Latest Morning Briefing Stories
Media outlets report on news from California, Missouri, Louisiana, Florida, Texas, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Georgia, Illinois, Connecticut, Maryland and Alaska.
Making Stringed Musical Instruments Helps People In Recovery In Area Hard Hit By Opioid Crisis
The Culture of Recovery program is helping the town of Hindman, Ky., rebuild its identity on the backbone of its musical heritage. News on the epidemic is also on the rise of kratom abuse.
Experts say law-enforcement authorities need to do a better job assessing all offenders to determine their risk of repeating. “It’s not as simple as saying don’t drink and then drive. These are people who have underlying issues we need to get to,” said traffic-safety consultant Pam Fischer. In other public health news: a miraculous story about the heart’s resilience, new dementia therapies, a testicle transplant, the responsibility of psychotherapists and porn-consumption, the cops’ use of lie-detecting software, and more.
The NIH requires disclosures of “significant” financial conflicts but has never released the database to an outside party before.
VA Opens Institute To Pursue Research On Artificial Intelligence
As a national health system, the VA has amassed a significant amount of data—possibly giving it a leg up because lack of trustworthy and accessible data has traditionally been one of the major roadblocks to AI development. In other health technology news: a website helps patients with rare diseases find more information about them.
Repealing Unpopular Cadillac Tax Is ‘On The Table’ For Dems During Funding Deal Negotiations
Meanwhile, more than 1,000 employers, insurers, unions and other groups are urging lawmakers to kill the unpopular provision, which sets up a tax on expensive employer-sponsored health plans.
Experts ‘Cautiously Optimistic’ That Vaping Illnesses Are Trending Downward Nationwide
While no single product or substance has been associated with all of the cases, the majority are linked to THC-containing products. An investigation in Massachusetts connected six patients with products from state-licensed dispensaries, but officials later conceded that the consumers may have used illicit products as well.
The Republicans’ bill would enact a $3,100 cap on out-of-pocket drug expenditures for Medicare beneficiaries and add monthly caps as well. The proposals are identical to ones that are in the Senate’s version of the legislation. In other pharmaceutical news: how to pay for expensive sickle cell treatments; FDA’s approval speed generates alarm; the government investigates possible carcinogens in diabetes drug; lawmakers urge HHS to probe patient assistance programs; and more.
Controversy Over Practice Of Indefinitely Detaining Immigrants Hasn’t Dissuaded Trump
The Trump administration wants to expand the system of facilities where migrant families can be incarcerated for months or longer, despite the fact that numerous health experts have warned that detaining children for such lengths of time, even with their parents, can cause permanent psychological damage. In other news on the immigration crisis: accusations surround a death of a teen in U.S. custody; a suit against immigration pilot programs, and a ruling on the “public charge” rule.
Opinion writers weigh in on curbing the costs of pharmaceuticals and other issues.
A task force assembled by Gov. Ralph Northam several months after a racist photo of him was found in his medical school yearbook recommended removing nearly 100 overtly discriminatory and racist laws still on the books.
Public health officials are concerned that despite wide-scale publicity intended to deter vaping, especially in the wake of recent illnesses and deaths, not only did the practice continue to surge, but students also did not seem to be particularly alarmed about e-cigarettes. What’s more is that students also reported using other nicotine products, revealing a widespread problem with addiction not limited to just vaping. Meanwhile, a tale of two states shows the effects of what happens when there’s a vaping ban in one.
Army-funded studies report there is a significant and growing proportion of soldiers entering the military with psychiatric disorders, requiring wider availability of mental health care for troops, even those who have never experienced combat. Public health news is on studies on dangers of PFAS, aging, face injuries from cellphones, time-restricted eating, postpartum depression among women of color, measles’ steady comeback, raising boys these days, diabetes risks for preemies, and traumas brought on by patients, as well.
The ruling from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals says so long as there is no option of sleeping indoors, the government cannot criminalize indigent, homeless people for sleeping outdoors on public property. But dissenters say the decision shackles the hands of law enforcement who are trying to deal with an escalating homeless crisis.
“Our students find it objectionable to walk into a building that says Sackler on it when they come in here to get their medical education,” said Dr. Harris A. Berman, the dean of the Tufts University School of Medicine. Tufts won’t return the money Sackler has donated over the years, but will instead set up an endowment to help combat the epidemic.
“Becoming a first-generation professional would have been impossible without access to safe and legal abortion services,” one signer wrote. The Supreme Court is set to hold oral arguments on the case, which centers around hospital admitting privileges, in March.
Gilead suspended development of the safer drug for five years, in what advocates claim was a tactic to extend its monopoly on the profits from the older treatment. In other pharmaceutical news: Biogen tries to make a case for its Alzheimer’s drug but some remain unpersuaded; Sage Therapuetics’ shares plummet after bad news on depression treatment; biotech investors say they’re not worried about Congress; and more.
Presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg is calling for a ban on all assault weapons, mandatory permits for gun purchasers and a new position in the White House to coordinate gun violence prevention. Bloomberg revealed the plan in Aurora, Colo., the site of a 2012 massacre at a movie theater.
Trump Directs Feuding Health Leaders Azar, Verma To Smooth Things Over With Each Other
An escalating personal rift between HHS Secretary Alex Azar and CMS Chief Seema Verma has caught President Donald Trump’s attention. Politico reports that he has directed the two public officials to settle their feud.
After the death, Border Patrol said that an agent had found Carlos Gregorio Hernandez Vasquez, a 16-year-old Guatemalan migrant, “unresponsive” after checking in on him and deemed the death a “tragic loss.” But ProPublica has obtained video that documents the boy’s last hours, and it shows that Border Patrol agents and health care workers at the holding facility missed increasingly obvious signs that his condition was perilous.
