AP: Nebraska Governor Signs 12-Week Abortion Ban, Limits On Gender-Affirming Care For Minors 
Republican Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen signed a bill Monday that bans abortion at 12 weeks of pregnancy and restricts gender-affirming medical care for people younger than 19. The abortion ban takes effect immediately, while the ban on gender-affirming care takes effect on Oct. 1. The hybrid measure ties together restrictions that Republicans have pursued across the U.S. (Beck and Funk, 5/22)

More abortion updates from across the U.S. —

Las Vegas Review-Journal: Abortion Protections Bill Heads To Nevada Governor
A bill codifying protections for out of state abortion patients is headed to Gov. Joe Lombardo’s desk after the Assembly voted along party lines to pass the legislation Monday. Lawmakers voted 27-14 to approve Senate Bill 131, a bill sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro, D-Las Vegas, that would bar any Nevada agency from cooperating with authorities from anti-abortion states who are seeking to prosecute women for traveling to Nevada to get an abortion. (Avery, 5/22)

Bloomberg: Illinois Aims To Protect Abortion Travelers From Out-Of-State Police
Lawmakers are advancing pioneering legislation that would protect people traveling to Illinois seeking abortions from being tracked by out-of-state police. The bill, approved by the Illinois Senate Friday night, would prohibit local police from sharing data collected by license plate readers with out-of-state law enforcement departments that seek to use it in abortion-related investigations. (Holder, 5/22)

NPR: More Texas Women Sue The State Over Its Anti-Abortion Laws 
Eight more women are joining a lawsuit against the state of Texas, saying the state's abortion bans put their health or lives at risk while facing pregnancy-related medical emergencies. The new plaintiffs have added their names to a lawsuit originally filed in March by five women and two doctors who say that pregnant patients are being denied abortions under Texas law despite facing serious medical complications. The Center for Reproductive Rights, which is representing the women, is now asking for a temporary injunction to block Texas abortion bans in the event of pregnancy complications. (McCammon, 5/22)

The Washington Post: S.C. Sen. Sandy Senn Says Male Colleagues Want Six-Week Abortion Ban To ‘Control’ Women
The uncomfortably personal stalemate in South Carolina reflects a broader divide between GOP lawmakers and voters. (Paquette, 5/22)

Missouri Independent: Lawsuit Over Missouri AG Push To Inflate Cost Of Abortion IP Heads To Trial Next Month
A Cole County judge set June 7 to hear arguments in a lawsuit demanding the state finalize its work on an abortion-rights initiative petition so proponents can begin collecting signatures. Circuit Court Judge Jon Beetem scheduled a bench trial in the case during a hearing last week. The ACLU of Missouri filed its lawsuit earlier this month after The Independent revealed a behind-the-scenes push by Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey to convince the state auditor’s office to increase the projected cost of the abortion amendment. (Hancock, 5/22)

Also —

Politico: How Tuberville's Blockade Of Pentagon Nominees Could End 
Washington’s second-tightest knot — after the debt ceiling — is Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s hold on roughly 200 senior civilian and uniformed Pentagon leaders. Tuberville, who is blocking the nominees in protest over the Pentagon’s abortion travel policy, has gotten so much attention that if he caves he risks losing face. ... Senate Armed Services Chair Jack Reed (D-R.I.) has said Tuberville should take the more straightforward path of seeking an amendment vote on the Pentagon travel policy via the National Defense Authorization Act, the Pentagon’s annual policy bill. It’s not a great deal for either side, but it’s probably the most likely one. (Gould and O'Brien, 5/22)

KFF Health News: Small, Rural Communities Have Become Abortion Access Battlegrounds 
In April, Mark Lee Dickson arrived in this 4,500-person city that hugs the Utah-Nevada border to pitch an ordinance banning abortion. Dickson is the director of the anti-abortion group Right to Life of East Texas and founder of another organization that has spent the past few years traveling the United States trying to persuade local governments to pass abortion bans. (Rodriguez, 5/23)

In other news about reproductive care —

Bay Area News Group: California Woman Left Comatose During Pregnancy Treatment Awarded $17.4 Million
A Riverside County jury on Friday, May 19, awarded more than $17.4 million to a San Jacinto woman who was left comatose after treatment for a high-risk pregnancy at Riverside Community Hospital, her attorney said. (Rokos, 5/22)

Axios: Dems Think Twice About Clawing Back COVID-19 Funds For Debt Limit
Congressional Democrats are having second thoughts about taking back unspent coronavirus funds as part of a debt limit deal, concerned that doing so could have serious consequences for myriad public health initiatives. The COVID-19 relief funds were supposed to be the low-hanging fruit in any debt ceiling compromise and have been overshadowed by more contentious issues like spending caps and Medicaid work requirements. (Knight and Goldman, 5/23)

The New York Times: Biden And McCarthy Describe ‘Productive’ Debt Limit Talks, But No Deal Is Reached
President Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy expressed optimism on Monday that they could break the partisan stalemate that has prevented action to avert a default on the nation’s debt, but remained far apart on a deal to raise the debt limit as Democrats resisted Republicans’ demands for spending cuts in exchange. The two met face to face at the White House for the second time in two weeks in a show of good will after a weekend of behind-the-scenes clashes among negotiators, punctuated by a move by Republicans on Friday to halt the talks and accusations by both sides that the other was being unreasonable. (Edmondson and Rogers, 5/22)

The Hill: These Are The Biggest Sticking Points In The Debt Ceiling Fight
Congress and the White House have just 10 days to reach a deal to raise the debt ceiling before the Treasury Department estimates the nation risks default. But major sticking points have emerged in the past week. (Folley, 5/22)

The New York Times: Debt Limit Negotiators Debate Spending Caps To Break Standoff
Putting limits on future spending in exchange for raising the $31.4 trillion borrowing cap could be the key to clinching an agreement that would allow Republicans to claim that they secured major concessions from Democrats. It could also allow President Biden to argue that his administration is being fiscally responsible while not caving to Republican demands to roll back any of his primary legislative achievements. (Rappeport and Edmondson, 5/22)

AP: New Nasal Spray To Reverse Fentanyl And Other Opioid Overdoses Gets FDA Approval
The Food and Drug Administration endorsed Opvee, a nasal spray update of the drug nalmefene, which was first approved as an injection in the mid-1990s but later removed from the market due to low sales. Naloxone comes as both a nasal spray and injection. It’s not immediately clear how the new drug will be used differently compared to naloxone, and some experts see potential downsides to its longer-acting effect. (Perrone, 5/22)

In other news on the opioid crisis —

Axios: Biden: Congress Must Pass GOP-Led Fentanyl Bill
The Biden administration called on Congress Monday to pass a bill aimed at tackling fentanyl trafficking in the U.S., which would see the synthetic opioid raised to the highest classification of illegal drugs. The administration's public support for the Republican-led Halt All Lethal Trafficking of (HALT) Fentanyl Act comes amid a growing synthetic opioid crisis in the U.S. (Habeshian, 5/23)

San Francisco Chronicle: Mayor London Breed To Answer Questions About Drug Crisis At Hot Spot
The political tussle over how to handle San Francisco’s drug crisis will get perhaps its most public airing in memory Tuesday when the Board of Supervisors holds a question-and-answer forum on the topic in UN Plaza with Mayor London Breed. The plaza has been one of the worst hotspots for open-air drug dealing and using for decades, and Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin said that made it the best spot for the board’s monthly Q&A session with the mayor. (Fagan, 5/22)

KFF Health News: California’s Fentanyl Problem Is Getting Worse
California has allocated more than $1 billion in recent years to combat its opioid crisis. Much of the money has been used to distribute fentanyl test strips and the overdose reversal drug naloxone, as well as deliver medical care to people who are homeless. The state has an opioid awareness campaign tailored to youths and recently called on the National Guard to help detect drug traffickers. Yet the problem keeps getting worse. (Thompson, 5/23)

Bloomberg: New Weight-Loss Drug Found To Be Effective In Pill Form, Wegovy Maker Says
Novo Nordisk A/S’s weight-loss drug semaglutide, sold as the once-weekly Wegovy shot, was effective as a daily pill in a study. People with obesity or who were overweight and had another health problem lost an average of 15.1% of their body weight when assigned to take the pill, compared with a 2.4% loss in a group given a placebo, the Danish drugmaker said. Both groups also made lifestyle changes. (Kresge, 5/22)

In other pharmaceutical news —

Fierce Healthcare: Cyberattack Of Amazon's PillPack Compromised User Health Info
Amazon-owned PillPack reported a cybersecurity attack affecting the accounts of nearly 20,000 customers. An unauthorized person used customer emails and passwords to log into PillPack customer accounts, over 3,000 of which contained prescription information. Social Security numbers and payment information were not involved in the attack, according to the online pharmacy. (Burky, 5/19)

Crain's Chicago Business: Walgreens Wants Humana's Arbitration Award Vacated
In a filing to the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia, Walgreens Boots Alliance is seeking to vacate an arbitration award that would have Walgreens pay $642 million to Louisville-based Humana in a case over pharmacy billings. At the same time, Humana is petitioning that the award be confirmed by the courts. Deerfield-based Walgreens' May 19  filing begins: "This arbitration began in betrayal and ended in a miscarriage of justice." (Asplund, 5/22)

The Boston Globe: Ironwood To Buy Swiss Biotech For $1 Billion
Ironwood Pharmaceuticals plans to buy a Swiss biotech for $1 billion as the Boston drug firm seeks to strengthen its focus on treatments for gastrointestinal diseases. Ironwood, which makes the irritable bowel syndrome treatment Linzess, said Monday it will acquire VectivBio Holding AG through a $17 all-cash offer for all outstanding shares. (Saltzman, 5/22)

The Boston Globe: Under Pressure From Patients, FDA Faces Tough Choices On Experimental Gene Therapy
Regulators are poised to decide within days whether to clear a Cambridge biotech’s gene therapy for a deadly muscle-wasting disease that afflicts more than 10,000 boys and young men nationwide, even though questions remain about whether the treatment is safe and effective. (Weisman and Saltzman, 5/22)

Also —

Bloomberg: US Officials Probe A New Layer In Opaque Drug Pricing, Supply System
US authorities are looking into new groups that were formed to negotiate drug discounts but may actually be further obscuring how much the medicines cost. Officials are working to pierce multiplying, opaque layers between the companies that make medicines and the people who take them. Cigna Group, CVS Health Corp. and UnitedHealth Group Inc. have long controlled the largest pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs, that traditionally negotiated rebates with drugmakers. In recent years, those companies have each launched new entities called group purchasing organizations, or GPOs, to take over that job. (Tozzi, 5/22)

Philadelphia Inquirer: Punched, Kicked, Threatened With Rape: Einstein Nurses Raise Alarm About Dangerous Work Environment
Working at hospitals like Albert Einstein Medical Center has gotten more dangerous since the pandemic. Nurses at Einstein have been spat at, threatened with rape, and punched in the face so hard they needed reconstructive surgery, according to OSHA reports, police records, and interviews with nurses. ... Nurses say staff shortages, inadequate security, and lax training and protocols for emergencies make their environment dangerous. (Whelan and Gantz, 5/23)

The Star Tribune: Final-Hour Deal Removes Nurse Hospital Staffing Regulations From Legislation
Controversial regulations over nurse hospital staffing were removed from legislation Monday that will instead focus on preventing violence against nurses and studying the reasons why they burn out and leave the profession. The result was an extraordinary compromise for a bill that was steamrolling through the Legislature, with backing by DFL leaders and the Minnesota Nurses Association, until Mayo Clinic raised objections. It was the final deal struck this session, and both the House and Senate passed the bill with bipartisan support shortly before they adjourned for the year. (Olson, 5/22)

AP: Over 150 Doctors On Strike At NYC Hospital That Was Once Called Pandemic Epicenter 
About 160 resident physicians went on strike Monday over what they called low pay at New York City’s Elmhurst Hospital Center, a public hospital once known as the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.The doctors-in-training at the Queens hospital, who are employed by the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan, are the first doctors to go on strike in the city since 1990, according to their labor union, the Committee of Interns and Residents local of the Service Employees International Union. (5/23)

AP: Lawsuit: New York City Hospital Covered Up Abuse By Star Doctor Convicted Of Rape 
A major New York City hospital ignored a star physician’s rampant sexual abuse of patients, turning a blind eye to what he was doing to them behind closed exam-doom doors because his thriving pain practice was generating so much money, according to a lawsuit filed Monday. Officials at Mount Sinai Beth Israel in Manhattan knew Dr. Ricardo Cruciani was a serial abuser but failed to report him to law enforcement or licensing authorities for more than a decade, nor did they warn future employers about the threat he posed, 19 former patients allege in court documents. (Rubinkam, 5/22)

In other health care industry news —

Roll Call: Medicare Advantage Supplemental Health Plans Draw Scrutiny 
Medicare Advantage plans lure customers with television ads promising plans with dental, vision and hearing benefits that traditional Medicare doesn’t offer. But in a series of reports, experts and advocates question the actual value of those benefits to enrollees, who often find they still have to pay significant amounts out of pocket. (Hellmann, 5/22)

Modern Healthcare: Medicaid Redeterminations Drive Insurance Broker Marketing
Health insurance brokers and independent agents are ramping up marketing as states pare the Medicaid rolls for the first time in two-and-a-half years. These salespeople will play a critical role helping former Medicaid beneficiaries enroll in alternate coverage, such as subsidized plans from the health insurance exchanges. About 3 million of the 15 million people projected to lose Medicaid benefits because they no longer qualify are expected to be eligible for subsidized exchange coverage, according to the Health and Human Services Department. (Tepper, 5/22)

Axios: End Of The Line For FemTec Health
The women's health startup FemTec Health is out of money and winding down operations, according to public legal documents and social media posts seen by Axios. It's a culmination of troubles plaguing FemTec, once envisioned as the launchpad for a one-stop women's health shop. (Brodwin, 5/23)

Modern Healthcare: Bright Health Finalizes Reverse Stock Split
Bright Health Group completed a reverse stock split Monday, raising its share price above the minimum required to remain on the New York Stock Exchange. The insurtech, which is on the brink of bankruptcy, consolidated its shares by one-to-80, raising the price to $13.57 at the market open. The board of directors intends to reevaluate executive compensation following the reverse stock split. Shares were trading at 21 cents prior to consolidation. (Tepper, 5/22)

KFF Health News: He Returned To The US For His Daughter’s Wedding. He Left With A $42,000 Hospital Bill. 
Last June, Jay Comfort flew to the United States from his home in Switzerland to attend his only daughter’s wedding. But the week before the ceremony — on a Friday evening — Comfort said he found himself in “excruciating pain.” “I tried to gut it out for three hours because of the insurance situation,” said Comfort, a retired teacher and American citizen who has Swiss insurance. (Tribble, 5/23)

Stat: New Data Reveals Deeper Problems With Prisons’ Covid Response
The incarcerated people at Federal Medical Center Devens should have been some of the first to receive the Covid vaccines, back when they first came out in December 2020. At the time, the country was prioritizing high-risk people in high-risk settings, like older Americans in nursing homes. So Devens seemed a better candidate than most prisons for an early vaccine rollout: It’s one of just seven facilities in the country equipped to handle federal prisoners with complex medical conditions like end-stage renal disease — people who were also especially vulnerable to dying from the coronavirus. (Florko, Parker and Sheridan, 5/23)

More on covid and vaccines —

The Washington Post: An Exercise Trial For Long Covid Is Being Criticized By Some Patients
The exercise study protocol has not been finalized, but it will test physical therapy at different intensity levels, tailored to the patient’s capabilities, and aim to improve endurance, said Adrian Hernandez, executive director of Duke Clinical Research Institute. ... Some long-covid advocates, however, say that any exercise trial could be potentially dangerous for long-covid patients with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME/CFS), also known as chronic fatigue syndrome. (Morris, 5/22)

CIDRAP: Patients With COVID-19 At Time Of Heart Attack Have More Clotting 
An international COVID-19 registry shows an increased rate of clotting in heart attack patients with COVID-19, according to data recently presented at the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography & Interventions (SCAI) 2023 Scientific Sessions. Clots were seen in multiple arteries in close to 30% of patients with COVID-19 at the time of an ST-elevated myocardial infarction, or STEMI, but in less than 5% of patients with STEMI who did not have COVID-19 at the time their heart attack. (Soucheray, 5/22)

CIDRAP: COVID-19 Boosters Not Linked To Miscarriages
In JAMA Network Open, HealthPartners Institute researchers looking at a database of more than 100,000 US pregnancies found no link between administration of monovalent COVID-19 booster vaccine shots and miscarriage before 20 weeks of pregnancy. The study predates the availability of bivalent boosters. (Soucheray, 5/22)

CNBC: Covid Vaccines: What's Next For Pfizer, Moderna
Three years and billions of Covid vaccinations into the pandemic, Pfizer and Moderna say their work is far from over. The two pharmaceutical companies, whose Covid vaccines have become household names, are ushering in a new era for their shots that will elevate the role they play in protecting public health, but also simplify what people need to do to coexist with the virus. (Constantino, 5/22)

Also —

Reuters: WHO 'Overstretched' In Response To Increasing Health Emergencies
A growing number of health emergencies around the world, from COVID-19 to cholera, have left the World Health Organization's response "overstretched", a senior advisor said on Tuesday. Speaking at the U.N. agency's annual meeting, Professor Walid Ammar, chair of a committee reviewing the WHO's emergency response, said funding and staffing gaps were widening in the face of ever-increasing demands. (Rigby, 5/23)

The Wall Street Journal: In The Brain, Scientists Find New Clues To Treating Chronic Pain 
Electrodes embedded in the brains of four people have captured a detailed and precise portrait of chronic pain. The new work, published Monday in the journal Nature Neuroscience, points to brain regions that could be targets for future treatments, neuroscientists say, while adding to our understanding of why some people develop persistent, unyielding chronic pain. (Subbaraman, 5/22)

In other health and wellness news —

AP: From Birth To Death, Legacy Of Racism Lays Foundation For Black Americans' Health Disparities
The AP spent the past year exploring how the legacy of racism in America has laid the foundation for the health inequities that Black people face. (Stafford, 5/23)

The Washington Post: Over 36,000 Older People In The U.S. Died In Falls In 2020
In 2020, the deaths of 36,508 U.S. residents 65 and older were related to falls, representing 86 percent of all fatal falls that year, according to research published in the journal JAMA. Based on death certificate data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the research found that fatal falls in this age group had increased from 10,097 in 1999, and at a rate that more than doubled in about two decades — from 29 deaths per 100,000 people to 69 deaths per 100,000 people. (Searing, 5/22)

Stat: Study: Routine Screening For Kidney Disease Would Be Cost-Effective
In 2012, the United States Preventive Services Task Force convened to determine whether it should recommend kidney disease screening for all Americans. Advocates had been pushing for it, citing ballooning rates of chronic kidney disease. But at the time, the group found there wasn’t enough evidence to say if screening was a net good. That paradigm has since shifted, says Marika Cusick, a Ph.D. candidate in health policy at Stanford. (Cueto, 5/22)

Reuters: Judge Tosses Out Some Claims In Abbott Baby Formula Litigation 
Abbott Laboratories (ABT.N) persuaded a federal judge to dismiss some claims in nationwide litigation over recalled baby formula. In a decision on Monday, U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly in Chicago dismissed claims by parents pursuing only "economic loss" claims related to Similac and other formula that they said had a "substantial risk" of bacteria contamination. (Stempel, 5/22)

CIDRAP: Ticks May Be Able To Indirectly Spread Chronic Wasting Disease
A study that involved feeding ticks blood spiked with chronic wasting disease (CWD) prions and testing ticks and ear samples taken from infected wild white-tailed deer suggests that the parasites can indirectly transmit the disease. (Van Beusekom, 5/22)

In mental health news —

Stat: US Surgeon General Warns Of Dangers Of Social Media For Youth
Amid what he called the worst youth mental health crisis in recent memory, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy issued an advisory Tuesday warning about social media’s impact on developing young brains. “Through the last two and a half years I’ve been in office, I’ve been hearing concerns from kids and parents,” Murthy told STAT. “Parents are asking ‘Is social media safe for my kids?’ Based on our review of the data, there isn’t enough evidence that it is safe for our kids.” (Fitzgerald, 5/23)

AP: The U.S. Surgeon General Has Some Tips For Parents And Teens On Social Media Use 
So what can parents and young people do now? The surgeon general has some tips. (Ortutay, 5/23)

If you are in need of help —

Dial 9-8-8 for 24/7 support from the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. It's free and confidential.

Detroit Free Press: Whitmer Signs Michigan's Red Flag Legislation Into Law
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed into law a series of bills Monday that will allow law enforcement, family, health care providers and others to petition courts to temporarily remove guns from those a judge determines pose an imminent threat to themselves or others. (Hendrickson, 5/22)

KTLA: Bill Banning Additives In Skittles, Other Foods Passes In The California State Assembly
California is one step closer to enacting a law that would ban Skittles, Hot Tamales, and a host of other food items that contain chemicals linked to health issues. Assembly Bill 418, proposed by Jesse Gabriel (D-Woodland Hills), passed overwhelmingly in the California State Assembly last week and now heads to the State Senate. (Sternfield, 5/22)

AP: DeSantis Signs Bills Targeting Drag Shows, Transgender Kids And The Use Of Bathrooms And Pronouns 
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed bills Wednesday that ban gender-affirming care for minors, target drag shows, restrict discussion of personal pronouns in schools and force people to use certain bathrooms. (5/22)

Los Angeles Times: DeSantis Wants To 'Make America Florida.' That Could Mean Many Uninsured 
Policarpo Landaverde’s series of bad breaks seemed to peak about a decade ago when he was shot in the stomach after confronting a man who stole his license plate. But on a recent afternoon, as he struggled to explain a cascading list of ailments to a nurse, he was dealing with a more fundamental crisis: He lives in Florida, one of the hardest places in the country for poor adults to obtain health insurance. (Bierman, 5/22)

Axios: Map: Cancer Deaths In Pennsylvania, The U.S.
Cancer deaths have fallen in every congressional district in the U.S., typically between 20% and 45% among males and a 10% and 40% among females, over the past quarter century, according to a study published in the journal Cancer. But health disparities remain. (Avilucea and Reed, 5/22)

Also —

The Washington Post: Seniors Are Flooding Homeless Shelters That Can’t Care For Them
Nearly a quarter of a million people 55 or older are estimated by the government to have been homeless in the United States during at least part of 2019, the most recent reliable federal count available. They represent a particularly vulnerable segment of the 70 million Americans born after World War II known as the baby boom generation, the youngest of whom turn 59 this year. (Rowland, 5/22)

Stat: The Financial Toxicity Of Cancer Costs
In 2023, just under 2 million Americans will be diagnosed with cancer. Many will endure multiple CT and MRI studies and intensive medical care, including surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, or immunotherapy. Fortunately, advances in treatment and novel therapies have steadily improved survival following a cancer diagnosis. Cancer death rates have declined by 27% over the past 20 years. Unfortunately, many American cancer patients also face an unexpected adverse effect: financial toxicity. (Ezekiel J. Emanuel, 5/23)

Bloomberg: The UK Is A Terrible Place To Be A Doctor -- And Australia Is Taking Advantage 
In some ways, the UK’s doctor shortage resembles the worldwide crunch in healthcare. From France and Germany to the US, Spain and the Nordics, aging populations are increasing demand for doctors, nurses and care workers. Yet medical training is expensive, the number of training placements for graduates is limited, and the pandemic has left many doctors spent.  (Therese Raphael, 5/22)

Stat: How To Test The Safety Of AI Like GPT-4 For Medicine
“Thrashing.” That’s what old-school computer scientists called it when an operating system is running so many tasks at once that just switching among them basically crashes it. And that’s how I felt last fall when I tested GPT-4, the far more powerful successor to ChatGPT, on medical challenges for the first time. I was caught in a stuttering stasis between two competing, nearly overwhelming realizations. (Isaac S. Kohane, 5/23)

The New York Times: You Cannot Hear These 13 Women’s Stories And Believe The Anti-Abortion Narrative 
It’s increasingly clear that it’s not safe to be pregnant in states with total abortion bans. Since the end of Roe v. Wade, there have been a barrage of gutting stories about women in prohibition states denied care for miscarriages or forced to continue nonviable pregnancies. (Michelle Goldberg, 5/22)

Chicago Tribune: Ending Masking Requirements In Hospitals Is A Step Backward
For the last three years, patients have received masked care. While hearing and speech impaired individuals definitely benefit from unmasked communication, the majority of patients have gotten better care because of those masks. (Emily Landon, 5/23)

The Boston Globe: Avoiding Medical Errors Must Become A Priority
Six-month-old Jackson Kekula was brought to Boston Children’s Hospital for what should have been a routine procedure. He died after a series of medical errors. The Globe reported last month that the hospital paid $15 million to his family to settle a lawsuit while agreeing to corrective actions. Jackson’s case was tragic and egregious, but medical errors at hospitals are unfortunately and inexcusably common. (5/23)

Chicago Tribune: Ventilators And The Learning Curve Of COVID-19 Treatment
An axiom in medicine is that good judgment depends on experience, and experience depends on bad judgment. Basically, one way doctors refine their care is through a learning curve resulting from inexperience and lack of judgment. (Cory Franklin and Robert Weinstein, 5/23)

The CT Mirror: CT Should Mandate Insurance Coverage For Anesthesia For Reproductive Health Procedures
Uncomfortable or debilitating? A study done by Healthline found that 60 percent of people who have not given birth experience moderate to severe pain during IUD insertion and other contraceptive procedures, and yet insurance companies are able to refuse to cover anesthesia for these procedures. (Sosna Biniam, 5/23)