- 素人色情片Health News Original Stories 2
- California Is Investing $500M in Therapy Apps for Youth. Advocates Fear It Won鈥檛 Pay Off.
- 素人色情片Health News' 'What the Health?' Podcast: Abortion 鈥 Again 鈥 At the Supreme Court
From 素人色情片Health News - Latest Stories:
素人色情片Health News Original Stories
California Is Investing $500M in Therapy Apps for Youth. Advocates Fear It Won鈥檛 Pay Off.
California launched two teletherapy apps as part of the governor鈥檚 $500 million foray into health technology with private companies. But the rollout has been so slow that one company has yet to make its app available on Android, and social workers worry youths who need clinical care won鈥檛 get referrals. (Molly Castle Work, )
For the second time in as many months, the Supreme Court heard arguments in an abortion case. This time, the justices are being asked to decide whether a federal law that requires emergency care in hospitals can trump Idaho鈥檚 near-total abortion ban. Meanwhile, the federal government, for the first time, will require minimum staffing standards for nursing homes. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Tami Luhby of CNN, and Joanne Kenen of Johns Hopkins University and Politico Magazine join 素人色情片Health News鈥 Julie Rovner to discuss these stories and more. Plus, for 鈥渆xtra credit,鈥 the panelists suggest health policy stories they read this week they think you should read, too. ( )
Here's today's health policy haiku:
WATER WOES
The science is there.
Fluoride promotes dental health.
Yet some are not sure.
- Anonymous
If you have a health policy haiku to share, please Contact Us and let us know if we can include your name. Haikus follow the format of 5-7-5 syllables. We give extra brownie points if you link back to an original story.
Opinions expressed in haikus and cartoons are solely the author's and do not reflect the opinions of 素人色情片Health News or KFF.
Summaries Of The News:
Inactive Bird Flu Virus Pieces Detected In 1 in 5 Pasteurized Milk Samples
The findings suggest the spread of the disease is greater than what it being reported. Meanwhile, the USDA, FDA and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention maintain the nation's "commercial milk supply is safe." Also, a bird flu explainer.
The Food and Drug Administration said Thursday that traces of the bird flu virus have been found in 1 in 5 samples of pasteurized milk, providing a more detailed picture of how much of the milk supply has been affected. ... As of Thursday, bird flu had been detected in 33 herds in eight states: Idaho, Kansas, Michigan, New Mexico, North Carolina, South Dakota, Ohio and Texas. (Lovelace Jr., 4/25)
The Biden administration and dairy industry are racing to convince the public not to worry about the spread of the disease among the nation鈥檚 cattle. (Cadei, Brown and Lim, 4/25)
More on pasteurization 鈥
Jenna Guthmiller, an immunologist, influenza researcher and assistant professor in the Department of Immunology and Microbiology at the University of Colorado, told CNET that if someone were to drink milk contaminated with H5N1, it doesn't necessarily mean they would be infected. Influenza viruses are unstable outside the body, she explained, and milk "bypasses the normal process by which we get infected" with flu. (Rendall, 4/24)
There is no definitive evidence that pasteurization kills H5N1, but the method kills viruses that multiply in the gut, which are hardier than flu viruses, says Cornell University virologist Brian Wasik. 鈥淚nfluenza virus is relatively unstable,鈥 he says, 鈥渁nd is very susceptible to heat.鈥 Pasteurization of eggs, which is done at a lower temperature than pasteurization of milk, does kill H5N1. It鈥檚 possible that pasteurization would be less effective at killing relatively high viral concentrations in milk, says Wasik. Finding out whether this is the case requires experimental data. In the absence of a definitive answer, keeping milk from infected cows out of the commercial supply is extremely important. When Nature asked when to expect more evidence on whether pasteurization kills H5N1, Janell Goodwin, public-affairs specialist at the FDA in Silver Spring, Maryland, said that the agency and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) 鈥渁re working closely to collect and evaluate additional data and information specific to鈥 H5N1. (Nowogrodzki, 4/25)聽
Also 鈥
Colombia has restricted the import of beef and beef products coming from U.S. states where dairy cows have tested positive for avian influenza as of April 15, according the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It is the first country to officially limit trade in beef due to bird flu in cows, in a sign of a broadening economic impact of the virus that has restricted poultry trade globally. (Huffstutter and Polansek, 4/25)
Bird flu is decimating wildlife around the world and is now spreading in cows. In the handful of human cases seen so far it has been extremely deadly. (Bourke, 4/26)
CDC: 'Vampire Facials' Are Likely Source Of 3 Cases Of HIV Transmission
The CDC says the first known cases of HIV transmission likely due to cosmetic injections happened at a New Mexico spa during a procedure known as a "vampire facial." Alert for graphic photos.
Three women were likely infected with HIV while receiving so-called vampire facials at a New Mexico spa, marking the first known HIV cases transmitted via cosmetic injections, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a report Thursday. The first HIV case linked to the VIP Spa in Albuquerque was discovered in 2018 and prompted the New Mexico Department of Health to offer free testing to anyone who got injections at the facility. (Bendix, 4/25)
The woman鈥檚 HIV diagnosis was puzzling. Her only recent sexual partner tested negative. She didn鈥檛 report injecting drugs or undergoing a blood transfusion. But she did receive a cosmetic rejuvenating procedure known as a vampire facial, in which a person鈥檚 face is injected with their own blood through microneedles. In the coming years, disease detectives discovered that鈥檚 how she and two other women who went to the same unlicensed New Mexico spa with unsanitary practices probably contracted HIV. This marks the first known transmission of the virus through nonsterile cosmetic injection services. (Nirappil, 4/25)
More news about HIV and AIDS 鈥
Increases in HIV infections, and in cases of syphilis passed from mothers to newborns, marred an otherwise hopeful decline in sexually transmitted diseases in Minnesota last year. Minnesota's state epidemiologist called those two increases "troubling," because they occurred despite awareness of the risks and opportunities to prevent them. (Olson, 4/25)
By the end of June, health care providers in Maryland will lose nearly three-quarters of the funding they use to find and treat thousands of people with HIV. Advocates and providers say they had been warned there would be less money by the Maryland Department of Health, but were stunned at the size of the drop 鈥 from about $17.9 million this fiscal year to $5.3 million the next. The deep cuts are less than three months away. Without the money, they say there could be a public health catastrophe. (Cohn, 4/24)
Aaron Rodgers, already famous after nearly two decades as an NFL quarterback, is drawing a new kind of notoriety for peddling conspiracy theories. Recently, a video clip went viral of Rodgers, known for his anti-vaccine views, criticizing Dr. Anthony Fauci鈥檚 handling of the AIDS epidemic and the COVID-19 pandemic during his decadeslong tenure as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. ... Rodgers said Fauci promoted an antiretroviral drug in the 1980s called zidovudine, also known as azidothymidine or AZT, to treat HIV. Rodgers falsely claimed that taking AZT was 鈥渒illing people鈥 at that time. (Czopek and Swann, 4/23)
Kaiser Permanente Entity Reports Breach Of Data For 13 Million
Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, a nonprofit company that is part of insurance giant Kaiser Permanente, told HHS that data on over 13 million individuals could have been exposed by a technical vulnerability.
A data breach at聽Kaiser Foundation Health Plan affected the information of more than 13 million individuals, according to a report filed with the federal government. The nonprofit insurance company, part of Oakland, California-based Kaiser Permanente, on April 12 notified the Health and Human Services Department of the breach. The report was made public Thursday.聽(Tepper, 4/25)
In other health care industry developments 鈥
The U.S. health regulator has sent a warning letter to Cardinal Health after an inspection of its facility in Illinois found the company was marketing and distributing unapproved devices made by a Chinese manufacturer. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2023 recommended against the use of some China-made syringes as it investigated reports of leaks, breakages and other quality problems with such products and last month expanded the guidance. (4/25)
Virtua Health sued Trinity Health in New Jersey federal court Wednesday, seeking reimbursement for more than $12 million in legal fees and other costs related to a 2019 transaction between the two nonprofit health systems. The dispute originated with Virtua鈥檚 2019 acquisition of the two-hospital Lourdes Health System from Trinity. Another South Jersey hospital, Deborah Heart & Lung Center in Browns Mills, sued Trinity to block the deal. (Brubaker, 4/25)
Advocate Aurora Health, now part of Advocate Health, is selling remote patient monitoring company MobileHelp two years after acquiring it. The sale is expected to close later this year, according to a financial report made available on Tuesday.聽The report did not share details on the buyer. (Hudson, 4/25)
Officials in Tennessee were as surprised as everyone else when Oracle Chairman and Chief Technology Officer Larry Ellison said the technology giant planned to move its world headquarters to Nashville. Economic development leaders said the company has become more engaged with the city鈥檚 healthcare community in recent years but they were caught off guard by Ellison鈥檚 announcement of the pending move聽on Tuesday. (Turner, 4/25)
Molina Healthcare will benefit from new federal rules that aim to make coverage more seamless for individuals聽enrolled in Medicare and Medicaid, executives said Thursday during the company's first-quarter earnings call. If an insurance company operates both a Medicaid and Medicare Advantage plan in a single state, all new Dual Special Needs Plan enrollment must be limited to the same carrier聽by 2027, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said in a final rule this month. (Tepper, 4/25)
Even if you have health insurance, you聽might聽expect to be charged a copayment for some routine care, like office-based exams and consultations. But you聽probably聽don鈥檛 expect to receive a bill a few weeks later charging聽you聽an extra $100聽or more. That鈥檚 the situation an increasing number of state lawmakers are looking to change. In most states, a 鈥渉ospital facility fee鈥 can legally appear on your bill if your doctor is affiliated with a large hospital system 鈥 even if you never set foot on the hospital鈥檚 campus. (Claire Vollers, 4/25)
Cigna Will Sell Humira Biosimilar Via Its Specialty Pharmacy For $0 Copay
Also in pharmaceutical news: ongoing effects from the bankruptcy of drug maker Mallinckrodt; J&J spinoff Kenvue plans global headquarters in New Jersey; the study of millions of small drug candidates in a University of Washington lab; and more.
Cigna plans to make close copies of AbbVie's blockbuster arthritis drug Humira available with no out-of-pocket payment to eligible patients in the U.S. using its specialty pharmacy beginning in June, the health insurer said on Thursday. Cigna said it will stock high- and low-concentration biosimilar versions of Humira from drugmakers including Boehringer Ingelheim, Teva and Alvotech at its Accredo pharmacy. (Wingrove and Niasse, 4/26)
Mallinckrodt's bankruptcy permitted the drug company to end a perpetual royalty agreement with Sanofi-Aventis involving the best-selling medication Acthar, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Wednesday. Affirming a lower court decision, the 3rd Circuit found that Mallinckrodt's termination of royalty payments after it filed for bankruptcy in 2020 created, at best, a claim by Sanofi-Aventis for damages under the sales contract. (Knauth, 4/25)
The maker of Tylenol, Listerine, Neutrogena, Band-Aids and Benadryl plans a global headquarters in New Jersey with over 3,000 scientists and other employees over the next few years.聽Kenvue 鈥 a Johnson & Johnson spinoff 鈥 is moving its employees to Summit in 2025. It will occupy a sprawling 290,000-square-foot headquarters and research and development facility on a 46-acre campus formerly occupied by pharmaceutical company Celgene.聽(Munoz, 4/24)
After months of sustained criticism, Vertex Pharmaceuticals reached an agreement to provide a pricey cystic fibrosis treatment in South Africa, but the move prompted a mixed reaction from consumer groups, some of which complained the deal is geared toward people with expensive health coverage. (Silverman, 4/25)
University of Washington professor David Baker has made a name for himself by borrowing computer science concepts like machine learning and artificial intelligence to solve problems in biology. A few years ago, his lab surprised scientists by constructing an AI-powered protein-folding prediction system rivaling Google鈥檚 DeepMind AlphaFold. Now Baker is pushing forward in a different area of drug discovery research. (Trang, 4/25)
17 States File Suit Against Rules Protecting Abortion-Seeking Workers
The suit against new federal abortion rights protections was filed by 17 Republican state attorneys general. Meanwhile, Texas doctors worry over plans for more oversight of treatment before medically-necessary abortions, including whether patients were transferred to other facilities.
Republican attorneys general from 17 states filed a lawsuit Thursday challenging new federal rules entitling workers to time off and other accommodations for abortions, calling the rules an illegal interpretation of a 2022 federal law. The lawsuit led by Tennessee and Arkansas comes since finalized federal regulations were published April 15 to provide guidance for employers and workers on how to implement the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act. The language means workers can ask for time off to obtain an abortion and recover from the procedure. (DeMillo, 4/25)
Doctors who perform life-saving abortions may soon be required to document whether they first tried to transfer the patient to another facility to avoid terminating the pregnancy, a move some say goes beyond the language of the law. Health lawyers and doctors worry this proposed requirement further disincentivizes doctors from performing medically necessary, but legally risky, abortions. (Klibanoff, 4/25)
State Representative Matt Gress, a Republican in a moderate slice of Phoenix, was in line at his neighborhood coffee shop on Thursday when a customer stopped and thanked him for voting to repeal an 1864 law that bans abortion in Arizona. 鈥淚 know you鈥檙e taking some heat,鈥 he told Mr. Gress. More than some. Shortly after the repeal bill squeaked through the Arizona House on Wednesday with support from every Democrat, as well as Mr. Gress and two other Republicans, anti-abortion activists denounced Mr. Gress on social media as a baby killer, coward and traitor. The Republican House speaker booted Mr. Gress off a spending committee. And some Democrats dismissed his stance as a bid to appease swing voters furious over the ban during an election year. (Healy, 4/25)
For decades, the abortion wars have centered on whether a woman should be able to decide when and if she has a child. But with increasingly strict restrictions on reproductive rights being enacted across the United States, these debates are charting new, unfamiliar territory 鈥 medical care for women who have had miscarriages. Up to one in four women who know they are pregnant will miscarry, according to the National Library of Medicine. Although most miscarriages resolve naturally, some require medical intervention that is similar to an elective abortion. (Mehta, 4/25)
素人色情片Health News' 'What The Health?' Podcast:
Abortion 鈥 Again 鈥 At The Supreme Court聽
For the second time in as many months, the Supreme Court heard arguments in an abortion case. This time, the justices are being asked to decide whether a federal law that requires emergency care in hospitals can trump Idaho鈥檚 near-total abortion ban. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Tami Luhby of CNN, and Joanne Kenen of Johns Hopkins University and Politico Magazine join 素人色情片Health News鈥 Julie Rovner to discuss these stories and more. (4/24)
Covid Vaccines Violated Patent Rights, GlaxoSmithKline Contends In Lawsuit
Meanwhile, Acuitas Therapeutics and CureVac reach an agreement in another patent lawsuit regarding technology used in mRNA-based Covid shots. Also, Maine's high court lets stand a mandate that EMS workers must be vaccinated against Covid.
GlaxoSmithKline sued Pfizer and BioNTech in Delaware federal court on Thursday, accusing them of infringing GSK patents related to messenger RNA (mRNA) technology in the companies' blockbuster COVID-19 vaccines. GSK said in the lawsuit that Pfizer and BioNTech's Comirnaty vaccines violate the company's patent rights in mRNA-vaccine innovations developed "more than a decade before" the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. (Brittain, 4/25)
Biotech company Acuitas Therapeutics and Germany-based CureVac have settled Acuitas' lawsuit demanding credit for inventions related to COVID-19 vaccines, according to a filing on Thursday in Virginia federal court. Acuitas sued CureVac last year in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, claiming its scientists should have been named as co-inventors of CureVac patents covering technology used in messenger RNA (mRNA)-based shots. CureVac told the court on Thursday that they had settled their dispute and will ask to dismiss the case. (Brittain, 4/25)
EMS workers in Maine will still have to get Covid vaccine shots, with the Maine Supreme Court upholding that rule this week. A man filed a complaint in December 2022, claiming Maine EMS didn't have the authority to issue vaccination requirements. A court tossed out the lawsuit last year. The man appealed but on Wednesday, the Maine Supreme Court upheld that court, ruling Maine EMS does have the authority to require vaccinations for its first responders. (4/25)
More covid news 鈥
A聽systematic review posted in Clinical Infectious Diseases reveals that, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, many physicians felt less ethically obligated to provide care to infectious-disease patients if they fear contracting the disease. A Duke University鈥搇ed team reviewed 155 published studies exploring treatment obligation and refusal, HIV/AIDS, COVID-19, and pandemics up to October 25, 2022. The included studies examined ethical treatment obligations for patients with HIV/AIDS (72.2%), severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS; 10.2%), COVID-19 (10.2%), Ebola (7.0%), and flu (7.0%). (Van Beusekom, 4/25)
Sense of smell鈥攂ut not taste鈥攚as still impaired in some COVID patients at 1 year, according to a new study in JAMA Network Open.聽The US-based cross-sectional study compared 340 people with and 434 without prior COVID-19, recruited from February 2020 to August 2023 from the social media website Reddit. (Soucheray, 4/25)
On the spread of mpox 鈥
Health officials in Ohio have announced an mpox outbreak after 11 cases have been reported in recent months. Since February, there have been 11 reported cases within Cuyahoga County, which encompasses Cleveland and surrounding suburbs. ... Joyous Van Meter, disease and emergency preparedness supervisor, at Cuyahoga County Board of Health told USA TODAY all of the reported cases are men. (Forbes, 4/25)
Study: Breast Cancer Diagnosis Linked To High Risk Of Second Cancers
People with breast cancer are also found to be at higher risk for developing cancer in unaffected breast tissue, plus ovarian cancer and a form of leukemia. Also in the news: high levels of food recalls, salmonella in some frozen chicken products, sugar in school meals, and more.
A new study finds that people with breast cancer are more likely to develop a second cancer over time. Researchers at the University of Cambridge analyzed data on more than 583,000 female and male breast cancer survivors and found females were at significantly higher risk of developing cancer in the unaffected breast as well as cancer of the uterus, ovary, and a type of leukemia.聽(Marshall, 4/25)
On the food industry 鈥
Food recalls reached their highest level last year since before the pandemic, according to a new report released Thursday. Outbreaks linked to recalled food products sickened 1,100 people and killed six in 2023, the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) Education Fund report found. (Tyko, 4/25)
Poultry producers will be required to bring salmonella bacteria in certain chicken products to very low levels to help prevent food poisoning under a final rule issued Friday by U.S. agriculture officials. When the regulation takes effect in 2025, salmonella will be considered an adulterant 鈥 a contaminant that can cause foodborne illness 鈥 when it is detected above certain levels in frozen breaded and stuffed raw chicken products. That would include things like frozen chicken cordon bleu and chicken Kiev dishes that appear to be fully cooked but are only heat-treated to set the batter or coating. (Aleccia, 4/26)
The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Wednesday announced updated nutrition standards for school meals that will be gradually updated to include "less sugar and greater flexibility with menu planning" between Fall 2025 and Fall 2027. 鈥淭he new standards build on the great progress that school meals have made already and address remaining challenges - including reducing sugar in school breakfasts," said USDA's Food and Nutrition Service Administrator Cindy Long in the news release. (Hauari, 4/25)
On marijuana, vapes, and cigarettes 鈥
A coalition of Democrats called on the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to quickly remove marijuana from Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), signaling impatience over the agency鈥檚 ongoing review of cannabis鈥檚 designation. The lawmakers were led by Sens. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) and John Fetterman (Pa.) and Reps. Barbara Lee (Calif.) and Earl Blumenauer (Ore.) in a letter addressed to Attorney General Merrick Garland and DEA Administrator Anne Milgram. (Choi, 4/25)
Marlboro maker Altria Group Inc. is calling on the US Food and Drug Administration to do more to crack down on the illegal vape products that compete with its own authorized product, NJOY. 鈥淲e believe the FDA鈥檚 enforcement approach is not of the scale or scope needed to bring about fundamental change in the marketplace,鈥 Altria Chief Executive Officer Billy Gifford said on the company鈥檚 first-quarter earnings call, according to a transcript. He described the proliferation of e-cigarettes that haven鈥檛 been authorized by the agency as a 鈥渢hreat to public health.鈥 (Kary, 4/25)
Smoking in Minneapolis is set to get more expensive thanks to a new ordinance passed by the City Council. ... The policy also bans price discounts and coupons for tobacco products, stops a sample loophole that allows indoor smoking and increases penalties for shops that violate city code. Council member LaTrisha Vetaw, who wrote the ordinance, said it will "protect youth and communities [of]聽color from tobacco industry targeting." (Bettin and Ali, 4/25)
New York's Ban On Selling Weight Loss Supplements To Minors Takes Effect
Muscle-building supplements are also subject to the new legislation. Separately, Colorado lawmakers advanced efforts to require state-regulated insurers and Medicaid to cover weight loss drugs for some people. TikTok, facing a ban, is also cutting down on posts highlighting disordered eating.
It鈥檚 now illegal to sell weight-loss and muscle-building supplements to minors in New York, under a first-in-the-nation law that went into effect this week. Experts say loose federal regulation of dietary supplements has resulted in these products sometimes including unapproved ingredients, like steroids and heavy metals, putting kids at risk. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration oversees the market, but it doesn鈥檛 test products before they鈥檙e sold. (Khan, 4/25)
A bill that would require state-regulated insurers and Medicaid to cover weight loss drugs for people who are obese or prediabetic cleared a major hurdle at the Colorado State Capitol. The bill passed the Senate Appropriations Committee despite opposition from the Division of Insurance and Department of Health Care Policy and Financing. Both insist the measure is cost-prohibitive. According to legislative fiscal analysts it would cost the state Medicaid system $86 million the first year alone. (Boyd, 4/25)
Saying it does not want to promote negative body comparisons, TikTok is cracking down on posts about disordered eating, dangerous weight loss habits and potentially harmful weight management products. The wildly popular social media app updated its community guidelines last week, introducing a slate of rules that it hopes will make the platform a safer place for its roughly 1 billion users worldwide. (Chang, 4/25)
In other health news from across the U.S. 鈥
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said Thursday his state 鈥渨ill not comply鈥 with recently unveiled changes to Title IX by the Biden administration.鈥 Florida rejects [President Biden鈥檚] attempt to rewrite Title IX,鈥 DeSantis said in a video posted to the social platform X. 鈥淲e will not comply, and we will fight back.鈥 The Biden administration on Friday unveiled a final set of changes to Title IX that add protections for transgender students to the federal civil rights law on sex-based discrimination. The changes will take effect in early August. (Suter, 4/25)
About a third of Massachusetts residents are dissatisfied with their ability to access primary care doctors and specialists, according to a new poll. Public health experts say those numbers, revealed in a new Suffolk University/Boston Globe poll ... are just the latest to highlight a growing capacity crisis in the state. Among the primary causes: Falling federal, state and private insurance reimbursement rates and structural changes in the healthcare industry that favor high-cost medical procedures over payments for preventive care. (Piore, 4/26)
素人色情片Health News:
California Is Investing $500M In Therapy Apps For Youth. Advocates Fear It Won鈥檛 Pay Off
With little pomp, California launched two apps at the start of the year offering free behavioral health services to youths to help them cope with everything from living with anxiety to body acceptance. Through their phones, young people and some caregivers can meet BrightLife Kids and Soluna coaches, some who specialize in peer support or substance use disorders, for roughly 30-minute virtual counseling sessions that are best suited to those with more mild needs, typically those without a clinical diagnosis. (Castle Work, 4/26)
Also 鈥
Almost a decade ago, pediatrician Mona Hanna-Attisha took to a podium in Flint, Mich. and demanded that the world pay attention to an unfolding water crisis. ... To save money, officials decided to switch the municipal water source from Lake Huron to the Flint River on April 25th, 2014. Flint is a majority-Black city, and at the time, an estimated 40% of residents lived in poverty. Many immediately noticed a difference in their water quality. (Kwong, Huang, Carlson, and Ramirez, 4/26)
The Environmental Protection Agency says lead in the water in Flint, Michigan, is lower than federal safety limits specify. It's been a decade since the city, attempting to save millions of dollars, inadvertently exposed more than 100,000 people, including vulnerable children, to lead seeping from aging pipes 鈥 and many residents still don't trust what's coming out of their faucets and showers. (Quraishi and Gauthier, 4/25)
Longer Looks: Interesting Reads You Might Have Missed
Each week, 素人色情片Health News finds longer stories for you to enjoy. This week's selections include stories on eyesight, postpartum care, nutrition labels, mosquito nets, and more.
Several companies are experimenting with optogenetics to create a 鈥渂ionic eye鈥 that can restore sight in visually impaired people. (Zaleski, 4/23)
When it comes to growth, it seems like hospitals can鈥檛 get enough of it. Across the country, a tidal wave of hospital mergers and acquisitions in recent years has created multi-billion-dollar hospital giants that serve large swaths of the population. (Crouch, 4/22)
A dentist was visiting his parents鈥 newly renovated home in Europe when he noticed something odd: One of the floor tiles in a corridor leading to a terrace held what looked like a human mandible, sliced through at an angle, including a cross section of a few teeth. Not knowing exactly what steps to take, the dentist posted a photo of the discovery on Reddit. The internet exploded with enthusiasm, interest and ick. (Johnson, 4/23)
The mother and baby care brand Frida is working with Asa Akira, a well-known porn actress, to create educational videos about its products. (Gupta, 4/16)
Peter Barton Hutt doesn鈥檛 care what food you buy, as long as you know what鈥檚 in it. He introduced America to the nutrition label, the fine print on food and drink that reveals, say, the number of calories in that pint of vanilla ice cream or how much fruit juice is really in that 鈥渏uice drink.鈥 He also decreed the label鈥檚 type size: no smaller than 1/16th of an inch. From a historical standpoint, Hutt has left a mark matched by few mortals. The labels have appeared on hundreds of millions鈥攂illions, maybe鈥攐f consumer products in the five decades since he wrote the rules for the Food and Drug Administration. (Whyte, 4/25)
Hanna Cvancara鈥檚 dream is to become a nurse in the military, and she has been trying to achieve that dream for more than a decade. But every time she applies, she gets rejected. It鈥檚 not that the 28-year-old couldn鈥檛 handle the job. She is working now as an emergency department nurse at a civilian Level II trauma hospital in Spokane, Wash., tending to bleeding car accident victims, drug users in fits from withdrawal, children in the throes of seizures and whatever else comes through the doors. (Philipps, 4/25)
One man was charged with drunken driving after crashing his truck and spilling 11,000 salmon onto a highway in Oregon. Another was secretly recorded by his wife, who was convinced he was a closet alcoholic. And in Belgium, a brewery worker was recently pulled over and given a breathalyzer test, which said that his blood alcohol level was more than four times the legal limit for drivers. The problem? None of those men had been drinking. Instead, they all were diagnosed with a rare condition known as auto-brewery syndrome, in which a person鈥檚 gut ferments carbohydrates into ethanol, effectively brewing alcohol inside the body. (Watkins, 4/23)
The fight against malaria is a test of human intelligence against mosquitoes 鈥 and so far, our minuscule winged enemy is winning. But new results shared this week show substantial improvements in one of the most important tools we have to prevent the life-threatening disease: bed nets. (Merelli, 4/17)
Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen has a problem: Too many people want what he鈥檚 selling. Mr. Jorgensen is the chief executive of Novo Nordisk, the Danish drugmaker. Even if the company isn鈥檛 quite a household name, the TV jingle for its best-selling drug 鈥 鈥淥h-oh-ohhh, Ozempic!鈥 鈥 might ring in your ears. Across the United States, Novo Nordisk鈥檚 diabetes and weight-loss drugs, Ozempic and Wegovy, have soared to celebrity status and helped make the company Europe鈥檚 most valuable public firm. It can鈥檛 make enough of the drugs. (Nelson, 4/20)
Viewpoints: Should Kidney Donors Be Paid?; New Weight-Loss Drugs Could Treat Many More Ailments
Editorial writers examine organ donation, weight-loss drugs, gender-affirming care, and more.
In a recent op-ed in The New York Times, freelance journalist Dylan Walsh made the case for a regulated market for kidneys in the United States in which donors would be paid. He isn't the first. Two living kidney donors advocated for this in a Los Angeles Times op-ed last summer. The Wall Street Journal explored the pros and cons from a capitalist standpoint in November. (Zachary Predmore, 4/25)
Last year was called the year of Ozempic, though it was also a year of Ozempic backlash and Ozempic shortages, which could persist for years. Even so, we appear very far from a peak for GLP-1 drugs, like Ozempic and Wegovy, which are powered by a molecule called semaglutide, and Mounjaro, which uses its cousin tirzepatide. (David Wallace-Wells, 4/24)
In my work as a pediatric psychologist, I鈥檝e been seeing a surge in the number of families with transgender or nonbinary children who are moving to Connecticut, where I live and work. In the past month, a real estate agent colleague has worked with 30 families with transgender children who were trying to find homes in central Connecticut, where they could get access to gender-affirming care. (Melissa Santos, 4/25)
The Hatch-Waxman Act of 1984, which gave rise to the modern generic drug market, was one of the most significant cost-reducing policy innovations of the last 40 years. In 2021 alone, the use of generic and biosimilar drugs saved $373 billion in health expenditures. More than 90% of prescriptions filled that year were for generics or biosimilars, up from just over 18% the year that Hatch-Waxman was passed. Today, however, generic drugs seem to be a victim of their success. (James B. Rebitzer and Robert S. Rebitzer, 4/25)
It鈥檚 another busy day in my spine surgery clinic when my phone rings. Patients are waiting, but I鈥檇 be unwise to put off the caller: a physician calling from a health insurance company. This peer-to-peer call is part of the prior authorization process; my 鈥減eer鈥 needs information to determine whether the company will cover a procedure I requested for one of my patients. (Matthew Walker, 4/26)