Try To Fill Rural EMT Gap
One day in July, Robert Littlejohn received a page from the county Sheriff’s Office about a disoriented senior citizen. A wildland firefighter for the U.S. Forest Service in Montana and an EMT with the Philipsburg volunteer fire department, Littlejohn waited for Granite County’s private ground ambulance company, Eagle Ambulance Service, to respond. But Eagle had flown the coop. Philipsburg is one of many rural areas struggling to sustain an ambulance service amid low call volume, increasing rural hospital closures and fallout from the pandemic. (Clason, 10/26)

The Wall Street Journal: Anchorage Scrambles To Get Growing Homeless Population Indoors Before Winter 
Every year around this time, Alaska’s biggest city prepares for the freezing-cold winter by getting snowplows and deicing equipment ready. It also has to get hundreds of homeless people off the streets. The number of Anchorage residents without homes grew nearly 60% between 2019 and 2023 to an estimated 1,760. That is more than bigger cities including Indianapolis; Louisville, Ky.; Baltimore, and Oklahoma City, based on point-in-time counts conducted once each year. (Carlton, 10/25)

KFF Health News: Watch: California And Feds Invest In Health Care For Homeless People 
KFF Health News senior correspondent Angela Hart appeared on Spectrum News 1’s “Los Angeles Times Today” on Oct. 24 to discuss her coverage of state and federal efforts to expand street medicine — a growing field that focuses on treating homeless people wherever they are, whether indoors or on the streets. Street medicine is getting a jolt in California, which was the first state to standardize payment for street medicine providers through its Medicaid program, allowing them to be paid more consistently. There are at least 50 street medicine teams in the state, with more in the pipeline as cities grapple with growing homelessness — and the widespread drug use and mental illness that often accompany it. (10/27)

Connecticut Public: Can $500 A Month Improve The Health Of Recently Incarcerated CT Residents?
A pilot program in New Haven is testing whether providing formerly incarcerated people direct cash assistance results in better health outcomes. Researchers say it’s one of the first interventions for this demographic in the U.S. looking into health impacts. (Srinivasan, 10/26)

The Washington Post: Murder Suspect Who Escaped GWU Hospital Is Taken Back Into Custody 
A murder suspect who escaped from D.C. police custody at George Washington University Hospital last month was captured Thursday in Prince George’s County, ending a seven-week search across portions of the metropolitan area, police and U.S. Marshals Service officials said. No one was injured in the apprehension. (Hermann, Jackman and Davies, 10/26)

AP: Few Transplant Surgeons Are Black. Giving Medical Students A Rare Peek At Organ Donation May Help 
It’s long after midnight when the bustling operating room suddenly falls quiet –- a moment of silence to honor the man lying on the table. This is no ordinary surgery. Detrick Witherspoon died before ever being wheeled in, and now two wide-eyed medical students are about to get a hands-on introduction to organ donation. They’re part of a novel program to encourage more Black and other minority doctors-to-be to get involved in the transplant field, increasing the trust of patients of color. (Neergaard, 10/24)

The Wall Street Journal: America’s Most Famous Neurosurgeon Thinks You Should Take A Nap 
Dr. Sanjay Gupta, the Emmy-winning CNN correspondent, talks about prepping for the operating room, therapy apps and how he stays focused. (Florsheim, 10/23)

The New York Times: How Climate Change Is Changing Therapy 
Studies have found rates of PTSD spiking in the wake of disasters, and in 2017 the American Psychological Association defined “ecoanxiety” as “a chronic fear of environmental doom.” (Jarvis, 10/21)

The New York Times: A Hospice Nurse On Embracing The Grace Of Dying
A decade ago, Hadley Vlahos was lost. She was a young single mother, searching for meaning and struggling to make ends meet while she navigated nursing school. After earning her degree, working in immediate care, she made the switch to hospice nursing and changed the path of her life. Vlahos, who is 31, found herself drawn to the uncanny, intense and often unexplainable emotional, physical and intellectual gray zones that come along with caring for those at the end of their lives, areas of uncertainty that she calls “the in-between.” (Marchese, 10/21)

The Washington Post: Older Americans Are Dominating Like Never Before, But What Comes Next?
Virginia Boothe, a palliative care physician, retired at 69. She loved her work helping people navigate the final chapter of life, but it was relentlessly trying, one emotionally fraught day blending into the next. She was ready to cast off the burdens of medical bureaucracy, the endless battles with insurance companies to get her patients the treatment they needed. “I wanted to take a step back from human suffering,” she said. (Fisher, 10/24)

The Nation: A Weekend At Abortion Camp Offers A Glimpse Into The Future Of Abortion Access
“In post-Dobbs America, patient navigation is not a linear path,” said Amelia Bonow, executive director of the activist group Shout Your Abortion, which organized the event. “Access is a cobbled-together ecosystem of smaller organizations, including those ready to do shit in a post-institutional way, who aren’t waiting around for courts, for politicians, for doctors, but all our work is too siloed. It feels like we are building a new system, and we need to do it in-person.” In the year after Dobbs, the movement was operating in triage mode, and Abortion Camp was conceived as a conclave of sorts, where activists could come together to have honest, nuanced conversations about the present and future of abortion access, build relationships, and relax and recharge. There were people present who represented mainstream organizations, folks who operate underground, and everything in between. The idea was to get them all in a room where they could productively and securely talk to each other about their work, their challenges, and what they needed from each other. (Grant, 10/26)

The Washington Post: The Pandemic Is Over In This Michigan County. The Mistrust Never Ended
In Ottawa County, a fast-growing, middle-class community of about 300,000 people on the Lake Michigan shore, battles over mask mandates and whether to get vaccinated had divided families and torn apart church congregations. They had eroded trust not only in medical experts and government institutions, but also among neighbors and friends. They had turned the county, which voted to reelect Donald Trump by 21 points, into a place where the Republican Party’s future was taking shape. No local institution faced more pressure than the county’s 100-person public health department. Before the pandemic, its workers had drawn little attention. Health department employees inspected restaurants and sewage systems. They tracked communicable disease outbreaks and immunized children. (Jaffe andMarley, 10/22)

The New York Times: Roland Pattillo Dies At 89; Doctor Championed Henrietta Lacks 
Roland A. Pattillo, a gynecologic oncologist who had been treating and researching female cancers for decades, had long been haunted by the curious case of Henrietta Lacks, a young, impoverished Black woman who died of cervical cancer in 1951 yet whose cells lived on and made medical history. They were known as the HeLa cell line, and they had been used to develop the polio vaccine, treatments for H.I.V. and other landmark medical advances. Like most medical researchers, Dr. Pattillo had known about the HeLa cells since he was a graduate student. As it happened, he had also been a fellow in the Johns Hopkins lab in Baltimore that had first cultured them, one of the few Black doctors working there in the late 1960s. (Green, 10/20)

The Washington Post: Rising Temperatures, Extreme Weather Threaten To Propel Malaria Spread
Cases of malaria threaten to increase dramatically from climate change as rising temperatures push mosquitoes to new areas and lengthen transmission seasons. (Chason, Crowe, Muyskens and Chikwendiu, 10/23)

The Washington Post: How To Spot Illegal Pharmacies When Buying Drugs Like Ozempic Online 
Readers had many questions about my column this week urging caution on purchasing knock-off versions of popular weight-loss drugs. Here are some answers. (Leana S. Wen, 10/26)

Akron Beacon Journal: Ohio Gov. DeWine Hits New Low With False Claims About Ohio Issue 1
It comes as little surprise that Mike DeWine opposes Issue 1, the proposed state constitutional amendment to secure reproductive rights in Ohio, or that he joined his wife, Fran, in an ad amplifying his opposition. The governor long has been an abortion opponent. He is popular. No doubt, the thinking is, he could help to defeat the proposal at the polls. ... Yet, in his ad, the governor strays far from belief, policy and principle. He joins in the deceitfulness of opponents. He fans their misleading claims. It is not an attractive profile, no matter how much the pair seeks to soothe. (Michael Douglas, 10/27)

Columbus Dispatch: Issue 1 Is Ohio's Best Chance Against An Inhumane Abortion Ban
Opponents claim the proposed abortion and reproductive rights constitutional amendment on the Nov. 7 ballot is too extreme and will slam the door on compromise. The trouble with that argument is that those same opponents – among them Ohio Right to Life, Center for Christian Virtue and a host of anti-abortion politicians that include Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine – were behind one of the most extreme abortion bans in the nation. (10/26)

Columbus Dispatch: Is Ohio Issue 1 About Sex Changes, Parents' Rights, Unlimited Abortion?
In the face of broad bipartisan support for Issue 1 and its protection of reproductive freedom, abortion opponents have desperately sought to portray it as “too extreme.” These efforts are based on outright misrepresentations about the current state of Ohio law and about what Issue One would accomplish if passed. (Professor Daniel T. Kobil, 10/27)

Scientific American: Doctors Do Racist Things To Patients. Here Are Seven Ways They Can Stop 
As many doctors are starting to realize, they are not passive agents in a racist society and health care system: their actions (and inactions) contribute to racial health disparities. And their biases show up on medical charts. (Ashley Andreou, 10/26)

Cincinnati Enquirer: As New Cases Rise Each Year, Breast Cancer Screening Is Even More Vital
When I became an ambassador three years ago for Cincinnati Men Wear Pink, a group of guys assembled by the American Cancer Society to raise money and awareness, I focused on the fundraising part – and for good reason. Research funded by the American Cancer Society and other groups has led to improved treatments and outcomes. Since 1990, the death rate of those diagnosed with breast cancer has dropped from 34 per 100,000 to less than 20 today. (Beryl Love, 10/26)

The CT Mirror: Healthcare Facility Fees Support Patient Care
As hospitals focus more on whole person care, population health, and preventive care to keep people healthy and out of the hospital, more services are being offered by hospitals in community settings that increase convenience and access for patients. (Paul Kidwell, 10/26)

Stat: A Surprising Way To Fix The Nursing Labor Crisis 
History was made this month as more than 75,000 workers staged the largest health care strike to ever take place in the United States. The Kaiser strike is over, for now, but there is no clear resolution in place, and other strikes are still under way or on the horizon. (Rebecca Love, 10/26)