First Edition: August 23, 2018
Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
Kaiser Health News:
A Late-Life Surprise: Taking Care Of Frail, Aging Parents
“This won’t go on for very long,” Sharon Hall said to herself when she invited her elderly mother, who’d suffered several small strokes, to live with her. That was five years ago, just before Hall turned 65 and found herself crossing into older age. In the intervening years, Hall’s husband was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia and forced to retire. Neither he nor Hall’s mother, whose memory had deteriorated, could be left alone in the house. Hall had her hands full taking care of both of them, seven days a week. (Graham, 8/23)
California Healthline:
Parent Alert! Your Kid May Be Vaping More Than Tobacco
By now, many parents know kids are vaping sweet-smelling tobacco — often using devices that look deceptively like pens or flash drives. And most parents are hip to the prevalence of underage marijuana use. Now comes a combo of the two: vaping pot. Experts and educators say young people are — once again — one step ahead of the adults in their lives, experimenting with this new and more heady way to consume weed. (Ibarra, 8/22)
The Associated Press:
Report: Trump Administration Needs To Step Up On 'Obamacare'
A congressional watchdog said the Trump administration needs to step up its management of sign-up seasons for former President Barack Obama's health care law after mixed results last year in the throes of a failed GOP effort to repeal it. The report due out Thursday from the Government Accountability Office is likely to add to Democrats' election-year narrative that the administration actively undermined "Obamacare" without regard for the consequences to consumers. (8/23)
The Associated Press:
Maryland Officials Announce Health Reinsurance Approval
Maryland officials on Wednesday announced federal approval of a waiver to create the nation’s largest health reinsurance program, a step designed to protect insurers from skyrocketing claims and hold down rates in the struggling individual market of the state’s health care exchange. The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services approved the waiver, Republican Gov. Larry Hogan and leading Democrats of the General Assembly announced at a news conference. (Witte, 8/22)
The Hill:
Trump Officials Approve Maryland Proposal To Shore Up ObamaCare Markets
Maryland officials said the approval of the program will prevent increases of up to 30 percent in the state's individual insurance market. “With our innovative new reinsurance program, the health insurance market in Maryland will finally have the chance to be competitive and dynamic,” Gov. Larry Hogan (R) said Wednesday in a statement. (Hellmann, 8/22)
The Associated Press:
Health Care At Forefront Of North Dakota US Senate Race
Health care has emerged as a major issue in North Dakota's U.S. Senate race, with Democratic U.S. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp and Rep. Kevin Cramer, her Republican challenger, arguing over who will do more for people with medical problems. In a race seen as critical for control of the closely divided Senate, the candidates are struggling for an advantage and have turned to a component of former President Barack Obama's health care law that forbids health insurers from denying coverage to people with health problems. (8/22)
The Hill:
Dem Arizona Senate Candidate Opposes Medicare For All
Rep. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), the likely Democratic nominee for Senate in Arizona, says that she does not support Medicare for All. “I do not support Medicare for All,” Sinema told reporters in video posted by NBC reporter Vaughn Hillyard on Wednesday. “I'm really focused on solutions that are realistic and pragmatic and we can get done.” (Sullivan, 8/22)
The New York Times:
Snaring Doctors And Drug Dealers, Justice Dept. Intensifies Opioid Fight
Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced another crackdown on Wednesday on opioids, targeting doctors and drug dealers alike in cases that spanned physicians’ offices in Ohio, drugmakers in China and online black markets. ... His announcement came a week after President Trump asked Mr. Sessions during a cabinet meeting at the White House to sue companies that supplied opioids and to investigate opioid trafficking from China and Mexico, calling the flood of drugs from those countries “almost a form of warfare.” The president, who campaigned on targeting the opioid crisis, has also set a goal to reduce opioid prescriptions by one-third in three years. (Benner, 8/22)
The Associated Press:
AG Jeff Sessions Addresses US Opioid Epidemic In Cleveland
Those actions included the country's first-ever civil injunction that has barred two Ohio doctors from prescribing drugs; the indictment of two Chinese nationals accused of shipping powerful synthetic opioids around the globe; and a recent operation to shut down the country's biggest "dark net" distributor of drugs. Sessions said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently estimated there were 72,000 fatal drug overdoses in the country last year, adding that recent data show the number of deaths may be leveling off. (Gillispie, 8/22)
The Hill:
Sessions Moves To Block Two Ohio Doctors From Prescribing Opioids
The Department of Justice is moving to block two Ohio doctors from writing prescriptions because it alleges they dispensed opioids without a legitimate medical purpose. ... The DOJ said the doctors had been served this week with temporary restraining orders preventing them from prescribing. “These injunctions – a temporary restraining order - will stop immediately these doctors from prescribing—without waiting for a criminal prosecution,” Sessions said. (Sullivan, 8/22)
The Washington Post:
Justice Department Fights Opioid Abuse On Dark Web And In Doctors’ Offices
Federal prosecutors allege that Matthew and Holly Roberts of San Antonio were two of the biggest drug dealers on the dark web, completing nearly 3,000 verified transactions on various underground marketplaces between 2011 and 2018 — including the largest number of verified fentanyl transactions on the dark web. Prosecutors said they operated under the name “MH4Life.” They could not be reached for comment Wednesday. In addition to the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl, which has caused the number of overdose deaths nationwide to skyrocket, authorities allege the couple possessed and distributed fentanyl analogues, heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, Xanax and other drugs. They allegedly bought postage with cryptocurrency to conceal their intent and used glow bracelets and other items to hide that they were mailing drugs, authorities said. Customers used digital currency to buy the drugs and conceal the deals, prosecutors said. (Zezima, 8/22)
The Hill:
DOJ Charges Chinese Nationals In Synthetic Opioid Conspiracy
The Justice Department has indicted two Chinese nationals for allegedly manufacturing and selling deadly drugs around the world that resulted in the deaths of two Americans. According to the indictment, Fujing Zheng, 35, and his father, Guanghua, 62, operated a global opioid and drug manufacturing conspiracy that involved shipping drugs to 25 countries and 37 states. (Hellmann, 8/22)
The Hill:
Mississippi To Test Limits Of Medicaid Work Requirements
The Trump administration is facing a key test with Mississippi’s Medicaid program as the state seeks permission to be the first ever to impose work requirements without expanding Medicaid under ObamaCare. Already one of the poorest states in the nation, advocates say work requirements for “able-bodied” beneficiaries could decimate the health coverage that tens of thousands of residents depend on. (Weixel, 8/23)
Reuters:
U.S. Appeals Court Finds Alabama Abortion Law Unconstitutional
A federal appeals court on Wednesday upheld a permanent injunction blocking Alabama from banning the most common method of second-trimester abortion. But two judges from the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta used the 3-0 decision to cast doubt on the Supreme Court's abortion jurisprudence, including that terminating a pregnancy is a constitutional right. (Stempel, 8/22)
The Hill:
HHS Official Compared Abortion To The Holocaust As Law School Student
A health official in the Trump administration compared abortion to the holocaust as a law school student, Mother Jones reports. Scott Lloyd, who has come under fire recently for blocking unaccompanied minors in government custody from getting abortions, wrote in an essay 15 years ago as a Catholic University law school student that the similarities between abortion and the Holocaust are "crystal clear." (Hellmann, 8/22)
The New York Times:
Betsy DeVos Is Said To Weigh Letting School Districts Use Federal Funds To Buy Guns
The Education Department is considering whether to allow states to use federal funding to purchase guns for educators, according to multiple people with knowledge of the plan. Such a move appears to be unprecedented, reversing a longstanding position taken by the federal government that it should not pay to outfit schools with weapons. And it would also undermine efforts by Congress to restrict the use of federal funding on guns. As recently as March, Congress passed a school safety bill that allocated $50 million a year to local school districts, but expressly prohibited the use of the money for firearms. (Green, 8/22)
The Associated Press:
Texas Governor Grants $1.5M More To Santa Fe After Shooting
Gov. Greg Abbott has announced additional funding for the Houston-area community where a teenage gunman in May fatally shot eight students and two substitute teachers. Abbott said in a statement Wednesday that $1.5 million will be given to Santa Fe for a "resiliency center" that will serve as a "focal point for the city's mental health response." Another $300,000 is earmarked for the school district to provide counseling services to students and others. (8/22)
The Associated Press:
Doctor Facing State Inquiry About Vegas Shooter Drug Records
A doctor accused of improperly looking up prescription records of the dead gunman in last October's mass shooting in Las Vegas will invoke his constitutional right against self-incrimination at an upcoming disciplinary hearing, his lawyer said Wednesday. Dr. Ivan Goldsmith is the focus of a "witch hunt" for the source of a newspaper report about Stephen Paddock's prescriptions in the days after the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, attorney E. Brent Bryson said. (Ritter, 8/22)
Stat:
Medicare Struggles To Set The Agenda As It Considers How To Pay For CAR-T
Medicare can’t seem to figure out how to pay for pricey CAR-T cancer therapies. The latest glaring example of the struggle? A daylong advisory meeting Wednesday in Baltimore, ostensibly convened to discuss how patient-reported data should fit into the way Medicare pays for the pricey therapies, devolved into a confusing debate about what the meeting was supposed to be about in the first place. (Swetlitz, 8/23)
Stat:
A Rare Spotlight On The Chemists Working To Develop New Drugs
For a few hours on Wednesday, the most exciting thing in drug development wasn’t the patients or potential payoffs. Instead, it was all about the chemists. Scientists from Merck, Eli Lilly, Amgen, Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline were providing a detailed look at their preclinical development programs at the American Chemical Society’s annual meeting in Boston, disclosing information about what their drug candidates look like and how the structures are built, chemically speaking. (Sheridan, 8/23)
Stat:
Chemists Aim To Develop A New Class Of Antimalarials
Researchers on Wednesday unveiled the chemical structure of what could become the first in a new class of drugs to treat malaria. It’s an early but promising step in the effort to find new ways to treat the mosquito-borne blood disease. Two of the common parasites behind the disease are increasingly developing a resistance to the antibiotics typically prescribed as treatment. Finding drugs that work in completely new ways will be critical to meeting a global goal of reducing the number of people infected with malaria by 90 percent by 2030. (Sheridan, 8/23)
Stat:
‘Microdosing’ Is Touted By ’Shroomers And Reddit Users. Science Is Starting To Test Their Claims — And Finding Some Truth
Microdosing involves taking roughly one-tenth the “trip” dose of a psychedelic drug, an amount too little to trigger hallucinations but enough, its proponents say, to sharpen the mind. Psilocybin microdosers (including hundreds on Reddit) report that the mushrooms can increase creativity, calm anxiety, decrease the need for caffeine, and reduce depression. There is enough evidence that trip doses might have the latter effect that, on Wednesday, London-based Compass Pathways received Food and Drug Administration approval for a Phase 2B clinical trial of psilocybin (in larger-than-microdoses) for treatment-resistant depression. But research into microdosing is minimal. (Begley, 8/23)
The New York Times:
Immunotherapy Drugs Slow Skin Cancer That Has Spread To The Brain
A new study offers a glint of hope to people in a desperate situation: Patients with melanoma, the most serious form of skin cancer, that has spread to the brain. A combination of two drugs that activate the immune system shrank brain tumors in many melanoma patients and prolonged life in a study of 94 people at 28 medical centers in the United States. The drugs were ipilimumab (brand name Yervoy) and nivolumab (Opdivo), and they belong to a class called checkpoint inhibitors. (Grady, 8/22)
The New York Times:
Air Pollution Is Shortening Your Life. Here’s How Much.
Air pollution is shaving months — and in some cases more than a year — off your life expectancy, depending on where you live, according to a study published Wednesday. Worldwide, outdoor air pollution reduces the average life expectancy at birth by one year. The effect is much more pronounced in some countries: It cuts the average Egyptian’s life span by 1.9 years and the average Indian’s by 1.5 years. In Russia, it’s around nine months. (Sengupta, 8/22)
The New York Times:
Take A Look At These Unusual Strategies For Fighting Dementia
“We’re lost,” said Truus Ooms, 81, to her friend Annie Arendsen, 83, as they rode a city bus together. “As the driver, you should really know where we are,” Ms. Arendsen told Rudi ten Brink, 63, who sat at the wheel of the bus. But she was joking. (Schuetze, 8/22)
The New York Times:
How You Felt About Gym Class May Impact Your Exercise Habits Today
Think for a moment about your school gym classes. Did you just grin with fond reminiscence or reflexively shudder? A revealing new study suggests that these disparate responses to memories of physical education classes are both common and consequential. (Reynolds, 8/22)
The New York Times:
Depression In Mothers Impacts A Child’s Immune And Psychological Health
A mother’s depression may have long-term effects on her child’s immune system and psychological health. Israeli researchers followed 125 babies from birth through 10 years. About 43 percent of the mothers had a diagnosis of major depression, and the rest constituted a control group. The study is in Depression & Anxiety. (Bakalar, 8/22)
The New York Times:
Frequent Home Moves May Increase A Child’s Risk Of Psychosis
Children whose families move homes frequently may be at increased risk for serious psychiatric illness. Researchers followed 1,440,383 children from birth to age 29, including data on residential moves. They found 4,537 cases of psychosis, symptoms of which can include hallucinations and delusions. (Bakalar, 8/22)
Los Angeles Times:
Found: An Ancient Hominin Hybrid Who Had A Neanderthal For A Mother And A Denisovan For A Father
Anthropologists have just hit the genomic jackpot. Among the thousands of bone fragments excavated from an ancient cave in the Altai mountains in Siberia, scientists have identified an inch-long shard that belonged to a rare hominin hybrid: a female with a Denisovan dad and a Neanderthal mom. (Netburn, 8/22)
NPR:
Neanderthals Got It On With Other Groups Of Ancient Humans
"We then have very direct evidence – almost caught in the act, so to say – of mixing with each other," says Svante Pääbo, a geneticist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, who led the research. He says the discovery of first generation offspring of these two groups was "almost too lucky to be true." (Wamsley, 8/22)
The Associated Press:
Louisiana, Mississippi Top Nation In Worst West Nile Illness
Louisiana and Mississippi are leading the nation in the number of people who have become the most seriously ill from West Nile virus this year. State health departments are warning residents to take precautions against mosquitoes, which spread the virus. "Not in my house, not on my skin, not in my yard," said Dr. Raoult Ratard, Louisiana's state epidemiologist, as he repeated the state slogan for fighting the disease Wednesday. Precautions include making sure door and window screens don't have holes; wearing long clothes and using mosquito repellent; and making sure the yard doesn't hold any standing water where mosquitoes might breed — even a bottle cap. (8/22)
The Associated Press:
Authorities: Mom Shot Disabled Son, Then Attempted Suicide
A single mother fatally shot her severely disabled 7-year-old son and then attempted suicide after years spent caring for her child, authorities and family friends in Oregon said Wednesday. A relative found Tashina Aleine Jordan, 28, unconscious Monday at the Bend home she shared with her son and mother. Authorities found the boy, named Mason, and pronounced him dead. Notes at the scene indicated Jordan was the shooter, police spokesman Lt. Clint Burleigh told KTVZ-TV. (8/22)
The Associated Press:
State Prisons Make Changes After Staff Mysteriously Sickened
Pennsylvania’s state prison system is tightening security and revamping procedures after 18 staff members were treated at hospitals for exposure to a yet-unidentified substance at three prisons earlier this month. Corrections Department spokeswoman Amy Worden said Wednesday state police investigators are testing the substance, which she described as a “liquid synthetic drug that’s taking different forms.” (Scolforo, 8/23)