This Week In Montana, June 10, 2021

Montana Med School Clash Revives For-Profit Vs. Nonprofit Flap

Victoria Knight

Two medical schools vie to open in Montana, highlighting the rapid spread of for-profit schools and their previously tarnished business model.

Women Now Drink as Much as Men — And Are Prone to Sickness Sooner

Aneri Pattani

Young women have closed the gender gap for excessive drinking. And that was before the pandemic. The trend is particularly troubling because women are at greater risk for blackouts, liver disease, cardiovascular diseases and certain cancers linked to alcohol use.

Boeing Tested Air Purifiers Like Those Widely Used in Schools. It Decided Not to Use Them in Planes.

Christina Jewett and Lauren Weber

The technology that schools have been snapping up in the fight against covid “has not shown significant disinfection effectiveness” to install on its planes, Boeing found. Now the company’s study is being debated in a proposed class-action suit.

FDA Weighs Approval of a Lucrative Alzheimer’s Drug, but Benefits Are Iffy

Harris Meyer

The agency is to decide by June 7 whether to greenlight Biogen’s drug aducanumab, despite a near-unanimous rejection of the product by an FDA advisory committee of outside experts in November. Some scientists at the agency have endorsed the drug, though.

Covid Was a Tipping Point for Telehealth. If Some Have Their Way, Virtual Visits Are Here to Stay.

Noam N. Levey

Pressure is mounting on Congress and the Biden administration to make permanent pandemic-inspired rules that fueled telehealth growth. Some fear fraud and ballooning costs.

Trying to Avoid Racist Health Care, Black Women Seek Out Black Obstetricians

Verónica Zaragovia, WLRN

Besides shared culture and values, a Black physician can offer Black patients a sense of safety, validation and trust. By contrast, the impact of systemic racism can show up starkly in childbirth. Black women are three times as likely to die after giving birth as white women in the United States.