The New York Times: As China Clamps Down On Negative News, Quarantines On Land And Sea
China’s leader, Xi Jinping, said on Wednesday that China is in a “critical moment” of its fight against the coronavirus epidemic as the death toll and number of infections continued to soar. Health officials in China said on Thursday that 563 people had died from the virus, up from nearly 500 people the day before, and that 28,018 cases had been confirmed. On Monday, the number of confirmed cases was put at 20,438, meaning the number increased more than 35 percent in just a few days. (2/5)

Bloomberg: WHO Pushes Nations To Share More Coronavirus Patient Details
The World Health Organization is pressing member countries affected by the new coronavirus to share more information on cases, saying a shortage of details has hampered efforts to combat the outbreak. A week after the WHO deemed the virus an international threat, the organization said it’s not getting all the data it needs to upgrade its advice to companies and governments worldwide. The virus has spread beyond China to at least 23 countries and sickened more than 28,000 people. (Fourcade, Mulier, and Miller, 2/5)

Reuters: WHO Calls For Improved Data-Sharing On Virus, Says Sending Team To China
The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday urged all health ministers to improve data-sharing on coronavirus immediately and said he would send a team of international experts to work with Chinese counterparts. The U.N. agency was sending masks, gloves, respirators and nearly 18,000 isolation gowns from its warehouses to some two dozen countries that need support, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told its Executive Board. (2/5)

The Washington Post: Coronavirus Live Updates: Toll Passes 500 With 28,000 Cases In China
Taiwanese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou said China had provided the wrong figures of Taiwanese coronavirus cases to the World Health Organization, in the self-ruling island’s latest criticism of Beijing. Whereas Beijing reported 13 cases for Taiwan, officials there said the real figure was 10. (By Thursday, that figure had risen to 13.) In a statement to Reuters, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said it had received the numbers in question from the island’s officials. (2/6)

The New York Times: Losing Track Of Time In The Epicenter Of China’s Coronavirus Outbreak
In the mornings, Wuhan is so quiet that bird calls sound down once busy streets. Stray dogs trot in the middle of empty expressways. Residents wrapped in masks creep out of their homes, anxiety flitting across their eyes. They line up at hospitals overwhelmed by a virus that most had not heard of until a few weeks ago. They line up outside pharmacies despite the door signs declaring they have sold out of protective masks, disinfectant, surgical gloves and thermometers. They line up to buy rice, fruit and vegetables from food stores that keep operating, while nearly all other shops are closed. (Buckley, 2/5)

The New York Times: In Coronavirus, China Weighs Benefits Of Buffalo Horn And Other Remedies
As it races to treat patients infected with the new coronavirus, the Chinese government is seeing potential in a cocktail of antiviral drugs. It is also recommending the Peaceful Palace Bovine Pill, a traditional Chinese medicine made with the gallstone of cattle, buffalo horn, jasmine and pearl. There is no known cure for the coronavirus that has sickened more than 28,000 people and killed 563 in China. The country’s National Health Commission says doctors should try treating patients mainly with a combination of Western drugs used to treat HIV and fight viruses, depending on the severity of illness. (Wee, 2/5)

The Wall Street Journal: China’s Coronavirus Outbreak Prompts Patients To Scramble For Remedies
Desperate for a cure for the new coronavirus spreading quickly across the country, Chinese families are flocking online to seek experimental remedies that might be effective against the virus, despite government warnings that no proven treatment has been found. Among the most sought-after drugs is Kaletra, an antiretroviral for HIV made by U.S. pharmaceutical giant AbbVie Inc. that blocks the enzymes some viruses need to replicate. Relatives of Chen Ruoping joined a scramble for the drug, known in Mandarin as Kelizhi, after the 57-year-old developed a fever and was diagnosed with a lung infection last month. (2/6)

Reuters: China's Virus-Hit Wuhan Creates More Hospitals As Demand For Beds Surges
The Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, is converting an additional eight buildings, including gymnasiums, exhibition centers and sports centers, into hospitals, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Wednesday. The latest announcement adds to plans revealed earlier this week to convert three other venues in the city into hospitals. Once all 11 buildings are converted, a process that is expected to be completed later on Wednesday, they will be able to accommodate 10,000 patients. (2/5)

Reuters: Thousands Held On Cruise Ship In Hong Kong As Authorities Check For Virus
Thousands of passengers and crew on a cruise ship that docked in Hong Kong on Wednesday were being kept on board while they were tested for a coronavirus as the city government said that all visitors from mainland China would be quarantined for two weeks. (Kwok and Pang, 2/5)

The Associated Press: 'A Floating Prison': Cruise Of Asia Ends In Virus Quarantine
David Abel’s 50th wedding anniversary luxury cruise began with him eating his fill and enjoying the sights of East Asia. It’s ending with him quarantined in his cabin aboard the Diamond Princess for two extra weeks, eating a “lettuce sandwich with some chicken inside” and watching 20 infected people escorted off the ship, heading for hospitals for treatment of a new virus. (Klug and Yamaguchi, 2/6)

The Washington Post: Trapped On Coronavirus-Ravaged Cruise Ship, Diamond Princess Passengers Struggle To Keep Spirits Up
David Abel and his wife, Sally, are still smiling, for now. Their friends Alan and Wendy Steele are going "stir crazy" trapped in their cabin — although they say they are not worried about catching the deadly illness. Still, this was not how the Steeles planned to spend their honeymoon. Many of the 2,666 passengers and 1,045 crew members on the Diamond Princess are struggling to keep their spirits up after the luxury liner was quarantined off the Japanese coast Wednesday, with passengers forbidden to leave their cabins. (Denyer, 2/5)

The Wall Street Journal: Coronavirus Cruise Passengers Face Infection Worries, Blown Travel Plans And Boredom
Passengers were startled from their slumber at around 6:30 a.m. on Wednesday by a broadcast telling them to remain in their rooms. Later, the captain announced: “The ship is under quarantine and it is expected to last at least 14 days.” Crew members in protective medical gear fanned out to wipe doorknobs and other surfaces clean with disinfectant. (Gale, Bhattacharya and Inada, 2/5)

The Washington Post: Africa Has 1.2 Billion People And Only Six Labs That Can Test For Coronavirus. How Quickly Can They Ramp Up?
After Africa’s first suspected case of the Wuhan coronavirus emerged last month in the Ivory Coast, doctors sent a sample from the coughing college student to the closest equipped lab — 4,500 miles north, in Paris. Officials said the wait for the results, which came back negative, highlighted the need to rapidly expand testing capacity on the continent, where health authorities are scrambling to prepare for a potential outbreak. No cases have been confirmed so far in any of Africa’s 54 countries, but the risk of an outbreak is high, World Health Organization leaders say. (Paquette, Bearak and Bernstein, 2/6)

The New York Times: Hundreds Of Americans Were Evacuated From The Coronavirus Epicenter. Now Comes The Wait.
Americans evacuated from Hubei province in China arrived in California on government-arranged planes on Wednesday morning, and were greeted with applause by waiting medical personnel. They received health screenings, were warned to stay six feet away from the other families and were asked not to let children share toys. Eventually, bleary-eyed from an 11-hour flight, they fell asleep in their new temporary homes on military bases. (Jordan and Bosman, 2/5)

NPR: Coronavirus Developments: Evacuees Land In U.S. As Disease Continues To Spread
Hundreds of U.S. nationals are stateside once more, as two planeloads of people fleeing the coronavirus outbreak in China landed Wednesday in California. The Department of Defense says the approximately 350 passengers aboard the chartered flights will be quarantined for two weeks on a pair of military bases in the state. According to the Pentagon, the passengers are to be distributed between Travis Air Force Base in Northern California, where the planes initially touched down Wednesday morning, and Marine Corps Air Station Miramar near San Diego. (Dwyer, 2/5)

PBS NewsHour: U.S. Evacuates More Americans From China Amid Novel Coronavirus Outbreak
Officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will meet passengers as they deplane for screening and intake. The passengers then will remain under quarantine for 14 days — the apparent incubation period for the virus — from the time their flight left China. “The measures we are taking may not catch every single returning traveler” with a possible case of novel coronavirus, Messonnier said. “If we can catch the majority of them, that will slow the entry of the virus into the U.S.” (Santhanam, 2/5)

San Francisco Chronicle: Coronavirus: Planes From China Land At Travis Air Force Base, Hundreds To Be Monitored
Officials said the military bases will only provide lodging in secluded areas where base officials won’t have contact with them. Federal health officials plan to handle all care, transportation and security of evacuees. (Serrano, 2/5)

The Washington Post: For Americans, A Nightmare Escaping Wuhan, Then 14 Days Of Quarantine
The airport was a 16-hour overnight vigil of lines and paperwork and stress and delays, of squawking children and the worried well, all trying to board the same two planes. Ningxi Xu’s name was on the list. But until the converted cargo plane was rising into the sky over Wuhan, China, she couldn’t be certain she would be one of the lucky Americans to escape the center of the coronavirus outbreak and make it back home. (O'Grady, Bernstein, Fifield and Wan, 2/5)

The Associated Press: Life Under Virus Quarantine: Boxing, Chalk Art And Waiting
There's Zumba and boxing classes, lectures on business and taxes, and chalk art outside for the children. While it might sound like a local recreation center's offerings, it's actually part of daily life for 195 American citizens quarantined on a military base after being evacuated from the heart of a new virus outbreak in China. (Taxin and Spagat, 2/5)

CNN: What It Means To Be Under The Coronavirus Federal Quarantine In The US
As the Wuhan coronavirus continues to spread beyond China, federal public health officials in the US are taking a rare step: issuing a mandatory quarantine -- the first one in more than 50 years." The goal here is to slow the entry of this virus into the United States," says Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. (Kaur, 2/5)

ABC News: American Man Anxiously Awaits Family To Return From Wuhan, China, Amid Coronavirus Outbreak
Roth's wife, Daisy, is from Wuhan and she took their two young daughters to visit relatives in the Chinese city in mid-January, while Roth stayed home in Neenah, Wisconsin. At the time, the threat of the novel coronavirus seemed low. "When my family went there, we had heard about a disease that was starting to spread, but we thought it would get under control," Roth told ABC News in a recent interview. "It was really kind of shocking when we saw that the entire city was locked." "My first thoughts were, wow, this is a big deal," he added. "My wife and two daughters are there, but also all of my in-laws are there. My wife's parents, their brothers and sisters, their children and their children's children. Everybody is in Wuhan." (Winsor, 2/4)

The New York Times: Thousands Of Miles From Wuhan, A U.S. City Is Shaken By Coronavirus
In 2003, when SARS was spreading, Edward Zhang was not yet a teenager and living with his parents in Wuhan, China, largely dependent on the morning paper and the nightly news to know what was happening in the next city over. The world has changed a lot since then. Now, as the coronavirus renders his home city a ghost town, overwhelming hospitals and forcing his friends and family to don masks in their own homes, Mr. Zhang is updated constantly despite living over 7,000 miles away, in Pittsburgh. (Robertson, 2/6)

The Associated Press: Universities Cancel Study-Abroad Programs Amid Virus Fears
As concerns about China's virus outbreak spread, universities all over the world are scrambling to assess the risks to their programs, and some are canceling study-abroad opportunities and prohibiting travel affecting hundreds of thousands of students. From Europe to Australia and the United States, universities in countries that host Chinese students have reconsidered academic-related travel to and from China. In the U.S., the cancellations add to the tension between two governments whose relations were already sour. (Melia and Franko, 2/6)

The Associated Press: Global Tourism Takes Major Hit As Virus Halts Chinese Travel
This should have been a good year for global tourism, with trade tensions gradually easing, certain economies growing and banner events like the Summer Olympics taking place in Tokyo. But the viral outbreak in China has thrown the travel industry into chaos, threatening billions in losses and keeping millions of would-be travelers at home. Gabrielle Autry, an American who lives in China, had expected to travel to Hong Kong this week to get engaged to her Chinese boyfriend. (Durbin, 2/6)

Modern Healthcare: ECRI Institute Creates Hospital Resource Center For Coronavirus
The ECRI Institute launched a resource center on its website to help providers prepare for potential threats associated with the Wuhan coronavirus. The Coronavirus Outbreak Preparedness Center, which is free to the public, includes lists of supplemental devices and supplies as well as guidance on how clinicians can prepare for viral outbreaks. (Castellucci, 2/5)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: UPS Pilots Union Deal Allows Crew To Opt Out Of China Flights
The pilots union at UPS has struck a deal with the company to allow pilots to opt out of flight assignments to China.The deal between Sandy Springs-based UPS and the Independent Pilots Association allows pilots to take a personal leave of absence for trips that include a flight in or out of mainland China, according to pilots union president Robert Travis. (Yamanouch, 2/5)

Iowa Public Radio: Two Iowans Undergoing Testing For Coronavirus
The Iowa Department of Public Health says it has identified two people in the state who are undergoing evaluation and testing for the coronavirus. State medical director Caitlin Pedati said in a press conference on Facebook Live Wednesday afternoon that the two people are in isolation and are being tested by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Krebs, 2/5)

Kaiser Health News: Listen: Updates On Coronavirus Outbreak And How It Affects Chinese Immigrants
California Healthline correspondents Anna Maria Barry-Jester and Anna Almendrala appeared on New Hampshire-based WNHN’s “The Attitude w/ Arnie Arnesen” on Tuesday to discuss the latest news about the novel coronavirus outbreak. Because there’s still much scientists don’t know about the virus, also known as 2019-nCoV, global and national policies — especially those related to quarantines and travel restrictions — continue to evolve. (2/5)

Bloomberg: Man Vs. Microbe: We’re Not Ready For The Next Global Virus Outbreak
In the evolutionary arms race between humanity and the microbes, the bugs are making a comeback. Yes, we’ve conquered diseases such as smallpox and polio, and deaths from communicable diseases have been falling worldwide. But since 1970, more than 1,500 new pathogens have been discovered, according to the World Health Organization, and “epidemics in the 21st century are spreading faster and farther than ever. Outbreaks that were previously localized can now become global very rapidly.” (Bremner, Langreth, and Paton, 2/6)

WBUR: New Coronavirus 'Won't Be The Last' Outbreak To Move From Animal To Human
The new strain of coronavirus that has killed hundreds of people in China and caused a travel lockdown of some 56 million people has been classified as a "zoonosis" because of the way it spreads from animals to humans. Science writer David Quammen says the virus, which the World Health Organization last week declared a global health emergency, is just the latest example of how pathogens that start in animals are migrating to humans with increasing frequency — and with deadly consequences. (Davies, 2/5)

The New York Times: Why The New Coronavirus (Mostly) Spares Children
The new coronavirus has infected more than 28,000 people, and at least 563 have died. But relatively few children appear to have developed severe symptoms so far, according to the available data. “The median age of patients is between 49 and 56 years,” according to a report published on Wednesday in JAMA. “Cases in children have been rare.” So why aren’t more children getting sick? (Mandavilli, 2/5)

Reuters: Mothers May Pass Coronavirus To Unborn Children, Say Chinese Doctors: State TV
Pregnant women infected with the new coronavirus may be able to pass it to their unborn children, doctors at the Wuhan Children Hospital said on Wednesday, according to state broadcaster CCTV. The doctors said it was possible after an infected coronavirus patient gave birth to a baby on Feb. 2. The newborn was given a test 30 hours later and confirmed to have the virus, the doctors said. (2/5)

CBS News: Baby Tests Positive For Coronavirus Just 30 Hours After Birth
The coronavirus has infected at least 27,000 people worldwide, and officials in China now say the youngest person with the illness is a newborn baby who was infected just 30 hours after being born. The state-run news site XinhuaNet says the infant was born on February 2 at a hospital in Wuhan, China — the city where the coronavirus outbreak originated. The baby's mother also tested positive for the virus before she gave birth, according to Union Hospital, affiliated with Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science and Technology. (O'Kane, 2/5)

Bloomberg: Hong Kong Fund Manager’s Quant Model Sees Virus Peaking In March
The coronavirus outbreak is on track to peak in early March, according to a quantitative analysis by Hong Kong-based investment firm Gavekal Research Ltd. Fund manager Didier Darcet, who has a background in mathematical modeling for financial markets, suggested investors focus on the rate of acceleration of the spread of the virus, in a note Wednesday. The number of new infections is now accelerating at a lower rate than last week, he said. (Mullen, 2/5)

NPR: Is Coronavirus Spread By People Without Symptoms?
Public health officials attempting to contain the new coronavirus are trying to figure out how easily it spreads. One key question is whether people who are infected but show no symptoms can infect other people. "If you have a lot of people who [have mild disease or are] asymptomatic and not seeking medical care for respiratory illness but are still contagious, you're going to have a very difficult time," says Jeffrey Shaman, a professor of environmental health sciences at Columbia University. (Harris, 2/5)

Los Angeles Times: What Happens If The Coronavirus Outbreak Becomes A Pandemic?
Roughly 50 million people are under quarantine in China. Thousands of travelers are being screened at airports every day. Armies of disease detectives are knocking on doors around the world in hopes of halting the new coronavirus in its tracks. Despite all the colossal efforts to contain the virus, scientists are quietly preparing for a grim — and increasingly likely — outcome: A full-blown global pandemic. (Baumgaertner, 2/5)

The Wall Street Journal: Coronavirus Outbreak Strains Global Medical-Mask Market
Chinese officials are buying up medical masks in the virus-wracked country from factories that typically supply hospitals around the world, forcing manufacturers to boost output globally and hospitals to ration supplies. Masks are essential protective gear for medical workers treating patients potentially infected with the newly identified coronavirus, which has spread across China and beyond. China is one of the world’s top producers of medical masks and other gear. Now officials there are directing much of that supply to the front lines of the outbreak, leaving customers in the U.S. and other countries to look elsewhere for masks as global supplies tighten. (Hufford and Evans, 2/6)

Los Angeles Times: How To Prevent Coronavirus: Wash Your Hands And Ditch The Mask
Drugstores have reported skyrocketing demand, and several of Amazon’s top sellers are indefinitely out of stock. Shortages of surgical face masks are a visible sign that the novel coronavirus from China has reached the United States. But health experts warn that stocking up on the disposable masks could do more harm than good by limiting their availability to doctors and nurses. If the coronavirus outbreak should cause a run on anything, they say, it should be soap and water instead. (Baumgaertner, 2/5)

Bloomberg: Forget Masks To Avoid Coronavirus On Flights Says Airline Doctor
Forget face masks and rubber gloves. The best way to avoid the coronavirus is frequent hand washing, according to a medical adviser to the world’s airlines. The virus can’t survive long on seats or armrests, so physical contact with another person carries the greatest risk of infection on a flight, said David Powell, a physician and medical adviser to the International Air Transport Association. Masks and gloves do a better job of spreading bugs than stopping them, he said. (Park, 2/5)

Reuters: China Lab Seeks Patent On Use Of Gilead's Coronavirus Treatment
A state-run Chinese research institute has applied for a patent on the use of Gilead Sciences' experimental U.S. antiviral drug, which scientists think could provide treatment for the coronavirus that has killed hundreds and infected thousands. The Wuhan Institute of Virology of the China Academy of Sciences, based in the city where the outbreak is believed to have originated, said in a statement on Tuesday it applied to patent the use of Remdesivir, an antiviral drug developed by Gilead, to treat the virus. (2/5)

The Associated Press: Chinese Scientists Ask For Patent On US Drug To Fight Virus
Granting its own scientists a patent might give the Chinese government leverage in negotiations over paying for the drug. But it also might fuel complaints Beijing abuses its regulatory system to pressure foreign companies to hand over valuable technology. On Thursday, the official Xinhua News Agency said clinical trials of the drug, remdesivir, were due to start. (2/6)

CNN: Yarn Made From Human Skin Could Soon Be Stitching Up Your Wounds
It may sound like a gruesome detail from a dystopian movie, but a team of scientists believe yarn grown from human skin could soon be used to stitch up surgical patients and repair organs. The researchers say their "human textile," which they developed from skin cells, can be used for knitting, sewing and even crochet, and can aid a number of medical procedures. The string-like substance would have the ability to "truly integrate into the host's body," the team from the University of Bordeaux in France said. (Picheta, 2/5)

NBC News: Immune Therapy Tweak Offers New Hope To Blood Cancer Patients
In that small preliminary trial, the results of which were published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, nearly two-thirds of the patients, all of whom had cancer so advanced that just a decade ago there would have been no hope for them, went into complete remission. Cox was among that two-thirds. The new treatment involves tweaking a type of therapy called CAR-T that helps the immune system home in on cancer cells. Those tweaks appear to have made it more effective than its predecessor while also leading to fewer side effects, the study found. (Carroll, 2/5)

Politico: Imagine Dragons Frontman To Talk LGBTQ Advocacy With Democrats
Early-morning caucus meetings after the State of the Union address are not usually the best-attended of the year. But that might change this year. The House Democratic Caucus on Wednesday will host Dan Reynolds, the lead vocalist of the Grammy award-winning band Imagine Dragons, to discuss his advocacy work for LGBTQ youth in his home state of Utah, according to people familiar with the planning. (Ferris, 2/4)

CBS News: There Are More Homeless Students In The U.S. Than People Living In Dallas
More than 1.5 million U.S. public school students experienced homelessness during the 2017-2018 school year, according to a National Center for Homeless Education report released in January. The number is the highest recorded in over ten years and represents a population larger than the estimated total population of Dallas. The number of students experiencing homelessness spiked by 15% between 2015 and 2018, the three most recent school years covered in the report. In the 2015-2016 school year, 1,307,656 students were reported as homeless, compared to the 1,508,265 students in 2017-2018 year, according to the report. (Garrand, 2/4)

Philadelphia Inquirer: An African American Breast Cancer Survivor Shows The Way For Patients And Researchers
It’s not unusual for cancer survivors to channel their hard-won insights into advocacy work. Still, Yvonne McLean Florence, 57, stands out as a soft-spoken dynamo who closes gaps between the worlds of researchers, patients, nonprofits, and policy-makers. (McCullough, 2/5)

The Associated Press: Trump Rule Could Lead To Big Medicaid Cuts, Governors Warn
Governors of both parties are warning that a little-noticed regulation proposed by the Trump administration could lead to big cuts in Medicaid, restricting their ability to pay for health care for low-income Americans. The arcane fiscal accountability rule proposed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services — or CMS — would tighten federal oversight and approval over complex financing strategies states have long used to help pay for their share of the $600 billion program. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 2/5)

Roll Call: States Weigh Expansion Of Their Medicaid Programs
State officials are seeking to change health care coverage for the nation’s poorest individuals, with Democrats trying to expand Medicaid to cover more people while Republicans aim to save costs over time. Democratic governors in at least three states with Republican-controlled legislatures are ramping up efforts to pass legislation to expand the program. At the same time, states like Michigan have begun implementing aspects of their requirements that people receiving Medicaid work, which could lead to fewer people being covered if that is upheld in the courts. (Raman, 2/5)

Juneau Empire: Gov Releases Supplemental Budget, Adds Back Medicaid Cuts
Gov. Mike Dunleavy released his supplemental budget proposal Wednesday, asking for more than $265 million from the Legislature for costs incurred during the 2020 fiscal year. The largest costs in the supplemental budget are $120 million for Medicaid services and more than $110 million for the firefighting efforts over the summer to combat the state’s wildfires. (Segall, 2/5)

Tennessean: Tennessee Medicaid Expansion Bill Introduced By Republican Lawmaker
In a rare break from Tennessee's conservative majority, a Republican has introduced a bill that would make the Volunteer State the latest to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. Rep. Ron Travis, R-Dayton, filed a bill Wednesday largely based on former Gov. Bill Haslam’s failed 2015 Medicaid expansion proposal, known as Insure Tennessee. If passed, the legislation requires Gov. Bill Lee to submit a waiver amendment to federal officials within 180 days and seek "medical assistance coverage for the same population groups and services as the Insure Tennessee proposal." (Elbert and Kelman, 2/5)

The Tennessean: Gov. Bill Lee Proposes Extending Postpartum TennCare Coverage To A Full Year
Gov. Bill Lee intends to extend TennCare’s postpartum insurance from two months to a full year in response to the preventable deaths of dozens of Tennessee mothers who were uninsured. Lee announced the coverage extension as part of a three-year pilot program during his State of the State speech on Monday night. The governor also revealed plans to expand TennCare dental coverage to women during pregnancy and after birth, saying coverage will “support improved health outcomes for both mother and child.” (Kelman, 2/4)

Health News Florida: Florida House Eyes Changes To Medicaid-Managed Care
Florida House Speaker Jose Oliva and his allies have loudly contended during the past two years that there’s too much government interference in health care, leading to monopolies and rising costs. Despite that mantra, House Republicans have tucked into a budget bill mandates that would increase the role of government in Medicaid contracts negotiated between managed-care plans and providers. (Sexton, 2/5)

The Associated Press: Advocates Allege ICE Neglecting 5-Year-Old With Head Injury
A 5-year-old boy from Guatemala who fractured his skull in an accident and suffered bleeding around his brain is not being properly treated at an immigration detention center in Texas for what could be a traumatic brain injury, family members and advocates alleged. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement defended the care given to the 5-year-old, whom the agency detained with his parents and 1-year-old brother in January, about a month after the boy fell out of a shopping cart. (Merchant, 2/5)

The Hill: Advocates Say ICE Denying Proper Care To Child With Head Injury
The boy fell out of a shopping cart and fractured his skull about a month before being detained by ICE, according to Dr. Amy Cohen, executive director of Every Last One, an advocacy group that works to end childhood detention. The child is in custody along with his mother and his 1-year-old brother at the detention center in Dilley, Texas, after the family was detained during what they believed to be a routine check-in at an ICE office in Los Angeles. (Bernal, 2/5)

In other news —

BuzzFeed News: ICE Is Fingerprinting Teen Immigrants And Refugees
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have begun fingerprinting unaccompanied immigrant children over the age of 14 who are not in their custody but are in shelters across the country, BuzzFeed News has learned. ICE officials called it a way to protect unaccompanied minors in custody. “In January, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) issued field guidance to juvenile coordinators to work with Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) to identify and collect fingerprints on unaccompanied alien children (UACs) at ORR facilities who are over the age of 14, to mitigate and prevent the risk of their victimization by human traffickers and smugglers, and to reduce misidentification,” a senior ICE official said in an email to BuzzFeed News. (Aleaziz, 2/5)

The New York Times: Justice Dept. Opens Civil Rights Investigation Into Mississippi Prisons
For weeks, Mississippi’s prisons have been gripped by crisis. At least a dozen inmates have been slain or killed themselves, and feuding gangs have forced lockdowns. Images and videos taken on smuggled cellphones have highlighted deteriorating conditions, and legislators and activists have asked for federal intervention. The Justice Department responded to the turmoil on Wednesday by announcing a civil rights investigation to explore whether prison officials have done enough to protect inmates from one another and the quality of mental health care and suicide prevention efforts. (Rojas, 2/5)

The Associated Press: Feds Investigate Mississippi Prisons After String Of Deaths
The investigation by the Justice Department's civil rights division will specifically focus on conditions at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman, the South Mississippi Correctional Institution, the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility and the Wilkinson County Correctional Facility, the Justice Department said. The Wilkinson facility holds state prisoners, and the state pays a private company, Management & Training Corporation, to operate it. (Balsamo and Pettus, 2/5)

The Wall Street Journal: Four Mississippi Prisons Draw U.S. Justice Department Probe
The investigation will be handled by the department’s Civil Rights Division, with help from the U.S. attorney’s offices for the Northern and Southern districts of Mississippi. In addition to the Parchman prison, the probe will look at South Mississippi Correctional Institution in Leakesville, Central Mississippi Correctional Facility in Pearl and Wilkinson County Correctional Facility in Woodville. “We are grateful that President Trump’s administration has taken a focused interest in criminal justice reform and that they care enough about Mississippi to engage on this critical issue,” said Renae Eze, a spokeswoman for Republican Gov. Tate Reeves. “As we continue our own investigations, we look forward to cooperating with them and working together to right this ship.” (Campo-Flores, 2/5)

Meanwhile, in South Carolina —

The Associated Press: Fights, Isolation: Feds Say SC Doesn't Protect Young Inmates
A South Carolina juvenile prison violates the civil rights of its young inmates by failing to protect them from fights, forcing them to spend days or weeks in isolation for minor offenses and failing to get them mental health when they threaten to harm or kill themselves, federal investigators said. The U.S. Department of Justice ordered South Carolina juvenile prison officials to begin making seven changes in the Department of Juvenile Justice in less than two months or face a lawsuit, according to the report from the federal agency's Civil Rights Division released Wednesday. (2/5)

Stat: Pete Buttigieg’s Aggressive, Wonky Plan To Lower Drug Prices
Pete Buttigieg has said he wants drug companies to “thrive.” Thriving under a Buttigieg administration, however, won’t be business as usual for the pharmaceutical industry. The former mayor of South Bend, Ind., has an expansive platform to lower drug prices that relies on aggressive planks including Medicare negotiation and, if need be, stripping monopolies from companies determined to have priced their drugs abusively. (Facher, 1/5)

USA Today: Trump And Drug Prices After SOTU: Will Prescription Reform Pass?
President Donald Trump's call during his State of the Union address for bipartisan action to lower drug prices was welcomed, but reform advocates wonder whether it will be enough to "get a bill to my desk" for a promised signature. Federal legislation to rein in costs is winding its way through Congress, but despite broad support by both parties and the President for the concept of lower prices, disagreement on the best approach, the looming national election and push back from pharmaceutical companies lowered the odds ofsweeping reform this year. (O'Donnell, 2/6)

The Wall Street Journal: Merck To Spin Off Slow-Growth Products Into New Company
Drugmaker Merck & Co. will spin off $6.5 billion in assets, including women’s-health products and cholesterol treatments that have lost patent protection, that are equal to 15% of its prescription drug sales. The move to shed the products will allow Merck to focus on faster-growing cancer drugs, vaccines and animal-health items, Merck Chief Executive Ken Frazier said. (Hopkins, 2/5)

Stat: Merck To Spin Off New $6.5B Firm Focused On Women's Health, Older Drugs
Merck joins rivals including Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline, which have made similar moves. Carving off 14% of Merck’s sales into what it is still calling “NewCo” should allow the core company to grow faster, attracting investors who want to bet on the rising sales of the company’s cancer drug, Keytruda, which by itself generates $11 billion in annual sales and grew at a 55% clip in 2018, as well as its businesses in vaccines and hospital drugs. (Herper, 2/5)

Stat: Biogen Wins Patent Challenge To Key Multiple Sclerosis Drug
A U.S. appeals panel on Wednesday denied a patent challenge against Biogen’s multiple sclerosis drug Tecfidera, putting off the early launch of a generic version by Mylan and sending shares of Biogen surging. Mylan, the generic drug maker, had filed an inter partes review seeking to overturn the last remaining patent on Tecfidera, Biogen’s most important multiple sclerosis drug. That patent was not set to expire until 2028. (Feuerstein, 2/5)

Stat: Sanofi Reports Positive Results On Multiple Sclerosis Drug
The French drug giant Sanofi on Thursday reported positive results in a study of its new pill to treat multiple sclerosis. The drug, which Sanofi licensed from South San Francisco-based Principia Biopharma in 2017, “significantly reduced disease activity associated with multiple sclerosis as measured by magnetic resonance imaging,” the company said in a statement. Full data on the drug, called SAR442168, are not being made available yet, but will be presented at a later medical meeting. (Herper, 2/6)

Stat: Gilead Loses Challenge To Two Patents Over An HIV Prevention Pill
In a setback to Gilead Sciences (GILD), a federal panel rejected its bid to invalidate a pair of patents owned by the U.S. government for using the Truvada pill to prevent HIV, a drug that has sparked controversy due to its cost and the extent to which taxpayer dollars funded crucial research. The Patent Trial and Appeals Board ruled that Gilead failed to demonstrate it was likely to win its argument for overturning the patents held by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which helped fund academic work into HIV prevention that later formed the basis for the best-selling medicine that is also known as PrEP (here is one ruling and here is the other). (Silverman, 2/5)

Stat: CODA Biotherapeutics Just Bought Three Failed Drugs. Here’s Why
On Wednesday, South San Francisco-based CODA announced its acquisition of Attenua, another venture-backed, early-stage biotech company. In exchange for an undisclosed amount, CODA got three of Attenua’s drug candidates. Attenua had hoped they would work as therapies for chronic cough. (Sheridan, 2/5)

The Wall Street Journal: Zantac Recall Weighs On Sanofi’s Earnings
Sanofi SA swung to a loss in the fourth quarter as the recall of heartburn drug Zantac over cancer concerns offset strong sales of newer treatments. The French health-care giant on Thursday posted a net loss of €10 million ($11 million) for the last three months of 2019, compared with a profit of €254 million a year earlier. That was partly driven by a €169 million write-down related to Zantac, which it voluntarily recalled in the U.S. and Canada amid concerns it—and other products containing the same active ingredient—could contain small amounts of probable human carcinogen NDMA. (Roland, 2/6)

Stat: Jeffrey Bluestone Steps Down From Parker Institute To Lead Biotech Startup
Jeffrey Bluestone, the prominent immunologist, has decided to leave his position as president of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, the research effort funded by billionaire Sean Parker, and strike out on his own as CEO of a new company, Sonoma Biotherapeutics. The departure, which occurred in December, means Bluestone is resigning from an organization that is trying to develop a new model for advancing cancer research and heading to a biotech startup that’s trying to do it in a more familiar way. Sonoma is trying to develop therapies that harness the immune system by treating not cancer but diseases of the immune system like rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, and inflammatory bowel disease. (Herper, 2/6)

Philadelphia Inquirer: ‘Fail First’ No More: Pennsylvania Moves To Expand Coverage Of Treatments For Advanced Cancers
Patients in Pennsylvania facing the most serious stage of cancer will no longer be forced to try cheaper drugs before their insurance covers other, more expensive treatments. The state House on Tuesday gave final approval to a bill that would abolish the heavily criticized “fail first” approach for stage IV cancer, which requires patients to show no improvement with cheaper, insurance-approved drugs before moving on to more innovative approaches. (Fernandez, 2/5)

Stat: Years Later, Raw Clinical Trial Data Reveal Avandia's Heart Risks
In 2007, controversy flared over the safety of a widely used diabetes pill called Avandia after an analysis found increased heart attack risks. The results led to congressional hearings about regulatory oversight, the Food and Drug Administration required more demanding studies for similar drugs, and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) was accused of allegedly manipulating data in a concurrent safety trial of its own. On a broader scale, the episode, which initially prompted the FDA to tighten restrictions for the pill, raised questions about access to raw trial data. Now a new analysis has largely confirmed the findings. And while there are some nuances that clarify the extent of heart risks found at the time, the effort underscores the value in having such clinical trial data for identifying important safety signals. (Silverman, 2/5)

Stat: Verana Leverages Medical Societies To Get 'real World Evidence' For Pharma
Two years ago, Roche spent $1.9 billion to buy a startup, Flatiron Health, which uses data from patients’ electronic health records to better study cancer drugs. Now, many of the same investors are backing a new firm that will aim to do similar research in eye disease and neurology. The twist: The new company, Verana Health, is obtaining its data by partnering with medical societies, including the American Academy of Ophthalmology, the largest organization of ophthalmologists, and the American Academy of Neurology. (Herper, 2/5)

CNBC: Epic, About 60 Hospitals Sign Letter Opposing HHS Proposed Data Rules
Epic Systems CEO Judy Faulkner recently urged some of the largest health systems in the country to sign a letter opposing proposed rules designed to make it easier for patients to obtain their medical information and share it with apps. About 60 of these hospitals and clinics have signed it. The letter, which was obtained by CNBC, was addressed to Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and opposed proposed rules designed to help medical information flow more easily between health systems and patients. The rules also aim to make clinical data accessible through application programming interfaces (APIs). (Farr, 2/5)

Past coverage: Azar Frustrated That Some Stakeholders Are Fiercely Pushing Back Against Interoperability Rules

Boston Globe: Why Burned-Out Doctors Despise Electronic Health Records
More than half of physicians reported symptoms of burnout in a 2014 study, and while that rate dropped to 43 percent in a 2017 follow-up, it is still much higher than the rate for all US workers, which stayed essentially flat in those years. What has gone wrong with our once beloved profession? A report in The American Journal of Medicine last year looked at this question. It defined burnout as 1) lacking a sense of accomplishment, 2) cynicism, and 3) lack of enthusiasm for our work. It found that the one thing in medicine that seemed to correlate with the rise of burnout was the electronic medical record, introduced in 2008. A Stanford study showed that 71 percent of doctors say that electronic health records contribute to burnout. (Shem, 2/5)

Modern Healthcare: Cerner Sells Software To Germany Company For $247 Million
Cerner Corp. is preparing to sell part of its software portfolio in Germany and Spain to support an ongoing effort to improve the company's operating margin. The company on Wednesday announced it had entered into an agreement to sell a set of software products used in Germany and Spain to CompuGroup Medical, a German health information technology company, for about $247.5 million. The products generated an estimated $81.4 million in revenue for Cerner during 2019. (Cohen, 2/5)

Modern Healthcare: Telemedicine Co. Owners Charged In $56 Million Medicare Fraud Case
Federal prosecutors on Wednesday charged the owners of two telemedicine companies with defrauding Medicare in a $56 million bribery and kickback scheme involving orthotic braces. Reinaldo Wilson and Jean Wilson of Richmond Hill, Ga., were each charged with six counts in the indictment. The husband and wife owned Advantage Choice Care and Tele Medcare and used the companies to solicit kickbacks and bribes from patient recruiters, pharmacies and brace supplies, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. They would then hire providers to order medically unnecessary braces for Medicare beneficiaries. (2/5)

The Washington Post: VA's Wilkie Calls Deputy's Sudden Firing A 'Simple Business Decision' But Provides Few Answers
Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie on Wednesday defended his abrupt firing this week of his deputy secretary, calling the dismissal a “simple business decision” to oust a leader “who was not jelling with other members of the team.” Wilkie also said he wants to work with authorities to review the case of a senior Democratic congressional aide who said she was sexually assaulted at the VA Medical Center in Washington. The secretary, whose characterization of the allegations has been criticized, said he was working to get more answers about how the case was handled. (Rein, 2/5)

Military.Com: VA Secretary Wilkie On Firing His Deputy: 'Nothing Personal,' Just Business
"It was in the best interests of the organization" to remove him from his deputy secretary post, Wilkie said at a National Press Club news conference. Wilkie did not give additional details on what made Byrne a poor fit for the team, but noted he wished him well and called him a "man of great distinction." (Sisk, 2/5)

In other news on veterans —

Miami Herald: VA Asks Sick Veterans From ‘Black Goo’ Base To Come Forward
Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie acknowledged publicly Wednesday that service members who deployed to a Uzbekistan base used after the 9/11 attacks may have been exposed to toxic substances, asking for them to come forward to get help. “Several years ago our soldiers, sailors, airmen in particular started seeing ‘black goo’ come up from the ground. We are working with the Department of Defense to get to the bottom of that,” said Wilkie, who was speaking at the National Press Club and took questions from reporters. (Copp, 2/5)

Stat: Juul And Other E-Cig Makers To Congress: FDA, Not You, Should Regulate Us
When the CEOs from Juul and four other leading e-cigarette makers came before a House investigative panel Wednesday, they had a united message for Congress: Don’t do anything, the Food and Drug Administration will sort this out. All five of the executives, which also came from Reynolds American, Njoy, Fontem, and Logic, used the FDA to parry questions from lawmakers, insisting that the issue of youth vaping is being controlled. At some points they even bragged about their compliance with regulators and the potential impact e-cigarettes could have on public health. (Florko, 2/5) 

The Wall Street Journal: Lawmakers Blame CEOs For Rise In Youth Vaping
Lawmakers chastised top executives of five vaping companies at a hearing here Wednesday, blaming them for causing an epidemic of e-cigarette use among young people through targeted marketing. The senior executives said they didn’t now market to young people, and some said they never have. But some congressmen rejected those claims. “Saying you are responsible men, and have integrity, that is not true,” said Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D., N.J.), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. “I’m upset by hearing constant reference to your integrity.” (Burton, 2/5)

The Hill: Juul Pitched Products To Native American Tribes, Congressional Investigation Finds
Juul targeted Native American tribes when trying to sell their e-cigarette products, according to a report released by Congressional investigators Wednesday. The company, which is one of the most popular e-cigarette brands in the U.S., is under fire by the Trump administration and Congress for its marketing tactics and rising youth vaping rates. (Hellmann, 2/5)

The Washington Post: Most Flavored E-Cigarette Pods Banned As Of Feb. 6: FAQ
The hotly debated Trump administration partial ban on flavored e-cigarettes takes effect Thursday. Which vaping products will be affected? Which will still be available? And what happens next in the administration’s efforts to reduce teen vaping? Here are some answers. (McGinley, 2/5)

NBC News: Federal Flavor Ban Goes Into Effect Thursday, But Many Flavored Vape Products Will Still Be Available
The ban covers a number of kid-friendly flavorings, such as mint and fruit, though menthol and tobacco flavorings will remain legal. However, the ban only applies to specific types of devices: cartridge or pre-filled pod devices, like the ones made popular by Juul. All other devices will be left on the market. But limiting access to Juul, which stopped selling all non-menthol and tobacco flavored pods in November, is unlikely to have much of an effect on teens already addicted to nicotine. (Edwards, 2/5)

Bloomberg: Juul Bulks Up Its Science Staff As FDA Vaping Deadline Nears
Juul Labs Inc. has hired former Food and Drug Administration employees and is recruiting more researchers as the top U.S. e-cigarette maker prepares for a regulatory hurdle that will determine its future. The company and its peers must submit applications to the FDA by May 12 in order to continue selling their products. The deadline is a defining moment for the e-cigarette industry, which has been under fire after a surge in teen vaping and a lung-injury outbreak that sickened thousands and was later tied to vaping products containing THC. (LaVito, 2/5)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: National Vaping Debate Comes To Georgia
David Higginbotham says vaping may have saved his life, but Amy Sedgwick says it nearly ended her teenage son’s. The two Atlantans represent the national debate swirling around the nicotine-delivery devices, which have surged in popularity, even among high school and middle school students. (Tagami, 2/5)

NH Times Union: Sununu Turns To Hospitals For Addiction Recovery Services In Manchester, Nashua
Gov. Chris Sununu announced Tuesday that hospitals in Manchester and Nashua will assume the “Doorway” functions of the state’s opioid response plan, stripping the responsibility from the Granite Pathways organization. Sununu and his recently confirmed commissioner of health and human services, Lori Shibinette, said Granite Pathways had been too slow to forge community connections and did not properly follow up on patients it had placed into programs. Catholic Medical Center will take over Doorway responsibilities in Manchester; Southern New Hampshire Health will do so in Nashua.Under the state model, a Doorway serves as the entry point for people seeking help for drug or alcohol issues. That agency then places them in the appropriate setting with treatment providers or other agencies, given their needs. The system is often referred to as a “hub-and-spoke” model. (Hayward, 2/4)

New Hampshire Public Radio: Manchester's Addiction Crisis Center Announces Plan To Cut Hours
The city of Manchester is scrambling to find a stop-gap measure after learning the Doorway, the local hub for people in addiction crisis, is significantly cutting back its hours. The organization Granite Pathways, which runs the Doorway, announced the changes Tuesday night, hours after the state said it was cancelling its contract with the group because of reporting and quality issues. (Gibson, 2/5)

WBUR: Study: Meds Like Methadone Reduce Risk For Opioid Users Better Than Therapy, Other Treatments
A study of more than 40,000 people diagnosed with an opioid use disorder found that those who used buprenorphine or methadone had a reduced risk of overdose and opioid-related hospitalizations when compared to five other possibilities. Those included no treatment, office-based counseling, inpatient programs, intensive outpatient services and naltrexone, the drug that blocks opioid receptors. (Becker and Bebinger, 2/5)

MPR: In Rural Minnesota, Doctors Swap Knowledge On How Best To Treat Opioid Addiction
A physician-mentoring program is showing some success in providing opioid addiction treatment for people in rural areas of the state, where there are no doctors specializing in addiction and few treatment options. About two years into the program, about 50 rural Minnesota doctors have been certified to prescribe the medication buprenorphine, which is used to treat opioid addiction. For more than 500 rural patients, this now means they can get opioid treatment at their home clinic rather than driving hours into the Twin Cities for help. (Collins, 2/5)

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Cuyahoga County Could Save Millions In Jail Costs By Creating Treatment Facility For Some Crime Suspects, Consultants Say
Cuyahoga County could reduce its daily jail population by about 160 inmates by creating a so-called diversion center where police officers could take mentally ill or addicted people suspected of non-violent, low-level crimes, according to a report from consultants. The consultants were hired to recommend ways Cuyahoga County could create a diversion program as part of efforts to replace or renovate the county’s outdated Justice Center and jail complex. (Astolfi, 2/6)

Detroit Free Press: Millions Pegged For Whitmer's Healthy Moms, Babies' Programs
In the 2021 proposed budget she’ll present Thursday, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer will propose a multimillion dollar investment to enhance health programs for pregnant women, new moms and their children. The $37.5 million proposal, dubbed Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies, is designed to reduce infant mortality rates and address the racial disparity that exists in care provided to expectant mothers and their babies. (Gray, 2/6)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Georgia Set To Get Fewer Transplant Livers As New System Takes Effect
The federal government on Tuesday changed its system for distributing livers to transplant patients, likely meaning fewer livers and lower quality livers for patients in Georgia and some Midwestern states. Now more livers are likely to go to patients in more populous states, such as New York. (Hart, 2/5)

Modern Healthcare: HCA Beats Facility-Fee Lawsuit In Federal Court
A Florida federal judge Monday dismissed a proposed class action against three HCA Healthcare hospitals alleging they improperly billed patients undisclosed surcharges for emergency department care. U.S. District Judge Roy Altman ruled that two of the three individual plaintiffs did not have legal standing to bring the lawsuit, saying the hospitals had not pursued collection action against them and therefore they suffered no harm. (Meyer, 2/5)

The Associated Press: 1 Dead, 2 Sick From Legionnaires' At Illinois Senior Center
An outbreak of Legionnaires' disease at a senior living center in suburban Chicago has left one resident dead and two others sickened, health officials said Wednesday. The Lake County Health Department said in a news release that it has confirmed three cases of the disease, a type of severe pneumonia caused by the Legionella bacteria, at Brookdale Senior Living in Vernon Hills. (2/5)

The Associated Press: Suit: Failed Nursing Homes' Operators Stole From Employees
The former operators of a failed multi-state nursing home chain stole more than $2 million from employees' paychecks that was supposed to pay for their health insurance, according to a lawsuit. The suit filed last week in U.S. District Court names Joseph Schwartz and wife Rosie Schwartz and their company, Skyline Health Care, which operated more than 100 nursing homes under numerous subsidiary companies. Dozens of those facilities have been taken over by states in the last two years after the company was unable to pay vendors. (2/5)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Grants Boost Peer-Based Suicide Prevention In Wisconsin Schools
Hundreds of Wisconsin students can soon be trained to recognize warning signs of suicide in their peers and get help, Gov. Tony Evers said Tuesday at Milton High School as he signed a bill providing the funding. Beginning next school year, schools can apply for $1,000 grants for peer-to-peer suicide prevention programs, with a total funding pool of $250,000. (Linnane, 2/5)

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Ohio Lead Free Kids Coalition Releases State Plan, Recommends Action In 9 Areas
A statewide coalition of public health, healthcare and educational organizations today released a plan to eliminate childhood lead exposure in Ohio homes by 2030. The Ohio Lead Free Kids Coalition is pushing the state to invest more in preventing poisoning instead of reacting once blood tests show a child has already been poisoned. (Zeltner and Dissell, 2/5)

Charlotte Observer: Record Number Of People Killed While Walking In Charlotte
Pedestrians are still dying in record numbers on Charlotte’s streets, new data shows, two years into a city initiative to reduce traffic fatalities. Twenty-eight pedestrians died in 2019, marking the third straight year in which fatalities set or matched record highs, according to Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police data. (Henderson, 2/5)

The Washington Post: Federal Officials Sweep Franklin Square While Targeting Homeless Encampments
Mike Adams slept Wednesday morning on a bench in Franklin Square. When he awoke, he headed to a nearby church for a shower. By the time he returned to the block-long park along K Street NW, between 13th and 14th streets, two trash bags holding his possessions were gone. (Hermann, 2/5)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Sexual Assault Victims Blast Wisconsin GOP Over Rape Kit Legislation
Victims of sexual assault and prosecutors of the crime accused Republican lawmakers Wednesday of purposefully blocking legislation that would stop rapists. Assembly Republicans are moving forward a proposal that would make sure sexual assault evidence is processed. But it's different from a bill the state Senate already passed, doesn't have support from the state Department of Justice tasked with overseeing the testing and includes provisions that are well known to divide lawmakers. (Beck, 2/5)

Texas Tribune: Six Texas Oil Refineries Spewing Cancer-Causing Pollutant Above Threshold
Eight years ago, two environmental nonprofits sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The agency was a decade overdue in updating limits on how much hazardous air pollution the country's oil refineries could emit; the groups hoped a lawsuit would force it to act. The result was a regulation that required more than 100 refineries to monitor — and report — levels of cancer-causing benzene along the perimeters of their facilities and to make fixes when concentrations exceed a certain threshold. (Collier, 2/6)

North Carolina Health News: Under-Sink Water Filters Best At Removing Pollutants
Not all types of in-home filters are completely effective at removing “forever chemicals” from drinking water, and a few could do more harm than good if not properly maintained, according to a new study released Wednesday by North Carolina researchers. Water filters in refrigerators, pitcher-style filters, under the sink reverse osmosis systems and whole-house filtration systems can function differently and have vastly different price tags, according to the study, headed by the researchers from Duke University and N.C. State University. (Barnes, 2/6)

The Hill: DC Considering Proposal To Decriminalize Hallucinogenic Mushrooms
Local officials in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday will hear presentations on a proposed ballot measure that would decriminalize psychedelic mushrooms, also known as magic mushrooms. For a measure to appear on a ballot in the District, several hoops must be jumped through, the biggest being the D.C. Board of Elections. An independent government body, the board is solely responsible for determining whether initiatives can advance to a city-wide vote. (Johnson, 2/5)

WBUR: 'Endless Need': Boston Seeks More Regional Cooperation To Help Adults Who Are Homeless
The percentage of people coming from out of town when homeless is significantly higher in Boston than in some other big cities. In last year's homeless census in San Francisco, 30% of respondents reported living in another county or state when they became homeless. In Seattle's King County, only 16% of people who were homeless during the 2019 homeless census lived in another county or state when they lost their home. (Joliocoeur, 2/6)

Pioneer Press: Cash Advance, Lay-Offs, Fundraisers Keep Open Cities Health Center In St. Paul Open — For Now – Twin Cities
Two months after sounding alarm over their finances, Open Cities, a community health center that serves low-income families throughout St. Paul’s Summit-University, Frogtown, North End and Payne-Phalen neighborhoods has managed to keep its doors open. Relief came in part by laying off more than a fifth of its staff and securing a financial advance on a federal grant. (Melo, 2/5)

JAMA Internal Medicine: HIV Antiretroviral Therapy Costs In The United States, 2012-2018
The United States has the highest antiretroviral treatment (ART) prices yet the lowest rate of HIV viral suppression (54%) compared with all other well-resourced countries, including Britain, Australia, and Canada.1 High ART costs are among many structural barriers that lead to poor treatment access and adherence, contributing to suboptimal HIV outcomes in the United States.2 We sought to characterize costs of recommended initial ART regimens in the United States from 2012 to 2018 and the magnitude of cost changes over time. (McCann et al, 2/3)

Health Affairs: Non-Infection-Related And Non-Visit-Based Antibiotic Prescribing Is Common Among Medicaid Patients
Ambulatory antibiotic stewardship policies focus on prescribing decisions made when patients present to clinicians with possible infections. They do not capture antibiotics prescribed outside of clinician visits or without clear indications for use. Antibiotic prescribing for vulnerable patients in the US has not been comprehensively measured. We measured the frequency with which all filled antibiotic prescriptions were associated with infections and in-person visits for Medicaid patients in the period 2004–13. We found that among 298 million antibiotic fills (62 percent for children) for 53 million patients, 55 percent were for clinician visits with an infection-related diagnosis, 17 percent were for clinician visits without an infection-related diagnosis, and 28 percent were not associated with a visit. Non-visit-based antibiotic prescriptions were less common for children than for adults and more common in the West than in other US regions. Large fractions of antibiotic prescriptions are filled without evidence of infection-related diagnoses or accompanying clinician visits. Current ambulatory antibiotic stewardship policies miss about half of antibiotic prescribing. (Fischer, Mahesri, Lii and Linder, 2/1)

American Academy Of Pediatrics: Longitudinal Associations Of 12th-Grade Binge Drinking With Risky Driving And High-Risk Drinking
Binge drinking prevalence in W1 to W3 was 27.2%, 23.8%, and 26.8%, respectively. Twelfth-grade binge drinking was associated with a higher likelihood of DWI, RWI, blackouts, and risky driving in W4 to W7 and extreme binge drinking in W7. Adolescents who binged ≥3 times in high school were more likely to DWI, RWI, blackout (W4 to W7), be involved in extreme binge drinking (W7), and report riskier driving several years after high school. In some waves, parental practices appeared to have enduring effects in protecting against DWI, RWI, and blackouts. (Vaca et al, 2/1)

Annals of Internal Medicine: Declining Use Of Primary Care Among Commercially Insured Adults In The United States, 2008–2016
Visits to [primary care providers] PCPs declined by 24.2%, from 169.5 to 134.3 visits per 100 member-years, while the proportion of adults with no PCP visits in a given year rose from 38.1% to 46.4%. Rates of visits addressing low-acuity conditions decreased by 47.7% .... Out-of-pocket cost per problem-based visit rose by $9.4 (31.5%). Visit rates to specialists remained stable..., and visits to alternative venues, such as urgent care clinics, increased by 46.9%. (Ganguli et al., 2/4)

Los Angeles Times: In Swing States, Democrats Should Avoid 'Medicare For All' 
To retake the presidency in November, the Democrats will need to win the electoral college. The clearest path to do that is to win the swing states that had the closest margins in the 2016 election. Fortunately, the Democrats have a playbook to follow from the 2018 midterm election. There are many factors that led to Democratic victories in the crucial swing states of Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin in 2018, and it’s always hard to isolate any single cause. But the successful Democrats all talked about healthcare — with a focus on fixing the Affordable Care Act and reinforcing Medicare. (Seth Hill, 2/6)

The Washington Post: Trump’s Prepared Speech Included A Guarantee To Protect Preexisting Conditions. He Didn’t Say It.
President Trump’s State of the Union address on Tuesday was meant to outline his administration’s successes and his vision for the upcoming year. With his reelection campaign getting underway, the prepared speech his team sent to reporters included a line focused on a central issue for voters: health care. “I have also made an ironclad pledge to American families,” he was expected to say. “We will always protect patients with preexisting conditions — that is a guarantee.” (Philip Bump, 2/5)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Practical Health Care: Embrace Catastrophic, Not Universal Option
Providing complete coverage to the most vulnerable — the elderly and the poor— makes sense, but the emphasis should be on ridding Medicare and Medicaid of billions of dollars in fraud and waste, not expanding them to larger and larger groups.Instead, our lawmakers should focus on the more practical idea of providing catastrophic/preventive health coverage to the millions who lack insurance as well as to those who might someday lose it. (Marc Siegel, 2/6)

Tennessean: Small-Business Owners Need Medicare For All
As a small-business owner of 15 years, I’ve watched as health care costs have skyrocketed, taking more and more out of patients’ pockets and shrinking the bottom lines of small businesses like mine. Many presidential candidates have put forward health care plans that nibble around the edges, but without a comprehensive plan to overhaul health care, it’s just a Band-Aid on a broken system. It’s time we stopped pushing the costs of health care on patients and small businesses to line the pockets of giant insurance companies. (Anthony Davis, 2/5)

Kansas City Star: Kansas’ Medicaid Expansion Push Worth Emulating In Missouri
Medicaid expansion is also vital to protect health care for our state’s rural residents. Since 2014, 10 rural hospitals in Missouri have closed — most recently, Pinnacle Regional Hospital in Boonville just this month. Its Overland Park owner also operates a hospital by the same name in Johnson County. (O'Dell, 2/6)

The Wall Street Journal: Opioid Inflection Point?
A report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week that drug overdose deaths have declined for the first time in nearly three decades drew little attention until President Trump flogged it in his State of the Union address. Here’s hoping the opioid scourge that has taken hundreds of thousands of lives is finally abating. Drug overdose deaths fell 4.1% in 2018 thanks to fewer fatalities from prescription opioids, according to the CDC. Overdoses from natural and semisynthetic opioids such as oxycodone and hydrocodone fell by 13.4%, and 3.2% from heroin, though these declines were partially offset by a 10% increase from synthetic opioids like fentanyl. (2/5)

The Washington Post: In Combating Coronavirus, Slamming The Door To China Will Hurt More Than Help
Viruses are tiny parasites. They have a singular mission: to invade a host cell and use its machinery to replicate themselves — complete with their own genetic material — and then go on to infect other host cells. The new coronavirus, which has a comparatively large genome, is racing through part of China and beginning to spread around the world, transmitted from person to person. The family of coronavirus is so named because of a crownlike appearance of spikes — some say it looks like the sun during an eclipse, with a halo. But there is nothing sunny about its emergence as a respiratory disease that can harm and kill human beings. (2/5)

Stat: The Novel Coronavirus Exposes A Flaw In The Nagoya Protocol
The speed with which the sequence of 2019-nCoV has been shared is a potent reminder of how we should avoid tying up the research community in red tape when we are in a race to find a new vaccine or treatment for a new virus or other pathogen.Coronavirus Coverage: Read the rest of STAT’s up-to-the-minute reporting on the coronavirus outbreak. But that is precisely what a legally binding international agreement, the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing, has inadvertently ended up doing. This supplementary international agreement to the Convention on Biological Diversity could make it extraordinarily difficult to conduct disease surveillance or forge research collaborations around the world. (Thomas B. Cueni, 2/5)

The Washington Post: The Coronavirus Reawakens Old Racist Tropes Against Chinese People
At a middle school a few blocks from my house, a rumor circulated among the children that all Asian kids have the coronavirus and should be quarantined. Misinformation has also reached higher education: In college campuses across the United States, some non-Asian students have acknowledged avoiding Asian classmates for no other reason than, well, the coronavirus came from Asia. The disease apparently emerged in December from a live-food market in Wuhan, China. There have been over 20,000 confirmed cases in China, and the World Health Organization reported 146 confirmed cases in 23 other countries. There are serious concerns of a global pandemic, but the coronavirus has also reawakened centuries-old prejudices against Chinese people. (John Pomfret, 2/5)

The New York Times: How Abortion Warps Our Politics
Where will abortion opponents stand in 2020? President Trump recently made his bid for their votes, becoming the first president to speak in person at the annual March for Life in Washington, an event held since 1974. Two days later, a Democratic presidential hopeful, Pete Buttigieg, told a woman who called herself a “proud pro-life Democrat” that he would not support more moderate abortion language in the Democratic National Committee platform — basically suggesting that, on this issue, she will not find affirmation or support from her party. (Gracy Olmstead, 2/5)

Stat: Stem Cell Clinics, Especially Rogue Ones, Need To Be Better Regulated
Rogue stem cell clinics continue to victimize hopeful patients seeking cures for cancer, Parkinson’s disease, autism, chronic pain, and more. Most of these treatments are unproven and unsupported by evidence, wasting precious time and health care dollars for desperate patients and often doing more harm than good to patients’ health and survival.Yet public demand for stem cell treatments is outpacing our ability to regulate them. Government agencies like the Food and Drug Administration and the Federal Trade Commission should be stepping up to the plate to do this, but it isn’t likely that the money will be found soon to do that. (David A. Pearce, 2/6)

Stat: Taxpayer-Funded Research Should Be Open Science
In the three years since Donald Trump was inaugurated as president, I have rarely supported anything he proposed. And for nearly 50 years as an academic researcher, I have almost always sided with the professional research establishment. Yet on one issue I now find myself siding with the president and opposing the scientific establishment. In December, E&E News reported that the president was considering an executive action requiring that all federally funded research become available to the public immediately upon publication. After all, taxpayers paid for much of this research, which could enhance their health or quality of life, and it should become open science. (Robert M. Kaplan, 2/6)