First Edition: April 16, 2018
Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
Kaiser Health News:
‘Scary’ Lung Disease Now Afflicts More Women Than Men In U.S.
Joan Cousins was among a generation of young women who heard — and bought into the idea — that puffing on a cigarette was sophisticated, modern, even liberating. No one suspected it would make them more than equal to men in suffering a choking, life-shortening lung disease. “Everybody smoked. It was the cool thing to do,” said Cousins, who smoked her first cigarette 67 years ago at age 16. (Gorman, 4/16)
The Washington Post:
Republicans Lose Their Favorite Campaign Message: Repealing Obamacare
The campaign website of Rep. Mike Bishop (R-Mich.) doesn’t mention Obamacare, even though Web archives show it once prominently featured promises to vigorously fight the 2010 health-care law. Rep. Garland “Andy” Barr (R-Ky.) touted repealing the Affordable Care Act as one of three top priorities when first running for Congress in 2012. Now his website focuses on tax cuts and job creation instead. In her first House bid in 2014, Rep. Barbara Comstock (R-Va.) said her campaign was about growing the economy, creating jobs and “repealing and replacing Obamacare.” She’s not talking about that anymore. (Cunningham, 4/14)
Modern Healthcare:
50 Shades Of Healthcare: Bit By Bit, The Affordable Care Act Is Being Remade
As the Trump administration and some in Congress whittle away at the Affordable Care Act, blue states are filling in gaps in an attempt to bolster their markets. Others are picking up chainsaws. Federal moves to pull a form of financial assistance for low-income Americans and slash ACA outreach and advertising last year were followed by the GOP tax law's elimination of the individual mandate penalty, and a proposal to expand health coverage that disregards ACA rules and protections. A bipartisan bill to restore cost-sharing reduction payments and establish a federal reinsurance fund fizzled out. (Livingston, 4/14)
The New York Times:
How Profiteers Lure Women Into Often-Unneeded Surgery
Jerri Plummer was at home in Arkansas, watching television with her three children, when a stranger called to warn that her life was in danger. The caller identified herself only as Yolanda. She told Ms. Plummer that the vaginal mesh implant supporting her bladder was defective and needed to be removed. If Ms. Plummer didn’t act quickly, the caller urged, she might die. (Goldstein and Silver-Greenberg, 4/14)
The New York Times:
Drug Company ‘Shenanigans’ To Block Generics Come Under Federal Scrutiny
Trump administration officials, seeking ways to lower drug costs, are targeting pharmaceutical companies that refuse to provide samples of their products to generic drug companies, making it impossible to create inexpensive generic copies of a brand-name medicine. Dr. Scott Gottlieb, the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, said recently that drug makers must “end the shenanigans” that prevent competing products from reaching the market. (Pear, 4/14)
Stat:
Maryland Law That Punished Generic Price Gouging Is Ruled Unconstitutional
In a victory for the pharmaceutical industry, a federal appeals court panel ruled that a Maryland state law that was enacted to punish generic drug makers for price gouging is unconstitutional. In explaining its decision, the panel sided with a trade group for generic drug makers that argued the state law violates interstate commerce by giving Maryland officials the right to govern business outside the state, effectively providing “unprecedented powers to regulate the national pharmaceutical market.” (Silverman, 4/13)
Stat:
Former Mallinckrodt Employee Alleges The Ingredients In A Best-Selling Drug Are A Mystery
In a sensational lawsuit, a former Mallinckrodt (MNK) employee claims that she was fired for repeatedly warning the drug maker about a host of allegedly illegal activities designed to boost sales of a key drug. Those practices included running a “sham” patient assistance program and refusing to provide payers with clinical data that would be used for making coverage decisions. Moreover, executives were allegedly unaware of the ingredients in the best-selling Achtar drug, which is used to treat infantile spasms and often prescribed for more than a dozen other maladies. (Silverman, 4/13)
Reuters:
EpiPen Shortages Seen In Canada, UK But U.S. Supply Intact
Mylan N.V.'s emergency allergy antidote EpiPen is in short supply in Canada and Britain, but remains available in the United States, the treatment's manufacturer said on Friday. EpiPens deliver potentially lifesaving doses of the generic drug epinephrine, via an automatic injector that a patient or caregiver can administer in the event of severe allergic reaction."We are shipping product. Currently there is no shortage in the U.S.," said Steve Danehy, a spokesman for Pfizer Inc, which produces the global supply of EpiPens for Mylan out of a single facility near St. Louis, Missouri. (Berkrot and Erman, 4/14)
Politico:
Abortion Foes Seize On Chance To Overturn Roe
The anti-abortion movement believes it's one Donald Trump-appointed Supreme Court justice away from a shot at overturning Roe v. Wade, and advocates are teeing up what they hope will be the winning challenge. From Iowa to South Carolina, lawmakers are proposing some of the most far-reaching abortion restrictions in a generation, hoping their legislation triggers the lawsuit that eventually makes it to the high court. (Haberkorn, 4/15)
The Associated Press:
House Panel OKs Bill With Medicaid Work Requirement Change
A committee of Virginia lawmakers has advanced a budget plan expanding Medicaid but tightening part of a work requirement plan House lawmakers approved earlier this year. The House Appropriations Committee approved two bills on bipartisan votes Friday, sending them to the full chamber.Lawmakers are taking another stab at passing a budget after attempts during the regular session ended in a stalemate over disagreement about Medicaid expansion. A final deal could be weeks away. (4/13)
The Washington Post:
Va. House Committee Tries Again For Medicaid Expansion, With Tougher Work Rules
On Friday, the committee passed essentially the same House budget that died in March — but with a handful of amendments meant to make expansion more palatable to the Senate. Two Republicans in that chamber have said they would team up with Democrats on Medicaid under certain conditions. After the meeting, House Appropriations Committee Chairman S. Chris Jones (R-Suffolk) declined to say whether he thought the plan would satisfy the two senators, Emmett W. Hanger (Augusta) and Frank W. Wagner (Virginia Beach). (Vozzella, 4/13)
The Associated Press:
Feds: Increase Medication-Based Treatment For Opioids
Deep within President Donald Trump’s plan to combat opioid abuse, overshadowed by his call for the death penalty for some drug traffickers, is a push to expand the use of medication to treat addiction. It’s a rare instance in which Trump isn’t trying roll back Obama administration policies, and where fractious Republicans and Democrats in Congress have come together. Trump declared last month that “we’re making medically assisted treatment more available and affordable,” even as Congress was working to approve $1 billion for a new treatment grant program for opioids as part of the massive spending bill to keep the government running. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 4/16)
The New York Times:
A Drug To End Addiction? Scientists Are Working On It.
Scrambling for ways to contain America’s out-of-control opioid crisis, some experts in the field are convinced that one bit of good advice is to just say no to the enduring “just say no” antidrug message. Addiction, they say, is not a question of free will or a correctable character flaw, as a lot of people would like to believe. Rather, it is an affliction of the brain that needs to be treated as one would any chronic illness. One possible approach, an experimental vaccine, draws attention in this offering from Retro Report, a series of short video documentaries exploring major news stories of the past and their lasting impact. (Haberman, 4/15)
The Wall Street Journal:
FDA Bans Sale Of Caffeine In Bulk Directly To Consumers
Online shopping has made it easy for consumers to affordably buy highly concentrated caffeine in bulk, whether to mix it into a workout shake or using it as an alternative to a morning coffee. However, a U.S. regulator said that small amounts of pure caffeine products have proven to be dangerous and even fatal. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has issued guidance banning the sale of pure or highly concentrated caffeine in powder or liquid forms as a dietary supplement in large quantities directly to consumers, calling it a significant public health threat. (Hufford, 4/13)
The New York Times:
Employees Jump At Genetic Testing. Is That A Good Thing?
Levi Strauss & Company introduced a novel benefit for employees at its San Francisco headquarters last fall: free genetic screening to assess their hereditary risks for certain cancers and high cholesterol. Chip Bergh, Levi’s chief executive, said he had hoped that the tests would spur employees to take preventive health steps and in that way reduce the company’s health care costs. But even Mr. Bergh was surprised by the turnout. Of the 1,100 eligible Levi’s employees, more than half took the genetic tests. Now, he wants to extend the benefit to employees in other cities. (Singer, 4/15)
The Wall Street Journal:
Why No One Wants To Back The Gun Of The Future
It was supposed to be the dawn of a new era of “smart guns.” Spurred by the deaths of 20 young children in the 2012 Sandy Hook elementary school shooting, Silicon Valley set out to make safer, technologically advanced weapons that could only be fired by their owners. Venture-capital luminary Ron Conway, known for his early investments in Google and PayPal, led the charge, raising millions for grants aimed at jump-starting the smart-gun industry. (Elinson and Palazzolo, 4/14)
The New York Times:
‘We’re Out Of Options’: Doctors Battle Drug-Resistant Typhoid Outbreak
The first known epidemic of extensively drug-resistant typhoid is spreading through Pakistan, infecting at least 850 people in 14 districts since 2016, according to the National Institute of Health Islamabad. The typhoid strain, resistant to five types of antibiotics, is expected to disseminate globally, replacing weaker strains where they are endemic. Experts have identified only one remaining oral antibiotic — azithromycin — to combat it; one more genetic mutation could make typhoid untreatable in some areas. (Baumgaertner, 4/13)
The New York Times:
Trillions Upon Trillions Of Viruses Fall From The Sky Each Day
High in the Sierra Nevada mountains of Spain, an international team of researchers set out four buckets to gather a shower of viruses falling from the sky. Scientists have surmised there is a stream of viruses circling the planet, above the planet’s weather systems but below the level of airline travel. Very little is known about this realm, and that’s why the number of deposited viruses stunned the team in Spain. Each day, they calculated, some 800 million viruses cascade onto every square meter of the planet. (Robbins, 4/13)
NPR:
Doctors Keep Hypertension Patients Honest With A Drug Test
There's an irony at the heart of the treatment of high blood pressure. The malady itself often has no symptoms, yet the medicines to treat it — and to prevent a stroke or heart attack later — can make people feel crummy. "It's not that you don't want to take it, because you know it's going to help you. But it's the getting used to it," says Sharon Fulson, a customer service representative from Nashville, Tenn., who is trying to monitor and control her hypertension. (Farmer, 4/16)
Los Angeles Times:
Too Much Sitting May Thin The Part Of Your Brain That's Important For Memory, Study Suggests
If you want to take a good stroll down memory lane, new research suggests you'd better get out of that chair more often. In a first-of-its-kind study, researchers have found that in people middle-aged and older, a brain structure that is key to learning and memory is plumpest in those who spend the most time standing up and moving. At every age, prolonged sitters show less thickness in the medial temporal lobe and the subregions that make it up, the study found. (Healy, 4/13)
The Wall Street Journal:
The Benefits Of Bright Light For Hospital Patients
Some hospitals and nursing homes are seeing the light—and rethinking the dim glow that illuminates most patients’ rooms. Once an afterthought, lighting is getting attention as researchers see how it affects a person’s mood, energy and sleep. A clinical trial at Mount Sinai Health System in New York City is testing whether brighter lights in cancer patients’ rooms in the morning can make them feel less tired and depressed and help them sleep through the night. (Lagnado, 4/14)
The Washington Post:
Birth Control Ban Imagined In Art Exhibition
Remember the early 2000s, when the United States passed laws banning condoms and the pill, and sex was officially designated for reproductive purposes only? Of course you don’t — it never happened. But a new art exhibition in New York imagines what life would be like if it had. “Museum of Banned Objects,” at the Ace Hotel New York Gallery through April 30 (continuing online after that), looks at the history of “The Ban” from the vantage point of a dystopian future. The law — sweeping legislation in which all reproductive-health products and contraceptives were made illegal — took birth control underground. (Blakemore, 4/14)
The New York Times:
You Share Everything With Your Bestie. Even Brain Waves.
A friend will help you move, goes an old saying, while a good friend will help you move a body. And why not? Moral qualms aside, that good friend would likely agree the victim was an intolerable jerk who had it coming and, jeez, you shouldn’t have done this but where do you keep the shovel? Researchers have long known that people choose friends who are much like themselves in a wide array of characteristics: of a similar age, race, religion, socioeconomic status, educational level, political leaning, pulchritude rating, even handgrip strength. The impulse toward homophily, toward bonding with others who are the least other possible, is found among traditional hunter-gatherer groups and advanced capitalist societies alike. (Angier, 4/16)
The New York Times:
Friendship’s Dark Side: ‘We Need A Common Enemy’
As a rule, friendship is considered an unalloyed good, one of life’s happy-happies, like flowers and fresh fruit. “Report: It Would Probably Be Nice Having Friends,” read a recent headline in The Onion. Ha ha! Of course it’s “kind of fun” and “pretty cool” to “have a few select people in your life to do stuff with on a regular basis.” Most people can name at least half a dozen people they view as reasonably good friends. The only society where people don’t have any friends, according to Daniel Hruschka, an evolutionary anthropologist at Arizona State University, is found in the science fiction of C.J. Cherryh’s “Foreigner” series. (Angier, 4/16)
The Washington Post:
Marriage Researchers Explain How Marriage And Intimate Relationships Affect Your Health
Is hostility in your marriage stressing or depressing you? Does your partner have a chronic disorder? Then watch out. Although married people generally have better health than others, studies have found, partners in these two situations can face an increased risk of obesity and cardiovascular disease. Janice K. Kiecolt-Glaser, director of the Institute for Behavioral Medicine Research at Ohio State University, and Stephanie J. Wilson, a postdoctoral researcher in her lab, study — and explain here — the health effects of intimate relationships. (Rusting, 4/15)
The New York Times:
Single? No Kids? Don’t Fret: How To Plan Care In Your Later Years
Sarah Peveler lacks a support system that many older people count on: their adult children. But Ms. Peveler, 71, who is divorced and childless, said she was determined not to let fear of an uncertain future get the best of her. To help avoid the potential perils of a solitary old age, Ms. Peveler is carrying out a multipronged, go-it-alone plan. A key part of it was to find a small community where she could make friends and walk nearly everywhere, without worrying about the hazards of ice and snow. (Garland, 4/23)
The Washington Post:
Aging People Are Feeling Younger
We’ve heard all the cliches about aging: “You’re as young [or old] as you feel.” “Age is just a number.” “You’re not getting older, you’re getting better.” “Seventy is the new 50.” Well-intentioned, perhaps. Offensive, to some. Patronizing, to be sure. But could they be true? Maybe science has started to catch up with these tired phrases. Researchers have discovered that many people feel good about themselves as they get older. (Cimons, 4/14)
The Washington Post:
Steps To Take To Live An Active And Happy Life When You're Old
In good weather, Sylvia Lask logs thousands of steps a day on her Fitbit as she pushes down New York City sidewalks with her walker. As frequently as once a week, she heads to Albany, walker and all, to lobby state government officials about mental-health issues. Florence Lee drives in to Manhattan on her own from Queens on Thursday nights during the New York Philharmonic’s season for performances of the vaunted orchestra. Larry White still travels around New York State, as he has for the past 10 years, to help prison inmates manage long sentences. (Bruno, 4/14)
The New York Times:
The Clinical Trial Is Open. The Elderly Need Not Apply.
Dr. Ken Covinsky, a geriatrician and researcher, was sitting in his office at the San Francisco VA Medical Center last month, browsing through a medical journal on his computer. When he came across a study of sodium excretion, he waded into the abstract. The research team, mostly based at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, had used 24-hour urine collections to estimate how much salt Americans take in each day. (Span, 4/13)
The Washington Post:
HIV-Infected People Are Living For Years, But Age-Related Diseases Set In Early
David Hardy has been treating HIV-infected patients since the early 1980s, when the epidemic began. In those days, people newly diagnosed with AIDS lived for only about six months. Hardy, an infectious-disease specialist and internist, was ecstatic when powerful new drug combinations came into widespread use in 1996, enabling HIV-infected people to measure their lives in decades rather than months. But in recent years, his euphoria has turned bittersweet. (Cimons, 4/14)
The New York Times:
More Than 200 Million Eggs Recalled Over Salmonella Fears
A company has recalled more than 200 million eggs after an outbreak of salmonella was traced to one of its farms in North Carolina. The federal Food and Drug Administration reported Friday that eggs from the affected farm were distributed to nine states — Colorado, Florida, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia — and were likely connected to 22 reported cases of salmonella infections. (Fortin, 4/15)
The Washington Post:
Egg Recall 2018: Fear Of Salmonella Contamination After Nearly Two Dozen Were Sickened
An investigation by the federal agency led to an inspection of the farm, which is located in Hyde County, N.C., and produces 2.3 million eggs a day from 3 million hens. The recalled eggs were sold under brand names such as Great Value, Country Daybreak, Glenview and Food Lion (Click here for a full list). They were also sold to Waffle House restaurants. (Phillips, 4/15)
The New York Times:
E. Coli Linked To Chopped Romaine Lettuce Infects People In 11 States
Nearly three dozen people have been infected in an E. coli outbreak linked to chopped romaine lettuce from the Yuma, Ariz., region, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Friday. The agency said that it had not yet identified a grower, supplier, distributor or brand common to the 35 cases of infection across 11 states, so it urged consumers to avoid any chopped romaine lettuce from the Yuma area. (Chokshi, 4/13)
The Washington Post:
Romaine Lettuce Recall After E. Coli Outbreak: Prepackaged Salad Mixes May Have Been Tainted, Officials Say
Fresh Foods Manufacturing, based in Freedom, Pa., is recalling the prepackaged products after learning last week from their romaine lettuce supplier that the vegetables may have been contaminated with Escherichia coli, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said Saturday. Officials said the recalled products have not been tied to any E. coli-related illnesses. The recalled items, which were labeled “Great to Go by Market District,” were shipped to retailers in Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia and had sell-by dates of April 13 to April 16. (Phillips, 4/15)
The Wall Street Journal:
Flint Water Tests Show Safe Lead Levels, NRDC Report Says
The amount of lead in the drinking water of Flint, Mich., has fallen again, according to a study released Friday, as the city works to replace old pipes and takes other measures to ensure the city’s water quality is safe. The Natural Resources Defense Council released a report Friday that found lead levels well below the federal action level of 15 parts per billion in a sample of 92 homes. A researcher at Michigan State University found a lead level of 4 ppb at the homes tested. (Maher, 4/13)
The Associated Press:
Cuomo: Number Of NY Registered Organ Donors Tops 5 Million
Efforts by the state and nonprofit organizations to boost the number of New Yorkers registered to donate their organs are paying off. Gov. Andrew Cuomo has announced that more than 5 million New Yorkers are now enrolled in the New York State Donate Life Registry as organ donors. The Democrat says organ donation rates have reached historic levels thanks to several coordinated efforts. (4/16)