AP: What GOP's Plan For Medicaid Work Requirements Would Mean 
More than a half million of the poorest Americans could be left without health insurance under legislation passed by House Republicans that would require people to work in exchange for health care coverage through Medicaid. It’s one of dozens of provisions tucked into a GOP bill that would allow for an increase in the debt limit but curb government spending over the next decade. The bill is unlikely to become law, though. It is being used by House Republicans to draw Democrats to the negotiating table and avoid a debt default. (Seitz, 4/30)

The Hill: Attention Turns To The Senate After House GOP Passes Debt Limit Bill
Attention will turn to the Senate this week as the standoff over raising the debt ceiling continues, with pressure mounting on the upper chamber to act after House Republicans cleared a bill that would raise the borrowing limit and implement spending cuts. The House GOP bill — which marked the conference’s opening salvo in debt limit negotiations — put the ball in the Senate’s court as the stalemate over the borrowing limit drags on. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) has said the measure is “dead on arrival,” but House Republicans are now pushing the chamber to respond to their legislative offer. (Schnell, 5/1)

The Hill: GOP Furious At VA Claiming Debt Bill Cuts Veteran Benefits: ‘Shamelessly Lying’ 
House Republicans are fuming over the Department of Veterans’ Affairs claiming that the GOP’s debt limit and spending cut bill would endanger services and benefits for veterans. “In my nine years as a member of Congress, I have never seen the use of an agency that is so vitally important to so many people be used as a political hammer, to deliver a message that is false, so that it would stir people up to cause our veterans to be used as pawns in a political game,” House Veterans Affairs’ Committee Chairman Mike Bost (R-Ill.) said in a press call on Sunday afternoon. (Brooks, 4/30)

In other news from Capitol Hill —

CIDRAP: US Lawmakers Hold Hearing On Antimicrobial Resistance 
Experts in infectious diseases and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) were on Capitol Hill [Friday] to discuss the rising threat of drug-resistant pathogens to the US healthcare system and federal efforts to address the issue. At a hearing held by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, the experts focused on the need for new antibiotics and antibiotic stewardship, more and better diagnostic tests, more infectious disease (ID) professionals, and better data on the prevalence of AMR in US healthcare facilities. (Dall, 4/28)

The New York Times: Alito Says He Has ‘Pretty Good Idea’ Who Leaked Supreme Court Abortion Ruling 
Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., the author of the majority opinion that overruled Roe v. Wade last June, told The Wall Street Journal’s opinion pages that he had “a pretty good idea who is responsible” for leaking a draft of his opinion to Politico. Justice Alito added that he did not have “the level of proof that is needed to name somebody.” That echoed language in the Supreme Court’s report on its investigation of the leak, which said that “investigators have been unable to determine at this time, using a preponderance of the evidence standard, the identity of the person(s) who disclosed the draft majority opinion.” (Liptak, 4/28)

Read the editorial —

The Wall Street Journal: Justice Samuel Alito: ‘This Made Us Targets Of Assassination’ 
The author of the Dobbs abortion ruling answers attacks on the court’s ‘legitimacy.’ He says he thinks he knows who leaked the draft and is certain about the motive. (James Taranto and David B. Rivkin Jr., 4/28)

In other abortion news —

Salt Lake Tribune: Judge Waits On Utah Abortion Clinic Ban Ruling
Days before a ban on abortion clinics would put a halt to most abortions in Utah, a district court judge said he’ll make a decision as to whether to enjoin the law next week. Planned Parenthood Association of Utah asked Third District Court Judge Andrew Stone to put the law on hold at the beginning of April — one month before its May 3 effective date. Gov. Spencer Cox signed HB467, “Abortion Changes,” into law on March 15. (Anderson Stern, 4/28)

Wyoming Public Radio: Casper Clinic That Provides Abortions Opens After Eleven-Month Delay
Wyoming now has a clinic that provides surgical abortions. The Casper reproductive health clinic opened its doors last week, but its opening was delayed by about 11 months because it was torched by an arsonist one month before its planned opening. Wellspring Health Access Clinic Founder Julie Burkhart said it was just about ready to open. (Kudelska, 4/28)

CBS News: Louisiana Doctors Detail Unintended Consequences Of State's Abortion Ban
"I am more likely to die than my mother was in childbirth. So as a country, our outcomes are getting worse," Dr. Rebekah Gee, an OB-GYN and a former secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health, told 60 Minutes. (Zubrow, 4/30)

Houston Chronicle: Mifepristone Ban: Potential Impacts On Texas Miscarriage Treatment
The first two miscarriages were difficult enough for Ellen, a Houston woman in her 40s. The next two, late last year, were harder. In both instances, the excitement of hearing a faint heartbeat during an early checkup turned to dread two weeks later when the pulse had stopped.  She turned to Planned Parenthood for access to the two-drug combination of mifepristone and misoprostol, which are commonly used for abortions, to empty her uterus. (Gill, 4/29)

Axios: RNC Chair On Abortion: Republicans Must Address Issue "Head On" In 2024
Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel said Sunday GOP 2024 presidential election candidates must directly address the issue of abortion. Driving the news: Abortion emerged as a key issue at the Midterm Elections following the conservative-dominated Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade last year, as Democrats won key seats on abortion rights platforms and voters in three states approved protections for the procedure. (Falconer, 5/1)

Also —

The New York Times: Dr. LeRoy Carhart, Fierce Defender Of Abortion Rights, Dies At 81 
LeRoy Carhart, a Midwestern doctor who became an archnemesis of abortion opponents and a leading defender of late-term abortions, died on Friday at a hospice in Bellevue, Neb., a suburb of Omaha. He was 81.The cause was liver cancer, his daughter, Janine Weatherby, said. Dr. Carhart came to national prominence in the 1990s as an improbable progressive crusader in one of the nation’s most bitter moral debates. (Traub, 4/30)

NBC News: CDC To Stop Tracking Covid Levels In Communities
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is planning to stop tracking the spread of Covid in communities across the U.S., the agency said Friday. (Edwards, 4/28)

CIDRAP: XBB.1.16, XBB.1.9.1 Gain More Ground In The United States
Proportions of two new Omicron subvariants, XBB.1.16 and XBB.1.9.1, continued to rise this week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today in its latest estimates. XBB.1.16, which is thought to have a growth advantage and immune escape properties, now makes up 11.7% of viruses, up from 7.4% the week before. Levels are greatest in the South Central, Middle Atlantic, and Northwestern parts of the country. (Schnirring, 4/28)

The Washington Post: Moderna’s Billionaire CEO Reaped Nearly $400 Million Last Year. He Also Got A Raise
Stéphane Bancel, chief executive of Moderna, had a good year in 2022, exercising stock options that netted him nearly $393 million. The company decided his pay wasn’t good enough. The Cambridge, Mass.-based biotech, known for its lifesaving coronavirus vaccine, raised his salary last year by 50 percent to $1.5 million and increased his target cash bonus, according to a March securities filing. Bancel, 50, says he is donating the proceeds of stock sales to charity. He owns stock worth at least $2.8 billion and, as of the end of last year, had additional stock-based compensation valued at $1.7 billion. (Gilbert, 4/29)

KFF Health News: Journalists Discuss Enduring Effects Of Long Covid And Handling Of Opioid Settlement Funds 
KFF Health News former senior editor Andy Miller discussed long covid, telehealth, and health care worker shortages on WUGA’s “The Georgia Health Report” on April 21. He also discussed cancer treatment for the uninsured on WUGA’s “The Georgia Health Report” on April 14. (4/29)

Also —

Reuters: Pfizer Pledge For More Equal Access To RSV Shot Faces Hurdles 
Pfizer Inc (PFE.N) has pledged to deliver critical new medicines more quickly in low-income nations, but its first such vaccine effort faces hurdles likely to delay distribution in poorer countries by several years, global health officials told Reuters. Pfizer made a commitment on more equitable access last year, following criticism that it prioritized wealthy nations for doses of its COVID-19 shot early in the pandemic. The company says it wants to shorten a timeline in which poorer countries often get vaccines many years after they are available elsewhere. (Rigby and Fick, 4/29)

Axios: ChatGPT Might Show More Empathy Than Docs, Study Finds
OpenAI's ChatGPT tool can answer patient questions with more empathy than human physicians can, according to a new study. Why it matters: Apparently, even our humanity can be bested by robots. (Reed, 5/1)

In other health care industry news —

Axios: Hospitals Face Rough Waters From High Costs
The patients are back — but health systems are facing post-pandemic cost pressures driven by inflation and workforce shortages. Why it matters: These financial pressures are threatening the recovery of the industry, mainly the most vulnerable organizations, experts tell Axios. (Reed, 5/1)

The Washington Post: Many Nursing Homes And Hospitals Are Near Fire Zones In California 
Wildfires regularly sweep through California, destroying forests and threatening homes. But a recent study shows an unexpected danger of the fires: They can shut down, or prevent access to, hospitals and other inpatient facilities. Researchers recently found that half of California’s entire inpatient capacity is less than a mile from a high fire threat zone. (Blakemore, 4/30)

Stat: Geisinger Has Struggled. Why Did Kaiser Permanente Buy It?
In 2009, when President Barack Obama was touring the country and ginning up support for what would eventually become the Affordable Care Act, Geisinger entered the mainstream. Obama praised Geisinger, the rural Pennsylvania hospital system and health insurer “where high-quality care is being provided at a cost well below the national average.” Its image as the archetype of local, integrated care seemed peerless. (Herman, 4/30)

CBS News: Louisiana's Health Care Deserts Put Women, Babies At Risk, Advocates And Doctors Say 
A Louisiana hospital sent a mom home "with prayers" while she was miscarrying, she said. Kaitlyn Joshua was given an ultrasound at Woman's Hospital in Baton Rouge. They examined and monitored her. That's where she says the treatment ended. (4/30)

KFF Health News: Millions Are Stuck In Dental Deserts, With No Access To Oral Health Care 
Every day, Adrienne Grimmett and her colleagues at Evara Health in the Tampa Bay area see stories of inequity in their patients’ teeth, gums, and palates. Marked in painful abscesses, dangerous infections, and missing molars are tales of unequal access to care. All of these ailments — which keep patients out of work because of pain or social stigma, and children out of school because they can’t concentrate with rotting roots — are preventable. (Peace, 5/1)

Also —

Las Vegas Review-Journal: Nevada Closes Never Give Up Youth Psychiatric Facility
The Nevada Department of Health and Human Services announced Friday that it is revoking the license of a youth psychiatric facility in Nye County that has been plagued with allegations of child abuse and sexual assault. (Newberg and Schnur, 4/28)

The Boston Globe: Boston Children’s Hospital Pays $15 Million After Child Dies During Sleep Study
As her 6-month-old lay dying in her arms, Becky Kekula struggled to make sense of how this could be. They were in the intensive care unit of Boston Children’s Hospital, a place known for saving lives. Yet for all its medical might, the institution could offer no more hope for her baby boy. (Bartlett, 4/29)

Houston Chronicle: Houston Nurses Sentenced To Federal Prison Over Medicare Scheme
Two nurses who owned a Houston home healthcare business were ordered this week to begin serving prison sentences after pleading guilty to a Medicare kickback scheme. (Wayne Ferguson, 4/28)

The Washington Post: Gene-Edited Cells Move Science Closer To Repairing Damaged Hearts 
Scientists seeking to combat the nation’s No. 1 killer have discovered why experiments using cell transplants to repair damage from a heart attack wind up backfiring and causing life-threatening arrhythmias. A new study in the journal Cell Stem Cell points the way toward a possible solution, advancing medicine a step further toward the goal of regenerating the human heart. (Johnson, 4/28)

The Washington Post: Gene Therapy For Sickle Cell Disease Treatment Brings Hope To Patients
After decades of neglect, stigma and underfunding, sickle cell is getting the equivalent of the red carpet treatment in science. It’s the target of a competitive biotech race, with scientists and companies using a crop of cutting-edge tools to try to cure the debilitating illness. ... It’s a dramatic about-face for sickle cell patients, who have often felt abandoned by the medical system. The rare disease afflicts about 100,000 people in the United States, most of them Black. Racism at both the institutional and interpersonal level has stymied funding and alienated patients, who are often treated as drug-seekers when they show up in emergency rooms in acute pain. (Johnson, 4/28)

In other pharmaceutical news —

Fox News: Students Use AI Technology To Find New Brain Tumor Therapy Targets — With A Goal Of Fighting Disease Faster 
Glioblastoma is one of the deadliest types of brain cancer, with the average patient living only eight months after diagnosis, according to the National Brain Tumor Society, a nonprofit. Two ambitious high school students — Andrea Olsen, 18, from Oslo, Norway, and Zachary Harpaz, 16, from Fort Lauderdale, Florida — are looking to change that. (Rudy, 5/1)

Stat: Biotechs Aim To Leapfrog Ozempic In Red-Hot Weight Loss Market
For nearly a decade, Novartis aggressively pursued a drug candidate for muscle disorders, testing it on people with chronic inflammation, elderly people with frailty, hip surgery patients, and other groups. Time and again, the trials failed to show that the drug, bimagrumab, led to a significant enough improvement in patients’ physical function. But researchers noticed something else: The patients lost body fat. (Chen and DeAngelis, 5/1)

USA Today: HIV In Remission: California Man Paul Edmonds 1 Of 5 Patients Cured
For the past two years, Paul Edmonds has been part of an extremely exclusive club with a membership that has reached five people. (Sasic, 4/30)

The New York Times: Researchers Identify Possible New Risk For Breast Cancer
Scientists have long known that dense breast tissue is linked to an increased risk of breast cancer in women. A study published on Thursday in JAMA Oncology adds a new twist, finding that while breast density declines with age, a slower rate of decline in one breast often precedes a cancer diagnosis in that breast. (Rabin, 4/28)

In other health and wellness news —

The New York Times: Bilingualism May Stave Off Dementia, Study Suggests
Speaking two languages provides the enviable ability to make friends in unusual places. A new study suggests that bilingualism may also come with another benefit: improved memory in later life. Studying hundreds of older patients, researchers in Germany found that those who reported using two languages daily from a young age scored higher on tests of learning, memory, language and self-control than patients who spoke only one language. (Padmanabhan, 4/28)

AP: Deadly Heat Waves Threaten Older People As Summer Nears 
Paramedics summoned to an Arizona retirement community last summer found an 80-year-old woman slumped inside her mobile home, enveloped in the suffocating 99-degree (37 C) heat she suffered for days after her air conditioner broke down. Efforts to revive her failed, and her death was ruled environmental heat exposure aggravated by heart disease and diabetes. In America’s hottest big metro, older people like the Sun Lakes mobile home resident accounted for most of the 77 people who died last summer in broiling heat inside their homes, almost all without air conditioning. Now, the heat dangers long known in greater Phoenix are becoming familiar nationwide as global warming creates new challenges to protect the aged. (Snow, 4/30)

AP: General Mills Issues Flour Recall After Salmonella Discovery 
General Mills has issued a nationwide recall of its bleached and unbleached flour after discovering salmonella during a sampling of a 5-pound (2.3-kilogram) bag. The company is recalling 2-, 5- and 10-pound (0.9-, 2.3- and 4.5-kilogram) bags of its Gold Medal Unbleached and Bleached All Purpose Flour with a “better if used by” date of March 27, 2024, and March 28, 2024, according to a notice posted Friday on its website. (4/29)

The Washington Post: Michael J. Fox Talks Mortality, Parkinson’s: ‘I’m Not Gonna Be 80.’
In a revealing interview, the actor Michael J. Fox spoke about his own mortality and the challenges of living with Parkinson’s disease for more than 30 years, including his experiences with falling and breaking bones. The interview, with Jane Pauley of “CBS Sunday Morning,” was to promote his new documentary “Still,” to be released May 12. (Parker-Pope, 4/30)

NBC News: Troubled Teen Relationships Can Have Lasting Health Problems, Research Finds
Teenagers engaged in toxic, controlling dating relationships may be at risk for a variety of problems as they enter adulthood, including drug use, as well as mental and physical health struggles, new research finds. The study, published Monday in the journal Pediatrics, also showed that such teens are likely to repeat patterns of unhealthy — potentially dangerous — intimate relationships. (Edwards, 5/1)

The New York Times: After Student’s Suicide, An Elite School Says It Fell ‘Tragically Short’ 
Last April, Jack Reid, a 17-year-old junior at one of the nation’s elite boarding schools, tucked a Bible into his gym shorts and a note into his pocket directing his parents to a Google document explaining his feelings of despair. Then, inside his dorm room, he took his own life. On Sunday, the anniversary of Jack’s death, the Lawrenceville School in New Jersey offered an extraordinary admission of failure, publicly acknowledging that it had been aware that Jack was being bullied by other students, but that it had fallen “tragically short” of its obligation to protect him. (Weiser and Tully, 4/30)

NBC News: Eating Disorders Like Anorexia, Bulimia Are More Severe Than Ever
Teen eating disorders have never been this rampant — or this severe. Hospitalizations for eating disorders spiked during the pandemic, doubling among adolescent girls, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While most teens have returned to a normal life of in-person school, sports and social activities, eating disorders, especially anorexia, remain at an all-time high, experts warn. (Hopkins, 4/29)

KFF Health News: For California Teen, Coverage Of Early Psychosis Treatment Proved A Lifesaver 
Summer Oriyavong first heard the ringing bells and tapping sounds in her head when she was in middle school. Whispering voices and shadowy visions, ones that made her feel superior and special, soon followed. It wasn’t until Oriyavong ran out of her classroom in terror one day that her teachers and parents realized she needed help they couldn’t provide. The shadow people were telling Oriyavong that her classmates were going to hurt her. (Young, 5/1)

If you are in need of help —

Dial 9-8-8 for 24/7 support from the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. It's free and confidential.

Other mental health news about the effects of gun violence —

The New York Times: A Year Of Pain: Victims Struggle After Brooklyn Subway Shooting
More than a year ago, a mass shooting on the subway in Brooklyn miraculously killed no one. But as the victims live on, so do their physical and psychological wounds. ... The experiences of victims in the Brooklyn attack illustrate the long-term consequences: the damage not just to bodies, but also to a sense of safety and the ability to earn a living. (Zraick, 4/30)

The Washington Post: Why Are Americans Shooting Strangers And Neighbors? ‘It All Goes Back To Fear.’
Experts blame a cocktail of factors: the easy availability of guns, misconceptions around stand-your-ground laws, the marketing of firearms for self-defense — and a growing sense among Americans, particularly Republicans, that safety in their backyard is deteriorating. Since 2020, the share of Republicans who said that crime is rising in their community has jumped from 38 percent to 73 percent, according to the latest Gallup numbers from last fall. Among Democrats, that same concern climbed only 5 percentage points to 42 percent, marking the widest partisan perception gap since the polling firm first asked the question a half-century ago. (Paquette, Harden and Clement, 4/30)

The New York Times: ‘Zero Leads’: Dragnet Continues For Man Sought In Fatal Shooting Of 5 In Texas 
The suspect, Francisco Oropesa, who is accused of killing five people, had been shooting his gun in his yard in Cleveland, Texas, on Friday evening when his neighbor Wilson Garcia approached him and asked him to stop so that his baby could sleep. Instead, the authorities said, Mr. Oropesa, 38, retrieved an AR-15 rifle from his house and walked over to Mr. Garcia’s home, where he killed his 8-year-old son, wife and three other people. (Moya, Albeck-Ripka andMedina, 4/30)

The Washington Post: On Abortion And Gun Control, Democratic AGs Are Using Courts To Win
For Bob Ferguson, the Democratic attorney general of Washington state, the seventh time proved to be the charm. For six years, Ferguson pushed a ban on assault-style weapons in Washington’s legislature. Each year, the proposal failed to make it out of committee — until this one. In April, the legislature passed the bill and Gov. Jay Inslee (D) signed it into law. ... Ferguson is one of several Democratic attorneys general moving aggressively on key social policy issues to blunt Republican initiatives across the country designed to loosen gun restrictions, outlaw abortion and curtail the rights of transgender residents. (Wilson, 4/30)

The Wall Street Journal: For Babies Born Dependent On Opioids, Doctors Try New Caregiving Approach 
Thousands of babies are born each year to mothers who are using opioids. The newborns enter the world in withdrawal—some fussy and sweating, others struggling to feed. The treatment, until recently, was to separate the babies from their mothers, start them on morphine, and keep them isolated for days or weeks of intensive care. Now doctors have a new treatment: Mom. Doctors and researchers are encouraging parents to soothe their newborns as they shed their dependence on opioids, and using morphine as a last resort. (Wernau, 4/30)

In other news about the opioid crisis —

The New York Times: National Academies Members Demand Answers About Sacklers’ Donations
More than 75 members of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine demanded on Thursday that the organization explain why it has for years failed to return or repurpose millions of dollars donated by the Sackler family, including some who led Purdue Pharma. The company’s drug, OxyContin, helped set in motion a prescription opioid crisis that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives. The New York Times reported this month that even as the Academies advised the government on opioid policy, the organization accepted $19 million from the Sackler family and appointed influential members to its committees who had financial ties to Purdue Pharma. (Jewett, 4/28)

AP: Frustration Grows Over Wait On OxyContin Maker's Settlement
More than a year after OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma reached a tentative settlement over the toll of opioids that was accepted nearly universally by the groups suing the company — including thousands of people injured by the drug — money is still not rolling out. Parties waiting to finalize the deal are waiting for a court to rule on the legality of a key detail: whether members of the Sackler family who own the company can be protected from lawsuits over OxyContin in exchange for handing over up to $6 billion in cash over time plus the company itself. (Mulvihill, 4/29)

NBC News: Unexplained Rise In Life-Threatening Brain Infections In Children Worries Pediatricians
After seeing an unusually high number of children with life-threatening brain infections last year, doctors are calling attention to the puzzling trend. In a presentation Thursday, researchers at the Southern Nevada Health District said there were 18 cases of pediatric brain abscesses — pus-filled pockets in the brain — in Clark County in 2022. By comparison, there was an average of five cases annually from 2015 to 2021. (Bendix, 4/28)

On marijuana use in Georgia, Minnesota, and elsewhere —

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Capitol Recap: Georgia Approves First Stores For Sales Of Medical Marijuana
The long wait is over for patients and caregivers on Georgia’s medical marijuana registry who received the state’s permission to possess the drug eight years ago but have had no way to legally obtain it. The Georgia Access to Medical Cannabis Commission this past week approved licenses for dispensing the drug for five stores in Macon, Marietta and the Savannah area. (Denery, 4/28)

MPR News: If Minnesota Legalizes Weed, Will Marijuana-Related Criminal Records Be Cleared?
Minnesota may soon become the 23rd state to legalize recreational marijuana. The state House and Senate both approved the bill last week, and it heads next to Gov. Tim Walz, who has already shared his support. A key part of this legislation is how it would affect people with marijuana records whose crimes would no longer be considered crimes. Like in other states that have already fully legalized weed, Minnesota lawmakers are proposing ways for people to get marijuana offenses cleared. (Birnstengel, 5/1)

The New York Times: Needing Younger Workers, Federal Officials Relax Rules On Past Drug Use 
Not long ago, urinating in a cup for a drug test was a widely accepted, if annoying, requirement to start a new job. The legalization of marijuana in more and more states in recent years upended that, prompting many employers to shelve hiring rules from the “Just Say No” era. There was a major holdout: the federal government, by far the nation’s largest employer. But now, it too is significantly relaxing drug screening rules as agencies struggle to replenish the ranks of a rapidly aging work force in a tight job market. (Londono, 4/30)

On transgender health care —

AP: Missouri Judge To Rule On Strict Trans Health Care Limits
A Missouri judge is expected to rule Monday on whether a strict, first-of-its-kind rule in the U.S. on gender-affirming health care can take effect, or if the new rules will remain unenforced as a legal challenge seeking to overthrow them plays out in court. The rule, which requires documented gender dysphoria for three years and more than a year of therapy, was scheduled to kick in last Thursday. (Ballentin, 5/1)

AP: When States Limit Care, Some Trans People Do It Themselves
With her insurance about to run out and Republicans in her home state of Missouri ramping up rhetoric against gender-affirming health care, Erin Stille nervously visited a foreign pharmaceutical site as a “last resort” to ensure she could continue getting the hormones she needs. Stille, 26, sent a $300 bank transfer to a Taiwan-based supplier for a 6-month supply of estrogen patches and androgen-blocking pills. For three weeks she feared she’d been scammed but breathed a sigh of relief when a large package arrived at her home in St. Peters. (Schoenbaum and Ballentine, 4/30)

San Francisco Chronicle: New UCSF Research Spotlights Prostate Cancer Risk In Transgender Women
Transgender women have a small but meaningful risk of prostate cancer, but traditional screening tools may not work well for them, especially if they’re taking estrogen for gender-affirming care, according to a national study led by UCSF researchers. (Allday, 4/29)

The Atlantic: Abortion Restrictions Targeted At Minors Never End There
Idaho’s new “abortion trafficking” bill, passed earlier this month, criminalizes helping a pregnant minor travel to get an abortion or obtain abortion pills out of state without parental consent, and creates a right to sue doctors who perform abortions for those minors, even if those doctors live and work in a state where abortion is legal. (Mary Ziegler, 4/28)

Los Angeles Times: Abortion Foes Must Stop Equating It With Eugenics 
Among the dubious points that U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk makes in his recent ruling suspending the Food and Drug Administration’s authorization of mifepristone is that abortion is part of the now-reviled practice of eugenics. (Carla Hall, 5/1)

The New York Times: Do Masks Work To Prevent Covid? 
When the coronavirus took off in 2020, the unknowns were immense, as was the urgency. It was clear that the virus was novel, that it was spreading widely and that it was killing many of the people it infected. And there was no vaccine or proven drug treatment. This was the context in which states first mandated masks, issued stay-at-home orders and closed schools, among other measures — an emergency. (Jennifer B. Nuzzo, 4/30)

Bloomberg: When Did Covid Begin? Lab Leak Vs. Wet Market Isn't The Only Mystery
Scientists are starting to get a better picture of the early weeks of the Covid-19 pandemic in China. To better understand this pandemic and prevent the next one, it matters not just how and where the virus jumped to humans but when. But information is scarce, in part because it seems the Chinese government has been withholding crucial data on early cases that could fill in the timeline. (Faye Flam, 4/29)

The New York Times: Our Covid Data Project Is Over, But The Need For Timely Data Is Not 
Unfortunately, nearly all states have stopped frequent public reporting of new cases and deaths, making it difficult to enable us to see how the virus is trending. And the widespread use of at-home tests has meant that most positive results almost never get recorded in public health databases, making it virtually impossible to detect and monitor outbreaks in a timely way. (Beth Blauer, Lauren Gardner, Sheri Lewis and Lainie Rutkow, 4/30)

The New York Times: We Have Become a Lonely Nation. It’s Time to Fix That
Loneliness and isolation hurt whole communities. Social disconnection is associated with reduced productivity in the workplace, worse performance in school, and diminished civic engagement. When we are less invested in one another, we are more susceptible to polarization and less able to pull together to face the challenges that we cannot solve alone — from climate change and gun violence to economic inequality and future pandemics. As it has built for decades, the epidemic of loneliness and isolation has fueled other problems that are killing us and threaten to rip our country apart. (Surgeon General Dr. Vivek H. Murthy, 4/30)

Dallas Morning News: Can Dallas Be At The Center Of Joe Biden’s Biomedical Moonshot?
Federal support for science traditionally backs incremental, hypothesis-driven research, while private-sector business plans demand a solid return on investment in a reasonable time frame. Lost in the middle are promising research efforts that lack funding or a champion to turn an idea into a life-saving breakthrough. (4/30)