ABC News: COVID-19 And Flu Levels Continue To Increase But CDC Director Believes US Has Hit Peak Of RSV
This is the fifth consecutive week of increasing COVID-19 hospitalizations, reaching levels not seen since the end of February. However, they remain lower than rates seen at the same time last year. ... "We think we are just at the peak [of RSV], which means we're seeing the most number of cases we expect in the season, may start to see some declines already in some of our southern and southeast states, but pretty active across the country," Dr. Mandy Cohen, CDC director, told ABC News. (Benadjaoud and Kekatos, 12/15)

CBS News: COVID And Flu Surge Could Strain Hospitals As JN.1 Variant Grows, CDC Warns 
Hospitals and emergency rooms could be forced to ration care by the end of this month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned Thursday, saying recent trends in COVID-19 and influenza are now on track to again strain America's health care system. The new COVID variant JN.1 is making up an increasing share of cases, the CDC's tracking shows."COVID-19 hospitalizations are rising quickly," the agency said in its weekly update. "Since the summer, public health officials have been tracking a rise in multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), which is caused by COVID-19. Influenza activity is growing in most parts of the country. RSV activity remains high in many areas." (Tin, 12/15)

San Francisco Chronicle: California Hospital Beds Filling Up With Sick Kids Amid Flu, RSV And COVID Surge
Hospitals and emergency rooms in California and across the nation may have to ration care by the end of the month, federal health authorities warned this week. Officials are particularly worried about an insufficient number of beds for children in pediatric hospitals and wards throughout the country as respiratory illnesses hit especially hard among Americans younger than 18 years old. (Vaziri, 12/15)

Chicago Tribune: ‘Tripledemic:’ COVID, Flu And RSV Hospitalizations Spike Nationwide
As COVID-19 hospitalizations rise across large swaths of Illinois and the nation, only about 11% of Chicago residents are up to date on vaccination against the virus. The combination is concerning to many health officials as respiratory virus season amps up and the Christmas and New Year holidays approach. (Lourgos, 12/18)

Minnesota Public Radio: Diminished Hospital Capacity While RSV, Flu And COVID-19 Continue To Rise
The latest data show the big three respiratory illnesses – Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV), Influenza (flu) and COVID-19 — on the rise in Minnesota this week. Bed space in the state’s hospitals is in short supply. Only 36 pediatric beds and another 10 pediatric intensive care beds were available in the entire state on December 12, according to the most recent data available from the Minnesota Department of Health. This comes at a time when the number of hospital admissions for RSV went up by 44 cases in one week in the Twin Cities alone. (Helmstetter and Clary, 12/15)

More on the spread of flu and covid —

CIDRAP: High-Dose Flu Vaccine May Cut Infections 15% Over Standard-Dose Version
The high-dose recombinant influenza vaccine offers more protection against flu than an egg-based standard-dose vaccine among adults aged 50 and 64 years, according to an observational cluster-randomized study published yesterday in the New England Journal of Medicine. Researchers from Kaiser Permanente Northern California immunized more than 1.6 million patients aged 18 to 64 years with either the high-dose quadrivalent (four-strain) flu vaccine (Flublok; 632,962 patients) or one of two standard-dose vaccines (997,366) in the 2018-19 and 2019-20 respiratory virus seasons. They compared the effectiveness of the vaccines against infection and hospitalization. (Van Beusekom, 12/15)

CIDRAP: Study: Physical Distancing Better At Stemming COVID-19 Than US/Mexico Border Closure
A genomic analysis of SARS-CoV-2 in San Diego and Mexico reveals that physical distancing was more effective than international border closures in containing the virus. Scripps Research scientists and colleagues sequenced more than 82,000 SARS-CoV-2 samples gathered from routine genomic surveillance in San Diego and the state of Baja California, Mexico, to reconstruct viral spread dynamics from March 2020 to the end of the first Omicron surge in December 2022. (Van Beusekom, 12/15)

Also —

Politico: EU Countries Destroy €4B Worth Of COVID Vaccines
At least 215 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines purchased by EU countries at the height of the pandemic have since been thrown away at an estimated cost to the taxpayer of €4 billion, an analysis by POLITICO reveals. And that's almost certainly an underestimate. (Martuscelli and Cokelaere, 12/18)

Reuters: Exclusive: US FDA Finds Control Lapses At Moderna Manufacturing Plant 
U.S. drug regulators in September found quality control lapses at Moderna’s (MRNA.O) main factory including with equipment used to manufacture drug substance for its COVID-19 vaccine, according to the report obtained by Reuters via a Freedom of Information Act request. The Sept. 11-21 inspection by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration took place at Moderna’s facility in Norwood, Massachusetts, which is used to manufacture the company’s COVID shot Spikevax and an experimental mRNA cancer vaccine being developed with Merck & Co. (Wingrove, 12/15)

Modern Healthcare: CMS Medicaid Maternal Health Grants Announced
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is offering states money to test Medicaid initiatives designed to tackle the maternal health crisis, the agency announced Friday. CMS will provide up to $17 million over 10 years to as many as 15 states to establish what CMS describes as a holistic approach to childbirth and postpartum care that addresses patients' physical, mental and social needs. Medicaid covers about 40% of childbirths. (Hartnett, 12/15)

On the 'unwinding' of Medicaid —

Crain's Chicago Business: Illinois Medicaid Re-Enrollment Rate Best In The U.S. 
Illinois' Medicaid renewal rate of 90% is the highest in the nation midway through the effort to clean up the rolls post-pandemic, according to data compiled in the Kaiser Family Foundation's Medicaid Enrollment & Unwinding Tracker. (Asplund, 12/15)

Denver Post: Coloradans Have Been Losing Medicaid Coverage At Pre-Pandemic Rate Following End Of Public Health Emergency
Halfway through the process of determining who still qualifies for Medicaid coverage in Colorado, recipients are getting kicked off at about the same rate they were before the pandemic. During the COVID-19 public health emergency, states received extra federal money if they kept almost everyone already in Medicaid on their rolls. Under normal circumstances, the state would run annual checks to determine whether recipients still qualified based on their income, disabilities, pregnancy status, or other factors. (Wingerter, 12/18)

AP: Families Say Autism Therapy Helped Their Kids. Indiana's Medicaid Cuts Could Put It Out Of Reach
Shaunna Thompson was running out of childcare options. Her daughter Abbie was expelled from daycare in 2022 because of “all over the place” behavior. Thompson found an in-home provider for the toddler, but was told Abbie was “too much” to watch every day of the week. The experiences motivated Thompson to seek assistance for her daughter, who also was missing developmental milestones. Abbie, now 3, was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder in October of last year. (Volmert, 12/17)

In Medicare news —

Bloomberg: HCSC, Elevance Compete For Cigna Medicare Advantage Unit
Health Care Service Corp. and Elevance Health Inc. are competing to acquire Cigna Group’s business providing medical coverage to people aged 65 and over, people with knowledge of the matter said. Bloomfield, Connecticut-based Cigna expects final bids for its Medicare Advantage business to be submitted next week, according to the people. The asset may fetch more than $3 billion, they said. (Davis and Monks, 12/15)

Axios: Medicare Urges Payers To Keep Cash Flowing To Pharmacies
Medicare officials are urging health plans and other payers not to put pharmacies in a cash squeeze when a new policy kicks in that may reduce how much they're paid upfront for dispensing drugs. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services wrote to pharmacy benefit managers and insurers Thursday suggesting they make special payment arrangements with pharmacies before the policy takes effect on Jan. 1. (Goldman, 12/15)

Politico: Conservatives Move To Keep Abortion Off The 2024 Ballot 
Conservatives are testing new tactics to keep abortion off the ballot following a series of high-profile defeats. In Arizona, Florida, Nevada and other states, several anti-abortion groups are buying TV and digital ads, knocking on doors and holding events to persuade people against signing petitions to put the issue before voters in November. Republicans are also appealing to state courts to keep referendums off the ballot, while GOP lawmakers in states including Missouri and Oklahoma are pushing to raise the threshold for an amendment to pass or to make it to the ballot in the first place. (Ollstein and Messerly, 12/18)

The Hill: Democrats See 2024 Campaign Issue In Texas Abortion Case
The Texas Supreme Court’s recent decision to block a Dallas woman from terminating a troubled pregnancy has cast a bright new light on GOP efforts to ban abortions and kindled a new fire under outraged Democrats, who are vowing to make the issue a central element of their 2024 campaign message. (Lillis, 12/18)

The New York Times: Why Democracy Hasn’t Settled The Abortion Question 
Republican-controlled legislatures, shocked by the results of ballot measures that put the question of abortion directly to the people, are trying to make those measures harder to pass, and even abolish them as an option. The issue is now in a different set of courts, in the states, where anti-abortion groups have searched out like-minded judges in an attempt to take abortion pills off the market. Last week, the United States Supreme Court — the black robes who were supposed to have put themselves out of the business of deciding abortion — announced that it would take that case. And some of the same Republicans who once argued that abortion should be settled by the will of the people in the states now argue that what is needed is for Congress to pass a uniform federal law. (Zernike, 12/18)

CBS News: Florida Abortion Measure Tops 753K Signatures 
A proposed constitutional amendment aimed at ensuring abortion rights got a boost in petition signatures during the past week. The Florida Division of Elections website Friday showed 753,306 valid petition signatures for the measure, up from 687,700 a week earlier. The political committee Floridians Protecting Freedom, which is sponsoring the measure, will need to submit at least 891,523 valid signatures statewide and meet signature requirements in at least half of the state's congressional districts to get on the November 2024 ballot. The committee faces a Feb. 1 deadline for meeting the requirements. (12/15)

Fox News: Former Trump Adviser Kellyanne Conway Leads Charge To Overhaul GOP Abortion Strategy, End Dems’ 2024 Advantage
Republican strategist and former Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway is leading the charge to shift the GOP's messaging strategy on abortion and contraceptives ahead of the 2024 election. (Gillespie, 12/17)

Abortion news from Wyoming, Ohio, and Texas —

Houston Chronicle: After Texas Abortion Ruling Adds To Confusion, Will The State’s Medical Board Step In?
But the medical board has so far been silent on how physicians should navigate the legal gray areas around patients like Kate Cox, the 31-year-old Dallas woman, despite requests from people on both sides of the abortion debate. And in a phone call with Hearst Newspapers, Dr. Sherif Zaafran, the president of the board, said it would be impractical to weigh in on specific situations. “We can’t put up every single hypothetical scenario that’s out there,” Zaafran said. “At the end of the day, what you can reference is what the attorney general put out there, and that’s what we put on our website.” (Gill, 12/15)

Time: That Texas Abortion Case Is Even Worse Than You Think
So much of the national conversation this week has been about Kate Cox, the 31-year-old mom who had to flee Texas to have an abortion to end a doomed pregnancy as the state's Supreme Court slowly decided to substitute its judgment for her doctor’s advice. But what’s been missing from most of the talk about this case is this reality: Texas has at least three separate laws on the books designed to make getting an abortion nearly impossible. Those overlapping, vague statutes not only create one of the most restrictive environments in the country for reproductive rights, but shaped Cox’s case in ways that many following her ordeal likely missed. (Elliott, 12/15)

KHOL/ Jackson Hole Community Radio: Future Of Abortion In Wyoming Remains Undecided
A Teton County judge heard four hours of arguments on Thursday in the state’s ongoing legal battle over abortion access. But Wyoming Ninth District Court Judge Melissa Owens did not issue a ruling, citing “complex constitutional issues.” (Merzbach, 12/15)

AP: An Order Blocking Ohio's Abortion Ban Still Stands After A State Supreme Court Action
The Ohio Supreme Court has dismissed the state’s challenge to a judge’s order that has blocked enforcement of Ohio’s near-ban on abortions for the past 14 months. The ruling moves action in the case back to Hamilton County Common Pleas, where abortion clinics asked Judge Christian Jenkins this week to throw out the law following voters’ decision to approve enshrining abortion rights in the state constitution. (12/16)

NBC4: Lack Of Funding Forces Ohio's Abortion Fund To Temporarily Close
Hardly a week after a monumental win for abortion rights supporters came into effect in Ohio, the state’s sole abortion fund has closed until February due to a lack of funding. What was supposed to be a break until the new year has extended to a six-week closure of the Abortion Fund of Ohio, which provides financial, logistical and emotional support to people seeking abortions. After a record-breaking year, both in number of patients served and amount of money given, Lexi Dotson-Dufault, executive director of the fund, said money – and the large-scale donors behind it – has dried up. (Szilagy, 12/18)

AP: A Black Ohio Woman Was Charged With A Felony After A Miscarriage At Home
Ohio was in the throes of a bitter debate over abortion rights this fall when Brittany Watts, 21 weeks and 5 days pregnant, began passing thick blood clots. The 33-year-old Watts, who had not shared the news of her pregnancy even with her family, made her first prenatal visit to a doctor’s office behind Mercy Health-St. Joseph’s Hospital in Warren, a working-class city about 60 miles (100 kilometers) southeast of Cleveland. (Carr Smyth, 12/16)

ABC News: Meet 18 Women Who Shared Heartbreaking Pregnancy Journeys In Post-Roe World
In a monthslong investigation, 18 women from across 10 states shared their deeply personal stories, chronicling their heartbreaking journeys and how, in some cases, they were brought to the brink of death because they couldn't access timely care in their home states. (El-Bawab, Scott, Ng, and Nunes, 12/16)

The Washington Post: An Alarming Number Of Assisted-Living Residents Die After Wandering Away Unnoticed
The alarms went off at 9:34 p.m. inside Courtyard Estates at Hawthorne Crossing, an assisted-living facility near Des Moines catering to people with dementia. A resident had wandered through an exit door, a routine event in America’s growing senior assisted-living industry. Automated texts pinged the iPads of the two caretakers working the night shift, and the phones of an on-call nurse and the facility’s director. The warnings repeated every few minutes. (Rowland, Frankel, Torbati, Weil, Whoriskey and Rich, 12/17)

In other health care industry news —

Stat: Life Science Postdocs Should Get Big Pay Hike, NIH Panel Says
A National Institutes of Health working group on Friday recommended a sizable increase in salaries of postdoctoral researchers and a cap on the length of the position in an effort to secure the future of academia’s research workforce amid an unprecedented exodus of young life scientists to industry. (Wosen, 12/15)

Becker's Hospital Review: New Orleans Saints, Pelicans Owner's Donation To Fund New Ochsner Hospital
Gayle Benson, owner of the New Orleans Saints and the Pelicans, made an undisclosed donation to New Orleans-based Ochsner Health for a new pediatric hospital. The five-story, 343,000-square-foot hospital will be named after Ms. Benson and her late husband, Tom Benson. Ochsner expects to break ground on the hospital in mid-2024 and open in 2027, according to an Ochsner news posting. (Schwartz, 12/15)

Modern Healthcare: Elevance, Blue Cross Of Louisiana Revive $2.5B Merger Bid
Elevance Health's $2.5 billion acquisition of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana may be back on. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana filed a new application with state regulators to convert from a nonprofit to a for-profit company Thursday. Elevance Health announced its intention to acquire the smaller insurer in January, but the parties suspended the deal in September amid concerns from policyholders and regulators about how the conversion would impact Louisiana's' healthcare market. (Tepper, 12/15)

Becker's Hospital Review: Dartmouth Health Makes $5M Donation To Homeowners Fund
Lebanon, N.H.-based Dartmouth Health gave an additional $2 million to the Community Loan Fund, an organization that provides financing and education to help residents of manufactured-home communities run their parks. The most recent donation brings its total donation to the loan fund to $5 million. The donation makes the health system the largest in-state investor in the fund. The fund also offers 30-year, fixed-rate manufactured home mortgages to low-wealth buyers. Dartmouth Health officials view access to housing as a key part of personal and community health, according to a Dec. 14 Dartmouth Health news release. (Schwartz, 12/15)

Also —

CNN: Medical Student Sally Rohan Discovers Own Thyroid Cancer During Ultrasound Class
With a pink, week-old surgical wound etched across a few inches of her neck, medical student Sally Rohan said somehow, she’d never had a scar until now. “This is my first,” Rohan, a second-year medical student at the New Jersey-based Rowan-Virtua School of Osteopathic Medicine, told CNN on Thursday. “I don’t know how I’ve gone through life so unscathed that I’ve never had a scar until it was this massive one on my neck at 27 (years old).” Rohan, originally from Ukiah, California, had an operation on December 6 to remove her entire thyroid gland after a class about ultrasounds alerted her to what was later diagnosed as thyroid cancer, she said. (Williams, 12/17)

CNN: Pharmacists Say They Can’t Do Their Jobs Safely. Here’s What That Means Legally
 It’s every pharmacist’s worst fear: To come home from a busy day at work and realize that they failed to consult with a patient about a potentially dangerous interaction, or filled a prescription incorrectly. Workers at chain pharmacies across the US have told CNN that increased demand for prescriptions, shots and other services without sufficient staff to fulfill those orders has made it nearly impossible for the workers to do their jobs properly and has created potentially unsafe conditions for customers. (Goodkind, 12/17)

On weight-loss drugs —

Reuters: Novo Owner Commits $265 Mln Of Wegovy Windfall To Respiratory Diseases
The Novo Nordisk Foundation, which controls drug maker Novo Nordisk (NOVOb.CO), said on Monday it would commit up to 1.8 billion Danish crowns ($265 million) to setting up an initiative aimed at improving vaccines for respiratory diseases. A huge windfall from the runaway success of Novo Nordisk's weight-loss drug Wegovy has bulged coffers of the foundation, potentially making it a major philanthropist and environmental, social and governance (ESG) investor. (Gronholt-pedersen, 12/18)

Axios: Ozempic At Christmas: Why Some Are Taking A Holiday Pause From GLP-1 Medication
Wanting to enjoy Christmas cookies and other holiday treats, some people on diabetes and weight management drugs like Ozempic are considering a pause in treatment. Doctors caution that stopping and starting the medications known as GLP-1 agonists can lead to unwanted side effects like nausea — and can contradict the way the drugs are meant to be used. (Mallenbaum and Tyko, 12/17)

CNBC: Weight Loss Drugs: 2024 Expectations For Wegovy, Ozempic, Zepbound
Weight loss drugs exploded into the public eye this year, and 2024 will bring more change to the evolving market. The drugs skyrocketed in popularity in 2023 as they helped patients shed significant weight, despite hefty price tags, mixed insurance coverage and a handful of unpleasant side effects. Demand for the drugs is unlikely to slow down in 2024, especially as treatments gradually become more accessible. (Constantino, 12/17)

In other pharmaceutical industry news —

The Wall Street Journal: Illumina To Shed Cancer-Test Maker Grail After Antitrust Battle
Gene-sequencing company Illumina said Sunday it will divest itself of cancer blood test maker Grail, following Illumina’s loss in its legal battle against U.S. antitrust regulators.Illumina said it will pursue the divestiture through a third-party sale or capital markets transaction, with a goal of completing terms by the middle of next year. (Loftus, 12/17)

Stat: Why Stealth BioTherapeutics May Give Up On Its Ultra-Rare Disease Drug
Jamie Dubuque faces the future with a mixture of gratitude and trepidation. Her son, Declan, who turns 2 years old in January, survived a life-threatening episode of cardiac arrest that sent him to a hospital emergency room a year ago. But since being diagnosed with an ultra-rare disease, he has been treated with an experimental medicine that has transformed his day-to-day existence. (Silverman, 12/18)

Stat: CVS-Oak Street And The Other Major Health Care Deals Of 2023
Every year, the health care industry behaves more and more like a balloon: Squeeze one side, and the other expands. Companies that were once just insurers or just pharmacies are tacking on new business lines. The idea is that when profit inevitably gets squeezed in one, it’ll expand in another. (Herman and Bannow, 12/17)

—

Axios: Trump Embraces Medical Conspiracies To Attack Big Pharma
In his first campaign for president, Donald Trump tapped into bipartisan anger over high drug prices to bash pharmaceutical companies. In his latest run, Trump's echoing the extreme elements of his party to suggest the industry's products may be hurting Americans, particularly children. The GOP frontrunner's airing of unfounded, innuendo-filled claims about the pharmaceutical industry could undermine public health. And it reflects how deeply mistrust of health institutions and anti-science rhetoric have become embedded within a sizable faction of the Republican party following the pandemic. (Owens, 12/18)

Axios: How FDA Could Boost Gender-Affirming Care For Trans Patients Despite State Restrictions
An effort to get the Food and Drug Administration's approval of hormone therapies for gender-affirming treatment could help preserve patients' access to the therapies as states restrict them. For years, transgender patients have received hormone therapies "off label" — a common medical practice in which doctors prescribe treatments for a use the agency hasn't approved. (Goldman, 12/15)

The Washington Post: Girls Bear The Brunt Of New HIV Infections, Assessment Suggests
Girls are more than twice as likely to contract HIV than their male counterparts, a recent UNICEF analysis suggests. The agency says nearly 98,000 adolescent girls were infected with HIV in 2022 alone. The data, released as part of an annual snapshot on children and HIV/AIDS, suggests that gender inequality, limited access to health care and a dearth of educational programs put girls at particular risk for HIV worldwide. Although the analysis found “tremendous gains” in HIV prevention and treatment, it notes that 71 percent of new infections among adolescents ages 10 to 19 are among girls. (Blakemore, 12/17)

The Boston Globe: Health Care For The Homeless Slashed HIV Rates Among Drug Users
Three years ago, amid an alarming spike in HIV infections, Boston’s largest homeless service provider took what it called a “simple yet radical” approach to combating the virus’s spread among an especially vulnerable population of homeless drug users. Nurses with the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program fanned out on city streets and began handing out antiretroviral pills to people whom the nonprofit knew were infected with the disease and were struggling with substance use. Those unsure of whether they had HIV were tested for the virus outside — on street corners, park benches, and tent encampments — without ever needing to schedule a doctor’s appointment or set foot in a clinic. (Serres, 12/15)

Alerts issued for norovirus, salmonella, and more —

NBC News: Norovirus Outbreak Traced To North Carolina Sushi Restaurant Sickens 241
A norovirus outbreak linked to a North Carolina sushi restaurant has sickened at least 241 people since late last month, local health authorities said Thursday. Before falling ill, all the victims had visited Sushi Nine in Raleigh between Nov. 28 and Dec. 5, according to Wake County’s public health and environmental services departments. (Li, 12/15)

AP: Quaker Oats Recalls Granola Products Over Risk Of Salmonella Contamination
Quaker Oats on Friday recalled several of its granola products, including granola bars and cereals, saying the foods could be contaminated with salmonella. Salmonella infections can cause fever, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting and stomach pain, according to the Food and Drug Administration. In rare cases, the bacterial disease can be fatal. Quaker, which is owned by PepsiCo, said in a news release that it has not received any reports of salmonella infections related to the recalled granola products. The full list of recalled foods includes granola oats cereals and Quaker Chewy Bars, which are also sold in PepsiCo’s snack mixes. (12/16)

The New York Times: Lead Levels In Children’s Applesauce May Be Traced To Cinnamon Additive 
With dozens of children across the United States suffering from lead poisoning, federal regulators are now investigating whether the culprit is cinnamon that was added to some popular applesauce pouches, and if lead had been added somewhere along the global supply chain, either to enhance the spice’s reddish color or to add weight. In November, the Food and Drug Administration announced a national recall of three million pouches of cinnamon applesauce made in Ecuador and sold at dollar stores and other outlets under the WanaBana, Schnucks and Weis brand names. (Jewett and Creswell, 12/15)

KFF Health News: Mysterious Morel Mushrooms At Center Of Food Poisoning Outbreak
A food poisoning outbreak that killed two people and sickened 51, stemming from a Montana restaurant, has highlighted just how little is known about morel mushrooms and the risks in preparing the popular and expensive delicacy. The FDA conducted an investigation into morel mushrooms after the severe illness outbreak linked to Dave’s Sushi in Bozeman in late March and April. The investigation found that undercooked or raw morels were the likely culprit, and it led the agency to issue its first guidelines on preparing morels. (Larson, 12/18)

More health and wellness news —

Fox News: Brown Seaweed Consumption Could Help Type 2 Diabetes Management, Study Shows
Brown seaweed could be a great nutritional supplement for some diabetes patients. A new South Korean study, published in the journal Nutrients, revealed that eating certain algae could be a promising strategy for blood glucose management. Researchers at the Seoul National University of Science and Technology, within the Department of Food Science and Biotechnology, investigated how different diets have been recommended for type 2 diabetes management. (Stabile, 12/15)

The Wall Street Journal: Good News: You Don’t Have To Sleep With Your Spouse
Ever tried to get a good night’s sleep with your partner snoring or tossing around restlessly next to you? You’re gonna like this: Therapists and sleep scientists say it’s OK for couples to sleep apart as a growing body of research shows the striking importance of sleep. It’s a reversal from the long-held marriage tenet that once partners move to separate beds, the romance is dead. (Bernstein, 12/16)

The New York Times: Tongue Tie Surgery: Inside The Business Of Cutting Babies’ Tongues
Tess Merrell had breastfed three babies and never expected trouble with her fourth. But after a month of struggling with her newborn, she hired Melanie Henstrom for help. Ms. Henstrom, a lactation consultant, identified a culprit: The infant’s tongue was tethered to the bottom of her mouth. It was a common problem, she said, and could be fixed with a quick procedure at a dentist’s office. “It was touted as this miracle cure,” said Ms. Merrell, a high school soccer coach in Boise, Idaho. (Thomas, Kliff and Silver-Greenberg, 12/18)

St. Louis Public Radio: Missouri Starts Statewide Prescription Monitoring Database
Missouri this week became the last state in the nation to put a statewide prescription drug monitoring service in place as its new database went online. Prescription drug monitoring programs allow health workers to compile patients’ drug history in an electronic database. Dentists, doctors, pharmacists and other professionals who dispense controlled substances now will be required to enter patient and prescription information into the database. (Fentem, 12/15)

More health news from across the U.S. —

The New York Times: New York City Moves To Ban Solitary Confinement, Defying Mayor Adams
The city’s public advocate, Jumaane Williams, who is a sponsor of the bill, said that isolating detainees was cruel and that the bill still allowed for people to be separated when needed. “Losing privileges is something that is understandable,” he said. “Losing a basic human right shouldn’t be.” Solitary confinement, also known as punitive segregation, is the practice of holding a detainee alone in a cell for most of the day as punishment. The bill would ban the practice beyond a four-hour “de-escalation” period during an emergency. Correction officers would be required to check on detainees every 15 minutes during that period and refer health concerns to medical staff. (Fitzsimmons, 12/18)

Modern Healthcare: Walgreens’ VillageMD To Close Indiana Clinics, Exit Market
Walgreens-backed VillageMD is exiting Indiana. The primary care provider plans to shutter all 12 of its Village Medical practices across the state, effective Jan. 19, a VillageMD spokesperson confirmed Friday. Some of the locations are co-located with Walgreens stores, but the stores are not closing, the spokesperson said. (Hudson, 12/15)

Stat: Lawsuit: New Jersey's Telehealth Restrictions Cut Off Access To Lifesaving Care
Since states started rolling back pandemic-inspired flexibilities that allowed physicians to easily practice telehealth across state lines, virtual health care providers have criticized state-based medical licensure rules as unnecessarily burdensome, expensive, and detrimental to patient care. Now, two of them are arguing in a lawsuit that they can also be unconstitutional. (Palmer, 12/18)

The Hill: Hepatitis Epidemic Hits Hawaii Harder Than Other States
Viral hepatitis C is curable. Hepatitis B is treatable. Both are preventable — so, why does one U.S. state have such high rates of it? Did you know that Hawaii has higher liver cancer mortality due to hepatitis B and C than the continental United States? "When we look at hepatitis B, and hepatitis C specifically, we also see higher death rates of both of those compared to the continental U.S.,” says Hawaii Department of Health’s Viral Hepatitis Prevention Coordinator Thaddeus Pham. “People who die from hepatitis in Hawaii — hepatitis C specifically — can die up to 20 years earlier than residents in the rest of the state.” (Harjo-Livingston, 12/16)

WUSF: Tampa Is Bringing A Water Filtration System To The U.S. That Will Help Remove Forever Chemicals
Tampa officials are bringing a new technology to the U.S. that removes organic matter from drinking water, and it's supposed to make it easier to filter out forever chemicals, known as PFAS. The city gets its water from the Hillsborough River and is hoping to remove things like decaying vegetation through a Dutch technology called Suspended Ion Exchange, or SIX. The initial installation at the David L. Tippin Water Treatment Facility will cost $200 million and should be done by 2032. Once completed, it’s expected to be the first in the U.S. and largest in the world. (Meszaros, 12/15)

Los Angeles Times: After Monterey Park Shooting, Pastor Tried To De-Stigmatize Therapy For Asian Immigrants
Eric Chen never met Yu Lun Kao. But in February, he helped bury the 72-year-old ballroom dancer known to his friends as “Mr. Nice.” Kao, who went by Andy, was shielding his longtime dance partner from the hail of bullets when he was killed during the shooting at Star Ballroom Dance Studio in Monterey Park. He’d been a fixture in the dance community since immigrating from Taiwan two decades ago. (Lin, 12/17)

KFF Health News: In New Year, All Immigrants In California May Qualify For Medicaid Regardless Of Legal Status
Milagro, a Peruvian immigrant in Riverside County, California, has had spotty access to health care in the two decades she’s been in this country. The 48-year-old, who works as the office manager at a nonprofit, can get emergency care through a narrow set of benefits the state makes available to immigrants without legal residency. And she has been able to get mammograms, X-rays, and blood tests at clinics that charge according to income. But it can take a long time to get such appointments, and they are often far from home. (Wolfson, 12/18)

The Wall Street Journal: Matthew Perry’s Death Darkens Ketamine’s Startup Glow
Matthew Perry’s death from the effects of ketamine brought new scrutiny to the booming business to prescribe the powerful anesthetic to patients in clinics and online. Perry was receiving ketamine infusions for depression and anxiety before he was found unresponsive in the pool at his Pacific Palisades, Calif., home on Oct. 28. Drowning, coronary artery disease and effects of buprenorphine, a medication used to treat opioid-use disorder, contributed to his accidental death, the autopsy report released on Friday said. (Winkler and Abbott, 12/16)

Los Angeles Times: What Is Ketamine, The Drug Cited In Matthew Perry's Death
The finding by the Los Angeles County medical examiner that “Friends” star Matthew Perry died from “acute effects” of ketamine is generating interest in the drug. Ketamine is generally safe when taken under medical supervision, experts said, but the Perry case also underscores potential risks. Here are some basics about the drug from Times reporting ... (Alpert Reyes and Winton, 12/16)

USA Today: What Are Ketamine Infusion Clinics Where Matthew Perry Sought Help
The ketamine infusion actor Matthew Perry received days before his Oct. 28 death has become a popular mental health treatment across the U.S. A lower dose of the traditional anesthetic has been used to treat symptoms of depression, typically via IV in clinics. Research has shown its promise, though experts have noted the clinics haven't been as regulated. (Cuevas and Nurse, 12/17)

On the use of kratom —

Tampa Bay Times: Kratom’s Path Across The US Is Marked By Deception And Secrets
By the time these products reach Florida consumers like Franka, suppliers and manufacturers have taken elaborate measures to evade regulators and avoid detection, a Tampa Bay Times investigation has found. Hundreds of businesses make up America’s kratom industry. The Times traced the steps along the trail, focusing on O.P.M.S., one of the country’s most popular names. It has roughly a dozen kratom products on the market, ranging from dried leaf powders to potent liquid shots. (Critchfield, Freund and Taylor, 12/17)

In other news on drug abuse and mental health —

San Francisco Chronicle: ‘People Are Dying On Their Watch’: Newsom Slams Counties For Conservatorship Delay
Gov. Gavin Newsom said he’ll work with lawmakers to push California counties to more quickly adopt a new state law that expands the number of people who can be forced into mental health and addiction treatment amid news that many counties are opting to delay. (Newsom, 12/15)

Philadelphia Inquirer: Jails Can't Deny Addiction Medicine To Inmates, Justice Department Says
Jails that limit access to addiction treatment medications are likely discriminating against disabled people and violating federal law, Philadelphia’s top federal law enforcement official says. A lawsuit brought by a Delaware County man who was allegedly denied his prescribed methadone in the county’s jail has the support of Jacqueline Romero, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. In court filings this week, she said jails must improve access to medication treatment options for opioid addiction. (Whelan, 12/15)

Columbus Dispatch: Drug Overdoses Dropped 5% In Ohio In 2022
The number of Ohioans who died from unintentional drug overdoses dropped 5% in 2022, according to a report released by the Ohio Department of Health. While the nation saw a slight increase of 1% in overdose deaths last year, there were 4,915 unintentional drug overdoses in Ohio in 2022, a drop from the state's 2021 record of 5,174. (Meighan, 12/15)

KFF Health News: ‘They See A Cash Cow’: Corporations Could Consume $50 Billion Of Opioid Settlements
The marketing pitches are bold and arriving fast: Invest opioid settlement dollars in a lasso-like device to help police detain people without Tasers or pepper spray. Pour money into psychedelics, electrical stimulation devices, and other experimental treatments for addiction. Fund research into new, supposedly abuse-deterrent opioids and splurge on expensive, brand-name naloxone. These pitches land daily in the inboxes of state and local officials in charge of distributing more than $50 billion from settlements in opioid lawsuits. (Pattani, 12/18)

The Washington Post: Pilots Hide Mental Health Problems So They Don’t ‘Lose Their Wings’
The commercial airline pilot kept his condition a secret for years. He was supposed to inform the Federal Aviation Administration that he was seeing a therapist for anxiety and depression, but he couldn’t bring himself to share his despair. He was afraid of the repercussions. “I lied to the FAA about the treatment I was receiving because that would have opened a can of worms. I would have been grounded until I was better,” said the 31-year-old first officer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because his airline did not authorize him to talk with journalists. “It is very easy to just not tell them what’s going on.” (Sachs, 12/15)

The Washington Post: WHO Denounces ‘Effective Destruction’ Of Kamal Adwan Hospital
The World Health Organization is “appalled by the effective destruction” of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on social media, adding that it was a “severe blow” to a health system “already on its knees.” The besieged enclave is now fertile ground for disease, The Washington Post reported, with the WHO particularly concerned about the spread of bloody diarrhea, jaundice and respiratory infections. (12/18)

Reuters: Gaza's Al Shifa Hospital A 'Bloodbath' Says WHO
Gaza's Al Shifa hospital is providing only basic trauma stabilization, has no blood for transfusions and hardly any staff to care for a constant flow of patients, the World Health Organization said on Sunday. After a U.N. visit to deliver medicines and surgical supplies, the team described the emergency department in the enclave's main health facility as resembling a "bloodbath". The WHO said there were hundreds of wounded patients, with new ones arriving by the minute and trauma injuries being stitched on the floor, with almost no pain management available. (Al-Mughrabi, 12/17)

The Wall Street Journal: U.N. Calls For Investigation Of Deaths At Hospital That Israel Says Was Hamas Command Center
United Nations officials called for an investigation into an Israeli military raid on a Gaza hospital during which patients died and the armed forces said they detained scores of Hamas militants and recovered a trove of weapons and other military equipment, some of which officials said was hidden inside an infant incubator and a resuscitation station for newborns. Israeli forces withdrew from Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza on Saturday after entering the facility on Tuesday. The U.N. Human Rights Office said it was calling for an investigation of what transpired during the raid, citing allegations from medical staff that patients had died because of the conditions in the facility. (AbdulKarim, Shah and Stancati, 12/17)

Reuters: Rights Group Accuses Israel Of 'Starvation' Tactic In Gaza 
A global rights group accused Israel on Monday of committing a war crime by starving people in the Gaza Strip who continued to face relentless attacks in the war with Hamas militants. ... U.S.-based Human Right Watch (HRW) said Israeli forces were deliberately blocking delivery of water, food and fuel, razing agricultural areas and depriving Gaza's 2.3 million people of items needed for survival. (Masoud, Chacar and Al-Mughrabi, 12/18)

CNN: How I Wound Up Giving Birth At Home 
 It was a little after 6 p.m. on Sunday, August 15, 2021, and things were about to get real. The mild discomfort I had been feeling for days was suddenly noticeable enough to stop me in my tracks: I was in labor. (Abby Phillip, 12/16)

Also —

The Atlantic: Texas Becomes An Abortion Dystopia
Kate Cox is a mother of two young children, and in that respect, she’s like the majority of women—60 percent—who seek an abortion. She wants to have a third child, but if the state of Texas had its way, it’s possible none of her children would have a mother at all. (Adam Serwer, 12/18)

The New York Times: Texas’s Anti-Abortion Law Is Doing What It Was Designed To Do 
Many people were shocked when the Texas Supreme Court intervened recently to stop Kate Cox from getting an abortion in the state — an abortion needed to protect her health and future fertility after her fetus was diagnosed with a severe fetal anomaly in her second trimester. She ultimately traveled out of state to get the abortion she needed. As someone who has been studying state abortion definitions and exceptions in the wake of Roe v. Wade’s demise, I was not shocked. (Greer Donley, 12/17)

The New York Times: Supreme Contempt For Women 
Ireland was shaken to its core in 2012 by the death of Savita Halappanavar, a beautiful, sparkling 31-year-old Indian immigrant, a dentist married to an Indian engineer. Savita was expecting her first child. She wore a new dress for the baby shower and prayed for the future. But that night she got sick. She went to a Galway hospital, where she was crushed to learn that her fetal membranes were bulging and her 17-week-old fetus would not survive. (Maureen Dowd, 12/16)

The New York Times: I Was A Doctor In Iraq. I Am Seeing A Nightmare Play Out Again
I started training to be a doctor in the aftermath of the gulf war. It was a dark time to commit to a career of healing. U.S. sanctions and relentless bombings had decimated our medical infrastructure and endangered our access to medical supplies. Surrounded by devastation, we fought to heal, to operate, to comfort — often with the barest of resources. Every day was a battle in itself, trying to save lives as our facilities crumbled around us. (Omar Dewachi, 12/16)

Newsweek: Caregivers Are Invisible. They Shouldn't Be 
Eight years ago, I unexpectedly joined the other 38 million unpaid caregivers in the United States. The AARP estimates that 11.5 percent of the U.S. population are caring for family members in 2023. We are many, and somehow, we are still grossly overlooked and under supported in nearly every way. (Emma Nadler, 12/18)

Stat: The Current State Of Patient Advocacy Needs Reform 
When faced with a loved one’s progressive neurodegenerative disease, like Alzheimer’s, or your child’s rare respiratory disease, you question why researchers and resource-backed pharma cannot bring a drug to market quickly enough to help your loved ones. Many people faced with this horror get involved to fight for better treatments. (Jon Hu, 12/18)

Modern Healthcare: Modern Healthcare Is Evolving Along With The Industry
It’s been a year of incredible change in healthcare, and there’s no reason to expect 2024 to be any different. (Mary Ellen Podmolik, 12/18)

Stat: WHO Finally Recognizes Noma As A Neglected Tropical Disease 
Fidel Strub was 3 years old when his face began rotting away. “It’s hell. It’s like you have a burning face,” he told me. “You can’t even open your eyes because it’s just that bad. It’s just burning.” No one in his village in the West African country of Burkina Faso knew what was happening to him. His grandmother took him almost 200 miles for evaluation at a clinic, where, he said, the doctor “had absolutely no hope” that he would survive. This past summer, I had the chance to speak with Strub and several others to learn more about the little-known disease noma. (John Button, 12/16)