The Washington Post: The FDA Issues New Guidelines On What Foods Can Be Labeled 'Healthy' 
The Food and Drug Administration announced new rules Wednesday for nutrition labels that can go on the front of food packages to indicate that they are “healthy.” Under the proposal, manufacturers can label their products “healthy” if they contain a meaningful amount of food from at least one of the food groups or subgroups (such as fruit, vegetable or dairy) recommended by the dietary guidelines. They must also adhere to specific limits for certain nutrients, such as saturated fat, sodium and added sugars. For example, a cereal would need to contain three-quarters of an ounce of whole grains and no more than 1 gram of saturated fat, 230 milligrams of sodium and 2.5 grams of added sugars per serving for a food manufacturer to use the word “healthy” on the label. (Reiley, 9/28)

Stat: FDA Proposes New Rules For Which Foods Can Be Called ‘Healthy’
The change is a major win for certain food makers, including the company behind KIND bars, that had long been pushing the agency to update its label policies. KIND first filed a petition pushing the FDA to update its “healthy” label seven years ago, arguing that the previous regulations allowed some companies to tout specific nutrients in sugary cereals and sodium-flooded products that could have misled the public into believing those foods were healthy. (Castillo, 9/28)

The Hill: FDA Proposes New Rules For ‘Healthy’ Label On Food Packaging 
According to the FDA, the new rules would change the definition of “healthy” to reflect “current nutrition science.” Under these new rules, more foods like nuts, seeds and certain oils would be permitted to be labelled as “healthy.” If the FDA’s proposed rules are adopted, foods labeled as “healthy” would need to have “meaningful” amounts of at least one food group or subgroup that is recommended by the federal government’s Dietary Guidelines. The products would also have to meet certain limitations on nutrients like saturated fat, sodium and added sugars. (Choi, 9/28)

In other news about healthy eating —

The Washington Post: What Are Ultra-Processed Foods And Why Are They So Bad For You? 
Is your diet ultra-processed? In many households, ultra-processed foods are mainstays at the kitchen table. They include products that you may not even think of as junk food such as breakfast cereals, muffins, snack bars and sweetened yogurts. Soft drinks and energy drinks count, too. ... Yet in dozens of large studies, scientists have found that ultra-processed foods are linked to higher rates of obesity, heart disease, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and colon cancer. A recent study of more than 22,000 people found that people who ate a lot of ultra-processed foods had a 19 percent higher likelihood of early death and a 32 percent higher risk of dying from heart disease compared with people who ate few ultra-processed foods. (O'Connor, 9/27)

The Wall Street Journal: The Science-Backed Strategies That Will Actually Help You Eat Better
We know what we should eat. Trouble is, most of us have a hard time sticking to it. Researchers are racing to understand what pushes people to make healthier food choices. They are finding that broad resolutions to “eat better” are less effective than setting a couple of smaller rules, that eating with other people is helpful and that grocery shopping online can be better than going to the store. (Petersen, 9/28)

Bloomberg: Instacart To Expand Access To Healthy Food To Underserved Communities
Instacart Inc. is launching an initiative to expand access to nutritious food for underserved communities. The largest online grocery-delivery company in the US is partnering with health organizations to make food more affordable and encourage people to make healthy choices. (Shahidullah, 9/28)

The 19th: After 53 Years, White House Releases New Strategy On Hunger, Nutrition And Health
After 53 years, President Joe Biden on Wednesday convened a second conference as the White House released its national strategy on hunger, nutrition and health that seeks to work across private and public sectors to address five key areas: improve food access and affordability, integrate nutrition and health, empower consumers to make and have healthy choices, support physical activity, and enhance nutrition and food security research. (Norwood, 9/28)

The Washington Post: White House Hosts Conference On Hunger, With $8B In Commitments 
Among the specific policies Biden previously promised: expanding free school meals to 9 million more children in the next decade; improving transportation options for an estimated 40 million Americans who have low access to grocery stores or farmers markets; reducing food waste (one-third of all food in the United States goes uneaten, the White House says); conducting more screenings for food insecurity; educating health-care providers on nutrition; reducing sodium and sugar in U.S. food products; addressing marketing that promotes fast food, sugary drinks, candy and unhealthful snacks; and building more parks in “nature-deprived communities.” (Viser, 9/28)

The Wall Street Journal: Biden Seeks To Expand Free School Meal Programs
President Biden pushed to expand free school meals Wednesday as part of what he called a new national strategy to end hunger and increase healthy eating by 2030. (Peterson, 9/28)

Also —

Modern Healthcare: Kaiser, Boston Medical Join $8B White House Food Insecurity Initiative
Healthcare organizations including Kaiser Permanente, Boston Medical Center and Massachusetts General Hospital are making investments in nutrition and food insecurity programs as part of a White House initiative aiming to end hunger and reduce diet-related disease by 2030. (Hartnett, 9/28)

AP: Hurricane Ian Strikes Florida Hospital From Above And Below
Hurricane Ian swamped a Florida hospital from both above and below, the storm surge flooding its lower level emergency room while fierce winds tore part of its fourth floor roof from its intensive care unit, according to a doctor who works there. Dr. Birgit Bodine spent the night at HCA Florida Fawcett Hospital in Port Charlotte, anticipating the storm would make things busy, “but we didn’t anticipate that the roof would blow off on the fourth floor,” she said. (Hartounian, 9/29)

Tampa Bay Times: Tampa General Fortifies For Ian With ‘Aqua Fence,’ Water-Tight Doors
While some of the region’s hospitals located in evacuation zones closed ahead of Hurricane Ian, that’s not an option for Tampa General Hospital. The hospital is the region’s only Level 1 trauma center. ... So the hospital, which is licensed for more than 1,000 beds, has deployed an array of defenses against possible flooding and hopes to remain fully operational during Hurricane Ian. That includes deployment of an “aqua fence,” a water impermeable barrier that stretches around the hospital campus. (O'Donnell and Ogozalek, 9/28)

The Florida Times-Union: Jacksonville Hospitals Make Adjustments As Hurricane Ian Approaches
Jacksonville-area hospitals remained open Wednesday as Hurricane Ian approached, although some of them have limited procedures and visitation and closed specialty centers. Baptist Health postponed elective surgeries, procedures and diagnostic studies scheduled for Thursday at its major hospitals and closed some affiliated specialty centers. But other operations continued as normal. "We do not plan to close any of our hospitals at this time," Baptist Heath spokeswoman Wesley Roberts said. (Cravey, 9/289)

WCBD News 2 Charleston: Lowcountry Hospitals Preparing For Hurricane Ian Impacts
Hospitals across the Lowcountry are getting ready for the potential impacts of Hurricane Ian. “We have to be concerned about whether we need to shelter in place, or if we still have access to our facilities because people still have emergency medical conditions that need care, even though a storm is coming. People still have babies,” said Stephanie Palmer, the Emergency Management Program Manager at Roper St. Francis Healthcare. (Cioppa, 9/27)

In related news —

St. Louis Public Radio: Mobility Issues Complicate A Man's Evacuation From His Home During Summer Flooding 
Evacuating your home during a natural disaster, such as flooding, can be frightening for anyone, but there may be additional challenges for those with disabilities. (Lees, 9/28)

NPR: Zoonotic Diseases Like COVID-19 And Monkeypox Will Become More Common, Experts Say
Researchers say these types of viruses, known as zoonotic diseases, or ones that spread between humans and animals, will become increasingly commonplace as factors such as the destruction of animal habitats and human expansion into previously uninhabited areas intensify. (Archie, 9/29)

In other news about monkeypox —

Stat: Early Analysis Suggests Monkeypox Vaccine Is Reducing Risk Of Infection
A very preliminary analysis of data from 32 states appears to suggest that the monkeypox vaccine being used in the United States is reducing the risk of infection among vaccinated people, Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Wednesday. (Branswell, 9/28)

The Washington Post: Should I Still Be Worried About Monkeypox?
The monkeypox outbreak is showing signs of slowing in the United States and around the globe. Daily U.S. infections now average around 200 after peaking around 450 in mid-August. Health officials attribute the decline to vaccines and behavioral change among gay men who have reduced sexual activity, the most common mode of transmission. But they’re also bracing for monkeypox to stick around as a background threat with periodic flare-ups. (Nirappil and Sun, 9/28)

Bloomberg: Monkeypox Update: WHO Renaming Effort Too Slow For Some
More than three months after the World Health Organization said it would combat the stigma and racism around the monkeypox virus with a new name, no decision has been made. (Ighodaro, 9/28)

The Guardian: Covid Might Have Changed People’s Personalities, Study Suggests 
The impact of the Covid pandemic may have been so deep that it altered people’s personalities, according to research. Previously psychologists have failed to find a link between collective stressful events, such as earthquakes or hurricanes, and personality change. However, something about the losses experienced or simply the long grind of social isolation appears to have made an impact. (Devlin, 9/28)

How the pandemic has affected doctors —

The New York Times: Physician Burnout Has Reached Distressing Levels, New Research Finds 
Ten years of data from a nationwide survey of physicians confirm another trend that’s worsened through the pandemic: Burnout rates among doctors in the United States, which were already high a decade ago, have risen to alarming levels. Results released this month and published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings, a peer-reviewed journal, show that 63 percent of physicians surveyed reported at least one symptom of burnout at the end of 2021 and the beginning of 2022, an increase from 44 percent in 2017 and 46 percent in 2011. Only 30 percent felt satisfied with their work-life balance, compared with 43 percent five years earlier. (Whang, 9/29)

In other news about covid —

CIDRAP: New Blood Test Aims To Predict Who Will Get Long COVID
In a small study today in eBioMedicine, researchers from University College London show that a blood sample taken at the time of COVID-19 infection could predict who would develop persistent symptoms up to 1 year later by using precise measurements of proteins. (9/28)

AP: Scientists Honored For COVID-19 Tracker, Prenatal Test 
A Johns Hopkins University scientist who created a website to track COVID-19 cases worldwide is the recipient of this year’s Lasker award for public service. The $250,000 awards, announced Wednesday by the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation, recognize achievements in medical research. The public service award went to Lauren Gardner, an engineer who studies the spread of diseases. She worked with her lab team to develop the COVID-19 tracker as the coronavirus began spreading worldwide in January 2020. The dashboard became a key resource and now tracks global cases, deaths, vaccines and more. Through it all, the team has made the tracker freely available to the public. (Burakoff, 9/28)

The Boston Globe: The Level Of Coronavirus In Eastern Mass. Waste Water Just Shot Up
An important indicator of the prevalence of COVID-19 infections, the levels of coronavirus detected in Eastern Massachusetts waste water shot up sharply in recent days. (Finucane and Huddle, 9/28)

The Hill: Supreme Court To Reopen For Upcoming Term, Masking Optional 
The U.S. Supreme Court announced new policies on Wednesday for its upcoming term, allowing the public to attend oral arguments in person and making mask-wearing optional. The Court will still provide a live audio feed and will publish transcripts and audio for oral arguments, which it began doing amid the COVID-19 pandemic. (Dress, 9/28)

Also —

The New York Times: New Infectious Threats Are Coming. The US Probably Won’t Contain Them.
If it wasn’t clear enough during the Covid-19 pandemic, it has become obvious during the monkeypox outbreak: The United States, among the richest, most advanced nations in the world, remains wholly unprepared to combat new pathogens. The coronavirus was a sly, unexpected adversary. Monkeypox was a familiar foe, and tests, vaccines and treatments were already at hand. But the response to both threats sputtered and stumbled at every step. (Mandavilli, 9/29)

Stat: Burning Questions Left Unanswered About The Latest Alzheimer’s Therapy
News of the first clearly successful clinical trial for a new Alzheimer’s disease treatment in two decades has brought hope, scrutiny, and skepticism to a field accustomed to disappointment. (Feuerstein, Garde and Cohrs, 9/29)

The Wall Street Journal: Alzheimer’s Blockbuster Might Spur Investor Bonanza, Higher Medicare Costs
The Alzheimer’s drug data released Tuesday night aren’t only going to be transformative for Biogen, which has been struggling to get love from investors after its botched launch of Aduhelm. The results are also breathing new life into a class of anti-amyloid drugs that had been partially written off, increasing investor confidence that drugs from Eli Lilly and Roche Holding could also deliver positive results. (Wainer, 9/28)

Bloomberg: How Japanese Drugmaker Eisai Got The ‘Clean Win’ Over Alzheimer’s
Three decades after the presumed cause of Alzheimer’s disease was identified, a Japanese company little known outside of the pharmaceutical industry has become the first drugmaker to prove the debilitating condition can be slowed. (Matsuyama and Fay Cortez, 9/28)

Stat: An Alzheimer’s Therapy Scores Winning Results, But What Could It Mean For Patients?
The news Tuesday night that a clinical trial of an experimental Alzheimer’s therapy had succeeded hit like a blast — at last, a rare win in a disease devastating nearly 6 million Americans and countless more caregivers. The trumpeting from the companies Eisai and Biogen relied on data that showed that people receiving the therapy, lecanemab, saw a slower decline versus those on a placebo. (Joseph, 9/28)

Axios: Another Prospect For An Alzheimer's Drug Renews Cost Concerns
The prospect of an effective new Alzheimer's treatment came roaring back this week with the announcement of preliminary clinical trial data, giving millions of seniors renewed hope after a tumultuous year. (Owens and Bettelheim, 9/29)

Stat: A Bionic Pancreas Aims To Take The Math Out Of Managing Type 1 Diabetes
New clinical trial results from an automated insulin delivery system from Beta Bionics suggest that computation can be reliably outsourced to a machine — potentially putting better blood glucose control in the hands of more patients. (Palmer, 9/28)

The Wall Street Journal: Bionic Pancreas Shown To Manage Blood-Sugar Levels For Type 1 Diabetics 
A wearable device that automatically regulates blood-sugar levels was found to help people with Type 1 diabetes better manage their condition, potentially expanding the field of treatments for the chronic disease. The iLet bionic pancreas made by Concord, Mass.-based Beta Bionics helped people with Type 1 diabetes reduce average blood-sugar levels more effectively than other treatment methods including similar devices, according to a study published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine. (Mosbergen, 9/28)

On the cost of insulin and other drugs —

Roll Call: Lawmakers Eye Lame Duck For Unfinished Business On Insulin
A bipartisan Senate duo is still working to pass a bill to overhaul insulin prices, but the outlook is complicated by the messy drug pricing system, politics and a busy congressional calendar. (Clason, 9/28)

Stat: Medicare Lays Out The Bureaucracy It Will Need To Negotiate Drug Prices
New documents obtained by STAT outline how Medicare is planning to build out a sizable new bureaucratic infrastructure to handle its new power to negotiate drug prices and penalize drugmakers for price hikes. (Cohrs, 9/29)

In other pharmaceutical industry news —

Fox News: Melatonin Should Be Avoided In Children Unless Directed By A Health Care Professional, Says Sleep Academy
"While melatonin can be useful in treating certain sleep-wake disorders, like jet lag, there is much less evidence it can help healthy children or adults fall asleep faster," said Dr. M. Adeel Rishi, vice chair of the AASM Public Safety Committee and a pulmonology, sleep medicine and critical care specialist at Indiana University Health Physicians, in a press release. (Sudhakar, 9/28)

Bloomberg: Blood Clots Have Big Pharma Chasing $55 Billion Market
Blood clots are estimated to cause about 1 in 4 deaths worldwide, and the leading blood thinners prescribed to prevent them are among the most widely used medicines. Known under the brands Eliquis and Xarelto, the drugs are called Factor Xa inhibitors for the enzyme they block in the body’s natural clotting process. (Peebles, 9/28)

Reuters: Gilead Widens Battle Against Alleged Counterfeit HIV Drug Ring 
A federal judge in New York has frozen the assets of dozens of people and entities accused of operating a massive nationwide scheme to distribute counterfeit bottles of Gilead Sciences Inc HIV drugs, including two alleged "kingpins." Gilead, which has been pursuing alleged counterfeiters in a civil lawsuit since last year, said in a court filing unsealed on Wednesday it had uncovered an operation that was "staggering in scope," responsible for sales of hundreds of millions of dollars of counterfeit bottles of its top sellers Descovy, Genvoya and Biktarvy, and other medicines. (Pierson, 9/28)

Stat: Ebola Experimental Vaccine Trial May Begin Soon In Uganda
A clinical trial of one or perhaps two experimental vaccines designed to protect against the Ebola Sudan virus could soon begin in Uganda, as long as the country agrees to allow the research to take place, an official of the World Health Organization said Wednesday. (Branswell, 9/29)

Updates from the FDA —

Stat: FDA Says AI Tools To Warn Of Sepsis Should Be Regulated As Devices
The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday published a list of artificial intelligence tools that should be regulated as medical devices, in some cases appearing to expand its oversight of previously unregulated software products. (Ross, 9/27)

Stat: FDA Official Acknowledges Agency's Slow Process For Health App Updates
The Food and Drug Administration’s approach to reviewing updates to software products is far slower than consumers have come to expect for apps, a top agency official acknowledged Tuesday. (Aguilar, 9/27)

Stat: New FDA Guidance On AI In Medicine Sparks Strong Reactions
New guidance from the Food and Drug Administration is triggering strong reaction from researchers and regulatory experts, who see it as an attempt to significantly expand the oversight of software tools used to guide clinical decisions. But they are sharply divided on whether that’s a much-needed change, or a dramatic overreach by regulators. (Ross, 9/28)

Modern Healthcare: Low-Wage Healthcare Job Benefits Increase Amid Labor Shortage
At 37% of hospital systems, benefit contributions charged to low-wage workers have been reduced, compared with 30% a year ago. Another 21% are considering such reductions in the next year, up from 15% last year, according to an annual survey released this week by financial-services firm Aon. The firm surveyed 145 health systems representing more than 1,200 hospitals and 2.6 million employees. (Hudson, 9/28)

Axios: Nonprofit Hospitals' Vague Charity Care Criteria
Tax-exempt hospitals revamped their charity care policies during the pandemic, in some cases using vague language to describe who was eligible and occasionally tightening access based on immigration status, according to an analysis in JAMA Network Open. (Dreher, 9/28)

Modern Healthcare: Nursing Homes, Senior Living Facilities Driving Healthcare Bankruptcies
From 2021 through June 2022, 30 senior care providers declared bankruptcy, representing more than half of bankrupticies among large healthcare companies with more than $10 million in liabilities during that time, according to Gibbins Advisors research. (Christ, 9/28)

KHN: Turned Away From Urgent Care — And Toward A Big ER Bill 
Frankie Cook remembers last year’s car crash only in flashes. She was driving a friend home from high school on a winding road outside Rome, Georgia. She saw standing water from a recent rain. She tried to slow down but lost control of her car on a big curve. “The car flipped about three times,” Frankie said. “We spun around and went off the side of this hill. My car was on its side, and the back end was crushed up into a tree.” Frankie said the air bags deployed and both passengers were wearing seat belts, so she was left with just a headache when her father, Russell Cook, came to pick her up from the crash site. (Whitehead, 9/29)

In other health industry updates from across the U.S. —

KHN: Centene Agrees To Pay Massachusetts $14 Million Over Medicaid Prescription Claims 
Massachusetts has become the latest state to settle with health insurance giant Centene Corp. over allegations that it overbilled the state’s Medicaid program for pharmacy services, KHN has learned. Centene, the nation’s largest Medicaid managed-care insurer, will pay $14.2 million, according to Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey. An official announcement is expected later Thursday. (Miller and Young, 9/29)

The Boston Globe: Staffing Shortages Keep One-Fifth Of Psychiatric Beds Out Of Commission
The survey by the Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association and the Massachusetts Association of Behavioral Health Systems found that 19.9 percent of inpatient psychiatric beds at surveyed facilities were offline due to staffing shortages. That’s up from 9 percent in February 2021. (Bartlett, 9/28)

AP: Seattle Children’s Emergency Room Sees Unprecedented Demand
Seattle Children’s Hospital is seeing “unprecedented demand” in its emergency department, resulting in longer wait times and providers seeing some patients in the waiting room, officials said this week. Seattle Children’s Emergency Medicine medical director Tony Woodward said after a lull at the start of the pandemic, the hospital has seen a steady increase in patients that have eclipsed a previous high in 2019, The Seattle Times reported. (9/29)

Columbus Dispatch: Autopsies In Ohio: Montgomery County Helps Half Of State's Counties
As some families wait months to find out how their loved ones died and Ohio's county coroners spend millions of dollars for the services of forensic pathologists amid a nationwide shortage, one county has quietly become the Boardwalk in an unfortunate game of morgue Monopoly. (Shuda, 9/29)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: What To Know About A Backlog In Wisconsin Professional Licenses
While the issue has become a political talking point during a close gubernatorial race between incumbent Tony Evers and Republican challenger Tim Michels, doctors, nurses, and other critical health care professionals continue to wait. (Hess, 9/28)

North Carolina Health News: State’s Free And Charitable Clinics Chart Vision For Health Equity
About two years ago, the North Carolina Association of Free & Charitable Clinics had a reality check. As an organization that provides health care services to uninsured and underserved residents, the association believed it was already making great strides in promoting health equity in a state with one of the largest uninsured populations. (Crumpler, 9/29)

The Wall Street Journal: Cerebral Treated A 17-Year-Old Without His Parents’ Consent. They Found Out The Day He Died
Telehealth startup Cerebral had software that could verify customer IDs but didn’t use it to check birth dates and other details, a policy that resulted in some minors being treated without parental consent, according to former employees and documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. An internal memo reviewed by the Journal described the software ID check as an impediment to customer retention when Cerebral was trying to quickly enroll tens of thousands of customers for mental-health treatment during the Covid-19 pandemic. The company used software to capture selfies of patients but relied on clinicians to verify details such as ages during 30-minute video chats. (Safdar, 9/29)

In other mental health care news —

AP: Oregon Hospitals Sue State Over Mental Health Care Treatment 
Three of Oregon’s largest hospital systems are suing the state over its alleged lack of adequate mental health care, which they say has forced the hospital systems to house patients in need of mental health treatment for months. Providence Health & Services, Legacy Health and PeaceHealth say in the lawsuit the Oregon Health Authority has forced them to provide care they’re not equipped to give for patients who should be civilly committed to psychiatric institutions such as the Oregon State Hospital, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported. (9/29)

Anchorage Daily News: Federal Inspectors Fault Assaults, Escapes, Improper Use Of Locked Seclusion At North Star Youth Psychiatric Hospital
Earlier this year, young patients at North Star Behavioral Health System — a locked, for-profit psychiatric hospital for children and teenagers in Anchorage — staged a small mutiny. (Theriault Boots, 9/28)

Stat: Virtual Drug Screen Finds Possible Antidepressants In LSD-Like Molecules
What’s a hallucinogen without the hallucinations? Perhaps a potent and fast-acting antidepressant, according to a new study based on virtual drug screening. (Keshavan, 9/28)

NBC News: Dogs Can Smell When We're Stressed Out, A New Study Shows
The researchers also collected before and after measurements of heart rate and blood pressure and responses to questionnaires that asked about the volunteers’ stress levels before and after the math task. The dogs' accuracy at detecting the stress samples — from 90 percent to 96.88 percent — was even better than the researchers anticipated. (Carroll, 9/28)

USA Today: Teen Drinking Is Down But Marijuana Use Is Up, And More Popular, Study Suggests
The increase in cannabis use could be happening because the risk perception of the drug is steadily dropping, said Dr. Christian Hopfer, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, who was not involved in this study. (Martin, 9/28)

On cancer treatment —

The Texas Tribune: Texas Congresswoman Wants Better Access To Cancer Care For Female Veterans
U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia plans to introduce a bill this week that aims to significantly change the way veteran women’s cancer care is handled by Veterans Affairs. (Erickson, 9/28)

The Washington Post: Katie Couric, Cancer-Screening Advocate, Announces Her Own Diagnosis
Katie Couric announced Wednesday that she was diagnosed with breast cancer in June and has undergone surgery and radiation treatment. In a first-person essay posted to her website, the news media personality, 65, said she received the Stage 1 diagnosis after missing an annual mammogram. (Rao, 9/28)

Fortune: Mammograms Can Help Prevent Breast Cancer, But 22% Of Women Have Never Had One 
Preventive care is crucial to detecting diseases, but with busy calendars and lengthy to-do lists, scheduling appointments isn’t always top of mind. According to a survey by Orlando Health, 22% of women between the ages of 35 to 44 have never gotten a mammogram and have no plans of getting one. The survey also revealed that less than half of U.S. women know their family history of breast cancer and only about a third know their individual risk factors for breast cancer. The findings are troubling to doctors who know that early detection is key to preventing breast cancer, which claims the lives of about 42,000 women each year. (Payton, 9/28)

In other health and wellness news —

Stateline: 'Shocking' Rise In STIs During COVID Alarms Health Workers
In 2019, Columbus, Ohio, had seven reported cases of congenital syphilis, or cases in which a newborn child was infected during pregnancy. Two years later, that number rose to 20. And now? “Year to date, we’ve already seen 28 cases,” said Dr. Mysheika Roberts, the city’s health commissioner. One of this year’s cases, she added, resulted in the death of a child. (Ollove, 9/28)

Reuters: Amazon.Com Unveils Device That Tracks Breath While Sleeping
Amazon.com Inc on Wednesday announced a contactless gadget that can monitor people's sleep, along with updates to its lineup of voice-controlled devices and e-readers. The online retailer said its $139.99 sleep gadget, known as Halo Rise, tracks room temperature, humidity and light, plus the breathing patterns of the person closest to it. The goal is to provide insight to users on why they may or may not feel well-rested when they wake up. (9/28)

Bloomberg: Why 4-Day Workweeks May Be Better For Your Career And Health 
Workers who shifted to 32-hour workweeks logged 7.58 hours per night of sleep, nearly a full hour more than when they were keeping 40-hour workweeks, according to lead researcher Juliet Schor, a sociologist and economist at Boston College who is tracking more than 180 organizations globally as they shift to truncated schedules through six-month pilot programs. (Cohen, 9/28)

The Hill: 200M Pounds Of Toxic Chemicals Dumped Into US Waterways In 2020: Analysis 
Polluters in just 10 states were responsible for more than half of the 193.6 million pounds of contaminants released into U.S. waterways in 2020, a new report has found. Toxic discharge flowed into one in every three local watersheds across the country and included many cancer-linked chemicals, according to the findings, published three weeks ahead of the Clean Water Act’s 50th anniversary. (Udasin, 9/28)

KHN: Readers And Tweeters Take A Close Look At Eye Care Traps And White Mulberry Leaf
KHN gives readers a chance to comment on a recent batch of stories. (6/29)

San Francisco Chronicle: S.F. Releases First-Of-Its Kind Drug Overdose Plan. Here’s What It Promises
The plan, released Wednesday by the Department of Public Health, calls for reducing overdoses in San Francisco by 15% by 2025, reducing racial disparities in overdose deaths by 30% by 2025 and increasing the number of people receiving medications for addiction treatment by 30% by 2025. (Moench and Mishanec, 9/28)

In abortion news from California —

San Francisco Chronicle: How Many Abortion-Seekers Are Actually Traveling To California?
Not only is California one of a handful of states that doesn’t track the number of abortions providers perform, none of the new abortion-related legislation that Gov. Gavin Newsom signed on Tuesday — much of it backed by $200 million in state funds — requires disclosure, either. (Garofoli and Bollag, 9/28)

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

Columbus Dispatch: Baby Formula Price Gouging Could Become Illegal In Ohio
Increasing prices on baby formula during statewide shortages could become a crime in Ohio if a new bill becomes law. Price gouging would be measured as price hikes of more than 5% above the standard cost immediately prior to formula shortages. (Simmons, 9/29)

Bangor Daily News: Paul LePage Revives Detox Plan And Rails Against Janet Mills On Opioid Crisis
Former Gov. Paul LePage on Wednesday proposed allowing some accused of drug crimes who submit to a yearlong treatment program to have criminal records expunged while railing against measures aimed at making drug use safer. (Shepherd, 9/28)

KHN: Environmental Justice Leader Says Proposition 30 Would Help Struggling Areas Clear The Air
Ana Gonzalez grew up watching the Inland Empire transform from citrus groves and grapevines into warehouses and retail distribution centers. The booming region east of Los Angeles now comprises 4.65 million people — and 1 billion square feet of warehouse space. n 2015, one of those warehouses was built right in front of her old house, blocking her view of her suburban neighborhood. Soon thereafter, her son battled bronchitis and pneumonia. “It got so bad that I ended up taking him to the ER about three to four times a year,” she said. Her son, now 16, like so many others in the region developed asthma due to air pollution. She grew concerned that state policies were overlooking predominantly Hispanic and low-income residents in her community. (de Marco, 9/29)

CIDRAP: High-Flow Oxygen Not Better Than Standard O2 In COVID Respiratory Failure
High-flow oxygen didn't significantly lower death rates beyond those of standard oxygen therapy in COVID-19 patients with respiratory failure, according to a multicenter randomized clinical trial published yesterday in JAMA. (9/28)

CIDRAP: Signs Of Autoimmune Disease, Difficulty Exercising Noted 1 Year After COVID 
Two studies published today in the European Respiratory Journal describe long-COVID findings, one revealing signs of autoimmune disease in 41% of blood samples taken 1 year after recovery, and the other showing that 23% of patients still had exercise intolerance a year after hospital release. (Van Beusekom, 9/22)

CIDRAP: Research Explores Possible Link Between Type 1 Diabetes, COVID-19 
A trio of new studies from the United States and Europe explore a possible link between COVID-19 and new-onset type 1 diabetes (T1D) in children. A US study involving data from 14 nations finds that children and adolescents have a 72% increased risk of developing T1D in the first 6 months after COVID-19 infection. Another study, this one from Norway, yielded similar results, while a Scottish study concluded that the virus likely isn't the cause.T1D, a failure of the pancreas to produce insulin, is typically diagnosed in children. (Van Beusekom, 9/23)

CIDRAP: Risk Of Neurologic Disorders In US Veterans Rose In Year After COVID
The risk of a range of neurologic conditions rose significantly in the year after COVID-19 infection among a group of US veterans—regardless of whether they had required hospitalization, according to a study published yesterday in Nature Medicine. (9/23)

Also —

CIDRAP: Many Factors Tied To Multidrug-Resistant Urinary Tract Infections 
A study conducted in France suggests human, animal, and environmental exposures may all be linked with the occurrence of community-acquired, multidrug-resistant urinary tract infections (UTIs).The findings on UTIs caused by extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL)-producing Escherichia coli were reported yesterday in JAMA Network Open. (Dall, 9/22)

ScienceDaily: Study Demonstrates That Ticks Weaken Skin's Immune Response 
Hitherto, scientists have not fully understood why ticks are such dangerous disease vectors. A research team now shows that tick saliva inhibits the skin's defense function, thereby increasing the risk of diseases such as tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) or Lyme disease. (Medical University of Vienna, 9/28)

CIDRAP: WHO Experts Advise 1 Switch For Next Southern Hemisphere Flu Vaccine
The World Health Organization (WHO) flu strain selection advisory group today announced the recommended strains for the Southern Hemisphere's 2023 flu season, which swaps out the H1N1 strain for both the egg- and cell-based vaccine versions. For the upcoming year, the group recommended switching a virus similar to influenza A/Sydney/5/2021. The strain is different than the H1N1 strains included in the current Northern Hemisphere vaccines, which are A/Victoria/2570/2019 for egg-based vaccines and A/Wisconsin/588/2019 for cell-culture or recombinant vaccines. (9/23)

CIDRAP: Hemodialysis Patients Have Fourfold Higher C Diff Risk, Study Finds
A systematic review and meta-analysis found that chronic kidney disease patients who require maintenance hemodialysis (MHD) have a significantly increased risk of CDI compared to those who don't require MHD, researchers reported today in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology. (9/23)

Bloomberg: The New Covid Booster: If You Had Omicron, Do You Really Need It? 
The new US Covid booster campaign needs a dose of clarity about its goals and limitations. The latest “bivalent” vaccine — retooled to protect against the currently circulating BA.5 variant — will benefit some more than others. (Faye Flam, 9/28)

Stat: Eliminating Rabies With Stronger Human-Animal Health Policies 
The Covid-19 pandemic set back many of the global health goals for 2030. One of the most feasible to recover is the target of eliminating human deaths from rabies, thanks to an effective, inexpensive vaccine for dogs. (Terence Scott, 9/29)

Dallas Morning News: Child Suicide In Texas Is Alarming. We Should Address This Issue Locally
September, which is National Suicide Awareness Month, is coming to an end, but it has been a time to highlight a national emergency with local ramifications: the growing suicide rate in children. (Stacy Wilson, 9/29)

The New York Times: Why Drug Epidemics End 
Despite rising overdose deaths, there’s some important good news regarding opioid misuse. Rates of nonmedical use by high school seniors have fallen by nearly 83 percent since 2002, when 14 percent reported having ever tried using prescription pain pills to get high. By 2021, that proportion was down to just 2 percent. Heroin use also shows a precipitous drop, with only 0.4 percent of 12th graders reporting trying it as of 2021. (Maia Szalavitz, 9/29)

The Washington Post: We Have A Way To End The Opioid Epidemic, But Not The Will 
What fueled the epidemic is well known: pharmaceutical companies’ greed, abetted by the politicians and lobbyists they paid to whittle away regulatory guardrails. That, plus the persistence of a decades-old “war on drugs” mind-set that handles addicted people like criminals instead of human beings with a treatable medical condition. (Beth Macy, 9/28)

Stat: Health Systems: Value Black Lives By Helping Close The Racial Wealth Gap
Institutional declarations of support for Black lives were ubiquitous in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd. The radical, transformative change demanded by hundreds of thousands of protestors across the country, however, has not been realized. Health systems can and must help move the country in that direction. (George Dalembert, Atheendar Venkataramani and Eugenia C. South, 9/29)

The CT Mirror: Airbags: Like Being In The Ring With George Forman
We bless the advent of airbags. But few people realize that these safety devices, while ultimately saving lives, may cause complex injuries themselves. (Patricia A. Richard, MD, DMD, 9/29)