CNBC: Moderna: RSV Vaccine Effective In Preventing Disease In Older Adults
Moderna on Tuesday said its vaccine that targets respiratory syncytial virus is effective at preventing disease in older adults. The vaccine was 83.7% effective at preventing lower respiratory tract disease, defined as two or more symptoms, in people ages 60 and older, according to the Boston biotech company. It was 82.4% effective at preventing lower respiratory tract disease with three or more symptoms. (Kimball, 1/17)

ABC News: Moderna Says Its RSV Vaccine For Older Adults Is 84% Effective At Preventing Serious Illness
Adult patients in the clinical trial appeared to tolerate the vaccine well and there were no safety concerns identified, the data showed. The company said it will ask the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for approval in the first half of 2023. (Salzman and Kekatos, 1/17)

Stat: Moderna’s RSV Vaccine Reduces Rate Of Disease In People Over 60
The result will increase competition in a soon-to-be crowded market. The drug giants Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline have already presented results for their RSV vaccines in older individuals, and have been preparing for what could be a brisk marketing battle. “I’ve been working on RSV for a long time and there’s been periodic promises of having an RSV vaccine around the corner, which has never proven to be true,” said Larry Anderson, a professor of pediatric infectious disease at Emory University School of Medicine. “To have three vaccines with a good chance to be licensed and this kind of efficacy data is really pretty amazing.”(Herper, 1/17)

The Wall Street Journal: Moderna Reports RSV Vaccine Cuts Risk Of Respiratory Diseases In Older Adults
Meanwhile, Sanofi SA and AstraZeneca PLC have co-developed an antibody-based drug to be used for the prevention of RSV in infants. They applied for FDA approval of the drug and expect a decision in the third quarter of 2023. (Loftus, 1/17)

Bloomberg: Covid Measures Helped Families Pay Medical Bills, Study Shows
Fewer American families struggled to pay their medical bills in 2021, according to a new report, a sign that efforts to broaden access to health care and insurance are succeeding. About 11% of people belonged to families that had trouble paying medical bills in 2021 — down from 14% in 2019, the last full year before the pandemic, according to a study of thousands of US households by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics. (Meghjani, 1/18)

Axios: Pandemic Years Saw A Reduction In Medical Debt
Researchers said the CARES Act, American Rescue Plan Act, and other pandemic relief legislation may have indirectly softened the blow of medical debt by providing direct monetary payments, increasing the percentage of people covered by insurance using COBRA premium subsidies and expanding eligibility for subsidies in Affordable Care Act markets, among other things. (Bettelheim, 1/18)

And a Gallup poll found that more people delayed care because of costs —

Modern Healthcare: Gallup: More Patients Delayed Healthcare Over Costs In 2022
A record number of patients delayed medical care because of high costs last year, according to survey results Gallup published Tuesday. Gallup found that 38% of respondents or a family member delayed treatment over costs in 2022, a 12 percentage point increase compared to 2020 and 2021. The upswing coincided with economywide inflation reaching a 40-year high. (Berryman, 1/17)

More on the high cost of prescriptions and health care —

Stat: Purchasers Predict New Therapies Will Keep Driving Drug Price Hikes
More than two dozen big buyers of prescription medicines expect that prices will rise by an average of 8% annually over the next three years, a slight uptick from a year ago. And 19% believe that a “substantial portion” of the anticipated increases can be attributed to a shift to newer, pricier therapies, which is up from 8% a year ago, a new survey found. (Silverman, 1/17)

Stat: Large Health Insurers Lowered Barriers To Fair Access To Some Drugs
Most of the largest health plans in the U.S. generally provide “fair access” to 19 treatments for a handful of serious diseases, although transparent coverage information is often lacking for some medicines, a new analysis found. (Silverman, 1/17)

Dallas Morning News: Mark Cuban’s Cost Plus Drugs Could Have Saved His NBA Team Almost $150,000 On Medications
The Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Co. has simplified things for nearly 2 million customers, Cuban told a packed crowd at the Dallas Regional Chamber’s 2023 annual meeting Tuesday. The only company Cuban has ever put his name on sells drugs at a flat 15% markup, a $3 pharmacist fee and a $5 fee for shipping. “Sometimes disruption is just about simplifying,” he said. “The pharmaceutical industry has just morphed into a very complicated industry.” (Skores, 1/17)

KHN: Numbers Don’t Lie. Biden Kept His Promise On Improving Obamacare
In a speech on Nov. 2, 2020, then-presidential candidate Joe Biden promised, “I’ll not only restore Obamacare; I’ll build on it.” Two years and counting since then, how is he doing in meeting that promise? KHN has teamed up with our partners at PolitiFact to monitor 100 key promises — including this one — made by Biden during the 2020 presidential campaign. The pledges touch on issues related to improving the economy, responding to calls for racial justice, and combating climate change. (Appleby, 1/18)

Bloomberg: Anti-Covid Gadget Creates Air Shield In Plane Cabins, But Coming Too Late
A Covid-era invention that protects plane passengers from the virus with a curtain of fast-flowing air is proving redundant, underscoring how little travelers care about the risk of infection in the rush back to the skies. (Whitley, 1/18)

In other pandemic news —

CNN: When Young Children Test Positive For Covid-19 And Another Respiratory Virus, Their Illness Is Much More Severe, A New Study Suggests
When Covid-19 patients younger than 5 also test positive for another respiratory virus, they tend to become sicker and develop more severe disease, a new study suggests. Among hospitalized children younger than 5, testing positive for both Covid-19 and another respiratory virus at the same time is associated with about twice the odds of severe respiratory illness than those who tested negative for other viruses, according to the study published Wednesday in the journal Pediatrics. (Howard and Chavez, 1/18)

NPR: Can You Get COVID And The Flu At The Same Time?
If you're like most Americans, someone in your family or social circle is sick right now with COVID, flu, a cold or RSV. With the rolling waves of sickness hitting many households, some people are wondering: Could I have caught more than one of these germs at the same time? The answer is: Yes, it can happen. There's plenty of evidence of people testing positive for, say, COVID and the flu or flu and RSV simultaneously. (Stein, 1/18)

Politico: DeSantis Pushes To Make Covid-19 Changes Permanent 
At an event that featured a dermatologist who spreads Covid-19 vaccine conspiracy theories, Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday said he will push Florida’s Republican-controlled Legislature to make permanent many of his pandemic-era policies that have made him a star with many in the GOP and a potential 2024 presidential candidate. The proposal, announced during a press conference in Panama City, would put into state law many of the policies DeSantis implemented through executive order or were temporarily passed during a 2021 special legislative session. (Dixon, 1/17)

Las Vegas Review-Journal: Elko County Health Board To Consider Banning COVID, Flu Vaccines
The Elko County Board of Health is scheduled to meet Wednesday to discuss and consider placing a moratorium on COVID-19 and flu vaccines in the county. The board also will consider discontinuing local advertising for COVID-19 and flu vaccines, pending “further investigation and results of the Florida Supreme Court case to investigate the wrong doing related to COVID-19 vaccines,” the agenda says. (Hill, 1/17)

On vaccines and covid treatments —

Stat: Pfizer To Widen Access To Off-Patent Products In Low-Income Nations
In another bid to widen access to its medical products, Pfizer plans to provide roughly 500 medicines and vaccines — many of which are no longer protected by patents — at not-for-profit prices to 45 mostly low-income countries. The goal is to make it possible for the countries to purchase the drugs and vaccines at substantially lower prices than they might otherwise. (Silverman, 1/18)

Reuters: Moderna CEO Says He Wants To Have MRNA Factory On Every Continent 
Moderna chief executive Stephane Bancel said he would like to have factories making vaccines based on its messenger RNA technology on every continent as the U.S. company prepares to build four facilities. ... The company is building or planning to build factories in Canada, Australia, Britain and Kenya, he said. (1/18)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin Supreme Court To Rule On Court-Ordered Ivermectin For COVID
The Wisconsin Supreme Court is deciding whether a hospital should have been forced to give a patient ivermectin to treat COVID-19, a ruling that will have implications on how far the court can intervene in the decisions of healthcare providers. The Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case of Gahl v. Aurora Health Tuesday. (Hess, 1/17)

KHN: What Older Americans Need To Know About Taking Paxlovid 
A new coronavirus variant is circulating, the most transmissible one yet. Hospitalizations of infected patients are rising. And older adults represent nearly 90% of U.S. deaths from covid-19 in recent months, the largest portion since the start of the pandemic. What does that mean for people 65 and older catching covid for the first time or those experiencing a repeat infection? (Graham, 1/18)

In related news —

Bloomberg: China’s Covid Deaths Expected To Hit 36,000 A Day Over Lunar New Year
China is likely to see 36,000 Covid deaths a day during the Lunar New Year holidays, making it one of the most deadly periods of the pandemic, according to an updated analysis of the largest outbreak the world has yet experienced. (Hong, 1/18)

Axios: Looming Pandemic Deadline Threatens Access To Some Prescription Drugs Via Telehealth
The anticipated end of the COVID public health emergency will bring a massive change in how patients receive prescriptions for drugs like Adderall, Xanax and hormone therapies, by requiring them to see a doctor in person. (Owens, 1/18)

USA Today: 'A Red Flag': Biden Administration Targets Antipsychotic Drugs Dispensed In Nursing Homes
The Biden administration this month will begin spot audits of nursing home use of antipsychotic drugs in an effort to cut down on inappropriate prescriptions. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will conduct "targeted, off-site audits" to check whether nursing home patients who are prescribed the drugs have a schizophrenia diagnosis. (Alltucker, 1/18)

AP: Feds To Investigate Nursing Home Abuse Of Antipsychotics 
CMS will start targeted audits to ask nursing homes for documentation of the diagnoses in the coming days, focusing on nursing homes with existing residents who have been recorded as having schizophrenia. The rating scores for nursing homes that have a pattern of inaccurately coding residents as having schizophrenia will be negatively impacted, CMS said in a statement released Wednesday, stopping short of threatening to levy fines against facilities. (Seitz, 1/18)

In other nursing home news —

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: St. Louis Nursing Home Workers Strike Over Claims Of Low Pay, Bed Bug Infestation
For nearly 43 years, Francine Turner-Minor has distributed medicine to patients at a Baden neighborhood nursing home. On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Turner-Minor went on strike from Hillside Manor Healthcare and Rehab Center, where about 130 elderly residents live, according to the latest count in federal data. Workers here say the facility is infested with bed bugs, mice and cockroaches, and they say they’ve faced union-busting tactics and unequal pay from the facility’s owners, New Jersey-based Luxor Healthcare. The concerns have become so dire that city leaders plan to investigate. Luxor Healthcare, which owns health care facilities nationwide, denied the union’s allegations. (Landis and Merrilees, 1/17)

AP: Mississippi Nursing Schools Turn Away Students Amid Shortage 
Amid a nursing shortage that is worsening poor health outcomes in Mississippi, nursing programs at the state’s public universities are turning away hundreds of potential students every year because of insufficient faculty sizes. Alfred Rankins Jr., Mississippi’s commissioner of higher education, said at a legislative hearing Tuesday that nursing programs have struggled to retain faculty members because of the state’s lower-than-average salaries for public university employees. (Goldberg, 1/17)

More on aging —

NPR: Social Isolation Linked To Increased Risk Of Dementia, New Study Finds
Socially isolated older adults have a 27% higher chance of developing dementia than older adults who aren't, a new study by Johns Hopkins researchers found. "Social connections matter for our cognitive health, and it is potentially easily modifiable for older adults without the use of medication," Dr. Thomas Cudjoe, an assistant professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins and a senior author of the study, said in a news release. (Radde, 1/17)

CNN: Sister André: The World's Oldest Person Dies At 118
French nun Sister André, the world’s oldest known person, died on Tuesday at the age of 118 in the southern city of Toulon. The city’s mayor, Hubert Falco, announced the news of her death on Twitter, writing that “it is with immense sadness and emotion that I learnt tonight of the passing of the world’s oldest person #SisterAndré.” (Vandoorne, 1/18)

The Boston Globe: Harvard Medical School Withdraws From U.S. News & World Report Rankings
Harvard Medical School will no longer submit data to U.S. News & World Report to be used in the “best medical schools” survey and rankings, the school said Tuesday. In a letter announcing the medical school would withdraw from the survey, George Q. Daley, dean of the Faculty of Medicine, said rankings “cannot meaningfully reflect the high aspirations for educational excellence, graduate preparedness, and compassionate and equitable patient care that we strive to foster in our medical education programs.”(Mogg, 1/17)

The Washington Post: Harvard Medical School Withdraws From U.S. News Rankings
Harvard Medical School is ranked No. 1 in the country for research by U.S. News. ... Among several highly ranked medical schools The Washington Post contacted Tuesday, none revealed immediate plans to follow the lead of their counterparts at Harvard. Some declined to take a position. Johns Hopkins University’s medical school is still sending information to U.S. News, a spokesperson for Johns Hopkins Medicine said, “but, as we do each year, we will consider our future participation.” (Svrluga and Anderson, 1/17)

In hospital news —

The Boston Globe: Workers At Brigham And Women’s Faulkner Hospital Stage A Walkout
Workers at Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital in Jamaica Plain staged a walkout Tuesday to demand higher wages and job security amid a union contract negotiation that has lasted six months. Those who participated are among the lowest-wage employees at the hospital, including personal care attendants, service techs, dietary workers, housekeepers, mental health workers, and administrative staff — many make as little as $15.45 an hour. (1/17)

Modern Healthcare: AAMC/HRSA Data Shows Primary-Care, Mental Health Physician Shortage
The supply-demand mismatch is, in part, due to a wide variation in pay. The average starting salaries for primary-care physicians and psychiatrists last year were about half the average starting salaries for orthopedic surgeons and interventional cardiologists, according to data from physician search firm Merritt Hawkins. (Kacik, 1/17)

St. Louis Public Radio: St. Louis Children’s Hospital Sees Increase In Gun Injuries
More children and teens in St. Louis are being treated at Children’s Hospital for gun injuries since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, according to a study by Washington University and the University of Missouri. Using emergency room data from between 2015 and 2022, researchers found the average number of people 19 and under treated for gunshot wounds in hospital's emergency department rose by more than 50 percent in the first two years of the pandemic. They found the additional injuries were driven in part by an increase in assaults and homicides. (Fentem, 1/18)

AP: Prosecutor: Paramedics Killed Man By Strapping Him Facedown
Two Illinois paramedics face first-degree murder charges, having been accused of strapping a patient facedown on a stretcher while taking him to a hospital last month. Illinois authorities filed the charges against Peggy Finley and Peter Cadigan on Jan. 9, nearly a month after 35-year-old Earl Moore died. Under Illinois law, a first-degree murder charge can be filed when a defendant “knows that such acts create a strong probability of death or great bodily harm.” (Foody, 1/17)

In other health care industry news —

Axios: AI Could Someday Make Medical Decisions Instead Of Your Doctor
ChatGPT, the generative AI juggernaut, is getting a lot smarter when it comes to health care. A lot of clinical diagnoses and decisions could someday be made by machines, rather than by human doctors. ChatGPT recently passed all three parts of the U.S. Medical Licensing Examination, although just barely, as part of a recent research experiment. (Primack, 1/18)

NPR: A Guide To 9 Global Buzzwords For 2023, From 'Polycrisis' To 'Zero-Dose Children'
We're having a polycrisis. The pandemic has resulted in too many zero-dose children. Charities are not always succeeding in tarmac-to-arm. These are a few of the global buzzwords you're probably going to be hearing as 2023 kicks off. Sometimes buzzwords are easy to understand. It's not that hard to figure out that a polycrisis is worse than a monocrisis. (Connelly, 1/17)

KHN: The Biggest, Buzziest Conference For Health Care Investors Convenes Amid Fears The Bubble Will Burst 
Health care’s business class returned to its San Francisco sanctuary last week for JPMorgan’s annual health care confab, at the gilded Westin St. Francis hotel on Union Square. After a two-year pandemic pause, the mood among the executives, bankers, and startup founders in attendance had the aura of a reunion — as they gossiped about promotions, work-from-home routines, who’s getting what investments. Dressed in their capitalist best — ranging from brilliant-blue or pastel-purple blazers to puffy-coat chic — they thronged to big parties, housed in art galleries or restaurants. But the party was tinged with new anxiety: Would the big money invested in health care due to covid-19 continue to flow? Would investors ask to see results — meaning profits — rather than just cool ideas? (Tahir, 1/17)

Bangor Daily News: Janet Mills Proposes Allowing Abortions Past 24 Weeks If Doctors Recommend Them
Leading Democrats including Gov. Janet Mills on Tuesday unveiled several measures aimed at expanding abortion access in Maine, including one allowing abortions late in pregnancies if doctors deem them medically necessary. That change would further loosen Maine’s already liberal set of abortion laws, which are governed by a 1993 law that codified abortion rights. (Shepherd, 1/17)

Gothamist: NYC Will Offer Free Abortion Pills At 4 City-Run Sexual Health Clinics 
New York City plans to offer free abortion pills at four sexual health clinics as early as Wednesday, a city-funded expansion that seeks to break down barriers to abortion in low-income communities, Mayor Eric Adams announced Tuesday. “New York City has always been a beacon of leadership in this nation, and we're going to continue to lead,” said Adams during a wide-ranging speech on women’s health at City Hall. (Kim, 1/17)

Anti-abortion news from Montana, Kansas, and South Dakota —

AP: Montana Lawmaker Seeks To Overturn Abortion Ruling
The Montana legislature is considering a proposal that would interpret the state’s constitutional right to privacy to mean that it does not protect the right to an abortion, a move that would echo others in several states to severely restrict or ban abortion. Sen. Keith Regier, the proposal’s sponsor, argued during a committee hearing Tuesday that the phrase “individual privacy” in the state Constitution should also refer to unborn babies that are individuals who have rights that should not be infringed upon. (Hanson, 1/18)

Vox: Kansas Republicans Seek To Curb Abortion Access Despite Statewide Vote 
Kansas voters shocked the nation last year when they overwhelmingly rejected a proposed state constitutional amendment that would have said there is no fundamental right to an abortion. But that hasn’t stopped Kansas Republicans from opening the 2023 legislative session by trying to further curtail abortion access anyway. Just after the Republican-controlled state legislature convened last week, GOP leaders laid out an agenda that included additional restrictions on abortion and more funding for crisis pregnancy centers, which operate to dissuade people from getting abortions. They also identified the Kansas Supreme Court’s 2019 decision in Hodes & Nauser v. Schmidt, which established a right to an abortion in the state constitution, as a key target. (Narea, 1/17)

CBS News: South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem Says She Would "Nudge" GOP Governors, Including Florida's Ron DeSantis, To Do More To Restrict Abortion
When asked whether she would "nudge" DeSantis to do more to restrict abortion in Florida, Noem replied, "I would nudge every governor to do what they can to back up their pro-life record. I think that talking about situations and making statements is incredibly important, but also taking action and governing and bringing policies that protect life are even more important because that's what truly will save lives." (Costa, Ewall-Wice and Navarro, 1/17)

On the economics of abortion —

CNN: Women Living In States With Abortion Bans Suffer Greater Economic Insecurity
Women living in states that restrict or ban abortion face greater economic insecurity than those living in states where they have access, new research finds. Since the nearly seven months since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, half of all states – 26 in total – have implemented new abortion restrictions or all-out bans. In nearly all 26 states, there are lower minimum wages, unionization levels, access to Medicaid and unemployment benefits, as well as higher rates of incarceration than states with more lenient abortion policies, according to new research by the Economic Policy Institute. (Yurkevich, 1/18)

A Planned Parenthood in Illinois was attacked Sunday —

The New York Times: Arson At Illinois Planned Parenthood Causes Extensive Damage, Authorities Say
The authorities in Peoria, Ill., are investigating a reported firebombing that they said caused extensive damage to a Planned Parenthood clinic on Sunday, just days after sweeping abortion protections were signed into law in Illinois. The fire at the Peoria Health Center was reported to the police by a bystander, who noticed an “unknown suspect throwing a flammable item into a public building,” said Semone Roth, a spokeswoman for the Peoria Police Department. (Albeck-Ripka, 1/17)

The Washington Post: The Most Contaminated Things In Your Kitchen Might Be Your Spice Jars 
If you had to guess the germiest spot in your kitchen, you might think of the refrigerator handle, the cutting board or maybe the inside of your sink. But a new study shows that icky bacteria could be more likely to be lurking in an unexpected spot: your spice drawer. Researchers in a recent study commissioned by the Agriculture Department’s Food Safety and Inspection Service examined how people preparing turkey burgers cross-contaminated various surfaces in a kitchen. (Heil, 1/17)

In other health and wellness news —

The Washington Post: Do Mocktails Really Help You Drink Less Alcohol? 
For people who have moderate to severe alcohol use disorder (AUD), defined by the National Institutes of Health as the inability “to stop or control alcohol use” despite the consequences, these nonalcoholic drinks are generally discouraged because they might actually create a craving for alcohol, not cut it. “It really is, basically, a no,” said George Koob, the director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. The cues created by a mocktail can “trigger relapse and re-engagement in excessive drinking.” (Amenabar, 1/17)

ABC News: Reducing Overall Calories May Promote Weight Loss More Effectively Than Intermittent Fasting, AHA Study Finds
Researchers at three major health care systems -- Johns Hopkins Health System, Geisinger Health System and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center -- studied weight trends, daily food intake and sleeping/eating time intervals charted in a mobile app over the course of six months for 547 adult men and women with a range of medical conditions and Body Mass Index (BMI) categories. (Miao, 1/18)

CBS News: MSG: Chefs On Why The Controversial Seasoning Is Making A Comeback
While it is associated with being found in Asian dishes, it is also a common ingredient in American foods. It also occurs naturally in foods such as tomatoes and cheese, according to the Food and Drug Administration. The safety of MSG first came into question in 1968 when a doctor wrote a letter to the New England Journal of Medicine titled "Chinese Restaurant Syndrome," said chef and author J. Kenji López-Alt. The study was not based on science but on symptoms, Alt said, and soon started an MSG backlash. (George and Novak, 1/17)

Fox News: Care About Your Heart? Try Getting Better Sleep, New Study Suggests
A group of researchers at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health evaluated the American Heart Association’s recently expanded metric — which now includes sleep as it relates to cardiovascular disease risk. The study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association provided evidence that sleep plays an important role when it comes to heart health. (McGorry, 1/17)

Axios: Axios Finish Line: How Clutter Pollutes Your Mind
Clutter in our homes, offices and cars is something many of us are drowning in — but clearing it out can seem like a gargantuan task. A messy environment infects the mind. It can make us anxious and hurt our ability to relax, focus or sleep. (Pandey, 1/17)

KHN: After A Brief Pandemic Reprieve, Rural Workers Return To Life Without Paid Leave
When Ruby B. Sutton found out she was pregnant in late 2021, it was hard to envision how her full-time job would fit with having a newborn at home. She faced a three-hour round-trip commute to the mine site where she worked as an environmental engineer, 12-plus-hour workdays, expensive child care, and her desire to be present with her newborn. Sutton, 32, said the minimal paid maternity leave that her employer offered didn’t seem like enough time for her body to heal from giving birth or to bond with her firstborn. Those concerns were magnified when she needed an emergency cesarean section. (Orozco Rodriguez, 1/18)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: New Study Links Urban Pollution To More Asthma Attacks In Children
Urban air quality poses a major threat to asthma sufferers, according to a study from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). The study, which involved two groups of roughly 200 children, confirmed a long-standing theory associating higher levels of air pollution in low-income urban environments with an increased risk of asthma attacks. (Shelbourne, 1/17)

Also —

The Hill: The Best Place To Hide During A Nuclear Blast 
Those in the vicinity of a nuclear blast are unlikely to survive, though researchers have some advice for people in farther-away areas: stay out of the hallway. In a study published in Physics of Fluids, scientists simulated an atomic bomb explosion to determine the best and worst places to be in a concrete-reinforced building during such an event. The safest place: the corners of a room, author Ioannis Kokkinakis of Cyprus’ University of Nicosia said in a statement. (Elbein and Udasin, 1/17)  

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: State-Run Opioid Monitoring Program Ready To Launch In Missouri
After years of Republican resistance, Missouri is set to finally launch a statewide prescription drug monitoring program. According to a contract inked earlier this month, the state will pay a medical technology company $1.4 million to operate the program, which is designed to curb opioid addiction. (Erickson, 1/17)

More on the illegal drug epidemic —

North Carolina Health News: NC Dentists Develop Opioid Plan
For some college students, the winter break can be a time for visiting doctors and dentists back home. Annual physicals, routine dental cleanings or even the extraction of wisdom teeth might be on the calendar. Teens and young adults who suffered through one of the more excruciating inductions into adulthood  — having their wisdom teeth pulled — might be sent home with a prescription for painkillers. (Blythe, 1/18)

Boulder Reporting Lab: Boulder To Provide Housing For Methamphetamine Recovery
Two months before the use of methamphetamines shut down the library last month, the City and County of Boulder started implementing a program to help people wean off the highly addictive stimulant that has communities scrambling for solutions. The relatively cheap and readily available drug contributes to homelessness, overdose deaths and incarceration rates. (Herrick and Larson, 1/18)

In other news from across the U.S. —

The Baltimore Sun: Civil Rights Groups Sue Maryland Department Of Human Services Over Medications Prescribed To Foster Children 
Civil rights organizations and advocates representing three Maryland teens are challenging the state’s oversight of medical records for foster children receiving psychotropic drugs, according to a new federal lawsuit filed this week. (Reed and Costello, 1/17)

AP: South Dakota GOP Lawmakers Push Trans Youth Health Care Ban 
A group of South Dakota Republican lawmakers introduced a bill Tuesday to outlaw gender-affirming health care for transgender youth, pushing the state to join at least a dozen others considering anti-transgender legislation this year. The South Dakota bill, unveiled at a state Capitol news conference, aims to keep children younger than 18 from accessing puberty-blocking drugs, hormone therapy or surgeries that enable them to present as a gender different from the sex on their birth certificate. It would also punish doctors who provide the care by revoking their medical license and exposing them to civil litigation. (Biraben and Groves, 1/17)

Columbus Dispatch: Ohio Medical Marijuana: Autism Among Proposed New Conditions In 2023
Medical marijuana advocates are once again urging Ohio to allow autistic people to use cannabis. The State Medical Board received multiple petitions to add autism spectrum disorder to the list of qualifying medical conditions for the program. The board receives proposals for new conditions in November and December of each year. (BeMiller, 1/17)

WMFE: Florida Tech Announces A Partnership To Bring A Medical School To Brevard County
Florida Institute of Technology is opening Brevard County’s first medical school next year. The technical college will be doing so through a partnership with the Burrell College of Osteopathic Medicine, a New Mexico private school. The schools entered into an affiliation agreement in November and plan to launch a four-year osteopathic medical school on Florida Tech’s Melbourne campus. (Pedersen, 1/17)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Georgia Lawmakers Take On Health Care Spending: What To Know
Health care will make news in the Georgia Legislature’s budget hearings this week. For people who want to be on Medicaid and people with a stake in the Georgia’s individual health insurance market, state leaders have decisions to make. Here are some things to know. (Hart, 1/17)

ScienceDaily: Predisposition To Accidental Awareness Under Anesthesia Identified By Neuroscientists
Brain structures which could predict an individual's predisposition to accidental awareness under anaesthetic have been identified by neuroscientists. (Trinity College Dublin, 1/12)

Stat: Mix-It-Yourself Wegovy? Some Try Risky Sources For Obesity Drugs
With a few clicks, Daniel added the chemical to his online cart and ordered it. In less than a week, a vial containing white powder arrived at his house. He used a syringe to measure out sterile water and eject it into the vial to dissolve the powder. Then, with a different syringe, he drew up about a quarter of a milliliter of the solution and injected it into his lower abdomen. (Chen, 1/18)

The New York Times: Sickle Cell Cure Brings Mix Of Anxiety And Hope 
This year, people with sickle cell may have the option of finally living without the damage the disease causes. Two drug companies are seeking approval from the Food and Drug Administration for gene therapies that may provide what amounts to a cure. But the decision to take the medication — should it become available — it turns out, is not so simple. After a life adapted to their illness, some are unsure of how to begin again as healthy people. (Kolata, 1/17)

Stat: In Search For Therapies For Solid Tumors, Companies Turn To Claudin-6
Targeted immunotherapies like CAR-T have been remarkably successful in combating blood cancers like chronic lymphocytic leukemia. But malignancies that involve solid tumors have proved far more challenging for these new technologies. (Chen, 1/18)

Stat: After Four Years Of Big Talk, Mega Startup Sana Prepares To Deliver
The last time Sana CEO Steve Harr was here for the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, his company had only recently shrugged off the unprintable code name its founders used privately: FD Therapeutics, short for “F— Disease.” Little was known about the then-mysterious cell therapy startup, except that it would pursue ideas “that will seem unconnected to the current reality” and, rumor had it, potentially raise an over $1 billion Series A. (Mast, 1/17)

CIDRAP: Surveillance Data Show Multidrug-Resistant Salmonella Infections Rising In US 
Researchers with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Minnesota Department of Health late last week reported an increase in infections caused by a multidrug-resistant (MDR) strain of Salmonella linked to pigs. (Dall, 1/17)

The Lancet: Measuring The Global Response To Antimicrobial Resistance, 2020–21
Understanding strategic commitments and policy responses to overcome antimicrobial resistance at the national, regional, and global levels is required to evaluate current progress and direct future planning. National action plans (NAPs) are the primary mechanism for guiding national strategy and action for antimicrobial resistance governance. (Patel et al, 1/16)

The Washington Post: Drug Shortages Are An Urgent National Danger. Here's How We Fix Them.
During a winter of extraordinarily high rates of infectious diseases, U.S. pharmacies have run out of the antibiotic amoxicillin. The government has had to release emergency reserves. (Ezekiel J. Emanuel, 1/16)

The Tennessean: How To Treat Burnout In America's Pharmacists
Pharmacists are in the crosshairs. It’s cold and flu season. There’s an amoxicillin shortage. Lines are long, tempers are short, and all this on top of nearly three years of COVID, vaccines, and variants. It’s no wonder the phenomenon of pharmacist burnout is on the rise. (Sarah L. Clark, 1/12)

New England Journal of Medicine: Medicare Overpayment For Outpatient Medication — A Supreme Court Ruling In Context 
In June 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling pertaining to Medicare payments for outpatient medications that will result in billions of dollars in additional payments from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to hospitals. (Wasan Kumar, B.S. and Kevin Schulman, M.D., 1/14)

Stat: Is Biogen Really To Blame For Putting Profit Ahead Of Patients? 
wo congressional committees recently released damning results of an 18-month investigation into the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of Biogen’s controversial Alzheimer’s drug, Aduhelm. The systems that enabled Biogen’s actions, however, went largely unscrutinized. (Daniel Eisenkraft Klein, 1/17)

New England Journal of Medicine: Bivalent Covid-19 Vaccines — A Cautionary Tale 
In November 2019, a bat coronavirus made its debut in humans in Wuhan, China. Two months later, the original strain of SARS-CoV-2, called the Wuhan-1 or ancestral strain, was isolated and sequenced. It was now possible to make a vaccine. (Paul A. Offit, M.D., 1/11)

New England Journal of Medicine: Better Off At Home — How We Fail Children With Complex Medical Conditions
My child would be better off at home.” At the outset of my career as a pediatric hospitalist at a major children’s hospital, I would have dismissed a statement like that from a parent. While I would have admitted that improvements could always be made at our hospital, I would have defended the wonderful care we provided. I would have attributed such a sentiment to the simple fact that hospitalizations were always going to be stressful for children and their families. (Charles A. Newcomer, M.D., 1/14)

Columbus Dispatch: There's A Doctor Shortage. Why Aren't More Medical Students Landing Residencies?
Match Day is a watershed moment in a medical trainee’s career and represents the culmination of years of effort and sacrifice. Only four days away from his own Match Day, however, Ramsi received an unexpected news via email: he had not matched to a single physical medicine and rehabilitation residency program. (Ayush Peddireddi, 1/18)

The CT Mirror: Athena Health Systems Will Continue Providing Quality Care
The recently published article, “Lawsuits, fines, complaints put pressure on Athena Nursing Homes,” focused attention on several instances where our health care company’s performance during this unprecedented, three-year-long period of challenges was below what we have strived for in nearly four decades of providing quality, skilled nursing facility care in Connecticut and surrounding states. (Lawrence Santilli, 1/18)

Bloomberg: Crash Course: Covid-19, Moderna And The Bottom Line
This installment focuses on a handful of extraordinarily innovative pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies that developed Covid-19 vaccines in record time during a daunting global pandemic — and then butted heads in a race to secure riches. (Timothy L. O'Brien, 1/17)