First Edition: Aug. 25, 2022
Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
KHN:
Congressman’s Wife Died After Taking Herbal Remedy Marketed For Diabetes And Weight Loss
The wife of a Northern California congressman died late last year after ingesting a plant that is generally considered safe and is used as an herbal remedy for a variety of ailments, including diabetes, obesity, and high cholesterol, KHN has learned. Lori McClintock, the wife of U.S. Rep. Tom McClintock, died from dehydration due to gastroenteritis — an inflammation of the stomach and intestines — that was caused by “adverse effects of white mulberry leaf ingestion,” according to a report from the Sacramento County coroner that is dated March 10 but was not immediately released to the public. KHN obtained that report — in addition to the autopsy report and an amended death certificate containing an updated cause of death — in July. (Young, 8/24)
KHN:
Rural Americans Have Difficulty Accessing A Promising Cancer Treatment
Suzanne BeHanna initially turned down an experimental but potentially lifesaving cancer treatment. Three years ago, the newlywed, then 62, was sick with stage 4 lymphoma, sick from two failed rounds of chemotherapy, and sick of living in a trailer park near the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. It was fall 2019, and treatment had forced her to migrate 750 miles east from rural New Mexico, where she’d settled only months before her diagnosis. (Waldman, 8/25)
KHN:
Wastewater Surveillance Has Become A Critical Covid Tracking Tool, But Funding Is Inconsistent
To look at recent data posted on Clemson University’s covid-19 dashboard, one might assume that viral activity is low on the Upstate South Carolina college campus. The dashboard, which relies on positive covid tests reported by local laboratories and on-campus medical offices, identified 34 positive cases among students during the third week of August and 20 cases the week before. (Sausser, 8/25)
KHN:
Watch: Crashing Into Surprise Ambulance Bills
Peggy Dula was driving two of her siblings on an unfamiliar road in Illinois when she pulled into an intersection and crashed into a truck. All three were taken to a nearby hospital, and though Peggy was the least injured, her ambulance bill was almost three times her sister’s bill. CBS Mornings spotlighted this Bill of the Month and interviewed Dr. Elisabeth Rosenthal, editor-in-chief of KHN, about the conundrum people are in when they need an ambulance. Ground ambulance bills were not regulated in the No Surprises Act, the consumer protection law that went into effect at the beginning of 2022. (8/24)
Politico:
Judge Sides With Biden Admin, Blocking Part Of Idaho’s Abortion Ban
This particular case — one of many playing out across the country — concerns whether states enacting near-total abortion bans are preempting the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, known as EMTALA. That decades-old federal law requires health care workers provide treatment that stabilizes a patient experiencing a medical emergency, and the Biden administration released guidance in July warning doctors and hospitals that EMTALA applies even if the required treatment is an abortion — no matter what state law dictates. (Ollstein, 8/24)
The Hill:
Federal Judge In Texas Blocks Biden Administration’s Emergency Abortion Guidance
A federal judge in Texas in a Tuesday night ruling blocked guidance issued by the Biden administration that requires doctors to provide abortions in emergency medical situations even if doing so would run afoul of state law. In a 67-page ruling, U.S. District Judge James Hendrix halted emergency abortion guidance that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued last month in the wake of the Supreme Court’s overruling of Roe v. Wade. (Kruzel, 8/24)
The Texas Tribune:
Texas Trigger Law Making Abortion A Felony Goes Into Effect
Performing an abortion is now a felony punishable by up to life in prison in Texas after the state’s trigger law, which has only narrow exceptions to save the life of a pregnant patient, went into effect Thursday. (Klibanoff, 8/25)
Detroit Free Press:
Michigan Appeals Court Stops Legislature's Move To Nix Abortion Order
The Michigan Court of Appeals denied a request from the Republican-controlled Legislature to consider reviewing and possible overturning a lower court's order that sought to bar county prosecutors from enforcing a state law criminalizing most abortions. (Boucher, 8/24)
AP:
Kansas Activist Sues For A Statewide Abortion Recount
A Kansas anti-abortion activist is suing for a complete hand recount of an election in which voters soundly rejected a proposal to remove abortion rights from the state’s constitution. Mark Gietzen is representing himself in a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Sedgwick County District Court after a nine-county hand recount that his supporters largely funded wrapped up over the weekend. Fewer than 100 votes changed out of more than 500,000 cast in those counties. The measure failed by about 165,000 votes statewide. (8/24)
Stat:
Amazon To Shut Down Telehealth Venture Amazon Care By End Of Year
Amazon announced Wednesday it will shut down its medical venture Amazon Care at the end of the year, a surprising move less than a month after the tech giant’s blockbuster announcement that it plans to acquire One Medical. (Palmer and Aguilar, 8/24)
The Wall Street Journal:
Amazon To Shut Down Amazon Care Telehealth Unit
The move reflects the difficulty tech companies continue to face as they seek to disrupt the healthcare industry. Amazon didn’t disclose any changes for its other healthcare units, including pharmacy business. Amazon’s otherwise has shown great ambition in the healthcare industry, which Chief Executive Andy Jassy has earmarked as a priority. The company last month announced plans to buy 1Life Healthcare Inc. for $3.9 billion. 1Life operates a line of primary-care clinics under the name One Medical. Amazon is also among bidders for healthcare company Signify Health Inc., The Wall Street Journal has reported. (Herrera, 8/24)
Modern Healthcare:
Amazon To Shut Down Amazon Care At Year's End
“We’ve determined that Amazon Care isn’t the right long-term solution for our enterprise customers, and have decided that we will no longer offer Amazon Care after December 31, 2022," Neil Lindsay, senior vice president of Amazon Health Services, wrote in a Wednesday email to Amazon Health Services employees. Amazon shared the email with Modern Healthcare. (Kim Cohen and Perna, 8/24)
AP:
Panel: Trump Staffers Pushed Unproven COVID Treatment At FDA
The report Wednesday by the Democratic-led House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis also sheds new light on the role that television personalities played in bringing hydroxychloroquine to the attention of top White House officials. Investigators highlighted an email from Fox News’ Laura Ingraham and others from Dr. Mehmet Oz, the celebrity heart surgeon who had a daytime TV show and is now the Republican Senate nominee in Pennsylvania. Ingraham attended an Oval Office meeting with President Donald Trump, who himself took the anti-malaria drug. (Perrone and Freking, 8/24)
Politico:
Trump White House Exerted Pressure On FDA For Covid-19 Emergency Use Authorizations, House Report Finds
The Democrats’ investigation also documents potential influence from former White House officials regarding the FDA’s decision to authorize convalescent plasma, and White House attempts to block the FDA from collecting additional safety data on Covid-19 vaccines in order to get them to the public before the 2020 presidential election. (Foley, 8/24)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
Trump Advisers Turned To Ron Johnson In Push For Hydroxychloroquine
Trump administration advisers leaned on Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson in a failed effort to push top health officials to reauthorize the use of an anti-malaria drug as a treatment for COVID-19 during the early months of the pandemic, according to a new congressional committee report. (Andrea, 8/24)
AP:
Study: Pfizer COVID Pill Showed No Benefit In Younger Adults
Pfizer’s COVID-19 pill appears to provide little or no benefit for younger adults, while still reducing the risk of hospitalization and death for high-risk seniors, according to a large study published Wednesday. The results from a 109,000-patient Israeli study are likely to renew questions about the U.S. government’s use of Paxlovid. ... The researchers found that Paxlovid reduced hospitalizations among people 65 and older by roughly 75% when given shortly after infection. That’s consistent with earlier results used to authorize the drug in the U.S. and other nations. But people between the ages of 40 and 65 saw no measurable benefit, according to the analysis of medical records. (Perrone, 8/24)
CIDRAP:
New Type 2 Diabetes Diagnoses In Youth Climbed 77% Amid COVID-19
New diagnoses of type 2 diabetes in US youth rose 77% during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic over the previous 2 years, according to a new multicenter study published in the Journal of Pediatrics. ... Average patient age was 14.4 years, 50.5% were girls, 40.4% were Hispanic, 32.7% were Black, and 14.5% were White. Few patients were also diagnosed as having COVID-19 at hospitalization. (Van Beusekom, 8/24)
AP:
WHO: COVID Deaths Down By 15%, Cases Fall Nearly Everywhere
The number of coronavirus deaths reported worldwide fell by 15% in the past week while new infections dropped by 9%, the World Health Organization said Wednesday. In its latest weekly assessment of the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.N. health agency said there were 5.3 million new cases and more than 14,000 deaths reported last week. WHO said the number of new infections declined in every world region except the Western Pacific. (8/24)
CIDRAP:
Life Expectancy Fell Amid COVID, Especially For Hispanic And Black Males
In 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, life expectancy in the United States fell by 4.5 and 3.6 years for Hispanic and Black males, respectively, while declining 1.5 years for their White counterparts, finds a study published yesterday in PNAS. (8/24)
Stat:
What Fauci's Exit Tells Us About The Ongoing Fight Against Covid
There was a time when Anthony Fauci thought he would retire when the Covid-19 pandemic was over. He told himself he’d spend a year as President Biden’s top medical adviser and that Covid-19 would be settled by then. (Owermohle, 8/24)
AP:
Texan Gets 6 Months For Threats To Maryland Vaccine Advocate
A Texas man was sentenced to six months in federal prison Tuesday for threatening a Maryland doctor who has been a prominent advocate for COVID-19 vaccines, a federal prosecutor said. Scott Eli Harris, 52, of Aubrey, Texas, pleaded guilty in February to threats transmitted by interstate communication. U.S. Attorney for Maryland Erek L. Barron announced the sentence, which will be followed by three years of supervised release, in a news release Wednesday. (8/24)
The New York Times:
N.Y. Special Election Shows Power Of Abortion Debate To Move Democrats
Within an hour of the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade in June, Pat Ryan, a combat veteran, released an ad for his congressional campaign, stressing his support for abortion rights. After Kansans overwhelmingly voted to defend abortion protections this month, Mr. Ryan cast his upcoming race as the next major test of the issue’s power. And on Wednesday, hours after Mr. Ryan won his special election in a battleground district in New York’s Hudson Valley, he said that the lessons from his contest were clear. (Glueck, 8/24)
The Washington Post:
Democrats Show Momentum Coming Out Of Special Elections
The state of play suggests Democrats should lose at least one chamber of Congress and probably both. That’s when you consider the narrowness of their majorities (fewer than 10 seats in the House and a 50-50 Senate), President Biden’s dim political fortunes and the history of the party opposite the White House very often gaining ground in midterm elections. It still might happen, but multiple special elections have given Democrats increasing license to believe they can beat the fundamentals. (Blake, 8/24)
The New York Times:
Growing Evidence Against A Republican Wave
One special election would be easy to dismiss. But it’s not alone. There have been five special congressional elections since the court’s Dobbs ruling overturned Roe, and Democrats have outperformed Mr. Biden’s 2020 showing in four of them. In the fifth district, Alaska’s at-large House special, the ranked-choice voting count is not complete, but they appear poised to outperform him there as well. On average, Republicans carried the four completed districts by 3.7 percentage points, compared with Donald J. Trump’s 7.7-point edge in the same districts two years ago. The results aren’t merely worse than expected for Republicans; they’re straightforwardly poor. Republicans need to fare better than Mr. Trump, who lost the national vote by 4.5 points in 2020, to retake the House — let alone contemplate winning the Senate. (Cohn, 8/24)
The Washington Post:
Liberals Now Have A Path, Still Narrow, To Enacting Expansive Agenda
Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin III (W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.) have held leverage over the Biden agenda for 19 months now. ... That would all change if Democrats hold the House and gain two seats in the Senate. It would also open the way for more-expansive liberal wish-list items through passage of party-line budget bills — Sinema was the lone Democrat to block higher taxes on private equity and certain fund mangers, while Manchin almost single-handedly blocked the expansion of the child tax credit that most Democrats believed was a policy game changer. (Kane, 8/24)
Bloomberg:
Monkeypox Outbreak Latest: Senate Committee Plans Hearings With Health Officials
US lawmakers will look to press Biden administration health officials on their response to the growing monkeypox outbreak in a Senate hearing planned for next month, according to people familiar with the matter. The Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee is planning the hearing on monkeypox for mid-September, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the information isn’t public. (Muller and Baumann, 8/24)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Monkeypox: SF ‘Cautiously Optimistic’ Outbreak Is Slowing Down
After about two months of rapid spread, San Francisco appears to be turning a corner on monkeypox, with early data showing the local epidemic may be slowing down. The number of new cases reported each week hit a high of 143 the week of July 24 and has tapered each week since, first to 87 cases, then 54 and then, last week, to fewer than five, according to figures provided by the San Francisco Department of Public Health. (Ho, 8/24)
The Atlantic:
A Risky Monkeypox Vaccine Is Looking Better All The Time
The transition from Monkeypox Inoculation Plan A to Monkeypox Inoculation Plan B has been a smashing success—at least, if you ask federal officials. Just a few weeks ago, the U.S. had nowhere near enough of the Jynneos vaccine to doubly dose even a quarter of the Americans at highest risk of monkeypox, roughly 1.6 million men who have sex with men. (Wu, 8/24)
Newsweek:
Man Tests Positive For COVID, Monkeypox And HIV After Spain Trip
Aman from Italy has tested positive for COVID-19, monkeypox, and HIV all at the same time after returning from a short trip in Spain, according to researchers from the University of Catania in Italy. The scientists stated in the Journal of Infection that the 36-year-old man, who has not been identified, developed fever, a sore throat, fatigue, and headache as a result of the co-infection. (Khaled, 8/24)
Los Angeles Times:
Rise Of Monkeypox Worries Sex Workers
With monkeypox on the rise, Lady Kay decided to hold off on meeting clients in hotel rooms or private dungeons. The 32-year-old dominatrix had already been taking precautions to protect herself from the coronavirus, insisting that clients show that they were vaccinated against COVID-19 or had recently tested negative. Now the South Los Angeles resident was worried about the newest outbreak — an infectious virus that can travel through skin-to-skin contact and has spread in intimate encounters. (Reyes, 8/24)
The Wall Street Journal:
Psilocybin, Psychedelic Compound In Magic Mushrooms, Shown Effective For Alcohol Addiction
Psilocybin—the active ingredient in so-called psychedelic or magic mushrooms—given in combination with psychotherapy curbed drinking in adults with alcohol use disorder for at least eight months, researchers said in a study published Wednesday in the journal JAMA Psychiatry. Nearly half of the study participants who got psilocybin stopped drinking entirely, an effect that in some cases lasted years, according to the researchers and interviews with study participants. (Hernandez, 8/24)
USA Today:
Psilocybin Mushrooms Show Potential To Fight Alcohol Addiction: Study
Dr. George Koob, director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, said the studies on psychedelics and addiction remain early and inconclusive but seem promising. "There are people who just don't respond to conventional treatment and if this would help them that would be wonderful," Koob said. "As the evidence mounts, which it is in a number of domains, we're definitely interested in supporting further study." (Weintraub, 8/24)
AP:
Louisiana: West Nile Virus Higher In People And Mosquitoes
West Nile virus is on the rise in Louisiana and residents need to take precautions against mosquito bites, the state Department of Health said Wednesday. “This is shaping up to be a very challenging West Nile season and we are entering the peak time for transmission in our state,” Dr. Tina Stefanksi, regional medical director for a seven-parish area in Acadiana, said in a news release. Fourteen people — including the first in Acadiana since 2018 — have developed dangerous infections of the brain and spinal cord, and two of them have died, the news release said. (8/24)
Des Moines Register:
Iowa Group Opens Women's Only Nursing Unit For Dementia, Alzheimer's
Via Health Services is opening a female-only unit for dementia and Alzheimer's patients at the Fleur Heights senior living center on Thursday. Company officials say this model of care is the first of its kind for long-term care facilities in Iowa, but a necessary step to better care for patients living with the neurological condition. (Ramm, 8/24)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
UW Health Nurses Vote To Strike If SEIU Union Not Recognized
Hundreds of nurses with UW Health voted Wednesday to hold a three-day strike in September if hospital administrators do not recognize their union, an escalation in a yearslong fight to regain bargaining rights. (Vanegeren, 8/24)
Stat:
A Hospital System's Sweeping Campaign To Confront Racism Sees Early Wins
When a routine cancer screening came back showing an elevated PSA reading, George Brickhouse knew he should take it seriously. (McFarling, 8/25)
Southern California News Group:
New Law Hopes To Keep California Rehabs From Misleading Patients, Families
“Medically supervised!” boast so many addiction treatment centers — even though they’re explicitly “non-medical.” Matthew Maniace died in a Lake Arrowhead detox that said it was “clinically supervised” and offered “around-the-clock medical supervision.” So did Terri Darling and James Dugas. In a paranoid delirium, Henry Richard Lehr bolted from a Newport Beach detox that provided “incidental medical services” and broke into a nearby home, where he was shot and killed by the terrified resident inside. (Sforza, 8/24)
The Wall Street Journal:
Americans Are Starting To Skip Therapy To Save Money
When Katie Dunn skipped a therapy session in June, she didn’t think much of it. Prices had gone up at her local grocery store and her rent went up by more than $300 a month. She saved $85 by skipping the session. Within a few weeks, a procedure at the dermatologist added more costs and she canceled therapy again. She canceled for a third time a few weeks later and quit altogether in July. “I was having to choose between going to the doctor and taking care of my mental health,” she says. (Janin, 8/24)
NBC News:
Firefighters' Protective Gear May Contain Chemicals Linked To Cancer
A firefighters union and a chiefs association are both warning members that the protective gear firefighters wear poses a health risk because it can contain PFAS, synthetic chemicals associated with issues such as an increased risk of liver and kidney cancer. (Costello and Bendix, 8/24)
Stat:
Religion, Spirituality Can Improve Black Americans' Heart Health
For as long as Daniel McKizzie can remember, church has been part of his life. McKizzie — Reverend McKizzie to his congregation — is the pastor and founder of New Creation Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minn. A new study suggests that church may be part of his long-term health as well. (Gilyard, 8/25)
The Washington Post:
More Wheelchairs Are Being Damaged On Planes. Travelers Want Action
Since the Transportation Department started tracking in December 2018 through May of this year, travelers have reported nearly 26,000 instances of wheelchairs or scooters being mishandled. Passengers with disabilities have also described long waits for check-in help; bungled security screenings; clumsy assistance transferring onto planes, which can result in injuries; delays while waiting for wheelchairs after flights; slow and lax DOT enforcement; and a lack of recourse to hold airlines accountable. (Sampson, 8/24)
ABC News:
Tattoo Ink Is Under-Regulated, Scientists Say
Researchers are raising concerns about the quality of tattoo ink, saying the ink isn't always properly labeled and, in some instances, could contain possible carcinogens. But the biggest problem, researchers say, is that the tattoo ink is relatively unregulated, meaning the ingredients inside this ink are not always known. (Wellman, 8/24)