CIDRAP: FDA Panel Supports Switch To JN.1 For Fall COVID Vaccines 
Vaccine advisers to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today recommended switching the SARS-CoV-2 strain from the XBB.1.5 variant to JN.1 for fall vaccine formulations. The recommendation marks the third remake for the COVID vaccine since 2022. The measure unanimously passed, 16 to 0. FDA officials, concerned about further evolution of JN.1, also asked the group to discuss the possibility of recommending an offshoot of JN.1, such as KP.2, that may more closely match currently circulating strains. (Schnirring, 6/5)

The New York Times: F.D.A. Advisers Recommend a New Covid Vaccine Formula for the Fall
“It’s becoming clear that the ideal timing for a vaccine composition decision remains elusive,” said Jerry Weir, an official with the F.D.A.’s vaccine division. ... Dr. Sarah Meyer, a senior vaccines official at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said that aiming at JN.1 was more appropriate because it was “further up on the tree” in the evolution of the coronavirus, possibly allowing the vaccines to better cover mutations in the virus later this year. (Weiland and Jewett, 6/5)

Also —

WCSC: Clinical Trials To Begin For COVID-19 Treatment Developed In South Carolina
State lawmakers approved millions of dollars for research on a new COVID-19 treatment that will soon begin clinical trials, with every step of the research and development to take place completely in South Carolina. It’s a new way to treat COVID by inhaling medicine into the lungs to address respiratory inflammation, compared with the already-developed antiviral pill. (Rademaker, 6/5)

CIDRAP: Report: More Than 200 Symptoms Tied To Long COVID 
Today a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine presents a number of conclusions about long-COVID diagnosis, symptoms, and impact on daily function, including that the condition can cause more than 200 symptoms, and that a positive COVID-19 test is not necessary to make a long-COVID diagnosis. (Soucheray, 6/5)

Los Angeles Times: Report: Positive COVID Test Not Needed For Long COVID Diagnosis
People do not need to have tested positive for the coronavirus to be considered for a diagnosis of long COVID, a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine concludes. ... Among its conclusions: Because testing has not always been available to people with COVID-19 — and because some who tested themselves at home never reported the results to healthcare systems — many who were infected never received formal documentation of their illness. (Alpert Reyes, 6/5)

Also —

The Washington Post: ‘Unusual’ Cancers Emerged After Pandemic. Doctors Ask If Covid Is To Blame. 
Kashyap Patel looked forward to his team’s Friday lunches. All the doctors from his oncology practice would gather in the open-air courtyard under the shadow of a tall magnolia tree and catch up. The atmosphere tended to the lighthearted and optimistic. But that week, he was distressed. It was 2021, a year into the coronavirus pandemic, and as he slid into a chair, Patel shared that he’d just seen a patient in his 40s with cholangiocarcinoma, a rare and lethal cancer of the bile ducts that typically strikes people in their 70s and 80s. Initially, there was silence, and then one colleague after another said they’d recently treated patients who had similar diagnoses. Within a year of that meeting, the office had recorded seven such cases. (Cha, 6/6)

Is the covid/flu surge in Australia a harbinger for the U.S.? —

The Guardian: Australia Hit By ‘Big Wave’ Of Covid At Same Time As Increase In Flu 
Australia is experiencing a “big wave” of Covid-19 infections that is coinciding with a rise in ​influenza and other winter illnesses, health authorities and experts are warning. (May, 6/6)

The Washington Post: Man In Mexico Dies In First Known Human Case Of H5N2 Bird Flu Variant
A 59-year-old male resident of Mexico died after being infected with a bird flu subtype never before confirmed to have spread to humans, the World Health Organization said Wednesday. The man, who suffered from other underlying health conditions, had no known exposure to poultry or other animals before being formally diagnosed by a laboratory with the H5N2 subtype of avian flu. The case marks the first time a human has been confirmed to be infected with this subtype, and the first time an avian H5 virus was confirmed in a person in Mexico. (Cho, 6/6)

Reuters: No Evidence Of Person-To-Person Transmission In Fatal Bird Flu Case, Mexico Says 
There has so far been no evidence of person-to-person transmission of bird flu in the case of a man who died from the disease in Mexico, the nation's health ministry said on Wednesday. The man had several prior health conditions, the ministry said in a statement, and all people who had contact with him have tested negative. (6/5)

Also —

CNN: First National Look At H5N1 Bird Flu In Wastewater Suggests Limited Spread In US
Results from recent wastewater testing across the US suggests that H5N1 bird flu may not be as widespread as first feared. The data, released Monday by the nonprofit WastewaterSCAN network, showed detections of the H5 protein portion of the flu virus in sewage from 14 water treatment plants in five states, mostly in Texas and Michigan, suggesting that an ongoing outbreak in dairy cattle may largely be confined to states that have already been identified as having affected herds. (Goodman, 6/5)

Reuters: Bird Flu Reported In Iowa Dairy Herd, Expanding US Outbreak In Cows
A U.S. outbreak of bird flu in dairy cows expanded to a tenth state as Iowa reported its first infection in a herd on Wednesday. The United States has confirmed cases in more than 80 herds nationwide since late March and three dairy workers have tested positive. (Polansek, 6/5)

The Telegraph: Why The Discovery Of H5N1 Bird Flu In Mice Is So Alarming
The discovery of the virus in mice is particularly alarming, as it significantly raises the risk of human transmission and further spread, say experts. Mice live in unnervingly close proximity to humans: they scurry beneath floorboards, hide in cupboards and roam our offices, larders and restaurants. Their excreta – urine, droppings and saliva – can carry and transmit a wide array of pathogens. “This brings the virus closer to human homes,” Dr Rick Bright, a former head of the US Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), told The Telegraph. “It increases the risk of direct exposure and infection.” (Cullinan and Nuki, 6/5)

The New York Times: The Bird Flu Virus Adapted To Sea Mammals. It May Not Be Done Yet. 
Elephant seals in South America died in massive numbers because the bird flu virus acquired mutations that allowed it to spread among mammals, according to a new study. The research offers the first genetic and epidemiological evidence of bird flu virus transmission among mammals. And the findings hold a warning: The virus, called H5N1, may similarly transform to cause large-scale infections in other mammalian species, including people. (Mandavilli, 6/5)

Stat: Finland To Offer Bird Flu Vaccine To Select Groups Of People, A Possible Global First
Finland is preparing to offer vaccines to people at risk of exposure to an avian influenza strain spreading among farmed and wild animals, health officials there said, potentially becoming the first country to take such a step as concerns about the threat the virus poses to people intensify. The vaccine campaign will be limited, with doses set to be available to groups including poultry farmers, veterinarians, scientists who study the virus, and people who work on fur farms housing animals like mink and fox and where there have been outbreaks. (Joseph, 6/5)

NBC News: First Case Of A Rare, Sexually Transmitted Fungal Infection Reported In The U.S.
A sexually transmitted ringworm caused by a rare fungus has been reported for the first time in the United States. The case report, published Wednesday in JAMA Dermatology by doctors at NYU Langone Health in New York City, comes as clinicians worldwide increasingly say they’re having trouble treating fungal infections. (Edwards, 6/5)

On salmonella, Zika, pertussis, and TB —

NPR: More Than 150 Across U.S. Sick Due To Possible Salmonella Outbreak In Cucumbers
More than 150 people have fallen ill after being exposed to cucumbers that were possibly contaminated with salmonella, the CDC said Wednesday. As of Tuesday, 162 reported illnesses have been linked to cucumbers distributed across 25 states and Washington, D.C. Fifty-four people have been hospitalized and no deaths have been reported, according to the CDC. Many of the people infected were concentrated in Pennsylvania, Florida, Virginia and New York. (Archie, 6/6)

CIDRAP: Previous Zika Infection Tied To Increased Risk Of Infection With Some Dengue Virus Subtypes
Primary Zika virus (ZIKV) infection raised the risk of disease caused by the dengue virus (DENV) 3 serotype and DENV4—but not DENV1—in a cohort of Nicaraguan children, a finding that held true for those infected with DENV before ZIKV but not for those infected with ZIKV before DENV, according to a new study in Science Translational Medicine. (Van Beusekom, 6/5)

Los Angeles Times: California 'Overdue' For Whooping Cough Outbreak As U.S. Cases Spike
It’s been five years since the last major outbreak of whooping cough in California, but the disease is on the rise. Nationwide, cases of pertussis, as the illness is formally known, are nearly three times higher in 2024 than during the first five months of 2023, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And in California, case counts “have been higher during the first several months of 2024 than in the prior several years,” the state Department of Public Health said in a written statement to The Times. (Castleman, 6/5)

CIDRAP: CDC: US TB Programs Are Making Progress In Preventing Spread 
A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suggests US tuberculosis (TB) programs have made strides in identifying patients with TB and latent TB infection (LTBI) and in ensuring they complete treatment in a timely manner. The report, published today in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, examined the most recent 5 years of data from the National TB Indicators Project, a web-based performance monitoring tool that tracks the performance of state- and city-level TB programs. (Dall, 6/5)

The New York Times: Senate Republicans Block Contraception Bill As Democrats Seek Political Edge 
Senate Republicans on Wednesday blocked action on legislation to codify the right to contraception access nationwide, a bill Democrats brought to the floor to spotlight an issue on which the G.O.P. is at odds with a vast majority of voters. All but two Republicans present — Senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine — voted against advancing the legislation. Democrats, who unanimously supported it, were left nine votes short of the 60 they would need to take up the bill, which would protect a reproductive health option that many voters worry is actively at risk of being stripped away. (Karni, 6/5)

The Hill: Biden Urges Congress To Restore Roe V. Wade Protections After Senate GOP Blocks Contraception Bill
President Biden doubled down on his push for Congress to codify the protections of Roe v. Wade into federal law, after Senate Republicans blocked a bill from consideration Wednesday that would have established a federal right to birth control. “@VP and I believe that women in every state must have the freedom to make deeply personal health care decisions,” Biden wrote in a post on the social platform X, referring to Vice President Kamala Harris. (Fortinsky, 6/5)

CBS News: California Gov. Newsom On Right To Contraception Bill Failing: "Republicans Are At It Again"
California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a fierce response Wednesday in the wake of U.S. Senate Republicans blocking legislation protecting access to contraception nationwide. The Right to Contraception bill needed 60 votes to advance but failed with 51 votes in favor to 39 against. Only two Republicans voted in favor. (Ramos, 6/5)

The New Republic: Every Republican Who Voted Against Right To Contraception 
Here’s a list of every Republican who voted against the measure. (Jane, 6/5)

Politico: The Supreme Court Is Poised To Take One Of Biden’s Few Tools On Abortion Access 
The Biden administration has tried with mixed success to use a federal law to preserve abortion access in medical emergencies. The Supreme Court this month could make that work much harder. The administration has been telling hospitals that they’re required to perform abortions when a patient’s life or health is threatened — even in states with bans. But doctors, health care lawyers and abortion-rights groups say the president’s strategy has had limited impact, as many red states threaten doctors with prison for providing such abortions. Republicans in Idaho asked the Supreme Court to decide whether state bans or federal law take precedence. But the ruling, which could come as soon as Thursday, is unlikely to be the final word. (Ollstein and Messerly, 6/6)

More abortion updates —

AP: Federal Judge Blocks Some Rules On Abortion Pills In North Carolina 
A federal judge has permanently blocked some efforts in North Carolina to restrict how abortion pills can be dispensed, saying they are unlawfully in conflict with the authority of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. But she allowed other state laws to remain in effect, granting only a partial victory to a doctor who sued. (Robertson, 6/4)

Military Times: Enlisted Pay Raise, Abortion Ban Included In Panel’s Defense Budget
A House panel on Wednesday advanced plans to fund large pay raises for enlisted troops next year and ban the Pentagon from providing travel stipends for abortion services in their initial draft of the annual defense appropriations bill. The $833.1 billion measure would provide a 1% increase in overall spending for the military next fiscal year but likely faces significant changes when moving through the Republican-controlled House and Democrat-controlled Senate. (Shane III, 6/5)

Teen Vogue: Inside The First Month Of Florida's Abortion Ban
Even people who know about the law might face challenges to get an abortion due to the clinic's limited capacity and lack of available trained personnel. Woman's World Medical Center can only provide abortions on Mondays and Saturdays, the only days their doctor is available. And, sometimes it’s too early to detect a pregnancy via ultrasound, which can impede abortion care. (Larreal, 6/4)

USA Today: Even Where It's Settled Law, Abortion Is Motivating Voters
A rallying cry from the left and potential political quicksand for the right, reproductive rights weigh heavily on voters' minds in 2024 – even in states with some of the highest abortion protections. “It's not affecting women at this point in Michigan,” said Amy DeJonghe, 54, of Dearborn Heights, Michigan. There are currently no gestational limits on abortion in her state. “But look at how it's spreading, it's spreading like wildfire," she said. "So, who knows. Today, we're protected. We might not be next month, or the month after.” (Woodward, Kuchar and Cullen, 6/6)

KFF Health News: Wins At The Ballot Box For Abortion Rights Still Mean Court Battles For Access
Before Ohio voters amended their constitution last year to protect abortion rights, the state’s attorney general, an anti-abortion Republican, said that doing so would upend at least 10 state laws limiting abortions. But those laws remain a hurdle and straightforward access to abortions has yet to resume, said Bethany Lewis, executive director of the Preterm abortion clinic in Cleveland. “Legally, what actually happened in practice was not much,” she said. (Sable-Smith, 6/6)

Modern Healthcare: CMS’ Nursing Home Staffing Mandate Divides Lawmakers
The fight over a federal nursing home staffing mandate intensified Wednesday as a bipartisan group of U.S. senators launched an effort to kill the mandate, while two House Democrats and consumer advocates urged the Biden administration to stand behind it. (Eastabrook, 6/5)

On cybersecurity in health care —

Modern Healthcare: Sen. Ron Wyden: HHS Must Enforce Healthcare Cybersecurity Rules
Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) issued a withering critique of the Health and Human Services Department's handling of cybersecurity Wednesday, blaming a lax regulatory stance for creating the environment that allowed the massive Change Healthcare hack to happen. HHS must take a firmer hand and insist that healthcare entities are better protected against cyberattacks, ... Wyden wrote in a letter to Secretary Xavier Becerra. (McAuliff, 6/5)

Reuters: Community Health Centers Still Bogged Down By Red Tape After UnitedHealth Hack 
More than three months after a cyberattack on UnitedHealth Group's technology unit, some community health centers, which serve 30 million low-income and uninsured patients, are still wading through red tape to receive back payments and struggling with operations issues. Change Healthcare, a unit of the largest U.S. health insurer, processes about 50% of all medical claims in the U.S., for around 900,000 doctors, 33,000 pharmacies, 5,500 hospitals and 600 labs. It also runs other support services like call centers. (Niasse, 6/5)

More health industry developments —

The Charlotte Observer: Judge Denies Request To Stop Novant Buying Charlotte Hospitals
federal judge on Wednesday denied the Federal Trade Commission’s request for a preliminary injunction to stop Novant Health from buying two Lake Norman Hospitals for $320 million. The agency said Novant Health would control a large share of the market with the deal and that could hurt consumers by wiping out competition, leave fewer options for patients and increase insurance rates. (Jordan, 6/5)

Reuters: Alphabet Names Lilly Executive Anat Ashkenazi As CFO 
Alphabet named Anat Ashkenazi as its chief financial officer on Wednesday, turning to a top executive from drugmaker Eli Lilly to help steer the Google parent in the generative artificial intelligence era. Ashkenazi's departure from Lilly was announced earlier in the day. At Alphabet, she will succeed Ruth Porat, the company's longtime CFO whose transition to the role of investment chief was unveiled in July 2023 after years of strong growth. (Malik and Satija, 6/5)

Modern Healthcare: Cigna’s Preliminary Injunction In CVS Noncompete Case Upheld
A former Cigna executive may not begin a new position at rival CVS Health until a legal case over her noncompete clause is resolved, a federal appellate panel ruled Wednesday. The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the preliminary injunction the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri issued in June 2023. Cigna seeks to prevent Amy Bricker, former president of its Express Scripts division and a Cigna employee for 13 years, from accepting a senior role with CVS Health. (Berryman, 6/5)

Modern Healthcare: What The Medicare Advantage Star Ratings Lawsuit Means
A legal technicality could shake up the Medicare Advantage Star Ratings program, force the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to redo scores across the insurance industry and complicate the contracting process for next year. A federal judge ruled Monday that CMS violated the Administrative Procedure Act of 1946 when it modified how star ratings are calculated in 2022. (Tepper, 6/5)

Stat: Coercive Sterilizations Revealed By STAT Prompt Outrage
Federal officials, medical organizations, and reproductive health advocacy groups have expressed outrage in response to STAT’s recent investigation revealing that women with sickle cell disease have felt pressured into sterilizations as recently as 2017 and 2022. Some said they knew of other contemporary instances of tubal ligations with questionable consent — in people with severe disabilities, for instance, or situations in which patients didn’t understand that the procedure should be considered permanent — and said STAT’s reporting uncovered a new dimension of this troubling pattern. (Boodman, 6/6)

Modern Healthcare: American Jewish Medical Association Aims To Combat Antisemitism
A group of healthcare workers have banded together to launch the American Jewish Medical Association and fight antisemitism in the healthcare profession. The nonprofit association was founded in November by Dr. Yael Halaas, a New York City-based plastic surgeon, after the start of the Israel-Hamas war. The group is nonpolitical, bipartisan and focused on domestic issues, although members are encouraged to take sides in political issues as they see fit, Halaas said. (DeSilva, 6/5)

Military.com: Veterans Crisis Line Experiences Brief Outage Due To Phone Carrier Technical Issues
Some callers to the Veterans Crisis Line faced difficulties Tuesday reaching the Department of Veterans Affairs directly through the service's "Press 1" option, an issue VA officials said was resolved within hours. The VA placed alerts across its websites and social media early Tuesday evening after learning of problems with the service, which officials said were the result of an "external issue" outside the crisis line's control and were specific to a technical glitch at a phone carrier's facility in Indiana. (Kime, 6/5)

NBC News: First-Of-Its-Kind Youth Mental Health Corps Trains Young People To Help Their Peers
The Youth Mental Health Corps is a first-of-its-kind initiative that will launch this fall, initially in four states, to address the country’s youth mental health crisis. This innovative program will recruit young volunteers to work in assisting other youngsters who are struggling with mental health issues. The volunteers who sign up will receive training and also a state-specific credential in the behavioral health field. Corps members will work for a year (or two, if they choose) with schools, community organizations or nonprofits, aiming to connect other young people to mental health support. They will also receive a living stipend for their work. (Reyes, 6/5)

Houston Chronicle: Harris County May Seek New Company For 911 Diversion Program
Harris County officials on Tuesday began making new plans to extend a program that sends social workers instead of sheriff’s deputies to some non-violent 911 calls, an effort that was cast in doubt last week due to questions about the contractor running the program. (McGuinness, 6/4)

Axios: Medicaid Expands Mental Health Clinic Funding
A Medicaid experiment supporting comprehensive and crisis mental health care at community clinics is expanding to 10 new states. Why it matters: The initiative provides sustainable funding to help clinics that serve low-income patients provide mental health and substance use treatment. (Goldman, 6/6)

On the gun violence epidemic —

KFF Health News: White House Enlists Doctors And Hospitals To Combat Gun Violence 
The White House is calling on hospital executives, doctors, and other health care leaders to take bolder steps to prevent gun violence by gathering more data about gunshot injuries and routinely counseling patients about safe use of firearms. Biden administration officials are hosting back-to-back events Thursday and Friday at the White House for about 160 health care officials, calling gun violence a “public health crisis” that requires them to act. (Young, 6/6)

San Francisco Chronicle: Ghost Gun Sales Banned In California Under Settlement
Three manufacturers of “ghost guns,” the self-built, largely untraceable firearms used in an increasing number of deadly shootings, have agreed to stop making or selling those guns in California and will pay the state $675,000 in civil penalties, officials announced Wednesday. ... Ghost guns, which have no serial numbers and are sold in parts that can be quickly assembled, have accounted for 25% to 50% of the firearms found at California crime scenes in recent years. (Egelko, 6/5)

The Washington Post: Children Shooting Themselves Maryland Raises Worries Over Ghost Guns
A 4-year-old and 7-year-old were playing an innocent game of hide-and-seek Sunday evening in Maryland, when the younger child found not someone, but something: a loaded 9mm handgun. She pulled the weapon, a ghost gun, out from beneath the bed she was hiding under and shot herself in the arm, authorities said. The incident was one of two in recent days in which police say a child in the D.C. region came upon such a weapon and shot themselves. The cases highlight two alarming public safety trends nationwide that worry gun safety experts and police: the soaring pervasiveness of homemade, untraceable weapons known as ghost guns and the increase in unintentional shootings by children. (Morse and Hilton, 6/5)

In other health news from across the U.S. —

Los Angeles Times: California Refunding $52 Million To U.S. Government For Migrant Care
California needs to repay more than $52 million to the federal government after improperly claiming reimbursement from the Medicaid program for some immigrant patients, according to a recently released report from federal inspectors. The findings, released by the Office of the Inspector General at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, come as California has been staring down a $44.9-billion deficit. (Alpert Reyes, 6/5)

Reuters: Ohio Can't Enforce Law Barring Chiropractors From Contacting Crash Victims, Court Rules 
Ohio cannot enforce a law barring chiropractors and some other healthcare practitioners from soliciting business from victims of car crashes and other crimes within 30 days of their injury, a state appeals court has ruled. The May 23 ruling from the Cleveland-based 8th District Court of Appeals, published Wednesday by the Ohio court system's public information office, held that the 2019 law was improperly tucked into a budget bill after failing to pass on its own. (Pierson, 6/5)

CBS News: Swimming Safety Urged As Dozens Of Florida Children Drown In 2024
State officials Wednesday urged Floridians to emphasize safety while swimming this summer, as dozens of children have drowned in 2024. "So far this year, 46 children have tragically lost their lives due to drowning," Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nunez said during a press event. "Drowning is preventable, and it is also the No. 1 cause of unintentional death of children ages 1 to 4," she added. (6/5)

Health News Florida, WUSF: A Nurse-Run Clinic At Port Tampa Bay Touts Itself As The First Of Its Kind
The USF College of Nursing Port of Tampa Seafarers Center Clinic opened last month to serve maritime workers, including international workers aboard cargo and cruise ships. A new clinic at Port Tampa Bay is being touted as the first nurse-managed clinic in the world at a port. The University of South Florida's College of Nursing will provide primary health services to Port Tampa Bay’s maritime community, as well as international workers aboard cargo and cruise ships. (Miller, 6/4)

The War Horse: US Military Contractors Exposed To Burn Pits Lack Care Access 
As an Army infantryman, Ernest Barrington was very familiar with the thick smoke and fumes that came off the burn pit at Joint Base Balad in Iraq. The toxic dust that wafted from the huge, open-air ditches where the military burned everything from tires and ordnance to medical waste and plastic would coat his skin and settle on the inside of his nose and under his eyelids. “You go to take a shower, it’s in the shower with you. So you’re cleaning your skin, and as you’re drying, the stuff is landing on your body. By the time you make it back to your room, you have the toxins right back on you,” he said. “Every day that you’re there, you’re breathing it in.” ... The toxic ash was the same, but access to care for those battling cancers almost two decades later is not. Veterans are now guaranteed coverage; the estimated tens of thousands of contract workers debilitated by burn pits are not. (Kehrt, 6/6)

On heat and climate change —

Axios: Americans See Climate Change As Health Threat Heading Into Summer
Two-thirds of Americans see climate change as a threat to human health, and most are bracing for a summer of extreme weather they expect will be as bad as or worse than last year, according to the latest Axios-Ipsos American Health Index. The big picture: There's a perception that the record heat, wildfires, floods and other extreme weather events that played out vividly across screens last summer is a new baseline, though sentiment varies by age and political affiliation. (Millman, 6/6)

CBS News: World Hits 12 Straight Months Of Record-High Temperatures — But As Warming Continues, It'll Be "Remembered As Comparatively Cold"
The world has now marked one full year of back-to-back monthly heat records, the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service announced on Wednesday. It said last month was the hottest May in recorded history — the 12th consecutive month in which the monthly high temperature record was broken.It was also the 11th consecutive month where the global average temperature was at least 1.5 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial average. If that trend continues, it would mean the world is passing a major climate change milestone. (Cohen, 6/5)

CBS News: Prince George's County Man, 59, Marks Maryland's First Heat-Related Death Of 2024
A 59-year-old man who died recently in Prince George's County marks Maryland's first heat-related death this year, the Maryland Department of Health said Wednesday. Nilesh Kalyanaraman, deputy secretary for public health services with the Maryland Department of Health, said the man's tragic death demonstrates the perils posed by heat-related illness, such as heat exhaustion and heat stroke. (Mattu, 6/5)

CBS News: Alameda Nixes Climate Geoengineering Experiment To Test Technology That Could Mitigate Global Warming
An experiment in Alameda involving spraying sea salt particles into the air to determine the feasibility of mitigating global warming, and subsequently halted over safety concerns, will not be resumed after a vote by the City Council. Researchers from the University of Washington were performing the climate experiment on the flight deck of the USS Hornet Sea, Air & Space Museum in Alameda to determine if salt particles can increase the sun reflectivity of clouds, as part of its Marine Cloud Brightening Program. (Castañeda, 6/5)

San Francisco Chronicle: One In Six US Adults Use Cannabis — Most Therapeutically, Study Finds
One in six U.S. adults use cannabis, and more than a third who do are using at levels considered moderate to high risk for cannabis use disorder, according to a new study by UCLA researchers. The study, published in JAMA Network Open on Wednesday, found that 17% of adults who saw their primary care doctor for an annual wellness visit between 2021 and 2023 reported using cannabis in the last three months. Most, more than three-quarters of the patients, said they used cannabis to manage symptoms such as stress, sleep and pain. (Ho, 6/5)

Stat: Psychedelics Companies See FDA Panel Vote As An Opportunity For Growth
A day after a panel of advisers to the Food and Drug Administration expressed deep concerns about the use of MDMA to help treat post-traumatic stress disorder, companies working to develop other psychedelics said their optimism had not been dimmed — and that the concerns provided a clearer blueprint for what it might take to get such a drug approved. The advisory committee overwhelmingly voted that Lykos Therapeutics, which is seeking FDA approval for MDMA and therapist oversight, rather than just the drug itself, had failed to demonstrate that the therapy would be effective in treating PTSD. (Keshavan, 6/6)

PBS NewsHour: ‘The Pain Is So Much.’ How Stigma And Shame Over Fatal Overdose Make Grief More Unbearable
One Sunday afternoon, days before Christmas, two police officers knocked on Janice Persson’s door in Ludlow, Massachusetts. Her son Brian, 30, was dead. For years, Persson had offered support and calm reassurance to people when they felt scared or overwhelmed. She has worked as a nurse caring for organ transplant patients, staying by their side throughout their procedure and recovery. But the news that her own son had died of an overdose put her “in total shock.” (Santhanam, 6/5)

More health and wellness news —

CBS News: Researchers Say Getting More Sleep At Night Can Lead To Improved Overall Happiness 
A study from researchers at Baylor University show that happiness may be correlated with the amount of sleep one gets. According to experts, in recent years happiness has declined in the U.S. while sleep problems have grown. ... Added sleep was associated with improvements in sleepiness and mood disturbances and greater feelings of flourishing, resilience, and gratitude. (Marshall, 6/5)

CBS News: Drowsy Driving By Teens Poses Public Safety Risk, National Sleep Foundation Study Says
A new study finds that drowsy driving by teens poses a serious and common public safety risk. Motor vehicle crashes are a leading cause of death in U.S. adolescents and the National Sleep Foundation found that approximately one in six teen drivers reported having driven while drowsy, amounting to approximately 1.7 million drowsy teen drivers on U.S. roadways. (Marshall, 6/5)

AP: A Realistic Way To Protect Kids From Social Media? Find A Middle Ground 
Ahmed Othman isn’t on TikTok and doesn’t want to be. He and his younger sister got iPhones when they were in eighth and seventh grade respectively, but with no social media, just iMessage. Their parents, who are both computer scientists, spent the next year teaching them about social media, bombarding them with studies about its effects on teen mental health. “They really tried to emphasize social media is a tool, but can also be like your worst enemy if you so make it,” Othman said. Now 17, Othman credits his parents’ deep involvement for what he calls a “healthy relationship” with his phone. That includes staying away from TikTok. (Ortutay, 6/6)

The Washington Post: AI Employees Warn Of Technology’s Dangers, Call For Sweeping Company Changes
A handful of current and former employees at OpenAI and other prominent artificial intelligence companies warned that the technology poses grave risks to humanity in a Tuesday letter, calling on companies to implement sweeping changes to ensure transparency and foster a culture of public debate. The letter, signed by 13 people including current and former employees at Anthropic and Google’s DeepMind, said AI can exacerbate inequality, increase misinformation, and allow AI systems to become autonomous and cause significant death. Though these risks could be mitigated, corporations in control of the software have “strong financial incentives” to limit oversight, they said. (Verma and Tiku, 6/4)

CIDRAP: Early Safety Data On RSV Vaccines Show Rare Guillain-Barre Cases 
Late last week in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, researchers published the first clinical safety data on Arexvy and Abrysvo vaccines, the first approved respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccines, and found real-world data mimics what was seen in trials, including a very small increased risk in Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS). (Soucheray, 6/3)

CIDRAP: Excess Death Rates Due To Pandemic Persisted In Western Countries 
New COVID-19 excess death rate estimates from 47 countries show that rates remained high for 3 consecutive pandemic years. "Excess mortality has remained high in the Western World for three consecutive years, despite the implementation of COVID-19 containment measures and COVID-19 vaccines. This is unprecedented and raises serious concerns," the authors wrote. (soucheray, 6/4)

In news from this month's Pediatrics journal —

American Academy Of Pediatrics: An Expanded Approach To The Ascertainment Of Children And Youth With Special Health Care Needs 
Approximately 4 million children have both a diagnosed health condition and functional difficulties but are not identified as CYSHCN. An expanded approach to identify CYSHCN may better align program and policy with population needs. (Black et al, 5/7)

American Academy Of Pediatrics: Safety And Immunogenicity Of An MRNA-Based HMPV/PIV3 Combination Vaccine In Seropositive Children
MRNA-1653 was well-tolerated and boosted hMPV and PIV3 antibody levels in seropositive children aged 12 to 59 months, supporting the continued development of mRNA-1653 or its components for the prevention of hMPV and PIV3. (Ghamloush et al, 5/13)

American Academy Of Pediatrics: The Clinical Definition Of Children With Medical Complexity: A Modified Delphi Study
Children with medical complexity (CMC) comprise a subgroup of children with severe chronic diseases. A conceptual definition for CMC has been formulated, but there is no agreement on criteria to fulfill each of the 4 proposed domains: diagnostic conditions, functional limitations, health care use, and family-identified needs. Our objective with this study was to identify a standardized definition of CMC. (Millar et al, 5/28)

Scientific American: H5N1 Bird Flu Isn’t A Human Pandemic—Yet. American Contrariness Could Turn It Into One
Trust in public health and government are near an all-time low. At the same time, the federal government is unprepared for a new pandemic: It doesn’t have enough vaccines, and there is no plan for getting them out quickly. (Maggie Fox, 6/5)

Newsweek: The World Must Coordinate Now To Prevent The Next Pandemic 
Countries around the world, supported by the World Health Organization, are seeking to negotiate an agreement to help us beat pandemics—the ones we're currently facing and the ones we will inevitably face in the future. (Chelsea Clinton and Winnie Byanyima, 6/5)

Newsweek: To Address The Opioid Crisis, Pharma Should Learn From The Auto Industry 
he Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently released its yearly examination of deaths attributed to drug overdose. This year's results were a sobering reminder of the continuing impact that illicit drugs have had on our society, though an encouraging trend may have emerged. (Greg Sturmer, 6/5)

The New York Times: Miami's Overdose Deaths Are Dropping. What's The Secret?
After Dr. Tookes’s program — known as IDEA Exchange, for the Infectious Disease Elimination Act that authorized it — was established in 2016, Miami’s overdose death rate began to decline and it has remained relatively stable compared with the rate in other Florida cities. While it is not yet possible to prove that the IDEA Exchange caused Miami’s overdose rate to fall, state officials suspected that it did. The health agency wanted to know what IDEA was doing right. (Maia Szalavitz, 6/5)

Bloomberg: MDMA-Maker Failed Its FDA Hearing -- And Its PTSD Patients 
What could have been a huge moment in psychedelics’ quest for medical legitimacy was instead a major misstep for the field. Yesterday, the Food and Drug Administration’s expert advisors sent a strong message that Lykos Therapeutics Inc.’s MDMA-assisted therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder was not ready for prime time. (Lisa Jarvis, 6/5)