FiercePharma: Sign Of The Times? US Stocks Up On Amgen's Radiation Sickness Drug Nplate 
In what could be a troubling sign of the times, the United States is stocking up on radiation sickness drugs. Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said it’s throwing down $290 million to lock up an undisclosed amount of Amgen’s blood disorder med Nplate, which is approved to treat blood cell injuries linked to acute radiation syndrome (ARS) in kids and adults. (Kansteiner, 10/5)

In its press release, HHS downplayed the purchase as "part of long-standing, ongoing efforts to be better prepared to save lives following radiological and nuclear emergencies" —

HHS purchases drug for use in radiological and nuclear emergencies

The Register: US Intelligence Researches Improved Radiation Detection 
The research arm of US intelligence has begun investigating methods for spotting low doses of ionizing radiation to better protect American service personnel and provide evidence of nuclear technology use. The Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) announced the start of Targeted Evaluation of Ionizing Radiation Exposure (TEI-REX) on [Sept. 30], which will look for non-invasive methods of determining radiation exposure in low doses through samples including hair, skin, sweat, and saliva. (Vigliarolo, 9/30)

The New York Times: Russia’s Small Nuclear Arms Are A Risk For Putin And Ukraine 
How much destruction — and lingering radiation — would result depends on factors including the size of the weapon and the winds. But even a small nuclear explosion could cause thousands of deaths and render a base or a downtown area uninhabitable for years. ... The radiation dangers from small nuclear arms would likely be less than those involving large reactors, like those at Chernobyl. Its radioactive fallout poisoned the flatlands for miles around and turned villages into ghost towns. Eventually the radiation caused thousands of cases of cancer, though exactly how many is a matter of debate. (Sanger and Broad, 10/3)

The Washington Post: Here Are The Nuclear Weapons Russia Has In Its Military Arsenal 
It is very unlikely that Russia would use its most powerful nuclear weapons to settle scores with Kyiv; Moscow is far more likely, experts agree, to use a smaller nuclear weapon in the hopes of achieving a specific battlefield objective. But, those same experts caution, once a nuclear weapon is unleashed, controlling what happens next is difficult. (Demirjian, 10/5)

Indianapolis Star: Marion County Agency Wants SCOTUS To Strip Protections For Millions Of Vulnerable Americans
Marion County's public health agency is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to strip legal protections for millions of Americans in a monumental case that experts say could dramatically weaken federal benefit programs. The Health & Hospital Corp. of Marion County wants the nation's high court to throw out a lawsuit over poor care at one of its nursing homes in a case that could also bar beneficiaries of safety net programs like Medicaid from suing if their rights are violated. (Cook and Magdaleno, 10/6)

In other Medicaid news —

Becker's Payer Issues: Majority Of Americans Have Favorable Opinion Of Medicaid: Survey
Most Americans have a favorable opinion of Medicaid, a survey from Morning Consult and the Modern Medicaid Alliance found. The survey included 10,026 registered voters, and results were weighted by gender, age, educational attainment, race, marital status, home ownership, race by educational attainment, 2020 presidential vote and region. The poll was conducted from Aug. 8 to 14, and the Modern Medicaid Alliance released the results Oct. 3. (Wilson, 10/5)

Mississippi Today: Medicaid: Proposed Pay Increase Could Help In-Home Nurses
After three months and nearly losing her job, Shavondra Smalley of Natchez is hopeful her 8-year-old daughter can now get the medical care she needs so the mother can get back to work. Smalley, who struggled to find nurses to care for her bed-bound daughter, is hopeful the situation will improve thanks to a proposed increase in pay from Medicaid for private duty nurses and rewritten doctor’s orders that specifically allow for the use of licensed practical nurses when registered nurses aren’t available. (Royals, 10/5)

Keloland.com: Medicaid And Braces: A Gap In Care
While braces may be a right of passage for many teens, it’s a much more difficult appointment to make for kids entering state custody. “Because if you’re in foster care, you’re on Medicaid. And Medicaid doesn’t cover braces or anything that it deems unnecessary that seems really wild to me,” Francis Abbot, foster parent, said. “It’s such a huge need and the fact that it’s not included right now kind of blows my mind, I didn’t expect that at all.” (Bennett, 10/4)

Becker's Payer Issues: 7 Medicaid Contract Updates
Here are 7 Medicaid contract updates Becker's has reported since Aug. 10. (Wilson, 10/5)

From North Carolina, New York, Kentucky, Missouri, Georgia, and Puerto Rico —

The Chronicle: After 7 Years, Medicaid Expansion In Sight For North Carolina 
North Carolina might see its own expansion of Medicaid as former Republican opponents indicate newfound support for the proposal. After being only one of 12 states in the U.S. not to expand Medicaid since the Affordable Care Act Medicaid expansion in 2014, the North Carolina Healthcare Association has made a proposal that may finally get the ball rolling in the state. (Patterson, 10/4)

Lohud: NY's Medicaid Plan Hopes To Fix Racism, Inequality Issues
After COVID-19 ravaged low-income neighborhoods and communities of color in New York, state officials are seeking federal approval to spend $13.5 billion through Medicaid to address the long-standing systemic racism and inequality that fueled the stark disparity in pandemic suffering. From improving access to health care and medicines to overhauling housing and food insecurity programs, the plan targets flaws in the complex web of social, economic and medical factors that determine New Yorkers' health and wellbeing. (Robinson, 10/6)

Northern Kentucky Tribune: Kentucky Receives Medicaid Innovation Award For Enrollment Efforts During COVID-19 Pandemic
Kentucky’s Medicaid program has received a 2022 Medicaid Innovation Award from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the National Academy for State Health Policy for enrollment innovations implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic. The nonpartisan award recognizes states for demonstrating creativity, leadership, and progress in their programs despite significant public health challenges in recent years. (10/6)

KTTN: Advocates Say Missouri Medicaid Expansion Is Helping Citizens, Saving Jobs
Richard von Glahn, organizing director for Missouri Jobs with Justice, said the Medicaid expansion is injecting billions of dollars into the state’s economy while ensuring hundreds of thousands of people. “It will protect rural hospitals, it will protect jobs in the health care industry, and it will provide lifesaving care to the people of this state,” von Glahn contended. “It is, frankly, good policy to have more people covered by health insurance.” Incentives under the Affordable Care Act have the state covering 10% of the cost of the expansion while the federal government provides the rest. (10/5)

11alive.Com: Medicaid Expansion: What You Should Know About The Debate In GA 
Georgia has spent over a decade debating Medicaid expansion. And as voters near the 2022 General Election, this issue has become a key one in the governor's race. (Lindstrom and Richards, 10/5)

The Washington Post: Fiona Prompts Financial Pleas For Puerto Rico's Beleaguered Medicaid Program 
Top Puerto Rico officials are pushing for increased federal funds to boost their fragile Medicaid program after Hurricane Fiona ripped through the island last month. The asks come from Gov. Pedro Pierluisi (D) and Rep. Jenniffer González-Colón (R), each of whom recently sent congressional leaders separate letters obtained by The Health 202. (Roubein, 10/5)

NPR: 66 Clinics Stopped Providing Abortions In The 100 Days Since Roe Fell
In the 100 days since the Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade, 66 clinics in the U.S. stopped providing abortion. That's according to a new analysis published Thursday by the Guttmacher Institute, assessing abortion access in the 15 states that have banned or severely restricted access to abortion. (Simmons-Duffin, 10/6)

AP: At Least 66 US Clinics Have Halted Abortions, Institute Says
All 13 of the remaining clinics are in Georgia. The other states have no providers offering abortions, though some of their clinics are offering care other than abortions. Nationally, there were more than 800 abortion clinics in 2020, the institute said. ... The new report does not include data on hospitals and physician offices that provided abortion and stopped them after the court ruling, but Jones noted that clinics provide most U.S. abortions, including procedures and dispensing abortion medication. Recent Guttmacher data show just over half of U.S. abortions are done with medication. (10/5)

In abortion news from Idaho and Michigan —

NPR: Idaho's Supreme Court Will Hear Challenges To Restrictive Abortion Laws
After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Idaho's trigger ban prohibited nearly all abortions. Idaho's Supreme Court on Thursday takes up challenges to three of the state's abortion laws. (Luchetta, 10/6)

Detroit Free Press: Demand For Abortions In Michigan Doubles Among Out-Of-State Residents
They're coming to Michigan from Ohio and Texas, Tennessee and Kentucky. Some by car and others by hourslong bus rides or by plane. All seek to end an unwanted pregnancy. (Jordan Shamus, 10/5)

Protests are planned today —

ABC News: Students At More Than 50 Schools, Universities Stage Reproductive Justice Protests
Students at more than 60 high schools and universities across at least 29 states are holding student strikes and events on Thursday to fight for reproductive justice. The self-dubbed "Day of Student Action" is organized by the Graduate Student Action Network, a group formed in response to the U.S. Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade ending federal protections for abortion rights, and the Young Democratic Socialists of America. (El-Bawab and DiMartino, 10/6)

The New York Times: Woman Who Said Herschel Walker Paid For Abortion Is Also Mother Of His Child, Report Says
The woman who told The Daily Beast on Monday that Herschel Walker had paid for her abortion in 2009 told the outlet on Wednesday that she was the mother of one of his children, undercutting his defense that he did not know her identity. Mr. Walker, the Republican nominee for Senate in Georgia, had swiftly denounced the original Daily Beast article, denying its veracity and pledging to sue the outlet for defamation. So far, the campaign has not pursued any legal action. (King, 10/5)

The Daily Beast: She Had An Abortion With Herschel Walker. She Also Had A Child With Him.
After a woman revealed that Republican senatorial candidate Herschel Walker had urged her to have an abortion, Walker adamantly denied the story and claimed he had no idea who this woman could be. But there’s a good reason the woman finds that defense highly doubtful: She’s the mother of one of his children. When the woman first told The Daily Beast her story, we agreed not to reveal certain details about her identity over her concerns for safety and privacy. But then Walker categorically denied the story and said he didn’t know who was making this allegation. (Sollenberger, 10/6)

Politico: Walker's Christian Fans Unfazed By Abortion Revelations
Since revelations surfaced that the former football star and self-described “pro-life” Republican had allegedly paid for an ex-girlfriend’s abortion in 2009, evangelical Christian leaders in Georgia have banded together to support Walker, as has the Republican Party in general. Walker has staked out a hard-line, “no exceptions” position on abortion. (Allison, 10/6)

In news from Ohio —

AP: Drug Companies In Opioid Crisis Donated $27K To Ohio's Ryan 
Democratic U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, who has made his opponent’s questionable record fighting the opioid epidemic a central theme of his campaign for Ohio’s open U.S. Senate seat, has received campaign donations over the years from drug distributors blamed for key roles in the crisis, an Associated Press review found. The contributions to Ryan from AmerisourceBergen, McKesson and Dublin, Ohio-based Cardinal Health, the three biggest drug distribution companies in the U.S., came in between 2007 and August of this year. (Smyth, 10/5)

In other news —

NPR: NPR Poll: Biden's Approval Rating Up But Also Warning Signs For Democrats 
With just over a month to go in the 2022 midterm elections, Democrats are starting to rally around President Biden, according to the latest NPR/Marist poll. Biden's approval rating is up to 44%, which marks a third straight month of improvement. He had bottomed out in July at about 36%. Democrats are also largely keeping pace with Republicans on enthusiasm about the elections this fall, a continued trend after the Supreme Court's June Dobbs decision, which overturned the guaranteed right to an abortion in this country. (Montanaro, 10/6)

Tallahassee Democrat: Hurricane Ian Impacts Florida Midterm Elections, Could Reduce Turnout
Hurricane Ian is significantly disrupting Florida’s midterm election in a highly-populated and heavily-Republican region, potentially impacting voter turnout in part of the state that’s critical for the reelection bids of Gov. Ron DeSantis and U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio. Ian slammed into Southwest Florida as a powerful Category 4 hurricane, with the most significant damage in four deep red coastal counties — Sarasota, Charlotte, Lee and Collier. Those four counties have a combined 1.3 million voters, including 582,743 Republicans, 321,706 Democrats and 371,390 no party or minor party voters. The region’s strong Republican tilt makes it essential to the GOP’s playbook for winning statewide races in Florida. (Anderson, 10/5)

Stat: Under New Rules, Patients Can Now Access All Their Health Records Digitally  
The American Revolution had July 4. The allies had D-Day. And now U.S. patients, held down for decades by information hoarders, can rally around a new turning point, October 6, 2022 — the day they got their health data back. (Ross, 10/6)

In other health care industry news —

Becker's Hospital Review: 10 Hospitals, Health Systems Laying Off Workers
Several hospitals and health systems are trimming their workforces due to financial and operational challenges. (Ellison, 10/5)

AP: Nursing Schools Form Coalition To Attract Students In MN
Nursing schools in Minnesota are joining forces to recruit more students in order to address a staffing shortage in hospitals and clinics that is only predicted to get worse. The University of Minnesota and Minnesota State have formed the Coalition for Nursing Excellence and Equity with a goal of making nursing education attractive to more students without increasing costs. (10/5)

Stat: The Government Wants To Make A Single National Directory Of Doctors
The federal government wants to create a national directory that houses accurate, up-to-date information for all doctors and providers across the country — an ambitious attempt to rectify the plethora of error-riddled directories that are maintained by health insurance companies. (Herman, 10/5)

Becker's Hospital Review: Patients More Likely To Drop 'Dr.' When Messaging Female Physicians, Study Finds
Patients are more likely to refer to female physicians by their first name in electronic messaging compared to male physicians, a study published Oct. 5 in JAMA Network Open found. (Bean, 10/5)

In global news about health workers —

CIDRAP: Ebola Kills Another Health Worker In Uganda Outbreak 
Cases and deaths in Uganda's Ebola Sudan outbreak continue to rise, as the country's health minister reported a fourth death in a healthcare worker. On Twitter, Jane Ruth Aceng Ocero, MBChB, MPH, said the health worker is a 58-year old woman who worked as an anesthetic officer. She died at Fort Portal Hospital after a 17-day battle with the disease. (Schnirring, 10/5)

Fierce Healthcare: Gallup Poll: 75% Of Americans Grade Healthcare Costs As D Or F
Three-quarters of Americans give U.S. healthcare affordability a D or F rating, according to a new poll from Gallup and West Health. More than 5,000 Americans were asked to grade the U.S. healthcare system overall and regarding affordability, equity, accessibility and quality. Overall, 44% of Americans gave the entire system a poor or failing grade. One in three said healthcare affordability deserved an F. (Burky, 10/6)

Bloomberg: Get Ready For US Health Insurers To Raise Prices Next Year
Benefits brokers expect rate increases of 6% to 12%, according to a survey conducted by BofA Global Research. Increases for employers will be higher than usual as inflation and labor expenses get priced into insurance premiums, analysts wrote. (Tozzi, 10/5)

On Medicare costs —

AP: Exercise Caution With Zero-Premium Medicare Advantage Plans
Health insurers will flood the Medicare Advantage market again this fall with enticing offers for plans that have no monthly price tag. The number of so-called zero-premium plans has been growing for years, and they can appeal to retirees who live on fixed incomes. Experts say shoppers should exercise caution, because they might find better coverage at a relatively small monthly cost. “It’s not a one-size-fits-all program,” said Melissa Brenner, a broker in Charlotte, North Carolina. “You don’t want to look at a zero plan and just enroll in it.” (Murphy, 10/5)

Stat: Medicare Tasks A Senior Adviser With Staffing Its New Drug Pricing Division
Medicare has tasked a senior adviser at the agency with assembling a small army of bureaucrats to get its new drug price negotiation program up and running. (Cohrs, 10/6)

More on the cost of health care —

Bloomberg: Multimillion-Dollar Prices for Gene Therapies Are Fair, Pharma Exec Says
Multimillion-dollar prices for a rival’s treatments with the potential to cure rare diseases are “in the right ballpark,” according to Stuart Arbuckle, chief operating officer of Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc., which is preparing to market its own treatment for sickle-cell disease. (Peebles, 10/5)

Axios: Hospitals Still Aren't Complying With Transparency Rules
Almost two years after a Trump-era cost transparency rule took effect, many hospitals are flouting a requirement that they post the prices for common goods and services online — with little risk of facing penalties. (Knight, 10/6)

Fierce Healthcare: JAMA Study Finds Medical Debt A Predictor Of Housing And Food Insecurity
A new study has found a link between patients' medical debt and a higher risk of experiencing housing and food insecurity. Of the 142,000 adults surveyed, 18% held medical debt. Such debt was found to be a predictor of worsening social determinants of health, a recent JAMA study found. Decreases in health status and coverage loss left those surveyed with a 1.7-fold to 3.1-fold higher risk of worsening housing and food security. (Burky, 10/5)

KHN: Medical Debt Sunk Her Credit. New Changes From The Credit Reporting Agencies Won’t Help
After a year of chemo and radiation, doctors told Penelope “Penny” Wingard in 2014 that her breast cancer was in remission. She’d been praying for this good news. But it also meant she no longer qualified for a program in her state that offers temporary Medicaid coverage to patients undergoing active breast cancer treatment. Wingard became uninsured. She’d survived the medical toll, but the financial toll was ongoing. (Pattani, 10/6)

KHN: Listen: Medical Bills Upended Her Life And Her Credit Score
Penelope Wingard is tough. She has survived breast cancer, a brain aneurysm, and surgery on both eyes. But saving her life has come at a steep cost. Wingard — who goes by “Penny” — is now free from cancer. But for the past eight years, she has been battling something that has felt just as tough as a chronic illness: medical debt. Symptoms include daily bills in the mail and harassing calls from collectors. And her credit score has taken a hit. She has resigned herself to living with the ramifications of medical debt. (Pattani, 10/6)

San Francisco Chronicle: U.S. Death Toll Approaches Combined Total Of Civil War, WW2 And Korea
The U.S. has recorded 1,060,408 deaths due to COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, according to data published Wednesday by Johns Hopkins University, almost matching the combined toll of three major wars. (Vaziri, 10/5)

More on the spread of covid —

San Francisco Chronicle: More Than 86% Of U.S. Children Infected To Date, CDC Reports
Approximately 86.3% of children in the U.S. have antibodies from surviving a prior COVID-19 infection as of Aug. 20, according to updated seroprevalence estimates by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Vaziri, 10/5)

Stat: How The Splintering Of Omicron Could Shape Covid's Next Phase 
The United States is in a (relative) Covid-19 lull, with cases and hospitalizations falling as the wave driven by the BA.5 lineage of the Omicron variant recedes. But as if we needed a portent of an anticipated fall and winter wave, Covid is on the rise in some European countries. (Joseph, 10/6)

San Francisco Chronicle: New COVID Variants Could Fuel California Winter Surge, Experts Say
The BA.5 omicron subvariant is still the dominant strain in the U.S. after appearing in late spring and quickly crowding out its rivals, accounting for nearly 90% of cases in late August. However, its share has since fallen to 81%, while the omicron offshoot BA.4.6 is slowly growing, responsible for 13% of cases for the week ending Oct. 1. (Hwang, 10/5)

Las Vegas Review-Journal: County, State See Uptick In COVID-19 Cases, Hospitalizations
For the first time in 12 weeks, COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations increased in both Clark County and Nevada, according to new state data, though it’s too soon to say if the upticks mark the start of a fall surge. (Hynes, 10/5)

The Boston Globe: After A Brief Climb, Levels Of Coronavirus Waver In Eastern Mass. Waste Water
The levels of coronavirus detected in Eastern Massachusetts waste water are wavering after a brief steep climb, according to the latest data from the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority. (Finucane and Huddle, 10/5)

On long covid —

Axios: Long COVID Is Still Disabling Millions Of Americans, CDC Reports
Of the nearly 24 million adults in the U.S. who currently have long COVID, more than 80% are having some trouble carrying out daily activities, according to CDC data released Wednesday. (Moreno, 10/6)

ABC News: 4 Out Of 5 People With Long COVID Have Trouble Performing Day-To-Day Activities: CDC
As of Sept. 26, 81% of adults with ongoing symptoms of COVID lasting three months or longer -- or four out of five adults -- are experiencing limitations in their daily activities compared to before they had the virus. (Kekatos, 10/6)

Axios: COVID Boosters Could Save 90,000 Lives, $56.5 Billion
About 90,000 lives would be saved and more than 936,000 hospitalizations could be prevented if 80% of Americans eligible for the latest COVID-19 boosters get vaccinated by year's end, according to a new paper from The Commonwealth Fund and Yale School of Public Health. (Reed, 10/5)

CNN: Covid-19 Boosters Could Prevent About 90,000 US Deaths This Winter, But Only If More People Get Them, Analysis Suggests
However, if booster vaccinations remain at their current pace, the researchers found, a potential Covid-19 winter surge could bring a peak of about 16,000 hospitalizations and 1,200 deaths per day by March. (Howard, 10/5)

In related news about the vaccine rollout —

Politico: Biden's Operation Warp Speed Revival Stumbles Out Of The Gate 
As Covid’s Omicron wave ebbed earlier this year, top Biden administration health officials began developing a plan to fortify the nation’s defenses against the next potentially dangerous coronavirus strain. The initiative was envisioned as a revival of Operation Warp Speed, the Trump-era program that paired federal dollars with private sector know-how to deliver the first vaccines in record time. By replicating the formula with a range of new candidates, officials planned to churn out increasingly advanced vaccines and treatments just as fast — and ahead of other nations. They even had a name for the effort: Project Covid Shield. But months later, it’s barely taken off — stymied by fading political interest in prolonging a war against a pandemic that even the president has declared “over.” (Cancryn and Banco, 10/5)

Pew Research Center: Lack Of Preparedness Among Top Reactions Americans Have To Public Health Officials’ COVID-19 Response 
Amid the rollout of updated COVID-19 booster shots around the United States, a new Pew Research Center survey finds mixed views of public health officials at the forefront of the nation’s response to the outbreak. About half of Americans (51%) say public health officials, such as those at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), have done an excellent or good job communicating with the public about the coronavirus outbreak; however, nearly as many (49%) say they have done an only fair or poor job. (10/5)

CIDRAP: Complex State COVID Vaccine Guidelines Tied To Lower Uptake
Complex state COVID-19 vaccine eligibility guidelines lead to confusion about eligibility and may contribute to low uptake, according to a population-based study of US adults published yesterday in JAMA Network Open. (Van Beusekom, 10/5)

Press Association: Air Pollution Particles Found In Babies In Womb For First Time, Study Finds
Air pollution particles can reach babies in the womb, a new study suggests. Researchers found that soot nanoparticles can cross the placenta and get into organs of fetuses. (Pickover, 10/5)

In other health and wellness news —

The Washington Post: Intradermal Monkeypox Vaccine Causing Scars, Discoloration For Some 
The outbreak appears to be waning and monkeypox vaccine appointments are more plentiful in many parts of the country than earlier in the summer, when obtaining a shot was like “winning the sweepstakes or getting concert tickets,” one recipient said. However, the makeshift vaccination plan has not been without its downsides. The intradermal injection can leave a painful, itchy red mark for weeks, potentially worsening the stigma of an outbreak mostly affecting gay men, and it can cause long-term discoloration or scarring. (Pietsch, 10/6)

The New York Times: Medical Care Alone Won’t Halt The Spread Of Diabetes, Scientists Say 
Researchers who study Type 2 diabetes have reached a stark conclusion: There is no device, no drug powerful enough to counter the effects of poverty, pollution, stress, a broken food system, cities that are hard to navigate on foot and inequitable access to health care, particularly in minority communities. “Our entire society is perfectly designed to create Type 2 diabetes,” said Dr. Dean Schillinger, a professor of medicine at University of California, San Francisco. “We have to disrupt that.” (Rabin, 10/5)

NBC News: How A Stomach Bug Infection May Trigger Crohn's Disease
In some people, exposure to the highly contagious norovirus might increase the risk of the bowel disorder, which causes the immune system to attack the digestive tract, research published Wednesday in Nature shows. (Carroll, 10/5)

The 19th: Tobacco Companies Target Young People, Black People And Women In Menthol Marketing
Ahead of decisions by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) that could ban menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars, Stanford University and the American Heart Association released a study that tracked decades of predatory marketing efforts from cigarette companies and found that they are still targeting young people, Black people and women. (Henry, 10/5)

And the probe into an E. coli outbreak ends without a conclusive answer —

CIDRAP: Source Remains Unconfirmed In Wendy's E Coli Probe
The CDC yesterday announced that it has wrapped up its investigation into an Escherichia coli O157:H7 outbreak from an unknown food source, which appeared to be an ingredient in menu items from Wendy's restaurants. In its final update, the CDC reported 12 more cases, lifting the number of confirmed cases to 109 from six states. ... The CDC said investigators couldn't confirm romaine lettuce as the source of the outbreak, because the Wendy's meals eaten by sick people had many similar ingredients. (10/5)

Salt Lake Tribune: Intermountain Healthcare Begins Drone Delivery Of Prescriptions, Other Medicine
The long awaited era of drone delivery has arrived in Utah with an initial rollout that allows patients in South Jordan to get their pharmaceuticals and over-the-counter medications by parachute drop. (Fitzpatrick, 10/5)

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

WUSF Public Media: Crisis Center Of Tampa Bay Reports A Surge In Calls After Hurricane Ian
Crisis Center of Tampa Bay staff have been busy helping people in need of support after Hurricane Ian. The center manages the 211 social services hotline and 988 suicide prevention lifeline for Hillsborough and Charlotte counties, and officials are reporting a surge in demand. (Colombini, 10/5)

North Carolina Health News: Researchers Find Elevated Lead Levels At Child Care Facilities Across N.C.
It is all too common to find lead in tap water at North Carolina child care facilities, according to a new study by researchers from RTI International. (Atwater, 10/6)

Axios: Oklahoma Hospital System Halts Some Trans Youth Care After State Funding Threat
The University of Oklahoma Medical Center stopped some health services for trans youth under 18 after the governor signed a bill that would withhold federal funds if the state's flagship academic health system did not comply. (Ravipati, 10/5)

AP: New Mexico Urges Syphilis Testing For All Pregnant Mothers
New Mexico health officials are renewing a public order aimed at protecting newborn babies from syphilis. The state Health Department on Wednesday announced requirements that medical providers follow best practices by testing all pregnant women for syphilis multiple times. (10/5)

CBS News: Michigan Warns Of Produce Possibly Contaminated With Human Waste
The use of human waste to grow crops meant to be eaten by people is illegal and unsafe, according to the agency. If not professionally treated, human waste and other body fluids can spread dangerous diseases such as hepatitis A, clostridium difficile, e-coli, rotavirus and norovirus, MDARD added. (Gibson, 10/5)

Axios: How Racism Affects Health Care For Black Patients In California
Nearly a third of Black Californians reported being treated unfairly in the health care system because of their race, according to a report from the California Health Care Foundation. (Moreno, 10/5)

San Francisco Chronicle: Despite Emergency Injection Of City Funds, S.F. Rehabs Could Close Due To Financial Turmoil
Some of San Francisco’s sorely needed residential treatment programs for people with substance abuse disorder are on the brink of closure because of financial turmoil at the organization that runs them. (Morris, 10/5)

USA Today: 'Rainbow Fentanyl' Pills Found In Lego Box In New York City
A New Jersey woman was arrested after authorities in New York discovered 15,000 pills of "rainbow fentanyl" stuffed inside a Lego box. (Mendoza, 10/5)

Reuters: U.S. Judge Temporarily Blocks Two State Lawsuits Over J&J Talc Marketing
A U.S. bankruptcy judge has blocked New Mexico and Mississippi from pursuing lawsuits accusing Johnson & Johnson of misleading consumers about the safety of its talc products, such as its baby powder, for now. (Knauth and Pierson, 10/5)

In research updates —

Politico: Current Rules Stymie Opioid Studies, Researchers Say
More than 100 researchers, scientists and public health professionals want fentanyl-related substances to no longer be Schedule I drugs — saying a different classification has the potential to unlock research for more drugs to treat opioid addiction. As first reported in Pulse, the experts outlined their concerns in a letter Tuesday, sent to the White House along with leaders at the DEA, DOJ and HHS. They ask the administration to overturn a temporary Trump-era decision to tightly restrict all substances related to fentanyl, a synthetic opioid. (Payne and Mahr, 10/5)

Stat: Alzheimer’s Clinical Trials Have A Recruitment Problem. Ro Wants To Help 
Telehealth company Ro has reached an agreement with the National Institute on Aging to create a registry of patients that could participate in Alzheimer’s disease research, a new approach to tackle the stubborn issue of recruitment for clinical trials. (Aguilar, 10/6)

Stat: U.S. Is Bad At Keeping Business From Worsening Public Health, Experts Say
Here in the U.S., it’s “in” to study the social determinants of health. The opposite is true for the commercial determinants of health, which studies the ways businesses impact public health. As one researcher bluntly put it, the field is all about “when companies profit from making us sick.” (Florko, 10/6)

ScienceDaily: Scientists Discover Dual-Function Messenger RNA 
A new study has discovered an unprecedented pathway producing telomerase RNA from a protein-coding messenger RNA (mRNA). (Arizona State University, 10/3)

Nature: When Insulin Isn’t Enough: Targeting Glucagon In Type 1 Diabetes 
A phase 2 study fails to meet its primary endpoint, but the treatment — a glucagon receptor antagonist — shows clinically relevant improvements in glycemic control, warranting further investigation as a potential adjunct to insulin. (Van Name and Sherr, 10/3)

New England Journal of Medicine: Trial Of Intravenous Immune Globulin In Dermatomyositis 
We conducted a randomized, placebo-controlled trial involving patients with active dermatomyositis. (Aggarwal, M.D., et al, 10/6)

The Lancet: Inside-The-Body Light Delivery System Using Endovascular Therapy-Based Light Illumination Technology 
Light-based therapies are promising for treating diseases including cancer, hereditary conditions, and protein-related disorders. However, systems, methods, and devices that deliver light deep inside the body are limited. This study aimed to develop an endovascular therapy-based light illumination technology (ET-BLIT), capable of providing deep light irradiation within the body. (Tsukamoto et al, 10/5)

The Washington Post: New Food Labels Could Help You Make Smarter Choices. Or Not.
For decades, the federal government has tried a variety of gimmicks to get Americans to eat healthier. It is a worthy goal; diet-related illness is the top cause of death in the United States. Yet many federal efforts, such as the heavily criticized and now-defunct food pyramid, have not worked. The nation holds the highest number of obese adults in the world, and chronic diseases such as diabetes continue to exact a massive toll in treatment costs and suffering. (10/5)

Bloomberg: Losing Weight Isn't As Simple As Eating Less And Exercising More 
Scientific understanding is challenging the conventional wisdom about hunger — now framing it as a scourge that afflicts not only people who get too few calories, but also those who consume mostly sugar and refined starch. (Faye Flam, 10/5)

Also —

USA Today: Children's Mental Health: How To Help Schools So We Don't Fail Kids
Children’s mental health – and the lack of access to appropriate and effective services – is a long-standing problem that hasn’t been addressed with urgency and systematic long-term action. (Maurice J. Elias, 10/6)

Chicago Tribune: The Shortage Of Pediatric Hospital Beds Is Cause For Alarm
It is October, and the system is already at risk of getting overwhelmed — not just in Illinois but throughout the country. Pediatricians throughout the U.S. confirm this situation: There are more children who need beds in the hospital than there are pediatric beds. (Deanna Behrens, 10/5)

The Atlantic: What Doctors Still Don’t Understand About Long COVID
The wide spectrum of conditions that fall under the umbrella of long COVID impedes researchers’ ability to interpret estimates of national prevalence based on surveys of symptoms, which conflate different problems with different causes. (Adam Gaffney, 10/5)

The Star Tribune: Solid Teamwork On Nursing Shortage
The COVID-19 pandemic laid bare another health care crisis that's been brewing for years — the critical shortage of nurses. While the growing, aging U.S. population needs more medical care than ever, the supply of nurses and instructors to teach them is not keeping pace with demand. (10/5)

Scientific American: Understanding Morals Is Key To Accepting Safe Injection Sites 
Safe injection sites, also known as supervised injection sites and opioid prevention centers, are places where people who use injectable, but illegal, opioids such as heroin, can do so without fear of overdose, prosecution or spreading disease. (Alexander Plante, 10/5)

Stat: Gene Synthesis Suppliers Need Tighter Order, Customer Screening
Ever since the inception of gene synthesis, there have been concerns about possible misuse of synthetic genes. (Gigi Kwik Gronvall, 10/5)

Stat: Interoperability Can't Wait: Don't Delay Information Blocking Rules 
Interoperability is a word you seldom hear uttered outside the health care sector (though there it seems to be on the tip of everyone’s tongues), yet it’s something that affects everyone. (Steven Lane, 10/5)

Stat: The New Law That Could Stealthily Transform Biomedical Innovation
Buried deep within the Inflation Reduction Act’s drug-price negotiation provisions is language that could open the way to a new era of biomedical breakthroughs and smarter health spending. (M. Gregg Bloche, Neel U. Sukhatme and John L. Marshall, 10/6)