First Edition: December 3, 2019
Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
Kaiser Health News:
Medical Device Failures Brought To Light Now Bolster Lawsuits And Research
Lorraine Bonner felt as though she was the only one. The surgical staples used to seal her colon after surgery had leaked, she has alleged in a lawsuit, spurring additional surgeries and a long, difficult recovery. And then, just over a year after the ordeal, she read a Kaiser Health News investigation that described worse cases. KHN revealed that the Food and Drug Administration had allowed stapler maker Covidien to quietly file tens of thousands of reports of stapler malfunctions into a then-hidden database. (Jewett, 12/3)
Kaiser Health News:
Candidates Are Betting Big On Health. Is That What Voters Really Want?
The one thing we know about health care in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary race is that it’s a top issue for voters. The latest Tracking Poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation found 24% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents said they want to hear the candidates discuss health care. (Rovner, 12/3)
The New York Times:
Why The Less Disruptive Health Care Option Could Be Plenty Disruptive
The single-payer health plans proposed by Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are often assailed as being too disruptive. A government plan for everyone, the argument goes, would mean that tens of millions of Americans would have to give up health insurance they like. Democratic presidential candidates with more moderate brands have their own proposal: a “public option” that would preserve the current private insurance market, while giving people the opportunity to choose government insurance. (Sanger-Katz, 12/3)
Reuters:
Biden Says Buttigieg 'Stole' His Healthcare Plan
U.S. Democratic presidential contender Joe Biden said on Monday that his fast-rising rival Pete Buttigieg "stole" the former vice president's healthcare policy proposals, as the two battle for support in the early nominating state of Iowa. Biden, among the leaders in the 16-member Democratic field for the right to take on Republican President Donald Trump in next year's election, is proposing expanding the Affordable Care Act. (Hunnicutt, 12/3)
The Wall Street Journal:
Biden Targets Warren And Buttigieg On His Tour Of Iowa
Mr. Biden said if another candidate had offered a health care plan that built upon the Obamacare law, provided a public option and offered other elements, “then I came along with the exact same plan—what would you have done to me? You would have torn my ears off.” The Buttigieg campaign said the mayor had been talking about health care in his presidential campaign since he first entered the race last January, months before Mr. Biden’s entrance into the race. (Thomas, 12/2)
The Washington Post:
State Lawmakers Acknowledge Lobbyists Helped Craft Their Op-Eds Attacking Medicare-For-All
Lobbyists either helped draft or made extensive revisions to opinion columns published by three state lawmakers in a way that suggested Medicare-for-all and other government involvement in health care posed dangers, according to emails obtained by The Washington Post. Montana state Rep. Kathy Kelker (D) and Sen. Jen Gross (D) acknowledged in interviews that editorials they published separately about the single-payer health proposal included language provided by John MacDonald, a lobbyist and consultant in the state who disclosed in private emails that he worked for an unnamed client. (Stein, 12/2)
The Hill:
Lobbyists Guided Op-Eds Against 'Medicare For All' By State Lawmakers: Report
The advocacy group Medicare for All Now obtained industry emails detailing messaging against the proposal through a Freedom of Information Act request and provided them to the Post. The emails show MacDonald apparently excising three paragraphs from Kelker’s piece that concede the U.S. spends more on health care per capita than other developed nations, and also removed a graph depicting the differences in per capita spending between the U.S. and several European nations with universal health care. (Budryk, 12/2)
The Hill:
House, Senate Democrats Call On Supreme Court To Block Louisiana Abortion Law
A majority of House and Senate Democrats are calling on the Supreme Court to block a Louisiana abortion law. The court is set to hear oral arguments in March challenging the law, which would require doctors who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital, a requirement that critics say is designed to force abortion clinics to close. (Weixel, 12/2)
NPR:
Major Medical, Legal Groups Oppose Louisiana Abortion Law Before U.S. Supreme Court
Several major medical groups and the American Bar Association are weighing in against a Louisiana abortion law set to go before the U.S. Supreme Court next year. In a new amicus brief submitted to the court, medical groups argue the law – which requires doctors who perform abortions in Louisiana to have hospital admitting privileges – is medically unnecessary and harmful to patients. The American Medical Association, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, American Academy of Pediatrics and others have signed on to the brief. (McCammon, 12/2)
ABC News:
Over 350 Lawyers, Legal Professionals Who Had Abortions File Supreme Court Brief
More than 350 lawyers and legal professionals filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court for the June Medical Services vs. Gee abortion case. "My hope is that my classmate on the Supreme Court will not want to demonize me," Claudia Hammerman, a partner at the prestigious law firm Paul, Weiss, told ABC News. Hammerman is also the lead signer of the brief and a Harvard Law School alumnae. "I was smart and I deserved my career and I deserved to be able to give it my all and to become a mother when I was fully, emotionally, psychologically, and in terms of resources prepared to become the best mother I could be." (Svokos, 12/2)
Reuters:
U.S. Supreme Court Justices Debate Whether To Dismiss Major Gun Case
The U.S. Supreme Court's consideration of a major gun rights case could end in a misfire, with the justices on Monday debating whether to dismiss a challenge backed by the powerful National Rifle Association to a New York City handgun ordinance. The justices heard arguments in the first major gun dispute to come before them since 2010, with gun control advocates fearful that the court, with its 5-4 conservative majority, could issue a ruling further expanding firearms rights nationwide. (Chung and Hurley, 12/2)
NPR:
All For Naught? Supreme Court Indicates Gun Case May Be Moot
The problem for those gun owners was that New York state and New York City abandoned the challenged law this year after the Supreme Court said it would review it. "New York City and New York state actually gave them everything that they had asked for before this argument," said New York City corporation counsel James Johnson after the argument. "That was made very plain in this argument today." (Totenberg, 12/2)
Colorado Sun:
These Employees Survived The Planned Parenthood Shooting. They Say The Organization Could Have Done More To Help Them.
Cristina Jiminez, assistant manager of the Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, felt the “warm whisper” of a bullet passing by her head as she hid on the floor of a bathroom during a gunman’s five-hour rampage in 2015. ... Three people died, including University of Colorado Colorado Springs police Officer Garrett Swasey, and nine others were wounded during an attack on the clinic on Nov. 27, 2015. It was one of the longest active shooter events in recent U.S. history; attacks of this type typically last less than 10 minutes. While [four former employees] have the shared experience of making it through that harrowing day, they also all feel Planned Parenthood could have done more to help them through the aftermath of the shooting. (Paul, 12/2)
The Hill:
Michigan Governor Calls For Pause In Medicaid Work Requirements
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) is calling for a pause in the state’s Medicaid work requirements to avoid coverage losses on Jan. 1, The Associated Press reported on Monday. Michigan’s work requirements for Medicaid recipients are set to take effect on New Year's Day. Whitmer’s call for a pause, however, would have to be agreed to by the Republican-controlled legislature, raising doubts about whether it will occur. (Sullivan, 12/2)
Stat:
Pharma’s Not Nearly As Excited For Cures 2.0 — Yet
The bipartisan duo behind a 2016 law that poured billions into medical research want to repeat their success. But so far, the pharmaceutical industry that helped push the first version across the finish line isn’t nearly so eager to lend the new effort much support. The 21st Century Cures Act has been lauded since its passage for both the funding it included and its revamp of the regulatory landscape for medical breakthroughs. (Florko, 12/3)
Reuters:
Could Life Insurance Go Up In Smoke For Some Vapers?
Global reinsurers are stepping up their warnings to life insurer clients about the potential risks of vaping, putting pressure on underwriters to charge certain vapers higher rates than smokers, or even exclude them altogether. U.S. authorities said last month that there had been 47 deaths this year from a lung illness tied to vaping. The health concerns about vaping have grown despite evidence showing e-cigarettes help smokers to quit, and has led to bans in some countries including India and Brazil. (Cohn, Barlyn and Hussain, 12/3)
The Associated Press:
Over 500K Pot Vapes Seized In 2 Years As Busts Rise In US
As health officials scrutinize marijuana vaping, it’s increasingly on law enforcement’s radar, too. From New York City to Nebraska farm country to California, authorities have seized at least 510,000 marijuana vape cartridges and arrested more than 120 people in the past two years, according to an Associated Press tally derived from interviews, court records, news accounts and official releases. (Peltz, 12/3)
Stat:
The History Of OxyContin, Told Through Purdue Pharma Documents
STAT’s multiyear legal battle to unseal secret Purdue Pharma files in a Kentucky court has produced dozens of documents that lay bare new details about the company’s marketing strategy and the role of Dr. Richard Sackler, a member of the family that founded and controls Purdue, in making OxyContin a top-selling pain pill. ... Below is a timeline of Purdue’s activities as revealed by the newly released documents (and some that were already public), and excerpts from those records. (Chakradhar and Ross, 12/3)
Stat:
Purdue’s Richard Sackler Proposed Plan To Play Down OxyContin Risks, And Wanted Drug Maker Feared ‘Like A Tiger,’ Files Show
In the early days of OxyContin, Dr. Richard Sackler, a member of the billionaire family that founded and controls Purdue Pharma, learned about concerns that the potent opioid could lead to abuse in chronic pain patients, and he then proposed executives aggressively push back, according to newly unsealed documents obtained by STAT after a four-year court battle. ... Sackler urged a robust response, writing that the “addiction” objection could be “obliterated.” Specifically, he said executives should consider giving a “convincing presentation” that controlled-release products like OxyContin are “less prone to addiction potential, abuse or diversion” than other opioid pain pills. “I think that can be done,” he wrote, but deferred to the company’s experts about whether it could. (Ross, 12/2)
The Washington Post:
Prescription Opioids Destroyed Lives. But Victims Say Stigma Of Addiction Hinders Bid For Justice
Soon after getting an OxyContin prescription for back pain and arthritis in 1999, disabled coal miner James P. Craig started popping three of the narcotic pills daily, instead of the prescribed two, he said in a deposition as part of a lawsuit against the drug’s manufacturer, Purdue Pharma. Within months, he said in the deposition, he was swallowing and crushing and snorting up to seven a day to satisfy his craving. When doctors stopped prescribing OxyContin, he said, he started buying the narcotic pain medication illegally. (Rowland, 12/2)
ProPublica:
EMS Crews Brought Patients To The Hospital With Misplaced Breathing Tubes. None Of Them Survived.
In the summer of 2018, Dr. Nick Asselin was doing research on cardiac arrests in Rhode Island when he made a horrifying discovery. Hospital records showed patients had been arriving by ambulance with misplaced breathing tubes, sending air into their stomachs instead of their lungs, essentially suffocating them. At first, he said, there were four cases, then seven. More trickled in. (Arditi, 12/3)
ProPublica:
A Misplaced Breathing Tube Can Be Fatal. New Studies Suggest They Should Be Used Less Often.
As Rhode Island confronts the risks associated with EMS personnel inserting breathing tubes in cardiac arrest patients, new studies suggest that the practice should be limited outside hospitals. Two separate studies published last year, one in the United States and one in the United Kingdom, offer fresh evidence that patients fare at least as well, if not better, when emergency medical services workers opted for alternatives to intubating. (Arditi, 12/3)
The New York Times:
The Crisis In Youth Suicide
The death of a child is most parents’ worst nightmare, one made even worse when it is self-inflicted. This very tragedy has become increasingly common among young people in recent years. And adults — parents, teachers, clinicians and politicians — should be asking why and what they can do to prevent it. In October, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that after a stable period from 2000 to 2007, the rate of suicide among those aged 10 to 24 increased dramatically — by 56 percent — between 2007 and 2017, making suicide the second leading cause of death in this age group, following accidents like car crashes. (Brody, 12/2)
CNN:
Diabetes: 1 In 5 US Adolescents Is Now Prediabetic, Study Says
Nearly a quarter of young adults and a fifth of adolescents in the United States have prediabetes, according to a study published Monday in the journal JAMA Pediatrics. Prediabetes -- a condition wherein blood sugar levels are elevated, but not high enough to warrant a diagnosis of Type 2 diabetes -- was estimated at 18% among adolescents ages 12 to 18, and 24% among young adults ages 19 to 34. (Nedelman, 12/2)
The New York Times:
See How The World’s Most Polluted Air Compares With Your City’s
We visualized the damaging, tiny particles that wreak havoc on human health. From the Bay Area to New Delhi, see how the world’s worst pollution compares with your local air. (Popovich, Migliozzi, Patanjali, Singhvi and Huang, 12/2)
The New York Times:
Teaching Resilience In The Face Of Climate Change
Damariya Carlisle, age 9, jumped as an instructor hauled a crab pot onto the steel deck of the barge docked on the Elizabeth River, a Chesapeake tributary in Norfolk, Va. She marveled at the Atlantic blue crabs’ claws but worried they might pinch her. The visit was part of a fourth-grade class trip in October. “They get to see and feel real crabs,” said Janet Goldbach Ehmer, an educator with the Elizabeth River Project who pulled the trap from the water. (Zeitlin, 12/2)
The Wall Street Journal:
Chew On This: Gum That Promises To Help You Sleep And Make You Skinny
Gum makers are mixing everything from vitamins to candy into their recipes to give customers more incentives to pick up a pack. Chewing gum has lost sales to mints, and customers have gravitated to other means of burning nervous energy, like fidget spinners and smartphones, executives and market-research firms say. Some people say they dropped gum-chewing because it seems tacky or causes jaw pain. Gum sales dropped 4% globally by volume between 2010 and 2018, according to Euromonitor, and 23% in the U.S. (Gasparro and Chaudhuri, 12/3)
NPR:
Factory-Made Quartz Countertops Need To Be Cut Safely To Control Silica Dust
Every day, 20 to 30 trucks roll into a factory in Minnesota. They're filled with quartz — some of it like a powder, and some of it like sparkling little pebbles, in big white sacks. "It's about 30 million pounds of quartz a month," says Marty Davis, the CEO of Cambria, a company that manufactures material for kitchen and bathroom countertops. "About a million pounds a day." (Greenfieldboyce, 12/2)
NPR:
Montana Residents Ask Supreme Court To Allow Cleanup Beyond Superfund Requirements
Close to 100 rural Montanans are taking on one of the largest corporations in the world Tuesday before the U.S. Supreme Court. Residents of Opportunity and Crackerville, Mont., say the Atlantic Richfield Company — owned by BP — needs to go beyond what federal Superfund law requires and clean up arsenic pollution leftover from a century of mining. (Mott, 12/3)
The New York Times:
How Far Can Cities Go To Police The Homeless? Boise Tests The Limit
During a recent mayoral debate at a Boise homeless shelter, after disposing of icebreakers like the candidates’ favorite Metallica album, the moderator turned to something more contentious: a decade-old lawsuit, now a step away from the Supreme Court. The case, Boise v. Martin, is examining whether it’s a crime for someone to sleep outside when they have nowhere else to go. The suit arose when a half-dozen homeless people claimed that local rules prohibiting camping on public property violated the Eighth Amendment protection against cruel and unusual punishment. (Dougherty, 12/3)
CNN:
New York City Hits HIV/AIDS Target Two Years Ahead Of Schedule
New York City has surpassed a major goal against HIV/AIDS two years ahead of schedule, city officials announced Monday. The target, originally set for 2020 by UNAIDS and known as 90-90-90, represents the percentage of people with HIV who know their status, who are on treatment and whose viral load is suppressed. New York officials said that, as of 2018, they have surpassed those numbers -- 93% of people with HIV have gotten a diagnosis, 90% are on treatment and 92% of those on treatment are virally suppressed. (Nedelman, 12/2)
The New York Times:
The Rapper T.I.’s Remarks Lead To N.Y. Plan To Ban ‘Virginity Tests’
State lawmakers are considering banning doctors from performing so-called virginity testing, after widespread backlash followed the rapper T.I.’s recent disclosure that he takes his daughter to see a gynecologist every year to ensure that her hymen is still intact. His comments last month sparked a national conversation around a procedure that scientists have long denounced as bogus and unsupported by evidence, as well as a violation of a woman’s rights. (Ferre-Sadurni, 12/3)
The New York Times:
Student With Gun Is Shot By Officer In Wisconsin High School, Police Say
An officer at a high school in Waukesha, Wis., shot and injured a student who had a gun and pointed it at law enforcement authorities as they were trying to convince him to hand it over, officials said on Monday. The episode unfolded at Waukesha South High School at about 10:17 a.m., after a student informed the authorities that another student had a handgun, the chief of the Waukesha Police Department, Russell Jack, said. (Hauser, 12/2)
Los Angeles Times:
Peter Lynn, L.A. Homeless Agency Leader, To Step Down
In a major change for the team tasked with addressing rising homelessness in the region, Peter Lynn announced Monday that he is stepping down as head of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority. Chief Program Officer Heidi Marston will fill in as interim director during a national search for a replacement when Lynn officially leaves at the end of this month. (Smith and Oreskes, 12/2)
Reuters:
PG&E Failed To Inspect Transmission Lines That Caused Deadly 2018 Wildfire-State Probe
Bankrupt California power producer PG&E Corp did not properly inspect and replace transmission lines before a faulty wire sparked a wildfire that killed more than 80 people in 2018, a probe by a state regulator has concluded. The Caribou-Palermo transmission line was identified as the cause of the Camp Fire last year, which virtually incinerated the Northern California town of Paradise and stands as the state's most lethal blaze. (Singh, 12/3)
The Wall Street Journal:
PG&E Had Systemic Problems With Power Line Maintenance, California Probe Finds
In a 700-page report detailing the problems that led the Caribou-Palermo transmission line to malfunction on Nov. 8, 2018, sparking the Camp Fire, investigators with the California Public Utilities Commission said they found systemic problems with how the company oversaw the safety of its oldest lines. State fire investigators had previously determined that PG&E equipment started the Camp Fire, which killed 85 people, and the company hasn’t disputed the findings. But the new report goes well beyond earlier findings, alleging numerous serious violations of state rules for maintaining electric lines and specific problems with upkeep of the transmission line that started the fire. (Gold and Blunt, 12/2)
Los Angeles Times:
PG&E Inspections Of Equipment That Sparked Deadly Camp Fire Were Flawed
PG&E crews had not climbed the tower that malfunctioned and sparked the Camp fire since at least 2001, the report said. “This omission is a violation of PG&E’s own policy requiring climbing inspections on towers where recurring problems exist,” the report states. A climbing inspection could have identified a worn C-hook that failed, and “its timely replacement could have prevented ignition of the Camp fire,” the report says. (Branson-Potts, 12/2)