The Associated Press: Justice Dept. Rolls Out New Program To Combat Gun Violence
Attorney General William Barr announced a new initiative Wednesday that would better enforce the U.S. gun background check system, coordinate state and federal gun cases and ensure prosecutors quickly update databases to show when a defendant can’t possess a firearm because of mental health issues. The push, known as Project Guardian, was unveiled at a news conference in Memphis, Tennessee, alongside officials from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, on the same day public impeachment hearings against President Donald Trump began in Washington. (Sainz and Balsamo, 11/13)

The New York Times: Justice Dept. Unveils Gun Plan, Sidestepping A Preoccupied Washington
At a news conference, Mr. Barr described Project Guardian as intended to help federal and local law enforcement “better target offenders who use guns in crimes and those who try to buy guns illegally. ”The result should “cut the pipeline of crime guns from those violent individuals who seek to terrorize our communities,” Regina Lombardo, the acting deputy director of the bureau, said in her public remarks. Project Guardian includes no new statutes or policies, which has opened it up to criticisms about its potential effectiveness. (Benner, 11/13)

The Wall Street Journal: Barr Unveils Plan To Combat Gun Violence
“Gun crime remains a pervasive problem in too many communities across America,” Mr. Barr said during a news conference in Memphis, Tenn., that took place just as televised impeachment hearings against President Trump opened in Washington. Mr. Barr’s plan underscores the absence of a comprehensive White House proposal to fight gun violence. For months, the White House discussed various options with lawmakers but never announced a cohesive plan, despite Mr. Trump’s insistence that he would address the problem after back-to-back mass shootings this summer in Texas and Ohio left dozens dead. Mr. Barr himself had floated an idea to expand background checks for prospective gun buyers, but it was mostly rejected by Republican lawmakers. (Gurman, 11/13)

CNN: Attorney General William Barr Blames Impeachment Inquiry For Derailing Gun Legislation Efforts
Under Project Guardian, federal authorities will consult with local stakeholders about opportunities to engage with people who are barred from buying guns because of mental health prohibitions -- through both law enforcement and less punitive avenues. "We will consult with our state and local colleagues to determine whether there is available a mental health response, and try to ensure that this does not fall through the cracks simply because we don't have an immediate law enforcement basis to arrest the person," Barr said. (Shortell, 11/13)

And in other news —

The Wall Street Journal: Mass Shootings Raise Questions About Security And Training
Mass shooters who target schools and workplaces are typically insiders such as students or employees, calling into question the effectiveness of security measures and training, according to one of the most comprehensive studies of the subject. Barriers and locks meant to block outsiders and active-shooter drills do little because most attackers already have access and are aware of the procedures, said the authors of the study, Jillian Peterson and James Densley. The university professors have created a mass-shooter database that goes back more than 50 years. (Elinson, 11/13)

Modern Healthcare: Early HealthCare.Gov Sign-Ups Trail Last Year
Sign-ups during the first two weeks of open enrollment for 2020 Affordable Care Act exchange coverage are trailing last year's numbers. According to the CMS, about 932,000 people selected a health plan in the first two weeks of open enrollment, which kicked off on Nov. 1. That's about 244,000 fewer people than in the first two weeks of the previous open enrollment period. (Livingston, 11/13)

PBS NewsHour: Obamacare Signups Are Down, But The Marketplaces Are Still Healthy
Sabrina Corlette, a research professor who directs Georgetown University’s Center on Health Insurance Reforms said the marketplace has demonstrated “remarkable resiliency.” The individual health insurance marketplace survived after the Republicans in Congress defanged the Affordable Care Act in 2017, wiping out the individual mandate. That rule had incentivized people to get health insurance by penalizing those who decided to forgo it. (Santhanam, 11/13)

CNBC: Obamacare Early Enrollment Rate Drops 20% Amid Trump-Backed Lawsuit
Open enrollment began Nov. 1 and will run until Dec. 15 for most states. People who do not sign up for an Obamacare plan by the end of open enrollment will not be able to obtain coverage until the fall of 2020, unless they have a so-called qualifying life event, such as getting married or having a child. The tally comes as a federal appeals court in New Orleans is expected to issue a decision any day now on a lower court ruling that overturned Obamacare, formally known as the Affordable Care Act, in a case known as Texas vs. the United States. (Lovelace, 11/13)

Post Bulletin: MNsure CEO Says Signups Down, But Interest Strong 10 Days In
Signups are down, but new customers are up compared to last year during MNsure’s first 10 days of open enrollment, leaving officials hopeful of strong participation in the health care marketplace. “Everything we are seeing at this point is very encouraging,” CEO Nate Clark told MNsure board members during a directors meeting Wednesday, Nov. 13.Ten days in, 88,254 people had signed up for MNsure, the state marketplace under the Affordable Care Act, also called Obamacare. That’s down from about 97,000 signups in early November 2018. (Magan, 11/13)

MPR News: Navigating MNsure — In Somali, Spanish And English
Americans are scrambling to pick their health insurance plans. About 70 percent of Minnesotans of working age are eligible for plans through their employers or family members. But that figure has been dropping as fewer employers offer coverage and as the labor market slows. For those sifting through plans on MNsure, the state’s online health insurance marketplace, selecting a health plan can be especially daunting. (Fornoff, 11/14)

Politico: Why Bernie’s Heart Attack Was Good For Him
Since he was rushed to a Las Vegas hospital in early October, the Vermont senator has flourished in early-state polls, held some of the biggest rallies of any Democratic candidate, and scored the endorsements of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other members of the so-called “Squad.” The curmudgeonly candidate looks happier — sunny, even — on the stump, cracking jokes and sharing personal stories. In an era in which conventional political wisdom has been set ablaze, Sanders has challenged the notion that a major health issue is an automatic death knell for a presidential candidate. His age and health remain serious long-term question marks — at 79 in Jan. 2021, he would be the oldest person ever inaugurated into office, a fact that could well draw more scrutiny as voting approaches.But so far, at least, Sanders has weathered his heart attack and then some. (Otterbein, 11/13)

The New York Times: After Heart Attack, Bernie Sanders Takes Long Walks And Eats Salads
Before a campaign event last month, Bernie Sanders and his wife, Jane, went for an hourlong stroll around Green Castle Recreation Area, a lush park in central Iowa with evergreen trees and a small lake. Mr. Sanders also walked around a residential neighborhood in Waterloo recently, prompting curious passers-by to ask him what on earth he was doing there. Ms. Sanders is ensuring that her husband is getting adequate rest, and he has been requesting fish for dinner instead of steak or ribs. (Ember, 11/13)

And in other news from the trail —

CNBC: Economist Who Advised Warren On 'Medicare For All' Offers Wealth Tax Alternatives
An economist who provided analysis for Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s “Medicare for All” plan offered alternative ways to fund the presidential candidate’s basket of progressive policy proposals on CNBC on Wednesday. “In my mind, I don’t think I would go the wealth tax way,” Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, said on “Squawk on the Street.” “It’s going to be pretty tough to execute on that.’” (Stankiewicz, 11/13)

Kaiser Health News: Listen: Focusing On Health Care Politics
Julie Rovner, the chief Washington correspondent for Kaiser Health News, was on the air Tuesday discussing current health politics and marketplace enrollment issues. She joined New York Times reporter Margot Sanger-Katz to talk with Radio Times host Marty Moss-Coane to break down Democratic presidential candidates’ debate on “Medicare for all” plans and other health initiatives. (11/13)

Modern Healthcare: Azar Says Trump Wants More Aggressive International Drug-Pricing Demo
At the president's urging, HHS is working on a more aggressive approach to tying payment for physician-administered drugs in Medicare to foreign drug prices, HHS Secretary Alex Azar said Wednesday. The administration's International Pricing Index demonstration in its current form would tie payments for Medicare Part B drugs to an average of drug prices in other developed countries. (Cohrs, 11/13)

The Hill: Trump Officials Making Changes To Signature Drug Pricing Proposal, Azar Says 
Under the original proposal, prices would still have been lower than they are now, but would still be a certain percentage higher than they are in other countries. Trump was not satisfied with that idea, Azar said Wednesday, and wanted the proposal changed so that prices in the United States are even lower than they are in other countries. “What we suggested was reducing that 180 percent premium [above other countries] by 30 percent,” Azar said at an event hosted by Axios. “The president did not find that satisfactory. His view, which he has articulated publicly, is that America ought to be getting the best deal among developed countries. That was the terminology of ‘most favored nation status.’ And so that's the type of proposal we're working on.” (Sullivan, 11/13)

The Hill: Pelosi Aide Hopeful White House Will Support Drug-Pricing Bill Despite Criticism 
A top aide to Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said that he thinks the Trump administration will eventually support a sweeping Democratic bill to lower drug prices, despite recent criticism from the White House. “I still think at the end of the day we are going to get administration support, despite some recent comments they have made,” Wendell Primus said last Friday at the University of Wisconsin. (Sullivan, 11/13)

The Hill: Schumer Blocks Drug Pricing Measure During Senate Fight, Seeking Larger Action 
Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Wednesday objected to a bipartisan bill to lower prescription drug prices that a top Republican was seeking to pass unanimously, arguing that larger action is needed instead of a piecemeal approach. The move came amid a tense back-and-forth on the floor among multiple senators from both parties over lowering the cost of drugs, an intensely debated issue that is a rare area of possible bipartisan action this year. (Sullivan, 11/13)

And in other pharmaceutical news —

The New York Times: To Drive Down Insulin Prices, W.H.O. Will Certify Generic Versions
With insulin prices skyrocketing and substantial shortages developing in poorer countries, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday that it would begin testing and approving generic versions of the drug. Agency officials said they hoped to drive down insulin prices by encouraging makers of generic drugs to enter the market, increasing competition. At the moment, the world’s insulin market is dominated by three companies — Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk and Sanofi — and they have steadily pushed up prices for two decades. (McNeil, 11/13)

The Oregonian: Insulin Dangerously Expensive For Northwest Oregon Patients, Congress Finds 
Life-sustaining medications for older Oregonians with diabetes cost federal healthcare nearly five times as they do in Australia, according to a new report done for U.S. Rep. Suzane Bonamici’s office. A dramatic rise in insulin costs over the last two decades has created a crisis in the United States, according to the report, driving people to ration out their medications, sometimes with fatal results. (Zarkhin, 11/13)

Stat: An FDA Advisory Panel Is Reviewing Amarin’s Fish Oil Drug. Follow Along For Frequent Updates
The meeting of the FDA’s Endocrinologic and Metabolic Drugs Advisory Committee (EMDAC) is a pivotal moment for Amarin — six years in the making. Back in 2013, this same committee recommended against an expansion of the Vascepa label. Without definitive cardiovascular outcomes data, the panel experts were unwilling to endorse the belief that a drug made from fish oil could protect the heart. (Feuerstein and Herper, 11/140

Stat: After Backlash, Teva To Resume Supplies Of Critical Children's Cancer Drug
In an about-face, Teva Pharmaceutical is resuming supplies of a critical cancer medicine for children after its recent decision to discontinue production contributed to a shortage that alarmed patients and physicians. As a result, vincristine will be available as early in 2020 “as possible.” “Because vincristine is such a lifesaving medicine — and there is no reliable single supply anticipated in the near term — we have decided to re-introduce the product and plan to manufacture it in our plant in the U.S., which provides the fastest route to market,” the drug maker said in a statement. (Silverman, 11/13)

New Hampshire Public Radio: Study: N.H. Has Second Highest Rate Of Children Impacted By Opioids
An estimated 14,000 children in New Hampshire were affected by opioid abuse in 2017. That's the finding of a new study that tries to quantify the impact of the opioid crisis on children in America. The study from the United Hospital Fund shows 51 out of every 1,000 kids in New Hampshire were impacted by the opioid crisis in 2017, either from their parent's opioid use or their own. (Moon, 11/13)

Stateline: The Politics of Medicaid Expansion Have Changed
Year by year, resistance to extending Medicaid to more low-income Americans in conservative states has given way. ... In some states, Democratic governors who favor expansion have replaced Republicans who were stalwart opponents. GOP critics have had a change of heart in some holdout states. And in several Republican-led states, citizen ballot initiatives are driving expansion. Serious efforts are underway in Kansas, Missouri, North Carolina and Oklahoma that could add them to the 36 states, plus Washington, D.C., that have opted to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). (Ollove, 11/12)

The Associated Press: Wyoming Committee Advances Medicaid Expansion Bill
A legislative committee has advanced a bill that allows Gov. Mark Gordon to explore expanding the Medicaid program in Wyoming. The lawmakers on the Joint Revenue Committee voted 8 to 5 Tuesday to move the bill forward to the full Legislature, which meets next February. Under the proposed bill, the governor must first direct the departments of health and insurance to explore options for expanding Medicaid eligibility. (11/13)

Post Register: BYU-Idaho Requiring Students On Medicaid To Also Buy Student Health Plans, Won't Say Why
Brigham Young University-Idaho has stopped accepting Medicaid insurance to waive the student health plan, and so far the university won’t say why. Some students at the university in Rexburg, which is affiliated with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, took to social media earlier this week after going to the Student Health Center and finding out that even if they have Medicaid coverage, they still would need to buy a student health plan, which cost $536 per semester for an individual and $2,130 for a family. (Brown and Varnedoe, 11/13)

Health News Florida: Feds Eye Medicaid Funding Changes
The federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said Tuesday it is revamping rules that define how states can collect money to fund supplemental Medicaid payment programs. Supplemental payments have increased in the past several years, going from 9.4 percent of all other Medicaid payments in fiscal year 2010 to 17.5 percent in fiscal-year 2017. (Sexton, 11/13)

USA Today: 'Superbugs' Sicken Millions, Kill 35K Each Year, CDC Report Finds
Drug-resistant "superbugs" infect 2.8 million people and cause more than 35,000 deaths each year, underscoring the enormous public health threat of germs in what one official describes as a "post-antibiotic era," according to a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report. The report, which analyzes electronic health records and other data, shows an infection every 11 seconds and a death every 15 minutes on average from bugs that resist treatment from antibiotics. The CDC said there are nearly twice as many deaths from antibiotic-resistant infections compared to the agency's 2013 report, which likely underestimated the numbers. (Alltucker, 11/13)

Reuters: Antibiotic-Resistant Infections Killing Twice As Many Americans As Once Thought
A 2013 CDC study estimated that 2 million Americans were infected by superbugs each year, leading to at least 23,000 deaths." The 2013 report propelled the nation toward critical action and investments against antibiotic resistance. Today's report demonstrates notable progress, yet the threat is still real," Dr. Robert Redfield, the CDC's director, said in a statement. Global health officials have repeatedly warned about the rise of bacteria and other microbes that are resistant to most available drugs, raising the specter of untreatable infectious diseases that could spread rapidly. (Whitcomb, 11/14)

The Associated Press: US Superbug Infections Rising, But Deaths Are Falling
Indeed, though deaths are going down, nonfatal infections grew nationally from 2.6 million in 2013 to 2.8 million in 2017. Some worrisome new germs are emerging. And superbugs are appearing much more often outside of hospitals, the report says. For example, urinary tract infections have been easily treated in doctor’s offices with common antibiotics. But it’s increasingly common to see young healthy women with such infections forced into the hospital after initial treatments don’t work, said Dr. Bradley Frazee, a California emergency room doctor. (Stobbe, 11/13)

The Wall Street Journal: Superbugs Toll Worse Than Thought, CDC Says
“Our nation must stop referring to a coming post-antibiotic era—it’s already here,” CDC director Robert Redfield said in an introductory letter to the report, which was released Wednesday. The report identified 18 bacteria and fungi of concern. In addition, new bugs are emerging rapidly, the CDC said. It included a “watch list” of pathogens identified elsewhere in the world that it is keeping an eye on, such as a drug-resistant form of Bordetella pertussis, bacteria that cause whooping cough. (McKay, 11/13)

The Washington Post: Drug-Resistant Bacteria, Fungi And Related Germs Cause 3 Million Infections, 48,000 Deaths In U.S. Annually
Bacteria, fungi and other germs that have developed a resistance to antibiotics and other drugs pose one of the gravest public health challenges and a baffling problem for modern medicine. Scientists, doctors and public health officials have warned of this threat for decades, and the new report reveals the top dangers and troubling trends. More pathogens are developing new ways of fending off drugs designed to kill them, and infections are spreading more widely outside of hospitals. No new classes of antibiotics have been introduced in more than three decades. (Sun, 11/13)

CNN: Drug-Resistant Superbugs Kill Someone Every 15 Minutes In The US, New CDC Report Reveals
C. diff is the deadliest antibiotic-resistant germ on the CDC's urgent list, causing 12,800 deaths a year in the United States. The other two germs on the urgent list since 2013 are carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae, or CRE, and drug-resistant Neisseria gonorrhoeae, a sexually transmitted infection.This year, the CDC added two more: a bacteria, carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter, and Candida auris, a fungus. (Cohen and Kounang, 11/13)

CBS News: CDC Identifies New Superbugs That Are Potentially Deadly
C. difficile caused nearly a quarter of a million hospitalizations and at least 12,800 deaths in 2017. It's one of five antibiotic-resistant urgent threats identified in the report. Two of them were newly added since 2013. One, the fungus Candida auris, wasn't even on the CDC's radar five years ago. But there's some good news in the report. Since 2013, there has been an 18% drop in deaths from all types of antibiotic-resistant infections. (Lapook, 11/13)

Modern Healthcare: Antibiotic-Resistant Infections Pose Greater Threat Than Estimated
The CDC added two germs to its "urgent threat" infection list since the 2013 report: a drug-resistant form of candida auris and carbapenem-resistant acinetobacter. The former is a fungal infection that kills one in three patients it affects. The infection was elevated to "urgent" status due to its rapid global spread over the past year, with more than 836 cases confirmed in the U.S. as of Oct. 29. The latter infection causes pneumonia and wound, bloodstream and urinary tract infections and was responsible for 8,500 hospitalizations and 700 deaths in 2017 with nearly all cases acquired in healthcare settings. (Johnson, 11/13)

NBC News: Dangerous Superbugs Kill More People Than Previously Thought
People most vulnerable to drug-resistant infections are often very sick already and have compromised immune systems. Young children and the elderly are most at risk, too, but some of the superbugs are affecting otherwise healthy people. "Some of these infections are now affecting healthier populations, which is a growing concern for us," Caig said. (Edwards, 11/13)

Stat: CDC: 35,000 Americans Die Of Antibiotic-Resistant Infections Each Year
An estimated 35,000 Americans die of antibiotic-resistant infections each year — one every 15 minutes — according to a stark new report from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention that reveals that the problem is substantially greater than previously estimated. The new report, the first update of a landmark 2013 publication that estimated the scope of drug resistance in the United States, used better data sources to recalculate the estimates in the earlier version. (Branswell, 11/13)

The Hill: House Panel Advances Flavored E-Cigarette Ban
A proposal to ban flavored e-cigarette products advanced out of a House health panel on Wednesday. Democrats, public health groups and some experts argue that flavors such as fruit and mint appeal to kids and have gotten a new generation addicted to nicotine. ...In addition to banning manufacturers from adding nontobacco flavors to e-cigarette liquids, the bill, sponsored by Pallone and Rep. Donna Shalala (D-Fla.), would raise the age to purchase tobacco to 21 and ban online sales of e-cigarettes and tobacco products. (Hellmann, 11/13)

Politico Pro: House Panel Backs Ban On Flavored Tobacco Products
Some Democrats on the panel argued that a menthol ban would disproportionately impact African-Americans who primarily buy the products, while Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Fla.) pushed for premium cigars to be exempted from FDA regulation except for buying-age requirements. The subcommittee adopted an amendment from Rep. G.K. Butterfield (D-N.C.) that would instruct CDC to focus on smoking cessation among underserved communities and particularly racial minorities. Lawmakers also adopted language from Texas Republican Michael Burgess to require the FDA submit annual reports on how it spends user fees collected from industry. (Owermohle, 11/13)

The Hill: Senators Press FDA Tobacco Chief On Status Of Vaping Ban 
Senators from both parties pressed the Trump administration’s top tobacco official on Wednesday for information about the administration’s efforts to remove e-cigarette flavors from the market. Mitch Zeller, the head of the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Center for Tobacco Products, told members of the Senate Health Committee that the agency is working on an e-cigarette policy, but declined to give more information about when it will be released, what the policy will be, or even if the administration still intends to remove flavors from the marketplace. (Weixel, 11/13)

In other news on the vaping crisis —

Kaiser Health News: A Regulatory Haze: Vape Marketers Are Online, Creating New Headaches For Feds
In one picture, Hannah — or, as her 133,000 Instagram followers know her, @__justpeachyy — reclines in a car, her blue vape accenting the matching tattoo ink on her arms. Her curls are messy by design, and eyes heavily lined. (The post has more than 1,300 likes.) In another, she gazes at the camera, her hair brushing against her right eye, her blouse slightly unzipped. You swipe left to see the vape juice she’s using today: a mix of strawberry custard, sugar cookie and vanilla custard, paired with, this time, a black device (2,994 likes as of Nov. 2). (Luthra and Giles, 11/14)

KQED: Marin Woman Dies Of Vaping-Related Illness In First Recorded Bay Area Fatality Linked To E-Cigarettes
Marin County Chief Deputy Coroner Robert Fielding identified the victim as Amanda Arconti, a 45-year-old Marin County resident who also had an apartment in Vacaville, KTVU reported. She died on Nov. 7 at Novato Community Hospital. Her death appears to be linked to either vaping or previous tobacco use, Fielding said, but noted that a coming autopsy would determine the final cause of death. (Green, 11/13)

Politico: The Health Care System Isn't Ready To Replace Aging Caregivers
The first generation of developmentally disabled adults who grew up at home, not in an institution, are now middle-aged and facing a health care system that’s largely unprepared to take care of them as their baby boomer parents age out of that role. Numbering in the tens of thousands, they were the test case for deinstitutionalization. Now they are test cases for an ill-defined, underfinanced future. Most have never spent much time away from their parents and are on long waitlists for state services, which may be out of reach until an emergency strikes. (Goldberg, 11/13)

The Philadelphia Inquirer: A Philly Woman’s Broken Back And $36,000 Bill Shows How Some Health Insurance Brokers Trick Consumers Into Skimpy Plans
One slip on an icy sidewalk and Trish Martin was in the hospital with a broken back and wrist. ...Martin thought she’d bought a comprehensive health insurance plan through the government-regulated Affordable Care Act marketplace, healthcare.gov. But she really visited a website cunningly crafted to look like an ACA portal, which put her in contact by phone with a salesman. He sold her plan that turned out to offer only minimal coverage, and when Martin needed help, his number was disconnected. She was left with $36,000 in hospital bills that she’s still paying off. (Gantz, 11/14)

Modern Healthcare: Supply Chain Tweaks Could Help Average Hospital Hire Up To 165 More Nurses
The gap between the most efficient supply chain operators and their peers has widened, revealing that hospitals have a $25.7 billion cost savings opportunity, according to an updated study. Unnecessary hospital spending on supply chain products and related operations surged 12% from $23 billion in 2017, according to a Navigant analysis that compared the top quartile of most efficient supply chain operators to a sample of 2,127 hospitals. (Kacik, 11/13)

Modern Healthcare: Highmark Health To Deliver Hospital Care At Home
When a patient turns up in the emergency department at one of Allegheny Health Network's hospitals with uncomplicated pneumonia, a bacterial skin infection or another lower-risk ailment, that patient may now get the choice to skip the hospital bed and go home to receive care. Highmark Health, the parent company of Pittsburgh-based Blues insurer Highmark and integrated system Allegheny Health Network, is introducing a program to deliver inpatient hospital care to patients in their homes, where it says certain healthcare services can be provided in a safer, lower cost way through a combination of in-person home visits and telehealth. (Livingston, 11/13)

California Healthline: Dialysis Patients Panic As Financial ‘Life Raft’ Becomes Unmoored
Russell Desmond received a letter a few weeks ago from the American Kidney Fund that he said felt like “a smack on the face.” The organization informed Desmond, who has kidney failure and needs dialysis three times a week, that it will no longer help him pay for his private health insurance plan — to the tune of about $800 a month. “I am depressed about the whole situation,” said the 58-year-old Sacramento resident. “I have no clue what I’m going to do.” (Ibarra, 11/13)

Kaiser Health News: ‘An Arm And A Leg’: Mom Vs. Texas In A Fight To Get Kids’ Hearing Aids Covered
When Stephanie Wittels Wachs found out that health insurance in Texas didn’t cover hearing aids for kids, she lobbied to change Texas law. And she won. But the process took more than two years. “You’re constantly just like bugging everyone you know, like, ‘Please call! Please text! Please call! Please email!’” Wittels Wachs said. “You just become like this broken record.” (Weissmann, 11/14)

The New York Times: Climate Change Poses Threats To Children’s Health Worldwide
The health effects of climate change will be unevenly distributed and children will be among those especially harmed, according to a new report from the medical journal The Lancet. The report compared human health consequences under two scenarios: one in which the world meets the commitments laid out in the Paris Agreement and reins in emissions so that increases in global temperatures remain “well below 2 degrees Celsius” by the end of the century, and one in which it does not. (Pierre-Louis, 11/13)

The Associated Press: Doctors: Warmer World Is Unhealthier Place For Children
With increasing diarrhea diseases, more dangerous heat waves, air pollution and increases in mosquito-borne diseases such as dengue fever and malaria, man-made global warming is already harming public health around the world, the annual climate change and health report from the medical journal The Lancet said Wednesday. But the report and its authors said they worry that the future health of the world’s youngest people will get even grimmer if emissions of heat-trapping gases aren’t curbed. (11/13)

CNBC: Climate Change Damaging The Health Of Children, Medical Officials Warn
“Children are particularly vulnerable to the health risks of a changing climate,” said Nick Watts, executive director of The Lancet Countdown, an annual report tracking connections between public health and climate change. “Their bodies and immune systems are still developing, leaving them more susceptible to disease and environmental pollutants,” he said. (Newburger, 11/13)

NPR: Sweeping Study Points To Devastating Impact Of Climate Change On Global Health
For instance, it's meant the conditions for growing all sorts of crops around the world have become less favorable. "Each of the major crops," Watts says. "We track maize, we track rice, soybean, and spring and winter wheat." Watts says the research team found that the yield potential for these staple crops is now down as much as 6%. Which might not sound like much, but with reduced crop yields, "who is going to be the most vulnerable?" Watts asks. "Children." (Aizenman, 11/14)

Vox: Climate Change And Health: Report Warns Warming Will Affect “Every Single Stage” Of A Child’s Life
At the moment, some of the most severe climate change health effects are on the elderly. The researchers found that there were more than 220 million additional heat wave exposures in 2018 for people over 65 compared to the average between 1986 and 2005. They found that three-quarters of countries in the world saw an increase in the populations exposed to wildfires over the past three years compared to the 15 years prior. The report also emphasizes that mental health issues linked to climate change are emerging, particularly for those dealing with traumas of migration and loss. (Irfan, 11/13)

In other environmental health news —

The Associated Press: Ex-Government Health Chief Joins Warnings About EPA Proposal
A former top government environmental health official joined health experts on Wednesday in expressing alarm as the Trump administration moves forward with a proposal that scientists say would upend how the U.S. regulates threats to public health. “It will practically lead to the elimination of science from decision-making,” said Linda Birnbaum, who retired last month as director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences after serving under both Republican and Democratic administrations. (11/13)

Sacramento Bee: Does Nipomo Mesa Air Quality Impact Health When Dust Blows?
When strong winds blow from the direction of the Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area, a large plume of dust billows inland for hours at a time, data show. The dust covers cars and lawn furniture. It gets inside the house too, and can get into people’s lungs and bloodstream. The problem has attracted the attention of the American Lung Association. (Vaughan, Garibay and Ladin, 11/13)

ProPublica: Police Don’t Do A Good Job Tracking Hate Crimes. A New Report Calls On Congress To Take Action.
A report made public Wednesday by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights called on Congress to adopt legislation that would use funding to incentivize police departments across the country to produce annual accountings of hate crimes. The commission also recommended that the police departments establish dedicated hate crime units aimed at better identifying and investigating reports of those incidents. The commission issued its proposals a day after the latest FBI report on hate crimes, an accounting the commission said remained deeply flawed. The FBI’s report, the commission noted, still depends on the voluntary submission of data from local police agencies, a process that has regularly produced what almost everyone agrees is a vast undercount of actual hate crimes. (Glickhouse, 11/13)

The New York Times: Alcohol Was An Escape. Now He Is Living On His Own Terms.
The military was supposed to be Earl Breland’s ticket to stability. He was just six credits shy of a college degree when he enlisted in the Army in 1983, setting aside his aspirations to become a journalist so he could make a good life for himself and his new wife. “I thought the service would do that for me,” said Mr. Breland, 58. But the military proved to be a rough adjustment. Mr. Breland said he had trouble getting “used to the structure and being told what to do.” (Brown, 11/13)

The Washington Post: Two Cases Of Pneumonic Plague Confirmed In Beijing
Two people in China were diagnosed with a severe form of the plague, according to reports in Chinese media — raising alarms for citizens despite promises from health authorities that control measures are in place. Local health officials confirmed the two cases of pneumonic plague on Tuesday, according to Xinhua News, China’s state-run news agency. The two patients, who authorities say received “proper treatment,” hail from China’s Inner Mongolia region. (Brice-Saddler, 11/13)

Stat: More Trial Results Being Posted To Public Database, But Data Quality Lacking
A new report examining the first decade of study results being reported on ClinicalTrials.gov finds that there has been slow progress among drug companies and academic research centers in reporting the results of human studies, but the quality of the data may still present a larger problem. When the database was expanded through federal law in 2008 to accommodate clinical trial results, an average of two trials per week posted results, even though 79 trials were completed every week. (Chakradhar, 11/13)

NPR: CRISPR Could Stop Replication Of Viruses That Cause Illness, Researchers Say
It's not easy to treat viral infections. Just ask anyone with a bad cold or a case of the flu. But scientists in Massachusetts think they may have a new way to stop viruses from making people sick by using what amounts to a pair of molecular scissors, known as CRISPR. It's a gene editing tool based on a molecule that occurs naturally in microorganisms. (Palca, 11/13)

The New York Times: Texting While Walking Is Dangerous. Here’s How To Stop.
You’re walking around and a thought occurs: “I should check my phone.” The phone comes out of your pocket. You type a message. Then your eyes remain glued to the screen, even when you walk across the street. We all do this kind of distracted walking, or “twalking.” (Yes, this term is really a thing.) The behavior has spawned debates among lawmakers about whether walking and texting should be illegal. (Chen, 11/13)

Bloomberg: Mental Health Is Still A ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ Subject At Work
While there are laws to protect people with mental health issues from discrimination, the pervasive stigma around those conditions has limited their usefulness. Every avenue that exists has its shortcomings: The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission takes up cases on behalf of workers who feel they’ve been discriminated against as a result of their mental health. The agency tries to resolve cases via mediation, which doesn’t create binding precedents. Even when it sues successfully, it rarely wins the kind of payouts that would force a broad change in corporate behavior. (Koons, 11/13)

Bloomberg: The Toll Of Holding A Job While Coping With Mental Health Issues
Absenteeism is one of the most noticeable symptoms of people who deal with mental health problems while holding down a job. But there’s also presenteeism, when people show up for work yet are unable to perform their best because of how they’re feeling. And the need to take breaks from working can lead to résumés with lots of jobs with short tenures. We spoke to a number of people about their experiences managing their mental health in the workplace. (Koons, 11/13)

In other mental health news —

KCUR: Missouri's Refusal To Treat Mental Health Like A Physical Condition Means Patients Wait Months 
Starting treatment with a mental health specialist often requires a wait of several weeks, but many psychiatrists and other specialists in Kansas City have waiting lists stretching over months. While the need for mental health treatment has been growing in Missouri, many patient advocates say the state’s refusal to aggressively enforce mental health parity may be making the wait times even longer. (Smith, 11/13)

San Francisco Chronicle: SF Supes Fundraise For Mental Health Ballot Fight Even After Deal Is Made
For much of this year, San Francisco Supervisors Hillary Ronen and Matt Haney were gearing up for a tough, expensive fight to get their overhaul of the city’s mental health care system passed on the March 2020 ballot. Campaign staff was hired, a website was built and heart-rending videos were produced to show the desperate state of those on the streets left behind by what the supervisors cast as a fundamentally broken system of care in San Francisco. (Fracassa, 11/13)

Stat: HHS To Probe If Google’s 'Project Nightingale' Followed Privacy Law
A federal regulator is investigating whether the federal privacy law known as HIPAA was followed when Google (GOOGL) collected millions of patient records through a partnership with nonprofit hospital chain Ascension. The probe, first reported by the Wall Street Journal Tuesday night, was opened by the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights. “OCR would like to learn more information about this mass collection of individuals’ medical records with respect to the implications for patient privacy under HIPAA,” Roger Severino, the office’s director, said in a statement to STAT. (Robbins and Ross, 11/13)

Modern Healthcare: Google, Ascension Data Partnership Sparks Federal Probe
The federal probe concerns a project that Google launched last year, internally referred to as "Project Nightingale," which involves analyzing health data from patients who received care at St. Louis-based Ascension, one of the nation's largest health systems. Data reportedly includes patients' lab results, medications and diagnoses. (Cohen, 11/13)

Reuters: Apple Watch Detects Irregular Heartbeats In U.S. Study
Apple Inc's Heart study, the largest yet to explore the role of wearable devices in identifying potential heart problems, found the device could accurately detect atrial fibrillation, the most common type of irregular heartbeat, U.S. researchers reported on Wednesday. The results, published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), come as technology companies increasingly strike up partnerships with drugmakers as a way to gather large amounts of real-time health data on individuals. (11/13)

Los Angeles Times: USC Student Deaths: Possible Drug Overdoses, Tainted Narcotics Probed
USC President Carol L. Folt confirmed Wednesday that police investigators are looking into drug overdoses as a potential cause of death among some of the nine students who have died this semester. While Folt would not elaborate on the scope of the inquiries or circumstances of the individual deaths, citing federal student privacy laws, she said USC is working with the Los Angles Police Department on the cases and “doubling down” on education and outreach over drug abuse. (Shalby, Winton, Karlamangla and Watanabe, 11/13)

The Associated Press: Overdoses Possible In Some Student Deaths On USC Campus
A letter sent Tuesday to staff and students warned about the dangers of substance abuse, and especially about the increase of contaminated drugs. The death of nine students since classes began a little more than two months ago has left students and administrators shaken and seeking answers. Administrators say three deaths were the result of suicide. The causes of the other deaths are either unknown or haven’t been disclosed. (11/13)

The Associated Press: 3 Universities, Medical Center Get $1B To Teach And Research
Three universities and a health care institution are sharing a gift of more than $1 billion that’s one of the largest in the history of higher education, they announced Wednesday. Receiving $260 million apiece will be Duke University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Southern California, and the Cleveland Clinic. The institutions are free to use the money as they see fit. (Amy and Franko, 11/13)

The Wall Street Journal: Duke, MIT, USC, Cleveland Clinic To Split $1 Billion Gift
In the early 1980s, Lord Corp.’s then-chairman, Thomas Lord, established the Lord Foundations of North Carolina, Massachusetts, California and Ohio, to benefit Duke, MIT, USC and the Cleveland Clinic, respectively. Since their establishment the foundations had given $200 million to the four institutions, but the latest gifts arrived with little warning. (Korn and Bauerlein, 11/13)

Los Angeles Times: USC To Receive $260-Million Gift, Among Largest In Higher Education
[The donation] comes as USC has had to assure major donors that it is on the right track after a series of scandals in the last few years tarnished its reputation. The private university was completing the second most successful fundraising campaign in American higher education history — raising $7.16 billion between 2010 and 2018 — when it was hit with controversies involving a former medical school dean who was revealed to have used hard drugs and associated with criminals while in his post. (Watanabe and Agrawal, 11/13)

The Washington Post: Virginia Tech To Establish Biomedical Research Facility With Children’s National In D.C.
Virginia Tech plans to launch a biomedical research facility in the District by early 2021, focused on pediatric health, in a venture with Children’s National Hospital that will expand the university’s presence in the capital region. The collaboration, announced Thursday, will establish four or five Virginia Tech research teams on a campus Children’s National is developing at the site of what was once the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Northwest Washington. (Anderson, 11/14)

The New York Times: New York Identifies Hospitals And Nursing Homes With Deadly Fungus
Nearly 35,000 people in the United States are dying each year from drug-resistant infections, public health officials said on Wednesday, an alarming problem that New York state underscored by revealing that it had found one particularly new and virulent fungus in 64 hospitals and 103 nursing homes. The numbers show just how widespread drug resistant infections have become, with the latest projection of deaths in America double previous estimates. (Richtel and Jacobs, 11/13)

Columbus Dispatch: Dayton’s Last Abortion Clinic Back In Business 
The Dayton area’s last abortion clinic is back in business. Ohio Health Director Amy Acton granted an operating license to Women’s Med Center, allowing the clinic to resume surgical abortions. The clinic had been forced to offer limited services and turn many patients away for more than two weeks while challenging a state law requiring abortion clinics to have a written patient-transfer agreement with a local hospital in case something goes wrong during the procedure. (Candisky, 11/13)

The Wall Street Journal: Fewer New York City Kids Showing Elevated Lead Levels In Blood
New York City has seen a slight decrease this year in the number of children with elevated blood-lead levels, city officials said Wednesday. In the first six months of 2019, 1,794 children were reported to have an elevated blood-lead level of 5 micrograms per deciliter, officials testified at a City Council hearing. That represents a 10% decline when compared with the same period a year before. (West, 11/13)

New Hampshire Public Radio: State Presses Casella On PFAS, Dioxane Contamination At Bethlehem Landfill
State regulators want more information on groundwater contamination at the Casella landfill in Bethlehem. The North Country landfill's latest groundwater monitoring results show PFAS chemicals above strict new state limits, as well as elevated levels of the suspected carcinogen 1,4 dioxane. (Ropeik, 11/13)

Georgia Health News: Deal Reached On Millions In Erroneous Medicare Payments
Federal health officials have worked out an agreement to resolve an overpayment problem with medical providers in Georgia and other states. The terms of that agreement, like the payment issue itself, are complicated. (Miller, 11/13)

Sacramento Bee: UC’s Lowest-Paid Workers Strike To Protest Outsourcing
The University of California’s lowest-paid employees — 25,000 janitors, patient billers, medical transcribers, cooks and other workers — picketed Wednesday at Sacramento’s UC Davis Medical Center and at other UC hospitals and campuses around the state over their employer’s use of contract workers. (Anderson, 11/13)

The Washington Post: Report Finds U-Md. Followed Protocols In Mold, Adenovirus Outbreaks
Nearly a year after an adenovirus outbreak killed a freshman at the University of Maryland, an outside review found the college followed protocols in how it responded to the crisis but made numerous recommendations for handling campuswide emergencies. Olivia Paregol, an 18-year-old freshman, died of adenovirus on Nov. 18, 2018, after suffering from health problems during the several months she lived in a mold-infested dorm. (Abelson, 11/13)

Cincinnati Enquirer: Suicide Climbs 45% In Ohio, With A Sharper Rise Among The Young
One young Ohioan dies by suicide every 33 hours, the state reported Wednesday, and the rate of suicide has risen by 56% among people 10 to 24 in the past 11 years. The Ohio Department of Health released its annual state report on suicide, which found that five people died by suicide every day in the Buckeye State, reflecting a growing public-health crisis nationally. In Ohio, 1,836 people died by suicide in 2018. (Saker, 11/13)

Iowa Public Radio: Report: Survival Rates For Iowans With Lung Cancer Among Lowest In Nation
Iowa has one of the lowest survival rates for lung cancer in the nation, according to a new report by the American Lung Association. The annual report found the state’s five-year lung cancer survival rate is 19 percent, which is below the national average of 21.7 percent. It ranks 35th out of the 45 states that had available data. (Krebs, 11/13)

The Star Tribune: Minnesota Medical Board Reinstates Sanctions On Controversial Lyme Disease Treatment 
Doctors who prescribe long-term antibiotic therapy for tick-borne Lyme disease are now at risk for licensing sanctions in Minnesota, a sign that many leaders in the profession regard the therapy as discredited. The Minnesota Board of Medical Practice earlier this week lifted its decadelong moratorium on such actions because of research suggesting that long-term antibiotic therapy offers no benefits over the short-term therapy that most patients receive when their Lyme cases are diagnosed. (Olson, 11/13)

Cincinnati Enquirer: Area Nonprofits See Fewer Contributions, Higher Demand In Aiding Poor
The nonprofit sector in Southwest Ohio and Northern Kentucky raises and spends about a half a billion dollars annually in its efforts to fight poverty. An Enquirer analysis, focused on finances of 10 of the area’s largest nonprofits that deal with poverty, shows there are headwinds against such agencies helping the poor. (Pilcher, Dufour and Goad, 11/13)

Miami Herald: South Florida Company Announces Study Of CBD As Painkiller
One leading hemp research company is looking at creating an FDA-approved capsule that could replace ibuprofen to treat acute pain. Fort Lauderdale-based Green Point Research, which funded the existing hemp pilot program at the University of Florida, has announced a new partnership with Florida State University to conduct a study analyzing Green Point’s Satividol CBD softgel capsule and its benefits. (Gross, 11/13)

Tampa Bay Times: Tampa Bay Flu Season Heats Up With Outbreaks In Hillsborough Schools
Flu season is here and Tampa Bay is already feeling under the weather. While the number of cases is still relatively low across the state, the number of outbreaks so far this year is higher in November than in past seasons, health officials said. And Hillsborough County is seeing rising activity among school kids, prompting officials to send letters home with students. “We’re seeing multiple outbreaks in schools right now, and we are strongly encouraging parents to get their children vaccinated as soon as possible,” said Kevin Watler, a spokesman for the health department in Hillsborough. (Griffin, 11/13)

The Washington Post: Fentanyl-Laced Tablets Bring Murder Charge To Maryland Drug Dealer Who Sold What Looked Like Percocet
On a Monday in August, authorities say, Percell “Pete” Arrington sold purported Percocet pills to two women at a restaurant in Germantown, Md. One woman went home, swallowed a single tablet and within 15 minutes had passed out, according to court records. Her boyfriend called 911. Paramedics revived her with doses of naloxone and took her to a hospital. She survived. (Morse, 11/13)

Reuters: Genome Sequencing In Newborns Raises Ethical Issues
Screening newborns for health risks using genomic sequencing can raise ethical and equity questions, the authors of a new paper warn.Testing newborns for a handful of specific childhood conditions is already commonplace in the U.S. "Newborn screening is often done without parental permission and has been justified on the grounds that the direct benefits to the child greatly outweigh the harms," said Dr. Lainie Friedman Ross of the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics at the University of Chicago in Illinois, who co-authored the case study in Pediatrics. (11/13)

The New York Times: Poor Sleep May Be Bad For Your Heart
Poor sleepers may be at increased risk for cardiovascular disease. Chinese researchers used data on 487,200 people ages 30 to 79, generally healthy at the start of the study. The participants reported on the frequency of three symptoms of poor sleep: difficulty falling or staying asleep, daytime sleepiness and early morning awakening. The study is in Neurology. (Bakalar, 11/11)

American Academy Of Pediatrics: Trends In Referrals To A Pediatric Transgender Clinic
The increase in referrals supports the need for expanded and accessible health care services for this population. The transition-related care of patients in this large sample varied by age group, underscoring the need for an individualized approach to gender-affirming care. (Handler et al, 11/1)

JAMA Internal Medicine: Markups On Emergency Medicine And Anesthesiology Services In The United States From 2012 To 2016
Hospitals send surprise medical bills to patients who, often unknowingly, receive care from an out-of-network physician; these bills are typically several times the cost of care from an in-network physician and can be financially devastating. Prior research has shown that hospital charge master prices, specifically the “markups” greater than Medicare reimbursement rates in medical bills for out-of-network care, vary widely across hospitals and departments within hospitals. As of September 2019, the US Congress is considering several approaches to protect patients from surprise billing, including limiting the degree of markup. This cross-sectional study characterized markups from 2012 through 2016 and examined associations of markup with hospital characteristics by focusing on charges in 2 specialties common in surprise medical billing, emergency medicine and anesthesiology, using internal medicine as a reference. (Xu, 11/11)

The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation: Donor Government Funding For Family Planning In 2018
This report provides an analysis of donor government funding to address family planning in low- and middle-income countries in 2018, the latest year available, as well as trends over time. It is part of an effort by the Kaiser Family Foundation to track such funding that began after the London Summit on Family Planning in 2012. (Wexler, Kates and Lief, 11/11)

CNN: Elizabeth Warren's Medicare For All Plan Won't Raise Taxes On The Middle Class
It's no secret that I'm not a fan of Medicare for All. That's why I'm impressed that Senator Elizabeth Warren's campaign reached out to me to independently review her proposed financing plan for the program. Her numbers add up and her plan fully finances the program without imposing any new taxes on middle-class families. The most important source of revenue for Warren's Medicare for All plan is simply to have businesses pay their employees' health insurance premiums to Medicare instead of private insurance companies. (Mark Zandi, 11/13)

The Washington Post: Trump Must Keep His Promises On Vaping
“Will be meeting with representatives of the Vaping industry, together with medical professionals and individual state representatives, to come up with an acceptable solution to the Vaping and E-cigarette dilemma,” President Trump tweeted Monday. “Children’s health & safety, together with jobs, will be a focus!” This might not sound like one of Mr. Trump’s alarming tweets. But it is. The president announced two months ago that he would crack down on e-cigarettes, following dire news about their appeal to teenagers. Now — reading “together with jobs” — public-health advocates are worried he might reverse course. (11/13)

Los Angeles Times: EPA Would Limit Science's Impact On New Regulations
Science doesn’t get much respect from the Trump administration. Among other things, the administration has brushed off as unimportant the effect of burning fossil fuels on global warming, and has ignored the effect of emissions of mercury and other toxins from power plants on the environment and human health. But now the administration wants to further reduce the influence of science on public policy through a bit of regulatory subterfuge that is stunning in its malign craftiness. If the administration succeeds, we’ll all be the worse for it. (11/14)

Stat: #NeedHerScience: Shining A Light On Gender Disparities In Medicine
Medicine has an abundance of highly trained and qualified women. So why are there so few of them at the highest levels, including full professors, chairs, and deans? For many years, the belief was that when there were enough women in medicine, critical mass alone would correct such gender disparities. Yet this theory has not panned out and it is now clear that despite the fact  there are many qualified women for any given leadership position, they are not promoted equitably. (Julie K. Silver, 11/13)

The Philadelphia Inquirer: Veterans Need Better Access To Mental Health Care. Here’s How That Can Happen 
It was a typical day in the clinic. A new client came in for an initial assessment. They disclosed that they had been feeling depressed for a while and, after a little more questioning, acknowledged that they had attempted to take their life just a few days prior – a fact they had not shared with anyone since.Unfortunately, this client was National Guard member, so they were not eligible for many veteran services. And, because this Guard member did not have stable work, they couldn’t afford the National Guard subsidized health insurance. They were afraid to go to the hospital, because they couldn’t afford it, but let their clinician know that they weren’t sure they could keep themselves safe after their appointment. (Leah Blain, 11/14)

The New York Times: Why It Is So Hard To Figure Out What To Eat
Most diet trials in the best journals fail even the most basic of quality control measures. That’s the finding of a study by us published today on JAMA Network Open. Investigators receiving funding for any clinical trial from the National Institutes of Health must register in advance what they plan to test, among other design features, to ensure that the data are fairly analyzed. Comparing the original registries with the final published studies, we found that diet trials in the past decade were about four times as likely as drug trials to have a discrepancy in the main outcome or measurement — raising concern for bias. (David S. Ludwig and Steven B. Heymsfield, 11/13)

Stat: The FDA Must Pull Makena From The Market
Should doctors be able to prescribe and use a drug that doesn’t work, and may cause harm? That’s the question currently in front of the FDA as it decides what to do about a drug called Makena. The FDA approved 17-hydroxyprogesterone caproate (Makena) in 2011 as a way to prevent preterm birth in women with a prior spontaneous preterm birth. The drug got the green light through the FDA’s accelerated approval pathway, which is reserved for drugs that treat a serious or life-threatening disease or condition. That certainly applies to preterm birth — birth before 37 weeks of pregnancy — which is a major problem in the United States and around the world. (Adam C. Urato, 11/14)

The New York Times: I’m A Police Chief. We Need To Change How Officers View Their Guns.
Few things are more harrowing than watching a video of a police officer confront a person in emotional crisis armed with a knife or other similar object. The officer almost always points a gun at that person and yells, “Drop it!” If staring down the barrel of a gun isn’t enough to give a person pause, yelling at him or her is unlikely to make a difference. If that person advances on the police officer, gunfire often results. Each year, American police officers shoot and kill well over 125 people armed with knives, many of them in this manner. (Brandon del Pozo, 11/13)

Stat: My Daughter's Legacy Lives On Through Her Writing, Phage Therapy
“Who lives, who dies, who tells your story?” That line from the musical “Hamilton” inspires me to keep telling the story of my daughter Mallory. She died two years ago Friday at the age of 25, two months after receiving a transplant to replace both of her lungs, which had been ravaged by cystic fibrosis and an infection that no drugs could eradicate. (Diane Shader Smith, 11/13)