Reuters: U.S. Flies 338 Americans Home From Cruise Ship, Including 14 With Coronavirus
More than 300 Americans who had been stuck on a cruise ship affected by the coronavirus were back in the United States on Monday, flown to U.S. military bases for two more weeks of quarantine after spending the previous 14 days docked in Japan. Among those repatriated on a pair of U.S.-chartered jets were 14 people who tested positive for the fast-spreading virus, seven on each plane. The Diamond Princess cruise ship held by far the largest cluster of cases outside China, with more than 400 people infected out of some 3,700 on board. (Trotta and Rose, 2/17)

The Washington Post: Coronavirus: Fourteen American Cruise Passengers With Coronavirus Among 328 Evacuated To The U.S.
The 14 U.S. passengers tested positive for the virus after disembarking from the Diamond Princess, a cruise liner carrying 2,666 passengers and 1,045 crew members that had been quarantined for two weeks off the Japanese port of Yokohama. But by the time their test results arrived, they were already on a fleet of buses that took 328 asymptomatic passengers from the ship to two charter planes bound for U.S. military bases in Texas and California, according to a senior U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak freely about the incident. It was a wrench in a coordinated effort. While the buses sat on the tarmac, health experts mulled whether to put the 14 on the flights or divert them to hospitals in Japan, the official said. (Fifield, Horton and Bhattarai, 2/17)

The Wall Street Journal: Coronavirus Cruise Passengers Land In U.S., Including 14 Infected
The U.S. initially said no one with the virus would be allowed on the repatriation flights. But during the 40-minute bus ride from the ship to the airport, word arrived that 14 passengers in the group had tested positive based on tests conducted two days before the evacuation, U.S. officials said. Rather than turn them back, officials decided to seat the 14 in an isolated section apart from other plane passengers, according to a joint statement by the State Department and the Department of Health and Human Services. The statement said the infected passengers didn’t have symptoms of the viral disease and would be sent to “an appropriate location for continued isolation and care” in the U.S. (Bhattacharya, 2/17)

CBS News: Americans From Coronavirus-Stricken Cruise Ship In Japan Flown Back To U.S.
Two planes carrying hundreds of Americans taken off a quarantined cruise ship in Japan arrived at U.S. military bases overnight. The first touched down at Travis Air Force Base in California and the other landed several hours later in Texas. "A select number of high-risk passengers" were then flown to Omaha, Nebraska, according to the State Department. The planes brought evacuees from the Diamond Princess cruise ship, which remains quarantined after an outbreak on board of the deadly new coronavirus. (2/18)

San Francisco Chronicle: Air Force Officials: Coronavirus Patients Will Not Stay At Fairfield Base
The group of coronavirus patients whisked to Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield late Sunday after evacuating a Japanese cruise ship did not linger for long at the California military facility. While the base opened its gates for uninfected passengers who had been quarantined aboard the cruise ship, military officials said they would not be treating coronavirus patients at the airfield. Instead, the infected people were transported by the State Department to medical facilities in California and Nebraska. (Fracassa, 2/17)

The New York Times: They Escaped An Infected Ship, But The Flight Home Was No Haven
The ground rules were clear. A day before 328 Americans were to be whisked away from a contaminated cruise ship in Japan, the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo told passengers that no one infected with the coronavirus would be allowed to board charter flights to the United States. But as the evacuees began filing onto two reconfigured cargo planes early Monday for departures to military bases in California or Texas, some noticed tented areas separated from the rest of the cabin. (Rich and Wong, 2/17)

CNN: An American Evacuated From Japan On A US Charter Flight Says She Didn't Know People On The Plane Had Tested Positive For Coronavirus Until It Landed 
An American who was evacuated on US-chartered jet from a cruise ship docked in Japan told CNN that she wasn't aware that other passengers on the plane had tested positive for novel coronavirus until they landed. Sarah Arana was one of more than 300 US citizens evacuated from the Diamond Princess over the weekend and flown to the states following the outbreak of coronavirus on the ship, which is docked off the Japanese port city of Yokohama. Fourteen passengers from the Diamond Princess had tested positive for coronavirus before they boarded evacuation flights, the US departments of State and Health and Human Services said in a joint statement early Monday, while two flights carrying the evacuees were en route to US military bases in California and Texas. (Tinker and Silverman, 2/18)

NPR: 14 Americans Taken Off Cruise Ship And Flown To U.S. Test Positive For Coronavirus
A second cruise ship, the MS Westerdam, docked in Cambodia on Thursday after it was turned away by several other countries. Cruise operator Holland America said passengers and crew were screened for illness and that "there was no indication of COVID-19 on the ship." Cambodian officials allowed people onboard to disembark. (Booker and Wamsley, 2/17)

The New York Times: Coronavirus Infection Found After Cruise Ship Passengers Disperse
Amid assurances that the ship was disease free, hundreds of elated passengers disembarked. Some went sightseeing, visiting beaches and restaurants and getting massages. Others traveled on to destinations around the world. One, however, did not make it much farther than the thermal scanners at the Kuala Lumpur airport in Malaysia. The passenger, an American, was stopped on Saturday, and later tested positive for the coronavirus. On Sunday, with passengers already headed for destinations on at least three continents, health officials were scrambling to determine how big a problem they now have — and how to stop it from getting bigger. (Paddock, Wee and Rabin, 2/16)

CNN: Westerdam Cruise Passenger With Coronavirus: What We Know So Far 
When the American woman arrived in Malaysia, she only had a cough. She had no fever or difficulty breathing, but told authorities she felt unwell. A chest X-ray conducted by the Malaysian Ministry of Health confirmed she had signs of pneumonia. After subsequent tests, she was diagnosed with the coronavirus. She is in a stable condition. All other Holland America charter flights to Malaysia for the remaining Westerdam passengers have been canceled. (Westcott, 2/18)

The Hill: Authorities Scramble To Find Passengers From Cambodia Cruise After Woman Tests Positive For Coronavirus
Thailand, Taiwan, Japan and the Philippines had previously turned the ship away before it was allowed to dock in Cambodia, whose prime minister, Hun Sen, has also refused to ban direct flights to China amid the outbreak for fear of damaging the national economy and Cambodian relations with Beijing. Before the American woman was diagnosed, a single case involving a visitor from China had been recorded. (Budryk, 2/17)

USA Today: Coronavirus: Couple With Coronavirus Flew On Delta, Hawaiian Airlines
Delta Air Lines and Hawaiian Airlines are working with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Japanese health officials to trace the path of a couple from Nagoya, Japan, who were diagnosed with coronavirus after returning from Hawaii. Hawaiian state health officials say the couple, who are in their 60s, were in Hawaii from Jan. 28 to Feb. 7 and tested positive after being hospitalized in Japan. (Deerwester, 2/17)

PBS NewsHour: How U.S. Health Officials Are Responding To The Threat Of Novel Coronavirus
With the novel coronavirus crisis gripping parts of Asia, thousands of passengers have been quarantined aboard cruise ships. Among them were several hundred Americans, who are now being evacuated back to the U.S., where they will undergo another quarantine in case they are infected with the virus. (Nawaz, 2/17)

The Associated Press: New Virus Cases Fall; WHO Says China Bought The World Time
China reported 143 virus deaths and a dip in new cases Saturday while the head of the World Health Organization praised the country's efforts to contain the new disease, saying they have "bought the world time" and that other nations must make the most of it. France, meanwhile, reported Europe's first death from the new virus, a Chinese tourist from Hubei province, where the disease emerged in December. The United States was preparing to fly home American passengers quarantined aboard a cruise ship in Japan. (Wang, 2/14)

The New York Times: Rate Of New Fatalities Drops In China
China’s National Health Commission on Monday reported 2,048 new cases of coronavirus infections and 105 new deaths over the previous 24 hours. The number of new deaths dropped from the previous day, when 142 deaths were reported, though the increase in the number of new infections remained steady. The vast majority of cases and deaths have occurred in Hubei Province, where the outbreak began, though the commission’s latest announcement also reported three deaths in neighboring Henan Province and two in Guangdong, the province next to Hong Kong. (2/16)

ABC News: China Counts Over 72,000 Cases Of Novel Coronavirus As Death Toll Rises - ABC News
China's mainland reported 1,886 new cases of the novel coronavirus and 98 more deaths on Tuesday, as recent data appears to show a decline in the number of new infections since early this month... A new study by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, an agency of the National Health Commission, found that more than 80% of people who contracted the newly discovered virus -- known officially as COVID-19 -- had mild symptoms and recovered, while 14% of the cases studied included severe symptoms, like pneumonia and shortness of breath. About 5% of patients had critical symptoms, such as organ and respiratory failure and septic shock. (Winsor, 2/18)

The Washington Post: China Cases Will Plateau, Expert Predicts, As Diamond Princess Evacuation Continues 
Officials have been sounding a more upbeat note in recent days about the prospects for containing the virus. But a renowned Chinese pulmonologist who predicted a peak this month has since clarified his remarks to say that the peak may be followed by a plateau, rather than an outright fall in cases. Here is what we know so far. (Fifield, 2/18)

The Associated Press: Chinese Health Report Says 80% Of Virus Cases Have Been Mild
Health officials in China have published the first details on nearly 45,000 cases of the novel coronavirus disease that originated there, saying more than 80% have been mild and new ones seem to be falling since early this month, although it’s far too soon to tell whether the outbreak has peaked. Monday’s report from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention gives the World Health Organization a “clearer picture of the outbreak, how it’s developing and where it’s headed,” WHO’s director-general said at a news conference. (Marchione, 2/16)

CBS News: China Says Coronavirus Infections Declining But Experts Say Many Cases May Be Undetected
The virus only proves fatal, according to current data, in about 2% of people infected, with the risks increasing significantly for patients of older age. But infectious disease experts have spoken up to say that figure might actually be lower — the disease could be less deadly — because there could be thousands of undetected infections around the world, many of them mild or even asymptomatic. (2/18)

Reuters: Hospital Director Dies In China's Wuhan, Epicenter Of Coronavirus Outbreak
The head of a leading hospital in China's central city of Wuhan, the epicenter of a coronavirus outbreak, died of the disease on Tuesday, state television said, becoming the second prominent Chinese doctor to have succumbed to the pathogen. Liu Zhiming, the director of Wuhan Wuchang Hospital, died at 10:30 a.m., it said. Earlier this month, millions in China mourned the death of Li Wenliang, a doctor who was previously reprimanded for issuing an early warning about the coronavirus. (2/18)

NBC News: Coronavirus Updates: Wuhan Hospital Director Dies As Death Toll Nears 2,000
China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang told reporters Tuesday the Chinese government and people have been making “all-out efforts” to counter the outbreak. “The most stringent and thorough measures have been taken and relevant efforts are gradually showing their effects,” Geng said. “We have the confidence and capability to win this battle.” (2/18)

The Wall Street Journal: Coronavirus Cabin Fever: Working From Home Tests Employees’ Endurance
As David Chang tried to talk on the phone with a colleague, his daughter banged away at the study-room door, and then, exasperated, slipped a note under it: She wanted to come in and do her homework. “Love you Avery. Love you Aidan. I’m on a call,” the real-estate executive wrote back. His reply returned with the 6-year-old’s response scribbled on the back: “Why didn’t you read my note?” (Yoon, 2/17)

The New York Times: Slowed By The Coronavirus, China Inc. Struggles To Reopen
Airbus is slowly restarting its assembly line in China. General Motors began limited production on Saturday. Toyota followed on Monday morning. Fitfully and painfully — and with some worried prodding from Beijing — China is trying to reopen for business. The world’s second-largest economy practically shut down three weeks ago as a viral outbreak sickened tens of thousands of people, unexpectedly lengthening a Chinese holiday. The freeze set off warnings that the global economy could be in jeopardy if the world’s pre-eminent manufacturing powerhouse stayed shut for long. (Bradsher, 2/17)

Stat: The Responders: Who Is Leading The Charge In The Coronavirus Outbreak
As concerns mount over the coronavirus that first emerged in China, public health officials there and around the globe have launched a massive response. The nature of that response has varied. In China, officials are trying to contain the virus. In countries that have seen local transmission, including Germany and Singapore, the goal has been to stamp out flare-ups. And in much of the world that hasn’t yet seen much spread of the virus yet, public health officials are readying a strategy in case they do. (Joseph and Branswell, 2/17)

The Hill: NIH Official Says Coronavirus 'On The Verge' Of Becoming Global Pandemic Unless Containment Becomes 'More Successful'
A top official at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) said Sunday that the coronavirus outbreak is “on the verge” of becoming a global pandemic unless containment of the deadly disease becomes “more successful.” Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CBS’s “Face The Nation” that multiple person-to-person transmissions need to occur in multiple countries in order to reach the pandemic threshold. (Coleman, 2/16)

The New York Times: How To Stop A Disease From Crossing Borders
In nearly 20 years with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Rear Adm. Nancy Knight, director of the agency’s global health protection division, has led the development, coordination and implementation of public health policies and programs in countries including Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa. Before joining the C.D.C., Dr. Knight was a Peace Corps volunteer in Lesotho and trained as a family physician. (Mzezewa, 2/17)

The New York Times: France Confirms First Death In Europe From Coronavirus
A Chinese tourist has died in France of the coronavirus, the French health minister said on Saturday, becoming the outbreak’s first fatality in Europe and outside Asia. France’s health minister, Agnès Buzyn, said the tourist, who was 80 years old and from the Chinese province of Hubei, the center of the outbreak, died at the Bichat-Claude Bernard Hospital in Paris on Friday after weeks of hospitalization. His daughter, who also has the virus, is receiving treatment and is expected to be discharged soon, Ms. Buzyn said. (Peltier, 2/15)

CNN: "Credible Risk" of Coronavirus Pandemic, Says French Health Minister
French health minister Olivier Veran said on Tuesday there is a “credible risk” the novel coronavirus outbreak could turn into a pandemic. "This is a working assumption and a credible risk and France is ready to deal with all possible outcomes,” Veran told French radio network, France Inter. “We have a very strong health system,” Veran added. (Vandoome, 2/18)

NBC News: Coronavirus Map: The COVID-19 Virus Is Spreading Across The World. Here's Where Cases Have Been Confirmed.
Health officials worldwide are working to contain cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus that originated in China. This map will be updated when more information is available. As of Feb. 17, COVID-19 cases were confirmed in China, Thailand, Taiwan, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Vietnam, the United States, France, Australia, Malaysia, Nepal, Germany, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Canada, United Arab Emirates, Finland, India, the Philippines, the United Kingdom, Italy, Russia, Sweden, Spain, Belgium and Egypt. (Wu and Chiwaya, 2/17)

Politico: Europe Braces For Coronavirus-Induced Drug Shortages
At this moment, the novel coronavirus outbreak isn’t causing problems for Europe’s medicines supply. But that’s almost certain to change, industry experts warn — and at the worst possible time. Two weeks after the COVID-2019 spread was declared a public health emergency by the World Health Organization, it shows no signs of abating. As of February 13, the WHO said there were almost 47,000 lab-confirmed cases of the virus, most of them in China, which has quarantined tens of millions to contain the spread. (Wheaton and Paun, 2/14)

ABC News: Apple Says Worldwide IPhone Supply Will Be 'Temporarily Constrained' Due To Coronavirus 
Apple said Monday that its worldwide iPhone supply will be "temporarily constrained" due to the novel coronavirus outbreak. In a statement to investors, the company also said it has experienced a lower demand for its products within China due to the spread of the virus, officially named COVID-19.As a result of these two factors, the company said it does not expect to meet the revenue guidance it provided for the second quarter. (Thorbecke, 2/17)

CNN: Chinese Restaurants Are Losing Business Over Coronavirus Fears 
Chinese restaurants in Australia and elsewhere have been suffering for nearly two months, with many reporting a drop in business due to public fears over the novel coronavirus outbreak. Now, a social media campaign in Australia is urging communities to rally around their local Chinese restaurant, as authorities warn against the danger of misinformation and racialized stigma. The campaign, launched this week by Australian political activist group GetUp!, encourages people to show their support by spreading the hashtag #IWillEatWithYou and pledging to support struggling Chinese businesses. (Yeung, 2/18)

CBS News: Armed Men Steal Hundreds Of Toilet Rolls In Hong Kong As Coronavirus Fears Spread 
Armed men allegedly took off with hundreds of rolls of toilet paper in Hong Kong as coronavirus fears have left the bathroom necessity in short supply. Toilet paper has have become a hot commodity since the outbreak of the virus on mainland China. Three knife-wielding robbers stole 50 packs of toilet paper rolls — or hundreds of rolls — from a supermarket delivery man on Monday, police said, according to Reuters. The armed robbery occurred in Mong Kok, a district with a history of crime gangs, BBC News said. (Brito, 2/17)

WBUR: How COVID-19 Kills: The New Coronavirus Disease Can Take A Deadly Turn
More than 1,300 people, almost all in China, have now died from COVID-19 — the newly minted name for the coronavirus disease first identified in Wuhan, China, that has infected more than 55,000 people. Yet according to the World Health Organization, the disease is relatively mild in about 80% of cases, based on preliminary data from China. (Godoy, 2/14)

Stat: Disease Modelers Gaze Into Their Computers To See The Future Of Covid-19, And It Isn’t Good
At least 550,000 cases. Maybe 4.4 million. Or something in between. Like weather forecasters, researchers who use mathematical equations to project how bad a disease outbreak might become are used to uncertainties and incomplete data, and Covid-19, the disease caused by the new-to-humans coronavirus that began circulating in Wuhan, China, late last year, has those everywhere you look. That can make the mathematical models of outbreaks, with their wide range of forecasts, seem like guesswork gussied up with differential equations; the eightfold difference in projected Covid-19 cases in Wuhan, calculated by a team from the U.S. and Canada, isn’t unusual for the early weeks of an outbreak of a never-before-seen illness. (Begley, 2/14)

The Wall Street Journal: How Many People Might One Person With Coronavirus Infect?
When an infection erupts the way coronavirus has exploded in Wuhan, China, and elsewhere in the world, public-health experts try to gauge the potential for an epidemic—or, worse, a pandemic—by calculating the pathogen’s basic reproduction number. The figure, generally written as R0 and pronounced “R naught,” is an estimate of how many healthy people one contagious person will infect. Because viruses spread exponentially, a few cases can quickly blow up to an overwhelming number. An R0 of two suggests a single infection will, on average, become two, then four, then eight. (McGinty, 2/16)

The Associated Press: Questions Complicate Efforts To Contain New Virus From China
Reports one day suggest the respiratory outbreak in China might be slowing, the next brings word of thousands more cases. Even the experts have whiplash in trying to determine if the epidemic is getting worse, or if a backlog of the sick is finally getting counted. Continuing questions about the new virus are complicating health authorities' efforts to curtail its spread around the world. And the United States is taking the first steps to check that cases masquerading as the flu won't be missed, another safeguard on top of travel restrictions and quarantines. (Neergaard, 2/15)

CNN: How Long Coronaviruses May Linger On Contaminated Surfaces, According To Science 
Concerns are mounting about how long the novel coronavirus may survive on surfaces -- so much so that China's central bank has taken measures to deep clean and destroy its cash, which changes hands multiple times a day, in an effort to contain the virus. It is unknown exactly how long the novel coronavirus can linger on contaminated surfaces and objects with the potential of infecting people, but some researchers are finding clues by studying the elusive behaviors of other coronaviruses. (Howard, 2/18)

The Wall Street Journal: Gilead’s Coronavirus Drug Trial Slowed By Lack Of Eligible Recruits
Clinical trials being conducted in Wuhan to test Gilead Sciences Inc.’s antiviral drug, a promising remedy for the new coronavirus, are going more slowly than hoped for as the drugmaker struggles to recruit qualified patients, underscoring the challenges in quickly developing drugs during outbreaks. The trials, aimed at testing more than 700 patients infected with the Wuhan coronavirus, have succeeded in recruiting fewer than 200 people after 10 days. (2/18)

Boston Globe: Northeastern Students Target Rumors, Falsehoods On Coronavirus Via New On-Line Magazine
While much of the world focuses on the rising death toll and infection rates from the coronavirus, a new on-line magazine produced by international students at Northeastern University aims to put a human face on the outbreak and challenge some of the falsehoods surrounding the crisis. In a recent post in the Global Observer, graduate student Yushu Tian painted an eerie picture of conditions in Wuhan, the city of 11 million at the center of the epidemic: Transportation in and out the city shut down; residents primarily confined to their homes. Included in her post were photos of a barren subway and vacant main road. (Sorensen, 2/16)

The New York Times: Senator Tom Cotton Repeats Fringe Theory Of Coronavirus Origins
The rumor appeared shortly after the new coronavirus struck China and spread almost as quickly: that the outbreak now afflicting people around the world had been manufactured by the Chinese government. The conspiracy theory lacks evidence and has been dismissed by scientists. But it has gained an audience with the help of well-connected critics of the Chinese government such as Stephen K. Bannon, President Trump’s former chief strategist. And on Sunday, it got its biggest public boost yet. (Stevenson, 2/17)

The Washington Post: Tom Cotton Repeats Debunked Conspiracy Theory About Coronavirus
Cotton referenced a laboratory in the city, the Wuhan National Biosafety Laboratory, in an interview on Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures.” He said the lab was near a market some scientists initially thought was a starting point for the virus’s spread. “We don’t know where it originated, and we have to get to the bottom of that,” Cotton said. “We also know that just a few miles away from that food market is China’s only biosafety level 4 super laboratory that researches human infectious diseases.” (Firozi, 2/17)

NBC News: 5 U.S. Cities To Start Testing Patients With Flu-Like Symptoms For Coronavirus
Doctors in five U.S. cities will begin testing patients with flu-like symptoms for the new coronavirus, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday. The coronavirus test will only be given to patients who test negative for the flu. So far, the testing protocol will be implemented in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and Seattle, though more cities will be added. It's a sign that the U.S. is broadening its surveillance of the illness. (Edwards, 2/14)

The New York Times: ‘Are You Sick?’ For Asian-Americans, A Sneeze Brings Suspicion
Most Americans have gone about their lives, confident that they have little to fear from an epidemic that has mostly been felt abroad. But for small pockets of people — those who come from China, or travel there frequently, and health workers who are charged with battling the virus — life has been upended. Hundreds of Americans who were in China are now marooned in anxious quarantine on military bases. And many Asian-Americans in the United States have felt an unnerving public scrutiny, noticing that a simple cough or sneeze can send people around them scattering. (Bosman, Stockman and Fuller, 2/16)

The Associated Press: Home Quarantine For Travelers Buys Time As New Virus Spreads
On his return from China last week, Dr. Ian Lipkin quarantined himself in his basement. His wife now puts his food on the stairs. He’s run out of things to watch on Netflix. At odd hours, he walks in New York's Central Park, keeping 10 feet away from others. Lipkin is among hundreds of people in the U.S. and thousands around the world who, although not sick, live in semi-voluntary quarantine at home. With attention focused on quarantined cruise ships and evacuees housed on U.S. military bases, those in their own homes have largely escaped notice. (2/16)

San Francisco Chronicle: Coronavirus Shows Why You Must Read Travel Insurance Policy Before You Buy
People who purchased travel insurance may be surprised to learn that it might not cover claims arising from the coronavirus. Some plans exclude coverage for losses arising from epidemics. Even if it’s not excluded, no standard policy will cover claims from events — be it a hurricane or epidemic — if the policy was purchased after it became known or foreseen. (Pender, 2/15)

KQED: Wuhan Natives Living In The Bay Area Organize Long-Distance Coronavirus Relief
There are 15 confirmed cases of the new coronavirus in the United States, compared with more than 40,000 in China, where the virus first surfaced in Wuhan City. There are also thousands of graduates from Wuhan-based universities who call the Bay Area home. So on January 23, when Chinese officials locked down the city in an effort to contain the COVID-19 virus, Tom Gong sprung into action in the South Bay. Gong, who attended university in Wuhan and now lives in San Jose, connected online with fellow alumni and others with ties to the city of 11 million people to figure out how to help. (Arcuni and Dillon, 2/14)

Modern Healthcare: Covid-19 Shares Name With Arizona Company
When the coronavirus outbreak surfaced in China in late 2019, the World Health Organization got a chance to test-drive its new naming guidelines for infectious diseases. The rules are fairly simple. Some do’s: Keep it short and easy to pronounce using generic descriptions of symptoms, physiology affected, severity or seasonality. (2/15)

The Associated Press: Amid Coronavirus Fears, A Second Wave Of Flu Hits U.S. Kids
A second wave of flu is hitting the U.S., turning this into one of the nastiest seasons for children in a decade. The number of child deaths and the hospitalization rate for youngsters are the highest seen at this point in any season since the severe flu outbreak of 2009-10, health officials said Friday. And the wave is expected to keep going for weeks. Experts say it is potentially a bad time for an extended flu season, given concerns about the new coronavirus out of China, which can cause symptoms that can be difficult to distinguish from flu without testing. (2/14)

The New York Times: Appeals Court Rejects Trump Medicaid Work Requirements In Arkansas
A federal appeals court panel on Friday unanimously upheld a lower court’s ruling striking down work rules for Medicaid recipients in Arkansas, casting more doubt over broader Trump administration efforts to require poor people to work, volunteer or train for a job as a condition of getting government health coverage. A three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit found that approval of the Arkansas work requirement by the health and human services secretary, Alex M. Azar, was “arbitrary and capricious” because it did not address how the program would promote the objective of Medicaid as defined under federal law: providing health coverage to the poor. (Goodnough, 2/14)

The Associated Press: Appeals Court Deals Blow To Trump's Medicaid Work Rules
The court found that it is “indisputably correct that the principal objective of Medicaid is providing health care coverage” and that work requirements for “able-bodied” people lack specific legal authorization. Moreover, the court ruled that administration officials failed to thoroughly examine the risk that some Medicaid recipients would lose coverage in approving Arkansas' experiment with work requirements. The state later reported more than 18,000 people dropped from the rolls, but it wasn't clear how many obtained other coverage. (Alonso-Zaldivar and Bleed, 2/14)

The Hill: Appeals Court Strikes Down Trump Approval Of Medicaid Work Requirements
The court found that the Trump administration disregarded the statutory purpose of Medicaid — to provide health coverage — and did not adequately account for the coverage losses that would result from the work requirements. "Failure to consider whether the project will result in coverage loss is arbitrary and capricious," Judge David Sentelle, an appointee of President Reagan, wrote in the opinion. (Sullivan, 2/14)

NBC News: Federal Court Strikes Down Trump Administration's Medicaid Work Requirements
The appeals court opinion criticized Azar for only considering positive secondary outcomes that did not deal with the central objective of the law and for ignoring Congress's direction within the law itself, noting that "when Congress wants to pursue additional objectives within a social welfare program, it says so in the text." In his original approval letter to Arkansas, Azar said that the program would "encourage beneficiaries to obtain and maintain employment or undertake other community engagement activities that research has shown to be correlated with improved health and wellness." (McCausland, 2/14)

The Washington Post: Appeals Court Unanimously Strikes Down Medicaid Work Requirements
The ruling marks the first time that an appellate court has weighed in on what has been one of the Trump administration’s signature attempts to push health policy in a more conservative direction. The D.C. Circuit is considered the nation’s top appeals court below the U.S. Supreme Court, and the 19-page opinion was written by a jurist appointed by Ronald Reagan, David Sentelle. The panel’s other judges are Cornelia Pillard, an appointee of Barack Obama, and Harry Edwards, appointed by Jimmy Carter. (Goldstein, 2/14)

The Wall Street Journal: Appeals Court Rejects Trump Administration’s Approval Of Work Requirements For Medicaid
The decision could have far-reaching implications for Medicaid, a health program for the poor and disabled. Other states have shown mounting interest in adopting work requirements. Ten of them, including Kentucky, Arkansas, New Hampshire, Arizona and Michigan, have received approval to adopt work requirements, according to George Washington University’s Milken Institute of Public Health. Michigan is the only state now implementing work requirements, and a lawsuit was filed last year challenging federal approval for the mandate. (Armour and Kendall, 2/14)

Modern Healthcare: Appeals Court Nixes Arkansas Medicaid Work Requirement
The CMS said it's reviewing and evaluating the opinion and determining its next steps. "The CMS remains steadfast in our commitment to considering proposals that would allow states to leverage innovative ideas," the agency said in a written statement. Jane Perkins, legal director of the National Health Law Program, which spearheaded the legal challenge to the work requirement waivers, praised the ruling on Friday. "It means that thousands of low-income people in Arkansas will maintain their health insurance coverage—coverage that enables them to live, work, and participate as fully as they can in their communities," she said. (Meyer, 2/14)

NPR: U.S. Appeals Court Upholds Ruling Blocking States' Medicaid Work Requirements
Trump administration officials have promoted work requirements, arguing that working can cause people to live healthier lives. The D.C. Circuit is regarded as the top appeals court below the Supreme Court. HHS' Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which oversees Medicaid, hasn't said whether it will appeal the latest ruling to the Supreme Court. (Wamsley, 2/14)

Bloomberg: Trump-Backed Work-For-Medicaid Plan Is Rejected On Appeal
Friday’s ruling may serve as a warning for future approvals. “I think it sends a very clear signal to the Trump administration that this policy is unlawful and that they should stop approving these waivers,” said Joan Alker, a research professor at Georgetown University’s Health Policy Institute. “But they probably won’t.” (Wheeler and Harris, 2/14)

CNN: Medicaid: Appellate Judges Nix Trump's Work Requirements 
In another controversial move last month, the administration announced it would allow states to apply for so-called block grants to cover certain low-income adults, particularly those who gained benefits under the Affordable Care Act's Medicaid expansion provision. That effort is also expected to be challenged in court since consumer advocates say it will lead to people losing benefits and coverage. (Luhby, 2/14)

In other Medicaid news —

The Wall Street Journal: Medicaid Standoff: Trump Plan To Tighten Oversight Of States Draws Objections
Many governors, insurers and hospitals are denouncing a Trump administration plan to tighten oversight over how states pay for their share of Medicaid, saying it would deprive them of billions of dollars in funding, jeopardize health coverage and strain state budgets. The proposal would impose new reporting requirements and restrictions on financial practices used by states to pay for Medicaid. The Medicaid Fiscal Accountability Regulation, as the proposal is known, also would apply to extra payments states give to some doctors and providers. (Armour, 2/15)

NBC News: 'On The Brink': Trump's Push For Medicaid Transparency Could Worsen Rural Hospital Crisis
The Trump administration is in the final stages of proposing a change to Medicaid that it says will increase financial transparency by hospitals, but health care advocates say will cause vulnerable hospitals to close and hurt Medicaid beneficiaries. In an effort to increase transparency, the administration’s rule will require hospitals and states to share more data about the funds they receive through Medicaid, but at the same time it will lead to a decrease in Medicaid’s federal matching dollars by redefining what is considered to be public funds... Ultimately, the shift could reduce national Medicaid funding by between $37 billion to $49 billion annually and cause hospitals to lose $23 billion to $31 billion in annual Medicaid payments, according to the American Hospital Association. (McCausland, 2/15)

The New York Times: The Next Hurdle For Bernie Sanders: Nevada’s Top Union Dislikes ‘Medicare For All’
Senator Bernie Sanders is a longtime supporter of “Medicare for all.” “I wrote the damn bill,” he said on a debate stage last summer, and his support for universal health care has helped propel him to the front of the 2020 Democratic field. But in Nevada, where the race heads next, his signature policy is a liability with the largest labor union in the state. And the union has enthusiastic allies in Mr. Sanders’s opponents. On Friday morning, moments after Senator Amy Klobuchar finished a tour of the health care facility run by the culinary workers’ union, she began to lace into Mr. Sanders and his focus on the proposal, which would effectively eliminate union members’ current health care system. (Medina and Martin, 2/16)

The Associated Press: Biden In Vegas Takes On Sanders' Gun Votes In Fiery Speech
Joe Biden, standing on a Las Vegas stage roughly 1,000 feet from the scene of the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, took on White House rival Bernie Sanders for his past vote to exempt gun manufacturers from liability for shootings. The former vice president devoted the majority of his Saturday night speech at a Democratic gala on the Las Vegas Strip to deliver a fiery charge against the National Rifle Association and gun manufacturers, vowing to hold gun makers accountable if elected president. (Price and Peoples, 2/15)

The Wall Street Journal: Democrats Storm Nevada Ahead Of High-Stakes Caucuses
Mr. Buttigieg, a 38-year-old military veteran, has sought to present himself as a candidate who could bring together the disparate factions within the party and present a striking alternative to President Trump. He has tussled with Mr. Sanders on a central issue of the campaign: Medicare for All, in which the party’s left wants to move everyone from private insurance to government-provided health coverage, while centrists call for a more gradual shift. “A campaign message that says that you’ve either got to be for the revolution or you must be for the status quo, most of us don’t know where we fit in that picture,” Mr. Buttigieg said in Reno on Monday. “I’m here to draw a bigger picture, one where all of us can belong.” (Thomas, 2/17)

The New York Times: Biden Calls On Sanders To Show Accountability For ‘Outrageous’ Online Threats By Followers
Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. took aim at Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont on Saturday, calling on him to condemn the “vicious, malicious, misogynistic” rhetoric of some Sanders supporters and to do more to stamp it out. The remarks came at a key time for both campaigns, as Mr. Biden tries to regain his footing after weak showings in the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary — in which Mr. Sanders surged toward the front of the Democratic pack — and a week before next Saturday’s Nevada caucuses. (Kaplan, Ruiz and Gabriel, 2/15)

In other election news —

The New York Times: Democrats Plan To Highlight Health Care And Jobs Over Investigating Trump
House Democrats, recovering from their failed push to remove President Trump from office, are making a sharp pivot to talking about health care and economic issues, turning away from their investigations of the president as they focus on preserving their majority. Top Democrats say that oversight of the president will continue, and they plan in particular to press Attorney General William P. Barr over what they say are Mr. Trump’s efforts to compromise the independence of the Justice Department. But for now, at least, they have shelved the idea of subpoenaing Mr. Trump’s former national security adviser, who was a central figure in the president’s impeachment trial. (Stolberg, 2/16)

The Hill: Pelosi's Staff Huddles With Aides In Both Parties On 'Surprise' Medical Billing
House aides in both parties met with Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) staff on Friday to try to bridge the gap between rival bills to protect patients from getting massive, “surprise” medical bills.But there was no breakthrough in the meeting, sources said. The gathering included Democratic and Republican staff members from the three House committees dealing with the issue: Energy and Commerce, Ways and Means, and Education and Labor. Aides to Pelosi and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) also participated in the meeting. (Sullivan, 2/14)

Modern Healthcare: House Committees' Move Surprise Billing Legislation Ahead Of May Deadline
The spring landscape on surprise medical billing action in Congress is taking shape, as all three House committees with responsibility for the issue have advanced legislation. Two House panels and the Senate health committee have coalesced around an approach that would blend a benchmark payment for certain emergency services at out-of-network facilities or for out-of-network providers at in-network facilities with a limited arbitration backstop. The House Ways & Means Committee put forth an arbitration-only approach. Each has bipartisan support, as the issue does not divide lawmakers along traditional party lines. (Cohrs, 2/15)

Modern Healthcare: White House Vague On Surprise Billing, Drug Pricing Bills
In President Donald Trump's final State of the Union address of his first term, he told Congress he would swiftly sign bipartisan drug-pricing legislation if lawmakers sent a bill to his desk. But Trump stopped short of a full endorsement of a major bipartisan drug-pricing deal brokered by Senate Finance Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and ranking member Ron Wyden (D-Ore.). While he called upon Congress explicitly "to pass Senator [John] Barrasso's highway bill," by contrast Trump's comments on drug pricing left some wiggle room. (Cohrs, 2/18)

In other health care costs news —

The New York Times: The Health System We’d Have If Economists Ran Things
Imagine if American health policy were established by the consensus of health economists. What would the system look like? A survey of nearly 200 Ph.D. health economists working in the United States provides some clues. The survey, presented at the American Society of Health Economists conference in Washington last summer, was conducted by the health economists John Cawley of Cornell University, Michael Morrisey of Texas A&M and Kosali Simon of Indiana University. (Frakt, 2/17)

Modern Healthcare: Healthcare Bankruptcies Down From Last Year's High, But Don't Expect Full Rebound
Healthcare provider bankruptcies, while down from their peak a year ago, still far outpace overall bankruptcies, according to a new report from the law firm Polsinelli. Overall Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings dropped 50% in the fourth quarter of 2019 compared with the same period in 2010. Healthcare bankruptcies, by contrast, increased 125% in that time, according to the report, which tracks all Chapter 11 filings with assets over $1 million. (Bannow, 2/14)

San Francisco Chronicle: More Californians Are Skipping Medical Care Because Of Cost, And Are Sicker For It
Californians are increasingly worried about high health care costs, and more are postponing or skipping medical treatment altogether because of it, according to a new report by the California Health Care Foundation, a nonprofit that researches health care trends. Fifty-one percent of California residents skipped or delayed seeking physical, mental or dental health care in the last 12 months because of cost concerns, according to the report, which surveyed 1,408 adults living in California in late 2019. That is up from 44% a year earlier. (Ho, 2/14)

Philadelphia Inquirer: It Costs More Than $70,000 A Year For A Philadelphia Family Of Four To Live Without Help; In The Suburbs, Up To $88,000
A Philadelphia family of four must make more than $70,000 a year just to survive, a new report says — a stunning sum beyond the reach of most residents in a city beset by high poverty and meager chances. According to the newly released study based on 2019 data, two adults with one preschooler and one school-age child have to take in $70,613 to meet their needs without receiving public assistance or help from relatives or friends. (Lubrano, 2/170

Reuters: Nonprofit Hospitals With Healthiest Finances Offer Little Charity Care
Among nonprofit hospitals, those with the highest net incomes tend to devote the smallest proportion of their earnings to providing free care to uninsured patients and low-income people who struggle to pay their bills, a U.S. study suggests. Overall in 2017, the study found, nonprofit hospitals nationwide generated $47.9 billion in net income, provided $9.7 billion in charity care to uninsured patients and spent another $4.5 billion in charity care for people with insurance who couldn't afford their bills. (Rapaport, 2/17)

Modern Healthcare: Rural Hospitals' Margins Decline, Sparking Financial Instability
More than 450 rural hospitals are financially unstable as operating margins decline, new research shows. Of the 453 vulnerable rural hospitals, 237 are "at risk" and 216 are the least stable, according to an analysis from the Chartis Center for Rural Health that weighed case mix, ownership model, capital efficiency, occupancy and other factors. About 47% of the country's 1,844 rural hospitals are operating in the red, up from 39% in 2015. (Kacik, 2/14)

North Carolina Health News: Troubled Eastern NC Hospital Has Not Yet Sold 
An eastern North Carolina hospital that’s entangled in bankruptcy proceedings remains in limbo, despite plans to have it sold by the end of January, court documents show. A draft purchase agreement for Washington Regional Medical Center, a 25-bed facility in Plymouth, spells out that Affinity Health Partners, the company that currently manages the hospital, would buy the rural facility for $3.5 million. The agreement, filed with the United States Bankruptcy Court at the Eastern District of North Carolina, also stipulates that the Texas-based firm will invest more than $1 million in the hospital and make plans to replace Washington Regional’s aging facility following the purchase. But as of Monday, Affinity had not yet signed the agreement. (Engel-Smith, 2/18)

Des Moines Register: Cyber Security: Iowa Patients' Information Accessed In Data Breach
More than 7,000 patients of a south-central Iowa medical system have been notified that their personal information may have been leaked in a data breach. Monroe County Hospital & Clinics said in a news release Monday that approximately 7,500 people were notified that the breach may have led to unauthorized access of their individual health information. These people were also given instructions about how to monitor their credit scores in the event their information was stolen. (Davis, 2/17)

ABC News: Shooting Victim Alleges Miami Hospital Missed Bullet In Her Head And Sent Her Home 
A Miami woman initially counted herself blessed for having survived a drive-by shooting with what she alleges a doctor told her was just a graze wound. But days later Shakena Jefferson was rushed to a trauma center where an X-ray confirmed she had been walking around with a bullet lodged in her head, according to her family. Jefferson, 42, underwent emergency surgery on Saturday at Baptist Hospital of Miami to remove the slug from her head three days after a doctor at another hospital is said to have bandaged a wound near her left temple and sent her home with antibiotics, her wife, Janet Medley, told ABC News on Monday. (Hutchinson, 2/17)

Kaiser Health News: Abortion-Rights Supporters Fear Loss Of Access If Adventist Saves Hospital
For more than two years, physician assistant Dawn Hofberg fought to bring access to abortions back to California’s Mendocino Coast, a picturesque stretch of shoreline about three hours north of San Francisco and 90 minutes from the nearest facility offering abortions. Hofberg enlisted help from local health care providers and the American Civil Liberties Union, which sent letters to the Mendocino Coast Health Care District that operates the hospital in Fort Bragg and other medical services. The letters noted that the state constitution requires public hospitals to offer abortions if they offer other pregnancy-related care. (Littlefield, 2/18)

NPR: From Juul To Puff Bar: Disposable Vape Pens Are 'Extremely Popular' With Teens
Efforts to stem the tide of teen vaping seem to be a step behind the market. By the time Juul pulled most of its flavored pods from the market in October of 2019, many teens had already moved on to an array of newer, disposable vape products. "Juul is almost old school ... It's no longer the teen favorite," says Meredith Berkman, co-founder of the advocacy group PAVE, Parents Against Vaping E-cigarettes. (Aubrey, 2/17)

Stat: Are Vape Makers Helping Smokers Quit? Survey Suggests Most Don’t Buy It
E-cigarette companies have been trying for years to rebrand as a public health solution to smoking. Most Americans aren’t buying it, a new survey from tobacco control advocates suggests. Some 59% of Americans said they do not believe the industry is working to “be part of the solution to reduce the health effects of smoking,” in a survey of 1,200 people conducted by the Truth Initiative and shared exclusively with STAT. (Florko, 2/14)

Reuters: Young Cancer Survivors Have Higher Risk Of Severe Health Problems Later
People who survive cancer during childhood and early adulthood are more likely to experience severe, life-threatening health problems and die prematurely, a recent study suggests. Researchers followed almost 12,000 young cancer survivors and roughly 5,000 of their healthy siblings for around two decades, until many of them were in their 40s. Even though all of the cancer survivors were tumor free for at least five years at the start of the study, they were still roughly six times more likely to die during follow-up than their siblings. (2/17)

CNN: Cancer: States With The Highest Risk For Melanoma Linked To UV Rays 
States with the highest rates of melanoma cases linked to ultraviolet radiation are spread across the United States on the East and West coasts, in Hawaii and in landlocked states, according to a study published Monday in the International Journal of Cancer. Melanoma is one of the most rapidly increasing cancers in the United States, jumping 2% per year between 2005 and 2015 in both men and women, the study found, with an estimated 151,000 cases a year by 2030 up from just over 96,000 in 2019, if current trends continue. (Erdman, 2/17)

Today: What Causes Melanoma? Study Ranks States By Melanoma Rates Caused By UV Exposure
As often as we’re told to avoid the sun to prevent melanoma, it’s still startling to see just how much sunlight is to blame for the deadliest form of skin cancer. About 91% of melanoma cases diagnosed in the U.S. between 2011 and 2015 can be attributed to ultraviolet radiation exposure, with that number rising to 94% when it comes to non-Hispanic whites, according to a study published Monday in International Journal of Cancer. The paper identified several states with the highest rates of melanoma, including Hawaii and Utah, where the strength the sun’s rays combined with an inviting environment for outdoor activities created a particularly high skin cancer risk. (Pawlowski, 2/17)

The Washington Post: Radioactive Products Were Popular In The Early 20th Century And Still Set Off Geiger Counters
Not long ago, curator Natalie Luvera began to worry about the strangest item in the National Atomic Testing Museum's collection of artifacts — a tiny 1920s device designed to restore lost manhood by irradiating the manliest of human body parts. Was the gold-plated “scrotal radiendocrinator” still dangerous after nearly a century? Luvera tested it with a Geiger counter, got a worrisome reading and called in a radioactivity response team to double-check. “They came down and said, ‘Nope, you shouldn’t have that here.’ ” (Dotinga, 2/15)

Los Angeles Times: What ‘Dry Fasting’ Is And Why You Shouldn’t Do It 
A new fad diet making the rounds on wellness influencer Instagram won't actually help you lose weight. And it could cause dehydration, urinary tract infections, kidney stones, organ failure – even death. It's called "dry fasting." It goes beyond what most of us would consider fasting – abstaining from solid food or liquid calories – and requires consuming no water or liquids of any kind for many hours or even days at a time. (Roy, 2/14)

NBC News: Are Sneaky Sugars Hiding In Your Food? Use These Healthy Swaps To Cut Back
Reducing added sugar is one of the best things you can do to improve your health. But it’s not just cakes, cookies, candies and sugary beverages that you need to watch out for. You’d be surprised how much added sugar sneaks into many packaged foods, including savory ones like soups, salad dressings and sauces and supposedly healthy foods like cereals, granola, nut butters, yogurt and “health” drinks. You might think you’re eating healthily, but you’re consuming a lot more added sugar than you should. Three times too much, in fact! That’s because added sugar is often hidden and it’s undermining your health. (Lee and Patel, 2/16)

CNN: Struggling To Quit Sugar? You Might Not Be Sleeping Enough 
If you find yourself eating too much added sugar and unhealthy fats, it might be because you're not getting enough sleep, according to a study published Monday in the Journal of the American Heart Association. Researchers from Columbia University's Irving Medical Center examined the associations between measures of sleep quality and the dietary patterns of nearly 500 women who participated in the AHA Go Red for Women program, a year-long study of sleep patterns and cardiovascular risk in women. What they found was that the poorer their quality of sleep, and the less they slept, the more the women consumed added sugars, saturated fats and caffeine. (Rogers, 2/17)

CNN: A Later Bedtime Linked With Obesity For Children Under 6, Study Says 
A new study has linked a later bedtime with an increased risk of obesity for kids -- although the researchers say parents shouldn't rush to put their preschoolers to sleep earlier as a result. Instead, concerned moms and dads should focus on maintaining a regular routine when it comes to scheduling meal and bed times, said Dr. Claude Marcus, a professor of pediatrics at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and an author of the study, which published Tuesday in the journal Pediatrics. (Hunt, 2/18)

CNN: Mediterranean Diet Scores Another Win For Longevity By Improving Microbiome 
Yet more bragging rights are in for the Mediterranean diet, long considered to be one of the healthiest in the world. A new study published Monday in the BMJ journal Gut found that eating the Mediterranean diet for just one year altered the microbiome of elderly people in ways that improved brain function and would aid in longevity. The study found the diet can inhibit production of inflammatory chemicals that can lead to loss of cognitive function, and prevent the development of chronic diseases such as diabetes, cancer and atherosclerosis. (LaMotte, 2/17)

The New York Times: Video Game Makers Want To Get Players Off The Couch
Tiffany Ruiz had tried various gyms, apps, workout routines and diets, all in an effort to get fit and lose some weight. “None of them worked because none of them kept my interest,” she said. Now, Ms. Ruiz is working out at least four times a week, thanks to a video game. In her bedroom, she sprints, squats, stretches and performs other exercises like knee lifts and shoulder presses, all while battling a musclebound dragon and its toadies in Ring Fit Adventure, a new game from Nintendo, the Japanese consumer tech giant. (McConnon, 2/17)

The New York Times: Brain Injuries Are Common In Battle. The Military Has No Reliable Test For Them.
U.S. troops at Ayn al Asad Air Base in western Iraq hunkered down in concrete bunkers last month as Iranian missile strikes rocked the runway, destroying guard towers, hangars and buildings used to fly drones. When the dust settled, President Trump and military officials declared that no one had been killed or wounded during the attack. That would soon change. A week after the blast, Defense Department officials acknowledged that 11 service members had tested positive for traumatic brain injury, or TBI, and had been evacuated to Kuwait and Germany for more screening. (Philipps and Gibbons-Neff, 2/15)

The New York Times: She Didn’t Want A Pelvic Exam. She Received One Anyway.
Janine, a nurse in Arizona, checked into the hospital for stomach surgery in 2017. Before the procedure, she told her physician that she did not want medical students to be directly involved. But after the operation, Janine said, as the anesthesia wore off, a resident came by to inform her that she had gotten her period; the resident had noticed while conducting a pelvic exam. “What pelvic exam?” Janine, 33, asked. Distressed, she tried to piece together what had happened while she was unconscious. Why had her sexual organs been inspected during an abdominal operation, by a medical student? Later, she said, her physician explained that the operating team had seen she was due for a Pap smear. (Goldberg, 2/17)

The Wall Street Journal: New Help For Dementia Patients, Delivered Via Games And Puzzles
Bertha Golding and Jackie Lauritzen huddled over an adult coloring book. Ms. Golding, 74, picked up a green pencil. Ms. Lauritzen, 68, chose a blue one. As the gospel song “I’ll Fly Away” played in the background, the two women colored and chatted. “Who’s your favorite country star?” asked Ms. Lauritzen. “Johnny Cash,” Ms. Golding replied.During pauses in the conversation, they sang quietly together to the music: “I’ll fly away, oh glory. I’ll fly away.” (Petersen, 2/17)

Stat: Can New Trial Data Pull The Microbiome Industry Out Of The Shadows?
The microbiome industry is on the cusp of a turning point. Seres Therapeutics, one of the biggest companies in the field, is set to unveil results from a pivotal clinical trial for its potential fecal matter transplant drug this summer. Two other major players, Rebiotix and Finch Therapeutics, could announce trial results for similar therapies around the same time. (Sheridan, 2/18)

The Washington Post: How Visions, Dreams And End-Of-Life Experiences Help People Prepare For Death
Mary was dying. As her children gathered at her bedside, she began to cradle a nonexistent baby. She cooed and cuddled it in her arms, showing a happiness that was at odds with her physical suffering. Her children turned to the doctor, concerned that their mother was hallucinating. But he encouraged them to let her act out a scene that only made sense to her. Later, they learned that Mary had delivered a stillborn baby years before she had her other children. What had seemed like a bizarre hallucination actually seemed to help address a trauma she had held inside for years. She died peacefully soon after. (Blakemore, 2/15)

The Washington Post: Dying At Home Takes Some Planning. 
Roger Kellison had Parkinson’s disease that was quickly progressing. He was a private man who eventually moved into his daughter’s house when he was unable to take care of himself. “He had not come to our house to live,” Daniel Wallace, his son-in-law, told me. “He had come to our house to die. The last thing he wanted to do was die at a hospital.” (Warraich, 2/16)

The Washington Post: Genetic Researchers Work To Overcome Suspicion Among Indigenous Groups
In 2003, the Havasupai Indians of Arizona issued a banishment order against Arizona State University, forbidding researchers from setting foot on their reservation in response to prior unauthorized DNA research done on tribal members’ blood samples. In 2002, the Navajo Nation banned DNA studies out of fear of how their samples might be used by scientists. But many genome scientists believe that health care can be improved with the use of genetic information and are concerned that if indigenous communities do not participate, they will be left behind. (Bhanoo, 2/15)

NBC News and KING 5: A Doctor Said She Had Extensive Training In Diagnosing Child Abuse. Her Resume Shows Otherwise.
“Ellie Carter is a victim of medical child abuse,” Dr. Elizabeth Woods wrote in May 2018, indicating that Megan Carter had abused her 5-year-old daughter by pushing for excessive and harmful medical treatments. “This is life threatening, and she is at imminent risk if her mother is involved in her care.” Based on that warning, Child Protective Services took custody of Ellie and her 8-year-old brother, and authorities in Pierce County, south of Seattle, opened a criminal investigation, though charges were never filed... The 38-year-old pediatrician at Mary Bridge Children's Hospital in Tacoma is regarded as one of the state’s pre-eminent experts in identifying subtle signs of child abuse. Nonetheless, a review of court records and interviews by NBC News and KING 5 (KING-TV) found that she lacks key medical training for assessing potential abuse cases. (Hixenbaugh and Mirfendereski, 2/14)

The Washington Post: Power Companies Don't Want The Trump Administration To Reverse The Mercury Rule
For more than three years, the Trump administration has prided itself on working with industry to unshackle companies from burdensome environmental regulations. But as the Environmental Protection Agency prepares to finalize the latest in a long line of rollbacks, the nation’s power sector has sent a different message: Thanks, but no thanks. (Eilperin and Dennis, 2/17)

The Washington Post: How To Keep Feet Strong And Injury-Free, Which Is Important To Your Whole Body.
Take a look around any gym and you’ll see people working to strengthen their biceps, hamstrings, shoulders, abs — pretty much anything but their feet. That, experts say, is a big mistake. “Feet are the foundation of our strength. And like with any body part, when you don’t use it, you lose it,” says Jay Dicharry, author of several books about running biomechanics and director of the REP Lab in Bend, Ore. Years of neglect can prevent the 28 bones, 30 joints, and more than 100 muscles, tendons and ligaments in feet from doing their job, which is essentially to provide support, balance and mobility. (Loudin, 2/16)

The New York Times: Some Assisted-Living Residents Don’t Get Promised Care, Suit Charges
The letter went out to about 1,900 Californians a few weeks ago from law firms bringing a class-action suit against one of the country’s largest assisted-living chains. If the recipients, or their family members, had lived in a community operated by Sunrise Senior Living in recent years, “we would like to speak with you regarding your residency and experience,” the letter said. (Span, 2/14)

Reuters: Patients Often Puzzled By Medical Test Reports
Even the most educated, take-charge individuals may have a hard time deciphering the test results they can access after a doctor visit, two new studies suggest. "The benefits of improving patient access to their own medical information are fairly clear: patient empowerment and engagement in their own health care, and an improved trust and sense of partnership with their healthcare provider," Dr. Daniel Miller, an assistant professor of dermatology at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, told Reuters Health by email. (2/14)

CNN: Singles Awareness Day: The Benefits Of Being Single 
An increasing number of people around the world are opting to go solo. The number of American men and women who have never been married, are divorced or living alone has been on an upward trend for several years, according to the US Census Bureau. Despite the fact marriages or relationships are less common these days, being single continues to have stigma and feelings of loneliness attached, no more so than on Valentine's Day. Feeling of loneliness among singles not yet having found "the one" still abound. However, recent research shows that some people view singlehood as a happy destination rather than a stop on the journey to marriage. (Rogers, 2/15)

Kaiser Health News: Ink Rx? Welcome To The Camouflaged World Of Paramedical Tattoos 
The first fingernail tattoo started off as a joke by a man who lost the tips of two fingers in a construction accident in 2018. But that shifted after Eric Catalano, an auto finance manager turned tattoo artist, finished with his needle.“The mood changed in here,” Catalano recalled as he stood in his Eternal Ink Tattoo Studio. “Everything turned from funny to wow.” (Anthony, 2/18)

Indianapolis Star: Alcoholic Liver Disease Rates Soar Among Younger People
Doctors are seeing more patients like Martin, people in their 20s and 30s with symptoms of acute liver disease related to alcohol consumption. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism published a study in January that found that from 1999 to 2017 the number of alcohol-related deaths per year doubled, rising from 35,914 to 72,558. Just under a third of those resulted from liver disease. (Rudavsky, 2/18)

Indianapolis Star: Center For Biological Diversity Giving Condoms With Endangered Animals
Nothing quite says "Will you be my valentine?" like condoms with pictures of endangered species on them. But the Center for Biological Diversity says they should be right up there among the flowers and chocolates. The national, nonprofit conservation group will give away more than 40,000 free endangered species condoms on Valentine's Day in the top 10 most sexually satisfied cities — including Indianapolis. (Bowman, 2/14)

The Associated Press: Feds: Florida Doctor Stole $26M To Fund Political Ambition
A Florida vascular surgeon bilked the government and health insurers of more than $26 million to possibly finance his political ambitions in his native country of Ghana, federal authorities said. Earlier this month, a federal grand jury unsealed a 58-count indictment alleging that Dr. Moses deGraft-Johnson falsely billed insurers, including Medicare and Medicaid, for work he did not actually perform. (2/14)

The New York Times: Florida Doctor Bilked $26 Million From Health Insurers, Officials Say
Dr. deGraft-Johnson, who owned and operated the Heart and Vascular Institute of North Florida in Tallahassee, a doctor’s office and outpatient catheterization lab, used his privileges at a hospital to poach patients “for purposes of subsequently billing health care benefit programs for interventional vascular procedures” that were never done, court records said. From September 2015 to this month, Dr. deGraft-Johnson submitted scores of fraudulent claims to health insurers, including Medicare, Medicaid and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida, court papers said. (Diaz, 2/15)

ABC News: Doctor Allegedly Took $26 Million From Insurers With Phony Medical Procedures: Prosecutors 
Prosecutors claim the doctor told officials his "ultimate long-term professional goal" was to be the president of Ghana, and he had "been hard at work using the proceeds of fraud in the United States to establish an empire in a foreign country." William Bubsey, the attorney who represented Degraft-Johnson at the hearing, didn't immediately return messages for comment to ABC News. Bubsey told the judge that any money his client might have sent to his home country was meant to help impoverished people there and not for personal use, the Associated Press reported. (Pereira, 2/16)

Georgia Recorder: Mental Health Advocates Say Cuts To State Safety Net Are Deadly Serious 
Officials in charge of Georgia’s mental health safety net offered dire predictions after the governor ordered nearly all state agencies to slash spending. People suffering from mental illnesses would land in the emergency room, they said. And more people contemplating suicide would act on those impulses. Those same officials with the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities later softened that alarming language and so still plan to yank $10.6 million from a new program state lawmakers funded last year to provide mental health intervention services in communities across Georgia. (McCosh, 2/17)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Action Needed To Protect Vulnerable Georgia Adults, Audit Says
A state audit identified damning new evidence that Georgia’s system to protect seniors and vulnerable adults from abuse, neglect and exploitation is failing and the breakdowns are causing additional harm. Among the significant gaps cited in Friday’s report by State Auditor Greg S. Griffin on Georgia’s Adult Protective Services system was that investigators are taking too long to respond to urgent cases, such as when the elderly were going hungry or were sexually abused. One year, some 500 vulnerable adults facing serious situations waited three days or more before an investigator arrived. APS employees also were rejecting reports that should have been investigated, the audit found. (Schrade, 2/14)

State House News Service: Senate Unanimously Approves Vast Mental Health Bill
The Senate unanimously approved wide-reaching legislation Thursday designed to remove common barriers blocking access to mental health treatment, an action that supporters say is a key step toward fulfilling the promise of parity in health care already enshrined in law. Under the bill, referred to by authors as the "Mental Health ABC Act," state offices would have new enforcement powers, insurers would need to file regular compliance reports, and more in an attempt to guarantee that patients have the same access to mental health care as they do to physical health care. (Lisinski, 2/14)

Los Angeles Times: Finding Patients Where They Live: Street Medicine Grows, Along With Homeless Population
The white van navigated streets lined by tents in downtown Los Angeles. From the back seat, Brett Feldman peered at the encampment’s residents scattered along the sidewalk. Feldman is a physician’s assistant here to treat someone who is sick. But before he can administer tests or medicines, he must perform a far more unusual task among medical providers: finding the patient. The four-person medical team Feldman leads offers care to some of the sickest people in L.A. by meeting them where they live, on the street. (Karlamangla, 2/16)

Los Angeles Times: Some Texans Blame California For Homelessness In Austin
Last June, Austin Mayor Steve Adler and fellow Democrats on the City Council passed a law effectively allowing homeless people to sleep, camp and panhandle on sidewalks and in other public spaces, as long as they didn’t threaten safety. The rationale was that the police too often played a cat-and-mouse game with the homeless population, moving them from place to place. Decriminalization was the start to a “housing-first” policy to expand access to shelter and apartments. (Hennessy-Fiske, 2/17)

Colorado Sun: One In Eight People Struggle With Infertility. Colorado Lawmakers Want Insurance To Cover Treatment
House Bill 1158 would require insurance companies to cover the most effective treatment for infertility, called in vitro fertilization (IVF) — where the egg and sperm are fertilized in a lab then transferred into the uterus. The expanded coverage would also include the harvesting and freezing of eggs and sperm for people undergoing medical treatment that threatens fertility, such as chemotherapy. “Income should not be a barrier for becoming a parent,” said Rep. Leslie Herod, a Denver Democrat who is helping lead the charge on the bill. (Clark, 2/14)

The Washington Post: Florida Man Fights To Take Life-Sized Trump Cutout To Dialysis For Emotional Support
Nelson Gibson says his family isn’t allowed to stay for his multi-hour dialysis treatments. So he found another familiar face to sit beside him: President Trump. First, the 59-year-old Floridian brought an 8-by-10-inch picture. Then his son Photoshopped a small cardboard cutout of Gibson with his political hero grinning beside him, giving a thumbs-up. It stood on a ledge as Gibson reclined in his shirt embroidered with Trump’s name and his custom shoes bearing the president’s face. (Knowles, 2/15)

The Associated Press: Kansas Leader Decries Attempts To Tie Abortion, Medicaid
A top Republican lawmaker in Kansas on Friday disputed the claims of GOP colleagues that a bipartisan plan to expand the state's Medicaid program would lead to taxpayers funding elective abortions. Senate Majority Leader Jim Denning, a Kansas City-area Republican, sent an email to senators decrying what he called “inaccurate verbal and written statements” used to justify opposition among anti-abortion lawmakers and groups to the expansion plan he drafted with Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly. (2/14)

The Associated Press: Mississippi Inmate With Broken Arm Waits Weeks For A Cast
As the Justice Department investigates deaths and violence in the Mississippi prison system, one inmate had to wait about a month to get a cast on his arm that was broken during a prison riot, people close to the injured man say. They said Wesley Clayton only got help after people persuaded a legislator to intervene on his behalf. The state Department of Corrections will not answer questions about Clayton's situation. (2/14)

The Washington Post: How A 6-Year Old Was Taken From School To A Mental Health Facility — Without Her Mother’s Consent
The body-camera footage starts after police officers had already located their suspect, and she fit the description: hazel eyes, about four feet tall and really concerned about finding candy. In the footage, Nadia King, 6, emerges from Love Grove Elementary School on Feb. 4, holding the hand of a Jacksonville sheriff’s deputy. The officers were told Nadia was “a threat to herself and others” and was “out of control,” a police incident report later recounted, and it would lead to her committal in a mental health facility. (Horton, 2/16)

Marietta Daily Journal: KSU To Double Size Of Nursing Program To 1,000 Students With Wellstar Money 
In an effort to address Georgia’s nursing shortage, Kennesaw State University announced Friday it will double the size of its nursing program over five years with an infusion of money from Wellstar Health System. By 2026, the size of KSU’s nursing program will balloon from 500 students to 1,000, with enrollment increasing 20% each year beginning in 2021. Wellstar will give the university about $9 million to finance the expansion. About $2.5 million will fund scholarships for 50 students each year in perpetuity; the rest will be used to hire professors and staff. (Gilbert, 2/14)

The Washington Post: After 35 Years, A Lawsuit Over ‘Inhumane’ Juvenile Detention In D.C. Has Led To Major Reforms
In 1985, when the District was still warehousing juvenile offenders in a pair of decrepit, vermin-infested detention centers — each rife with violence and lacking any meaningful health care or rehabilitation programs — a group of lawyers filed a 42-page complaint in D.C. Superior Court, demanding reforms. “The plaintiffs live under conditions that are inhumane and that inflict needless suffering,” the attorneys wrote. (Duggan, 2/17)

The Associated Press: Juvenile Facilities In Nebraska Rocked By Violence, Escapes
A sudden and puzzling increase in violence and escapes at Nebraska’s two state-run homes for high-risk juvenile offenders has prompted officials to move some of the teenagers to other facilities and to consider spending millions of dollars on upgrades intended to enhance safety. The incidents at the Youth Rehabilitation and Treatment Centers in central Nebraska, including an outburst that sent two employees to the hospital after a group of boys beat them with pieces of a metal bed frame, has shocked state officials, legislators and parents. (Schulte, 2/16)

ABC News: Denied Because They're Deaf: Why One Maryland School Continues To Host Unofficial Cadet Program 
People who are deaf cannot join the U.S. military. But, that’s not stopping teachers at the Maryland School for the Deaf in Frederick, Maryland, from leading some of their pupils through the rigors of military life through an unofficial cadet corps demonstration program. Teacher Keith Nolan started the unofficial cadet corps demonstration program to teach deaf and hard-of-hearing students about leadership, using military training and discipline. He is also leading the effort to change the Department of Defense’s policies so that deaf individuals have the chance to join the military. (Weinstein and Ramos, 2/18)

North Carolina Health News: Nitrous Oxide Increasingly Being Used For Childbirth
If you’ve ever had a wisdom tooth out or dental surgery, you may have used laughing gas to take the edge off the pain. Across North Carolina, women now have the option to use the same nitrous oxide to get through childbirth. The mix of nitrous and oxygen has been used for childbirth across the world for about a century, but it’s only recently started catching on again in American hospitals. University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill Women’s Hospital was the first in North Carolina to offer it in 2013. This month, Atrium Health’s main Charlotte hospital, Carolinas Medical Center, joins the trend. (Duong, 2/17)

Detroit Free Press: Michigan Colleges Handle Athletes' Mental Health Issues Differently
The Free Press found a wide disparity in how Michigan colleges handle mental health issues, and athletic administrators at several schools admitted they fear they aren’t doing enough. These administrators should be commended for their honesty because it is time to talk openly about this issue — to talk about what is working, as well as what is not. This isn’t about casting blame or pointing fingers, it’s about trying to isolate problems and highlight solutions. The stigma has to be broken. And it starts with education and unvarnished openness. (Seidel, 2/16)

Charleston Gazette-Mail: House Committee Passes Bill To Give Workers' Comp For PTSD In First Responders
Following testimony from a retired firefighter about his son, a Huntington firefighter who died by suicide, the House Judiciary Committee passed a bill Monday that would allow first responders to take workers’ compensation for post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. House Bill 2321 would provide workers’ compensation benefits to firefighters, law enforcement officers, EMTs and paramedics diagnosed with PTSD. It is the third year Delegate Chad Lovejoy, D-Cabell, lead sponsor of the bill, has introduced the legislation. (Stuck, 2/17)

Charleston Gazette-Mail: Legislators Cite Constituents' Experiences In Backing Better Access To Birth Control
Legislators on Friday approved two measures that would make birth control more accessible to women in West Virginia. At least one of the bills legislators passed Friday was crafted as part of an effort to prevent unwanted pregnancies for women suffering from substance abuse.Senators approved Senate Bill 288 in a 31-0 vote, with three senators absent. (Pierson, 2/15)

Philadelphia Inquirer: Bucks County Program Sends First-Time Offenders To Treatment Instead Of Courtroom
Minor drug-possession charges have a pattern: Get caught, see a district judge, wait nearly a year for a county judge’s conviction so treatment can begin. Most of those defendants never see the inside of a jail cell, but have a criminal charge hanging over them. Some, in the throes of addiction, don’t live to see a final court date.In July 2018, Bucks County decided to try to break that pattern. Officials created the District Court Diversionary Program, which catches first-time offenders shortly after their arraignments and puts them into treatment immediately. If they complete the program, the charges are dropped. (Vella, 2/17)

The Wall Street Journal: Winter Is Wildfire Prep Season In California
Grass and other vegetation have begun to cover the ash left behind when the largest blaze of the 2019 wildfire season burned the edge of this Northern California town about four months ago. Windsor still stands because most of its residents, acting on the lessons of deadly blazes in 2017 and 2018, grabbed pre-packed emergency go-bags and evacuated immediately when ordered. Unlike in other dangerous California blazes, including 2018’s Camp Fire that destroyed the town of Paradise, first responders were able to focus entirely on the firefight rather than last-minute rescues. (Ailworth, 2/18)

Boston Globe: Child Labor Violations, Especially At Fast-Food Chains, Pile Up In Mass.
Employers struggling to find workers in a historically tight labor market are leaning heavily on their employees, including teens, more of whom have been working in recent years. But their hours and duties are tightly restricted under state law. During the school year in Massachusetts, 16- and 17-year-olds can only work until 10 p.m. on school nights and midnight on weekends, and can’t put in more than nine hours a day or 48 hours a week at any time. But some employers blatantly disregard these limits, scheduling teens over the time allowed. (Johnston, 2/17)

Boston Globe: A Law Said Pot Taxes Should Help Communities Harmed By The War On Drugs. That Hasn’t Happened
It was a hard-fought victory for Black and Latino lawmakers — a provision in the state’s marijuana legalization law that said some of the pot tax proceeds would benefit communities targeted most by the war on drugs. Leaders in minority neighborhoods envisioned the money helping people find housing and jobs, including in the new cannabis industry. Police chiefs, too, celebrated that the law reserved some taxes for officer training, hoping the funds would aid in catching stoned drivers. But a year and a half into the state’s recreational cannabis rollout, none of the $67 million in excise taxes and fees left over after paying for the cost of regulators has benefited either of those causes, a Globe data analysis has found. (Martin, 2/14)

The New York Times: We’re Reading The Coronavirus Numbers Wrong
Numbers have a certain mystique: They seem precise, exact, sometimes even beyond doubt. But outside the field of pure mathematics, that reputation rarely is deserved. And when it comes to the coronavirus epidemic, buying into it can be downright dangerous. Naturally, everyone wants to know how deadly COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, is. The technical term for that is the case fatality rate — which is, put simply, the number of people who have died from the disease (D) divided by the total number of people who were infected with it (I), or D/I. As of Tuesday morning, at least 1,873 people were thought to have died from the disease worldwide and 72,869 people to have been infected.But those figures may not mean what you think. (John Allen Paulos, 2/18)

Stat: Coronavirus Outbreak Exposes A Weak Link In The U.S. Drug Supply
In the 21st century, Americans have found it far too easy to be complacent about public health emergencies like the ongoing coronavirus outbreak of the newly named Covid-19 that began in China and has since spread to other countries, including the U.S.To be fair, it has been more than 50 years since the last federal quarantine was issued, to control a deadly smallpox outbreak. A half-century gap is bound to instill a false sense of security, even when taking more recent threats into consideration. (Marsha Blackburn, 2/14)

The Washington Post: It’s Time For Bernie Sanders — And The Rest Of The Candidates — To Release Their Medical Records
During an interview on Feb. 9 on NBC’s “Meet the Press” with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Chuck Todd played a clip of the presidential hopeful last September, before his heart attack, promising to release his medical records before “the first votes are cast” in the Democratic primaries. “The American people have the right to know whether the person they’re going to be voting for for president is healthy,” Mr. Sanders said at the time. “And we will certainly release our medical records before the primaries.” (2/17)

Stat: Without Oversight, Electronic Prescribing Can Harm Patients 
The use of electronic health record systems in doctors’ offices and hospitals has hit a major speed bump, and rightly so, with the federal government winning a $145 million civil and criminal settlement against Practice Fusion, a San Francisco-based electronic health record company. The company admitted to taking payments from a major drug company in exchange for dropdown menus that persuaded doctors to prescribe opioid medications to their patients. Practice Fusion estimated internally that the drug company — reported by Reuters and STAT to be Purdue Pharma — could gain nearly 3,000 new customers and increase opioid sales to the tune of $11.3 million by implementing the change. (Jason N. Doctor and Liisa T. Laine, 2/18)

NBC News: Why Do We Love Fat Cats And Dogs But Discriminate Against Fat People?
An odd contradiction has snuck into public view. Many people feel free to criticize anyone in the public eye (or out) who is seemingly above a certain BMI (even though that’s a poor stand-in for health) — just look at anything from President Trump publicly fat-shaming one of his own supporters at a rally to Jillian Michaels concern trolling Lizzo’s health because of her weight. But at the same time, we are all making goo-goo eyes at pictures of obese animals. (Barth, 2/16)

The Washington Post: Women Can Have Heart Attacks Without Chest Pain And May Not Recognize Symptoms
“But, it’s not my heart. It’s not my heart,” my patient repeated to me. “It’s my stomach. Nothing is wrong with my heart.” A few minutes earlier, I had rushed to the emergency room in response to an alert from my pager. This pager was reserved for one specific occasion: Someone was concerned that a patient in the hospital was having a massive heart attack. (Ersilia M. DeFilippis, 2/16)

Boston Globe: Trump’s Xenophobic Travel Ban Punishes Americans Above All
Taken together, all Trump’s travel bans are closing the doors of America on a half-billion foreigners and roughly a quarter of Africa’s population. Let’s not forget Trump’s own words when referring to immigrants from Africa. In a now-infamous remark directed at immigrants from Africa and Central America, he whined: “Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?” It should be self-evident by now that Trump’s new travel ban is not grounded on real national security concerns. Instead, it’s about selectively deciding who should be an American. (2/17)

The Washington Post: Why The DMV Should Check Up On Older Drivers Like Me
This week, I renewed my driver’s license in the District of Columbia. It was fast and easy. And I don’t have to do it again for eight years. This frightens me. Given the easy completion of what could be a vexing chore, my emotion may seem insane. In fact, it is not just rational; it is based on statistics. You see, I will turn 84 this year, and the license I shall receive by mail in a couple of weeks will be good until I am 92. (Henry Aaron, 2/14)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Stories Of Pain, Loss Around Senior Care In Georgia
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s ongoing investigation “Unprotected” has elicited a lot of reaction from readers. Hundreds of comments have been received in some form so far.“Unprotected” hits home for many who’ve read it. The AJC’s series of reports on Georgia’s assisted living and large personal care homes is relevant to a large portion of our readers – and, really, to Georgians in general. (Andre Jackson, 2/15)