First Edition: Nov. 23, 2022

KHN:
Trickle Of Covid Relief Funds Helps Fill Gaps In Rural Kids’ Mental Health Services 

The Mary Hill Youth and Family Center’s building has long been at a crossroads overlooking this rural Appalachian city, but its purpose has evolved. For 65 years, residents of Nelsonville and the rolling hills of southeastern Ohio traveled to the hilltop hospital seeking care. Then, in 2014, the 15-bed hospital, which was often without patients, closed. (Saint Louis, 11/23)

KHN:
‘An Arm And A Leg’: When Insurance Won’t Pay, Abortion Assistance Funds Step In

As Americans choose their insurance plans for next year, some might wonder: How does the recent rise in state abortion restrictions affect insurance plans? There’s no single answer, but for a lot of people, insurance has rarely helped pay for abortions. Most pay cash, and many can’t afford it. (Weissmann, 11/23)

KHN:
A Work-From-Home Culture Takes Root In California 

Even as pandemic lockdowns fade into memory, covid-19 has transformed California’s workplace culture in ways researchers say will reverberate well beyond 2022. According to new data from the U.S. Census Bureau, working from home for some portion of the week has become the new normal for a large segment of Californians. The data shows high-income employees with college degrees are more likely to have access to this hybrid work model, while lower-income employees stay the course with on-site responsibilities and daily commutes. (Reese, 11/23)

Politico:
Fauci Bids Farewell With A Final Plea: Get Vaccinated 

Anthony Fauci, the president’s chief Covid-19 adviser, offered Americans one final warning as he prepares to leave government, ending a tumultuous turn in the national spotlight that earned him enduring affection from some and unrelenting hostility from others. “Please, for your own safety, for that of your family, get your updated Covid-19 shot as soon as you’re eligible to protect yourself, your family and your community,” Fauci said. (Mahr and Cancryn, 11/22)

The Washington Post:
Fauci Urges Updated Coronavirus Shots In ‘Final Message’ From White House 

At one point, Fauci acknowledged how those who wear masks are often singled out, joking with a reporter: “I mean, you’re absolutely right. I mean, I know sometimes when you walk in and you have a mask and nobody has a mask, you kind of feel guilty. You shouldn’t feel guilty. You look terrific, right?” (Scott, 11/22)

Reuters:
Fauci Pleads With Americans To Get COVID Shot In Final White House Briefing 

After 13 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines given worldwide, Fauci said, there is “clearly an extensive body of information” that indicates that they are safe. “When I see people in this country because of the divisiveness in our country … not getting vaccinated for reasons that have nothing to do with public health, but have to do because of divisiveness and ideological differences, as a physician, it pains me,” Fauci said. (Holland and Hunnicutt, 11/22)

The New York Times:
Fauci Sees A Reduced Covid Threat This Winter

While the trajectory of the virus remains uncertain, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, President Biden’s chief medical adviser, said the administration was hopeful that the combination of infections and vaccinations had created “enough community protection that we’re not going to see a repeat of what we saw last year at this time” when a brand-new variant, Omicron, emerged seemingly out of the blue. (LaFraniere and Mueller, 11/22)

St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
Missouri Attorney General Set To Depose Fauci As Part Of Censorship Claim

Missouri’s soon-to-depart attorney general is scheduled to depose Dr. Anthony Fauci Wednesday in a lawsuit alleging Biden administration officials worked with social media companies to suppress misinformation about COVID-19. (Erickson, 11/22)

Reuters:
White House’s Jha: Social Media Platform Owners Should Consider Role In COVID Misinformation

Owners of social media platforms should consider their personal responsibility regarding health disinformation, and the public should choose reputable sources to trust, White House COVID-19 response coordinator Ashish Jha said on Tuesday. “You can decide to trust America’s physicians, or you can trust some random dude on Twitter. Those are your choices,” Jha said at a White House press briefing. (11/22)

The New York Times:
How Covid Myths Spread On Far-Right Social Media Platforms 

Not long after Randy Watt died of Covid-19, his daughter Danielle sat down at her computer, searching for clues as to why the smart and thoughtful man she knew had refused to get vaccinated. She pulled up Google, typed in a screen name he had used in the past and discovered a secret that stunned her. Her father, she learned, had a hidden, virtual life on Gab, a far-right social media platform that traffics in Covid misinformation. And there was another surprise as well: As he fought the coronavirus, he told his followers that he was taking ivermectin, a drug used to treat parasitic infections that experts say has no benefit — and in fact can be dangerous — for patients with Covid-19. (Stolberg, 11/22)

Axios:
ACA Sign-Ups Expected To Reach Record High, Becerra Says

Enrollment in Affordable Care Act marketplaces is on pace to set a new record, Health Secretary Xavier Becerra told Axios on Tuesday, with subsidies that Congress renewed through 2025 softening the blow of premium increases. early 3.4 million people have signed up for individual coverage between from Nov, 1 to 19 — a 17% increase from last year, according to HHS data. The number of new enrollees is also up 40%. (Gonzalez, 11/22)

AP:
Boost In People Seeking HealthCare.Gov Coverage, HHS Says 

The Biden administration announced Tuesday that it’s seeing a big uptick in the number of new customers buying private health insurance for 2023 from the Affordable Care Act’s marketplace. Nearly 3.4 million people have signed up for coverage — an increase of 17% compared to the same time last year. The boost in enrollment comes as the number of uninsured Americans this year reached a historic low of 8%. (Seitz, 11/22)

Politico:
WHO To Rename Monkeypox As ‘MPOX’

The World Health Organization is planning to rename monkeypox, designating it as “MPOX” in an effort to destigmatize the virus that gained a foothold in the U.S. earlier this year, three people with knowledge of the matter told POLITICO. The decision, which could be announced as early as Wednesday, follows an initial agreement the WHO made over the summer to consider suggestions for monkeypox’s new name. (Cancryn, 11/22)

Stat:
Analysis: One Dose Of Monkeypox Vaccine Yields Strong Protection

An analysis released Tuesday by U.K. health officials indicates that even one dose of the monkeypox vaccine provides strong protection against the virus. Researchers at the U.K. Health Security Agency estimated that one dose of the vaccine was 78% effective at protecting against infection 14 or more days after vaccination. (Joseph, 11/22)

Bloomberg:
World’s Most Expensive Drug Approved to Treat Hemophilia at $3.5 Million a Dose

“While the price is a little higher than expected, I do think it has a chance of being successful because 1) existing drugs are also very expensive and 2) hemophilia patients constantly live in fear of bleeds,” said Brad Loncar, a biotechnology investor and chief executive officer of Loncar Investments. “A gene therapy product will be appealing to some.” (Cortez, 11/23)

AP:
$3.5M Gene Therapy For Hemophilia Gets FDA Approval

The Food and Drug Administration cleared Hemgenix, an IV treatment for adults with hemophilia B, the less common form of the genetic disorder which primarily affects men. Currently, patients receive frequent, expensive IVs of a protein that helps blood clot and prevent bleeding. Drugmaker CSL Behring announced the $3.5 million price tag shortly after the FDA approval, saying its drug would ultimately reduce health care costs because patients would have fewer bleeding incidents and need fewer clotting treatments. The price appeared to exceed that of several other gene therapies priced upwards of $2 million. (Perrone, 11/22)

Roll Call:
New Booster Shots Cut Risk Of Symptomatic COVID-19 

The new bivalent COVID-19 booster shots are up to 56 percent more effective at preventing symptomatic COVID-19 infection than the two original COVID-19 vaccines in adults ages 18 and up, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Cohen and Clason, 11/22)

Stat:
Real-World Data Show New Covid Boosters Increase Protection

The updated Covid-19 boosters increase people’s protection against symptomatic infection from the coronavirus, according to some of the first estimates of how the shot is performing in the real world and in people, not just in lab experiments. What’s more, that protection was even stronger when people waited a longer period of time since their last dose of the original shot. (Joseph, 11/22)

WUSF Public Media:
Florida Has One Of The Worst Updated COVID-19 Booster Rates In The Country

Florida has the fourth lowest rate in the country for adults getting the updated COVID-19 booster shot, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Rates for kids and teens are well below the national average as well. Some health experts say that’s concerning, especially as the holidays approach. (11/22)

CIDRAP:
Study Finds 10-Fold Return On COVID Vaccine Investment 

Each dollar invested in New York City COVID-19 vaccine efforts generated $10.19 in savings by lowering infection and death rates, productivity loss, and healthcare use, estimates a study published yesterday in JAMA Network Open. (Van Beusekom, 11/22)

San Francisco Chronicle:
Stanford Seeks 200 Volunteers With Long COVID To Test Paxlovid, In Nation’s First Such Study

Stanford Medicine is seeking volunteers for the nation’s first clinical trial looking at whether the antiviral drug Paxlovid can fight one of COVID-19’s thorniest problems affecting millions of people: the long-term, debilitating suite of symptoms known as long COVID. There are currently no treatments, and many people turn to risky, unproven methods to try to cure themselves. (Asimov, 11/22)

NPR:
Experts Are Concerned Thanksgiving Gatherings Could Accelerate A ‘Tripledemic’

Of course, COVID-19 is still sickening tens of thousands and killing hundreds of people every day. And new, even more contagious omicron subvariants that are especially adept at infecting people — even if they’ve been vaccinated or previously infected — are taking over. “There’s a lot of moving parts here,” says Dr. David Rubin, who’s been tracking the pandemic at the PolicyLab at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. (Stein, 11/23)

North Carolina Health News:
Should I Skip Thanksgiving If I Feel Sick?

People are eager to get back to their holiday rituals after years of pandemic restrictions, but what happens if just as the holiday approaches, you find yourself sneezing, sniffling, coughing and maybe even testing positive for a COVID-19 infection? (Hoban, 11/23)

The New York Times:
How Immunocompromised Experts Will Celebrate Another Pandemic Holiday 

At the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, Dr. Linda Yancey set a strict rule for her family: No relatives were allowed to go over to Grandma’s house until they could do so without risking her life. As an infectious-disease specialist at Memorial Hermann Health System in Houston, Dr. Yancey was keenly aware that her mother-in-law’s emphysema put her at high risk of hospitalization or even death if she got Covid. By 2021, Dr. Yancey’s mother-in-law was able to be fully vaccinated. Later in the year, Dr. Yancey and her husband got their shots, as did their children. But while most Americans now consider precautions like social distancing, wearing masks and quarantining after a Covid exposure optional, Dr. Yancey’s family still does all of them to keep her mother-in-law safe. (Sheikh, 11/22)

CBS News:
Pediatric ICUs Face Bed Shortage Amid RSV Surge: “It’s Not Hyperbole To Call It A Crisis”

For every patient discharged from the pediatric intensive care unit at Mass General for Children in Boston, three more are waiting for that bed. A surge in cases of respiratory syncytial virus, also known as RSV, has hospitals nationwide struggling to treat patients. (O’Donnell, Hastey and Paulino, 11/22)

The Washington Post:
High Demand For Pediatric Beds Stresses System 

As the nation grapples with a surge in respiratory illnesses making very young children and babies ill, the high demand for inpatient and pediatric intensive-care-unit beds means children are spending days and weeks in emergency rooms designed for short-term evaluation and treatment. The surge has hit states in the East and Southeast particularly hard, with D.C., Maryland and Virginia reporting the highest incidence of influenza-like illness, which includes RSV, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. (Portnoy, 11/22)

Fox News:
New York Mom Whose Baby Struggled With RSV Has Urgent Message For Parents

A mother of five is asking parents to keep their sick children at home after a recent respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) outbreak infected three of her daughters and led to a frightening hospitalization for one of them. Carmen Bremiller, 27, of Barker, New York — in Broome County — has been caring for her daughters for several weeks and said the road to full recovery is ongoing. (Moore, 11/23)

Axios:
America Shrugs Off Its Twindemic

The much-feared twindemic — or even tripledemic — of respiratory viruses is here, but Americans are too COVID-fatigued to care. Flu in the southeast and RSV infections in multiple regions are filling up hospital wards and causing some facilities to cancel elective surgeries and bring back triage tents. (Bettelheim, 11/22)

AP:
States Move To Keep Court From Lifting Trump Asylum Policy 

A coalition of conservative-leaning states is making a last-ditch effort to keep in place a Trump-era public health rule that allows many asylum seekers to be turned away at the southern U.S. border. Late Monday, the 15 states filed what’s known as a motion to intervene — meaning they want to become part of the legal proceedings surrounding the public health rule referred to as Title 42. The rule, first invoked by Trump in 2020, uses emergency public health authority to allow the United States to keep migrants from seeking asylum at the border, based on the need to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. (Santana, 11/22)

CIDRAP:
Report Highlights The Deadly Impact Of Bacterial Infections 

Deaths caused by bacterial infections accounted for more than 1 in 8 global deaths in 2019, with five pathogens accounting for more than half of those deaths, an international team of researchers reported yesterday in The Lancet. (Dall, 11/22)

Bloomberg:
Google Urged By US Lawmakers To Fix Misleading Abortion Ads

The lawmakers cited a joint analysis by Bloomberg News and the nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate, which found that ads displayed against Google searches such as “Planned Parenthood,” “Plan C pills” and “pregnancy help” didn’t carry labels that would indicate whether an advertiser was an abortion provider. (Love, 11/22)

NPR:
Why Doctors Don’t Openly Defy Abortion Laws, Even When Patients Are At Risk

“That’s just nuts,” Dr. Matthew Wynia says. He’s a physician who directs the Center for Bioethics and Humanities at the University of Colorado. “[A hysterotomy is] much more dangerous, much more risky – the woman may never have another pregnancy now because you’re trying to avoid being accused of having conducted an abortion.” (Risky, 11/23)

Modern Healthcare:
How Hospitals Can Cut Emissions, Achieve Net-Zero By 2050

The Health and Human Services Department branch recommends healthcare entities—particularly hospitals—establish systems to track and manage greenhouse gas emissions, appoint leaders to oversee progress, set goals and timelines, and invest in technology that measures their environmental impacts. (Hartnett, 11/22)

AP:
Over Half Of Mississippi’s Rural Hospitals Risk Closing 

Over half of Mississippi’s rural hospitals are at risk of closing immediately or in the near future, according to the state’s leading public health official. Dr. Daniel Edney, the state health officer, spoke to state senators at a hearing Monday about the financial pressure on Mississippi hospitals. Edney said 54% of the state’s rural hospitals — 38 — could close. The potential closures threaten to exacerbate poor health outcomes in one of the nation’s poorest states. (Goldberg, 11/22)

Des Moines Register:
Iowa Hospitals Cited For Abuse, Dirty ORs And Dumping A Homeless Vet

Over the past 12 months, Iowa hospitals have been cited for dozens of violations, including a dirty surgical suite, patient abuse, inadequate staff, and discharging emergency-room patients with undiagnosed, life-threatening conditions. (Kaufman, 11/22)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
Inspectors Find String Of Failures At Western Wisconsin Nursing Home Where Nurse Severed Patient’s Foot

The nursing home in western Wisconsin where a nurse is facing felony elder abuse charges for amputating a man’s foot didn’t immediately report the incident to state regulators and failed to complete an investigation, according to a state inspection report. (Volpenhein and Van Egeren, 11/22)

Axios:
Private Equity Looks Beyond Nursing Homes

Despite private equity owning only an estimated 5% of the nursing home industry, its high-profile problems in the sector have made it a bogeyman to politicians and the public. (Pringle, 11/22)

Reuters:
Generic Drugmakers Teva And Sandoz Make Major Push To Biosimilars

Generic drug makers Teva Pharmaceutical Industries and Sandoz say they are planning a significant ramp-up in production of biosimilars – copies of high-priced drugs used to treat illnesses such as rheumatoid arthritis and cancer – aiming to increase their share of an expanding market. More than 55 brand-name blockbuster biologic drugs, each with peak annual sales above $1 billion, are due to come off patent by the end of the decade, according to industry estimates. (Grover and Scheer, 11/22)

ABC News:
What You Need To Know About Measles After Ohio Outbreak Sickens 19 Children

According to statistics provided to ABC News by the Columbus Public Health Department (CPHD), as of Tuesday afternoon, 19 children have contracted the virus. Nearly half of these children were hospitalized due to severe symptoms of the infection. Almost half were under five years old. (Cahan and Kekatos, 11/23)

The New York Times:
Jail Is A Death Sentence For A Growing Number Of Americans 

Matthew Shelton was contending with diabetes and periodic substance abuse when he moved in with his sister outside Houston in order to get his life together. Three months later, facing an old criminal charge of driving while intoxicated, he turned himself in to the Harris County Jail one day in March with a supply of the insulin he relied on to stay alive. After two days, he told his family that no one was allowing him access to the insulin: He was trying to manage his illness by discarding the bread from the sandwiches he was served. He was alone, frightened and cold, he said. (Dewan, 11/22)

Stat:
MacArthur Genius Emily Wang On How Incarceration Impacts Health

The U.S. has two separate health care systems: one for people who aren’t incarcerated, and one for people behind bars. Since 2006, physician and researcher Emily Wang has been working to integrate the two. (Castillo, 11/23)