The New York Times: Democrats Unite To Begin Push To Protect Pre-Existing Condition Coverage
Democrats, claiming a mandate from voters, opened a legislative campaign on Wednesday to secure protections under the Affordable Care Act for people with pre-existing medical conditions, putting aside divisions over a more ambitious push for “Medicare for all” in favor of shoring up existing law.“ Health care was the single most important issue to voters in the 2018 election,” said Representative Anna G. Eshoo, Democrat of California, as she convened a hearing on a decision by a federal district judge in Texas that would invalidate the entire law. (Pear, 2/6)

The Hill: House Dems To Mull Bills To Overturn Trump ObamaCare Actions
Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Wednesday announced that they will hold a hearing next week to consider legislation to overturn conservative actions President Trump has taken on the Affordable Care Act. The panel will consider bills to overturn Trump’s expansion of cheaper, skimpier insurance plans that Democrats deride as “junk plans,” and to restore funding for outreach efforts to enroll people in ObamaCare plans, funding that was slashed by the Trump administration. (Sullivan, 2/6)

Modern Healthcare: ACA Is Focus Of New Democratic Push
The legislation announced in a key House health panel hearing on Wednesday targets the Trump administration policies that affect the law. The bills aren't likely to go anywhere this Congress with the Senate and White House still in Republican control, but lawmakers once again highlighted the divide in the Democratic and GOP approach to the law, particularly around how states should administer their exchanges. The hearings came one day after the president in his State of the Union address called for legislation to bring down drug prices and improve transparency across the healthcare industry. It remains unclear whether the two parties will strike a deal with one another and with the administration on substantive drug pricing proposals—a stated priority from all sides. (Luthi, 2/6)

The CT Mirror: DeLauro Uses New Clout To Probe Trump's Impact On Obamacare
Rep. Rosa DeLauro has wasted no time using her new clout to tackle something she considers an outrage – the Trump administration’s impact on the Affordable Care Act. The Democratic takeover of the U.S. House has promoted DeLauro to the chairmanship of a House Appropriations subcommittee with jurisdiction over the budget of the Department of Health and Human Services. (Radelat, 2/6)

The New York Times: What Is Late-Term Abortion? Trump Got It Wrong
President Trump on Tuesday evening asked Congress to ban a type of abortion often referred to as “late-term abortion.” He said he wanted to protect “children who can feel pain in the mother’s womb.” He scorned New York’s recently passed Reproductive Health Act, saying that lawmakers had “cheered with delight upon the passage of legislation that would allow a baby to be ripped from the mother’s womb moments before birth.” It was an image he has used before, including in a campaign debate with Hillary Clinton. (Belluck, 2/6)

CNN: Before Judging 'Late-Term Abortion,' Understand What It Means, Doctors Say
CNN spoke with two ob-gyns to explain: Dr. Barbara Levy, vice president of health policy at the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, a professional organization; and Dr. Jennifer Conti, a fellow with the advocacy group Physicians for Reproductive Health and co-host of The V Word podcast. (Ravitz, 2/6)

The Associated Press: With Anti-Abortion Push, Trump Woos Evangelicals Again
With a fierce denunciation of late-term abortions, President Donald Trump is making a move to re-energize evangelical voters whose support will be vital in heading off any possible 2020 primary challenge. Trump, at arguably the weakest point of his presidency, seized on abortion during his State of the Union address Tuesday to re-engage on a divisive cultural issue, using both religious rhetoric aimed at conservative Christians and scathing attacks on Democratic lawmakers who support abortion rights — in particular, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam. (LeMire and Reccardi, 2/6)

The Associated Press: Cuomo Defends NY Abortion Law After Criticism From Trump
Gov. Andrew Cuomo defended New York's new abortion law Wednesday after it was criticized by President Donald Trump during the State of the Union address, saying Trump and his conservative allies are lying about the law as part of a broader assault on abortion rights. In an op-ed published in The New York Times on Wednesday, the Democrat also pushed back on Trump's call for a ban on late-term abortion, saying he wants to roll back decades-old court rulings protecting access to the procedure. (Klepper, 2/6)

The Washington Post: Anti-Abortion Bills: Odds Good In GOP States, Not Congress
President Donald Trump’s call for a ban on late-term abortions is unlikely to prevail in Congress, but Republican legislators in several states are pushing ahead with their own tough anti-abortion bills that they hope can pass muster with the Supreme Court. Two bills proposing to outlaw abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected, as early as six weeks into a pregnancy, advanced out of House and Senate committees in the Mississippi Legislature this week, with GOP Gov. Phil Bryant pledging to sign either into law. (Crary, 2/7)

In other news, Politico talks with the head of Planned Parenthood —

Politico: Pulse Check: Planned Parenthood's Leana Wen
Planned Parenthood's new president vows to fight the Trump administration's latest proposal and reflects on her health care career. (2/7)

The Associated Press: Trump Launching Campaign To End HIV Epidemic In US By 2030
President Donald Trump is launching a campaign to end the HIV epidemic in the United States by 2030, targeting areas where new infections happen and getting highly effective drugs to people at risk. His move is being greeted with a mix of skepticism and cautious optimism by anti-AIDS activists. State and local health officials are warning the administration not to take money from other programs to finance the initiative, whose budget has not been revealed. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 2/6)

CNN: Trump's Plan To End HIV Epidemic, Explained
Trump's plan will fund programs in geographic hot spots, data to identify and track the spread of HIV, and the creation of local efforts in targeted areas to expand HIV prevention and treatment. "What's new about this is the laser focus of multi-agencies synergizing together on those areas," Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Wednesday."So this is something that has not been done before. We have certainly discussed this type of approach, but this is the first time we've had a multi-agency approach where the individual agencies will be working very closely together," he said. (Howard, 2/6)

NPR: Trump Plan To End HIV Spread By 2030 Faces Obstacles
Several HIV/AIDS advocates say that the goal is achievable, but only if the administration reverses course in several major areas of health care policy, including efforts to weaken the Affordable Care Act, cut funding for Planned Parenthood and limit LGBTQ and immigrant rights. The initiative's fate will depend on Congress, which will decide whether to fund the new proposal and, if so, by how much. In a press call Wednesday, Dr. Brett Giroir, assistant secretary for health, declined to specify how much money the president would request from Congress for the program. Those details will be included in the administration's overall budget request, he said. (Neel and Simmons-Duffin, 2/6)

The Hill: Trump’s AIDS Turnaround Greeted With Skepticism By Some Advocates
“It sounds very much like teleprompter Trump saying words but not being invested in the statement itself,” said Scott Schoettes, counsel and HIV project director for Lambda Legal, a civil rights organization focused on the LGBT community. (Hellmann, 2/7)

Kaiser Health News: Trump Pledges To End HIV Transmission By 2030. Doable, But Daunting.
It’s a goal long sought by public health advocates. But even given the vital gains made in drug therapies and understanding of the disease over nearly 40 years, it is not an easy undertaking. “The reason we have an AIDS epidemic is not just for a lack of the medication,” said Dr. Kenneth Mayer, medical research director at the Boston LGBT health center Fenway Institute. “There are a lot of social, structural, individual behavioral factors that may impact why people become infected, may impact if people who are infected engage in care and may impact or affect people who are at high risk of HIV.” (Heredia Rodriguez, 2/6)

PBS NewsHour: How Realistic Is Trump’s Pledge To End HIV In The U.S.?
In his State of the Union address, President Trump promised that his administration would try to end the transmission of HIV/AIDS in the U.S. William Brangham learns more from Jon Cohen of Science Magazine and Carlos del Rio of Emory University School of Medicine about the attainability of this goal, the practical and political challenges and what could help. (2/6)

The Baltimore Sun: Baltimore Picked For Federal Program To Help Eradicate HIV/AIDS
Baltimore is one of dozens of hotspots the federal government plans to target as it aims to drastically reduce HIV and AIDS nationwide during the next decade, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The city, along with Montgomery and Prince George’s counties, is among the areas where the federal health department estimates about half of new HIV cases occur — including 48 of some 3,000 counties nationwide, seven states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. The department plans to direct funding to those areas to boost resources for fighting HIV and AIDS. (Meehan, 2/6)

Tampa Bay Times: Trump Vowed To ‘Defeat AIDS’ In His State Of The Union. Florida Is Ground Zero.
Reported cases of AIDS and HIV are on the rise in this state. The Miami area — where 1 in 1,000 people have HIV — has the highest rate of new diagnosis of any metro area in the country, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. (Contorno, 2/6)

Stat: Trump Claims Drug Prices Have Fallen. But He’s Cherry-Picking That Data.
President Trump boldly asserted Tuesday that his administration’s efforts to bring down drug prices had led to the largest drop in those figures in nearly half a century. That’s not quite right. (Swetlitz, 2/7)

Reuters: Eli Lilly Backs U.S. Proposal On Drug Rebates To Lower Costs
Eli Lilly and Co on Wednesday embraced a U.S. government proposal to end a decades-old system of rebates drugmakers make to industry middlemen, saying it could lower the cost of insulin and other prescription drugs for patients. Lilly, along with other major insulin makers, Sanofi SA and Novo Nordisk, has been under mounting pressure from patients and politicians over the rising cost of the life-sustaining diabetes treatment. (2/6)

Reuters: Novartis CEO Says U.S. Rebate Plan Will Return Cash To Patients
Novartis AG Chief Executive Vas Narasimhan said his company's prescription drug prices have been "flat to negative" over the last three years, and directed blame for high costs for U.S. patients on industry middlemen that manage drug benefits. In an interview with Reuters in New York on Wednesday Narasimhan, a 42-year-old U.S. doctor who has headed the Swiss drugmaker since Feb. 2018, threw his support behind a U.S. government proposal to end a system of rebates drugmakers pay to pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) and health insurers in order to get products on their lists of covered medicines. (2/6)

Bloomberg: U.S. Healthcare May Slip As Trump Renews Call To Cut Drug Prices
U.S. health-care stocks may follow European drug-making peers lower after President Trump renewed his call to bring down drug prices even as the Street said his address revealed no new surprises. Trump’s State of the Union address gave little assurance that a bipartisan compromise could be reached. Any inroads with Democrats will likely be limited given the high level of skepticism and lack of political incentive for a major compromise, Evercore ISI equity analyst Michael Newshel wrote. (Flanagan, 2/6)

And in other pharmaceutical news —

Kaiser Health News: Trump Administration Salutes Parade Of Generic Drug Approvals, But Hundreds Aren’t For Sale
The Trump administration has been trumpeting a huge increase in FDA generic drug approvals the past two years, the result of its actions to streamline a cumbersome process and combat anti-competitive practices. But nearly half of those newly approved drugs aren’t being sold in the United States, Kaiser Health News has found, meaning that many patients are deriving little practical benefit from the administration’s efforts. (Lupkin and Hancock, 2/7)

Stat: New York Biotech Debuts, Targeting Dormant Metastatic Cancer Cells
A biotech based on the frightening fact that some cancer cells spread throughout the body even before a tumor is detectable emerged from stealth mode on Thursday, announcing it had raised roughly $60 million from, among others, early-stage venture capital companies and one of biotech’s 800-pound gorillas. (Begley, 2/7)

Modern Healthcare: Senate Panel Hears Pitch On Physician-Dispensed Generics
Senators on Tuesday mulled a different way to get cheap, generic drugs to patients—encourage physicians to go around insurance plans and buy medications directly from drug wholesalers. Senate health committee chair Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) was struck by Tuesday's testimony from the co-founder of a direct primary-care practice who described the extremely low prices he can secure for his patients for generic drugs. Physicians in 44 states are able to purchase medications directly from wholesalers, and Alexander said he wanted to learn more about how this practice could spread. (Luthi, 2/5)

Prescription Drug Watch: For more news on rising drug costs, check out our weekly roundup of news coverage and perspectives of the issue.

CNN: House Republicans Push Medicare For All Hearings While Democrats Stall
Republicans are pushing leaders of a key House committee to hold a hearing on Medicare for all, but the Democrats aren't taking the bait. Oregon Rep. Greg Walden, ranking member of the Energy & Commerce Committee, and Texas Rep. Michael Burgess, the lead Republican on the health subcommittee, pressed in a letter this week and at a hearing Wednesday to publicly explore the proposal to create a national, government-run health insurance program. (Luhby, 2/6)

The Hill: 2020 Dems Walk Fine Line With Support For ‘Medicare For All’
Democratic presidential contenders face a dilemma on how far to go in championing “Medicare for all.” Stopping short of Sen. Bernie Sanders’s fully government-run system risks alienating progressives, but embracing the Vermont independent’s bill opens up lines of attack around eliminating the private insurance coverage most people already have. (Sullivan, 2/7)

The New York Times: Safe Injection Site For Opioid Users Faces Trump Administration Crackdown
The Justice Department is suing to stop a Philadelphia group from opening what some public health experts and mayors consider the next front in fighting the opioid epidemic: a place where people who inject fentanyl and other illicit drugs can do so under medical supervision. The nonprofit group, Safehouse, was formed last year to house the country’s first so-called safe injection site in Philadelphia, which has one of the nation’s highest rates of overdose deaths. Safehouse had been planning to open the site as soon as next month, and a law firm has been representing it pro bono in anticipation of a crackdown by the Trump administration. (Goodnough, 2/6)

The Associated Press: US Attorney In Philadelphia Sues Over Safe Injection Site
The lawsuit pits U.S. Attorney William McSwain’s stance on safe injection sites against those of Philadelphia’s mayor, district attorney and a former Pennsylvania governor. McSwain believes supporters should try to change the laws, not break them. “Normalizing the use of deadly drugs like heroin and fentanyl is not the answer to solving the epidemic,” McSwain said at a Wednesday news conference, while protesters gathered outside his office on Independence Mall. They said thousands of people could die of overdoses in Philadelphia in the time it might take to change the law. (Dale, 2/6)

The Wall Street Journal: Federal Prosecutors Aim To Block Safe-Injection Sites In Philadelphia
Ronda Goldfein, vice president of Safehouse, said the government’s lawsuit wouldn’t stop the nonprofit from continuing its efforts to open an injection site. It doesn’t have funding or a location. She also said the suit could help lift legal uncertainty nationally surrounding safe-injection sites. “This is one of the issues that needs to be resolved before we can move forward with this initiative, both in Philadelphia and with our harm-reduction colleagues across the country,” she said. (Kamp, 2/6)

NPR: U.S. Prosecutors Block Opioid 'Safe Injection Site' In Philadelphia
According to the suit, a supervised injection site would violate a section added to the Controlled Substances Act in the 1980s during the height of the crack epidemic. That section of law was written to close crack houses, but legal experts say it has been used more expansively in the past. McSwain's comments affirm remarks made last year by Rod Rosenstein, deputy U.S. attorney general, who said in an interview with WHYY that swift and aggressive action would follow the opening of a supervised injection site. Such facilities operate in Canada and Europe, but none exist in the United States. That has not stopped other cities like New York, Denver and Seattle from publicly debating similar proposals. (Allyn, 2/6)

The Washington Post: Opioid Epidemic: Justice Department Sues Philadelphia Over Supervised Injection Facility That Aims To Prevent Fatal Drug Overdoses
Advocates say that such drug sanctuaries could be an important tool in the fight to stem the opioid epidemic. Philadelphia, which has one of the nation’s most active heroin markets, has seen a high toll from opioid abuse. Supervised injection facilities exist in other countries, and advocates contend they save lives by allowing drug users to use in sanitary conditions where they are monitored for signs of overdose rather than overdosing on the street, where help might not be available. Advocates also believe safe injection sites curb the spread of HIV and hepatitis C by limiting needle sharing. (Zezima, 2/6)

The Hill: Google Parent Company Looking To Partner On Opioid Rehab Campus In Ohio
Google parent company Alphabet is partnering with a local health care provider in Ohio to back a treatment facility for those affected by the opioid epidemic. Verily, an experimental health care spin-off from Alphabet, said in a blog post on Wednesday that it will help launch OneFifteen in Dayton, Ohio. The facility will take a tech-focused approach to treating individuals with substance-abuse disorders. (Samuels, 2/6)

Bloomberg: Alphabet Experimental Health Unit Verily Takes On Opioid Epidemic
The idea is to apply Verily’s data-centric approach to addiction, using analytics to improve care by gleaning insight over time from operational and clinical data. Samaritan Behavioral Health Inc., a subsidiary of Premier Health, will work with Verily to provide clinical care for the project. Kettering Health Network is also a partner. Verily’s plan to tackle mental health and addiction is but the latest of Alphabet’s forays into health care and life sciences. Through Verily and other branches of the company, Google parent Alphabet has explored eradicating mosquito-borne disease, artificial-intelligence applications for health care and the molecular mechanisms of aging. The company has hired former Geisinger Health Chief Executive Officer David Feinberg to oversee Google Health. (Brown, 2/6)

The Wall Street Journal: Where Will Drug Overdoses Hit Next? Twitter May Offer Clues
The battle against opioid abuse could have a new tool in its arsenal: Twitter. Research indicates that the site provides a quick, reliable snapshot of who’s using what drugs and where throughout the country. Traditional epidemiological studies, by contrast, can take years to yield information. (Ward, 2/6)

NPR: SSRIs Can Undercut Some Opioids' Effectiveness, Study Says
Antidepressants may dampen the effects of some common opioids, resulting in less effective pain management according to research findings published Wednesday. The researchers suggest physicians should consider alternative pain management strategies for patients on antidepressants. Opioids come in two broad varieties: those that act directly and others that have to be chemically processed by the body before they can begin to relieve pain. Direct-acting opioids, like morphine or oxycodone, can get right to work. (Lambert, 2/6)

Politico Pro: White House Drug Office Undergoes Major Reorganization
Newly confirmed drug czar Jim Carroll has ordered a major reorganization of the White House drug office, including reassigning top career policy staffers and spreading public health aides across other policy areas, multiple sources familiar with the plan told POLITICO. The shakeup at the Office of National Drug Control Policy comes just days after Carroll was sworn in as the Trump administration’s first permanent director of the office tasked with coordinating the federal response to the opioid epidemic and other drug crises. (Ehley, 2/6)

The Associated Press: Family Says Woman's Death Led To Accused Ohio Doc's Removal
An Ohio patient died minutes after she was given a "grossly excessive" dose of pain medication ordered by a doctor who was removed from patient care the following day and is now under investigation in connection with previous deaths, the patient's family and their lawyers said Wednesday. The Columbus-area Mount Carmel Health System removed intensive care doctor William Husel from patient care Nov. 21, the day after 82-year-old Melissa Penix died. He was fired two weeks later. (Franko, 2/6)

The Associated Press: Arizona May Require License For Care Facilities After Rape
Arizona may boost state oversight of long-term care facilities like the one in Phoenix where an incapacitated woman was raped and later gave birth, reversing a decision more than 20 years ago to drop state regulation. Lawmakers are considering legislation that would require intermediate care facilities like Hacienda Healthcare to apply for a state license and conduct background checks of employees that care for clients. (2/6)

The Hill: Arizona Governor Orders Increased Regulations After Assault Of Woman In Care Facility
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) on Wednesday issued an executive order directing state agencies to increase protections for people with disabilities in long-term care facilities, and requiring state-funded care facilities to train employees on how to prevent and report abuse. "All Arizonans deserve to be safe — and we have a special responsibility to protect those with disabilities,” Ducey said in a statement. (Samuels, 2/6)

The New York Times: Ex-Nurse Pleads Not Guilty To Sexually Assaulting Incapacitated Woman At Nursing Home
A former nurse accused of raping and impregnating an incapacitated woman under his care last year at a Phoenix nursing home pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to charges of sexual assault and child abuse. In a brief arraignment hearing, the former nurse, Nathan D. Sutherland, who appeared in an orange jumpsuit, spoke only to provide his name and date of birth. The judge announced that a not guilty plea had been entered by Mr. Sutherland, 36, who was swiftly taken back to the Maricopa County Jail, where he has been held since his arrest on Jan. 23. (Haag, 2/6)

The Washington Post: ‘It Will Take Off Like A Wildfire’: The Unique Dangers Of The Washington State Measles Outbreak
Amber Gorrow is afraid to leave her house with her infant son because she lives at the epicenter of Washington state’s worst measles outbreak in more than two decades. Born eight weeks ago, Leon is too young to get his first measles shot, putting him at risk for the highly contagious respiratory virus, which can be fatal in small children. Gorrow also lives in a community where she said being anti-vaccine is as acceptable as being vegan or going gluten free. Almost a quarter of kids in Clark County, Wash., a suburb of Portland, Ore., go to school without measles, mumps and rubella immunizations, and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) recently declared a state of emergency amid concern that things could rapidly spin out of control. (Sun and Hagan, 2/6)

CNN: Measles Rarely Kills In The US -- But When It Does, This Is How It Will Happen
At least 10 US states have reported cases of measles so far in 2019, including Washington, where an outbreak is to blame for 50 cases. Measles is a highly contagious disease caused by a virus that can spread through the air when an infected person coughs or sneezes, or if a person comes into direct contact or shares germs by touching the same objects or surfaces. High fever, rash all over the body, stuffy nose and reddened eyes are typical measles symptoms, though these usually disappear without treatment within two or three weeks. (Scutti, 2/5)

Kaiser Health News: Measles Outbreak Sends Vaccine Demand Soaring, Even Among The Hesitant
Demand for measles vaccine has surged in the Washington county where the highly contagious virus is linked to more than 50 confirmed illnesses this year — including among people who had previously shunned the shots. Orders for two types of measles vaccines in Clark County were up nearly 500 percent in January compared to the same month last year, jumping from 530 doses to 3,150, according to state health department figures. (Aleccia, 2/6)

The Associated Press: Blackface Photo Reopens Long History Of Bigotry In Medicine
The racist photo on Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam's yearbook page wasn't the only thing that disgusted Monifa Bandele. She was especially appalled that the image was published as he was graduating from medical school on his way to becoming a pediatrician. The 1984 photo has stirred a national political furor and reopened the long history of bigotry in American medicine. The revelations about Northam gave many African-Americans a new reason to be distrustful of doctors. (Hajela, 2/6)

Stat: In A Field Full Of Failures, A New Blood Test To Predict Alzheimer’s Aims To Give Drug Makers A Needed Tool
It would seem difficult to put up worse numbers than experimental Alzheimer’s drugs, 99 percent of which have failed in clinical trials since 2002. But another corner of Alzheimer’s research has managed it: blood tests to either diagnose the disease in asymptomatic patients or predict which healthy people will develop it years in the future. Although you wouldn’t know it from frequent headlines proclaiming, “Blood test can predict Alzheimer’s,” the percentage of tests that looked promising in a (usually small) study but eventually fell flat is … 100 percent. (Begley, 2/6)

The Washington Post: Wildfires, Hurricanes And Other Extreme Weather Cost The Nation 247 Lives, Nearly $100 Billion In Damage During 2018
The number of billion-dollar weather disasters in the United States has more than doubled in recent years, as devastating hurricanes and ferocious wildfires that experts suspect are fueled in part by climate change have ravaged swaths of the country, according to data released by the federal government Wednesday. Since 1980, the United States has experienced 241 weather and climate disasters where the overall damage reached or exceeded $1 billion, when adjusted for inflation, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. (Dennis and Mooney, 2/6)

The Wall Street Journal: Do E-Cigarettes Do More Good Than Harm?
The rise of e-cigarettes is often seen through two completely different lenses. On one side: Their surging use among teenagers has caused widespread alarm because of health concerns about e-cigarettes themselves and worries that they encourage youngsters to eventually smoke tobacco. (2/6)

Stat: In Flickering Brain Signals, Scientists May Detect Consciousness
As a child, Enzo Tagliazucchi was terrified of going to sleep. His self seemed so fragile, so easy to lose. He worried that if he let himself drift off, he might wake up as someone else. So he tried to stay alert, to keep moving, tapping his fingers as he lay in bed, taking nocturnal trips through his family’s house in Buenos Aires. But it never worked. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t stop his eyes from eventually fluttering closed. In the morning, when they opened again, he wondered where he’d been. (Boodman, 2/6)

The New York Times: China Investigates Reports Of H.I.V.-Tainted Blood Plasma Treatment
Officials in Shanghai are investigating reports that a Chinese pharmaceutical company may have sold more than 12,000 units of a blood plasma product contaminated with H.I.V., potentially the latest in a series of scandals that have threatened to undermine public trust in China’s medical institutions and health care system. In a statement on its website, the Shanghai Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday night that authorities had ordered the company, Shanghai Xinxing Medicine Company, to begin an emergency recall of the potentially tainted batch of intravenous immunoglobulin, a treatment made from pooled blood plasma that is often used to treat immune disorders, and halt its production. (Qin, 2/6)

CNN: How Messiness, Self-Criticism And Screens Cause You To Eat Poorly
Although food is a necessity for all humans, how we eat typically varies significantly from person to person. And while our food preferences and dislikes help determine what we actually put into our mouths -- which ultimately influences our health -- more and more research points to lifestyle factors that can greatly affect both the quality and quantity of our diets. Below are five lifestyle factors that can influence our eating habits, along with tricks on how to use them to improve your health. (Drayer, 2/6)

The Wall Street Journal: Hospitals Turn To Biometrics To Identify Patients
Biometric technology is coming to the hospital. Biometric systems, which identify people through fingerprints or other physical characteristics, have long been in use in sectors like law enforcement and consumer electronics. Now hospitals are using iris and palm-vein scanning to overcome a growing patient-identification problem. (Gormley, 2/6)

The Associated Press: Telemedicine’s Challenge: Getting Patients To Click The App
Walmart workers can now see a doctor for only $4. The catch? It has to be a virtual visit. The retail giant recently rolled back the $40 price on telemedicine, becoming the latest big company to nudge employees toward a high-tech way to get diagnosed and treated remotely. But patients have been slow to embrace virtual care. Eighty percent of mid-size and large U.S. companies offered telemedicine services to their workers last year, up from 18 percent in 2014, according to the consultant Mercer. Only 8 percent of eligible employees used telemedicine at least once in 2017, most recent figures show. (Murphy, 2/6)

The Wall Street Journal: Virtual Reality May Reduce The Pain Of Childbirth
Virtual reality may be coming to the delivery room. Researchers are studying the use of virtual reality to alleviate pain and anxiety during labor, and a handful of doctors and hospitals are already offering it to women. (Petersen, 2/6)

Modern Healthcare: Epic Switch Means 1,650 Trinity Health Jobs Will Relocate Or Outsource
About 1,650 Trinity Health employees will see their current positions relocated or outsourced in the coming years as the system transitions to the Epic electronic health records platform. The not-for-profit health system plans to relocate some of its revenue cycle employees to three consolidated billing offices in Michigan and Ohio and outsource some of its information technology employees to its application management services vendor, Leidos. (Bannow, 2/6)

Stateline: Another Big Year Expected For Gun Control In The States
After a significant year for the gun control movement in 2018, momentum for stricter firearms laws in states across the country likely will accelerate this year. In states where Democrats made big gains in the November elections, lawmakers are quickly moving legislation to raise the buying age for guns and to ban assault-style weapons. Other measures, including bills to limit gun access for domestic abusers and people who may harm themselves or others, have increasing bipartisan support. (Vasilogambros, 2/7)

Texas Tribune: Santa Fe Survivors Want Texas To Pass Bills To Prevent Another Mass Shooting
Since the shooting, survivors like Rice have taken part in the school safety conversation that’s all but certain to make waves at the Texas Capitol over the next several months. Lawmakers have already filed a bevy of bills aimed at preventing — or at least mitigating — another gun tragedy. Victims and their loved ones are hoping that by the time the Legislature adjourns in May, the bills they’ve been advocating for will make it to the governor’s desk. (Samuels, 2/7)

Boston Globe: Healey Gets Boost From Health Insurers, Hospitals For Inauguration Fête
Attorney General Maura Healey, whose broad responsibilities include enforcing the state’s health care laws, got a boost from two of the industry’s most influential interest groups amid an array of developers, banks, and others who bankrolled her inaugural celebration last month. The Massachusetts Association of Health Plans, which shares an adviser with Healey, and the Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association combined to give the Charlestown Democrat’s inaugural committee $5,000 on the same day last month, records show. (Stout, 2/6)

The Associated Press: Judge: Give Me Weeks For Decision In Big Flint Water Case
A judge said Wednesday it will likely take weeks for him to decide whether Michigan's former health director will continue to face involuntary manslaughter charges arising from the Flint water crisis. The issue for Genesee County Judge Joseph Farah is whether to overturn a ruling last summer by a judge in a lower court. Nick Lyon, who led the Department of Health and Human Services until Jan. 1, has been ordered to trial in the deaths of two men who had Legionnaires' disease. (2/6)

Los Angeles Times: California Lawmakers Try Once Again To Make It Easier To Prosecute Police Officers For Killing Civilians
A year after the failure of legislation that would have made it easier to criminally prosecute police officers for killing civilians, California lawmakers will once again debate stricter legal standards for officers who use deadly force. This week, legislators are introducing two competing bills on the issue, setting up a renewed clash between civil-liberties organizations and law-enforcement groups. One bill, backed by the American Civil Liberties Union and similar groups, would allow district attorneys to more easily prosecute police officers for killing civilians. The other, which has the support of police unions and management, would instead focus on internal department policies and training. (Dillon, 2/6)

North Carolina Health News: Mistreated Adults Need Support From State, Not Just Counties And Feds, Advocates Say
When a doctor’s office, neighbor or relative reports mistreatment of an older person in North Carolina, the call to investigate rings at one of the 100 county departments of social services. Counties pay more than four-fifths of the cost of looking into reports and finding solutions to those reports, with a federal social services block grant making up about 18 percent, and the state roughly .01 percent, according to the state Division of Aging and Adult Services. (Goldsmith, 2/7)

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Cuyahoga County Was Warned Of Health-Care Crisis In Jail Weeks Before First Inmate Died
One year ago, few people outside the Cuyahoga County jails knew of any problems behind the bars, in part because state inspectors routinely gave the county facilities passing grades. That changed on May 22, when a County Council committee heard testimony about a health-care crisis at the jails: a severe shortage of nurses, an inability to hire more nurses and conflicts between the jail director and the medical staff. (Astolfi, 2/6)

Sacramento Bee: Transgender Troops Continue To Serve In CA National Guard
One of the highest-ranking officers in the California National Guard told lawmakers on Tuesday that the state is not removing transgender soldiers and airmen from its ranks despite efforts by the Trump administration to bar transgender people from the Armed Forces. (Ashton, 2/6)

Health News Florida: Bill Implementing Vaping Amendment Passes, Despite Debate
A bill implementing a constitutional amendment that bans vaping in businesses passed its first committee Tuesday. But as Blaise Gainey reports, legislators, advocates and critics must now answer the question – What is vaping? (Gainey, 2/6)

KQED: New Bill Aims To Ban Cosmetic Surgery For Intersex Infants
Senate Bill 201 would prohibit medical providers from performing cosmetic surgeries on intersex babies — individuals born with natural variations in sex characteristics or genitalia — until they can make their own decisions. Some of the surgeries that advocates say are medically unnecessary include reducing a clitoris, creating a vagina or removing healthy gonadal tissue. (Medina-Cadena, 2/6)

Georgia Health News: Where Do Our Tobacco Settlement Dollars Go?
According to state figures recently compiled by the Georgia Center for Oncology Research & Education (CORE), just $14.1 million of the Georgia allotment of $151 million in fiscal 2019 went to deal with cancer. That’s less than 10 percent. In contrast, the state’s cancer spending share in fiscal 2001 was 27 percent. Advocates for increased cancer funding say the state Legislature should provide more money to these efforts. (Miller, 2/6)

Arizona Republic: Gov. Doug Ducey Orders More Protection For Arizonans With Disabilities
After a patient's rape at a Phoenix long-term care facility, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey on Wednesday issued an executive order calling for more state protection of people with disabilities. Ducey is ordering three state agencies to strengthen protections for some of the state's most vulnerable residents. (Innes, 2/6)

Arizona Republic: Fight Over 'Cage' Tests Rules On Safety For People With Disabilities
It was the way the bed looked. More like an oversized crib, or even a cage, than a bed. Its tall wooden slats, locks and hinged doors screamed “restraint” to state health officials who saw it in the bedroom of Julianna Wadsack, a teenager with severe disabilities. But to Julianna’s parents, it was a safe place for their daughter to sleep, a guard against her wandering when caregivers were pre-occupied, lest the child walk into walls or, worse, collapse on the floor from a seizure. (Pitzl, 2/6)

Sacramento Bee: UCD Offers Less-Invasive Fix For PDA Defect In Preemies
Weighing little more than 3 pounds 7 ounces, tiny Marcellus Brown had a life-threatening problem with his blood flow, one that is common for preemies. To fix it, surgeons at most medical centers cut into these infants’ delicate chests and spread them open to work. Dr. Frank Ing made just a needle prick to perform a procedure that repaired the problem. (Anderson, 2/5)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Cherokee County Parents Warned Of Two Pertussis Cases
Parents of students at two Cherokee County schools received letters this week warning them that their child may have been exposed to whooping cough. Tuesday’s letters were sent to families whose children attend Free Home Elementary School and Creekland Middle School in Canton. One student at each of the schools has been diagnosed with whooping cough. (McCray, 2/6)

Commonwealth Fund: Health Insurance Coverage Eight Years After The ACA — 2018 Biennial
What does health insurance coverage look like for Americans today, more than eight years after the Affordable Care Act’s passage? In this brief, we present findings from the Commonwealth Fund’s latest Biennial Health Insurance Survey to assess the extent and quality of coverage for U.S. working-age adults. Conducted since 2001, the survey uses three measures to gauge the adequacy of people’s coverage. (Collins, Bhupal and Doty, 2/7)

Pediatrics: Human Papillomavirus Vaccine Effectiveness And Herd Protection In Young Women
Clinical trials of the 4-valent human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine demonstrate high efficacy, but surveillance studies are essential to examine the long-term impact of vaccine introduction on HPV prevalence in community settings. The aims of this study were to determine during the 11 years after vaccine introduction the prevalence of (1) vaccine-type HPV in adolescent and young adult women who were vaccinated (to assess vaccine effectiveness) and (2) vaccine-type HPV in women who were unvaccinated (to assess herd protection). (Spinner et al, 2/1)

The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation: The Out-Of-Pocket Cost Burden For Specialty Drugs In Medicare Part D In 2019
Medicare Part D has helped to make prescription drugs more affordable for people with Medicare, yet many beneficiaries continue to face high out-of-pocket costs for their medications. Specialty tier drugs—defined by Medicare as drugs that cost more than $670 per month in 2019—are a particular concern for Part D enrollees in this context. Part D plans are allowed to charge between 25 percent and 33 percent coinsurance for specialty tier drugs before enrollees reach the coverage gap, where they pay 25 percent for all brands, followed by 5 percent coinsurance when total out-of-pocket spending exceeds an annual threshold ($5,100 in 2019). While specialty tier drugs are taken by a relatively small share of enrollees, spending on these drugs has increased over time and now accounts for over 20 percent of total Part D spending, up from about 6 to 7 percent before 2010. (Cubanski, Koma and Neuman, 2/1)

Pediatrics: Family Firearm Ownership And Firearm-Related Mortality Among Young Children: 1976–2016
Firearm-related fatalities are a top 3 cause of death among children in the United States. Despite historical declines in firearm ownership, the firearm-related mortality rate among young children has risen over the past decade. In this study, we examined changes in firearm ownership among families with young children from 1976 to 2016, exploring how such changes relate to recent increases in firearm-related mortality among 1- to 5-year-olds. (Prickett, Gutierrez and Deb, 2/1)

JAMA Internal Medicine: Comparing Automated Office Blood Pressure Readings With Other Methods Of Blood Pressure Measurement For Identifying Patients With Possible Hypertension: A Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis
This systematic review and meta-analysis of 31 articles comprising 9279 participants compared automated office blood pressure with awake ambulatory blood pressure, a standard for predicting cardiovascular risk. Mean automated office blood pressure readings were similar to the awake ambulatory blood pressure readings and did not exhibit the “white coat effect” associated with routine office blood pressure measurement. (Roerecke, Kaczorowski and Myers, 2/4)

The Hill: 2020 Candidates Will Have To Choose A Side — The Health Insurance Industry Or The People
The 2020 election cycle has only just begun, and although no single leader has emerged from a pack of democratic contenders — an issue has certainly emerged, right out of the gate, as a standout in the race: Medicare for All. (Bonnie Castillo, 2/6)

The New York Times: Are Republicans The Party Of No Ideas On Health Care? 
It’s true that some Republican lawmakers have cobbled together proposals of varying degrees of specificity over the year: During his 2016 campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida sketched out a mostly forgotten health care plan that would have set up a broad-based system of refundable tax credits intended to subsidize the purchase of insurance in hopes of helping people buy coverage. And during the 2017 Obamacare repeal effort, Senators Lindsey Graham and Bill Cassidy offered a plan to give states far more flexibility, eliminating many of Obamacare's provisions at the national level while essentially turning the program into a block grant to the states. But these efforts have tended to be cursory and short-lived, with tiny or nonexistent constituencies. (Peter Suderman, 2/7)

The Washington Post: How Democrats Could Lose On Health Care In 2020
In 2018, Democrats won the midterm elections on the issue of health care, specifically protecting the Affordable Care Act and its guarantee of coverage for pre existing conditions. It was a hard-earned victory: Passing the ACA was a major reason Democrats lost the House and seats in the Senate in 2010 , and polls showed the ACA was not a winner for Democrats in 2012, 2014 or 2016. Now, the question is: Having won the upper hand on health care, will Democrats give it back in 2020? (Ronald A. Klain, 2/6)

USA Today: State Of The Union Health Pledges Can't Hide Trump Drug Price Failures
Looking toward the next election, Trump hoped to use his State of the Union speech for a health care reset. To anyone paying the slightest attention, he failed. Most incredibly, he called it a “priority” to “protect patients with pre-existing conditions.” That's a tough sell since his administration is supporting a lawsuit in Texas that would, as Trump hopefully put it last week, “terminate” the ACA. This would mean not just an end to pre-existing condition protections and 20 million low- and moderate-income Americans dropped from coverage, it would also eliminate the subsidy for Medicare prescription drugs that has made them affordable for millions of seniors in the coverage gap known as the “donut hole.”  (Andy Slavitt, 2/6)

The Washington Post: Trump Says He Wants To End AIDS. His Party’s History Tells A Different Story.
For days preceding Tuesday night’s State of the Union address, word was that President Trump intended to roll out plans to end forever the HIV/AIDS epidemic in America. What he said in his address was terse. He observed the “remarkable progress” that had been made in recent years in the fight against the disease. He promised, “My budget will ask Democrats and Republicans to make the needed commitment to eliminate the HIV epidemic in the United States within 10 years.” And he ended with a flourish, “Together we will defeat AIDS in America.” Not much in the way of plans, but as Samuel Johnson said of a dog walking on its hind legs: “It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all.” (Lillian Faderman, 2/6)

Boston Globe: Trump’s Dubious Promise About Ending HIV
President Trump says he has a plan to end the HIV epidemic in America. During his State of the Union address, he noted that “scientific breakthroughs have brought a once distant dream within reach” and that he would request funding from Congress “to eliminate the HIV epidemic in the United States within 10 years.” We don’t yet know the details of the strategy, but reports indicate that it is modelled after the administration’s approach for ending the opioid epidemic and will target communities where rates of HIV infection are highest. (Sean Cahill, 2/6)

The Washington Post: Trump Can’t Eliminate HIV Without Protecting Obamacare
Watching President Trump’s State of the Union address Tuesday night, my mind raced back to one of my patients, panting as she strung together a few words. “My difficulty breathing,” she paused, “has gotten worse in the last few weeks.” In her hospital bed, she looked gaunt and tired. She was struggling with homelessness and had stopped taking her HIV medications months ago, as she did not have insurance and could not afford the cost of her medications. As her doctor, I feared that she had a life-threatening lung infection, an unfortunate but preventable complication of her HIV. (Robert Bonacci, 2/6)

Stat: Is Precision Medicine Really The Best Approach To Improving Health?
This emphasis on reducing biomedical explanations to genetic pathways, known as genetic reductionism, comes at the expense of all other molecular, cellular, physiological, and epidemiological approaches. The dissenters have made their voices heard in the popular press and medical journals, such as Viewpoints in JAMA. Most recently, a special edition of the journal Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, titled “The Precision Medicine Bubble,” includes contributions questioning genetic reductionism by well-established investigators from genetics, cell biology, immunology, microbiology, pharmacology, physiology, anthropology, epidemiology, public health, and law. (Michael J. Joyner and Nigel Paneth, 2/7)

Los Angeles Times: The Nation Faces Many Problems. A Crisis At The Border Isn't One Of Them
The American people face a broad range of challenges these days, some of which can genuinely be considered crises. An opioid-fueled overdose epidemic, for instance, that killed some 70,000 people in each of the last two years. Soaring healthcare costs and an insufficient safety net to keep those who fall ill from also falling into bankruptcy. Massive federal debt from ill-conceived tax cuts. Ongoing wars. Not included on that list are illegal immigration and border security. Do we have problems on those fronts? Definitely. Are they crises? Not even close. Yet that is how the president sought to portray them Tuesday during his State of the Union speech. (2/6)

Stat: Address The Ethical Violations That Led To 'Three Identical Strangers'
Surprise turns to shock and then outrage. That’s the theme of “Three Identical Strangers,” a documentary film released last summer and now being screened by CNN. The film also has a less well-known precursor, “The Twinning Reaction.” Both chronicle twins and triplets born in the 1960s who were separated as infants and adopted by different families who had no idea of the other siblings’ existence. The separation and secrecy were unethical aspects of an experiment that sought to examine the contributions of genetics and environment to child development. The children (who are now adults), their families, and the public deserve answers to many unanswered questions. (Karen Glanz and Holly Fernandez, 2/7)

The Hill: Addressing Drug Problems Abroad Benefits Americans Here
The UN’s Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has tracked the explosive growth in synthetic opioids, present in 111 countries and territories around the world, so that policies can be better designed to meet the evolving challenge. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends the precursor chemicals and opioid “analogues” that are placed on international watch lists. Together the UNODC and the WHO set international standards for prevention and treatment. As you work within your communities to reduce demand and increase treatment options, understand that the story of supply playing out across the globe will impact your hometown.  Addressing problems “over there” benefits Americans here. (Former Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) and Former Rep. Ander Crenshaw (R-Fla.)

The New York Times: The Abortion Argument
This week on “The Argument,” the columnists debate abortion. Michelle Goldberg picks apart conservatives’ response to efforts in New York and Virginia to expand access and argues that even ostensibly limited restrictions are part of a broader quest to criminalize the practice. Ross Douthat thinks that in most cases abortion is too abhorrent to remain legal and teases out the various arguments within the wider anti-abortion movement. And David Leonhardt notes that abortion ranks among the political issues on which Americans appear to be genuinely split. (Ross Douthat, Michelle Goldberg and David Leonhardt, 2/7)

Chicago Tribune: Racial Bias Influences Health Care — And It Starts In The Exam Room
“No doctor has ever reminded me that I am black before,” the patient said, laughing and nodding his head to let me know he appreciated my advice. Just as he was startled by my open recognition of his race, so too was I startled by his reaction. (Monica Maalouf, 2/6)

Austin American-Statesman: Legislature Must Ensure Funding For State's Children's Hospitals
Children’s hospitals in Texas are facing a dire future—their collective Medicaid losses, across the eight nonprofit institutions statewide in less than ten years, are a breathtaking three-quarters of a billion dollars. The population served by these hospitals include Texas’ poorest and most at-risk children. (Stacy Wilson, 2/6)

Sacramento Bee: What 2-Year-Old American Boy’s Death Exposes About Muslim Ban
As President Donald Trump highlighted his administration’s successes during Tuesday’s State of the Union address, U.S. citizen Ali Hassan and his wife, Shaima Swileh, were in attendance to remind the nation of one of Trump’s greatest failures: The separation of families, including the families of U.S. citizens. Just a month earlier, the couple had buried their two-year-old son, Abdullah, only days after Swileh was finally reunited with her family after a months-long separation due to Trump’s travel ban. As Abdullah lay dying in a hospital bed in Oakland, he was denied — by his own government — the comfort and affection of his mother. (Saad Sweilem, 2/7)