First Edition: March 14, 2023
Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
KHN:
Pandemic Stress, Gangs, And Utter Fear Fueled A Rise In Teen Shootings
Diego never imagined he’d carry a gun. Not as a child, when shots were fired outside his Chicago-area home. Not at age 12, when one of his friends was gunned down. Diego’s mind changed at 14, when he and his friends were getting ready to walk to midnight Mass for the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. But instead of hymns, Diego heard gunfire, and then screaming. A gang member shot two people, including one of Diego’s friends, who was hit nine times. (Szabo, 3/14)
KHN:
Black Lung Resurgence Drives Push To Protect Coal Miners Against Silica Dust
Like most coal miners’ loved ones, Liz Williams has endured many days and nights of worry. Throughout the four decades her husband, Michael, worked in underground Appalachian mines, Liz was aware of the risks: collapse, explosions, asphyxiation. But black lung — a chronic condition caused by breathing in coal dust — wasn’t on her mind. That’s because the number of miners diagnosed with the often-deadly disease declined for decades, after federal officials introduced regulations more than 50 years ago. (Sisk, 3/14)
CNBC:
Federal Judge Shares Date Of Abortion Pill Hearing After Media Outlets Criticize Him For Secrecy
A federal judge in Texas publicly disclosed Monday afternoon that he scheduled a hearing in a case seeking to overturn the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the abortion pill mifepristone, after media outlets criticized him for attempting to keep the proceedings secret until the last minute. Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk of the U.S. Northern District of Texas ordered oral arguments in the case to take place on Wednesday at 9 a.m. CT, according to a court filing. The hearing will take place in Amarillo, Texas. (Kimball, 3/13)
CBS News:
Ahead Of Ruling That Could Disrupt Access To Medication Abortion, Providers Line Up Alternatives
If Kacsmaryk orders the FDA to rescind its approval of mifepristone, the process could take months, and it would not mark the end of medication abortion in the U.S. Instead, patients could use misoprostol alone, which studies show is between 80% to 100% effective and is recommended by the World Health Organization as a safe and effective alternative. To use misoprostol only, a total of 12 pills are taken in three doses every three hours. (Quinn, 3/14)
Houston Chronicle:
VP Kamala Harris Warns Abortion Pill Ban Would Embolden 'Extremists'
Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday warned that if anti-abortion advocates are successful in banning a key abortion pill, "extremists and politicians" could go after any medication they do not like. "Think about what this means if extremists and politicians can override an FDA approval," Harris said. "The implications in terms of public health policy are profound." (Wermund, 3/13)
AP:
Abortion-Rights Proposal Moves A Step Closer To Ohio Ballot
Backers of a proposal to enshrine abortion rights in the Ohio Constitution can begin collecting the more than 413,000 voter signatures required to put the issue before voters this fall, after the petition cleared another hurdle Monday. The constitutional amendment moves to the signature-gathering phase after the Ohio Ballot Board confirmed the petition language contains only one proposed amendment. (3/13)
Los Angeles Times:
17 New Bills Aim To Bolster California's Role As Abortion Sanctuary
Democratic lawmakers introduced a package of bills on Monday to further bolster California’s role as an abortion haven after last year’s repeal of the landmark Supreme Court ruling in Roe vs. Wade. (Arredondo, 3/13)
Stat:
Planned Parenthood CEO: Reproductive Rights Are "Nonpartisan"
In the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the news has been full of stories about patients crossing state lines in order to access reproductive care. What often gets left out is the accompanying confusion created by abortion restrictions. (Boodman, 3/14)
CNBC:
VA To Cover Alzheimer's Treatment Leqembi For Some Veterans
In a statement, drugmaker Eisai said veterans in the early stages of the disease who meet VHA criteria are eligible for coverage of Leqembi. ... A document on the agency’s website says veterans must be seniors, sign a consent form, have undergone an MRI in the past year, and have PET scan or spinal tap test results that are consistent with Alzheimer’s disease, among other criteria. (Kimball, 3/13)
NPR:
Benefits Of Lecanemab, A New Alzheimer's Drug, Unclear For Patients Of Color
A new drug for Alzheimer's disease, called lecanemab, got a lot of attention earlier this year for getting fast-tracked approval based on a clinical trial that included nearly 1,800 people. While some saw it as undeniable progress for a disease with no other proven treatment, others urged caution because of severe side effects and the finding of only a "modest" effect. Dr. Jonathan Jackson, Assistant Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School, has another concern: the racial and ethnic makeup of the trial. (Metzger, Kwong, Oza and Spitzer, 3/13)
Reuters:
Bristol Myers, Pfizer, AbbVie Drugs Likely To Face U.S. Price Negotiation
The blood thinner Eliquis from Bristol Myers Squibb, Pfizer's breast cancer drug Ibrance and AbbVie's leukemia treatment Imbruvica are likely to be among 10 big-selling medicines subject to U.S. price negotiations for 2026, according to five Wall Street and academic analyses shared with Reuters. Last year Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), giving the U.S. government power to start the first price negotiations over prescription drugs for its Medicare health program covering more than 60 million Americans, most over age 65. (Erman, Wingrove and Aboulenein, 3/13)
Reuters:
US Sues Rite Aid For Missing Opioid Red Flags
Rite Aid pharmacists were accused of ignoring obvious signs of misuse, including in prescriptions for “trinities,” a combination of opioids, benzodiazepine, and muscle relaxants preferred by drug abusers for their increased euphoric effect. The Justice Department also said Rite Aid intentionally deleted some pharmacists’ internal warnings about suspicious prescribers, such as “cash only pill mill???,” while admonishing them to “be mindful of everything that is put in writing.” (Stempel, 3/13)
CBS News:
Rite Aid Lawsuit: Justice Department Alleges Pharmacy Ignored Red Flags In Filling Opioid Prescriptions
One of the country's largest pharmacy chains knowingly filled unlawful prescriptions and ignored internal red flags on its practices, the Justice Department alleged in a complaint filed Monday. The complaint against Rite Aid was part of a whistleblower lawsuit brought against the company under the False Claims Act and the Controlled Substances Act, the Justice Department said in a news release. (Ruiz, 3/13)
Politico:
PETA Urges Pentagon To Stop ‘Disturbing’ Radiation Tests On Ferrets, Monkeys
A prominent animal rights group is calling on the Pentagon to halt “disturbing” research exposing ferrets and monkeys to pulsed radiation to try to recreate symptoms of “Havana Syndrome.” On Thursday, POLITICO first reported that the Defense Department began funding experiments last September on ferrets to try to determine whether radio frequency waves could be the source of the mysterious ailment that has plagued more than 1,000 U.S. government personnel for years. POLITICO also reported that DoD has recently conducted these tests on primates. (Seligman, 3/13)
The Hill:
McConnell Discharged From Hospital, Won’t Return To Senate Immediately
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) was discharged from the hospital Monday after suffering a concussion last week when he tripped and fell at a private dinner at the Waldorf Astoria in downtown Washington. McConnell, who is 81, is not expected to return to the Senate this week. (Bolton, 3/13)
The New York Times:
Patricia Schroeder, Feminist Trailblazer In Congress, Dies At 82
Patricia Schroeder, a trailblazing feminist legislator who helped redefine the role of women in American politics and used her wit to combat egregious sexism in Congress, died on Monday. She was 82. ... She was a driving force behind the passage of the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, which guaranteed women and men up to 18 weeks of unpaid leave to care for a family member. She helped pass the 1978 Pregnancy Discrimination Act, which barred employers from dismissing women because they were pregnant and from denying them maternity benefits. (Seelye, 3/14)
CNN:
Poor Sleep Decreases Vaccine Effectiveness, Especially For Men
If you’re scheduling an appointment for a vaccination — whether for Covid-19, the flu or for travel to another country — make sure you’re getting a long, restful night’s slumber before you head to the doctor. Sleeping less than six hours the night before you get the shot may limit your body’s response to the vaccine, reducing protection against the virus or bacteria, according to a new study. (LaMotte, 3/13)
CIDRAP:
4 COVID Vaccine Doses Best Prevent Critical Omicron BA.5, Even After BA.1/BA.2 Infection
Four COVID-19 booster doses were the most effective way to prevent critical Omicron BA.5, regardless of previous infection status, according to a nationwide study published late last week in JAMA Network Open. (Van Beusekom, 3/13)
Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
CDC Urges Bivalent Booster In New Push. Will People Listen?
Three years into the pandemic, COVID-19 vaccines are an increasingly hard sell – especially in Georgia. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Only about 10% of residents in the state have gotten an updated bivalent booster, which targets the original strain and omicron subvariants circulating now. (Oliviero, 3/13)
The Wall Street Journal:
What Do We Actually Know About Covid-19? Not Enough
Covid-19 vaccines are widely available, but researchers don’t yet know enough about how the virus might change or how long immunity lasts to be certain who should get future boosters or how often. The unknowns could have public-health consequences in the years ahead, virus experts said. “A big question is how will that play out over time?” Bronwyn MacInnis said of the virus’s mutations. She is director of pathogen genomic surveillance at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, a biomedical research center in Cambridge, Mass. “Are there other tricks we have yet to see?” she said. (Toy and Abbott, 3/13)
The Atlantic:
The Next Stage Of COVID Is Starting Now
To be a newborn in the year 2023—and, almost certainly, every year that follows—means emerging into a world where the coronavirus is ubiquitous. Babies might not meet the virus in the first week or month of life, but soon enough, SARS-CoV-2 will find them. “For anyone born into this world, it’s not going to take a lot of time for them to become infected,” maybe a year, maybe two, says Katia Koelle, a virologist and infectious-disease modeler at Emory University. Beyond a shadow of a doubt, this virus will be one of the very first serious pathogens that today’s infants—and all future infants—meet. (Wu, 3/13)
USA Today:
What Is Prosopagnosia? Long COVID May Cause Face Blindness: Study
Early in the pandemic, a 28-year-old customer service representative and portrait painter caught COVID-19. She had a high fever for a few days and trouble breathing. Her sense of smell and taste disappeared. But by mid-April 2020, she had recovered enough to start working from home. It wasn't until June, when she saw her family for the first time since her illness, that she realized she'd lost something else. She could no longer recognize her own father or distinguish him from her uncle. (Weintraub, 3/13)
Stat:
Pfizer Buys Seagen, Maker Of Targeted Cancer Drugs, For $43 Billion
Pfizer said Monday it is acquiring Seagen, a maker of targeted cancer drugs, for $43 billion. The deal helps Pfizer, flush with cash but in need of new sources of revenue due to declining sales of Covid treatments, by adding a lineup of cancer drugs called antibody-drug conjugates that work by delivering chemotherapy directly to tumors. (Feuerstein, 3/13)
Stat:
French Pharma Sanofi Buys Maker Of Diabetes Treatment For $2.9B
Sanofi said Monday that it is acquiring Provention Bio, makers of a diabetes treatment, for $2.9 billion. The Provention drug at the centerpiece of the deal, called TZield, was approved in the U.S. last November as the first and only treatment to prevent the onset of symptomatic Type 1 diabetes. Sanofi was already co-marketing the drug under a prior licensing deal signed between the two companies. (Feuerstein, 3/13)
Modern Healthcare:
Pediatric Mental Health A Top Patient Safety Concern Of 2023: ECRI
Pediatric mental health, violence against clinicians and uncertainty around reproductive care are among the most pressing issues for health system leadership to address this year, according to ECRI’s 2023 list of top 10 patient safety concerns. (Devereaux, 3/13)
Bloomberg:
Zuckerberg Was Warned On Social Media Addiction, Filing Says
Employees at Meta Platforms and ByteDance were aware of the harmful effects of their platforms on young children and teenagers but disregarded the information or in some cases sought to undermine it, according to claims in a court filing. The allegations were disclosed in a lawsuit over social media addiction that had been filed previously but with key portions sealed from public view. (Rosenblatt, 3/13)
The 19th:
Jackson Water Crisis Leaves Pregnant People, Parents Struggling To Find Safe Water
Sequaya Coleman, 36, has struggled to get water for herself and for her two-month-old baby in Jackson, Mississippi. “You need water for everything. You need water to brush your teeth, you need water to cook. Now that the baby is born, there’s water for formula,” Coleman told The 19th. (Luterman and Kutz, 3/13)
The Washington Post:
Diet May Lower Cognitive Risks By 20 Percent For Those With MS
People with multiple sclerosis (MS) who embrace a Mediterranean diet may be about 20 percent less likely to develop problems with memory and thinking skills than those who do not, according to a study scheduled to be presented next month at the American Academy of Neurology’s annual meeting.MS is a chronic disease of the central nervous system that develops when the immune system mistakenly attacks and harms the protective sheath (myelin) around nerve cells. (Searing, 3/13)
Stat:
‘Leave The Chocolate Milk Out Of This’: School Cooks, Parents, Kids Push Back On USDA Effort To Make Lunches Healthier
The feds are coming for your kids’ chocolate milk. At least, so says the stampede of school cooks, administrators, and parents flooding the Department of Agriculture with complaints. They’re “targeting” kids, forcing them to “go thirsty,” and are being “just mean,” they’ve cried. (Florko, 3/14)
The Washington Post:
Study Suggests Yoga May Improve Longevity Indicators In Older Adults
Yoga has long been associated with a host of health benefits — and it may even boost physical capabilities associated with longevity, new research suggests. A systematic review by Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston published in the Annals of Internal Medicine this week found that yoga improves health indicators linked to reduced frailty and increased longevity in older adults. (Ables, 3/14)
The New York Times:
Hate Crimes Rose 12 Percent In 2021, F.B.I. Finds
Hate crimes surged nearly 12 percent between 2020 and 2021, according to updated statistics released by the F.B.I. on Monday, but the data is far from complete and the actual numbers are likely to be higher, experts tracking the rise in bias-fueled violence said. The new numbers painted a picture of a nation both confronting an alarming yearslong rise in crimes based on race, ethnicity, religion, gender, disability and sexual orientation, and struggling to assess the full toll. (Thrush, 3/13)
Axios:
Growing Political Backlash Against THC-Containing Products
States around the nation are eyeing measures to curb the availability of products derived from hemp known as delta-8 THC due to concerns about consumption by kids. There are proposed measures in Kentucky, Louisiana, Texas, Arizona and Virginia aimed at closing a loophole in hemp sales that allows the sale of products with the THC-containing compound. (Reed, 3/13)
Houston Chronicle:
How The Effects Of Delta-8 Compare To Marijuana
As Texas continues to grapple over whether the recreational use of marijuana should be legalized and whether its medical marijuana program should be expanded, many state residents have turned to other options. Those alternatives include delta-8 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), a hemp derivative that provides a soothing effect similar to marijuana and is typically sold in the form of edibles, vape cartridges, tinctures and other products. (MacDonald, 3/13)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Most Overdose Deaths In S.F. Involve Multiple Drugs. Here’s Why That’s Important
About three-quarters of accidental overdose deaths in San Francisco last year involved more than one drug, according to preliminary data from the city’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. This data set includes details beyond the agency’s monthly reports, including which drugs contributed to the deaths. (Leonard, 3/13)
Houston Chronicle:
Female Athletes Call For Texas College Transgender Sports Ban
A Texas Senate committee on Monday heard testimony from about a dozen people on a bill that would block transgender athletes at the college level from playing on the sports teams that match their gender identity, which the state’s top Republicans have thrown their support behind. (Goldenstein, 3/13)
AP:
Chinese SARS Whistleblower Jiang Yanyong Dies At 91
Jiang Yanyong, a Chinese military doctor who revealed the full extent of the 2003 SARS outbreak and was later placed under house arrest for his political outspokenness, has died, a long-time acquaintance and a Hong Kong newspaper said Tuesday. Jiang was 91 and died of pneumonia Saturday in Beijing, according to human rights activist Hu Jia and the South China Morning Post. News of Jiang’s death and even his name were censored within China, underscoring how he remained a politically sensitive figure even late in life. (3/14)